BTS Heroes (Wonder Units)

[Edgecrusher]

Concept
Link to Database

This is a small component that adds "Heroes" to the BTS v3.17.21. This should work with other versions of BTS, although I havent tested it.
Heroes are defined as "Wonder Units". On the world level they can only be built once (in some instances more than once) per game. This is the same concept as the World Wonders.
This may seem familiar. The concept is present in a number of Mods including FFH2.

My goal was to put Balanced units that will not be game breaking for the Civ that constructs them.

Features
Current version 0.7

21 Heroes:

Spoiler :

Melee Units
Sacred Band: Classical Elite Swordman & Axeman Hybrid
The 300 Spartans: Classical Elite Spearman with a bonus vs Melee units, +1 First Strike
Spatacus: *note this is buggy* Spartacus is a great general, attached to a new melee unit, called gladiator. Each victory has a 25% chance to recruit a new Gladiator to join his cause. Spartacus is not eligable to be built, he is gifted to a civilization, by using the events system.
Swiss Guard: Medieval "Police" Unit: Police units are average defenders, with a new promotion that stifles revolutions.
Mounted Units
Companion Cavalry: Classical Era "Skirmish" unit. Skirmish units have high withdrawel and low city attack. They attack and retreat, letting the infantry finish off the target with less damage then they would usually take.
Gunpowder Units
54th Infantry: Late Renaissance/Early Industrial Rifleman, As Is from LoR Mod. Included here with Shiney new button.
Republican Guard: An Industrial-Modern era version of the Swiss Guard with the addition to help "thwart rival spies".
Siege Weapons
Trojan Horse: Ancient Siege, decreases cities entire defence, originally would like to have this do what it does in FFH, however I am no sure the AI will know how to incorporate it.
Helepolis: Siege Weapon with a bonus when attack archery units
War Wolf: medieval trebuchet, an upgrade of the standard trebuchet
Dardanelles Gun: early renaissance siege weapon, available with gunpowder. It filles the void between Trebuchets' and Cannons
Naval Units
Santa Maria: Faster Caravel for a boost in discovery, useful on terra maps
Mayflower: slower Caravel with ability to carry settlers, can aid in early colonization
Queen Anne's Revenge: stronger Privateer that can "recruit" defeated units as privateers
Adler von Lubeck: stronger galleon with more cargo space
Great Eastern: a transport that can enter enemy territory to initiate a surprise attack.
I-400 Carrier Submarie: Submarine with ability to carry 3 fighters
HMS Dreadnought: early battleship
Bismark: battleship with 2 first strikes
Aircraft Units
Red Baron: early fighter unit
Citizen Units
Florence Nightingale: non-combat unit with Medic I, II and III to heal units. Was working on code to have her construct "field hospitals" (improvements that would heal units after she has left), havent got these to work 100% yet.

2 Promotions
Police: Prevents Revolts
Pillage I: +25% Gold from Pillaging

1 Building
Museum Ship: Built by Age of Sail naval units, when they are passed their usefulness.

1 Unit
Special Forces: A non-hero new unit. This is a modern combination/upgrade of the paratrooper/marine/spy. Limited to 5 per civ. I use it when I actually sit down and play a game, figured I would include it if anyone wanted to use it. Note for some reason, the Parachute does not appear when the unit paradrops, if anyone can help here, it would be most appreciated.

A new page in the pedia has been added for the Heroes. They will not appear with the regular units. In future versions, when my python skills have improved. I wish to move this page below the Units page in the Pedia.

To Do:
More heroes (ideas are welcome).
I would like to expand this to national heroes, I have a few ideas for some, such as Joan of Arc. Similar to the World of Legend concept. Note, now that World of Legends has been re-birthed. I will hold off on this. Upon WoL's completion, if allowed to do so, I can/will incorporate their national heroes into this mod.

Some Ideas I have been working with, that are not implimented are:
Nautilus: An early nuclear sub
Paris Gun: Industrial siege gun. wasnt very practical in history, so this is probably a bad idea.

In addition, I want to attempt and incorporate more "Swiss Guard" type units. These would be non-standard civ units that can be incorperated. Another example might be the Italian Alpinos or Sherpas

Visuals: I would like to clean up the appearance. Improve buttons and the Pedia


Merging
90% of this Mod is in Modules. One can easily remove units one does not wish to use. In addition because its mostly modular, this Mod should merge fairly easily with existing Mods.

The exceptions are the PromotionInfos.xml and the Python Files. Two of the Python files are Pedia files. Outside of the SevoPedia, I don't believe there are many mods that change the layout of the Pedia. If there is need merge any of these files all the changes are enclosed in labels.
I suggest using WinMerge when merging those non-module files.

Feel free to criticize both positive and negative, and throw ideas if there is one you believe is a good idea. We can work it in. In addition, if anyone actually plays with this mod, if they could comment on balancing issues that would be most helpful.

Screenshots
The Pedia

Spoiler :

Preview of the Santa Maria

Spoiler :

Credits
FFH2 and WoL Team for the initial inspiration.

Artists: FireAxis, FFH2 Team, Aranor, Walter Hawkwood, snafussmith, anyone else I forgot.

Special Thanks to tsentom1 for his assitance with python, in additon to some excellent code that has/will be used. If you havent, you should thank Tom for his contributions to the community.

 

[The Capo]

I think you should remove the Swiss Guard, mainly because there are some Swiss Civs that use that unit as a UU.

Some other ideas for Hero units (a lot are taken from legends though); Arjuna could be a good hero (from the Bagavad Gita), Achiles, Barbarossa, Eknidu (from the epic of Gilgamesh), James Bond (as a spy), Wellington, Techumseh, Joshua, St. George.

I'm not exactly sure what you are going for here but those are some ideas for Heroes you could add. You could even add missionary units that you can use to spread religion to X amount of cities (shared by the same civ, so if you used them in a foreign country they would spread to that country if possible), or who knows. Just some ideas for you to think about.

 

[Hephaistion]

I'm enthusiastic about this concept, but it is important, I think, to make sure that what's done with it is something distinct from what can be done with Great People. For example, some tempting heroes (great leaders in history) can already be created with Great Generals taking command of a unit, which can be effected also for simulating notable units in history.

I've contemplated including things like this in HephMod, but several conceptual issues have plagued me. I love the idea, for example, of the Sacred Band infantry as a world unit, but was this unit unique enough to be more than a hoplite led by a Great General? Same goes for other wonder units from history I'd love to see: Alexander's Companion Cavalry or the 5th New York Infantry ("Duryee's Zouaves") or French Foreign Legion.

Then there's the issue of nationality as well: since many of the units we're discussing are civ-specific, should one make a world unit for every civ? On this front, sadly, some civs seem to spawn more world unit candidates than others (since "Greece" includes Thebes, Sparta and Macedonia, there's quite a distinguished military history there, all in one civ!)!

Along the lines of your Paris Gun idea, though, I'd love to see the Helepolis ("City-taker"), the massive metal-armored siege tower built by Demetrius the Besieger to take Rhodes in the wars of the Diadochoi, from the scrap of which the Colossus of Rhodes was forged.

I'm thrilled to see someone taking up this component, and may pirate you mercilessly (with all due credit, of course) for HephMod!

 

[Edgecrusher]

I think there is a fine line between a unit like the Sacred Band and a Hoplite led Great General. This was something I was trying to avoid. I also wanted to distinguish them from Great People. I had James Bond on my "list", if I ever make this a SDK mod and incorporate the SuperSpy Mod.
However, by nature I think there wont be very many "people" based units.
Thats why things like Siege Engines, Aircraft, Navy work (IMO) and most will be things of this nature. As long as units will fit into the game, and not be a redudent.

Incidently, The Sacred Band idea came about from a book I just completed called "The Venetian Betrayel". The fictional villian in the book was obscessed with Greeks, and mimiced many of their concepts in a precent day. She was the leader of a "nation" which was the union of the former soviet "-stan" nations east of Iran and north of Afghanistan. Her Sacred Band, was modern elite para-military group that was basically her KGB. but thats another story.

I did think that units of non-standard civs, could be implimented as "world units" Here is where the Swiss Guard came into play. All the units are modular so if there is an issue where someone is using a unit somewhere else, it can be omited. One that I was working on was an "Alpino", based off the Italian mountain military units.

This was an experiment that I am sure will take many additions & subtractions. I am not an artist, and am at the mercy of the CFF faithful creating units I can manipulate. For example I have a Tri-plane that needs a skin to be the Red Baron.

I do welcome any ideas. I am not an expert. most of the ideas I have, have come from books I have read, or incidents in history where, something "outside the norm" was used.

 

[Hephaistion]

However, by nature I think there wont be very many "people" based units.
Thats why things like Siege Engines, Aircraft, Navy work (IMO) and most will be things of this nature. As long as units will fit into the game, and not be a redudent.

I'm glad that the Helepolis would fit into this category! And BTW, I think the Bismarck is an excellent inclusion in this category.

I did think that units of non-standard civs, could be implimented as "world units" Here is where the Swiss Guard came into play. All the units are modular so if there is an issue where someone is using a unit somewhere else, it can be omited. One that I was working on was an "Alpino", based off the Italian mountain military units.

I love the Alpino idea: the Finnish alpine troops (I've forgotten their name) of the WWII era could also be a source of inspiration for this concept. The Varangian Guard, the Viking bodyguard of the Byzantine emperor, could also fit this category.

I can't say I'd like to see James Bond, as he's a fictonal character and I'm one of those stuffy historical realism types!

 

[Edgecrusher]

I can't say I'd like to see James Bond, as he's a fictonal character and I'm one of those stuffy historical realism types!

I am a little "torn" on the whole historical realism topic. Something like the Trojan Horse for example. Was this an actual constructed piece of machinery or just the imagination of an ancient writer. I know its wikipedia so take it for what its worth, but there is a theory that the "Trojan Horse" was another name for the Trojan Cavalry, its plausable the greeks disguised themselves as such and entered the city that way. I am sure there is some element of truth, fantacized to make for a good story. However, I feel a unit like the Trojan House would be nice, especially for early game Siege Engines, 1 problem I had with it, in its current format, is seeing if the AI knows how to use it. (doubtful). I might just change the bonus to -100% bombard to mimic the effect of sneaking in and circumventing defences.

 

[The_J]

cf-kane as also something like his in his Fictionalization IV-Mod.
I can remember Siegfried and i think, Odysseus.

Nice idea for a mod-component .

 

[tsentom1]

I noticed the potential for world unit classes as well. I never implemented them because I ultimately decided that they work best as support or highly specialized units rather than combat units -- since they can't be resurrected persay (though technically it wouldn't be hard to do so with python) the potential to loose the unit due to random spearman vs tank combat odds will cause most people to not actually bring the unit into combat, especially if they cost a lot of hammers to build.

Thematically, I think it works best to make most of the world units constructs like ships or cannons rather than people.

Anyway, Der Große Adler (aka Adler von Lübeck aka Lübscher Adler) was a famous ship, one of a kind, symbol of the Hanseatic League, that perfectly fits a world unit class.

 

[The Capo]

I can't say I'd like to see James Bond, as he's a fictonal character and I'm one of those stuffy historical realism types!

Then why are you playing civ?

 

[ripple01]

Nice Idea, I look forward to seeing this develop.

On another note, I love the buttons you are using for the Sacred Guard and Swiss Guard. I have both of those units in my mod but with crappy buttons. Would you mind posting those buttons somewhere or tell me where you got them?

Cheers,
ripple01

 

[Edgecrusher]

The Sacred Band button I made for this mod.

Not sure where I got the Swiss Guard button.
I downloaded it off this site at some point and cataloged it into my files. It might have been in the thread with the unit art.

Worst case scenario just download the Mod and extract them for it.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Well, looks wonderful that someone is streaming the WoL spirit... especially the heroes part. Though different from the original idea we (the WoL team) was planning, I still applaud you. (Although actually, WoL is never dead. It's just dormant, right now. )

 

[NikNaks]

This is indeed awesome! Just one minor point: "Heros" should be spelt "Heroes" with a second "e". It's only minor, and otherwise great start!

I think James Bond is a pretty mediocre idea for the Brits. I'd much rather see someone with some historical, or even mythical, grounding (as with the Trojan Horse). I'm desperately trying to come up with someone better, but maybe Robin Hood would be a slight improvement. I'll try to think of something better.

 

[Edgecrusher]

This is indeed awesome! Just one minor point: "Heros" should be spelt "Heroes" with a second "e". It's only minor, and otherwise great start!

Heh, For some reason, I always thought it was was acceptable either way,

 

[Vrenir]

It'd different, but you could also check out the coding for stmartin's Legions add-on to his History of the Three Kingdoms mod. It's pretty impressive, and the AI supposedly knows how to use it.

 

[cfkane]

Are you working exclusively with historical units? If so, I have my doubts about using the Trojan Horse in the mod.

Otherwise this could be a nice addition to a normal Civ game. The Mayflower idea is particularly creative.

 

[mechaerik]

What about the Dreadnought? Available before battleships, and superstrong? HMS Dreadnought revolutionized the navies of the world.

 

[Edgecrusher]

What about the Dreadnought? Available before battleships, and superstrong? HMS Dreadnought revolutionized the navies of the world.

Funny you should mention that, I had been toying with that for a while.

Just to give an update. I am currently working on the Dardanelles Gun. Walter Hawkwood ported some art over from EE2. Xenomorph rigged up some animation to it. The death animation doesnt seem to be working. I have been playing around with that. That is the hold up at the moment. I think it fits nicely between the gap between Trebuchets and Cannons.

Others that will be in the update:
I have already made some code for the Santa Maria (this will be a representation of Christopher Columbus's journey). The other idea for a name was "Columbus's Voyage" or something to that affect. I prefured Santa Maria though. Its just a Caravel that has 2 extra move points. The builder is most likely to "discover" new areas sooner. It might be given an increase in cargo (1 to 3), to be able to carry 2 Explorers/Missionaries/Spys, seeing as how there was 3 ships.
In addition, I was going to add a building called "Museum Ship". That the Mayflower, Santa Maria, and any other Age of Sail/Industrial era naval hero's can build later on in the game after their usefulness has expired. The Museum Ship will give the city a bonus in commerce (+25%?) and maybe a free merchant. This way those 2 ships are not hanging around after they are past their usefulness. And finally the AI code for the Mayflower has been edited. It seems I never changed it to what is in my notes.

Hephaistion's idea of the Helepolis. Will make an appearance. I have to Siege Tower art from Warlords, I would like to reskin it a little, but art is not my strong suit. Before the release I have to playtest its ability. Right now they are Ignores Building Defences, +100% vs Archery, and "Targets Archery", similar to the Ballista Elephant. This should give a bonus to sieging cities, however making it weak vs. Melee.

Lastly I rigged up some code for the I-400 Class. The ship seemed to be a fairly unique concept. A Submarine that acted as a Carrier!. Paired with this, I would like to include a seaplane to make the concept more accurate. But right now it is coded to carry 3 fighters (even though its not historically accurate.

That will bring the grand total of "Heroes" to 10, with a few other odd and end parts tied in. These updates should be up on Sunday. As mentioned I wanted to playtest a little to make sure, A) things work, and B)they arent game breaking.

 

[stgelven]

hi,
i have a little idea: what about a heroe "gutenberg" who gives a unique tech to the civ that have hime? tech should be printing that can offer some culture for ex. is this possible to do?

 

[Edgecrusher]

I have updated this mini-mod. Added some more units and cleaned up some bugs.