Era of Miracles fantasy mod - developer diary

[PawelS]

2011-10-01: Progress report

The work on the mod is progressing slowly, I've done more than the half of the tech tree (I won't post pictures because some things that should appear as icons below techs aren't done yet), when I finish the tech tree I'll start working on buildings. I have some ideas for unique buildings for some civs, there certainly will be much more than 2 "uniques" (buildings, units, improvements) per civ which will require some interface changes.

 

[PawelS]

2011-10-02: Tech tree dilemmas

When creating the tech tree, I encounter situations where I'm not sure what technologies should be prerequisites of other technologies. For example, there aren't enough magical techs, so in some places I make them dependent on religious techs. I don't like it that much, because I think magic and religion should be independent areas of development, but, on the other hand, I prefer the tech tree to be deeper. I don't like the FFH tech tree that much, where you often have 15 or more techs to choose from, and the tech tree is only 8 techs long (this is how it looks like in the Orbis modmod which I still have on my HD, but I think it's similar in base FFH). I prefer 6-8 techs to choose from, and a longer tech tree (in my current plans it has 16 "tiers", but the later techs are special branches available only to some civs so most techs you research will end at tier 11 or 12). For now I mixed the magical and religious techs somewhat, but it can be changed in the future, when I have more ideas about techs in these areas that can be added, and things they should enable you to build.

 

[PawelS]

2011-10-03: Civ #9 - The Azrac Empire

(The name Azracs comes from Age of Wonders.)

The Azracs are a desert civilization that receive a combat bonus on this terrain, and can build special improvements to utilize it better than other civs. Their special units include Camel Archer, and they are also one of the races that can build Elephant units, if they have access to Ivory (the other races that can do it are the Nikkei and the civ I'll describe next). They get more gold from trade routes, and have access to an Unique Process, called Caravans, which generates both gold and science (less gold than the Wealth process and less science that the Research process, but taking into account both yields it's more profitable).

Btw I'm disappointed that it's not possible to create a culture-producing process, is there a workaround?

 

[PawelS]

2011-10-04: The uses of the different terrain sets

There are 4 sets of terrain graphics in Civ5, representing different continents. I'm not going to have different graphics for continents in the mod, so I can use some of the graphics for other things. The European set is the one I like most so I'll use it as a base, but I also like the American one. I think I'll use the American version of the Mountains, because they don't seem to cause graphical glitches like the European version. The "autumn forest" will have its use too, and maybe even the American version of Plains will become a new terrain type called Prairie.

 

[PawelS]

2011-10-05: Ancient Ruins

I will change the role of Ancient Ruins in the game. Instead of being "goody huts" (providing bonuses for the first civ that moves a unit into them) they will become normal improvements that give science and culture. You won't be able to build them, so you can only use those that are placed when generating the map. Also some other improvements will be pre-placed randomly on the map, like Villages representing populations that live in the world at the start of the game but don't found civilizations.

 

[Ahriman]

I will change the role of Ancient Ruins in the game. Instead of being "goody huts" (providing bonuses for the first civ that moves a unit into them) they will become normal improvements that give science and culture. You won't be able to build them, so you can only use those that are placed when generating the map.

I love this. I think extra map features are a great way to make the map feel more alive and differentiated.
I hope you can use the natural wonders mechanic to create some other unique features, a la FFH. Ancient temple complexes, magical power nodes, wizard towers, dungeons, etc.

 

[PawelS]

2011-10-06: Civ #10 - Jungle Tribes (again, suggestions for a better name are welcome)

As the name suggests, it's a jungle-based civ (there will be much more jungles in my mod than in normal game, check this thread for details). They get combat and yield bonuses in jungles, can build villages there, and new jungles can grow on their territory. When models become available, they should get special units like Lizardmen and Green Dragons. I think I'll give them the Aztec trait - culture from killed units, but I also thought about making it a policy, maybe I'll do both if the culture bonuses stack.

 

[PawelS]

@Ahriman: That's what I'm going to do. About mana nodes check post #37 in this thread. About things like dungeons, I'm not sure how to do it with current modding possibilities, but it's definitely one of the things to be added to the mod when the DLL is released.

 

[Pazyryk]

@Ahriman: That's what I'm going to do. About mana nodes check post #37 in this thread. About things like dungeons, I'm not sure how to do it with current modding possibilities, but it's definitely one of the things to be added to the mod when the DLL is released.

FFH dungeons were all python ... so they are quite doable in Lua. In fact, you could do a lot more with Civ5 Lua that you could with Civ4 python (python could not be used to "remember" things ... you had to resort to dll for that).

 

[Ahriman]

I don't think you even need dungeons to be explorable, but some ancient dungeon could still be a source of gold/culture/magic, just as a map feature.

I could also imagine a faction UA or wonder or social policy that gave extra bonuses to ancient ruins or dungeons or mana nodes.
Traditionalists or religious specialists might benefit more from ancient temples. Monstrous factions might benefit more from a dungeon. Magical factions might benefit more from mana nodes.

I'm really looking forward to a playable alpha version of this, you seem to have a lot of great ideas.

Please let us know there are any aspects where you could use some design suggestions.

 

[texdionis]

As for civilizations whose name you are uncertain of, you might consider of naming them after some of the most renown lost fantasy civiliization of or world, like Atlantis, Mu, Lemuria and the like.
Maybe only just tweaking them a bit and saving the flavour.

 

[PawelS]

2011-10-07: About dungeons and other things

@Pazyryk: If you say so, I'll give it a try I don't want it to be the same as in FFH, I prefer the dungeons to be always guarded by monsters, so if a unit enters an adjacent tile, monsters will appear (I think it can be done by making 2 versions of the dungeon improvement - guarded and unguarded; it will become unguarded after spawning the monsters). The rewards for exploring them can include gold, items (in form of promotions like in FFH, I hope I won't hit the promotion limit), a unit joining you, and probably some other things as well - resources, culture, population etc. The problem is getting the AI to use them properly, I guess I'll make the monsters they release unable to move (until a human player's unit moves next to them and they aren't on an AI's territory). I remember in FFH a monster released from a dungeon by the AI can destroy an entire civilization, and I don't want such things to happen in my mod. Btw is it possible to use custom LUA functions when exploring a goody hut? Then I'll just use the goody hut mechanics for most rewards, and custom functions for things like items and new resources appearing, also making them goody huts will make the AI want to explore them.

Generally explorable dungeons are a complicated matter, so they probably won't be included in the first version. But it's a good thing to have in a fantasy mod, so I'll work on them later (or copy some solutions from your mod when it's released and modify them, if you allow me )

@Ahriman: Thanks, for now I'm going to use the El Dorado graphics as Ancient Pyramid that gives things like science and culture (it won't be unique, you'll be able to find several of them on a single map, they will be something like a better version of Ancient Ruins). There definitely will be bonuses from Ancient Ruins, Ancient Pyramids and nodes for certain races. Magical races will get more mana from nodes (Essentes will get x1.5 mana from all node types, some other races x2 from a specific type). Better yields from nodes are possible too (there will be a race that doesn't use magic, so they will get no mana from nodes at all [if it's possible to use negative modifiers], but lots of science instead).

I'm afraid you'll have to wait several months for a playable version. Design suggestions are always welcome, but there aren't any specific areas where I particularly need them.

@texdionis: I like the name Lemuria for the Jungle Tribes, so I think I'll use it, thanks for the idea But I don't know much about the Lemurian legends, so I don't think I can add anything in terms of flavor. Atlantis can be used instead of the Dreamers, but I think it's used too much in popular culture, and I like the current name.

 

[rafaelbn]

WoW! MoM was the game I played the most in my life! Can't wait to see this mod!

Cheers!

 

[PawelS]

2011-10-08: Shrines

This idea comes from the Age of Wonders games: after researching Philosophy you'll be able to build Shrines that worship different gods (or different aspects of the one God in case of monotheistic civs). You must have a Temple in the city to build a Shrine, and only one is allowed per city, so they can be used to specialize cities by boosting military production, research, gold income, city growth and so on. The types of Shrines available depend on civilization.

@rafaelbn: Thanks, there will be definitely some MoM elements in this mod. Lately I checked the MoM building list, and found some buildings that I can use in the mod, like Foresters Guild and Merchants Guild.

 

[PawelS]

2011-10-09: Civ#11 - The Elven Kingdom

This civilization starts the series of traditional fantasy races. As one would expect, the Elves live in Forest, get bonuses related to this feature, and new Forests can grow on their territory. They have excellent archers, including the Longbowman unique unit. Their other unique unit is the Druid, which uses a different kind of magic than other races do.

 

[Pfeffersack]

A fantasy mod based on AoW/MoM for Civ5 sounds like a great and promising vision; I like what you have outlined so far. Keep on and good luck!

 

[PawelS]

2011-10-10: Post-combat effects

Some units should be able to apply effects to attacked units after combat that decrease the target unit stats for one turn. It should be possible to do with LUA. The AI will have no idea about these effects, but it's not a big problem - it will just attack an enemy unit with intention of doing damage, and stunning, cursing and the like will be just a side effect. The problem is that these effects, and the abilities that cause them, will be promotions, which means I must be careful not to hit the promotion limit. There are lots of cool things that can be done using promotions, so I hope the limit will be removed in a patch soon.

 

[PawelS]

2011-10-11: Finishing the tech tree

The tech tree is close to being finished. After the "common part" of the tech tree ends, there are "special branches" available only to some civs (but there are also a few techs in the earlier parts that aren't available to all, for example Elephant Warfare). I'll post a picture of the entire tech tree when it's finished (although of course it can be changed later, especially when I get some ideas about new things that can be added to the game).

 

[Pazyryk]

On elephants: it's too bad that that the warfare aspect is always unrelated to the map elephant. I would have it so that only those with the resource can pursue this line of warfare. Alternatively, if you have an elephant-focused civ, then change the resource distribution at game start to match that flavor.

 

[PawelS]

The Elephant Stables building will require an Ivory resource nearby and will be required to build elephant units (but it will be available only for some civs). Also, perhaps I can make them "national units" (limit per player), so you can't have too many of them. An alternative would be making Ivory a strategic resource, but I don't think it's a good idea.