Palmyra, Collab Mod

Here's a quick idea I've come up with:

Palmyra

Leader: Zenobia

UA: Pearl of the Desert: Land Trade Routes to and from your cities generate Great General points, more so if they pass over Oasis tiles. Great Generals may be expended for Faith or to give an extra Trade Route.

UU: Clibanarii: Replaces Horseman. Stronger and starts with Cover I. Transfers Movement to stacked Great General and gains a bonus against cities when adjacent to a Great General.

UI: Funerary Tower: Available at Construction. May only be built on desert tiles. +1 Culture and +1 Faith. An additional +1 Faith for every adjacent Funerary Tower. +1 Culture upon researching Archaeology.

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I might be trying to cram in too many things at once but it's a start. Any thoughts?

Wow, way to steal a civ from Hiram. You might be interested in this stuff from his thread though:

TPangolin said:

Hey hey

Spoiler :

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SnowyNix said:

Henry Morgan says yar har!

@The Specialise: Nah, he pretty much wanted exactly this. Here are my versions without those pesky black leftover borders:



I know the colour reference versions aren't needed at all, but i'm way too much of a perfectionist

Though I'm a bit worried that the Palmyrene colour scheme may be a bit too... Egyptian.

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SargontheGreat2 said:

Wow, way to steal a civ from Hiram. You might be interested in this stuff from his thread though:

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Seriously, how obscure do you have to get to find something that nobody is modding? This literally lasted 3 years. In the other hand, I still have not found someone who modded the Rashidun Caliphate.

Hiram is/was very important back in the day.

Plus Palmyra is/was almost done. It only needed XML.

That LH is amazing.

Also, there was a piece of music from 1977 by Fairuz for Zenobia, that could be a source of music.

SargontheGreat2 said:

Wow, way to steal a civ from Hiram. You might be interested in this stuff from his thread though:

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SargontheGreat2 said:

Hiram is/was very important back in the day.

Plus Palmyra is/was almost done. It only needed XML.

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I'll just go ahead and be honest right now. I don't appreciate you coming onto this thread and saying i stole from an idea 3 years ago (i only started modding late last year). Not only is "stealing" a stupid word for historical civilizations but this thread was created to try and bring people together to help make a civilization in memory of the history we've lost in extremely recent times.

It doesn't matter if it was almost done, or if Hiram was really "important", i wanted to make this mod, other people want to make this mod.

(excuse my rant, this thread was going so nicely and i didn't really want to post anything negative.)

ldvhl said:

Also, there was a piece of music from 1977 by Fairuz for Zenobia, that could be a source of music.

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I'll listen to that and see what the tone might suit, LS, War or Peace. Thanks for the input.


I really liked some of your ideas Uighur but it think you've went too big. Not a bad thing though, because you've given people something to work off of.

The UA being trade and war themed would make it unique, and the UA hasn't always got to make complete sense. (like, why would you get generals from trade?) However, the UA seems too long. The Oasis tiles thing might be a bit pointless, since Oasis' are pretty rare and the chance that a trade route will pass over one is even rarer. I really like the idea of a Great General being expended. I had already worked on that idea when i made Great Generals capable of being inquisitors in my Almohad mod.

The UU seems to work pretty well for a heavy cavalry unit. However, once again, i feel it has too many bonuses. Bonus attacking cities could work, and is reminiscent of the Clibanarii that appear in the Fall of Rome expansion. The movement with generals fits the general theme but that makes it similar to the Swedish Cavalry UU (not sure if that matters, but i just wanted to point that out). Making them stronger AND giving them cover I might make them a bit too powerful.

oooh, a UI[/B. That really fits with the idea that there were loads of these Funerary Towers covering the desert around Palmyra, and they sound like Faith versions of Maoi statues, but on desert. I really like everything about this idea.

Edit; Something that briefly came to my mind just then, so i've decided to write it down here, is to fit with the Funerary Towers faith, we could have a UA where 'whenever a Great Prophet is born, a Great General is also born.'
Palmyrene faith seemed to be heavily centered around war, with all their gods shown dressed in armour.

Could go the half step further to round out the UA and have Great Prophets be born when Great Generals are born as well.

That might be a bit too powerful I think..

UA: Pearl of the Desert: Great Generals can be expended to give an extra trade route. Whenever a Great Prophet is born a Great General is also born.

It could probably be worded better, but it'll give Palmyra a good balance or trade, religion and war?
But i'm not entirely sure if i want it themed around trade. Religion, Construction and War seems to be more Palmyra-ish.

Heres a bit more of a simpler take focusing on something else:

Palmyrene Empire​

Zenobia
UA: Queen of Kings
Wonder Production in Cities is increased by +5% for every Building built before the Medeival Era, Engineer Speicialists yield +1 Great General Points, receive a free Great General upon signing your first Declaration of War.
UU: Cilbannari (Horsemen)
Much stronger yet more expensive than the Horsemen it replaces, receives a Combat Bonus when stacked with a Great General and heals faster in Desert Terrain, costs no Maitnence.
UB: Tomb Tower (Shrine)
Slightly cheaper to build than the Shrine it replaces, yields +2 Culture, has an Artifact Slot that once filled doubles its yields.

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This is just a bit of food for thought not an actually serious design, the UA basically has to do with the architectural and cultural influence that most of the other nations that once inhabited the region (like the Ptolomies and the Galatian) as well as their war effort and mercernary work during their conflict with the Romans.

Firebug said:

I'll just go ahead and be honest right now. I don't appreciate you coming onto this thread and saying i stole from an idea 3 years ago (i only started modding late last year). Not only is "stealing" a stupid word for historical civilizations but this thread was created to try and bring people together to help make a civilization in memory of the history we've lost in extremely recent times.

It doesn't matter if it was almost done, or if Hiram was really "important", i wanted to make this mod, other people want to make this mod.

(excuse my rant, this thread was going so nicely and i didn't really want to post anything negative.)

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Sorry about my tone, I didn't mean to insult the project. What you are doing is a great thing and I don't mean any insult to it. I want to play as Zenobia as much as anyone in the thread.

Please do take a look at the art though, as a civ like Palmyra deserves a good leaderscene.

Howard Tafty said:

Heres a bit more of a simpler take focusing on something else:

This is just a bit of food for thought not an actually serious design, the UA basically has to do with the architectural and cultural influence that most of the other nations that once inhabited the region (like the Ptolomies and the Galatian) as well as their war effort and mercernary work during their conflict with the Romans.

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The city received its wealth from trade caravans; the Palmyrenes, renowned merchants, established colonies along the Silk Road and operated throughout the Roman Empire. They used to wealth to produce monuments. So, what we should do is a trade/wonder theme.

I was kind of just adding in the trade elements because Palmyra was an important place of trade in that region. I do think the UU should either get higher strength or Cover I since it would be weird to me at least that a heavy cavalry is neither stronger nor better at defending than a regular horseman. Here's a different draft:

Leader: Zenobia

UA: Pearl of the Desert: Gain a Great General whenever a Great Prophet is born. Great Generals may be used to rush construction like Great Engineers, albeit less effectively.

UU: Clibanarii: Replaces Horseman. Starts with Cover I. Transfers Movement to stacked Great General and gains a Bonus against cities when adjacent to a Great General.

UI: Funerary Tower: Available at Construction. May only be built on desert tiles. +1 Culture and +1 Faith. An additional +1 Faith for every adjacent Funerary Tower. +1 Culture upon researching Archaeology.

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The General wonder rush would be maybe half as effective as the Great Engineer's rush but it still might be too strong. What do you guys think?

Firebug said:

The only problem i can find with that design is that you need to produce buildings to get a bonus to produce wonders. In the long run, it seems to be better to just build the wonders.

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It all depends on how you kind of use your initial early production start in the end, note that I didnt put a cap simply because it depends on how you handle your early start in any situation giving you a solid foundation for something atleast, and if not use your brute force GG's along with your heavy cavalry and kill eveybody what else can I say? I'm a simple man that coerces and conquer people to my liking? .

Either way if I tried to include something different or give them a production focus they would be a lot like this guy:

Not Lenin, Nicholas.

Uighur_Caesar said:

I was kind of just adding in the trade elements because Palmyra was an important place of trade in that region. I do think the UU should either get higher strength or Cover I since it would be weird to me at least that a heavy cavalry is neither stronger nor better at defending than a regular horseman. Here's a different draft:



The General wonder rush would be maybe half as effective as the Great Engineer's rush but it still might be too strong. What do you guys think?

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Ok yeah, i agree the heavy cavalry needs to be heavy.
I really like the idea of a Funerary Tower UI, because then you could have valleys of towers and it'd just look awesome.
But i was wondering, it'd be pretty cool if you could make it so archaeologists could excavate funerary towers just like they were Antiquity Sites and they lose some of their yields (but you gain an artifact). But i'm not sure that's really possible.


Here's what i really think that Palmyra should be about -

• A UA focused around Trade and Construction
• A Clibanarii UU focused around being stronger then normal Horsemen and/or generating great generals
• A UI Funerary Tower focused around culture, faith and/or maybe gold. (I want dozens of those towers scattering the landscape, like in reality)
• Zenobia as the leader.

One idea i had the for the Clibanarii is that it produces Great Generals at twice the speed of a usual unit. Palmyra wasn't a massive empire, and it wasn't an empire for very long (3 years) so focusing its whole UA around great generals and war doesn't seem like the best idea.
However, it was always a center of trade for the Silk Road and a place for merchants to take shelter. It used the wealth it gained from this trade to make the beautiful monuments that once covered the desert around it. This is why i think that a UA focused around Money/Trade = Production/Wonders is a good idea,

Here's my idea for the Unique Unit:

UU: Clibanarii - Palmyremene replacement for the Horseman. In addition to having a higher Combat Strength, Clibanarii do not take extra damage from units with Formation or Bonus vs Mounted.

Note: The immunity to Formation and Bonus vs Mounted is a promotion which is retained when upgrading. However, since it only nullifies bonuses vs mounted, it becomes useless after upgrading to Landships.

Okay something else I suppose:

Palmyrene Empire​

Zenobia
UA: Queen of Kings
Trade Routes generate Production and Great Merchant Points equivalent to their base Gold yields, Wonder Production is increased by +10% when a Great Person is expended (max.40%).
UU: Clibannari (Horsemen)
Much stronger but more expensive than the Unit it replaces, starts with Shock I and Cover I, generates Great General Points equivalent to 25% of the Experience gained from an Enemy Unit.
UI: Tomb Tower
May only be built in Desert Terrain, +1 Culture and +1 Faith, generates an additional +1 Culture when a Trade Route passes through it, its yields are increased by +1 upon discoveriing Archeology.

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Again this is very lackluster... but I like the whole GP Generation from Trade Routes, it should be a thing.

Howard Tafty said:

Okay something else I suppose:

Again this is very lackluster... but I like the whole GP Generation from Trade Routes, it should be a thing.

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I'm a fan of the UA, but the bonus being 50% is too massive. The UU is a bit too complicated, in my opinion. The UI is a neat idea too, but the way its worded it seems like you only get the bonus when its built on a trade route rather then when a trade route passes through, is that right?

Firebug said:

I'm a fan of the UA, but the bonus being 50% is too massive. The UU is a bit too complicated, in my opinion. The UI is a neat idea too, but the way its worded it seems like you only get the bonus when its built on a trade route rather then when a trade route passes through, is that right?

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Changed it now I know th UA is a bit too powerful so I changed it to 40% lot more conservative, in regards with the UU i know DJS's Serbian Kingdom uses something similar with its UU you could possibly use code from that and yes I worded the UI a bit weirdly.

Palmyremene Empire
Capital: Palmyra

UA: Trade Routes with other Civilizations provide extra Gold and Production. Religious buildings provide +5% Wonder Production.

UU: Clibanarii - Palmyremene replacement for the Horseman. In addition to having a slightly higher Combat Strength, Clibanarii do not take extra damage from units with Formation or Bonus vs Mounted.

UI: Tomb Tower - Requires Pottery to build. Provides +1 Faith and +1 Culture. Provides an additional +1 Faith after discovering Theology and an additional +1 Culture and Tourism after discovering Archeology. May only be built on Desert tiles.