Militia Promotions (minor mod)

[Tholal]

This is a very simple mod whose purpose is to add a little bit of flavor to the basic troops via semi-random, terrain-based promotions. In short, there is a small chance that a newly built unit will gain an extra, free promotion on creation based on the type of terrain around the building city.

This mod is compatible with FfH2 0.41g. Current version of this mod is 0.2


UPDATE NOTES:
Version 0.2
* Changed icon for Cliff Walker promotion
* Fixed check for Hell terrain so that it looks for all four types of Hell terrain
* Added the possibility to acquire the amphibious promotion based on number of Shore tiles next to the city
* Slightly increased chance for these promotions to appear

Download Militia Promotions mod

DETAILS:

This mod checks the terrain around the building city everytime a unit is built as long as the unit is alive, is not a hero, and is not a settler or worker. There is a small chance that the unit will receive a bonus, terrain-oriented promotion based on the current terrain around the city.

Three of the possible promotions are already existing ones:

Winterborn - Based on number of Snow and Tundra tiles (Illians and Doviello are excluded from this check)
Demon-slaying - Based on the number of Hell terrain tiles (Infernal are excluded from this check)
Amphibious - Based on the number of Shore tiles

And three are brand new:

Cliff Walker - Based on the number of Hills and Peak tiles
+10% attack and defense in hills

Sand Devil - Based on the number of Sand tiles
+10% attack and defense in desert

Tree Warden - Based on the number of Forest, Ancient Forest and Jungle tiles (both elven civs have reduced chance to receive this promotion)
+10% attack and defense in Forest, Ancient Forest and Jungle

It is possible (though extremely unlikely) for a single unit to get all six promotions if they have at least one tile that fits into each category around their city.


This mod includes edits to the following files:

CvEventManager.py
CIV4PromotionInfos.xml
CIV4GameText_FFH2.xml

You should make backups of these three files prior to installing the Militia Promotions mod.

This mod also includes three new promotion icons. These should be placed in the the FFH folder under Art\Interface\Buttons\Promotions (Note: you'll probably have to create this folder)

himalayas.dds - Taken from this graphics pack. Used for the Cliff Walker promotion
markofthescorpion.dds - Taken from the Age of Ice scenario. Used for the Sand Devil promotion
shamrock.dds - Taken from this graphics pack. Used for the Tree Warden promotion

This mod was mostly created as a self-lesson on how to modify the python files. As such, I mainly just cut and pasted codes from different parts of the file and tweaked it to do what I wanted. So I would love to hear any comments on the code. Am I doing anything wrong? Is there a better way to handle the terrain and promotion checks? Did I miss something important?

I would love to hear any gameplay feedback and I'm willing to continue updating and tweaking this mod if there is any interest in it.

(code snippets removed for the moment)

STILL TO DO:
* Come up a better, non-linear formula
* Change base chance to a variable to enable easier future adjustments
* Icons for new promotions (I'm still not happy with the ones I have)
* Localization
* Installer

[[to_xp]Gekko]

nice idea and very interesting mechanic!

[cyther]

Very cool. Could I use it in the next version of Rise of Darkness?

[Tholal]

Originally Posted by cyther

Very cool. Could I use it in the next version of Rise of Darkness?

Certainly! Unless otherwise stated, I consider anything I post here to be public domain. And the code is pretty simple and self-contained, so it should be relatively easy to modify/tweak.

[Sephi]

Tholal, I read you plan an update for this. Any ETA on this?

[Tholal]

Originally Posted by Sephi

Tholal, I read you plan an update for this. Any ETA on this?

Yeah. I updated the code this weekend but haven't tested it much. I'll try and do that tonight. Nothing major. Here are the planned updates:

* New icon for the Cliff Walker promotion
* Updated the check for Hell terrain to include all 4 types
* Added check for shoreline (chance to grant amphibious promotion)
* Slightly increased chance for promotions to be granted

[Tholal]

Updated to version 0.2 See first post for details.

[Sephi]

great! Thanks