Civilization Request Thread

How does one pronounce that?
*knows how to pronounce chidi naa naʼi bee ʼeldǫǫh tsoh, bikaaʼ dah naazniligii (tank in Navajo)*

 

Have no idea. I only fed the two words into an online English-Akkadian translator and combined them.

 

Well, š should equal sh, like in ship. If it's the same as in Serbo-Croatian languages.

 

Hey guys, I tried to do some research for the idea I posted a few pages back, but it turns out Hoop Thrower's suggestion was the best alternative I could think of. Aside from that, I also have 2 other designs I'd like to share, altough one of them is also just a revision.

Spoiler :

American Empire - Washington
(UA) Manifest Destiny: +50% faster border growth and +100% faster border growth during Golden Ages. Starting from Renaissance Era, may use caravans to send Culture via internal routes.
(UU) Minuteman: musketman replacement that can be bought with Culture points. Has an unique promotion for the following effects:
1. While in enemy territory, the minuteman reduces the enemy's civilization Culture gain equal to its combat strenght.
2. Whenever it kills an enemy unit, the minuteman will send Tourism equal to its combat strenght to the defeated unit's civilization.
(UI) Blockhouse: fort replacement that can be also built over the water. +3 Tourism if placed outside workable city limits. Cannot be built adjacent to another Blockhouse.

Spoiler :

United Arab Emirates - Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
(UA) Falconcity of Wonders: may only build world wonders that were already built by other civilizations. Tile yields from Oasis doubled.
(UB) Urban Park: garden replacement. +5% great people generation and +1 culture for each desert tile within the city's limits that can be worked. City must be built next to a desert or an oasis.
(UU) United Defense Force: infantry replacement that starts with the "Shock I" and "Shock II" promotions, as well as the "Desert Training" promotion, that double movements in deserts or oasis.

Spoiler :

Brazilian Empire - Pedro II
(UA) Questão Christie: spies are twice as effective and diplomats may be used to force a Cease Fire. Diplomats are not evacuated nor are embassies closed down if either war is declared or a denouncing occurs.
(UB) Real Academia Militar: military academy replacement. Grants +15 experience for all units trained in the city, +2 Science and +10% Science for each Great General the civilization has produced. Grants unique promotions to units trained in this city for the following effects:
1. +25% Combat Strenght against cities where the player has a spy stationed.
2. +25% Combat Strenght against units within cities' borders where the player has a spy stationed.
(UU) Voluntários da Pátria: rifleman replacement with lower production cost and variable combat strength (28, 34 or 40).

I'm not sure Brazil would be the best nation for the design I proposed, but then again I could think of no other.

 

Thats a really... odd UAE civ, if you don't mind me saying. I mean, falconcity of Wonders is just a housing estate on the outskirts of Dubai. I lived right next to it for years, its nothing special. Furthermore, Sheikh Nahyan? They're all Sheikh nahyan Nahyan is the dynasty. I assume you means Sheikh Zayed?

Also purely mechanically, that Urban park is a step down from a Garden if you ask me, and the UA is *insanely* overpowered. You could snag literally every wonder in the game no problem. I designed a UAE a while back, since its a civ pretty close to my heart for many obvious reasons. Here it is:

 

That UA, again!

 

>tfw no one acknowledges the Babylon split I spent hours designing

Now on to make my own Rome split design. No offence, Urdnot, but I just think some of your designs aren't personal enough. When designing splits I want them to be based on the civ and the leader, maybe with a greater focus on the leader. And I miss some leaders in there that I think have great civ potential.

I didn't know how much I wanted this before now. Thank you.

 

I heard there was a project in Dubai to build life-size replicas of the seven world Wonders that went by the name of "Falconcity of Wonders". Wikipedia lists it as being announced back in 2005, having an oficial site that goes by the project's name.

Ah, forgive me for that. I really have no idea how to tell names from surnames in arabic(?) culture. Still, I actually meant the Khalifa, the son, and not his father, the Sultan.

Instead of being regarded as an upgrade or a downgrade, I'd like the park to be considered a sidegrade, as its main feature is not the generation of great person points but of early culture points. But even then, you would need only 5 desert tiles that could be worked to get the same bonus as the Garden. Of course, if you lack desert tiles the story would be totally different, but that kind of trait goes for many civs (e.g. Brazil or Celts).
Now, regarding the UA, I'd have to disagree. On lower difficulty levels (1~5) the UA functions as a penalty, since the bots usually take a long time to build Wonders. For higher difficulty levels (6~8), it is a mistake to grab a wonder just for the sake of it, as its production time delays the construction of actual infrastructure or units. What the ability does provide is the guarantee of key Wonders -be it for bonuses or for an actual victory strategy-, but at a point later than another civ's. Also, do note that this design was not meant for a specific type of victory.

As for you UAE design, I find it to have a very interesting mechanic for cultural victories. Not only that, but the traits are actually consistent with the nation's history, unlike whatever I have proposed. It is one mod I'd definetly have in my library.

I'm really glad you like it! Feel free to use the idea however you want in the future.

 

Ahh ZH i know that feel, ill boot up the old constructive criticism machine when i get home, since im at work right now and on my phone.

More generally though itd be nice if we could all get round to constructively discussing/criticising eachothers designs. weve got ourselves a little community here so itd be nice to have a bit more discussion rather than just constantly being like "hey hey check out this civ hey look guise"

Would give us something to do while those greater than I are off actually coding and modding and contributing

 

Lol, I actually prefer sitting here discussing designs over actually modding... even though I know I should be working on the Dervish.

I can start discussing others' designs again. I kinda miss it.

As for your Rome split I feel most civs're too general for being representatives of an empire heavily focused on personalities. Except for in Scipio's case, since he's from the Republic period, in which personalities were less important.

 

Sorry, now that I've looked back on the split it doesn't seem as general as I first thought... maybe what ticked me off was the fact that I felt some of the design choices were a bit weird. But that's still very subjective of me.

 

Same boat here, though in my case, I have a crappy laptop that can't even run off safe mode properly. I'd love to learn how to mod one day, but that is something that might not happen soon enough...

 

Hammurabi looks awesome but the first part of the UA would be quite weak on quickspeed and incredibly powerful on marathon. Nebuchadnezzar I looks awesome, I myself am always a big fan of faith generation. Merodach-Baladan, the UA looks on the weak side and requires a person to be losing as does the UU. Does look like it could be quite fun but it is a weak civ for winning. Nebuchadnezzar II, the UA is weak. The bonus won't kick in till later and later in the game a player will generally have surpassed the AI and won't need the wonder bonus, especially if they are already taking over the AI. I do like the UB though.
I hope this doesn't come off as annoying criticism. It's just that I saw you wanted you post acknowledged.

 

Thank you for the response.

I can agree on this. Might redesign it a bit.

It is a very situational civ, but that is the point. Might redesign this one too.

Well, that depends upon whether or not you use the unique siege unit and capture cities early. If you do that you can get a much better bonus than Egypt, although not as early.

 

Thanks for the feedback on my various, obsessed designs, walrus.
Your Babylon split felt like my Israel split. So good, that it looks too easy for you to make.

 

how about Tai-tsung & Nefertiti & sun yet sen

 

Before starting I'd just like to point out that I know like nothing of any worth about Babylon, so I can only comment on the mechanical side here. But either way, here goes nothing.

I have to agree with Sulomon here that in most games except maybe quick speed, and even then if you can conquer quick enough, the first part of Hammurabi's UA is very, very powerful. Especially when coupled with all the extra buffs towards social policies from the UA, UB *and* UU. That said, I like the overall idea and it really does a good job of symoblising something that is pretty tough to represent using the ingame mechanics, ie, good lawmaking. The only other thing I can say to criticise it is that it could be really frustrating attempting to make use of the UU's secondary effect given how irritating and fast trade routes are, we all know how annoying it is attempting to patrol your trade routes even with a pretty quick unit! It does work well with the UA though; a really cyclical civ.

In contrast I'd say Nebuchadnezzar I is slightly underpowered, but that might just be my playstyle. Its not a huge bonus being able to found your religion upon capturing an enemy captial, but I usually get a religion up early and only conquer in the mid-late game so thats maybe just me. Other than that, its a really great design, particularly the second half of the UA. Cyclical as all hell too.

Nabonassar I think seems like the weakest of the five, though its still not bad. I don't think the second half of the UA is useful at all, since generally losing a war so badly you have to give up cities is something people tend to avoid. That said the extra GS generation is so powerful I'd probably end up just making a load of crappy cities, declaring war on an AI and then giving them all those cities. So either way I don't think it makes for a good playstyle. The Chaldean too is strange, I don't understand what 'build a star catalogue' is; is it a building? In which case you have 4 uniques, and either way why wouldn't you just build an academy, unless the building yields more than 8 science, in which case it becomes OP. Is it a science boost? In which case, isn't it just the regular science boost? Or is it a UI, in which case, why not built an academy? I dun gettit. Aaand the UB is really really weak at the start of the game and absurdly overpowered at the end; very unbabylonish.

While I'm being a dick, I also don't really care too much for Merodach-Baladan. Nearly all of the bonuses are set up so that they only have any real effect after having pretty much lost the game, so unlike every other civ in the series, it receives no actual boost towards a victory condition save a potential +30% combat boost if you've lost and recaptured 6 cities, at which point you'd be so far behind that victory becomes impossible. I like the Sealander though, I'm surprised a river bonus didn't come up more often but the sealander makes perfect use of it. Furthermore, how would the UA actually work ingame? It would result in a lot of the player just sitting around doing nothing waiting for units to spawn and I dun think many players would have the patience for that and just ragequit after being eliminated.

Back to being nice, I really like Nebuchadnezzar II. I would say that the UA is odd for Babylon in that it works better the later the game gets, but mechanically its very interesting, especially paired with the unique siege unit. Maybe a teeny little bonus could be put on the end to keep her relevant in the early game? I feel like it really represents a sort of plunder and conquest society incredibly well, exporting bonuses from the peripheral cities you've conquered back to a lavish and fancy heartland. The catapult UU is really great even if it steps a teeny tiny bit on Assyrias big hairy toes, but ah well. The UB is a little odd though, its a cool effect but given how the UA and UU work, it essentially just equates to a huge food buff in the capital and nothing else. I'd probably also stick the effects of the original walls of Babylon on there, if perhaps a little toned down to compensate for the new bonus food buff. Either way, great ideas there.

On the whole regarding the split more generally I have a couple things to say:

- The cylicalism is always amazing, they all line up perfectly with an obvious playstyle and present new ways to play; all look very satisfying to play as for that reason.

- They all do a good job of representing things that are very difficult to portray in civ. Lawmaking, plundering, stability, stuff like that is way outside of the base mechanics but you still represent them well; so great stuff there.

- None of the original firaxis uniques used. I try to find a place for them usually and its often quite good fun to try divvy them up between the civs. Its also something people recognise as being characteristic of a civ split; see India and Polynesia. I think it also just works - some of my favourite splits are the ones that use the original uniques to their full effect. They don't actually need to have the exact same abilities as vanilla (see India and Polynesia, again.) but its nice to try use them anyway.

- A lot of situational abilities. Sometimes its nice to have some passive bonuses which will nudge you along even if you don't stick to a perfectly straight path. For example Merodach-Baladan is useless if you don't lose all your cities

Hope some of this is useful and I don't come across like a complete knobend for criticising too much!

 

And while we're doing the whole discussion thing, mind if I ask about my Rome split? You said the designs don't focus on the personalities, but I didn't think that'd matter for the republic and the Constantine civ is really, really focussed on his personality. It has bonuses for conversion, something he was famous for, and a secondary bonus for your capital, which I also thought was fairly emblematic of a guy who founded a new capital and named it after himself. I changed the Middle-Imperial civ to Trajan since I think he better represents the wide, conquest focussed empire.

Regardless I try and follow firaxis precedent and so I don't think the uniques should be tied to the leader in their entirety. Pedro II was long dead by the time of the Pracinhas and Gustav Adolf would look at you pretty funny if you mentioned a nobel prize or even Caroleans. I mean I agree that its nice to have a link, I do think its weird that Gustav got the Nobel Prize UA, for example, but I don't think they have to be completely tied to one another. Its more about the civ than the leader here.

Which design choices did you think were weird, may I ask?

 

Personally, I find it weird nobody did a Rome civ based on Constantine or Trajan. Those two were probably some of the better Roman Emperors. I'd say we could also do one based on Western Rome, but...well...

 

Yeah somebody should really design those two, I also think a republic led by Scipio Africanus would be a cool addition to some kind of "split" involving those two leaders. If only someone could design them eh?