GeneralZift
Professional
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2019
- Messages
- 1,228
When we talk about the culture of people, what exactly are we talking about?
So we have the Government, which represents your Rule and the Policies you put in place.
This is unlocked linearly with the Culture tree since Civ6.
But nothing quite represents what your people actually... know in terms of cultural knowledge.
If I start a Civilization game on the coast, what represents that my people are 'sea-people' except for my Civilization choice and my policy choice in Government?
Nothing - and this is an issue.
I propose a 'Climate Tree' for lack of a better name.
You can spend Culture on developing permanent upgrades for your 'people' which represents word-of-mouth culture and the identity of the people themselves.
These upgrades are related to the Climate that your people are in.
I call these upgrades Adaptations.
You can reduce the cost of Adaptations by up to 50% by simply having enough of the relevant tile in your territory.
'Hidden' is revealed by Scouts and Spies. It makes a unit, city or improvement invisible to enemies.
For Cities, they are still visible, but information such as Citizen count and more is not available.
The tiles are still inherently asymmetrical, because this allows for variety in the gameplay.
But they no longer suck straight out -- this is because you can now pivot your people to master the climate that they are in!
The Adaptations at the bottom of the tree are the strongest or the most game-changing.
I was heavily inspired by various things, which made their way into these upgrades, but I want to make clear that this is like a simple draft.
People with better historical knowledge could probably come up with more interesting ideas.
These are the desert kites - people of the middle east used to use these to herd wild game - like Gazelles - into them to hunt.
I thought they would be an interesting improvement to be put on the Desert, but only if your people are 'of the desert'
This is a 'Qamutiik' otherwise known as an Inuit dog sled - I had the idea that foot soldiers in Cold climates would rather use these Dog sleds to get around to vital locations, than walk.
But of course, this is a 'home advantage' that enemy soldiers would not have.
It's nice representation for Inuit people who probably won't make it into Civ.
As far as I can tell, I can't actually find any solid evidence that the Vikings did indeed use Ravens to navigate the Ocean.
Or that they indeed helped the Vikings find the New World. As far as I'm aware they used Island hopping.
However! The idea of raven scouts being released from ships to 'scout' for Islands is really cool.
They apparently would come back if there was no land upon being released, and stay away if they had found land.
From a gameplay perspective, it allows Civilizations who reach very far into Sea adaptation, to be able to reach unknown lands far away, perhaps to attempt early colonisation.
This here is the Raven banner:
Now, the great myth of El Dorado - I think this one is really cool, and always made me wish I could have my own 'El Dorado' in Civilization.
I wanted Forest Civilizations to have their own unique home advantage of living amongst the trees, knowing their way around the land, ambushing and trapping enemies, and so on.
This would make up for the many issues Rainforests have in the early game.
Playing off of the 'myth' aspect, is that this Adaptation would make all Rainforest cities 'Hidden'. Enemy players would have no idea how many people live in a city, what religion, what yields, almost all information would be hidden.
Units could even be hidden in these Cities.
The largest of these Cities is considered 'El Dorado' and grants you a sizable sum of Gold for free.
Not entirely sure how viable this mechanic is, but it's very cool.
That concludes the idea.
It's very nice for Civilizations to have bonuses, even relating to the climate that they are based in in real life.
But it's lacking the dynamic aspect which allows Civilizations to opt-in to becoming more.
Maybe your Civilization benefits the Sea, but you happen to have a lot of Desert around.
Or if you have Desert benefits but happen to be near a Rainforest.
This is sort of the counter-weight to the so-called overpowered starts.
I don't think it's appropriate to nerf them for no reason, and I don't think it's smart to normalize all the tiles until they mean nothing.
Keep the variety but give the worse tiles more depth to produce interesting scenarios.
So we have the Government, which represents your Rule and the Policies you put in place.
This is unlocked linearly with the Culture tree since Civ6.
But nothing quite represents what your people actually... know in terms of cultural knowledge.
If I start a Civilization game on the coast, what represents that my people are 'sea-people' except for my Civilization choice and my policy choice in Government?
Nothing - and this is an issue.
I propose a 'Climate Tree' for lack of a better name.
You can spend Culture on developing permanent upgrades for your 'people' which represents word-of-mouth culture and the identity of the people themselves.
These upgrades are related to the Climate that your people are in.
I call these upgrades Adaptations.
You can reduce the cost of Adaptations by up to 50% by simply having enough of the relevant tile in your territory.
| Hot (Desert, Harsh Desert) | Cold (Tundra, Snow, Sea Ice) | Sea (Coast, Ocean) | Forest (Woods, Rainforest) | Tier |
| "Provisions" Your units immune to: Harsh Desert damage | "Winter Coats" Your units immune to: Snow / Blizzard damage | "Experienced Captains" +1 movement on Coast | "Herbal Medicine" Your units immune to: Rainforest damage | 1 |
| Unlocks Desert Kites: +1 Food from Desert | Unlocks Hunting Cabin: +1 Food from Tundra | "Trade Hubs" +1 production in Coastal city per incoming trade route | Unlocks Poison Traps: Hidden defenses which wound enemy units. | 1 |
| "Bedouin Lifestyle" +2 movement for Cavalry on friendly Desert tiles | "Qamutik" +2 movement for ground units on friendly Snow tiles | Unlocks Fish Traps: +1 Food from Water tiles | "Local Paths" Ignore movement penalties in friendly Forests | 2 |
| "Rations" -25% food consumption in Desert Cities | "Rations" -25% food consumption in Cold Cities | "Sea Towers" +75% production towards Defensive structures in Coastal Cities | "Amongst Trees" +10 Combat Strength when attacking or defending in friendly Forests | 2 |
| "Sandstorm Stories" +1 Culture per Hot tile | "Blizzard Tales" +1 Culture per Cold tile | "Sea Legends" +1 Culture per Sea tile | "Woodland Myths" +1 Culture per Forest tile | 3 |
| "Desert Riches" Each Gold, Silver, Iron or Marble in Desert provides +1 Copy and +2 Production | "Defense of the Motherland" +10 Combat Strength when attacking or defending in friendly Cold tiles. | "Raven Scouts" Allows exploration of Ocean even without Tech. +1 LOS for all ships. | "El Dorado" Rainforest City information is Hidden. The largest City under this effect gains +15 Gold. | 3 |
'Hidden' is revealed by Scouts and Spies. It makes a unit, city or improvement invisible to enemies.
For Cities, they are still visible, but information such as Citizen count and more is not available.
The tiles are still inherently asymmetrical, because this allows for variety in the gameplay.
But they no longer suck straight out -- this is because you can now pivot your people to master the climate that they are in!
The Adaptations at the bottom of the tree are the strongest or the most game-changing.
I was heavily inspired by various things, which made their way into these upgrades, but I want to make clear that this is like a simple draft.
People with better historical knowledge could probably come up with more interesting ideas.
These are the desert kites - people of the middle east used to use these to herd wild game - like Gazelles - into them to hunt.
I thought they would be an interesting improvement to be put on the Desert, but only if your people are 'of the desert'
This is a 'Qamutiik' otherwise known as an Inuit dog sled - I had the idea that foot soldiers in Cold climates would rather use these Dog sleds to get around to vital locations, than walk.
But of course, this is a 'home advantage' that enemy soldiers would not have.
It's nice representation for Inuit people who probably won't make it into Civ.
As far as I can tell, I can't actually find any solid evidence that the Vikings did indeed use Ravens to navigate the Ocean.
Or that they indeed helped the Vikings find the New World. As far as I'm aware they used Island hopping.
However! The idea of raven scouts being released from ships to 'scout' for Islands is really cool.
They apparently would come back if there was no land upon being released, and stay away if they had found land.
From a gameplay perspective, it allows Civilizations who reach very far into Sea adaptation, to be able to reach unknown lands far away, perhaps to attempt early colonisation.
This here is the Raven banner:
Now, the great myth of El Dorado - I think this one is really cool, and always made me wish I could have my own 'El Dorado' in Civilization.
I wanted Forest Civilizations to have their own unique home advantage of living amongst the trees, knowing their way around the land, ambushing and trapping enemies, and so on.
This would make up for the many issues Rainforests have in the early game.
Playing off of the 'myth' aspect, is that this Adaptation would make all Rainforest cities 'Hidden'. Enemy players would have no idea how many people live in a city, what religion, what yields, almost all information would be hidden.
Units could even be hidden in these Cities.
The largest of these Cities is considered 'El Dorado' and grants you a sizable sum of Gold for free.
Not entirely sure how viable this mechanic is, but it's very cool.
That concludes the idea.
It's very nice for Civilizations to have bonuses, even relating to the climate that they are based in in real life.
But it's lacking the dynamic aspect which allows Civilizations to opt-in to becoming more.
Maybe your Civilization benefits the Sea, but you happen to have a lot of Desert around.
Or if you have Desert benefits but happen to be near a Rainforest.
This is sort of the counter-weight to the so-called overpowered starts.
I don't think it's appropriate to nerf them for no reason, and I don't think it's smart to normalize all the tiles until they mean nothing.
Keep the variety but give the worse tiles more depth to produce interesting scenarios.
