Colonialist Legacies' Republic of the Philippines for VP

[pineappledan]

Re: the lantaka, here’s another super out there idea:

• make them slightly weaker (1-2 RCS) than a cannon, but wayyy cheaper (75less)
• Give them a unique action.
  • When stacked with a naval military unit, human players can expend the embarked lantaka. The naval unit is given a unique”lantaka” promotion, which gives +100% on attack
  • For the AI, if it ever stacks a lantaka with a naval unit, the unit is deleted and the promotion is given automatically.

This is consistent with the rest of the philippines kit, which is all just a little nuts. Now the AI would only need to stack a lantaka under a ship 1 time to get the full benefit

 

[Seiryuuuu]

That's cool for me!

I think you should just remove the culture from the Philippines UA and swap it with a free cargo @ trade or a free balangay @ fishing.
1. It is an additional text/notification
2. Balangay will also give the free culture

I had this one amazing game why I think the culture is not that necessary, It is a tradition game where I NEVER build anything on my capital, it only spams wonders and diplomatic units. I'm only sending TRs on my satellite cities where it builds the buildings my capital lacks, and it hurts my satellites at first for building 'unnecessary' buildings but it is cool. ITR is amazing with Philippines because you can control what it can build.

The new lantaka would be easier to use, but I think the 100% increase on attack is too much, I think you should stay it at 50% with additional UNIQUE ability like a burn effect or anything.

 

[pineappledan]

The new lantaka would be easier to use, but I think the 100% increase on attack is too much, I think you should stay it at 50% with additional UNIQUE ability like a burn effect or anything

Maybe +50% CS?
Burn damage isn’t unique to 4UC.

I think you should just remove the culture from the Philippines UA and swap it with a free cargo @ trade or a free balangay @ fishing.

no can do. @TPangolin was very clear that the culture in foreign borders needs to stay.

I can add the free cargo ship. Shouldn’t be a huge deal, and it helps them get started on using their UA earlier.

 

[Seiryuuuu]

Maybe +50% CS?
Burn damage isn’t unique to 4UC.
no can do. @TPangolin was very clear that the culture in foreign borders needs to stay.

I can add the free cargo ship. Shouldn’t be a huge deal, and it helps them get started on using their UA earlier.

I see, thanks for responding to my suggestions, I really appreciate it!

If that's the decision, I respect it, I think I'm just overthinking that he might end up overpowered since I'm not good at analyzing yields and inflation, and I'm still learning the mechanics of the game.

 

[pineappledan]

Okay, let's give this a try!

Totally reworked the Balangay with this release.
A free Balangay spawns every time a sea trade route completes.

• 5CS, 4Moves, can enter Deep Ocean
• Can be expended in a friendly city, giving that city 25 Food and Culture. The Culture contributes to border growth
• Gains XP from exploration, and has a unique promotion line:
  • Bayanihan I: +5 in city when expended
  • Bayanihan II: +5 in city when expended
    
  • Barangay: A free Settler Spawns (settler can embark and enter deep ocean, even if you haven't researched astronomy)
• The AI will only ever have 1 Balangay active at a time, and will immediately expend additional Balangays when they are given.

I haven't reworked the Lantaka yet. Still pretty lukewarm on the current version and my proposed change to it. It's awfully complicated.

Hopefully this rework is to @TPangolin's satisfaction. It should no longer interfere with the AI's settling logic, which was making this civ unuseable as a bot player
Sorry, @Asterix Rage, I went ahead and made 2 new promotions. They all currently use the Balangay's old unique promotion icon (the nipa hut) IMO just a silver version and a half silver/gold for the level 2/3/4 promotions would be good.

 

[Asterix Rage]

Sorry, @Asterix Rage, I went ahead and made 2 new promotions. They all currently use the Balangay's old unique promotion icon (the nipa hut) IMO just a silver version and a half silver/gold for the level 2/3/4 promotions would be good.

No problem.
Just tell me if you need new PIs and what you're still using:

I'll make a new revision with only what you need. The unused ones will be for other purposes.

 

[pineappledan]

I’m still using everything. The balangay’s 1 promotion (3rd from the left) just turned into 3 sequential promotions.

 

[Asterix Rage]

Fine

 

[Seiryuuuu]

Cool changes! I loved the new minigame of exploration, it made my game more interesting.

I have some comments and suggestions, I think you should add +1 movement for the spawned settler to keep up with balangay movement and a free embark turn. I restarted a turn because when I embarked my settler on an unknown landmass, it was just captured by barbs. Settling a city then expending the balangay that spawned the settler is cool! it is like a free UA of spain minus the faith, and the culture allows me to grow my tile.

The problem here is it comes late on the settling phase, I actually built 7 cities before my first balangay (around turn 110). I think you should add the free cargo ship on trade, or make cargo ship available on trade, because it's really hard to beeline sailing especially on the early game where you need the science on more important basic stuffs (mining and luxury tech).

I know this might be hard to repair, but sometimes I'm not informed that the newly spawned balangay requires a movement. I thought that my game is bugged because I can't click "next turn" so I have to reload the game, but the culprit is the newly spawned balangay, although I just have to spend its movement so it is not a big deal.

Overall, it's an amazing change.

On my next game, I'll try to play with an AI Philippines.

 

[pineappledan]

I’m not gonna give the settler free embark movement; that’s the risk you take take with any embarked settler.

I tried adding a free cargo ship at trade, but the code Places the free unit beside the city instead of on it, so you can’t use them. If it is necessary I will have to add a cargo ship via lua.

I didn’t think people would want a notification for the newly spawned balangay, since you will have to move the finished cargo ship AND the new balangay in order to do your next turn.

 

[Seiryuuuu]

I didn’t think people would want a notification for the newly spawned balangay, since you will have to move the finished cargo ship AND the new balangay in order to do your next turn.

No, it's not the notification, it's the 'A unit has a turn" or something, but I found out that it's a bug in any unit in my game, not just in balangay, so just ignore this, sorry.

Thanks for the recent update where you added the cargo ship, that will be really useful in the early game.

 

[pineappledan]

K, so I am finally into a game with this new Philippine s and it is fun. I think we cracked it. The reward for being cool with everyone is high. The settling game is totally unique because it necessitates you to balance exploration while still retaining defensible cities. There are several ways to exploit the UA, especially once the espionage game starts.

edit:

Spoiler I snagged a unique unit from a neighbouring civ in an actual game! :

 

[pineappledan]

New version incoming:

Some text fixes
Reducing production siphon from 34 +8 per open border to 20 +10 per open border

The internal TR production is very abuseable at 34%. I found I had a ton of ways to rig enormous amounts of production out of coordinating production TRs to focus a single city.

 

[Hinin]

After a game with the civ, I've found that the UA/Balangay combo early game is very vulnerable to bad map contingency : if the only nearby cities aren't accessible by sea TR early on, you basically lose your whole early game advantage (even more so knowing that the Balangay relies on you obtaining one early so that you can scout and settle).
Some possible solutions :

• Make so that the UA, in addition to giving a free Cargo Ship, gives a 90 % production progress on a Caravan, so that you can quickly delete the Cargo Ship and produce the Caravan if you are in a position where you simply can't use the Cargo Ship early.
• Make so that the Balangay spawns for all TR, and not only sea ones.

The goal here is to reduce the overreliance of the civ on map-generation for its early bonuses. As for the naval focus of the civ, the Balangay still makes up for that by incentivizing you to explore and find good coastal era to settle, and the UA wants you to keep good relations with other civs and so benefits from not settling too far inland, near other civs' cities, so after the early game the civ will naturally rely more and more on Cargo Ships anyway.
+ It makes it easier for the AI to use the civ's kit

 

[pineappledan]

There should be a way to check if a sea trade route is available from the capital. I can do that check before spawning the trade unit, and give a Caravan if it can't make any sea trade routes

 

[SolutionIt]

You'd still run into the rare issue of just not being near anyone if the map generation decides to be really bad with the free trade unit. Maybe an instant balangay would be better and if the balangay can be checked to see if it would be landlocked have it spawn a settler instead? My understanding of when I play this civ is to try and spread cities out in such a way I can optimize their travel path, and being able to settle another city earlier could help you snag an important spot. It would also resolve the issue with just not being near anyone if the map generation decides to be really really bad.

Eitherway seems fine though.

 

[pineappledan]

Going with Hinin's idea. I've changed how the Philippine trade abilities work:

• The free cargo ship now changed to a free Trade Unit at Trade Tech.
  • The game will check if you have any possible sea trade routes from your capital first. If it does, you get a Cargo Ship
  • If it cannot find any, it gives a Caravan instead
  • Settle on coast and prioritize tracing your coastline so you can get a better free trade unit
• Balangay will spawn whenever any Trade Route completes, as long as the Origin City is Coastal.

I also took the opportunity to change Rizal's approach biases to make him even more passive and friendly

 

[pineappledan]

Katipunero now replaces the Commando. Explorers can now upgrade into Katipunero.

Katipunero still unlocked via Industrial policy unlock
No longer have field works promo
They have all the base commando promos and use the scout line promo tree instead of being a side-grade to the Fusilier.

 

[ridjack]

Is this because the destination city is working the Farming process? If so, I love it!

 

[ridjack]

Does the Balangay lose the "Expend" ability once a settler is spawned?

Spoiler :

EDIT: Actually, I appear to be losing it as soon as I leave friendly borders, and it never reappears.