Citadel of Light goes abroad

[Mithrus]

While I love the idea of the Malakim's unique building, I feel it is pretty weak overall (With a range of 2, and only a single fireball, it's helpful, but barely that).

Then the idea occurred to me: What if the Malakim could build a Citadel of Light as a tile improvement, essentially allowing them to build sentry towers, or "upgrade" an existing tower into a CoL. Is it possible to make the same proximity check to spawn a fireball also?

 

[arcaner]

I seem to recall that there is a bug in the AI logic that will make it's workers do strange things when there is an improvement that a civ can't use, and this was one of the reasons for removing the dwarven mine from the game.

Don't know if this has been remedied in BtS.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Sounds like a possible improved version of a Fort for the Malakim. It is possible to make the improvement unbuildable for everyone but to replace a normal fort with a Citadel of Light as soon as it is built (I think this gets around the AI logic bug. It is the way that Sureshot's mod lets the Lanun build coastal cottages)

 

[Jono]

Elves still get Elf-specific improvements...

 

[Sureshot]

theyre actually not special improvements, they just have a special build order that lets them be built in forests and doesnt remove forests, the actual improvements are the same ones used by everyone. dwarven mines however, were different improvements. but the way i did lanun coastal cottages would work for the forts and dwarven mines.

 

[BeefontheBone]

How about either upgrading sentry towers (and snake pillars I guess) within Malakim territory to Towers of Light automatically once a certain tech is reached (Elementalism?), either straight away or with a chance per turn? Alternatively, Lightbringers could be sacrificed to upgrade existing towers. Being able to build them anywhere would be a bit much, but using existing towers could make them extremely strategically important for the Malakim and be a nice bit of extra flavour.

Would the same weird national unit workboat thing you were left with happen for forts and dwarven mines?

 

[Sureshot]

no, the national workboats actually had nothing to do with coastal cottages except allowing them to be built anywhere. i couldve made all workboats buildable anywhere, but i didnt want AIs building a ton of them where they couldnt use them, so i made a national one that could be built anywhere to allow players to build them anywhere 1 at a time, while only allowing the AI to make 1 pointless national workboat it couldnt use.

the method used to switch them is just in "onimprovementbuilt" that changes an improvement after its built if certain requirements are met (like if its in lanun territory, or in the case of dwarven mines, if its in dwarven territory).

 

[BeefontheBone]

Ah, right. In that case, that looks like a perfect way around the AI problem for the mines, although you lose the ability to build them with captured workers (not necessarily a bad thing).

 

[Sureshot]

ya, tho it could be made to require that theres a Dwarven worker in the tile as well when its made.. tho thats far from solid since you could make dwarven mines in a spot if a dwarven worker from someone else was roaming through your lands on a hill at the time heh

 

[jimi12]

more on Beef's idea, what if you could just have the towers improvements be built like a normal improvement but only by lightbringers? that way Malakim could only build them anyways. i think this would work flavor wise too since the followers of lugus are the ones that have to build the lugus building.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Personally I'm glad they got rid of Dwarven mines, since it often make other resources unharvestable once I discovered then on a mined tile (If if were still possible to replace improvements and stop enemies from pillaging then I would be fine with re-introducing them

Citadels still sound more like forts that just sentry towers to me. Also, if forts now use the city code as has been suggested, their special ability might be a little easier to implement (just a wild guess)

I would like it if multiple civs had special forts. For example, now that forts can act as canals the Pirates cove would be better if made into a fort that could blockade nearby rival trade networks without the need for actual pirate ships in the vicinity (or perhaps it should increase the ships blockade range an/or provide extra trade networks). Perhaps the Chancel of the Guardians would also make a nice fort, one that automatically sanctifies all nearby terrain and perhaps (either randomly or temporarily) grants the defensive promotion to the units garrisoned there. Since I believe that BtS forts can be built in neutral territory, they could build a network of these surrounding the Infernal Empire to keep hell contained(personally I still think that hell spread needs to be fixed so that good players actually need to work to keep hell out of their lands, at least at a high AC). Magical boni for Sorcery spells cast in Amurite and Summoning ones in Sheaim unique forts would also be a nice addition (like increased strength and/or range, possibly tied to the amount of the appropriate mana possessed. Affinity adding promotions for the summons created there might be nice). I could probably think of a few more if I really wanted too, but these 5 seem best.

 

[Sureshot]

Personally I'm glad they got rid of Dwarven mines, since it often make other resources unharvestable once I discovered then on a mined tile (If if were still possible to replace improvements and stop enemies from pillaging then I would be fine with re-introducing them

Citadels still sound more like forts that just sentry towers to me. Also, if forts now use the city code as has been suggested, their special ability might be a little easier to implement (just a wild guess)

I would like it if multiple civs had special forts. For example, now that forts can act as canals the Pirates cove would be better if made into a fort that could blockade nearby rival trade networks without the need for actual pirate ships in the vicinity (or perhaps it should increase the ships blockade range an/or provide extra trade networks). Perhaps the Chancel of the Guardians would also make a nice fort, one that automatically sanctifies all nearby terrain and perhaps (either randomly or temporarily) grants the defensive promotion to the units garrisoned there. Since I believe that BtS forts can be built in neutral territory, they could build a network of these surrounding the Infernal Empire to keep hell contained(personally I still think that hell spread needs to be fixed so that good players actually need to work to keep hell out of their lands, at least at a high AC). Magical boni for Sorcery spells cast in Amurite and Summoning ones in Sheaim unique forts would also be a nice addition (like increased strength and/or range, possibly tied to the amount of the appropriate mana possessed. Affinity adding promotions for the summons created there might be nice). I could probably think of a few more if I really wanted too, but these 5 seem best.

i like those ideas, i want to see forts actually be useful

 

[BeefontheBone]

The fact that they don't replace existing improvements (like forests) and the nature of the map mkae them very useful in AoI, FWIW.