Ahriman
Tyrant
As we're nearing the end of this mod, I think its worth taking a final pass at faction balance and uniqueness.
As it stands now, this is what we have.
Atreides:
Pilot school building: boosts hornets and thopters.
Ducal guard and order of Agamemnon promotions. Allows small elite infantry core.
Hawk thopter. Extra movement.
Beesting interceptor. Extra range (and maybe strength).
No espionage.
Duke's bench UB (espionage defense).
Intelligence post (espionage defense).
They get basically nothing late-game.
We talked about a sonic tank, but never created one. I think this would be a very nice way of rounding out the end game, and nice Dune PC game homage. I would imagine this to be a lower strength medium scorpion, but with collateral damage.
I would also consider making the Order of Agamemnon promotion +2 strength, but coming later in the game.
Harkonnen:
Slavery civic. Allows superior whipping.
Slaves; improvement construction.
Slave pit UB; doesn't do much. Could we improve it? +10% hammers, -10% commerce?
Howitzer UU. Mid-game Siege unit.
Traitor: espionage unit good when used by human, weak used by AI.
Devastator. Super-heavy tank.
I'd really like to see them have a bit more resource exploitation focus.
How about: buildings that add extra unhealth but improved industrial production.
For example, their factory could be:
+10% hammers
+10% hammers, +1 unhealth with ore resource.
+10% hammers, +1 unhealth with nitrates resource.
+10% hammers, +1 unhealth with crystal resource.
Unhealth will also synergize somewhat with their lower average populations due to whipping; unhealth is less painful for smaller cities.
Corrino:
Sardaukar cooperation UR. This is a penalty in some sense, remember, because it blocks you from getting another resource.
Selamlik. Tribunal UB which heavily reduces war weariness.
Sardaukar Legionary. URU. Midgame superior melee.
Sardaukar Noukker, UU late game superior melee.
Levy trooper. ? I argue for making this a superior maula guardsman, so the UUs are spread through the game somewhat.
Medium espionage, weak used by AI.
All leaders have the Imperial trait, which is possibly the strongest (50% faster settlers in a game that encourages rapid expansion).
If we do trait balancing that weakens the relative power of Imperial, then we probably need to give them something else.
It would be neat to give them extra votes in the Landsraad - 25% more votes? That could also be part of Imperial trait.
Ordos:
Chem trooper UU, anti-guardsman/melee.
Trike: Quad UU.
Good espionage unit.
Ordos are pretty light on abilities. Their "flavor" in-game comes mostly from their AI personality.
Could we add a Deviator missile launcher UU, that had a 10% chance of adding a "confused" promotion to each unit it damaged. Confused prevents the unit from moving, and wears off probability 100% after 1 turn.
Could we also add a UB that boosts espionage? Maybe an assassin's school UB that gives much more espionage income. Saboteur academy?
Or; how about a techno-scavenging faction ability, to play up this role? Every time they destroy an enemy unit, they get 5% of its cost in beakers towards their current tech. Or a flat X beakers?
Maybe based on a Scavengers promotion that all Ordos units get?
Bene Gesserit:
Very good espionage units.
Missionaria Protectiva UB, boosts religion and happiness.
The 4 Kwizatz units, very powerful stack boosters.
...
That's it.
Ecaz:
Smuggler unit. Good gold booster.
Sculptor's garden. Good trade booster.
Elaccan gladiator. Questionable flavor, moderate utility.
Moderate espionage - semuta den mechanic needs to be cleared up. Better to make this espionage only I think. Remove the extra landing stage, just make the Semuta importer a UB national wonder that requires Offworld trade tech, and remove the Semuta resource. And make the Den purely negative.
They could use something late game.
Bene Tleilaxu:
Slig mechanic (is this being removed?)
Plague mechanic.
Good espionage.
Unique religion.
Boosted priests from the Shrine.
Axolotl tanks (being tweaked).
I think this is a pretty good set. I'd really like to see Axolotl tanks with some kind of Immortality mechanic for gholas.
Fremen:
Sandrider melee and worker/settlers.
No access to vehicles, thopters.
Deathstills Ub.
Crysknife fighter URU (but effectively UU, since you can't possibly get relations good enough for them to trade you the resource before its obsolete).
Naib's Chosen URU.
Fedaykin.
Raider UU.
I think Fremen play pretty well.
Doing much more with them would probably require a lot of AI coding that we don't really have time for.
It would be nice if they didn't need suspensors to transport guardsmen units around, and if there were some way they could get decent anti-air cover without being able to build hornets, but no simple solution seems apparent.
Ix.
Ixian weapons unique resource mechanic.
Unique promotions for vehicles, mechanized trait.
Skunkworks building.
Mech units and URU (crawler, walker, spider, tarantula).
Decent overall.
More thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated.
Ordos in particular need something extra, they are the least interesting at the moment.
And Bene Geserit and Ecaz could use a bit more.
As it stands now, this is what we have.
Atreides:
Pilot school building: boosts hornets and thopters.
Ducal guard and order of Agamemnon promotions. Allows small elite infantry core.
Hawk thopter. Extra movement.
Beesting interceptor. Extra range (and maybe strength).
No espionage.
Duke's bench UB (espionage defense).
Intelligence post (espionage defense).
They get basically nothing late-game.
We talked about a sonic tank, but never created one. I think this would be a very nice way of rounding out the end game, and nice Dune PC game homage. I would imagine this to be a lower strength medium scorpion, but with collateral damage.
I would also consider making the Order of Agamemnon promotion +2 strength, but coming later in the game.
Harkonnen:
Slavery civic. Allows superior whipping.
Slaves; improvement construction.
Slave pit UB; doesn't do much. Could we improve it? +10% hammers, -10% commerce?
Howitzer UU. Mid-game Siege unit.
Traitor: espionage unit good when used by human, weak used by AI.
Devastator. Super-heavy tank.
I'd really like to see them have a bit more resource exploitation focus.
How about: buildings that add extra unhealth but improved industrial production.
For example, their factory could be:
+10% hammers
+10% hammers, +1 unhealth with ore resource.
+10% hammers, +1 unhealth with nitrates resource.
+10% hammers, +1 unhealth with crystal resource.
Unhealth will also synergize somewhat with their lower average populations due to whipping; unhealth is less painful for smaller cities.
Corrino:
Sardaukar cooperation UR. This is a penalty in some sense, remember, because it blocks you from getting another resource.
Selamlik. Tribunal UB which heavily reduces war weariness.
Sardaukar Legionary. URU. Midgame superior melee.
Sardaukar Noukker, UU late game superior melee.
Levy trooper. ? I argue for making this a superior maula guardsman, so the UUs are spread through the game somewhat.
Medium espionage, weak used by AI.
All leaders have the Imperial trait, which is possibly the strongest (50% faster settlers in a game that encourages rapid expansion).
If we do trait balancing that weakens the relative power of Imperial, then we probably need to give them something else.
It would be neat to give them extra votes in the Landsraad - 25% more votes? That could also be part of Imperial trait.
Ordos:
Chem trooper UU, anti-guardsman/melee.
Trike: Quad UU.
Good espionage unit.
Ordos are pretty light on abilities. Their "flavor" in-game comes mostly from their AI personality.
Could we add a Deviator missile launcher UU, that had a 10% chance of adding a "confused" promotion to each unit it damaged. Confused prevents the unit from moving, and wears off probability 100% after 1 turn.
Could we also add a UB that boosts espionage? Maybe an assassin's school UB that gives much more espionage income. Saboteur academy?
Or; how about a techno-scavenging faction ability, to play up this role? Every time they destroy an enemy unit, they get 5% of its cost in beakers towards their current tech. Or a flat X beakers?
Maybe based on a Scavengers promotion that all Ordos units get?
Bene Gesserit:
Very good espionage units.
Missionaria Protectiva UB, boosts religion and happiness.
The 4 Kwizatz units, very powerful stack boosters.
...
That's it.
Ecaz:
Smuggler unit. Good gold booster.
Sculptor's garden. Good trade booster.
Elaccan gladiator. Questionable flavor, moderate utility.
Moderate espionage - semuta den mechanic needs to be cleared up. Better to make this espionage only I think. Remove the extra landing stage, just make the Semuta importer a UB national wonder that requires Offworld trade tech, and remove the Semuta resource. And make the Den purely negative.
They could use something late game.
Bene Tleilaxu:
Slig mechanic (is this being removed?)
Plague mechanic.
Good espionage.
Unique religion.
Boosted priests from the Shrine.
Axolotl tanks (being tweaked).
I think this is a pretty good set. I'd really like to see Axolotl tanks with some kind of Immortality mechanic for gholas.
Fremen:
Sandrider melee and worker/settlers.
No access to vehicles, thopters.
Deathstills Ub.
Crysknife fighter URU (but effectively UU, since you can't possibly get relations good enough for them to trade you the resource before its obsolete).
Naib's Chosen URU.
Fedaykin.
Raider UU.
I think Fremen play pretty well.
Doing much more with them would probably require a lot of AI coding that we don't really have time for.
It would be nice if they didn't need suspensors to transport guardsmen units around, and if there were some way they could get decent anti-air cover without being able to build hornets, but no simple solution seems apparent.
Ix.
Ixian weapons unique resource mechanic.
Unique promotions for vehicles, mechanized trait.
Skunkworks building.
Mech units and URU (crawler, walker, spider, tarantula).
Decent overall.
More thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated.
Ordos in particular need something extra, they are the least interesting at the moment.
And Bene Geserit and Ecaz could use a bit more.
.
