Capitol is the only age 5-exclusive building that most games would never see (treaty not included) and serve only one purpose (other cive have those techs unlocked in regular buildings).
The US state capitol is a good design, but we can keep their wagon-building and early build as a special feature. But “regular” capitols could be made more interesting following that direction:
Available in age 4
Gives some additional civ-unique technologies (in both age 4 and 5; can be unlocked or made cheaper by a card, similar to church techs)
Has civ-specific designs like the church
Edit: also it can reskinned to make it less “American” (like the tavern)
I’m fine with The Capitol being available earlier at Age III or IV, as long as the most powerful techs(spies, legendary natives, knighthood, etc.) only unlock on Age V. I also would like for it have some other purpose other than being a building solely for researching techs. Maybe a XP trickle or something to do with revolutions…
I thought the ‘Metropolis Block’ and ‘Spy’ buffs should be passive abilities and not definitive buffs.
The ‘Metropolis Block’ upgrade could be replaced by something that does the opposite (assure the arrival of shipments in exchange for coins), since the ‘lock’ upgrade is hardly used by anyone.
I agree to replace the Capitol. The Capitol is an exclusive US building. European civilizations should have another unique building. For example, I propose the existence of Universities, as in AoE2.
I think that some nations like Spain (and perhaps England) should have it even in earlier ages: Spain founded the first university (Santo Domingo in 1538) and opened more universities than anyone on the American continent (in total there were 23 universities, created between the century XVI and XVIII).
I think the Capitol is fine as a building itself. To me, it represents the growing needs of administration, political representation, and autonomy in the colonies. I also like it because the techs express all the downsides and after-effects of the Industrial Age. It can be somewhat heart-wrenching choosing to research techs like “Deforestation,” “Excessive Taxation,” and “Large-Scale Agriculture.” Those are simply names, but they bear an important lesson that European colonialism and industrial development had serious consequences.
They could, however, use some updating with new techs to set them apart and make the building cost worthwhile compared to indigenous/Asian/African civs which get those techs from their TCs.
Following up on this:
With the new royal houses introduced, it is possible to add an age 4 or even age 3 card that:
Unlocks capitols
Unlocks techs and maybe units from a royal house related to this civ
For civs like Dutch and Portuguese who may not have a proper royal house in game, no problem. Just add some unique techs for them. Actually there are already quite a few new Dutch techs in the 80 Years War scenario.
That might make this building more interesting.
I simply think saving one slot for an Age 5-exclusive building is a waste. Remember the pain to place the Dutch native embassy into the construction panel? Just make a good use of that slot c’mon.
And I personally would like to see the capitol reskinned to “parliament” or “royal palace” etc., just like the tavern, as European maps are here, because this building looks very colonial.
I propose to rename the Capitol to a new name - Governor Office . Additionally, unique models of this building could be added for each civ to please the eye.
Making the Capitol more attractive, apart from cosmetic changes, you can do many cool things, e.g. additional technologies, e.g
Promotion for all units
Access to building Forts for Hero
Factory Wagon training (limit: 1. Home City cards from Factories increase the Factory limit)
The Prussians, if they became a completely new civ, could have a unique building - the Reichstag. This would be a unique replacement for the Prussian civ that would be available in Age 1 and would give more options than the Governor Office (updated Capitol). The Reichstag would be aligned with the unique Age Up mechanic for the Prussians civ, representing Prussia’s road to German unification. The Reichstag could be surrounded by masts that would fly the flags of the lands we chose during Age Up.
A while ago I got the idea that the capitols could be replaced by a unique wonder for each civilization, that would have the same technologies of the capitol plus one that is unique to each civilization, technology that would be designed to solve some problem that it has that civilization in the late game. This wonder would cost more resources than the capitol, but in exchange its technologies would receive a reduction in their cost.
This wonder would be something very interesting in terms of visuals and fan service, but maybe it’s not such a good idea for developers to spend so much time and effort introducing new unique buildings that wouldn’t have as much impact on the gameplay in the end. That’s why I leave it just as an idea.