[NFP] What if Aztecs could settle on lakes?

[Revanchist]

I am not one to make threads often, but this idea intrigued me because I was thinking of ways to differentiate the Aztec play style in other ways apart from warmongering. In past civ inspirations, the agrarian feats of the aztecs only seemed to be mentioned in the form of an improvement, but without any huge impact in their play style - the most notable mention of aztec agriculture I can think of is in Civ 5 with the floating gardens.

With the advent of Kupe and his very unique starting position, I thought it wouldn't be too far fetched to have an an alternate leader in the future with a more elaborate ability, like starting on lakes and being able to build districts on them. Perhaps the districts could receive minor adjacency bonuses from lakes, and chinampas would be available to make the more productive. While the entirety of the Aztec empire wasn't situated on a lake, I wouldn't mind some incentives to work with them, especially considering their importance to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

 

[criZp]

Would probably require more graphical design work than what it is worth, but is a fun idea

 

[Uberfrog]

I think chinampas as Polder-like farms that can be built on lakes would be a better fit. But ultimately there aren’t enough lakes on a map for this to be worthwhile.

 

[acluewithout]

What if Aztecs could settle on lakes?

Well, then they’d be Azducks. Obviously.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

I think the Aztecs are fine the way they are though districts getting adjacency bonuses and even amenities from adjacent lakes would work. At least they require the Aztec wonder to be built on a lake tile.

 

[Revanchist]

I think chinampas as Polder-like farms that can be built on lakes would be a better fit. But ultimately there aren’t enough lakes on a map for this to be worthwhile.

It's probably possible to give them a heavy bias towards starting near large lakes. We have many different civilizations specialized for different biomes, but lakes are the one of the few features that haven't been touched. Finland would also be an interesting choice for lakes.

 

[Sirsquier]

Settling on a lake would be amazing. Think of the fun the art team would have. (they seem to enjoy creating things)

 

[Laurana Kanan]

It's probably possible to give them a heavy bias towards starting near large lakes. We have many different civilizations specialized for different biomes, but lakes are the one of the few features that haven't been touched. Finland would also be an interesting choice for lakes.

Unfortunately, lakes are not an exposed feature, so it's not possible to give a Civ a lake starting bias. FXS would probably need to create a new table like for rivers - StartBiasRivers.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Unfortunately, lakes are not an exposed feature, so it's not possible to give a Civ a lake starting bias. FXS would probably need to create a new table like for rivers - StartBiasRivers.

I'm curious if lakes are also considered coast for start biases? I'm basing this off of Indonesia's ability where lakes give the same adjacency bonuses as coast, and lakes can even have certain sea resources in them.

 

[Laurana Kanan]

I'm curious if lakes are also considered coast for start biases?

Yes, I would imagine so. To elaborate on my previous comment, there isn't a "LAKE" terrain specifically, but the game engine does designate lake tiles when up to 9 (iirc) coastal tiles appear contiguously surrounded by land tiles. Tbh, I haven't really looked at the map generator scripts to see how exactly it is handled. Someone like Scrum Lord would know better.