FFH stream of conciousness

[Tasunke]

Malakim deserts ...

+1 food? or +1 food, +1 hammer, - 1 commerce?

cottages and workshops should be allowed on Malakim desert, but how else to have this than +1 food on deserts?

I suppose you could remove the yield requirement, but then it would affect everyone.

I could make a unique improvement type, but that seems cluttered. If I did it would have same art as the cottage line, with the only thing being able to be built on Desert. Somehow it would be a malakim only improvement, there are several ways to do this.

Obviously if I kept it as regular cottages, not only would I have to increase Malakim desert production by 1 but I would also have to make cottages buildable on desert (in Improvements XML). The yield requirement in place already prevent everyone else from building in deserts .... similar to how the yield requirements prevents all but the Illians to build improvements in the Ice.

Think about it, if other people could build improvements in the ice, it would just be worse tundra, instead of omfg bad.

This is what I would perhaps 'prefer' for the Malakim. No increased yields, just having improvements that they can spam in deserts to make it 'usable'.

[flugauto]

You can spring desert, right?

[GreyWolf]

Yeah, in my personal modmod I gave Malakim a special desert improvement, activated by a Malakim-only tech that is granted at the start (similar to the Lanun) and gains additional bonuses with tech progression.

I thought about just giving them +1 food + 1 hammer -1 commerce, turning the deserts into a Plains analogue for them (their Pagan Temple UU turning all Plains to Deserts in their city radius, another one of my changes, would fit nicely here), but that would also make them have +1 food at floodplains, which is not what I wanted. That can probably be modified with some SDK stuff. With more modding diligence, I could create a separate desert-cottage line for them.

However, I don't think all that is necessary for a mod that focuses on balance. The Malakim are unthematic, but they aren't exactly weak. They are floodplain tech gods, Varn has Adaptive and +2 XP on Disciplines with Desert Shrines are nice. I guess if there're no floodplains near their starting position they have some cause for complains.

You can spring desert, right?

Yes, the Malakim are better off springing their deserts, leaving some for tactical manoeuvring due to their Nomad promotion and, if they research Sorcery, Desert Lions. Not that Sorcery is much of a priority for that Priest-oriented civ anyway. Unthematic, but not exactly unbalanced.

[gtAngel]

What stops you from having Malakim workers being able to build improvements in desert?

Also, what about a system like the Lanun's Pirate Cove. Two spaces in between and it grows over time. Have Foreign Trade speed up the upgrade rate. I think some other modmods do this and call it a Yurt.

One design question: Do you want deserts to be less crappy for Malakim, as good as normal terrain for Malakim, or better than normal terrain for Malakim? If so, how difficult do you want terraforming to be?

Ideas from other modmods: Malakim lands slowly terraform into desert. Malakim get trade routes on desert, possibly treated like water when considering coastal trade routes. Malakim get larger combat bonuses in desert. Malakim get unique early access to terraforming. Scorch works on all terrain, or at least from grassland (Ice->Tundra->Grassland->Plains->Desert. Special ability on adepts/priests to create an oasis, potentially sacrificing caster/having cast time. Special ability on priests to terraform a 3x3 area with cast time.

I think if I had my preference, deserts would be 1/0/2 or 2/0/1. Give lightbringer a scorch equivalent, potentially with a cast time. You build slower on deserts I believe, so they would be strong tiles but longer buildup. 1/0/2 is kind of cool because no normal tile has that yield, but 2/0/1 is nice because it's the type of tile you definitely want to settle in.

[Tasunke]

I think I'd prefer a desert only cottage line for the Malakim, as opposed to the other changes. I think with this addition we can remove the (+1 commerce on deserts) boost and remove their status as 'floodplain gods'.

This, combined with giving their palace Sun, Water, and Fire ... would allow for them to be, in my mind, exactly how they are supposed to be. Can use the desert for tactical advantage, and can spring it away if no longer necessary. And can scorch it up if it becomes necessary again.

I can test it, but I don't think improvements stop growing even if their prereq terrain is removed. They just need to still be worked.

This allows for their total desert output to be up to 5 commerce (taxation boosted town) or so, yet its not immediate. Also, they can always build a cottage or workshop on a plains and then scorch it into desert. I personally think this might be the best 'fix' imho, at least from a lore prespective. And I also don't think it breaks the balance either. After all, what is FFH2 if not a lore based game? If lore was not an issue, then why have Illians build on ice tiles? Why have puppets for Balseraphs? et al.