[NFP] Ability Brainstorming/Civ attributes not designed with a historical civ in mind

[Hellenism Salesman]

As the tile suggests, this thread is just for posting any and all ability, unique district, unique building, unique tile improvement, or unique unit ideas that you've had, but they don't have to be for a real-life civ. The difference between this and other threads is that you're not creating whole civilizations, but instead the dettached elements of one. So if you have a good idea for a leader ability, but not a civ one, post it here. If you have a fantastic concept for a unique unit, but no idea who it should go to, post it here. And if you have clever ideas for unique districts but you're unsure how they would fit into the rest of a civ, post them here.

Think of this as an opportunity to suggest any cool ability ideas you've had but can't find the right civ for.

Also keep in mind that while you should strive for balance, the purpose of this is also for discovering unique playstyles and concepts that you couldn't otherwise if you were locked into the bounds of a factual, historical civ you were basing it all on.

I'll give some examples to get the ball rolling. And for any modders interested, the ideas I list are completely free to use. Go nuts

• Civ/Leader Abilities:
  • Gain access to the Move Capital project in all cities with a Holy Site. +100% Faith in the Capital. The Capital gains +1 Culture per population and +2 Food for each City Center within 6 tiles. (This could fit for a Constantine alt leader, just saying...)
    
  • While in a Golden Age, generate Gold per turn equal to all Era Score earned during this era. +3 Era Score upon completing a Commercial Hub or Harbor.
    
  • Capturing an enemy city makes the original owner of that city lose 1 Era Score. All units gain +3 Combat Strength while in a Golden Age, but lose -5 Combat Strength when in a Dark Age. Gain double the Era Score from capturing capitals and defeating civilizations.
    
  • Trading Posts in foreign cities provide -5 Loyalty. Commercial Hub buildings in your cities exert -1 Loyalty to all foreign cities within 9 tiles. When a city leaves its civilization due to your Loyalty Pressure, it instantly flips to you, skipping the free city stage.
  • All City Centers have a Relic slot. Unlock Archaeologists at Recorded History instead of Natural History. Relics provide +2 Science.

• Unique District:
  • Dam Replacement:
    • Base +3 Housing (identical to regular dam)
    • +1 Housing for each adjacent district
    • +3 Food for an adjacent City Center
    • You can place more than one of this district per river
    • This district cannot be placed adjacent to another one of itself
  • Neighborhood Replacement:
    • Fixed +4 Housing (not based on Appeal)
    • Can be placed in shallow water tiles
    • +1 Appeal to adjacent coastal tiles
    • Adjacent unimproved land tiles receive +1 Production
    • Adjacent sea resources receive +1 Science
  • Aqueduct Replacement:
    • Same housing rules as the normal Aqueduct
    • +2 Power after Industrialization is researched
    • +1 Power for each adjacent floodplains tile after Industrialization is researched
      
    • +1 Food for each adjacent district
    • If placed on a resource, that resource is automatically harvested (if technologies permit) when this district is completed
  • Theater Square Replacement:
    • This district can and must be placed on mountains
    • +2 Production for adjacent City Centers
    • +2 Culture for adjacent City Centers
    • +1 Culture for each adjacent Mountain tile
    • +1 Culture to adjacent tiles

• Unique Building:
  • Library Replacement:
    • +2 Great Works of Writing slots
    • +1 Science
    • +1 Culture
  • Ampitheater Replacement:
    • +2 Culture
    • +1 Amenity
    • +1 Great Work of Writing Slot
    • +2 Relic Slots
    • +1 Great Writer point per turn

• Unique Unit:
  • I have no ideas. Unique units aren't my specialty...

• Unique Tile Improvements:
  • Once again, no ideas. I find them kind of boring, personally...

 

[Duke William of Normandy]

I'll see what Civilisation Ideas I can use some of these ideas for... Thanks, @Hellenism Salesman.

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

I'll see what Civilisation Ideas I can use some of these ideas for... Thanks, @Hellenism Salesman.

No problem! That is exactly what it's here for

 

[Mr. Salt]

Abilities:

• All Alliance types negate Loyalty pressure at level 1. All districts receive a major adjacency bonus from foreign districts, and a standard adjacency bonus from international borders.
• Industrial Zone buildings provide +1 Housing. All specialists add +1 Science.
• +1 Combat Strength to military units, +5% Science and +5% Production for every capital owned.
• If an ally has unlocked a unit, you can upgrade your units to that unit without having the technology necessary. All upgrades are 75% cheaper.
• Great Admiral points from all sources are doubled. Great Admirals have an extra charge. All naval and embarked units have +2 sight range.
• All Apostles have the Heathen Conversion promotion.
• All Districts grant +2 Gold and +1 Production. Cities with fully promoted Governors can buy Districts with Gold.
• All cities gain +10 Power automatically. Units with Coal or Oil as a resource requirement do not consume it over time. (This was actually from a very old idea, for the Fire Nation from Avatar.)

Infrastructure:

• Unique improvement: Must be placed on a tile with Average or worse Appeal. +6 Appeal on its tile. Can be included in National Parks. Cannot be worked.
• Unique improvement: +2 Faith and +1 Culture. Cannot be constructed after the Renaissance Era. Provides +1 Diplomatic Favor with Conservation. Must be constructed on Woods or Tundra.
• Unique building: Replaces the Library. Has two slots for Great Works of Writing. Each of these, when filled, grants units trained in the city +2 Combat Strength.
• Unique building: Replaces the Medieval Walls. +150 Outer Defense Strength. Provides +5 Loyalty.
• Unique building: Replaces the Ancient Walls. Units trained in cities with it gain the Ranger promotion.
• Unique building: Replaces the Market. Provides +1 Great Person point of the type of each adjacent district.
• Unique district: Replaces the Government Plaza. Each building in it grants +1 Trade Route, and Trade Routes passing through the city with it gain +3 Science and Culture.

Units:

• Swordsman replacement. +7 Combat Strength, but cannot benefit from defensive terrain or improvements.
• Cuirassier replacement. Requires Coal instead of Iron. Costs +80 Production, but has +6 Combat Strength. +10 Combat Strength against district defenses and district ranged strikes.

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

Unique improvement: Must be placed on a tile with Average or worse Appeal. +6 Appeal on its tile. Can be included in National Parks. Cannot be worked.

I like that idea a lot- you can intentionally ruin your appeal to place Natural Parks, but with a stark downside. It's powerful, but still rewards careful thinking. Strong, but skillful.

That is the mark of a well-designed unique.

 

[Sostratus]

Back in 2019 I made some leaders just for kicks:

In this context, the Manufactory is a civ unique improvement that acts like a civ4 workshop - a production improvement for flat tiles. But you can delete it without losing the core concepts.

I really, really enjoyed playing with Captain of Industry. Basically, all your civil engineering districts + neighborhoods get slapped up in half the time, and you get japanese tier IZs. (Poland actually has a similar thing for Holy Sites.)
Optimized extractors was just to plug a hole I felt the game had - england gets extra iron and coal extraction, but no one gets more oil, alum, or uranium.

I wanted to make a third leader with an ability themed around exports and trade.
This would likely have taken a form of having "During a golden age, Industrial Zones provide Gold equal to their adjacency" and some other trade route related thing.

Magnasanti is a very fun twist on Meiji restoration, because you build up your cities like blobs (they look more accurate to real life.) The +1 amenity clause could be deleted to make it look cleaner.

None of these need to be tied to each other, of course.

I would also love to see a civ that epitomizes the "generalist builder" trope by getting a Unique City Center District (it's a district after all) which has adjacency bonuses, sort of like what Mali has with desert, but with improvements and districts. Just to really make things interesting. That would pair well with magnasanti... why didn't I think of this...

Another idea is a civ getting a unique wonder instead of a building or improvement or district. The only good example that comes to mind is Egypt and the Sphinx - you could require the sphinx wonder be built next to a wonder owned by the city. That could have a lot of fun if you did stuff like give the unique wonder an aura effect, or something. Not sure how that would work with multiple of the same civ.

 

[8housesofelixir]

This is a fun brainstorming practice.

I would like to link one of my past posts on an independent idea here - Every retired Great People of this Civilization will give 1 Relic until the Relic pool is depleted.

Magnasanti is a very fun twist on Meiji restoration, because you build up your cities like blobs (they look more accurate to real life.) The +1 amenity clause could be deleted to make it look cleaner.

Also - is this Magnasanti a reference of the famous Magnasanti build on SimCity 3000? And I must admit I really like this ability, all your cities will look more "real".

 

[Amrunril]

Adaptive Conquerors (UA): When conquering a city, the unique infrastructure of the previous owner is retained. All cities you own may build the unique units and infrastructure of their founding civ.

Barbarian Allies (UA): Your civilization is considered at peace with barbarians (attacking a barbarian unit or camp will make units spawned by the same camp hostile. When your cities borders grow through culture to include a barbarian camp, the camp is converted to an encampment, and you gain control of all units spawned by that camp.


Landscape Architect (UU): Replaces Military Engineer. May expend a charge to convert a coastal tile to grassland, plains or tundra or a grassland, plain or tundra tile to coast. May expend 2 charges to convert a hills tile to mountains or a mountain tile to hills.

Border Raider (UU): Cannot attack cities but cannot be targeted by city ranged attacks. Grants double yields from pillaging and allows attached civilian units to share its movement speed.

 

[8housesofelixir]

Some small pieces of abilities:

Wartime Bonds: +150% Gold income in all cities for 10 turns once received a Declaration of War (Australia's ability, but with gold)

Eastern Trade: International trade routes +2 Gold, +2 Culture. Cities trade internationally receive +2 Amenity. (Refer to Roman Empire's trade with Persia, India, etc.)

Margrave Obligation: Non-capital city with Governors +30% production towards military units. (Refer to the border lords in a feudal system, such as those in HRE)

Revanchism: All units gain +10 combat strength and +1 movement for 30 turns if the original capital is lost. (As the name suggests)

Byzantinism: All cities with a Governor +4 Housing, +2 Food, +1 Amenity. (Also as the name suggests)

Mining Towns: All the mines +1 Food. Desert/Tundra mines +2 Food. (Mines provide food is such a fascinating ability)

Jōkamachi: All Districts gain +1 Food and +1 Gold, increase to +2 Food, +2 Gold, and +1 Housing upon researching Medieval Fair. (The castle town traditions of Medieval Japan)

Latecomer's Struggle: Trade routes to Civilizations at least 1 era ahead in tech/civic will gain +1 Great Engineer Point and +1 Great Scientist Point. When at war with Civilizations at least 1 era ahead in tech, all units gain +10 combat strength and +1 movement. (Peter's ability but much stronger)

Farmer-Soldier: Farms +2 Production, Farms next to Districts +1 Production and +1 Culture. All cities gain extra production towards building military units, +1 Production per Citizen. Every military units have 1 charge for building Farms. (The good old Roman tradition)

 

[Sostratus]

Also - is this Magnasanti a reference of the famous Magnasanti build on SimCity 3000? And I must admit I really like this ability, all your cities will look more "real".

But of course! I am glad to see someone gets the reference.

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

(Peter's ability but much stronger)

Presenting: Peter! But good.

Mining Towns: All the mines +1 Food. Desert/Tundra mines +2 Food. (Mines provide food is such a fascinating ability)

Absolutely. I don't know what it is about yield generators, but making them generate things they shouldn't is one of my favorite go-tos when brainstorming abilities.

 

[InsidiousMage]

Collectivism: Each farm gets +1 Production for every two adjacent farms, raising to +2 with Feudalism and +2 per adjacent farm with Replaceable Parts. (Mirroring the way farms work.)

 

[Sostratus]

Since I only really like industrial themed abilities, one that I had toyed with was a leader ability that would be the 'missing' policy card for industrial zone buildings:
+50% if the district has 4+ adjacency, +50% if the city has 10+ population. (Or whatever they rebalanced those cards to.) The problem, in playtesting, is that ability is completely overpowered. It would make a good one to trigger conditionally off a golden age (or dark age!!) though.

If you played with the numbers for balancing, it would be pretty fun.

 

[8housesofelixir]

Oh, how can I forget this ability:

It's Babylonian Again: Inspirations instantly unlock their respective Civics. -30% Culture per turn.
(Culture is much harder to come by than Science, so I toned down the penalty a little bit)

 

[Mr. Salt]

Oh, how can I forget this ability:

It's Babylonian Again: Inspirations instantly unlock their respective Civics. -30% Culture per turn.
(Culture is much harder to come by than Science, so I toned down the penalty a little bit)

This goes a long way -
It's Arabian Again: Gain the last Great Prophet for free. Each city following your religion grants +1 Culture.
It's Gallic Again: Mines provide +1 Science, trigger a Culture Bomb, and grant a minor adjacency bonus to all districts. Districts can't be placed next to the City Center and don't give each other adjacency bonuses.
It's Persian Again: Get an extra Trade Route with Political Philosophy. Domestic Trade Routes provide +2 Gold and +2 Science. All roads are 1 level higher.
It's Scottish Again: Happy cities gain +5% Culture and +5% Faith, and generate +1 GWAM points in their Theater Squares. Ecstatic cities double these bonuses.
It's Hojo Again: +5 CS for land units in Coastal tiles and naval units on Coast tiles. Build Encampments, Campuses and Industrial Zones in half the time.
It's Pericles Again: +10% Science for each city-state you are the Suzerain of.
It's Wilhelmina Again: +1 Loyalty in cities with domestic Trade Routes. +2 Science from incoming international Trade Routes.

 

[Duke William of Normandy]

UA: Can pillage Tiles of Civilizations you are not at War with, but -25% Yields from Pillaging.

 

[8housesofelixir]

UD: Export Processing Zone
Replaces Industrial Zone. Can be only built on Coastal Waters.
Receive major adjacency (+2 P) from Harbors, Commercial Hub, and City Center. Receive minor adjacency (+1 P) from Campus and Oil Platform.
Gain unique project "Export Investment" at "Economic" Tech. When completed, it yields Gold equal to 60% Production invested in it.

(Export Processing Zone is a form of industrial zone specializes in manufacturing for export. Many developing countries set up numerous EPZs for an export-oriented economy, which contributed to their high growth rates in 20th century; the "Four Asian Tigers" are perfect examples.)

 

[Duke William of Normandy]

Looking at all these great ideas... I feel inadequate.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Patriotic War
Each of your cities with more than 1 Pop loses 1 Population, but every enemy military unit in your territory loses 10% HP every turn that they are within your borders, and there is a 10% chance each turn that any enemy non-military unit (Missionaries, Great Generals, etc) will be eliminated.

Auftragstaktik
All military units cost +10% to build, but all military units ignore enemy Zones of Control

You Want to Live Forever?
You can attach any Great General to any military unit, and as long as the attachment remains, that unit's combat factors, ranged or melee, are +100% BUT in any combat, there is a 33% chance that the General gets eliminated.

Every Man Shall Do His Duty
You can attach any Great Admiral to any Naval combat unit, and that unit has +100% combat factors, ranged or melee, but in any combat there is a 25% chance that the Admiral gets eliminated.

This Hallowed Ground
Any battle that you win with a Great General involved, the site of the battle can be used to form a National (Battlefield) Park as long as there are 3 other tiles around the site without Improvements/constructions on them.

The Motherland Calls
If any city of yours is placed under Seige and survives, you may build or replace a Monument in that city with a Memorial which provides +3 Culture, +4 Loyalty, and after the beginning of the Modern Era +5 Tourism.

- So, what did you expect from a military historian?

 

[Duke William of Normandy]

Patriotic War
Each of your cities with more than 1 Pop loses 1 Population, but every enemy military unit in your territory loses 10% HP every turn that they are within your borders, and there is a 10% chance each turn that any enemy non-military unit (Missionaries, Great Generals, etc) will be eliminated.

Auftragstaktik
All military units cost +10% to build, but all military units ignore enemy Zones of Control

You Want to Live Forever?
You can attach any Great General to any military unit, and as long as the attachment remains, that unit's combat factors, ranged or melee, are +100% BUT in any combat, there is a 33% chance that the General gets eliminated.

Every Man Shall Do His Duty
You can attach any Great Admiral to any Naval combat unit, and that unit has +100% combat factors, ranged or melee, but in any combat there is a 25% chance that the Admiral gets eliminated.

This Hallowed Ground
Any battle that you win with a Great General involved, the site of the battle can be used to form a National (Battlefield) Park as long as there are 3 other tiles around the site without Improvements/constructions on them.

The Motherland Calls
If any city of yours is placed under Seige and survives, you may build or replace a Monument in that city with a Memorial which provides +3 Culture, +4 Loyalty, and after the beginning of the Modern Era +5 Tourism.

- So, what did you expect from a military historian?

Nothing less.