I was looking at the tech-trees for the new civs and the Indian's rework (now Hindustanis) and thinking about something that I would like to hear opinions about.
I think it's cool to see thematic unique units being shared among similar civilizations, such as the Armored Elephants for this set of 4, Elephant Archers for 3 of them, or how the Steppe Lancer is available for another set of 3 thematically compatible civs. Not to mention the obvious that only some have camels, battle elephants, or eagles. But I feel this is a characteristic that is underused across the game in general, and especially beyond just units.
I obviously don't mean "give everything to all civs", but there's some very interesting examples of unique buildings, mechanics and bonuses that seem to be either wasted by being reserved to a single civ, or in some cases be there to make a civ a "one-trick-pony", which is always undesirable.
The one that I think about the most is the unique mechanic of the Khmer, being able to garrison vills in houses:
it's a very cool mechanic to have it implemented, it slightly changes and adds variation and it's refreshing for the game to have that, but you only apply it (or face it) when using 1 out of now 42 civilizations. Again I don't mean "make it global", but two or three more sounds worth the implementation compared to just one for something like that.
I think it could be a great slight bonus for some defensive civs that could use some freshening (without making the change OP in balance). Koreans come to mind, Byzantines too. Or maybe I'm wrong and it shouldn't be on those civs, but have the exceptionally unique mechanic be seen elsewhere, beyond just 1 out of 42 options.
When I saw the new unique building for the Hindustanis (Caravanserai) I had a similar thought. A trade-buffing and healing area-of-effect mechanic? That's good, another thing that refreshes the game by adding new mechanics to it, but reserved to 1 in 42 options, and with the risk that if the bonus it's actually good or "abusable" you will always have a Hindustanis player on TGs just for it and you sort of make it a one-trick in that regard. More civs with characteristics in commerce could get an equivalent, Saracens for example.
Feitorias and Kreposts are other buildings that I feel shouldn't be "1/42 totally unique", although I understand balancing seems messier to deal with for this ones.
Back to units I could say the same about the new feudal Camel Scout, unique of the Gurjaras.
Being just available for 1 in 42 it would be so circunstancial that seems wasted, and again at risk of becoming a one-trick civ for some maps/match-ups.
Give it to a couple more camel-oriented civs and you add one more "rock-paper-scissors" element that it's still "unique" (only a few civs would have it) and can actually occasionally be seen and considered on the board, instead of either some super rare or meme occurrence (hopefully not like the Genitour), or as a one-dimensional pick for the civ.
I know there are more examples of this but I think the point is beyond the specifics and about the concept in the title, making some unique stuff slightly less unique could benefit the game in my opinion (in moderation and always accounting for balancing of course).
I think it's cool to see thematic unique units being shared among similar civilizations, such as the Armored Elephants for this set of 4, Elephant Archers for 3 of them, or how the Steppe Lancer is available for another set of 3 thematically compatible civs. Not to mention the obvious that only some have camels, battle elephants, or eagles. But I feel this is a characteristic that is underused across the game in general, and especially beyond just units.
I obviously don't mean "give everything to all civs", but there's some very interesting examples of unique buildings, mechanics and bonuses that seem to be either wasted by being reserved to a single civ, or in some cases be there to make a civ a "one-trick-pony", which is always undesirable.
The one that I think about the most is the unique mechanic of the Khmer, being able to garrison vills in houses:
it's a very cool mechanic to have it implemented, it slightly changes and adds variation and it's refreshing for the game to have that, but you only apply it (or face it) when using 1 out of now 42 civilizations. Again I don't mean "make it global", but two or three more sounds worth the implementation compared to just one for something like that.
I think it could be a great slight bonus for some defensive civs that could use some freshening (without making the change OP in balance). Koreans come to mind, Byzantines too. Or maybe I'm wrong and it shouldn't be on those civs, but have the exceptionally unique mechanic be seen elsewhere, beyond just 1 out of 42 options.
When I saw the new unique building for the Hindustanis (Caravanserai) I had a similar thought. A trade-buffing and healing area-of-effect mechanic? That's good, another thing that refreshes the game by adding new mechanics to it, but reserved to 1 in 42 options, and with the risk that if the bonus it's actually good or "abusable" you will always have a Hindustanis player on TGs just for it and you sort of make it a one-trick in that regard. More civs with characteristics in commerce could get an equivalent, Saracens for example.
Feitorias and Kreposts are other buildings that I feel shouldn't be "1/42 totally unique", although I understand balancing seems messier to deal with for this ones.
Back to units I could say the same about the new feudal Camel Scout, unique of the Gurjaras.
Being just available for 1 in 42 it would be so circunstancial that seems wasted, and again at risk of becoming a one-trick civ for some maps/match-ups.
Give it to a couple more camel-oriented civs and you add one more "rock-paper-scissors" element that it's still "unique" (only a few civs would have it) and can actually occasionally be seen and considered on the board, instead of either some super rare or meme occurrence (hopefully not like the Genitour), or as a one-dimensional pick for the civ.
I know there are more examples of this but I think the point is beyond the specifics and about the concept in the title, making some unique stuff slightly less unique could benefit the game in my opinion (in moderation and always accounting for balancing of course).