Rome 2: A constructive wishlist

[Spoonska]

Livestock has been used since the first hunter-gatherer societies found out that it's easier to eat domesticated goats than to hunt an antelope with a stick in your hand. IMO it's good to have variety over the previous title's single minded obsession with grain and agriculture.

I understand that, and I do agree with you that it's pivotal to history. Unfortunately, I feel that as an ingame resource it's undervalued. Perhaps removing it altogether would be a little extreme, but it could use some work. As it stands currently there are very few ways to obtain wealth from livestock. Lv4 Ranches every faction, but Parthia gives about 150-200 livestock. For Barbarian factions there is the Horse ranch as a third agricultural option which is another +140 Livestock. Eastern Cultures agriculture line of buildings do not even offer a static increase to livestock.They have to get it from stables military line. At most you get +100 livestock from the Nisean Stables at the cost of 12 squalor. All of these values are low when compared to commerce, industry or agriculture.

There's also very few buildings that with offer a modifier increase to livestock wealth, and often times it's paired with agriculture already.Now some factions have greater modifiers than others, and of course the barbarian factions have increased importance. However, the construction choices for those buildings are also very limited. Considering temples and ports do not offer any +% bonus to Livestock you're forced to do so in your capital. Excluding " % All Wealth" buildings, the maximum increased values for a province off buildings are as follows: Romans 80% , Barbarian 85%, , Eastern 50%, and Hellenistic the worst 20%. A minor side note -- Eastern factions can get a % bonus from the agriculture line meaning they can build multiple "Fountains" for the %20 bonus.Just to reiterate though, the highest static amount of livestock you can get is only 100.

When compared to other sources of revenue like industry or commerce it doesn't add up. Maybe it's not supposed to, but it pales in comparison. Your first choice in the Agriculture line of buildings will probably always be a Farm. It gives more food, and has better synergy with other buildings. I don't think that Ranches are competitive enough to be a viable choice.