[DLL] (8-NS) Arabia & Byzantium 4UC Other Swap

[Rekk]

Original proposals:

(8-02) 4UC Arabia

This is a thread for discussing the addition of 2 more unique components to the Arabian civilization.

forums.civfanatics.com

(8-08) 4UC Byzantium

This is a thread for discussing the addition of 2 more unique components to the Byzantine civilization.

forums.civfanatics.com

Other counter-proposal:

[DLL] - (8-NS) Arabia & Byzantium 4UC Swap

Repost of Hinin's original proposal https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/8-wd-arabia-byzantium-4uc-swap.690578/ Current : See pineappledan's proposals for 4UC Arabia https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/8-02-4uc-arabia.690024/ and Byzantium...

forums.civfanatics.com

from @pineappledan, Aplekton modified by me

Spoiler Byzantium :

Byzantium
Basileuousa
Your Capital gains +1 Culture, Science, and Gold permanently when a Historic Event occurs.
Whenever a City converts to your Majority religion for the first time, a Historic Event is triggered.
Cities gain 1 Faith for every 8 City Strength.

Spoiler early City defense refresher :

Base city: 5
Hill bonus: +2
Palace: +4
Wall: +6
Warrior garrison: +4
Spear garrison: +6

Lavra - UB (Temple) - same icon as current tetraconch
+3 +2 (up from 3 faith only)
+50% Pressure in this city (up from 25%)
Gain 100% of the city's and output as an instant yield when a new Citizen is born
1 GW Music slot
-1 from religious unhappiness
+1 to Incense, Wine, and Amber

Aplekton - UI (Fort)
Unlocks at Engineering
Requires No Two Adjacent, build on city border
2 11 1
+1 if adjacent to at least 1 tile owned by another player
+30% tile defense
Tile Cannot be stolen by Culture bombs
Fortification
Canal
Chemistry: +2
Military Science: +2
Electronics: +4
Stealth: +4

UU1 - Tagma (Knight) - same art as existing Cataphract
CS reduced from 28 to 27 (+3 from base)
Moves restored to 4 (same as base knight)
give back regular city penalty (-33%)
Remove Shock Cavalry promotion
Add Resilience (+15 hp and +15% Defense)
(No Defense from Terrain still removed)

UU2 Dromon (replaces Liburna)
remove Splash I
Greek Fire - Plague changed to deals 5 damage per turn for 2 turns (conventional DOT damage)

Spoiler Byzantium Rationale :

The historic event trigger needs a solid, early founding ability so that Byzantium can secure a religion. If it doesn't get a religion this unique HE is cooked.

• The cannot simply be added onto the permanent HE yields for a few reasons:
  • There are not enough HE triggers in ancient to ensure founding. You might get 1-3 once you have entered classical; that's not enough to found with
  • The HE trigger accelerates in late game with the rate of HEs, mostly from great person births. If this gave faith then it would be a case of faith that is slow and then accelerates just as the rest of the faith economy plateaus. This runs counter to the faith game in general
• The City strength to scaler incorporates an aspect of the game that is underexplored right now: City strength values
  • Starting capital will have 9-11 CS before garrison, enough for 1 per turn on turn 0.
  • newly settled cities can secure 1 per turn with garrisons immediately.
  • Going forward from the first turns, players will need to be mindful of their city strength stats as a core part of their faith engine, giving an economic incentive for investing in defense
  • Influences policy and wonder choices like the Fealty scaler and Himeji Castle

The HE trigger on spread sets up an interesting tension between Artistry and Fealty trees

• Do you pick Fealty to maximize your ability to spread, and increase your faith output, or do you invest in Artistry for the policy-locked HE triggers and specialist/GP bonuses?

The Aplekton's border bonuses combine to create a unique tool for border lands.

• Creates incentive to keep borders with enemy civs and city-states stable and within working distance of your cities
• The additional yields for accomplishing this are fairly small, only +2, but it creates a unique incentive for setting up a militarized frontier early with your neighbours
• Reinforces the turtling playstyle of the civ, maximizing defense
• Interesting interactions with this build restriction:
  - She can build aplektons early and as the borders expand, make new ones while the previous ones get worse
  - She can skip straight to forward settling for the additional "border tension" reward
  - She can go aggressive, conquer a city, build on the borders, then move to take the next city, benefitting from tensions yields in the meantime

Tetraconch changes

• Lavra is a better name in my estimation. They were actual institutions whereas tetraconch mostly refers to a floor plan.
• Instead of the existing faith scaler, the Lavra is changed to a large amount of yields on birth. This is reminiscent of Spain's old Mission, back when it used to be a Castle UB.
• The unique temple remains my top pick for a Byzantine component because it is unique. The Hippodrome is likely going to get stacked with the Huns' Alticur, and it isn't a particularly memorable building. Furthermore, Byzantine still needs a strong faith economy to support its UA, which this UB can provide.

Cataphract changes

• This unit needed a modest nerf.
• The addition of the aplekton combines well with the unit's existing ability to gain defense from tiles.
• The name Tagma is more specifically Byzantine and emphasizes the organization and tactics of the unit over the equipment
• The combination of rough terrain defense bonuses and shock cavalry created a complicated network of interlocking % bonuses in conflicting terrain. The unit's various bonuses appeared schizophrenic

Dromon changes

• As Azum4roll pointed out, the splash is not doing much for this unit
• The original design was for the unit to inflict a damage over time plague to any unit hit by the Dromon. Such a bonus would be much easier to understand than the other options, but it would require new code.

Spoiler Arabia :

Arabia
UA: Seal of the Prophets
Can always found a religion
Can always pick any belief and has 1 additional belief slot.
-15% Faith purchase costs.
Great people Faith purchases are available immediately

UB1: Bazaar (Market)
Unlocked at Trade
Standard cost
+3 Gold, +1 Science, +1 Culture
+1 Faith and +1 Gold per 4 population
+1 Gold to International trade routes to and from this city,
+100% Pressure towards Cities connected by a Trade Route
1 Merchant specialist
Standard bonus yields to Spice and Sugar

UB2: Dar Al-Shifa (Grocer)
Unlocked at Chemistry
standard costs
+4 Science, +2 Faith
+1 Happiness
+1 Food per 5 Citizens in the City
10% of Science in the city is converted to Food each turn
15% Food carried over when a new Citizen is born in the City
Land Units in this City heal 5 hp per turn whatever their action.
15% of Faith Purchases in city converted to Science and Food
-1 Unhappiness from Poverty

UU1: Camel Archer (Heavy Skirmisher)
Remove "Splash I"
remove "withdraw from combat"
Add "Loved Camel" - Ignores movement costs in Desert (lost on upgrade)
Add "Ghazi" - 15 AOE damage when pillaging a tile

UU2 - Baghlah (Frigate)
Unlocks at Navigation
Standard costs
27 (+2) 36 (+1)
5 (+1), 2 Range
Envelopment

Spoiler Arabia Rationale :

UA

• This is Byzantium's existing UA with no alterations. As a civilization based around a late founding religion, this UA works better thematically here than on Byzantium.

Bazaar changes

• This proposal moves the existing tetraconch bonus of scaling from population onto the bazaar.
• Current Byzantium relies on the UB's strong faith generation in order to make the UA relevant. Byzantium's existing UA cannot be transplanted to another civ without a dependable faith engine and be expected to work. I'm sure the historicity will take a hit or whatever, but the other proposals are sacrificing playability for authenticity, and that's not a good trade.

Dar Al-Shifa

• I like this move to grocer; this unstacks Arabia from Korea's Seowon and onto its own UB (as long as we manage to axe the Austrian Coffeehouse)
• The Yields on faith purchase was originally conceived and designed for Arabia. I'm attached to it for various reasons, and it's just a damn good bonus. It makes even more sense for Arabia with this new UA than it did previously
• The previously stated abilities for the Dar Al-shifa were all over the place; these abilities are already coded and ready to go, and they give the UB a strong identity while still being unique and accessible

Baghlah

• There are a 2 versions of the Baghlah proposal out now, and I prefer @azum4roll 's. I agree that the frigate matches the timing better. Furthermore, we have quite a few Caravels and not nearly as many unique frigates

Camel Archer

• The abilities moved onto the Camel Archer are originally designed for the Hashemite Raider, which has been axed from these proposals for the Baghlah
• The AOE on pillage was conceived and designed for Arabia first, long before Denmark had it. It is a more unique bonus than the splash damage.
• The Movement in desert bonus is because the unit is a camel. It is a comparable bonus to the feared elephant promotion that all elephant units get. It makes sense, and also is way less annoying than withdraw from melee attack.

 

[azum4roll]

The yield is still only maximized if you forward settle (or be forward settled), or your borders will be out of the city's working range.

 

[Recursive]

Timestamp post to arrange all the threads in a neat order.