[Rising Tide] Ideas for More Marvels?

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I am very interested in the introduction of the planetary Marvels. I think it's a nice fusion of Civ V Natural Wonders and the BE quest system. They're biome specific and provide fairly interesting effects. So far, we've only seen 1 Marvel per biome type and the Hydracoral for Oceans. So I'd like to pick everyone's brains and discuss what you all think would be an interesting Marvel.

There are 5 biomes and the ocean; Lush, Fungal, Arid, Frigid, Primodial and Oceans. And the Marvels we know of consist of:

  • Meteorite Craters - Primodial: x2? Production in your cities for 50? Turns. Activating more nodes extends the duration.
    [*]Mega-Fugal Towers - Fungal: Provides a large food boost to tiles adjacent to Marvel nodes.
    [*]Progenitor Geothermal Drills - Frigid: Provides geothermal resource when Marvel Node is worked?
    [*]Hydracoral Brains - Ocean: Reveals all tiles adjacent to mature Hydracoral.
    [*]Progenitor Cities?-Arid No clue what they do.
    [*]Giant Skeletons - Lush: All military units gain the Leash Alien ability.

So what ideas do you have?
 
I'm pretty sure i saw a big, 3-tiles alien skeleton in one of the hybrid videos, but they dragged the screen over it very quickly. The progenitor cities seem like a marvel to me, a really cool one btw. I hope you can get some benefit for having marvels inside your borders.
 
What we do know is that the primordial biome contains some sort of crater marvel and the related quest, on completion, provides a kind of golden age in that you gain a temporary production boost in all cities for around 50 turns. Going to each of the smaller crater marvels will also enable you to extend the duration of the bonus.

Source: see 10th September livestream.

Perhaps the other quests have this temporary boost reward as well?
 
@ Halbbruder - We also know that the Hydrocoral brains one gives vision around all hydrocoral on the map.
 
The giant Fungus gives huge food bonus to anyone settling near it. I just don't remember if it is near the marvel or near the marvel and the nodes.

I'm not sure if the other marvels give you anything. At least I didn't see any yield when the mouse cursor is on them. That would be a waste. Like the fungal biome, marvels should represent a must have spot on the map and make it more disputable as the natural wonders did in Civ V.
 
@ Veras - depends on the angle it hits at. If it hits perpendicularly, yeah, it should be an impact crater. If it hits at an angle, it might push up a mound. A big enough object at a steep enough angle could cause a mountain with the amount of earth displaced.
 
Same, it looks like the angle of the crater is like 15 degrees (between ground and projectile path).

I guess that leaves us with the progenitor city one and the frigid biome progenitor machine, which apparently they used to slow the planet's rotation speed for reasons unknown.
 
Same, it looks like the angle of the crater is like 15 degrees (between ground and projectile path).

I guess that leaves us with the progenitor city one and the frigid biome progenitor machine, which apparently they used to slow the planet's rotation speed for reasons unknown.

If I remember reading the quest correctly. The Progenitor machines were used to extract geothermal energy which had the effect of slowing the planet's rotation (because... Mohorovicic studies or something, I forget the exact science behind it)
 
I'll try my hand at designing a few.

Some of these will be adapted from my old Natural Wonders with Affinity Quests thread, though I doubt an affinity angle could be worked in for many Marvels.
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Crash Site

Biome - Any?

Appears - Anywhere, for both parts.
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An enormous Progenitor ship that is remarkably mostly intact despite an apparently brutal crash landing. Though the cause is unclear it appears to have suffered extreme damage while near the planet, scattering portions of the vessel far from the hull.

Though it sustained extensive damage from the crash incident, time, and miasma the technology on-board would be invaluable to our colony. We should secure and examine the central and fragmentary crash sites to learn what we can from it.

Quest - Excavate the central crater and all of it's fragments.

Reward - Two free Technologies.

Ongoing - Each tile of the Crash Sites yield 20 Science when worked.
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The Gaiawell

Biome - Lush

Apears anywhere, for both parts.
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A massive pool of Xenomass that appears to create incredibly fertile ground, if the lush growth around it is any indication. Aliens cluster around it, and huge Alien nests form on it.

Limited testing and it's color show it to be somewhat different in makeup from other sources of Xenomass. Perhaps it fills a different function in this ecosystem?

Quest - Befriend or destroy the city-like Great Nests to excavate the Gaiawell and similar, but smaller pools.

Reward - +10 Health.

Ongoing - Each tile of the Gaiawell and its lesser pools yields 5 Health and 5 Food.
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Jewel Island

Biome - Any

Appears Anywhere
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A massive island of ground and Floatstone flying far above the planet's surface. It appears to be remarkably stable, held in the same position by some unknown force.

The island is large and stable enough that a wide variety of plants grow on it, though it's name comes from the glow of Floatstone on its underside. We could learn much about Floatstone and the creation of stable, ungrounded platforms from studying it.

Quest - Excavate Jewel Island and several smaller stable floatstone islands.

Reward - Permanent +20% Production speed boost.

Ongoing - Each tile of Jewel Island and the smaller islands generates 20 Culture when worked.
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Mount Prometheus

Biome - Primordial

Appears - Anywhere for both parts, but on islands if at sea.
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An enormous active volcano, with rivers of lava flowing from it. Though approaching it is dangerous, it is impossible not to feel a sense of awe in seeing it.

The ambient heat could also provide a powerful source of Energy, with some study on how to safely extract it.

Quest - Excavate Mount Prometheus and several other active volcanoes.

Reward - Permanent +2 Energy boost from Mountains and Canyons, and Lava Rivers.

Ongoing - Each tile of Mount Prometheus and the other volcanoes generate 20 Energy when worked.
 
If I remember reading the quest correctly. The Progenitor machines were used to extract geothermal energy which had the effect of slowing the planet's rotation (because... Mohorovicic studies or something, I forget the exact science behind it)

Ah. You've reminded me of that futurama episode where a band of super intelligent cats sneak into earth to extract geothermal energy from its core because their homeplanet's rotation had stopped, while hypnotizing the futurama crew to do the hard dirty work. They then somehow beam the energy back to their homeplant using Egypt's pyramids. :)

Also, Galgus' ideas look nice but the free technology reward might be too good.


Also, according to http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0610/nospin.html, what would really happen if the earth stopped spinning is that the oceans would gravitate towards the poles, because that is where gravity is strongest. So a planet with no rotation should have virtually no water along the equator and any land near the poles would be flooded.
 
Ooh, that's very cool!

How are the aliens affected by the Lush biome? Is it the opposite of the Frigid one -- weaker but more of them?
 
Lush Marvel is a huge alien skeleton that gives the ability to leash aliens with any military unit after exploring a number of nodes

That seems to steal Harmony's thunder somewhat, but only leashing Aliens seems kind of weak.

It would be kind of nice if it boosted Alien strength based on one's Harmony level, or let players upgrade them Civ 5 style.

And I personally think that all Marvels should have a yield of some type, even if that means a lot of generic Science yields.
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This has me trying to think up Affinity oriented Marvels that are still useful to other affinities.

Yes, they're supposed to be swarming on the Lush biome, although I didn't think there really were a lot of them on this stream in comparison to other biomes

The big picture is that modders may be able to exaggerate and better-ize the Biomes.

I wonder if Ryika will make an Awesome Biomes mod at some point?
 
Yes, they're supposed to be swarming on the Lush biome, although I didn't think there really were a lot of them on this stream in comparison to other biomes

Well I don't know about he average, but it seemed to at least be more than Frigid :) I doomed that idea for the aliens in te biomes. Speaking in terms of real life biology, cold climates tend to yield bigger but less frequent species while warm climates yield smaller more numerous species. This is due to a few rules of biodiversity who's names escape me right now. (My professor would be ashamed right now.)

The ability for any military unit to leash aliens is interesting, particularly on a map supposedly teeming with weaker creatures. YES it does take away a bit of Harmony's new feature but if it takes a marvel to do that, I think I'm okay with it. It does mean you don't have to divide your explorers between Leashing and excavating.

I'd really like to see explorers get affinity upgrades. That way they can do things like move the additional modules from Supremacy to the unit itself and give Harmony explorers something that reduces damage from leashing. Stuff like that.

The main reason I made this thread is because I'd like to see 2 or 3 Marvels per biome and more for Oceans like 3 or 4 to increase replay value and start getting cool combos going.
 
This may be a had idea, but what if the Affinities revealed "hidden" artifact sites after a time?

With enough Harmony points you get to see hidden Alien relics, Supremacy finds Progenitor Ruins, and Purity uncovers lost Earth relics.

It could keep the Relic game more relevant later on while emphasizing affinity differences.

Once an expedition is started the artifact sites would be visible to all with eyes on the area, leading to potential hijacking of the sites.

Hyrbids would be later to the game, but would see more sites.
 
The big picture is that modders may be able to exaggerate and better-ize the Biomes.

Yeah, I really hope there are examples in the new code which retrieve the selected biome during map generation. I have some things I want to do with them!
 
Yeah, I really hope there are examples in the new code which retrieve the selected biome during map generation. I have some things I want to do with them!
And, on the graphics side, I really hope they make it possible to implement new marvels with their own art, unlike Civ5, where I don't recall anybody ever having success with adding new natural wonders. :(
 
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