“The tales of the Kalingā are as old as the Vedic Age. Stretching from the Utkala region near Bengal, to the Kalingāndhra region in the South, and into the deep jungles of Kosala in the West, the Odra people groups were a sturdy and culturally important bunch. Maintaining their independence since the age of classical antiquity, this land of Khandayat warriors never gave up. Legend has it that ancient mariners from this region colonized south-east Asia, and even founded the kingdoms of Funan (Khmer) and Shailendra (Malay). Their artforms with unique masks and mudras are observed even as far as Bāli. Multiple empires sprang up from Kalinga that thundered its adjoining neighbors with its martial tradition.”
Kalingans are a defensive civilization. They start with a gold and a stone mine near town center meaning so they can save some wood from building mining camp early on. Their farms produce infinite food which further saves some wood but with a catch that there are no mill upgrades thus they will need to build more farms to be efficient. But these little wood savings can help them build ships early on domintating the seas reflecting the ancient maritime traditions of Kalinga. Their trade cogs are able to attack like galleys, so they can defend themselves if the need arises. And they can research all their dock techs free when they reach the imperial age. They and their allies can make transport ships at half price. Their unique unit Khandayat is multi-talented trained from the Paika Akhadas. Trained at castle, he can ride into battle on horses able to switch between sword and bow and continuing the fight on foot if felled. Researching Ghumura Chhau allows them to train foot unit Khandayats at Barracks. And their second unique unit Prahari comes with a Khond Battle Axe charging into massed units dealing trample damage though it is fragile in terms of health and can be shooten out afar by archers, used carefully they can be very fruitful. Researching Ga ja pati Emperors lets them be trully the lord of Elephants by making their gold cost replaced with wood. Though they are unable to research their elite versions so they will need their numbers for advantage.
Characteristics
Unique Units
Khandayat = Multirole Unit trained at Castle, can switch between melee cavalry (phadikara), ranged cavalry (dhanuki) and after felling becomes melee infantry (dhenkiya), ranged infantry (banua).
Prahari = Cavalry unit with low HP and high trample attack, trained at Stable
Unique Technologies
Ghumura Chhau = Allows the creation of Khandayat Infantrymen at Barracks.
Ga ja pati Emperors = Elephant units cost wood in place of gold.
Civilization bonuses
Start with a Gold and Stone mine near Town Center
Farms produce infinite food
Trade Cogs can attack like Galleys
In Imperial Age your Dock comes with all techs free to research
It just sounfds like its just a Ratha with even more unique stuff thrown upon it. Not a fan. UUs shouldnt overlap thismuch
Not sure how balanced it is.
This bonus is just a better Sicilian bonus, and in generak I think devs will try to avoid adding any other infinirmte resource generation.
Yes I know you are trying to balance it by removing some eco techs but why not give them a unique farm building instead? It could ast a lot longer than farms but be more expensive. Or cheaper but slower. Idk something like that. In general I think this is overall also not a great trase off, your civ is quite slow to get going already so they need something good mid game (unless the UUs carry the civ)
Eh I dont see it being relevant at all since the civ lacks any other bonus that is good for water, and therefore they will probably just wobtnt be used in water at all
First off, congrats on making playable content for this. That alone sets these concepts apart from the great majority of civ designs that will never exist in any form beyond words on a page. The graphics and presentation are impressive.
Others have given valid design critiques and I wanted to echo some of them and add my own.
This is too extra, even for me. Would be annoying to play against because you’re potentially up against 4 unit types with different armor classes all in one package. Either a toggle or a transform ability is more than enough, but combining them is just massive overkill. Given that you already have the graphics for it, I don’t see you changing too much about it, although I’d recommend splitting it into 2 UUs.
I respect the effort to make this balanced via no Heavy Plow/Handcart, but infinite food is just too extreme.
Other bonuses (Gold/Stone, trade cogs) seem fine.
I’ve looked at the other threads, but won’t respond to all of them. Some interesting ideas, but in general the way you try to incentivize use of bonuses can be a little questionable (like the outpost civ lacking Town Watch). Even so, the effort needed to get these into a more balanced state is surely much less that what you’ve already put into the mod.
I doubt there’s any normal maps where wood would be an issue.
But you’re definitely right the fact that you need to remacro to take to advantage of this bonus makes it not suitable for a team bonuses. Especially because not remacroing might actively harm you (you research crossbow and can’t afford 3rd TC).
Team bonuses should always be at worst passively useful (situationally sometimes but that’s fine).
Ghumura Chhau = Allows the creation of Khandayat Infantrymen at Barracks.
Ga ja pati Emperors = Elephant units cost wood in place of gold.
