A word about documentation

[blueparrot1966]

I know documentation isn't a priority, and I respect all the effort the design team is going to for this mod. It really deserves to be a stand alone expansion sitting on store shelves. I also know that the Wikipedia entry is a life saver, it has a lot of the basics on FFH.

But (you knew a "but" was coming, didn't you lol), what I'd really like to get my hands on is a detailed explanation of the civs and religions of the mod, and a good detailed rundown of the tech tree. Not just what leads to what, but a discussion of all of the "you have to have THIS before you can have THAT" sort of things, or the "this stuff is only for this or that civs, other civs need not apply" things. A good discussion of the unique civ units would be a Godsend ("gods"send?) as well.

I've been poking around looking, and haven't seen anything quite like what I'm looking for. I've found too that I'd have to devote WEEKS to doing, for example, a tech tree myself. Has anyone already done something like this? Am I just not looking for it in the right places?

Once again, all my best to the designers. This is hands down the best mod I've ever tried of any of the Civ games, and I've been into 'em since Civ I.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

Sounds like you want a strategy guide . Search for the feedback:tech tree thread for a picture if you want one.
In game documentation is coming, slowly. Some things will change (look at the change log!) and so documentation is low priority. But for instance in the last couple versions (15 and 16) several new tags have been added here and there stating requirements more clearly (civics screen, tech tree, etc.), and all units should have a strategy tag ("Sid's tips") in version 16.

 

[xanaqui42]

I know documentation isn't a priority, and I respect all the effort the design team is going to for this mod. It really deserves to be a stand alone expansion sitting on store shelves. I also know that the Wikipedia entry is a life saver, it has a lot of the basics on FFH.

Thanks; we've been working a lot on the wiki lately. Unfortunately, it's still incomplete even in basic information, and we'll have a setback when .16 comes out, but now there's enough information to be frequently useful, and a bit of information that would be difficult to get otherwise.

But (you knew a "but" was coming, didn't you lol), what I'd really like to get my hands on is a detailed explanation of the civs and religions of the mod, and a good detailed rundown of the tech tree. Not just what leads to what, but a discussion of all of the "you have to have THIS before you can have THAT" sort of things, or the "this stuff is only for this or that civs, other civs need not apply" things. A good discussion of the unique civ units would be a Godsend ("gods"send?) as well.

I hope to have the last portion of this (discussion of civ unique units and missing units) in the Wiki within, say, 1 month. In the long term, I'd like to see all of this sort of thing in the wiki; frankly I'm pretty new to this mod, so when I write such an article, I have to start from the ground up.

I've been poking around looking, and haven't seen anything quite like what I'm looking for. I've found too that I'd have to devote WEEKS to doing, for example, a tech tree myself. Has anyone already done something like this? Am I just not looking for it in the right places?

Other than the wiki (which has small scattered bits of pieces of this at the moment), I'd look through this forum; a number of threads go through small aspects of the game in detail.

In general, if you can identify the type of information you're interested in, I can try to put entering it into the wiki at a higher priority, but I'd expect a lag time of weeks (at a minimum).

 

[blueparrot1966]

Thanks for the replies, and again, my hat's off to everyone who has the time and the will to spend on this project. I realized pretty quickly that, for me, it was a fool's errand to try to make a jazzed up version of the tech tree. I just don't have the time. I'd love to do up an Alpha Centauri type chart, that'd detail most of what's in the Civilopedia on a poster, but it just ain't gonna happen.

What, specifically, am I looking for? Well, for starters, the advancement and uses of units is one of the linchpins of this mod. There are so many units that are useful throughout the game, or unique, or specific to a civ or religion. It's fan-freakin-tastic (can you tell I dig it?) but right now, the only really effective way to get a feel for how it all works is to just play the scenario over and over as different civs and against different civs- and much as I'd love to do just that, again, that "time" thing gets in the way.

And that's before I even get STARTED on the spells and magic angle. Another inspired use of the promotion system that's a total departure from the original intent of the Civ programmers. (btw, what about lesser magic promotions- for example, "firestarter", that'd give a non spellcasting unit the ability to burn a forest tile down, or "sapper", letting the unit negate a city wall's effects?)

Shoot, most of what I'd want would be too much to ask, since this is a labor of love. Maybe I DO want a strategy guide lol. It'll be another $20 bucks I'm sure, alongside the commercial version of the mod that I'll have to wait a year or two for.

Ok, how about this? I like the advancement trees you get to see when you're starting a new game. But I don't know how to extract just that graphic, to maybe look at in a .jpg form. How can I get just that tree? I'd love to expand on it to note which civs are eligible, which techs are required, and so on. Wouldn't be as grand as a tech tree poster, but at least THAT I could do.

 

[xanaqui42]

What, specifically, am I looking for? Well, for starters, the advancement and uses of units is one of the linchpins of this mod. There are so many units that are useful throughout the game, or unique, or specific to a civ or religion. It's fan-freakin-tastic (can you tell I dig it?) but right now, the only really effective way to get a feel for how it all works is to just play the scenario over and over as different civs and against different civs- and much as I'd love to do just that, again, that "time" thing gets in the way.

I am starting on this type of work, although it's text-based, not graphical.
Tell me what you think; I'm looking for feedback, primarily on the format:

Arcane Units - promotion order
Archery Units - promotion order

And that's before I even get STARTED on the spells and magic angle. Another inspired use of the promotion system that's a total departure from the original intent of the Civ programmers.

Yep; I've just finally pretty much learned the magic system, so describing the system would be something I could work on when my work on the units is done.

Ok, how about this? I like the advancement trees you get to see when you're starting a new game. But I don't know how to extract just that graphic, to maybe look at in a .jpg form. How can I get just that tree? I'd love to expand on it to note which civs are eligible, which techs are required, and so on. Wouldn't be as grand as a tech tree poster, but at least THAT I could do.

I like those graphics, but the problems are: 1) they are incomplete, and 2) they are not adjusted for the specific civilization you're playing (which makes a large difference in some cases). I do have the materials to create something much like them from scratch, but I'm not convinced that using graphics (instead of text) is a good usage of space on someone else's server.

 

[BeefontheBone]

I *think* the unit promotion trees which appear during game setup were posted somewhere by Kael, but I've no idea where and that was months ago now. If you ask him nicely I'm sure he'll have them knocking around his hard drive somewhere

 

[Chandrasekhar]

I'm pretty sure that the promotion trees that show up during startup are obsolete.

 

[Kael]

The upgrade trees have all be redone for 0.16, so they should be correct in that version.

 

[Grey Fox]

I think this mod is very well documented for how far it is in its development.

 

[Sureshot]

when i see "word documentation" i keep mistaking it with "world domination"

 

[xanaqui42]

Yep; I've just finally pretty much learned the magic system, so describing the system would be something I could work on when my work on the units is done.

I have a draft; see if this helps you. If not, identifying any confusion may help me explain it better.