So I've been brainstorming ideas for new buildings that would complement the current production chains without breaking the game (very
difficult balance!)

Here's some ideas I've thought of:

1. Prospector

- Hut: 4 Boards (or alternatively it could be a new "mine" that requires no raw materials under it as goods are deposited)
- Prospects Stones to discover raw materials: Coal (11%), Iron Ore (33%), Gold Ore (3%), Granite (33%), Nothing (20%).
- A Prospector requires food to work (like mines) and uses Stones.
- Worker/Tool: Geologist/Hammer

Notes: The idea is for the ability to gain additional Iron (and if lucky some gold!) when mines are running out or there is none
nearby, but there is a chance you will get nothing or just stone back again (wasting food/stone). So it is a supplement to the
Production chains not a primary source of resources. The percentages are just an initial idea and can easily be refined or balanced.
This would also give more value to Granite Mines as further processing the Stone could yield more useful resources. If Stone supply is
low this is obviously not a good building to have active!


2. Inn/Tavern

- House: 3 Boards, 2 Stones
- Uses Beer or Food to increase the morale of Soldiers/Workers increasing their combat ability/work efficiency.
- Capacity for 6 Soldiers/Workers
- Worker/Tool: Innkeeper/Helper/No tool required

Notes: An additional use for Beer and Food. I'm not sure how difficult or easy the programming would be but a similar button to the
"send the highest rank soldiers to the nearest warehouse" could exist but instead it would be send soldiers/worker to the nearest
Inn/Tavern. As it can be used to boost soldiers there would be a bonus having them near your borders/warehouses near enemies.


3. Printing Press

- House: 2 Boards, 2 Stones
- Turns Boards and Water into Books
- Worker/Tool: Publisher/Hammer

Notes: A new Good/Tool Books is used for training Privates in the Academy and as a Tool for the jobs: Alchemist/Banker/Salesman


4. Academy

- Castle: 3 Boards, 6 Stones
- Uses Books to Train Privates to the next rank. Once promoted they return to the nearest warehouse.
- Worker: General

Notes: With an Academy and a General you can use Books to train your Privates and promote them to the next rank. This saves some Gold
Coins allowing you to be more efficient in your economy.


5. Alchemist

- Castle: 3 Boards, 4 Stones
- Turns 2 Iron and 2 Water into 1 Gold Coin
- Worker/Tool: Alchemist/Book

Notes: When there is an abundance of Iron but not much Gold an Alchemist can augment your supply.


6. Bank

- Castle: 3 Boards, 5 Stones
- Deposit Gold Coins to slowly generate interest. The more coins deposited the faster interest is generated. Coins can be withdrawn
from the bank but you will stop gaining additional ones.
- Only 1 Bank can be built.
- Worker/Tool: Banker/Book


7. Marketplace

- House: 4 Boards, 2 Stones
- Exchange Goods for different Goods.
- The ratio of Goods to different Goods is different depending on the abundance/scarcity in the world.
- For example it may take 10 Boards to get 1 Pig, but due to scarcity only 5 Fish to get a Gold Coin.
- Worker/Tool: Salesman/Book

Notes: There are lots of games when certain Goods start to explode in amount: especially Beer and Boards. With the Marketplace an
exchange could be made. As a way of "converting" Goods into ones your economy is currently lacking. The rarer the Good the more Goods
it takes to make the trade. So swapping for Gold Coins or Ore is more costly than for Stone or Pigs.


8. Lighthouse

- Castle (Coastal): 4 Boards, 5 Stones
- A Coastal Lookout Tower with extraordinary range of vision (2-4x a regular Lookout Tower)
- Can only be built at Harbour Points
- Worker/Tool: Scout/Bow

Notes: In some maps there are a lot of harbour points on the same landmass so an alternative reconnaissance building would be far more
useful than another Harbour Building. These would also be extremely useful when Fog of War is enabled as they give a huge range of
vision over the sea!


Theses are just some random ideas I had and was brainstorming. Rather than creating brand new production chains with complex systems
and new Goods, I was focused on providing alternatives to augment the current economy. Ways to help balance the economy when there is a
lack of a certain resource (Prospector/Alchemist/Marketplace), ways to improve efficiency or effectiveness (Inn/Academy/Bank).

Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas or suggestions!

Thanks for reading!

- aztimh

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Moinsen Leute,

also ich bin ein begeisterter Siedler Spieler und finde es bewundernswert was ihr schon alles daraus gemacht habt. Wenn ich sehe was
das da oben für neue Gebäude sind geht bei mir ein Herz auf, weil es soviel Abwechslung in das Spiel bringen würde. ich hoffe das
Update kommt demnächst irgendwann, sonst steigt die Vorfreude ins unermessliche.  

LG
Julian :)

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Just to make sure: We do not plan to add those buildings. In fact, we wont since we only have very few spare time which is mostly invested in fixing bugs. That said, since we are open source, anybody can implement new buildings, create a pull request and then it's added as addon to the game.

But regarding those buildings, below are my personal vies regarding them:

Zitat:

Somewhere we already had/have a pretty similar idea. I don't think that this building should be a hut but should take important building slots. Also it should not generate coal since there already is a charburner for that. Although I'm totally in for having an alternative means of production for any resource, which should be more expensive than the normal mining.

Zitat:

Well, this would require the game to store "buffed" soldiers differently than other soldiers. It'd also require more direct control for soldiers like swapping out soldiers at the front - if this is no permanent buff. All together I'd rather see something similar to settlers IV or I like having offense and defense strength, which you can increase in some ways. This would then prevent rushing and force aggressive players to invest more. For example you could simply use beer to increase your offense strength up to 100% or something alike.

Zitat:

In my opinion this simply doesn't fit the current tools and designs in the game.

Zitat:

I don't see a reason for this. Since for example the prospector would add another way to obtain gold, I don't see why I should use the Academy. Since it does the same as gold, the academy is either then useless (because it's slower/more expensive/whatver) or overpowered. It doesn't sound like an alternative to anything, except when gold is used up, but then again the prospector is in my opinion a better way. Also this would add a new mechanic on how a building works, which also doesn't fit that good into settlers 2 and would always feel a bit alien I guess.

Zitat:

This honestly doesn't add much to the game. Since this a building with (hopefully limited) storage, this simply creates coins out of nowhere. There is no production line or anything required - everybody would always build a bank, fully fill it up and then get the same amount of coins. There is no way to scale this, but there is also no cost to this. It also doesn't fit any other building there currently is.

Zitat:

Sounds much like AOE2 if I'm not mistaken. I don't really see why this should be building with a worker - there simply is no use to the building itself other than offering an entry for a menu. It'd be better to simply add some new button or page or whatever in the HQ if "neutral trading" is enabled. I'm not really sure on how such market would balance itself. For example you give every good a "hidden" value which is based on something. Then you can trade in some goods for others. Trading in goods then decreases the value of the traded in resource and increses the value of the obtained ware.
But what would this in the end result in? Most people obtaining the important resources, burning those they don't need. So there isn't a real use in the end, is there?
For me it'd be even more logcial to have like a building that uses a donkey and some food to "trade" for wares, which basicly just adds a random ware of a type (e.g. building material/weapons/tools and then you get a random ware in that bracket). But then again this is also substituted by the prospector.

Zitat:

This is either useless (if you can't spot another landmass) or pretty much overpowered, since it would enable you to always attack hostile harbors whenever you like. We added a bit of randomness by using exploration expeditions.

Just to make sure, those are my personal views regarding the mechanics and the actual additions. This doesn't mean one shouldn't add those to the game - as said anybody could in fact.

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I think Bank idea is the worst of everything as nowadays we are able to produce money form nothing, and
break value of already existing money. Would rather this game not to be as brutal as real life ^^ From same
reason I also don't like market: Your society/settlement is quite isolated, if you'd be left alone on
island how would you exchange 10 boards on 2 stone? this is what i hate in recent games this type : (

Lighthouse is best idea due to:

1# not changing gameplay of any stage

2# you are 100% right about useless harbor points, what is more, they cannot be exchanged with any other castle
so far due to glitch

3# graphics are almost ready: You could just extract center of most harbors, and redraw ground floor (best would
be puting there part of fortress foundaiments) - then you recieve lighthouse.

4# you just duble watchtower mechanic with change of range - seems easy

but isn't this too much work for too little? I always wanted to see more buildings, but never willed to do
anything more beside throwing idea check out:

https://www.siedler25.org/index.php?com=forum&mod=forum&action=thread&id=1634&start

^^

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