Fantasy Army Unit Modpack (V5)

[YINGCHENG]

The idea behind of this mod is brilliant! I will consider trying this mod next week and see how these new unit work.
A quick question out of my mind is that will this mod compatible with any other mod packs such as R.E.D or ethnic units? My question might sound silly because I have no knowledge of modding, so please forgive me.
So far I am looking forward to trying this mod, and perhaps I may contribute a bit via sending you sth from my testings.

Keep up ur great works, and again, if you could answer my question, that would be appreciated.

 

[sman1975]

@YINGCHENG - thanks! This is all Protagonist's idea. I'm just trying to help a bit.

The mod is being worked on daily, so there will be a new version published every few days - probably for the next couple of weeks. I'm finishing the "cleric" class now, which adds 6 more units (a healer, civilian unit) - and I should publish that tomorrow afternoon. After that, I will work on a "monk" class (ranged fighter/magic user), then probably a "druid" class - which will use fighting minions, but I'm not sure what will look like exactly. After that? Some random units (vampires, dragons, ogres, etc.) - some of whom may be Barbarian only.

The mod uses only XML updates for now (with the new units we're adding), so it should be quite compatible with other mods. A little while later, I plan on adding some LUA-based promotions that make it a bit less compatible, but not too much I think. The big problem with compatibility is when you start replacing interface/UI functions. If 2 mods both change the same UI function (say, the "city screen" where you build/buy units/buildings) - then the mods won't work together. I don't see any possible chance of this mod changing any UI functions, so hopefully this mod will be pretty safe to use with other mods. Another potential conflict - I'm using several models that come from the "Wildlife Reborn" mod, and several other mods like it. If you try to use those mods with this one, it would probably still work (I've changed a lot of names to avoid possible conflicts...), but there is no guarantee.

We appreciate any notes or suggestions you have when you're testing - this only makes the mod better. Also, if you have any suggestions about the mod design, please provide those as well. I'm trying to build a mod that people will want to play, so let me know if there's any way to make it better.

Thanks again!

 

[sman1975]

Cleric class (civilian healing/improvement repair) of units is complete - still undergoing some testing at the moment. Hope to have the updated mod uploaded in the next few hours.

The next version adds 2 buildings, an extra necromancer unit (exorcist/modern era) to bring that class to 6 units like the other classes. Also have found several incorrect settings/data that have been corrected/updated.

Some photos of the units:

 

[Protagonist]

What does CTD's stand for?

 

[sman1975]

The dreaded "Crash To Desktop"....

 

[sman1975]

New version of the mod is posted - V7 - with these changes:

- New version adds the "Cleric" class of units: Medicine Man/Ancient, Cleric/Classical, Apothecary/Medieval, Ecclesiast/Industrial, Curate/Atomic, Empath/Information
- Adds an Exorcist /Modern unit to the Necromancer class to make it an even 6 units per class, like the other classes (it could use some better testing, but it worked fine in the initial, basic tests)
- Adds 2 buildings: "Apothecaries Hall" and "Necromanteion"
- Several errors/inconsistencies in the existing units have been corrected/cleaned up as well

With the Clerics, I'm experimenting with the "purchase" of units using faith - it just seems to me any "magic-based" system would depend on faith as a major component. It's why the new buildings add so much faith - to start a self-perpetuating chain to add even more magic-based units. If this works/seems rational, I can change the other class units to be faith purchased as well. Originally, I'd thought that all magic units would ONLY be purchasable with faith (no gold buying or city producing), but I think that's something Protagonist needs to weigh in on.

Work on the Monk class (ranged fighter) begins tomorrow, If you have any suggestions, please let me know...

Once the units are built - and I think we're getting close to that point - I'd like to look at some of the "magical features" we can add, even if it involves LUA to implement. Basically, I'll be asking for you to suggest any wild feature that can be imagined, then I'll research to see if it can be done.

Ciao!

 

[sman1975]

Currently experimenting with scout animations for the monk class. Have got the fireball (city attack), fire attack (drommon Greek fire attack), and the giant death robots rail gun attack working.

Still struggling on getting the plasma animations used by XCom soldiers working. It hits the target but look like it's coming from a different hex than the attacker. Will play with it some more this afternoon.

So - your monk class could use 1-4 attacks, depending on how u want to structure it.

UPDATED: Plasma effects are fixed!

So - we now have a scout who can attack 5 ways: melee, fireball, flame cannon, plasma, and rail gun. Let me know what you think the combinations should be - I'll start "mocking up" a monk class - I have about 10 scout models to pick from, but will look to see if there's more I can do in case we want other units to stand in for the monk. Progress!

 

[sman1975]

More testing - have added 2 more attack animations - the "artillery rocket" and the "mech rocket." The first one is the arcing, long missile attack that I think belongs to the game's rocket artillery unit. The second one is a smaller missile with a straight line attack to the target - maybe cruise missile from the game. With the basic scout's melee attack, this brings us to 7 total animations that can be used for the "monk" class.

Looking at scout units to reskin - here is what I've found so far (can only attach 10 pix - will attach one more in the next post):



I can basically redraw anything on the model (albeit not well...) - but everything has to "stay within the lines" - can't change the shape of anything, e.g. give a bow to a scout with a staff - the model "working files" won't recognize the cosmetic changes, shaves off most of the changes, and still draws lots of shading, highlights, outlines, etc., as defined by the original figure - doesn't look very good. There are programs that can do these things, but I haven't been able to get the work on my computer. In game, the individual models are quite small, and this covers up a lot of poor artwork...

Cont'd. next post.....

 

[sman1975]

The 11th scout pic:



These represent every scout model I have been able to find - which I can get the 6 spellcaster animations working.

So - we now have 11 candidate models for the Monk class - each can use one of the 7 animations mentioned earlier. Or - I can experiment with getting any other non-scout combat unit to use the "city attack only" animation to throw fireballs. Will test that in a few.

Need some feedback - which model(s) do you like the best, how would you like me to modify/redraw them, and what animations go with what unit?

Or do you just want me to run with it?

Let me know what you think - and I'll be working on the "Wandering Monsters" during the wait. These are a few random critters (spiders, scorpions, dragons, griffons, etc. - maybe a dinosaur or two...) that I'll make available to the Barbarians. Nothing overpowering, just something to add a little magical flavor....

 

[sman1975]

Samurai fireball attack....



Was thinking about using some variation of these units for the monk if the scout models aren't quite what you're looking for. Could alter their looks easily to make them more "monk like." The basic units look like this:




Now to see if I can get a railgun working...

 

[sman1975]

Samurai Rail Gun Attack!!!!!

(The animation is even cooler than the picture - he winds it up like some kind of crazy baseball pitcher!)

 

[sman1975]

Of course, the Samurai Plasma Attack ain't bad either....




I guess what I'm trying to say, is I've figured out how to give all 6 of the spell caster animations to any normal combat unit. May want to look at ANY of the available units and see if you'd rather have them involved in the Monk or other classes.

I'll probably look at the Mod's other units (necro's, mostly) and see if I can add some "flaming" attacks to the normal melee units - where it makes sense.

 

[sman1975]

Now, the Vampire Swordsman can use Rail Gun attack... Actually, any swordsman can use the animation now that the new trigger file is built.

 

[sman1975]

@Protagonist - am ready to work on the monk class.

Here's the preliminary class structure: "unit name (era) - artwork/model - which '"magic user animations" they use
1. Hermit (Ancient) - Uses the Mongol scout artwork - fireball (city attack) attack
2. Pilgrim (Classical) - Garamantes Scout art - dromon attack
3. Cenobite (Medieval) - Inca Scout art - mech rocket attack (smaller missile, straight line trajectory) [may want to call this unit "Monk"]
4. Zelator (Industrial) - China Scout art - artillery rocket attack (large missile, arcing trajectory)
5. Adeptus (Modern) - Korea Scout art - plasma attack (Xcom)
6. Magister Templi (Information) - Japan Scout art. - rail gun attack (Giant Death Robot)

Am planning to use 6 of the units from the pictures in the previous posts - attached at the bottom of this post. I'll redraw some of the models' artwork to make them less recognizable, add team coloring, etc.

See attached Monk Class Notes PDF for units' stats. Their basic "combat" and "ranged combat" numbers are below the standard Ranged unit of the era. The promotions make up for most of that, though.


Possible promotions (with the standard Civ V values shown):
Discipline. +15% combat bonus from adjacent friendly unit
Indirect Fire. Attacks may be performed over obstacles
Range. +1 Range
Logistics. 1 additional attack per turn
Volley. +50% Combat Strength VS Fortified Units and Cities
Accuracy. 15-45% bonus vs. units in open terrain [3 levels]
Barrage. 15-45%bonus vs. units in rough terrain [3 levels]
Cover. +25-50% Defense against all Ranged Attacks [3 levels]

Like the other classes, their promotions are scalable from lower values for earlier units in the class, and more promotions added to later units. The actual values are quite lower than the standard Civ V promotion equivalent. I've used a few of these promotions in combination on previous mods and the units quickly became way, way OP. But if there are only a few (3 usually) allowed to be built, it keeps the OP units from completely changing the game.

I've been experimenting with the animations on these models, and they're actually a blast! They should be pretty fun to play.

Let me know if this sounds like what you had in mind for the class - or what needs to be changed.

 

[Protagonist]

@sman1975 Sorry for not responding. I like idea of giving the units a sort of asiatic theme. It feels very kung-fuey.

 

[sman1975]

Progress update: I've got all 6 monk units working with their basic melee attack. Haven't added the "spellcaster attacks" yet - will get that tomorrow. It's mostly finished, just not tested with these models yet. Monk promotion is completed, but not tested till tomorrow. Icons and flags completed as well. Added a "monastery" type building so the class will have a home...

I had to drop 2 of the planned models. They just didn't look very good, and it's beyond my capabilities to get them to look better. I liked the way the Korean and Chinese scouts looked, so I changed some colors around and added the "recolored" units in place of the other 2. I think they look pretty good. They're fun to watch on the attack. The class photo is attached, as well as the class summary and new building summary sheets.

OK - I've built 36 units, 24 promotions, and 12 buildings for the mod. The latest version should be published tomorrow. What is left to do?

 

[sman1975]

Latest version of the mod (V.8) is posted. Adds the Monk class - a ranged unit that uses different spellcaster animations - see attached pix.

Will probably play with the mix of models in the units over the next few builds - want to add some familiars to the monk units - lions, tigers, etc. - to make them look more in tune with nature.

The mod is weighing in at 27MB currently, and although I'll look for ways to trim it down, once it starts approaching 30MB it won't be updatable on civfanatics. Will have to move it to Steam at that point.

Current work left to do consists of adding some optional Monster units to add to the Barbarians - to make their attacks more interesting.

If that isn't desired, I've designed the overrides in such a way that it is trivial to remove any unit from the game by simply commenting out a particular line in the overrides file after downloading. Will put the specific instructions into the next version of the game manual.

After that, I'm not sure how much more we can do to this one. Let me know if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks!

 

[YINGCHENG]

Oh boy, it looks awesome! Many units are really OP in my taste based on my understanding of your work but I just love the animation of your units.

I will try to Give you my feedback for the mod after you release the next version. : )

In the end, I am not sure if it is appropriate to say this, but I can see that you have potentials to accomplish more for civ 5 modding. Many civ 5 mod projects are remained incompleted even at this stage of time, the one I am fascinated about is Adding wonder improvement tiles into the game (like civ 6). Elite modders (e.g sukritact, ekmek) had done their pioneers job in converting wonders into tile improvement, but none of them so far finish up their projects. I am not sure if you ever want to accept request, but personally I think it is a really great idea that we should not let it go.

If you are interested, I would love to encourage you to consider this idea as your future moding plan. I don't know how to mod, but it seems like the project will not be very difficult for you especially if you could take a look at the following mod threads:
Sukritact's edifice (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/sukritacts-edifices.610623/)
Ekmek's Graphics: wonder tiles
(https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/graphics-wonder-tiles.525199/)

Hopefully you may consider this, but if you are not really interested, that is totally fine. I will see how this mod goes for the game and let you know my thoughts!

Thank you.

 

[sman1975]

@YINGCHENG - thanks for that. Yes, the units are a bit overpowering, that's why there are limits to the number of each that can be built, usually around 3. It's one of the issues that we need to find out during testing - "what is the right number maximum for each unit?" Another main question on testing is, "Is the mod stable - do the new units cause (more than usual) crashes to desktop?" And finally, my main question is, "Is the mod fun to play - does the mod add value to the gaming experience?" Those are the three main questions that people like yourself can greatly help us with!

As far as my planning for this mod, there will only be a few minor units added for the Barbarians to use - none for player. So, no need to wait for the next version for testing. That is, unless @Protagonist has some more feedback on additional units. That may change the plan a bit.

And finally, thanks for the tips about the unfinished projects. Unfortunately, I'm 3 mods behind on my own schedule: WW1, D-Day (WW2), and a small mod to augment the basic game's Supply system. I do know the Edifice mod - and want to use some of that on one of my Napoleon maps (imagine - putting a Pyramids tile on the "Battle of the Pyramids" map...)

Will look into this, but it will probably be a few months before I can get to them. I like modding Civ V - it's a great hobby. But, I tend to make lots of mistakes in development and have to do everything 2-3 times to get it right. Means it takes me longer to get things done than most people...

Anyways - thanks so much for the feedback and help with testing. It is very, very helpful!

 

[YINGCHENG]

I will take care of these concerns when I test your mod, thanks for your quick reply!

I am looking forward to seeing your future mods! I would not mind waiting couple of
months for your mods. Please also let me contribute for showing my gratitude.