Éa, The Ageless and the Divine (phase 2, alpha)
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Pazyryk
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These are in and working now (well, only Explosive Rune is fully working, but the rest coming soon)...
Glyphs, Runes and Wards
These are magical effects placed on specific plots usually by a spell. Each plot can have only one effect at a given time, and these are visible (if revealed to the player) in the plot mouse-over or by toggling a new UI button (next to minimap) that highlights these plots with effect-specific colors. Effects have a strength, dependent on the caster's spell mod, and "remember" exactly who set them. This can matter, for example, in the case of a triggered plot effect. If an enemy unit steps on an Explosive Runes, then they will take damage based on effect strength; the exact damage done will be deducted from the original caster's mana (or divine favor) and the caster will receive this amount of experience. There is no instant cost or benefit for simply setting these effects: they must be triggered or do something to matter. A player can always see their own plot effects, but must cast Reveal Glyphs, Runes and Wards to see nearby effects set by other players. An effect is removed when triggered or by a nearby caster using the Dispel Glyphs, Runes and Wards spell or the more powerful Dispel Magic spell. To dispel a plot effect, the caster's spell mod must exceed the plot effect's strength.
Glyphs, Runes and Wards
These are magical effects placed on specific plots usually by a spell. Each plot can have only one effect at a given time, and these are visible (if revealed to the player) in the plot mouse-over or by toggling a new UI button (next to minimap) that highlights these plots with effect-specific colors. Effects have a strength, dependent on the caster's spell mod, and "remember" exactly who set them. This can matter, for example, in the case of a triggered plot effect. If an enemy unit steps on an Explosive Runes, then they will take damage based on effect strength; the exact damage done will be deducted from the original caster's mana (or divine favor) and the caster will receive this amount of experience. There is no instant cost or benefit for simply setting these effects: they must be triggered or do something to matter. A player can always see their own plot effects, but must cast Reveal Glyphs, Runes and Wards to see nearby effects set by other players. An effect is removed when triggered or by a nearby caster using the Dispel Glyphs, Runes and Wards spell or the more powerful Dispel Magic spell. To dispel a plot effect, the caster's spell mod must exceed the plot effect's strength.
- Protective Ward Protects a specific plot from Blight caused by spell or nearby Breach (it does not protect a plot from Breach). Mana is used and caster experience gained whenever the ward protects the plot from an event that would Blight it.
- Seeing Eye Glyph Gives the caster visibility from the affected plot. The Glyph's strength determines the range of sight from one to four plots. A tiny amount of mana is used and caster experience gained each turn that the glyph remains.
- Explosive Rune Explodes if an enemy unit enters the plot, causing damage as if the unit received a ranged attack with strength equal to the rune's strength. Mana is used and caster experience gained when plot explodes based on damage done.
- Death Rune Kills or drains life energy from an enemy unit entering the plot. Kills the unit outright if the rune's strength exceeds the unit's experience, melee strength and ranged strength. Otherwise, this amount is deducted from the unit's experience, which will lose levels and (random) promotions accordingly. Mana is used and caster experience gained when the rune is triggered based on total experience drained.
As a Trait for the Scholastic Theanon, I suggest Foreign Studies.
Their sages can study in foreign cities and foreign sages can study in theirs.
They give an x% boost to the research in the city.
Both the host city's civ and the sage's civ receive the number of beakers attributable to this work.
There would be a maximum of 8 turns of foreign study for a given sage in a given city and once completed that sage can never study there again.
I'm thinking that it will be relatively easy for you to include the AI calculations as to whether foreign studies are worthwhile for a sage at any given time. Theanon border cities developed as centres of learning would suck in sages from neighbouring tribes.
In addition I'd suggest that the sage gets more xp for foreign study than they would for being resident in one of their own cities due to their exposure to alien ideas and culture.
The host city would get a minor cultural boost during the period of foreign study.
Their sages can study in foreign cities and foreign sages can study in theirs.
They give an x% boost to the research in the city.
Both the host city's civ and the sage's civ receive the number of beakers attributable to this work.
There would be a maximum of 8 turns of foreign study for a given sage in a given city and once completed that sage can never study there again.
I'm thinking that it will be relatively easy for you to include the AI calculations as to whether foreign studies are worthwhile for a sage at any given time. Theanon border cities developed as centres of learning would suck in sages from neighbouring tribes.
In addition I'd suggest that the sage gets more xp for foreign study than they would for being resident in one of their own cities due to their exposure to alien ideas and culture.
The host city would get a minor cultural boost during the period of foreign study.
Pazyryk
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So basically a unique action for their sages. I don't have any of those yet, but that sounds great! It needs to be a good amount of research to really be a civ bonus (since they could just do something else anyway).
The current Research action is Scholar Mod / 2 research points per turn. That's intentionally rather paltry as it is just a fallback action when you don't have anything better to do. The City Resident actions are getting a bit of a boost in phase 3 and give you +2% x Leadership Mod research in a city. That's meant to be more useful later in larger cities.
So let's make Foreign Studies action worth the greater of Mod points or Mod x 2% of foreign city research points per turn (both using Scholar Mod). (I'd prefer something based on different techs known, but I'm in a hurrry now...) The host civ gets half this amount plus 1c per turn. Requires Open Borders. It's a sustained action, but you can only do it for a total of 8 turns cumulative in each foreign city. GP xp is (as usual) based on what you get out of it, so that is just the number of research points gained by the sage's civ each turn.
I'll add this for both Theanon and Tír Ecne (the Sídhe civ with the same policy trigger).
Edit:
Btw, UUs and UBs are also possibilities to be used as civ-specific traits.
The current Research action is Scholar Mod / 2 research points per turn. That's intentionally rather paltry as it is just a fallback action when you don't have anything better to do. The City Resident actions are getting a bit of a boost in phase 3 and give you +2% x Leadership Mod research in a city. That's meant to be more useful later in larger cities.
So let's make Foreign Studies action worth the greater of Mod points or Mod x 2% of foreign city research points per turn (both using Scholar Mod). (I'd prefer something based on different techs known, but I'm in a hurrry now...) The host civ gets half this amount plus 1c per turn. Requires Open Borders. It's a sustained action, but you can only do it for a total of 8 turns cumulative in each foreign city. GP xp is (as usual) based on what you get out of it, so that is just the number of research points gained by the sage's civ each turn.
I'll add this for both Theanon and Tír Ecne (the Sídhe civ with the same policy trigger).
Edit:
Btw, UUs and UBs are also possibilities to be used as civ-specific traits.
Pazyryk
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Sorry all. I won't be able to get phase III out this weekend. We need something like 2 to 4 weeks more before it is ready for real play testing/balancing (by all of you...). So release is officially delayed to May.
We've made tremendous progress in the last month (thanks ls612!). Three things holding it up now (besides my RL obligations) are:
There will still be a lot of stuff to do after release. The 5 victories conditions will need balancing. Each is achievable in >1 way with different focuses (religious, arcane, military, gold, research, etc), but it will take some work to make it so that there isn't "just one best way" to do each. And some areas will be developed in post-release versions: Lycanthropy, Vampirism and Espionage actions (these are all cool, but not necessary for victory conditions so not my priority now).
We've made tremendous progress in the last month (thanks ls612!). Three things holding it up now (besides my RL obligations) are:
- A new CTD that I haven't tracked down yet (before this, the game was stable out to turn >400 in autoplays).
- Still need a few specific units. We only got our first zombie unit last week. I needed this and/or skeleton for the various undead spells (Raise Undead, Turn Undead and Banish Undead) to be useful. I need at least a couple others: a minor and major demon, and a minor angel or holy guardian of some sort. If I have to, I'll just reskin some existing units and use those until we get something better.
- The Armageddon and Protector victories aren't really working yet. That's always been the main "step" that phase 3 would add: it's supposed to be a full game with 5 victory conditions that actually work. (3 are working now but that really restricts what you can do to win.)
There will still be a lot of stuff to do after release. The 5 victories conditions will need balancing. Each is achievable in >1 way with different focuses (religious, arcane, military, gold, research, etc), but it will take some work to make it so that there isn't "just one best way" to do each. And some areas will be developed in post-release versions: Lycanthropy, Vampirism and Espionage actions (these are all cool, but not necessary for victory conditions so not my priority now).
Pazyryk
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It's getting there...
I just added 1 undead (Zombie), 1 Minor Angel, 3 Minor Demons and 1 Major Demon. Nutty reskinned a unit for the angel and helped organize (and optimize) the others. Giant Spiders and some other animals have been running around in the development builds for a while. So now we have at least something for all the spellcaster types to summon, raise, call, conjure or whatever (I'll just call it "summoned" below for brevity).
I have a cool system in the mod now where experience earned by summoned units in combat gets used in a couple ways:
Spellcaster's can summon more than one unit potentially. The total power of units summoned by one spell is always less than the caster's modifier for that spell. But you could have, for example, a Necromancer with Raise Undead, Summon Minor Demons, and Conjure Monster spells. The first spell raises some number of zombies (& skeletons when we have them) based on Necromancy Mod. The second spell summons some number of minor demons based on Conjuration Mod. The third spell always conjures exactly one monster with type based on Conjuration Mod (for now, either a Giant Spider or a Drake). Depending on the spellcaster's mods, this could be quite a force to bring to battle.
I just added 1 undead (Zombie), 1 Minor Angel, 3 Minor Demons and 1 Major Demon. Nutty reskinned a unit for the angel and helped organize (and optimize) the others. Giant Spiders and some other animals have been running around in the development builds for a while. So now we have at least something for all the spellcaster types to summon, raise, call, conjure or whatever (I'll just call it "summoned" below for brevity).
I have a cool system in the mod now where experience earned by summoned units in combat gets used in a couple ways:
- the unit itself gains the experience (except for non-sentient creatures like zombies that never gain xp)
- the summoning spellcaster gains that amount of xp (even if the unit didn't)
- xp points are deducted from the player's mana or divine favor (yes, you can have a negative mana or divine favor; that just prevents further spellcasting)
Spellcaster's can summon more than one unit potentially. The total power of units summoned by one spell is always less than the caster's modifier for that spell. But you could have, for example, a Necromancer with Raise Undead, Summon Minor Demons, and Conjure Monster spells. The first spell raises some number of zombies (& skeletons when we have them) based on Necromancy Mod. The second spell summons some number of minor demons based on Conjuration Mod. The third spell always conjures exactly one monster with type based on Conjuration Mod (for now, either a Giant Spider or a Drake). Depending on the spellcaster's mods, this could be quite a force to bring to battle.
Pazyryk
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Since I have summoning working now, I've sorted out the various "sommoning type" spells:
Call Heaven's Guard (Heavenly Cycles)
Summon Abyssal Creatures (Sorcery)
Reanimate Dead (Reanimation) - just Zombies for now; they are hostile to everyone including you
Raise Dead (Necromancy) as above but they are under your control
Call Animals (Animal Lore policy) - wolves and lions now
Conjure Monster (Conjuring) - Picks the best monster from a list based on your spell mod. But right now it is only Giant Spider
Call Angel (Celestial Knowledge)
Summon Demon (Summoning)
Call Tree-Ent (Forest Dominion policy)
Call Archangel (Divine Intervention)
Summon Archdemon (Breach)
Call Major Spirit (Pantheism finisher)
The last three essentially call gods or god-like beings into physical form.
Major Spirits are the same gods that pantheistic civs interact with as "hidden" minor civs, giving quests and so on. They're mostly already named in the phase II game manual, e.g., for Cult of Leaves you have Fagus, Abellio, Buxenus, Robor, Abnoab, Arduinna (I think 35 or so are in the game now). You have to have a temple to the god and a super high relationship with them; calling the god has a cost in relationship points.
On the Theistic side, the archangels and archdemons are now named in the game manual (at some point in the distant future this will all get into the civilopedia). So these are the individuals you can call/summon. Here's are the new manual sections that name them:
In the hierarchy of Heaven there exists below Azzandara exactly twelve archangels and an uncounted number of angels and heaven's guard. All of these lesser beings can be called to assist Azzandara followers through divine spells, although an archangel can be called only once. In order from lowest to greatest, the twelve archangels are Zam, archangel of soil and the land; Drvaspa, archangel of cattle and animal domestication, Tishtrya, archangel of life-bringing rainfall and fertility; Ashi, archangel of material and spiritual recompense ("good reward"); Anahita ("The Immaculate One"), archangel of healing and wisdom; Tushnamaiti, archangel of silent meditation; Iža, archangel of sacrifice; Ātar, archangel of holy fire; Verethragna, archangel of victory; Rashnu, archangel of justice; Sraosha, archangel of obedience; and Mithra, archangel of covenants, oaths and truth.
In the hierarchy of the Abyss there exists below Ahriman exactly eight archdemons and an uncounted number of demons and abyssal creatures. All of these lesser beings can be summoned by either Ahriman followers or practitioners of Sorcery (summoning spells have both divine and arcane forms). An archdemon can be summoned only once. In order from lowest to greatest, the eight archdemons are Zauri, archdemon of poison and assassins; Gannag Menog (the "Stinking Spirit"), archdemon of rotting corpses; Aka Manah, archdemon of vile thoughts; Taurvi, archdemon of unquenchable thirst; Naonghaithya, archdemon of discontentment; Indar, archdemon of indecision (the "frozen mind"); Saurva, archdemon of oppression, unlawfulness, and the production of want; and Aeshma, archdemon of wrath.
The archangels and archdemons have some relationship to the seven "good" and nine "evil" temples that Devouts can build. For Aŋra, it's more or less a one-to-one relationship with temples I - VIII dedicated to the eight archdemons (in order above) and temple IX to Ahriman. It's a bit more complicated for the seven Azzandarayasna temples: they are dedicated to the Six Aspects of Creation (I - VI) and That Which Exists Outside of Creation (VII).
Call Heaven's Guard (Heavenly Cycles)
Summon Abyssal Creatures (Sorcery)
Reanimate Dead (Reanimation) - just Zombies for now; they are hostile to everyone including you
Raise Dead (Necromancy) as above but they are under your control
Call Animals (Animal Lore policy) - wolves and lions now
Conjure Monster (Conjuring) - Picks the best monster from a list based on your spell mod. But right now it is only Giant Spider
Call Angel (Celestial Knowledge)
Summon Demon (Summoning)
Call Tree-Ent (Forest Dominion policy)
Call Archangel (Divine Intervention)
Summon Archdemon (Breach)
Call Major Spirit (Pantheism finisher)
The last three essentially call gods or god-like beings into physical form.
Major Spirits are the same gods that pantheistic civs interact with as "hidden" minor civs, giving quests and so on. They're mostly already named in the phase II game manual, e.g., for Cult of Leaves you have Fagus, Abellio, Buxenus, Robor, Abnoab, Arduinna (I think 35 or so are in the game now). You have to have a temple to the god and a super high relationship with them; calling the god has a cost in relationship points.
On the Theistic side, the archangels and archdemons are now named in the game manual (at some point in the distant future this will all get into the civilopedia). So these are the individuals you can call/summon. Here's are the new manual sections that name them:
In the hierarchy of Heaven there exists below Azzandara exactly twelve archangels and an uncounted number of angels and heaven's guard. All of these lesser beings can be called to assist Azzandara followers through divine spells, although an archangel can be called only once. In order from lowest to greatest, the twelve archangels are Zam, archangel of soil and the land; Drvaspa, archangel of cattle and animal domestication, Tishtrya, archangel of life-bringing rainfall and fertility; Ashi, archangel of material and spiritual recompense ("good reward"); Anahita ("The Immaculate One"), archangel of healing and wisdom; Tushnamaiti, archangel of silent meditation; Iža, archangel of sacrifice; Ātar, archangel of holy fire; Verethragna, archangel of victory; Rashnu, archangel of justice; Sraosha, archangel of obedience; and Mithra, archangel of covenants, oaths and truth.
In the hierarchy of the Abyss there exists below Ahriman exactly eight archdemons and an uncounted number of demons and abyssal creatures. All of these lesser beings can be summoned by either Ahriman followers or practitioners of Sorcery (summoning spells have both divine and arcane forms). An archdemon can be summoned only once. In order from lowest to greatest, the eight archdemons are Zauri, archdemon of poison and assassins; Gannag Menog (the "Stinking Spirit"), archdemon of rotting corpses; Aka Manah, archdemon of vile thoughts; Taurvi, archdemon of unquenchable thirst; Naonghaithya, archdemon of discontentment; Indar, archdemon of indecision (the "frozen mind"); Saurva, archdemon of oppression, unlawfulness, and the production of want; and Aeshma, archdemon of wrath.
The archangels and archdemons have some relationship to the seven "good" and nine "evil" temples that Devouts can build. For Aŋra, it's more or less a one-to-one relationship with temples I - VIII dedicated to the eight archdemons (in order above) and temple IX to Ahriman. It's a bit more complicated for the seven Azzandarayasna temples: they are dedicated to the Six Aspects of Creation (I - VI) and That Which Exists Outside of Creation (VII).
Pazyryk
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I can't think of any need for them now. I've been keeping an eye on your resource posts though. I'm already using your poppies, tea and tobacco, and recolored some of your metals to make cinnabar and an improved copper.
I just posted on the "floating blight" thread. Unfortunately, the graphic you posted there was invisible.
I just posted on the "floating blight" thread. Unfortunately, the graphic you posted there was invisible.
Pazyryk
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You can never call them again. Each Major Spirit, Archangel or Archdemon can be summoned or called only once. They're not really dead though, so you can still interact with them as before. They are only truly killed if their natural wonder is destroyed, which right now will only happens if the plot is breached (which is only likely if someone is very near an Armageddon victory).
Edit: If anyone wants to help, I could use some finding and organizing unit graphics over on the development thread (here).
Pazyryk
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Sword & Sorcery update
The current game builds are very stable now. I've been running autoplays out to turn 400+ without bugs. I'm working through some AI issues, but they aren't major problems. Balance is ... well ... what you would expect for alpha.
In fact, I would release now except for one thing. The civ5 artists have very recently delivered a whole bunch of material we can use. There are a ton of new units: skeletons, zombies, tree-ents, griffons, giant spiders, kraken ... just to name a few. Pretty much all of these are added or being added for release. And Ekmek created "improvement" graphics for a whole bunch of wonders. I've already moved a few wonders out of the city and onto the map ... but I'd like to use all that we have graphics for (28 I think). That was one of my earliest plans for the mod: GPs (mostly Engineers but other classes where appropriate) would build wonders like improvements on plots outside of cities.
So I think I will take about another 2 weeks to add all of this new 3D art. The new units really make the mod feel like a fantasy setting, and the wonders on the map add a lot of uniqueness to each civilization. It's a lot of mod improvement for the time spent.
The current game builds are very stable now. I've been running autoplays out to turn 400+ without bugs. I'm working through some AI issues, but they aren't major problems. Balance is ... well ... what you would expect for alpha.
In fact, I would release now except for one thing. The civ5 artists have very recently delivered a whole bunch of material we can use. There are a ton of new units: skeletons, zombies, tree-ents, griffons, giant spiders, kraken ... just to name a few. Pretty much all of these are added or being added for release. And Ekmek created "improvement" graphics for a whole bunch of wonders. I've already moved a few wonders out of the city and onto the map ... but I'd like to use all that we have graphics for (28 I think). That was one of my earliest plans for the mod: GPs (mostly Engineers but other classes where appropriate) would build wonders like improvements on plots outside of cities.
So I think I will take about another 2 weeks to add all of this new 3D art. The new units really make the mod feel like a fantasy setting, and the wonders on the map add a lot of uniqueness to each civilization. It's a lot of mod improvement for the time spent.
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