Chandrasekhar
Determined
I seem to be having a veritable explosion of ideas lately, but I'm trying to stem the tide if only because I suspect that many of them are, frankly, crap. Here's an interesting one I've had recently, though.
I think it's safe to say that the five main unit types in FfH (I'm counting Melee, Archery, Recon, Mounted, and Arcane) ought to each have their own niche to fill. What's troubled me recently is the similarities of the niches of recon and mounted units. In vanilla Civ (I know you must all be coming to hate those three words from me), the mounted units were the fast moving, raider type units. The recon units, likewise, were only used in the early game for the purpose of, well, recon. In FfH, the recon units have been expanded to be viable for the whole game, taking up the mounted units' place. The only thing that mounted units can do that recon can't is pillage, but this is a rather small feature for two completely separate areas of the tech tree.
A solution for this has presented itself. A big gripe I had with vanilla Civ was that the medieval era tended to go by more or less peacefully. The only wars were between a strong aggressor and a weak defender. This just doesn't feel right. There should be constant military struggles, with villages being regularly burnt to the ground and brigands attacking and dying even when the major powers are at peace. Hidden nationality now allows this to happen.
To put it bluntly, I want mounted units, and only mounted units, to take the hidden nationality promotion as a normal promotion. Spending some of their XP on this ought to allow them to toggle their hidden nationality on or off depending on where they are. It seems simple enough to have them only able to hide their nationality when they're in the wilderness, and only able to declare it when inside their own borders.
I love solutions that solve multiple problems, and I believe that this is one of them. First, it would give mounted units a purpose. Instead of "it's not worth it to have horses," you hear "Those enemy horse units are so irritating! I'd better build some of my own." Second, it makes cottages less mandatory, especially in border cities. "Woohoo, I've finally gotten a town! Oops, never mind." Third, it livens up the mid and late game. You'll have to keep a standing military if you want to have an improved countryside. When the wilderness is gone and barbarians are only a memory, you still have skirmishes going on all around.
I think this idea is great, or I would never have posted it. Am I just having a crazy pipe-dream here, or is this doable? I just about flipped when I heard about hidden nationality, but if it's just restricted to a few units and a wonder, then it might as well not be there as far as I'm concerned.
I think it's safe to say that the five main unit types in FfH (I'm counting Melee, Archery, Recon, Mounted, and Arcane) ought to each have their own niche to fill. What's troubled me recently is the similarities of the niches of recon and mounted units. In vanilla Civ (I know you must all be coming to hate those three words from me), the mounted units were the fast moving, raider type units. The recon units, likewise, were only used in the early game for the purpose of, well, recon. In FfH, the recon units have been expanded to be viable for the whole game, taking up the mounted units' place. The only thing that mounted units can do that recon can't is pillage, but this is a rather small feature for two completely separate areas of the tech tree.
A solution for this has presented itself. A big gripe I had with vanilla Civ was that the medieval era tended to go by more or less peacefully. The only wars were between a strong aggressor and a weak defender. This just doesn't feel right. There should be constant military struggles, with villages being regularly burnt to the ground and brigands attacking and dying even when the major powers are at peace. Hidden nationality now allows this to happen.
To put it bluntly, I want mounted units, and only mounted units, to take the hidden nationality promotion as a normal promotion. Spending some of their XP on this ought to allow them to toggle their hidden nationality on or off depending on where they are. It seems simple enough to have them only able to hide their nationality when they're in the wilderness, and only able to declare it when inside their own borders.
I love solutions that solve multiple problems, and I believe that this is one of them. First, it would give mounted units a purpose. Instead of "it's not worth it to have horses," you hear "Those enemy horse units are so irritating! I'd better build some of my own." Second, it makes cottages less mandatory, especially in border cities. "Woohoo, I've finally gotten a town! Oops, never mind." Third, it livens up the mid and late game. You'll have to keep a standing military if you want to have an improved countryside. When the wilderness is gone and barbarians are only a memory, you still have skirmishes going on all around.
I think this idea is great, or I would never have posted it. Am I just having a crazy pipe-dream here, or is this doable? I just about flipped when I heard about hidden nationality, but if it's just restricted to a few units and a wonder, then it might as well not be there as far as I'm concerned.