[MODMOD] BLUModMod for Age of Discovery II

BLUModMod has now been superseded by Age of Further Discovery. Everything from here is also there - plus loads more.



Features

Basically, this is everything from BLUMod version 0.6 merged into Dale's Age of Discovery II.

Art
+ Conquistador replaces Veteran Soldiers for Spain.
+ Carabela replaces Caravel for Spain - both this and the normal Caravel use the EE2 unit adapted for Civ4 by Walter Hawkwood and Refar.
+ New flag for Spain - the Crown of Castile banner - perhaps not strictly historical but it looks good!
+ New Simon Bolivar Leaderhead by Ekmek

+ Marine replaces Veteran Soldier for France.
+ New flag and colour scheme for France. I never liked that dark purple colour. They now use a nice royal blue. Iroquois moved to light blue and French King to a nicer dark blue.

+ Veteraan (needs a better name - can anyone Dutch suggest?) replaces Veteran Solider for Dutch.
+ Dutch have a custom replacement for the browncoat musketman
+ Revised Dutch Leaderheads by lionheart (and Dutch King renamed to Stadtholder)

+ Aztec Warrior - reskinned Aztec Jaguar
+ Sioux Warrior - reskinned Dog Soldier
+ Sioux Scout, Musketman and Cavalry by bernie14 (with horse textures adapted from M2TW)
+ Maya Warrior - added to the mod but not reskinned yet
+ Incan Warrior - added to the mod but not reskinned yet
+ Iroquois Warrior - merge of Logan Leaderhead and Native Warrior
+ Iroquois Scout, Musketman and Cavalry by bernie14 (with horse textures adapted from M2TW)
+ Apache Warrior - Apache leaderhead merged with bernie14 unit - my favourite leaderhead port so far.
+ Cherokee Warrior - based on the vanilla scout but using Celtic Warrior animations.

+ Implemented sezereth's blood spatter effects in most units.

+ Improved Veteran Units and REF using Oleg153's textures as a base.
+ Various mounted units have more realistic horses.
+ Tweaked a lot of unit scalings.
+ Main menu graphics and music (Vangelis - 1492 Main Titles).

Interface
I have added easy camera controls for panning the camera through 360 degrees and also tilting the camera (code by Lutefisk Mafia). This lets you have a look at the action from another perspective.

The hotkeys are:
Ctrl + LEFT/RIGHT arrow key: Rotate the camera in 45 degree increments.
Shirt + LEFT/RIGHT arrow key: Rotate the camera in 15 degree increments.
Ctrl or Shift + UP/DOWN arrow key: Tilt the camera in 5 degree increments
Ctrl + HOME: Return to default rotation and tilt.
(Remember ALT-I hides the interface and CTRL-I minimises it, so you can take and post screenshots!)

Gameplay
+ Gold as a resource! Gold sells for a very profitable 50 er... gold a unit in Europe, so it is worth seeking out and exploiting. (This still needs balancing I think - so post feedback)
+ Maya civilization. Using the standard Holkan graphic for the Warrior unit initially.

+ A tweaked version of Cephalo's FaireWeather called FaireWeatherTweak. In detail:
----- added a new parameter called Regularity which affects the regularity of the land shapes. Default 'Quite Irregular'. The default setting is more irregular than before, leading to some interesting maps. Due to the randomness involved, it is not guaranteed the Regular setting won't create irregular shapes - it is just affecting the likelihood.
----- rebalanced amount of Plains vs Grassland - more cotton and less tobacco.
----- slightly more jungle around the equator.
----- more tundra around the poles.
Some FaireWeatherTweak generated maps


+ Bonus placement reworked and optimized for FaireWeather/FaireWeatherTweak. In detail:
----- prevent resource 'clumping' - standard map scripts (A New World, Caribbean) avoid this because of fractal method used in terrain placement - you have forest next to a plains next to a marsh next to a grassland. The more realistic FaireWeather layout and man made maps suffered from resource clumping. (This does mean that if you want to play the stock fractal map scripts - you'll have too few resources, but you can always switch around the XML.)
----- Iron, Silver, Gold can appear on any hill - regardless of terrain or features (forest, jungle).
----- Fur and Deer can appear in grassland/forest as well as tundra and ice.
----- tweaked likelihoods and amounts of most resources to get a balanced mix, in particular Silver is much less common and Gold is quite rare.
Resources are placed randomly whether you are playing a scenario map or a mapscript map (this is standard in AOD2)

+ Spanish Carabela starts with Navigation I
+ French Marines start with Amphibious
+ Aztec/Maya Warriors start with Swamp Fox I
+ Sioux/Iroquois/Inca/Cherokee/Apache Warriors start with Skirmisher I

Screenshots







Credits
Credit goes to the following:
bernie14, sezereth, Ekmek, lionheart, Walter Hawkwood, Refar, Oleg153.
BLUModMod uses units ported from Empire Earth II and textures from Medieval II:Total War.

To install:
1) You need to have AOD2 version 1.10 installed. Get it here.
2) MAKE A BACKUP of your AgeOfDiscoverII folder in Mods - this modmod will overwrite some files in that folder so be warned.
3) Either unzip this file to Mods or first unzip and then copy the contained AgeOfDiscoveryII folder over the top of your existing one, saying yes to overwriting of files.
4) Start up the game using the Launcher shortcut in the folder.

I've only done very limited testing so far, and I have noticed a few minor graphic issues. If you notice anything or have problems then post in this thread and I'll fix them up or try to help.

>>>>>>>>>>>> DOWNLOAD HERE <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Changelog:

Enjoy!

Known Issues
+ Apache Warrior's arrow animation has pink tail
+ Unit scalings and unit icon scalings in the Europe Screen need to be reviewed/fixed.
+ Carrack icon pink when you scroll off.

Future Work
1. Import EE2 ships - Galleon, Privateer, Ship Of The Line, Frigate.
2. New Flags
3. Unarmed Marine and Unarmed Imperial Soldier.
4. French and Dutch Cavalry units.
5. New unit art for Arawak and Tupi.
6. Reskin (remodel?) Incan Warrior and Mayan Warrior.
7. More variety in unit faces - too many soldiers currenty have the same face.
8. Reskin basic browncoat Musketman and Dragoons.
9. Reskin cannons.
10. Pedia entries are a mess!

Looking awesome! Downloading it now.

I've updated BLUModMod to version 0.11. You can use the same download link to get it. I'd advise starting with a completely clean AOD2 1.10 - hopefully you kept a copy somewhere safe.

BLUModMod 0.11
Fixes/Changes
+ Maya Native civ now works correctly rather than Native civs being repeated.
+ Maya diplomacy text fixed.
+ Pink icon issue fixed as far as I know.
+ Conquistador scaled down to sensible size
+ Couldn't resist a bit of new content so added the EE2 Carrack model converted by Walter Hawkwood and Refar for Portugal.

good start and wish you good luck

Hey there...i read that gold is rare ...like how rare? i searched have the Caraibe map and didnt find any ...might be that i'we done something wrong or this map doesnt have it? (should i search more ?)

It also lacks an icon in the resources bar.

Deliverator said:

I've updated BLUModMod to version 0.11. You can use the same download link to get it. I'd advise starting with a completely clean AOD2 1.10 - hopefully you kept a copy somewhere safe.

BLUModMod 0.11
Fixes/Changes
+ Maya Native civ now works correctly rather than Native civs being repeated.
+ Maya diplomacy text fixed.
+ Pink icon issue fixed as far as I know.
+ Conquistador scaled down to sensible size
+ Couldn't resist a bit of new content so added the EE2 Carrack model converted by Walter Hawkwood and Refar for Portugal.

Click to expand...

Just as information if you didn't notice yet.
Play as Australia, and the merchantman still show a pinky box in the europe screen.

Edit:Veteran soldier and galleon has the same problem too

I am getting the same pink box in the trade screen with a spanish galleon. Also whenever I try and turn my veteran soldier into a dragoon my game crashes.

Thanks for the bug reports. I'll try and get these sorted starting with the Dragoon crash.

anunnak said:

Hey there...i read that gold is rare ...like how rare? i searched have the Caraibe map and didnt find any ...might be that i'we done something wrong or this map doesnt have it? (should i search more ?)

It also lacks an icon in the resources bar.

Click to expand...

Which map or mapscript are you using?

With regards to Gold, the bonus placement changes I've made are heavily geared towards the FaireWeatherTweak (and FaireWeather) mapscripts, and scenario maps. The stock Firaxis mapscripts A New World and Carribean both use a fractal generator whereas FaireWeather uses a more complex plate tectonics simulation. This means that a bonus placement system geared towards one doesn't work that well on the other. My advice: play FaireWeatherTweak - you can use the More Islands option if you want.

I'll add the gold icon to my list.

AaronOR said:

I am getting the same pink box in the trade screen with a spanish galleon. Also whenever I try and turn my veteran soldier into a dragoon my game crashes.

Click to expand...

Here's a quick patch for the pink box ships in the Europe Screen and a couple of other pinkies.

Copy this file to: .../Mods/AgeOfDiscoveryII/Assets/Modules/BLUMod

I couldn't recreate the veteran soldier issue. Could you give more detail or post a savegame? Anyone else seen this?

Deliverator said:

Here's a quick patch for the pink box ships in the Europe Screen and a couple of other pinkies.

Copy this file to: .../Mods/AgeOfDiscoveryII/Assets/Modules/BLUMod

I couldn't recreate the veteran soldier issue. Could you give more detail or post a savegame? Anyone else seen this?

Click to expand...

It fixed the problem
Thanks

As far as the dragoon issue goes it was specific to the spanish from what I have found so far. I have no problems with it happening with Australia. It could just be a bug on my end. I find sometimes that certain games just get bugged a certain action will make it crash no matter what. Two other bugs I have found are distorted graphics on the start page ( could just be my computer who knows) and also when you build a mine on a gold tile should it double the production of the tile? After I built a mine it was only showing 2 gold per turn with a expert gold miner.

AaronOR said:

As far as the dragoon issue goes it was specific to the spanish from what I have found so far. I have no problems with it happening with Australia. It could just be a bug on my end.

Click to expand...

Then again, if it's just the Spanish, it could be linked to the new Spanish conquistador unit said to replace the dragoon. The art is new, and the crash is new, they might just go together.

Good luck! --- Wheldrake

AaronOR said:

As far as the dragoon issue goes it was specific to the spanish from what I have found so far. I have no problems with it happening with Australia. It could just be a bug on my end. I find sometimes that certain games just get bugged a certain action will make it crash no matter what. Two other bugs I have found are distorted graphics on the start page ( could just be my computer who knows) and also when you build a mine on a gold tile should it double the production of the tile? After I built a mine it was only showing 2 gold per turn with a expert gold miner.

Click to expand...

Something else I should have explained. At the moment mines do not increase the yield of gold. Due to the high price of gold I decided 1 per turn without an Expert Gold Miner and 2 with was enough. Maybe it would be better just to reduce the price to something like 30/35, then have mine add 1 and Expert Gold Miner add one. I'd like to collect some feedback on Gold in general - in a test game I did the AI got early gold and it was insane - you think they uberexpand already? - you should see that...

I toyed with the idea that only Gold Miners could build Gold Mines - this would make them harder to get.

I'll check out the Conquistador upgrade. By 'upgrade' do you mean just giving the Conq guns and horses on leaving the settlement, or training a free colonist to be one in school?

I've updated BLUModMod to version 0.12. You can use the same download link to get it. I'd advise starting with a completely clean AOD2 1.10 - hopefully you kept a copy somewhere safe.

BLUModMod 0.12
Fixes/Changes

+ Rusty Gamer's buildings fixes
+ Koma's Europe Screen patch and his Multiplayer patch
+ Fixed the pink box ships in the Europe Screen and a couple of other pinkies.
+ Fixed Conquistador Caballero graphic that was crashing the game



If there are anymore crashes to desktop (not existing AOD2 crashes) it is probably one specific graphic file causing the issue like the mounted Conquistador case.

Get an unexpected CDT, not sure what might be causing it, Included Save File, the CDT happen on the very next turn.

I think that is a standard AOD2 bug - lots of people have posted the same thing on the AOD2 bug thread.

I'we installed the new version...here is what i found until now:

1. when selecting a Carrack and move elsewhere it shows a pink window
2. intendured servant and free colonist have diffrent sizes (in europe at least)

@anunnak: I've added your points to Known Issues

I have updated the BLUMod Americas scenario for BLUModMod. Find attached zip.

To install, you'll need to copy:

BLUModModAmericas.ColonizationWBSave to AgeOfDiscoveryII/PublicMaps
CvEventManager.py to AgeOfDiscoveryII/Assets/Python (Overwrite existing)
BLUMod_CIV4UnitInfos.xml to AgeOfDiscoveryII/Assets/Modules/BLUMod (Overwrite existing)

The scenario is playable as Dutch, English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. The pirates are in the scenario, but unplayable. It is possible to change the leaders by editing the ColonizationWBSave in any text editor. All the natives have their unique graphics. Bonuses and goody huts are randomly placed each time which hopefully adds replayability. Just don't complain if gold pops up in some funny locations occasionally!

The reasons for the other two file changes is that the AI wasn't settling properly and the Spanish Carabela did not have behavior consistent with the normal Caravel.

I would be really pleased if someone would create more historic scenarios using Modfather's other three maps (the attached scenarios was originally based on his New World map by Ozzy) which cover smaller sections of the Americas. Scenario creation is basically a mixture of using WorldBuilder and doing some tidyup and text editing of the ColonizationWBSave afterwards. This is a good resource for understand the WB file. If you refer to my file you'll see how I fixed the starting locations of each European colony.