Exotic Unit Pack - Mod Collaboration Thread

[DracoTheGreat]

Oof. Didn't realize when the ballista elephant came in. Yeah, cannon would make more sense, haha.

I don't really know what we can do about the UU's. That's up to you, though. Do what you have to!

Yeah, melee camels makes sense. I think they should have a bonus in desert tiles though, still.

I suppose horse archers would also make sense, as A) You won't always have a desert nearby, and B) only horses are available to you at the time. Could make for a more realistic scenario, don't you think?

 

[sman1975]

OK. Let's initially start the UUs as available to all non-elephant civs, but I can look at the 3 other civs and add a couple of the units to them that don't replicate their UU capabilities. For example, Carthage gets a unit similar to our War Elephant (needs a new name). But they could theoretically get the other ones. May need to look at upgrade paths, but that really shouldn't be a consideration.

The Raiding/War Parties will definitely get one or more attack/defense/move bonuses for desert tiles.

So - you're saying we should offer a ranged horse unit with roughly the same specs as our camel bowman? If so, I'd recommend we reuse some of the Siam/Chinese/Korean artwork, in keeping with the "Exotic" nature of the mod.

 

[DracoTheGreat]

Yeah, I was thinking, maybe the UU's can still be elephants, but slightly stronger, since, you know, they're "unique."

Also, what's your thoughts on the raid units only being able to raze tiles and not actually attack? I know it's weird, but I want to know your thoughts.

Yeah, what I was thinking is, let's say a civ needs a fast ranged unit for hit and run tactics, but are really far away from any sort of desert, meaning they can't get camels. They have ivory, but the elephant units take too long to build (just had a though here). However, they still have horses, and are not playing as the Huns, so they can't get the horse archers. The Hunnic horse archer can stay there. It's just a stronger version of the skirmisher (which could be added with mathematics, I suppose.) Same thing with the Keshiks. Just a stronger version of an upgraded skirmisher.

Just let me know your thoughts and if it still somewhat fits with the theme? Also, maybe a "cavalry based unit pack" would be a better theme? I don't know.

 

[sman1975]

I think I have enough to go on for now. Give me a few days to add all this together. I think I can finish it in a "rough draft" version - and then you can beat the crap out of it to see what's needing fixing/changing.

If you'd prefer, I can publish interim versions, with a few quick notes on what's different from the previous version.

 

[DracoTheGreat]

I mean, whatever's easy for you.

If you want me to test the mods, then yeah.

 

[sman1975]

Since it's possible we might be dealing with more than mounted units (Ghazi, et al), how about a name like, "Exotic Units Pack?"

Gives us flexibility to add anything, even a Dhow or two if we later decided to.

 

[DracoTheGreat]

Yeah, ok. Makes sense.

 

[sman1975]

Elephant promotions (1 for each unit in the "class"):

Am using new names for these units: B
1. Tamed Mammoth
2. Battle Elephant
3. Siege Elephant
4. Howdah (or Turreted Elephant, can't make up my mind...)

Have seen a few other mods, and the names "Ballista Elephant" and "War Elephant" seem to be popular. Hopefully, names like these won't conflict if someone wants to use those mods with this one.

I think the icons on top look the best, but let me know if you'd prefer any changes.

 

[DracoTheGreat]

Yep. I like the top ones too.

 

[sman1975]

FINALLY.... The artwork is all done - see below. It's the slowest part for me. Usually spend a lot of time looking for art to reuse, then spend even more time creating the artwork that I couldn't find... And I ain't no artist, but some of it turned out OK.

Now to work on the actual mod!

Correction - the icons for the Camel Bazaar and Camel Market are switched. Will fix that later.

 

[DracoTheGreat]

Yep. That looks awesome!

 

[sman1975]

Unit update. Added Tamed Mammoth and Battle Elephant to the mod, and successfully tested them.

The Battle Elephant uses the same model as Naresuan's, so I recolored it to give it at least a little of a different look...

 

[DracoTheGreat]

Holy crap, they look awesome!

 

[sman1975]

Thanks! I was pretty happy how they turned out. Here are the final 2 units in the class - 4 "Pachyderms" total. All tested, all working, so far.....

Now, I just need to add two more buildings, and I'll be done with the Elephants. Was planning to build 2 "composite" units with camels (bowmen/spearmen/shortsword) and the other (riflemen/pikemen/longsword) - all based on Arabian models. They'll try to fill the role of those pillaging specialists you mentioned yesterday. Not sure how they'll work, as there really isn't a flavor I can use to teach the AI how to use them. Still, if I make them cheap enough, the AI make enough to "appear" to be using them correctly. That's the problem about getting tooooooo exotic on capabilities - the AI just won't use them well, and this represents an unfair advantage to the human player.

I'll definitely upload a new version today, the only question is will I have the composite units in it or not.

 

[DracoTheGreat]

Yeah, the AI is kind of weird in how it manages war times. I think they would be fine though. Maybe.

 

[DracoTheGreat]

So, I just thought of something to make the Carthage and Siam players happier, maybe.

How about we give the Naresuan's Elephants and the African Forest Elephants double movement in forest and jungle tiles?

Or maybe the African Forest Elephant double movement in forest, and Naresuan's Elephant double movement in jungle?

I think that's a good compromise for letting everyone have elephants, while still making these two uniques, well unique.

 

[sman1975]

I think the first suggestion is probably better - the elephants we're adding have 2-3 positive promotions, so it seems like adding a couple to the originals would be a more balanced solution - one even a Siam or Carthage fan couldn't carp too much about?

I'll add those promotions/updated text keys to the UnitAdjustments file.

 

[DracoTheGreat]

Cool cool.

 

[sman1975]

New version is up. Was a bit of a rush, so it may have a bug or two lurking in the code. I think I got all of them, but apologies in advance.

 

[DracoTheGreat]

Already downloaded it.

I'm currently waiting on something, so after that works, I'll test the mod.