On Wonders

[Vhalen]

Please keep in mind that I wrote this pretty quickly, lat at night, off the top of my head. Other suggestions are welcome! Anyway:

Given that people can only get 3-6 wonders in a round, and new economic wonders become fairly pointless toward the end of a round, the majority of economic wonders, notably those that give lesser effects than other wonders, as well as the most expensive/high-end ones (especially those with other wonder requirements) are basically worthless. I propose that some wonders be either removed, altered (either in price or effect), or replaced, to provide a more diverse field and increase player decisions.

For instance, who's likely to bother with the SDC, UHC, NPP, or NEO as they are? They quite simply can't return on the investment effectively enough before the round ends. And how many basic economic wonders (+cash or +happy) do we need? Nobody's likely to buy more than two or three. Lastly, requiring other wonders is a heavy price, so those wonders with such requirements need to have a strong effect.

Some of these things could be easily dealt with via price changes or tweaks in their effects. Movie Industry, for instance, is easily the worst happiness wonder. If it was significantly cheaper than the others, say $300k, people might consider buying it earlier, making it play differently from the others. NEO provides some slightly different bonuses than other economic wonders, yet the price tag is unfortunately too high to warrant exploring their usefulness. Among other problems, SDC's "tech happiness bonus" is completely useless (it also needs to have a wonder dropped from its requirements, I'd say, as it stands). What if some of these high-end wonders gave rewards toward the end of the round, such as:

SDC - increases NS multiplier on tech at End of Round from 5 to 10.

NEO - increases NS multiplier on land at EoR from 1.5 to 5.

UHC - increases NS multiplier on infra at EoR from 3 to 5.

NPP - increases NS multiplier on nukes at EoR from (Nukes^2)*10 to (Nukes^2)*15 (or 20 if you also have MP).

War Memorial - gives 2% of casualties as NS at EoR.

Now we have some significant choices to make.

Of course, we could also approach this with some other options that do significantly different things. Since TE rounds end regularly, high-end wonders (especially with hefty requirements) can significantly alter things without destroying gameplay (most of the game being played before they can come into effect anyway). This opens the door for things like:

Moon Mission - $30,000,000 - The moon mission exemplifies your nation's spirit in the face of adversity. Counts as 5,000 NS toward your total at End of Round. Requires 750 technology and Space Program.

Advanced Aeronautics Program - $3,000,000 - Your scientists are capable of aeronautic wonders. You are permitted a third air attack per war, per day. Requires 600 technology, 3 Factories, and a Pentagon.

Naval Engineering Program - $3,000,000 - Your scientists have achieved significant breakthroughs in shipbuilding. Your infrastructure requirements for ships are reduced by 10%. Requires 350 technology, 3 Drydocks, 3 Shipyards, and a Naval Construction Yard.

I realize these last few could just end up an unbalanced mess, but they're examples of different sorts of wonder effects. Also, I just kind of threw numbers in there with very basic estimates. They're probably not quite balanced, but I wanted to get the ideas out there more than anything.

Edited September 22, 2009 by Vhalen

[Gondor]

I think it is an interesting idea, but I would say it might lead to an over emphasis on wonders.

[Marco Pang]

I agree that econ wonders should have more of an effect because of the time limit in TE. However they already cost a lot less and people still buy them already... so there shouldn't be too much of a difference.