Alex's Uniques v0.00001

[AlexTG]

I also made it kind of easy to cut and paste in the units and names files, all my changes are at the bottom of those files. The only thing I'm not sure about it how it would handle having two definitions for the praetorians. Let me know how it works out please!

 

[joequality]

the idea of the American cowboy is good. and maybe some sort of Davy Crocket type-- rugged explorer that is stronger than a regular explorer.

Harrier instead of jet fighter for English (or spitfire to replace regular fighter); the Man-o-war would be awesome; and make the English spy look like James Bond

definitely a German u-boat; remake their axeman to be something like a Visigoth beserker

How about a Roman centurion instead of legion? (legionnaire is more of a modern day fighter term ala Jean Claude Van Damme)

And on that note, how about a French foreign legionnary that replaces either infantry or marines? If you could get Van Damme's face on the unit, that would be incredible...

India can have the gurkha instead of infantry (originally from the "Hindu warrior-saint")

 

[woodelf]

Okay, bear with me while I try to think this through as far as easily combining 2 mini Mods.

Alex - you mod has 3 folders in the XML folder; Civilizations, Text, and Units. I know you altered the units folder (duh), but what about the other 2? I'm hoping to take another mod that altered the gameplay, but drop your unit folder into it. Or do I need to drop in the Civilizations and Text as well, which were most likely altered in the other mod and making my task exponentially more difficult. My brain hurts....

 

[AlexTG]

the idea of the American cowboy is good. and maybe some sort of Davy Crocket type-- rugged explorer that is stronger than a regular explorer.

Harrier instead of jet fighter for English (or spitfire to replace regular fighter); the Man-o-war would be awesome; and make the English spy look like James Bond

definitely a German u-boat; remake their axeman to be something like a Visigoth beserker

How about a Roman centurion instead of legion? (legionnaire is more of a modern day fighter term ala Jean Claude Van Damme)

And on that note, how about a French foreign legionnary that replaces either infantry or marines? If you could get Van Damme's face on the unit, that would be incredible...

India can have the gurkha instead of infantry (originally from the "Hindu warrior-saint")

I think centurions were not actual fighting units but some kind of rank in the legion? So there were very few centurions in actuality.

Graphics is something I'm going to worry about once the rest of the stuff is nailed down, no sense in doing that for units that might get thrown out.

I really like the idea of having french foreign legions and ghurkas though, I will look into those.

I'm still on the fence about the cowboys but the davey crocket type sounds not bad for an explorer replacement, I forget what you call them in english. In french I think it's coureur-de-bois or something like that...

 

[AlexTG]

Okay, bear with me while I try to think this through as far as easily combining 2 mini Mods.

Alex - you mod has 3 folders in the XML folder; Civilizations, Text, and Units. I know you altered the units folder (duh), but what about the other 2? I'm hoping to take another mod that altered the gameplay, but drop your unit folder into it. Or do I need to drop in the Civilizations and Text as well, which were most likely altered in the other mod and making my task exponentially more difficult. My brain hurts....

You have to drop all the folders in. I needed to modify the civ folder to assign UUs to each civ. I also needed to modify the text file otherwise you have no names for your units! My advice is to drop them all in and if it asks you to overwrite any actual files, then maybe there is a conflict.

 

[woodelf]

So far so good. I added your mod to the slower tech and balance mod. Thankfully you put your changes on the bottom so it was easy to cut/paste using XML Marker. All of the unit folder simply overwrote everything in the other folder. I haven't gotten far in playtesting, but no crashes.

Are you planning on more UUs?

 

[AlexTG]

So far so good. I added your mod to the slower tech and balance mod. Thankfully you put your changes on the bottom so it was easy to cut/paste using XML Marker. All of the unit folder simply overwrote everything in the other folder. I haven't gotten far in playtesting, but no crashes.

Are you planning on more UUs?

yep gonna add more UUs for every civ. I think 4 is a good number for each civ to have, but who knows. But no updates till sunday since I'll be out of town.

 

[woodelf]

How's work coming on this Alex? So far your units have worked well. My only minor criticism is that the Roman UUs all seem to come at the same time. I know this is factual, but that's how it seems. You should check out the Lost Units thread in the Completed Modpacks section to see what else has been done.

 

[AlexTG]

How's work coming on this Alex? So far your units have worked well. My only minor criticism is that the Roman UUs all seem to come at the same time. I know this is factual, but that's how it seems. You should check out the Lost Units thread in the Completed Modpacks section to see what else has been done.

I hit a deer this weekend (no injuries luckily), so I've been dealing with insurance and whatnot. Will probably be able to make some more progress on the mod soon though..

 

[woodelf]

My wife and I play dodge the deer every day it seems. Getting the car fixed is a pain in the ass even when it's covered by insurance. Thankfully no injuries.

 

[Wyz_sub10]

I love this idea. I already know of 4 UUs for my Can mod.

Can you produce a file for added civs? I'd like to keep the Canada mod to 1 UU to be compatible with others. But I'd like to have 4 to match your mod for those who DL it.

...actually, maybe I should make another Can mod to match your work.

 

[Alathan]

A cowboy unit for the Americans would just be awesome. They could replace the cavalry.

the idea of the American cowboy is good. and maybe some sort of Davy Crocket type-- rugged explorer that is stronger than a regular explorer.

I like this idea is well! The trick, though, is that the Cowboy is more like an irregular unit than a regular military unit. First of all, they should be able to Build Pastures (their original job, right?), and if they Fortify in a Pasture, you get +1 Food and +1 Coin from it. Second, they should cause one for each one that occupies a city (they're rural folks and tend to make the city slickers uneasy). I'm not sure how easy or hard it would be to do all of the above, though.

Other than that, they should be a little less powerful than Cavalry (since they're not nearly as disciplined), so I'd give them the following stats: 12 Strength, 2 Movement, cost 80 Hammers; Does not receive any defensive bonuses; 1 First Strike; Has 60% chance to withdraw from combat (a lot more likely to flee from combat than Cavalry); +25% Attack Versus Cannon (again, not as disciplined in combat); Can upgrade to Cavalry (but you should be able to keep making them up through the Modern era; they never become totally obsolete because of their Pasture benefits).

Sure, this makes them mostly inferior to Cavalry, but they're a lot cheaper in comparison, they do wonders for pastures, and as such make halfway decent backup units if you do get into a war and need some "spare" cavalry-type units.

As for the unit graphic, just use the Cavalry unit, but if anyone is able to reskin it, that would make it all the more distinctive.

 

[AlexTG]

I love this idea. I already know of 4 UUs for my Can mod.

Can you produce a file for added civs? I'd like to keep the Canada mod to 1 UU to be compatible with others. But I'd like to have 4 to match your mod for those who DL it.

...actually, maybe I should make another Can mod to match your work.

The problem is in the way civ 4 handles mods. You cannot load more than 1 mod at once through the game menus, and it can be very difficult to combine 2 mods if they modify the same files (you have to merge the files properly). Right now I'm going to concentrate on finishing the mod, then I will worry about combining it with other mods.

I like this idea is well! The trick, though, is that the Cowboy is more like an irregular unit than a regular military unit. First of all, they should be able to Build Pastures (their original job, right?), and if they Fortify in a Pasture, you get +1 Food and +1 Coin from it. Second, they should cause one for each one that occupies a city (they're rural folks and tend to make the city slickers uneasy). I'm not sure how easy or hard it would be to do all of the above, though.

Other than that, they should be a little less powerful than Cavalry (since they're not nearly as disciplined), so I'd give them the following stats: 12 Strength, 2 Movement, cost 80 Hammers; Does not receive any defensive bonuses; 1 First Strike; Has 60% chance to withdraw from combat (a lot more likely to flee from combat than Cavalry); +25% Attack Versus Cannon (again, not as disciplined in combat); Can upgrade to Cavalry (but you should be able to keep making them up through the Modern era; they never become totally obsolete because of their Pasture benefits).

I like most of these ideas. The +1 food/coin thing might be very hard to implement. But maybe what I could do is allow them to build a different improvement, like a ranch or something, that would give a higher bonus. Also I think it's currently impossible to make something that upgrades to another unit but doesn't get replaced by it. I'm doing USA tonight so you'll see these very soon I think.

 

[AlexTG]

updated with american units!

 

[erikg88]

I really loved the concept of the cowboy unit, so I went ahead and did a skin for it. Now, I only have Adobe Illustrator and Paint, so it's a little amateurish (I'm not much of an artist, after all), but here it is all the same.

Some shots:

And then for the download:
http://home.comcast.net/~erikg88/graphics/cavalry_rider_128.dds

 

[Ad Hominem]

Great idea of a mod. Since I am a Greek fanboy, I'll give my suggestions for the Greek UUs:

- Peltast is ok, should replace the regular archer or the warrior (I'd go with archer - if so, a bonus in defence against mounted opponents would be great, or they should get the woodsman trait off the bat)

- Gastraphetes. An ancient crosbowman, to replace the archer for the Greeks. Should be carrying a realy bulky crossbow (fired from the waist, not the shoulder). Anti-infantry bonus or city attack bonus.

- Ballista. An ancient siege weapon. Should precede the catapult (build in the classical age) with reduced stats of course. Upgrade to catapult.

- Companion cavalry, instead of horse archer or chariot. A bonus against infantry (to represent the fact that they were the first shock cavalry)

- Trireme (replacing galley) I am unsure about the advantage, but should be an attack-oriented one.

- Cataphraktoi (we are talking Greek and this is a medieval Greek - aka Byzantine - unit). Replacing the Knight. Better defence/attack against mounted opponents

- Evzonos. A modern (post 1821 I mean) unit for the Greeks. A more hardy rifleman.

I realize those are too many, but you can pick whatever suits you. I'd strongly suggest using only one additional ancient UU or give at least the medieval UU to the Greeks, as not to concentrate the full range of their UUs in one era.

Again, kudos for a great job!

 

[AlexTG]

Excellent ideas guys, I will add in those greeks soon I think. Probably add in the ballista, the trireme, and the evzonos.

and erikg88, if you don't mind I'll add that skin to the next version. Looks great!

 

[Robo Magic Man]

Great work, I 've been wanting more UU's for a long time, and I especially like the special building abilities. However, I agree with TerraHero,

"Legionaire (replace swordsman)
8str +25% vs archer or start with Cover (to resemble the Legionaires Testudo formation, wich was unique to them)

Triarii (replace spearman)
4str and starts with Combat1 (Triarii where the most veteran troops in the early roman armies)

It seems to me that the legionnaires/praetorians should have 8 strength. After all, Rome's legions built a huge empire, and even with the regular praetorians, emulating the roman empire on an earth map isn't the easiest feat.

 

[Robo Magic Man]

Not to insult your work at all, Alex, but I did some light editing of your mod to fit my preferences a little better. So far I've only edited the legion/praetorian units (I'm kind of a Roman fanboy). But, for anyone who's interested, here are the changes:

Legion- 6 strength instead of 4 to match the axemen they replace

Praetorian Guard- 7 strength

Marian Legion- Changed name to Imperial Legion (Just a preference) and changed strength to 7.

All bonuses are kept as in the original, so Praetorian Guard is still slightly stronger than Imperial/Marian Legion, but mainly as a defender.


If anyone wants to DL my edited version, please PM me and I'll post it.

AlexTG, thanks for a great mod and making this possible.

 

[Red Door]

Yeah I like this mod. It would be better if there were 2 or 3 new units for every civilization.