Civilization Module: The Scions of Patria

A module for 0.32, "The Scions of Patria" adds a civilization to FFH2.

Download

Rallying under the flag of the Risen Emperor - self-styled student of Kylorin, Lord of Erebus and embodiment of humanity's power from the Age of Magic - the Scions are the re-Awakened dead of Patria. They mean to conquer by sword, spell and word the barbarian peoples of the Age of Rebirth and resurrect the glories of the Age of Magic.

Lots of new units, buildings, art...

(Non-modular Fall Further version:
Thread
Download)

Changes for v1.1:
Updated for 032.
Elements not working with modular format removed. That's all new Promotions and some of the Spells.
None of the units or buildings were removed, though of course they've lost any custom Promotions or Spells.
Numerous minor fixes.

I believe most of the bugs have been stomped at this point. However, I'm sure balance of the "Fallow"/Awakened mechanic can be greatly improved.

Some other balance concerns:
Dark Councilor
Honored Band
Necromancers and Wraithlords (the combat strength)
The Scion's Culture output

The Fall Further version of "Scions" is the main version. However, since this version is a module it shouldn't need much maintenance. Fixing any bugs is still a high priority, though, and I'll pass on whatever improvements from the FF version to this version that I can.

Here's the changes from final beta to v1.0


Many thanks to those who've helped get the module this far so quickly.

Balancing Scion growth:

The only ways for Scion cities to grow is to:

Build an Awakened. (Disinter people from the Bottomless Tomb.)

Build a Reborn (Convert living people of the Age of Rebirth into undead Scions.)

Convert some people "in the field". The priest and adept lines (except for Adepts) have an enslavement chance. The slaves can be added to a city.

The Awakened can only be built in the capital and cost more than Settlers. The Reborn cost less and can be built anywhere there's a Cathedral of Rebirth. But the Cathedral is a mid-game building.

It may be that the build costs currently used are quite a bit higher than those in the beta. The "Half Awake" downloads below halve the costs. To try it put the file inside the zip into the module's units folder.

"gold cost" Adds a monetary cost to the Awakened (40) and Reborn (20). The file in the zip also goes in "units" and can be used in combination with either the default build costs or the ones in "half awake."

I'll probably post here about other balance issues later. I think the one above dwarfs any other possible balance problems, though.

Bugs I've noticed:

Not sure if this is one, but some of the units appear as flat black humanoid figures wearing armour. Is that a bug or placeholder graphics? And the Scions can't build Kylorin Cults.

DharmaMcLaren said:

Bugs I've noticed:

Not sure if this is one, but some of the units appear as flat black humanoid figures wearing armour. Is that a bug or placeholder graphics? And the Scions can't build Kylorin Cults.

Click to expand...

Flat black:
That's as intended. Some of their bodies are made up of a semi-material substance that is actually openings onto the Void. Or something.

Kylorin Cult:
I failed to update the civ file for FF. Fix will be included in next update - Thanks!

Also just noticed that the marksman model is a red bubble. I think there was another, too, but I've forgotten it. >.>

Edit: Remembered it! Patrian artifacts have a flat black texture.

DharmaMcLaren said:

Also just noticed that the marksman model is a red bubble. I think there was another, too, but I've forgotten it. >.>

Click to expand...

Missing "e" in the art def... Thanks!

What do your workers and settlers look like? I think the units file in the FF version first version was out-of-sync with the other version. Anything odd... like game crashes when you try to use a worker or settler. I suppose you would have mentioned that already....

Edit: Remembered it! Patrian artifacts have a flat black texture.

Click to expand...

That's just me trying to make the standing stones look spooky... maybe I'll go back to the original texture.

I'm using the Fall Further version, Workers and Settlers are fine. No game crashes or anything.

I'd offer to make some textures for you if I had the means or ability, but sadly I don't... I hope someone else does. The flat black unit textures are going to get on my nerves. >.<

With Scions becoming non-modular, there is a negative trait in the Saints and Sinners mod which might help with the huge, insanely productive late-game cities and seems to fit in with the whole snobby undead angle. Basically, you need to have two copies of each luxury resource to get the happiness bonus from it.

Zifnab said:

With Scions becoming non-modular, there is a negative trait in the Saints and Sinners mod ...

Click to expand...

Thanks. That's a nice idea - I'll take a look.

EDIT: "Extravagant." That may be a _very_ nice idea.

S&S has some very interesting stuff.

Zifnab said:

With Scions becoming non-modular, there is a negative trait in the Saints and Sinners mod which might help with the huge, insanely productive late-game cities and seems to fit in with the whole snobby undead angle. Basically, you need to have two copies of each luxury resource to get the happiness bonus from it.

Click to expand...

Hmm, that makes we wonder, can you have this same effect in other ways? From the Consumption civic, for example.

Any idea when this mod will be compatible with the new FfH.32 version?

arkham4269 said:

Any idea when this mod will be compatible with the new FfH.32 version?

Click to expand...

Tomorrow, I hope. It's been put together I want more of a chance to test it.

The "just" FFH2 version will be modular again, btw. I don't want to maintain two non-modular versions and decided to go with Fall Further for the "full" version. (At least until base FFH2's code settles down sometime in Ice.) All the new promotions and some of the spells were dropped, and near-future development will be limited by it's modular nature... but otherwise the FFH2 version will be intact.

arkham4269 said:

Any idea when this mod will be compatible with the new FfH.32 version?

Click to expand...

Ok, update posted.

is there any changelog showing exactly every change?

Psychic_Llamas said:

is there any changelog showing exactly every change?

Click to expand...

Nope, just ones showing most of the changes between versions.

I'll post something more detailed tomorrow.

awsome, cause im dying to know how this new civ works. also, is the pedia finished?

Psychic_Llamas said:

awsome, cause im dying to know how this new civ works. also, is the pedia finished?

Click to expand...

The pedia's pretty much finished - there's not help text for everything, but IIRC there's at least something beyond the unit/building name in the pedia for everything.

In fact what I plan to do for the doco I'll put up later is strip the "TXT_KEY_" stuff out of the pedia and add comments covering some of what the in-game pedia would show. "Champion variant - -1 strength but starts with "Heavy Formation."

The biggest change to them is that they're a civ you can start the game with that has "Fallow" as a trait, and they have to build units in their capital that get added to cities as population.

Psychic_Llamas said:

awsome, cause im dying to know how this new civ works. also, is the pedia finished?

Click to expand...

Sorry... I find myself unwilling to put together the complete documentation I said I'd provide - It'd take too much time for a poor copy of the pedia. Sometime I'd like to make better documentation, but it'd take awhile.

Is there some specific area you'd like to know about?

Or how about I provide a small no-meshes and/or buttons file? That'd allow you to navigate through the pedia after a relatively small download.

With the FF version you'd just need to backup the XML folder (or reinstall FF) to back out of the Scions install. The modular version would be even easier to uninstall, though it'd lack the custom Promotions and some of the spells.

im just curious of the mechanics that you've implemented for the Scions, as it looks similar to what we need for the undead civs in the warhammer mod...

I hate to be a pain in the processor, but I tried to patch the latest .032 Fall Further version with your Scions and it just didn't work.

Is there a page on the Forum that I'm missing that tells you which patch goes to the 'normal' FfH 0.32 and which you should use with the Fall Further mod to the mod and how exactly to make them work. I'm am 92.3% sure I followed your instructions on where to put all the files to make it work.