Which FFH variant

Nilor

Chieftain
Joined
Sep 2, 2010
Messages
4
A few days ago, I discovered the FFH mod after a long time without CIV IV.

I would like to thank all the contributors for their work and dedication, because I am very impressed by this mod :king: -as probably most people in this subforum are ;) -.

I have also tried the Wild Mana modmod. I really liked several features, but I wasn't sure whether all these new features will prove to be too much of everything for my liking. :crazyeye: Do you think it is worth learning the finesses of this mod when looking for strategic value in particular? Or do you recommend staying at the vanilla version of FFH with maybe an AI/interface mod? (more Naval AI looked really promising to me) Or maybe a completely different mod like Orbis or Rife?!

Phrased differently: which mod(s) do you recommend given that I consider the following aspects the most important ones:

-Good/Challenging AI
-Balance (in particular races/leaders, but also civics, etc)
-Meaningful choices
-Not too much micromanagent (keep it simple)
-Stable

Another question: which FFH mod is the most popular in multiplayer games? I haven't played CIV IV in MP yet because of lack of time, but if one mod is often played online in particular, it would be a nice plus.

Sorry if these questions has been asked too often already: I searched for similar threads on the forum, but most were pretty old already or the OP was looking for a more expanded universe instead, which I am not specifically looking for.
 
well to me those important features you noted scream Wild Mana, although you should probably also try RifE and Orbis as they are all different and excellent in their own way.

latest stable WM version is 8.34, available from the wildmana subforum here... you can also join the betatesting of 9.0 if you want, check the first post in the "wildmana 9.0 beta" thread if interested :D
 
Thanks a lot. I will give Wild Mana a real try then this weekend!
 
How is WM 8.34 for stability and ease of play anyhow? The last I tried WM was just after the "Revolutions in Erebus" release. I found it rather slow and murderously prone to memory faults. A real pity because Sephi has added a lot of good features and his AI upgrades are first rate improvements to the mod. Given the sheer volume of new features that have been added in the meantime, I doubt that the stability issues inherit to WM have been resolved, but I thought I would ask.
 
The fact that the AI can properly use boats to settle or invade overseas is a must for me.
To be stuck on a pangea type map gets old quick imo.

Thats why Vanilla FFH + More Naval AI = my favourite setup
 
More Naval AI and the Erebus Continents mapscript are the way to go for me. Very stable and good AI. I’m never certain if other mods have AI capable of, I don’t know, getting in a boat and they do tend to be less stable than base FFH2.
 
About the AI, BvBPL, and/or whomever else would like to comment, I have two questions:

Where can I find the best AI for FfH2?
Why do you think this is the best AI?

Military-wise the AI to me seems pretty good at building but not so much at using what it has built to its advantage. Particularly those boats.

What a great game btw

Thanks
:)
 
More Naval AI (MNA) is really good. I’m not sure if it is the best mod AI, but it certainly sets the bar very high. One of the big benefits of MNA is that it is applied to the more or less complete base FFH2 which means that Tholal is able to code the AI for a static set of variables and actions. In contrast, the other mods are still in development so the AI may not be fully capable of handling all variables. For example, I know that in at least one mod the Scion civilization (not present in base FFH2) cannot be run by the AI. I’m sure the developers are working on a solution to this, but the issue is glaring.

I think several mods had significant problems getting the AI to use boats properly. I’m not sure which still do, but if you want to play something other than pangea maps you should be aware of the issue.

I’d say the best thing to do is install MNA, play a game or two with it, and then install other mods and play a few games w/ those and see what one you like. Personally, I think that FFH2 + MNA gives a lot of replay potential by itself, so I don’t have a lot of drive to play other mods right now, but I’m sure that will change.

By the way, More Naval AI is more than just more naval AI. Tholal has tweaked a lot of AI behaviors beyond just getting it to put units on boats. For example, the AI has a terraformer code for units to improve the terrain. There are some gameplay changes between MNA and base FFH2, but they are minor compared to the differences between, say, FFH2 and Orbis.

I also think it is very worthwhile to download and install the Erebus Continents mapscript.
 
Thanks man

I'll check that out. I just started playing FhF2 a couple of weeks ago, so there should be plenty of hours in it before trying out the other modmods.

Best!
 
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