Faeryl Viconia Role-playing Challenge

With the release of shadow, we must celebrate the dark theme of FFH.
This runs on Fall from Heaven 2 .30

Faeryl Viconia, queen of the Svartalfar, is the mistress of midnight and mischief. We will play a small contest for role-playing this evil elf. There will be 3 winners, and no real prize. Please try and spell check your work, as it is much easier to read, extra points for interesting reports. Most importantly, put your entries in spoilers! The save is provided at the bottom of the post. Also, state your difficulty level. Screenshots are appreciated! Final Date for reports will be Januarary Twentieth, unless it is decided to be too soon.

Criteria for Faeryl Viconia’s Role- Playing Challenge

Alkazan the Assasin is Alive at the end of the game- 10 points
You built Gibbon Goetia- 10 points
Aerons Bounty is in 50% of your cities- 10 points
You have Founded the Council of Esus- 15 points
Council of Esus is 40% religious dominance- 20 points, +5 for every 10% more
For every member of the Undercouncil- 2 points
For every civ with a Council of Esus state religion- 3 points
For every source of Shadow mana, excluding the Palace- 3 points
For every 3 Illusionists with Shadow II- 2 points
You control the Trojan Horse- 10 points
You have built the Soul Forge- 15 points
The Malakim are destroyed- 20 points
The Ljosalfar are destroyed or your vassal- 20 points
Interesting Story- 20 points

Also, in order to truley be Faeryl, you must backstab everyone. I will look for this if there are ties. In order to recieve points you must (1) have screenshots of the event occuring, or (2) a save from the game.

If you have any suggestions for more points, please tell.

Checkpoints

While this is not necessary, it would be helpful if you reported at set intervals.

1. Council of Esus is spread to your lands
2. You have explored the entire world (excluding the ocean)
3. You have won/lost

Brief Info
Faeryl Viconia’s Civilopedia Entry

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/119814/Civ4ScreenShot0013.JPG

Svartalfar Civilopedia Entry

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/119814/Civ4ScreenShot0014.JPG ([/IMG)
The Start

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/119814/Civ4ScreenShot0016.JPG ([/IMG)

If you want Deity please tell me There is a five attachments per post rule which prevents me from adding it. In addition, I don't think many players play FfH deity, espescially in a RPC.

Reserved for Winners;)

1st Place-?????

2nd Place-?????

3rd Place-?????


Honorable Mentions-

Also, if you enjoy this challenge, tell me so I can design more. I'm looking towards a Luchurip or Sheaim one, but only if this challenge becomes fairly popular.

Also, this is a prototype of FfH RPCs. Thus, it would be appreciated if you could be gentle.

Shouldn't you gain 5 Points for each difficulty setting above Noble? Achieving each goal becomes much harder as the difficulty increases. *downloads the Emperor save*

Shouldn't you gain 5 Points for each difficulty setting above Noble? Achieving each goal becomes much harder as the difficulty increases. *downloads the Emperor save*

that's a good idea, adding it now.:)

Btw how does one take screen shots with Civ? I've never done it before xD

Btw how does one take screen shots with Civ? I've never done it before xD

When in game press 'print scr/ sys Rq' button on your keyboard. It should be above insert, and half sized. (or at least it is on my keyboard) The screenshot will appear in My Documents/My Games/Beyond the Sword/ Screenshots. Then upload the screenshots to the forum, and simply copy & paste the hyperlink. If you have any trouble, tell me.

Nice idea! Once I finally finish my current game I think I'll give this a shot.
What is the final date for submissions?

Final Date for submissons will be Jan. 1st. If this is to soon, please let me know.

I'm thinking that it might be a bit short. But then I am only one. What do others think?

Whats the map size and speed?

Map Size is huge, I think speed is epic. If you just check the save (settings ingame) you can find it.

Darn I might not be able to complete this game as I have a problem with MAFs on Huge maps.

With a huge mapped, epic speed game I would definitely think that Jan 1st would be too soon.

Darn I might not be able to complete this game as I have a problem with MAFs on Huge maps.

With a huge mapped, epic speed game I would definitely think that Jan 1st would be too soon.

Nevermind, it's large. I think I'll move it to the 20th of Jan. it that better?

I think the points per level should be at least ten, maybe fifteen as it is it only makes sense to dominate on noble, even if you can play on immortal it's not worth the twenty points when you'll be neck and neck or behind the AI for most of the game (even if you win in the end).

Cool! I definitely will give this a go then.
And a January 20th end date works for me.


I agree that the difficulty level points are a bit unbalanced. But I have no clue as to how to attempt to normalize the scored based on difficulty. One suggestion would be to drop the in-game score altogether. And base scoring purely on meeting the challenge objectives, roleplaying, and storytelling?

btw I really like the idea of community challenge games. Great idea Rex!

I should have picked up Immortal. Something is seriously wrong with the AI even on Emperor. I'm running 50% since I conquered two civs with Hunters and I'm still the second highest on tech, only one AI has Trade and it took 330ish turns for just Runes to be founded. >_>

I'll probably have the challenge done in two days at this rate. :/

Something to do over Christmas Break. Uni ends tomorrow, restarts the ... 21st.

This could merge well with the story contest... the new date is certainly better, learning Shadow will take so long time that I might be able to start in January.

Thanks for the feedback! I have decided to get rid of the points from your normalized score. BTW,This wasn't really my idea, I got it from the strategy and tips forums, for vanilla civ. They always have RPCs.

Question: was the map created with the 'End of Winter' option?

Question: was the map created with the 'End of Winter' option?

Yes

The Following Options are used
End of Winter
Raging Barbarians
Complete Kills Required
Living World

Obviously save/reload after losing a battle is forbidden, but are we allowed to give the challenge several tries? Restarting entirely until we get a good story / reach all the objectives?

Obviously save/reload after losing a battle is forbidden, but are we allowed to give the challenge several tries? Restarting entirely until we get a good story / reach all the objectives?

Yes, but each person may have only one entry. So reloading is forbidden, but playing as much as you like to get te perfect story is fine.

Yes, but each person may have only one entry. So reloading is forbidden, but playing as much as you like to get te perfect story is fine.

That's slightly confusing. Are you saying we can reload, but only if we start over from the very beginning?

That's slightly confusing. Are you saying we can reload, but only if we start over from the very beginning?

If you start a game, you are not to reload. You can only start the game completly over. i.e. You miss the Soul Forge by 1 turn. you can (1) live with it, or (2) completly restart the game. This prevents you from prefecting your game completly, but rather gives you a choice to destroy all your progress to redo your mistake.

This sounds like a lot of fun and a good way to kick off the release of shadow. :D

I'm going to give this a shot, even though I've never played as the Svartalfar (or the Ljosalfar either for that matter).

I'm going to try out the Noble save; thanks for starting this up Rex.

Was able to build Grand Menagerie in noble save. In Evermore. :)

Oh god. Living world. Freaking COTD will be such a pain.

Oh god. Living world. Freaking COTD will be such a pain.

Will it? It does require Sheaim or Kuriorates and they may or may not be in the game.

Was able to build Grand Menagerie in noble save. In Evermore. :)

I've got every animal except a Gorilla with my animal-seeking scout, turn 150... god how i hate epic mode. so freaking slow.

Originally Posted by it-ogo
Was able to build Grand Menagerie in noble save. In Evermore.


Nice :) but that's a spoiler you know? :sad:

Downloaded and gonna give it a try.
This will be my first slower speed game ever, I'm curious to see how much speed affects the gameplay.

Eh, I think I'll try this on noble. And to those who rant on that higher difficulties should equal more points, it seems the higher the difficulty over noble, the more mistakes the AI does. You might have a harder challenge on noble...

Downloaded and gonna give it a try.
This will be my first slower speed game ever, I'm curious to see how much speed affects the gameplay.

This is my first game playing with epic speed, and my 3rd or 4th FfH game, and it seems like I'm doing much worse than usual for some reason, although I'm still ahead in the scorecount.

Anyway, how does posting reports for a game like this work? I've never tried one of these before - should they be divided up into smaller reports or just one large report at the end? And how much depth/detail?

Checkpoints[/B]

While this is not necessary, it would be helpful if you reported at set intervals.

1. Council of Esus is spread to your lands
2. You have explored the entire world (excluding the ocean)
3. You have won/lost


Anyway, how does posting reports for a game like this work? I've never tried one of these before - should they be divided up into smaller reports or just one large report at the end? And how much depth/detail?

Does this answer your question?

I've finally managed 146 turns. Man, Epic is sloooooow. And we got a very tough start for research. Fun game so far though (Monarch). I hope future patches don't break save games for there is no way I'm restarting a fresh game after getting this far lol.

I settled by the 3 flood plains between the peaks. So much faster growth on epic with 3 food instead of 2.

Um, I'm not certain I'll be able to continue in this contest, as, after 160 turns or so, I finally remembered that I should be taking notes...:lol:

However, there is one interesting pic I wanted to show:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=166138&stc=1&d=1198111075

Orthos spawned right on top of them, and took their capital before dieing. Then the mass rush of orcs and goblins came and took the second city. Shame, as before this she was top in score...

So, 20 points for me?

start position is so crappy, i can't see why anyone would start int hat spot...

Are you refering to my spot? Sure it isn't perfect, but its a whole lot better than most of the other AI's spots, and its getting more good events than I've ever had, with extra health and extra commerce being provided before turn 70.

It clears up to be fairly decent after the ice moves back, its on that new Frozen World setting so things get better the longer you play. Perp has the worst situation and taking him down is all too easy.

Not sure whether I'll finish it. Got kinda bored with how the AI was doing. I'm trying a standard on Noble to see whether the AI is really only degraded above Noble setting and if so maybe I'll play the challenge again on Noble.

I'll remeber for the next one (if there is one) to not use epic, but rather normal or even quick. Also, I'll look for a better start.

Are you refering to my spot? Sure it isn't perfect, but its a whole lot better than most of the other AI's spots, and its getting more good events than I've ever had, with extra health and extra commerce being provided before turn 70.

Nah just talking about the start position in general. I don't care if we're dark elves, forest starts in ffh suck.

From your screenshot princecharles I think that the unthawing of my lands might be stuck. I still have frozen sheep and none of the northern tiles have changed. This could hurt big time.

@ Rex: This really is an interesting game. I agree with a faster speed for future games though. And with a faster speed such starts won't feel near as slow. I do like the challenge of less than optimal starts. And this one isn't so bad since we are Elves. I was just saying that the slow speed combined with the lack of commerce tiles has made for a very slow feeling game.

Orthus spawned just north of my capital. I took him easy though. He was a nice consolation price because he spawned the same turn that another civ had researched Writing (I could tell since they got a Great Scientist). I had taken a big chance and made a tech sacrifice going for Writing to get the Scientist so I could build an Academy. Arghhh it was frustrating to lose out on that race. And I may not be able to found FOL as a result. But gaining Orthus's Axe took some of the sting out of losing the Writing race.

You can't build elven improvements, so FoL isn't really all that interesting. @_@

I've already built Forest Cottages and Farms. But I'd like FOL early so I can gain the extra food in Ancient Forests ASAP. I will switch to the Council of Esus as soon as I get it, the sooner I can get FOL the better. Hehe.. plus I can't wait to try out seZereths new Ancient Forest graphics (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=6270791&postcount=410).

Really? As Svar? I couldn't build either of those in the challenge. I wonder whats up o.0

This was using patch A. I think they've always been able to build forest improvements but perhaps in the unpatched version of Shadow they could not? In this challenge I have been able to, and glad that I could since getting Education early would have been nearly wasted had I not been able to.

That might be it, I started the game before Patch A was released. I just installed Patch B and should load up a game as the Svar and see if I can build it now. Might start the whole Challenge over again. Doubt the AI will mind. :p

I'll remeber for the next one (if there is one) to not use epic, but rather normal or even quick. Also, I'll look for a better start.

I would prefer normal over quick, as I still like being able to take cities with my combat V scout.:lol:
Poor amurites, never knew what hit 'em.

Might be because I almost always play on Epic speed... Wait, scratch that... I -ALWAYS- play on Epic speed, so I'm not finding the speed a problem :P

In fact I'm in turn 515-ish now. Have the Grigori beaten down and as my vassal, and I'm sarting to work on subjegating the silly Light Elves. Founded the Counsel and built Gibbon and the Trojan Horse.

The fact that I got Calender from a goody hut helped immensely, as did the wee spot north-east of the start with three lots of cotten and a gold mine...

PS. Alakaz with the Counsel as his religion is crazyly over-powered. Managed to steal Orthus's Axe from Flauros <_< And then proceeded to snipe random units for experience


Oh yeah. Forgot to mention. Playing the Noble save.

Okay, now that's just creepy. I'm playing the noble save as well, and I also scored calendar.

Hmm, since Patch C is out and breaks save games, I guess this challenge has to be at Patch B or below?

Would it make a great difference (handicap or advantage, guess it's a mixed bag), if the five starting savegames were updated to Patch C? Possibly a hell of a hard time to do so (i.e., duplicating the map and everything), I've always been poor at doing scenarios. It's possibly a stupid question, thanks though for any comment / reply.

Hmm, since Patch C is out and breaks save games, I guess this challenge has to be at Patch B or below?

Would it make a great difference (handicap or advantage, guess it's a mixed bag), if the five starting savegames were updated to Patch C? Possibly a hell of a hard time to do so (i.e., duplicating the map and everything), I've always been poor at doing scenarios. It's possibly a stupid question, thanks though for any comment / reply.

I suppose I could, but many players have gone so far it would be unfair. I think we'll have to live with patch 'b'. I'm very bad at converting sceanarios.

Fair enough! I am not really all that conversant with how mods work, but would one maybe have to have a sort of... dual installed mod (one at B, one at C?) if they'd already updated, and wanted to participate? No big deal either way, I'm sure there'll be more RPCs in the future :)

Considering that the difference between the patches is whether or not your workers get stuck on infinite loops of trying to chop a jungle makes too much of a difference to have it for both patches.

So is it playable under b?
I loaded the savegame and was playing it under a. When I upgraded to b, my save refused to work for me (as advertised).
If the savegames on the first page are b-compatible I'll d/l and start over. Just have to remember not to install patch c :sad:

So is it playable under b?
I loaded the savegame and was playing it under a. When I upgraded to b, my save refused to work for me (as advertised).
If the savegames on the first page are b-compatible I'll d/l and start over. Just have to remember not to install patch c :sad:

Yes, use patch 'b'. If you really need to chop jungle use fire magic or raid someones land for workers. Your backstabbing Svartalfar, you won't feel bad about taking a few slaves. Alternativley you could use slave trade from the undercouncil for jungle workers.

Not sure if anyone else is still playing, but I just finished my game:

http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/d30cab1376.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)
Ended up with a conquest victory on turn 492. Probably not my best game, but I'm still learning the ins and outs of FfH.

I'll probably type up my report later tonight, divided up into parts, if y'all are still interested.

Good job :goodjob:

Rex rgis thanks for feedback, I'll try to catch up with the game. The start looks very promising.

I decided in the event of a tie, I will use the difficulty level as a tie breaker. If the level is the same, then whoever has the highest normalized score will come out.

Well... Several days ago I won normal save with religious victory few turns before building Gibbon. I do not ask for prize as feel myself incomfortable without few Save/Loads. :)

The main conclusion is that CoE is overpowered for religious victory, especially with slower speed. You can spread CoE very fast. If I did not lose my first nightwatch early then my victory could be much faster because I was not lucky to produce CoE unit until researched bowyers and built 3 more nightwatches.

I rather have deity it all i ever play on.

I'd like to remind everyone we have 20 days left. I suppose if I get enouugh entries we could start discussing a new RPC, but for now I'm gonna go against it. I look forward to reading your entries.:)

Work keeps me busy, so I'm only in turn 300+. I'll try to move on and finish berofe 20 Jan.

The game is quite interesting:

My rpg-wise enemies, Malakim and Ljosalfar, both got wiped out by the barbarians.
I keep getting fun from moving my HN spiders and elephants through other civ's lands, killing their workers and occassionally military units. But I only managed to clear out one minor city to be taken by barbarians, although I was hoping for more such actions.
I founded Leaves and spread it to all but Elohim (who founded Runes) and Illians. Guardian of Nature boosted my cities. Recently I founded Esus, Evermore become the Holy City :p
The best score-wise is Flauros. He vassalized Grigori. I'm on the second position.

Only 10 days left for the reports.

Final Date for submissons will be Jan. 1st. If this is to soon, please let me know.

Since I just discoerd this (and you have not declated a winner), I was wondering if I can still play? I have recently started to appreciate the Dark Elven Mistress and would like the chance to role play a game with her.

I tried loading the initial save for noble difficulty and got a crash to disk. Is the save game compatible with version 0.30f?

The date was changed to the 20th. I will update the first post.

Has anyone been able to get this to run with patch f installed? I put the save game for Noble difficulty in my save games folder. It appears in the list of single player games, but when I try to load I get a crash to disk. Does this require any other mod than FfH to run peroperly?

What patch/version for BTS is the save game using?

I don't use Bhruic's Unofficial Patch...could this be the problem?

So is it playable under b?
I loaded the savegame and was playing it under a. When I upgraded to b, my save refused to work for me (as advertised).
If the savegames on the first page are b-compatible I'll d/l and start over. Just have to remember not to install patch c :sad:

I guess that's my problem. I'll have to wait for the next role playing challenge to play along :mad:. I was really looking forward to trying this out. I think that the dark elves are my new favorite civ.

The save only runs on patch B. Unfortunatly patch C breaks saves so we can't use it or anything past that.

If you don't mind, here's a teaser of my story.
It lacks beginning, pictures, and end (the game is still in progress)


Fires and leaves
Acheron chose Evermore as his residence. The forests in the former elven lands were burning and burning… The fires covered half of the continent, including limited areas in my lands. I will have to sacrifice something or someone to Cernunnos, perhaps it will help.
Eventually the priers of the elves were answered. Gareth Minar become the center of a new religion, Fellowship of the Leaves. During next years forests in my lands grown larger and darker than before, thus preventing any fire from spreading to my lands.
The new religion earned quite a popularity in the world. Whole cities in Calabim and Balseraph states converted to the new faith and soon Flauros and Perpentach announced the Fellowship as the official state religion. Gareth Minar was collecting a respectable amount of gold from pilgrims.

The Dark Evermore
I send an expedition to capture Evermore and take over the famous Dragon Hoard. Alas, turn after turn, my units were too afraid to attack the dragon roaming through the countryside. Instead I made my units lure him into attacking them in well defended positions, hoping that one of his attacks will be fatal. In the process, he was allured to Flauros lands and died attacking a city. My troops captured Evermore.

Evermore, once proud Ljosalfar capital changed much during the years of barbarian and dragon rules. It became a twisted and dark place. A perfect new home for Svartalfar adventirers and exiles. Being separated from the bulk of my lands by lands of vampires, it was not easily governed from Thariss. So I appointed the most cruel dark elven aristocrat as governor of the previous Ljosalfar lands.
It wasn’t long before Evermore become the center of a new cult, the Council of Esus. I myself become the first dark Magistrate and actively promoted membership, giving knowledge of Deception to Cassiel and Perpentach. They both joined the Council. Perhaps this will somewhat offset they vassal links to Flauros and deminish his political power.

A lost civilization
On the very north-east of the continent my scouts met a strange group. Their speech was almost non-understandable and their manners were somewhat wild. They said they called themselves the Amurites.
These barely surviving people claimed they had a gloriuos past and noble ancestors. But now they were little more than barbarians. They also had a strange pagan ritual of choosing their leader, called Cassalwain. They quickly accepted the supremacy of the elven race (as really every reasonable man should) and Dain became my vassal.

Republic? Phew!
Today I received a delegation of scholars. They said times are changing, and power should go to the people. What a ridiculous idea! Power to the people? The elven never lived in such a way and never will! I am the Queen and I am the Goddess and I will never allow such a heresy spread amongst the elven race!!
The scholars were taken care of by my dungeon master.

War with Flauros
The time has come to challenge my strongest rival, the vampire state. He has about twice as much land as I do and has a little edge on technology. Recently Vampires were seen in the border cities, so I wonder if it isn't already too late for a war.
Fortunately Cassiel broke free from vassalship, so I will only face Flauros and Perpentach. I can’t count on much support from my vassal Dain, he’s somewhere in the stoneage.
I split my army in two parts. The eastern group, consisting of champions, illusionists and assassins, will invade vampires’ lands with the primary goal of taking the border city. The second group, consisting mostly of Nyxkins and assassins, will be held as a reserve near my north-western border. Its goal is to stop any eventual counter-attack either from Flauros or from Perpentach. If things go well, this army will be used as a second invading force. Apart from that I got strong garrisons in border cities and two Nyxkins in the city in eastern-central of my lands, as a quick reaction force in case my invading stack needs back-up or Flauros makes a counter-attack here, ignoring my attack force.




BTW is anyone else going to participate?? :p

I'm really looking forward to your story. Indeed it looks as though you are the only participating player, so you have a very good chance of winning;) .

At least I stand a chance ;)

Ehm... as I'm the last participant standing wouldn't you mind if I post the story few days later? The game is still in progress and for next few days I won't be able to play more than 10-20 turns a day, not mentioning writing the story.
Just don't say I'm taking advantage of the situation :D

Well, there's not much of a choice....

I'll look forward to the story regardless.

I'll look forward to the story too.

Are you planning to post another role playing challenge using version F?

I have a couple of ideas for the next edition...although with not many participants on this one, I'll understand if you discontinue it.

How do you make several saves at different difficulty levels on the same map? If I could do this, I would post my own role playing challenge.

I'll look forward to the story too.

Are you planning to post another role playing challenge using version F?

I have a couple of ideas for the next edition...although with not many participants on this one, I'll understand if you discontinue it.

How do you make several saves at different difficulty levels on the same map? If I could do this, I would post my own role playing challenge.

Yes, another RPC is not planned.

If there is I would like a Kuriorate patch using the new units added in .31

To get multiple saves, get your start, and enter worldbuilder. From there, save the map as a sceanario. From there just enter the sceanario like a normal game, and save it once under every difficulty level.

Out of Curiosity, what are your ideas for the new version?

I was thinking of having either a Bannor or Sidar game. The Sidar would obviously be a thematic shadow civilization. Bannor would be crusading to extinguish the shadow civilizations.

To get multiple saves, get your start, and enter worldbuilder. From there, save the map as a sceanario. From there just enter the sceanario like a normal game, and save it once under every difficulty level.

A small trick: when you start the scenario, always choose first playable civ, otherwise some civs will perform their turn before you and saves will be slightly different. For example, they can found a city and in the next save you will have a city instead of settler.

Any stories forthcoming?

Sure.
Here.

Am I late?


EDIT: Just kidding.

Rex, would it be too difficult for you to upload 0.30 version of this RPC? I'd really like to play it but I didn't play civ4 for some time so I skipped a couple of versions of ffh2.

It IS for 0.30.
But you need to patch your version only as far as b.

Oh, great, I'm on h. Is there any way to revert other than reinstall?

The challenge is over, I have moved on to Cardith Lorda's RPG.