Contest: Design a Wonder public poll

[khanjackal]

I thought up the coinworks as an idea for a late game non-spell wonder, with the added complication of being better if your foes were mining alot of mithril.

But wow, yeah, Shrine of the Conqueror is pretty sweet. More flavorful than mine.

 

[wilboman]

Actually, the entire team liked the coinworks. It's a good idea. Very Alpha Centauri

 

[SchpailsMan]

Hi, and congrats to the Team for FfH 1&2... I really love these mods, FfH2 truely rocks and it only keeps getting better with each release

I voted for the Eyes & Ears Network partly because of its original flavor... but mainly because I really like the very idea of having a new "spying tool" available. FfH already made scouting and spying a lot more interesting than the original Civ4 game, thanks to its recon units and animal scouting (I really got amazed in my first FfH game, when I began building Hunters and Hawks and got this feeling like "hey... it just works !"), but I'd love to see more "non-militaristic" possibilities. I guess there are already more than enough military possibilities in FfH2 (for example, I just never managed to build more than, say, half of the tier 4 units that were available to me in endgames), and adding some "indirect warfare" elements would be great.

After reading some previous posts, I agree that the actual mechanics might have to be tweaked a bit for better balance... well, I guess that's the sort of things the Team has already got used to do, so it wouldn't be much of a problem, right ?

(I re-read my post a couple of times... I'm still not sure it is gramatically correct --that's the "non-native english speaker" thing you might have read a couple of times already--, well, sorry if this post is hard to read or anything )

 

[Mailo]

Definitely the Shrine, great idea

I never liked the Great Library from Civ 3 much, but I must admit it opened up several new avenues of strategy, so this is a earned second place for me.
But I must agree with others, way too powerful for a national wonder.

The Celestial Forge I could imagine as a national wonder, which probably doesn't fit the flavor though.

And now for the unavoidable "why did mine get dropped" whine

You probably would have saved time retyping your post in an abbreviated form, since everyone is gonna ask you anyway, but I understand your frustration

 

[Chalid]

And now for the unavoidable "why did mine get dropped" whine

I voted against it as it would have needed to be specially addressed by the AI. (As AI always selects one city to attack you could kill of big forces of the AI with placing the Wonder in the right city and putting some defenders in th city. The Alternative would be to make it so weak that it does not make any difference.)

 

[Mailo]

Hmm ... ok, that makes sense, I did not know the AI was that limited in it's attack pattern ... I usually am not much of a warmonger, so I never noticed this.

The Shrine is probably better anyway

 

[Frozen-Vomit]

I think i need some feedback too, otherwise my suggestions will never stand a chance to get into the public poll

 

[kevjm]

I assume the new mana wonders made my wonder (arcane gate) redundant

 

[Kael]

I think i need some feedback too, otherwise my suggestions will never stand a chance to get into the public poll

Yours was to powerful. Giving twincast to adepts is to great a benifit.

 

[Zurai]

I assume mine was declined because it didn't really fill a gameplay need? I wondered about that before I submitted it, but couldn't come up with anything better at the time.

 

[Kael]

I assume mine was declined because it didn't really fill a gameplay need? I wondered about that before I submitted it, but couldn't come up with anything better at the time.

No, it was the "ships created by the sword wont attack the swords owner" part that doomed it. We have no good way of making some units of a civ at war with a player but some not.

 

[soibean]

and was Wraith of Gaia a little too much?

 

[abman]

Voted for the shrine of the conquerer. I like the idea of a wonder that works differently for each civilization. My suggestion would be to make it easier to get (lower level requirement for dead hero), and just have one shrine available per civ. This is a nice bonus for having a hero do well, but not really worth the sacrifice of a powerful hero. But maybe I'm just greedy, and don't want to have to make a choice between a good hero and a good wonder.

 

[Giolla Phadraig]

I've been a lurker on civfanatics since just before the release of CIV IV. I've been following FfH since it's first edition. I finally had to register just so I could vote in this poll. Eyes and Ears network is a great idea and reminds me of the Great Library from CIV III that I have missed so much, although with much better fantasy flavor and as a national wonder it seems much better balanced.

Oh, and to Kael and the whole FfH design team you guys are doing a great job. I guess now that I have been motivated to register I'll see what I can do to give you guys feedback. Keep up the great work.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

Well, once the hero is a bit out of date, then he can lead a doomed crusade and inspire later generations with his gallant fool's charge.
It would probably benefit the AI a bit more than humans (not that that is a bad thing) since they are more careless with their heroes.
And a probably better name is shrine of the Champion.

 

[Starship]

Ok, since everybody else has asked...I'm curious why Barbarian Compact didn't make it? No hidden nationality units (fun), and keeps barbarians in the game longer (necessary)? Just curious. Thanks in advance.

Also on the Eyes and Ears Network...It should definitely be a national wonder, and the late game tech acceleration is easily avoided if you disallow the gathering/trading of late game techs. (Which would help the late game alot even if the wonder doesn't make it in.)

 

[Kael]

and was Wraith of Gaia a little too much?

The problem with terrain damage is the ai wont understand it. It is programmed to invade your lands, fortify by your cities and run around pillaging stuff. This effect would make that a very bad strategy which human players could adapt to easily enough but it would be very difficult to teach the ai to do well.

 

[Kael]

Ok, since everybody else has asked...I'm curious why Barbarian Compact didn't make it? No hidden nationality units (fun), and keeps barbarians in the game longer (necessary)? Just curious. Thanks in advance.

Also on the Eyes and Ears Network...It should definitely be a national wonder, and the late game tech acceleration is easily avoided if you disallow the gathering/trading of late game techs. (Which would help the late game alot even if the wonder doesn't make it in.)

This was a hard one. I believe Chalid is currently working on some hidden nationality stuff, I do want to do some stuff with it in the game (I want subdued animals to be able to attack and be attacked without starting wars). But I wasn't sure if we will be able to do it so I didn't include your wonder.

Hopefully we will have the ability soon and we can revisit your idea.

 

[Silmeran]

If Shrine of the Conqueror was included, I'd try to get one of my early heroes get killed asap. I assume this is not really the effect one would desire to get.

I'll agree, 'sacrificing' a hero for building a shrine in early game will be a usual tactics. So in my opinion the only effect this wonder must have is + culture, it will be just a memory for your great hero fallen. This would fit the FfH flavour well I think

 

[Good Sauce]

I'll agree, 'sacrificing' a hero for building a shrine in early game will be a usual tactics. So in my opinion the only effect this wonder must have is + culture, it will be just a memory for your great hero fallen. This would fit the FfH flavour well I think

i voted against the shrine for the same reason. you shouldnt want your heros to die, and once they reach level 10, its very unlikely that they're going to unless you specifically allow it to happen. seems to run contrary to flavor. if the shrines werent powerful enough to make you want them over a dead hero, in the majority of games you'd never build the shrine because it's not worth the risk, a dead wonder in effect. a very good idea but IMHO it doesnt work on a gameplay level. i voted for eyes and ears because want to see the value of open borders increased and more spying options. however i'd like to see the free techs removed in place of more survailance abilities. (the free tech ability is too powerful to be on a national wonder i feel)in it's place could be(any or all, just ideas):
1)line of sight in random cities with open borders/ LOS in cities with trade route in wonders city/ LOS in cities with any trade route
2) markers for heros in the world
3)such-and-such wonder/hero is nearing completion (a-la alpha centuari)
4)expand LOS of civs borders by 2 or 3 (as in, normally you see everything in one tile of your borders, expands to 2 tiles)
5)exposes invisible units in the whole civ, or near the building city
etc.
edit: it also seems the shrine is a very hard thing to code, but then i dont know to much about it, so maybe not. all those variations would get confusing to me as a player, i cant imagine coding them.