![[to_xp]Gekko](https://civfanatics-data.community.forum/avatars/m/74/74677.jpg?1475248346){kind=avatar}
[to_xp]Gekko
QCT junkie
With the Upcoming Grigori+ module, I feel like the only civ being left boring and uninteresting is the Malakim. they are supposed to be traders and desert dwellers, but right now they have no special reason not so spring deserts and they are not especially good traders at all. RifE has lots of great stuff for them that could be used here, but in this thread I'm trying to come up with ideas not taken right out of it ( well, most of these are heavily inspired from it, yeah. I'm just not reading the list right now and quoting directly 
). so:
1) let their adepts create an oasis on a desert tile that has desert on the 8 tiles surrounding it. also let them build improvements on oases.
2) give them a special "beduin sit" improvement that can be built on a desert tile if there's no beduin sit in the 8 surrounding tiles. improvement starts at 1F 1C, but grows into a great improvement that gives mostly commerce plus some food and hammers as well ( more food than hammers I'd say )
3) let their workers plant scrubs on a desert tile if there's nop scrub in the 8 surrounding tiles, for a little bit of extra production.
4) have their workers build trails instead of regular roads. no bonus commerce from it as having to build trails everywhere is boring, but having enemy raider civs get no benefit out of Malakim roads seems great, invading a Malakim desert should be a nightmare. even better if they would build trails on desert and normal roads on other terrain, giving them yet another good reason to keep deserts around. imho they should favour deserts to a degree similar to how Illians favour snow over other terrains, except it should be based less on yields ( aside from the awesome floodplains of course ) and more on tactical and unique advantages. so grassland still great of course, but desert a tad bit better.
5) give them a special Assassin UU available at poisons. weaker than other civs' assassins, but starts with blitz. also give all their recon units desert stealth, i.e. they become invisible on deserts ( could also be made in a fashion similar to how illian assassins become invisible on snow, i.e. with a spell ) , and +1 aptitude to Spices resource ( +2 for hashisinz, their assassin UU . spice aptitude gives poison type damage ) . even better would be: all their recon units have a "desert fadeout" spell with which they become invisible on desert, but they lose the ability after combat and have to wait a turn to be able to cast again. Hashishinz otoh would always be invisible on deserts, before and after combat.
6) give them a unique building ( "Bazaar" ? ) available at trade ( or currency ) that gives a 25% boost to gold, bonus health from salt and bonus happy from tea, extra trade routes and trade route yields, and gives a great boost if you're using Foreign Trade to encourage use of that civic for them. I guess they would get Food, Hammers and Commerce from trade routes in cities with the building if running Foreign Trade. this will encourage to make friends, open borders and use trade routes.
7) add a "camel" resource to deserts, needed for camel archers. if RifE already has camel art for their whole mounted line, use that so they have no need for horses at all any more ( could use them as a food resource, same would be done for camels for all others civs )
8) spinoff from 7), please PLEASE add in Boars from Flavourmod and have Dwarven Boar riders use them instead of Bison. it's just absurd right now, those 2 animals have absolutely nothing in common aside from being furry mammals that taste great
the flavour python file in WM would need a little tweak btw, to replace Khazad flavour for pigs with Boar, and also a slight flavour for Bison could be added to Doviello, and obviously Camel for Malakim. also, it'd be good to add Moose/Reindeer from Flavourmod as well, to make it clump in tundra/ice regions and provide a little bit of much needed food for Doviellos or other unlucky starters there. Hunting is awfully expensive at the critical stage of the early game, and the +2 food unimproved moose give is a godsend. this way normal Deer can pop up here and there around forests on the map and be used for Fyrdwell, while Moose clumps in cold regions. Flavourwise, Ljolsafar could get a slight flavour for Deer and Doviello a slight flavour for Moose.
9) another spinoff: now that patch K is incoming with nice disciple of Acherons, could it be time to turn Acheron and maybe even Orthus into a random event instead of having them appear in each and every game? I feel that this predictability greatly decreases the fun they add to the game, especially the dragon which makes one given barb city of limits from the start to the end of the game. it doesn't seem like a particularly hard or time consuming change, and to compensate other big baddies like Leviathan, Mary Morbius, Sailor's Dirge, the Great Apes could get the same chance as those more reknown 2 to appear, so that people finally get a chance to see them ingame and get a kick out of it
). so:1) let their adepts create an oasis on a desert tile that has desert on the 8 tiles surrounding it. also let them build improvements on oases.
2) give them a special "beduin sit" improvement that can be built on a desert tile if there's no beduin sit in the 8 surrounding tiles. improvement starts at 1F 1C, but grows into a great improvement that gives mostly commerce plus some food and hammers as well ( more food than hammers I'd say )
3) let their workers plant scrubs on a desert tile if there's nop scrub in the 8 surrounding tiles, for a little bit of extra production.
4) have their workers build trails instead of regular roads. no bonus commerce from it as having to build trails everywhere is boring, but having enemy raider civs get no benefit out of Malakim roads seems great, invading a Malakim desert should be a nightmare. even better if they would build trails on desert and normal roads on other terrain, giving them yet another good reason to keep deserts around. imho they should favour deserts to a degree similar to how Illians favour snow over other terrains, except it should be based less on yields ( aside from the awesome floodplains of course ) and more on tactical and unique advantages. so grassland still great of course, but desert a tad bit better.
5) give them a special Assassin UU available at poisons. weaker than other civs' assassins, but starts with blitz. also give all their recon units desert stealth, i.e. they become invisible on deserts ( could also be made in a fashion similar to how illian assassins become invisible on snow, i.e. with a spell ) , and +1 aptitude to Spices resource ( +2 for hashisinz, their assassin UU . spice aptitude gives poison type damage ) . even better would be: all their recon units have a "desert fadeout" spell with which they become invisible on desert, but they lose the ability after combat and have to wait a turn to be able to cast again. Hashishinz otoh would always be invisible on deserts, before and after combat.
6) give them a unique building ( "Bazaar" ? ) available at trade ( or currency ) that gives a 25% boost to gold, bonus health from salt and bonus happy from tea, extra trade routes and trade route yields, and gives a great boost if you're using Foreign Trade to encourage use of that civic for them. I guess they would get Food, Hammers and Commerce from trade routes in cities with the building if running Foreign Trade. this will encourage to make friends, open borders and use trade routes.
7) add a "camel" resource to deserts, needed for camel archers. if RifE already has camel art for their whole mounted line, use that so they have no need for horses at all any more ( could use them as a food resource, same would be done for camels for all others civs )
8) spinoff from 7), please PLEASE add in Boars from Flavourmod and have Dwarven Boar riders use them instead of Bison. it's just absurd right now, those 2 animals have absolutely nothing in common aside from being furry mammals that taste great
the flavour python file in WM would need a little tweak btw, to replace Khazad flavour for pigs with Boar, and also a slight flavour for Bison could be added to Doviello, and obviously Camel for Malakim. also, it'd be good to add Moose/Reindeer from Flavourmod as well, to make it clump in tundra/ice regions and provide a little bit of much needed food for Doviellos or other unlucky starters there. Hunting is awfully expensive at the critical stage of the early game, and the +2 food unimproved moose give is a godsend. this way normal Deer can pop up here and there around forests on the map and be used for Fyrdwell, while Moose clumps in cold regions. Flavourwise, Ljolsafar could get a slight flavour for Deer and Doviello a slight flavour for Moose.
9) another spinoff: now that patch K is incoming with nice disciple of Acherons, could it be time to turn Acheron and maybe even Orthus into a random event instead of having them appear in each and every game? I feel that this predictability greatly decreases the fun they add to the game, especially the dragon which makes one given barb city of limits from the start to the end of the game. it doesn't seem like a particularly hard or time consuming change, and to compensate other big baddies like Leviathan, Mary Morbius, Sailor's Dirge, the Great Apes could get the same chance as those more reknown 2 to appear, so that people finally get a chance to see them ingame and get a kick out of it
You have no idea how long I searched for a working copy of that. Ended up finding a guy working on a large Earth map who had the resource, and bugged him till he pm'ed it to me. 
