[MOD] FFH TweakMod

Rystic

Turtle Wizard
Joined
Jun 28, 2008
Messages
677
Location
New Jersey
The Tweakmod is the philosophical opposite of Fall Further; instead of adding large amounts of new content, I'm only focusing on existing and removed features. I want to make slower teams more interesting, eliminate micromanagement, and improve old mechanics so they flow better. I also want to make it as balanced as I can, so please, provide feedback. I want to remove bad changes!

Download
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=12369
Just copy you FFH folder, and replace the XML and Python folders with these two.

Updates, New Post as of 2/6!

The new Svartalfar mechanics involve a promotion called Mark of Deception. There's no sure-fire way to get it, but it will be randomly applied to any unit with Sinister (eg, all Recon units). Mark of Deception fuels various new Svartalfar abilities, which you'll be able to access through promotions. As of now, I'm planning around five to six of these.

Upcoming Changes:
* Martyr unit removed. Martyr promotion given to Mercurian units created during war time (with a higher chance if more wars are going on).
* Removed Defender trait from Elohim leaders. Instead, the trait is given when you control at least one Unique Feature (with the logic that, up until that point, you're not really defending anything).
* Conquering the Illians causes all snow around their former cities to melt.

* Adventurer AI changed from UNITAI_ATTACK TO UNITAI_RESERVE.
* Sinister gives +1 Poison Combat instead of +1 Attack.
* Sinister has a chance to apply Mark of Deception.
* Mistress new Svartalfar UU for Champion. Same as original, but unit type is Recon (and -1 strength to compensate for +1 Poison).


Changes:
*Obsidian Plains are back.
*Host of the Einherjar have Guardsman.
*+1 commerce on snow next to rivers.
*Great Commanders can build Code of Junil.
*Cult of the Dragon reintroduced. The Kuriotates and the Sheaim now have a building called Shrine. It's a UB for Pagan Temple that gives a bonus off gems and gold, and gives living units a chance to be born Cult of the Dragon.
*The Kuriotate worldspell 'Legends' converts a number of units in the world to Cult of the Dragon.
*Roar will not fear a CotD unit. Instead, the unit will convert to the dragon's team.
*Wyrmhold added; Great Prophet GPP; increased chance for CotD; free Chaos mana; only buildable by Kuriotates and Sheaim.
*Demagogs born on a tile connected to a city with metal get that grade of weapon.
*Demagogs will spawn from Enclaves.
*Cathedral becomes Bannor UB for Pagan Temple. Gives all the normal bonuses, -10% maintenance, and gives a chance that Demagogs will be born with the State Religion.
*Rally gives Demagogs weapons/religion.
*Nomad gives +10% fire resistance. If you want to do Malakim-Veil in a desert area, go nuts.
*Burning sands give +1 commerce to the Malakim.
*Basium is now <bImmortal>1</bImmortal>, like Brigit. This really is mostly for the AI.
*Hidden doesn't interfere with graphics.
*Doviello start with Feral tech. Feral lets you build Doviello Camps, which are like normal camps but give +2 food, -1 commerce.
*Diverse Trait for the Grigori (see description below)
*Grigori Museum becomes a UB for Pagan Temple. It gives +10% :culture:, +1 :) with marble, +1 GPP (Adventurer). It also increases the chance the Diverse trait will trigger.
*Razed Grigori cities won't produce Angels or Demons.
*Grigori units won't be reborn as Angels or Demons.
*Grigori units won't be born with a religion.
*Luonnotar are buildable at Strength of Will.
*Stir from Slumber has no tech prereq, and requires The Deepening.
*Samhain now gives a temporary happiness in Illian cities.
*Temples of the Hand have a small chance of producing Blizzards.
*Auric Ascended's Snowfall has a small chance of producing Blizzards.
*If your state religion is Council of Esus, all heroes are born with Council of Esus.
*New Esus mechanics (described below)
*Gambling House, Market, and Tavern get +1 Happiness from Esus.
*Ratcatchers' Guild new wonder buildable with Council of Esus as the state religion. +15 crime rate, +20% :gold: and gives units built in its city Hidden Nationality. It automatically moves to the city with the highest crime rate in your empire.
*Gibbon Geotia gets +1 Poison Combat and steals promotions.
*Gibbon Geotia is now a Recon Hero. He starts with Shadow I and can promote up to get his Mistform. Whenever he kills a unit with a race, he becomes that race (and loses his old one if any).
*All buildings that produce only happiness/healthiness removed from the Infernal.
*Paramanders now start with Courage and have no resource requirement.
*Mimics no longer steal Rusted.
*Hell Terrain recedes faster.
*'Create Puppet' sound removed.
*Asylums remove Enraged.
*Fallout now appears on top of Shallows (like in Lord of Balors).
*Moved set_era from beginTurn to changeStateReligion. This should reduce the number of checks per turn.
*When Calabim raze cities, Vampires on the tile act as if they feasted it to death.
*The Homeland Promotion now gives +25% strength in your borders.
*The Loyalty spell removes Enraged.
*On religion spread, if Order and Veil are in the same city, or Esus and Empyrean, there is conflict.
*High Priests of Winter keep Blizzard dragging spell.
*Exploring an epic lair will yield 3 exp instead of 1.
*Recon units get fewer bad results from lairs.
*Removed the goblin dumping event.
*Adepts born with Esus will have Illusionist.
*Gaelan is now just a buildable hero for the Amurites. Circle of Gaelan is a World Wonder that can be built by any leader with the Arcane trait.
*Planar Gate spawns depend on game speed (thanks Turinturambar!)
*If the Amurites control an Ancient Tower, it will eventually develop into an Abode. This gives +1 :commerce:, +2 :hammers:, and +1 nearby :).
*Doviello-Werewolf mechanic (see below).
*Genesis will turn Hell Terrain back to normal.
*Lowered cost of Javelin Throwers from 90 :hammers: to 60 :hammers:.
*Arcane gives +10% :science:.
*Clan of Embers gets +1 :food: from Marsh. This means they'll treat them as if they were Grassland.
*Aggressive now applies to Beast unitcombat.
*Raiders now applies to Beast unitcombat.
*Training Yard/Archery Range removed from civs who don't need them (eg, the Doviello).
*If your state religion is Esus, Druids will always be born with Esus and Hidden.
*Remove Overcouncil resolutions that ban mana (so the computer doesn't ruin your day with them).
*Amurite UU for Adept, Student of Kylorin, and has the Legacy promotion, which gives +10% vs Winterborn.
*Student of Kylorin can upgrade to Wizard, Swordsman, Hunter or Archer. They need to be at least 4th level before they can upgrade. They lose the ability to upgrade if they have Combat III or higher at this point (although they won't lose the ability to become a Wizard). After 4th level, getting more Combat promotions won't remove the ability to upgrade.
*Ancestral Fire added to all Amurite units with a Channeling promotion. Affects same radius as Ring of Flames. Ancestral Fire I does 5%, up to 10%. Ancestral Fire II does 10%, up to 20%. Ancestral Fire III does 15%, up to 30%. The level the unit can used corresponds to the unit's Channeling promotion. Only affects enemies.
*Seige units collapse lairs they explore (lair destroyed, no event triggers).
*Enclaves give +1 nearby :). This should allow Kuriotate players more freedom when choosing religions.
*Hell terrain will only begin to spread when the Infernals enter the world.
*Devouts stay at Poisons, but don't require a Hunting Lodge.
*Guardians added to the Elohim. Cannot be built. Will spawn on Unique Features if within an Elohim city's Fat Cross. They have 2 :strength:, +2 Spirit Affinity, Angel, and Held.
*Ashen Veil now gives +1 :culture:, +1 :science:.
*Sons of Asena and Battlemasters now have a chance to get the Blood of Asena promotion if successful in combat. Blood of Asena gives them +1 Attack, -1 Defense, and a chance to produce a Wolf after combat. Sons of Asena with Feral have an increased chance to get the Promotion, and an increased chance to spawn a Wolf.
*Sidar have a new racial promotion: Shade. Shade gives +10% withdrawal chance, Immunity to Death Damage, and Immunity to Capture.
*Sidar gain the Hidden trait. Hidden makes units with no strength value invisible within the player's borders. This includes settlers, workers, slaves, and all Great people.
*Reliquary now allows a Priest Specialist.
*Temple of the Empyrean now gives +20% :gp:, instead of +10% :science:.
*New Overcouncil Resolution: Promote diverse society and cultural understanding. +500 Culture divided among cities.
*New Overcouncil Resolution: Establish housing projects to aid the poor and homeless. +10 Population divided among cities; will not push cities into unhappiness, and will relocate unhappy population.
*New Overcouncil Resolution: Organize an expedition of religious scholars to inspire faith in the populous. Costs 100 gold, chance to spread each members' state religion in each of their cities.
*Monks moved down to Philosophical.
*Monks are now 4 :strength:.
*Monks now cost 90 :hammers:.
*Einion Logos is now Spiritual, Philosophical, Defender.
*Ethne the White is now Creative, Expansive, Defender.
*The Mercurians will now start off with an two additional workers.
*Sinister now gives +10% crime rate in all newly founded cities.
*Sinsiter gives immunity to negative crime effects.
*Svartalfar Palace now gives +10% crime, instead of -10%.
*Sidar Palace loses its -10% crime.
*Nightwatch moved to Deception.
*Aeron's Bounty reintroduced. It increases the maximum number of Esus promotions units built in a city can get, and gives units a chance to be born with stronger Esus promotions.
*Monks can upgrade to Confessors, Vicars, Stonewardens and Priests of Leaves.
*Elohim can choose to found settlements around Unique Features.
*Fallout is now passable, but will cause poison damage to living units that go through it.
*Whenever the Mercurians raze a city, it produces Angels.
*Repentant Angel moved to Righteousness.
*New Mercurian unit: Martyrs. Martyrs have a chance to spawn whenever you kill a demon. They can recruit from cities to increase their strength and do collateral damage.
*Mercurian Gate now produces Great Commander GPP instead of Great Prophet GPP.
*Acropolis new Training Yard UB for the Mercurians. Gives +20% Military unit production, +10% :hammers:, and Great Commander gpp.
*The city converted with Basium now automatically gets an Acropolis, Hunting Lodge, Archery Range, Mage Guild, and Stables.
*Crusade now gives +25% cottage growth rate.
*The Deepening's effect is more substantial.
*Bounty Hunter now gives +10% Strength.
*Cathedrals may cause Crusaders, Paramanders, or Ratha to spawn instead of Demagogs if the appropriate religious temple is also present in the city.
*Reading the Grimoire has new effects (thanks again Turinturambar!)

Mechanics

Diverse Trait

The Diverse Trait for the Grigori gives units born in their empire a random race. Not every unit will have a random race, but a good portion should. This also replaces racial UU's (eg, you won't get an Orc Hunter, you'll get a Lizardman).

New Esus Mechanics

If you're Council of Esus, then your units have a chance to be born with various assassin-related promotions (eg, Marksman, Hidden Nationality, Bounter Hunter, etc). The higher the crime rate, the higher the chance. The higher the population, the higher the maximum number of promotions units can be born with.

Doviello Mechanics

Doviello start being able to build special camps on Fur and Deer resources. These camps give a bonus to food, but decrease the tile's commerce. When Beastmen/Sons of Asena/Battlemasters fight, they have a chance to become Feral after combat. Feral, for awhile, allows them to capture animals. Sons of Asena and Battlemasters have a chance to become Werewolves after combat, with the Blood of Asena promotion. In werewolf form, they have a chance to spawn a wolf after combat. Feral and Blood of Asena both have a chance to wear off. Another UU, Children of Halfmorn, can be built at Feral Bond. Children of Halfmorn can lock 6th-level units with Blood of Asena permanently into werewolf form. Those locked in can subsequently lock others in. Any unit with the Werewolf promotion can turn Wolf Packs with Empower V into Ravenous Werewolves.

Amurite Mechanics

Students of Kylorin become the Amurite UU for Adepts. They start with Legacy, which gives +10% vs Winterborn. At 4th-level, they can upgrade to Wizards, Macemen, Archers, or Hunters. If, by 4th-level, they have higher than Combat II, they lose their ability to upgrade to the latter three. Wizards at 6th-level and Champions can also upgrade to Battlemage (national unit), which is similar to a Champion but with Channeling II, Legacy, Magic Resistance, 3 :strength: and 3 Fire damage.

All Amurite units with a Channeling promotion get the Ancestral Fire ability. Affects same radius as Ring of Flames. Ancestral Fire I does 5%, up to 10%. Ancestral Fire II does 10%, up to 20%. Ancestral Fire III does 15%, up to 30%. The level the unit can used corresponds to the unit's Channeling promotion. Only affects enemies.

Elohim Mechanics
The Elohim receive bonuses based on the number of Unique Features they control. The bonuses are as following:

1) None.
2) +10% Defense in all cities; Monks get +1 Holy Damage
3) +10% Defense in all cities, +1 :) in all cities; Monks get +2 Holy Damage (with Priesthood)
4) +10% Defense in all cities, +1 :) in all cities, No Barbarians allowed your territory; Monks get +4 Holy Damage (with Righteousness)
 
Upcoming Changes (not in yet, but those marked as done will be in the next update):
* = done
? = Will add if playtests go well.

Remove Eidilons from the Mercurians/block all Demonic units.
Make Sahmain force Barbarians to build Frostling units.
Give Winterborn a bonus vs Frostlings.
Make ice around Temples of the Hand melt after awhile (if not controlled by Illians).
New events for dungeons.
 
I made a second install of the game (so as to not interfere with LAN games) and have been enjoying the Grigori thus far. The diverse trait is fun, but it seem to happen a bit too often given the number of human civs compared to others. A slight lowering of the chance might be in order.
I'm really enjoying the museum. Getting out those extra adventurers helps a lot. Makes up for the lack of religious heroes quite well.
 
I... I don't know what to say. For the first time EVER I not only survived more then a hundred turns on normal or higher speed with the Amurites on diety.... I BEAT the LANUN that had a HECK of a start. I found HALF of the good production/food boosting unique features in their area including a riverside grasslands Yg and Remnants, the Well, Pyre, and the Bones... while I had two REAL cities and two "blockade" cities with 50% of their fat cross taken up with mountains, and the ONLY resource I had was copper, cotton, and two silks. They had more then I can count. Once I finally defeated them I went from the bottom of the ladder to the top in six turns. XD Can't raise science higher then 20%, but even at 20% science i'm still out-teching EVERYONE, and that was after gifting Trade to anyone who'd take it. :p The rest of the people? Keelyn of the Balseraphs, Svartalfar, and apparently there's a Ljosalfar beyond my view that founded FoL.. on a highly forested map..

I don't know if it's just the adept bonus for mana, or what, but I think I'm in love. XD

BTW, is it suppossed to work for the wizards and archmages as well? I had two fire mana, and when I upped to wizards they only got fire1, which means there's no point to have +2 of most of the resources.. just 1, +3, and +4. Which is fine, but I was surprised to learn that. :p Most of the resources I use ANYWAYS are things like mind, law, life, enchantment.... You get the idea. ;3
 
I made a second install of the game (so as to not interfere with LAN games) and have been enjoying the Grigori thus far. The diverse trait is fun, but it seem to happen a bit too often given the number of human civs compared to others. A slight lowering of the chance might be in order.

Yea, it's a bit high right now. Toning it down was actually on my TODO list, but I kept it high for testing purposes.

I'm really enjoying the museum. Getting out those extra adventurers helps a lot. Makes up for the lack of religious heroes quite well.

The Grigori needed something to fight GPP pool pollution. Its lack of a specialist guarantees that you won't get some great person you don't want from it.

I... I don't know what to say. For the first time EVER I not only survived more then a hundred turns on normal or higher speed with the Amurites on diety.... I BEAT the LANUN that had a HECK of a start. I found HALF of the good production/food boosting unique features in their area including a riverside grasslands Yg and Remnants, the Well, Pyre, and the Bones... while I had two REAL cities and two "blockade" cities with 50% of their fat cross taken up with mountains, and the ONLY resource I had was copper, cotton, and two silks. They had more then I can count. Once I finally defeated them I went from the bottom of the ladder to the top in six turns. XD Can't raise science higher then 20%, but even at 20% science i'm still out-teching EVERYONE, and that was after gifting Trade to anyone who'd take it. :p The rest of the people? Keelyn of the Balseraphs, Svartalfar, and apparently there's a Ljosalfar beyond my view that founded FoL.. on a highly forested map..

Oh yea, forgot to mention, it defaults to "all unique features" being on. I did that for testing :D

I don't know if it's just the adept bonus for mana, or what, but I think I'm in love. XD

Yes! Adept spell gifting is one of my favorite changes (that and the Diverse trait).

BTW, is it suppossed to work for the wizards and archmages as well? I had two fire mana, and when I upped to wizards they only got fire1, which means there's no point to have +2 of most of the resources.. just 1, +3, and +4. Which is fine, but I was surprised to learn that. :p Most of the resources I use ANYWAYS are things like mind, law, life, enchantment.... You get the idea. ;3

No, just Adepts. It originally did it for all three, but that was too powerful.
 
Oh ok. And to be honest, I dont' see a difference for the adventurers then my normal grigori games [tried it.] Same ussual tactic, and although I lOVED my start [did you tweak the flavor starts?] I see no difference in adventurer population for me. In fact, I'm short one from my average. :p Then again I DO play FF ussually, so... maybe that's it?

If you want my suggestion, why not an adventurer specialist? Gives 1 happy and 1 gold, and other then that just adventurer great points. shouldn't be TOO overpowered, especially since the Grigori don't have access to ANY of the high-happy producing wonders or civics or even a religion.
 
Oh ok. And to be honest, I dont' see a difference for the adventurers then my normal grigori games [tried it.] Same ussual tactic, and although I lOVED my start [did you tweak the flavor starts?] I see no difference in adventurer population for me. In fact, I'm short one from my average. :p Then again I DO play FF ussually, so... maybe that's it?

Ah, but again, it's a tweak. If you got a ton more Adventurers, that would be a problem. In fact, it's good to hear that the Grigori Museum isn't causing this issue. Their main purpose was to fight GPP pool pollution. It helps when you cast Ardor, and gives all cities a chance (even if small) to pop an Adventurer.
 
Oh yea, forgot to mention, it defaults to "all unique features" being on. I did that for testing :D

Keep it on. Saves me the hassle of turning it on. Side note: there's an option for turning Inflation off. It's normally hidden, but Magistar Cultuum mentioned in some random thread how to make it visible. I had to change it back as it messed up LAN and have since lost track of where to change it.
Could you perhaps track it down and make it visible by default with your modmod? It's a great option for people who like to play long games.

Edit: Also: found a bug, I think.
I've gotten a swordsman and a trebuchet. Both are units brought about thanks to the diverse trait and both didn't get any bonus xp from civics (running apprenticeship).

Edit Edit: Found another bug
Feral is required to build camps instead of Hunting.
 
Council of Esus... what on earth can we do with this?

Making the Eyes and Ears Network CoE only (not sure I like it).
Don't know if this is doable... maybe being able to fake another Religion. You can choose one whichever you want without needing the required tech. You will appear to others as a follower of said religion and get the bonus with others.
Giving the Nightwatch the ability to explore rival's territory.
Maybe a kind of spy UU with some abilities like poisoning wells, adding :yuck:. And holding units on the same tile, like the event "Your init has eaten something..." but it would actually have the same effect like Blinding Light. Assassination of a city's governor, causing unrest for a few turns?
But definately features along the shadowy line, I'd say.
 
Keep it on. Saves me the hassle of turning it on. Side note: there's an option for turning Inflation off. It's normally hidden, but Magistar Cultuum mentioned in some random thread how to make it visible. I had to change it back as it messed up LAN and have since lost track of where to change it.
Could you perhaps track it down and make it visible by default with your modmod? It's a great option for people who like to play long games.

Yea, I can re-toggle that option. I've seen it before.

Edit: Also: found a bug, I think.
I've gotten a swordsman and a trebuchet. Both are units brought about thanks to the diverse trait and both didn't get any bonus xp from civics (running apprenticeship).

I expected these issues with Diverse. I think I can fix that if I run the same script Warrens does to units.

Edit Edit: Found another bug
Feral is required to build camps instead of Hunting.

That's weird, both should work. I'll look for the bug, but if I can't do anything, I'll have to give Feral it's own improvement...
 
Have you tried the Grigori yet? I'm interested to what people think of the Diverse trait.

Ack! Sorry, I only got to start a game with the Amurites, because when I got home from school yesterday, my computer crashed or something. I have to type this with my iPod Touch (with 10% battery left! :run:)
 
Beeing impatient for your release I made mask require CoE as a state religion instead of unit religion, which atleast made it much easier to play CoE as it seem to me it was intended. Ideal would of course be to have mask require either unit or state religion, but that is beyond my modding skills (except making two entries for the mask-spell that is).

EDIT: Hmm game crashes upon startup, what versions etc. does the mod require?
 
Beeing impatient for your release I made mask require CoE as a state religion instead of unit religion, which atleast made it much easier to play CoE as it seem to me it was intended. Ideal would of course be to have mask require either unit or state religion, but that is beyond my modding skills (except making two entries for the mask-spell that is).

I didn't want to just give everyone Mask. I want something more creative than that.

EDIT: Hmm game crashes upon startup, what versions etc. does the mod require?

Patch z. What's the crash saying?
 
Tried out the Esus changes today with a Sidar game. So far I like the changes a LOT. Overall, Esus now feels like a real viable religion option rather than the weak sister of religions that you put into your cities but don't actually use as a state religion. Specific thoughts:

1) Giving all heroes Esus is tremendous fun for Recon heroes like Rauthus because they get Mask. This makes Rauthus closer to Alazkan in awesomeness (without the black mirror of course) because he can level up on your allies' warriors, and if he gets hurt he can just declare nationality and heal, hide and re-mask, kill someone else and declare nationality again. Tremendous fun.

2) The changes to Gibbon make him like a real worthwhile hero now, worthy of being the only hero of his religion. He's not a top-tier hero like Chalid, Yvain, or Sphener, but he's at least on a par with Hemah now. The increased strength is nice (makes him more like a battlemage now rather than a straight archmage who hides in a stack), but the real fun is the promotion stealing, which can get him to Twincast much faster than other archmage heroes. It's also very easy to kill an animal and steal HN, and from there Gibbon can e.g. team with Rathus to just annihilate all the defenders in a friendly city. Gibbon twincasts a T3 summon and whacks two defenders; Rauthus picks them off with Marksman. Rinse and repeat.

3) The "new Esus mechanics" of random promotions to units don't appear to be working very well. In my whole game I only saw Esus give one unit a free promotion (Flanking), even though I was cranking units out of size 18+ cities. Maybe my crime rate wasn't high enough? I was building gambling houses and Inns everywhere; and I did build the Ratcatcher's guild and COATS. The problem is that Crime rate is not a very accessible statistic--I don't even know where I can see a city's crime rate. Maybe this feature should be based on straight population, and the free promotion rate should increase.

4) The extra happiness from Market, Tavern, AND Gambling house (a possible +3 happy) may be a bit overkill. I understand that Esus needs a boost in happies to compete with other religions' temples, but no other religion gets THAT much happiness access from their temples (which give a mere +1 happiness ONLY if you have the right resource). I'd suggest restricting this to +1 happy from Market and gambling house only with the Gold resource.


Overall, I'm loving playing with this mod. Next stop is Mahala for the Feral tech!
 
My comments to your ideas:

City with Aqae Secullus immune to blight.

I like it..

Perpentach takes a random alignment when insanity triggers.

This one may be over powered because it would allow him to build paladins, Eidolons, and Druids without changing religions and risk loosing his religious hero.

If a unit is killed by an Elohim Monk, it won't be reborn as an Angel or Demon.

For demons this would be great, but based on scenarios the Elohim are one of the summoners of Basium and they may want to boost his army.

A real hero for the Sheaim

I would think that a minor(ahem!) hero buildable near the start of the game would be nice. May I suggest a mage named Os-Gabella :) that has immortality.
Stats: 3/3, give her the escape skill and use the vanilla paratrooper ability to transport herself to a distant tile. These would simulate her dimensional focus/skill. Set her national/world limit to one and if she is "killed" in her capital she can be "rebuilt" in a new one. This could represent the time she spent in the Blair of Lacuna(sp?) being subjected to her forced healing of wounds.
 
1) Giving all heroes Esus is tremendous fun for Recon heroes like Rauthus because they get Mask. This makes Rauthus closer to Alazkan in awesomeness (without the black mirror of course) because he can level up on your allies' warriors, and if he gets hurt he can just declare nationality and heal, hide and re-mask, kill someone else and declare nationality again. Tremendous fun.

Heroes without CoE always bothered me. This was actually one of the driving forces behind the Esus changes.

2) The changes to Gibbon make him like a real worthwhile hero now, worthy of being the only hero of his religion. He's not a top-tier hero like Chalid, Yvain, or Sphener, but he's at least on a par with Hemah now. The increased strength is nice (makes him more like a battlemage now rather than a straight archmage who hides in a stack), but the real fun is the promotion stealing, which can get him to Twincast much faster than other archmage heroes. It's also very easy to kill an animal and steal HN, and from there Gibbon can e.g. team with Rathus to just annihilate all the defenders in a friendly city. Gibbon twincasts a T3 summon and whacks two defenders; Rauthus picks them off with Marksman. Rinse and repeat.

I'm still playing with Gibbon. I was going to make him a Recon hero, because Archmage + Steals Promotions is very, very strong (although he'll get to keep his Mistform).

3) The "new Esus mechanics" of random promotions to units don't appear to be working very well. In my whole game I only saw Esus give one unit a free promotion (Flanking), even though I was cranking units out of size 18+ cities.

In the next update I do, I'm increasing the percent for being born with a promotion. It seems that crime rate alone has abnormally low returns :undecide:

I don't even know where I can see a city's crime rate. Maybe this feature should be based on straight population, and the free promotion rate should increase.

If you mouse over the city bar, the crime rate is there. It's well hidden, for some reason..

4) The extra happiness from Market, Tavern, AND Gambling house (a possible +3 happy) may be a bit overkill. I understand that Esus needs a boost in happies to compete with other religions' temples, but no other religion gets THAT much happiness access from their temples (which give a mere +1 happiness ONLY if you have the right resource). I'd suggest restricting this to +1 happy from Market and gambling house only with the Gold resource.

The other religions can produce this kind of happiness (with Religion, temples, and their resource). Bear in mind, you still have to build all three buildings in a city, and get three separate technologies for the +3 happiness.

Overall, I'm loving playing with this mod. Next stop is Mahala for the Feral tech!

Go forth, and hunt the Wild Caribou of Erebus!
 
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