I was reading through the threads about both the society stage and industrial stage and it got me thinking; not only should you be able to focus cities/SC's on certain aspects such as production, science, or health, but you should be able to build nationwide capitals in specific cities, to designate that city as a capital of a specific aspect, such as culture, finance, or politics. To be able to designate that city they would have to first unlock the ability to do so (research the appropriate tech), then actually execute the project. It would cost some finds and time. The different capitals would be:

Capital Type: Political
Required Tech: Early Government
Effects: Sets a SC as the official capital of your nation/empire. Other effects TBD.

Capital Type: Economic/Financial
Required Tech: Trade
Effects: Increases the trade/economic revenue of the SC greatly.

Capital Type: Technological
Required Tech: Scientific Method
Effects: Greatly increases the science/research of a SC.

Capital Type: Cultural
Required Tech: TBD.
Effects: Greatly increases the culture of a SC.

Capital Type: Manufacturing
Required Tech: Industrial Revolution (Not sure if that is a tech)
Effects: Greatly increases the production of a SC.

(The following capital could be simply merged with cultural as they are very similar or removed in favour of holy/sacred SC's that have been discussed before)

Capital Type: Religious
Required Tech: Mysticism
Effects: TBD.

(Also, if tourism is in the game, each one of these should increase tourism to that SC)

I can think of many good examples of this in real life. In Israel, Jerusalem is the cultural capital and contested political capital, but Tel-Aviv is the financial capital.

In the US, Washington is the political capital, San Francisco the tech capital (silicon valley), New York the financial capital, and LA the cultural capital. 

In Canada, Ottawa might be the political capital, but Toronto is the financial capital. 

Those are my examples, and now I need some help filling in the blanks on the above chart, and also with how to model this so it fits into the game.

So, ideas?

I think that the religious capital should be limited to one or two of those per religion, so that there are holy cities. For example, the Vatican would be the religious capital for all roman catholic nations, while Mecca is the primary religious capital for Islam (and Medina and Jerusalem as secondary religious capitals). This, of course would be random, and would provide a chance for additional benefits for religious civilizations. Also, each city should be able to be designated as multiple capitals. For example, Paris would be the cultural capital of France as well as the political capital.

Hrm... Interesting. I mean, the political capital one obviously needs to be implemented. The others... i feel like we are applying labels to things that do not need them. Is Toronto the financial capital because it got called that, or did it become it and then get called it? It feels artificial.

I agree with Alaska, this may be a bit artificial. The player choosing which SC is each capital is a bit forced. Maybe the it should be the game that, according to the characteristics of a SC in comparinson to all the others decides which is each capital type.

It should be based on:

a) the proeminence of a characteristic on the city unpaired on the player's nation.

b) a certain quantity of that characteristic (to prevent having SCs classified as capitals too early in the nation's development)

My two cents.

For cultural capitals I suggest maybe oral tradition, but it may be too early. Also, as an effect for a religious capital, I suggest that all cities close to it with the same religion have a bonus and that cities close to it with a different religion get affected in a negative manner (to encourage Crusades, etc).