Lanun Uniqueness : Some ideas

[James the Wise]

I have just seen this http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=282384 thread and it got me thinking.

A couple of things that I think would make Lanun more unique without overpowering them

1. Allow there cultural boarders to expand at a faster rate over sea/ocean tiles than on land tiles. This may lead to unequal boarder sizes (land vs ocean) but would certainly fit Lanun's Seafaring theme

2. This in turn could work with a unique resource that is only in Ocean tiles (Giant Squid ?) that the lanun could harvest, but would not effect any other civs as there cultural boarders would not reach far enough into the ocean to be able to use this resource (or at least not until much later)

Pearl should probably be made available at some point to all civs, to avoid the problems mentioned in the thread linked above

 

[Adrogans]

I like the Lanun myself, but think maybe they should get a hammer from sea resources thru a unique building - like a Lanun Costal Market or something. This would make them even more unique imho. If this happened then pearls should be made visible.

 

[A_Hamster]

Adding Hammers to sea tiles is potentially unbalancing. If you have played the Alien Crossfire expansion for SMAC, you may remember the Nautilus Pirates faction. They got production from ocean tiles, and this was a significant advantage. The Nautilus Pirates could exploit marginal island or coastal areas that would not be worth colonizing for any other faction. They could also claim sea areas with no land or resource bonuses and said area was viable in their hands.

Now a Lanun-only National Wonder that gave Hammers to ocean tiles in a single city would not be game-breaking and be flavorful, but having all Lanun cities getting a ocean production bonus is too much.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

What if the Lanun Palace gave free hammers for water tiles within its city radius?


I think I still prefer adding the Levee building (and Dike UB for the Lanun) from BtS, and making (one of?) the OO advanced temples/cathedrals give hammers for water tiles too.

 

[Adrogans]

Nah I wasnt saying every tile, simply like getting A hammer for using a fish tile or clam tile. Not every tile god no I remember Alien Crossfire.

 

[rocklikeafool]

I think the Lunan fine as is.

 

[A_Hamster]

Nah I wasnt saying every tile, simply like getting A hammer for using a fish tile or clam tile. Not every tile god no I remember Alien Crossfire.

Okay, I misunderstood. A hammer for using a fish tile or clam tile isn't overpowered.

 

[Sureshot]

ideally any specialness attached to lanun, like any special effects, should be applied either through its special tech, Seafaring, or its special UB, the Lanun Harbour.

to make pearls more valuable the Lanun Harbour, and all harbours, should add +1 happiness per pearl (most resources have a building which doubles their happiness/health value already).

lanun could definitely use some boosts, more specifically to the early and late game. in the early game, they need too many techs. first they need fishing, which is a tier 2 tech, then to really make use of the sea they need several tier 3/4 techs (i personally like Fishing, Mining, Runes, Warfare or Arete, Trade, Sailing, Currency, Deception, Optics, Mathematics, usually in that order). after the proper tier 3/4 techs they are a major competitor if set up right, but later on theyll start lagging behind tile yieldwise compared landbased civs if they dont make a move for power soon. this leads me to play them only on Classical starts since you start with most of what you need to be competitive.

to help their early game they should either be given Fishing, or Seafaring should let them work water tiles even before they get Fishing (theyd still want to get Fishing asap to make workboats, but atleast theyd be able to do so quickly), or perhaps everyone should be able to work water tiles right off but at reduced commerce (similar to the idea put forward regarding cottages)

to help their late game there ought to be more tile bonuses to the sea available, and theres plenty of ways to do that that are in vanilla. the colossus' +1 commerce per water tile, the statues that give +1 production. i like magisters ideas of attaching such benefits to OO, as currently that religion seems pointless with lanun to me except the overpowered priest line for them, which seems to make their boats, and their enemies boats, pointless.

in my own games ive played with their starter settler having water walking, kinda fun since you can move somewhere safe like an island off the coast. also ive played where a settler can cast a spell while not adjacent to land to make a 1 tile island city (destroying itself and the boat carrying it to make the floating city), which is nice since it allows you to reach those resources that only the kuriotates (or slums city) could.

 

[Horadrim]

Im with smiff. I dont care about a hammer wonder one way or the other what i care about is that because of pearls theres less chance ill get fish as another civ and theres nothing i can do about it. A ressource further out only available to the lanun would be a good idea, then i can get fish and they can get their bonus.

I dont like giant squid though, not as a harvestable ressource. But i do like it as a ressource for building units - Allow only the lanun and octopus overlord religions to harvest giant squid and thus be able to build "squid" units or something like that. In addition give the lanun an adiitional lanun only ressource further out at sea and give them the sea expansion for culture smiff mentions.

 

[Darksaber1]

Technicly, the Lanun do get hammers from Water. It's just a little indirect.

 

[Ekolite]

I play the Lanun a lot and I know for a fact that adding production to sea tiles would make the lanun over-powered. Their lack of production is supposedly meant to balance them, although tbh I don't think it's enough. If you think you need more production as the lanun then you aren't playing them right. Use the conquest civic to produce units at a huge rate, and use the slavery civic for buildings and wonders, it won't take long to make up the lost population.