Summary
I propose that towns be able to research. This research would result in town-wide benefits.
How It Could Work
You would have to construct a new building (with an appropriate name) first. This would cost a lot of money and construction points to do. Then, within this building it would look much like it does when you construct in the town. You would have different categories of research (see below), with each category have different (increasingly difficult to attain) levels, each upgrade giving more benefits. There would be a good number of categories hopefully, each with 5 levels of research. But you would have restrictions on how many you could research (explained below).
Research Categories
I need some assistance with these. These are purely examples to give you a flavour of what my intentions are.
Security Research
Level 1: You could 'discover' a way to build a better bank vault. This would unlock an extra level (11) on the bank which could be constructed (at a cost of money/construction points as usual) to give an extra limit, such as being able to deposit $15,000
Level 2: Let's you upgrade the bank to level 12, giving $20,000 limit
Level 3: Let's you upgrade the bank to level 13, giving $30,000 limit
Level 4: Let's you upgrade the bank to level 14, giving $40,000 limit
Level 5: Let's you upgrade the bank to level 15, giving an unlimited bank.
Health Research
Each upgrade (there would be 5 levels again) would 'discover' a new cure for a disease, or a new discovery about the benefits of eating fresh vegetables or whatever, and would give extra health points to members of the town (which you would lose if you left the town). Very handy when the duellers come a-knocking.
Level 1: All members get 5% extra HP
Level 2: All members get 10% extra HP (total, not on top of the previous 5%)
Level 3: All members get 15% extra HP
Level 4: All members get 20% extra HP
Level 5: All members get 25% extra HP
Military Research
Level 1: You learn a new defensive tactic. All members get 5 tactics skill points (lost when you leave town, of course). Not putting offensive one in here because 1) would help attackers and 2) would cancel out the benefit of this defensive bonus.
Level 2: You learn something new about guns (God knows what, this is hard!). All members get 20 LP's towards all jobs with 'Shooting'.
Level 3: All members get 20 LP's towards all jobs with 'Leadership'
Level 4: You learn a new offensive tactic (oh, go on then!). All members get 20 LP's towards all jobs with 'Appearance'.
Level 5: You learn a new defensive technique. All members get 20 LP's towards all jobs with 'Hiding'.
Commerce Research (Thanks to George Hurst for this category and bonuses!)
Level 1: The town will recieve an extra 20% commission off items sold in shops.
Level 2: All town members get 10% off shop items,
Level 3: All town members get 10 LP's off jobs with 'Trading'
Level 4: All town members get 25% off shop items (25% total, not added to the previous 10%)
Level 5: All town members get 25 LP's off jobs with 'Trading' (25 total, not added to the previous 10)
Horse Breeding Research
Level 1: All members get a 5% speed bonus
Level 2: All members get a 10% speed bonus (total, not added to the previous 5%)
Level 3: All members get a 15% speed bonus
Level 4: All members get a 20% speed bonus
Level 5: All members get a 25% speed bonus
Technological Research Thanks to Diggo11 for this lot.
Level 1: Jobs can be performed faster. I.e. a 1 hour job will only take 55 minutes.
Level 2: Difficulty of all jobs is reduced by 5.
Level 3: Duellers weapons damage is boosted by 10%.
Level 4: Jobs can be performed even faster. I.e. a 1 hour job will only take 50 minutes.
Level 5: Difficulty of all jobs is reduced by 10 (not additional to the previous 5)
Educational Research Thanks to Diggo11 for this lot.
Level 1: All other researc bonuses are increased by 10%
Level 2: All other bonuses are increased by 20%
Level 3: All other bonuses are increased by 30%
Level 4: All other bonuses are increased by 40%
Level 5: All other bonuses are increased by 50% (to clarify a 10% bonus would become 15%, not 60%)
Tailoring Research Thanks to Clash and Diggo for these.
Level 1: Allows Tailor to be constructed to Level 11
Level 2: Allows Tailor to be constructed to Level 12
Level 3: Allows Tailor to be constructed to Level 13
Level 4: Allows Tailor to be constructed to Level 14
Level 5: Allows Tailor to be constructed to Level 15
Crafting Research Thanks to Clash and Diggo for these
Level 1: Allows General Store to be constructed to Level 11
Level 2: Allows General Store to be constructed to Level 12
Level 3: Allows General Store to be constructed to Level 13
Level 4: Allows General Store to be constructed to Level 14
Level 5: Allows General Store to be constructed to Level 15
Can you think of some others?
Research Level Restrictions (Thanks to Gem for this part!)
Towns would not be allowed to complete ALL the research. Each town would be allowed to research a certain number of research levels. This would depend on the number of categories. For example if we came up with 10 categories with 5 levels each (50 research levels total), each town could choose, say, 20 of these. Once you have researched your 20 levels, all others would be closed off.
Notes on restrictions:
- Once a research level has been started (i.e. when a town member has completed some work towards that level), this is counted as a choice. This is regardless of whether the research is completed.
- Anyone with enough labor points would be able to research, much like they can construct. It would require good town management to ensure that town members did not start research on any level that wasn't in your choice.
- If you wanted to choose, for example, level 5 of Security Research, you would have to research the 4 preceding levels first so it would cost you 5 of your quota of levels.
Downgrading (Thanks to Gem again!)
It would be possible to 'downgrade' your research at any time. A town founder/councillor could choose to 'cancel' any level that is currently being researched, or 'downgrade' any level that has already been fully researched. All money and research points spent would be lost, but the town would regain a research level to choose. This would allow a town to essentially re-spec the town and choose different research levels depending on their mood. To get it back (or to spend the gained research level) you would have to research in the same way, with the same costs in money and research points.
Skills Needed
I need help here. How about: Leadership, Tactics, Fine Motor Skills, Stamina, Repairing. I do not know what difficulty each level of upgrade would be, I would leave this to the developers to work out. However, the 'research facility' would be upgradable to level 10 and would give a reduction in the difficulty of the upgrades, much like the town hall does for construction. (Thanks to Denisero for that suggestion!)
Benefits of this Idea
- It would spawn a new breed of character spec. 'Researchers' would be in demand and people would specifically spec their character to be good researchers. The research levels would be sufficiently difficult that basically unless you specialise as a researcher, you wouldn't be able to research very well, and certainly wouldn't be able to research the last few levels. Gives another dimension to gameplay.
- Builders would have more to do, with them having to construct a new building. This building would be sufficiently difficult to build that it would require a lot of effort.
- Other town members would have more to do, having to donate a lot of cash first to help with the construction and then right through with all the research
- It is important to remember that research such as the security one would only 'unlock' the ability to construct further bank levels. It wouldn't automatically give you those levels. You would then have to pay and construct those upgrades. These would also cost a lot of money/construction points. This would extend the building of towns by a long long way. It would also give more management issues - do you let your researchers spend money in the treasury, or do you let your builders have it when you unlock something? Keeping both sets happy would be fun.
- Could possibly bring more money to Innogames. People may be more inclined to start a game on a new world just to be a researcher, and if they buy premium for their other worlds, they probably would do for this one too.
- Variety and individuality. With towns having to pick and choose which levels to have, every town would be different depending on which levels they chose. This would make joining a town more interesting, because you'd most likely want to know what they planned on choosing before you joined.
- Community aspect. This could result in towns having big discussions on which levels to choose. Or a leader might just pick and choose themselves - but will town members be happy with that and accept it? Would add more elements to town communities.
Potential for Abuse
I cannot see any.
Mock Up
Not the best, I know (it even still say's 'construction' instead of 'research', but I had limited time and I'm sure you get the idea anyway.
