[LP] Who's going to get the extra wild card slot?

[xxhe]

We all know that Caesar had the ability "Wildcard policy slot the first time you capture an opposing capital." Somehow, Firaxis decides to remove the ability from him.

This ability should not be difficult to implement. Highly likely that it is coded and has been tested. The designer just decided to give it to another leader. Otherwise, they have to discard some ideas/jobs they've done, simply to make Caesar more boring to play with, which I highly doubt.

It's a conquering-based ability, so my first thought was that one leader from the Great Commanders pack should have it. However, if the leak is real, then none of them has the ability.

What are your thoughts for the remaining leaders? Anyone suitable for the wildcard policy slot upon conquering?

 

[AntSou]

They just thought it was too strong. It's not like they are creating new abilities and have to distribute them among the new leaders. So I think the answer most likely is nobody.

Side note: For those interested, I believe there's already a mod in the workshop which gives the ability back.

 

[Laurana Kanan]

We all know that Caesar had the ability "Wildcard policy slot the first time you capture an opposing capital." Somehow, Firaxis decides to remove the ability from him.

This ability should not be difficult to implement. Highly likely that it is coded and has been tested. The designer just decided to give it to another leader.

I haven't looked at the game files to see if there are any unused code remnants, however there is already a mod that implements this mechanic.

Steam Workshop::Julius Caesar Reforged

steamcommunity.com

 

[Vandlys]

We all know that Caesar had the ability "Wildcard policy slot the first time you capture an opposing capital." Somehow, Firaxis decides to remove the ability from him.

This ability should not be difficult to implement. Highly likely that it is coded and has been tested. The designer just decided to give it to another leader. Otherwise, they have to discard some ideas/jobs they've done, simply to make Caesar more boring to play with, which I highly doubt.

It's a conquering-based ability, so my first thought was that one leader from the Great Commanders pack should have it. However, if the leak is real, then none of them has the ability.

What are your thoughts for the remaining leaders? Anyone suitable for the wildcard policy slot upon conquering?

Now that's a leap to conclusion if I ever saw one. It was there, now it's not there, therefore someone else must have it.

Sure, you might be right, but you also might not be. We don't know. All I know is that those that have been released I find underwhelming so far.

 

[pokiehl]

They just thought it was too strong. It's not like they are creating new abilities and have to distribute them among the new leaders. So I think the answer most likely is nobody.

Side note: For those interested, I believe there's already a mod in the workshop which gives the ability back.

I don't think the strength of the ability was necessarily the issue; I wonder if it's because they weren't able/allowed to have abilities that would actually require new code (ie, changes to the DLL/game core/source/whatever you want to call it). The Wildcard thing Caesar had wasn't possible without new code (or scripting, which to date they have never used to make civ/leader abilities).

The same thing happened with Nzinga - the screenshots show she originally had a totally different ability that wouldn't have been possible without new code.

The abilities shown in the Great Commander DLC leak don't require new code either.

At any rate, I completely agree that no one is going to get that Wildcard ability.

 

[AntSou]

The Wildcard thing Caesar had wasn't possible without new code (or scripting, which to date they have never used to make civ/leader abilities).

How is that the case if the text in the mod says the same thing?

 

[pokiehl]

How is that the case if the text in the mod says the same thing?

EDIT: I made a mistake when I said the modder used scripting. The modder didn't use scripting, but the ability isn't actually 100% the same. It procs on City-States too, which is impossible to avoid without new code.

 

[AntSou]

EDIT: I made a mistake when I said the modder used scripting. The modder didn't use scripting, but the ability isn't actually 100% the same. It procs on City-States too, which is impossible to avoid without new code.

So it might have been the case they just realised "oh wait, we can't actually have it trigger on a capital only" and so they just removed it.

I can't find Nzinga's original, but they probably thought they could implement the ability and then realised it wouldn't be possible.

Perhaps they wrote the abilities down first, off the top of their heads what they were confident could be implemented with existing code, but then in the process of implementing it they realised it actually was not possible.

 

[pokiehl]

So it might have been the case they just realised "oh wait, we can't actually have it trigger on a capital only" and so they just removed it.

I can't find Nzinga's original, but they probably thought they could implement the ability and then realised it wouldn't be possible.

Perhaps they wrote the abilities down first, off the top of their heads what they were confident could be implemented with existing code, but then in the process of implementing it they realised it actually was not possible.

Right, that's my hunch. Who knows though?

Nzinga original ability focused on Trade Routes, and also had additional combat strength against civs whose home continent was different from yours.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Right, that's my hunch. Who knows though?

Nzinga original ability focused on Trade Routes, and also had additional combat strength against civs whose home continent was different from yours.

Now they know the modders pain when their original vision doesn't come to fruition properly xD

 

[Linklite]

It's a real shame they weren't able to implement the wildcard policy slot properly. It would have been a really cool ability that encouraged conquering. Had the problem been about power, if have gladfully traded the 100g ability.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

They just thought it was too strong. It's not like they are creating new abilities and have to distribute them among the new leaders. So I think the answer most likely is nobody.

It's nowhere near that strong though.
In fact, I'd argue that Gorgo is stronger even if Caesar still had this ability, because Gorgo gets the wild card right from the start, as well as a somewhat similarly powered classical era unit, and that really nice early culture to rush Oligarchy and Agoge with.
The gold that Caesar gets is just too inconsistent from the barbs, and is anti-synergistic when it comes to other leaders (as in, you need the gold before you attack, not after you already started toppling their cities).

Heck, I'd even go as far and say that Caesar would still be kinda weak even with that wild card slot, and maybe should have gotten a wild card slot from the first and then every second capital that he takes.
This sounds OP, but is it really?
In the early game, as in Classical era, you'd do well to have conquered even two targets, at which point you would have gotten the ssame one extra wild card slot - 2 slots if you did extremely well and conquered 3 targets.
However, there aren't that many great cards that you actually can slot at this stage in the game, so while it would be a nice extra fluff, it wouldn't break the game.
And sure, you might sit there with 4 extra card slots in the industrial era if you did properly well (7 capitals taken), but again, how many cards are actually helping you break the game at this stage?
Usually it's a few competing cards that get picked nearly every time for the benefits they give, so you'd get some less desirable cards slotted as well.
Again nice, but not game breaking.