Vital Brasil
Chieftain
I agree with Industrious1, MoM was and is the most complex FFH modmod and Xtended took that level of complexity and fun to an even more emerging depth. I'd like to thank Esvath and the team and hope that they will carry on. It has aged pretty well and is definitely on par with Civ 5 and 6. I worked separately on a graphical patch for Xtended 5.6. My programming skills are limited so most of the changes are in the XML files and arts folders. It has a changelog attached with all files and exactly what was changed. It has took me several weeks to compile it and I hope you all enjoy it and that some of it, if not all, will find its way in an official patch by the team.
So what did I change?
1. I wanted to add some flavor to the way built landscape looks for all civs so I introduced some unique improvements for several civs. There is a Grigori and Bannor Homestead, that acts like a fortified farm/pasture, there is a Doviello Yaranga (upgraded camp), there is a Ljosalfar Forest Lodge (because elves are supposed to not chop down trees), Hippus Breeding Grounds, a Khazad Deep Mine, a Dural Artisan Workshop, a Jotnar Large Windmill, a Malakim Caravansary as well as a Kuriotate Caravan Center that act out as uber trade markets but are quite different in implementation, there are several Aristrakh improvements like a Pyre, Catacoms and Crypt that make their land look less barren and offer some production in flatlands as well and, finally, there is an orc Pit instead of quarry. I tried to balance production so some other nations get some unique buildings like the Mercurian High Conclave (a version of a pagan temple that gives a free spec/town). In that same fashion the Malakim get free specs from Caravansaries/Trade Centers and the Grigori from their homesteads. Grigori also have access to their unique type of spec - the yeoman - who can boost adventurer GP points. Kuriotates get all three districts available in the same uber city (noble, merchant and sage), since they can have just 4 or 5 cities tops. The Empyrean Liberty civic goes to Grigori and the Empyrean gets its own new civic called Enlightened Rule. Ashen veil civs can build cottages in hell terrain and the Illians and Frozen can do it on ice tiles (as intended in the original FFH2). Also, some buildings got their icons changed, they are mentioned in the changelog. Some were misplaced to begin with, like the City of A Thousand Slums or Aristrakh Palace, while some I thought would fit better.
2. I then wanted to change sounds to most units so I allotted a selection sound to most, if not all. All civs get a different sound (I was tired frankly of most civs speaking the same language). I introduced some sounds for water, earth and ice elementals as well as the parrot, hawk and raven that now use their sounds properly when selected.
3. Finally I made some graphical tweaks to units, changed some Bannor units to fit their Roman, originally intended image. Seeing somebody remade Mardero (rather nicely, I made some graphic tweaks to some heroes, including Sphener, Brigit, Basium, Yvain (the satyr) and the Mithril Golem. I added some new adept units like the 3 Kuriotate Adepts, and 2 Doviello ones (mage and archmage that was long overdue). I appreciated the idea of Hippus mounted adepts and found out that they were intended to have mounted disciple units as well in the original MoM but there were no units for them so it was abandoned. So I created some. 12 priests and high priests, all mounted. Then I saw the Austrin were the original civ to have mounted adepts, on pegasi. I saw the wonderful austerin_mounted artstyle and so got hitched and did all Austrin units that were available in the original MoM also mounted on pegasi. So as to have some more flavor, some pegasi are gray, some are black, depending usually on alignment and context. I included mounted versions of religious heroes too, like Chalid and Hemah which I like how they turned out to look. I learned to use nifskope in the process. Of course, I see no reason to not implement a Hippus mounted hero artstyle as well but I stopped as it took me a lot of time to get this far and I cannot invest more into it. But I hope to have provided the team with some aid into going further. Total mounted units - 60. There is a TEST savefile for all improvements and units included.
What I found out and didn't have time to do yet but I might do so cause it takes little effort: some graphical errors to some units like the Jotnar Berserk whose right axe is in mid air, the Austrin Hunter (explorer) has no weapon, the Hippus Spearman and Bladedancer (ironically), have no blades. I corrected the Bowmaiden so it has range animation and changed a lot of icons to fit the general ice background style of the original FFH2 feel.
That's all I can remember right now. What I didn't do but I definitely think the team should address are some balance issues. Somebody gave an Aos Si in depth feedback which I think is quite accurate. I would just say that the roster is fun to play with but has several drawbacks as it stands right now: a. there are, surprisingly, less units available to nations now that all have entirely unique units. b. There are less incentives to upgrade units (as they evolve by themselves with tech research) and so a low warrior type fanatic could get to the end of the game and be the toughest unit the Bannor ever have. c. as a corollary, the late era units are too expensive for just a bit more attack d. there are a lot of techs that give no new unit opportunities. e. it is very difficult to track enemy armies just by watching them move around, their combat factors vary immensely according to their tech research. f. most heroes (that were intended to play rather different roles), are now played pretty similar (10 combat plus roster bonuses means anywhere between 10 and 36 combat). And, finally, g. a lot of units have mana affinity. This is interesting to play with but is quite easy to get off balance, especially if it doubles with the roster (huge) bonus. So yeah, without being critical, I think the combat system needs some balancing to address these issues but I think it is wonderful to have all nations play out so differently and it is in this precise manner that I would see further development. Perhaps lower the roster bonuses a bit so that they make for maximum 33% of the original unit combat and add larger difference in combat for higher tier units. Also, please make heroes different again)
Thanks again to the team for their great efforts that are much appreciated.
Cheers
That's awesome ! Thanks for all your work and for sharing this with us ! Its always good to see people keeping this masterpiece alive, even when there's no hope left lol. This mod is the only reason i still have Civilization IV installed in my computer.
I absolutely love the graphical changes you made, all of them ! Some of your tweaks are things i wanted to see since forever, like the new kelps and enclave graphics.
Your gameplay tweaks also seems to be interesting, i specially liked the idea of upgradeable improvements for certain civics (like mines becoming deep mines for Khazad) and Kuriotates cities being allowed to build all their districts in the same city. I am still not sure about the new empyrean civic though, as it looks kinda boring, but still need to play a game using this religion to know how it feels.
Unfortunately i think your combat complains will never be looked at, since it would require a huge amount of work to fix it (or at least, try to fix it). One thing that annoys me greatly regarding combat is how i can dominate the world using only a single super high level unit. I wish there were a few things to counter it, like a retirement mechanics for older living units, an aging system for heroes and a decaying system for undeads. This would be fun and have potential do add some more flavour to the game, like the aging mechanic benefiting calabim vampires (which are pretty weak at the moment, imo), and immortal units (like demons and angels) being far more powerful than the mortals, as they do not age. But those are only dreams
.Now, if you do not mind, a small request, since you decided to join the crusade to make MoMExtended more beautiful and immersive:
Would you consider changing the Circle of Urd (not sure if thats the right spelling) graphics as well? They are the cause i just can't play with the Doviellos. I think its just ridiculous using a corpse as a weapon in combat, i mean, a decaying body would fall apart right after the first strike, so yeah, it makes no sense, even in a fantasy setting, and its cringe as hell.
Again, thank you very much for this most needed graphical upgrade !
