Unique Abilities discussion

[Louis XXIV]

I hope they join. That would be so much cooler.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

The more we speculate on the Austria UA, the better and better it sounds.

 

[apocalypse105]

I like Ausrias UA it sounds very different from any other civ and will be very interesting to play.

But i just thought, what will happen to the city states army. Diplomatic marriage sounds like the joining of two nations so if the city becomes yours wont there army also become yours. it would be a very nice boost in a game were your fighting a very long war against another civ and you suddenly have 6 or 7 new units.

I'm pretty sure you won't get their army Just the city beside the developers said in the interviews

"she can marry her into a city states territory

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Another thing, will the peaceful annexation work like a capture annexation? Do you get unhappiness until you build a courthouse there?

 

[Guandao]

Would Austria work for a cultural victory? I wouldn't want to absorb a lot of city-states.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I kinda think it wouldnt be the most effective for a cultural victory. It is about expansion.

 

[Optional]

I think a civ that we also could be including in a new unique abilities discussion is the Songhai, as we know their ability is going to be rewritten. Do we know in how far their ability is going to be rewritten?
Because we already know the Huns are starting with Animal Husbandry and an extra hammer from pastures, it's unlikely they're getting Songhai's tripple loot from taking towns. Otherwise this would have been very fitting.
But are the Songhai keeping it? I've never found the embarked defense bonus such a big deal. Tripple gold from barb camps and towns is in itself a good enough trait, the Songhai are considered a top tier civ, and they won't drop that much in the ranking just because other civs now also are stronger embarked. So that's hardly enough reason to do work on Songhai's trait, or is it?

Interesting to mention is perhaps that the developers have changed their minds about the Songhai before. Originally they were to get faster movement along rivers, hence the name 'River Warlord'. That ability is in the game, I've noticed it in a scenario, but it got dropped from the Songhai. I'm guessing it won't return, but what will the Songhai get instead?

 

[CYZ]

I think a civ that we also could be including in a new unique abilities discussion is the Songhai, as we know their ability is going to be rewritten. Do we know in how far their ability is going to be rewritten?
Because we already know the Huns are starting with Animal Husbandry and an extra hammer from pastures, it's unlikely they're getting Songhai's tripple loot from taking towns. Otherwise this would have been very fitting.
But are the Songhai keeping it? I've never found the embarked defense bonus such a big deal. Tripple gold from barb camps and towns is in itself a good enough trait, the Songhai are considered a top tier civ, and they won't drop that much in the ranking just because other civs now also are stronger embarked. So that's hardly enough reason to do work on Songhai's trait, or is it?

Interesting to mention is perhaps that the developers have changed their minds about the Songhai before. Originally they were to get faster movement along rivers, hence the name 'River Warlord'. That ability is in the game, I've noticed it in a scenario, but it got dropped from the Songhai. I'm guessing it won't return, but what will the Songhai get instead?

My guess is they keep the triple loot. Then instead of embarked units defending, which everyone will be able to do, their embarked units may attack! Obviously not at full strength, but their embarked units would not be helpless against ranged ships. Also, their embarked fleet can attack another embarked fleet. But that's just my guess.


I think Carthage will be decent but not overpowered. Sometimes you have chokepoint situations caused by mountains. Carthage will be able to flank enemy armies there and thereby reduce their defensive advantage. If you for example 2 choke points to defend, any other civ can be expected to come through either or both. But with carthage you need to watch out for units crossing the mountains at other locations and get behind you.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I think a civ that we also could be including in a new unique abilities discussion is the Songhai, as we know their ability is going to be rewritten. Do we know in how far their ability is going to be rewritten?
Because we already know the Huns are starting with Animal Husbandry and an extra hammer from pastures, it's unlikely they're getting Songhai's tripple loot from taking towns. Otherwise this would have been very fitting.
But are the Songhai keeping it? I've never found the embarked defense bonus such a big deal. Tripple gold from barb camps and towns is in itself a good enough trait, the Songhai are considered a top tier civ, and they won't drop that much in the ranking just because other civs now also are stronger embarked. So that's hardly enough reason to do work on Songhai's trait, or is it?

Interesting to mention is perhaps that the developers have changed their minds about the Songhai before. Originally they were to get faster movement along rivers, hence the name 'River Warlord'. That ability is in the game, I've noticed it in a scenario, but it got dropped from the Songhai. I'm guessing it won't return, but what will the Songhai get instead?

I would love fast movement along rivers. I think that would fit perfectly for them (along with the the triple gold). I don't really think it'll be too powerful (you'll still have the river crossing penalty), but I haven't really tested it out.

Are you sure it's in a scenario? The closest I can think of is the Sumerians, but that's the ability to cross rivers without penalty. I was thinking more of treating rivers like roads.

 

[Optional]

Are you sure it's in a scenario?

Yup, it's in the Wonders of the Ancient World scenario. The Songhai aren't in there, I think (it's a while ago I played a bit with this scenario), but it's another civ that has this bonus.
Was it some civ with a purple colour? It'll probably be mentioned in the intro for that civ.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I think you're thinking of Sumeria. Their ability is a bit different from what I was thinking of. They're allowed to cross rivers without a movement penalty. I was thinking of having them treat rivers as roads. To be perfectly honest, if Sumer's ability was Songhai's ability, they probably removed it because it was too weak not because it was too good.

 

[Optional]

I just reinstalled that DLC, and yes, it's Sumeria. It's not so much that they're faster alongside rivers, but there are no movement penalties alongside rivers.
I still think it's quite handy. Stronger than Iroquois' Warpath, in my opinion.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Well, the Iroquois ability is best for trade routes, not movement.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I just reinstalled that DLC, and yes, it's Sumeria. It's not so much that they're faster alongside rivers, but there are no movement penalties alongside rivers.
I still think it's quite handy. Stronger than Iroquois' Warpath, in my opinion.

Does it give them a trade route if two cities are on the same river? Seems like they should connect them like harbors.

 

[dagriggstar]

Am looking forward to the scenario potential of the Austrian UA

For example, give it to a bunch of colonial european civs and we might actually get for example French Indo-China.

Not to mention using the Dutch UA (again, give it to everyone) means that you can reduce the number of luxuries on the map, so cities near a luxury resource become more important (since there are less of these cities AND luxury hexes are more "useful" if you like)

 

[CYZ]

I think the Dutch could be an insane REX civ. Just get up luxuries in the capital asap, sell them right away. Now you have money and happiness to expand. If you expand on top of luxuries you can just sell them right away again. You could just totally focus on building and buying settlers without even going into negative happiness. Then it's a matter of getting all those cities up and running, but you can just keep selling all those luxuries which keep on giving you alot of extra cash flow. Especially later on when normal civs can't afford to sell any luxuries except their spares, you can just keep on selling and even get tullips on top of that.

God, I do hope there's some significant changes to the way AI looks at luxury trade. Or they will be overpowered for sure.

 

[Stefanskantine]

I don't know have confirmation, but I think people are not understanding the Byz UA correctly. I assume they will have a bonus belief throughout (as in they start with 2) not they only get one extra at the end. This could be extremely powerful depending on the beliefs, and also allows for flexibility depending on the situation (unlike every other UA in the game).

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

You are making an assumption that it's available throughout just like other people are making an assumption that it's the last Belief that Byz gets. No one knows for sure what the end result is and there is little evidence to support one opinion over the other.

Personally, I don't think we've seen the whole Byz UA.

 

[chazzycat]

I think the Dutch could be an insane REX civ. Just get up luxuries in the capital asap, sell them right away. Now you have money and happiness to expand. If you expand on top of luxuries you can just sell them right away again. You could just totally focus on building and buying settlers without even going into negative happiness. Then it's a matter of getting all those cities up and running, but you can just keep selling all those luxuries which keep on giving you alot of extra cash flow. Especially later on when normal civs can't afford to sell any luxuries except their spares, you can just keep on selling and even get tullips on top of that.

God, I do hope there's some significant changes to the way AI looks at luxury trade. Or they will be overpowered for sure.

this was my reaction to hearing their UA as well. Assuming nothing was lost in translation and the dutch can actually sell luxes without the happiness hit from the very beginning....yeah it will be crazy good. Everything snowballs from that early game, selling luxes and staying happy is basically cheating...

anyways i won't be surprised if this doesn't kick in until they hit the rennaissance or something like that.

 

[nokmirt]

Maya - time/calendar related- By reorganizing their calendar, I feel this should add to Maya worker proficiency. By organizing time, you organize a more productive workforce, which uses its time wisely. So, workers improve tiles faster, and buildings in cities can produce faster, perhaps units as well. The UA should be based on time management.