[MOD IDEA] Legendary Units

[Hastur]

I'm toying around with the idea of creating Legendary Units for each civilization. Using the iMaxPlayerInstances tag in the CIV4UnitClassInfos.xml file, each Legendary Unit would be restricted to a single unit of its type for that civilization. To give an idea of what I'm talking about here's a couple samples:

America - U.S. 7th Cavalry (Cavalry) - 18 power, 3 moves, starts with Combat I, II, and III, Blitz, Charge, Formation, and Pinch. Costs 150 Hammers. ONLY ONE UNIT AVAILABLE AT A TIME.

Greece - Sacred Band of Thebes (Spearman) - 6 power, 1 move, starts with Combat I, II, and III, Cover, Medic I, March, +100% vs. Mounted. Costs 45 Hammers. ONLY ONE UNIT AVAILABLE AT A TIME.

These units would not replace any standard or unique unit.

And yes, these units are POTENT. They are supposed to be. Imagine having one unit you know can take on just about any other single unit and reliably win... do you use it? how? how much? What if it gets injured?

So what do you folks think about this?

 

[Reveilled]

I'm toying around with the idea of creating Legendary Units for each civilization. Using the iMaxPlayerInstances tag in the CIV4UnitClassInfos.xml file, each Legendary Unit would be restricted to a single unit of its type for that civilization. To give an idea of what I'm talking about here's a couple samples:

America - U.S. 7th Cavalry (Cavalry) - 18 power, 3 moves, starts with Combat I, II, and III, Blitz, Charge, Formation, and Pinch. Costs 150 Hammers. ONLY ONE UNIT AVAILABLE AT A TIME.

Greece - Sacred Band of Thebes (Spearman) - 6 power, 1 move, starts with Combat I, II, and III, Cover, Medic I, March, +100% vs. Mounted. Costs 45 Hammers. ONLY ONE UNIT AVAILABLE AT A TIME.

These units would not replace any standard or unique unit.

And yes, these units are POTENT. They are supposed to be. Imagine having one unit you know can take on just about any other single unit and reliably win... do you use it? how? how much? What if it gets injured?

So what do you folks think about this?

If it's just one at a time, I think it's overpowered. Once you lose it, you could just rebuild it, especially if you had a city that produced a lot of hammers. If it was only one, ever, I think it would be a better idea, and might encourage a bit more strategy.

 

[Ikael]

It is a quite cool idea, but it should be balanced carefully, in order to don't overpower it. Also, I think that the unit should be automatically disbanded at the end of its era (so we don't see the 7th calvary beating panzers).

 

[Hastur]

Via the XML, I can only restrict it to one at a time. I'll have to look at the Python coding to see if I can restrict it to one unit ever. Though I am a programmer, I've never worked in Python so if anyone out there has any ideas on how to do this, it would be greatly appreciated.

Worst case, I can drop down their power level a bit but it's definitely not my first choice. I guess what I'm after is a unit equivalent of a Wonder of the World.

 

[Quinzy]

have it upgradable with the passing of techs, eg: Sacred Band of Thebes= spearman, but upgrades visiually only to a musket guy, then to an infantry guy? so they keep their stats, but looks different when upgraded.

 

[Hastur]

Ok... I think I've found a way to make the Legendary Unit allow only one of it's type EVER. If I have it spawned as the result of finishing a building (probably a National Wonder to make sure it's only buildable once) then you get just one unit of that type.

Now to make sure that you can't build the unit yourself once you have the tech... at the very least, I can set the price of the unit to something unreasonable but I'd like to make it just unbuildable. I'm going to have to play with those unit tags a bit... perhaps a -1 value for the cost...

Also, while I like Quinzy's idea for the unit to upgrade over time, I'm not sure about it. Yes, I can do it by making versions for each era with an upgrade path... just not sure if I should. The one upside is that if you ever only get one of these units, if ya lose it... no more upgrades. And if ya do still have it, you've been keeping it protected for a long time.

 

[mitsho]

And of course, then America would have a disadvantage, as their lu (legendary unit) only comes that late... No, the best way is probably just to restrict is to one unit ever, the exact balance can be defined later one.
Is their an option to auto-upgrade a unit (to avoid the sacred band facing muskets?
Another problem is Rome and Persia, as their unique units are actually legendary units... But a bit of renaming, and everything's perfect..

Good idea

mistho

 

[Hastur]

Yes... I can make it an unbuildable unit where you get your one and only instance of the unit by building a national wonder.

And yes, the more I think about allowing the unit to be upgradeable (one upgrade per era) would be cool. I have to check to make sure that the upgrade works given that neither the unit or the unit it's upgrading to is buildable.

So given that, what do you folks think?

 

[Snaitf]

Yes... I can make it an unbuildable unit where you get your one and only instance of the unit by building a national wonder.

Maybe I'm wrong, but if a city with a national wonder is captured/destoryed, can't you build it again in another city? Wouldn't that allow for a 2nd LU? Or am I mistaken?

Anywho, great idea! I would love to see something like this. And even if you make is so you can have 1 at a time, not just 1 forever, I don't think it's too unbalanced, as the AI gets to have one at a time too, it would make for interesting wars that might require a little more planning than just stacking a bunch of units and going city-by-city on a razing rampage...