S3rgeus's Wheel of Time Mod

So you thought I'd disappeared, did you?! Well, hopefully not. I've been tinkering with Tar Valon and its place in relation to the Diplomatic Victory. As discussed in the OP, the Ajahs of Tar Valon will have influence that determines the White Tower's policies (and its friends).

The hardest part of this process was far and away getting a UI that was actually legible (and not just all hard coded in place). Data storage, I've got down. A few accidentally zeroed array pointers fixed, and that worked fine. But this:

Spoiler :


This took a bit more doing! It's definitely rough around the edges (still very WIP). But it has the information now! (They all start with the same fixed amount right now - easily configurable via XML.) The Ajah's influences will fluctuate naturally as well as due to player actions. Amyrlin's allegiances pending. (The Amyrlin is from all Ajahs, but we all know they favor where they came from!)
 

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So, a bit more progress on White-Tower-y things!

There is an Amyrlin! (Who is chosen by the AI based on the influences of the Ajahs):
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Channeling units (female ones) can be sent to train at the Tower, raising the influence of a random Ajah (the Ajah they join gets more powerful):

Spoiler :


And you even get feedback when your units cause the change!

Spoiler :


You also get notified when the majority Ajah changes:

Spoiler :


There's also a notification when the Amyrlin is elected, but I don't have a screenshot for that one!

It's one of the more interesting projects around, good to see you're still on it! :D
From my posts it becomes clear I'm crazy for fantasy mods: Wheel of Time, Éa, Chronicles of Adea, Faerun...

Thanks, glad you like the look of it! :D
 

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So, here I was searching around endlessly for a WoT MOD for Civ 5... EVERY link I followed led me to something from 2005 or older.. outdated, unloved.. forgotten. Then I get to this one, and there's replies from the author IN THE SAME YEAR!!

Seriously though, I'm excited about this mod and if S3rgeus needs anything to help it along, I'm more than willing.
 
@S3rgeus: Is there a list of units you need somewhere? Don't worry about how reasonable the demands sound, I'll be doing tons of fairly crazy Warhammer units that could probably fit in somewhere here.

I'm very impressed by the work you've done so far Civitar! If you do ever have time (and are able to find/make models? I don't know of any WoT games to draw models from, unfortunately, but I'll do some more research). Quick googling will give concept art shots of these creatures:

  • Trollocs
  • Myrddraal
  • Draghkar (it would be awesome if this one had an animation for flying and landing in the same way paratroopers have a paradrop animation)
  • Darkhounds (this is likely the easiest - a large-ish dog/wolf with red eyes)

Those are the Shadowspawn that are distinctively shaped, but some unique models for some hero units would be awesome too.

  • Birgitte Silverbow
  • Artur Hawkwing
  • Rand al'Thor
  • Perrin Aybara
  • Matrim Cauthon

I'll come up with more! I haven't nailed down uniques for most of the civs yet, and would definitely like to use different models from the base game for those and for several of the 'default' WoT units.

So, here I was searching around endlessly for a WoT MOD for Civ 5... EVERY link I followed led me to something from 2005 or older.. outdated, unloved.. forgotten. Then I get to this one, and there's replies from the author IN THE SAME YEAR!!

Seriously though, I'm excited about this mod and if S3rgeus needs anything to help it along, I'm more than willing.

Yes, the other WoT efforts were quite a while back. I'm still alive on here, but my time for this project is split with a lot of other stuff. The Github repository has any changes I make shortly after I finish them locally. All of the code on there is public, so if you wish, feel free to clone it and tinker around (look at what does and doesn't work, there are a host of issues on the XML/Lua repo which outline things I'm planning to do/know need to be fixed). You can even push bug fixes/new features back to me (once I approve them).

I think more active contributions (code, particularly artwork, cheering) would definitely make me allocate more time to this project. I'll try to put some work into it in the next few weeks though. I would say try the mod out, but it's not particularly playable in its current state, since it's got a lot of active code that's really debug stuff to test new features that would otherwise require significant play time to interact with.
 
I actually already have poked around in it a little bit.. I'm not a complete when it comes to code, but I'm still just a little newbie in Lua and modding Civilization. As I write this, I've only added a new civ to my game and played with unit promotions, but nothing substantial. I've actually been quite shocked at the LACK of information on modding Civ 5.

If I feel there is anything I can add that might be of some use to you, I will certainly come back here. And, thanks again for your time :)


Now I'm off to ask a couple silly newb questions in another thread! :lol::eek:
 
This mod sounds terrific. I can't wait for it to be released. I've been looking around for something like this, since I've been playing a lot of Civ 5 concurrent to me finishing the WoT series (which I started in the 90s...).

Anyways, I'd like to add some ideas, if its not too late for that. Is there a place where I could see the current unique features of each Civ as they currently stand, to see what holes there might still be that need filling? I see the things posted in this thread but have no idea what you've settled on, if anything.

I have some ideas about UAs, The Three Oaths, dealing with the Taint of Saidin, a'dam, and other similar things, and I'd be happy to contribute. I have some game design/balancing experience (mostly with table-top RPGs, actually), but have zero experience modding so I don't know how useful I'll be. I am a music composer by trade but that's really neither here nor there in a project like this.
 
This mod sounds terrific. I can't wait for it to be released. I've been looking around for something like this, since I've been playing a lot of Civ 5 concurrent to me finishing the WoT series (which I started in the 90s...).

Anyways, I'd like to add some ideas, if its not too late for that. Is there a place where I could see the current unique features of each Civ as they currently stand, to see what holes there might still be that need filling? I see the things posted in this thread but have no idea what you've settled on, if anything.

I have some ideas about UAs, The Three Oaths, dealing with the Taint of Saidin, a'dam, and other similar things, and I'd be happy to contribute. I have some game design/balancing experience (mostly with table-top RPGs, actually), but have zero experience modding so I don't know how useful I'll be. I am a music composer by trade but that's really neither here nor there in a project like this.

Well timed, I'm actually just getting back into this project right now. Glad you like the look of it!

There is no final list for each Civ's uniques right now because I'm still nailing the changes to primary gameplay. There are a lot of ideas on here and that I've had myself for how the Civs will end up, but nothing's really set in stone until I know what rules the abilities will be working with at the end.

Fire away with your ideas, always glad to have more people involved. Music is something that's a long way off for this mod, but it would definitely add some nice polish once it's in a working state.

If you're looking for a list of things I'm working on/thinking about for the mod, check out the issues page on the Github repository.

For now, I'm tinkering with UI for the evening.
 
Work moves forward! Some UI enhancements for the White Tower stuff:

The majority Ajah and which one you support is now displayed to you, the Ajah you support has its name highlighted (in its color) and the majority Ajah has its % highlighted in green:

Spoiler :


After a lot of fun with lua contexts, here are two screenshots that show the diplo corner and how it reacts to you having met the Tower:

Before:
Spoiler :


After:
Spoiler :


I've also added a bunch of new units and buildings - slowly but surely filling out the tech tree so that I can start on coming up with variants for the civs' uniques.
 

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Cool! Happy to join in. Sorry I took so long to respond - I thought I told it to notify me by e-mail when there was a new post.

Should I post ideas/thoughts here, or somehow on the github repository (totally new to that, btw)?
 
I should mentioned that these are the kinds of things that have been swimming around in my head:

- Unique abilities/units traits for each civ
- Mechanics of channeling (saidin, sul'dam, etc.)
- WoT specific great people (and such)
- Barbarians, Shadowspawn, and the Last Battle

Where should I start? I'll write out my ideas "in the cracks" of other projects I'm working on, so I should tackle the stuff you're most interested in first, I think.

I also have feedback on the previously discussed stuff that I can share when they come up again.

I should say, before I say anything (?) that my general "design aesthetic" is a balance between:
- the "feel" of the WoT books
- game balance

This sounds obvious, of course, but I think it bears mentioning. Some things may defy realism, but be worth doing because they make a player feel like they're playing in the world. Similarly, some things maybe "should be" a certain way based on the books (i.e., Elayne and the Seanchan being majorly OP), but shouldn't be based on the need for game balance.
Thought I'd mention that - from what I'm getting from these posts, that seems to be similar to your overall goal.
 
I should mentioned that these are the kinds of things that have been swimming around in my head:

- Unique abilities/units traits for each civ 2
- Mechanics of channeling (saidin, sul'dam, etc.) 3
- WoT specific great people (and such) 1
- Barbarians, Shadowspawn, and the Last Battle 4

Where should I start? I'll write out my ideas "in the cracks" of other projects I'm working on, so I should tackle the stuff you're most interested in first, I think.

I've thrown in some numbers for my preferred order for these. WoT-specific great people is something I've been consdering a lot and don't yet have firm design ideas for. So suggestions with that can be really helpful.

Uniques I'm still holding off on until more of the 'base game' of the mod is done (though I'm beginning to think I should just power on with those in parallel). Any suggestions here are really helpful.

I ranked the other two where they are because I've got more firm designs for those than the first two, but there's definitely still some room to change/add stuff.

I also have feedback on the previously discussed stuff that I can share when they come up again.

I'd say fire away with this - quote my (or anyone else's) old posts and let me know what you think of what's there so far/what could be improved.

I should say, before I say anything (?) that my general "design aesthetic" is a balance between:
- the "feel" of the WoT books
- game balance

This sounds obvious, of course, but I think it bears mentioning. Some things may defy realism, but be worth doing because they make a player feel like they're playing in the world. Similarly, some things maybe "should be" a certain way based on the books (i.e., Elayne and the Seanchan being majorly OP), but shouldn't be based on the need for game balance.
Thought I'd mention that - from what I'm getting from these posts, that seems to be similar to your overall goal.

Sounds like we're thinking of this in much the same way. Achieve the feel of the books without being too beholden to it, making some changes where necessary to keep the game fun.
 
I've thrown in some numbers for my preferred order for these. WoT-specific great people is something I've been consdering a lot and don't yet have firm design ideas for. So suggestions with that can be really helpful.

I ranked the other two where they are because I've got more firm designs for those than the first two, but there's definitely still some room to change/add stuff.

OK,

I'll put together some thoughts on Great People types.

I've already begun to write some thoughts up on channeling, though, so I may submit that soonish, especially since it kind of ties into the GP discussion. I know you have built a lot of that already, but it seemed early enough in the process that some of my suggestions might still be welcome. Besides, if you review them and hate them, it'll just make you all the more confident in the stuff you already have.

Also, does anybody have an idea why my subscription to this thread doesn't work? I told it to send e-mails when there's a new post and... nothing. Not in Spam folder either. Is this a common problem on these forums?
 
First off, FYI, my posts will often not be tldr-friendly. This thread serves as a sort of design doc, though, so I think it's probably OK. Please let me know if that's not ture.

The nice thing about building a mod from the WoT books is that there are a lot of unique reframings of things we have already heard of – gleemen instead of a typical bard or performer. So using these colorful terms and people, it's easy to give the vibe of the series without necessarily having to invent a whole lot of stuff.

From a design perspective, there are three ways of dealing with Great People (GP) that might make sense here:

1) GP are basically just translations of ones from Civ 5
2) GP are wholly new, and have new abilities
3) GP include both new and recycled abilities, and the recycled abilities might not be found in the same pairings (i.e, the Hurry Production GP (Engineer) might also be able to start a golden age (Artist)

From what I've gathered of your design aesthetic, I'm mostly going to steer clear of option number one. That said, if all you are looking for is a direct translation/re-flavoring, these might work:

Direct translation (not what I'm recommending):
Great Writer --> Great Historian
Great Musician --> [Great] Gleeman
Great Artist --> Great Craftsman
Great Engineer --> Ogier Stonemason
Great Scientist --> Great Scholar or Brown/White Ajah Aes Sedai (the latter being unfortunately too tied to channeling-friendly civs)
Great Merchant --> Great Merchant (Great Peddler is more in-universe, but is perhaps too stupid)
Great General --> Great Captain
Great Admiral --> Great... Admiral? Sailmistress is of course the in-universe analog, but is too tied to the Sea Folk
Great Prophet --> Great Prophet/Dreamer

Of course, I don't find the above very compelling at all. I think option 2 above is nice, but I think, frankly, Civ players are going to want to see certain abilities (hurry production, etc.), so option 3 is basically what I think makes the most sense.
In service of this, what I'm going to do when I propose a given person is provide a few possible abilities, and we'd choose the two we think fit best. This covers you if you want to do option 2 or option 3.
 
GP and Aes Sedai:
I'll post some ideas about channeling later, but it is worth mentioning here that I have some ideas for how channelers – specifically, Aes Sedai – might overlap with GP to some extent. I think, since Aes Sedai are usually independent agents – and not really part of any one nation or anything – they may need to be treated as rare and special (more on that in a later post).
In any case, since you already have the idea of training channelers with a given ajah, I was thinking that the Aes Sedai unit's promotions could be tied to training with an ajah. Better damage, "Green Ajah". Better healing, "Yellow". Etc. As a result, I wondered if it might be worth it (and not too complex) to include ALL the ajahs. Of course, with the Brown and White and such, what jumped out at me was that these could aid a city in its science output (like when garrisoned or something, a city gets +X science). Thus it is possible there'd be some overlap between rare and powerful Aes Sedai (with level-ups no less) and the standard roles of the Civ 5 GP.
Additionally, I've been thinking about the possibility of a civ being granted Aes Sedai in a similar manner to how they earn GP, but we'll think on that later.
I'll write more on this later, but for now it bears mentioning because we'll want to balance those things with the GP we choose – having, for instance, no great scientist might be OK if some White Ajah unit served a similar purpose in the Civ.

Governors:
It looks to me like you have Governors (Great Leaders?) pretty under control for the time being. I don't know if they fit technically as Great People. I'm going to work as if they do, but essentially ignore them here.
A note on Balance:
In order to mix things up, some of the GP are a bit less focused than they are in Civ5. The Ogier Stonemason is obviously the replacement for the Engineer, but not all of its abilites are necessarily concerned with Hammers. We'll have to carefully consider whether this poses long-term balance problems (e.g., by having to emphasize one type of resource (production related wonders, for example) in order to gain a different one (hapiness from a Grove, for example)).

Great Prophets/G&K:
I don't know what to say about the Great Prophet, since you haven't mentioned Religion at all in this thread. Does this mod use G&K? Espionage would probably be a welcome addition to the mod, but religion does seem like an odd one. Obviously religion itself doesn't make much sense – they all seem to follow the same one – but, perhaps some other thing to spread around would be a good gameplay addition? In any case, I'm not touching the Great Prophet much here.

Tourism:
Obviously the Great Artists, Musians, and Writers from Civ 5 all concern themselves with Culture and eventually Tourism, so GP are thus entwined in the cultural victory. Since Tourism as a concept makes little sense in the WoT world, and there is very little discussion of well-developed, masterworks of art, wrting, or music, (the vast majority are folk works or crafts), adjustments to this make a lot of sense. This makes intuitive sense, too, since WoT appears to exist in a semi-rennaissance era, which is, on Earth, really where artistic aesthetics and stuff first were even being standardized – the idea of a great artist didn't exist before then in quite the same way. But I digress.
I am assuming you want to replace the three kinds of great works (4, if we continue with artifacts or some non-GP-related great work) and not reduce the number to two. I'm proposing we include the following, based on the kinds of things emphasized in the WoT books. The first two seem great to me, and the third is a bit less cool.

Prophecies – WoT is FULL of this stuff, from Viewings, Dreams, Foretelling, etc. This one is somewhat analogous to Writing, in that it might be stored in science buildings and such.

Epics or Stories or Legends – This is one of the only "art forms" consistently represented in the series. This is either analogous to Music or to Art. Artifacts could conceivably be stored with these. Like in Civ.

Crafts – Much to the chagrin of many readers of the mid-late series, Jordan spent a lot of time detailing clothing, pottery, and other doilies. Better name is needed. Mostly analogous to Art. Artifacts could conveivably be alternatively stored with these.

Alternatively, depending on what you're doing with Archaeologists, Crafts could be axed for "Ancient Artifacts" or "Ter'Angreal" something, which are discoverd by certain GP (and could be distinct from those found by archaeologists."

The end result of this is not Tourism but what I'm currently calling Prestige. The idea behind the cultural victory in this Mod could thus be slightly different – and in some ways becomes sort of similar to the Diplomatic victory thematically (we'll need to work on this). Basically, by ammassing culture, the tales of yesterday, prophecies of what will come, and useful crafts and artifacts, your civilization is the most well regarded as the world prepares for Tarmon Gaidon. Maybe this results in you being elected the leader of their armies, similar to Elayne at the end of the books, though this obviously has major overlap with your Diplomatic Victory. Maybe if you spelled out for me more precicely what the diplo victory and gaining the favor of the Hall of the Tower really means, then we can make these two distinct and come up with a solid replacement for Tourism.
As it stands though, if you think about it, in Civ 5 the diplo and cultural victories are also kind of the same. In both, your civ is the most popular in the world.
Of course, the mechanism for victory is the same – your culture and your reputation (your Prestige) is greater than the culture of your opponents. This makes intuitive sense, as it's essentially the same as Popularity or Reputation.
 
My goal is to pull GP that are iconic in the lore of WoT, and have good gameplay implications. Again, I'm proposing 3-4 abilities per GP. I fugure we'll choose two, but I suppose you could wish for some to have more, or some to have fewer.
I've also proposed a couple more of these than fit the normal 8 from Civ, so we have some options. Of course, some abilities can be shuffled and rebranded to other GP.
All abilities consume the GP unless otherwise stated.
I assume these are created in a fashion similar to in the main game.

Great Leader/Governor
Covered by you already.

Ogier Stonemason (or Ogier Builder)
These are a fixture in the backstory of WoT, though none of them are characters in the story, really. Some ability options are below
Hurry Production: the obvious choice, and makes sense in-universe.
Build Grove: The Ogier groves could also make sense as a building, but since they are only found in certain (big) cities, it may make sense to include them as a Great Improvement instead. As far as benefits, there's two ways to do it. Either A) + Local Happiness or Culture, or B) + Production by producing Sung Wood. "A" makes more intuitive sense, but "B" keeps the unit more focused on hammers. Also, I didn't know if you were planning on including sung wood in the game elsewhere (perhaps as a stedding-only luxury resource, which could be cool).
Unlock Waygate: I don't know how you were hoping to implement the ways (I see them listed as a wonder), but expending a GP in a city to create a fast-travel network node is a neat idea. Of course, the ways are hazardous, so travelling between cities would cause a given unit to lose a fair bunch of HP. Useful during huge uprisings or surprise attacks.
Enhance Building: This is a weird one. Chooses a random building you already have in the city, and enhances the functionality of that building somehow (maybe a generic +1 or +2 to its output?)
Sing – Another weird one. Grows a few tiles of forest. Maybe it's enhanced with an additional bonus or something.

Great Captain
These are of course very much a big part of the story in the final book. I have elected to combine this with the Great Admiral, since there isn't really a WoT equivalent, in that the only real sea-faring we see involves the seanchan fighting the sea folk, and merchants. Of course, we could still have the Admiral as well, but it might be nice to simply combine their functionality in one unit. Of course, his embark speed would need to adjust over time so he could keep up with any fast late-game naval units you've designed.
As far as abilities, I'm not 100% sure on this one. I have literally never used the citadel in Civ5, so it's hard for me to know if it's useful (I guess I question that notion). The healing of naval units could work. Of course, I'd plan on including the +15% bonus like the Generals and Admirals in the regular game. That all makes sense. As far as stuff inspired by the WoT universe:
Recruit: Inspired by the katamari-like way armies in WoT grow as they move through the countryside. This converts a civilian unit or units on an adjacent tile into a random era-appropriate fighting unit. Useful for when your capitol is cornered, or if you capture an enemy worker while out fighting. Since it expends the GP, the unit should be either a decent type, or somewhat upgraded.
Ancient Memories: Inspired by Mat and the crazy stuff he appears to immediately know. Provides adjacent units a bonus to experience. Handy to provide a free level up or so to some units.

Dreamer/Dreamwalker/Doomseer
As far as the name for this, it depends on whether we want it to be power-based or not (which could alienate the Seanchan and Tear, etc.). Dreamers are obviously channelers. Dreamwalkers might be. I like the idea of the Doomseer – which is the only name I ever saw (from the Seanchan) for the people who have Viewings (like Min – though that specific name is stupid. There's also Foretelling, but there's no good name for this.... Forteller?
Create Prophesy – this creates a Great work. Based on which title we give for this GP, this would be anything from Karaethon Cycle to a Viewing of death, or some good or bad omen. It's all just color, though. There is a LOT of prophesizing in these books.
Enter Tel'aran'rhiod – This is obviously dependent on either choosing Dreamer or Dreamwalker. This could do one of several things: A) serve a Spy-like function, providing some info/espionage, even steal a technology, B) reveal a portion of the map/remove fog of war – again, following the snooping-around aspect of the world of dreams, and C) Sound Sleeping Citizens – defeating Nightmares, etc., provides boost to hapiness or production or food.
Start Golden Age – this one is kind of random, but could be linked to the notion of seeing a civ's future/reading its omens and helping lead that civ to success because of it.
Royal Advisor – Provides a bonus for a limited number of turns to the bonuses provided by Great Leaders. Similar rationale to GA above.
Secrets of the Pattern – provides a one-time boost to science (equivalent to the discover tech of Great Scientists).

Gleeman / Great Performer / Great Storyteller / Great Bard
This is pretty much the only real "artist" in this list, since its the only one really covered by the books. I know you were planning on having Gleemen be regular units, but to me they seem to perfectly fit in as GP here, especially considering the Great works I have thought of. Of course, you could keep your Gleeman units and have this guy be called something slightly different.
Create Epic (or Legend or whatever we call it) – creates great work
Spread Heroic Lore – this is similar to the Tour of the great musician. Gleeman goes to another civ and talks you up, raising your Prestige.
Legendary Performance – provides a large blob of culture, much like the political treatise from the base game.. OR, does what the gleemen you invented do (provide a bonus to hapiness).

Wolfbrother
Obviously, like Min's Viewing, this ability is very rare. But it's also very iconic in the books, and provides some interesting ideas.
Wolf Brothers would have terrific sight, probably like an upraded scout, and would also move through terrain very well. They also are decent combat units (or could be, at least)
Call Wolves – similar to the Horn mechanic. Consumes the wolfbrother and summons a few wolves. These units are particularly strong against shadowspawn. Probably these have a cooldown until they disappear (i.e., lose interest in the Two Legs). Would need to be balanced to make sure they're worth consuming the Wolfbrother.
Enter Tel'aran'rhiod – any of the effects listed under Dreamer, assuming they aren't used there.
Travel through Tel'aran'rhiod – similar to the waygates. Can essentially teleport anywhere in the civ's territory. Probably should be limited in number of uses or something.
 
OK, this is the last one for now, I swear!

Great Historian/Great Scholar/Great Inventor
Think Herid Fel and the other people hanging out in the Cairhien Academy.
Research Tech – similar/equal to in Civ. Could be tweaked to be instead a massive increase over a few turns or something.
Build Academy – again, the same or similar to in Civ 5. As much as I'd like to rename it, the fact is that's what they call them in the books, if I recall correctly.
Build Curiosity/Build Advanced Technology – this is inspired by the weird stuff they were building at the Academy, way above the tech level of the WoT books (telescopes, steam engines, etc.). Either A) builds a random unit one or two tech levels ABOVE the civ's current level (or era or something), or B) builds a random building one or two tech levels above the civ's current level or era. Could instead upgrade an adjacent unit to the same.
Write work of history – culture blob, like the political treatise (not to be used if the gleeman has the same ability).
Discover Artifact – IF we decide to completely replace Crafts with Artifacts, this guy would probably discover them.

Great Merchant/Peddler
I can't think of a better name. Peddlers are ubiquitous in WoT, so Great Peddler could work, but that might be a bit too small-time. (on that note though, Peddlers are probably a great replacement for caravans in the mod). This is also one that was hard to be really creative with.
Build Merchant's Guild – same/similar to custom's house improvement in base game.
Enhance Trade Routes – similar to the caravansary/east india, provides extra gold from routes coming from this city. Alternatively, simply increases gold output of that city.
Shrewd Negotiation – either A) (not sure if this works, mechanically) allows the player to buy one unit, building, or whatever, at a hugely discounted rate, OR B) provides the civ with more of something they have traded for diplomatically (e.g. Extra iron, extra gold, extra... open borders....?). For balancing purposes, shouldn't remove extra commodities from the other civ.
Spread Tales – similar/equivalent to the Tourism boost from a Musician in civ5 (don't use it along with the Gleeman version of the same thing).
Conduct Trade Mission – equivalent to Civ 5's trade mission.
Acquire Artifact – same as Historian above.

Ta'veren
This one is very generic, since ta'veren (people who the pattern sort of builds itself around) come in many shapes and sizes. Inspired mostly by Mat and Rand and Hawkwing.
Dark One's Own Luck – Inspired by Mat, of course. Don't know if this is mechanically possible, but the math/random number generation would work out slightly in your favor for a few turns (attacking, defending, etc.). Balancing this could be hard – maybe it only applies to one or a few units. Perhaps redundant with the Great Captain bonuses.
Ta'veren Influence – either A) a one-time huge boost to favor with a particular city-state, or B) a one-time ok boost to favor with ALL city states or C) some sort of diplomatic boost in the Hall of the tower, or D) some sort of diplo boost with other civs... not sure how that'd work.
Legendary Journey – another reskinning of the+Tourism/Prestige musician's tour
Shape Pattern – either A) a boost to global happiness, or B) starts a golden age.
Legacy – like the Ogier enhance-building, this either does the same or enhances workable tiles in the area.

Great Craftsman
This isn't very glamorous, and isn't super in-universe, but I think it needs to exist. I guess, actually, considring all the time Jordan describes clothing and porcelain, maybe this is super in-universe.
Create Craft – there's gotta be a better name for this, but creates a Great Work.
Create Guild – A Great Improvement, providing either A) Production, or B) gold, depending on which of these is still left to be covered.
Start Golden Age – someone's got to, right?

Great Traveller
This is based on Jain Farstrider and other such people. Likely redundant with some of the other GP's I've proposed.
Like the wolfbrothers, Great Travellers have incredible movement and sight (if both GP-types exist, they shouldn't both have this). Travellers could maybe even pass through all borders.
Gather Knowledge – another version of the Science dump
Discover Artifact – another way to get one of these, if that becomes our third great work.
Write memoir – one-time culture dump
Ambassador/World Traveller – similar to the spy-like functions described above with dreamers. Possible map revelation, enemy intentions, etc.
Start Golden Age – why not?

Alriht, thats all I got. There were a few other things that part of me wanted to try – sniffers, tinkers, etc. Those characters are very memorable, but they just aren't very "great," in a global sense.

Hopefully you don't hate ALL of this!
 
Wow, that is awesome. I'll respond to your stuff in order, but I'll just say that holistically I'm very impressed and like a lot of these ideas.

Also, does anybody have an idea why my subscription to this thread doesn't work? I told it to send e-mails when there's a new post and... nothing. Not in Spam folder either. Is this a common problem on these forums?

I think by default a subscription only lists a topic in your "My Account" section on the forum when there's a new reply. If you go to "My Account" -> "Edit Options" (on the left) -> "Default Thread Subscription Mode", you can change the drop down so subscribed threads send you emails.

First off, FYI, my posts will often not be tldr-friendly. This thread serves as a sort of design doc, though, so I think it's probably OK. Please let me know if that's not ture.

The nice thing about building a mod from the WoT books is that there are a lot of unique reframings of things we have already heard of – gleemen instead of a typical bard or performer. So using these colorful terms and people, it's easy to give the vibe of the series without necessarily having to invent a whole lot of stuff.

From a design perspective, there are three ways of dealing with Great People (GP) that might make sense here:

1) GP are basically just translations of ones from Civ 5
2) GP are wholly new, and have new abilities
3) GP include both new and recycled abilities, and the recycled abilities might not be found in the same pairings (i.e, the Hurry Production GP (Engineer) might also be able to start a golden age (Artist)

From what I've gathered of your design aesthetic, I'm mostly going to steer clear of option number one. That said, if all you are looking for is a direct translation/re-flavoring, these might work:

Direct translation (not what I'm recommending):
Great Writer --> Great Historian
Great Musician --> [Great] Gleeman
Great Artist --> Great Craftsman
Great Engineer --> Ogier Stonemason
Great Scientist --> Great Scholar or Brown/White Ajah Aes Sedai (the latter being unfortunately too tied to channeling-friendly civs)
Great Merchant --> Great Merchant (Great Peddler is more in-universe, but is perhaps too stupid)
Great General --> Great Captain
Great Admiral --> Great... Admiral? Sailmistress is of course the in-universe analog, but is too tied to the Sea Folk
Great Prophet --> Great Prophet/Dreamer

Of course, I don't find the above very compelling at all. I think option 2 above is nice, but I think, frankly, Civ players are going to want to see certain abilities (hurry production, etc.), so option 3 is basically what I think makes the most sense.
In service of this, what I'm going to do when I propose a given person is provide a few possible abilities, and we'd choose the two we think fit best. This covers you if you want to do option 2 or option 3.

I agree, just transplanting the GP types over wasn't what I intended. There's some work to do with the way Specialists and GPs are linked behind the scenes, but I can pull those apart so that we're not particularly bound to the existing GP types without breaking the way cities working tiles works.

GP and Aes Sedai:
I'll post some ideas about channeling later, but it is worth mentioning here that I have some ideas for how channelers – specifically, Aes Sedai – might overlap with GP to some extent. I think, since Aes Sedai are usually independent agents – and not really part of any one nation or anything – they may need to be treated as rare and special (more on that in a later post).
In any case, since you already have the idea of training channelers with a given ajah, I was thinking that the Aes Sedai unit's promotions could be tied to training with an ajah. Better damage, "Green Ajah". Better healing, "Yellow". Etc. As a result, I wondered if it might be worth it (and not too complex) to include ALL the ajahs. Of course, with the Brown and White and such, what jumped out at me was that these could aid a city in its science output (like when garrisoned or something, a city gets +X science). Thus it is possible there'd be some overlap between rare and powerful Aes Sedai (with level-ups no less) and the standard roles of the Civ 5 GP.
Additionally, I've been thinking about the possibility of a civ being granted Aes Sedai in a similar manner to how they earn GP, but we'll think on that later.
I'll write more on this later, but for now it bears mentioning because we'll want to balance those things with the GP we choose – having, for instance, no great scientist might be OK if some White Ajah unit served a similar purpose in the Civ.

In the current set up, Aes Sedai are units that you unlock at the Sisterhood tech, but I'm not particularly beholden to that idea. I like the flavor and gameplay of this a lot - they're not quite "hero" units, but something similar to that. I think this is something that would be good to add after the mod is basically functional/released. The existing use of Aes Sedai is markedly less work but can be swapped out for this new one fairly painlessly. GP levelling, which you discuss later, would also tie in well to being able to level up Aes Sedai.


Governors:
It looks to me like you have Governors (Great Leaders?) pretty under control for the time being. I don't know if they fit technically as Great People. I'm going to work as if they do, but essentially ignore them here.
A note on Balance:
In order to mix things up, some of the GP are a bit less focused than they are in Civ5. The Ogier Stonemason is obviously the replacement for the Engineer, but not all of its abilites are necessarily concerned with Hammers. We'll have to carefully consider whether this poses long-term balance problems (e.g., by having to emphasize one type of resource (production related wonders, for example) in order to gain a different one (hapiness from a Grove, for example)).

The way I have Governors set up now is that any GP (or any one set by XML - check out the Unit_GovernorClasses table in this file) can become a Governor in a city in the same way that they activate their other abilities. The type of GP determines the type of Governor created (as specified in that XML file). I hadn't yet decided whether or not Governors could "revert" to being GPs later, but that idea is sounding more attractive given all of the content you've suggested. I plan to have Governors gain EXP/Levels, which would link well to GPs having a similar system (which you discuss below).

With regards to the Ogier Stonemasons, I was thinking of having them as units that are gifted by Stedding to their allies (kind of like Militaristic City states) but that they're superpowered workers. I do like the flavorful way this uses Ogier though, and I'm not sure how useful upgraded workers will be. This is the same kind of thing as Gleemen (which I'll discuss specifically when I get to that part of your post), where I've added these very WoT-specific characters as new units, but that they actually could make good GP substitutes instead.

If we go with a very GP-focused system, I'm wary that we'll need to balance the game a bit so that wide empires don't suffer for their comparative weakness in GP generation.

Great Prophets/G&K:
I don't know what to say about the Great Prophet, since you haven't mentioned Religion at all in this thread. Does this mod use G&K? Espionage would probably be a welcome addition to the mod, but religion does seem like an odd one. Obviously religion itself doesn't make much sense – they all seem to follow the same one – but, perhaps some other thing to spread around would be a good gameplay addition? In any case, I'm not touching the Great Prophet much here.

The mod does use G&K and I've been considering some espionage-related features. (Assassinate the Amyrlin to upset the balance of power in the Tower?) Religion is something I've been quite conflicted about. Worshipping the Light is really all we have in the traditional sense. But stretching the definition a bit, The Way of the Leaf, Ji'e'Toh, the Shadow, I remember the Sea Folk having some unique beliefs, and the Seanchan's omens could flesh out the numbers for choices. That's still too few for all of the religions on a huge map though.

Tourism:
Obviously the Great Artists, Musians, and Writers from Civ 5 all concern themselves with Culture and eventually Tourism, so GP are thus entwined in the cultural victory. Since Tourism as a concept makes little sense in the WoT world, and there is very little discussion of well-developed, masterworks of art, wrting, or music, (the vast majority are folk works or crafts), adjustments to this make a lot of sense. This makes intuitive sense, too, since WoT appears to exist in a semi-rennaissance era, which is, on Earth, really where artistic aesthetics and stuff first were even being standardized – the idea of a great artist didn't exist before then in quite the same way. But I digress.
I am assuming you want to replace the three kinds of great works (4, if we continue with artifacts or some non-GP-related great work) and not reduce the number to two. I'm proposing we include the following, based on the kinds of things emphasized in the WoT books. The first two seem great to me, and the third is a bit less cool.

Prophecies – WoT is FULL of this stuff, from Viewings, Dreams, Foretelling, etc. This one is somewhat analogous to Writing, in that it might be stored in science buildings and such.

Epics or Stories or Legends – This is one of the only "art forms" consistently represented in the series. This is either analogous to Music or to Art. Artifacts could conceivably be stored with these. Like in Civ.

Crafts – Much to the chagrin of many readers of the mid-late series, Jordan spent a lot of time detailing clothing, pottery, and other doilies. Better name is needed. Mostly analogous to Art. Artifacts could conveivably be alternatively stored with these.

Alternatively, depending on what you're doing with Archaeologists, Crafts could be axed for "Ancient Artifacts" or "Ter'Angreal" something, which are discoverd by certain GP (and could be distinct from those found by archaeologists."

The end result of this is not Tourism but what I'm currently calling Prestige. The idea behind the cultural victory in this Mod could thus be slightly different – and in some ways becomes sort of similar to the Diplomatic victory thematically (we'll need to work on this). Basically, by ammassing culture, the tales of yesterday, prophecies of what will come, and useful crafts and artifacts, your civilization is the most well regarded as the world prepares for Tarmon Gaidon. Maybe this results in you being elected the leader of their armies, similar to Elayne at the end of the books, though this obviously has major overlap with your Diplomatic Victory. Maybe if you spelled out for me more precicely what the diplo victory and gaining the favor of the Hall of the Tower really means, then we can make these two distinct and come up with a solid replacement for Tourism.
As it stands though, if you think about it, in Civ 5 the diplo and cultural victories are also kind of the same. In both, your civ is the most popular in the world.
Of course, the mechanism for victory is the same – your culture and your reputation (your Prestige) is greater than the culture of your opponents. This makes intuitive sense, as it's essentially the same as Popularity or Reputation.

This is pure gold, I love this idea. There are even already techs that tie into this kind of system, despite my not having considered it. It's very WoT-ish and also should play well. I'll say that I'm a huge fan of BNW's cultural victory and I think we should keep the core gameplay of that. I think there's a fair amount to differentiate the Cultural and Diplomatic victories with this kind of approach.

I've been thinking the Diplomatic victory is more about the Ideologies - which I've been thinking of as the different ways that nations treat their channelers. That inevitably has an effect on their relationship to Tar Valon. I figure the three pillar choices are: complete freedom (channelers do what they like, with no central authority, a la Age of Legends, White Tower isn't happy about this, but they tolerate it), authority of the Tower (the Aes Sedai and Westlands from the books, all formally trained channelers come from the Tower, the Tower obviously likes Civs that choose this), and throw them in chains (like the Seanchan, they're weapons, less than people who should be captured and caged for their own and others' safety, the Tower hates Civs that choose this and tries to sabotage them). Since players support Ajahs and their actions can affect Ajahs' influence, the ones participating in the Diplo victory (options 1 & 2) are trying to get their supported Ajah into a position of power where they can be voted into a "World Leader" type position. The ones who chose option 3 (like Order in the main game) are trying to conquer the Tower (or everyone else) before an election causes someone else to have undeniable control over the world's politics (winning the game).

My goal is to pull GP that are iconic in the lore of WoT, and have good gameplay implications. Again, I'm proposing 3-4 abilities per GP. I fugure we'll choose two, but I suppose you could wish for some to have more, or some to have fewer.
I've also proposed a couple more of these than fit the normal 8 from Civ, so we have some options. Of course, some abilities can be shuffled and rebranded to other GP.
All abilities consume the GP unless otherwise stated.
I assume these are created in a fashion similar to in the main game.

Great Leader/Governor
Covered by you already.

Ogier Stonemason (or Ogier Builder)
These are a fixture in the backstory of WoT, though none of them are characters in the story, really. Some ability options are below
Hurry Production: the obvious choice, and makes sense in-universe.
Build Grove: The Ogier groves could also make sense as a building, but since they are only found in certain (big) cities, it may make sense to include them as a Great Improvement instead. As far as benefits, there's two ways to do it. Either A) + Local Happiness or Culture, or B) + Production by producing Sung Wood. "A" makes more intuitive sense, but "B" keeps the unit more focused on hammers. Also, I didn't know if you were planning on including sung wood in the game elsewhere (perhaps as a stedding-only luxury resource, which could be cool).
Unlock Waygate: I don't know how you were hoping to implement the ways (I see them listed as a wonder), but expending a GP in a city to create a fast-travel network node is a neat idea. Of course, the ways are hazardous, so travelling between cities would cause a given unit to lose a fair bunch of HP. Useful during huge uprisings or surprise attacks.
Enhance Building: This is a weird one. Chooses a random building you already have in the city, and enhances the functionality of that building somehow (maybe a generic +1 or +2 to its output?)
Sing – Another weird one. Grows a few tiles of forest. Maybe it's enhanced with an additional bonus or something.

This is interesting and I think I like your version of the Ogier stonemason more than mine now. (Thankfully mine is not implemented, so no loss of work!) As you've said, I've put the Ways as a wonder and Waygates as late game buildings already. I think they parallel airports from normal CiV quite well, but with an added chance of everything going horribly wrong when you use them. They'll also have drawbacks during Tarmon Gai'don, where the Shadowspawn can move armies directly through the Ways.

Great Captain
These are of course very much a big part of the story in the final book. I have elected to combine this with the Great Admiral, since there isn't really a WoT equivalent, in that the only real sea-faring we see involves the seanchan fighting the sea folk, and merchants. Of course, we could still have the Admiral as well, but it might be nice to simply combine their functionality in one unit. Of course, his embark speed would need to adjust over time so he could keep up with any fast late-game naval units you've designed.
As far as abilities, I'm not 100% sure on this one. I have literally never used the citadel in Civ5, so it's hard for me to know if it's useful (I guess I question that notion). The healing of naval units could work. Of course, I'd plan on including the +15% bonus like the Generals and Admirals in the regular game. That all makes sense. As far as stuff inspired by the WoT universe:
Recruit: Inspired by the katamari-like way armies in WoT grow as they move through the countryside. This converts a civilian unit or units on an adjacent tile into a random era-appropriate fighting unit. Useful for when your capitol is cornered, or if you capture an enemy worker while out fighting. Since it expends the GP, the unit should be either a decent type, or somewhat upgraded.
Ancient Memories: Inspired by Mat and the crazy stuff he appears to immediately know. Provides adjacent units a bonus to experience. Handy to provide a free level up or so to some units.

This is also really cool, I'd been considering how to WoT-ify the Great General (had also decided on Great Captain as a name - makes sense!). From some of your ideas, I'm liking the general concept of a GP that can enter combat. I always found that to be quite jarring about the Great General in CiV. Maybe other players will disagree - that the combat bonus is enough - but I always want to use them in battle.

I'm also very ok with merging the Great Captain with the Great Admiral - where the Captain is an equivalent unit while embarked. I've always found Great Admirals quite underwhelming in base CiV.


Dreamer/Dreamwalker/Doomseer
As far as the name for this, it depends on whether we want it to be power-based or not (which could alienate the Seanchan and Tear, etc.). Dreamers are obviously channelers. Dreamwalkers might be. I like the idea of the Doomseer – which is the only name I ever saw (from the Seanchan) for the people who have Viewings (like Min – though that specific name is stupid. There's also Foretelling, but there's no good name for this.... Forteller?
Create Prophesy – this creates a Great work. Based on which title we give for this GP, this would be anything from Karaethon Cycle to a Viewing of death, or some good or bad omen. It's all just color, though. There is a LOT of prophesizing in these books.
Enter Tel'aran'rhiod – This is obviously dependent on either choosing Dreamer or Dreamwalker. This could do one of several things: A) serve a Spy-like function, providing some info/espionage, even steal a technology, B) reveal a portion of the map/remove fog of war – again, following the snooping-around aspect of the world of dreams, and C) Sound Sleeping Citizens – defeating Nightmares, etc., provides boost to hapiness or production or food.
Start Golden Age – this one is kind of random, but could be linked to the notion of seeing a civ's future/reading its omens and helping lead that civ to success because of it.
Royal Advisor – Provides a bonus for a limited number of turns to the bonuses provided by Great Leaders. Similar rationale to GA above.
Secrets of the Pattern – provides a one-time boost to science (equivalent to the discover tech of Great Scientists).

This is interesting and I hadn't even considered how Tel'aran'rhiod interacts with the game. I like this idea. It gives the player choices where one isn't the obvious right answer all the time - which can be good.


Gleeman / Great Performer / Great Storyteller / Great Bard
This is pretty much the only real "artist" in this list, since its the only one really covered by the books. I know you were planning on having Gleemen be regular units, but to me they seem to perfectly fit in as GP here, especially considering the Great works I have thought of. Of course, you could keep your Gleeman units and have this guy be called something slightly different.
Create Epic (or Legend or whatever we call it) – creates great work
Spread Heroic Lore – this is similar to the Tour of the great musician. Gleeman goes to another civ and talks you up, raising your Prestige.
Legendary Performance – provides a large blob of culture, much like the political treatise from the base game.. OR, does what the gleemen you invented do (provide a bonus to hapiness).

So I've actually already put the Gleeman in as an early game unit. Currently he's a civilian unit that has a mission which generates happiness (which is restricted based on proximity - you can't have 2 gleemen performing within 4 hexes of each other). I wasn't sure how turning production into repeatable happiness like that would affect game balance, but thought it was worth a try. I do quite like your idea as well, I think we'll see how the rest of the GP system comes together. I can easily swap the Gleeman's existing abilities onto other units or just leave them out if it comes to that.

Wolfbrother
Obviously, like Min's Viewing, this ability is very rare. But it's also very iconic in the books, and provides some interesting ideas.
Wolf Brothers would have terrific sight, probably like an upraded scout, and would also move through terrain very well. They also are decent combat units (or could be, at least)
Call Wolves – similar to the Horn mechanic. Consumes the wolfbrother and summons a few wolves. These units are particularly strong against shadowspawn. Probably these have a cooldown until they disappear (i.e., lose interest in the Two Legs). Would need to be balanced to make sure they're worth consuming the Wolfbrother.
Enter Tel'aran'rhiod – any of the effects listed under Dreamer, assuming they aren't used there.
Travel through Tel'aran'rhiod – similar to the waygates. Can essentially teleport anywhere in the civ's territory. Probably should be limited in number of uses or something.

Another good one! Like above, combat GPs is interesting to me. I'm fairly sure that players who play base CiV on high difficulties build up highly experienced armies over the course of the game (as opposed to pumping out loads of units, which the AI always beats us at) and adding GPs to that mix could be fun. Given the current state of the AI, it's also favoring the player, since they'll be able to more effectively prioritize combat to level and protect GP units that are harder to produce. I'm planning to do some AI improvements as a part of this mod (and will need to make the AI aware of some new systems), but that's a long and arduous process, because the AI code is complex. It's also computationally intensive (as you'll notice, when waiting for that spinning gold globe) so making it do loads more "thinking" can affect turn times. But it's no time for optimization now.

OK, this is the last one for now, I swear!

Great Historian/Great Scholar/Great Inventor
Think Herid Fel and the other people hanging out in the Cairhien Academy.
Research Tech – similar/equal to in Civ. Could be tweaked to be instead a massive increase over a few turns or something.
Build Academy – again, the same or similar to in Civ 5. As much as I'd like to rename it, the fact is that's what they call them in the books, if I recall correctly.
Build Curiosity/Build Advanced Technology – this is inspired by the weird stuff they were building at the Academy, way above the tech level of the WoT books (telescopes, steam engines, etc.). Either A) builds a random unit one or two tech levels ABOVE the civ's current level (or era or something), or B) builds a random building one or two tech levels above the civ's current level or era. Could instead upgrade an adjacent unit to the same.
Write work of history – culture blob, like the political treatise (not to be used if the gleeman has the same ability).
Discover Artifact – IF we decide to completely replace Crafts with Artifacts, this guy would probably discover them.

Great Merchant/Peddler
I can't think of a better name. Peddlers are ubiquitous in WoT, so Great Peddler could work, but that might be a bit too small-time. (on that note though, Peddlers are probably a great replacement for caravans in the mod). This is also one that was hard to be really creative with.
Build Merchant's Guild – same/similar to custom's house improvement in base game.
Enhance Trade Routes – similar to the caravansary/east india, provides extra gold from routes coming from this city. Alternatively, simply increases gold output of that city.
Shrewd Negotiation – either A) (not sure if this works, mechanically) allows the player to buy one unit, building, or whatever, at a hugely discounted rate, OR B) provides the civ with more of something they have traded for diplomatically (e.g. Extra iron, extra gold, extra... open borders....?). For balancing purposes, shouldn't remove extra commodities from the other civ.
Spread Tales – similar/equivalent to the Tourism boost from a Musician in civ5 (don't use it along with the Gleeman version of the same thing).
Conduct Trade Mission – equivalent to Civ 5's trade mission.
Acquire Artifact – same as Historian above.

Ta'veren
This one is very generic, since ta'veren (people who the pattern sort of builds itself around) come in many shapes and sizes. Inspired mostly by Mat and Rand and Hawkwing.
Dark One's Own Luck – Inspired by Mat, of course. Don't know if this is mechanically possible, but the math/random number generation would work out slightly in your favor for a few turns (attacking, defending, etc.). Balancing this could be hard – maybe it only applies to one or a few units. Perhaps redundant with the Great Captain bonuses.
Ta'veren Influence – either A) a one-time huge boost to favor with a particular city-state, or B) a one-time ok boost to favor with ALL city states or C) some sort of diplomatic boost in the Hall of the tower, or D) some sort of diplo boost with other civs... not sure how that'd work.
Legendary Journey – another reskinning of the+Tourism/Prestige musician's tour
Shape Pattern – either A) a boost to global happiness, or B) starts a golden age.
Legacy – like the Ogier enhance-building, this either does the same or enhances workable tiles in the area.

Great Craftsman
This isn't very glamorous, and isn't super in-universe, but I think it needs to exist. I guess, actually, considring all the time Jordan describes clothing and porcelain, maybe this is super in-universe.
Create Craft – there's gotta be a better name for this, but creates a Great Work.
Create Guild – A Great Improvement, providing either A) Production, or B) gold, depending on which of these is still left to be covered.
Start Golden Age – someone's got to, right?

Great Traveller
This is based on Jain Farstrider and other such people. Likely redundant with some of the other GP's I've proposed.
Like the wolfbrothers, Great Travellers have incredible movement and sight (if both GP-types exist, they shouldn't both have this). Travellers could maybe even pass through all borders.
Gather Knowledge – another version of the Science dump
Discover Artifact – another way to get one of these, if that becomes our third great work.
Write memoir – one-time culture dump
Ambassador/World Traveller – similar to the spy-like functions described above with dreamers. Possible map revelation, enemy intentions, etc.
Start Golden Age – why not?

I really like all of these. If your ideas for other topics are as thorough and fun as these ones, then that's a lot of great design for me to work with. I should get on this whole implementing stuff process again.

Alriht, thats all I got. There were a few other things that part of me wanted to try – sniffers, tinkers, etc. Those characters are very memorable, but they just aren't very "great," in a global sense.

Hopefully you don't hate ALL of this!

I think Sniffers and Tinkers and such would work well as normal units in some capacity, but I haven't thought much about them yet. I think it's been too long since I've read the books, because I'm remembering a lot of content from reading your posts that I had forgotten about!
 
Wow, that is awesome. I'll respond to your stuff in order, but I'll just say that holistically I'm very impressed and like a lot of these ideas.

I'm glad to hear it. I was really hoping i wouldn't just get a "tldr lol!" or something... It's nice to get into game design again - it's been awhile.

In the current set up, Aes Sedai are units that you unlock at the Sisterhood tech, but I'm not particularly beholden to that idea. I like the flavor and gameplay of this a lot - they're not quite "hero" units, but something similar to that. I think this is something that would be good to add after the mod is basically functional/released. The existing use of Aes Sedai is markedly less work but can be swapped out for this new one fairly painlessly. GP levelling, which you discuss later, would also tie in well to being able to level up Aes Sedai.

Alright, so as I mentioned, there are a lot of ideas swimming around in my head about how channeling might work Many of that concerns levelling them and saidin and whatnot, but for now I think one thing to start considering is *how* you earn them, since it seems fundamentally important to the way this mod works.. I'll keep thinking on it and codify some thoughts in a later post, but for now, I'll merely say some of the things I've been mulling over.

For me, there are a few things that make Aes Sedai complicated - things that, IMO, would be good to implement somehow.

1) Aes Sedai are almost never directly affiliated with a given nation. Thus, producing them as normal seems antithetical to how they operate.
2) Aes Sedai transcend era and tech - with some exceptions, the Aes Sedai in the After breaking era would be just as powerful (perhaps more powerful) as those fighting in Tarmon Gaidon. Thus tying them to a tech tree seems problematic - although, of course, certain upgrades and such would occur over time, as things are (re)discovered or support systems are put in place.
3) Aes Sedai are tremendously powerful. In the last book, they kill trollocs and soldiers by the thousands. They should not be common, for balancing purposes.

All these apply most definitely to Aes Sedai specifically, but also apply to a certain extent to all channelers

The things I'm thinking might lead to a civ gaining an Aes sedai (or limit their production of them) are:

1) Consumption of a particularly rare strategic resource, say, "Old Blood," "Angreal," or other things we can come up with - essentially, a story-flavored cap on AE production. The resources need not be strictly tied to worked tiles (i.e., could be based on buildings and such).

2) Being gifted them by Tar Valon. This would necessitate TV being able to be the "ally" of multiple nations. Perhaps the most "realistic," but also not as strategically significant, as it would be somewhat random.

3) Produced like GP are - a city might pump out an AE every X turns due to resources present, buildings there, wonders, etc. This could definitely be interesting as a means of producing a channeler of any type, since it feels similar to how channeling people just sort of appear in the books. Unfortunately, the drawback to this method is that the production of GP might already get cluttered with all the different types we've been dreaming up.

4) Produced/Purchased via a replacement for Faith. I'm not sure what this would be yet, but I'll think on it. Could be, again, something like the "Old Blood" (you know, how so many Two Rivers Folks were channelers or Ta'veren) or Tower Influence or something more abstract.

One of these mechanisms could work for Aes Sedai (and Ashaman, maybe), while another could work for channelers in general. A Wisdom would obviously not need the White Tower favor to exist - All non Aes Sedai/Asha'man channelers could work similarly to other normal units. Perhaps multiple conditions would need to be met for certain units to be produced (e.g., proper Faith AND relations with TV to build an Aes Sedai).

I'll keep thinking on this, but I'm curious which methods you prefer. Again, I'm not a fan of it being just strict production, at least not at the moment.
 
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