@ M00Z1LLA That’s impressive work, I’ve learned a lot!
First of all, you offer 2 very pertinent arguments: I can’t agree more on the fact we need a Pacific Northwest Native American contender: in this sense, the Haida are a welcome potential addition. Similarly, a strong naval-oriented Native American civ would be an innovative choice.
That being said, would the Haida be the best representative of the Pacific Northwest? This is where I see above all the Chinook or the Nootka in the immediate Pacific vicinity, but also the surrounding Nez Percé, Modoc, Inuit or Aleut seeming to have a stronger impact and influence.
Nootka for example, were at the epicentre of the lucrative Maritime Fur Trade, controlling the strategic Nootka Sound, were capable of fielding armies of 300-400 warriors under Maquinna, successfully assaulted Western ships, and even acted as intermediaries between the British and the Spanish.
In the same way, Chinook acute sense of trade and diplomacy with the adventurers, dominated the region to the point they imposed their language, the Chinook Jargon, as the intercultural language for the whole area.
These 2 are powerful entities sharing the Northeastern Pacific culture, that would allow us to see totems and canoes.
The emphasis on maritime Natives would perhaps been epitomized with the introduction of Pacific Islander like the mentioned Maoris and Hawaiians, or maybe the Inuit.
For the Indonesians/Malaysians, I’m adamant about the Malay World:
As specified in the corpus, I do differentiate Malays from other people of the Indonesian Archipelago, such as the Javanese or the Sundanese. But both refer alternatively to the Malay or Indonesian Archipelago using the common ‘Nusantara’ word, that encompass very much the same area.
Moreover, the Malacca, Aceh and Johor Sultanates are Malay kingdoms that spread over current Indonesia. To gather enough consistence for a Main civ, I’ve chosen to assimilate these close two.
Otherwise, the fragmented political entity of these people might not be enough according to me: the Majapahit Empire as you said, would have been an exquisite choice but it indeed disappeared right at the beginning of AoE3’s time frame.
Malays or Javanese deserve at least to appear as a Minor civ: the game furthermore covers extensively their regions with the maps of Borneo, Malaysia, Indonesia… And I particularly like your idea of having a native artillery unit!