I am still somewhat at a loss when I need to choose a building for an emergent town. The thing is, I'm not sure which is the best choice, some pointers would be helpful. I also have some specific questions:
Do the "pleasure" buildings (coaching inn etc.) bring happiness to all the faction, or just to their region? If it is only the region, it would be a waste to build one if the locals are reasonably happy. Same question about the religion buildings, conversion factionwide or only local?
On the other side, schools bring unhappiness, again, is this local or general?
The same difficulty happens when I want to build a port. It would seem that you don't need too many dockyards, one or two can cover your needs since you can't be building a lot of warships all the time (at least in my short experience I can't). And the small stuff can come out of the other ports types. So, my impression is that if you keep turning out warships from your one or two dockyards it would seem to be fine (balanced between need and budget). Early game at least.
However when it comes to a choice between commercial and fishing, it seems to me that there's no doubt that commercial is better, but I'm not sure. In what circumstances do you prefer a fishery?