Orbis - the original thread

It is really silent here recently.
Does it mean that there are no bugs or just no one plays it?

To make this topic more alive I decided to post a new version. It is a high time I release it.
I advise clean install, but it should work if you just overwrite the old one. Some icons (I recall 2) will not update.
For that you need to delete the following dds: erebus_atlas in main art folder and druidic in buttons/promotions.
Depending on the amount of changes required I will post 0.33 compatibile version either as a patch or as a new version, hopefully a few hours after it is avaliable.

I have not the time to update documentation at the moment. Please check the changelog in the second post.

Enjoy!

Still playing with it, great mod, love it. No bugs to report. I find something you know I'll holler at you.

The former.

Really, I haven't found a single bug so far. There's the odd "graphic meltdown", were unit graphic is switched with red blobs of doom, and usual CtDs late game on huge maps. But that has nothing to do with your mod. Hopefully the release of 0.33 will help sort that out.

The only things I could post now is feature requests, but it feels goofy to start writing a wishlist. So to turn things around. Do you have any questions for your players?

And don't be too worried about the silence of the lurkers. It's most likely due to the curse of ModMods. Ergo, if you want more noise you got to make more noise. Heck! I would never have known about your mod if I hadn't decided to post a suggestion in the MarnokMod thread. Didn't even know there was such a thing as FFH2 ModMods until then.

I really like your mod, even if I gave up last time because of a few CTD (not repetitive though), some of the features should be put in the original FFH
so I play either this one or Fall further
don't you consider including marmok use of villages ans lairds ?
thanks for the enjoyment

I've been playing ORBI on and off for the past couple of weeks. I've been trying out the guilds and stuff, not really trying to win but still finding myself ahead. Like many new features, the clever human player will find a way to benefit, while the AI ignores them. I suppose I should go up a level or two in difficulty.

Haven't yet installed the new version, but I'll get to that after I finish the game I'm on.

BTW: What does ORBI stand for anyway?

Ahwaric said:

It is really silent here recently.
Does it mean that there are no bugs or just no one plays it?

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I´m busy in RL for the moment ,i hope i´m able to play your mod
more extensive in about a week.

for the moment i have only ideas but feedback will come as soon as i´m able to play a few hours undisturbed

Found a bug. The Duskwood promotion doesn't seem to work as intended. At the moment it's always available when a unit levels up, regardless of access to the Duskwood resource. And if you have tapped the resource with a forester, only new units get the promotion, the old ones stay unupgraded.

In other words: It doesn't work as the Copper, Iron or Mithril promotion.

I LOVE this modmod, but assassins are still ugly for my Svartalfar people.
So I modded it
But the model with "Dark Elf Only Mod 1.1J" isn't so good, so i'm still sad.
Pleeeese, i need a good dark elf assassin!

Really like your mod. Playing the update now.
Thnx

Thanks for all the replies and good words people.
I guess I have sounded a bit desperate... But in fact I thought that you watch the olimpics

Wauthan said:

Really, I haven't found a single bug so far. There's the odd "graphic meltdown", were unit graphic is switched with red blobs of doom, and usual CtDs late game on huge maps. But that has nothing to do with your mod.

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Well, I hope you are right and it will keep it so. I added some graphics and suspected that some of them can be a bit broken. Did you experience the problems without Orbi?

Ergo, if you want more noise you got to make more noise.

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Well, I am quite shy in that matter...

As for the features requests, feel free to post them. I can't promise to add all of them, and do not really know if I will have much time to work on them soon, but still would like to hear it.

As for the duskwood bug, thanks for reporting. I will remove it form the list of promotions avaliable with level-ups. Unfortunatelly I currently do not know how to make it being applied to all units when you get the resource. The metal promotions are handled in SDK I think and for now I am limited to python & xml, so I am using the nightmare mechanics which works the way you described. I will try to find a solution though.

Rishardas said:

I LOVE this modmod, but assassins are still ugly for my Svartalfar people.

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I did not really touch the recon line, I did most graphics changes in melee one as I added the polearm line back and had to fill the void. I will look into it, but I am limited to the existing models for now and I think that svart assassin should be something special. I hope seZereth or other real art guys will look into it soon...
In the meantime, can you give me a general idea what you did and wanted to do?

As for my questions for you, I am interested in the general stability, bugs, even minor ones like misplaced icon and such, but the most I need the AI feedback. I tried to use AI-friendly ways of doing things, but spells are AI's weak spot. I guess you do not often see AI looking for resources using prospectors and millers, do you? I am especially interested in the guild balance and AI using them.

The name... Orbi is just "world" in latin. Well, orbis is the proper word, so orbi means something like "for the world". But that was not really intended.
I wanted the name that is in latin to give it a real medieval feel which I try to incorporate here. So, a medieval world, but I messed it a bit
But it is just a name, and not everyone can come to an idea so good as "Fall Further" - I really like that. Well, at least I could not...

Not seeing where one could make a resource a prereq. Maybe that is something Xien could add into the schema. Resource prereq's would have to be minoccurs of NONE but could be handy to add to some promotions, heck even be fun to add to some techs. But then again I only looked casually through the XML not the python.

edit:that actually sounds better than I thought. Imagine not researching anything past bronze working if you had to have some bronze first. or horses or reagents etc etc

Added that one in a few days ago actually You can specify as many resources (or as few) as you desire.

The only issue with making the Resource Pre-req be used for the Weapon Promotions is that those are also tied to a unit's WeaponTier. Though I am thinking I might as well add that as a pre-req just so we can get the Weapons out of the Python code as well. Useless tag for much of anything else though sadly. Maybe it can be tied to Unit Tier instead, since I already made that a Prereq option, and it DOES line up fairly well with what the Weapon Tiers typically are. But that leaves you out of luck for the oddball combinations (the few archers & Mounted or Disciple who can use Weapons)

On the other hand. It might be time for me to make the WeaponMod into a reality, even if I haven't completely sorted out how to handle the map portion...

Ahwaric said:

I did not really touch the recon line, I did most graphics changes in melee one as I added the polearm line back and had to fill the void. I will look into it, but I am limited to the existing models for now and I think that svart assassin should be something special. I hope seZereth or other real art guys will look into it soon...
In the meantime, can you give me a general idea what you did and wanted to do?

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You are right, I was OT a little
Anyway, I've done my first work, the Svartalfar Nightblade
It's just a light (darker ) reskin of Ljosalfar Assassin, but I think now it's pretty decent for a darkelf army.

The original post mentions it is for FFH .32 patch L, yet your changelog mentions the Mazatl and swamps. Is this compatible with FF .41?

Rawn said:

4.)about the fireship mentioned above
i think it shouldn´t be a unit itself but maybe a spelllike promotion available
with millitary strategy or warfare, which makes any ship you activate it on a fireship
maybe a new tech: naval tactics, new building: marine academy which adds the promotion to ships build in this city

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Maybe you turn a boat into a fireship with a spell that can kill the unit like burning blood?

Rishardas said:

You are right, I was OT a little
Anyway, I've done my first work, the Svartalfar Nightblade

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Not really OT, I just explained why I did not touch it yet...
I quite like your recolouring by the way, it looks much better in game than here. Does not fit perfectly the other svart units, but expect it added in the next version (if you do not mind). It is much better than this leather chick...

Jhoniten said:

Not seeing where one could make a resource a prereq.

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There is a tag in Bonusinfo.xml that allows to specify a free promotion the resource grats to a new build unit. If only it could be changed to grant the promotion for already build units, it would be fine.
New python tag would work fine, but that might be too much for such a simple change... Anything that conflicts metal weapons promotions is out of question, as all archers in Orbi can use bronze & iron, some can even get mithrill ones and I would like to keep that as it is.
For now, it will work exactly as nightmares do - only new units get it. sad, but you can get it quite early (with tracking), so it is not so hard to get all your units equiped with better bows or whatever they use (arqebusiers can get it too )

Regarding the fireships, I am afraid that promotion or spell would make Ai sacrifice all it's ships... Or just not use it at all. When I tried the fireships, AI did not used it the right way. I think the only way would be make a promotion that makes ship explode on lost combat, and that is not exactly what I wanted to do...
I am not conviced for the idea and because of the above issues, it will probably do not come back. It just did not feel right for me, more like cheating, and also do not add too much to combat.

Niveras said:

The original post mentions it is for FFH .32 patch L, yet your changelog mentions the Mazatl and swamps. Is this compatible with FF .41?

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No. I just added Mazatl civ here because I felt like I needed some civ specialized in jungles and Vehem agreed. But I do not plan to add any more FF civs. Not all of them I do like, also I did not play FF enough to be able to balance this mod in it. So, currently no plans for conversion. Do you think I should base Orbi on FF in more or less distant future ?
I can't support both FfH and FF versions. Too much work in updating and too much differences to make both veresions balanced without introducing big differences

Ahwaric said:

I quite like your recolouring by the way, it looks much better in game than here. Does not fit perfectly the other svart units, but expect it added in the next version (if you do not mind). It is much better than this leather chick...

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Yeah, anyway seZ has just promised a real model, so it's is only a temporary patch

Hey guys

Almost got the internet myself. Looking forward to trying out 0.12. Hope it fixes the issue I seem to run into whereby the game crashes out for no reason

Not sure whether this is a normal FfH problem or the ORBI mod!

Speak to you soon guys!

Al

just my 2 cents, but on the "to use FF as a base or not" issue, my suggestion is: "definitely make this use FF as a base!" it would be awesome imho, cuz the changes in this mod seem to complement those in FF really well. I admit I haven't tried this out yet, but just looking at the changelog is enough to tell ;P

btw, quick question: do the guilds you added overwrite the ones in base FFH, or does it mean that there are more guilds in this modmod?

thanx in advance for your reply and keep up the great work

As I said to Magister a while back, I'm quite happy to have a selection of modmods, each with its own unique features. Using another mod as your base invites complications as it evolves on its own. Isn't it enough having to track updates to the main mod? So make yours the way you want it with whatever components you think would make for a good game and don't worry about keeping up with the others. I'm sure I'll like it.