I suggested this to Valkrionn a week or two ago and he thought it was moderately interesting/doable. However, he has a lot on his plate before the next update, and rather than beg for one minor convenience, I think it might be easier to toss it to the masses and see if anyone thinks its worth doing. I'm just too impatient for my own good, but it'd also be easier on him to include it officially, if it's already lying around.
I find I am a glutton for the mana from other people's palaces. It doesn't always do a lot of good, but it's enough to want to vassalize them at their last city. That is a pain for any number of reasons. The idea here is that you would sack the capitol (only when it is also their only city) and carry off whatever artifacts produce the resources provided by their palace. Specifically because the Bezeri cannot capture another civ's cities, Valkrionn felt it was best, if this is done, that the capability be mobile. He suggested a supplies unit.
What I would like is a piece of equipment, like Sylviens Perfect Lyre, that is given to the unit that takes a civ's final city (since the city itself may be destroyed) and when dropped in another city produces the palace resources of the lost civ. The blunt force way to do this is to make 33 or so pieces of equipment named for each civ that give the appropriate resources. This could be interesting, especially if the items also have some property of the civ they represent so they have some use in hand rather than in a city (for example the 'Hippus Heart' in a city gives horses and a couple of mana, or when equipped gives a single unit the horselord promotion). However in this method, no items would have to be made each time a new civ was made available.
I don't know if it's possible, but I wonder if we could tie each piece of equipment to the player position that had been eliminated. If players just hold the numerical designation they have on the custom game screen throughout the game, this should be possible. Basically you'd have a generic piece of equipment (the treasure chest graphic would do) that refers to a particular player position and then incorporates that player's name (or his tribe's name) in its name, and checks the file for his palace to find the resources it should produce. I don't know if this would have to be done every turn or just when the item is created. [Valkrionn mentioned at some point he might include Revolutions and it has a habit of spitting back leaders that you've beaten repeatedly-we wouldn't want duplicate 'Hearts' being formed every time a revolutionary leader stepped forward unless he's actually new to a particular game.] I think in this method, no updates would be needed for new civs. I think one of the palaces only gives two resources and does something else funny, but I don't know which one off the top of my head. That may cause a wrinkle.
There are some issues to be finessed. If you get the extra resources from this method before you have the option to vassalize, you've gotten a significant, possibly unbalancing advantage that you couldn't have otherwise (even if its fair by virtue of being available to everyone). But I don't want folks feeling they have to wait to pick up the tech that allows vassals (I want to say Code of Laws, but I think its a couple of steps later, whatever allows Hall of Kings) before taking a civ's last city. Instead, I'd like the resources to be unavailable until the appropriate tech would uncover them (or allow their node to be formed). If this creates too many moving parts, I would hold back their resources until Sorcery (which I think is at roughly the same depth as the tech for vassals).
The Mechanos don't use typed mana, instead they convert it all to refined mana. I think it makes sense to tie their use of the mana to the tech that allows them to build their node replacement (refinery?), if the array of prerequisite techs is used. Otherwise, they should wait until Sorcery like everyone else.
If barbarians wipe someone out, the palace heart is likely to be lost, though I like the mental image of some orc making a necklace out of it. This would be more interesting if the items did something as equipment. There's also the question of what happens to these things when the city they're in is razed by other players. Again, I don't know off the top of my head, but I assume equipment drops on the tile its unit/city was in (like Orthus' axe).
I find I am a glutton for the mana from other people's palaces. It doesn't always do a lot of good, but it's enough to want to vassalize them at their last city. That is a pain for any number of reasons. The idea here is that you would sack the capitol (only when it is also their only city) and carry off whatever artifacts produce the resources provided by their palace. Specifically because the Bezeri cannot capture another civ's cities, Valkrionn felt it was best, if this is done, that the capability be mobile. He suggested a supplies unit.
What I would like is a piece of equipment, like Sylviens Perfect Lyre, that is given to the unit that takes a civ's final city (since the city itself may be destroyed) and when dropped in another city produces the palace resources of the lost civ. The blunt force way to do this is to make 33 or so pieces of equipment named for each civ that give the appropriate resources. This could be interesting, especially if the items also have some property of the civ they represent so they have some use in hand rather than in a city (for example the 'Hippus Heart' in a city gives horses and a couple of mana, or when equipped gives a single unit the horselord promotion). However in this method, no items would have to be made each time a new civ was made available.
I don't know if it's possible, but I wonder if we could tie each piece of equipment to the player position that had been eliminated. If players just hold the numerical designation they have on the custom game screen throughout the game, this should be possible. Basically you'd have a generic piece of equipment (the treasure chest graphic would do) that refers to a particular player position and then incorporates that player's name (or his tribe's name) in its name, and checks the file for his palace to find the resources it should produce. I don't know if this would have to be done every turn or just when the item is created. [Valkrionn mentioned at some point he might include Revolutions and it has a habit of spitting back leaders that you've beaten repeatedly-we wouldn't want duplicate 'Hearts' being formed every time a revolutionary leader stepped forward unless he's actually new to a particular game.] I think in this method, no updates would be needed for new civs. I think one of the palaces only gives two resources and does something else funny, but I don't know which one off the top of my head. That may cause a wrinkle.
There are some issues to be finessed. If you get the extra resources from this method before you have the option to vassalize, you've gotten a significant, possibly unbalancing advantage that you couldn't have otherwise (even if its fair by virtue of being available to everyone). But I don't want folks feeling they have to wait to pick up the tech that allows vassals (I want to say Code of Laws, but I think its a couple of steps later, whatever allows Hall of Kings) before taking a civ's last city. Instead, I'd like the resources to be unavailable until the appropriate tech would uncover them (or allow their node to be formed). If this creates too many moving parts, I would hold back their resources until Sorcery (which I think is at roughly the same depth as the tech for vassals).
The Mechanos don't use typed mana, instead they convert it all to refined mana. I think it makes sense to tie their use of the mana to the tech that allows them to build their node replacement (refinery?), if the array of prerequisite techs is used. Otherwise, they should wait until Sorcery like everyone else.
If barbarians wipe someone out, the palace heart is likely to be lost, though I like the mental image of some orc making a necklace out of it. This would be more interesting if the items did something as equipment. There's also the question of what happens to these things when the city they're in is razed by other players. Again, I don't know off the top of my head, but I assume equipment drops on the tile its unit/city was in (like Orthus' axe).
Honestly, right now we have myself, Opera, and Grey Fox planning this, Xienwolf giving advice, and we're all excited. 
