I've been away for a few days and it's great to see people are interested in this mod! I'll just give everyone a heads up that progress will be a bit slower during November as I'm doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). But progress will still be made!
Well, hmmm, if every Illianer combat unit will be able to find the Horn, doesn't that virtually guarantee they'll be the ones to find it unless someone else is sitting right on it? My idea for the square mimicing Illian's Horn bonuses was that in a game without Illian, it allows another civ to take Illian's place as "the Horn of Valere" civ, and in a game WITH Illian, not only does it put you on more equal footing with Illian, by building it you also take it away from Illian, so they don't get the extra bonus. Oh, and I used the word lagoon because my image of Illian has always had it be something like Venice. A city built on islands and sunken foundations in a marshy lagoon.
I plan to investigate how quickly Illian finds the Horn on average (given the size of maps and the difficulty of getting non-naval combat units to every possible square, it might take a while) and calibrate their ability based on that. (Possibly restricting it to specific unit classes or something along those lines.) That investigation is only possible once I've got enough content to play a game through.
How early in the Tech Tree were you planning to put the Hunt? I think the reason most national projects end up towards the end of the tech tree is that that's when civs have spare production capacity to build them. Especially in shorter games. I would say maybe somewhere in the late middle of the tech tree. Kind of the equivalent of Archaeology? Particularly if you use my idea about Companions upgrading to Hunters, to give people time to earn the promotions. Also, what was your idea about Hunters? I was thinking they'd be fairly powerful combat units themselves, which is why I gated them behind a project, and faith points. If you're thinking that their primary value will be simply finding the Horn, well, my Companions idea might need to be revisited.
My plan for the Hunt was to be somewhere near the middle of the tech tree, in a sort of time that would be loosely appropriate to when Illian began hosting the Hunt in the WoT-verse. I was thinking Hunters would be an upgrade path for scouts (or whatever the scout equivalent ends up being). CiV units usually represent large military formations and Hunters tend to travel alone or in small groups, so I think an agile unit is quite appropriate.
With all of that out of the way, here's my idea for Andor.
Andor
Ruler - Morgase Trakand
UA - The Queen's Blessing: Morgase Trakand is a great ruler in a nation with a history of great rulers. Her people love her, and are proud of their nation. Andoran cities suffer only 50% of the unhappiness generated by population compared to other civs and buildings which generate happiness are 50% more effective. Andoran combat units receive a 10% combat bonus when fighting in their own territory.
UU - Queen's Guard: Replaces Pikemen? Starts with the Elite Formation promotion (I'm figuring most of the nation's permanent military formations like the Defenders of the Stone and the Panarch's Legion will get this promotion for free). More powerful and more costly than the unit it replaces, the Queen's Guard also receives an additional 15% combat bonus when fighting within two tiles of a Great Person (this bonus is on top of the Great Captain's bonus, if the Great Person is a Great Captain), the unit also receives this bonus if within two tiles of a city ruled by a governor, as governors are former Great Person units.
UB - Inner City Walls: Replaces the Castle. In addition to its defensive bonus, it grants +1 Culture and +1 Happiness.
I decided on Morgase as ruler rather than Elayne, even though Morgase barely made it 5 books, and was under Rahvin's spell by the 3rd book. Elayne, by the end of the series, is completely overpowered. She rules Andor and Cairhien, is a powerful channeler in her own right with strong allies in the White Tower, the Black Tower is actually located in her territory, she has the Two Rivers, Ghealdan and Saldaea as committed allies or actual vassals, and she has an exclusive contract with the Band of the Red Hand and a virtual monopoly on dragon technology. It's too much. I'm going to finish this e-mail up here, but write a second one because I have some quick ideas for wonders and projects and I don't want to clutter this e-mail up more than it already is.
I actually thought all the things you mentioned were great reasons to use Elayne as the leader!
In normal CiV, there is more to the leaders and civilizations than the uniques they end up having, but their extra flavor often ends up being good shared material. (Any civ can build the Eiffel Tower or the Pentagon even though those are obviously synonymous with France and the US respectively.) With the Black Tower as a wonder already, I think Elayne opens up a great possibility to have a UA based around a strong relationship with the White Tower. Dragons would make an awesome end-game siege unit.
I'm also reluctant to reuse abilities from the base game. Morgase's ability here takes a component of Gandhi's, which I think, for players who've spent a lot of time with CiV, will detract from the WoT immersion.
Both the Inner City Walls and Queen's Guard sound like great ideas for uniques though! It'll be a difficult end decision on those ones against Dragons.
This is about a few ideas for wonders I had.
The Tower of Ghenjei - Well, the tower is a bridge to the worlds of the Aelfinn and Eelfinn right? And the Aelfinn grant requests and the Eelfinn answer questions, so i thought a nice bonus would be to have the Tower of Ghenjei grant a free technology and a free social policy.
Awesome, that sounds like a really good basis. The Aelfinn and the Eelfinn always have some kind of drawback to their wishes as well, though there aren't any wonders with "drawbacks" in the base game. I think it might be interesting to have this wonder offer some bonus that would be by itself overpowered, but balance it with a suitable drawback.
The Fortress of the Light - Headquarters of the Children of the Light. Not sure what you could have this one do. Lets you recruit Children units?
My plan for the Children of the Light is to have them be a UU for Amadicia. (Not to say they won't have influence anywhere else, a Whitecloak War scenario sounds quite cool!)
You were looking for more national projects, what about a sort of Manhattan Project type thing, except instead of nukes you can build dragons?
Also, not sure how or if you were planning on incorporating the Band of the Red Hand, but that could be another Global Project, representing negotiating with Mat, or something similar. When you complete it you can buy Red Hand units with gold?
Could have sworn I had some other ideas but it got late on me when I turned my back somehow. Another time I guess.
I've got some other plans for people like Mat, Rand, and Perrin that I've only just realized I forgot to include in the opening post. I plan to introduce some combat Great Person types as well (Great Channelers like Rand). Perrin will make a good Great Leader, and Mat's the perfect Great General (possibly reflavored to Great Captain) unless I decide to phase out that Great Person type. (Just adding to the existing GP types can make the GP setup very crowded.)
what about putting the Age of LEgend Wonders be natural wonders ? (already present at game start)
for example:
-the Male Choedan Kal could either be a natural wonder , OR, the wonder can be "dug-out the Male Choedan Kal"...
other important ones :
-the place (I forgot the name) where Aiel get their wise ones and their clan chiefs.. a VERY important wonder (at least as a wonder-feature already present in game).
-shaihol gul could also be a natural wonder
last : I thought about another system for the "age-of-legend" wonders:
what about having lets say 10-20 "age of legend artifact" spread on the map.
then the wonder is "study the age of legend artifact" and is built like normal wonders.. but only if the age of leagend artifact is in borders ; the closest artifact being "studied" first) the player /ai would not know the result before-hand.
then: the game decides randomly (or pseudo-randomly) which wonder is "revealed" premanently on this place.
some of the resulting wonders could be "seals" that have to be protected against barbs/evil that can "break the seal" ...
some wonder could be the Choedan Kal...etc
some wonder might just be "small artifact"
some wonder might be "the stone and Callendor"... the civ that discover it has to protect it otherwise, if taken, the civ is destroyed, but it gives bonus, and can yield an artifact useable only by the "dragon reborn" unit
then you could have some "weights" to push or pull the choice of the wonders...
like a first wonder near Tear would have increased chances to be the Stone.
the Male Choedan Kal has greater chances to be found near Caihrien
the female Choedan Kal has greater chances to be found if the "ancient artifact" is close to water.
the eye of the world is more tricky as it is linked with the GREAT HUNT.
then the "project Cleans Saidin" would need multiple factors : Male Choedan Kal, female Choedan Kal, dragon reborn unit....etc
I think this system would help with showing that the people of the ERA do not know what all those artifact do..
I think the randomness
Definitely, some new natural wonders are a part of the plan. Shayol Ghul and Dragonmount are the first two clear choices for that. The Glass Pillars of Rhuidean will definitely be a wonder (though Rhuidean itself is the Aiel's starting city).
I very much like the idea of archeological digs unearthing items from the Age of Legends! I hadn't considered that yet, but I think it is a good WoT-ification of the archeology system from base CiV.
It's definitely up for consideration, making the Age of Legends wonders into natural wonders, because it does solve a flavor problem. But I think it trades off gameplay against it, which generally isn't favorable. Having powerful endgame wonders is essential in CiV, since the rate of growth of pretty much everything accelerates as the game progresses.
Thank you all very much for the suggestions, they're very well received and have been providing a lot of ideas!