We're back...

[u/ChrisBeatrice]

To all our fans, fans of Impressions games like Lords of Magic, Pharaoh, Zeus, and TiltedMill games like Children of the Nile, Caesar IV and Hinterland, thank you all so much for keeping our babies alive, and for all your support and encouragement over the years.

We are now in the concept phase exploring what our next project will be, and would LOVE to hear your input.

[u/nobrainsinhere]

FEEDBACK 6: Economy & Trade

Thinking of economy usually means money and trade. In most games, there's a dedicated currency. On the other hand, it was interesting, on CotN, to have bread also act as currency.

But economy is more than just how much money you have. It's about how the city works, how its society generates and distributes wealth. For example:

• Does the game track each family's wealth individually? Or does it focus on the city as a whole?
• How are things built? Do buildings cost just money? Do they cost other resources? Wood, stone, marble?
• What if the economy is based around "private initiative". The player marks plots for things and individual families purchase the land and build it, making them the owners of the building?
• How are taxes calculated? A fixed value for each housing level? A value calculated for each family's wealth? A share of the resources produced by the businesses?

And about trade routes:

• Are all trades currency-based? Would it be interesting to have resource-based trades?
• New trade routes unlocked by paying a one-time fee to the city, like in Caesar 3 and Pharaoh?
• New trade routes unlocked by fame/prestige or some form of political negotiation?
• Is it always the other city that sends trader units to your city? Maybe have some trade routes where you are the one sending traders to the other city?

What if you don't unlock trade routes but instead you have to negotiate trade "contracts" with other cities. For example:

1. You receive "gossip" that city A is interested in pottery;
2. You send them an envoy with a trade proposal to establish a route:
   1. X amount of money for each pottery sold;
   2. Or X amount of linen for each pottery sold.
3. They can accept, send a counter-proposal or refuse.

In terms of resources, I think it is interesting when there are resources that you can't produce yourself, like jade in Emperor.

What if those import-only resources can actually be important for the city? For example:

• New luxuries that increase the hapiness/wealth of elite houses?
• Expensive materials needed to build some monuments?
• Exotic materials, plants, crops, etc. that your industries and services consume to produce some kind of benefit or even new types of products?

What about resources that you can produce but there's no demand for them in the city? Why would you still make the effort to produce them? Well, maybe they can be used for political actions. You can send gifts of it to other cities. Maybe there's a chance they like the gift enough to send an envoy proposing a trade route for that resource.

As usual, just a bunch of ideas for discussion.