[MOD] MagisterModmod

MagisterCultuum

Great Sage
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Feb 14, 2007
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Kael's head
I have again reached the point where I am releasing a new version of my modmod. The aim of this mod is to be both more enjoyable and more faithful to lore than even the original Fall from Heaven 2 mod. This modmod is based on Tholal's More Naval AI mod, and as such includes BUG, Puppet States, Revolutions, and Advanced Diplomacy.

I would like to include a special thanks to Tholal and lfgr and everyone involved in the creation of the More Naval AI mod, both for providing the base required for many of my mods features and for helping me understand how to use it. I would also like to thank EmperorFool for helping me gain a very basic understanding of how my mod should work with BUG, and especially for teaching me how to activate and use logging to locate my mistakes. Thank platyping for his improved worldbuilder, and his assistance in helping me improve it further for the purposes of this mod. Thank Valkrionn for providing the Inno Install Script Tutorial, and Tschuggi for sharing the link to it. Thank Aurelazza for his help making the new Dragon Fanatic and Wyvern Rider graphics, and the makers of MoM for the model on which the Wyvern Rider is based.




Edit: MagisterModmod for FfH2 last updated on 10/13/2023 at 7:10 pm EDT.

You may download the installer here or the archive here.
Note that you only need to download either Magister Modmod for FfH2 October 13 2023 Setup.exe or Magister Modmod for FfH2 October 13 2023 Changes.zip, not both.


This version is based on lfgr'sMore Naval AI v2.9.2u, fixing some bugs inherited from based on Tholal's More Naval AI v2.71 and Platyping's Worldbuilder v4.17b.


Before installing, you should make you that you have a clean installation of Fall from Heaven 2 version 0.41o (actually, patch m or n should be fine too) or of the latest version of Tholal's More Naval AI modmod installed under the name Fall from Heaven 2. The installer will need to copy most of my modmod's necessary files from that location. It will not change any files there, but will install under a directory named Magister Modmod for FfH2.


If you have any trouble with the installer (probably the result of having Civ IV installed in a non-standard location) you may instead opt to extract the file and folder structure from Magister Modmod for FfH2 October 13 2023 Changes.zip. You should manually make a copy of Fall from Heaven 2 and name it Magister Modmod for FfH2, and then copy the contents of Magister Modmod for FfH2 October 13 2023 Changes into this folder.


In either case, you should not change this name. If you do, the game will not load unless you also edit Resource\Civ4.thm. Requiring the same name on all of your computers has the added benefit of assuring compatibility in multiplayer games (provided you are all using the same release version) and also allows me to load your saved games to try to identify the source of errors.



Before loading any saved games for me to debug though, I would strongly suggest that you check the .log files. To enable logging, edit CivilizationIV.ini (which may be found under C:\Users\[insert user name here]\Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword) so that LoggingEnabled = 1. After starting a game you should find various log files under C:\Users\[insert your user name here]\Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\Logs. Usually PythonErr.log is most useful in helping isolate a problem, although PythonDebug.log, xml.log, BBAI.log, and MPLog.txt can be quite helpful too. (BBAI.log and MPLog.txt are usually the best way to help track down the cause of "Waiting for Other Civilizations" issues. ) Posting these files would do more to help me isolate your problem than the saved game would.

Since the merger with MNAI 2.53, there should be new log files which include the player's name (e.g., SynchLog - Kandros Fir.txt and BBAILog - Kandros Fir.txt) and which I believe would also be quite useful



(Note: If you have a recent version of BUG installed under C:\Users\[insert user name here]\Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\CustomAssets, you may still need to disable (delete or change the name of) the file CvGameInterfaceFile.py found under C:\Users\[insert user name here]\Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\CustomAssets\python\entrypoints in order for my mod to function. If you do not have BUG installed separately, you may ignore this section.)


I move the scenarios to the PrivateMaps folder, so that you can load them from within the game. (I also included the Erebus Continent mapscript and one huge 21 civ map edited for compatibility to this folder.) This also allows them to be played as Custom scenarios, although you should be careful about what game options you changed if you don't want some strange things to happen (like declaring war on yourself). Since the old scenarios are not overwritten, there will be a copy of the vanilla FfH2 scenarios (most of them incompatible with my modmod) in the Scenarios folder. These can be ignored or deleted.
 
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I said after dinner, not immediately after dinner. I could keep you waiting for another 50 years if I so wished.

Where to start...

Magic:

All 21 spheres are now represented. Mana appears on the map in its various types rather than being raw mana until a node is built. Raw mana still appears too, but is less common. Mana nodes are now permanent improvements. (This was done to prevent the AI from building farms, workshops, etc., over its own nodes. I found it particularly annoying when my capitulated vassals did so and deprived me of the mana they owed me.) Dispel Magic still removes nodes and turns typed mana to raw mana. (Not working on permanent improvements was changed to not working on unique improvements, but this does not real make a difference to gameplay.) Creation mana cannot be built on raw mana, but requires that Amathaon bless you with his type of mana. Ordinary adepts can build Ice nodes only on Ice mana, but Auric and the Priests of Winter can build ice nodes on raw mana.

You can see this post for a description of the new spheres' spells: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=11296366&postcount=2

Nature III is now Summon Guardian Vines, which creates a permanent defensive summon that can cast entangle. Law 3 has both Valor and Unyielding Order. Sun 2's Blind spell now adds a promotion rather than using a held timer. Any Malakim unit with Sun 2 can summon permanent Sand Lions. Sun promotions provide combat bonuses against Illusions. The illusionist promotion no longer adds the illusion promotion to summons, but allows a spell to make illusions of nearby units. Body 3 provides extra strength, and Air 3 is an alternate prerequisite to Blitz or the Winged promotion (which lets a unit turn on or off the Flying promotion.) Gibbon Goetia now requires Strength of Will, but shares the Mimic's ability to steal promotions.

Govannan's ability to train units in magic is now a passive ability of the Magically Liberal promotion, which he also has a chance of passing on. Teaching higher level spells or channeling promotions that allow units to purchase spell spheres is possible

Barnaxus's ability to train golems now gives his actual promotions to golems in his stack rather than empower promotions empire-wide.

Bloom is now the Nature 2 spell instead of a priest of the leaves ability. Treants have Nature 2, and spread or upgrade forests where they die anyway.

Corindale's Peace ability is moved to Spirit 3. Spirit 3 also allows Assuage, which removes Crazed, Enranged, and Burning Blood, plus can do lethal holy damage to demons like Chaos Marauders, Irae, and the Avatar of Wrath.

Trust requires Spirit 3 and Shadow 3.

All summons have unitcombats so they can buy promotions with xp. The Tower of the Elements and the Tower of Necromancy provide elementals and the undead with xp.


Unholy Taint provides access to the first 2 levels of Death, Dimensional, Entropy, Chaos, Shadow, Mind, and Body spells. They get these for free based on mana too, but require more than mages do.

The Vampire promotion allows access to the first two levels of Body, Death, Mind, and Shadow spells. They get these for free based on mana too, but require more than mages do.

Druids require Nature mana instead of the neutral alignment. They have the Druidic promotion, which allows access to Nature and Life magic. It also allows access to Earth and Creation, only if the unit already has the first level of those spheres. (Yvain and the Kuriotates Dryad UU have Creation 1, whereas Dwarven Druids have Earth 1.) They get these for free based on mana too, but require more than mages do.

Various wonders and unique improvements provide mana.

A civilization's adepts start with the first level of its patron's spell sphere, even when the player controls no mana (such as before the palace is built). The Sidar are an exception; since they like their patron Arawn abhor necromancy, they get Undead Slaying for free instead of Death 1.

Resurrection works on all heroes, even religious heroes and adventurers, not just one designated civ heroes. Resurrected units keep their promotions, levels, and xp. These are stored by Sluagh units created when the unit dies and stored at tile (0,0).

The Netherblade or the Malleus Vindex (Basium's warhammer) pass on promotions to their victims that prevent them from being resurrected until the equipment is destroyed. Such units will also not return as angels or manes.

The Soul Forge is no longer limited to processing only the souls of living units that die within a tile of its city, but rather anywhere in its owner's empire. Units processed like this will not return as angels or manes.


I think there are probably a few more changes to magic I don't recall at this instant.

Religions:
When a settler founds a city, the unit's religion is automatically spread there.

The Evangelist promotion allows a disciple to spread its religion to cities and units without being consumed. The Constellation events that can trigger a golden age for players with the appropriate state religions also have options that allow players who have the religion's founding technology to purchase a disciple with the Evangelist promotion.

Most priest spells require the proper state religion.

The game now has 10 religions rather than 7. The order or the original 7 religions has been rearranged in order of most good to most evil, and their shrines now each provide 3 different types of mana and a free promotion:
Code of Junil: Law, Fire, and Force; Command 1
Dies Diei: Sun, Spirit, and Creation; Perfect Sight
Tablets of Bambur: Earth, Enchantment, and Ice; Guerrilla 2
Song of Autumn: Nature, Life, and Air; Subdue Animals
Necronomicon: Water, Chaos, and Death: Mutation
Nox Noctis: Shadow, Mind, and Body: Stealth
Stigmata on the Unborn: Entropy, Dimensional, and Metamagic; Stigmata

Temples of the Empyrean provide a GPP percent bonus and remove the Blind promotion from units in the city. The Malakim can found the Empyrean at Way of the Wise instead of Honor. Lightbringers are now an Ecclesiastic UU that is available then and requires a desert Shrine instead of a Temple of the Empyrean. With the Empyrean religion, Varn can get a prophet and the honor tech for free when he finds the Mirror of Heaven.

The new religions are not really new, just implemented differently.

The Cult of the Dragon has returned. It has no founding tech, so it is placed randomly. No leader may adopt it as a state religion. Anyone can train Dragon Fanatics to spread the faith to rival cities and units once they have the Fanaticism technology. For those who do not control dragons, it causes revolts in cities and rebellion among units. It has a different holy shrine for each of the dragons in the game, generating 2 of the appropriate mana type. Its holy city can be moved by the appearance of Acheron or by the Kuriotates worldspell.

The White Hand is now implemented as a religion. Only Illian and Doviello leaders may adopt it as a state religion. It is founded by the White Hand ritual, which has been move from Philosophy to Priesthood. The three named priests of winter start with promotions like strong, inquisitor, extension, and cold immune. If the corresponding leader of any of them is in the game, that unit goes to him instead of the player that completed the ritual. The later Illian rituals now require this religion instead of that civ. After the completion of The Draw, any player with this state religion will become a vassal of Auric Ulvin and units of the religion will switch sides to serve their god. The Draw also gives Auric the leader the Insane trait, and Auric the unit the Crazed, Strong, and Channeling 3 promotions. The Samhain ritual creates the Auric unit at the site of Letum Frigus. (I just realized that I forgot to make it create him in the capital in the event that the improvement is not on the map, but don't want to upload a new version with only that change. For now, just leave the all unique features option active.) The Draw and Ascension require that Auric the unit be alive and in control of Auric the leader. Other White Hand players can complete the rituals on his behalf, but he will be the beneficiary. The shrine of The Hand is New Mulyr, which provides the Immune Cold promotion, 2 GPP towards great commanders, 2 Ice mana, and deprives the city of Fire mana.

The Children of The One has been added to the game. This is the faith of the Luonnotar. It may be founded by an event that may happen to any civilization that has a state religion and the Theocracy civic, but will normally be founded when the Grigori acquire the Arcane Lore technology. The Luonnatar unit is no longer a druid UU, it requires Arcane Lore, it targets disciples in stacks of stronger units, is much stronger against them, and may move freely in rival territory without open borders. It may spread it religion to cities and units. Priests who adopt this religion are automatically disbanded, and in cities it causes monothiest revolts than can remove even a player's state religion. The shrine if the Unmarred Martyrs, which provides 2 Force mana, the Scourge promotion, Adventurer GPP, and increases your rivals' war weariness.

The religious technologies that require state religions have been removed.

Miscellaneous:
Some of the Palaces have thematic names, like the Halls of Sabathiel, Kylorin's Throne, and the Seeliee/Unseeliie Courts.

Seafaring has been moved from a Lanun-only technology to a civ trait and a promotion that it grants.

The Doviello have the new Scavenger civ trait. Units with the scavenger promotion send food or production back to a nearby city from their kills, and can steal weapons promotions.

The Bannor have Valor as a default race.

Spiritual is an Elohim civ trait.

The philosophical trait allows the building of academies without great sages, with Arcane Lore as a prerequisite.

Great Commanders have been merged with Great Generals, and so can be generated from combat with other civs when the Advanced tactics option is active. They can built some shrines, like the Code of Junil.

The invisibility effects of Nox Noctis were moved to the Sidar Palace. The Sidar also have Stealth as a default race.

Angels and Manes keep the religion from their previous lives. Angels start with Divine, letting them all act like priests, and well as Flying and Winged (which lets them add or remove Flying at will).

Manes keep their xp from life just like angels do. When added to a city's population, they spread their religion and transform their xp into production and culture.

The Infernal Pact ritual summons a random Demon Lord, grants a diplomatic bonus from the Demon Lord, and grants peace with the Barbarians. The Infernal player immediately steals a city if a valid target is available. To be a valid target the city must have the Ashen Veil religion present, must not be a capital, must not belong t another Infernal player, and must not belong to the player that summoned this Demon Lord. If no valid city exists, the plot where the Infernal's units are crated will be given the Hellfire improvement.

Hellfire improvements set their tiles' plot counters to 100. The improvement may also be explored.

Letum Frigus and the Palus improvements may be explored, and have thematically appropriate possible results like Frost Giants and magic immune golems.

The Pilgrim promotion allows a unit to gain thematically appropriate promotions from various unique features. Elohim Devouts start with this promotion. Disciples may purchase it after the Theology technology is known.

Monks have Spirit Affinity.

For the Elohim, Berserkers are replaced by Counselors. These defensive-only disciples have even more spirit affinity, and all three levels of spirit magic.

The Marksman promotion itself no longer makes a unit target the weakest unit in an enemy stack. It now allows the player to turn on and off the Target Weakest promotion, which has its previous effect.

Mask now requires Council of Esus and Marksman instead of Council of Esus and Recon. Nightwatches have Marksman, and so can turn their HN status on and off.

The Recruit Nightwatch vote allows Undercouncil members to construct Nightwatches without the CoE state religion. The Overcouncil has an equivalent vote for Radiant Guards.

Radiant Guards and Einherjar have Guardsman. Aureales target recon units, especially shadows, assassins, and assassin heroes.

The Mithril Golem and The War Machine leave behind pieces and can be rebuilt just like Barnaxus. (These three heroes cannot be brought back by a life 3 Resurrection spell.)

Doviello melee units can use the "Issue Challenge" ability, which allows another Doviello melee unit in the same stack to use the "Accept Challenge" ability, which results in combat between the two units. You put your units at disk doing this, but can gain free xp.
 
Wow! Great job MC, as usual! :goodjob:

Why don't you include Danalin's religion, with Condatis as the heroine? I have reskin for Condatis (which I use in Master of Mana), and Kraken's reskin for Overlord's avatar.
 
I don't plan to add more than 10 religions. I actually did play around with adding a couple more a weeks ago, but quickly removed them as did not have enough to go on to make them all thematic and unique enough for my preferences. Furthermore, an 11th religion would be awkwardly moved onto another line in worldbuilder, and would be hard to fit into the city screen. If I do change my mind and add more cults then I would opt to use the Corporation mechanics for all of them except The White Hand (which should be available as a state religion).


If I do decide to add more religions I'd be adding The Stewards of Inequity, The Emrys, The Occis, and The Unblemished before I get around to implemented a second religion devoted to Danalin. (The followers of the Overlords already worship him, albeit indirectly and not as he would prefer.) These religions canonically exist and are actively supported by their gods in the Age of Rebirth, whereas Danalin is asleep and not able to answer prayers. I wouldn't even know what to call Danalin's religion. I can't really predict how he might be changed if he awakens from his nightmares. Before the loss of the Aifons he was one of the least interventionist of all of the gods. He did have temples and priests (at least one was still active as late as Auric's childhood, until destroyed with the rest of Brigdarrow), but never a major religion. I'll consider adding events pertaining to his uncorrupted faith and might even consider adding Condatis, but I won't be adding a new water religion.
 
mind refreshing us on the Emrys and the Occis? I've already read about the first somewhere, but never about the latter...
 
The Emrys are the worshipers of Ceridwen. I've made plenty of guesses as to their doctrine and structure before, but Kael has not confirmed much. We do know that they are most popular in Sheaim lands and that Tebryn Arbandi uses them as a tool for recruiting those with arcane talents from abroad. We know that Mikel, a Captain of the Radiant Guards, is the son of an Emyr and is covered with tattoos of evil runes because of this. (I suspect that Chalid Akharien's tattoos are explained by a similar origin.) Presumably the Emyrs are devoted to the destruction of the world.

I don't think that Kael has ever revealed anything about The Occis except the name (which comes from the Latin for Murder) and the fact that they worship Aeron. It may or may not be just an earlier proposed name for Aeron's Bounty, the cult which Kael added and them removed a few versions later. If so, it is more of a secret society of elite assassins than a conventional religion. It would probably be allied with the Council of Esus, but its members would be psychopaths who kill for the pleasure and sense of power they derive from causing the suffering of others rather than for money.

The Stewards of Inequity are sort of the other way around. This secret society (few members of which realize they worship Mammon) is also allied with the Council of Esus, but they shy away from outright violence and focus on maintaining the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few and assuring that speculation pays more than honest labor. Most of what they do is completely legal, because they have enough influence on the lawmakers of most lands to make it so.

The Unblemished are worshipers of the risen Sucellus, who are known for their healing abilities.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3706778&postcount=1
 
DIf you do so, you must disable BUG's CvGameInterfaceFile.py file in order to make my modmod work properly.

Whereabouts can I find this, (Custom assets, python, entrypoints?) and how should I "disable" it?
 
CvGameInterfaceFile.py is found in Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\CustomAssets\python\entrypoints

I changed the extension from .py to .py.bak to disable it. Any extension change should suffice. You could just delete it if you prefer, and don't intend to use BUG without my modmod.

I'm not sure if installing BUG is actually necessary, but I did so to get rid of missing .ini error messages at the beginning of More Naval AI games before I merged my mod with Tholal's.
 
Looks very interesting and ambitious! Will have to download and browse through it (I'm a sucker for good fluff), even if I won't end up playing it.

However, I'm concerned about balance and add-it-on-itis (for lack of a better word). Kael and his team generally did a great job with that, and I think that's a large part in what made their mod so successful.

In particular, I'm concerned about the Creation 2&3 spells, and that the shrines appear overpowered with both several mana types and free promotions. I can understand why you want to give a game-mechanism connection between certain civilizations and "their" religion, but I'm really not sure it's a good idea in practice.
 
dude i can't wait to play this! but i'm no modder or programmer. i followed ur directions to a t but ur mod won't load. keep getting GFC Error: failed to initialize the primary control theme. how can i make this work? it sounds like this is gonna be great, but i would like to get to see your hard work too


EDIT: k been reading directions over and over again. i did everything as directed except "disable BUG's CvGameInterfaceFile.py file in order to make my modmod work properly." been looking throughout the BUG folder and the custom assets folder but can't find a CvGameInterfaceFile.py. see i go to python/entrypoint and the folder is empty
 
I only included the files that are different from those in FfH2 0.41o, so the mod will not work unless you copy my assets folder over the base mod's assets folder. It does not matter if you put it in a copy of FfH2 or overwrite those files in original, but you cannot delete the original.

That error is what you get when the game cannot find the contents of the Resource folder. This usually means that you installed only a patch of FfH2 rather than the whole mod, but can also result from renaming the mod and not leaving a copy with the original name. The game looks in C:\Program Files (x86)\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Fall from Heaven 2\Resource for certain necessary files, regardless of the path of the actual modmod in question. You don't have to have to include the Resource folder in any copies of the mod, but must keep it where it was in the original.



You would only have a CvGameInterfaceFile.py file if you installed a recent version of BUG separately from my modmod. I did so, and followed the recommendations plat placed it in Custom Assets, because using Tholal's .ini files did not seem to work for me. (I don't think that the lack of those files prevents the mod from functioning properly, but it is a bit annoying to see the error messages it causes at the start of each game.) After rereading his instructions though, I think that is only because I placed them in the wrong folder. You should be able to ignore that part of my instructions and instead just follow the instructions that lfgr quoted two posts above you.
 
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