[Xtended] [Civ] Austrin proposal

[gbursson]

I always found Austrin interesting and refreshing as a concept, however they are pretty bland as far as normal game mechanics go (except for prepare expedition and swap cities).

Here some rough proposal for Austrin (gathered from several discussions)

Austrin - civilisation of wanderers, rovers and nomads.

Austrin found small settlements instead of big cities:

• pop limit 4, buildings can give +1, with a max cap of 8 (stolen from Dural)
• can work first ring only (just like "old" Jotnar)
• capital has no size restriction and can work 2 rings
• every city gets automatic +2 trade routes and Austrin Settlement building (-50% maintenance)

At one with the Wild, they are expert hunters and scouts:

• Recon units get Mobility I, Sentry I promotions (adjust if too powerful)

Others:

• Can build Prepare Expedition ritual (maybe at higher cost than now)
• Can Swap Cities

 

[Calavente]

it seems interesting, But I'm afraid that it would handicap them a lot.
many of the buildings in MoM are really expensive.
many of the buildings and districts work either on population or on +% ... so they are worth their lot only in case that you have high (semi-high) pop/income : for small cities they become too expensive.
you lose many of the interest of guilds .... because most guilds and noble district are about "how to get more happies/population"
global enchantements are calculated based on city number and not city population !! Austrin, targeted to have many small spreadout cities will have a hard time.
it is difficult to defend a spread out empire.

getting 2 trades routes seems interesting but that is only useful for the core empire... the expeditions (which should become cheaper as the cities will be limited in size) will have a hard time getting commerce.

but if you still want to go that way maybe add:
-districs at half cost?
-hunter tech gives "aviary" : air-contact between cities (no airlift)
-trade routes gives beakers and hammers
-recon units get beakers when they kill units ?

 

[gbursson]

@Calavente :
fair points

How about Austrin Settlement giving them -80% to maintenance?
Every city giving a bonus? +1 coin per city?
Buildings increasing the pop cap giving hammer/coin bonus?

 

[Icezera]

The fact is that yields are everything. If you don't give them yield bonuses somehow while cutting off the tiles they work to get yields, you get a useless civilization

 

[Jojo_Fr]

Evasth has already synthetised ideas to rework Austrin. These ideas are enough interesting and goes further in the lore specialisation than the ideas you propose gbursson.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/xtended-new-civs-re-design.599256/

Swapping city is an interesting idea, but the problem is if you swap buildings, the ancient city will be full of pop but empty of buildings (useless so). The new city will be full of buildings but empty of pop.

Suggestion : There should have this swapping possibility, because I think it's the only useless possiblity

- Nomadism : Transfer 50 % of the population to the new city (and it cost a little hammer cost).

On the lore point it's correct, and in the gameplay point the idea is too boost the developpement of a new city by a city who work some food improvement, and grow fast.

Nota Bene : Slavery should be a banned civic for the Austrin, fore lore reason (they love the freedom).

 

[esvath]

Prepare Expedition and Swap Cities are already in the game, I believe?

Those two are human-only mechanics, AI does not understand them, though...

 

[gbursson]

Prepare Expedition and Swap Cities are already in the game, I believe?

Those two are human-only mechanics, AI does not understand them, though...

Yes, and they should stay imho. Those are not crucial in any way, just add flavor, so no big issue if AI cannot use them.