Download and Current Changelog

[tesb]

@breez
based on the beta version i have, the local legend is a tier II unit with the hero promotion which lasts a fair amount of turns. if it is gone you will gain a building dedicated to that unit which grants a small bonus. it is more of a help in the early game. i found no problems with the mechanic.

 

[tesb]

@Skeet66:
what i wanted to do is a barbarian faction which are demons. and as the sheaim you could choose to trigger a mechanic that would automatically assign all your demons/planar creatures to this faction. The hippus gain a similar mechanic in 9.0 (see the hippus thread, basically you can choose to enlist your troops as mercenaries). In return they would gain significant advantages.

Now when i created the summoning rites i did not know that this was possible, but when i have the time (which i will have a lot less of in the coming months) and the support of sephi i will definitely rework the demonic enclave/summoning rites mechanic for the sheaim to that end.

currently once you build the demonic enclave your demons are ai controlled but still belong to your faction, are immortal, faster and heal faster (the trade off is a huge economic penalty, see the first post in the further flavored civilizations thread), but this has bad side effects: mainly that you will still see them attacking since they are technically belonging to you, nor does the ai use them in a good way (too suicidal).

 

[Sephi]

I love how the modmod is progressing, it becomes more and more fun to play as versions go by. super stable, quick and always enjoyable. the upcoming magic system sounds like it's gonna be a huge testament to that

a couple more questions now

1) this thread http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=366620 is honestly the thing that I'm more excited about, over the new, more flashy content additions. FFH has always been at its best in the endgame when it gets truly epic and all of the cool toys are available, but that part is ruined by too many units that make it slow and unwieldy. I trust the new system we talked about there will be in 9.0 ? that will make me the happiest bunny ever!

2) related to the above, will there still be the "max 4 units of this kind" rule? I really hate that and think support costs on the unit tier would allow us to get rid of it

3) should we still expect a beta before the "real" release, or did you guys already take care of the testing? I'm asking this cuz it seems like it's taking more than expected

thanx for bringing us the most kickass civ4 mod ever

1) I don't know. Maybe later. In the endgame upkeep costs do not have that much of an impact since you can just set Research to 0% anyway. I think there will be less units in the endgame simply because the AI will play differently.
2) you can always write a small XML module for it. Removing this could easily turn the game into a boring "reach tier4 first race"
3) yes, of course there will be a beta. It is mostly AI now that needs to be done. Don't know how long that will take.

Here is a screenshot from the Meteor Swarm using the spell effect made by tesb. Looks better when you see the whole animation and not just a single picture, but it is another nice demonstration of the possibilities that the new magic system has.

Spoiler Ljosalfar Archmage casting Meteor Swarm :

 

[tesb]

I think modifying unit upkeep costs is a very good idea. So far my plans are:

• Allow upkeep costs of units of 1.2, 1.3 etc.
• Modify upkeep costs by Level and Tier. Later tiers cost more in upkeep and more experienced units cost more. No more will warriors get the same pay as a legendary war hero
• Upkeep costs scale exponential rather than linear with unit count. That means if you have 40 units and you build another one, it will increase the upkeep of all of them. Right now income increases exponential while costs only increase linear, which I think is the main culprit here.

I will also add some AI code so that there is no Build unit, disband unit, build unit, disband unit loop.

are you still planning on adding this, sephi?

 

[Lord Katana]

Spoiler Ljosalfar Archmage casting Meteor Swarm :

Oh My Sephi! Is that ONE spell??? If so, chistmas comes early this year
I was kinda dreading the reduction in mana (no endless fireballs or wraiths wiping out everything in their path) but this looks amazing! Can i donate a week worth of sleep to you so you don't have to and finish 9.0 quickly?????

 

[hix]

now that looks like it might make an archmage worth building....I usually don't even focus on them, more as an afterthought, but you might change my mind with the new system.

 

[Folket]

Archmages are the most powerful unit in the game. I remember playing Malakim and stealing several brujah a turn from Calabim when I was fighting them.

 

[Skeet66]

Holy cow that spell is awsome...

Say that fire rain would be cool if it was added as armmaggedon effect eh?

Like rain of fire coming down and pools of lava crack between the lands..

And oceans turn to lava... I can only dream lol...

 

[Mikka]

That looks incredibly awesome! I can't wait till we get a chance to actually play with it.

(loling at the fact that Selphi's playing the Ljosalfar while apparently doing a Kill It With Fire routine, though XD)

 

[Sephi]

I know this is a personal preference sort of thing... but I hate temp units like that.

One of the huge things I like about Civ is the persistence of experience gain of units. Temp units like that completely remove that aspect of the game for that unit.

I would rather see a buff that makes a current unit (possibly changes its name also) a local legend that wears off after X number of turns, allowing you to keep the named unit and the memory of its greatness instead of just losing the unit and the exp gained during its run of being a legend.

Just my humble opinion of course.

thanks to an idea by Graywarden you will be able to keep the local legend. Comes at a high price though.

@Skeet66:
what i wanted to do is a barbarian faction which are demons. and as the sheaim you could choose to trigger a mechanic that would automatically assign all your demons/planar creatures to this faction. The hippus gain a similar mechanic in 9.0 (see the hippus thread, basically you can choose to enlist your troops as mercenaries). In return they would gain significant advantages.

Now when i created the summoning rites i did not know that this was possible, but when i have the time (which i will have a lot less of in the coming months) and the support of sephi i will definitely rework the demonic enclave/summoning rites mechanic for the sheaim to that end.

currently once you build the demonic enclave your demons are ai controlled but still belong to your faction, are immortal, faster and heal faster (the trade off is a huge economic penalty, see the first post in the further flavored civilizations thread), but this has bad side effects: mainly that you will still see them attacking since they are technically belonging to you, nor does the ai use them in a good way (too suicidal).

sounds good to me. I had added a few more barbarian factions to the DLL lately, there are 7 now. Renaming one currently not used to Demons would be an easy thing.

are you still planning on adding this, sephi?

yes, unless other changes make it obsolete.

Oh My Sephi! Is that ONE spell??? If so, chistmas comes early this year
I was kinda dreading the reduction in mana (no endless fireballs or wraiths wiping out everything in their path) but this looks amazing! Can i donate a week worth of sleep to you so you don't have to and finish 9.0 quickly?????

yes, it's one spell. Magic will play a much more important part. As Sheaim for example you can summon your first skeleton Soldier probably around turn 20 as long as you have decent mana income from your start location.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

with mages hopefully becoming more important in 9.0, I really think it's time to import denev's Self Assertive Guardsman

 

[esvath]

*nudge*

Do we have an ETA for 9.0?

 

[tesb]

do you really want that sephi inflicts the same pain on you like valkrionn did?

 

[Valkrionn]

do you really want that sephi inflicts the same pain on you like valkrionn did?

What pain?

 

[tesb]

What pain?

Q: when will 1.3 be released?
A: soon, next week, ......

oh.. wait the download is not working .....
i just have to do some minor things ....
......
.....

 

[Valkrionn]

Hey hey now, the download not working wasn't my fault. Had to be approved.

 

[tesb]

sure, but it was the cherry on top of all the wait time and the *it is almost finished, while still taken an eternity* posts

 

[Valkrionn]

I can agree with that. It aggravated the hell out of me too. Particularly when the upload to WePlayCiv failed... 4 times in a row, I believe it was? Never failed a single time at either of the other hosts we used.

 

[esvath]

Well, I am a masochist

Seriously, WM 9.0 and Rife 1.3 are two things I wait anxiously, since I don't play Orbis

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

one thing I really like about the Infernal Overhaul in Orbis a while ago was that right now IIRC, you get two manes for each dead unit eligible to become a mane. it doesn't really make sense to get two souls out of one unit of course, so that was changed to only one mane in Orbis and I thought it was great. they might need a boost elsewhere after that change of course, to keep them balanced