Deliverator
Graphical Hackificator
This is a very quick summary of a new Mentat system that I've had in mind for a while. The idea is to have one Mentat per house which can be powered-up through the course of the game through promotions unlocked at various techs. The CityBonus tags that were imported from Fall Further can be used for city boosting and nerfing effects and the radius of effect can be increased with promotions. Some houses such as the Harkonnens and Tleilaxu have Twisted Mentats which are mobile enemy city nerfers rather than home city boosters. I know this might cause issues for the AI but I can imagine fairly simple routines working OK. For the Twisted Mentats, a simple AI routine might be to locate the Mentat in the home city that is closest to the nearest enemy city. Anyway, all ideas are open to discussion and rejection. Perhaps there are other ideas for a way to improve the role and theme of Mentats in the mod.
CURRENT MENTAT SYSTEM
Mentats act as city governors. Only one can affect a city at a time, and a Mentat governor provides significant benefits to the city. Each Mentat may have one of the following specialties:
Culture. Axed
Civics. +2 happy/health/ +3 happy/health?
Espionage. 5 10% / 8 15%
Financial. 3 5% / 5 8%
Industry. +10 +10% / +15 +15%
Military. +3/+5 Experience.
Mentats use the Sapho Juice resource to improve their mental abilities even further. If a Mentat is in a city which has access to the Sapho Juice resource, the benefits to the city are larger, usually by about 50%.
PROPOSED MENTAT SYSTEM
PromotionInfos CityBonus tags:
bApplyEnemy - This City Bonus list will apply to Enemy Cities
bApplyRival - This City Bonus list will apply to Rival Cities
bApplySelf - This Bonus list applies to your own Cities
bApplyTeam - This bonus list applies to your teamates' cities (but not your own, must set previous tag for that)
bFullMap - Overrides the iRange field and forces the CityBonus to be applied to the entire map, where appropriate based on the Alliance Booleans also listed
fCulture - Will modify the Culture gain (for the City Owner only) of the target Cities. If the culture of the target goes below 0 for the owner, then it will begin to insert culture for the Unit Owner into the city. In the odd cases where the unit and city belong to the same player, it will begin to insert Barbarian Culture instead
fInfectCulture - Culture value that is implanted into the city. This field only affects the culture affiliated with the unit holding the bonus, while fCulture affects the Native culture
fDefense - Adjusts the Defense Bonus of the City Tile
fDiplo - Modifies relations with the Owner of the City each turn that the unit remains in range. This is meant to be set as a balancing factor primarily, but has plenty of uses
fFood - Modifies the food gained each turn in the city
fFreeXP - Modifies free XP granted to all Units built in the City
fGold - Will transfer gold between Unit owner and City Owner each turn, or simply add/remove gold from the treasury if Owners are the same
fGPP - Adds/removes untyped GPP to the Cities pool
fHappy - Modifies the number of Happiness/Anger in the City
fHealth - Modifies the number of Health/Disease in the City
fProduction - Modifies Cities Production per turn
fTradeRoutes - Changes the Number of Trade Routes the City has Available
CURRENT MENTAT SYSTEM
Mentats act as city governors. Only one can affect a city at a time, and a Mentat governor provides significant benefits to the city. Each Mentat may have one of the following specialties:
Culture. Axed
Civics. +2 happy/health/ +3 happy/health?
Espionage. 5 10% / 8 15%
Financial. 3 5% / 5 8%
Industry. +10 +10% / +15 +15%
Military. +3/+5 Experience.
Mentats use the Sapho Juice resource to improve their mental abilities even further. If a Mentat is in a city which has access to the Sapho Juice resource, the benefits to the city are larger, usually by about 50%.
PROPOSED MENTAT SYSTEM
PromotionInfos CityBonus tags:
bApplyEnemy - This City Bonus list will apply to Enemy Cities
bApplyRival - This City Bonus list will apply to Rival Cities
bApplySelf - This Bonus list applies to your own Cities
bApplyTeam - This bonus list applies to your teamates' cities (but not your own, must set previous tag for that)
bFullMap - Overrides the iRange field and forces the CityBonus to be applied to the entire map, where appropriate based on the Alliance Booleans also listed
fCulture - Will modify the Culture gain (for the City Owner only) of the target Cities. If the culture of the target goes below 0 for the owner, then it will begin to insert culture for the Unit Owner into the city. In the odd cases where the unit and city belong to the same player, it will begin to insert Barbarian Culture instead
fInfectCulture - Culture value that is implanted into the city. This field only affects the culture affiliated with the unit holding the bonus, while fCulture affects the Native culture
fDefense - Adjusts the Defense Bonus of the City Tile
fDiplo - Modifies relations with the Owner of the City each turn that the unit remains in range. This is meant to be set as a balancing factor primarily, but has plenty of uses
fFood - Modifies the food gained each turn in the city
fFreeXP - Modifies free XP granted to all Units built in the City
fGold - Will transfer gold between Unit owner and City Owner each turn, or simply add/remove gold from the treasury if Owners are the same
fGPP - Adds/removes untyped GPP to the Cities pool
fHappy - Modifies the number of Happiness/Anger in the City
fHealth - Modifies the number of Health/Disease in the City
fProduction - Modifies Cities Production per turn
fTradeRoutes - Changes the Number of Trade Routes the City has Available
Code:
Twisted Promos: Non-Twisted Promos:
Suppression. Prosperity. Reduce/Increase Trade Routes, Culture. (fTradeRoutes, fCulture/fInfectCulture)
Assault. Defense. Reduce/Increase City Defenses, Espionage. (fDefense, Espionage?)
Corruption. Order. Reduce/Increase Maintenance, Happiness. (fGold, fHappy)
Only Twisted:
Silver Tongued. Diplomatic Relations Boost.
Both:
Mentor. GPP.
Instructor. XP.
Only Non-Twisted:
Ecologist. Increase Water/Health.
Each of the above can have multiple levels e.g. Prosperity I, II.
Prosperity II might be unlocked at Solaris Economy, etc.
So Mentats can either be highly specialised or jacks-of-all-trades.
Non-Twisted Mentats area of effect can started at 0 for this city only, then perhaps go to 6, then 12 with level up promotions. Perhaps this can be controlled by having Mentat I, II and III promos that are Prereqs for the CityBonus effects.
Twisted Mentat radius of effect might start at 5, then 9, then 13, something like that.
