dostillevi
Warlord
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2009
- Messages
- 299
I prefer to play the malakim, and since Fall Further is going through a rebuild right now I thought it might be appropriate to discuss Malakim gameplay.
1. Malakim's love/hate relationship with the desert. I've played FFH, Orbis, FF, and FF+ and all take a slightly different approach to the way the Malakim interact with the desert. I'm concerned particularly with the economy, as desert unit bonuses seem to be mostly in line (more on that later). The big question I have is whether the Malakim's desert bonuses should be high enough for a malakim player to want to scorch every bit of land in their territory and whether the desert bonuses should come in the form of food or commerce. I mostly like the way FF handles this, because the time it takes for a sit to grow into a gathering offsets the inherent advantage the Malakim get from not having to worry about other civs settling early into their desert territory.
One post I read noted that every historically desert dwelling civ was actually a river civ (or nomadic I would add). What do people think about giving the malakim higher bonuses on floodplains, reducing their ability to get bonuses from plain desert tiles (perhaps by limiting the sit to one level below gathering), and increasing bonuses for inter city and especially inter civilization commerce to simulate the silk road effect. The last part in particular would work to make the malakim the first civ ever that could focus on trade and commerce as its primary means of gold production and would force them to be much more careful in their diplomacy (which would offset some of their powerful offensive abilities). A Malakim economy would be built around food generated from floodplains, production from specialists and some mining, and mid to late game commerce from trade routes. Mines and towns would be downplayed, and the Malakim as a people would become focused on farming, aristocracy, and practical engineering/wonder building. This would of course require scorched land near rivers to become floodplains, but it should be possible to offset this in other civs so that everyone doesn't go around scorching all the rivers. Perhaps some bonus or unique building that could be placed on or near the oasis would also fit (maybe only make fully grown Bedouin gatherings possible near the oasis, but with 3 food instead of 2).
2. Desert bonuses and combat. I question this primarily because the Malakim are strongly good aligned and all that destruction seems counter to that morality and secondly because the ease with which territory can be scorched allows a malakim offense to quickly devastate an opponent's land. A stack with a decent number of adepts with scorch can turn 6-9 tiles into desert every turn.. one move out, scorch, pick up desert movement bonus, return to stack. Not only is this very very destructive to an opponent's economy, it also lets the malakim take their desert bonus with them everywhere. This makes for fun and unique gameplay, but it seems very antithetical to the good nature of the Malakim. One way I can think of to offset this would be to make scorching land make one become slightly more evil and/or raise the Armageddon counter. To offset THIS, the malakim could perform some sort of small production value cleansing ritual that would restore a portion of their goodness. This would allow the malakim to be very destructive during times of war, but without a considerable amount of time dedicated to reparation the civ could be come neutral or evil. If this mechanic was implemented I believe only the Malakim should be able to perform the cleansing ritual. Other civs wanting to scorch land could offset it by using vitalize to improve other bits of landscape and gain a bit of goodness at the same time.
3. Lightbringers. I love the unit but I'm not sure that its appropriate that it can become so powerful that the malakim player has no reason to ever build adepts. I'm not sure if I'd want to do anything differently here, except perhaps that lightbringers should only be able to promote along the disciple line.
4. As I understand it, the Malakim are by intent a strongly religious civ that is rather lost at sea until it discovers honor and adopts Empyrian. I would love to see some more affinity between Empyrian (or at least honor) and the Malakim. This could probably be done by providing some unique religious units that are Malakim only and require Empyrian. I think a Malakim player should be creating very powerful religious units, perhaps with sun affinity, rather than knock em dead mages. I see their level of fervency somewhat below that of the Elohim or Bannor but well above that of most other civs.
I probably have some other ideas kicking around but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
1. Malakim's love/hate relationship with the desert. I've played FFH, Orbis, FF, and FF+ and all take a slightly different approach to the way the Malakim interact with the desert. I'm concerned particularly with the economy, as desert unit bonuses seem to be mostly in line (more on that later). The big question I have is whether the Malakim's desert bonuses should be high enough for a malakim player to want to scorch every bit of land in their territory and whether the desert bonuses should come in the form of food or commerce. I mostly like the way FF handles this, because the time it takes for a sit to grow into a gathering offsets the inherent advantage the Malakim get from not having to worry about other civs settling early into their desert territory.
One post I read noted that every historically desert dwelling civ was actually a river civ (or nomadic I would add). What do people think about giving the malakim higher bonuses on floodplains, reducing their ability to get bonuses from plain desert tiles (perhaps by limiting the sit to one level below gathering), and increasing bonuses for inter city and especially inter civilization commerce to simulate the silk road effect. The last part in particular would work to make the malakim the first civ ever that could focus on trade and commerce as its primary means of gold production and would force them to be much more careful in their diplomacy (which would offset some of their powerful offensive abilities). A Malakim economy would be built around food generated from floodplains, production from specialists and some mining, and mid to late game commerce from trade routes. Mines and towns would be downplayed, and the Malakim as a people would become focused on farming, aristocracy, and practical engineering/wonder building. This would of course require scorched land near rivers to become floodplains, but it should be possible to offset this in other civs so that everyone doesn't go around scorching all the rivers. Perhaps some bonus or unique building that could be placed on or near the oasis would also fit (maybe only make fully grown Bedouin gatherings possible near the oasis, but with 3 food instead of 2).
2. Desert bonuses and combat. I question this primarily because the Malakim are strongly good aligned and all that destruction seems counter to that morality and secondly because the ease with which territory can be scorched allows a malakim offense to quickly devastate an opponent's land. A stack with a decent number of adepts with scorch can turn 6-9 tiles into desert every turn.. one move out, scorch, pick up desert movement bonus, return to stack. Not only is this very very destructive to an opponent's economy, it also lets the malakim take their desert bonus with them everywhere. This makes for fun and unique gameplay, but it seems very antithetical to the good nature of the Malakim. One way I can think of to offset this would be to make scorching land make one become slightly more evil and/or raise the Armageddon counter. To offset THIS, the malakim could perform some sort of small production value cleansing ritual that would restore a portion of their goodness. This would allow the malakim to be very destructive during times of war, but without a considerable amount of time dedicated to reparation the civ could be come neutral or evil. If this mechanic was implemented I believe only the Malakim should be able to perform the cleansing ritual. Other civs wanting to scorch land could offset it by using vitalize to improve other bits of landscape and gain a bit of goodness at the same time.
3. Lightbringers. I love the unit but I'm not sure that its appropriate that it can become so powerful that the malakim player has no reason to ever build adepts. I'm not sure if I'd want to do anything differently here, except perhaps that lightbringers should only be able to promote along the disciple line.
4. As I understand it, the Malakim are by intent a strongly religious civ that is rather lost at sea until it discovers honor and adopts Empyrian. I would love to see some more affinity between Empyrian (or at least honor) and the Malakim. This could probably be done by providing some unique religious units that are Malakim only and require Empyrian. I think a Malakim player should be creating very powerful religious units, perhaps with sun affinity, rather than knock em dead mages. I see their level of fervency somewhat below that of the Elohim or Bannor but well above that of most other civs.
I probably have some other ideas kicking around but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
from trade, in addition to the +15% 
they already had... I always picture desert civilizations as being merchants, so trading for your food as well as commerce is appropriate.
Could do a UU line for them that adds sun affinity, and reduces the level required to become a Luridus?
on desert' change. I didn't merge the hammers, but didn't noticed that I DID merge the '-1 
, 1 prophet specialist (with a national wonder, malakim only).
