Amra's ALH Modpack for v1.61 (using Animated Leaderheads)

[Rabbit, White]

Not all of them such as corn, wheat, etc. This is from Sevo's thread, post#1:It is definitely an interesting idea, as is a lot of the things Sevo does. I just don't feel confident in making big changes to the gameplay like that... yet. So I've just tried to offer an expansion pack to the people who are just starting to play Civ4 or maybe those who have played it and, for the most part, like the way Vanilla civ4 plays.

I'm better at leaderheads, than Python & XML.

Hmmm, there are three problems I see with this though.

1) Thematically, not all of these make sense - for example gems aren't usually obvious until you start digging (i.e. mining) so having them revealed by mining makes sense. On the other hand, whether you know what to do with them or not, but cows are right there walking around, they're not exactly hidden (or if you argue that cows are domesticated animals that didn't exist as such until bred, then you could make the same argument for something like corn). Actually, if anything, I would argue that horses should be visible right away, but I'm digressing.

2) I don't see why a player shouldn't get the chance to put their first city (or two) semi-intelligently, i.e. being aware of some of the resources. I mean if you want a fair start, if anything, you should let them see the resources because if they spawned in a bad spot they'll know it and try to put the second city in a better location.

3) AFAIK sevo have yet to make changes to the AI code that decides where to put the cities, which means it takes into account all the resources in the area regardless of whether it has the tech for them or not. So this change cripples the player further in comparison to the AI.

Having said all that, it all comes down to the gameplay in the end, and how fun (or not fun ) that change is.

 

[Amra]

AFAIK sevo have yet to make changes to the AI code that decides where to put the cities, which means it takes into account all the resources in the area regardless of whether it has the tech for them or not. So this change cripples the player further in comparison to the AI.

I seem to recall reading quite a few comments & debates about the resource ignorance (and the AI's lack of resource ignorance) in Sevo's thread so I think you are not alone in your thinking.

 

[keldath]

hey amra

are you going to make it compattible with warlords?

 

[Amra]

hey amra

are you going to make it compattible with warlords?

I want to but please don't anybody expect it immediately after Warlords is released. I don't usually buy a game the first day it comes out unless there's a really good sale (got a wife, kids & a mortgage to think about), so it could be a couple weeks until I get Warlords and then I need to get everything working with the new stuff (leader traits, Unique buildings, etc.) that will be added with Warlords.

 

[Leif]

I don't usually buy a game the first day it comes out unless there's a really good sale (got a wife, kids & a mortgage to think about)

Conan would be proud!

So, fellow players of Amra's mod, what leaderhead trait changes can we suggest?
----edit-----
What changes do I need to make to the XML to turn off city razeing?

 

[Grabnar]

Amra, I finished playing 1200 turn earthmap with your mod the other day...very cool. I have 1 gig of ram & didn't have a single ctd. I did have a comment about the helicopter situation though. Both my Mi24 & chinook automatically got 6 promotions when built & I never could get the Mi24 to attack anything at all. The chinook is really cool but do you think airlifting 8 units is a bit over powered? If these questions were allready asked, sorry...but it's a long thread. Anyway, great mod. Thanks.

 

[Grabnar]

I meant cargo capacity 5 for the chinook...must have had one too many beers.

 

[Amra]

Amra, I finished playing 1200 turn earthmap with your mod the other day...very cool. I have 1 gig of ram & didn't have a single ctd. I did have a comment about the helicopter situation though. Both my Mi24 & chinook automatically got 6 promotions when built & I never could get the Mi24 to attack anything at all. The chinook is really cool but do you think airlifting 8 units is a bit over powered? If these questions were allready asked, sorry...but it's a long thread. Anyway, great mod. Thanks.

Thanks for downloading. I don't believe those questions were asked yet. I copied those units in from another mod and must have missed those things, sorry. I've been putting together a patch of minor fixes and will look at the helicopters more thoroughly before posting the patch to see what can be fixed or changed.

Edit: Just saw your correction on the Chinook capacity. I was thinking it was 5 but replied before checking. I think 5 is a good number as it is a modern transport. I wouldn't want to make it any lower than 4, though.

 

[Grabnar]

Amra, I don't know the first thing about modding myself but I was thinking that the Mi24 "Hind" helicopter is a Russian atack helicopter & the Mi26 is apparently a "cargo" helicopter. It may be that whoever created them accidently mixed them up & "defanged" the Mi24 for attack & didn't give it cargo ability either...just an idea. Anyway, these little things happen.

 

[keldath]

hello amra how are you?

i hope that by the end of augost ill post my 3uu for your lovley mod
first i have 2 tests to go through in my studies..

anyway - i wanted to tell you,
it was brout to my attention that the uniqe unit of the celts - the fianna -
caused ctd, when counqering an enemy (barberian) city - i have no idea why - i used the one from your mod acctualy.
could you take a look? cauue i couldnt say why this happens.

 

[Amra]

hello amra how are you?

i hope that by the end of augost ill post my 3uu for your lovley mod
first i have 2 tests to go through in my studies..

anyway - i wanted to tell you,
it was brout to my attention that the uniqe unit of the celts - the fianna -
caused ctd, when counqering an enemy (barberian) city - i have no idea why - i used the one from your mod acctualy.
could you take a look? cauue i couldnt say why this happens.

Hey Keldath, I'm doing well, thank you.

I'm not sure what to make of the Fianna. I've built several in my mod and they have not caused any crashes yet. Just tested it again tonight and no problem. I will keep an eye on it.

Glad to hear you are doing well and I will post a link to any addon you make for my mod. See the next post about a patch, though. You may want to integrate that before doing an addon as it modifies the Civ4UnitInfos.xml file (among others). Hopefully I won't be doing any other patches for this version. The next version I want to do will be for Warlords. Gotta buy it first though, maybe next week.

 

[Amra]

I posted a couple new patches on the first page. There weren't any gamestopper bugs that I found so most of the items are minor. Please note that only one patch is needed.

Patch "A" is for the basic modpack and does not include any extra resources. The Extra Resource patch includes all the fixes from Patch "A" plus extra resources, buildings & improvements

Here are the details.

** Version 1.80 Patch "A" **
- Fixed Pedia entry for Firaxis Games (Thanks Toys-R-Us)
- Fixed 5-man formations for Ethnically Diverse Egyptian & Hindu Warriors. Also Egyptian & Native Archers
- Added requirement for Artillery Tech to Ethiopian RPG-7
- Added new Aegis model (credit Snafusmith & C Roland)
- Changed Naval Mine to invisible unit (like Sub) and added Minesweeper unit (Credit Toys-R-Us for concept)
- Reduced Naval Mine movement to 2 (was 3)
- Fixed problem with Mi-24 Gunship not being able to attack ground units
- Updated Unit Statistics Mod to v1.40b

** Version 1.80a Resource Patch (Includes patch "A" plus extra resources & buildings) **
- Added 8Res mod (with Tobacco) by DanoDavid, using resources from Greenmod by Master Lexx
- Added Rubber resource (changed reveal tech to Chemistry, was Physics) & Stables from Extended Mod by Ganart
- Changed 8Res mod Tobacco to Barley & made new resource for Tobacco (based on corn)
- Added Brewery & Tavern buildings by Duke van Frost (NOTE: Brewery & tavern are placed at odd angles in city)
- Added Natural Gas resource, Pipeline & Plant from Sevomod (Full credit & kudos to Sevo)
- Created new resource icons for Tobacco, Barley & Natural Gas
- Cotton is now revealed by Machinery tech (was revealed at start of game)
- Sulphur required for Unit Classes: Musketman, Rifleman, Grenadier, Cannon, & Cavalry
- Rubber required for Unit Classes: Marine, Spec, Artillery & Mobile_SAM
- (07/26/06) Fixed pink build icon for Natural Gas Refinery
- (07/26/06) Reduced Brewery food bonus with Natural Gas to 25% (was 50%) and fixed trade route error
- (07/26/06) Tweaked Tavern stats slightly

List of all new Resources (Reveal Tech)
---------------------------------------
Ancient Temple (Start of game) +0F +0H +1G (+4G with Explored Temple)
Barley (Start of game) +2F +0H +0G (+2F with Farm)
Coffee (Start of game) +1F +0H +1G (+3G with Plantation)
Cotton (Machinery) +0F +0H +1G (+3G with Plantation)
Hemp (Start of game) +0F +0H +1G (+2G with Plantation)
Lemons (Start of game) +1F +0H +0G (+1F +1G with Plantation)
Lost Civ (Archaeology) +0F +0H +1G (+2G with Archaeological Dig)
Natural Gas (Combustion) +0F +1H +0G (+2H +2G with Offshore Platform or Pipeline)
Pearls (Start of game) +0F +0H +1G (+1F +2G with Fishing Boat)
Potatoes (Start of game) +1F +0H +0G (+3F with Farm)
Rubber (Chemistry) +0F +1H +2G (+2G with Plantation)
Salt (Start of game) +0F +0H +1G (+1F +3G with Quarry)
Sulphur (Gunpowder) +0F +0H +1G (+2G with Mine)
Tobacco (Start of game) +0F +0H +2G (+4G with Farm)

 

[keldath]

hey arma,

so - ive been told that the fianna is causing ctd when they take a barbarian city.

as for the merging, man ireally wanna finnish it already, but i have so much projects...
update the version for the new sevo,
then update to my two integrated mods gir%mega,
then make all of that capatible to warlprds...
and in between i need to merge it with yours...

i ask my self when will ill get to play one of this? maybe when civ5 comes out....

 

[Toys®Us]

Nice work Amra. I was waiting for the new patch.
I'm at work now, so usually, I'll play the weekend only.
Tell me, about the naval mines. Why they are able to see each other?
Just the minesweeper is able to detect the naval mines, with the "computers" technology? No?

I don't understand the idea.
I did the correction for myself.

I don't have Warlords, it will be in store later here. I'll buy it next week.
Again, good job Amra.
Many thanks.


Edit 1: Oups! Just the combustion is needed, + Oil or Uranium to build a minesweeper. Let me think about it again...
Edit 2: About "Edit 1": I agree.

But a naval mine able to see another one... hmmm... I disagree for now.

 

[Amra]

Tell me, about the naval mines. Why they are able to see each other?

I set it up the same as the Subs which are able to see each other, probably had a brain fart & didn't think beyond that.

If anyone wants to change it, simply edit the "Civ4UnitInfos.xml" file with notepad, search for "<Type>UNIT_SEAMINE</Type>", go down about 8 lines and change "<SeeInvisible>INVISIBLE_SEAMINE</SeeInvisible>" to "<SeeInvisible>NONE</SeeInvisible>". Save the file and play.

EDIT: I changed the naval mines in the patches in Post #1 so no one will need to edit the files as described above unless you already installed the patch.

 

[Toys®Us]

probably had a brain fart

I work in a hospital... I'm able to help maybe...

***

Naval mines will be extremely useful to protect our resources at sea (fishes, pearls, etc...)... with a battleship around, just in case.

 

[Amra]

I work in a hospital... I'm able to help maybe...

I'm beyond all help, actually. FYI, I changed the patches in post #1 to not allow the Naval mines to see each other.

hey arma,

so - ive been told that the fianna is causing ctd when they take a barbarian city.

as for the merging, man ireally wanna finnish it already, but i have so much projects...
update the version for the new sevo,
then update to my two integrated mods gir%mega,
then make all of that capatible to warlprds...
and in between i need to merge it with yours...

i ask my self when will ill get to play one of this? maybe when civ5 comes out....

I didn't try taking a barbarian city with one yet. I'll see what's up with that as soon as I can. And, you really gotta get another hobby, your current one sounds too much like work.

 

[Amazing Game]

THANK YOU very much for your response and care to the community.

I for one continue to appreciate all that you have done with regards to the advice and directions in implementing your civ creations. To this end, with the additional help of map and mod creators ( and alot of personal time) together with the aforementioned advice you have posted in many locations, I have succesfully converted your Byzantine Civ into the NEW BALANCE mod for Warlords recently released. ( Along with several other tweaks in Game Speed, Handicap and CIV4UnitInfos files).

Because of YOU, I continue to bring my game to new heights.

Having said all of this, I would like to know is it possible to convert the respective files from Your PRE- WARLORDS civs to my personal delight using NOTEPAD/wordpad to make the appropiate changes.

If not, could you make the following civs files from your animated LH's WARLORDS compatible (in order of preference):

1) Poland
2) Austria
3) Israel
4) Hyboria

I really need Poland in the 81 by 73 map of Europe that will eventually include 18 civs. Germany continues to be assaulted (in my trial runs) by the raging barbarians which in history was (as far as I know) the unfortunate Polish civ. (due largely in part on their central location in Europe).

In the absence of your positive response to this post, I will likely seige my computer with a "trial and error" tactic.

AGIAIN, IF THE CONVERSION THAT I SPEAK ABOUT IS POSSIBLE ON MY OWN, I WILL GLADLY DO IT MYSELF AS, THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN THE SATISFACTION OF COMPLETING SOMETHING ON YOUR OWN. Since I have ( WITH YOUR DIRECTION- GOD BLESS YOU) done this already and successfully on my own, I don't care either way- ALL I need to know is this:

DO I NEED ANY PROGRAM BESIDES NOTEPAD ???

AMRA IF this civfanatics website had a chivalry tech,,,you would have alreadly discovered it ahead of everyone else....YOUR DA MAN - just for caring...........

Keep up da great work.

 

[Drtad]

Amra, what civs are you going to use to replace Carthage, Korea,etc. and all the other ones included in the warlords expansion.

 

[Amra]

@Amazing Game
As always, thanks for the kind words. I'm taking a few days away from Civ4 modding and will try to get back into it next week. I'd like to say that it would be a piece of cake to quickly do what you've asked but I found out while updating Byzantium that Warlords added quite a few new xml tags to the UnitInfos file and two new xml tags to the LeaderheadInfos file. Which means that I (or you) can't just copy vanilla civ4 xml entries and paste them into an updated mod using Warlords xml files. I tried that initially with Byzantium and got a lot of xml missing tag errors when starting Warlords with Byzantium. I eventually ended up recreating the Dromon's xml entry based on the Warlords Galley entry.

So, to make a long story short (and please don't lay siege to your computer ), I will start updating my modpack next week but in lieu of all the new UU's & regular units that are in my modpack (not to mention creating a new unique building for each of the new civs), it may be a slow process. I really don't want to make any promises when it will be done as my Civ4 time may start to dwindle with Football season fast approaching.

I'll come out of the closet now & admit that I am a hopeless Fantasy Football geek. Even won my league champonship last year. I actually started modding Civ4 last February because Football was over and I was bored.

Amra, what civs are you going to use to replace Carthage, Korea,etc. and all the other ones included in the warlords expansion.

I haven't given it much thought yet as the next thing I want to do for this modpack is just get it working with Warlords (minus the 6 duplicate civs, of course). However, a couple civs that keep sticking in the back of my mind are:

Troy - Hector (reusing the Alexander/Hannibal LH)
Picts - Calgacus (reskinning either Brennus or Hannibal from Warlords)

My only concern about those two civs are that they are very similar to existing civs. Beyond that, I am going to collaborate with Civ Gold and will probably share some civs from there.

I welcome any suggestions regarding an existing civ mod anyone would like to see added or a civ that has not been done and you would like me to attempt. I will still be trying to only reskin each 3D LH only once, so I may or may not be able to do some of the suggestions depending on similarities to an available 3d model.