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While not as sweeping and global as the expensive wonders of the world, Civilization: Call to Power's city improvements are perhaps more vital in creating a stable civilization. Though the initial creation costs are much smaller than the wonders, the city improvements possess a sort of hidden charge. Don't overlook the improvement's maintenance cost, which is the amount of money your city must pay each turn to continue to use the improvement. Loading many improvements, especially expensive ones, into the same city can have harmful results if your income can't keep up.

One of the best aspects of city improvements is that they're cumulative. For instance, if you were to build the academy, which carries a +50 percent bonus to scientific research, and build the bio memory chip inside the same city, you'd boost science an additional 50 percent. Keep this in mind as you move through the advances and decide which improvements to put into use. You wouldn't want to use a more expensive improvement that serves the same task as a cheaper one. Construct the cheaper one first, then add the more expensive improvement at a later time.

As you can see from the effects, city improvements are vital to successfully keeping up with the rival civilizations. Often, the faster you can implement an improvement, the more effective you'll be through the current age. Therefore, try to get your cities up and running before bogging the production line down with a pricey improvement. If you can concentrate on your most profitable cities first, then move on to your other cities in development; you'll have an easier time maximizing the potential of the improvements. Additionally, for the cities that aren't turning a hefty profit, build only the most vital of improvements - perhaps structures that improve gold or production.

In the following summaries, you'll find the cost (both start-up and maintenance cost) of the improvement, the effects, the restrictions, the prerequisites, and a brief summary of the improvement and how to put it to best use.

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