Every acre is barren, built on, or under construction. Buildings are how land does anything more than house a few people. The list is on Buildings.
Land
- A barren acre houses 15 people and grows 2 food a tick.
- An acre under construction houses 15 people.
- A new house starts with 200 of its 400 acres built and 200 barren.
- Explored and conquered land arrives barren.
Building and razing
- A building costs 0.05 × (your land + 10,000) gold, less what your mills save. A new house pays 520 gold a building.
- However many cuts stack (mills, Masons' Blessing, war recovery, science), a building never costs less than 25% of that base gold.
- Some buildings also cost materials (forts and castles use limestone) or extra gold. See Buildings.
- Construction takes 16 ticks, unless a building says otherwise.
- Razing costs 300 + 0.05 × your land gold a building. The land is barren again at once.
Building efficiency
Buildings need workers. Every building has jobs; when your peasants number at least 67% of all jobs, efficiency is 100%. With no peasants it's 50%, and between the two it scales evenly.
Efficiency scales everything buildings make and every percentage effect. It doesn't touch living space, how many horses stables hold, or renown.
How percentage effects grow
A percentage building's effect depends on the share of your land it covers, following this curve:
effect = base × share × (100% − share)The share counts up to 50%, and the result never passes the building's maximum. The first buildings of a kind help the most; past a point, more add little.
Example. Banks add 1.5% income per 1% of land. With 40 banks on 400 acres (10%): 1.5 × 10 × 90 ÷ 100 = 13.5% more income. At 50% banks the effect peaks at the 37.5% maximum.
When you're attacked
Land taken from you comes out of your barren land and every kind of building in proportion. Castles reduce how much is taken. Land under construction is never taken.