Idea: Lead

[feydras]

Inspired by philmanny's priest spam thread i had an idea about the Philosopher's Stone...

New Resource: Lead
Revealed with Elementalism?
Lead mine +2 hammers, -0.50 health
When a Lead mine is hooked to a city with a Forge Lead grants units built (or maybe also visiting the city) the Magic Resistance promotion.
When Alchemy is discovered the Philosopher's Stone Wonder can be built, double speed with access to Lead. When completed if the city where the Wonder is built has access to Lead it adds X gold or doubles Gold production. However, you then loose the ability to grant Magic Resistance to new troops as all the greedy alchemists are busy scooping all the Lead up to turn to gold.

Flavor (very rough, off the top of my head): The magic repelling properties of lead-laced armor had been known of for years in the wars devastating the lands. However the metal's full potential wasn't discovered until Luchuirp alchemists stumbled upon the long sought after recipe when working on the enhancements that would eventually yeild the Nullstone golems.

The idea is to make a resource that has a different usefulness both early game and late game and offers a choice late game to warlike civs (keep the magic resistance) or to builder civs (sacrifice the MR for more gold).
Also, the hammer bonus + health penalty on the worked mine square adds something a little different.

- feydras

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I think it would be more reasonable for lead to give the "Heavy" promotion. This cannot be added for a while, since there is currently a resource cap.

 

[Bad Player]

It might be nice if this was a Lurchuip only thing - IMO they need some more stuff.

 

[kenken244]

and it would be useless to leaders with the magic resistant trait

 

[DieselBiscuit]

and it would be useless to leaders with the magic resistant trait

Dude, Magic Resistant is way overpowered at the moment. You want to let them keep that ridiculous advantage?

Lead should also be a prerequisite to make aqueducts and provide sanitation, just as in the old roman empire. It worked out great for them! Additionally, there's a lot of civilizations in our world that padded their armors with lead for great effect, just google 'lead armor' or read up on the related wikipedia articles.

All out of sarcasm now...

 

[MayNilad Man]

It worked out great for [Rome]!

Debatable.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

They survived due to hard water. Calcium buildup in their pipes prevented lead from seeping into the water unless the pipes were cleaned out recently.

 

[MayNilad Man]

You DO learn something everyday!

Though that does put a specter on Dieselbiscuit's idea.

 

[DieselBiscuit]

Debatable.

If it's so debatable, maybe you should debate it instead of being snarky. Yes, at first some of the population suffered from lead poisoning, but ultimately the lead pipes provided the roman soldiers with natural armor as the residue of the heavy compound bound to the outer layers of their skin. Unfortunately, this residue would wane proportionally with the time spent away from the a source of lead, e.g. during prolonged foreign campaigns. This had the rather unfortunate side effect of causing casualties for the romans as the soldiers, used to their nigh impenetrable skin, would suddenly become vulnerable to regular slingshot and arrows.

Given that a society implemented leaden baths and leaded drinking water on a conscious level, I'd hardly find the resulting advantages 'debatable.' Shine on, you crazy diamond!

I know it's one day off the date, but it was so temptin... *sorry*

 

[Nikis-Knight]

lol! I actually think silver would be better than lead for a magical resistant material; it's traditionally been associated with magic iirc.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Not that its relevant, but ingesting silver as a colloid gives a person considerable resistance to lead poisoning. It is also the strongest antibiotic known to man. The only real side effect is that it can turn a person blue.

In ffh it has already been stated that mithril resists all enchantments, but another bonus for the metal might be too much. I still think that lead could give the heavy promotion, making units stronger but slower.

 

[feydras]

Heavy sounds good. I like it having a positive and negative effect. Problem would be you would want to choose what troops got the promo. You wouldn't want all of your troops, even all of your melee troops to be slowed down. Maybe Lead should make the Heavy promo available but not auto grant it.

Those are good arguments against Magic Resistance. The point was to have a resource that has the potential to change function late game, specifically going from military to non-military use. You'd sacrifice a nice military bonus to get a minor economic advantage if you choose to build the Wonder. Plus the flavor fits with Lead for Philosopher's Stone.

Question: if mithril resists all enchantments shouldn't it stop Enchanted Weapons from working?

- feydras

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Perhaps mithril should both offer slight (10%?) magic resistance and prevent Enchanted weapons.

 

[cvlowe]

If a civilization uses lead actively, it should also get all the negatives that go along with lead poisoning, instead of just a simple , it should give-

-10% (lower IQ)
-10% (lethargy)
-10% (reproductive problems)

in every city that has the resource.

I kind of like the idea of a resource that has benefits AND drawbacks!

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning:

The symptoms of chronic lead poisoning include neurological problems, such as reduced IQ, nausea, abdominal pain, irritability, insomnia, excess lethargy or hyperactivity, headache and, in extreme cases, seizure and coma. There are also associated gastrointestinal problems, such as constipation, diarrhea, vomiting, poor appetite, weight loss, which are common in acute poisoning. Other associated effects are anemia, kidney problems, and reproductive problems.

In humans, lead toxicity sometimes causes the formation of a bluish line along the gums, which is known as the "Burton's line", although this is very uncommon in young children. Blood film examination may reveal "basophilic stippling" of red blood cells, as well as the changes normally associated with iron deficiency anemia (microcytosis and hypochromia).

A direct link between early lead exposure and extreme learning disability has been confirmed by multiple researchers and child advocacy groups.

 

[MayNilad Man]

Dieselbiscuit, just to point out: your post would have a lot more credibility if you named a source for that.

And while I may have appeared to be snarky, I was merely trying to call attention to the debate regarding the role of lead in the decline of the Roman Empire. Forgive me, I did not know the specific points in that debate, thus I was not prepared to commit myself, I merely wished to call attention to the debate.

On Mithril: why does it get broken by rust?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

It seems to me like Mithril should give immunity to the rust spell.

 

[DieselBiscuit]

Dieselbiscuit, just to point out: your post would have a lot more credibility if you named a source for that.

And while I may have appeared to be snarky, I was merely trying to call attention to the debate regarding the role of lead in the decline of the Roman Empire. Forgive me, I did not know the specific points in that debate, thus I was not prepared to commit myself, I merely wished to call attention to the debate.

If you use the select all text tool (or just do it manually with the mouse) on my posts, there just might be a surprise there for you

It was so close to aprils fools so I couldn't resist the temptation... so I guess I'll have to ask your forgiveness and not the other way around.

On another note, I agree that the Rust spell shouldn't remove mithril weapons.

 

[MayNilad Man]