@pineappledan @Hinin
Sorry for taking so long to respond to this. I had initially written a great response about a week ago, then I mistakenly exited from the tab, deleting the post, got frustrated, and didn't bother to rewrite it haha. And then finals period for university started. However, I think I have developed our ideas further and come up with a very interesting, synergistic, and logically consistent France rework. I'll present my rework and try to address directly some of the qualms and opposing ideas you guys and others had.
UA:
-
Units gain bonus combat strength based on empire happiness. Great Work theming bonus doubled, and Great Works provide +1 global happiness and 1 GA/GW/GM point based on type.
- Extra combat strength for each successive attack is not an interesting bonus as it simply strengthens what you were already going to do (focus-firing is already the most efficient form of combat). Additionally, it is incredibly similar to Sweden's bonus, but weaker.
- Bonus combat strength from Happiness is not the same as the Huns' war weariness bonus. War weariness only starts to matter past Medieval, and even then it only becomes a serious consideration in mid-to-late Industrial. However, a bonus from Happiness begins right from the get-go, and is actually strongest in the very early game which gives a decidedly different flavor than the Huns bonus, as it helps you hunt barbs, which the Huns' bonus does not. Additionally, reduction in War Weariness simply postpones when you get a combat malus, while a bonus from happiness gives you an active bonus. A reduction in a malus and a novel bonus are two very different things that have very different effects on playstyle, with the former allowing you to do what you were already going to do just for longer (i.e. wage a more protracted war), while the latter allows you to do something totally novel (i.e. need fewer units to hunt barbs or wage wars, thus focusing more on infrastructure, or focus on booming/tall play more because you have extra security from stronger units). However, you are right that a reduction in the penalty from unhappiness is quite similar to the Huns' bonus, so I removed it. It wasn't thematic to the civ anyway.
- As for Theming bonuses to be an inherently flawed mechanic, I can agree with that somewhat. They would certainly be much more interesting if swapping and stealing great works was more important and more strategic. However, I still think it is a very interesting mechanic with a great deal of strategy. Additionally, making the bonus stronger would incentivize players to focus on the mechanic more and would reward strategic play even more. Most importantly, however, a bonus to theming bonuses is completely unique in the current civ roster, something that makes this UA change particularly attractive, considering a decent number of civs already have very similar bonuses (such as the current France with Japan and Sweden, amongst others).
- As for numbers for the Combat Bonus, I think 4% extra CS for every 10% over 50% approval rating, rounded to the nearest percentage (i.e. +4% at 55-64%, +8% at 65-74%, +12% at 75-84%, +16% at 85-94%, topping out at +20% at 95-100%), sounds pretty good. It may be a bit strong, but this is a number that can be very easily tweaked. Doing the bonus based on absolute happiness would be pretty much impossible to balance over the course of the game (as approval ratings don't change much over the course of a game while absolute excess happiness increases by like 500-1000%).
UU1:
- Mitrailleuse
Gatling Gun Replacement (available at rifling, instead of dynamite)
No Covering Fire 1
Covering Fire 2 (smaller malus vs. fortified units and cities than CF1)
Splash Damage 1 and 2
- Hinin mentioned to me over PM an idea for a Gatling Gun replacement, and I thought that that was a fantastic idea (so full credit goes to him). There are very few Gatling Gun replacements (I think just the Portuguese UU, which might be 4uc anyway lol), and it would fit very well in the new playstyle for France (Tall CV with some warring, so needing a good defensive unit in the late game).
- Covering Fire 1 (which normal Gatling Guns have) is actually quite a malus in certain situations, so giving them CF2 (which is what Machine Guns have iirc) is a nice buff to their defensive and offensive strength. Splash Damage 1 and 2 is thematic to the Mitrailleuse (which fired ~25 rounds in very quick succession), and also quite helpful on defense and offense, as it on offense weakens neighboring units which your melee units can then go in and kill, or which on defense weakens neighboring units which then have to retreat to heal.
- making it available earlier makes the relatively late unlock less terrible for France which will probably be wanting to stay on the top of the Tech Tree, and is also somewhat thematic to the slightly earlier heyday of the Mitrailleuse (1870 vs. 1880-90 for the Gatling)
UW:
-
Pantheon
Hermitage replacement
normal hermitage stuff
all land military units receive the Old Guard Promotion (unit generates culture when it takes damage and unit generates 2x GG points from combat)
unique theming bonus from the salon in 4UC, but with amount of GPPs doubled due to UA. For those unfamiliar, the Salon in 4UC can be themed in 9 different configurations, each giving GPP for a different GP
+10 (actually 20 due to UA bonus) culture and science when themed
- perhaps I was unclear in my original post, but in-game you will see the correct (i.e. post UA bonus) numbers for GPPs and Theming bonuses. There would be no mental math required.
- As for having to rename the Salon's theming bonuses, that shouldn't be too hard and I don't think is at all a valid reason for discounting the entire building
UTI:
- Chateau
Either keep it the same or apply Hinin's changes. Both versions have their own strengths and weaknesses. The defensive bonus and extra culture clearly ties in well with the overall identity of the civ. I quite like it.
UU2:
- Gendarme
Cuirassier Replacement
26 CS / 33 RCS (+4/+1)
Panoply: +33% CS when defending
Accuracy 1
Great Generals 1
- The Gendarme is a super tanky defensive ranged cavalry unit that generates more Great General points from combat. The Great Generals promotion synergizes well with the extra GG points from the UNW, and together they help France with defense (via citadels), offense (via combat bonus aura), and ameliorating supply cap woes when playing tall (via citadels).
- Additionally, the extra defense bonuses synergize really well from the culture from damage taken bonus of the UNW.
- The Musketeer, as a very offensively-minded unit, felt out of place in the kit of a new, Tall-Tradition focused France, while a ranged cavalry UU feels like the perfect fit. The extra CS when defending is interestingly enough actually a decent offensive bonus as well, as you are punished much less for pushing with your ranged cavalry. Additionally, the Musketeer feels very similar to the Carolean or the Impi, on top of not being very historical (France was famous for its Cavalry and Artillery, not its heavy infantry).
- There are very two Cuirassier replacements in the base game (both of which are quite different from the Gendarme), so not only is this UU very historically flavorful, it should be very flavorful within the game as well.
As for which components would be in the base version, and which would be in 4uc (though if you're not playing 4uc, what are you doing lol), I'm not sure. I think I'd want Pantheon to be in the base version, and either the Gendarme or Mitrailleuse would be great as the UU1. I'm leaning more towards the Gendarme just because its an earlier unlock and the more thematic to the civ of the two UU's (with the GG1 promo and defensive bonuses).
This kit has an incredible amount of synergy that strongly suggests a relatively rare playstyle on VP (i.e. Tall Tradition Domination and/or CV), while not totally locking them in. Each of the pieces of kit have unique bonuses unseen in any other civ's kit, and both of the UU's are unique versions of units that are somewhat rare themselves and that have no or few unique versions. The Gendarme is very different from both the Hussar and the Naga-Malla, while the Mitrailleuse is very different from the Cacadore (which is 4uc anyway). Additionally, the UA is highly synergistic within itself, as the happiness from Great Works increases your combat bonus (which can help you get Great Works via conquest), while the GPPs from Great Works help you generate more Great Works and thus more happiness and thus more Great Works. The best and most widely loved civs in VP are those with bonuses like these that synergize well and act in a positive feedback loop, such as Arabia with generating Great People which triggers historic events which generates more great people or Songhai with city connections via rivers and bonus movement on rivers as well as extra gold from city conquest and a cavalry unit great at sacking cities. The list goes on.
What we get from this kit is a thoroughly unique, cohesive, and I would guess very fun to play civ. Here's what I would imagine a pretty good gameplan for them would be:
Open Tradition, possibly rushing Stonehenge and/or Temple of Artemis and/or Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Go for Goddess of Beauty, God-King, or a terrain-specific pantheon if you've got really specific geography. Stay mostly on the top side of the tree, maybe coming down to get Terracotta army, or going for Hanging Gardens if there are no good early war opportunities.
Use the early combat bonus from your great early game tradition happiness bonus to efficiently hunt barbs to get CS quests and protect your settles, using archers or skirmishers as much as you can so you have highly experienced UU's in the late game. You can even wage some early wars if you have vulnerable neighbors.
Once you get into late classical, you'll really want to start focusing on going full-on boom mode. By this point you should have 3 or 4 cities. Heading into Medieval I'd focus on getting an early enhance on the religion you hopefully have, getting wonders like the Parthenon, Great Wall, or University of Sankore. Next I'd head into artistry, spam your writer's guilds, beeline for Guilds to get Artist's Guilds, and try to work as many of those specialists as you can. At this point Paris should be massive and working a ton of specialists. Happiness should not be an issue after a brief dip when founding your cities.
I'd probably stay on the top of the tech tree if you're feeling pretty safe and try going for Chichen Itza and/or Karlsteijn if you think you'll have a hard time reforming (the free Order is great too if you didn't take them in your religion), then beelining Architecture for your UNW. I'd then get a few of the bottom techs, get armories and build some crossbowmen (which you can get super experienced to have great Mitrailleuses in the late game).
Now here is where I think uniqueness of the Civ's kit will really shine. You now have two really good yet totally opposite directions you can go. You can either stay on the top of the tech tree, beeline Acoustics and Archaeologists to go full Great Work spam, or you can beeline the bottom of the tech tree to get your awesome unique Cuirassier and early unique Gatling Gun. By this point of the game, I'd expect that you haven't conquered much, if at all, so your happiness should be insane due to Tradition demographics and Great Works after dipping in classical and early medieval when you were settling and developing your core cities. This means that you should now have a great combat bonus you can use with your strong unique units to conquer.
Because you probably won't be able to win a domination victory with this kit and are much more likely to win via CV, you have a very important choice to make when conquering: do you go for your already weak neighbors and try to boost yourself and get some vassals, or do you target the stronger civs to prevent them from running away and/or potentially conquering the weak players themselves. The calculus here is more complicated than it would be for a pure domination civ, as you are much more concerned with the strength of other players and not just primarily of yourself.
At this point, the game could go any number of ways, but in any case, it will have an identity distinct from any of the existing civs. There just aren't many tradition civs to start with, even fewer Tradition-->Artistry civs, and absolutely no Tradition-->Artistry civs that would ever want to be or could even get away with aggressively hunting barbs or waging aggressive wars. The ability to War effectively and having to strategize Great Works a lot to maximize bonuses make France so much more than just a Tradition/Artistry/Rationalism/Freedom SimCity civ. Sure France's military bonuses are primarily defensive, but they still help on offense, particularly their UA. And this is to say nothing of the fact that France could totally go Progress (spreading out guilds over 6-8 mid-sized cities) or even Authority as well, as their early game and mid-to-late game are quite different (i.e. France is fairly generic in the early game with just a situationally strong combat bonus, while they take on a distinct cultural GP flavor in the late game).
Again, I apologize for taking so long to respond (and then finally doing so with a literal dissertation of a post), but I think what I've suggested is really good and is something people will find really fun once if they can be given the chance to try it. If only I had the skills to actually mod this myself.
. And I was going in the meaning of Pinappledan who said that it was French civilization and not Napoleonic that had to be thought about.
