New unique abilities discussion

bonafide11

bonafide11

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So far we know the Byzantines have a unique ability of a 6th religious bonus. Anyone else have any guesses of what the other unique abilities (or units/buildings) may be?

I'd bet some civs will get a bonus toward mercantile city-states and religious city-states. I also could see some civ get extra influence from performing quests for city-states.

One of the articles also mentioned that some of the existing civs will have their abilities tweaked to match the expansion pack. Any ideas what these will be?

I'd guess Russia will get an espionage bonus and Spain gets a religious bonus (maybe the return of crazy religious Isabella?).

If they introduce the Zulu, I think they would be a perfect fit to have Germany's current unique ability, and Germany may get Russia's current UA. I'd like to see the Zulu, but I hope both black African civs (not counting Carthage and Egypt) are crazy warmongers. But so be it if they need to. They definitely need to add another African civ and the Zulu would be the best bet in my opinion.

This is just all speculation on my part though. What do you all think?
 
bonafide11 said:
One of the articles also mentioned that some of the existing civs will have their abilities tweaked to match the expansion pack. Any ideas what these will be?
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Songhai probably, because one of the articles said that all embarked units can now defend.
 
Difficult to say when we do not know the details yet.

I would not be too sure about the Zulu's inclusion. They certainly deserve it and are a stable of civilization. But maybe they want to have something in the back for future DLC. More People will buy the popular DLCs than a new one like - let's say - Congo. Or they have modern nations as DLC: Australia, Brazil, Sweden?

Additionally, the Zulu also do not really fit into one of the new features (Religion, Espionage) nor one of the scenarios.

I'd like to see the return of Ethiopia or a new one like Congo as African Civs btw. Though the Zulu certainly do work as well ;)


PS: Also, anyone sad that they chose to ramp up Espionage, but don't say anything about the rather poor Diplomatic Victory and the useless UN (in the game)
 
mitsho said:
PS: Also, anyone sad that they chose to ramp up Espionage, but don't say anything about the rather poor Diplomatic Victory and the useless UN (in the game)
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I have some hope - from 2KGreg's post:

New City-States. With religion being added to the game, it only made sense to introduce Religious city-states which will interact with your religion in special ways. In addition, Mercantile city-states will be attractive for those of you who love to grow your civilization's treasury. All city-states will use the greatly expanded quest system, making city-states more dynamic and diplomatic victories more challenging, while decreasing the importance of gold when dealing with city-states.
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It also sounds like Espionage will affect City States to some degree as well. The AI should be made more willing to spend it's gold as well.
 
Greg's quote makes me wonder if Jerusalem will be a religious city-state. I'll save this thought for the Religions thread.

I don't see any other having a Religion bonus. Keeping it with Byzantium makes sense. I'm glad they have one, though. When I thought of suggestions for them, it was like pulling teeth to think of something appropriately religious related without a religion function.

For old Civs. Songhai is the best candidate for a revision. If anyone else were to have a religious bonus it would be Spain. An argument could be made to give one to the Aztecs. If any Civ (past, present, or future) were to have an espionage bonus, it would be Russia (I'm at a loss to find a better fit, although I think it's overblown.

For new Civs. I could see a religious bonus for the Celts, but I'm highly doubtful. I've suggested some kind of Uprising type ability where units are quicker to produce during war. But that's admittedly vague.

For the Dutch, I've repeated my suggestions many times. First, I suggest no UU only a UA, UB, and UI. Second, the UA would involve automatic trade routes on coastal tiles (free automatic harbor) and a higher gold bonus for finding new city-states.

For the Maya, I have no clue. They said something Calendar-related, but that could mean anything. My guess is a science/culture boost.
 
Would America be a good candidate for a new UA? At the very least, they have one of the worst in the game, would be nice for a boost...
 
Some of the features that used to fall under the halo of "culture" will now belong to religion. The Aztercs, for instance, will likely gain faith for kils instead of culture.

Siam's ability may be extended to account for the benefits of mercantile and/or religious CS's.
 
CivOasis said:
Would America be a good candidate for a new UA? At the very least, they have one of the worst in the game, would be nice for a boost...
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While there are a couple bad ones (America, Arabs) and one that has been horribly undercut by DLC (England), I think this thread might be better suited to discussing whether any Civ would have a change in light of game changes, not just overall balancing. I can't see anything this expansion touches on that is suited to America with the possible exception of espionage (and no offense to the CIA, but I don't think American human espionage has had a great success record. Technological surveillance has been our strength).

ETA: I like faith for kills for the Aztecs. I wonder if that weakens them too much, though. Although it will distinguish them from the Honor tree again.

I saw in another thread that the Celts get faith for being near trees. I wonder if there's a split between the basic polytheism that the Celts have strengths with and the State-organized religion that the Byzantines excel at.
 
Well, I suppose the Arabs would fit a religious bonus, but their UA didn't seem very bad to me.
More realistically, what are we thinking the Mayan UA is? I hear something about culture, science, and calendars, but is that confirmed?
 
Camikaze said:
Maybe the Mayan Calendar moves Time Victory forward to 2012.
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This made me chuckle. :lol:

As someone else said, the Arabs would be a good candidate for a UA change, and their current one could be used by someone else.

As far as the African civ, maybe Ethiopia will make it in again instead of the Zulu. I assume they'll add another African civ though just for regional and geographic diversity.

Aztecs switching culture points to faith points would be logical, but that would seem to weaken them quite a bit, though it's hard to say without knowing more about faith points.
 
I thought America's UA was pretty weak. Then I played it. Eyes opened. +1 sight is great for early exploration, and later in the game allows you to see enemy units while you are still hidden in the fog of war. And don't get me started on how fun it is to settle a city and snatch a resource tile away form a nearby contender. Three tiles away? No problem.

England, OTOH, is a real waste of a civ. This could have been a great culture civ or even diplo/economic civ. But they don't really do much. Perhaps the emphasis on naval combat in the expansion will help them out.

But the civ that's really been undercut by patches and DLC? France. +2 culture per city isn't as big a deal as it used to be (and it never was that big, really).

But again, we shouldn't read too much into them talking about tooling with existing civ's. They just need to fix things like UB's that are temple replacements (obviously, temples will become faith buildings).
 
Well I have had a ton of fun playing England in multiplayer where humans can handle naval combat, but I agree for the AI, I can't imagine naval AI being vastly improved and for singleplayer it needs to be buffed.

Along with the Ottoman's unique.
 
Change the current Arab UA to be the dutch one. Arabs get faith points for every desert tile.
 
Gucumatz said:
Well I have had a ton of fun playing England in multiplayer where humans can handle naval combat, but I agree for the AI, I can't imagine naval AI being vastly improved and for singleplayer it needs to be buffed.

Along with the Ottoman's unique.
Click to expand...

The biggest issue with naval combat was the .4 modifier.

If they've actually spent time fixing naval combat, hopefully they've dropped that part. It'll help the AI big time.
 
MadDjinn said:
The biggest issue with naval combat was the .4 modifier.

If they've actually spent time fixing naval combat, hopefully they've dropped that part. It'll help the AI big time.
Click to expand...

What do you mean with the 0.4 modifier?
 
Louis XXIV said:
ETA: I like faith for kills for the Aztecs. I wonder if that weakens them too much, though. Although it will distinguish them from the Honor tree again.
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They Aztecs will be fine. Imho they're already the strongest civ with a combination of a very good UB and a good UA that has great synergy with their ability.
Aztec + Honor with Raging Barbarians will let you finish a policiy tree around turn 100 on Epic speed. If there's one civ that could do with a nerf it's the Aztecs, but since people don't like nerfs it's more likely Firaxis will buff existing civs. The Ottomans and the Arabs are both good candidates for a new religon based ability. Maybe religions founded by Arabs will spread much faster than normal.

I saw in another thread that the Celts get faith for being near trees. I wonder if there's a split between the basic polytheism that the Celts have strengths with and the State-organized religion that the Byzantines excel at.
Click to expand...

Is this confirmed or speculation ? Faith from trees sounds mroe like an early pantheon belief than a Civ Ability.
 
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