Mod Information
Civilizations
1. Dreamers (Republic of Dreams)
Human explorers, inventors and pirates. An expansionist civilization with good naval units. They are one of the few civs that have access to gunpowder-based units - Musketeers and Cannons. Their most impressive UU is a flying ship.
2. Griffites (Griffite Kingdom)
A Human nation, resembling a medieval European kingdom. They specialize in mounted units, and get bonus yields from Pastures. They can also train Griffin units (I hope someone will convert this unit from FFH or make a new one).
3. Archons (Holy Archon Empire)
Humans with a Greco-Roman and religious theme (not unlike the Highmen/Archons from the Age of Wonders series). They have good priests and strong Legion units, as well as access to some divine beings, like the Angels (again, hopefully someone will make a model for such unit).
4. Essentes (Enchanted Kingdom of Essentes)
Humans with a strong sense of magic. They have good magical units, and generate more mana (yield) and magical power (strategic resource) than other races.
5. Calx aka Stone People (Dominon of Calx)
Human-like beings, strong at defense. They have access to a special improvement, called Creator Statue, which makes their nearby units stronger. They get bonus yields from Quarries, and are masters of Earth Magic.
6. Vodniks
Fresh water spirits, they get bonuses from rivers, lakes and marshes. -1 food from Plains. Masters of Water Magic.
7. Windwalkers
A fast Human-like race, all foot units get +1 movement. They are good at commerce and Air Magic.
8. Snobar (Snobar Clans)
The name "Snobar" comes from "Snow Barbarians" but they are a civ, not barbarians. Viking-like Humans, they get better yields from Snow and Tundra terrain, but also -1 production from Plains and -1 food from Flood Plains. Good at making amphibious assaults.
9. Nikkei (Empire of Nikkei)
Humans with a far-east theme. They have some "exotic" units and are good at science. Probably will have Japan's UA - damaged units fight as at full strength.
10. Azracs (Azrac Empire)
Humans living in the desert (the name comes from the original Age of Wonders game). They get extra yields from the Desert terrain and can build a special improvement there, but get one less food from Grassland. They have some special units, like Camels and Elephants (Elephants can also be used by Nikkei and Lemuria), and a unique process - Caravans, which gives some gold and some science (and also some culture and mana, if it's possible to make such process in the expansion or with the DLL), which is more effective than the standard processes that give only one yield type.
11. Lemuria (Tribes of Lemuria)
Humans living in the jungle. They have access to many jungle-dwelling creatures as UUs (need models). Also yield and combat bonuses related to Jungle. Good recon units.
12. Elves (Elven Kingdom)
Typical stuff - Bonuses in Forest, good archers, some special magical units. Good culture.
13. Halflings (Halfling Shire)
Good farmers. Units are weaker than other races, but can retreat from combat when losing. Less unhappiness from population (0.3 instead of 0.5), more from number of cities (12 instead of 10).
14. Gnomes (Gnomish Kingdom)
Inventors. They have access to many unique mechanical units, and get extra science from Workshops (it's an improvement that can be built on flatlands and gives production, like in Civ4). Good siege units.
15. Dwarves (Dwarven Kingdom)
As usual - good miners, combat bonus in Hills, melee units good at defense. Some gunpowder and steam units (Cannon, Steam Tank, Ironclad) are available to them.
16. Orcs (Red Horde)
They have the same units as the Barbarians. Can convert Barbarians in camps to their side. A combat oriented civ with an offensive bonus for melee units. Less unhappiness from number of cities (8 instead of 10), more from population (0.6 instead of 0.5).
The following civs probably won't be available in early versions of the mod, due to the complicated nature of their planned unique abilities, and/or the need for unit models:
17. Dark Elves
I'm thinking of an "Eternal Night" UA, which decreases the vision range of enemy units in their domain. Among UUs there should be some monstrous animals, like bats, spiders and snakes (so I need models for them).
18. Demon Cultists
Produced units get random mutations as promotions. Access to demonic units. Masters of Fire Magic.
19. Death Cultists
Necromancy - defeated enemies are converted to Undead units under their control. Access to Undead units.
20. Neutrium
Non-magical Humans - they don't get any mana and can't produce magical units and buildings, but they have access to some unique units and buildings, representing their superior culture and science.
Old post:
Greetings to all CivFanatics. Some of you may know me as an Age of Wonders modder and PBEM player. I really like the new features in Civ5, and I decided that I want to make a fantasy mod for it, inspired by my favorite games, especially Master of Magic, Age of Wonders series, and the Fall from Heaven mod for Civ4. But it won't be dark fantasy like FFH, just "normal" fantasy like MoM and AoW. It will be based on my personal preferences (the most important of them is that the game should restrict you heavily from having too many cities, especially in its early stages, so you should expand gradually instead of founding or capturing a lot of cities at once), but I'm also open for suggestions.
For now there aren't many modding capabilities, so the mod will start modest, but later I'm going to add more features when they become available (especially when the DLL source is released). I'll also need help of other people, especially those with graphical and writing skills, but it will be later in the development process, for now I need to create the basics of the mod.
Before I release the first playable version (and perhaps after it too), I'll keep you informed about my progress in this thread. I'd like to hear any comments, suggestions and advice that you might have.
So here goes the first entry in the diary:
2011-09-04: Getting ModBuddy to work
I've been modding Civ5 before (it was just some tweaks to adjust the game to my liking, not a total conversion like this one will be), but I just set Steam to offline mode (to prevent patching) and modified the original XML and LUA files. This time I want to make a proper mod, using the ModBuddy.
I reinstalled the game (to restore the original versions of all files that I had modified) and the modding tools, and tried to run the ModBuddy.
But it didn't want to start, and displayed cryptic error message ("cannot find one or mode components"). So I googled around and found a possible solution: I needed to install the Isolated Shell (whatever it means). But I remember that I managed to run the ModBuddy long time ago (only to check if it works), so I must have that Shell thing installed. I downloaded the installer and tried to run it in repair mode, but it displayed some strange messages and ModBuddy still didn't work. But after uninstalling the Shell and installing it again it works!
Now I only need to figure out how to use it...
Civilizations
1. Dreamers (Republic of Dreams)
Human explorers, inventors and pirates. An expansionist civilization with good naval units. They are one of the few civs that have access to gunpowder-based units - Musketeers and Cannons. Their most impressive UU is a flying ship.
2. Griffites (Griffite Kingdom)
A Human nation, resembling a medieval European kingdom. They specialize in mounted units, and get bonus yields from Pastures. They can also train Griffin units (I hope someone will convert this unit from FFH or make a new one).
3. Archons (Holy Archon Empire)
Humans with a Greco-Roman and religious theme (not unlike the Highmen/Archons from the Age of Wonders series). They have good priests and strong Legion units, as well as access to some divine beings, like the Angels (again, hopefully someone will make a model for such unit).
4. Essentes (Enchanted Kingdom of Essentes)
Humans with a strong sense of magic. They have good magical units, and generate more mana (yield) and magical power (strategic resource) than other races.
5. Calx aka Stone People (Dominon of Calx)
Human-like beings, strong at defense. They have access to a special improvement, called Creator Statue, which makes their nearby units stronger. They get bonus yields from Quarries, and are masters of Earth Magic.
6. Vodniks
Fresh water spirits, they get bonuses from rivers, lakes and marshes. -1 food from Plains. Masters of Water Magic.
7. Windwalkers
A fast Human-like race, all foot units get +1 movement. They are good at commerce and Air Magic.
8. Snobar (Snobar Clans)
The name "Snobar" comes from "Snow Barbarians" but they are a civ, not barbarians. Viking-like Humans, they get better yields from Snow and Tundra terrain, but also -1 production from Plains and -1 food from Flood Plains. Good at making amphibious assaults.
9. Nikkei (Empire of Nikkei)
Humans with a far-east theme. They have some "exotic" units and are good at science. Probably will have Japan's UA - damaged units fight as at full strength.
10. Azracs (Azrac Empire)
Humans living in the desert (the name comes from the original Age of Wonders game). They get extra yields from the Desert terrain and can build a special improvement there, but get one less food from Grassland. They have some special units, like Camels and Elephants (Elephants can also be used by Nikkei and Lemuria), and a unique process - Caravans, which gives some gold and some science (and also some culture and mana, if it's possible to make such process in the expansion or with the DLL), which is more effective than the standard processes that give only one yield type.
11. Lemuria (Tribes of Lemuria)
Humans living in the jungle. They have access to many jungle-dwelling creatures as UUs (need models). Also yield and combat bonuses related to Jungle. Good recon units.
12. Elves (Elven Kingdom)
Typical stuff - Bonuses in Forest, good archers, some special magical units. Good culture.
13. Halflings (Halfling Shire)
Good farmers. Units are weaker than other races, but can retreat from combat when losing. Less unhappiness from population (0.3 instead of 0.5), more from number of cities (12 instead of 10).
14. Gnomes (Gnomish Kingdom)
Inventors. They have access to many unique mechanical units, and get extra science from Workshops (it's an improvement that can be built on flatlands and gives production, like in Civ4). Good siege units.
15. Dwarves (Dwarven Kingdom)
As usual - good miners, combat bonus in Hills, melee units good at defense. Some gunpowder and steam units (Cannon, Steam Tank, Ironclad) are available to them.
16. Orcs (Red Horde)
They have the same units as the Barbarians. Can convert Barbarians in camps to their side. A combat oriented civ with an offensive bonus for melee units. Less unhappiness from number of cities (8 instead of 10), more from population (0.6 instead of 0.5).
The following civs probably won't be available in early versions of the mod, due to the complicated nature of their planned unique abilities, and/or the need for unit models:
17. Dark Elves
I'm thinking of an "Eternal Night" UA, which decreases the vision range of enemy units in their domain. Among UUs there should be some monstrous animals, like bats, spiders and snakes (so I need models for them).
18. Demon Cultists
Produced units get random mutations as promotions. Access to demonic units. Masters of Fire Magic.
19. Death Cultists
Necromancy - defeated enemies are converted to Undead units under their control. Access to Undead units.
20. Neutrium
Non-magical Humans - they don't get any mana and can't produce magical units and buildings, but they have access to some unique units and buildings, representing their superior culture and science.
Old post:
Greetings to all CivFanatics. Some of you may know me as an Age of Wonders modder and PBEM player. I really like the new features in Civ5, and I decided that I want to make a fantasy mod for it, inspired by my favorite games, especially Master of Magic, Age of Wonders series, and the Fall from Heaven mod for Civ4. But it won't be dark fantasy like FFH, just "normal" fantasy like MoM and AoW. It will be based on my personal preferences (the most important of them is that the game should restrict you heavily from having too many cities, especially in its early stages, so you should expand gradually instead of founding or capturing a lot of cities at once), but I'm also open for suggestions.
For now there aren't many modding capabilities, so the mod will start modest, but later I'm going to add more features when they become available (especially when the DLL source is released). I'll also need help of other people, especially those with graphical and writing skills, but it will be later in the development process, for now I need to create the basics of the mod.
Before I release the first playable version (and perhaps after it too), I'll keep you informed about my progress in this thread. I'd like to hear any comments, suggestions and advice that you might have.
So here goes the first entry in the diary:
2011-09-04: Getting ModBuddy to work
I've been modding Civ5 before (it was just some tweaks to adjust the game to my liking, not a total conversion like this one will be), but I just set Steam to offline mode (to prevent patching) and modified the original XML and LUA files. This time I want to make a proper mod, using the ModBuddy.
I reinstalled the game (to restore the original versions of all files that I had modified) and the modding tools, and tried to run the ModBuddy.
But it didn't want to start, and displayed cryptic error message ("cannot find one or mode components"). So I googled around and found a possible solution: I needed to install the Isolated Shell (whatever it means). But I remember that I managed to run the ModBuddy long time ago (only to check if it works), so I must have that Shell thing installed. I downloaded the installer and tried to run it in repair mode, but it displayed some strange messages and ModBuddy still didn't work. But after uninstalling the Shell and installing it again it works!
Now I only need to figure out how to use it...