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I have always understood that a province can only have one development building at a time and that the next building can't be started until the previous building is completed.

A while ago I discovered by accident that the system does allow more than one buiding to be built simultaneously in a province provided there are slots available, or others started at a later turn whilst the first building is still under construction. I assumed that this was a bug and alerted the Development Team, giving them an example of a University province where the system was permitting three laboratories to be built simultaneously within the same six turn time period.

My pbem opponent is querying my interpretation and has asked me for proof that this practice is meant to be prohibited. As the manual does not specifically state that this is the case I would be grateful for confirmation from the development team.

I found the following in the e-book manual on page 91. It pertains to units being built, but may also reflect penalties for having multiple buildings being built at the same time:

Building more than one unit at a time has inefficiencies, and cities have production queues if more than one unit is being produced there at one time. A penalty is added to the production time for a unit if another unit is currently being produced. The production time penalty for a new unit added to the production queue is equal to 1/3rd of the turns remaining for any unit being built there (fractions are rounded up).

It can still be very worth it (I'm sure you guys can do the math).  Say you start two units simultaneously that normally take 6 turns each to form.  The first to start will be done in 6 turns, the second in 8 turns, 4 turns faster than if you wait to build them back to back (6+6=12).
 
LR

Thanks Slick Wilhelm. I know that multiple unit builds are permissable. The fact that there is no such reference to the same for buildings indicates that isn't the case for them. I just need definite confirmation here.

Seems I'm mistaken. Eric has confirmed elsewhere that it is working as designed which I take it means simultaneous building developments are permissable.

I don't think it's two unreasonable provided you have the resources to front all the costs.  Nice catch, I have not actually used this feature since I had always assumed that you could only build one building (as opposed to unit) at a time.  Have always found the sequential building restrictions in games like Civ and Moo to be a bit difficult to swallow.

ORIGINAL: Larry Reese

It can still be very worth it (I'm sure you guys can do the math).  Say you start two units simultaneously that normally take 6 turns each to form.  The first to start will be done in 6 turns, the second in 8 turns, 4 turns faster than if you wait to build them back to back (6+6=12).

LR

That's a good point, Larry. That sounds like an excellent way to get units more expediently. Just have to make sure you don't drain all the manpower out of a city, of course.

It does prompt the thought should the construction of multiple buildings in a province be subject to a similar type of delay as for that of multiple units?

Hmmm, is it not the same?  I didn't know that (that there was not a concomittant delay for more than one building).  I suppose it could make sense (since the materials would all be stockpiled presumably when construction started, and the primary restrictor would be labor).  The buildings are creating new infrastructure, versus units, which are using existing infrastructure to create something new (somewhat like say, road construction versus automobile manufacturing - if you have the land and finances already set asside, its pretty easy to throw more heavy equipment at the project and get it completed sooner, while an existing factory, once you've maxed out existing production capacity it is very hard to get incremental increases without throwing major, disproportionate resources at it.
 
LR