[MOD] Fall from Heaven II

[Kael]

Version: 0.41
Requires Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword patch 3.19 or greater

Downloads

Mod: Fall from Heaven II
Patch: Patch "j"
Media Pack: Media Pack
Blue Marble: Blue Marble for Fall from Heaven 2

Vanilla Civ4 version:

Fall from Heaven II 0.23c

Reviews:

Fall from Heaven II: before the Fall by Tom Chick
"Golems, not guns. Werewolves, not wolves. These are the ideas behind Fall from Heaven, a superb reworking of Civ that takes it to new fantasy realms" - PCGamer (07/2006)
"The real competition for Warlords is stuff like the superlative Fall from Heaven mod" - Computer Games (10/2006)
"I would never play that" - Kael's Mom (06/2007)
Nothingland Fall from Heaven Review
"Thanks, Kael. For destroying what was left of my weekend, you dick!" - Tom Chick (12/2007)
#2 on PC Gamers list of "200 Reasons to Love PC Gaming"

Fall from Heaven II is a dark fantasy mod for Civilization IV. The Age of Ice has ended, what is left of the once great empires of man have formed into small tribes, ready to rebuild and retake that which was lost. But the world is not empty. Hordes of barbarians await these new civilizations. Wild animals stalk hapless scouts and reckless emissaries. Giant spiders lie in patient wait in the jungles and the forests waiting for their prey to take that last, fatal, step.

There is great evil, but also selfless good. There are those who strive to remain neutral in the coming conflict as opposed ideologies break the world asunder once again. The first goal, is survival. The second goal is power, for good or ill. Will you pursue power through strength of arms or arcane studies, through piety or blasphemy? Choose carefully. On each path you will allies, and bitter foes, and the deeper you delve into the secrets of combat, or sorcery, or the divine, the harder it will be to turn back.

Here is a brief list of some of the new features in Fall from Heaven:

Magic! - Spellcasting units can take promotions in the different spheres of magic, granting them access to new spells and abilities. A unit has access to spells depending on what sort of caster it is and the spell spheres it chooses which of 14 spheres it wants to learn when it levels up (Fire, Entropy, Nature, Spirit, etc). Casters gain experience slowly automatically, so there is no need to risk them in combat as they pursue their studies in the mystical arts.

Experience - Veteran units are now more valuable. The base promotions have been essentially doubled, making the difference between experinced units and greenhorns especially noticeable. Also, new anti-racial promotions have been added, become the scourge of the elves, if it suits your fancy.

Upgrading - In order to upgrade the the strongest units a unit must first prove itself worthy. Do you want to be an Immortal? Unable to die, and thus able to fight for all eternity? Then you have to be at least a Lv. 6 Maceman.

Religions - Not all religions are created equal, and some of them effect the alignment of your civilizations. If you choose to follow the vile practices of the Ashen Veil, your civilization will descend into the depths of Evil. You will of course be rewarded with immense arcane power, knowledge and the aid of Demons. On the other hand, if you follow the Runes of Kilmorph, you will be able to obtain the aid of the reclusive dwarves and share in their love of gold and gems.

Heroes - In times of darkness and strife, heroes will rise to lead their civilizations to victory. Heroes are world units, that can only be built once. If they die, they cannot be rebuilt. Each civilization has at least one hero associated with it, as does each religion. Heroes gain experience each turn, meaning that in any given game, they will probably be your most powerful unit by far. They are capable of taking lightly defended cities by themselves, but they're only a short dogpile away from being dead, so protect them!

Technology - Specialization is the name of the game here, while you may be able to generalize into the first or second tier of techs, you're probably better off specializing in one of the various forms of combat or the arcane or the religious. Tech progression is noticable slower in FfH, giving you an opportunity to play with those new toys you just discovered. There are also religious specific techs, that cannot be researched unless you follow the appropriate state religion.

Links:

Fall from Heaven 2 forum
FfH2 Bug Thread
Fall from Heaven II Webpage
FfH2 Wallpaper
Frequently asked questions thread

Fall from Heaven facebook group (join to be notified when new versions are released)

Modmods and Scenarios:

Fall Further- a modmod for Fall from Heaven that adds a ton of new civilizations and features
Orbis- a modmod for Fall from Heaven that focuses on improving economic side of the game (with lots of extras too)
Dungeon Adventure, the 133rd K.R.A.G.- Winner of the FfH Scenario Design contest, control a dwarf warrior and explore both the world and dungeon maps
Prince of Darkness- A great scenario using the FfH scenario engine to provide quests, numerous heroes, and the challenges of dangerous map

Major Contributors:

Lead Design:
Derek "Kael" Paxton

Programmers:
Ben "Talchas" Segall
Stéphane "Sto" Nadry

Design Team:
Eli "Loki" Markham
Tom "Woodelf" Snyder

Art Team:
Philippe "C.Roland" Côté-Léger
Chalid
Stephan "seZereth" Weiß
Ilia "Rabbit, White" Draznin
Michael "AlazkanAssassin" Hall
Martin "Ploeperpengel" Zutz
Hexagonian

Writing Team:
William "Wilboman" Nordan
Jon "Corlindale" Duus
Randy "Nikis-Knight" Miller

Special Thanks:

Soren Johnson- For making an amazingly moddable game and taking time to help and encourage the growth of FfH.
Alex Mantzaris- For code help and adding functions to BtS so that FfH can do everything that it does.
Jesse Smith- For supporting FfH and working with us to get AoI into the expansion (I know he was ready to kill us when he found out how much text we wanted translated).
John Shafer- For his invaluable feedback in smoothing out the wrinkles and improving the design of FfH.
TheLopez- For providing the Scriptable Leader Traits
Thunderfall- For providing us CivFanatics and always supporting FfH
Maniac- Always helping with ideas (many of which we steal) and testing
Sureshot- Mini-mod maker and multiplayer tester
Vorshlumpf - Playtester extrondinaire
Kai "ColdFever" Fiebach - Creator of the BlueMarble terrain set
Fredrik "Grey Fox" Henriksson - For writing the FfH manual
Chugginator - For sharing his amazing art
jdog5000- For providing the AIAutoPlay mechanic
Xienwolf- For interface help, tons of ideas and work on the FfH manual
Cephalo- For providing the "Erebus" mapscript (it's his Creation mapscript renamed)
Marnok- For Developing the Explorable Lairs system
Smeagolheart- For developing the ability to examine a city before you decide to keep or raze it.

Version History:

0.11 Released Friday May 19th, 2006
0.12 Released Sunday June 4th, 2006
0.13 Released Friday June 23rd, 2006
0.14 Released Friday July 14th, 2006
0.15 Released Friday August 11th, 2006
0.16 Released Friday October 13th, 2006
0.20 Release Friday February 16th, 2007
0.21 Released Friday March 9th, 2007
0.22 Released Friday May 25th, 2007
0.23 Released Friday July 13th, 2007
(0.24 was a limited playtest release)
0.25 Released Friday October 5th, 2007
0.30 Released Sunday December 16th, 2007
0.31 Released Friday March 21st, 2008
0.32 Released Friday, May 23rd, 2008
0.33 Released Friday, August 15th, 2008
0.34 Released Friday, October 10th, 2008
0.40 Released Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Thanks:

A huge thanks to the artists I shamelessly cut tiny pieces of art from to make all of the icons and graphics used in this mod. Justin Sweet, Brom, Don Maitz, Keith Parkinson, etc etc are all amazing and contributed (unknowingly) not only the amazing art, but inspiration for a fantasy world through their work. Several icons are used from the GuildWars game for their clear evocative style.

Some of the songs heard in this mod are from the Eclipse Mod for Half-life 2 and Arcanum. There are also tracks from Might and Magic 7 and Disciples 2. Additionally there are small cuts (5-30 seconds) of songs from Enya and Cirque du Soleil throughout the mod.

Justin Sweet
Brom
Greg Staples
Jason Engle (used with permission)
Keith Parkinson
Don Maitz
Linda Bergkvist
Aleksi Briclot
Chain and Jane
Daniel Dociu
Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Santiago Iborra (used with permission)
Raymond Swanland

Rich Douglas (used with permission)
(used with permission)
Arcanum
Cirque du Soleil
Enya
Arcana

Questions:

Why do I have pink squares instead of a lot of the pictures?

You have installed the patch instead of the full mod. be sure to install the mod from above.

Can I play this if I have the steam copy of Beyond the Sword?

Yes, you will need to change the default path to "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\sid meier's civilization iv beyond the sword\Beyond the Sword\Mods" in the install program and it should work.

Is there a place where we can send donations to the developers for their time and effort and to keep this mod going?

We (the developers) don't require any payment, we just love to see people enjoying the mod. If you would like to make a donation, and are in a position to do so, please donate to www.unicef.com (http://www.unicef.org/support/index.html) and help improve our own world.

[Kael]

Choose your Civilization:



Choose your Religion:



Choose your Mana:



And try to survive armageddon.



Civilizations: http://kael.civfanatics.net/Civilizations.shtml

Religions: http://kael.civfanatics.net/Religions.shtml

[Kael]

Reserved .

[Kael]

Reserved .

[Kael]

Design Contests:

June 2nd, 2006
     Design a Unit: Abman won with the Giant Spider entry.

June 23rd, 2006
     Design a Spell: Zurai won with the Unyielding Order entry.

July 8th, 2006
     Design a Wonder: Nikis-Knight won with the Shrine of the Conquerer.

April 6th, 2007
     Design a Unit 2: Zuul won with the Animal Pack entry.

December 10th, 2007
     Design a Unit 3: Verdian for his entry "Divided Soul"
     Design an Event: Xuenay for his entry "Commerce Feud"
     Design a Wonder 2: Kol.7 for his entry "City of a Thousand Slums"

[The Great Apple]

Hmmm - looks like I can post now.

Originally Posted by Kael

Download here: (Coming tomorrow)

... and there I was thinking you were going to release it one day early!

[Chalid]

Great Mod. Ill try it.

Oh i did already try it... but its still a great Mod.

[seZereth]

Well in my eyes, FfH is for Civ something like counterstrike was for half life.
Your mod is amazing in its depth and its technique, pimp it up graphically and it will be better than any commercial fantasy strategy / rpg game :P

what i wanted to say, congratulations you are doing an outstanding job!

EDIT: now that i am a proud member of the design team, i will give my best to pimp it up personally hope my work will lead to an even greater enjoyment

[TheJopa]

Chalid...I'm mad at cha....
Now, the saddest thing is that I might be unable to download it tomorrow. Because I don't have DSL at home. Major qouestion: How big is the download?

[Kael]

Originally Posted by TheJopa

Chalid...I'm mad at cha....
Now, the saddest thing is that I might be unable to download it tomorrow. Because I don't have DSL at home. Major qouestion: How big is the download?

About 150meg compressed.

[Rabbit, White]

Awesome!

[TheJopa]

150 MB is fine with me. Very fine, in fact, I expected it to be over 200-250. Now everything under 256 is ok, because my MP3/USB can store 256MB.

[Mesix]

I'm looking forward to trying it out.

[Xanikk999]

Nice! I just noticed you added a new religion.

Speaking of which are thier any dragon units?

Dragon barbs would be awesome kael.

Like wandering red dragons could act as animals and not enter your territory but could be very hard to defeat!

Just a thought.

[Chammadai]

So there won't be a version with 1kb music files? It would be useful but if you decide not to do it (or not to do it just yet) then... many people will download the full version, heh.

I've noticed that Illians appeared in the succesion games while they are scheduled for Shadow phase. Will they appear in current version and will be remade later on or is something sinister happening...?

@Chalid
Stop teasing the masses, you nasty imp!

[Xanikk999]

Oh i just noticed its not a new religion but a "cult".

Doesnt matter to me. But im wondering does it have any benificial effects if your not one of those civs you mentioned?

Oh and i still think wandering barb dragons would be an awesome idea for a patch if its not already included.

[Xanikk999]

I just had another idea in case you want to add it in the future.

What about barb dragons that sit in one place but guard a special "goody hut" called a treasure den?

The dragons would be extremely tough but the treasure den could give you goodies like a new tech only accessible that way or thousands of gold!

They could be discovered early in the game but theres no chance in hell you could kill it so early.

Take this into account and tell me what you think.

[Corlindale]

Doesnt matter to me. But im wondering does it have any benificial effects if your not one of those civs you mentioned?

No, no benefits for non-dragon civilizations. If the Cult spreads to one of your cities, you'll want to call the Inquisition quickly, or use Purge the Unfaithful.

[Xanikk999]

Originally Posted by Corlindale

No, no benefits for non-dragon civilizations. If the Cult spreads to one of your cities, you'll want to call the Inquisition quickly, or use Purge the Unfaithful.

Tell me what you think about my idea one post above yours. Im very ancy about this new mod!

[Corlindale]

Tell me what you think about my idea one post above yours. Im very ancy about this new mod!

Well, I'm not the one deciding what gets included... But I know Kael has been talking about having a barbarian dragon guarding a treasure.