A question

**kranyak** · November 25, 2009, 12:43 AM

In FOE, why does the basic, 1st-tier wooden palisade have a construction time of 15 turns while other, far more complex structures, such as stone walls or paved roads, have less? It shouldn't take almost 4 years to build a structure that the in-game text describes as "quick and easy to erect," or something like that.

**roam** · November 25, 2009, 03:21 AM

Remember the ingame text was written for vanilla when the build time was one turn. Tbh as long as the gameplay is good and the historical material used in it incorrect minor things like that don't bother me.

I would presume that as you've got to build the wall from scratch that it will take longer than the next stage which can just be build on the foundations of the previous. My experience is limited very much to Carthage atm, but the stones walls for that are built when it is upgraded to the city level after a large phiditia i believe or they already exist, am i wrong?

I cannot explain why a stone wall can be built so quickly. I presume the larger stone wall(or is it reinforced?) is just upgrading the original therefore taking less time, perhaps it is just for ease of play.

Anyway this is by far the best mod i have downloaded so far, and considering the time and effort put into this, i think we can forgive the producers a minor thing like this.

**Caligula Caesar** · November 25, 2009, 12:00 PM

Well, to build a larger stone wall, wouldn't you have to knock over the smaller one? But my question about walls is, why do they give tax penalties?

**FriendlyFire** · November 25, 2009, 12:53 PM

Originally Posted by Caligula Caesar

Well, to build a larger stone wall, wouldn't you have to knock over the smaller one? But my question about walls is, why do they give tax penalties?

My reasoning is that if you don't have a wall, you can get a nice suburban sprawl going beyond the city boundaries, which means a bigger tax base. Whereas a wall with gates and guards will slow down commercial traffic (bad for business), and also stops the city from expanding beyond the walls (smaller tax base).

I dunno if that's what the FOE team had in mind, but it makes sense to me. Although I'm sure there's a better historical term for it than "suburban sprawl"

**Clearchus of Sparta** · November 25, 2009, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by Caligula Caesar

Well, to build a larger stone wall, wouldn't you have to knock over the smaller one? But my question about walls is, why do they give tax penalties?

Tax penalties for walls was my suggestion. It was meant to represent the maintence cost of keeping the walls in good condition.

Maintenance costs for certain features was something I wanted to see more of, however, it wasnt popular with the team and may be removed for the next project as you have in its place, the large empire tax.

Originally Posted by kranyak

Yeah, I was wondering about the tax penalty as well. Back to the palisade question, it should really not take multiple years to build one, even if it is brand-new wall. Historically, palisades were built very quickly as a hasty defense. In FOE this would make a lot of sense: You need, IIRC, 2000 population to reach the settlement level where you can build a palisade. If a settlement needs to build a palisade, then presumably there is some immediate threat. Therefore, wouldn't just about every able-bodied man lend a hand in building it? It would go up very quickly.

I had trouble myself reconciling this. The best I can suggest is that you think of it as a system of defences built and improved upon slightly over the period of time. It is merely represented by the Pallisade.

The same goes for other "buildings" with unusually long build times. The building is symbolic of a system rather than a single stucture. This is especially true of the economic buildings

**kranyak** · November 25, 2009, 12:58 PM

Yeah, I was wondering about the tax penalty as well. Back to the palisade question, it should really not take multiple years to build one, even if it is brand-new wall. Historically, palisades were built very quickly as a hasty defense. In FOE this would make a lot of sense: You need, IIRC, 2000 population to reach the settlement level where you can build a palisade. If a settlement needs to build a palisade, then presumably there is some immediate threat. Therefore, wouldn't just about every able-bodied man lend a hand in building it? It would go up very quickly.