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

[Hephaistion]

Hey all: I just wanted to let everybody know that version 1.22 of Hephmod has been uploaded. This is just a minor update addressing some of the bugs/design flaws that have been reported. Please check the readme spoiler for fixes.

I'd also just like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who took an interest in this mod and inspired me to continue working on it, especially Mikkeman and Brave Sir Robin.

 

[Jaybe]

Alright, I am having a major misunderstanding (or two) with this mod!
What is required to convert to a religion? Two games now, and I am not allowed to convert to a religion that another civ founded.

(Version 1.22)

 

[Hephaistion]

Alright, I am having a major misunderstanding (or two) with this mod!
What is required to convert to a religion? Two games now, and I am not allowed to convert to a religion that another civ founded.

(Version 1.22)

The default religion civic does not allow a state religion, so you have to change to one that does, like Organized Religion, before you are allowed to convert. Also, as normal, the religion must have spread to one of your cities.

I wish that there were a way to make changing to religious civics INCLUDE a "choose state religion" option to make this process less awkward, but there isn't one that I know of. The logic here is that you shouldn't be able to get the benefits of having a state religion if your society doesn't have the necessary apparatus to sustain one (temples, organized priesthoods, interpenetration of government and religion, etc.) represented by Organized Religion (and later religious civics).

Sorry for the confusion.

 

[bardolph]

Pyramids changed to CivicOption:Religion from :Government. Why the Pyramids allow ancient universal suffrage and police states has always been beyond me. Religion is a better option since the building of the Pyramids themselves was representative of a centralized and state-controlled religious apparatus more than anything else.

The Pyramids' special ability exists to "explain" why ancient Egyptians were able to have monarchs before Monarchy was discovered, and why ancient Greeks and Romans (who had control of the Pyramids) were able to run Republics before the the Constitution was invented.

 

[The Navy Seal]

This looks great can't wait to try it out!

 

[The Navy Seal]

I've found one thing that should be fixed. Ok I'll tell you what happened. The french had a rev and the englished poped up I helped the french together we destroyed the english but then later in the game the english poped up again in a new spot and they already had minus for me because I had been at war with them.

 

[Hephaistion]

That is an unfortunate consequence of reusing dead civs even when there is no precedent for such a cultural revolution. The game is supposed to use civs from the same culture group when new civs pop up because of revolutions, so it's not totally crazy to think that the new English civ could be based on immigrant populations, rulers in exile, etc., who remember your oppression!

I haven't the faintest idea how to change something like that -- you'll have to take that one up with jdog, inventor of the Revolution mod!

 

[The Navy Seal]

But beside that its a great mod.

 

[Hephaistion]

Dear All,

I wanted to let everyone know that version 1.3 of HephMod is coming soon!

I've been working on it a lot lately, and am incorporating and playtesting some big changes, with the help of some of the prestigious and veteran modders around here. A brief preview of what's coming:

More flavor units!
India now gets a beefed up war elephant instead of fast worker as its unique unit!
Military Doctrines (wonders that only great generals can build that open up unique promotion trees -- still working on these, trying to get AI to build them) from Total Realism mod!
Religion behavior changes, helpfully and generously adapted to HephMod by Eusebius (World Religions Mod) himself!
New resources, incorporated in a careful, balanced way!
Tracked down a lot of little inconsistencies and oversights in UnitInfo (thanks Sansevero!) and BuildingsInfo.
A lot of tech tree tweaking in the areas of research point costs and what techs are needed for what.
Toned down the difficulty of getting a space race victory so it's actually reasonably possible to get one!
And more!

Stay tuned, Heph

 

[Hephaistion]

Dear All:

Version 1.3 has just been uploaded ... try it out and let me know what you think (some major changes have been introduced). I'm especially interested in how you feel the new resources (and their frequency of appearance) affect the game and how often the AI builds the new Doctrine wonders. Of course, any other comments are appreciated, too.

Many of the new features of this version were made possible by help from other modders, including Eusebius, Walter Hawkwood and Mexico of the TR team, and Sansevero. Thanks guys!

 

[Brave Sir Robin]

hey heph
d\l new version started a game think i have found a bug
all religions say founded by first to discover future tech
see screenie

 

[Hephaistion]

hey heph
d\l new version started a game think i have found a bug
all religions say founded by first to discover future tech
see screenie

Ah ... this is NOT a bug, this is part of the new religion system from Eusebius' World Religions (the mechanic originally comes from the True Prophets mod, I believe) mod. Religions are now founded by great prophets rather than researching technology, so all the religions have been assigned to future tech in the xml.

Monuments (Mysticism) and Pagan Temples (Priesthood) are both good early great prophet factories (as well as Stonehenge, of course). Build a great prophet and then, if you have the necessary tech prereq, found a religion with him by building the religion's holy city.

 

[Sansevero]

Hephin' sweet... will start checking it out tonight!

 

[CivFanCCS]

Had a CTD about an hour into playing. I tweaked some XML files to my liking, but I don't think that is the cause. I changed UnitInfos.xml to make carriers harder to build, along with ICBM and Battleship.

I was playing smartmap, standard game size, with 10 civs. I had built Stonehenge and with my first prophet I created the Zarno.....religion. Few turns later CTD. Not sure what happened. Using smartmap seemed to work fine except for salt appearing on coast tiles. I looked through the map and deleted them all. Maybe I forgot one? Would this cause CTD when salt appears on map?

CivFanCCS

 

[Hephaistion]

Had a CTD about an hour into playing. I tweaked some XML files to my liking, but I don't think that is the cause. I changed UnitInfos.xml to make carriers harder to build, along with ICBM and Battleship.

I was playing smartmap, standard game size, with 10 civs. I had built Stonehenge and with my first prophet I created the Zarno.....religion. Few turns later CTD. Not sure what happened. Using smartmap seemed to work fine except for salt appearing on coast tiles. I looked through the map and deleted them all. Maybe I forgot one? Would this cause CTD when salt appears on map?

CivFanCCS

Yes, the CTD is a recurring problem with this version. I've also posted version 1.3a, which uses the original Revolution mod DLL and is far more stable (I don't think I've ever had it crash). It only lacks blake's Better AI SDK mod.

BTW, the salt resource is supposed to appear on coast tiles. This represents the collection of salt from plains that flood with seawater, as the ancient Phoenicians did, for example.

 

[Jaybe]

You are working on including Blake's Better AI?!

 

[Hephaistion]

You are working on including Blake's Better AI?!

Yes, version 1.3 uses the RevAI DLL, a combination of Revolution and Better AI (the Feb build, I believe). I do love BetterAI, though 1.3 is definitely less stable than 1.3a (which uses only Revolution DLL). Both versions are available for download ... see my first post for links.

 

[Puer]

Hey, thanks for the mod! This mod is really good

How exactly religion spread in this mod & why they keep displace each other?
I found in Eusebius' World Religions post this:

Eusebius World Religions – REVIVAL!

Different Ways for Religions to Spread
 Settlers bring it with them. (Settlers will have religion randomly selected from all those in their city—equal chance of having “no religion” too)
 Brought by conquest—state religion of conqueror spreads to city.
 Brought by peaceful missionary activity--most effective when religion arises out of another religion. Note that not all religions have missionaries!

When a city is conquered, the state religion of the new owner may destroy existing religious buildings. For example, Islam and Judaism tend to take a dim view of polytheistic religions and their idols. If, through conversion and/or conquest, a city ceases to have any buildings of a particular religion, then that religion ceases to have any influence in that city.

Is it correct?

Btw, i have one idea: if it possible make missionaries spread religion automatcally in your cities (like workers build automatically), so it saves gamer real-time.

 

[Hephaistion]

Dafy: Yes, this is correct; in addition, religions still have a spread chance based on their spread rate (in HephMod, older religions have slower spread rates than newer ones) to "nearby" or "connected" cities.

Auto-missionary would be nice -- I have no idea where to begin programming that, though.

You may see some over-replacement with this version ... I need to go through and tweak all the temple buildings in BuildingsInfo so that they have a religious influence value of 1. Without this, there is no resistance to replacement, so you should see a lot of religious flipping. Version 1.31 will update this.

 

[Lapu-Lapu]

Woot!! Pulling this down right now. I have been waiting for other modders to incorporate jdog5000's RevAI mod ALONG with Eusebius World Religions into theirs. Though I have not played the very first versions of the HephMod, I am so glad that Hephaistion has added RevAI to his latest 1.3 version. The dynamics of gameplay with regards to keeping your citizens happy to me makes the game more complete, especially with the settling of barbarians to form new nations. It just makes more sense to me and it is a challeneg almost everytime!

So much for getting any sleep this weekend!