Malakim+ Rerelease

[Valkrionn]

I'm looking at rebalancing the Beduin improvements... I've already removed 1 commerce from both the Beduin Camp and Village because the Caravan Route adds 1. I wanted to balance the fact that you basically get cottages for free. I also looked at the upgrade times Deon originally assigned them, and while the first improvement takes 13 turns rather than 10, the second ALSO takes 13, rather than 20, so it actually upgrades faster overall. I'm thinking of making the Beduin improvements take 1.5 times as long to upgrade as the normal cottages, so 15 and 30 turns respectively. Thinking of adding a final upgrade also, just trying to think of a decent name. It would have the current Beduin Village graphic, with a new graphic for the village.

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Current Yields of Beduin Improvements vs Cottage Improvements

Cottage- 1
Hamlet- 2
Village- 3, +1 at Taxation
Town- 4, +1 at Taxation

Beduin Sit- 1, +1 with Caravan
Beduin Camp- 1 1, +1 with Caravan
Beduin Gathering- 2 2, +1 with Caravan
Beduin Village- 3 2, +1 with Caravan +1 at Sanitation
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This would keep them making less money than the towns, would slow early research as the improvements take longer, and would also, after 105 turns, allow each improvement to produce a small surplus, encouraging growth in main cities and allowing for cities to slowly grow if there are no flood plains/oasis nearby. I'd like to hear from all of you about this, and also any ideas for the new improvement name.

 

[Valkrionn]

New version up, includes reworking of the Beduin improvements described above. New improvement is tentatively titled Beduin Gathering, uses wigwam model by hrochland. The Gathering takes the place of the Beduin Village, and the Village gains 1 , as well as gaining 1 at sanitation.

 

[Shakiko]

Is it really intended that you can build Beduin sits on Flood plains ?

Right now the upgraded versionsof Beduin sits really look balanced, a Beduin village providing 2(+1) food and 3(+1) commerce on a previously "dead" tile - with an extra advantage of not having a tech requirement offsetting the fact that working those tiles in the beginning really sucks.

With floodplains you already start yielding 3 food, 3 commerce as soon as you get your first worker (around turn 20ish if you really go for it) and it's really intended to up as high as 6 food and 4 commerce ?? (wondering because thats far superior to Food bonus-tiles)

 

[Valkrionn]

Hmm... You have a point. Think I'll try to disable at least the Beduin Village from upgrading on floodplains, if possible...

 

[JeffSteel]

Ah, it's really great that this mod has been picked back up again. Will give it another go.

 

[Valkrionn]

Updated. Can no longer build a Beduin Sit on Flood Plains. If you don't want to download the full thing again, I included the changed file in an attachment on the first post. Just extract it into your Modules\MalakimPlus\XML folder.

 

[Valkrionn]

Well, I now have a camel resource... Soon as I get some camel rider graphics, or make my own, I'll put them all in.

 

[the343danny]

Nice, but if you dont play with flavour starts, won't it be hard to gain access to the mounted units? I usually dont because it screws some civs really hard while others have access to good terrain.

 

[Valkrionn]

Nice, but if you dont play with flavour starts, won't it be hard to gain access to the mounted units? I usually dont because it screws some civs really hard while others have access to good terrain.

Yeah I thought about that, the Camels only show up in desert and are only visible if you have the Desert People tech, like the Patrian Artifacts for the Scions. I'm also making the units require Camels OR Horses, for those who don't play flavourstart.

One question, if anyone knows... How do I get a city graphic showing you have access to camels? I edited the GameFont and GameFont_75 files to show a camel icon after the Patrian icon, and assigned the art file number 63, one after the Pat. Artifacts... Still not showing up.

 

[xienwolf]

Did you edit the Alpha Layer in addition to the visible one?

 

[Valkrionn]

Did you edit the Alpha Layer in addition to the visible one?

Course not... Sigh. My editing software doesn't even let me, downloading photo shop now lol.

Edit: Alright, got it working. Now to find some unit art.

 

[Valkrionn]

I'd like opinions on a balance issue. I'd like to take away the camel riders bonus against archers, and lower the withdrawal chance as camels aren't as fast as horses. However, they DO scare horses, so I'd like to add a bonus against mounted units... How do you all feel about this?

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

I like that, it makes sense and it will make those UUs feel more unique I'd just lower their bonus against archers instead of removing it completely though.

I disagree with making them require camels OR horses though. best thing imho would be to have them be able to build normal mounted units if they have horses but no camels, and obsolete the normal mounted units, replacing them with their camel counterparts, when the player gets access to camels. not sure if it's doable/easy though...

 

[xienwolf]

You'd make the Camel Rider be a completely unique unit instead of a replacement, and make Horsemen able to upgrade to camel riders, but nothing else. Then as soon as camel riders are available, Horsemen are useless and no longer can be built.


The one catch is that I am not entirely certain that the game will parse through the UU Camel Riders for other civilizations to see what they can upgrade to. I think that it ought to though, so worth a try.

 

[MrPopov]

personally I think these yields make malakim too powerful. Deserts should still be dangerous unforgiving places, not paradise worth more than grasslands.

I took off the +1 food from sanitation, and removed the +1 food from the gathering so it is +1 food and +2 commerce instead of +2/+2, then gave the village +2/+2 with an additional +1 commerce from taxation (though I think it should be something else for flavor, like trade since it is on the path to honor anyway.) I also removed the +1 commerce from the caravan route since that gave gold mines 10 commerce!

That gives a 2/1/5 on a riverside hill (including the +1 commerce Malakim get on all deserts). Compare to a riverside grassland hill with a town: 1/1/6 the beduin village is still slightly stronger.

Maybe I am missing something and in my play testing I was oblivious/

 

[Valkrionn]

You have a point, but from my experience, it gives the Malakim plenty of money, and helps their population, but they lack sources of hammers. So they can be wealthy merchant princes, but lack the hammers to construct a strong military, which is pretty much the way I see them, since most desert civilizations have focused on trade. Although, if I get more people saying it's too much I'll change it... I'd like to keep it balanced if at all possible. I do agree however that the +1 on the Caravan Route may be too much... That's still a holdover from Deon's version, haven't decided whether or not to change it.

 

[MrPopov]

yea good point about lack of hammers. I did definately notice that when an opportunistic friend DOW me before I had access to conquest.

 

[Valkrionn]

There'll be a bit more hammers in the desert in m next version... Camels are done, same hammers as horses. I've ran a few PerfectWorld maps, and there are only 3 or 4 throughout the map, with twice that many horses... Seems okay to me.

 

[Valkrionn]

Alright, posted a version including the Camel resource. I think I got all the unit requirements updated, if not, be sure to let me know. The yields are currently the same as horses, may play with those after getting some feedback. Credit for the resource goes to Kevinman4404, while the horrible button art is of course mine.

Also, I may remove the +1 from the caravan route... Kind of redundant with the +1 in all deserts the Malakim get.

Edit: Forgot to mention, ran a few AI autoplay games to see how the AI did... Huge perfectworld map, 11 civs, only Flavourstart enabled, got to turn 460 before stopping it. The Malakim were leaders in tech, and were top of the scoreboard first 300ish turns, but were actually taken down by the Archos, who were several ranks below them. I get the feeling that they'll make a strong early showing, and fade from there.

 

[MrUnderhill]

Just put the finishing touches on a new Dervish model. The zip includes an XML file so you can try it out easily. Uses the same animations as the old one, but this one I think looks more like a tier 3 unit.