hi, this is an idea for future DLCs perhaps, it would be nice to have some scripted/targeted events and goals to fulfill during expansion of your village in return of temporary buffs. I generally play small villages so I cannot think of something challenging for large cities but here are some ideas. maybe the demands scale up according to population
first of all, village should have some kind of trophy decoration. it could also be at shrine. it is meaningful to have this but not super necessary. this depends on the buffs you will get back. if it is a buff to a certain radius then something like decoration or shrine would be meaningful.
my idea is like a targeted trade event. for example similar to the traders there will be one messenger coming to your village and say one of those:
Coal mine in my village collapsed and winter is approaching, we desperately need anything to burn (firewood or coal). also we need protection from cold (shoe and coat).
King of the land will visit me next year. I want to impress him with my wealth. I need luxury items (any luxury item or a bunch of many)
My village suffers famine and I found out it is due to spoiled food or diseased wells. I need medicine and anything that will help for curing the disease (soap)
In my land I got bandits. I am a farmer oriented fellow so I hired mercenaries but they demand weapons and armor.
We suffered flood in our village and now we desperately need of building materials (plank and stone) and some food during hard times
Our neighbor village suffered from plague and now they need our help. we need to send our people (basically villagers). they disappear for some time and return back later. opposite of immigration
…and so on
I hope the idea is clear. it is similar to merchants but the return is not just gold, it is a special temporary buff. right now only event I can think of is raids, and that is fine but when you play in pacifist mode then there is no event. regardless, this idea could make the village focus more interesting. imagine there is a raid coming and a messenger comes for #4, so it is a decision to either defend your village or get that buff for future. another reason I would recommend this is the reason for building those items. in pacifist mode you would not bother with anything around military items but with those events it could be useful. maybe you would not bother with a certain item type and rely on traders but with the enticing buffs you may change your mind. also the randomness of the buff may affect as well.
within a specific period (1 year for example or shorter) you can craft the mentioned items and after that period the messenger will come and take those items, either buy or simply take. in response you will earn a title that will give you bonus like a trophy. the trophy depends on what the other village is good for or what you did. for example if it is #4 then you will get blessing about farming (special crops for some years or fertility increase). if it is #2 the influential baron influences merchants to sell you things cheaper. all buffs should be temporary like a few years so you would try to fulfill those requests over and over.
there could be consequences for refusing the requests too, or failing deliveries. if you accept #2 but fail to deliver (or refuse) luxury items then traders may charge you more or pay less. the buffs may depend on how good you deliver as well. if you send only candles maybe not so good but if you deliver candle, furniture and even give spice then the buff would be higher/larger/longer
only down side I can think of is creativity. after some years it will be repetitive and same thing. maybe not a problem or maybe you can improve this better
I am not sure if it is already suggested, sorry if duplicate.
it is best if the bonuses/buffs are temp but there could be few exceptions which give a semi-permanent bonus (permanent but for a condition). here are some potential permanent-ish buff ideas
Noble Outfits: for this I would expect Crate to create graphical changes for villagers. a reward would be a special type of clothing, for nobility. it is similar to spice, it will raise taxes significantly. villagers will put these on and walk around. would be cool to have some kind of aristocrat class at village/city. temporary of course, they would use this for some months and then clothes revert to regular worker outfit. it is a graphical bonus mainly and increases taxes in a better way than spices do (at least something visible). it can be something else too, like hats, cloaks but it should be at least observable graphically (otherwise makes no sense, would be equal to spices). a rich baron could give that
Onager/Mangonel: from a military focused village, the reward would be a tool like this, maybe requires horses to drive. look at AgeOfEmpires mangonel for what it looks like. good with area of effect against raiders. building these is not be an option, so it is a permanent buff but can be destroyed so not fully permanent. another idea is canons if timeline game targets allows. maybe those canons break after some use so it is permanent-ish but not fully. any military village may give this as reward.
Seeds: this is for a replacement for mods some of us use. these seeds are actually for forageables. player receives a few of them, like 3-5, maybe a certain type or randomly but known. then player selects a certain area of 2x2 (or so) for example and 3-5 forageable grows there. it is similar to moving blueberry bushes but for every other plant and given as a limited reward. the biome and fertility (or other factors) may change the number and yield, maybe not permanent but it could be a cool idea to have farms with these seeds. this can be a tree with fruit as well, for example banana tree, or so. tree might be a different option, it may have a lifespan with no chance of regrowing, so it is temporary reward. the farming oriented village may give this
Blueprints: this is for a special decoration that raises desirability for a certain type, or permanent. it is linked with the initial “shrine” idea but instead the reward is a memento. for example in return of #5 or #6 you can build a memento (for #6 it can even be dramatic, maybe those people never return, die in battle so now you earn a decoration as memento, increases happiness or desirability in an area). another idea could be other type of decorations, for example a bell tower, or clock tower or so. I think only trade center has clocks today and it is single building. with this reward now we can have multiple clock towers as decoration at various places in our cities. the advanced builder village may offer this.
Mercenaries: this is maybe not a very useful idea or linked with above but can be a reward. these are mercenary soldiers, but they do not count from your villager count. maybe they are summoned from a building as well. only difference is they are costly compared to your own soldiers and cannot be changed to another role, but can be dismissed (can be re-recruited but with a cooldown or never). they may be a little risky too, maybe they fight against unhappy villagers and create problems if they do not have coin or steal from your resources like taking luxuries (if unpaid). would be interesting to see (not necessary to be linked with this type of solution but can be added separately). this may be in return for #6, your villagers leave but mercenaries come, with or without the dramatic history/reason
Boat: too simple but can be an option as offer. it would be useful if we have naval maps
I like decisions and consequences, taking or using some of the buffs could have dramatic consequences. it would make game more unlinear but that is just my opinion.
some of these (blueprint and forage) are different than simply giving an item. it requires build engine changes but I do not think they are so difficult. we have the concept of livestock shopping, forcing you to put the livestock to a barn for example so the rewards for buildings or such could be enforced in similar way (instead of saving them for later), or completely losing the bonus if the choice not made. for example mangonel could be delivered to your barracks or lose your chance if you do not have a barracks built.
I really would like to add some kind of history/lore to our village instead of raising a fully generic nameless one so I like the idea of interaction/diplomacy and various events happening around during the lifespan. the original idea comes from that and rewards might be linked with what you did (especially memento style decorations), similar to how we gamers collect achievements our village will have trophies (or enemies if we refused to help them). the traders that come to our village could be from those villages and their prices might be affected. this may make the requests to be taken more diplomatically, sometimes forced to fulfill even
there are other similar games that rewards can be taken from. I will leave that to devs.
I love these side quests with special buffs and unique items. Scynox has some really creative ideas. To tie this into ideas that have already been in the forum recently, and a couple of others …
Farming reward - seeds for new crop or new animals ( if Devs decide to add cotton, sugar, sheep, pigs, etc. )
Trading reward - Special merchant with unlimited funds to purchase your items for X years or all traders will buy all items for X years
Luxury goods reward -
A. unlock building access for manufacturing building needed to turn cotton or wool into thread / cloth OR unlock special upgrade allows weaver to weave cotton or wool cloth in addition to flax.
B. Sweets shop - use sugar, milk, eggs, etc. to make candy
Mining reward - regular coal, iron or gold mine " discovers new vein" and becomes a Deep source / unlimited production mine
Military reward - troops train faster / less resources OR special smith to repair worn armor and weapons instead of replace after breaking
Love thy neighbor reward - ( if we shared resources like food, wood or manpower ) choice of a relic for the Temple with an OP blessing related to what we sent like reduced diseases / increased health, or no spoiled food, or double yield on wood / stone gathering
Pied piper - upgrade to rat catcher to be able to call out the gophers too
As a condition of the request " we have X problem and need Y supplies. Cannot pay you for them now, but will send you # gold every year for Z years if you can send us # of this item / material within ? time"