DeletedUser553
Guest
Hi. I have no idea how other people find the whole "guest races as just the next era" thing, and this certainly isn't the biggest problem in the game by a long shot, but I think it would be good, once players hit age 7 and can start inviting guest races into their city, to CHOOSE which guest races to bring in, and what order. As it is age 7 is just age 4 + gimmick. Why can't we, at the end of era 6, say "and now that I have this portal thingy, I'm going to invite in... fairies/dwarves/??? as my era 7." Honestly, by this stage of the game why can't we choose something real, like which goods to work on improving, or what aspect of our buildings we want to enhance? Why must we be corralled into the same, boring feedlot style unbranching lanes?
Obviously this would require significant changes to building progression (mainly), and eventually I imagine you'd end up with 7 different variants for upgrading residences & workshops past era 6, but this would be a good thing! It would mean some small measure of personal creativity in planning which aspects of our workshop/residences you wanted to enhance first, and you could give real differences between the guest races for what they add, instead of just "oh, its just the new era upgrade... get it or don't.". You could have dwarven residences not have more people but produce much more coin, fairy buildings have more people and not much more coin, and whatever race 3 ends up being could add another effect (like token culture). Each guest race already has a single category of resource they enhance, and why not let us improve our crystal production before our steel production at the guest race level? It doesn't seem like game balance really factors into that, but rather a reliance on rote linear, cyclic improvements, which on the one hand sounds simple and efficient, and on the other feels lazy and boring.
Having a choice would make this stage of the game more engaging, at least a little, and offer a little more individuality to our city's evolution.
But hey, that's just my opinion.
Obviously this would require significant changes to building progression (mainly), and eventually I imagine you'd end up with 7 different variants for upgrading residences & workshops past era 6, but this would be a good thing! It would mean some small measure of personal creativity in planning which aspects of our workshop/residences you wanted to enhance first, and you could give real differences between the guest races for what they add, instead of just "oh, its just the new era upgrade... get it or don't.". You could have dwarven residences not have more people but produce much more coin, fairy buildings have more people and not much more coin, and whatever race 3 ends up being could add another effect (like token culture). Each guest race already has a single category of resource they enhance, and why not let us improve our crystal production before our steel production at the guest race level? It doesn't seem like game balance really factors into that, but rather a reliance on rote linear, cyclic improvements, which on the one hand sounds simple and efficient, and on the other feels lazy and boring.
Having a choice would make this stage of the game more engaging, at least a little, and offer a little more individuality to our city's evolution.
But hey, that's just my opinion.