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There is already an excellent suggestion list here: [Suggestions] ~ Some small and not small things that could improve the game | Ubisoft Forums
This is more of a middle-ground suggestion for a development tweak that could change gameplay significantly, but doesn't require massive new game mechanics, entirely new regions, new product chains, or asset classes.
Items – the under-appreciated game mechanic
What’s currently great about Items:
- Items can be used to add a massive amount of personality and customization to assets that are essentially all the same.
- Items can provide a whole separate set of incentives to engage in other gameplay mechanics like expeditions, crafting, research etc.
What’s currently not that great about Items:
- Item slots are limited to ships, a small number of public buildings, and, exhibits. All of these assets with items slots have an influence point cost. This means the total number of slots available at a given time is restricted by both scarcity and cost.
- Most items are acquired through a chance mechanic of some sort, with the more useful items generally being rarer. This means you end up with a lot of items you don’t want, these items become a recycling burden rather than a bonus.
- Over a long game, rarer but more useful items get retained which eventually leads to item conformity not novelty. E.g. Vice-Admiral Adams might be rare, but play long enough and you can have a fleet of Vice-Admiral Adams clone on every ship.
- Item slots are divided based on destination, rather than item type which leads to weird outcomes. E.g. you can make a bag of fertilizer your local trade union rep, while the council members of the Town Hall can consist of a poster, a note from the queen, and an Actor making the Theatre down the road more appealing… from the Town Hall…
- Acquisition of items from the Research Institute nerfs items acquired via expedition.
Items aren't really broken, but they are a bit of a missed opportunity to add a lot more personality to a game.
This is a bit of a long list of suggested tweaks since items are already an embedded game mechanic, so I'm going to break it up across multiple posts. For the tldr-inclined, it can be summarised here:
Item Fix 1: Add item slots to public buildings
Item Fix 2: Add item slots to production buildings
Item Fix 3: Add item slots to harbour buildings
Item Fix 4: Add item slots to arctic buildings
Item Fix 5: Add item slots to the Museum, Botanic Gardens, Zoo and Research Institute
Item Fix 6: Group items by item type, rather than where they are used
Item Fix 7: Add novelty with more distinct person items, but with the same bonus
Item Fix 8: Make person items mortal, make equipment break
Item Fix 9: Narrow the scope of the Research Institute
Item Fix 10: Make Expeditions worthwhile again
Item Fix 11: Enable custom names for buildings
What is potentially bad about overhauling items in this way?