Exotic Unit Pack - Mod Collaboration Thread

[sman1975]

So - the Hunnic Horse Archer would be upgradeable to the Frank Crossbowman (at Civil Service) and not to the Knight (at Chivalry)?

And The Keshic would upgrade to the Corazzieri (at Gunpowder) and not to Cavalry (at Mil Science)?

Changing that is easy, but just for balance sake, I'd like to take a look at what Promotions cross over to the new units. I don't think it breaks anything, but for balance sake I'd like to make sure the "improved" Frank XBobw and Corazzieri aren't toooooo OP. Still, it's probably no problem.

And to make sure, you're only talking about these 2 UU's and not the normal in-game equivalent units (obviously, not the Chariot Archer/new Chariot, but the Knight)?

 

[DracoTheGreat]

The Hunnic Horse Archer can keep ehatever it had. (It only starts with accuracy I.) The Keshik lose their quick study promotion, and their Great Generals I promotion.

And yeah, I was talking about those UU's only.

 

[DracoTheGreat]

Oh, the Keshiks lose the promotions upon upgrade, not just as a unit.

 

[sman1975]

Have completed all the unit renaming and tested. So far, looks good - all units look, move and attack normally. Will probably run a couple of Live Tuner games of a few hundred turns to make sure it's still stable. Shouldn't be any issues.

While it's running in the background, I'll start work on the list from yesterday:

1. Misc. fixes, typos, etc. Not too many, really.

2. New units to add:
--- Updated Fireship unit
--- Reaper Drone
--- Have a couple of unit suggestions from Flamingrubys (post # 234) but I don't have enough info to build the unit. If he responds in time, I'll try to add, otherwise it will wait. I think he means them as Mercs and not additional UUs for the Greeks and/or Romans, but I'm not sure about that.

3. Adjust existing units along the lines discussed yesterday (Chariots and Horsemen)

It's only a couple of hours of work, really, so I suppose I can make my changes this afternoon, then hold off for a day or so before updating on Steam - in case you or anyone has additional suggestions.

BTW - we're at 1930 subscribers this morning... But it's slowing down lately. Still, not a bad total for a "generalist" mod - one that's kind of all over the game span, and not tailored to a specific time or scenario.

 

[DracoTheGreat]

Hey, that sounds cool.

And yeah, not many people are downloading the mod. But to be fair, most content gets most of its fame in the first week or so, so I'm not surprised.

 

[sman1975]

New version uploaded (V2). Summary of changes:

1. Renamed all textures with unique names to prevent texture corruption with other mods
2. Added updated Fireship unit graphics/animations - looks a lot more like a Fire Ship should
3. Change artwork for Condottieri - used better "Italian" longswordsman models
4. Fix Bowmaster team color model; looks less washed out
5. Added the "Reaper" drone to the mod - a more powerful version of the Predator
6. Added team color to the Predator model; nerfed Predator damage
7. Fixed auto naming conflict with other mods

At this time, I don't have any plans to update the mod. If I get a bunch of suggestions/fixes, etc. I'll take another look at it. Thanks everyone for the feedback!

 

[DracoTheGreat]

Wait, did you add the chariot, too?

 

[sman1975]

Checking.... Bloody hell.... The note about the Chariots/Horsemen was erroneously copied/pasted into the change list for my "Covert Operations" mod (which I'm working on now...)! Need to talk to my staff about this one...

Seriously, sorry about the oversight. I have several projects in motion right now, and sometimes I just get into too much of a hurry. It's not the first time this has happened, unfortunately.

Will move this back to the top of the queue and add those changes.

 

[DracoTheGreat]

Oh, that's fine, I can totally understand. Take your time!

 

[Mosile]

I have a few suggestions, with artwork also to offer.



Air Brigade; Unlocked at Particle Physics and may be upgraded from helicopter gunship.

Brig of War: Unlocked at Navigation. Ranged. Can Move 3 tiles per turn. 22 24 and 1 range. has a 22% chance of allowing a second attack.


Flailman: Unlocked at Physics. 8. 50 bonus v.s cities. 50 bonus v.s any non siege unit.


Tank Destroyer: Unlocked at Computers. 7074. 1 Range. 4 Movement. 150 bonus v.s armored units. No terrain Bonuses.


Axeman: Unlocked at Bronze Working. 9 . 50 Bonus v.s cities. 50 bonus v.s melee. Essentially a melee variant of siege units, stronger agents cities than melee units but weaker than actual siege units.


Sloop of War: Unlocked at Navigation. 20. 6 Movement. Movement is reduced to 3 if damaged. practically cheaper variants of the frigate. Can only be bought.

 

[sman1975]

@Mosile - appreciate the suggestions. Other than the Air Brigade (which looks cool as h**l by the way...) - these units don't look very "exotic" to me.

Not saying they don't look useful or fill some gaps in the way too limited number of normal civ V units....

Do you see these as mercenary units, or ones that should be trained like normal units?

Reason I'm asking, is that if I start adding more non-merc units, I'm thinking about splitting the mod into Merc and non-Merc mods. As the number of units inside this mod grows, it gets a bit too large in my opinion. Keeping the mods split along more functional lines makes sense (a mod for training a new set of units, and a mod for buying a new set of units).

Thanks!

 

[Mosile]

@Mosile - appreciate the suggestions. Other than the Air Brigade (which looks cool as h**l by the way...) - these units don't look very "exotic" to me.

Not saying they don't look useful or fill some gaps in the way too limited number of normal civ V units....

Do you see these as mercenary units, or ones that should be trained like normal units?

Reason I'm asking, is that if I start adding more non-merc units, I'm thinking about splitting the mod into Merc and non-Merc mods. As the number of units inside this mod grows, it gets a bit too large in my opinion. Keeping the mods split along more functional lines makes sense (a mod for training a new set of units, and a mod for buying a new set of units).

Thanks!

The majority of what I thought up where generic average units. I can always try to find some more diverse unit ideas.

 

[Mosile]

How about these? This should give more Asian representation.


Dangpa Infintry: Unlocked at Iron Working. 2 Movement. Same strength as swordsman but has a higher defense. Can only be bought and Costs 80 gold. Gains a +20% def boost when adjacent to a river.


Hand Cannoneer: Unlocked at Education. 9 11 1 Range 3 Movement. Unique Nerf: Inaccurate- -33% damage when in rough terrain. +33% v.s other siege units. Can upgrade into Musketmen,

 

[sman1975]

Yeah! For the Mercenaries, I think these are great! I'm only hoping I can find models out there that look as good as these icons!

I'm also interested in splitting the mod into Exotic (mercs) and Non-Exotic (awful name), which would be a group of "normal" units that can be added to the normal game for everyone to use normally (i.e. produce or gold/faith purchase).

If I actually split the mod, I'd be looking for units to fill that gaps in the tech tree. So, as you're thinking of units to recommend, think about what's really missing in the normal game? Where could it use units the most, and what type would add combat capabilities that are lacking at that point on the tree? Those are the units that would be the most helpful.

Thank!

 

[Mosile]

Probably Something along the line of "S-man's Acquisitive Militia Modpack". Now for this project I can definitely help, There's literally so much we can add into the game which could match vanilla unit's level of importance and usability. Maybe in the near future you can create a Technology tie-in mod or at least compatible with say EE for example.

 

[sman1975]

Agreed - I tend to play Epic/Marathon games, and man it gets quite boring to play 500 turns of the game with a single "Rifleman" unit to maneuver. Boring! So, what I'd really like to add are the "unusual" things to make the timeline more interesting. I think the "Exotic Units" mod does a really good job of this for the Mercs.

But as I'm thinking about it - and discussing with you and some other players - is it wouldn't hurt to add something a little less "exotic" but every but as unusual to the normal production/trained type of units that you keep and don't rent. So, I'm not thinking some kind of "ethnic" units for the new mod, but more like, "What's missing in the timeline?" Personally, I think there's not enough artillery, air units, smaller ships in the Industrial and later Era. And armor units in the modern and later Eras too. Probably wouldn't hurt to add a few of all unit types in the Info Era - of all kinds. I've added a bunch of similar type units in my Omnibus mod, so getting some of those units into this mod would probably be pretty quick and easy.

I guess, I'm also starting to think that in the normal CiV game, the pre-Industrial Eras are probably are OK - with enough units in the basic game. And the Mercs in Exotic Units are pretty well structured to fill in the gaps in the first half of the game. Later on, as societies organize and develop, they don't use Mercs so much, as they are able to design/build/field the combat capabilities they need.

So, where the Exotic Units mod adds 32 Merc units, mostly for earlier Eras, the "Non-Exotic Units" (yeah, I know - it needs a better name) Mod could add ~32 units, mostly focused on the second half of the game - units you build not rent?

And I have no problem with working to fix compatibility with EE, man - that mod is so richly textured, it will take separate design meetings to make sure what goes into the Non-Exotic mod compliments EE properly. It's not hard, and it's not a problem, but I'm a great admirer of what Pouakai did with that mod, so I want to make sure anything I do doesn't look toooooo childish in comparison. Sort of what I'd look like if I decided to play 1 on 1 with LeBron...

 

[Mosile]

With a lot of time put in, I have made 2 lists (Regular Units and Mercenaries) regarding units I believe should be added in, Units you've made, and Vanilla Units. The lists aren't fully finished but Include everything that should be Import this far.

Average Units with upgrade paths (Mostly)


Mercenaries (Mostly Exotic with some inclusions of mine)


Most of the units I have made still need Strength and bonuses thought up, but positioning on upgrade paths/ technological placement should help give a good idea of how strong they should be.

 

[sman1975]

OMG.... I'm gobsmacked. This is incredible work, @Mosile! It's like a map on how to actually split and build the mods!

Wow. I'm working on 3 different mods at the moment, but gathering a bit more details for the units to add in to the 2 different (Exotic/Non-Exotic) mods will make it so much easier and quicker to build them.

Man, thanks for this!

 

[Mosile]

OMG.... I'm gobsmacked. This is incredible work, @Mosile! It's like a map on how to actually split and build the mods!

Wow. I'm working on 3 different mods at the moment, but gathering a bit more details for the units to add in to the 2 different (Exotic/Non-Exotic) mods will make it so much easier and quicker to build them.

Man, thanks for this!

No problem mate, I got a whole lot more Ideas as well and I can supply you with whatever you need.

 

[Mosile]

Here's the unit list with EE Inclusion, More Vanilla Units and a proposed new Air Unit.