WIP Civilization Olympus led by Athena Prime

I am planning on making a civilization in Civ5 guided by a robot masquerading as Athena. This robot was built by Purity factions in order to better prepare humanity for colonization of the stars instead of evacuating Earth only to find the first colonists became amoral inhuman alien cyborgs bent on destroying all unmodified humans. As such, her civilization is super-specialized in science at the expense of faith and military might.

This will be my first mod for the Civilization series though I have made mods in the Sims, SimCity, Cities XL, and Cities (in Motion/Skylines) franchises and I have a ton of experience with XML. I am NOT afraid to learn LUA, just don't expect this mod to be released this calendar year. This mod is a test of my skills and learning experience in preparation for my modpack I plan on making for Civilization: Beyond Earth to add the 2 factions featured in my fanfic as well as supporting content (new seeded start choices, new planet type (mapscript), new building, and new national wonder).

Background: I started writing a fanfic in February for Civilization Beyond Earth. It diverges from our reality cerca 2000 and converges with Civilization Beyond Earth's universe by 2200 if you assume that a technology manufacturing corporation specializing in recycling and asteroid mining was never seen as successful, popular, or important to be mentioned by Fielding (as a supplier of hardware to ARC) or Sochua (as a competitor for research and manufacturing, working with Japan and the west coast of North America) or if you consider unreleased mods part of the universe.

Athena Prime was designed and programmed by lv 18 Pure Elodie, and Masterful (P/S) Hutama, with help from and Masterful (P/S) Fielding and Ascendant (P/H) Sochua with the full knowledge of Earth History (as available in Deep Memory). This robot is sent back in time through a wormhole no living thing can pass through, with the full energy surplus of the planet going towards the wormhole open for less than 10 seconds. This robot is the swan song of humanity because Rampant (S/H) Alencar and Supremist Kozlov "emancipated" humanity on every inhabited planet besides the one shared by Elodie, Hutama, Fielding, and Sochua.


Civilization: Olympian Scientocratic Empire (Olympus)
Adjective: Protektita
Start Bias: Coast, Hill, near flood plain if possible, avoid tundra, avoid snow, maybe avoid jungle
Leader: Athena Prime
Unique Ability: Gifts from the Future
Unique Unit: Defense Phalanx
Unique Building: Holo Temple
Colors: Rome's Gold and Burma's Turquoise
Icon: Owl with gears for eyes
National Wonder: Digital Oracle
(costs 125 production, unlocks with computing, requires Holo Temple in all cities, cost rises with number of cities, not technically unique)


(if using mods with these features)
Historical Spawn Date: 780 BC (about 40 years after Carthage, according to the mod)
True Starting Location: Roughly mouth of Moulouya River
Historic Resource: Salt
Language Athena Prime introduces herself in: Hellenistic Greek (synthesized)
Language Athena Prime typically speaks: Esperanto (synthesized)

More info:

Defense Phalanx replaces Pikeman; 25 Combat Strength, bonus when garrisoned, bonus when defending,
Holo Temple replaces temple; +1 Faith (instead of +2), +1 Culture, +10 Science, +1 Happiness, +1 Production per 5 citizens, +250 City Hit Points, +100 City Combat Strength
Digital Oracle (+30% Science in city, +1 Gold) is a new national wonder unlocked after researching computers that any civilization can build, as long as all their cities have Holo Temples. This makes it as good as a Unique National Wonder when there is a limit of 2 uniques per civ. If a player only owns cities that Athena Prime built Holo Temples in (requiring her to have previously owned them), that player could build a Digital Oracle in a non-puppeted city.
Gifts from the Future: Earn Great Scientists 50% faster, Earn Great Engineers 20% faster, +2 Science per Specialist, +5 Science per Great Person tile improvement, 1 Unhappiness per city, Combat Penalty -30% attack strength when attacking additive with -30% attack outside boundaries

Intro:

Best of luck and success to you, pansophical Athena Prime. The Masterful Purists of the far future programmed you as an advanced AI to send back in time and set things right. The result of centuries of cultural and scientific progress by the Masterful Purists in the face of extinction by the onslaught of the robotic forces of the Rampant Supremists. Technology is supposed to serve humanity, not eradicate it! Sent through a short-lived wormhole using all the energy of the planet as the swan song of humanity, your duty must be fulfilled.

Strategic and clever Athena Prime, the world requires a leader who can steer humanity in the right direction, guided by brilliant intuition and foresight. Can you lead the people in the creation of an advanced empire guided by technology but not oppressed by it? Can you build a civilization that will stand the test of time?



What do you think? I started making the XML files. Is this civilization balanced? I designed the civilization to have little option besides science victory with a mostly pacifist leader (will never prey on the weak but might defend the weak against warmongers to the point of puppetting the capitals of warmongers). The unique ability makes this civilization a science powerhouse without feasible firepower, while still having high defense (so it doesn't get conquered easily).

Wrong place for WIP mods.. It should be in main forum of civ5 creations & customization

Moderator Action: Welcome to Civfanatics Azem.Ocram! margustoo is correct - the New Civilisations sub-forum is for completed work only with a download link. All WIPs, queries and requests for help go in the main Creation and Customisation forum. I've moved this thread to there.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

Thank you for moving this thread to the correct location. I am new to this forum. I must admit that despite having bought Civilization V when Gods & Kings went on sale (prior to BNW being released), played Civ5 for 2 games before BNW, enjoyed BNW immensely, and played Civ4 in the past, Steam tells me I only logged ~150 hours in Civ5.

What do you think of the balance my civ has vs other unmodded ones? Do you think I balanced it right? Do you think I need to overall weaken or strengthen the civ before I make the mod to add it into the game?

I even have plans for her to have voiced lines! I think Athena Prime should use a speech synthesizer capable of pronouncing Koine Greek and Esperanto (even if the Esperanto has a Greek Accent) and have most of her lines in Esperanto but her intro line should be the only time she speaks in Koine Greek and should translate roughly to "Hello stranger! I am Athena, the goddess of wisdom who descended here to enlighten humanity!" The reason is that she is likely to be discovered early on--when she puts the most effort into her masquerade as Athena--but transitions the language of her civilization to Esperanto in the medieval era (in my headcanon).

Note that 'Gifts from the Future' gives +1 Unhappiness per city but the Holo Temple gives +1 Happiness. Cities with no Holo Temple have 1 less happiness point than cities of other civilizations.
It makes sense she focuses more on growth than expansion. However, she has an expansion trait of 4 while Gandhi has an expansion trait of 3.

Athena Prime's Traits

As you can see, she is a rather friendly leader who befriends and protects the weak. She won't become hostile unless you behave like Alexander and she won't denounce or declare war unless she is hostile (or maybe guarded). She is very bold but focuses on defense, growth, science, culture, and gold. This means she is bound to be mortal enemies with Alexander if they, as AI, ever settle near each other. Since her true starting location is roughly Hippo Regius, it is virtually certain she will declare war against Alexander if both play on Yet (not) Another Map Pack Europe or Earth. If you want to win against her, try to eliminate her early (Domination or Space), really focus on Tourism (Culture), peacefully befriend all the City States you can (Diplomacy), and give up hope on Science/Space Victory as soon as she reaches the Industrial Era.