Giants and Aliens

[King Phaedron]

While dreaming, I thought of a new game mode... Both Giants and Aliens are only active until the world enters the Renaissance era.

Giants: Appears randomly as a barbarian unit with 3 movement and 20 combat strength + 10 per era. (So 30 in the ancient, 40 in the classical, 50 in the medieval) Also heals 10 every turn. Click on the giant to interact with him. Giant can be hired for -1 food every turn in all cities, or -2 food if you only have one city. Can help build wonders and districts (adds 20 production +10 per game era) with a set number of charges. Giants must remain within 10 tiles of your cities, as they will not wander far from their food source. He will warn you on that turn and disappear on the next. Giants cannot embark due to their enormous size.

They make decent defenders that help you build land based districts and wonders at a cost of -1 food in every city. You might also want to hire him and then move him away to avoid fighting him. WHEN DEFEATED: gain a boost of culture every time you successfully defeat a barbarian giant.

ALIENS are encountered randomly, with similar mechanics as discovering heroes. Any deals you make with them must be done when they appear to you. They can only appear once per game era, except for the Zeta, which you may encounter twice.

Zeta Reticulans, aka, the Greys: They ask to abduct one of your units, in exchange for a boost of science. The unit is randomly chosen, and cannot be a scout or settler. It will usually be a warrior, slinger, or other combat unit, but they might also take a builder. They cannot appear if your military strength is 0.

Annunaki: They are always looking for gold. At a cost of 5 gold per turn, they will mingle among you as Gods providing +10 faith in the capital for 30 turns. This will fail if you cannot pay them. They also appear when someone founds a religion and offer to sell them a missionary for half it's faith cost in gold. Once you found a religion, they only offer the missionary for half it's faith cost in gold if you meet them in later eras.

Reptillians: (Lizards) violent and ruthless, they offer to fight your enemies in exchange for food and slave labor. A Catapult appears in the capital. -1 food and production in all cities for 5 turns. Catapult has a special promotion giving it +1 movement and city attack also damages all garrisoned units, like archers and ships. They appear again once per era when you declare war offering another such catapult for -1 food and production in all cities for 10 turns.

Pleiadians: tall nordic humans with blond hair and blue eyes. They are trying to get home and need time sensitive labor -1 production in all cities for 10 turns. They will give you a Vimana unit commanded by those among them who chose to remain. Flying civilian unit with 3 movement. Acts as a siege tower and may settle a city. The city must be (depending on map size) at least 15 tiles away from any of your cities.

 

[BuchiTaton]

Talking about aliens and CIV.

My explanation of how matches in CIV have things like Brazilians, Romans and Sumerians in an Earth like world but with different continents is that all they are in an artificial Habitat/Reserve/Sanctuary like world built by an super advanced alien specie that abducted humans from different time periods and put them in a "planet" already terraformed to the enviromental needs for humans and all their contemporary earthling species.

Second plot twist, the reason why you can go all around the world from west-east but not through the poles is that the "planet" is an artificial Ringworld

 

[King Phaedron]

I meant to get back to this. Here is the long awaited Future Counterpart that begins in the Modern Era. Where as the ancient era Alien stuff was intended to provide a bonus, the late game era stuff is more of a challenge. The aliens leave you alone during the Renaisance and Industrial eras.

1. Choose a faction. Each faction provides a unique neighborhood district that may be built only once in each city.

Reptillians:
DUMB - Deep Underground Military Base. Provides 3 housing, additional housing based on LOW tile Appeal. Appears as a hole in the ground surrounded by wasteland or battleground objects. Ideally built on disgusting or uninviting tiles not touching other districts. Privacy is desired above all else. +4 Production.

XCOM Center: +2 science. This building causes new land military units made in it's city to get a random unique promotion.
Launch Pad: +2 science. +1 Aircraft Capacity once an Aerodrome is built. Allows units standing on it to Paradrop off of it.
(Each DUMB may only have one type of building: the XCOM or the Launchpad.)

Pleaidians:
Commune - A type of neighborhood for a cult. +4 housing, with no other bonus. 2 production, 2 faith.

Cemetary - 2 Science, 2 gold. +1 culture and +1 faith for each unit that falls in battle after it's construction up to a maximum of +8.
The science is due to some dead bodies being donated to science. The gold is because Funerals are expensive.
Sometimes get a free zombie unit when a normal unit is slain in battle.

Arcturians:
Vimana - A floating sky island. 3 housing, +2 housing and +2 Production IF city is powered. 2 Culture, 2 Tourism.
May be built on mountain tiles. Utilizes Anti-gravity technology. Once powered, will be damaged if power is lost.

May build XCOMs or Launchpads. (Maybe not as good as the DUMB, but looks absolutely epic as a sky island.)

Osirians:
Aquadome - A unique neighborhood built underwater, +4 housing. 2 Production, 2 Culture. +1 housing for every 2 adjacent districts.

Sealab - A throwback to the Sealab shows. This building allows Naval units to TELEPORT, like an Aerodrome does for Land units, to other cities with Sealabs. Naval units built in the city get a unique random promotion. +2 Science.

* Get a Free Air Unit when building your first Launch Pad, even if you haven't researched flight.
* Get a free Submarine unit when building your first Sealab, even if you don't have the technology.

2. The Greys no longer offer Science for abductions, but will now abduct units more frequently. Units with no promotions will be chosen first.
3. Crashed Greys UFO, due to Aliens at war with each other. It can move 1 space per round, is captured like a civilian. 10 Science, and 30 production to any nearby cities when it is captured. +1 permanent source of aluminum each time you capture a crashed UFO.

4. Aliens may interfere when humans try to use nuclear weapons. This event can happen only once per civilization. The nuclear missile is STOLEN, which is a real bummer. The military gets extra defiant though, and locates a new permanent source of Uranium. So +1 permanent Uranium at the cost of losing, probably your first, nuclear weapon when you go to use it. To get around this problem, if you're determined to nuke someone, just make more then one missile.

 

[King Phaedron]

5. Forbidden Archaeology: While giants are no longer around, their remains can still be found. However, these new artifacts are forbidden by the established narrative and do not get placed into museums. instead, they grant a one time +100 tourism to all civilizations when dug up.

 

[Thunderbrd]

Have often thought to include all these concepts into an AA modmod for C2C (Civ IV mod) at some point. It would be really cool to show how the 'story goes' in direct comparison to the 'emerge from prehuman' evolution line explanation. When I was wanting to go in this direction initially, Ancient Aliens wasn't even a show and it was REALLY out there to be suggesting it. (Many still feel like it is but it's nice to see that's coming around some.)