I know Nikis-Knight already provided a link for this in another thread but I tohught it deserved a thread of its own. Be sure to check out the screenshots, the art team really outdid themselves and if you wonder why they havn't produced many new models for "Fire" now you know where they have been spending their time.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/796/796807p1.html

http://kael.civfanatics.net/Drifa.jpg

Awesome. This is well and beyond what I was expecting. Congrats to Kael and the FfH team.

Someday in the far flung future, it would be cool if there was a way of carrying forward from a completed game in the Age of Ice into the Age of Rebirth.

Looking really awesome! The team should be real proud. Congratulations!!

And I wanted to give a public thank you to Maniac and Vorshlumpf, who have been playtesting Age of Ice for the past few months and really helped us make sure it is as good as possible.

Be sure to check out the screenshots,
Just keep in mind. Even after you watched all 24 pics you still didn't see everything!
the art team really outdid themselves and if you wonder why they havn't produced many new models for "Fire" now you know where they have been spending their time.

Actually in my case it's different. I admit I'm just lazy:p
But seriously what was most impressive during all that hard work(on which I only participated since january) was the crazy amount of effort Kael personally put into this project while managing FFH2 and more at the same time!
He's allways humbly talking like he just did some small part of it so I feel I have to set this right: this guy is incredible! I really think he's in possession of some strange device that offsets his realtimeflow to effectively 48 hours a day else I can't imagine how he was able to do everything he did!
Not only the artteam but the whole team of writers, designers and not to forget hexagonian who contributed some awesome artwork as well as maniac and vorschlumpf who helped with their great playtestfeedback outdid themselves to make this a product we all like(and I hope the community will too).

Honestly I never liked FFH because the genre never pulled me in to try it, but just from seeing this I can't wait to try it. I can only expect pure excellence from all the hard work you have been doing for us.:D Thanks!

will this make 'ice' playable for normal skirmish games? and if so, will the blue dragon, Mulcarn unit, and the environment changes be implemented?

Wow. Just wow.
Just playing Age of Ice is reason enough (I think) to get BtS.
Quick question, though; does the scenario still play out using the map generator scripts? Or is there now a "canon" Erebus map?

Wow. Just wow.
Just playing Age of Ice is reason enough (I think) to get BtS.
Quick question, though; does the scenario still play out using the map generator scripts? Or is there now a "canon" Erebus map?

As the interview states it's a fixed setting. The random maps that's what the main mod is for. The scenario we made has and the ones we're planning to do in the far future will probably all have Erebus maps(as long they don't go for Heaven, Hell or Space that is - who knows:crazyeye: )

It's not a cannon erebus map, so much as a cannon "Age of Ice" map.

The Age of Ice looks great. It was a pleasant surprise to get more backstory in a prequel scenario rather than just FfH I made compatible with the expansion.

I assume thats Mulcarn's dragon in the picture. Are we required to slay it in the scenario, thus explaining why the Illians can't build the beast, or will CoTD be expanded just so you can reuse the art? ;)

I have to chip in here and say this looks incredible! Sounds like a fantastic scenario and the new graphics look very very nice indeed. Plus playing as my beloved Amurites! Good choice!

And to think I was planning to put off a BtS purchase until Shadow was released...

Good luck in balancing!

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

:agree:

nice interview - sounds amazing!

Oh. My. Lord.

The World Is Changing, this time, at least, for the better.

Swish. Just swish. Hugely exceeding my expectations for the FfH content in BtS, and amazingly promising for Shadow too. You guys rock; I can't see myself playing much else for a while :)

Superb! Kael and team, you're great!

I'm really excited about that, i din't expect a scenario based on FfH2 backstory.Great and congratulations to the team!

About the content i'm really interested about the climate feature and i have noticed some new cool art, will they be introduced in later phases of the mod or they are just an exclusive of Age of Ice?

AoI is what pulled me over to here... (ffh2). ;)

...and it's really great to see that the ffh universe is moving into a scenario focus now.

You now have the means to flesh out the stories of this world.

:eek:
Holy God!
:goodjob:

This is so amazing! This improved my day so much :) I'm also very happy for you:
Working with Firaxis was like going to game designer college - it was an amazing experience.


I don't know what else to say... WOW...

We have an amazing team, Michael Hall, Chalid, Jon Duus, Philippe Côté-Léger, Eli Markham, Randy Miller, Martin Zutz, Stephan Weiß, Ben Segall, Ilia Draznin, William Nordan, Tom Snyder and Dave Sobotka.
Who's who? :) Chaild is a real name?

:goodjob: Congrats to the TEAM!

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/796/796807/civilization-iv-beyond-the-sword-20070615000042293.jpg
Could you tell us,your loyal players :p, what is this or is it under NDA?

Who's who? :) Chaild is a real name?
Unfortunatly Chalid got inactive since quite a while. We don't know his real name nor could we add it as long he doesn't respond if he likes his name to be added at all.
For who is who visit the credits section of our website.

I assume thats Mulcarn's dragon in the picture. Are we required to slay it in the scenario, thus explaining why the Illians can't build the beast, or will CoTD be expanded just so you can reuse the art? ;)

The blue dragon will be in FfH II, but not until the ice phase. And probably not as part of the CotD.

Awesome job. Congrats to Firaxis to trust the community as well!

By the way.. who is Blake?!

My god, what a job you guys did, it looks just superb. I can't wait & having a actual map of Erebus will be very nice.

A question, will the Trophy Hall include wins from the Age of Ice?

Fader

Awesome job. Congrats to Firaxis to trust the community as well!

By the way.. who is Blake?!

One of the authors of BetterAI (Basically an improved AI for Vanilla/Warlords).

it's just great , i cannot say anything else ^^


a little question : Will there be a french translation of it ?

It will be localized as any other Firaxis scenario.

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/796/796807/civilization-iv-beyond-the-sword-20070615000042293.jpg

Could you tell us,your loyal players :p, what is this or is it under NDA?

Maybe its Mulcorn, the God of Winter. The "boss" of the scenario. :)

Will the Illians be included in shadow then?

I presumed that was Mulcarn, with what looks to be the Stonehenge graphics underneath him for some other building or feature. He shows up in another shot, too.

AoI looks great, but there are so many other thigns in BtS also.. it looks like it should be winning expansion of the year, if it lives up to what it is looking like.

For example, did anyone else notice the space conquest scenario, for example? I mean, jeez... Talk about a broad range of content.

In short.. preordering now :)

Heh, I think this raises more questions than answers... though there's plenty of those too. :p

For example, did anyone else notice the space conquest scenario, for example? I mean, jeez... Talk about a broad range of content.I mean, jeez... Talk about copying my mods. j/k :P

actually I couldn't remember who it was that was already making one of those.. figured they recruited you for it, Fox.

Sorry to hear that isn't the case :(

I mean, jeez... Talk about copying my mods. j/k :PWell, that's kinda like Firaxis adding in quests when we had planed that anyway. Ours won't seem like such an original idea now, but it will be much easier to implement our own ideas using their system. You'll probably find it the same situation.

The Age of Ice idea is over any of expectations :goodjob:

Well, that's kinda like Firaxis adding in quests when we had planed that anyway. Ours won't seem like such an original idea now, but it will be much easier to implement our own ideas using their system. You'll probably find it the same situation.

That's nice. Less time coding, more time adding flavour.

What was it like working for Firaxis? did you get paid? or did they treat you like slave labor working on part of there glorious expansion for free? :D

No pay. But we weren't slave labour for Firaxis. Just for Kael:p But we're used to that from FfH:D

From Firaxis we got hands-on looks at stuff noone else knew about, and a helping hand. Not to mention a chance to get published and reach a new audience, which is worth enough in itself.

(I personally got a massively increased respect from my computer guru younger brother)

Wilbowman has for some reason forgotten to mention the groupies.

There were groupies??? Aw, shucks, noone tells me anything:(

*Insert blank look of amazement here*

Holy crap. And here I was expecting a mildly updated version of FFH1 to be included in BtS. I agree with those who said BtS seems like it'll be a killer expansion - in fact, I'd go so far as to say it looks to be the best Civ expansion yet.

I know I said something similar when the first Fire details were announced, but I'll say it again; you guys just don't dissapoint.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I should go fetch a rag to clean up all this drool.

What was it like working for Firaxis? did you get paid? or did they treat you like slave labor working on part of there glorious expansion for free? :D

No pay, it was just for fun. The guys at Firaxis are awesome. They certainly never treated us badly, but they didn't pander to us either. They treated us like professionals and expected us to respond as such (that was never a problem). We had deadlines, and Firaxis was quick to compliment the stuff they liked and offered constructive critism to the things they didnt like (and we always had the freedom to disregard that feedback and do whatever we thought was best).

I was so glad the entire team got to be involved in the process, and many made significant contributions to non-AoI parts of the expansion. We were never treated like "lowly community modders" and any feedback we offered was considered equally with that of everyone else, Firaxis employee or not.

Personally it was one of the greatest honors of my life and I am very proud of AoI and BtS.

this also explains why some of the features in bts seem made for ffh

I was so glad the entire team got to be involved in the process, and many made significant contributions to non-AoI parts of the expansion.
In my case the opposite happened. I had a hand in another BtS fan Mod (Dale's WWII Mod) - after that was done, I saw the thread for AoI, and said, 'this looks really cool', which led to my volunteering, and then led me to here.

I had no idea that there was a FfH before that...In fact, I have only been playing FfH for a month so far.

Best thing is, Firaxis let us include all our Art, without making a big deal out of Polycount, filesize or nifedited content.
And I am really happy that we were able to keep the deadline ;)

Was a great experience to work on a project like this (while i did not really get in contact with Firaxis, because they never said anything about my Units).

Hope you guys will enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Hope you guys will enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed creating it!
I'm truly confident in saying that they most certainly will.

You folks simply amaze me.

I think the guys at work must be wondering why I'm blushing.:blush:

I think the guys at work must be wondering why I'm blushing.:blush:

:lol:
I'm really glad you are all happy. Rare are people who brought their hobbies to such perfection and professional recognition.

I wasn't really expecting BtS until I saw this. All I can say is: incredible ! You guys were fantastic to continue working normally on the mod plus on this scenario for Firaxis. 35 days to BtS, man they looked so near this morning, and so far now... :D

can you play as the Doviello or Mulcarn civs (to destroy the world instead of saving it...)?

No pay, it was just for fun.
...
Personally it was one of the greatest honors of my life and I am very proud of AoI and BtS.

Thats great you guys did it for fun, and it is great to have your name associated with something as great as Civ.

Even just from the number of people who have commented on this forum about previously not being interested in BTS (myself included), they are going to sell a good number of copies based on the inclusion of AoI. I think you should make them donate to UNICEF as per your request when people asked about donating to the team. Gives them a good name too.

And then you have a very prepared new phase for us???

And then you have a very prepared new phase for us???

Not yet. We're still finishing fire with .23

My jaw is on the floor. I cannot even begin to imagine how awesome this must feel for you guys, and you deserve every bit of it. Congratulations again!

Also, the fact that you chose to let the player play Amurites and deny magic to the AI might have been a VERY smart choice. It's also part of brilliant game design to know how to cover your not-yet-perfect spots.

And it really looks awesome. I also hope that developing AoI gave you plenty of code that'll speed Shadow along (since it's already on the BtS codebase).

Again, congratulations, and this is so freaking awesome! Rock on!

I will get the expansion pack BtS if it's required to play FFH. Also the new types of games (galciv like, role playing, etc) are very interesting.
I was ready to purchase Warlords if FFH need it.

What I don't understand completely is, in BtS the FFH version is not Shadow, but a special sub-mod?

What I don't understand completely is, in BtS the FFH version is not Shadow, but a special sub-mod?
Not a mod as such, a scenario - i.e. a fixed (and rather interesting, it seems) map, fixed start locations, fixed civilisations. It takes place before the Age of Rebirth in which FfH is set, detailing the end of the Age of Ice (see Dawn of Man screen). Shadow will be the next version after 0.23(and patches) and will require BtS to play, but won't be released for a while given that it's apparently not started yet. That said, it's a sure thing that making AoI will have given a jump start to switching to the new codebase (and indeed influenced said codebase - I *knew* that "Unique art without requiring a unique unit" thing I saw in a changelog somewhere was Kael's doing :P)

We can't start converting all of FfH to BtS until BtS is signed, sealed and delivered, you know. As they say in the chat, BtS is close to finished, but not completely done yet.

Ok, thanks for the answers.

Fantastic! And i love the detailed lore as much as i love the gameplay mods. Thank you so much, that you spend so much time and creativiy with this mod.

bah, BtS will be the extra content for FfH scenario :lol:

I just hope 2k's publisher here in Brazil doesn't take too long to release it...

bah, BtS will be the extra content for FfH scenario :lol:


For me, yes. BtS is defintely on the shopping list for FfH alone.

But I suspect the other scenarios might be worth the price of entry as well. BtS is looking a lot more compelling than Warlords, by far.

You guys really should look forward to it. I know I do!

For me, yes. BtS is defintely on the shopping list for FfH alone.

For me it's the same.
Since FfH came out, I haven't played a single vanilla game (or Warlords game)!
Maybe I give the new WW-scenario a try ... but only after I played "Age of Ice" :D

I want the BtS now for every scenario in that mod, chaos, and the new spy thing... :drool:

Now, do I want BtT to come out asap more because of:
1. FfH: Age of Ice (looks soooo pretty, and I love FfH and FfHII)
2. The FfH II will be updated to BtS
3. For the main game aspect of BtS (I like the idea of corps, and the new units sound cool)
Either way I think it will eat all my time

Now, do I want BtT to come out asap more because of:
1. FfH: Age of Ice (looks soooo pretty, and I love FfH and FfHII)
2. The FfH II will be updated to BtS
3. For the main game aspect of BtS (I like the idea of corps, and the new units sound cool)
Either way I think it will eat all my time

Well, you can mege 2 and 3 beecause we will probably incorporate a lot of features from BtS to Shadow.

I've been curiouse ever since i've seen the picture. who is the Davy Jones like character sitting on his ship in that ice drift?

Johnny Depp, of course.

I called BtS "extra content" just because I know what to expect from FfH, which is already awesome, and I still don't know what to expect from the Afterworld, Space, etc. Even if they suck (and I seriously doubt!), it seems miles away from Warlords.

by the way, I'd take a SS of the "Today in IGN" banner and use it for (even more) massive advertising :D

I've been curiouse ever since i've seen the picture. who is the Davy Jones like character sitting on his ship in that ice drift?
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=5583606&postcount=13 ... :mischief:

thankee, good sir Knight

He reminds me of LeChuck

Oooh...!

Is Threepwood going to be in? Or are there copyright issues?

gamesradar (http://www.gamesradar.com/us/pc/game/previews/article.jsp?sectionId=1001&articleId=20070622115615199069&releaseId=20070328151129957027) article talks about FfH AoI (sounds like they played it) and even links our website. :)

WHAT!!! that article said the game would take a mere FOUR hours!!!
Please, please, please, tell me they meant forty.
It would kill me to have what looks like a great game be over so fast.

WHAT!!! that article said the game would take a mere FOUR hours!!!
Please, please, please, tell me they meant forty.
It would kill me to have what looks like a great game be over so fast.

It's a scenario. You can probably do plenty of different things making it have a nice replay value.

Can't wait!! Looks fantastic.

WHAT!!! that article said the game would take a mere FOUR hours!!!
Please, please, please, tell me they meant forty.
It would kill me to have what looks like a great game be over so fast.

I don't know how they managed to play this in 4 hours - maybe low difficulty? On noble I'm playing this endlessly - but probably they are better players than me. But I'd say how long you play this scenario depends on your playstyle. If you play defensive/builder style like I do you definitly need much longer than that.

"Fans of the popular dungeon crawler-like mod, Fall from Heaven"

'Dungeon crawler'? Wow, that's a pretty lame stereo-type. That, plus the 4-hour comment, makes it seem like they merely took a look at the screen shots before writing the article.

Why did Kael suddenly sport pimped up Immortal gear?

I notice climate. Hopefully something as interesting as Alpha Centauri's makes it in the normal game too :)

Gamespy had the following to say about AoI:


Fall From Heaven: Age of Ice is a popular Civ IV mod, and by being an official part of the BtS expansion, it's been upgraded with spiffy graphics and effects. Basically, you play as Kylorin, who is out to re-assemble the Godslayer sword and take down the God of Winter. Besides the overall fantasy look, tweaks to gameplay include a massive blizzard that can mess with parts of the map, hero units like the sorceress Epona who can fling fireballs around, and tamable wildlife (such as the giant spiders or mammoths lollygagging about on the map).


You can read the full article here: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/civilization-4-beyond-the-sword/798801p1.html

Gamespy had the following to say about AoI:

Fall From Heaven: Age of Ice is a popular Civ IV mod, and by being an official part of the BtS expansion, it's been upgraded with spiffy graphics and effects. Basically, you play as Kylorin, who is out to re-assemble the Godslayer sword and take down the God of Winter. Besides the overall fantasy look, tweaks to gameplay include a massive blizzard that can mess with parts of the map, hero units like the sorceress Epona who can fling fireballs around, and tamable wildlife (such as the giant spiders or mammoths lollygagging about on the map).

You can read the full article here: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/civilization-4-beyond-the-sword/798801p1.html

"spiffy graphics"... thanks for the complement :D

Yeah, but why attribute it to 'FfH being an official part of BtS'? Sounds as if they couldn't believe that non-professionals could make mindblowing graphics... :)

Ok I don't know if this has been covered before but will we be able to do AOI with Random maps? I have never ben much for the senario type game I always play a random map. Heck I have warlords and have never played it because I can't use FFH with it. and I have never played any of the senarios in either Civ IV or Warlords.

Nope, it's a scenario and therefore (as noted above and in at least 2 of the articles linked) takes place on a fixed map. I'll be surprised if the nattiest features don't make it into Shadow, though.

I understand but one wuld think that they could use the assets for a random map.

I'm not sure a random map based on the AoI assets would be much fun - you're better off just playing standard FfH for random map goodness.

so is there a reason one would want to buy the expansion? I only play Civ 4 because of the random map goodness. And I havent played a game without FfH since I first bought the game.

There is, Shadow will only be available with BtS. If you are fine with Fire [it will be polished] then you wont need BtS, in you want to play the end product then buy BtS.

I will wait till Shadow is released. The AoI will be then a nice addition but the expansion by it self would never land on my shelf. FfH is the only reason now to have Civ IV, there is no turning back :) Like with HoM&M3 and WoG.

so is there a reason one would want to buy the expansion? I only play Civ 4 because of the random map goodness. And I havent played a game without FfH since I first bought the game.
I'm not a big fan of scenarios myself. I haven't played any for Civ IV, even those made for FfH II by the fan community.

However, AoI is more than just a scenario, it's an adventure into the history of the FfH setting. It's got wonderful game-play, graphics, story - everything you expect from the FfH team. It's also, in my opinion, very replayable - something that surprised me considering it's a scenario.

Even if FfH wasn't going to the BtS code-base, I'd still recommend the expansion for true fans of the FfH setting just for the scenario alone.

Nice work guys!

Here's a challenge for when AoI comes out: Beat it on deity. Vorshlumpf did. I'll never manage (yeah, I'm a CIV moron, who'da believed it), but I'd like to see you guys try:D

I've been creamed on Deity four times now. :blush:

But, going back down to Immortal seems a bit easier and I last longer before getting overrun.

So does the improved AI in BtS make the game harder, and that's why it's so much more difficult to beat or is it because of the scenario objectives?

So does the improved AI in BtS make the game harder, and that's why it's so much more difficult to beat or is it because of the scenario objectives?
The improved AI has a lot to do with it, but I feel the scenario is also a bit more difficult than your standard random game.

So does the improved AI in BtS make the game harder, and that's why it's so much more difficult to beat or is it because of the scenario objectives?One or two features of FfH2 show up in a couple other BtS scenarios, and so the AI knows how to deal with this where it doesn't seem to so much now. (Can't go into specifics, but I believe it will improve FfH2 random game a bit as well when ported over.)
In my experience, between a couple versions of AoI/BtS it went from a bit easy to nicely challenging.

The new BtS trailer is sporting some AoI gameplay scenes. I uploaded a copy for those that haven't grabbed it online yet: BtS Trailer (http://kael.civfanatics.net/files/BtS_Trailer.wmv)

I down loaded Fall from Heaven II this morning and played it a bit...

I've never been a big fan of scenarios, so I have only one word to describe it:

WOW :goodjob:

While it requires adjustment from Civ IV to play:

I did a random start figuring I wasn't going to like it anyway and drew the Malakims.

I really liked the spell casting units. One thing I absolutely love about the units is they gain XP over time. That's just Excellent!

I was actually holding my own there for awhile until I decided to help Cassiel of the Grigori with a war on Hyborem of the Infernals. Sheesh he's one tough demon!

The first time his leaderhead popped up I almost jumped out of my chair :eek:

Thanks for a great side track from regular Civ. I've been a D&D fan for many years and this was just what the Dr. ordered!

wait a second, some of the palaces and wonders in FFH look just like certain new wonders in BTS, was this a gift from the firaxis crew when you began the project for them?

I just saw that Kael has also cowritten a modders' guide which is included in BTS.

wait a second, some of the palaces and wonders in FFH look just like certain new wonders in BTS, was this a gift from the firaxis crew when you began the project for them?

What do you mean ?

Hippus palace for one. I think.

Hippus palace for one. I think.

We aren't using any BtS resources in FfH, and we didn't get any gifts of resources from the Firaxis folks (although they did get some gifts for the epic game from us).

We aren't using any BtS resources in FfH, and we didn't get any gifts of resources from the Firaxis folks (although they did get some gifts for the epic game from us).

actually i am happy that we didnt get any gifts or big help :) it makes everything AoI truly ours. and thats what its all about... our team!
I am proud of you guys :)

I am proud of me too:p

But in seriousness, we all deserve a clap on the back for a job well done (I just finished a full game of AoI, and I was bowled over by the fun factor).

Are priests supposed to give +2 Great Person points?

Well, yes, but you can't have any.
Illian GPP do not go towards Children of Kylorin, but something else entirely.

What, I wonder...is the related to the warning to beware of missionaries?

What, I wonder...is the related to the warning to beware of missionaries?

No it doesn't. You will need to decipher that one on your own. ;)

Yeah, that was terrible...
[TAB]Bye bye, Cevedes.

Good job folks. :goodjob:

I am just in my first game trying to figure out how to get out of my starting location. I lost my hunter hero. Ficara the north wind stumbled on him. (Never thought of getting attacked from the air). :eek:

I like the ability of archers to inflict damage on units in an adjacent tile. I hoped to see this implemented in civ4 since ever. It simply makes sense.

All in all, captivating plot, wonderful models and effects, and I am still scratching the surface wondering what may awaits me.

For the past several months, I've been playing Warlords with Blake's AI improvements. For those who don't know, his changes are brilliant. You will most likely need to drop the difficulty level. The AI on harder difficulties doesn't need to "cheat" to become a challenge.

I absolutely love the FFH2 mod, I can't stop playing it. This is the best mod that I've ever seen for any game, hand's down. My only complaint at this time is that going from Blake's AI to vanilla AI takes a bit away from the game. I look forward to playing the updated version that works with the AI changes.

Thanks for a great game!

I agree. I eagerly anticipate the upgrade to BtS for FfH II, and Blake's AI is one of the biggest reasons for that.

Hi Kael and team,

Just wanted to compliment you on a fantastic scenario. I got Age of Ice yesterday. I was going to just load it and play a couple of turns to see what it was like and then go back to my FFH .23 game, but I got sucked in! It's a very fun scenario. Actually, 'very fun' doesn't do it justice. It's amazing.

I had some questions about features, art that are included in the scenario and some other ideas it gave me that could be fun to be included in future FFH versions.

- Mark of the Scorpion: I loved the 'Children of Kylorin' and the 'mark' feature (mark of the fox, scorprion, etc). That is very cool and adds a unique twist and neat role playing element. Any chance a similar feature is going to be included in FFH?

- Random Heroes: I liked being able to start with a hero at the beginning of the game and having a selection. It made me think it would be fun if, in addition to the heroes you build, if there were random heroes in FFH who would either join you at the beginning of the game or who might offer their services periodically during the game (similar to Age of Wonders or Master of Magic)

- Avatars: Also, I was wondering about having an avatar for the character you are playing? For instance, if you are playing Kylorin, an actual Kylorin unit that you start with that has a hero promotion or some special ability. It might be neat to have a new victory condition that if your avatar is defeated you lose the game - this might help balance out getting a powerful 'free' hero unit at the start as you wouldn't want to risk your avatar in combat unless absolutley necsesary. I like the idea of having an in-game representation of the character I am playing.

- Unit Graphics: Loved some of the new graphics - frostlings, mamoths, etc. Are these going to make it into FFH?

Congratulations on a great piece of work.

Age of Ice is a great scenario, i'm really enjoying it
And the opening movie was a very nice surprise:)

The hero system was very good, i really liked the idea of starting the game with a hero and then later with the appropriate tech upgrade them, so that they stay a potent threat throughout the game and aren't mainly for the early or late game, this could be an interesting feature for the main mod...

The wheather features were really impressive and while most of the time would only prove an annoyance they could occasionaly give you a strategic advantage, i.e. walking accross the frozen lake to attack the enemy.

The leaderheads were very good. Is charadons going to be included in standard ffh aswell? And are any other leaders going to get 3d leaderheads.
Oh and Kyorlin was very impressive

:goodjob:

Age of Ice is a great scenario, i'm really enjoying it
And the opening movie was a very nice surprise:)

The hero system was very good, i really liked the idea of starting the game with a hero and then later with the appropriate tech upgrade them, so that they stay a potent threat throughout the game and aren't mainly for the early or late game, this could be an interesting feature for the main mod...

The wheather features were really impressive and while most of the time would only prove an annoyance they could occasionaly give you a strategic advantage, i.e. walking accross the frozen lake to attack the enemy.

The leaderheads were very good. Is charadons going to be included in standard ffh aswell? And are any other leaders going to get 3d leaderheads.
Oh and Kyorlin was very impressive

:goodjob:

We now have the skills and the knowledge to create 3d leaderhead. THe thing that we miss the more is time. I do not know if we will have 3d leaderhead some day (I would like to, but it's a thing that we would need to talk in our private forum:D ). If we have some 3d LH, it won't be before Ice phase.

I prefer the 2D heads myself. I'm not a fan of the 3D heads unless they look much better than the ones in AoI.

I'm particularly disappointed with the look of Charadon.

I second Grey Fox, Not only do I like the static LHs, I actually can't imagine FfH without them. The artistic quality of these LHs is beyond anything that 3D LHs can achieve in any near future.

Please don't ever consider changing these LHs.

I haven't seen the AoI leader heads yet, but I could not stand to see FfH leaders portrayed in such a silly way as the vanilla leaders. If you could match their current quality in 3D animations then great, but I doubt you would be successful and there are better uses of the teams time.

I did notice a rather cheesy way of winning though:

You can get the Knowledge of the Ether tech really early in the game though an event your scouts find out about. With that tech you can upgrade Epona which at this point in the game is very powerful allowing you to win the scenario with ease.

[QUOTE=Rando;5725990]

- Random Heroes: I liked being able to start with a hero at the beginning of the game and having a selection. It made me think it would be fun if, in addition to the heroes you build, if there were random heroes in FFH who would either join you at the beginning of the game or who might offer their services periodically during the game (similar to Age of Wonders or Master of Magic)

- Avatars: Also, I was wondering about having an avatar for the character you are playing? For instance, if you are playing Kylorin, an actual Kylorin unit that you start with that has a hero promotion or some special ability. It might be neat to have a new victory condition that if your avatar is defeated you lose the game - this might help balance out getting a powerful 'free' hero unit at the start as you wouldn't want to risk your avatar in combat unless absolutley necsesary. I like the idea of having an in-game representation of the character I am playing.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. While it would be a lot of work, maybe each civ could have an avatar that you could pick from (obviously, one avatar per leader). I think that instead of having the hero promotion, they would upgrade throught the technology tree (ala the samauri scenario in the old CIV III expansion I think), that way they wouldn't become overpowered too early in the game. I would really love a feature like this and think it would add to the excitement of game, as well as making choosing your leader more difficult, as each avatar would have different stats. I really enjoyed that aspect of the samauri scenario, and think it would work well here. Thoughts?

I killed the Ice Dragon. :)

Look at the dragon's unit type and think about which unit has the best bonuses against that type. Once you figure this out, the dragon is not an issue at all.

I just brought it to low HP with a heavily promoted assassin then finished it with a catapult. (Those are the only two units that damaged it at all)

Yeah the Ice dragon should be made a little stronger.

Remove the Melee unit designation and give it March (I can't remember if it had this promo or not).

Melee really doesn't make any sense for a dragon.

Personally I wouldn't mind just making it invincible, but if not, then march/cannibal/non-melee are all needed.

Personally I wouldn't mind just making it invincible, but if not, then march/cannibal/non-melee are all needed.
Yah, I wouldn't mind if the dragon was so powerful that it was ostensibly invincible. You could say it's power is tied directly to Mulcarn's presence.

Newbie allert, first try on AoI, have read no spoilers.
I found this godslayer hilt with an assassin. The next turn it gets destroyed by a barbarian panter.
But i also get the message a quest completed even though the hilt is gone.
Reload, kill panter first, grab hilt, attach it to unit. The thing has no movement points, how do I bring it home? Do I actually have to do that?

Once you attach it to a unit it is a promotion of that unit.
So that unit can walk to your next city with a forge and drop it there.

ah sjeesh i'm supposed to press pick up instead of, you know, create a group. didn't notice the pick up and drop options before.
thanks

Well finally finished this beast of a scenario, first try on noble.
Just got a score of 20619 and it took me 18 hours! but still a augustus caesar rank so yeah..i pad myself on the shoulder.
Most important I had such a fun time and wanted to play again!
So i did..on prince..dead after 20 turns..:mischief:
Anyway, just want to let the creators of age of ice know how i feel, this thing rocks! It's obvious to me a lot of play testing and attention to detail went into it and I appreciate it.
When papa mama & baby ice bear discovered mulcarn it was such a sight unexpected that i was actually taken aback...congrats!

Well finally finished this beast of a scenario, first try on noble.
Just got a score of 20619 and it took me 18 hours! but still a augustus caesar rank so yeah..i pad myself on the shoulder.
Most important I had such a fun time and wanted to play again!
So i did..on prince..dead after 20 turns..:mischief:
Anyway, just want to let the creators of age of ice know how i feel, this thing rocks! It's obvious to me a lot of play testing and attention to detail went into it and I appreciate it.
When papa mama & baby ice bear discovered mulcarn it was such a sight unexpected that i was actually taken aback...congrats!

try FfH 0.25 :)

try FfH 0.25 :)
I'm already doing just that, love it :)

I'm echoing the sentiments here. The battle lasted 500 (mostly eeking out survival before i built an epic road across the map and got Iron from capturing Mulcarn's capital.) years but after i actually decided to attack it was over for the Doviello and Illians in about 30, proper blitz krieg stuff.
The battle with the dragon in the end saw me lose Kylorin's firstborn Seth :( but i got him in the end with the second born, who was an assassin.
One thing did strike me. Pikemen are quite easily exploitable, i would just get my best city to make them and give them successive promotions, then combine and uncombine essentially rinsing some of their promotions and concentrating them onto a single one. When this single one happens to be my highest ranking Child of Kylorin, with the Mark of the rat, dog, bat and raven, and full level 6 combat upgrades, i ended up with a bit of a beast. I basically made him take an army of longbowmen, not that the longbowmen ever fought; they just stayed and guarded the cities he singlehandedly captured.

As a final note. Fantastic work fellas, most fun i've had in civ for an age.

Is this worth unstickying and letting drop into oblivion? It doesn't serve much purpose now that there is a sub forum.

I'm going to buy Beyond the Sword just to keep playing FfH II. But i'm little confuse about those new modifications. At first, this upgrade is Shadow phase, right? The next one will be Fire (with Armageddon and the Mercurians and Infernal civilizations)? I thought that Shadow phase would have the Armageddon. Once I love to play with Armageddon, should I have to wait to wait for Fire phase ? Thanks for your time ! And sorry my noob questions.

Fire was last phase. The only phase that Remains is Ice (events & scenarios).

Armageddon's already in the game.

Thanks for helping me, Xienwolf and Mewtarthio! XD

Why are there folders for the Clan of Embers and for the Luchuirp units unique art in the AoI folder along with the custom art for the Amurites, Doviello, and Illians? Were they originally supposed to be in the game?

I wouldn't be suprised if the luchuirp were originally planned. they do fit into the lore really well. the clan too...

Before it was released, I had hoped you would have had to battle other surviving groups for control of fertile vallies. The Kuriorates, Luchruip, and many other good and neutral groups would have been fun to fight, and unite to destroy the Illians.

I'm hoping that the Ice phase will contain a remake of the AoI scenario, this time much more fleshed out.

I'm hoping that the Ice phase will contain a remake of the AoI scenario, this time much more fleshed out.

That'd be great!

If it were a larger map, with more civs like R r o T thought about it, and more ways to finish, even better...

Yeah, I think that after Ice is done there should be a remake of AoI, incorporating all of its events, not just the fall of Mucarn. It could begin with the rain of fire at the fall of Bhall, followed by the Luchuirp resistance to Mulcarns arrival, followed by blizzards across creation. It should include all the major battles of the age, such as: " the Slaying of the Blue Dragon by Lucar's horde and the ensuing destruction of the Thraxian civilization; the sacrifice of the Second Mage, Gionn; and the final confrontation between Kyorlin and Mulcarn himself."

It might have to be done as a mod containing a series of scenarios for different portions of the age. I would like it to include all the civilizations around at the time, include those that survived unto the age of Rebirth and those that were destroyed (like the Thraxians), but not those that did not exist yet (definitely no Kuriotates or Sidar). Preferably, they would all be playable (although some things might be scripted to the point where victory is impossible for some civs, and survival is very unlikely), although not necessarily all in the same scenario of the mod. A scenario where you play as Trenton Majosi could be cool, as could one about the Luchuirp's last stand. I don't even see a problem with the human playing as Mulcarn himself. Some of these could be completely unrelated to the main events of the age, like the consolidation of Bhalls corrupted followers into an Orkish nation and the continuing elven civil war. It could also be interesting for the main events to be tied to the minor ones in unusual ways, for instance Kyorlin could have the Svartalfar assist him in sneaking into the Letum Frigus if he help them destroy the Ljosalfar, or receive help from Cernunnos himself from protecting them.

Those are good ideas. I doubt a bunch of sceanarios as you stated will be made, but the community could. I'm a decent mapmaker, but I would need someone to do the modding.

I could probably do most of the xml and python modding (if and when I have time) and may have taught myself a fair amount of C++ by then too. I would have no idea how to do any of the graphics though. (My attempts to even borrow unit graphics from AoI for my modmod caused it to crash, and I can't figure out how to fix it).


We would need much more backstory from Kael before this could begin, and I'd definitely want to wait until the Morale and Hinterlands mechanics are in the game.

Yeah, I think that after Ice is done there should be a remake of AoI, incorporating all of its events, not just the fall of Mucarn. It could begin with the rain of fire at the fall of Bhall, followed by the Luchuirp resistance to Mulcarns arrival, followed by blizzards across creation. It should include all the major battles of the age, such as: " the Slaying of the Blue Dragon by Lucar's horde and the ensuing destruction of the Thraxian civilization; the sacrifice of the Second Mage, Gionn; and the final confrontation between Kyorlin and Mulcarn himself."

Admit it: You just want to know what all those things are, don't you? ;)

On a more serious note, this sounds similar to Rhye's and Fall. It could play out that way, though I'm not entirely sure how you'd deal with, say, the Illians being completely wiped out before they can summon Mulcarn. I suppose you could tie Mulcarn's appearance to one of two events: Either the Illians are just about to lose (ie the enemy is marching into their last city) or else some other goal is met, such as the Illians completing a ritual or researching a technology. This still has its own downside, of course: No human player will take the last city, but they'll make sure it's somewhere unproductive so the Illians can't complete the ritual in any decent amount of time. Maybe you could also automatically summon Mulcarn at a certain time...

I don't know how well it would do to have all of them happen in one game sitting. I know that some days I would want to play one of them, and other days another. If I have to go through them in some sequence, I will tire of the early ones and probably rarely see the late ones.

Just make each one a scenario, like AoI was for the death of Mulcarn. Don't need to mod much except a new leaderhead and some Civlopedia entries for units/Civs which are already in the game. Then code some events that are triggered appropriately and a hardcoded map to play the story on.

I was thinking that it would be best to have them all in one mod (so that you could read the whole civiliopedia and know how things tie together, and so you could easily switch from one to another), but different scenarios. The map-specific stuff could probably be set to work differently for a few different maps (each could depend on a game option that is activated by default in different scenarios).

Could be cool tied in as a single mod for Civlopedia purposes if you could also get the civlopedia to sort them by Scenario and then sub-categorize everything else (really wish the Pedia did that by default, or that I could figure out how on earth Sevo got it to work so well)