Fairy Tale

[Le Sage]

I need to make buttons for the resources too. The resources on the map do indeed look like eggs though.

Here is Version 9 on StrategyInformer. Ready for download, as it has already cleared the authorization queue there.

 

[Le Sage]

The ModDB Front Page

Check it! I found these good news when I woke up this morning. Fairy Tale is featured on ModDB's Front Page. Games featured there usually stay on for a week or so and get a lot of attention.

This makes me happier than that time when the mod was on the cover of a French Magazine, because I really think ModDB's Front Page is some kind of recognition from other modders and mod-fans. Good stuff.

And blimey! Look at Fairy Tale's statistics panel as well. Fairy Tale is Rank 2 of 20.000 (something). This means that Fairy Tale is the second largest mod on ModDB right now, out of 20.000. It's been up to 32, but never had this kind of a top position before.

ModDB's system not only emphazises big mods for big games, but they do tend to send attention to smaller mods as well. Like this one.

 

[darkedone02]

This mod is decent, but in my opinion, it's not as good as Fall From Heaven, but it can be if this mod has more dynamic mechanics. For example, I just started playing this game, and decided to play one of the scenarios, I don't know which one is chapter 1 so I pick an random one and played it. what I am disappointed about this mod is that this mod has Generic stuff in this game, no customized religion icon's or mechanics for it. I'm seeing some unavailable units to build that suppose to be hidden until I be able to build the building first (goblin archers). All of the unit do not have custom icon. I just felt disappointed and decided to just exit out of the game and go back to playing Rise of Mankind or Orbis. This mod does not fit my type... it will once this mod goes into a huge overhaul and start making some dynamic mechanics into the game to make it actually be very special.

I Recommand that you redo all the scenario and add a storyline behind it, to see what is going really going on. Take a look at Fall From Heaven Customized Scenario, try to do the same but only different... different look, different screens, different storyline. If it's a same, I will end up calling it a rip-off instead of a totally different thing. After that, make some custom icon's for the units and for the religion, and make each religion has a different mechanic, it just seem awkward to be worshipping the desert from the desert religion when your in grass land... just doesn't make any sense and kinda ironic.

This mod has potential, but it just don't fit right to me.

 

[darkedone02]

There is actually no scenario storyline, and the religions is currenly fixed on by Higwayhoss. I shall also remind you that this is not a finished mod, but rather a mod in process.

Personally i prefer this one over FFH as this one does not change too much on gameplay.

I noticed that long time ago when I continue to see update and when I played the game myself, It seems alot was missing. It will be nice if this mod has a storyline so that we can know what's actually going on.

I want to see this fantasy mod actually become somewhat different from Fall From Heaven, and actually be somewhat of a rival towards Fall from Heaven. However it seems that is not the direction that this mod is going to, and kinda disappoint me as I want to see this mod become more popular, and not only that, this mod deserves a forum section.

probably till the day this mod starts to slow down, some people will make modmod to enhance this game, and add something that I mention here. It might give this game a bit more fame.

 

[Le Sage]

Thanks for your opinions, Darkedone. Of course, a mod can never satisfy every taste, but this one has been a tremendous success so far. I will explain the philosophy a bit...

We are really only two blokes (Myself and HighwayHoss and with excellent help from our forum friends like VeBear, Jennvare and Ajidica) working on it; we are efficient, prolific and do a lot of stuff every week. We let out updates at a pace that not even the big teams can manage. So expect this mod to develop substantially - as it has done - in the future as well. As VeBear states, this is WIP. Much of what we do is experimental even.

The purpose of the mod is not to compete with Fall from Heaven. Noone can do that. The purpose of the mod is basically to create a fantasy/Fairy Tale world (taking stereotype elements from those genres and mixing it into one great pot of, well, stereotypes), using suitable components created by the enormously gifted members of the Civ Community, in which to play Civ4, and if people are interested - and they are - well, that's a bonus. We are having fun with it and we are enjoying the process very much. That last point is the most important.

The scenarios are not up-to-scratch, I know. I am working on them, I will be making one scenario for each nation and the scenarios will be based on smaller versions of the Fairy Tale world map.

Thank you again, Darkedone, for your opinions. All opinions are valuable and very much welcome, and we will keep them in the back of our heads while continuing the project!

 

[Zenzi]

Hey, as iv said before I love the mod, but this version of the mod is a bit less stable, iv started 4 games so far, 3 out of the 4 have crashed losing my progress, of which are usually within the first 25-75 turns. lol sadly the only fix iv found is saving which for some reason prevents the crash?

 

[Jennvare]

This mod is decent, but in my opinion, it's not as good as Fall From Heaven, but it can be if this mod has more dynamic mechanics. For example, I just started playing this game, and decided to play one of the scenarios, I don't know which one is chapter 1 so I pick an random one and played it. what I am disappointed about this mod is that this mod has Generic stuff in this game, no customized religion icon's or mechanics for it. I'm seeing some unavailable units to build that suppose to be hidden until I be able to build the building first (goblin archers). All of the unit do not have custom icon. I just felt disappointed and decided to just exit out of the game and go back to playing Rise of Mankind or Orbis. This mod does not fit my type... it will once this mod goes into a huge overhaul and start making some dynamic mechanics into the game to make it actually be very special.

I Recommand that you redo all the scenario and add a storyline behind it, to see what is going really going on. Take a look at Fall From Heaven Customized Scenario, try to do the same but only different... different look, different screens, different storyline. If it's a same, I will end up calling it a rip-off instead of a totally different thing. After that, make some custom icon's for the units and for the religion, and make each religion has a different mechanic, it just seem awkward to be worshipping the desert from the desert religion when your in grass land... just doesn't make any sense and kinda ironic.

This mod has potential, but it just don't fit right to me.

Fall from Heaven is a good mod. No disparagement there. But I would hate to see this become a clone of it or absorb the other "failings" of Fall from Heaven and it's ModMods.

In this game, the AI actually performs fairly well and is actually agressive when it declares war on you. In FFH2, I dont know how many times a civ would declare war on me, but then not send any troops into my territory. Only in rare instances do I actually see a stack coming in. In Orbis and other mods, its even worse. I've noted this in the Orbis forums.

However, the best thing about this over Fall from Heaven and its Mods; I can actually PLAY it!! I've got an older machine and all the unique art that FFH has really strains my system. I cant even play orbis on a standard size map; I get MAF's midway through the game and cant continue. Wildmana and RIFE have potential, but I cant get 100 turns into before MAF's start happening.

With FT, I can play a HUGE map and, even though it may slow down some, I can actually play and finish the game and I have a feeling that's why this mod is getting popular. People can actually build empires and have competition from the AI.

But as LeSage says, this is still a work in process and I'm glad to have been able to help it along somewhat.

Peace Out!

 

[Le Sage]

Zenzi. That sounds weird indeed. I played about a hundred turns myself last night and it didn't behave weirdly for me. I wonder if it might be Spawn a Civ, but for me, it has been working really fine and always spawned the other civ really well. Spawn a civ will create an entirely new civ at just about the stage in the game that you mention. It works on a random basis, so there's a certain chance that the civ appears at a given criteria. So if your game works well after you've saved the game and tried again, it might be just that.

Keep your eyes open for that, and please report any further stuff. And it could help if you submitted one of those saved games to us here, so we can take a look.

Jennvare. Thank you kindly for your comments. I had a game last night too and the AI does indeed attack. I played Namyr and had a really bad start, leaving me the weakest nation in the world. It was a fun game nonetheless. The Elves have a mega kingdom between me and the Crystallin, and when the Crystallin finally decided to declare war on me, to take advantage of my weakness, I thought I was pretty safe. I was planning doing a seawar against them and had Pirates in their waters immediately after they declared war. But no. Soon after they shipped in a major army and landed it in my back and now stand outside one of my great cities. Geez!

The AI DOES make war.

 

[Zenzi]

that was what I was trying to do when I started saving, I was trying to make a point right before the crash so I could send it in, but of course then it didnt crash after a about 150 turns. I will try again to make a save point right before it crashes.

 

[Le Sage]

A Fix

OK. I was able to recreate the CtD myself. I have never gotten it before, but it has to do with the Spawn a Civ addition. I think this patch should correct it. Just drag and drop the Fairy Tale folder found in this .zip to your Mods folder in the Beyond the Sword catalog. Thanks for reporting, Zenzi.

 

[The_J]

Check it! I found these good news when I woke up this morning. Fairy Tale is featured on ModDB's Front Page. Games featured there usually stay on for a week or so and get a lot of attention.

Congratulations .

 

[Zenzi]

Thanks le sage for the quick at least attempted fix, Il see how this works and tell you how it goes.

 

[Le Sage]

Thank you kindly, The J.

Yes. Please report on the progress, Zenzi. It should be OK now though, but as always with things like this, you never know. I have only had that mysterious Crash to Desktop once myself, and that was last night...

 

[Zenzi]

well, it has not gotten any better, I had a save where it would continually crash on the same turn. but I screwed up and saved 1 turn before the crash turn and then it wouldn't crash again.

 

[Le Sage]

OK. I've started two games myself today, and both have gone very well and I'm on turn 150 on both. I've only had that start-game mystery crash once myself. It is nothing wrong with Spawn a Civ though, that's tested now, and I've gone through my own changes since Version 8 and can find nothing either. I need to wait for HighwayHoss and see if he has any idea if it might be something in his changes that causes this.

I was playing te Denerean Elves when i got my crash; I'll try to recreate the situation again. Thanks for keeping me up-to-date, Zenzi. It is most appreciated.

 

[Le Sage]

Update 9a (Balancing)

I needed to do some really important balancing of the game. Here's what has been done. The Patch is downloadable on StrategyInformer.

Update 9b, August, 2010

*Dragons no longer require Dragon Eggs. Those Eggs are now only required to build the King Dragon, which also replaces the Seadragon.
*Dragon Eggs now also increase Health, to make them more important as a resource. Scrambled Dragon Eggs is good to eat and real healthy!
*The King Dragon appears at tech Dramatization and has the combat strength of 13.
*Weakened the Mounted Scout (to str. 4) and made him defensive only. The AI was using him wrong.
*Also corrected the Mounted Scout animation.
*Strengthened the Emperor unit. He's the strongest unit in the game with Combat 30. Really fearsome!
*Weakened the Air Knight (to 20), Deathroller (to 10) and the Steam Tank (to 19). You can only field one of them at a time.
*Air Knight is now buildable from tech Crusader Mentality, and the Steam Tank from Cavalry Tactics.
*Strengthened the Pirates! to Combat 8. Only 2 Pirates! per Kingdom allowed.
*More Civilopedia done. Wrote a Fairy Tale (The Death Angel).
*Added more FAQ questions in the Manual.


Installation

You need the previous Full Install of Fairy Tale Version 9 for this to work. Move the Fairy Tale folder found withing the .zip to your Mods folder in BtS. Overwrite where asked. This Update does NOT invalidate saved games and it has been tested on several systems to be working OK (Win 7 and Vista).


>>Download<<

 

[ungin]

Buggie:
When you create custom game you may play as:
1) Nicia Zewanita - India Default
2) Pacferal Welming - India Default
3) Werma Demarq - Carthage
4) Hafr Thorsson - Korea default


And I fear to imagine Korean Dwarves ...
Thanks for the fast and interesting mode!

 

[Le Sage]

Thank you kindly for reporting those. I'll deal with them right now.

I have quite an interesting map project in the works right now, where the Fairy Tale nations are indeed transformed into real nations. No Korean dwarves though. i might publish that map tonight, depending on how it goes. It's one of the most interesting map projects I've ever done, actually...

 

[Highwayhoss]

This is a errata file for Fairy Tale 9a; it fixes a number of Art Defines problems and should reduce or eliminate crashes. Just merge the enclosed file with your Fairy Tale Mod and overwrite the XML files when prompted.

 

[Le Sage]

Good job, mate.

I'll have it uploaded to ModDB before you can say "Crystallin Valkyrie dressed in thigh-high leather high-heel combat boots".