What Civs' Unique Abilites would you like to see changed?
- Thread starter QuipCloud
- Start date
England :Their UA is fairly weak. Even though it has great synergy with SotL but the synergy effect comes quite late (renaissance era). The spy also comes late in play, leaving the early progress without any bonuses. I would prefer XP points for ships, that would be much more useful as you could use it to raid enemies early then.
Movement bonus for ships would suit Danes more IMO. Coupled with no no penalty movement for embarking & disembarking, the extra moves would help them in land to see warfare.
Sweden UA is quite interesting & has its own uses as many people mentioned. But the problem is that there is ZERO synergy between its uniques which makes it was badly designed civ.
Songhai UA is pretty powerful as well as their UB. Mandluke cav are bit underwhelming but they are also cheaper than normal knights.
Sent from my HTC One V using Tapatalk 2
Movement bonus for ships would suit Danes more IMO. Coupled with no no penalty movement for embarking & disembarking, the extra moves would help them in land to see warfare.
Sweden UA is quite interesting & has its own uses as many people mentioned. But the problem is that there is ZERO synergy between its uniques which makes it was badly designed civ.
Songhai UA is pretty powerful as well as their UB. Mandluke cav are bit underwhelming but they are also cheaper than normal knights.
Sent from my HTC One V using Tapatalk 2
Ikael
King
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2005
- Messages
- 873
India: Because its UA sucks terribadly on its current state, and it makes no sense or whatsoever from an historical POV
France: I hope that their ability gets reworked somehow to fit better the game's new cultural mechanics. Some people have made some really good suggestions about giving a +2 tourist bonus after the discovery of steam engine
Spain: Will probably need to redesign its UA depending on the new exploration SP tree and new exploration mechanics. A tourism-related bonus would be in order, me thinks, considering that it is currently the 2nd biggest touristic nation in the world after France
Ottomans: Because with the introduction of trade routes, I bet that you can have something far more similar to barbary corsairs than its current UA
Dutch & Arabians: Because they ought to have trade route related bonus somehow. The Dutch's UA always striked me as something quite flavourless and with almost neligible effects, to boot.
France: I hope that their ability gets reworked somehow to fit better the game's new cultural mechanics. Some people have made some really good suggestions about giving a +2 tourist bonus after the discovery of steam engine
Spain: Will probably need to redesign its UA depending on the new exploration SP tree and new exploration mechanics. A tourism-related bonus would be in order, me thinks, considering that it is currently the 2nd biggest touristic nation in the world after France
Ottomans: Because with the introduction of trade routes, I bet that you can have something far more similar to barbary corsairs than its current UA
Dutch & Arabians: Because they ought to have trade route related bonus somehow. The Dutch's UA always striked me as something quite flavourless and with almost neligible effects, to boot.
Bakspatel
Prince
I don't see why some people consider England's UA to be weak or requires extra tweaking.
If its UA also counts for naval caravans (which is quite assumable) this actually makes them extremely powerful. Assuming that they move about fast as early naval units they can gain trading benefits almost double as fast than anyone else and this crazy ability would receive a major boost with the Great Lighthouse and the Commerce policy. They could actually become a fierce opponent during your games (provided that England is situated at ocean tiles of course)
If its UA also counts for naval caravans (which is quite assumable) this actually makes them extremely powerful. Assuming that they move about fast as early naval units they can gain trading benefits almost double as fast than anyone else and this crazy ability would receive a major boost with the Great Lighthouse and the Commerce policy. They could actually become a fierce opponent during your games (provided that England is situated at ocean tiles of course)
Unhappiness for every 2 
Citizens in the first three cities.
Human Crouton
Prince
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2011
- Messages
- 441
If you find any UA weak, that means you aren't creative enough to play it right.
snipperrabbit!!
Deity
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2006
- Messages
- 3,396
India is way overpowered. Those who are saying otherwise sucks terribly at playing it !
Dragonflow
Emperor
If anything India's UA is incredibly boring.
France would be a great civ for the new tourism mechanic and their UA should certainly be changed to accommodate it. From what I understand, what we currently have as culture is being reworked to be what resists another civ's influence. Hence, have France be very resistant to other Civs culture (by the 2+ or 3+ culture from their cities). At the moment however, it is surprisingly powerful - it allows for early expansion without sacrificing social policy gains.
I do wonder which Civs are going to be made the big trading Civs. As I've already mentioned, England would be great considering the East India Company, all their colonies, etc. but at the same time so too would Portugal, the Netherlands and the Spanish. I think the Portuguese should definitely have some trade UA, being new, but it remains to se seen what other Civs will...
Please keep in mind we are talking primarily about UA. Obviously there should be synergy between UI and UUs but we are not talking about Civs as a whole. The Celts don't have a good enough UA - Religions are dependent upon who gets the first Great Prophet - not who gets the first Parthanon. Basically it is "Whoever builds Stonehenge first." That's +7 faith (including shrine) - not easy to match.
India's UA should be changed - but it should retain its niche as a very high population civ. I liked the idea someone had for rivers being very beneficial for the Indians - perhaps 2+ food?
I do wonder which Civs are going to be made the big trading Civs. As I've already mentioned, England would be great considering the East India Company, all their colonies, etc. but at the same time so too would Portugal, the Netherlands and the Spanish. I think the Portuguese should definitely have some trade UA, being new, but it remains to se seen what other Civs will...
Please keep in mind we are talking primarily about UA. Obviously there should be synergy between UI and UUs but we are not talking about Civs as a whole. The Celts don't have a good enough UA - Religions are dependent upon who gets the first Great Prophet - not who gets the first Parthanon. Basically it is "Whoever builds Stonehenge first." That's +7 faith (including shrine) - not easy to match.
India's UA should be changed - but it should retain its niche as a very high population civ. I liked the idea someone had for rivers being very beneficial for the Indians - perhaps 2+ food?
headcase
Limit 1 Facepalm Per Turn
There was talk on another thread that they should earn tourism\influence after steam power. (Edit: oops, QuipCloud already mentioned it, and mentioned another way they can be changed)
For this reason, the gold received from tribute could be doubled or even tripled as part of their UA. They could have done this one for G+K.
Tyrvos
Cu Chulainn
I think they will incorporate the new trade system, I hope anyways. I never saw the Dutch UA as weak, but then again I'm biased because they're my favorite team. The amount it allows you to trade is amazing. In the beginning, that 240g is a great boost. I've played games with other civs where i have 8 separate luxaries. As the Dutch, that's 8 more trades that could be going on during the game. It looks bad an paper, but it ends up being very strong and trade focuses.
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2010
- Messages
- 18,929
You can't judge a civ by their UA. The Dutch UA maybe situational, but their UI and UU kick ass. If they got a strengthened UA, they would be overpowered. Same goes for the Arabians.
Tyrvos
Cu Chulainn
I agree with you totally. I just never understood the hate they get. But they are my main teams so perhaps some people just don't understand that playstyle. That Polder and Sea beggar are scary once you reach that period, dominating sees and having cities grow at insane rates.
I can understand wanting the trade teams to implement the new trade system, but it's definitely understandable if they don't. I think Arabia would be more likely to have the changes just because the name of their UA.
Agreed, completely.
If there are civilizations in which I would like to see changes, those are the ones with little uniqueness - like India.
India need at least some religious bonuses, to make them able at something aside big city building... They way it is right now, i can't really see the reason to play India over Ethiopia, for example.
Other civilizations i think need some tweaking are Rome and Byzantium.
Rome is cool and fine as it is, but the bonuses are just too boring - little fun in playing them. I miss civ 4 forum, to tell the truth.
Byzantium is just horribly designed. Simple UA, no synergy, everything crumpled up at the ancient/classical eras (to use their UA, you have to focus on religion early game, making it nearly impossible to use their sea and land UU's effectively. Every special thing in Byzantium kind of goes against the other, actually)
Also:
America and Sweden. I don't think they're weak, but both could be a little improved in the 'fun' aspect, for certain... even tough i don't see that happening anytime soon.
Aaaaand, of course, Arabia, Ottomans, Netherlands, England, etc etc are all civs i hope to see some changes with the new trade system (not necessarily significative changes. With the exception of the Ottomans, I think they are all fairly cool and balanced, but could use some more 'flavor')
Stonecutter9
Rex Michiganensis
Dutch: Really useless - I rarely have need to trade away my last luxury anyway; fingers crossed they make this into a trade route UA in BNW. As it is this civ seems to have very scattered unique strengths and civs like that are very hard to play IMHO.
French: Not bad but it shouldn't disappear after Steam Power; as others have suggested this would work better as a tourism bonus in BNW, considering France is the most visited country in the world.
Greek: A great UA, but what am I going to do with it when my civ is geared toward military endeavors? Seems like a great ability for a culture civ, not a military one. While Greece may be able to calm down after their rush there are better options than CS diplo.
Hunnic: Doubtlessly the worst UA in the game. IMHO if a city is worth seizing it is worth keeping; at any rate you lose a few unhappy faces a turn sooner, only to repeat with next city capture. +1 production from pastures? Helpful, but very situational, and since the Horse Archer UU doesn't actually req Horses (?!) it's hard to take advantage of this unless you start near Pastures. The 'borrow city names' is purely cosmetics; no game benefit whatsoever. Finally, starting with AH is helpful, but since Battering Ram is the more important of the UUs Mining would be better.
Indian: The upside of this benefit is great, but why does it have a downside? India has so many gigantic cities in real life that this UA has no basis from a historical POV. Besides, it forces India to stay small when they could do well as expansionistic. War Elephants as defenders, Mughal Forts as defense later on; India could easily protect a sizeable empire. I really hope that they remove the downside.
Spanish: A great bonus when you find a NW, but otherwise it sucks. It's too much of a hit or miss type of bonus that if you don't fanatically exlopre to find a NW as Isabella you simply waste your UA. Never a good idea when game designing.
French: Not bad but it shouldn't disappear after Steam Power; as others have suggested this would work better as a tourism bonus in BNW, considering France is the most visited country in the world.
Greek: A great UA, but what am I going to do with it when my civ is geared toward military endeavors? Seems like a great ability for a culture civ, not a military one. While Greece may be able to calm down after their rush there are better options than CS diplo.
Hunnic: Doubtlessly the worst UA in the game. IMHO if a city is worth seizing it is worth keeping; at any rate you lose a few unhappy faces a turn sooner, only to repeat with next city capture. +1 production from pastures? Helpful, but very situational, and since the Horse Archer UU doesn't actually req Horses (?!) it's hard to take advantage of this unless you start near Pastures. The 'borrow city names' is purely cosmetics; no game benefit whatsoever. Finally, starting with AH is helpful, but since Battering Ram is the more important of the UUs Mining would be better.
Indian: The upside of this benefit is great, but why does it have a downside? India has so many gigantic cities in real life that this UA has no basis from a historical POV. Besides, it forces India to stay small when they could do well as expansionistic. War Elephants as defenders, Mughal Forts as defense later on; India could easily protect a sizeable empire. I really hope that they remove the downside.
Spanish: A great bonus when you find a NW, but otherwise it sucks. It's too much of a hit or miss type of bonus that if you don't fanatically exlopre to find a NW as Isabella you simply waste your UA. Never a good idea when game designing.
Stonecutter9
Rex Michiganensis
Agreed. Byzantium needs to simply build it UUs in force and hope it can get a religion later on. The bonus in itself is great and Byzantium would be one of my favorite civs if not for the time constraint. It's especially hard so early in the game, when your'e trying to juggle city development, tile improvement, military buildup, etc. Either they should make the Dromon a Galleass replacement and the Cataphract a Knight replacement (which is more accurate anyway) so you can focus on faith and then conquest (maybe with some religious belief aid) or one of the UUs should disappear so Byzantium becomes more of a culture/builder civ. IMO Hippodrome would be a cool Colosseum replacement (Civ5 has none of those) which could provide extra culture and faith as well as happiness.
Vandal Thorne
Warlord
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2008
- Messages
- 164
+1 to this.
Tyrvos
Cu Chulainn
It isn't useless at all. In the beginning of the game I'd say it's at its strongest. But throughout the game it helps you expand easily or supply you with lots of extra gold. You don't have to rely on having 2 of something the other player doesn't have, so you end up trading 3x-4x as much at least. Add in protectionism (or whatever that happiness per luxury policy is) and your happiness gets absurd. So throughout the game you will be getting lots of gold, bonus happiness, and improved diplomatic relations with other teams throughout the game, it's pretty powerful.
The UI can be situational but it needs to be because of how powerful it is. Having two in a city alone will make so much of a difference. I've had towns with 4-6 that I created at economics and it quickly become one of my biggest and strongest towns.
Since you will be playing expansive, the UU promotes expanding over seas by maintaining a large navy so you can settle coasts to secure luxuries for more trading.
All of their uniques help provide huge economic bonuses or at least protect your "colonies". They are just different, I wouldn't say their UA is weak. It's like how Sweden is just different.
My wants:
Indian UA should be changed to just provide a minor buff, like maybe +1
for every 10 citizens in a city. That would stack nicely with the comparable SP in Tradition, which India usually goes well with. Right now, the Indian UA just hampers expansion too much and too early, which is a huge issue given that the UA doesn't pan out until later, meaning that you are hampered at a key time in the early game.
Russia's UA should double Horses, Coal, and Uranium. As of G&K, double Iron is not a great plus.
Carthage's UA is ridiculous. I have no problem with crossing mountains, but free harbors from turn 1 for any coastal city is killer, even in some situations on Pangea. Maybe change the UA to +3
and +2 
per harbor, which would still be a nice bonus, but would not be so utterly powerful on Marathon games. On Marathon, getting a Harbor practically hundreds of turns early is amazing, but a bit much.
Denmark's UA I find to be a bit underwhelming. In single-player, the AI practically never defends the coast, so the part of the UA regarding moving from sea to land is not very useful (though the free pillaging for melee units has come to be a pleasantly surprisingly useful bit over time).
Byzantium's UA depends on the biggest gamble of the game. While Egypt's UA isn't particularly useful at higher levels for the same reason, at least Egypt has a good number of wonders to attempt down the line when they might have a tech lead and can start early on wonders compared to the AI. On the other hand, Byzantium gets no unique boosts to faith production, and on anything but Duel are not guarenteed to found one of the less than ten or so religions on most map sizes.
Those are just my thoughts/wants.
Indian UA should be changed to just provide a minor buff, like maybe +1
for every 10 citizens in a city. That would stack nicely with the comparable SP in Tradition, which India usually goes well with. Right now, the Indian UA just hampers expansion too much and too early, which is a huge issue given that the UA doesn't pan out until later, meaning that you are hampered at a key time in the early game.Russia's UA should double Horses, Coal, and Uranium. As of G&K, double Iron is not a great plus.
Carthage's UA is ridiculous. I have no problem with crossing mountains, but free harbors from turn 1 for any coastal city is killer, even in some situations on Pangea. Maybe change the UA to +3
and +2 per harbor, which would still be a nice bonus, but would not be so utterly powerful on Marathon games. On Marathon, getting a Harbor practically hundreds of turns early is amazing, but a bit much.Denmark's UA I find to be a bit underwhelming. In single-player, the AI practically never defends the coast, so the part of the UA regarding moving from sea to land is not very useful (though the free pillaging for melee units has come to be a pleasantly surprisingly useful bit over time).
Byzantium's UA depends on the biggest gamble of the game. While Egypt's UA isn't particularly useful at higher levels for the same reason, at least Egypt has a good number of wonders to attempt down the line when they might have a tech lead and can start early on wonders compared to the AI. On the other hand, Byzantium gets no unique boosts to faith production, and on anything but Duel are not guarenteed to found one of the less than ten or so religions on most map sizes.
Those are just my thoughts/wants.
It isn't hate, nor not understanding how awesome polders are. Rather they have no start bias and they will often roll games where there is no marsh/floodplains or coast. Getting a start with no coast, no marsh/flood, and you are left with a weaker version of Arabia's UA and nothing else.
Messix I think it was had a good idea that it would be interesting if you could "reclaim" coastal tiles as polders. Give them a start bias for coast, and able to turn coastal tiles into polders. The fun of playing that Civ would increase significantly.
I don't think the Dutch are terrible but as it is now I'd rather play Spain as far as start gambles go. At least Spain is guaranteed to get 100 gold and 2 smilies eventually.
Similar threads
- Poll
- Poll
- Poll
