Balanced Update To Red Death and New Civ Ideas

[efurstie]

A few of the Red Death Civs are fine just the way they are, and you'll find that most players choose them:

• Cultists
• Wanderers
• Pirates
• Preppers

A few Civs are just underwhelming, but seem like they should be good enough, perhaps with minor tweaks:

• Borderlords: Perhaps +1 movement if starting outside safe zone?
• Jocks: Needs something. Maybe +5 against melee class units on top of their original bonus (hand-to-hand advantage or something)
• Mutants: One more movement when starting in Red Death? +5 strength when starting in Red Death? Can heal while in Red Death? Something needs to give them a boost.

And the Scientists are just poor. One fix that would maintain the concept and make them much more desirable would be for +5 healing even if unit takes action, and/or ability to heal in the Red Death (maybe half-rate or something). Otherwise, they just suck.

Some ideas for new Civs:

• Televangelists: Have 1/10 chance of converting a barbarian every time a you fight them with a non-ranged attack.
• Whirlibirds: Start with a single helicopter, only receive helicopters from cities. Helicopters are inherently weak against...well...a lot of things...but if you had enough of them...

I'd also like to see a naval unit. What about a boat, that took damage at half the rate of other units. But it had no way to heal other than promotions - it would slowly die over time. It could have a range of 1 (promotion to 2), and would be able to melee attack embarked units - except that every time it did, it would be reducing its total lifespan. Spawns from coastal barb camps. Pirates start with no machine gun, but one of these instead. Movement rate starts at embarked rate, but promotion can make them faster. Can perform coastal raids on barb camps, but not cities (would be too OP).