Impossible to Build Factories in ANY City

[christianaars]

In my current game it is completely impossible for me to build Factories, EVER in ANY of my cities. That simply should not be. That's a "thumbs down" rating level of Bad, folks. You need to fix it. It's literally the first bug/bad design decision (I don't honestly know which) that is actually bad enough to seriously mess up my enjoyment of the game.

You probably already know how this gets set up, but in case not here's how to do it. It's very simple. Just have the game move you capital to a city where you cannot build a rail station. Since it becomes utterly impossible to "connect anything to the capital" via rail if you can't build a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rail station in the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ capital, you cannot meet the requirement that the factory has to be built in a city with with a "rail connection to the capital."

By the way, if having a Port in the capital is supposed to fix this, it doesn't. I don't think that's what the intent for Ports was -- I got the impression Ports were to mostly allow towns to connect across water without the need for a land "rail" connection (otherwise you could never use any of the factory resources you got in "distant lands" - makes sense). It's a way to establish a "pseudo-rail" across water to make the "connection to the capital" in a situation where you can't possibly physically connect the settlement to the capital with a rail (i.e. across an ocean). But I've got a Port in the Capital. Hell, I've got Ports in all my damn cities with Rail Stations that I can put them in (just not the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ capital). Doesn't matter. Not a single city can build a factory.

If you cannot build a rail station in your capital, you cannot build factories in any city, ever. Neither my original capital, nor either option to move it to had a space left for me to put the Rail Station. Given that the ability to build factories is required for one of the major victory conditions, AND is the ENTIRE PURPOSE behind a whole class of resources, you should NOT be able to potentially be locked out of it based on actions from previous damn ages! Seriously. Think it over. Your capital is most likely one of your oldest and most developed cities. It is very likely there are no tiles left in it to put an improvement that requires an ENTIRE tile by the time you get to the modern age. And even if you move the capital, the cities NEAR your capital (which seem to be your only options for the move ... at least that I've ever seen), are also almost certainly the oldest, most developed in your empire. So it's decently likely you'll end up with a capital with no room for a rail station.

Look, there are SO many ways to prevent such a "fail state" and still keep the feel that many of your decisions are important and have permanent consequences.

Here are just a few ideas. Not even a suggestion for more than one. Any ONE of these would solve the problem.

A project only available in the modern age, after you research Mass Production, that you can only ever do ONCE that will move your capital to a city of your choice.

Set it so a rail yard can overbuild ANYTHING but the city hall, your palace, or a wonder of the world. Pop up are warning that it'll destroy any buildings currently in the district or quarter - a "are you really sure?" type warning.

Similar to the above, but the rule only applies to your capital: a rail station in the capital ONLY can overbuild any other district or quarter (except the palace or a wonder) -- likely with a "do you really want to do this" warning.

Remove the "connected to the capital" by rail requirement. Any city with a rail station can build a factory, period. Alternately, it can build a factory IF it has a rail station and a connection to at least one other settlement (not the capital per se).

Make the Port count as a rail station (possibly ONLY for the capital itself).

Make it so a trader can manually lay railroad. Not just an automated, "connect to this city" but a literal "park the unit, press the button, and put a railroad on THIS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tile THAT I AM STANDING ON." And then if the capital gets connected by a rail line to at least ONE other Rail Station, it counts as "connected" for purposes of building factories.

Again, all of those are just examples of brainstorming solutions where just one solves the problem, not a list of "the game sux unless you do ALL of this." Just one fixes it. ANYTHING so you can't get LOCKED OUT OF FACTORIES BEFORE THE MODERN AGE HAS EVEN BEGUN!

Seriously, ANY of those would prevent your players from staring, seething, after pouring hours into getting through two full ages, at a HUGE bank of resources THEY CAN NEVER USE, dreaming about how many cotten-laden, chocolate coffee oranges I can shove up the unspeakable holes of whoever decided locking you out of an entire victory path and major part of the game was a GOOD idea.