Quote Originally Posted by Madae View Post
Apples to oranges. You're comparing a first level upgrade (port [no income] -> trading port [700]), where a trading port would be the first level of the income side, to a second level upgrade (800 for first level gold mine -> 1400 for second). How much is it to build a first level gold mine that goes from 0 -> 800? Right off the bat it's making more than a port. Knowing how much that first level is is important information.

I also forget if that trade port can be upgraded further for more income. It would be worthwhile to know what the cost of a trading port -> next level would be, and how much of an income increase that is, which is what you should be comparing that 800 -> 1400 to.

The 720 -> 1260 is another argument altogether. You're sacrificing potential income for other bonuses, which is all fine and dandy, but a gold mine is pure income. The 240 disparity isn't much, but that's what you're paying for when you pay that extra 2k. However, we would also need to know what levels those are. A gold mine has the potential to make, I believe, 2100 (for somewhere between 10-15k). The 1260 is the max level inn or whatever, correct?
I'm playing as the Saga faction and I captured the gold mine early on. I'm fairly certain that all the province specialties already come with the first level built in. The only decision is whether to upgrade that gold mine ASAP or upgrade other stuff first.

Whenever I build something, the formula I use is marginal benefit/marginal cost. The gold mine tops out at 2k, but it already starts at 800. Basically, you're spending 5k to add 600 and another 10k to add another 600. If I have 5k, I have the choice of either spending it all to upgrade an 800 wealth gold mine to 1400 or spend 4k to upgrade 2 inns to 2 markets. That's upgrading 2 buildings that give 360 to both of them giving 720 + 2 wealth to town growth each turn.

I'm not yet at the stage in my game that I can upgrade everything. And whenever I think of upgrading something, there's always been something that offers more bang for the buck than upgrading that gold mine. As Saga, the three very fertile lands nearby are just insane. I rushed to commercial farming (1400 wealth) on all three of them immediately. I haven't even researched the last upgrade yet but they're already insane. Very fertile means all three are giving 4200 (1400*3) wealth.