Apep's Modular Modmods: AltAmurites

AltAmurites - greatest mages of Erebus enchanced​

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The goal of AltAmurites modmod is to enchance Amurite civilization with custom buildings, units and gameplay mechanisms. I intended to give Amurites some "spice" and keep their unique flavour. All changes and additions are listed below (also see Civilopedia for details - everything is carefully described there).

Units:
NEW!!! - Dervish: replacement for Berserker; it's now quite unique warrior: cannot be built - only upgraded to from unit at level 6, has the ability to withdraw from combat, still causes collatheral damage, is a bit weaker than original Berserker,but can cast special "Prana" spell, which has a chance to deal damage and to stun it's targets;
NEW!!! - Fireguard: replacement for Champion, with no bonus against melee, but with Magic Resistance promotion;
- Arcane Archer: Amurite replacement for Arquebuz, a bit weaker, but able to cast second level spells from Fire and Earth domains (Fireball and Stoneskin);
- Mentat: replacement for Catapult, and the only Amurite siege unit; can cast Charm spell, and a custom Suffering spell (deals some damage to living units, but can be resisted);
- Warlock: replacement for Archmage, starting with Enchantment III; also changed the graphics of Amurite spellcasters.

Buildings:
NEW!!!- Power Site: replacement for Pagan Temple, giving additional +2 research and turning one citizen in Sage instead of Priest;
NEW!!!- Air Fort: replacement for walls (why to have walls, when you are protected by a mobile, flying castle?!); requires Masonry and Alteration, gives +2 research, +30% defence (also against bombardment), - 5 crime rate; and it hovers over the land!!! (no animations, though);
- Mage Tower: replacement for Alchemy Lab, available with Sorcery, and providing protection against enemy spells (increased spell resistance for all units in the city); this building can be built only in settlements with already developed educational facilities: it requires Library and Mage Guild;
- Arcane Academy: unique building, which can be built in cities with Mage Tower; available with Sorcery, allows two additional sage specialists, gives +25% bonus to Great Persons rate, and +10% science; Now it also gives +1 exp for Arcane units.

Credits:
Big thanks go to Danrell for his unit model series (I used some of these).
Arcane Academy model was originally Armenian Cathedral by Chamaedrys.
Power Site was originally Earth Element Order by HROCHland
Air Fort was School of Air Magic by Woodelf and Winddelay from Dragonia II mod

Voting in pools is OK but I also encourage you to post your comments and suggestions. I'd like to make my modmods as appealing to ANY gamer as possible. So... do you think that Amurites are too focused on warfare? Or maybe not enough? Should there be some new game mechanics or rather should I polish existing ones (eg. reduce the amount of micromanagement while using special power of Govannon)?

You could also tell me if you like my work on AltAmurites to that point.

I've always thought that the Amurite Ranger might need a spell. I mean if Harlequins get Chaos 2 and Mind 2, why shouldn't the Amurite Ranger get a little something?

I suggest you check out this older modmod by Tarquelne: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=9057
the merging of the two should be something to behold

[to_xp]Gekko;7160324 said:

I suggest you check out older modmod by Tarquelne

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I already checked it. Nice mod. But, to be honest, the whole mess with "replacing tech units" of Amurites led me to Mentat and Arcane Archer - a bit different than Tarquelene's propositions. I believe that multiplying wizard-styled units is pointless (beeing so good in magic, as Amurites are, does not mean beeing a wizard-only civ). Arcane Archer replaces Arquebuz and is an upgrade to Firebow, so complements good old mechanics, keeping flavour at the same time. Mentat may be something like "Siege Mage", but there's a totally different feeling to it.

All in all, there's no chance for merging both modmods (at least I don't plan such thing).

Apepis said:

a bit different than Tarquelene's propositions. I believe that multiplying wizard-styled units is pointless

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Yeah - I took a more direct approach. The Siege Mages fit well with the common emphasis on Fire. I like the Mentat a lot, though - "different" is generally better than "direct" IMO.

I might take another stab at the "Battlemage" sometime - never really satisfied with it. That's one place I do want to avoid a spellcaster... but also want something very "magical".

Good that you included an Archmage UU - I think they should have one. I'd give them something extra involving metamagic. OTOH, I don't have an actual specific suggestion.

Tarquelne said:

Good that you included an Archmage UU - I think they should have one. I'd give them something extra involving metamagic. OTOH, I don't have an actual specific suggestion.

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Heh... At first my idea to change Amurites' Archmages was to add them totally unique promotion, lets say, Arcane Mastery. It would make them a bit more vulnerable to spells (about -20 magic resistance; you know, old rusty wizards, who stayed too long in their labs, exposed to all sorts of dangerous magic influence). At the same time it would make their spells stronger - especially summoning, as 3rd tier spells are mainly about conjuration. Not willing to use python (it's modular mod, and I highly value that), I came with idea for Arcane Mastery to empower all creratures summoned by that especially gifted spellcasters with the Strong promotion (+1 str).

I know that's a good idea. Theoretically, it should be also very easy to implement. Unfortunatelly, it's impossible using modular xml loading, as FfH frequently works poorly with modular mods. And that's a shame.

Giving summons the strong promotion has one drawback. It makes the towers of elements and necromancy less valuable for the Amurites. They are required for the Amurites' most flavorful victory condition and should therefore be more valuable instead of less to them.

I would reccomend changing the name Warlock to something else. It may be from me playing Disciple II, but a Warlock will always be an evil death magic using psycho locked away in some ruins.

Minor thing that might just me for me, a Mentat is from the Dune books, which are sci-fi. I know the name is cool, but it should sound more 'fantasy'.

Dont take my comments as being harsh, I like the idea and its good to be seing the Amurites get some love.

^^^^

I agree, with the mentat business...

On a different note, perhaps add a national wonder for Amurites that allows them make battle mages at the cost of decreased production?

-->Another thread suggested a building that allowed certain mages to use upgraded melee weapons and added more spells.

Re: Battlemages, why not boost total strength by giving them a variety of magical damage types - fire, obviously, but a few others as well. That could make them vageuly interesting in that they'd be effective in general, but weakened to some extent by enemies with resistances. They could have their own magical weapons promos in they style of bronze/iron/mithril, only adding elemental damage rather than base strength. Just a thought.

Ajidica said:

Minor thing that might just me for me, a Mentat is from the Dune books, which are sci-fi. I know the name is cool, but it should sound more 'fantasy'.

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Actually, by pure definition, a mentat is someone whose mind is highly developed. In Dune, that development is emphasized towards military matters. In FfH, it'd make sense that a mentat would be a type of wizard/mage who has an ingrown ability to cast mind magic and other related spheres of magic.

Also, there are some fantasy books that've used mentat as a type of wizard/mage. Ya know, in the same way, a battle wizard is a form of wizard.

Yeah, I really like that idea Bee

What i want to see is Siege Mages. arent they in the pedia somewhere?

Just decided to give this a try, it installed fine and FfH2 opened just fine as well. A few things did go wrong though..

All of the new toys are shown in the Pedia.

I started a game as the Amurites to try this, and apparently their city art isn't visible. I checked with a few other civilizations, and this is only the case for them.

Whenever I load up the mod, I get an XML Error.

Also of interest, I couldn't load up any of my other saves that I already had.

Should I just not use this modmod? How would I go about removing it now?

Please help, this modmod looks like it'd be really enjoyable, and I would like to at least be able to play with them and see their cities. Though I am guessing the save games problem is simple enough and untreatable.

Well, go to your mods folder and jus delete the folder for this mod if you wanna get rid of it.

All the problems are because the mod was not compatibile with FfH2 034. My appologies for not updating it as fast as possible (it's not that much work, after all...), but now, finally, you can download new, compatibile version. As a bonus, I also added some new stuff, so check it out. See first post and download directory for details.

As of Psycho Ivans problems: go to your Fall from Heaven directory (in your Mods folder at the place where Beyond the Sword is installed), then find Modules folder and delete AltAmurites folder in it. You can also install new version and overvrite (your bugs won't happen again). The loss of your older saves is inevitable, I'm afraid.

wonderful! thanx for both this and the wonderspack

Wow, new units. Can't wait to try em.

This is a stupid question, but are all your mods compatible?