Civ 5 Design Challenge II - Mechanics

[Uighur_Caesar]

My original thought for this challenge was to make a Tibet or something that would consider mountains natural wonders for bonuses, but I thought that was way too OP and changed it to something completely different. Niao's is really strong, but since it reminds me of my original idea, I'll vote for it anyway.

 

[Urdnot_Scott]

Its definitely strong but I think the fact that Volcanoes cant be adjacent is a big balancer - how often are you even going to have 5 non contiguous mountains in your city borders and then, since its chance based, you don't even know how many will become volcanoes and when. Its strong for sure but I really don't think it'd be top tier, especially since the UB is fairly weak.

 

[Uighur_Caesar]

Oh I just noticed it said "may become" not "will become." Yeah that's actually a huge balancer in that case.

 

[NiaoMeow]

Oh I just noticed it said "may become" not "will become." Yeah that's actually a huge balancer in that case.

Yeah, there is a 2/3 chance that a mountain will become a volcano.

My vote goes to Natan for a civ with lots of different bonus yields.

 

[TranquilSilence]

Kek

I really should have paid attention to the fact that Volcanoes only had a chance to spawn - that certainly changes things. It'd be such a cool civ to play if it proved to be possible to code.

 

[senshidenshi]

Niao's is definitely very cool, if a bit OP. I vote for it.

 

[Hoop Thrower]

BTW, My civ was Trapananda, not Topa Inca.

...once again obscurity got the best out of me.

I'm voting NianMew, 'cause Volcanoes.

 

[Sgtwolf00]

While Niao's Hawai'i is nice and every one is voting for it. I'm gonna be a rebel and vote for tarcisiocm's Republic of Hellas!

 

[Natan35]

I'm voting for Uighur. Superb UA.

 

[Timewalker102]

Not jumping on a bandwagon, but I vote for NiaoMeow's Hawaii. The idea of volcanoes are too good.

Question for NiaoMeow: Does the +3 science for natural wonders from the Mauna Observatory apply to volcanoes? Because they're Hawaii's unique natural wonders.

 

[NiaoMeow]

Not jumping on a bandwagon, but I vote for NiaoMeow's Hawaii. The idea of volcanoes are too good.

Question for NiaoMeow: Does the +3 science for natural wonders from the Mauna Observatory apply to volcanoes? Because they're Hawaii's unique natural wonders.

It does .

 

[Sgtwolf00]

It does .

Oh God. That's Sejong's amount of science!

 

[GPuzzle]

NiaoMeow won this one fairly handily! I'm going to shift this into NiaoMeow's system in the Challenge III. Niao, you can give me a mechanic that is going to be used in the one after this one.

Anyway.

This one challenge has the design mechanic of:

May not create Workers.

Let's see what you guys can come up with.

 

[Tarmont]

For a moment I thought it was written "May not create Wonders" and was like "oh cool, gonna do a steppe civ!"

Then I noticed it was actually Workers, and was like "oh cool, gonna do a steppe civ!"



Obs: Might end up not doing a steppe civ. Such is life.

 

[Natan35]

Lol I thought the exact same, just with Israel instead of a steppe civ. Though I ended up with this:

Confederate States of America
(Jefferson Davis)​

UA: Plantation Era
May not create workers, but may receive them when the city first expands to a tile with a plantation resource. Trade routes grant gold and Planter points per each plantation present in the home city, in addition to increasing improvement construction rate by 5%(max. 30%).

UU: Planter
Replaces great merchant. May not perform any of its functions. However, it grants an amount of workers upon birth(based on era) and may be consumed for creating an Antebellum manor*. Alternatively, it may be used to sale slaves, consuming workers for a large amount of gold.

UU: Blockade Runner
Replaces privateer. Radically different to it, the Blockade runner has 6 movement but does not have any of the privateer's unique attributes. Instead, it makes cargo ships departing from the city its stationed in impossible to plunder, and may be used to sell goods in foreign lands, granting extra gold per each plantation in your territory.

*Antebellum manor: +2 culture, +2 gold. Adjacent plantations yield +1 gold or food(depends on the yield of the resource improved by them). +2 culture after architecture, +2 gold after economics. 50% more yields during war.

Overall: a plantation based gold civ, with a slight wartime bonus. I think that it represents the confederate states pretty well...

 

[Sgtwolf00]

No workers? This is going to be interesting.

 

[senshidenshi]

I was also planning a kind of plantation-focused civ, but I was going to add some mechanics around Unhappiness. Eh, whatever, I'll still do it.

Congo Free State under Leopold II​

UA: In The Rubber Coils (I need a better name for this)
Workers cannot be built, but up to 5 nearby Barbarian and/or City-State units are converted into workers when a city is founded. However, these workers generate +2 Unhappiness each. +2 Gold from Plantations.
(Workers can still be obtained through buildings or policies, e.g. the Pyramids will still provide them)
UU: Force Publique
While weaker than the Rifleman it replaces, the Force Publique may be garrisoned on any source of Unhappiness to reduce it by 20%. This reduction increases by 5% for each unit the Force Publique has defeated.
UU: Explorer (I need a better and/or more Congo-specific unique than this.
Unlocked at Navigation, and may be upgraded from Settlers. Unlike Settlers, Explorers have +1 sight and combat strength comparable to a Longswordsman, but can only found cities on other continents. Cities founded by Explorers start with a guaranteed worker, which has +1 movement if the city is founded adjacent to a plantation resource.

 

[Uighur_Caesar]

Before I discuss the design, shout out to Hoop Thrower for his original design of this civ, whose UA inspired me to came up with this:

Viceroyalty of Peru

Leader: Francisco de Toledo

UA: Mita: Gain Gold whenever a civilian unit in the empire is consumed. Defeated enemies (especially barbarians) have a chance of being converted to workers, but workers may be disbanded upon building improvements. Cannot build workers.

UB: Real Audiencia: Replaces Courthouse, but can also be built in cities not connected to the Capital. Will periodically spawn workers in conquered cities. Connects the city to the Capital.

UU: Native Auxiliary: The Native Auxiliary is a unique standalone unit unlocked at Currency. The Native Auxiliary may only be built in conquered cities, otherwise it must be bought with Gold. Can move the same turn it was purchased and its strength scales through the eras. +2 Sight and +10% Combat Strength when in the territory of the original owner of the city it came from.

So the UA is based off of the Mita system that the Spanish used in the remnants of the Inca Empire, where natives were used as slaves to work to the death in silver and gold mines. You can't built workers by regular means, so you have to acquire them by war, either from the UA or the UB.

The chance of a defeated enemy converting into a worker won't be very high, it would probably be something like 5%-10%. The chance of barbarians converting would probably be more like 20%-25%. The chance of a worker disbanding would probably be like 10%-15%, or something like that. I'm pulling all these numbers out of my ass since they would have to be play tested, but you get the idea of how frequent or infrequent these chances are.

Anyway, working your captives to death will grant you gold, as will using any other civilian units. Since roads will be difficult to build due to the fact that your workers might just die on you, the Real Audiencia will establish city connections for you. And finally, the UU is a unique support unit that you can use to continue expanding into the lands of your enemies or defend your own lands from invasions due to the nature of its bonus.

I can't possibly imagine the AI using this civ effectively, but it certainly sounds fun to me.

 

[Urdnot_Scott]

gee wiz this is one morbid challenge

 

[senshidenshi]

gee wiz this is one morbid challenge

It's pretty logical though. Where else are you going to get workers if you can't build them?