Better Great People ideas

[Addersting]

While I really like the individualization of the great people and what they do (some of them anyway), I think that we can do a lot better. Please feel free to add your ideas, suggest different bonus or offer changes to these bonuses. All comments are welcome.

Every great person should have multiple types of usages. Specifically, every type should be capable of building a district building that grants a percentage increase in that districts type (only one per district), a tile improvement that provides a defined bonus of their type (and doesn't destroy the luxury or strategic resource if possible), have a one-time burst use in their category and their default usage currently in the game.

A great Scientist should build an Academy on a tile (+5 science, +2 great scientist point), build a Labratory in a Campus district (+10% science for that city), be expended for a one time boost of science (100 science per era) and continue to have whatever capability they currently have.

A great Writer should build a Archive on a tile (+5 culture, +2 great writer point), build a Lyceum in Theater Square (+10% culture for that city), be expended for a one time boost to culture (100 culture per era) and continue to be used for creating Great Works.

A great Engineer should build a Manufactory on a tile (+5 production, +2 great engineer point), build a Foundry in an Industrial Zone (+10% production for that city), be expended for a one time boost of production (150 production per era) and continue to have their current capability

A great General should build an Citadel on a tile (+50% combat defense strength for unit inside, claims territory on its tile and adjacent tiles), build a Bastion in an Encampment district (+5 combat strength for all units produced in that city, +2 great general point), be expended for a full heal of all units in its tile and adjacent tiles as well as retain their current capabilities.

A great Musician should build a Grand Gazebo on a tile (+5 culture, +2 great musician point), build an Auditorium in a Theater Square district (+10% culture for that city), be expended for a one time boost to culture (100 culture per era) and continue to be used for creating Great Works.

A great Prophet should build a Great Alter on a tile (+5 faith, +2 great prophet point), build any of the already defined religious buildings in a Holy Site district (regardless of religion) twice, be expended for a one time boost to faith (250 per era) and continue to found religions (until max religions met). There would be just as many great Prophets as there are other great person types.

A great Admiral should build a Canal (which allows the passage of naval units over a land tile, probably achieved by changing the tile to a coast tile) on an adjacent land tile, build a Drydock in a Harbor district (+5 combat strength for all units produced in that city, +2 great admiral point), be expended for a full heal of all units in its tile and adjacent tiles and lastly retain their current capabilities.

A great Artist should build a Panoply on a tile (+5 culture, +2 great artist points), build a Exhibition Hall in a Theater Square district (+10% culture in that city), be expended for a one time boost to culture (100 culture per era) and continue to be used for creating Great Works.

Those are my thoughts and I clearly hope someone will make a mod to do these changes Many of these options are not good choices all throughout the game (but are good at some point along the way), but having the options to make your own choice about what is important to your particular game and play style would make the great people far more interesting.

 

[CoconutTank]

I do agree that I much prefer the Great W/A/M of Civ5 to those in Civ6, mainly since at least Great Writers/Artists each had a useful ability separate from making a Great Work. The fact that they can only be expended for Great Works in Civ6 makes them far less appealing to me, even if they're specifically used for the Culture Victory (which I admittedly have yet to pursue intentionally, but which I accidentally earned through an attempted Domination Victory).

If Firaxis could extend the individualized bonuses/abilities that the other great persons get to Great Ws/As/Ms, I would be very satisfied. Giving each type of great person a generic ability that they all share would be fine, but would also be far less interesting. Based on your examples, only one Great Musician should be able to build the Grand Gazebo, another specific Great Musician should be the only one to build an Auditorium, and so on. For better or worse, the individualized bonuses for Great Ss/Es/Ms(/Gs/Ads) actually make me care a lot about getting the right ones and pay attention to the great person supply. Getting a promoted Tank or promoted Ironclad is super cool, but I don't think those abilities being available to all Great Gs/Ads would ever be balanced.

 

[RealAntithesis]

Great People in Civ6 are actually less interesting to me than in Civ5. Without generic abilities that improve your civilization, the great person abilities are very situational. A Great Engineer adding +1 (or so) housing and amenities for example may not be all that great depending on the state of your cities. A Great Merchant adding another economic policy slot is very great, but others are quite lack lustre. Great Generals only applying their effects to units of a certain era is not very good. They should be able to be 'upgraded' and benefit later era units since all the other units can apparently learn new tricks and upgrade themselves, so why not Great Generals too. Adding generic abilities applicable to all great people of that type would make them great in all (or more) situations.

 

[Trebjonn]

Honestly the musicians should be the Apostles/missionaries of culture since they come out so late compared to other great persons.

 

[Victoria]

I find great admirals and generals greatly improved. - I never though the OP land grab citadel a realistic thing, cool but just wrong.
Great Scientists, merchants and engineers are also fine, yes they do not always suit but you do not have to accept them and you can try and rush the ones you want.
Great artists and writers and musicians are similar. you used to put them in slots but I guess you could also bring about a golden age. Now they do something more realistic. create great works that provide culture and tourism in the same way the slots did.

I did like the concert tour, that was a nice touch and provided a cultural attack that is missing now. The trouble was it was normally the OP person using them to speed up the victory... I guess thats not a bad thing.

For me Civ is about the beginning and the middle. great persons do help me, not hugely but they do help and I feel the balance is right.

I like the chaos and luck of the unique abilities and hate the generic "just another +4 counter in a slot". reducing everything to that makes the game less re-playable IMO

Hmm maybe great writers should help the civic tree

 

[Onii-chan]

I love the flexibility of the great persons, it's so much better than in Civ V, and also makes it more balanced by default since you can't just focus on getting as many of the "best" kind as possible (I.E: stacking up great scientists)

However, this does not include writers, artists and musicians. I honestly don't understand why they can only create great works. It feels like it completely goes against the rest of the system by literally having less possible uses than in Civ V, at least they all had 2 instead of 1. So they definitely needs some work of sort. Maybe some of them can just create 2/3 great works like they do now, but I want some with unique abilities like the other great persons. Even if it's still related to tourism or culture, at least let it come in a different form such as a raw culture pop, some free civics or at least boosts for them, maybe increased tourism output from certain things (like how some merchants can give +tourism from trade routes), etcetera. Maybe some of them could even create new great work slots by themselves, that'd help resolve another current problem with how you get more great works than you have slots for. Or how about some passive effect by keeping them around and then receiving the great works when retiring them, same as with generals and admirals

It's not that hard to come up with ideas

 

[Ciarson]

here is an idea i had before the game got released.

great people can be linked to district on a different way than just retire them in one of them.

while standing on the district tile, great people could have a "work there" option, which would give a specific bonus to the district output.

however the bonus will only be active if the era of the great people and the era you are in are the same.

only when the bonus expired can you get the option to retire the great peoples to get their legacies.


in that idea, great people could be traded, stolen or even killed since they would not be retired directly after being recruited. (unless you recruit them too late.)

 

[Victoria]

Great Writer ideas
1. Civic Eureka Boost
2. Increase diplomatic connection with the same government (or maybe with different governments)
3. Boost Dip points or even create an envoy
4. Decrease relations with a target Civ (one you want to push for war with)
5. Science Boosts

Great Artist ideas
1. Boost Commerce
2. Add a trade route
3. Create Amenities
4. Increase Seaside resorts by +1 per tile

Great Musician ideas
1. Tourism Boost to single country
2. Foreign tourism % boost
3. Reduction in negative religion tourism boost

plenty of others I guess, would give more colour to the game