Design Thread - For Discussion and Review

[Hoop Thrower]

Well, it's sorta built after the same idea as my Saltpeter Chile, for obvious reasons... is the UA centered around the Battle of Arica by chance? Because the whole focus on hill fighting is really odd if that's not the case.

I like the idea of having an unique Nitrate resource as it's a much more obvious representation of the war and is a really creative take on what a Salitrera UI could do.

The UA may get out of hand due to the two strenght increasers, I'd stay with either the bonus from gold or the one against cities, but not both.

As I said, I like the Salitrera quite a bit, the problem would be to have the Nitrate appear at the right rates, neither too frequently nor rarely, so it won't be abusable, I imagine it as an unique luxury that yields nothing but sheer gold when worked, though it could work as any type of resource really, decreasing gun unit production costs or something. It should be a tradeable resource in any case.

The Armored Cruiser I'm not much of a fan, I see where you're coming from, but actually most of our naval victories came from managing to capture peruvian ships, not out of some sort of superior logistics or naval might, our navies at the start of the war were on par if not actually weaker than the peruvian, I'd rather have the Batallon Civico as the unique, I feel they are more iconic of the period, if I had to go with a naval unit, I think the "Goleta" would be more representative, even if they are much smaller and already outdated by this period.

Here's my Saltpeter Chile for comparison:

Spoiler :

Saltpeter Chile - Balmaceda
UA: Ciclo Salitrero: Improvements on Occupied Cities have increased yields. Your units have extra combat strenght if fighting on the same Y coordinates as your Capital.
UU: Batallon Civico: Heals extra hit points when Pillaging Tiles. Has the "Chupilca del Diablo" Promotion, giving it extra attacks and movements at the cost of hit points.
UI: Salitrera: Can only be built on Desert Tiles, next to another luxury resource. +3 Gold, +3 Production. Unlocked at Gunpowder.

 

[Uighur_Caesar]

How does this sound?

Sultanate of Sulu

UA: Moro Wars: Upon dying, your units damage all adjacent enemies and give Faith equal to their XP. Can spend Faith to cause Resistance in cities you are sieging.

UU: Juramentado: Replaces the Longswordsman, but does not obsolete. Once below half health, the Juramentado gains +3 Combat Strength and can attack twice. However, it will not be able to heal anymore unless in friendly territory. Generates twice as much Faith from dying.

UU: Proa: Replaces Privateer. Can enter foreign territory without open borders. When in the borders of a civ that you are not at war with, the Proa may turn itself into a barbarian. Gain +3 Gold and +2 Culture for every Proa that is blockading a city, including ones you turned into barbarians. Barbarian Proas are still affected by the UA.

 

[Natan35]

Well, it's sorta built after the same idea as my Saltpeter Chile, for obvious reasons... is the UA centered around the Battle of Arica by chance? Because the whole focus on hill fighting is really odd if that's not the case.

I like the idea of having an unique Nitrate resource as it's a much more obvious representation of the war and is a really creative take on what a Salitrera UI could do.

The UA may get out of hand due to the two strenght increasers, I'd stay with either the bonus from gold or the one against cities, but not both.

As I said, I like the Salitrera quite a bit, the problem would be to have the Nitrate appear at the right rates, neither too frequently nor rarely, so it won't be abusable, I imagine it as an unique luxury that yields nothing but sheer gold when worked, though it could work as any type of resource really, decreasing gun unit production costs or something. It should be a tradeable resource in any case.

The Armored Cruiser I'm not much of a fan, I see where you're coming from, but actually most of our naval victories came from managing to capture peruvian ships, not out of some sort of superior logistics or naval might, our navies at the start of the war were on par if not actually weaker than the peruvian, I'd rather have the Batallon Civico as the unique, I feel they are more iconic of the period, if I had to go with a naval unit, I think the "Goleta" would be more representative, even if they are much smaller and already outdated by this period.

Here's my Saltpeter Chile for comparison:

Spoiler :

Saltpeter Chile - Balmaceda
UA: Ciclo Salitrero: Improvements on Occupied Cities have increased yields. Your units have extra combat strenght if fighting on the same Y coordinates as your Capital.
UU: Batallon Civico: Heals extra hit points when Pillaging Tiles. Has the "Chupilca del Diablo" Promotion, giving it extra attacks and movements at the cost of hit points.
UI: Salitrera: Can only be built on Desert Tiles, next to another luxury resource. +3 Gold, +3 Production. Unlocked at Gunpowder.

Well, your designs made me start reading about Chile... I also had an idea for Allende:

Republic of Chile(Salvador Allende)
UA: La Vía Chilena
Specialists yield +1 culture and grant additional yields* based on your ideology. Workers reduce unhappiness from population by 1% each, and grant culture when you complete a building that has specialist slots.

UB:Cooperative Facility[/I]
Replaces Factory, but doesn't have any of the regular bonuses. Instead, it grants +1% production for each improvement in the city's territory and +1 production for each specialist in the city. Costs no gold to maintain.

UU: Revolutionary Militia
Replaces infantry. Though weaker(65 ), the Revolutionary militia may be upgraded from workers and eliminates ideological pressure while inside cities. Additionally, it has a chance of causing anarchy upon attacking a city and ignores ZOC outside enemy territory.

*

Spoiler :

Autocracy: +1 culture, +1 faith
Freedom: +2 gold
Order: +2 food.

I've also had this idea for Pinochet:

Dictatorship of Chile(Augusto Pinochet)
UA: Miracle of Chile
Military garrisons double the amount of production contributing to science, gold and faith when producing them. The yields received from consuming great people are increased by +1% per each technology you research.

UU: Carabineros
Replaces infantry. Eliminates unhappiness from ideological pressure and offsets unhappiness penalties when stationed in cities. Additionally, it may halt resistance, gaining XP each turn it does.

 

[Hoop Thrower]

Heh, "La via chilena" I get what you're going for, I know what you're going for, but nowadays saying "Chilean way" is mostly a joke term for doing something half-assedly (see second definition here) It's kind of a term which you can't really take seriously, I know I used it for one of the Chile civ designs I made, but that was on purpose, as the civ itself was sorta tongue-in-cheek. BTW, don't mind the first definition, your average chilean suffers from too much patriotism and lack of self-awareness, so more often than not saying anything barely critical of the country on the internet will catch you a lot of flak, anyways, carrying on...

That's kinda the reason why I went with "Progress without Consessions" for my UA name, after one of the mottos of the period (Avanzar sin Transar).

As for the design itself, I'm not sure if having a Specialist focus on this civ is the right way to go, given that this was a period marked more by the will of the workers than, well, technicians, technocrats and whatnot, the yields from Ideology are very flavorful, but I fear this focus would make the civilization too similar to Leugi's Peronist Argentina.

The Workers reducing unhappiness makes loads of sense of course, but more often than not I feel like the effect would be insignificant, assuming it's codeable at all since it looks like a nightmare to do so, and getting culture from specialist buildings kinda has the problems I mentioned before and, uh, makes the UA feel bloated when put alongside the other things.

The Cooperative is a real nice fit, I mean, I used it aswell in the civ I designed, even if they are technically something from a much earlier period, speaking in 20th century terms, they are very representative of this government's project, I'm not too sold on the effects of it though, the effect from it would be too swingy and may very well by much weaker than a regular factory, which I wouldn't like much to be honest. Once again, I'd stay away from the specialist focus, which also is a point against it.

The Revolutionary Militia is, um, not something really fitting. We didn't have many militias to be honest, there was the MIR of course, but that wasn't particularly big in a wider scheme of things, even within Latin American standards, nor did they have a particularly profound effect on the nation, were they relevant? Sure, but they are more remembered due to the brutal persecussion during the dictatorship and the hopeless fighting than for being particularly, well, effective as a military force. It really doesn't feel like anything that Chile was building up at the moment, remember this was the "chilean way to socialism", an intended peaceful transition to a socialist economy, which didn't involve these kinds of armed groups, so it really strikes against the whole concept of the civ.

For Pinochet's Chile, I don't really get the UA, is it something like having a military garrison in a city make production convert to science, gold and faith while producing stuff? It's really confusing and oddly worded, probably you intended something else. The yields from Great People also is oddly worded, and overpowered if it's as I understood it, being bigger the more technologies you've researched through game, but then again, what yields?

The UU is sorta wrong, Carabineros, as military-like as they may be, are the policemen of Chile, I used the Carabineros in the early 20th century design I made, but there's it's a closer fit as they were just being formed at those times and were actually used militarily, not to mention that it's an opportunity to showcase these are mounted policemen, which is also cool, but in atomic era sorta, weird.

Sultanate of Sulu

UA: Moro Wars: Upon dying, your units damage all adjacent enemies and give Faith equal to their XP. Can spend Faith to cause Resistance in cities you are sieging.

UU: Juramentado: Replaces the Longswordsman, but does not obsolete. Once below half health, the Juramentado gains +3 Combat Strength and can attack twice. However, it will not be able to heal anymore unless in friendly territory. Generates twice as much Faith from dying.

UU: Proa: Replaces Privateer. Can enter foreign territory without open borders. When in the borders of a civ that you are not at war with, the Proa may turn itself into a barbarian. Gain +3 Gold and +2 Culture for every Proa that is blockading a city, including ones you turned into barbarians. Barbarian Proas are still affected by the UA.

This is funny, I was thinking on this a while ago, may have read this subconsciously. Clear unique synergy is clear, your civs have this morbid tendency to mix faith and warfare, don't they?

I think it may be too strong of an UA, but then again, one rarely loses too many units in a war if you're playing correctly, but I can see that kind of UA really getting out of hand quickly, depending on the damage dealt you could build carpets of scouts and just overwhelm the enemy with damage from losses, dunno, I just don't feel like it'd be something that could be pulled off without turning it into an incredibly abusable UA. the second part makes it even worse as even cities wouldn't be able to withstand your carpet of suicide units, in my vision at least.

That Juramentado is roughly how I imagine the unit to be like. I might have gone with an unit that naturally had attrition in enemy territory just for novelty's sake, but this also works, double attacks from low health feels like a natural fit, really.

On the Proa, the barbarian part feels unnecessary, it's sorta close to what the buccaneers do and the part giving culture from blockading is cool enough anyways, I'd make it generate culture upon capturing cities, even.

 

[Uighur_Caesar]

This is funny, I was thinking on this a while ago, may have read this subconsciously. Clear unique synergy is clear, your civs have this morbid tendency to mix faith and warfare, don't they?

I think it may be too strong of an UA, but then again, one rarely loses too many units in a war if you're playing correctly, but I can see that kind of UA really getting out of hand quickly, depending on the damage dealt you could build carpets of scouts and just overwhelm the enemy with damage from losses, dunno, I just don't feel like it'd be something that could be pulled off without turning it into an incredibly abusable UA. the second part makes it even worse as even cities wouldn't be able to withstand your carpet of suicide units, in my vision at least.

That Juramentado is roughly how I imagine the unit to be like. I might have gone with an unit that naturally had attrition in enemy territory just for novelty's sake, but this also works, double attacks from low health feels like a natural fit, really.

On the Proa, the barbarian part feels unnecessary, it's sorta close to what the buccaneers do and the part giving culture from blockading is cool enough anyways, I'd make it generate culture upon capturing cities, even.

I was originally intending the Juramentado to damage adjacent enemies when dying to further its role as a suicide unit, but decided to move it over to the UA since I couldn't come up with anything. I guess taking out the barbarian stuff for the Proa would good too since I was considering using that for another civ anyway. And yes, I do combine war and faith a lot lol. I've been trying to include it in less designs, but I couldn't think of anything for a Sulu UA so I threw in some good old fashion holy war. Any ideas for the UA? I was struggling to come up with something interesting.

 

[Hoop Thrower]

Sultanate of Sulu - Salicala

UA: Path to Paradise: Gain extra gold from religions spread through trade routes. Can spend Faith to cause Resistance in cities you are sieging.
UU: Juramentado. Has an extra movement point and can attack twice in a turn, unlike the Longswordsman it replaces, but it suffers attrition damage outside friendly territory. Generates faith upon dying.
UU: Proa: Replaces Privateer. Generates faith from pillaging trade routes and capturing cities. Gain +3 Gold and 2 Culture from each Proa blockading a city.

A little bit simple, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Reading through a bunch of documents, particularly this and this, I realized the importance the spanish weighed on this particular sultanate was due to all the piracy and the fact that it was key for the trade in the zone. As far as I recall I don't remember any civilization that benefited from religious pressure sent through trade routes so hey, this is a good place as any to use that, it's also a subtle way to make this a faith focused civ.

The rest is just taking from your ideas and making them somewhat more appealing to me, you can revert to your designs, but the Proa felt a little bit too close to the Buccaneers for my taste so instead I went for faith from raiding and an attrition unit because, well, you don't see too many of those nowadays.

 

[Natan35]

Hmmm... I've got that for the sultanate:

Sultanate of Sulu
UA: Parang Sabil
Cities generate +1 faith and exert 25% more religious pressure during unit construction per each religious building present in them. High level units deal 25% more damage to infantry in enemy territory and have a chance of getting a free upgrade based on the amount of hostile cities following foreign religions.

UU: Proa
Massively different to the Privateer which it replaces, The Proa has a strong ranged attack(30 ) while having much smaller defensive capabilities (18 ). Additionally, it has the "Sea Terror" promotion which allows it to move through coastal tiles at double speed, in addition to allowing it to move after attacking.

UU: Juramentado
Replaces the longswordman, but does not obsolete. Gains double XP from killing units following religions other than your own, and grants faith equal to its XP when killed. Also gains a 33% combat bonus against foes who didn't see him at the end of their turn. Takes 33% more damage from and deals 100% more damage to gun units.

 

[Natan35]

Sorry for taking over the thread(again), but I revised a design I posted long time ago, and I kinda want feedback, so:

Yeshuv(Theodore Herzl)
UA: The Jewish Problem
Gain gold when a great person is born, and may spend gold to buy citizens. Each vote you have in the world congress reduces the cost of acquiring new tiles and increases the great people generation by 1%.

UU: Philanthropist
Replaces great merchant. Grants gold when born. May not be expanded for a custom house, but may build plantations in neutral and friendly territory, claiming the tile. Also grants 50% more influence from trade missions.

UU: HaShomer
Replaces cavalry. Though unlocked slightly later at dynamite, HaShomer units gain a combat boost in friendly territory for each vote you have in the world congress, doubled if you host it. Do not count as mounted units, though they still may move after attacking and they do require horses. Do not obsolete.

 

[Hoop Thrower]

"The Jewish Problem". Yep, that civilization won't rustle anybody's jimmies. Nope. No sir...

 

[Natan35]

The term "the Jewish problem" (and the Hebrew word for problem) can be used(and it is used) to describe a cause, but "the Jewish cause" is a wee bit too heroic and slightly unfit here...

 

[Hoop Thrower]

A civilization idea I came up with while assisting a Symposium...

India - Narendra Modi
UA: Hindu Renaissance: +1 Culture every 2 followers of your religion if all your cities follow your religion. +1 Vote in World Congress for each civilization that has a majority following your religion.
UU: Great Yogi: Cannot build Holy Sites like the Great Prophet it replaces. However it can perform a Religious Tour, which aside from the tourism bomb it provides similar to a concert tour, it also grants faith from the number of followers in the target civilization. Suffers greater attrition.
UB Meditation House: Replaces Temple. Has a Yogi Specialist. Who provide +2 Faith, +2 Tourism and 1 Great Yogi Points.

Basically a Religious tourism civilization, which I think I haven't seen in the community yet. Brought about from things like the proliferation of Yoga, Vegetarianism, Meditaton, etc. Latelly, as well as the enacting of international Yoga Day, and the cultural pressure it generates.

 

[Natan35]

I don't like the idea of the yogi specialist... I think the UA is quite interesting though, but I also think that great prophets don't(and shouldn't) suffer from attrition. Whatsoever.

 

[Hoop Thrower]

Think that the Great Prophet is a Great Musician which doesn't need Open Borders and comes earlier, that's ridiculously powerful.

 

[Natan35]

But what does that have to do with attrition? Simply allow it to perform a concert tour only if it hadn't converted any city. Plus, uniqueness doesn't necessarily make units powerful, especially if you have to consume them anyway...

 

[Scapegrace]

Recently, I piled in about a dozen more Civs into my thread, and I'd appreciate some feedback on the designs. Rather than spam this thread with them, if it's okay, I'll just link to the thread OP here and let y'all knock yourselves out in this thread. I want to get better at design work going forward. =]

 

[Keniisu]

A civilization idea I had made up after looking up some information about this monarch.

Denmark (Gorm The Old)​

UA - Daring Expansion: Golden Ages are started immediately after a new era has been entered or when a policy branch has been completed. During Golden Ages you gain a +15% boost in Border Growth and Production

UU - Plunderer: Replaces the Frigate. Has +15% combat strength against cities and siege units.

UB - Jelling Stones: Replaces the Monument. Gain +2 Faith and +2 Culture .

 

[Natan35]

I'd actually go with something else, to represent Gorm's dynasty.... Well, its a blob really...

UA: Between Two Coasts
Units gain +1% strength when fighting on landmasses other than the one you started on per each other unit on the same landmass. Upon conquering a coastal city, gain a maintenance free naval unit with the mobility promotion.

UU: Here
Replacing the Longswordsman, the Here is a weak(18 ) unit that comes at Metal casting and doesn't require iron. Additionally, it has the amphibious, city plunder and siege promotion, making it much better at attacking cities. It also has the "Great Heathen army" trait, which makes adjacent units heal upon pillaging a tile.

UB: Jelling Stone
Replaces the Monument. Yields +1 culture, though its slightly more expansive. Additionally, a Jelling stone yields +1 culture in cities connected to the capital, and +1 after Archeology.

 

[GPuzzle]

Ah, yes, the old method of "throw this design at a wall and see what sticks". Gotta love it.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland​

Leader: George III

UA: Glory in the Name of Britain: Whenever a Citizen is born, gain Golden Age points based on the City's Production. During Golden Ages, Building Production is increased by 50%.

UU: Inventor: Great Scientist replacement. When it is expended, gain a burst of Golden Age points based on your Science.

UB: Spinning Mule: Mint replacement. Rather than granting +2 Gold on Gold and Silver, the Spinning Mule grants +1 Gold on Sheep, Cotton and Silk, doubled if the City is on a River, and it may be built everywhere. Also, the Spinning Mule increases Food kept after a Citizen is born by 1% for each Farm and Pasture worked, up to a maximum of 20%.

 

[Natan35]

Seems like it fits the Eras design challenge more...

 

[TranquilSilence]

Gpuzzle, I quite like that design, especially the UA for what it is worth. My only question would be why the focus on internal affairs when George III's reign included the Napoleonic wars and the American war of Independence, which would presumably be the more appealing focus. Maybe it's just the fact that there's no military UU which strikes me as off about the whole design.

I like the idea of the Spinning Mule as a reference to the Textile Industries and such, It's really only the inventor which I dislike. I think the civ will be getting enough Golden Age points from the UA, combined with the additional food from the UB so that the uniqueness of the Inventor is mostly superfluous. That said, I could certainly see it's effects being moved to a decision of some kind.