Malay Culture news

In the previous Premiere, SoI has introduced a new culture, the Javanese. The Javanese, however, is just a start. It is pretty plain and simply generic. As some player might notice, it is nothing but a revamped European civs. The Malays, however, is another case.

Sharing no buildings but town center and sharing no unit but mercenary, Malay culture is SoI's first brand new culture in addition to the mod. Player might expect different units, different building, different technologies, and of course, gameplay. Proudly saying, SoI is the first RTS modification to include this specific region in the world.

Among new units shared by the Malays are:

• Ulama, a healer who also act as explorer. He can convert paganic treasure guardians into a Muslim.
• Saudagar, an obscure merchant who builds trading post, gather treasures, but most importantly, exchange resources and research economic technologies. In short, it is Malay's equivalent of a market.
• Orang Kampung, a poor villager who fight in melee.
• A lot of new infantries, inccluding Lembing, a javelin thrower who is also good in melee against cavalry.
• A lot of new cavalries, including the wonderful Gajah Kenaikan.
• A lot of new artilleries, including the great Mahalela, a cannon who is superb against buildings.
• Five new ships, one of which is the beautiful Pinas.

One thing which makes Malays are different is its way of aging up. Instead of choosing a politician in the town center, Malay player are forced to build this obscure building... the Mahligai. Mahligai (lit. Palace) offers a set of historical/pseudo-historical figures associated with the civilization who lived between 1500's to 1900's. Each historical figures offer a unit to be spawned persistently by the Mahligai. Each age, there will be 3 figures, except for age V, where player might expect a bonus figure - the civ's personality. This bonus figure, which will be called as ultimate figure, offers the civilization strongest unique unit.

The other unique thing for Malay is that this culture has two different explorer. One for military-wise expansion and the other for economic progression. Ulama is an explorer who doubles as healer. Player will get two ulamas in each game, with the exception of Minangkabau player. This unit can convert treasure guardian to your cause. Saudagar, as explained above, also doubles as market. This unit has decent attack against treasure guardians.

Malays' other uniqueness are:

• They train mercenaries in barracks and stable alongside vernacular Malay units.
• They build artilleries, not training them.
• They have three secret buildings to be unlocked from the homecity.
• Each Malay civilizations get one strong unique building.

That's enough internet for today.