100th post, and for this special occasion I'm going to share what I've thought up for Rosalina's uniques. Not only that, though, but I've been thinking of what to do for Daisy and Wario as well (even though I'm not planning to do the latter for a while yet).
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The Lumas - led by Rosalina
UA: Guardian of the Cosmos Mountainside cities gain a free Observatory after researching Astronomy. Can collect Grand Stars which provide empire-wide bonuses (maximum of six). A WLTKD begins when a Grand Star is collected.
- One star: Production in the capital +10%, in all other cities +5%.
- Two stars: Production bonuses doubled. Empire-wide Science +10%.
- Three stars: City Growth +20%. Ships and armoured units get an extra Movement Point.
- Four stars: Empire-wide Science +10%. Combat Strength of all units +10% while in friendly territory.
- Five stars: Production of spaceship parts +25%. Combat Strength of all units +25% while in friendly territory.
- Six stars: Production, Science and Growth bonuses doubled. Immediately starts a Golden Age.
UU: Starshroom Avaliable at Navigation. Special scouting unit that can travel over any tile. Cannot attack but can retreat from battle. Luma Scouts can be upgraded to it.
UB: Observatory Kitchen (Aqueduct) Gives a copy of the Star Bits resource. Scout units trained in the city gain +2
Movement Points.
Finally, I've got a first full set of uniques for Rosalina. Since we have those Grand Star bonuses in the UA, I'm not sure whether to just have Star Bits as a luxury now, but I still want to include them in some form, hence the first part of the UB. The second part, the +2 movement points, is supposed to tie in with the whole science/exploration focus that I'm aiming for.
As for the Grand Star bonuses, I want a Rosalina with six Grand Stars to get some nice, powerful bonuses without making her OP (regardless of the fact she's my favourite character
). So if you think they're going to make her too powerful then don't hesitate to tell me. Why I made production bonuses stronger in the capital and science bonuses the same across the whole empire, though... I'm not sure which road I want to go down, so I have both possibilities there. In the end I'll have them consistent, regardless of which I choose.
If you think the bonuses are too varied and complex, too, I can tone it down a bit in that department as well. I was thinking about both types of unit bonuses foremost - perhaps I should just have one unit bonus (to movement, and to all units), maybe? Or just have the bonuses to production, science and growth? Searching for the Grand Stars itself is already pretty unique gameplay...
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Sarasaland - led by Daisy
UA: Calico Kingdom All external
Trade Routes provide half the amount of
Gold generated as
Culture. Improvements on Desert tiles provide +1
Food (regardless of type).
UA: Sky Pop (Triplane) +2 Range. +25%
Combat Strength against other air units. Obsoletes at Lasers.
UB: Cruise Ship Port (Seaport) Gain
Culture whenever a naval unit is trained in the city, equal to half its
Production cost.
If you're wondering where the name of Daisy's UA comes from, I got that from the
origins of the name Sarasaland. The culture bonuses for her civilization also stem from that, since Sarasaland is made up of four diverse kingdoms in Super Mario Land. "Desert Flower" was the other name for the UA I was considering, but since I don't think that's canon I changed it to what we have here. That's still the source of the food part of the UA, though.
I'm not entirely happy with the Cruise Ship Port unique, especially since I borrowed the idea of a culture bonus on unit production from JFD's Henry VIII civilization, but I wanted to reference the
Daisy Cruiser somewhere. Of course, I could decide on a UB that references Daisy's general appearance in the sports games, I suppose.
And the
Sky Pop is one of the vehicles that Mario uses in Super Mario Land, and I wanted to reference that too, since it was in that game that Daisy made her first appearance. I felt a unique Triplane would be more useful than a unique Submarine (that would have been the
Marine Pop). Though I'm not sure there's a civilization yet that has a unique Submarine, and that might mesh well with the UB...
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WarioWare, Inc. - led by Wario
UA: Game & Wario Gain bonus
Gold per turn for every
Great Work of Art or Artifact that you own that was created by another civilization. +5% offensive
Combat Strength for all units for every +5
Gold Per Turn, up to 25%.
UU: Treasure Hunter (Archaeologist) Has a chance of finding Treasure when digging up an archaeology site, which gives a large bonus of
Gold. Can melee attack.
UB: Microgame Producer (Stadium) Produces +2
Gold for every culture building in the city that has its
Theming Bonus in effect.
As you can see, I'm really drawing on Wario's love of money and treasure here, as well as his role in the WarioWare series. I decided on the ability of the UB since digging up artifacts also means you're probably playing the tourism game, though it wasn't my intention to make Wario a civilization for winning a Cultural Victory. Especially since I know I've already sort of done done a gold and tourism based civilization (Walmington-on-Sea).
Perhaps I could modify his uniques a bit so that it references WarioWare more? I must admit I've not played any of Wario's games* so I'm not sure where I could go there.
Also, I know that coding in a new type of artifact is difficult - I've seen some of the code for ViceVirtuoso's Nanoha civilization. However I'm not sure whether it would actually be a new artifact or just a chance that you'd get a large lump sum of gold after successfully digging something up with a Treasure Hunter. I suppose if it was a special artifact type, it would give you a choice between getting a lump sum now, or from getting more GPT for a foreign artifact from the UA.
(*And before you point out that I
just said that I wasn't confident about making civilizations based on things I hadn't played before... the games that Wario stars in aren't that heavy in plot, as far as I know. At least not as much as something like The Legend of Zelda or Kid Icarus.
)