Civ trait rebalancing mod

[Pythagoras]

Hey guys Im looking to tweak the rules to rebalance the 6 traits. Many complain that scientific/industrous/religous are stronger than the other 3. Does anyone have any good ideas on how to best redress the traits using current rules?

Heres one idea to give expansionist a little more of an edge:

Give the scout unit the ability to settle, nename it "poineers" or "Squatters" or something.

[Random Passerby]

Ouch... that would give expansionist a HUGE edge unless scouts also cost population and more shields... right now scouts cost one-third the production of settlers and no population compared to 2. You could possibly let them do worker functions, which would save population for producing settlers... but that might be too unbalancing as well, especially for America (which is expansionist and industrious).

If you want to nerf scientific and religious, you can remove the scientific/religious flags from a few buildings. Right now scientific gets half price for libraries, universities, and research labs, religious gets half price for temples and cathedrals; you could take a few of those out and say that they only get half price on library/temple or university/cathedral, but not the other one.

[Pythagoras]

Well Id increase shield cost at least to settler level.

[MiloMilo]

Pythagoras, you've already seen some of my ideas in the expansionist thread on the general page. My favorite ideas for expansionist are to give settlers a movement of 2, and to tweak the ocean-going ship chances to sink.

For commercial, I think that they should get cheaper marketplaces and harbors.

A lot of people think the militaristic trait is fine; personally I don't use it. Maybe give them cheaper barracks?

I would definitely be interested in a mod of this sort, as I'm not sure I can do it myself in the editor.

[Ijuin]

MiloMilo, Militaristic civs already get half price Barracks, Walls, Harbors, Costal Fortresses, SAM Batteries, and Airports, in addition to the faster unit promotions. I think this is strong enough, but if you really want to strengthen it, I would want to let them build Battlefield Medicine from the start of the game instead of waiting till the Industrial Age.

I think only Expansionist and Commercial really need a boost.

Currently, Commercial civs get the optimal number of cities increased by ONE (I would change this to at least FOUR if possible), and get one extra commerce for metropolis-sized cities. This is rather weak. My reccommendation would be either to give them half-price Marketplaces/Banks, or to give them a new building that gives them an extra +50% tax cumulative with Marketplace/Bank that only Commercial civs may build. Place it wherever in the tech tree you want--it could be available at the start (call it Trading Post or something) and cost 60 shields to build, or it could be available with The Corporation and cost 180 shields to build--whichever you think would work better.

As for Expansionist, the chief complaint is that their trait is helpful only in the Ancient Age. Two different approaches might be taken here:

1.) Give them a benefit that will be useful in the later game. I reccomend giving them half-price Aqueducts and Hospitals.

2.) Let them settle the map faster in addition to their exploration abilities. This lets them grab more land in the early game. I would accomplish this by giving them two new units available only to Expansionist civs.

Pioneer: Identical to Settler, but moves two squares per turn. This would let them get their settlers into position quickly after building them.

Coracle: Available from the start, this ship is 0/1/3 (cannot attack), costs 30 shields, and carries two units over Coast and Sea squares (sinks in Ocean). This would make the Expansionist trait viable on Archipelago maps where a civ may end up on a small island.

Either of these would be a welcome boost to the strength of the Expansionist trait.