longer build times?

[runes]

i think most buildings should take much, much longer to build.

most things in vanilla take 1-5 turns to build. if even that.

i remember how in MTW, things took 5, 10, even 20 or so turns to build.

so, you really really WANTED those buildings, and really appreciated them when you had them.


i really think things should take quite a bit longer to build, is there any consideration to this in EB?

[Vades]

You do have to remember that 1 turn in vanilla is 6 months, which is a lot of time to build some things

[khelvan]

It is possible that building times will be extended; this is something we need to discuss further.

[AntiochusIII]

I disagree with an increased build time. It is very, very tedious and frustrating if you need 1-2 years for a simple building to be done with. I'll be very angry if everyone follows this step. I've even modded my own RTR back to normal build time for this.

MTW represents the whole province, and represents, in the same time, the horrible inefficiency of administration during the Middle Ages. Thus, a town watch that takes one year in MTW means: building a group of town watches across the provinces; that system of Feudalism and the lords fighting/intriguing/corrupting slows down the progress; the lack of true organization of how, where, and when to build the town watches; the lack of actual delivery of wages, resources, and materials in full, thanks to the weak administration; and the lack of workers organized enough to finish the job quickly.

It's different in R:TW.

Also, since EB is going to implement a sort of assimilation (right?) which takes time. These kinds of "buildings" (that represented the assimilation) should be the only buildings that are extremely slow to build (which is reasonable, and good - considering the actual change of mind in the populace.) While most other buildings, except better roads, better farms (the earlier ones in R:TW vanilla and most, if not all, mods represents organization in farming and not actual digging of canals and stuff), greater wall (large or epic) or greater temples and other of those nature, should take very short time to build.

[runes]

hmm interesting replies.


i guess i just like the fact that it takes much longer to get your empire up and running in mtw

[sharrukin]

Well the colosseum took almost 10 years (20 vanilla turns) to build. A VERY large building, but in the Roman provinces they would have had less resources but also smaller amphitheatres, so a build time of years for many of them is likely.

[pezhetairoi]

Julius Caesar also commissioned a larger version of the Republican Forum (call it Great Forum if you like) in 54bc, and when Augustus saw it in 44BC, it still wasn't completed. I think the slower building time would make it more a) historical and b) difficult for players to blitzkrieg the map and conquer the world by 240BC (gee...). They let the game run up to 14ad for a reason.

[Southern Hunter]

Couldn't agree more with the extended building times (for the big'uns).

We have historical answers that say it takes 10 years to build something, we should set it to 20 turns. Obviously some things are easy-peasy, and they can be shorter if necessary.

You want a Circus Maximus, pay and wait :-)

It will make the decision making harder, and mean that you don't get to just build everything, everywhere.

Additionally, some things should really be a lot more expensive than they currently are. I favor a 'progressive' increase in building cost, as they go up in level / effect. Solves the problem of 'too much money' that some people get with large empires.

Hunter

[runes]

i agree.

remember waiting for what seemed like forever to get that castle built in MTW? but man, it was really worth it.

[Simetrical]

Remember that you can only build one thing at a time in RTW, though, unlike in real life. That has to be taken into account.

-Simetrical

[Tricon]

I think it's a two edged sword.
I don't mind longer build times. But I do mind an AI that refuses to build up its town /main buildings because of time/cost effectiveness (or whatever).
One of the main gripes about vanilla RTW was/is the lack of ballanced armys.Usually by the time a player was able to build elite units, the AI was still building the basic units.
In the tests I did back then there were two main reasons for this:
1. the AI was slower to develop military buildings
2. even wen they were developed the basic units were still built because of time/cost effectiveness.
Since EB will strongly alter the unit production routine, no one (other then the EB memebers) will be able to test AI production behaviour under these new circumstances. Well at least untill the beta.
Now, will this "give leeway" for longer production times? Will the AI enhance a stonewall for 10turns, or build a major port for 12t? Or will it decide to build execution squares or a scriptorium for 3t?
Basically I just want to caution. This game engine was not designed to be realistic (sigh)... and the AI may have big problems deciding with altered parameters (like build times).And all in all , I favor a good gaming experience over realism - at least in that regard.

Tricon

[Tricon]

Remember that you can only build one thing at a time in RTW, though, unlike in real life. That has to be taken into account.

-Simetrical

An excellent point!

[LegionnaireX]

Well, if build times are extended, the ability to construct multiple buildings simulataneously should be considered. As I don't want to wait 20 turns to be able to start my next building, plus it is historically inaccurate to be able to only build on building at a time.

[Quietus]

I too would prefer longer build times in addition to more expensive building costs (up to 5x the original depending on the size of the structure). A lot of players complain that RTW is so easy, but that's what CA made it to be in the first place.

Give the players a dilemma for a change:

1) Blitz/Rush, get a lot of provinces and be limited to low level units and a terrible economy.

or

2) Build/Protract using a few provinces but receive the better units/upgrades and a good economy.

It would be nice to see players worry about the treasury, kinda like the original Shogun. In MTW and RTW, you can churn all the units that you need with ease because there's an overflowing abundance of money.

[jerby]

well, it shoudl be well balanced so that you can constantly build evenly with growth.
with an average growth of 1% you should bhe constantly building. if times are too long you're still with traders and baracks at large city... if times are too short you get boredom