Design Thread - For Discussion and Review

[Scapegrace]

Forgive the lack of formatting, but this is coming from my phone.

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Epirus (Pyrrhus)
Start Bias: Grassland
Capital: Amvrakia
UA: Pyrrhus Aspetos
Mounted Units are cheaper to train and generate Faith when garrisoned. +10% Production bonus in all cities for each foreign capital you control, rising to +20% if the Capital is on a different landmass.
UU: Ptolemaic Elephant (replaces Chariot Archer)
Unlike the Chariot Archer it replaces, the Ptolemaic Elephant is, er, an elephant. It retains the standard bonuses of the Chariot Archer, but gets double movement in rough terrain rather than being stopped dead by it. It is also 5% cheaper for every Declaration of Friendship you have with another Major Civilization. Upgrades to Crossbowman.
UU: Tarantine Cavalry (replaces Horseman)
A very powerful battlefield unit, the Tarantine Cavalry begins with two very strong promotions. The first is First Strike, whose utility is well known. The second, Perispasmoi, is unique and grants double movement after attacking. Requires Horses and upgrades to Knight.

 

[Natan35]

Are you referring to the promotion I used in our world's thread?
(I mean, it kinda fits a Pyrrhic civilization...)

 

[kul]

Are fictional civilization ideas are acceptable here? I had this idea about it, even done all the icons for it at a weekend . I would really love to see some feedback and advice regarding its uniques and if possible, the probability of it being actually modded.

THE ______ BROTHERHOOD
Ability: All melee units gain 50% combat bonus when fighting alone, without any of your civilizations other militrary units in adjacent tiles.

Unique Unit: Replaces the Great General that is gained twice as fast. However, it only affect the combat capability of the tile it was stationed in by 10%. When this Unique Unit was killed, automatically converts all adjacent enemy units into your side.

Unique Building: Replaces the Windmill. May be built in all cities. Doesnt have the 2+ Production, but it also boosts the city growth rate by 10%, and it only cost you 200 production instead of 250.

 

[Scapegrace]

Are you referring to the promotion I used in our world's thread?
(I mean, it kinda fits a Pyrrhic civilization...)

Nope. First Strike's the unique trait the Impi gets. =]

 

[Tarmont]

Question for the design-makers around these parts. Would an university replacement with this effect:
"Worked farms generate +1 Science rather than Jungles."

Be OP? Keep in mind that Jungles would normally generate a higher value too, +2 Science.

 

[SULOMON]

Question for the design-makers around these parts. Would an university replacement with this effect:
"Worked farms generate +1 Science rather than Jungles."

Be OP? Keep in mind that Jungles would normally generate a higher value too, +2 Science.

Fairly map dependent. But I would say it's stronger (not necessarily OP though) than the jungle bonus since a person will probably be working a lot more farms than jungles.

 

[Natan35]

Question for the design-makers around these parts. Would an university replacement with this effect:
"Worked farms generate +1 Science rather than Jungles."

Be OP? Keep in mind that Jungles would normally generate a higher value too, +2 Science.

Depends on whether or not does the unique university feature other extra effects. If its the only one, I'd say its fine.

 

[Urdnot_Scott]

[REDACTED]​

Leader: [REDACTED]

UA: The [REDACTED] Caliphate
Cities with an incoming internal trade route are automatically connected to the Capital and passively generate missionaries based on their gold output. +1 faith in all cities for every 3 gold generated from city connections.

UB: Secret [REDACTED] (Replaces temple)
The Secret [REDACTED], unlike the temple it replaces, costs no maintenance and generates 2 gold in cities connected to the Capital, increasing to a further 2 gold and 1 faith if home to an outgoing trade route. Merchant specialists in cities with a Secret [REDACTED] reduce the cost of missionaries and inquisitors by 10%.

UU: [RETRACTED] Rider (Replaces Knight)
The [REDACTED] Rider is significantly stronger while attacking forts or citadels and heals whenever it ends its turn adjacent to a fortified unit or enemy fort. Disbanding a missionary on the same tile as a [RETRACTED] Rider fully heals it and boosts its combat strength by 10%.

So what do you guys think of this? I think it might be my next civ after Granada is out and I want to spruce up the OP soon with some designs, plans and ideas. Feel free to guess who it is but I'd be surprised.

 

[Howard Tafty]

Well either the Fatmids (one of my personal favorite muslim caliphates) or thier predecessors the Rustamids? Either way the design looks interesting certainly focusing on maintaining City connections for Gold and Faith (From base yields and missionaries) which makes it efficient. My only compliant is the UB involving be something secret is a bit obscure especially it being a temple where pious peoples usually worship thier faith its just seems weird unless it purposefully radically different building than the building it replaces.

 

[Natan35]

Can those be Ayyubids? Or could these actually be crusaders?

 

[Tarmont]

Can those be Ayyubids? Or could these actually be crusaders?

UA: The [REDACTED] Caliphate

Ayyubids werent caliphs, and needless to say neither were the Crusaders.

Hm... "The Catholic Caliphate"... Seems legit.

 

[Natan35]

Yes it does!

 

[Urdnot_Scott]

Well either the Fatmids (one of my personal favorite muslim caliphates) or thier predecessors the Rustamids? Either way the design looks interesting certainly focusing on maintaining City connections for Gold and Faith (From base yields and missionaries) which makes it efficient. My only compliant is the UB involving be something secret is a bit obscure especially it being a temple where pious peoples usually worship thier faith its just seems weird unless it purposefully radically different building than the building it replaces.

Oh bugger I forgot I requested those maps, all the secrecy seems a bit redundant now but yes it is indeed the Fatimid caliphate. The UB is a secret headquarters - Isma'ilism was spread throughout the Muslim world through secret bases disguised as marketplaces because the doctrine was so outright heretical (Some doctrines of isma'ili Islam don't even hold that the Quran is true by definition, pretty groundbreaking stuff at the time) that missionaries couldn't go around telling anyone that they were so. Therefore they'd pretend to be merchants and make lots of friends while secretly planting Ismai'ili ideas in their heads until they decided it was time to reveal their true nature, by which time the subliminal suggestions they'd been making would make the target more susceptible to conversion. Sneaky! Hence a secret temple with lots of gold bonuses (because it's pretending to be a market) makes perfect sense, to me anyway.

Can those be Ayyubids? Or could these actually be crusaders?

Nah I wouldn't do the Ayyubids since they've already been done very well and I definitely wouldn't be including the latin crusaders in my thread about notable Muslim or Arab polities; that's like asking JFD if he's doing an uncharismatic extra-European communist republic

Ayyubids werent caliphs, and needless to say neither were the Crusaders.

Hm... "The Catholic Caliphate"... Seems legit.

Well, that's just the name of the UA, it doesn't necessairily denote that the civ is a Caliphate. It could have been the crusaders with the UA 'The Bane of the Caliphate' or the Buyids under 'The Shadow Caliphate'. I mean its neither of those but you get my point

 

[Tarmont]

What's the name of the seecreeet unit? (And why is it called RETRACTED rather than REDACTED? So many questions!)

I have a "Kutama Rider" or something like that in my Fatimid design, so I need to know if it's not the same .

 

[Urdnot_Scott]

Also while I'm throwing up the ideas I have lying around for future civs, here's the other contender for next civ. Hopefully this one won't be as easy to work out.

[REDACTED]​

Leader: [REDACTED]

UA: The [REDACTED] of [REDACTED]
May desecrate wonders and faith buildings in captured enemy cities, providing unique and powerful bonuses to your civilisation or maluses to others. Receive a food boost in all cities upon improving a desert tile, doubled for farms.

UU: [REDACTED] (Replaces Granary)
The [REDACTED], unlike the Granary it replaces, is constructed automatically in any city with an adjacent desert tile and does not yield any food on its own. However, farms in cities with a [REDACTED] yield +1 faith and food, whereas sources of sheep, cows and deer yield -1 food and +2 faith.

UB: [RETRACTED] (Replaces Swordsman)
The [RETRACTED] is much faster in desert tiles, unlike the swordsman it replaces, and receives a 10% bonus in enemy territory. Furthermore, when within 2 tiles of a holy city, the [RETRACTED] receives a further 20% combat boost and may pillage for no movement point cost.

Desecration bonuses:

Desecration is a bit comlicated but hopefully not too hard to figure out. Essentially, if you capture a city with a wonder in it, you can then produce a desecrated version of that wonder which takes 1 turn. Its technically just a regular building but with powerful bonuses and the prerequisite is a wonder, not another building. The idea is that desecrated wonders yield something close to their original form but all perverted and different, usually providing war bonuses but not always. You may also produce desecrated shrines and temples in captured cities:

Desecrated Shrines provide no base faith but yield +1 production and +1 faith while training units.

Desecrated Temples provide no faith but do yield +2 food and grant the 'Raider' promotion to mounted units, which fully heals them whenever they pillage a trade route or kill an enemy unit.

Desecrated Wonders:

Desecrated Great Mosque of Djenne
+3 gold. Missionaries trained in this city provide the blitz promotion to stacked units, allowing them to attack twice instead of once.

Desecrated Oracle
receive a free unit in the Capital and all holy cities upon adopting a social policy. +2 production.

Descrated Big Ben
Gold cost of purchasing units reduced by 25%

And so on, I have a master list of desecrated wonders in my civ designs folder but I'm sure nobody wants to read through the whole thing so you get the idea. Its like the original, but not, and usually war focussed.

 

[Urdnot_Scott]

What's the name of the seecreeet unit? (And why is it called RETRACTED rather than REDACTED? So many questions!)

I have a "Kutama Rider" or something like that in my Fatimid design, so I need to know if it's not the same .

Ah nuts, you're doing the Fatimids? It is the Kutama Rider indeed. The Secret isn't a unit, its the unique building, a Secret Marketplace or Propaganda House.

 

[Tarmont]

Ah nuts, you're doing the Fatimids? It is the Kutama Rider indeed. The Secret isn't a unit, its the unique building, a Secret Marketplace or Propaganda House.

I do intend to, but mine has a much more militaristic focus on it (Or at least I intend it to have, as I didn't like my original thing and deleted much of it. Now I don't even remember what the UB was supposed to be ).

It was led by this guy, though.

 

[Urdnot_Scott]

Ah bollocks, at least that narrows down who I'll be doing next...

I was going to go with Moezz too but I couldn't pass up the chance to have a female leader given my Arab and Muslim centred civilisations aren't likely to have many... Besides Sitt Al-Mulk was a straight up badass and actually did most of the important things herself, unlike Moezz who largely relied on Jawhar for the conquest of Egypt. I also thought about a military focus but it felt wrong given the Fatimids 'conquered' Egypt with the permission of most of the notables there and it was hardly a conquest at all. When they actually tried to expand militaristically into Syria it went much worse and their fighting against the Byzantines was fairly poor.

 

[Tarmont]

I also thought about a military focus but it felt wrong given the Fatimids 'conquered' Egypt with the permission of most of the notables there and it was hardly a conquest at all. When they actually tried to expand militaristically into Syria it went much worse and their fighting against the Byzantines was fairly poor.

I want to have a change of capitals thing with them, symbolizing their expansion across north africa. There was a nice bonus to having different religions in captured cities as well, but I'm not sure what's the final design gonna be.

 

[Hoop Thrower]

Ah bollocks, at least that narrows down who I'll be doing next...

I was going to go with Moezz too but I couldn't pass up the chance to have a female leader given my Arab and Muslim centred civilisations aren't likely to have many...

What, no Granada/Moroccan civ led by Sayyida al Hurra?