[Culture] Aka ("Pygmy")

[BlueTemplar]

Well, I went and started looking up things before searching the forums, hopefully this won't bite me later...

African Pygmies - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Dembner (1996) reported a universal "disdain for the term 'pygmy'" among the Pygmy peoples of Central Africa: the term is considered a pejorative, and people prefer to be referred to by the name of their respective ethnic or tribal groups, such as Bayaka, Mbuti and Twa.[2] There is no clear replacement for the term "Pygmy" in reference to the umbrella group. A descriptive term that has seen some use since the 2000s is "Central African foragers".

Aka culture requires Tracking, African and Jungle.
Only Jungle is bothering me as too easy... TODO : figure out what is possible...
("Pygmies" were known at some point for being providers of ivory, not sure if that's a good fit though ?)

Aka provides :

1.) Pygmy Warrior : based on Spiked Clubman, current differences :
- slightly more expensive
- cannot be drafted
- cannot be built faster with Prime Timber
+ 25% Jungle Attack and Defense
- 1 Size
+ 1 Combat Quality (=> this increases upkeep from 1.2 to 1.5... might this be also the reason for the increased hammer cost ??)

2.) and 3.) two heroes (also Tracking) : Khomvoum and Tore

Suggestions :
based on : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_music

The polyphonic singing of the Aka Pygmies was relisted on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.

I suggest :
- Move Pygmy Warrior from Tracking to Hard-Hammer Percussion
- Change the base of Pygmy Warrior from Spiked Clubman to Clubman
- Give them a free Sting 1 promotion to make them (often) better and to showcase C2C's features.
- Move Aka from Tracking to Prehistoric Music (a new optional beeline competing with Persistence Hunting ?!)
- Move around the two heroes on the Persistence Hunting / Trapping / Tracking / Hunting line so that they are perhaps closer to Aka and also on techs far apart enough.

 

[jherek79]

You could create Denisovans too. Maybe make them all the same culture group as Neanderthals.

 

[BlueTemplar]

One could do a lot of things. (Nice idea BTW.) Sadly our time is limited. My current goal is to rebalance, already existing ones, what I consider to be the worst offenders in terms of balance, and as I stumble on them during play.

 

[jherek79]

Oh, I thought Pygmy was a new culture group, not an existing one because I've never seen them.

 

[BlueTemplar]

Heh, good point, maybe I should start these threads with these :

EDIT : Done.

 

[jherek79]

It was my mistake, I was confusing Cultures with Civs. My bad.

 

[dilophosaur]

You could create Denisovans too. Maybe make them all the same culture group as Neanderthals.

and Homo floresiensis ("insular hobbits") on tropical/subtropical islands; also more animals: stegodons, gomphotheres, toxodons, diprotodon, marsupial lion, mihirungs with myths/heritages and herding --->domestication for the bird and the herbivores. Marsupial lion could be tamed but not domesticated IMHO.

 

[Thunderbrd]

Gotta be careful with certain features - if you assume an option must be on then the whole object must require that option. I like the small people too tho.

 

[dilophosaur]

I didn't write that something "must be" with anything or "require" anything.

 

[Thunderbrd]

- Give them a free Sting 1 promotion to make them (often) better and to showcase C2C's features.

I didn't write that something "must be" with anything or "require" anything.

This was what I was referring to, sorry I wasn't clear. Sting 1 requires Size Matters. Therefore if this culture gets Sting 1 on its special units, then what makes them special relies on SM and therefore the entire culture should require SM be on for it to be accessed.

 

[Yudishtira]

Size Matters is imho problematic to put it diplomatically. Please don't lock cultures within options. Choose a more generic free promo or promos to give eg. Combat I and Scrub Combat.

Everything else you (Templar) suggest looks great - nicely done.

 

[Thunderbrd]

Size Matters is imho problematic to put it diplomatically.

Toffer informed me that it's not really so necessary as it once was to not lock cultures within options, but it certainly can sway the game balance on that option.

I imagine your issue with SM is not yet having access to being able to build pre-merged units and flabbert was working on that. I will be working on some aspects of the HUGE animal herd issues with force-split mechanics at some point. Whatever the 'problematic' issues are, we'll address it eventually I'm sure.