Kuriotates: Hanging Gardens

[steampunk1880]

Inspired by recent talk of farm towers, www.verticalfarm.com , and seeing as how Kuriotates are all about VERY large cities, I had an idea for something they could build with Engineering or something to make up for the fact that City of a Thousand Slums is useless to them.
I was thinking it would be kind of neat if they could start building hanging gardens in their cities, stepped towers crowded with edibles. The way I see it, the building could produce two food for every water, sun, and nature mana they have. Seeing as how the Kuriotates start with water mana, there is benefit right off the bat, and with a bit of planning you could turn a merely big city into an absolutely huge city ready to start churning out great people and stuff.

 

[thewyrm]

creatures kissing in the rain
shapeless in the dark again
in the hanging garden
please don't speak
in the hanging garden
no one sleeps

catching haloes on the moon
gives my hands the shapes of angels
in the heat of the night
the animals scream
in the heat of the night
walking into a dream...

fall fall fall fall
into the walls
jump jump out of time
fall fall fall fall
out of the sky
cover my face as the animals cry
in the hanging garden

creatures kissing in the rain
shapeless in the dark again
in a hanging garden
change the past
in a hanging garden
wearing furs and masks...

fall fall fall fall
into the walls
jump jump out of time
fall fall fall fall
out of the sky
cover my face as the animals die
in the hanging garden

in the hanging garden

 

[Farmer Bobathan]

Wow that was awesome except there is something funny with the second stanza.
Great Job

 

[wilboman]

The Cure, ne?

 

[loocas]

...

No Pornography in the forums!

 

[wilboman]

There is no actual fornication involved in the text - just the very strong implication of fornication

 

[abculatter2]

There is no actual fornication involved in the text - just the very strong implication of fornication

*ahem* back to topic at hand...

I think this is a good idea

 

[thewyrm]

Wow that was awesome except there is something funny with the second stanza.
Great Job

God I wish (pun intended) I had written that! I can't believe I forgot to say that was courtesy of the Cure!

 

[thewyrm]

To add the actual topic:

I whole-heartedly support any idea that gives the Kuriotates a boost. They really need a lot of help IMHO to get to where they need to be.

 

[Ekolite]

I think anything to increase Kuriotate city size is good, and they do miss out from getting the City of a thousand slums. I always imagined their empire to be pretty much endless farmland though and I'm not sure I like the idea of this being brought into the actual cities. I think vertical farming is a little advanced for Erebus.

It may be interesting to give the Kuriotates bonus food to farms at a certain tech for each water and nature mana though (not sun because there is no photosynthesis on erebus iirc). Possibly this could be done through a unique wonder at Engineering. It would have to be capped at probably three bonus food at the most though to avoid being overpowered, especially when used in conjunction with the agriculture civic.

 

[steampunk1880]

Thanks Cure, and you too thewyrm, that was... interesting.

I personally don't see anything wrong with an inner-city garden. I mean, the Babylonians did it in six hundred BC. And no photosynthesis, whaa? Sun mana for the ever shining sun stones, Water mana, for the ever flowing irrigation ditches, and Nature mana for..um..fertilizer. A clever implementation of magiscience if I do say so myself. If that's too advanced for Erebus, maybe move it to Machinery instead and have it give a flat six or eight food since it's just cogs and doohickeys moving the water around.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I have no problem with a Hanging Gardens wonder, but being boosted that much by various mana types seems kinda ridiculous.


Also, the Kuriotates start with both Water and Sun mana



This doesn't fit very well at Machinery imho. Engineering is better, but if it is driven by mana is should have arcane tach requirements. (Personally I don't think Engineering makes any sense for The City of a Thousand Slums. Good Engineering would prevent slums from developing. Taxation is the most appropriate tech, since heavy taxation could drive the poor deeper into poverty and force them to live in slums (especially in ancient times when tax rates were not adjusted by income, but the wealthy still knew how to evade payment).

 

[steampunk1880]

flat two food to start with and one per mana then. Balance isn't my forte. And can a building require two techs? Finally, i'm not exactly thinking wonder, more of an expensive Kuriotate unique building.

What I usually find is a lack of health stalling the size of my cities at around 38 (since I usually only use enclaves now) without a lot of life mana. I think two per mana is good because unhealthiness will stall it out again at 45 or something. It becomes a choice between farms and lots of life mana, or enclaves a really expensive building and a smattering of water, nature, (and maybe sun) mana.

 

[Milosrdenstvi]

Neat idea for Kuriotates to have a Hanging-Gardens sort of thing. Would fit fantastically with their "enormous and incredibly beautiful city" ethos. It should provide happiness and health as well.

 

[loocas]

I've only played as them once or twice, so I don't have a very good idea about their mechanics and strategy. Can someone catch me up on the issues with the Kuriotates? Is it that their few cities don't get big enough to make up for the limited number? Reading this thread, I'm just wondering what the problem is that simply adding more food will solve.

Flavorwise I like it. They should excel at growth and culture, and the Hanging Gardens are an embodiment of both. Maybe tweak its image to include Amathaon in some form?

The Enclaves sound like a good addition, and I'm not sure that they need competition by making HG an improvement. Buildings are mostly boring, and are forgotten once built. A wonder would be nice, but doesn't Tomb of Sucellus use that art already?

 

[WCH]

@loocas
The problem is city specialization. Most civs can have a few cities working on military units while others work on infrastructure and another one or two work on wonders; Kuriotates need to do all three at once in each of their cities, and it's very hard to balance. What happens is they get swamped by the militaries of other civilizations... they simply can't produce enough units to adequately defend their borders while still working on developing their cities.

 

[loocas]

@loocas
The problem is city specialization. Most civs can have a few cities working on military units while others work on infrastructure and another one or two work on wonders; Kuriotates need to do all three at once in each of their cities, and it's very hard to balance. What happens is they get swamped by the militaries of other civilizations... they simply can't produce enough units to adequately defend their borders while still working on developing their cities.

Ah. Thank you. So a planar gate mechanic would be helpful to them.

Edit: Oops, that refers to xienwolf's thread.

 

[westamastaflash]

Is this vertical farm thing for real? It sounds pretty neat.

 

[steampunk1880]

Yeah, it's for real, plans in Seattle, Toronto, and Las Vegas of all places. Casinos want cheap veggies for their buffets or something.

Speaking of unbalanced, happiness and health as well as food seems a bit unbalanced to me. Those things should be limiting factors... so you have to worry about enchantment mana too.

 

[RogueThunder]

Hanging gardens. Brilliant.

I can think of 2 ways to work it that I like... all of which promote insane city size.

1, +1 food per population. My god would this be insane-abeit a one city version of a certain civic that I HOPE your not using as... O.O meep. Okay one horrid exploit aside, it would be pretty nifty. I mean, the more people you have the more walls you can put food growing on XD... Would have to be quite a few hammers to build of course(Not that cardith cities tend to have any problem with that... espeicaly if its your capital on god king)

2. +2 per water/sun/nature mana. Wouldn't be all that huge. Lower hammer cost than idea #1. This idea has been said in this thread pleanty. Prehaps have a base of +2-4 food and +4 culture? Solid... but still feels like a little of a jip compared to the thousand slums. But much much much better than nothing.

I could see it giving a little health MAYBE. But absolutely not happy... okay maybe. Like. 1. But seriously, no ubermegamultiwonder.

XD Well. Thats my idea/oppinion.