Empyrean. Is there a point?

[sylvanllewelyn]

My suggestion to make the Empyrean more appealing, as in, more members would join, and the council more meaningful.

- Anyone can join the council, once one person has the honor tech (like manhattan project)
- Everyone in the council have defensive pacts with each other
- You can vote to go to war with any non-council member. You cannot defy this resolution. (to prevent abuse, suggestion 1 must be taken together. If you want to attack, then declare peace and then hide in the protection of your council, so can your victim)
- If the overcouncil (accidentally or not) voted to go to war with a member of the undercouncil, undercouncil members can vote to declare war the very next turn, BUT... rather than on the entire overcouncil, only on the person that suggested the overcouncil resolution (you sent the police against us? We'll kill your sister).
- Undercouncil members can see all the voting going on in the overcouncil.

 

[Raguel]

I'm going to misspell some names here, but:

I used to only play Capria/Order, but I've played around with a few other civs now, and I really like Malakim/Emp and Sidar/Emp.

I'm playing a game right now where my two biggest rivals are Valladia and Perpentach. There are only two other civs that are good, and they are both weak. Valladia and Perpentach are basically allies, and they declare war on Garrim. I basically give away honor to civs I have decent relationship to, and I end up stopping the Valladia/Garrim war and bring Valladia in the war against Perpentach.

Perp turns out to stronger than I realize and is able to beat us back. I'm not ashamed to say I'm going back a few turns.

btw, is there a reason why you can't build radiant guard after getting iron working? It's pretty annoying imo, especially since it's the only outdated unit I know of that you can't build.

 

[it-ogo]

btw, is there a reason why you can't build radiant guard after getting iron working? It's pretty annoying imo, especially since it's the only outdated unit I know of that you can't build.

There are many such units but it depends on building you have in city. If you have a training yard then warrior is obsolet and by default hide. You can find and change options in config files (I do not remember where) for each unit if it is shown in a build list when being obsolet.

 

[Raguel]

I'm pretty sure that I can still build warrior with training yards, that's why I was so ticked off.

But I'll do so more digging, thanks.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

If it continues to bother you, I'd suggest changing the <bNeverObsolete> tag in the CIV4UnitInfos.xml for the unit that keeps becoming unbuildable from a 0 to a 1. As the name implies, units with a 1 instead of a zero remain buildable even when you can already build all of their upgraded forms, while units with a 0 here go obsolete.

I've done that for several units that annoy me when they obsolete (Drowns, Soldiers of Kilmorph, Devouts, and some that don't usually have an upgrade anyway but which I've given one)

 

[Cuteunit]

MC where's your modmod at? share.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I've been really busy this week, and haven't had any time to play or make the tweaks I thought would be necessary before releasing anything. Of course, I do have MLK day off and I'm not so far behind on things as I was last week, so I may try to get it ready this weekend.

 

[Cuteunit]

Swell, looking forward to seeing it.

 

[Raguel]

If it continues to bother you, I'd suggest changing the <bNeverObsolete> tag in the CIV4UnitInfos.xml for the unit that keeps becoming unbuildable from a 0 to a 1. As the name implies, units with a 1 instead of a zero remain buildable even when you can already build all of their upgraded forms, while units with a 0 here go obsolete.

I've done that for several units that annoy me when they obsolete (Drowns, Soldiers of Kilmorph, Devouts, and some that don't usually have an upgrade anyway but which I've given one)

thanks. I did a search in CIV4UnitInfos.xml for "ratha" and "radiant" and I didn't get anything. ah well, no use crying about it.

 

[Taels]

RATHA and RADIANT are there. Was it a case sensitive search?

 

[Raguel]

Nope. I just checked with caps on/off, match case on/off.

Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?


C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Fall from Heaven 2 030\Assets\XML\Units\CIV4UnitInfos.xml

 

[MagisterCultuum]

That looks like the right place/

Also make sure you don't have "match whole word only" or "match beginning of word only" selected: hat you are searching for is actually UNITCLASS_RATHA, UNIT_RATHA, UNITCLASS_RADIANT_GUARD, or UNIT_RADIANT_GUARD.

 

[Raguel]

I'm still not finding it.BTw I'm just opening it up with IE 6, and I haven't updated anything in awhile. Readme file says I'm currently at .30f. I wonder if I should bother uninstalling and reinstalling.

Since I've already derailed the thread, I'll ask another question: does Malakim have access to an early hero (like Gilden or Rantine)?


On topic, I have to say that I've played with Order, Empyrean, and FoL, and I have to say I like Empyrean the most, due to the overp.., err, perfectly balanced spells fighter classes like ratha and radiant guard get. Chalid is pretty sweet; I just wished my priests had access to pillar of flame.

(edit: I'm assuming they don't, based on a thread I saw. I haven't actually leveled a priest that far to find out).

 

[Taels]

Try notepad.

 

[Raguel]

rofl that was it. Why did it make a difference?

edit: I just had it explained to me. I feel a bit silly haha.

 

[Taels]

IE7 seems to choke on "Tuatha Dé Danann". Radiant Guards and Ratha come after that, so they don't show up in IE.

 

[daladinn]

anyone else notice that empyrean paladins can cast circle of flames

 

[MagisterCultuum]

If they are upgraded from Vicars, then yes. They can cast all the spells that a Vicar could. I believe this is intended. In the Abashi civilopedia entry it mentions than Vaghan, a Paladin of the Empyrean, was using his sun magic to fight the Sheaim demons.


In my modmod, I changed the Vicar's (renamed Vicarius) spheres to sun/fire/spirit/life, gave them medic 3, and made them buildable without state religion. (I also removed Spirit from Confessors. From the Bannor pedia entry I gathered that the Priests of the Empyrean and of Sirona are compelled to serve the order in their crusades, and that the spirit spell only represented that some of the priests were non-order civs.) I also don't let Empyrean priests upgrade to Inquisitors, but they can still upgrade to Paladins and keep all their spells. I made Righteousness require Honor (and Malevolent Designs require Deception) and gave the Empyrean a second hero at honor: Vaghan of Lugus (and removed him from the great prophet names list). He is a paladin with medic 1, life/law/spirit 1, sun 2, channeling 1+2, Divine, Sorcery, Demon slaying, undead slaying, courage, and Crown of Brilliance (but not immune to disease), and looks a lot like Donal.

 

[oyzar]

radiant guard are draftable for one pop each. 90 hammers for just 1 pop is very powerfull production wise. Going against the AI this is a great way to get an huge army fast.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Plus, with their Blinding Light spell you only need 1 unit to immobilize a whole stack for 3 turns. You really don't need a huge army if you have the Empyrean as your state religion. You could leave your cities unguarded until an enemy approaches, and still be safe.