Half-price monuments are funny: early game, unless you plant on a PH or have a PHF, handbuilding a 15h monument is still inferior to chopping or whipping.
2cpt for barracks would be nice - right now, an Agg barracks is essentially a monument that gives +3xp, which isn't a big boost in economics. 2cpt, especially on Normal (5t sooner, but only 2t on quick), would help with that early border pop.
Sury would be sad, but Mao might even be better than old Sury: cheap granaries, even cheaper workers and work boats, cheap monuments as opposed to the free culture though and no cheap libraries (screw the rest), but CG1 archery and gunpowder units and cheap walls. OK, maybe not as solid as Sury but still pretty strong.
There is still a bi of anti-synergy between cheap monuments and other traits that have methods of solving border pops, including ORG (cheap library, monument), IND if the aim is for Henge, AGG with the barracks, and anybody that wants to spread religion early. But I think it's generally smarter to buff the weaker traits so that it doesn't also buff a strong trait that they can be paired with, so not being that good with ORG is fine, but it ought to try and work well with AGG for instance.
The problem with 2cpt barracks is that maybe barracks are then better than monuments fort every leader, not just AGG, as they don't need any tech. It would be very forest (and worker) dependent though.
Wait, to which trait are you theoretically adding cheap monuments?
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
I'm curious about how people would play out the start if different traits had that monument bonus, specifically EXP but also how other traits would benefit from cheap monuments.
I kind of want to see the barracks culture eliminated, tbh. It seems like BtS has spots where monuments are situationally useful, even if they were anathema for us at RB. (The stigma seems to be wearing off a little. and i'm not saying people should build monuments like they're playing civ5. Just that people recognize that if the 2nd ring is worth getting sooner then a monument isn't worth avoiding like the plague.)
But putting culture on barracks... I think this has just pushed the monument to be more of a niche build than it was in BtS
(March 24th, 2013, 11:45)pindicator Wrote: I kind of want to see the barracks culture eliminated, tbh.
Seconded. Barracks should have no culture.
How about Aggressive giving +1 gold per city, or +1 EP? And Creative giving +1 research per city?
1) +1 gold per city for Agg is gamey, but it could work.
2) Creative is fine as it is or at least only needs a very minor boost. +1 research per city is gamey and makes the trait overpowered (although still weaker on a lot of maps than Org with cheap libraries)
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
