City Tiers and associated gameplay

Suggestions
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There is something about the Tier system that has been bothering me for a while, it isn’t a big issue so I haven’t said anything about it but scrolling though the forum just now I came across one of Coltini’s mods (The tier requirement on classes one) and it got me thinking about the tiers a bit more. Specifically how they are viewed by the player and how they effect the gameplay that a player experiences.

So currently there is no way to view what tier your city is at on the hud, and hence the only way to know is to look for the statues, and maybe the more impressive tier 2 buildings. But as you can just save these as custom after you have got to tier 2 once then they aren’t so much as an indicator.

Back to the actual issue I’d like to discuss, there is really no mention of what tier your town is until the specific quest that allows you to “tier up” and after the quest is finished, again no mention of tiers. It currently feels like an excuse to add another quest to the game that has no baring on the rest of the game. It feels disjointed.

Along with the issue of not being mentioned before the “tier up” quest, a player has no indication of what tier they are. All other levels in the game start at apprentice or zero. So you would think you are tier 0. You then get a quest for tier 2 and you are like what happened to tier 1.

Another curiosity along the same lines is that all other levels in the game go up to 6. Are we going to see the same with tiers and what new gameplay features will being the higher tiers bring.

Personally I’d like to see the tier system as more of a guide to how to progress your civilisation with the player starting at tier 0 and some sort of basic tutorial like quest to get the player used to the game with the end result of the player becoming tier 1. From there, new building templates and the next tiers requirements can be given and used as a prompt to push the player in the right direction.

And finally, I’d like to see more integration of the tiers into the rest of the lore so that a player has a better understanding of what it means to be that tier. Currently I’m like, woo tier 2, cool. so what? :smiley:

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I think it is ok the way it is. It is not an excuse for another quest, it is for unlocking things, like templates, music, new trades, items, etc… Which is done through a quest.
Anything can be coded to unlock after a specific tier. In my mod I have plans for tier dependent content.

I think the best visual indication for the city tier would be an upgraded town banner. It could get larger and more “powerful” with upper tiers.

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I would like to see it as a way of pushing the player to bigger cities (progress). But I don’t think 6 tiers in the current way of growth could be even possible. You would, for instance get the following tier system:

tier 0: set up/settlers
tier 1: settlement (keeping in mind your tutorial idea)
tier 2: town
tier 3: city
tier 4: capitol of region
tier 5: capitol of province
tier 6: capitol of kingdom/nation

but from tier 4 and onwards, you are probably going to run into performance issues, as the game will start to need to simulate full fledged cities. It would be cool, but i don’t think it is possible. I think it will be best to stop at tier 3 or tier 4.

I do like @BrunoSupremo 's idea to make change the town banner each tier. If there is a perfect item for the job, than it would be the banner.

I do think the tier system needs to go beyond unlocking stuff, maybe it can indicate the progress of your game like so:
tier 0 (working towards tier 1): tutorial
tier 1 (working towards tier 2): early game
tier 2 (working towards tier 3): mid-game
tier 3 (working to maybe tier 4/some other great accomplishment): end game

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