FFH-01: Fall From Heaven Fantasy SG

[hamtastic]

So I've finally got a bit of time again and I figured I would try to start up another SG using a mod. This time, I chose another quite popular mod, the Fall From Heaven mod. Here is a brief description:

Fall from Heaven is a Fantasy based mod that brings more focus on the Religion and Promotion aspects of Civilization 4. Toward that end there are unique religion units, increased XP, unit upgrades that last throughout the entire game (a Scout can be upgraded to a Hunter, then to an Assassin, then to a Shadow). Promotions have had their effect increased and many new promotions have been added. The Tech Tree, Units, Religions, Buildings and Civics have all been rebuilt from the ground up.

More info about the mod can be found here.

Sign up below if you're interested and offer suggestions for the type of game. This may be simply more of an exploratory type of game since the rules are quite different.

Roster:

1)Hamtastic
2)Sina
3)omni_paul
4)Xtream_Rockstar
5)Open
6)Maybe open?

Turns:

TBD, but probably 30 for the first turnset, going down after that.

Difficulty: Noble, Prince, or Monarch

Leader: TBD

 

[Sina]

This sounds very interesting!

However, I have never used a mod before and am worried on how it will affect my game.
Do I still have my vanilla game unless I specifically load this mod?

If it doesn't change the normal game, I'd like to try the mod out and would be interested in joining this SG should I like the mod.

 

[hamtastic]

As long as you put the mod in your "Mods" folder and go to load the mod through that, it should have absolutely no effect on regular civ.

 

[pholkhero]

I will lurk this since i'm out of SG time for now, but i'd love to see how this mod turns out.

Hammie: time to change your sig, eh?

 

[rumbold]

since i've neither the experience or time for an SG, i'll lurk too. hopefully the life of this SG will fare better then your EE3 game.

 

[hamtastic]

hey sina, did it work for you? Yeah, the EE3 game sort of died due to other people dropping out and me going out of town for 2 weeks. When I got back, I didn't see the point in trying to get it restarted.

 

[Sina]

Yes, worked very well for me and I have started a few games.

I find it very slow in the start and haven't really seen much of the game. I think it's too easy to take everybody out if you have copper and you have no chance if you don't have it. So far I started a new game everytime it became clear that I could just run over everybody with my Super-Axes.
I have only played on Prince though...maybe should try Monarch next time.

Another thing I don't like is that it is so difficult/slow to get culture to your cities.

All that said, I really like the fantasy setting and the athmosphere. I definitely need to try to get to the later stages of the game and play one out.

Hmmm...probably right now...I feel another sleepless night coming.

 

[omni_paul]

I'm interested. I have 3 SGs on the go, but 2 are getting towards the end, so I might be persuaded to take part.

I think, with all of the unknown quantites, a basic continents/epic/noble game could be in order. Continents to give us a mix of local and foreign opponents, epic to give us enough time to come to terms with and explore the unique elements of this mod, and noble so that we're neither advantaged nor disadvantaged compared to the AI.

My 2c . I guess I've persuaded myself to participate huh?

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

ill join up i gots some exp with the mod so far ive been playing as the dark elvs

 

[hamtastic]

Great to hear there are a few more on board. A few comments: I would suggest not playing epic, since the research and build times on normal speed can be a bit crazy. I juse played a test game on Prince and found it relatively easy , but I'm willing to do a Noble if that's what other people would like. My personal vote would be for Monarch, though.

About the culture thing: yes, it's annoying. I played my game with a creative leader, and that was very nice. I think it might be much more powerful in this mod do the disadvantages and build times on the culture-granting buildings. Incidentally, I find the "seafaring" trait useless, although I suppose on some maps it could be nice.

After I hear back a bit more about difficulty and preferred traits, I'll get us going with a start. Although more people are welcome to join.

 

[omni_paul]

Up to you sir. I've not played the mod yet, so I'm happy to be guided by your expertise.

 

[Sina]

I'm playing a game as Serena (Exp/Cre) now. It was not easy to resist the urge to take out my closest neighbour, but no copper helped. I only took one city to block them off. Now I'm trying to research this and that and build stuff, just to see what's there. I'm completely clueless though.

The game is on Prince and I feel that is too easy. Monarch gets my vote although I haven't tried it out yet.
And definitely normal speed. The start is already there to slow for my taste.

About traits...hmmm...I think picking a Religion is more important as that dominates the game. So far, I have tried out Fellowship (in my game now) and Runes (briefly). The former leads to large cities and a rotten economy and the latter to a full treasury and unhappy citizens. My impression at least.

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

probley not leaves or octo because those dont give as much UUs.

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

If we do go for a religos victory we will need
philosophy
montholism
industrious or expancive civ or both (not sure about this one)
writeing

 

[hamtastic]

Beginnings:

Well, I decided to go with Pitface, mostly because he's spiritual, and there are lots of new civics to try out all the time. So there you go. Here's the start I got for us:



So I hope that looks ok. The reason you can see so much of it is that the beginning settler has a vision upgrade. Shall I settle in place or move in some direction? Those things 1 N and two right are "regeants," which give health, and that thing down to the SE is a sentry tower, which basically lets you see stuff when you stand on it. Not real important though. I will play my turns tomorrow and take people's suggestions into account.

 

[Sina]

I have problems assessing the starting position without the grid and resource icons, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

Settling in place looks right to me. We have FP, hills and cow.

I don't know what Pitface's traits are and what techs he starts with. I'll edit later when I had a look.

Could you please post the save before starting to play, so that we can all check if we can load it? I'm still a bit uncomfortable with this mod business. It's the first mod I ever installed for any game.

 

[Chalid]

Comment:
Keep in mind that you'll need these Reagets later on to build Mages so they are very valuable. And remember that you can Vitalize your deserts to plains with a druid so these Floodplains will give 4 food each later on - unfortunatley all the improvements on the vitalized lands are destroyed.

 

[hamtastic]

Hey, sorry about the lack of grid and resource icons. I usually don't play with them on and forgot about turning them on for screenshots. In any case, barring any massive dissent soon, I'll probably settle in place. I'm attaching the savegame here also.

We're aggressive and spiritual, and our techs are militia and the wheel. So a natural way to go might be to try to grab that stone early with our easy path to masonry and then build some stone wonders or something.

View attachment 124787

I'm thinking that for the first round, we should each play 25 turns. That will put us 100 turns in and then we can go for shorter turnsets.

Also, FYI: I forgot to mention this as well when I posted earlier. I went for Prince difficulty since I do want this to be a semi-exploratory game. So anyway.

 

[Sina]

I just tried to load the save and it worked fine.

With the grid turned on, settling in place looks the best. It might be an idea to get the Sheep into the capital bfc, but I think they are better saved for a coastal city that grabs them and the furs.

What wonders are built with stone? I don't think I have noticed any worthwhile one. I'd prefer getting AH, Agri and BW first (hoping for techs from huts as well, I often get 2)and start worker as first build. This stragtegy seemed to work well so far.

I think you should play 40 turns. The start is very slow!

------
OT: I played another game yesterday/today where I went for Ashen Veil. I was alone on a continent and only declared war late. First thing I did was to get my army diseased. I didn't think my own forces would be infected by my own units.

Now I started a game where I went for the Runes religion. Still early days there, but already took out my closest neighbour with warriors and one dwarf guy. Early warfare is far too overpowered.

Both games were on Monarch.

And yes, I have too much time and a problem with finishing games. I very seldomly do.

 

[omni_paul]

OK I'm a complete Mod n00b, so someone will have to help me...

I have to install and load the mod to open the save game? I take it it's not enough for the savegame to have been created with the mod, it needs to draw on local resources as well? If someone could walk me through the process I'd be appreciative