On Endless Difficulties it's pretty much impossible to keep up the production rates of the AI, let alone with just one city.

As the Cultists, it's particularly evident.



Something that could alleviate this for the cultists could be in the introduction of a new a tech:



Endless Abhorrence:



"Having no pity and practically zero tolerance for the Endless and their relics, the Cultists gleefully dismantle and convert their temples and ruins into sterile production centers from which their bizarre machines of war are manufactured. Both Ironic and twisted, these methods are the epitome of insult to injury."



You construct it as a city improvement. It destroys the Endless Ruins/Temples in the region it's constructed in and replaces them with a tall creepy featureless head-shaped tower with a gaping mouth that serves as it's opening.

They are considered factories or nodules of some kind that have their own production tabs at -50% the rate of industry of the city in the region and can only build units.



This would give you a couple more production centers, all be at half the speed of your city! It's still really slow. And Your conversion is still your primary source of units, but it does add from some interesting gameplay, possible custom faction shenanigans, and some fun options/control for the player.

I somewhat approve, but now cultists would be only as powerful as the region they settle in...hmm. Well, its still a buff so it doesn't really matter.

Still, what impact would this have on fast speed?

Interesting idea. There's a few issues with this though, one specifically is - How do you build this anywhere but the region where the Cultists' city are?



Maybe instead of building something new, why not tie this tech to Converted Villages? If you control a Converted Village in/next to another empire's region(s), it steals from/disrupts their economy?

You don't build it anywhere else, just your region! That's why it's a city improvement!

It gives you 1-3 (depending on your region) new industrial centers at half-speed of your city.



Another factor in choosing where to place that first city. Which means you'll have to make some decisions if you don't find that "Goldilocks" region in terms of anomalies, villages, and tiles and what have you.

You'll likely not get something perfect, but this improvement (and planning around it later) let's make potential comprises in your over all strategy as it develops in the beginning stages of the game.



Not huge-huge but still fun, thematic, and significant.



The custom-faction shenanigans worry me a bit.

It would need to have a high point cost!

Now you just need the tie in that helps them gather strategic resources



I kinda like the idea of giving the Cultists more substantial satellite bases, but in an extremely slow and gated manner. E.g. in Eras 3 and 5, the Cultists may place a Temple (read: smaller town). These would be capable of training troops and gathering strategic resources; but cannot gain population, districts, exploitation areas, or regular improvements (distinguishing them substantially in both function and appearance from regular towns). These would help solidify the influence of the Cult; once you have a temple in a territory, it's yours, but they wouldn't grow in the same way that cities do.



You might think of this idea in parallel to the way that religions often establish holy sites or regions.

the possibility to upgrade villages... interesting one. just wondered how is it possible, that village have smaller vision range than units outside.

synra wrote:
Now you just need the tie in that helps them gather strategic resources



I kinda like the idea of giving the Cultists more substantial satellite bases, but in an extremely slow and gated manner. E.g. in Eras 3 and 5, the Cultists may place a Temple (read: smaller town). These would be capable of training troops and gathering strategic resources; but cannot gain population, districts, exploitation areas, or regular improvements (distinguishing them substantially in both function and appearance from regular towns). These would help solidify the influence of the Cult; once you have a temple in a territory, it's yours, but they wouldn't grow in the same way that cities do.



You might think of this idea in parallel to the way that religions often establish holy sites or regions.

That is an interesting idea. I think it is a little too "Take-and-hold" for the Cult though!

What do you think about an adaptation that reaches a less towards taking territory?



How about some sort of upgrade for the villages themselves? Like Propbuddha mentioned!



You upgrade the village into a Temple-Fortress, Monastery-Fortress, or Basilica-Fortress?



*Upgraded village loses it's FIDS tile radius/generation completely.

*Creates a free convert unit at half the speed in turns as a normal converted village if at all.

*Gains the ability to produce units at half the rate of your capital

*Gains a substantial amount of fortification points

*Gains a huge vision radius, helping anticipate and counter raids on your villages.

*Has a huge reinforcement range, which helps cut back on dust expenditure for maintaining patrols.

*Can only be constructed in unclaimed regions, but will remain if the region is colonized until dealt with by force.

*If destroyed and rebuilt it reverts back to a normal village.



This way it can become something a staging ground for an attack to invade the next region as well as a place to fall back to and regroup or a garrison from which you defend those villages?

You hurt your economy, but you create a defensive or offensive line where needed. You wouldn't many of them, just a few at key points!



This could be a useful tactical option even if the fortress came without a production tab.

I like it



Let me add to the wishlist that if it is in a region adjacent to the cultist HQ (or another temple), that roads may be built between the two. Of course, because it's the cult, we can call it the Pilgrim's Path rather than something bland and boring like 'a road'. Such might help reduce the load on patrols as you suggest, while staying closer to EL's natural feel.



I guess the more potency and utility you give such staging points, the more important it becomes that the cult can have very few of them, so I still like my idea of keeping it to 1-2 max (potentially tied to technologies). E.g. Era 3, the cult can unlock its first temple with limited capacities; Era 5, the cult can unlock its second granting the full set of capabilities to both. Perhaps you could de-commision the temple once you were done with it, allowing you to place another elsewhere, but rebuild costs could make this a decision require careful consideration.



The cult could attempt to defend an island/continent better by building a chain of HQ-temple-temple towards more distal points; or it could as you suggest use temples aggressively (where an HP regen buff might be a useful addition for tired cult warbands).



And what idea is complete without a mockup in MS Paint?

Having the option to build roads between converted regions would be a good idea. Not only for the movement speed boost helping you keep your territory under control, but also for trade. Right now, to be able to trade as cultist, you need to have a city of another player right next door whose road network you have to connect to. If you have the option to transform villages into "Trading Posts" or something that allow you to have roads into neutral territory, you'd be less exposed if you want to trade. (Okay, given your max trade routes of five (I think), you'd still not get much profit from it, but at least you'd get some!)



In general, I think it would be nice to be able to do more with those converted villages than just have them. In terms of strategic options, the cultists are rather limited, since they only have one production center that they need to take care of, compared to the oodle+ of the other factions.

I do think some form of very restricted outpost would suit the cultists. After all, the teachings of the Cult need to be spread.



I'd like to see a technology that adds pacified minor faction villages as nodes in the road network for all factions, giving some small bonus to FIDSI and (more importantly) and feeling of growing control over your regions. A technology that extends potential road connections to cities two regions away instead of just right next door would be great, too, but may not work with the current road system.