Jan 12

Restaurants and other businesses

Eco 10 introduced cultural deeds/buildings, although right now the only things you can put in them is artwork. Presumably, this will be expanded to support other types of public/community culture-scoring spaces like libraries and parks. But let's think bigger (and make sure it's mod-friendly). My grand idea is that you would be able to build a service economy consisting of a variety of businesses. Each business would have different object requirements. A restaurant would have tables and decoration, kitchen equipment, maybe a public bathroom. Eating in the restaurant would give a bonus based on the housing score. The idea is that the game/modders could define a set of items that comprise a business, driving additional demand for goods (both consumable and durable). There could be a movie theater that sells tickets and popcorn (corn + stove). Maybe watching a movie could grant culture for the viewer (encourage tourism). My suggestion is to 1) Have a deed type for businesses. 2) Allow mod authors to define sub-types of deeds, instead of using a hardcoded enum (the way that deed types are limited to residential/cultural/school). For example, Cultural -> Library, Cultural -> Park, Business -> Restaurant, Business -> Bowling Alley, Residential -> Condo, School -> Trade School, School -> University, School -> Research Lab. 3) Allow objects to only operate when placed in a certain business type, e.g. a restaurant might have a menu or host station that visitors can interact with. Ideally, also allow for multiple rooms (kitchen, bathrooms, staff lounge) Extra ideas: - Theming bonuses for seafood restaurants (nautical decorations), mountaintop restaurants (biome: tundra), etc to encourage variety and create a market for specific goods (right now, decorations are interchangeable so many of them go unsold based on the whims of the playerbase) - Businesses could also contribute directly to the town score, possibly balanced by sector (similar to food groups, you want a balance of different types of businesses, such as entertainment, financial, retail/grocery) - Give reasons for players to build and be creative. Right now people just do it for fun/roleplaying but there's no reward for it (despite having costs). - Businesses should require periodic labor and consumables (e.g. dishes, lab glassware), which would give an incentive to hire employees (using contracts), ship goods for delivery.

Pending