A speculation thread: special abilities

[12agnar0k]

I'd have to agree England's sun never set's ability along with the return of a navy UU is most likely less maintanence from cities on a different continent. Which should be good . Atleast if you concentrate on rushing ocean capable craft and then settle cities on an unknown continent.

 

[GinandTonic]

Could Siberian Riches be some kind of modifier as to how much it costs to "buy a tile". If, say, it costs more to buy a tile in the second ring (perhaps just until a certain number of tiles in the inner ring were bought?) the Russians could be exempt from that cost. Enabling them to more easily utilise odd little cities surrounded by mostly marginal terrain that while they will never be great have potential to be useful. With the three-ring radius small tundra cities would become a lot more viable.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I'd have to agree England's sun never set's ability along with the return of a navy UU is most likely less maintanence from cities on a different continent. Which should be good . Atleast if you concentrate on rushing ocean capable craft and then settle cities on an unknown continent.

I don't know. While less distance maintenance seems to be the most logical thing for England I worry about balance. We know the Iroquis will be able to utilise their ability from turn one and the Romans as soon as they have their second city, while lower distance maintenace probably won't be useful until the mid game. It would be better if England got some additional benefit from installing puppet governments, but that too requires that they first conquer some cities.

 

[Schuesseled]

but then again that iroqouis ability will be useless after the deforestation period, which ususally hits between bronze working and civil service in my civ 4 games.

 

[grant2004]

I saw someone speculate that the Iroquois UB might give a boost to forested tiles. If that were the case it would encourage an Iroquois player to preserve their forests, and thus their special ability. By the time the Iroquois decide to chop their forests and replace them with something else, maybe they'll have reached the point in the game where most other civs have completed their chop rushing, leaving them free to make a mid-late game rush of wonders or units unoposed.

Also they have stated that forest tiles will be more difficult to expand to than open tiles. This could mean that an early chop rush won't be as effective and forests will last further into the game.

I have a feeling that the unique abilities will mesh strongly with the unique units and unique buildings. Rome for example has two unique units which should apear around the same period, giving them a large boost at that time. After they conquer some new cities with those new units their special ability will allow for those cities to be quickly rebuilt. It's my impression that each civ will have abilities and units that will allow it to play a different game than any of the other civs are capable of.

 

[Shirastro]

Maybe Iroquois will be able to build tile improvements (or at least some of them) without chopping down forests, and maybe their units would get some sort of defensive bonus while standing on the forest, thus allowing them to have some sort of natural wall around their cities, forcing them to play more defensively (again).

 

[Ikael]

Manifest Destiny: faster tile expansion or perhaps bonuses related with the adoption of democratic social policies.

Trade Caravans: probably advantages towards creating trade routes, perhaps tightly related to a new economic system or mechanic yet to be introduced

Sacrificial Captives: Bigger bonuses to destroying cities: you gain extra culture and / or gold per citizen killed.

Art of War: Spy bonuses, probably an additional line of vision into the enemy territory?

Monument Builders: Bonust to the production of wonders, obviously.

Sun Never Sets: Less penalties for having cities in far away places.

Ancien Regime: Some kind of culture bonus for adopting certain social policies like aristocracy.

Hellenic League: Doubles the bonuses provided by the alliances with other civs or civ states


Population Growth: Duh.

Bushido: Special unit promotion unique to Japanese units, only applicable to melee - based units (swordsman, spearman, etc).

Barbary Corsairs: Extensive bonuses for disrupting enemy trade routes.

Archaemenid Legacy: Culture bonus, probably related to stability of goverment and the manteinance of traditions

Siberian Riches: Trade and food bonus in tundra and artic regions, or perhaps extended bonus of resources: say, if usually one oil resurce can support 5 tanks, with siberian riches it can support up to 10 tanks.

Father Governs Children: Bonuses for choosing "paternalistic" social policies (monarchy, social democracy, etc).

River Warlord: Units gaining attack and defense in the proximity of river tiles.

 

[stealth_nsk]

China - Some sort of espionage bonus seems about right, but possibly could be diplomatic (easier to induce other civs into wars ? other civs "forget" past indescretions faster ?)

John stated very clear what diplomacy will make no difference between AI and real players. So unless they developed a method to cast amnesia on players, such diplomatic bonus will not occur

 

[Mustakrakish]

Btw. if Russia had ability to uncover additional resources, would it be not potential ability of everyone else? I mean, wouldn't it be pretty common tactic to let them reveal it and take over? And with limited resources that would probably be worthwile. So that really would be a weakness not an advantage.

That would kind of make sense considering that there were always some folks tying/lusting for a piece of Russian resources.

Rushing with population could be a potential special ability, maybe for Egypt but we know that their monument builders were (at least in the case of the pyramids) paid workers and not slaves.

Maybe for Aztecs then That would make sense I think...

If it was for some sort of production boost on tundra it would be a crappy skill. Unless Russia is allways placed in a spot always located near tundra, you'd be down and out with that ability. So I can't see it being that, unless like I said Russia is always near/around tundra. If your in all grassland you have no ability. While Romes sitting there with it's 20% production boost, your sitting there with your useless ability.

Nicely put.

John stated very clear what diplomacy will make no difference between AI and real players. So unless they developed a method to cast amnesia on players, such diplomatic bonus will not occur

That what I was hoping for, where did you hear/read it?

Siberian Riches: Trade and food bonus in tundra and artic regions, or perhaps extended bonus of resources: say, if usually one oil resurce can support 5 tanks, with siberian riches it can support up to 10 tanks.

A bit over powerful I think...

 

[stealth_nsk]

That what I was hoping for, where did you hear/read it?

For example:

You have more life-like characters that respond in a more rational way that feel like other players instead of simply numbers.

Link: http://www.weplayciv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3743

 

[Schuesseled]

Trade Caravans: Land trade routes don't require roads?

Sacrificial Captives: Productivity bonus for captured cities?

Sun Never Sets: Lower colony/distance maintenance?

Father Governs Children: Bonus for puppet states of some variety, productive, happiness bonus?

River Warlord: Extra bonuses for across river combat?

 

[Stalingrad]

yea i always wonder what it could be for siberian riches, i wonder when they willshed light on all the civ speciic ablities, why does it say though onthe civ 5 site that gandi supports increase city size while catherine supports city expansion, do Russians hve it easier to expand and Indians have it easier to pop out them babies?

 

[Schuesseled]

personally i support increasing city size and expansion. Thats why I win.

 

[grant2004]

yea i always wonder what it could be for siberian riches, i wonder when they willshed light on all the civ speciic ablities, why does it say though onthe civ 5 site that gandi supports increase city size while catherine supports city expansion, do Russians hve it easier to expand and Indians have it easier to pop out them babies?

I think they say that as a way of reflecting on the different play styles and 'personalities' of the leaders, not as an indication of special abilities. Although Ghandi's special ability does seem like it would aid that play style.

They said that AI's will be governed by varriables which determine how much effort they put towards different objectives; culture, science, military, each leader will have a set value for each of these varriables, with a small range on it. I believe Ghandi and Catherine are just used to show how AI's respond differently to the varriables affecting expansionism and city development.

 

[Snoopy]

I don't think American's special ability is to expand via cities, but to expand via culture. I say this because the "American" ability to expand over the United States wasn't really an American trait, but an English one. What is more an American trait, is the spread of culture and influence.

 

[awesome]

i wouldn't say that. the louisiana purchase wasn't until two decades after the end of the revolutionary war and the california gold rush didn't happen until almost half a century later, which really got american expansion going.
but yeah, maybe faster cultural expansion would be better, even though armed settlers would be awesome.

 

[Snoopy]

I know it's hard for many American's to accept, but even after the Revolution, Americans were still living the English way of life, English standards, English systems. It wasn't until WWII, that American's started to colour themselves a much different culture. Hence why I say, it's an English trait to expand rapidly, and not just expand, but establish the same English infrastructure. Apart from spreading Christianity, English were never good at spreading culture into countries that weren't their's. Unlike America, which at about the 1950's, commercialism and entertainment was the driving force of American's influence around the world.

So...
English: Ability to spread and establish a fairly working infrastructure around the world.
Americans: Ability to spread and establish American culture around the world.

 

[awesome]

nah, we were very different than england before wwii. maybe not right away like i had suggested, so my bad on that one, but even still, you're way off. american culture may not have spread throughout the world like wildfire until after the second world war, but there had to have already be a unique enough culture for that to happen, which there was.

 

[Schuesseled]

the further you look back at american history, the more british it seems.

 

[Churchdown Yank]

the further you look back at american history, the more british it seems.

Until the two become almost indistinguishable