DarkScythe's Fictional Spice and Wolf Civilization and more!

[DarkScythe]

After more than 7 months of development, from conceptualization to release, I am extremely happy to announce the public availability of my first mod ever:

Wolf and Merchant Empire
Led by Holo, the Wisewolf!
(Download links available at the bottom.)​

Introduction

This Civilization is based on the story of "Spice and Wolf (Ookami to Koushinryou)" by Isuna Hasekura, originally published as a series of light novels which gained a two-season anime (Japanese animation) adaptation, as well as a second manga adaptation.

I absolutely fell in love with the story after I had finished reading it back in April, and immediately began thinking of a way to provide my own little tribute - Civ struck me as a perfect match based on the setting.
However, as I have never modded anything before, this would be my first attempt and it wound up being a very ambitious offering despite my attempts to keep it simple, and my humble beginnings here asking for help on how to get started would eventually lead me to create one heck of a complex Civ.

This Civ now sports over two dozen painstakingly handmade icons, at least three features I had no interest in adding in the beginning due to complexity, and a gigantic 1500+ line Lua script. Even so, I am extremely proud to say that I believe my mod should be bug-free to the best of my (and my volunteers') ability to test for them. I pride myself on attempting to provide my absolute best effort for the highest quality Civ I can manage for a first time modder -- I believe Holo deserves nothing less!

With that introduction out of the way, let's get to the details!

Synopsis

This Civ is led by the heroine of the series, the Wisewolf of Yoitsu - Holo.

It is my first mod, but I hope for it to be an ambitious entry. It is a fairly complex Civ with emphasis on a strong economy, and a heavy focus on Trade Routes. The whole Civ is built around the philosophy and mind-set of a system of bonuses and penalties; Of having to make hard choices, and of the player's decision-making resulting in various trade-offs. In addition, care has been taken to ensure the highest level of detail and bug-free code.

Also included is a large variety of unique buildings, units, promotions, and even a unique improvement and resource. Some buildings are able to auto-upgrade, and others must be manually upgraded. The custom Wolf units are the highlight of this Civ's military presence. This Civ also sports a built-in soundtrack with a generous selection of music, expandable with a separate Extended Soundtrack mod. This Civ was built by a Spice and Wolf fan for Spice and Wolf fans, but anyone who enjoys complex Civs which require some amount of thinking would probably enjoy it. I may be biased, though.

Detailed Overview

Civilization & Leader:
Wolf and Merchant Empire led by Holo, the Wisewolf

Spoiler :

Dawn of Man:

Spoiler :

Oh, Holo, great Wisewolf of Yoitsu, though your journeys have finally afforded you some measure of peace and happiness with the one you love, the people of the world once again seek your guidance. Frought with mistakes, history has become a cruel mistress. The world is in turmoil, with conflict spread far across the land. Thieves and mercenary bands now roam the land plundering and pillaging wherever they go. Attacking hapless merchants and civilians alike, they are little more than barbarians. Have the very Gods whom the humans so diligently prayed to forsaken them in the end?

Holo, the people seek not salvation, but your wisdom and kindness which knows no bounds. Your experience and leadership may bring peace to this chaotic world. Your partner, Lawrence, has offered to assist you with his wealth of merchant contacts and his old Trade Guild. He will do all he can to support you from the shadows -- a merchant's natural battlefield.

Oh, Holo, your wisdom and pride are matched only by the magnificence of your tail. With your lover by your side and all of his abilities at hand, will you once again take up the mantle of responsibility for the sake of the ones who so desperately cry out for you in this dark time? Will you be clever enough to stand on the world's stage with -- or against -- other leaders, in order to build the greatest merchant empire the world has ever seen? Will you be able to bring order back to the world so that you may enjoy your days in tranquility? Can you build a civilization that will stand the test of time?

Unique Ability:
I.. actually can't fit all of the changes into this, and have to be purposefully vague.

Spoiler :

Unique Ability Specifics:

• +1 Food from Snow and Tundra
• +1 Food and +1 Faith from unimproved Wheat; +2 Food, +1 Faith, +1 Culture total when improved with a Farm
• +1 Happiness from Wine improved with a Plantation and Sheep improved with a Pasture when actively worked by a Citizen
• +50% range of Land Trade Routes
• Internal Trade Routes provide +25% more Food and Production
• +5 Gold for the first Trade Route with each new Civilization
• +3 Gold to other Civs which send trade routes to Holo
• Merchant Specialists twice as effective; Earns Great Merchants 25% faster
• -50% Effectiveness of Gold gifts to City-States
• Influence with City-States decay 100% faster
• Trade Routes with a City State provide +1 Influence per turn
• -25% Production for the Empire; +25% bonus for Settlers
• Specialists consume 50% more food
• Faith costs doubled; Missionaries only have one spread
• All military units have Unique Promotions

Despite how crazy this looks, I feel it actually makes sense after you get the hang of it, and it feels quite good in terms of balance.
She's not going to do everything well, especially not all at once, but that's how I designed her; She's flexible enough to do anything with enough effort, but decisions must be made. Trade-offs will happen.

Unique Buildings:

Spoiler :

These represent the people's faith in Holo, and her general approval of merrymaking.

Wheat Wolf: (Replaces Shrine)
Moderately more expensive to build than the Shrine, and cannot be purchased with Gold.

• Provides +1 Faith, +1 Happiness, and increases Golden Age length by 5% per Wheat Wolf in the Empire.
• Completed Wheat Wolves upgrade automatically into Wolves of the Harvest upon researching Theology.
• Provides +1 Culture thereafter. Costs 3 Gold per turn Maintenance.

Wolf of the Harvest: (Unique Unbuildable)
Cannot be built. Can only be received as an upgrade to an existing Wheat Wolf once, at the time Theology is researched.
Losing this thereafter results in its permanent loss.

• Provides +1 Faith, +1 Happiness, +2 Culture, and increases Golden Age length by 5% per Wolf of the Harvest in the Empire.
• Provides another +1 Culture and +1 Tourism upon researching Archaeology. Costs 3 Gold per turn Maintenance, and cannot be sold.

Spoiler :

This being the Headquarters of Lawrence's old Trade Guild, it confers substantial economic benefit, and is the beginning of the construction of a true Merchant Empire. As such, it provides global, Empire-wide bonuses, including diverting a portion of Gold from Cities where its branches are set up into whatever City the HQ is placed in.
It costs much more to build, cannot be purchased with Gold, and its cost increases with number of Cities.

Rowen Trade Guild HQ: (Replaces East India Company)

• Provides +1 Happiness, 2 Trade Routes, 2 Great Merchant points per turn, and has 3 Merchant Specialist slots.
• Provides +1 Science per 4 Citizens in the City.
• Unlocks the availability of the Trade Guild Branch buildings, and provides +1 Gold per Guild Branch in the Empire, becoming +2 Gold each after Economics.
• Boosts outgoing Trade Route Gold income by +5 Gold. Incoming Trade Routes gain +6 Gold, while the sender receives +3.
• Provides +2 Tourism after researching Railroads.
• Increases City Connection Gold income by 10%, reduces global Culture cost of acquiring new tiles by 25%, and reduces enemy Spy effectiveness by 10% in all Cities.
• Grants a Free Guild Merchant and a Free Spy when constructed. Is available earlier, at Currency. Requires a Market in all Cities.

Spoiler :

This series of buildings represents a unique building upgrade line only available to Holo.
If the Headquarters oversee things on a global scale, the Branch buildings offer the Guild insight into local dealings, and become increasingly more intimately entrenched in the lives of the Citizens of their individual Cities, granting them many local bonuses that only affect the City they are constructed in.
All three buildings require a Market in the City and 1 Iron to construct, levies a 3 Gold "fee" taken directly from the City's coffers (before Market bonuses are applied), and provides 1 Trade Route.
Each Guild building reduces global Gold Purchasing costs by 3% each, up to a maximum discount of 30%.
They are all fairly expensive to build, cannot be purchased with Gold, and their cost increases with number of Cities.

Trade Guild Branch:

• Provides +1 Gold from all nearby Luxury resources.
• Has 1 Merchant Specialist slot.
• Reduces Culture and Gold costs of acquiring new tiles by 15% only in the local City.
• Reduces enemy Spy effectiveness by 5% only in the local City.
• Automatically upgrades to a Trade Guild Hub upon researching Machinery.

Trade Guild Hub:

• Replaces the Trade Guild Branch.
• Provides +1 Gold from all nearby Luxury and Strategic resources.
• Provides +1 Great Merchant point per turn, with 1 Merchant Specialist slot.
• Grants Trade Routes +25% more range. Outgoing Trade Routes gain +4 Gold, and incoming Trade Routes generate an extra +2 Gold, with the sender gaining an extra +1 Gold.
• Reduces Culture and Gold costs of acquiring new tiles by 20% only in the local City.
• Reduces enemy Spy effectiveness by 10% only in the local City.
• Automatically upgrades to a Trade Guild Inn upon researching Printing Press.

Trade Guild Inn:

• Replaces the Trade Guild Hub.
• Provides +1 Gold from all nearby Luxury, Strategic, and Bonus resources.
• Provides +1 Great Merchant point per turn, with 2 Merchant Specialist slots, and +1 Science.
• Grants Trade Routes +25% more range. Outgoing Trade Routes gain +5 Gold, and incoming Trade Routes generate an extra +4 Gold, with the sender gaining an extra +2 Gold.
• Reduces Culture and Gold costs of acquiring new tiles by 25% only in the local City.
• Reduces enemy Spy effectiveness by 15% only in the local City.
• Provides +1 Tourism upon researching Railroads.

Spoiler :

Spice and Wolf Inn: (Unique Palace)
The center of the Holo-verse. Acts as the Capital, and is generally run by Lawrence, providing several Empire-wide bonuses and penalties.

• Provides +2 Happiness, +1 Food, and +2 Gold over a standard palace.
• Provides 1 Trade Route, but removes the ability to gain any free trade routes from technologies.
• Increases City Connection Gold income by 15%, but also increases global Gold Purchasing costs by 25%.
• Provides +3 Tourism upon researching Machinery, but trades a Great Work slot for a Merchant Specialist slot.

Unique Units:

Spoiler :

Guild Merchant: (Unique Great Merchant)
Uses a special list of unique Spice and Wolf merchant names!
Has 3 moves, and the Trade Mission promotion which doubles the amount of Gold and Influence earned from a City State when using their "Conduct Trade Mission" ability.

Spoiler :

The Wolf units on their own are not particularly impressive, but when working together, combined with their unique Promotions, they are a force not to be regarded lightly. However, a traditional military is still required if attempting to take enemy Cities and strongholds. The Wolf models were also an adventure to implement with thanks going out to Nutty and Nomad or What for getting them working properly. Civitar provided the original reskinnable Wolf, and I fixed them all up and reorganized them, as well as created my own "Wisewolf" skin for use in this mod.

Wolf Pups: (Replaces Warriors)
Costs more to build and to maintain than the Warrior and has the same 8 Strength as a Warrior.

Wolf Pack: (Replaces Spearmen)
Costs more to build and to maintain than the Spearman, but has higher strength than the Spearman at 12 Strength.

Great Wolf: (Replaces Pikemen)
Costs more to build and to maintain then the Pikeman, but has higher strength than the Pikeman at 18 Strength. Also has 3 Moves and 3-tile-sight. Upgrades to Riflemen.

Unique Improvement:

Spoiler :

Apple Orchard: (New Improvement)
Can only be constructed by Holo's Workers. This unique Improvement is available upon researching Construction, and helps to satiate Holo's appetite for Apples.
Plantation model credit goes to Horem for providing the original files, though the Apple Tree's textures were edited by me to look more the way I wanted them to.

Has stringent requirements:

• Must be built on flat Plains or Grassland
• Must be adjacent to Fresh Water
• Must not be adjacent to another Apple Orchard

Provides +1 Food and +1 Gold normally when controlled by any Civilization. Holo receives +2 Gold from them instead. Provides +1 Happiness when worked.

Provides one copy of Succulent Apples to a City which works at least two Apple Orchards.

Unique Resource:

Spoiler :

Succulent Apples: (New Resource)
Granted one copy automatically when at least two valid Apple Orchards are worked by any City. Lost when at least two valid Apple Orchards are no longer being worked. Similar to Indonesia's unique luxuries, they can be traded, and provide the usual +4 Happiness for being a luxury.

Unique Promotions:

Spoiler :

These unique promotions give Holo's units most of the flair that they have.

Pride of the Wisewolf:

• +5% Combat Strength
• Extra +15% vs. Barbarians

Wisdom of the Wisewolf:

• Combat experience gained +25% faster

Wisdom of the Great Wolf: Great General & Great Admiral Exclusive

• +10% more Combat Strength bestowed upon nearby troops

Wolf of Yoitsu: Wolf Pups, Wolf Pack, Great Wolf Exclusive

• Double movement in Forest/Jungle
• +25% bonus to flank attacks
• Carries over with upgrade

Dreadful Hunter I: Wolf Pups, Wolf Pack, Great Wolf Exclusive

• Ignores GG's
• -50% vs. Cities
• +50% bonus to flank attacks
• Lost with upgrade

Dreadful Hunter II: Wolf Pups, Wolf Pack, Great Wolf Exclusive

• Ignores GG's
• -50% vs. Cities
• +25% bonus to flank attacks
• 5% Fear aura
• Lost with upgrade

Dreadful Hunter III: Wolf Pups, Wolf Pack, Great Wolf Exclusive

• Ignores GG's
• -50% vs. Cities
• 10% Fear aura
• Lost with upgrade

I have also created an Extended Soundtrack for use with my Civ!
This pack (split into two mods due to filesize limits) provides more than double the number of tracks already included in the Civ by default (already a generous selection of 21) and brings an incredible variety of Spice and Wolf music into the game. I have also created a Compatibility Mod to allow use of my Soundtrack with other Civs, specifically my Beta version (which is still running), and Rarimi's version of a Spice and Wolf Civ.

Phew! That's it for details on my Spice and Wolf Civ!

One last thing I've done is also a Recettear Civ Soundtrack!
It was created for use with Silly's Recettear Civilization, mostly as practice to understand how to make the soundtracks eventually for my Spice and Wolf Civ here, but it's a shame to let it go unused.

Now then, for the juicy bits!

Subscribe / Download
Click on one of these banners to be taken to their Steam Workshop page to subscribe!

Spoiler :

Alternate Downloads
While I would like to stick to using Steam for distribution (for now, anyway) I understand it's not the most reliable thing.
If anyone has trouble downloading my mods from Steam, please use these alternate download links.
Try to use them only as a last resort, as they are hosted on my personal account.

Holo's Wolf and Merchant Empire [Spice and Wolf Civilization] (v1) (~75.4 MB)
Spice and Wolf Civilization Extended Soundtrack (Part 1) (v1) (~97.1 MB)
Spice and Wolf Civilization Extended Soundtrack (Part 2) (v1) (~82.3 MB)
Spice and Wolf Soundtrack Compatibility Add-on Mod (v1) (~69.6 MB)
Recettear Civilization Soundtrack (v1) (~88.2 MB)

​

 

[DarkScythe]

Reserved.

 

[DarkScythe]

Reserved as well.. just in case. That OP is looking pretty freakishly long, after all.

 

[DarkScythe]

One more.. this should be enough.

Please post comments, feedback, suggestions, and thoughts about my Civ here!

 

[bouncymischa]

Well, it's certainly far larger, more sophisticated, and more polished than the first civs I ever made! Definitely an impressive piece of work!

I wonder what "and more" will be, though?

 

[DarkScythe]

Haha!
It kind of grew out of control during development. Each time I learned new things, I wanted to find a way of incorporating it!

Though, now that I'm actually awake and not trying to edit this thing at 3 in the morning, I've updated the OP a little bit. I forgot to include that her UB's are not purchasable with Gold, added the DoM image, as well as fixed up a few typos.

As for the "and more" ... well that is still somewhat up in the air, but I know I have additional development plans for this Civ. At the minimum, I want to add in support for sukritact's Events & Decisions mod, though I'm open to other suggestions of mods to make her compatible with/for.

Otherwise, my quest to continue pushing toward full polish and a full 230 unique diplomatic responses for her is still ongoing.

 

[Scapegrace]

I'm surprised you didn't include, like, starting a Golden Age whenever you build a Gold or Trade building in the Capital or research economic techs or something. Just seemed a given, what with the nature of the anime. Still, this looks pretty bloody comprehensive. I look forward to seeing where you're going with this! =]

 

[DarkScythe]

Thank you for your kind comments!

Haha! I already include a Golden Age modifier in this Civ.. any more and it'd just be giving cause to the ones who are already tempted to think this Civ is OP with the huge number of things going on.

With that said, I didn't so much get the feeling of a 'true' Golden Age happening in the series, so in my Civ, a Golden Age is more or less a big festival. This concept will be expanded on once I get around to coding in compatibility with the Events & Decisions mod, as one guaranteed event will be "Hold a Harvest Festival" which will trigger a Golden Age with modified benefits (so, not your typical Golden Age) with its duration largely determined by the number of Wheat Wolves in the Empire.

I've got a few other things cooking but I've got a lot of stuff to work with, so mindlessly adding stuff will screw with balance in completely unexpected ways. For decisions, I want to have a set of "Increase X, but decrease Y" type boosts which will be helpful for if the player decides to fully invest in one direction / victory type, but will punish them a bit if they change their mind later. Still, it will be nothing that can't be worked around.

I'm also still tossing about the idea of including additional HQ buildings (Like the Milone and Medio Trading Companies from season 1) and have them specialize in different areas, thus technically allowing you to "specialize" your Cities a bit more. For one, Milone will probably have a bunch of boosts related to Sea trading, so a coastal City situated in a good "Trade hub" zone might be a great candidate for it, but each HQ will block any other HQ from existing in said City.

Of course, the problem is balance. This will undoubtedly change things, so I have to be very careful how I tread with their bonuses.

 

[bouncymischa]

I'm also still tossing about the idea of including additional HQ buildings (Like the Milone and Medio Trading Companies from season 1) and have them specialize in different areas, thus technically allowing you to "specialize" your Cities a bit more. For one, Milone will probably have a bunch of boosts related to Sea trading, so a coastal City situated in a good "Trade hub" zone might be a great candidate for it, but each HQ will block any other HQ from existing in said City.

Of course, the problem is balance. This will undoubtedly change things, so I have to be very careful how I tread with their bonuses.

I suspect you've been much more painstaking about balance than I have with my civs.

The Headquarters concept is interesting. I never played Civ 4 very much, so I'm not terribly familiar with how Corporations worked, but looking at the basics it seems like an interesting idea that one could port over to Civ 5 (and I think there's already a mod that does that?) The HQ idea seems like an interesting variation on it.

 

[DarkScythe]

I try!
I don't want something I poured so much love and effort into being labeled as simply "OP" and tossed in the bin, so I really want to take care to properly test changes before deploying them. xD

Part of this is probably because I'm used to testing things for other people, so I'm big on (and why I keep asking for volunteers to help) testing everything in my Beta version. I know personally I hate when I encounter unbalanced or buggy gameplay.

With that said, I am pretty sure I've contributed to testing your Civs before, too!

I haven't ever actually put more than maybe 3 games into Civ4 myself. I know I played once or twice, and realized that my entire day disappeared as soon as I loaded the game, and was afraid of trying it again. Thus, I don't really know what the Corporations were, nor how closely my ideas mirror theirs -- Most of this stuff is just stuff I'm thinking might be fun to do, and would make sense for Holo / the story.

The only other downside I'm seeing with implementing the HQ's is...
Sigh.. I need to make more artwork.

 

[bouncymischa]

I haven't ever actually put more than maybe 3 games into Civ4 myself. I know I played once or twice, and realized that my entire day disappeared as soon as I loaded the game, and was afraid of trying it again. Thus, I don't really know what the Corporations were, nor how closely my ideas mirror theirs -- Most of this stuff is just stuff I'm thinking might be fun to do, and would make sense for Holo / the story.

The only other downside I'm seeing with implementing the HQ's is...
Sigh.. I need to make more artwork.

From what I've read of the Corporations, they were a sort of interesting variation on religion. Once you reached a certain tech level, certain Great People could found a corporation in a city that met certain resource requirements. (So, for example, a mining corporation might require X deposits of iron, aluminum, etc. in the area.) Founding a corporation put a Corporate HQ in that city, and you could then build "corporate executives" there. These executives could then go to other cities and establish the corporation there with an expenditure of gold, kind of like missionaries spreading religion.

The corporations themselves provided certain bonuses, in exchange for high maintenance costs. I'm not sure of the exact details, as they apparently "consumed" copies of resources, in exchange for certain yields. (Standard Ethanol, for example, consumed Corn, Rice, and Sugar, producing +2 Science per resource consumed and yielding Oil.)

It's a rather interesting concept, so I might play around with it along with my near-future mod experimentation. (Megacorporation dystopias of the future!) But the whole Guild HQ and Guild Branches reminded me of the Corporation concept a bit, although it would seem your implementation is rather different. Still, it's kind of a neat way to sum up how the whole Guild mechanic could work.

 

[DarkScythe]

Ah, hm. That's interesting.

It's a bit too involved to replicate, but I do see where there are similarities to my plans.
I did want to think about giving Guild Merchants more than just the one "Bribe a CS" role (let's face it, the Customs House is useless) but it was more along the lines of allowing them to "build" a Guild building in a City like an Engineer could. This is likely way more code than I'd like to think about, though.

Still, utilizing local resources sounds like it could be interesting... hmm...

 

[bouncymischa]

Ah, hm. That's interesting.

It's a bit too involved to replicate, but I do see where there are similarities to my plans.
I did want to think about giving Guild Merchants more than just the one "Bribe a CS" role (let's face it, the Customs House is useless) but it was more along the lines of allowing them to "build" a Guild building in a City like an Engineer could. This is likely way more code than I'd like to think about, though.

Still, utilizing local resources sounds like it could be interesting... hmm...

Yeah, for some reason I thought that the Guild Branches couldn't be built until after you built a Guild HQ, which lead me to think it was somewhat like the Corporate HQ concept.

I don't think it'd be too hard to add a "Build a Guild Branch" action to the Guild Merchant -- you'd just have it kill the Merchant and build the appropriate building in the city. The AI couldn't make effective use of it, but the AI typically doesn't rush buildings and the like anyways...

 

[DarkScythe]

Yeah, for some reason I thought that the Guild Branches couldn't be built until after you built a Guild HQ, which lead me to think it was somewhat like the Corporate HQ concept.

Hmm, actually, this is because it's true -- the Trade Guild Branches cannot be constructed until the Rowen Trade Guild HQ is built. These are powerful buildings, so in order to more carefully control the timing of these appearing, the order required is:
Markets in all Cities -> Rowen Trade Guild -> Market in new city (if necessary) -> Trade Guild Branch

I don't think it'd be too hard to add a "Build a Guild Branch" action to the Guild Merchant -- you'd just have it kill the Merchant and build the appropriate building in the city. The AI couldn't make effective use of it, but the AI typically doesn't rush buildings and the like anyways...

Yeah, that would potentially be a problem.. I'm trying to ensure that the AI, as dumb as it already currently is, is still able to actually utilize her somewhat properly. Oh, the pain involved in the last Beta version, to get her to build a better army and stop spamming Wolves headlong into a City's walls...

 

[DarkScythe]

So, I've been thinking about it some more, and I'm liking the idea of HQ's more and more. Now that it's released, and I'm no longer pressured to release on a certain date, I think I have time to revisit this feature I dropped in favor of completing it by Thanksgiving.

I'm also really liking the idea of consuming resources; it gives you more ways of "using up" your resources instead of just selling everything.
I'm thinking maybe I can both require certain resources to be local and consume a certain amount of them at the same time.

However, one thing I have yet to figure out is whether or not one can somehow get a luxury resource "used up." Strategic resources are easy, since they're meant to be used in this way, but luxuries weren't, I don't think.

One specific example I have right now is either the Latparron or Remelio companies, which dealt in armor and such. It would require a local source of Iron, then consume, let's say 2 units of Iron, and would increase the Gold yield of Iron plus reduce the production cost of Swordsmen units, while providing a small bonus to trade income and require some amount of Gold in maintenance.

Something along those lines.. But then there is the Jean company which dealt in Copper, which just so happens to be a luxury resource in this game, rather than a strategic..
And of course, Milone company might require Fish or something, which happens to be a bonus resource.. Medio company requiring Wheat would also run into the same problem.

 

[Natan35]

So, I've been thinking about it some more, and I'm liking the idea of HQ's more and more. Now that it's released, and I'm no longer pressured to release on a certain date, I think I have time to revisit this feature I dropped in favor of completing it by Thanksgiving.

I'm also really liking the idea of consuming resources; it gives you more ways of "using up" your resources instead of just selling everything.
I'm thinking maybe I can both require certain resources to be local and consume a certain amount of them at the same time.

However, one thing I have yet to figure out is whether or not one can somehow get a luxury resource "used up." Strategic resources are easy, since they're meant to be used in this way, but luxuries weren't, I don't think.

One specific example I have right now is either the Latparron or Remelio companies, which dealt in armor and such. It would require a local source of Iron, then consume, let's say 2 units of Iron, and would increase the Gold yield of Iron plus reduce the production cost of Swordsmen units, while providing a small bonus to trade income and require some amount of Gold in maintenance.

Something along those lines.. But then there is the Jean company which dealt in Copper, which just so happens to be a luxury resource in this game, rather than a strategic..
And of course, Milone company might require Fish or something, which happens to be a bonus resource.. Medio company requiring Wheat would also run into the same problem.

You can make a TC mod...

 

[DarkScythe]

Haha, I don't think I'm quite ready nor willing to go into Total-Conversion territory just yet.
I may be ambitious, but I'm not that ambitious!

I will look around and see if there is any way of doing, or faking what I need to do here.. otherwise I can maybe rethink the whole thing. I'm not completely settled on one particular path for these HQ's yet, but I am certainly up for ideas and suggestions.

 

[KIdanor]

These ideas for alternative HQs sound pretty interesting. I was also thinking about some possible ways of implementing them.

One idea I had was making the Remelio Company HQ give +x% boost for all unit production, but also –y% for building production. Similarly, Medio Company HQ could give +x% boost to growth for every Wheat worked by the city, but also –y% to (possibly) all production.

This way different HQs could allow players to customize their cities for some specific purpose, while also forcing players to pay some kind of trade-off in the process. What these percentage boosts and penalties could be, I am thinking something around 20-30% for production and +5% per wheat. These numbers would require playtesting, of course.

I guess that Rowen Trade Guild HQ (the currently only HQ building) could stay as the “basic” HQ, which allows building the Branches and could possibly give more boost for trade routes than the other HQ-buildings. Or are you thinking that building any of the HQs could allow construction of Branches?

The idea of making the city require some specific local resource before a HQ can be built also sounds interesting. And like previously suggested, maybe the HQs could also convert some of those resources to a new kind of resource, like Wheat to Ale.

Some food for thought.

 

[DarkScythe]

Good call on the penalties, though they won't be too drastic I don't think.. unless the boost is similarly huge to compensate. However, just like with wonders, the time cost of building them might be penalty enough.. Not too sure yet.

The Rowen HQ would likely be rebalanced / refocused toward increasing land trade effectiveness (losing its Sea-related stuff) but otherwise may look basically the same as it currently is. Mainly this is to simplify code, since much of my Lua assumes the Rowen HQ comes first, I might as well leave it as an anchor and have everything else spawn from there. I can explain it away as a bias -- Lawrence would favor the addition of his old Trade Guild before anyone else's, and Holo isn't going to deny him that.

I'm currently working on another bugfix so I haven't been able to look into ways of consuming non-strategic resources, but at the very least I can require all sorts of resources, I think. There does exist the Mint which requires luxury resources, and the Stoneworks which requires either a luxury or a bonus.

On the idea of HQ's converting stuff into new resources - I really like this idea, but I don't think it's viable. Holo already has a unique resource, and giving her any more (these HQ's which produce them are unique to her, after all) would make things fairly unbalanced with many more guaranteed sources of Happiness and stuff to trade for more Gold. Unless, of course, I make these HQ's not unique to her, and allow every Civ to compete for and build them.

 

[Antagonise]

I've just played with this Civ, and I'm absolutely overwhelmed, in a good way. It really shows that you spent 7 months on this project, this is the most comprehensive civ I have seen to date, outstanding work! I really hope you continue to make more civs in the future.