Module - More Great Sage buildings

far_wanderer

Prince
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Dec 20, 2008
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I feel that Great Sages are lacking a bit in usefulness. Academies are amazing, but after I build one or two I usually find myself very disappointed whenever a Sage pops up. So, I made this module to give them a few more building options.

Martyr's Ward - The Sage sacrifices themselves to permanently ward the city against attack. This building grants a variety of defensive boosts to units in the city (most of them are through an auto-acquire promotion, so don't freak out when you see how little the building itself does).
Master Alchemist - The Sage settles down and takes up the practice of alchemy. Provides 2 health and allows the purchase of Healing Salves (for 100 gold), Newt's Draughts (200) and Potions of invisibility (400)
Controlled Rift (requires Pass Through the Ether) - The Sage establishes control over a rift to unknown dimensions. Units in the city may cast Explore Dungeon
Djinni Bazaar - The Sage summons a Djinni merchant to the city who sets up shop and sells wondrous items (for very high prices)
  • Compelling Jewel - 2000 gold
  • Hauberk of Abjuration - 3000
  • Heart Amulet - 2500
  • Jade Torc - 2000
  • Menacing Helm - 2000
  • Ring of Perception - 1500
  • Ring of Striking - 2500
  • Swift Boots - 1500
  • Traveler's Cloak - 2000

EDIT: New version up now. The above description has been changed to reflect it. Prices lowered considerably, icon for Buy Compelling Jewel fixed.

To Do:
  1. Someone who actually plays the game competitively should make balance suggestions.
  2. A few more potions would be nice.
  3. A little civilopedia documentation.
Feel free to suggest ideas for other Great Persons
 

Attachments

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First up: technical
Quite a few of the items involved here have broken or misplaced button/promotion/spell art. However, every single one of them does have it's own art. I've already gone through and sorted them out. It will be all fixed in patch C. You'll probably have to update this module then unless you sort it now.

For compelling jewel, either the promotion or one of the two take spells, already has the correct art (and the others do not). If you check all three places, you'll find the correct dds somewhere. You'll want to point your purchase at that.

Ok, that aside.
I like the ideas here, a lot. Controlled rift is particularly fun sounding.
I'd say though that the prices you have for all of these things are far too expensive. I'd say reduce all prices by 60-80%. For most of the game, a cost of 400+ gold is prohibitively expensive for even heroes
 
But if you load down even an axeman with all of those items by turning off research for a few turns, he becomes Axe-God.
 
ok, good point.

Maybe, reduce the Djinn equipment by a bit, but not much. say...25%
But reduce the potion costs significantly, since those are consumable. You could buy a small army for 400 gold, it's not worth that much for something that'll be gone after one use.
 
First up: technical
Quite a few of the items involved here have broken or misplaced button/promotion/spell art. However, every single one of them does have it's own art. I've already gone through and sorted them out. It will be all fixed in patch C. You'll probably have to update this module then unless you sort it now.

For compelling jewel, either the promotion or one of the two take spells, already has the correct art (and the others do not). If you check all three places, you'll find the correct dds somewhere. You'll want to point your purchase at that.
Really? I didn't touch anything with the items themselves, I just put in spells that added the relevant promotion to the casting unit. Good to know there is art for Compelling Jewel, though, I'll dig for it later this evening.
Ok, that aside.
I like the ideas here, a lot. Controlled rift is particularly fun sounding.
It's my favorite too.
I'd say though that the prices you have for all of these things are far too expensive. I'd say reduce all prices by 60-80%. For most of the game, a cost of 400+ gold is prohibitively expensive for even heroes
But if you load down even an axeman with all of those items by turning off research for a few turns, he becomes Axe-God.
ok, good point.

Maybe, reduce the Djinn equipment by a bit, but not much. say...25%
But reduce the potion costs significantly, since those are consumable. You could buy a small army for 400 gold, it's not worth that much for something that'll be gone after one use.
Prices are the main thing I was referring to when I said "someone who actually plays competitively should make balance suggestions". Do you two think I at least have the proportions right in terms of what costs more and what costs less? Next version I'll drop potion prices by half and take 500 gold off of each of the Djinn items.
 
I think you rate potions of invisibility too highly. And I think even half of current potion prices may still be a bit too much.
 
I think you rate potions of invisibility too highly. And I think even half of current potion prices may still be a bit too much.
It's not that I rate any of the potions too highly, it's that I rate gold too low. I'm a small empire builder, so I generally have surplus gold even at 100% science. That's why I need someone with a different playstyle to try it out and make suggestions.

I want to keep Invisibility high enough that you buy it with a mission in mind, rather than just picking it up to have one on hand.
 
What about making them cheaper, but adding a minimum level to purchase certain items? So my level 8 champion (who has a name and is basically a hero) can buy things, but a fresh newbie can't?
 
What about making them cheaper, but adding a minimum level to purchase certain items? So my level 8 champion (who has a name and is basically a hero) can buy things, but a fresh newbie can't?
I might do that if I were making new items, but the problem is that these are already existing items, and can be transferred between units.
 
The new version is up now. I fixed the Buy Compelling Jewel icon and significantly cut prices.
 
Honestly, those prices sound about right to me. Aside from that most evil of items: The Jade Torc. :lol: Get the thing constantly, seems like it should be cheaper. Mostly hatred talking there though.

As for the other ideas... I love the controlled rift. I think I'm still going to go with my idea for the Master Enchanter, but I may have to borrow the Rift if you'll let me. :lol:
 
I feel that Great Sages are lacking a bit in usefulness. Academies are amazing, but after I build one or two I usually find myself very disappointed whenever a Sage pops up. So, I made this module to give them a few more building options.

You, kind gentleman, are my hero of the month! This is really much more than I hoped for, controlled rift expecially (sp?) sounds like a lot of fun!
Thanks for the spoilers in the other thread too :)

For potions... No need of much brainstorming really, we already have a lot of effects you could borrow:

Cure disease
Cure poison
Haste
Courage
Dance of blades (maybe give more than 1 FS)
Water Walking (fun with a time limit, like 5-10 turn!)

And as magical items:

Summon Something (Call it "figurine of wondrous power"... ahem...!)
Floating Eye

Those would be nice to have on some units other than mages!
 
Honestly, those prices sound about right to me. Aside from that most evil of items: The Jade Torc. :lol: Get the thing constantly, seems like it should be cheaper. Mostly hatred talking there though.

As for the other ideas... I love the controlled rift. I think I'm still going to go with my idea for the Master Enchanter, but I may have to borrow the Rift if you'll let me. :lol:
Go for it. Controlled Rift actually turned out to be the most ridiculously simple thing ever to implement. You'll laugh when you see the code. If you add it to FF+, I'd suggest going into the python and making a new results table, though. Right now it just uses the already existing code due to module limitations. At the very least, make demons spawn for bad results instead of orcs.
You, kind gentleman, are my hero of the month! This is really much more than I hoped for, controlled rift expecially (sp?) sounds like a lot of fun!
Thanks for the spoilers in the other thread too :)

For potions... No need of much brainstorming really, we already have a lot of effects you could borrow:

Cure disease
Cure poison
Haste
Courage
Dance of blades (maybe give more than 1 FS)
Water Walking (fun with a time limit, like 5-10 turn!)

And as magical items:

Summon Something (Call it "figurine of wondrous power"... ahem...!)
Floating Eye

Those would be nice to have on some units other than mages!
Healing Salve already gets rid of disease and poison. I like the other potion ideas, though. I'll have to experiment and see if I can do them with just XML. I'm not too keen on adding more magic items just yet, though. Those will probably stay as is for a while.
 
Great module :goodjob:. Now if someone could make those bards and marchants a little bit useful...:D
 
to install any module (unless specified otherwise by the author), you place it's folder inside assets/modules/normalmodules, in your FF directory. Then just start the game up and it will work, assuming there are no issues with the module.
 
to install any module (unless specified otherwise by the author), you place it's folder inside assets/modules/normalmodules, in your FF directory. Then just start the game up and it will work, assuming there are no issues with the module.

Great, thanks :)
 
What a neat collection of ideas! Good work. Hopefully someone will contribute your desired civilopedia entries, I am sure some interesting quotes and fiction type stuff could be associated with your new ideas.

I will have to play around with it, but I think the big standout idea there seems to be "Controlled Rift." Sounds almost Wonder-worthy! A lot of downside risk of dungeoneering would seem to be taken out of the equation by having one dude on a high culture, well defended city tile full of archers or something like that, do the dungeon delve, and even if "a powerful guardian rises from the lair" type results come up, so what, they'll just dash themselves against your defenses! Sure you could still end up with badly mutated units, crazed units, "never emerges from the depths" units, but anyhow, this sounds like a lot of fun.
 
Damn. This module looks great.

Can I insert a module like this into my current game and run it fine, or will I have to wait until my next game to try this wonderful idea out?
 
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