Should make this a proposal. Completing clear barb camp CS quests shouldn't go against taking heavy tribute since its such a core mechanic of authorityI think friendship with CS shouldn't be hindering tributes, unless you're allied. This will also make Gunboat Diplomacy easier to use.
What do you guys think of giving authority the niche of selling units to other civ/cs in exchange for gold/science/culture instead of solely war/conquer related ? Something like science yield when producing unit and gold/culture yield when selling to other civ/cs with a few turn cd if sent from out of their border and instantly if within their border.
Reason being in higher difficulty war is already meta if you want to keep up with AIs, and just the bonus from killing units sometimes won't be enough to catch up (especially when you're stronger than your enemy and they can't pump out enough unit for you to farm while at the same time their cities aren't good enough to take - also I don't like "farming" behavior).
Authority can simply mean having/able to produce big army quickly (which also sync well with bonus from unit production - which currently warmonger doesn't need since you don't lose unit that frequently) and able to go to war any moment, but it doesn't mean you have to constantly go to war to keep progressing. Thus, similar to how progress gain science and culture from building and get bonuses to building, authority would gain science and culture from training and selling units, and get bonuses doing so. This way they also won't accumulate diplomatic penalty simply by trying to progress (as currently you have to be at war to progress) and be on the same footing as other civ, and also have other policy option open (statecraft or artistry)
I should clarify that this is in conjunction with the current kill bonus, so that authority can choose to to go war or go full on unit production to progress, and not locked to just 1 choice.
The Authority "script" to me is either you should be making those 4-5 cities or take a holy city. Going shrine first in authority cites once you have imperium isn't terrible, as you already start with a 40 culture lead over tradition/progress, and you already have a start to your border growth. So you can afford to go shrine first if you need to.The Autocracy also needs a source of religion through wins/kills. Because to build a shrines, instead of barracks and units - shoot yourself in the foot, seriously slowing down cultural development. If there is no religious city-state nearby that can be robbed 2-3 times, then you need to found 4-5 cities to become the founder of a religion before 100 turns.
You would occasionally get a crazy explosive start, and on the other end when you lack camps you still lack camps.What if every barb camp cleared gave you a +1 culture and +1 science in your capital, and every conquered city like +3 or something?
This removes some of the "fishing" aspect of barbs, you are incentivized to clear those camps as early as possible to get the passive boosts, and it gives Authority a bit more of an "engine" rather than just requiring non-stop conquest to maintain any sense of parity.
If that scales too much, we could use the China idea and have the bonuses half after each era. Something like:
Tribute
Your capital gains +2 culture and science for every barbarian camp cleared, and +6 for every conquered city. Theses bonuses are halved with each era.
What specifics are you envisioning here?Instant yield would still be the main source so waging war whenever possible is still preferred, the bonuses from selling units would only be useful for cooldown duration between wars.
You can get a faith bonus for killing via God of War or 2 faith to barracks via God of Protection. I don't think authority itself needs a faith source.You can personally give the autocracy either a faith bonus for killing, or add +2 (+3) faith to the barracks.
You can sell to either major civ or to CS without consent (like illegal arm dealers or private mercenary, though if the major civ in question is indeed in need of more units you will get diplomatic bonus and also some malus from their enemies without actually going to war, thus allowing authority to sell to both sides of a conflict like real world example).What specifics are you envisioning here?
I a build a unit to sell to other major civs? Or to city-states?
Its true. Ultimately the only way to make authority less swingy is:You would occasionally get a crazy explosive start, and on the other end when you lack camps you still lack camps.
And it's therefore a non-issue, in my opinion.Its true. Ultimately the only way to make authority less swingy is: