We don't have to do that at all. Not anymore anyway
The Autumn Vineyard automatically upgrades to the current Age. And only produces current age and above blueprints
In addition the Jesters Stage produces blueprint packs directly to my inventory, as do the Boathouse.
I have 2,614 blueprints sitting in inventory packs to open up right now. Once the new age comes out all people have to do is use Finish Special Production on the Autumn Vineyard which would give 10 Blueprints of Space Age Hub by then. Definitely not hurting on blueprints. I'm sure 2.6k random age blueprints would get me prints from the new age somewhere in that mix if I age up at that point
The knock-on effect of that is going to be less fierce competition if we get any more Great Buildings. Those in Space Hub won't need to compete, and those within a reasonable amount of Ages (let's say Virtual Future and above) will have a reasonable alternative using Finish Specials. Most of your competition for blueprints will come from lower Aged players who might not find the Autumn Vineyard blueprints pool of blueprints small enough to deter them from using Forge Points to gather the blueprints
That assumes any Goods cost doesn't outright deter players from chasing after the buildings. The main incentive to go for a Advanced Great Building is it being cheaper to erect than it would to Age up (or place down Event buildings). But if Goods sellers continue to make it more expensive to get the goods than to just Age up that's going to reduce the number of players it appeals to anyway
I can understand anyone who built RainForest Project back when it was useful for selling Goods to other players to still have the building. Same as how I still have the Innovation Tower on the city I built it before it became obsolete from Event buildings.
I would also understand if someone decided to build something just because they thought it was a fun toy to have, rather than being the most efficient thing available
Personally I wouldn't be building either of them now in a new city on a efficiency basis as the game dynamic is very different now. Selling goods from three Ages below now would be very difficult to do in the kinds of numbers that would pay off the rainforest, and the blueprints are so easy to come by nowadays from all the events within the past year that give blueprints (and would likely be available in Daily Specials again next year). Innovation Tower would be competing against any Event Building that gives Population + something else. If I built Innovation Tower at all in a new city now I'd probably only keep it low level long enough to get some Events and then delete the Innovation Tower
I agree. The Rainforest not the best GB, but it's not totally trash either.
I many many top players still have
Cherry sets, or Hippodrome sets or Train Sets or even Pirate Ships/ Pagodas / Rotundas.
So, there are many more worse choices.
I have 32 GBs (
all GBs except these 14 :
Atlantis, Capitol, Atomium, Colloseum , Deal Castle, Fr.Dresden , Gaea statue, Lotus Temple, Notre Dame, Oracle of Delphi , Space Needle , Stargazer, Voyager V1, Habitat ) .
I consider all these 14 above which I don't have, as
totally trash GB , maybe with the exception of
Atomium , Deal Castle and Stargazer, which I don't have the space to build, and they don't seem great either.
Based on that , I
would rank Rainforest as my 28th or 29th best out of my 32 GB,
(just a bit above my Babel, Virgo Project and SMB (Basilica)) ,
but since I had the extra space, and
Jesters Stages was not a thing last year, then I thought to build Rainforest back then.
Now, that I have 10+ Jesters Stages, I would not build it today, but I am not deleting it either, because I hoarde a lot of unrefined goods (currently SAAB, but will be unrefined Venus goods once the Hub age comes in).
And all these goods, I can donate to treasury, or have the potential to sell them. The rainforest give 3 unrefined goods per square, and 6 times more prints in my daily 250+ Mo/Po, so it's not totally useless space.
For some GBs like Virgo, SMB, Rainforest, or Royal Hall , I still struggle to find prints, I am stuck at 40 sets of Virgo, 55 sets of SMB, 45 sets of Rainforest, and 52 sets of Royal hall, so I can't level them further,
despite that I also get tons of prints from Rainforest's Mo/Po and from the 10 Jesters Houses. So, if every day I complete a 9-set of BP, I open 1 level at time, but it's a grind.
In my farm world, where I don't have Rainforest nor Jesters Stages, there it's a deadlock, with many of my GBs struggling to get prints. So, in my main city, the Rainforests/Jesters Stages, just ease that process, so I don't have to worry about prints again.
You mentioned Autumn vinyard, but this only gives higher age prints, in my case, Titan prints only, which I don't really need anymore, since I aid daily my titan hood and I have more than 300 of all Titan GBs prints.
At least my
Aegean Resort gives prints of ALL AGES, and not only from higher ages, like the Autumn does.