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Introduction
Game Setup
Units
Combat
Rescources
City Improvements
A-C  D-L   M-R  S-U
Terrian Improvements
Wonders
Diplomacy
Governments
Mulitplayer
Chapter Five: City Improvements

Academy

Initial cost: 540
Maintenance cost: 4
Effect: +50 percent science, +1/2 science per citizen
Restrictions: Land only
Prerequisite: Philosophy (with religion)

With a quickly discovered prerequisite, the academy should be available early on and is a solid structure to build in your wealthiest cities. Once you've constructed the Academy, devote more resources to science by upgrading the percentage of resources devoted to research and by assigning more workers to become scientists. If your city barely has enough gold to sustain itself, hold off on the academy until you can put it to immediate use. With a tasty +50 percent boost to science, savvy use can quickly propel your research of advances, which is the backbone to a successful campaign.


Airport

Initial cost: 2,500
Maintenance cost: 20
Effect: +50 percent gold, +100 percent pollution
Restrictions: Land only
Prerequisite: Aerodynamics (with mass production)

With the discovery of aerodynamics comes not only the airport improvement, but the ability to construct aircraft as well as eventually the most powerful weapon in the game, nuclear missiles. Although the airport improvement carries with it an enormous +50 percent bonus to gold, there are downsides. For starters, the airport is a costly improvement; the start-up cost of 2,500 is relatively moderate, but a maintenance cost of 20 per turn can really eat up the gold reserves. Additionally, if you are having problems with pollution, the airport certainly won't help matters, adding an additional 100 percent to the city.


Aqua-Filter

Initial cost: 8,000
Maintenance cost: 5
Effect: -5 overcrowding
Restrictions: None
Prerequisite: Fuel cells (with super conductor)

Overcrowding of your cities causes pollution, which can be an end-game killer; not only does pollution drain much-needed resources, it keeps your citizens unhappy and sets you up for trouble when The Eden Project becomes available. If pollution is rampant in any particular city, you might consider researching fuel cells, which rewards you with the aqua-filter improvement as well as the eco-transit improvement, a more generalized pollution-killer. Naturally, don't bother with the expensive aqua-filter (or even the fuel cells advance) unless you have problems with overcrowding and pollution.

Next: Aqueduct, arcologies, and banknext
 
 

 
 
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