Faerun
- Thread starter FramedArchitect
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TravellingHat
Warlord
This is an amazing mod, FA, and has given me many hours of pleasure (and entertaining frustration
).
I had played earlier versions, but saw you'd updated to v11, so have played again using this. I'm aiming for all the victory conditions on your maps. So far I've picked off what I think are the easiest: the magical victory (Elves, Faerun Huge without Underdark), and the spellplague (Drow, Faerun with Underdark).
I'm now going to attempt the religious and domination victories, though I anticipate losing to an AI magical or spellplague victory.
I gather there's a major revision in the works, but as the game stands, here is some feedback:
1) The magical victory seems a little too easy. There are plenty of sources of weave, so assuming one doesn't splurge it all on religion, four complete spell schools is readily achievable. In my elf game I did this in about 330 turns (standard) and still picked up enough religous policies to have 3 heroes.
2) There was no effective backlash for unleashing the spellplague other than lost trade. I had picked the drow for this game both for role-play reasons, and because I thought the underdark would be a more secure base against the inevitible global war. I appreciate that the surface dwellers have trouble reaching the underdark (see 3 below), but neither the orcs nor the dwarves made any attempt to attack me or my allies (the kuo toa and the deep gnomes), and both had strong empires as far as I could tell. Also, both the orcs and dwarves still had mages after the spellplague - shouldn't they all have been killed?
3) I love the way you've recreated the underdark, but the tunnels to the surface pose problems. There's no way to connect surface cities to a capital in the underdark, and the AI can't seem to handle finding its way between the two "continents". I'm not sure what to suggest, and I imagine you can only do so much to "teach" the AI how to use these features. Would it be possible for a road on one side of the tunnel to connect with one on the other side?
4) The underdark is a hungry place, especially when looking to expand beyond that first city, or gain access to strategic resources and luxuries. I went for spell policies, buildings and wonders that gave food as a priority, but even so the start was very hard, and my first couple of attempts failed. All of this is as it should be - this is the underdark, not the land of milk and honey of those soft topsiders! - but I wonder if the AI can cope. Although the dwarves and orcs had three cities apiece, they were all close and sharing hexes and they didn't expand beyond this. Maybe this contributed to their reluctance to actively wage war against me.
5) The drow racial ability seems rather sub-par. The extra visibility is good, but I'd happily trade the 10% combat bonus on barren hexes for a movement bonus on barren. The exceptionally few times I was attacked with magic made the resistance rather redundant. Also, I found the range 1 drow slaver a waste of a unit. I ended up using skeleton archers in this role.
6) All the iron nodes in the underdark seem to have only one iron, and I couldn't find coal anywhere, so the ironworks is pretty much unachievable unless every city is settled with nearby iron and coal can be acquired by trade. Is this intentional? The limited iron also makes the abundant mithril worthless except for trade, since the arsenal requires mithril and a forge, but that forge also requires iron. Moreover, iron does not appear to be tradeable, so couldn't even buy it in (as a side note, I had to trade for timber, but that seems entirely appropriate).
7) Only having two city-states in the underdark limits potential allies (and the conflicts between major civs competing for them), makes caravan trade very difficult (I had to invest a lot in building and guarding roads, which the AI is not inclined to do), and severely limits choosing an alignment reasonably early and subsequent quests (I sent heroes to the surface, but the AI doesn't seem to do that). I think this may have been suggested elsewhere, but perhaps some duergar, illithids, aboleths, beholders etc might help out on this front.
Please let me reiterate that this is a great mod, engrossing and fun, and I'm sure I'm not alone in exhorting you to keep up the good work!
).I had played earlier versions, but saw you'd updated to v11, so have played again using this. I'm aiming for all the victory conditions on your maps. So far I've picked off what I think are the easiest: the magical victory (Elves, Faerun Huge without Underdark), and the spellplague (Drow, Faerun with Underdark).
I'm now going to attempt the religious and domination victories, though I anticipate losing to an AI magical or spellplague victory.
I gather there's a major revision in the works, but as the game stands, here is some feedback:
1) The magical victory seems a little too easy. There are plenty of sources of weave, so assuming one doesn't splurge it all on religion, four complete spell schools is readily achievable. In my elf game I did this in about 330 turns (standard) and still picked up enough religous policies to have 3 heroes.
2) There was no effective backlash for unleashing the spellplague other than lost trade. I had picked the drow for this game both for role-play reasons, and because I thought the underdark would be a more secure base against the inevitible global war. I appreciate that the surface dwellers have trouble reaching the underdark (see 3 below), but neither the orcs nor the dwarves made any attempt to attack me or my allies (the kuo toa and the deep gnomes), and both had strong empires as far as I could tell. Also, both the orcs and dwarves still had mages after the spellplague - shouldn't they all have been killed?
3) I love the way you've recreated the underdark, but the tunnels to the surface pose problems. There's no way to connect surface cities to a capital in the underdark, and the AI can't seem to handle finding its way between the two "continents". I'm not sure what to suggest, and I imagine you can only do so much to "teach" the AI how to use these features. Would it be possible for a road on one side of the tunnel to connect with one on the other side?
4) The underdark is a hungry place, especially when looking to expand beyond that first city, or gain access to strategic resources and luxuries. I went for spell policies, buildings and wonders that gave food as a priority, but even so the start was very hard, and my first couple of attempts failed. All of this is as it should be - this is the underdark, not the land of milk and honey of those soft topsiders! - but I wonder if the AI can cope. Although the dwarves and orcs had three cities apiece, they were all close and sharing hexes and they didn't expand beyond this. Maybe this contributed to their reluctance to actively wage war against me.
5) The drow racial ability seems rather sub-par. The extra visibility is good, but I'd happily trade the 10% combat bonus on barren hexes for a movement bonus on barren. The exceptionally few times I was attacked with magic made the resistance rather redundant. Also, I found the range 1 drow slaver a waste of a unit. I ended up using skeleton archers in this role.
6) All the iron nodes in the underdark seem to have only one iron, and I couldn't find coal anywhere, so the ironworks is pretty much unachievable unless every city is settled with nearby iron and coal can be acquired by trade. Is this intentional? The limited iron also makes the abundant mithril worthless except for trade, since the arsenal requires mithril and a forge, but that forge also requires iron. Moreover, iron does not appear to be tradeable, so couldn't even buy it in (as a side note, I had to trade for timber, but that seems entirely appropriate).
7) Only having two city-states in the underdark limits potential allies (and the conflicts between major civs competing for them), makes caravan trade very difficult (I had to invest a lot in building and guarding roads, which the AI is not inclined to do), and severely limits choosing an alignment reasonably early and subsequent quests (I sent heroes to the surface, but the AI doesn't seem to do that). I think this may have been suggested elsewhere, but perhaps some duergar, illithids, aboleths, beholders etc might help out on this front.
Please let me reiterate that this is a great mod, engrossing and fun, and I'm sure I'm not alone in exhorting you to keep up the good work!
FramedArchitect
Reluctant Modder
Thanks to Barathor, Bouncymischa and Loderunner I was able to give Faerun a much needed face-lift.
Civs can have a Start Bias for the Underdark, which will try to place them on the Underdark continent if it spawns. Some resources are exclusive to either the Underdark or the normal map.
Civs can have a Start Bias for the Underdark, which will try to place them on the Underdark continent if it spawns. Some resources are exclusive to either the Underdark or the normal map.
Thanks to Barathor, Bouncymischa and Loderunner I was able to give Faerun a much needed face-lift.
Civs can have a Start Bias for the Underdark, which will try to place them on the Underdark continent if it spawns. Some resources are exclusive to either the Underdark or the normal map.
Spoiler Terrain update :
Very impressive. Particularly impressive is that you have been developing this mod for years and are still continually impoving upon it.
For my part, I have a new Dwarves unit as part of a line of Middle Earth models that I will be importing from LOTR: BFME2 and WOTLK (many humanoid but some with custom animations). Also on deck will be angels, demons, mounted riders of various types (once the custom animation sequence is completed for all of them) and, lastly, sorely needed female units and heroes (particularly spellcasters). I also managed to acquire a beholder and Illithid model from the original Neverwinter Nights game.
So, I have the models but lack the custom animations required to properly display them in CiV (unless you want a mind flayer that just mopes around with limp tentacles). That is what will take a lot of time; but I am motivated by your determination to continually improve upon this mod to make it the best fantasy mod in CiV - bar none. Give me some time and I will get to them eventually.
Can't wait to see what else is in store for this mod!
bouncymischa
Synthetic Genie
Oooh! Glad I was able to give you some useful models!
I really need to make an "improved" version of my resource models -- are the Hives the only one you're using? I've managed to get some models for tents and shacks, so I can try making some version of a camp improvement to go with them.
I really need to make an "improved" version of my resource models -- are the Hives the only one you're using? I've managed to get some models for tents and shacks, so I can try making some version of a camp improvement to go with them.
FramedArchitect
Reluctant Modder
Thank you for taking time to report problems! The AI pathing in the Scenario map is an issue, but the amount of code needed to rectify that is pretty big, and just isn't at the top of my list right now. I think the underdark resourcing will be on par with the normal map as of v.12 -- in both the scenario and random maps. I think adding another Free City (minor) to the scenario map is a good idea. I'm changing all the victories around for v.12, but 300 turns on standard sounds about right.This is an amazing mod, FA, and has given me many hours of pleasure (and entertaining frustration
Oh your new dwarf guy looks good! Maybe that will be Bruenor Battlehammer?
Your list of units sounds great, and I have to say women warriors are much needed in Faerun. I wouldn't mind adding in unique units that don't have animations, as I would probably add them as event units (i.e not much seen on map). I think hangman said there is a kind of beholder with animations in an old Civ 4 mod, though I don't know which one. Thanks again for all your work on the units; I know they add to many, many mods!
Well, I think most of the fantasy mods out there are better than Faerun in both concept and execution. For me it is a place to try out new modding ideas. I was looking at an old version I had from December 2011 and there is literally nothing left of that in the current mod.
Thanks again for the terrific models! I'm actually using all of your fantasy ones -- some as resources, some as features, and some as improvements; they just didn't make it into that screenshot. It would be cool to have "improved" versions of the mushrooms and hive thing.
Belzhorash
Warlord
FA, what other fantasy mods are you talking about?
Warhammer: not released, yet
Ea: no further progress
GoT: no further progress
Did I miss one?
Fearun seems to be the only almost-stable fantasy mod for CiV out there...
Warhammer: not released, yet
Ea: no further progress
GoT: no further progress
Did I miss one?
Fearun seems to be the only almost-stable fantasy mod for CiV out there...
Thanks! I actually (someday) plan to develop a mod of my own, loosely based on FFH.
And I already have the Beholder - just no animations:
I suppose I could use horse animations (an old trick of animating floating objects - only the bones with mesh are the ones that appear in-game; in this case I would assign the beholder mesh to the horse's head bone so he would move up and down), but unfortunately the eyestalks wouldn't move. I could still make frikkin' laser beams shoot out of the main eye, though! Maybe I will make a basic unit just to push it out there and then return later to fully animate it.
Attachments
FramedArchitect
Reluctant Modder
I just looked on Steam and there are about ten fantasy type mods that are much more popular than Faerun: Warcraft civs, Elderscrolls (never played that one), Ice/Fire (including Luir's great version), several Middle Earth (including one massive scenario by Khose Galkin), Dr. Who, epic's amazing hero mods, a Warhammer series. And that doesn't include the great mods available only on this site!
That looks so creepy.. nice!
Belzhorash
Warlord
Yes, that's true. But most of them are just leader scene, some xml and no new models or fantasy-ingame at all.
I don't see them as fantasy mod, tbh.
Edit: Oh, yes. I forgot epicss' mod.
I don't see them as fantasy mod, tbh.
Edit: Oh, yes. I forgot epicss' mod.
FramedArchitect
Reluctant Modder
I've managed to sketch in all of the new buildings, each with new isometric icons. There are 23 Upgrade buildings (each with three upgrade levels) and nearly 50 additions (buildings that require a particular Upgrade building). Upgrade buildings are unlocked once a city reaches 5 population (level 2) and 10 population (level 3).
However, due to computer issues I won't be able to work on Faerun for several weeks at least. That means my estimate of late April for v.12 will have to be pushed back to late May at the earliest.
Spoiler Upgrade Buildings :
However, due to computer issues I won't be able to work on Faerun for several weeks at least. That means my estimate of late April for v.12 will have to be pushed back to late May at the earliest.
Belzhorash
Warlord
Hey FA!
Those are great and bad news at the same time.
I hope your PC gets well, soon.
Those are great and bad news at the same time.
I hope your PC gets well, soon.
<screaming in background> NOOOOOOO!!!!! Late May?!? Oh, the HORROR! Oh, the humanity!
However, as an optimist, this does give me more time to create new models for when it finally is released.
FramedArchitect
Reluctant Modder
Building icons.
Spoiler Building Icons :
Belzhorash
Warlord
I like how we use the same icons, because the Forge of Empires buildings look wonderful!
FramedArchitect
Reluctant Modder
I like the look of those isometric buildings as icons -- a much needed break from the old Civ5 look! I also used models from Anno 1404 and SpellForce (mostly for the Orc, Elf, Drow and Gnome special Race Buildings ).
I haven't decided yet whether to keep the Unique Building concept from the base game or to go with Race buildings across the board and then allow two or more Unique Heroes per civ. The latter is more work, but more in keeping with the fantasy theme.
I'm cutting back slightly on the number of World Wonders but adding in more significant National Wonders (I need a better name for these), including: Mage Guild, Chantry, Merchant's Guild, Sailor's Union, Craftsmen's Guild, Envoy's House, Amphitheater, Cobbled Roads, Surgery College, Bard's College, Thieves' Guild, and War Academy. The National Wonders will be the only buildings with specialist slots and therefore the only ways to generate Great People (and there will be at least three new ones -- Sage, Aristocrat, Sailor).
Also a few more shots of the new Buildings Upgrade UI:
An excellent and ambitious mod! I will be keeping an eye on this one as I have been waiting to see a Civ 5 mod to compete with FFH! After playing I can say my only major complaint is the fact (as others have already mentioned) that the cities are at this point impossible to invade... That being said keep up the good work! This is by far the best Fantasy mod for Civ 5 I've seen. 
FramedArchitect
Reluctant Modder
This is by far the best Fantasy mod for Civ 5 I've seen.
Thanks for the comment! You might want to check out Ea -- I've heard that is very good!
I've finalized the list of specialists and "Great People":
Spoiler Specialists and Great People :
Civitar
Adventurer
Framed:
I think you know I have a great affection for this mod, and I'm glad to see it getting such a makeover in the last few BNW versions!
If v12 isn't too far along already, I'm working on my Elf pack - as you know, they've been updated with teamcolor, better rigging, and better textures (plus variant models for the first four units). The next two I plan are the Settlers and the Horsemen, but if there are any others you need ask away. Same goes for undead units.
I also hope to finish a flying dragon before too long, plus a type you might find useful for guarding hoards... finally, I've still got a Drow pack very early in the pipeline...
I think you know I have a great affection for this mod, and I'm glad to see it getting such a makeover in the last few BNW versions!
If v12 isn't too far along already, I'm working on my Elf pack - as you know, they've been updated with teamcolor, better rigging, and better textures (plus variant models for the first four units). The next two I plan are the Settlers and the Horsemen, but if there are any others you need ask away. Same goes for undead units.
I also hope to finish a flying dragon before too long, plus a type you might find useful for guarding hoards... finally, I've still got a Drow pack very early in the pipeline...
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