A new mod enters the ring - Introducing "Close to Home"

[AutomatedTeller]

I'm quite against something that adds culture. I think the beauty of civ is that you have to make choices - do I build a granary for growth or a monument for culture or a barracks for stronger military as the first build. This is why the terrace is broken - it gives you an obvious choice.

if there is an economic boost to be needed, why not give an extra boost to researching military techs? It's not large or game breaking, but it fits in nicely with the theme. I don't know if it's easy to code, of course.

[Charriu]

That's definitely harder to code.

[AutomatedTeller]

well, hard to code is probably a bad idea. Here's a random one - for aggressive, give axes a 25% hills attack, like from guerilla 3 (but not guerilla 3, because of the withdrawal) Why? Well, RB MP games all have civs starting a hill, which makes early aggression kind of pointless, so aggressive civs either have to go VERY early (pre archers) or wait till cats to be able to take the capital.

this would slightly negate that advantage, though archers on a hill in a city are still tough, but it makes early, but not wicked early, attacks better.

[Commodore]

C1 on mounted units is insane. I'd take C1 on *just* mounted units over current Agg's barracks, melee, gunpowder any day of the week.

[GeneralKilCavalry]

I still think agg should get double speed stables and drydocks. Giving combat 1 on mounted is a bit too much, however. Don't give the trait an economic bonus. Since we should be keeping slavery the same, early-game wars should be much more do-able.

Protective however was just always out of meta, and really needed a rethink.

Imp can get bonuses to jails instead, as well as a 100% bonus to customs houses.

Edit: Reading above, I really like agg giving a smaller version of vassalage somehow. It gives an economic benefit that is only really accessible through war-mongering. something like -25% unit maintenance applied to the final unit maintenance total. I still think IMP should NOT have a bonus to stables and should have a customs house bonus instead.

[Charriu]

well, hard to code is probably a bad idea.  Here's a random one - for aggressive, give axes a 25% hills attack, like from guerilla 3 (but not guerilla 3, because of the withdrawal)  Why?  Well, RB MP games all have civs starting a hill, which makes early aggression kind of pointless, so aggressive civs either have to go VERY early (pre archers) or wait till cats to be able to take the capital.  

this would slightly negate that advantage, though archers on a hill in a city are still tough, but it makes early, but not wicked early, attacks better.

That's a rather specific bonus. The interesting question is why the meta regarding hill starts evolved this way. I doubt this is because of the defensive bonus rather it's because of the extra hammer provided by plain hill tiles on city centers. This is also one reason why the animal husbandry start is worse compared to other food resources, because you can finish your first worker in 12 turns instead of 15. Those are 3 more turns that can go into food and other stuff.

I would love to change the meta regarding this in some way, but Sulla already said about slavery, some things just develop and remain to stay.

[pindicator]

I'm quite against something that adds culture.  I think the beauty of civ is that you have to make choices - do I build a granary for growth or a monument for culture or a barracks for stronger military as the first build.     This is why the terrace is broken - it gives you an obvious choice.

Very much in agreement with the culture argument. One of my big criticisms with RtR is how it trivializes early game culture and makes monuments ignorable. I'd like to keep early culture and border pops in as a strategic decision which the player needs to account for.

Of all the options I've seen for AGG, I think I like the -1 unit reduction cost the most. Although I strongly suspect you may need to make this -0.5; take a look at how it compares to Vassalage before deciding on the number. And especially so if you plan on keeping the +1 happy. (Actually, I'm surprised that the +1 happy isn't considered enough because that is very similar to CHM.)

I would be careful about giving too much of an economic boost here like was done with PRO; as Sullla said AGG is mainly a trait for aggression and units. So if the player wants an economic boost let them pair it with an economic trait. The unit cost reduction I think stays more in theme since it lets the AGG player keep a larger standing army.

[Charriu]

I will definitely look at the implementation of vassalage before deciding. After all I need to code this maintenance reduction first.

PRO was definitely a different case then AGG because it was universally considered the worst trait

[pindicator]

I will definitely look at the implementation of vassalage before deciding. After all I need to code this maintenance reduction first.

PRO was definitely a different case then AGG because it was universally considered the worst trait

True, but I think the idea of keeping traits within their own box/theme and not having every trait try to do economy is something good to keep in mind.  I'm not saying PRO shouldn't have an economic component (I rather like the idea of protective trade economy / mercantilism staying within a PRO theme), but we don't have to always go that direction to balance something.  For instance, we could have PRO give free walls with every city and it would then probably be too strong just due to the instant defenses.

[scooter]

 (Actually, I'm surprised that the +1 happy isn't considered enough because that is very similar to CHM.)

I think it's because Aggressive just feels like a worse Charismatic right now, and Charismatic itself is kind of situational as-is.


Charismatic: 1 happy for free, 1 happy for 15h, 1 happy for 40h
Aggressive: 1 happy for 25h.


Charismatic's wartime bonuses are close enough that there's no real reason to pick Aggressive over it right now. Unless you want to pair it with a UU I guess, but that's always been a bit of a sucker choice.