HephMod: a mod combo-pack emphasizing balance, realism, and historical flavor

Jaybe · Oct 22, 2008

Finally starting my 3rd HB game ...

I found why the MilAc is available before the Military Science tech:
In CIV4UnitInfos.xml, under the UNIT_GREAT_GENERAL, instead of the (Buildings) tag, (ForceBuildings) tag is used to build the MilAc.

(I compared with the original BtS UnitInfos file).

Puer · Oct 23, 2008

I think axemen are quite useless because they are upgraded to swordmen... and thats why Native Americans (Dog Soldiers) have a big advantage.

Hephaistion · Nov 14, 2008

Thank you for your comments, folks ... I'm still listening even when I'm not replying.

I made some progress today concerning this crash that's been plagueing the mod. I've been playing a game, the crash occurred, and I narrowed it down to the Byzantines (removing their civilization in the worldbuilder got rid of the crash). Checked the python logs and found that they were in anarchy, so I checked what civics they were changing to and decided to play with those. The computer wanted to change to Bureaucracy and Theocracy ... when I took over the Byzantines myself and changed to other civics than these, no crash. When I changed to just Bureaucracy, no crash; just Theocracy, no crash. It seems pretty clear that there's something about these two civics together that is causing the crash. At first I thought it was because of a bug with having -100% great people (he also had Professional Army civic), but I removed the GP penalty from Prof Army and the crash still happened, so it's not that. Justinian's favorite civic is Theocracy, which I changed to Organized Religion; when I replayed the game, the AI chose Organized Religion and Bureaucracy and there was no crash.

So, I don't know how to fix this yet, but at least I've narrowed the crash down to some reproducible circumstances and certain culprits!

@Jaybe: Naval stats will be almost completely different in the next update, mostly as per your suggestions.

@Dafy: Axeman are very much not useless before Iron Working or if you don't have iron, but yes, in HephMod swordsmen using iron weapons are supposed to REPLACE axemen using bronze weapons. Axemen have an even chance against swordsmen because of their melee bonus, but are weaker in all other respects (swordsmen have better equipment).

New Update Coming Soon, incorporating Revolution 1.65c (with Better BtS AI and Solver updates)!

Hephaistion · Nov 20, 2008

HephMod has just been updated.

I think the crash may (dare I say it) finally be licked. After changing the Leaderhead info file, I've played MANY playtest games and have not encountered a crash in any of them. If you still have a crash, as usual, please post your savegame so that I can see what's going on.

Update includes:

Revolution 1.65c (includes BetterAI and Solver'sPatch updates)
Inquisition 101E (thanks, Orion Veteran)
Some tweaks to civics based on AI choices
NO MORE CRASH! (as far as I can tell)
Naval movement reduced significantly (though still greater than vanilla)
Modern naval stats reworked (thanks Jaybe)
Moved to Rev's 34 civ DLL (StackAid fixed, thanks Teg Navanis)
Inflation levels updated to 3.17 (thanks Jaybe)
Champions no longer appear as barbarians

Happy d/l!

The implementation of doctrine wonders and promotions is now underway ... in my working version (not the posted update) I've put in the ancient and classical era wonders and promotions, and have been tweaking them in order to ensure that the AI chooses them (sometimes he doesn't know what's good for him). I will probably post updates as I complete eras in a separate file, for those who'd like a taste of what's to come, even if incomplete.

Other features to come include an African civ art style, special religious promotions for Spiritual civs unique to each religion (adapted from Gods of Old), and possibly elite national units for each era that will make use of the Hero promotions as a tree rather than assigning these promotions randomly (if I hear you right, Jaybe, you would want to see "Fighter Ace" as one of these special units?). Eventually, I would like to move HephMod to the RevolutionDCMSuperSpies DLL (Hephmod 2.0), but it will likely be a long time before this happens.

Jaybe · Nov 21, 2008

I have consolidated the documentation of changes I have made to the mod in v0.8c. The list is moderately extensive and while most have been made to correspond with my idea of "reality", a few are more arbitrary.

Spoiler :

I am very grateful for this mod, because this way I don't have MANY more unit changes to make for when playing without it.

Puer · Nov 24, 2008

Option "Start As Minors" seems do not work.. :S

Hephaistion · Nov 24, 2008

I have never tried to use this option. It comes turned off in Revolution mod by default, and I have never changed that. I wouldn't really know where to begin to fix this.

rcspring · Jan 4, 2009

I love this Mod and am wondering if there wondering if any new updates are coming out? No pressure, just curious.

Hephaistion · Jan 4, 2009

rcspring said:
I love this Mod and am wondering if there wondering if any new updates are coming out? No pressure, just curious.

Thanks for your interest, rcspring! It's always good to know people are still playing HephMod.

Right now I have a working version that includes the doctrine wonders and promotions, but only for the ancient and medieval eras (8 in all). These are unique wonders that great generals can build that give certain unit categories special promotion trees. I've had to do a little more tweaking than I thought would be necessary to get the AI to actually use these promotions (sometimes it doesn't know what's good for it, so I have to trick it), but I've seen the AI using all the promotions that are currently in the game.

Eventually, there will be doctrine wonders and promotions for all eras. I'm also going to do a thorough review of the shrine wonders and tone them down quite a bit (especially the Islam shrine, which is totally unbalanced at the moment). Inquisition AI code also needs an update, from what I've read in the forums, so that's on the list, too.

I'm uploading a .9a version that includes the doctrines for the ancient and medieval eras if you'd like to get a sneek peek!

HephMod Beyond .9a: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=11547

Jaybe · Jan 4, 2009

Hephaistion said:
It's always good to know people are still playing HephMod.

Such a silly statement.

I am almost constantly playing HB, other than for maybe a week's hiatus between each 4-6 week (60-100+ hours) game.

Huge w/10 starting AI, Marathon, 2 Hemispheres

Vrenir · Jan 4, 2009

Hephmod is what I play when I want to play Vanilla Civ. It doesn't add a ton of units or techs or nations, but it perfects what came with the game, and that's an invaluable service.

If there was any single expansion that I would like to see, it would be a very careful inclusion of modded leaders to equalize the vanilla civs, but I may take that on myself (then you can choose to include it or not).

Hephaistion · Jan 4, 2009

Jaybe said:
Such a silly statement.
I am almost constantly playing HB, other than for maybe a week's hiatus between each 4-6 week (60-100+ hours) game.

Huge w/10 starting AI, Marathon, 2 Hemispheres

Good to know! It plays well on Marathon speed, then? I haven't actually adjusted that speed the way I did with Epic ... I've been wanting to do that for a while now (next update, perhaps ...)

Vrenir said:
If there was any single expansion that I would like to see, it would be a very careful inclusion of modded leaders to equalize the vanilla civs, but I may take that on myself (then you can choose to include it or not).

Let me know how that goes ... I would be interested to see what you do with it! I would be interested in any leaders that add meaningful difference to rounding out the existing civs, for example, giving specific traits to civs that are historically "accurate" and missing from the current game or for balance purposes (if certain civs get shorted ... the Japanese leap to mind, for example).

rcspring · Jan 14, 2009

I am excited about the changes I have experienced in .9a and look forward to more. Keep up the great job!
One question - is your mod compatible with the influence drive war? That is the only thing I can think of that might make an already great mod a little better. Your call, however.
Back to the game...

Hephaistion · Jan 15, 2009

rcspring said:
I am excited about the changes I have experienced in .9a and look forward to more. Keep up the great job!
One question - is your mod compatible with the influence drive war? That is the only thing I can think of that might make an already great mod a little better. Your call, however.
Back to the game...

Very glad to hear that you're enjoying the mod. Influence driven war is a component of the RevolutionDCM by glider1, and so may make an appearance in HephMod 2 (at some probably distant future date).

I'm getting some time off from work soon, so I hope to do a little more doctrine wonder/promotion modding and would like to update the shrine wonder stats for the next release as well.

Jaybe · Jan 15, 2009

Hephaistion said:
Good to know! It plays well on Marathon speed, then? I haven't actually adjusted that speed the way I did with Epic ... I've been wanting to do that for a while now (next update, perhaps ...)

Truthfully, I haven't played an Epic speed game in ... years, so I have no comparison. The 600-1000 AD years appear to come too early, but that is not unusual for me in Civ4.

Hephaistion · Jan 29, 2009

I've just uploaded .9b of HephMod Beyond.

This version includes three new doctrine wonders/promotions for the Renaissance era: Patriotic War, Maneuver Training and Superior Seamanship.

Also included are numerous small updates: adjustments to unit stats (including naval and Roman legions), some important changes to civics, some shrine balancing and other minor tweaks. Marathon speed has now been modified proportionally based on the changes I made to Epic speed, so all you Marathoners please let me know how it plays!

Next update will include industrial age doctrines and perhaps some new unit graphics as well.

HephMod Beyond .9b: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=11547

Jaybe · Jan 29, 2009

(Sigh)
No mention of Better AI v0.6, which looks VERY interesting ... (or is that downright scary).

Lachlan · Jan 29, 2009

Hephaistion said:
I've just uploaded .9b of HephMod Beyond.

This version includes three new doctrine wonders/promotions for the Renaissance era: Patriotic War, Maneuver Training and Superior Seamanship.

Also included are numerous small updates: adjustments to unit stats (including naval and Roman legions), some important changes to civics, some shrine balancing and other minor tweaks. Marathon speed has now been modified proportionally based on the changes I made to Epic speed, so all you Marathoners please let me know how it plays!

Next update will include industrial age doctrines and perhaps some new unit graphics as well.

HephMod Beyond .9b: http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=11547

I'm playing it at the moment... Nice mod ! I'm so tired of these mods which add quadrillions of things but slow down the game :goodjob:

Now, as you add no ressources, can you make or take an Earth Map ? A small, a standard and a large map ?
Added ressources is a pain for existing mapscripts, it is the reason that i cant play certains mods for a random game...

Small should be have 10, Standard 15 and Large 20 preplaced civs
But not more because of issues with too bigs maps...

And what about a 750 BC, 100 AD, 800 AD, 1000 AD, maybye 1100 AD ?

Because your is minimalist without be minimalist

What do you plan for the future ?

Hephaistion · Jan 29, 2009

@Jaybe:

I'm not an SDK modder, so Better AI will only get updated when jdog updates Revolution mod ... on the Rev mod forum he implied not long ago that it could be sometime soon (though I don't know whether he plans to incorporate the new Better AI or not).

@Lachlan:

Glad to hear it. I certainly have added things to the mod over and above vanilla, but I only like to add things that I think fill a niche or oversight in the game or improve on something already in the game. What's the use of a dozen different types of spearmen, for example, with only minor differences between them, which one could accomplish just as easily with promotions? Having said that, I do add things from time to time just for flavor.

I don't see any reason why HephMod shouldn't be able to handle Earth maps or any other custom maps, though I haven't tried them myself. The old HephMod had added resources, but in retrospect they didn't really add very much to the game (though I do miss salt and coffee for sentimental reasons).

As to future plans, the current priority is finishing all the doctrine wonders/promotions, which should culminate in version .9d. After that, I will update Orion Veteran's Inquisition mod code to the most recent version, in which he has made some crucial fixes and improvements. I also plan to add religion-specific promotions for Spiritual civs only (based on the Gods of Old religious promotions). There will also be at least one new unit type: the mounted infantry from the Charlemagne scenario, along with probably a Dragoon unit that is a Renaissance version of it. I've also entertained the idea of a sharpshooter unit for the rifleman era that could target melee units in a stack (grenadiers are now melee units and weak when not attacking cities or riflemen), but I don't know if that will make it in or not. There may be a couple of new wonders based on the guilds in the Crossroads scenario that allow Corporation-like changes, but only in the city the wonder is built in. More unit graphics will be added for ethnic diversity, including a fuller Native American artstyle, industrial+ age units and a distinct African artstyle. These changes will be for HephMod Beyond 1.0. The next big task will be porting the mod over to glider1's RevolutionDCM SDK, which incorporates Revolution, Dale's Combat Mod, Influence-Driven War and Super Spies, all of which have a lot to offer in terms of gameplay. This version will be 2.0.

Does the devotee of the Crawling Chaos (or anyone else) have any suggestions for things to include or change?

Jaybe · Jan 29, 2009

Does the devotee of the Crawling Chaos (or anyone else) have any suggestions for things to include or change?

Graphic-wise, the cavalry graphic should be changed to represent a motorized/armored reconnaissance unit at some point AFTER Assembly Line or Industrialism (similar to how you change musketman).

The following (again) is what changes I make, though generally without my rationalizations behind them.

Spoiler :

HephMod: a mod combo-pack emphasizing balance, realism, and historical flavor

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