Advice for a new player (who rates improvements over additions)

riadsala

Chieftain
Joined
Sep 23, 2004
Messages
84
Hello,

I've only recently got round to playing FfH2 (yeah yeah, what took me so long), and have been enjoying it. I've read that a) the FfH2 AI can be a bit hit or miss, and b) Wild Mana has a better AI, along with a whole host of other improvements.

Is there an easy way to get the improvements WM brings to FfH2 (better AI, deeper magic, etc) without all the additions. In particular, I'm still trying to get to grips with all the factions and leaders in FfH2, and am not really sure I want any more! (maybe something I'd be interested in the future)

Also, I think that WM's barbs may be a little bit OTT for me... spawning in empty visible tiles for example... but I *do like* the lairs and assorted beasties that FfH2 introduces. I like that the forest feels like a dark and dangerous place and that I have to make multiple scout units if I want to explore properly.

Also, what game speed works well? I used to play Epic on Beyond the Sword (marathon always felt a little toooooo slow, and normal never gave enough time to enjoy the medieval period imo).

Am I right in thinking that FfH2/WM has a slower default pace anyway? My current game is on normal, and seems about right, but I've only played around 100 turns. Is WildMana slower than normal FfH2? It seems to be.

Oh, and thanks for all your great work. Apologise if this is all covered in a "new user guide" somewhere.
 
Is there an easy way to get the improvements WM brings to FfH2 (better AI, deeper magic, etc) without all the additions. In particular, I'm still trying to get to grips with all the factions and leaders in FfH2, and am not really sure I want any more! (maybe something I'd be interested in the future)
no that would be ton of work, but you can just use the factions from basic ffh if the new stuff is overwhelming you.

Also, I think that WM's barbs may be a little bit OTT for me... spawning in empty visible tiles for example... but I *do like* the lairs and assorted beasties that FfH2 introduces. I like that the forest feels like a dark and dangerous place and that I have to make multiple scout units if I want to explore properly.
i, too hate random spawning off of lairs, that is why i always enable the option: barbarians only spawn in fog of war. they will still spawn on random tiles, even when there is not a lair, but at least they don't spawn on visible tiles anymore.

if you think, wildmana 8.x has already too many additional game mechanics, wildmana 9.0 will crush you ,but in a good way :)
 
I'm still trying to get to grips with all the factions and leaders in FfH2, and am not really sure I want any more! (maybe something I'd be interested in the future)

Just in case, since tesb didn't make it explicit: There's a specific custom-game option to play without the new civs. I think it's just before the Technology Trading/Brokering options.

If you look in the CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml file for the new civs (look for the civ's folders in Assets\Modules\NormalModule. Many are within the FFHPLUS\Civs folder.) you can set bAIPlayable to "0" rather than "1" for each civ individually.
 
Fantastic... I'll explore some of those settings next time I start a new game :)

Can I do the same with the new leaders? (again, this is something I'd maybe re-enable once I'm used too all the normal FfH2 leaders).
 
There is a option for not including new leaders. I think the name was something about familiar faces... I can look it up when I'm home. Think it was close to the bottom.
 
There isn't a way to disable the changes to improvements, is there? I've never micromanaged my workers, and I really don't plan on starting anytime soon. But the other features of Wild Mana/Master of Mana are pretty advanced.
 
no, but automated workers should work, because their ai was adjusted to the changes made. (but will be possibly improved in the coming patch)
 
I didn't want to start a new thread so I hope it's ok posting this here.

It seems like summons have been severely nerfed. at least from a Sheaim point of view. Before I could keep building adepts and maintain an army of skeletons, now I can really only have 1 skeleton for most of the game. I think with the new mana system, there should be no upkeep cost for skeleton summons. You are already making an opportunity cost on summoning them by not spending the mana on other spells, enchantments, etc.
 
I didn't want to start a new thread so I hope it's ok posting this here.

It seems like summons have been severely nerfed. at least from a Sheaim point of view. Before I could keep building adepts and maintain an army of skeletons, now I can really only have 1 skeleton for most of the game. I think with the new mana system, there should be no upkeep cost for skeleton summons. You are already making an opportunity cost on summoning them by not spending the mana on other spells, enchantments, etc.

as long as you have enough mana, you can summon plenty of skeletons or other creatures. It depends totally on your preferences... with the new system your summons are no longer only canonfodder, but unique upgradable units wich spread very special combat auras. And there are a lot of very powerful summons:cool:
 
And of course, Xtended MoM module gives extra benefits for Summoner promotion, as well as Sheaim's Sundered. In short, with Summoner and Sundered, you will have an increased combat aura range AND pass more promotion to summons. Quite powerful, I say :)

Of course, you also can play as Keelyn. Since all Balseraphs puppets now able to cast level 1 spells, Keelyn (Puppet + Summoner) means you can keep your mages at back line, send in the puppets, cast spells and see enemies crumble before you :D

(shameless advertorial OFF :lol:)
 
Yesterday I played a game as sidar and had a few mistforms summoned - they are so cool. Hidden nationality, invisible - go and pillage :lol: + their combataura give invisibility to a limited number of "normal" units... good for exploring wilderness.
 
Don't like the new summons very much.
Summoned a skeleton for impressive 200 mana and was rushed by a simple warrior stack.
Instead of attacking my city directly they spread out to pillage my tile enhancements (excellent move by the way).
Therefore I couldn't just defend but had to attack.
Tried that with three adepts, a skeleton, some warriors and archers and a council of esus enforcer.
It was a desaster. The adepts and their damages spells and combat auras were completely useless. Same with the skeleton. Helpless like a little baby confronted by just a bunch of warriors.
The only unit that could actually really do something was the Enforcer since it had what really matters: Strength!!!

I think if the skeleton would cost something around 20 - 30 mana, it might be worth it, but 200 mana?! What a joke!

In general I think combat auras are completely overused. I played a lot of Master of Magic during christmas time. (There were recently new fan patches realeased, so it was a good opportunity to pick it up again.) And only summons like angels, archangles and specific units like paladins had combat auras in Master of Magic. In short words, units where the auras actually fit.
But in general it had summons for almost every purpose from cannon fodder to super monsters while Master of Mana restricts the summons to more or less walking holy light spells instead of the power monsters they should be. The beasts of Agares for example would be great monster summons, but they still are normal buildable units.
 
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