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

[Dancing Hoskuld]

Hi, I enjoy your mod however the latest v1.3a seems to have a couple of problems.

I was first to get Fascim but did not get a great general and I was first to get Physics but did not get a great scientist.

Given that I play for a cultural win I do not attack other civs but only barbarians so I count on the great general from fascim to get a unit up to enough promotions so I can build the national epic and westpoint national wonders. You don't appear to be able to get above three promotions from attacking barbarians. Or at least I haven't!

Since you are now including doctrines have you thought of adding the possibility of getting a great general from combat with barbarians? That is the way I get generals in the Total Realism" mod.

On Religion - I don't think that the Eusebius model works well here. With the Revolution mod not having the state religion in a city is a negative and the way the religion flips in this mod makes it very difficult to keep the state religion in a city. One of my cities had hindusim, judism and christianity (state religion) deplaced by taoism even though I had all three temples, monistries and cathedrals in the city.

 

[Hephaistion]

Hi, I enjoy your mod however the latest v1.3a seems to have a couple of problems.

I was first to get Fascim but did not get a great general and I was first to get Physics but did not get a great scientist.

Given that I play for a cultural win I do not attack other civs but only barbarians so I count on the great general from fascim to get a unit up to enough promotions so I can build the national epic and westpoint national wonders. You don't appear to be able to get above three promotions from attacking barbarians. Or at least I haven't!

Since you are now including doctrines have you thought of adding the possibility of getting a great general from combat with barbarians? That is the way I get generals in the Total Realism" mod.

On Religion - I don't think that the Eusebius model works well here. With the Revolution mod not having the state religion in a city is a negative and the way the religion flips in this mod makes it very difficult to keep the state religion in a city. One of my cities had hindusim, judism and christianity (state religion) deplaced by taoism even though I had all three temples, monistries and cathedrals in the city.

Flipping will be addressed soon -- this is because of an oversight in the buildingsinfo code (temples should each have "1" religious influence for their religion, like shrines, which will prevent them flipping when there is a temple in the city).

I am interested in adding great generals from barbarians, but I believe it's an SDK mod, and I'm not a programmer, so unless someone combines it with RevAI, that's not going to happen.

I will look into the great general fascism and great scientist Physics problem.

 

[Robotron 2084]

Very very nice mod indeed. Congrats, beautifully executed.

One question though:Is it just me or does the AI have major problems coping with the revolutions and/or tech trading being linked to education?
Everytime I play this mod all the AIs seem to be seriously backward.
Anyway, keep up the good work!

Btw: Is there any hope the crashes to desktop can be fixed?

 

[flowers]

Is there any way to incorporate all of the religions from Eusebius' mod as well as the maps he included?

 

[Hephaistion]

Very very nice mod indeed. Congrats, beautifully executed.

One question though:Is it just me or does the AI have major problems coping with the revolutions and/or tech trading being linked to education?
Everytime I play this mod all the AIs seem to be seriously backward.
Anyway, keep up the good work!

Btw: Is there any hope the crashes to desktop can be fixed?

Thanks very much for the kudos! I'm glad that you're enjoying it.

The AI does have SERIOUS problems coping with Revolutions ... I haven't seen as many problems with tech trading, since once somebody gets Education, the AI starts trading like crazy. Each time I update the mod, I end up turning down the "Revolution index" for the AI in the config file to try to help it out, but it is still a problem.

My experience has tended towards there being one or two AI players that are advanced, while the rest of the world remains backward and in constant revolution. My approach recently, in addition to easing the burden of social unrest on the AI, has been just to make it harder for the player so that he/she is backward TOO! Try playing on a higher difficulty level.

The crashing is due to the BetterAI DLL. In the most recent update (1.31), I went back to using the old DLL. So, no Better AI, but no crashes either. Some brave soul may address the problem with the DLL, and some other brave soul may create an update RevAI DLL, but that soul will not be me.

 

[Hephaistion]

Is there any way to incorporate all of the religions from Eusebius' mod as well as the maps he included?

Yes, though it would require a bit of work. You could ask Eusebius about it; he's been very accomodating in helping me out with this mod, including doing the Python merging to incorporate elements of his mod in which I was interested himself. Perhaps he would be willing, if there were interest, to create another hybrid Eus-Heph mod, or at least to tell you exactly what you needed to do.

 

[Hephaistion]

Hello All:

HephMod 1.31 is uploaded!

 

[Brave Sir Robin]

SWEET d/l now

 

[Eusebius]

The AI does have SERIOUS problems coping with Revolutions ... I haven't seen as many problems with tech trading, since once somebody gets Education, the AI starts trading like crazy. Each time I update the mod, I end up turning down the "Revolution index" for the AI in the config file to try to help it out, but it is still a problem.

I wondered if anyone has tried TheLopez' immigration mod? I haven't, but as it is written up, people leave a city and move somewhere else when they get unhappy. I wonder if that would mitigate the unhappiness level interms of Revolutions.

Eusebius

 

[Hephaistion]

I wondered if anyone has tried TheLopez' immigration mod? I haven't, but as it is written up, people leave a city and move somewhere else when they get unhappy. I wonder if that would mitigate the unhappiness level interms of Revolutions.

Eusebius

That's an excellent idea ... I downloaded it a while ago meaning to integrate it and test it out, but it kept getting back-burnered in favor of other mods. Now this is a great reason to take up that task once again.

 

[t3bing]

I wondered if anyone has tried TheLopez' immigration mod? I haven't, but as it is written up, people leave a city and move somewhere else when they get unhappy. I wonder if that would mitigate the unhappiness level interms of Revolutions.

Eusebius

I usually play with Revolutions+Immigration (the latter is pretty easy to merge in), and it definitely does help to reduce the likelihood of revolutions to have unhappy citizens be able to move to a different city. Also you can use open borders as a kind of safety valve if your overall population is growing too quickly, or if you have a problem city or too that keeps threatening to revolt, but on the other hand this can lead to all of your cities being depopulated pretty quickly if you have open borders with a lot of different civs (I guess I'm not too good at keeping my citizens happy ). Also you have to watch out for other civ's citizens immigrating to your cities, because sometimes they will become a majority in the city and want to flip over to their home civ.

 

[Hephaistion]

I've been working on a merger of HephMod with the Immigration Mod, but I'm having trouble with the Python. Running Immigration mod causes Revolution mod not to work.

I've uploaded my work-in-progress merger. If any kindly soul would like to take a whack at it and try to get Immigration mod and Revolution mod to run together, I'd be very appreciative and would sing your praises down the generations (well, I'd give you effusive credit for it, anyway).

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=5201

 

[t3bing]

I've been working on a merger of HephMod with the Immigration Mod, but I'm having trouble with the Python. Running Immigration mod causes Revolution mod not to work.

I've uploaded my work-in-progress merger. If any kindly soul would like to take a whack at it and try to get Immigration mod and Revolution mod to run together, I'd be very appreciative and would sing your praises down the generations (well, I'd give you effusive credit for it, anyway).

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=5201

I think I've fixed it...the two main bugs I found were an extra tab in CvCustomEventManager.py and ImmigrationUtils.py trying to import SdToolKit (instead of SdToolKitCustom). I also changed ImmigrationUtils.py and CvImmigrationEventManager.py a bit so that it loads its config data from HephMod.ini instead of Immigration Mod.ini.

 

[Hephaistion]

I think I've fixed it...the two main bugs I found were an extra tab in CvCustomEventManager.py and ImmigrationUtils.py trying to import SdToolKit (instead of SdToolKitCustom). I also changed ImmigrationUtils.py and CvImmigrationEventManager.py a bit so that it loads its config data from HephMod.ini instead of Immigration Mod.ini.

Thanks so much, t3bing! Have you playtested this? I'll take a look at it this week.

I've just updated HephMod to the most recent version of Revolutions (.88w). In this version, jdog has streamlined the Python to be more merge-friendly, so I'm hoping it will be easy now to integrate Immigration mod into it. The work you've done will no doubt help this project along, too, in aiding me to track down bugs.

Edit: I've been playing the Heph-Immigration mod, and while both are working, the level of immigrant spawning seems to be broken. In the very early years of the game, I had immigrants spawning from population 2 cities that had negligible levels of unhealthiness and unhappiness. Plus, they migrate to cities that are even LESS hospitable, which I don't like very much. Plus, the Revolution mod's latest incarnation seems better in terms of the AI managing revolutions AND has tech diffusion component that helps out civs trailing in technological development by making technology research cheaper for them. These elements will help solve the problems, I think, rather than the immigration mod.

 

[The Navy Seal]

Are you going to upgrade for BtS?

 

[Hephaistion]

Are you going to upgrade for BtS?

Yes! HephMod Beyond is already in the works! I will probably be releasing an XML-only version of the mod once the XML portion is complete and it's been playtested a bit. After that I'll start seeing if any of the Python mods will still work.

One of my goals for the new version will be efficiency and a crackdown on feature creep. I noticed that HephMod had grown to the point where it was really putting a drag on processing power in the late game, with longer and longer waits between turns. BTS is also a little processor heavy in the late game, so I'd like to keep Python mods down to what is really necessary for enhancing player enjoyment. BTS has given me an "opportunity" to revisit the most basic choices for the mod and to trim the fat.

If you (or anyone else who still visits this thread) have any ideas/suggestions about what should stay and what should/could go, I'd love to hear them! I may think something superfluous that other folks feel is an essential part of the mod!

Areas that I'd most like feedback on:
Civics (I've already done a major revision)
Religion (big plans: would you like to see religions founded by technology, great prophets, or building a wonder?)
Doctrines
Units (big plans to do for the medieval/ancient period what BTS has done for the modern, i.e., more "niche" units that fulfill specific combat roles)

And, BTW, thanks for asking!

 

[Eusebius]

Yes! HephMod Beyond is already in the works! I will probably be releasing an XML-only version of the mod once the XML portion is complete and it's been playtested a bit. After that I'll start seeing if any of the Python mods will still work.

One of my goals for the new version will be efficiency and a crackdown on feature creep. I noticed that HephMod had grown to the point where it was really putting a drag on processing power in the late game, with longer and longer waits between turns. BTS is also a little processor heavy in the late game, so I'd like to keep Python mods down to what is really necessary for enhancing player enjoyment. BTS has given me an "opportunity" to revisit the most basic choices for the mod and to trim the fat.

If you (or anyone else who still visits this thread) have any ideas/suggestions about what should stay and what should/could go, I'd love to hear them! I may think something superfluous that other folks feel is an essential part of the mod!

Areas that I'd most like feedback on:
Civics (I've already done a major revision)
Religion (big plans: would you like to see religions founded by technology, great prophets, or building a wonder?)
Doctrines
Units (big plans to do for the medieval/ancient period what BTS has done for the modern, i.e., more "niche" units that fulfill specific combat roles)

And, BTW, thanks for asking!

Just checking in to say I'm glad to hear you are continuing with the mod. I recently enjoyed a game with your most recent version! I am happy to tweak the religion parts as you desire or be of other help.

Eusebius

 

[Hephaistion]

Just checking in to say I'm glad to hear you are continuing with the mod. I recently enjoyed a game with your most recent version! I am happy to tweak the religion parts as you desire or be of other help.

Eusebius

Thanks so much! I haven't gotten around to the religion portion of the modding yet, but it's very likely that I will take you up on your offer ...

EDIT: Good news ... the python coding you did for the Warlords version of this mod ports right over with no problem! Well, no problem I've discovered yet ... I haven't actually playtested, just tested religion founding with shrine building using the worldbuilder. I'm going over to your thread now to see if you're planning on converting EWR and if there are any new features you have planned that I can shamelessly pirate!

 

[The Navy Seal]

Well I think one thing you could do is see if you could fix the AI and civil wars they have all the time even with the bonus.

 

[Hephaistion]

Well I think one thing you could do is see if you could fix the AI and civil wars they have all the time even with the bonus.

Definitely -- I see that as the most aggravating problem in the mod. Revolution mod v .9 was much better about this problem and was incorporated into HephMod 1.4, which was never actually posted. Since BtS was coming out so soon, I decided just to wait and focus on the conversion (which will incorporate some of the other changes made in 1.4).

Since Revolution mod is an SDK mod, we'll have to wait and see what jdog does with it for BtS. Rhye's and Fall of Civ uses a "Stability" system that is similar and comes with BtS, so I may be able to port over his DLL and use that system. However, RFC is very complicated, with many interdependent components, and I think it may prove to be a difficult and time-consuming project (= "not happening any time soon").