Elven Workers

[Lutefisk Mafia]

I am playing with the most recent patch (m), and am playing as the Kuriotates. I have tried many ways of getting elven workers and slaves so that I could build improvements without removing forests.

So -- can only elven civilizations do this? I went to a lot of trouble to destroy and enslave the Ljosalfar and Svartalfar civs to get those tasty elven workers and slave units. And now they appear to be useless to me.

Unless I am doing something else wrong? I adopted Fellowship of Leaves as my state religion and have the FoL tech. I have also noticed that my Priests of Leaves cannot cast Bloom on improved plots. IIRC, while playing as an elven Civ, they could.

Anyone got the definitive answer here? Thanks!

 

[ADHansa]

Yep, it's civdependent, not unit dependent. Something called maintainFeature or something like that in the xml files. En elven worker is just a worker, but with elven promotion (that gives extra movement in forest and reduced work speed).

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Yes, it is civ dependent.

In my momdod I allowed the Kuriotates the same ability as the elven civs though.

 

[Angel-Julia]

Yes, it is civ dependent.

In my momdod I allowed the Kuriotates the same ability as the elven civs though.

Supersize my supersize cities!

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Well, Amathaon, God of Fertility and Genius, is one of the gods revered by the Fellowship. The Kuriotates are mostly urban, but their settlements consist mostly of lands left to creatures more fey than the elves.

I considered only allowing them to build on New Forests, but as the forests would grow under improvements anyway it would have about the same effect in the long run and would probably just confuse people as to why they have to clear Forests and Ancient Forests to build there but can make the features grow back under improvements.

 

[Lutefisk Mafia]

Well, I'm just saying'...

It makes sense to me that elven workers and slaves wouldn't forget how to build eco-friendly improvements. They might "refuse" to do so, but seriously?

In my opinion, that ability should be tied to the elven racial promotion for workers and slaves and not be civ dependent. That would give a good reason to adopt the slavery civic and then attack the Ljosalfar or Svartalfar. Also a good reason to adopt Undercouncil and buy slaves, hoping that elves show up on the market.

So where would I fiddle with the XML to make this happen? Or is it in the python? DLL? Thanks!

 

[Valkrionn]

Well, I'm just saying'...

It makes sense to me that elven workers and slaves wouldn't forget how to build eco-friendly improvements. They might "refuse" to do so, but seriously?

In my opinion, that ability should be tied to the elven racial promotion for workers and slaves and not be civ dependent. That would give a good reason to adopt the slavery civic and then attack the Ljosalfar or Svartalfar. Also a good reason to adopt Undercouncil and buy slaves, hoping that elves show up on the market.

So where would I fiddle with the XML to make this happen? Or is it in the python? DLL? Thanks!

I believe the easiest way to do it would be to make alternate versions of each build order that are NOT obstructed by forest, and give the Elven worker those builds. Then create an 'elven slave' unit with the same builds, have the Elven Worker become said slave when captured, and you're good to go.

 

[Emptiness]

In my opinion, that ability should be tied to the elven racial promotion for workers and slaves and not be civ dependent. That would give a good reason to adopt the slavery civic and then attack the Ljosalfar or Svartalfar. Also a good reason to adopt Undercouncil and buy slaves, hoping that elves show up on the market.

I believe that this is a question of game balance. Being able to build improvements on forests is one of the advantages given to the Elven civs. Giving that ability to other civs, by way of Elven workers, would be easy to do - but the decision was made not to allow this, and I believe for good reason. Currently, if you want to use forests to their full potential then you have to play an Elven civ, but if Elven workers controlled by other civs retain the ability to build improvements on forests then that will change. There will be much less incentive to play an Elven civ if you can instead combine the main Elven advantage with more synergetic traits (Financial or Philosophical, for example).