Is it ever worth building?

[Daethz]

Building is so incredibly expensive and takes so incredibly long that I have gone entire game sessions without building or upgrading a singular structure.
Is this intended?
It's like every project is building giza

[ste]

I think its vital.
It might seem a waste of time at first, but overtime, it makes a huge difference. 10-30 times stronger

[snuggleform]

If you don't do it early and aggressively you will be missing out on a super chill experience where you literally skip from cloud to cloud because you can throw gold at any problem.

[Myth Alric]

It is definitely worth it but we are talking about long term here. At least for the gold producing buildings, it is a more long term investment, some of the military ones can help even in the short term though. Also aside from just money, or troops buildings can have other impacts, like increasing development.

Your vassals will build their own stuff in the areas they control though, so if you wait, usually someone is going to be building something.

[shiggies713]

ditto as above. Once i have lands in the duchy i intend on keeping, i build early and as much as possible. It makes a huge difference. I can basically hire and do anything i want after a couple generations of doing that. My current game i have more gold and men then any other character in the game and i started as a count.

[AiredMania]

Yes. But you have to get the right skills and bonuses.

You don’t have to stay as a Diplomat or Martial if you don’t want to.

Don’t be afraid to switch to Stewardship at some point. Get the right half of the Architect tree and see those Build Times go DOWN. Also, use your councilors. When you steward is raising development in a county, that lowers build time, I believe 15 or 20%.

Keep track of your characters bonuses. I had a guy get a big boost to development and building speed once. Combining the Architech skill tree with that had my build times down 70%!! I was throwing up 2 buildings every 16 months.

[[OCe]Kagari]

You should absolutely build, its vital to have your core domain(s) built up. Even a small maxed duchy can beat up a massive empire if it isnt built up. Just my experience in multiplayer

[pauloandrade224]

In my latest run as the empire of britannia i dunno if it was intended or not But Excelent Royal Architect PLUS Steward developing The county of London plus some buildings reducing construction times and some artifacts i go as low as 3 MONTHS TO BUILD TIME I WAS LIKE WTFFF.

Best part is i wasn't even remotely specced in Stewardship and architecture skill tree im the Diplomat of the 100 opinion and 100 dread type so everyone loves and fears me.

Honestly thought it was Op af myself.

[pauloandrade224]

Originally posted by AiredMania:

Yes. But you have to get the right skills and bonuses.

You don’t have to stay as a Diplomat or Martial if you don’t want to.

Don’t be afraid to switch to Stewardship at some point. Get the right half of the Architect tree and see those Build Times go DOWN. Also, use your councilors. When you steward is raising development in a county, that lowers build time, I believe 15 or 20%.

Keep track of your characters bonuses. I had a guy get a big boost to development and building speed once. Combining the Architech skill tree with that had my build times down 70%!! I was throwing up 2 buildings every 16 months.

Dude mine was building stuff in 3 MONTHS MAX WAS 6 MONTHS somehow!

And i wasn't in Stewardship at all with that character

[Ashling]

A first level cash building typically gives .5 monies at the cost of, what, 200 monies?
So, it'll take 400 months, or 33 years, for the building to pay for itself and start returning profit (I'm terrible at math, but I don't think I've screwed this one up).

In other words, even for the most basic building, you'll be seeing a return on investment in your own life time never mind your child's (unless you're old or something).
Edit: And the army ones are good because they usually also boost your troop's attack while also giving you levies. You do want more, better soldiers, don't you?

[Liquid]

Yes but focus on lands you directly own. Avoid vassals with questionable loyalty who might join factions and use the levy boosts against you.

[pauloandrade224]

Originally posted by Triangle:

A first level cash building typically gives .5 monies at the cost of, what, 200 monies?
So, it'll take 400 months, or 33 years, for the building to pay for itself and start returning profit (I'm terrible at math, but I don't think I've screwed this one up).

In other words, even for the most basic building, you'll be seeing a return on investment in your own life time never mind your child's (unless you're old or something).
Edit: And the army ones are good because they usually also boost your troop's attack while also giving you levies. You do want more, better soldiers, don't you?

Yes in the early game but once u start getting bigger those numbers from growing and building up your economic power get HUGGGE

like my capital is currently at like 13 gold per month and thats only 1 of my domains too.

in the late game u dont actually use levies at all only your men at arms since 1 its much cheaper and 2 they are super good most of the time too and 3 supplies.

By late game levies are more of a deterrent force rather than something you actually use Unless its an emergency like you have mods that add the Empire total war casus belli and similar.

[Kimlin]

Keep your domain within your two do duchies. With a tight well developed core that has the best buildings available, you can rack up the cash and have an unstoppable army.

[Tanuvein]

Yes, but focus only on your core domain until you know what your inheritance will look like because you lost your spouse or are infertile, since lands you intend for your son to inherit will be split if you have too many heirs. The province you start with will always be yours, unless it is conquered. So build things there and ignore buildings in vassalized provinces - they will build on their own, and you get such a small return it could take several hundred years to make a profit. However if you build your own core provinces up from the start, you will hae a powerful economy in a hundred years and never be short on money. Start with farms, they make a ton, and then try to conquer the duchy capital if you don't have it. This has another fantastic building that will increase income across the whole Duchy. To help with this, don't always summon your levies, only what you need, and disband them right away. The buildings themselves will give a decent if small income by themselves, but what really helps is development. Development can come from innovations, agent action or just building (and I think culture). This will increase the base levies and taxes of that specific county, and this will make a big difference in your provincial capital (especailly if its a Duchy capital as well). Either way, make money buildings first and fast. Once your income is starting to get a bit more than you can spend, really invest in those buildings that increase men at arms strength.

The best way to build buildings is not to save. You want to imprison people which gives you their money, kidnap people to ransom, sell secrets or titles with the perks, or random events which will give you a windfall. Raiding is the best way to make money in the game for the first hundred years or so, which should be reinvested in farms and economic buildings so that your Empire will be perfectly stable by this stage with more wealth and power than you know what to do with. Don't forget to upgrade your men at arms! This lets you raise even less levies to win battles, and overall is better for both war and the economy since levies lose a lot.

Lastly, try to control as many provinces in your core Duchy as you can, and have a second duchy as well. This will let you build across those territories and make sure the assets are more secure for inheritance. Keep a large load of money before you die, this will help the transfer of power and keep the economic powerhouse going.

[teron]

One vassal you do want to invest buildings in are the cities and temples within your domain.

Main reason being to lock them into a specific set of buildings (Dev Growth rate and Gold) and to also get them a decent income for them to start upgrading on their own.

Also get empty holdings filled with cities early on, so they start growing.

[ChopSuey™]

Plenty of good advice in here. Gold is earned to spend, not to collect like some dragon hoarding treasure :) Basically spend everything early game to improve your early game and it will reward you mid and late game. 5 yrs build time might seem long at the start but once you get rolling, that is massively reduced. Invest in your economy!