First of all, as history enthusiast I absolutely love the game! It’s such a good display of how cities and communities worked 200+ years ago! Really educational too.
I will list my feedback and idea’s per building category, for the easy view.
Service and Town Buildings
- Town Center; The bell of the town center isn’t heard as far as it should be, only citizens close to it react if it rings. If a Town center rang the alarm bell, it’d be heard far and wide and all people would know enemies are approaching and would take cover. To add some fun facts to this; churches usually echo the alarm bell. Plus there were also separate bells for fire, bad weather, and of course the time.
- Police; in the old times then called magistrates or sheriff, would tend to the peace and order inside the city. Seeing that sometimes drunk citizens kill each other in-game and I can’t do anything about it that would be a good addition. All culprits inside a city were brought to the aldermen in the town hall who’d act as judges on behalf of the city.
- Churches; They are a big thing I miss. Here in Europe every city and town has a chapel, church or cathedral. They weren’t only there for the religious aspect, but also because the church as building was a the prestige-project of a city . I suggest to add them in tiers of chapel/church/cathedral. With maybe up to 4 workers; and idle citizens may visit the church. Additional benefits could be that churches heal wounded citizens, desirability effects and also the church bell.
- School; some cities started to give higher education. In abbeys or universities. And even held libraries and made books.
- Market; they somehow feel a bit underwhelming with just 2 employees.
- Rat Catcher; nice little touch would be adding cats, because they usually were the cat ladies.
Storage
It would be way nicer to be able to choose accept/fill/empty/not accept certain goods in storages so you can allocate goods to the right places more easily.
Food Production
- Forager shack; is actually a building that exists in early cities. As cities grow bigger, most of them resorted to have herbal gardens for their supply of medicinal herbs and berries. Could be a nice upgrade.
- Hunting Lodge; nice little touch would be adding hunting dogs, because they did use these.
- Fishing Hut; again, as cities grew most fishermen upgraded to using a boat and nets.
- Smokehouse; An upgrade in capacity and speed would be nice, level 2 smokehouse!
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Barn; cities did not only hold cattle. But also held and bred:
- Horses; for transport, military, leather and sale.
- Poultry; chickens and geese for eggs and meat.
- Sheep; for wool and meat.
- Goats; for milk, leather and meat.
- Butcher; a necessity for the things mentioned above.
Resources
- Well; Just for the sake of aesthetics maybe a level 3 well to fit with the brick looks.
- Cobbler Shop; They seem to under-produce compared to a lot of other manufacturing buildings. Maybe a tier 2 could solve this.
- Compost Yard; cities did actually make sewers at some time, which usually ended in the nearby water.
- Weaver; people used linen, wool or leather clothing. If sheep are going to be added, weavers may have multiple purpose or maybe this is where Tailor’s come into play. Since linen and the like were also used for rope, canvas and sails.
- Ropemaker; this craftsman made rope from flax or reeds. Rope was needed for setting traps, mooring boats or building them, leashing animals, building, transport and harvest of trees.
- Brewery; oddly the biggest breweries were inside abbey complexes. Beers brew by monks are still known as today. Additionally, some cities also produced wine or other beverages.
- Glassmaker; a niche detail maybe, but glass was also used for building after let’s say ‘tier 3’ buildings.
Defenses
- Towers ; either wood or stone were actually build on walls, not behind or in front. This could be a possibility. I also find it odd that raiders can walk trough wooden and stone towers, but not trough walls. Detail fact; the banner on towers went from the roof down over the viewing gap in winter. This was because 1) they hold the chill wind back, 2) incoming arrows would be deflected. Guards could still look and fire at the enemy from the sides.
- Barracks; a bit more military strategy would be nice. My soldiers never walk in formation.
- Walls; due to games people never think about it anymore, but you were actually able to walk on the walls from one guard tower to another. The way of getting on a wall would be trough the tower.
- Stables; in cooperation with the Wainwright a rich city would have stables to cater for horses that were used for transporting goods (faster than oxen) and also if very rich even for military purposes.
Roads and Fencing
Ships, Bridges, Canals; It would be cool to do more with water in the future.
Decorations
They aren’t used; I never see my citizens sitting on a bench, lounging in a garden or play in the park when they’re idle. Not even the festival pole is ever used.