1. City Improvements Ideas

1. A CI like Recycling Tanks would be required to receive full use from a city square, otherwise the city square produces reduced resources.

2. 3 levels of city walls:
a. Barricades, available right off the bat. Costs 40 shields, doubles defense, doesn’t protect population.
b. City walls, cost 80 shields, exactly like the current city walls.
c. Fortifications, cost 120 shields, available with Labor Union or something. Doubles defense against conventional and Howitzer attacks, provides +50% defense against air attacks. Protects population.

3. Underground improvements like underground factories. Increased cost and often a reduced functionability, but much more difficult to destroy with a strategic bomber (see Units and Combat).

4. Military Base: Actually a terrain improvement, but it’s a place where you can build city walls, air defense, airports, SDI Defense, Psi-Gates, and all sorts of fun improvements that usually don’t find their way out in the field.

5. Sanitation System: Advanced sewers (the ancients had sewers, we’ve got a sanitation system.)

6. Harbor: Early Port Facility

7. Port Facility: Repairs ships (required for building some ships, maybe), provides Trade revenue from sea trade and increases sea food trade/food/mineral production.

8. Launch Facility: Kinda like an airport, but launches satellites and rockets.

9. Caravanserai, Warehouse, Depot: Progressive city improvements that MUST be in every city that a trade route passes through.

10. Supermarket, Shopping Mall: Influence Income, Happiness, Growth.

11. Container Port: Containerized Shipping facility. GREATLY increases benefits of trade from air, land, and sea.

12. Academy, University, Science Park, Library, Museum, Publishing House, Observatory: All of these improve the research being harnessed at the city, sometimes providing specific improvements and not just a “+10% research” improvement. For example, the Publishing House and Library would provide the greatest research improvement in a Democratic society, while in a Fundamentalist society they would actually REDUCE research but would make the populace happier. Additionally, improvements like “Physics lab, Biology lab, Chemistry lab, etc.” can be made to provide a flat +5% bonus to research, plus an additional +20% to research in that improvement’s specialty field.

13. Mill, Factory, Integrated Manufacturing Plant, Robotic Factory: Incremental increases to production.

14. Temple, Cathedral, Theater, Colosseum, Stadium, Movie Palace, Broadcasting Station: Improve happiness.

15. Drill Field, Barracks, Maneuver Area: One per era. Ancient armies used Drill Fields, Early Modern armies used a Barracks, and Modern armies use Maneuver Areas for training.

16. Hospital: Increases health and happiness, helps research in Biology.

17. Water Works: Advanced Aqueduct.

2. Theory

1. Improvements have a synergistic effect with one another, making specialization something to be sought after. Example: Say there’s a library, a university, and a research lab, each of which increases research by 25%. The city with the library will have a +25% research bonus. The city with the library and the university will have a +55% research bonus (25% * 2 + another 5% for the synergistic effect). The city with the library, the university, and the research lab will have a +90% research bonus (25% * 3 + another 5% for the first synergistic effect + another 10% for a second synergistic effect). This can be further applied to improvements affecting defense, production, happiness, etc.

2. It should be possible to work on two (or more) city improvements at once (as well as units). Perhaps there could be a city improvement that allows this.