I'm really hoping to be able to mod the UAs easily. There are two civs in particular that I'd like to completely over haul: Germany and Greece. I was just wondering how you guys think my ideas for their new UAs would affect game balance? (Of course, I won't really be able to tell until trying them out in an actual game):

Germany - Research Universities: +2 science/science specialist; double coal.

Greece - Arete: more great people, excluding generals as that's China's bag.

Also, do you think a +2 gold per Seaport for England, in addition to the +2 sea moves, is too much?

PS: How do I change the thread name? It's supposed to read "Changing the UAs"

I'd assume that UAs can be changed; otherwise there'd be no way to add new civs.

We'll have to see how the UAs play out before we can really look into modding them. Replacing Sun Never Sets with a gold bonus might over/underpower England, and a GP boost may have yet-unforseen consequences (Manufactory spam?). I'm sure the current crop of UAs are at least somewhat balanced, so let's give it a few weeks until we fundamentally change how each civ plays.

Yeah good point about the manufactory spam. I should think of something else.

For me, it isn't so much an issue of gameplay issues with the UAs, I'm sure they're well balanced. It's that I don't think that the German and Greek UAs represent those civs well.

The UAs you put up seem a bit bland. It seems more like traits from Civ 4. IMO Greece needs to keep the old one, and Germany if we had to change its current one, maybe something production or army related.

The UAs you put up seem a bit bland. It seems more like traits from Civ 4. IMO Greece needs to keep the old one, and Germany if we had to change its current one, maybe something production or army related.

...doesn't the current UA do that?

Germany - Research Universities: +2 science/science specialist; double coal.


Well, I don't want to make any balancing statements. Too little is known at the moment about the game.

However, I can try to give feedback to the perspective of "realism", as I am German :D

Germany is a country without a rich abundance of resources. Therefore it had to focus on other "resources" which means ideas and science. That's why I see your suggested science bonus appropriate (in CIV3, Germany's trait was science as well btw).
Having said this, a coal/resource bonus does not really fit imho. OK, the western part of Germany has a coal mining tradition, but the coal lies deep under the surface and is very difficult to mine.

A bonus for culture, religion (seen historically, as the founder of Protestantism. Today Germany is more or less secular/atheistic) or military seems to be more adequate.

Yeah the Greek one does seem like civ 4, but I'm gonna think o something else anyway. As for the German, I think it's very flavorful.