It is easy to tell whose UU it is from the pedia and we can explain any flavour names in the pedia too.
But the main question is; why should Harkonnen have superior guardsmen units? It feels out of theme. Having an officer that whips you might stop you from running away, but it doesn't really make you a better fighter.
let's come up with a better name for the Lasgun Trooper. I find the fact that there is both a Lasgun Soldier and Lasgun Trooper pretty repetitive and I always forget which is the most powerful.
Absolutely. Though I think they'd still be *using* lasguns, no? And their anination should still have a laser beam type weapon.
Some random thoughts:
Obliterator, Eliminator, Beam Gunner, Blast trooper, Heavy Infantry, Lasbeam soldier, Lascannon Fighter, Legionary, Lasray Praetorian, Lasgun Annihilator, Demolisher, Eradicator, Exterminator.
I'm all for this. The late game tech tree pretty much ceases to be interesting when you get to the stage of my last succession game turn.
Precisely. I never really put much design effort into the top end of the gametree, most of what I was doing was just ripping out the weird techs that didn't really fit ("Ampoliros"), and I left the rest basically in place if it made any sense.
So I have no real personal investment in the way things are now, and it sounds like Keldath doesn't mind.
1. We should make Atomics something exciting to race for to get a strategic advantage in the late stages. Doesn't feel like that now - probably because I get bored before I get to Atomics.
Sounds sensible. I was also thinking of trying to tie in the Convention breach somehow. Maybe there is a World Project "Convention Breached" that must be built by someone, before anyone can build a national wonder "House Atomics" that is required in order for your civ to build atomics. The Manhatten Project type effect fits the fluff well.
Another possibilility: have the "Convention Breached" be the National Wonder that allows you to start building Nukes, and have a python-coded diplomcy penalty event with every other civ if you are the first to build the wonder.
Or, just have a python event triggered with a diplomacy penalty the first time that such a weapon is *used*.
The Hunter-Seeker missile doesn't really make sense either; the hunter-seeker is just a probe for killing individuals. It is an espionage weapon, not a combat weapon.
I think that we should have a Death Hand UU cruise missile unit somewhere (maybe much earlier?) for Harkonnen, but otherwise we don't really need cruise missiles. They're not very Duneish.
2. Move Satellites earlier in the tree or rework the concept - it doesn't make sense that you such advanced technology but can't launch a Satellite.
Well, it depends on what the satellites are going to *do*.
Remember that you really can't put a satellite up by yourself; the Guild has a monopoly on that sort of thing, so any attempt by players to launch their own satellites might be met very severely. So its not just technological feasibility of putting up some kind of spy satellite.
The tech could represent weather control satellites, or something in general much more serious (orbital deathray lasers?
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Maybe the weather control satellite could actually be a building or a zero movement aircraft (geosynchrous orbit, you can relocate it to any of your cities), and it could make terraforming happen faster, improve yields for turbines and solar plants, and prevent sandstorms from bothering you.
3. Merge Plasteel and Plasteel Armour - having two techs for such a narrow concept is overkill.
Agreed.
4. Not sure about Cooling Systems as a concept. Maybe it's just the fridge icon. The +1 Extra Moves on Deep Desert seems a bit weird. I get that this could represent better cooling systems for engines, but maybe there is something more Dune-themed.
This is just a remnant of refrigeration and nuclear power from vanilla I think. It doesn't make any particular sense.
So a choice between power through prescience and other magical type powers, or power through conventional technology.
Lets kill the word Magic. But a technological vs mental/biological/spiritual split seems reasonable.
Adding another high end melee unit on a religious/mental path, vs aircraft, stealth, tanks on a technological path. What other kinds of benefits could a religious/mental path give? Potentially some really huge culture boosters?
6. Miniaturization might be good late game tech. Hunter seekers and extra transport capacity.
I'm not sure about transport capacity and hunter-seeks, but its a decent name for a tech. We could find a use for it.
7. The Research Labs tech seems to come when there is not too much of interest left to research. Consider moving it earlier or filling out the late tech tree with some more interesting and thematic techs.
This is something of a problem in vanilla too. I think filling out the tech tree is the right solution here.
8. Artificial Spice should probably be later game (and have some effect - I know there is a Wonder pending).
I don't think it should come later; any later and it won't have much benefit. It doesn't have an instant impact, it has a benefit only over time. Can you think of any benefits other than the Wonder?
Maybe it somehow lets you get around the Guild Monopoly? So, maybe artifical spice is a requirement for starting to place your own satellites? Just random ideas.
Maybe it allows the Wonder that provides ~8-10 spice resources, but also a building in each city that can provide an extra 1x spice resource? So 5x cities each with the building = 5 extra spice resources through your empire?