In the official civilization description of Zhu Xi’s Legacy, it is claimed that philosopher Zhu Xi’s teachings reshaped Chinese civilization. However, I haven’t observed substantial differences in gameplay for this civilization. The impact of Zhu Xi’s presence appears limited to merely increasing the training cap for Imperial Officials, without introducing fundamental changes to their core functions of supervision and tax collection. The Zhu Xi’s Legacy civilization inherits design flaws from the original Chinese civilization, particularly in its problematic tax system. Even with upgrades like doubled tax capacity or additional tax-storing landmarks, Imperial Officials still fail to collect distant taxes due to flawed AI pathfinding. Remote structures like docks, mills, lumber camps, and mining camps often retain taxes until game end.
Historically, earlier game versions allowed Chinese markets to generate taxes through trade routes - merchants would deposit 10% of trade gold (boosted to 20% by the Imperial Academy). However, this system was completely removed rather than revised when trade mechanics changed, unlike the Byzantine civilization which maintained its analogous olive oil system (20% of trade gold converted at monasteries). Compared to other civilizations’ streamlined gold generation systems - Rus hunting cabins, Byzantine farm-based olive oil, or Mali’s mining camp adjacency bonuses - the Chinese tax system feels outdated and cumbersome.
For meaningful tax system reform, I propose two key adjustments:
Direct Tax Deposit System
Implement direct tax deposit to resource stockpiles upon collection by Imperial Officials, eliminating the need for return trips to Town Centers. This would solve remote tax collection issues by allowing officials to periodically collect from nearby structures. To balance early-game economy (preventing excessive gold spikes), increase cooldown intervals between tax collections from buildings.
Tax Generation Based on Resource Quantity
Revise tax generation mechanics from per-deposit to quantity-based thresholds:
Mills/Lumber Camps/Mining Camps: 1 tax per 10 resources deposited
Docks: 1 tax per 20 resources deposited
Cumulative calculation across multiple villagers (e.g., 9+1 resources = 1 tax)
This eliminates the current exploit of rapid 1-resource deposits for tax farming while maintaining historical flavor. Tax generation would now scale with actual economic output rather than deposit frequency.
These changes would modernize the tax system while preserving its unique identity, aligning Chinese civilization with contemporary design standards seen in other civilizations’ resource systems.