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

[The Navy Seal]

I'll post some feedback after I finish my current game 'cause I don't wanna mess it up and it's using 3.13 so I can't install 3.17 yet!

 

[mice]

Hello, I cranked up a game of Hephmod but found I had no interface.

I think it's a simple mistake on my part but can't remember what the error is.

Can anyone give me a clue as to what might be wrong ?

thanks,

 

[Hephaistion]

Hello, I cranked up a game of Hephmod but found I had no interface.

I think it's a simple mistake on my part but can't remember what the error is.

Can anyone give me a clue as to what might be wrong ?

thanks,

This usually (in my experience) indicates a python error where the main game interface fails to load because a previous python module failed. What version of the game are you playing? Are you loading a save game that was started under a previous version of the mod? Have you cleared your cache since updating the game?

You can always try downloading the latest version and overwriting the version that's currently installed, then starting a new game.

Let me know if any of these things solve your problem.

 

[mice]

Hm, no luck. I'm playing .761 - that's what the readme says. Cleared the cache out,started a brand new game .

I play other mods for 3.17 OK so I'm sure I'm patched up correctly.

I'll keep trawling around the files. Thanks for getting back ,

 

[Hephaistion]

Hm, no luck. I'm playing .761 - that's what the readme says. Cleared the cache out,started a brand new game .

I play other mods for 3.17 OK so I'm sure I'm patched up correctly.

I'll keep trawling around the files. Thanks for getting back ,

Hmmm ... well, I can't see how it could be any error on your part (as you said in your previous post) unless you've made any changes to the mod's files, which it sounds like you haven't.

Well, I'm uploading version .8 in just a few minutes. Try that one and see if you still have the no interface problem. This time be sure NOT to overwrite -- delete old folder and load mod fresh from new version (you might try this with .761 as well; if something did get corrupted, an overwrite might not fix the problem!).

If anyone else is experiencing this problem, please post.

 

[Hephaistion]

I've just uploaded version .8c of HephMod Beyond. This is a gamma release, and while my playtests so far have been bug free, I haven't thoroughly playtested, so please report any bugs or weirdness that you experience (or things, WAD or not, that just seem daft).

New features include:

Unique religious shrines: each religion's shrine has unique local and global effects, both positive and negative (based on Sevo's old Faces of God mod, but toned down quite a bit -- still, each shrine is a powerful wonder); shrines are tagged "nevercapture," so conquering a city with a shrine will destroy that shrine and you will have to rebuild it yourself if you want its benefits (and can deal with its penalties!); shrines can only be built if your state religion matches the shrine's religion; inquisitor persecutions likewise destroy the shrine when they destroy the holy city (or they ought to, anyway, let me know of they don't!).

Merged with Revolution 1.63 (includes Better AI .35 -- be prepared; I got my butt kicked on my first outing with the new AI!)

A lot of units and civics balance tweaks

Reworked trait system: goal was to create a balanced set of traits that really contibute to unique strategies for each player, as well as a set of core principles on which to base all the traits (see readme or boot up a game for details).

***** COMING SOON ****

Unique promotions for military traits (Aggressive, Protective, Imperial) as well as unique religious promotions for each religion for Spiritual civilizations

Elite national units built with doctrine wonders

***** *****

 

[mice]

.8 did the trick . No problem .

I'm lookng forward to getting a chance to play it now. I like the sound of the shrines as I play a religion/AP/Spiral/Sangkore based game - also the religion related promotions will add to this.

Better AI with religious wars ... sounds like a big game.

 

[Hephaistion]

.8 did the trick . No problem .

I'm lookng forward to getting a chance to play it now. I like the sound of the shrines as I play a religion/AP/Spiral/Sangkore based game - also the religion related promotions will add to this.

Better AI with religious wars ... sounds like a big game.

Great! Let me know what you think when you've played through your game. Both Christian and Islamic shrines give potent military advantages and (I hope) should lead to some heavy holy wars in the middle ages/early modern period (just like real life ... sad but true).

Religious promotions are not in yet, but will be based on the Gods of Old special promotions and only available to Spiritual civs (Spiritual civ units will get a special promotion that will give access to state religion dependent promotions).

 

[mice]

My game's getting interesting. A lot to think about.

Notes; my Great generals can join the city. I can't see how to build the doctirne wonder to get the special units. ( was that inthe planned features ? )

There is a high success rate for purging holy cities. I like this though ...

Archers can be deadly ... catapults can be devastating. Again I like these features.

Studying unit stats and promotions makes the game fresh for me.

Also good is that pyramids doesn't grant access to Representation, as this is a Revolutionsmod exploit really. Better this way.

Further feedback ahead

 

[Hephaistion]

My game's getting interesting. A lot to think about.

Notes; my Great generals can join the city. I can't see how to build the doctirne wonder to get the special units. ( was that inthe planned features ? )

There is a high success rate for purging holy cities. I like this though ...

Archers can be deadly ... catapults can be devastating. Again I like these features.

Studying unit stats and promotions makes the game fresh for me.

Also good is that pyramids doesn't grant access to Representation, as this is a Revolutionsmod exploit really. Better this way.

Further feedback ahead

Thanks for the feedback! Doctrine wonders are not enabled yet (next is unique religious/trait promotions, then some more unit gfx and a few new units, and THEN doctrine wonders/doctrine units will be going in!).

I never understood why Pyramids gave you access to ALL government civics. Maybe you could see how the centralization of labor required would lead to early Monarchy, but Monarchy comes soon enough anyway to civs who go straight to it. Parthenon now grants all Government civics (those precocious Greeks!).

I actually decreased the chance of successful inquisition from Orion Veteran's version, but it's still usually around 75% (80% base minus 5% per non-state religion in the city, unless it's a holy city, in which case MUCH lower chance).

 

[mice]

I actually decreased the chance of successful inquisition from Orion Veteran's version, but it's still usually around 75% (80% base minus 5% per non-state religion in the city, unless it's a holy city, in which case MUCH lower chance).

So it was just good luck for me. I purged two holy cites at 100% success rate, then with the ordinary cities I got about 95% success.

 

[Sonereal]

I just started a game with the mod, Large Map, 9 starting Civs I think, using Tokugawa.

All I have to say is that I hate scouts. To me, it doesn't make sense that scouts can capture cities, and then raze them. I got screwed over because of that. Here's what happen.

I had the Great Wall, so I felt pretty good, however, there was a Barbarian Tribe to my north (with Earth 2 map, they're a little south of the center of Africa).

They can't do nothing, however, the tribe settles down to become the Russians. He sends a scout to a city south of his capital, and captures my city, with a scout.

I get it back using an Axeman, and I'm scrambling to get more troops to my two new cities, but I lose one when some scouts razed the city.

At that point, he sends a stack with a Champion and some Archers at me. I manage to take that day after a while, and get a Great Spy inside Moscow.

The War ended when I get the Great Mediator event, so I decided to end the war there.

I'm planning on a Spy rushing him, since I'm so mad. Plus, Settler Rushes because if he puts a city in the right spot and the borders expand once, I'm going to be stuck in Southern Africa.

I love this mod though =P

 

[Hephaistion]

All I have to say is that I hate scouts. To me, it doesn't make sense that scouts can capture cities, and then raze them. I got screwed over because of that. Here's what happen.

I had the Great Wall, so I felt pretty good, however, there was a Barbarian Tribe to my north (with Earth 2 map, they're a little south of the center of Africa).

They can't do nothing, however, the tribe settles down to become the Russians. He sends a scout to a city south of his capital, and captures my city, with a scout.

I get it back using an Axeman, and I'm scrambling to get more troops to my two new cities, but I lose one when some scouts razed the city.

At that point, he sends a stack with a Champion and some Archers at me. I manage to take that day after a while, and get a Great Spy inside Moscow.

I love this mod though =P

How did he manage to capture your city with a scout? Did you have any units guarding the city? A scout versus even a warrior in a city should have a VERY slim chance of success ... I've never seen the AI do this. When I enabled scout attack I really didn't consider the possibility of scouts capturing cities ... perhaps there is an XML tag for this, too.

The emergent Champion thing is something that I'm still working on. Revolution mod doesn't recognize the unit as special (only able to be built with Christian shrine). I found the Python that controls this, but it's based on a "best attack unit available" model, so I'm still figuring out how to solve this problem. Emergent civs should not start with Champions!

Glad you're enjoying the mod otherwise!

 

[Sonereal]

He captured one city because I had just built it and I forgot to send warrior to protect it.

I had a scout guarding one city because I wasn't paying attention and thought I had a Paterach or whatever guarding the building, somehow the scout killed my guarding scout and razed my city.

Other than that, its a good mod. I'm about to start it up again and kick the Russians out of Africa so I can have some more breathing room. lol

Oh, and Naval units move far too =P. I had a Galley that was able to move 8 tiles per turn, the problem is that the promotions would allow it to move farther have been double.

Maybe change the python into a "reasonable attack unit possible". Right now (because of Revo mod mostly) a new Civ and Rebels are so hard to fight because they come in with the newest units possible, even if you just research them.

Maybe limit the tech a new Civ gets? I don't know if its possible, but if a Barbarian Civ becomes a full fledged empire, maybe give it all the tech of the least advanced Civ in the world. I'm playing Earth3, and this sounds like a good idea because the civs in the "New World" are usually farther behind in tech.

After all, we're battling Rebels and Barbarians, how many "Rebels" do you see that have access to weaponary that the military just got?

 

[Hephaistion]

Oh, and Naval units move far too =P. I had a Galley that was able to move 8 tiles per turn, the problem is that the promotions would allow it to move farther have been double.

Yes, naval movement was increased dramatically to make troop transport by water feasible without it taking centuries to move a viable invasion force by water (the Trojan War may have taken ten years, but it didn't take 300! ). Others have complained about this as well, so perhaps I'll scale it back a bit, at least for premodern units, though frankly I don't see what the trouble exactly is. How does high naval movement adversely affect gameplay?

Maybe limit the tech a new Civ gets? I don't know if its possible, but if a Barbarian Civ becomes a full fledged empire, maybe give it all the tech of the least advanced Civ in the world. I'm playing Earth3, and this sounds like a good idea because the civs in the "New World" are usually farther behind in tech. After all, we're battling Rebels and Barbarians, how many "Rebels" do you see that have access to weaponary that the military just got?

This is a configurable option, though I'm not inclined to scale back the techs new civs start with, especially militaristic barbarians that settle down. After all, barbarian migrations really should be a thorn in your side; the Bronze Age collapse is largely attributable to invading hordes of horse-riding (vs. chariots), iron-wielding (vs. bronze) "barbarians" that, in these respects, were MORE advanced than their civilized neighbors.

 

[Sonereal]

Actually, I like Naval Movement, just not the promotions, I don't know why, but it seems like a promotion to increase Movement even more is strange.

Lol, I went to war with a country across the Atlantic once, took nearly a 100 years just to get the invading force there. By then, my Chinense Ally that got me into the war had already stopped fighting =P

Maybe back in those days, they were more advance (makes sense), but these days, Rebel groups tend to barely have a chance.

From a gameplay standpoint, there's something afoul when the most advance Civilization in the world is battling rebels more advance than they are.

 

[Sonereal]

Ok, been playing the mod a little bit more, and its awesome.

The Russians and I are cool now, with Peter evantually becoming my vassal, and two Great Works in two cities bordering Russia allowed me to take some of his horses.

The Americans are the weakest Civilization, and they're mad at Hanniabal, the strongest.

The two major religions are Hinduism and Judaism.

I've just noticed that its almost impossible to get an Islam-ran Apolistic Palace. Which brings me to my next point, since you've done a lot of work for religions in this game, could it be possible to have some kind of center for all religions?

Maybe limit the # of Apolistic Palaces to one per Religion, and a Civ can't have two Palaces. So that way, the Christians and other groups are just as organized as the Jews (we have the palace now).

 

[Komunyst_Indian]

Okay heff... couple of qs...
uno.is this bts... or is there a bts release...
duo. Is t compatible with world maps... i.e rhyes 18 civ map...

that be all.. cheers

oh yeah just noticed you uploaded it for bts.. but where is the link... i understand it is in its gamma/beta version... so will it be prone to bugs

 

[Sonereal]

I found a mod comp that might be cool to have in the mod =P
Its a Military Advisor mod that makes the Military Advisor....useful

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=7154145#post7154145

Here's another mod comp that allows Puppet States

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=281306

The Puppet States sound pretty cool, that way no one is forced to raze cities because they don't want to hold the city.

Also, the new civics, when given the choice to change, always says "The most primitive form of Government"

 

[Jaybe]

If one wants to add tweaks to a (great!) mod, how does one fiddle with CustomAssets? (I have some quibbles with HandicapInfo ... at least).

I have several xml files in my CustomAssets which work with the general game (BtS) and I was anticipating having errors galore when loading Hephmod (Beyond), but it never happened. Also, there is only one CustomAssets folder in My Games ... and only the shortcuts in Program Files.

Hesitation with CustomAssets has always been a cause for my being resistant to try mods, but I didn't have any trouble playing Final Frontier, either.

---
I really appreciate how the Revolutions module now gives a clue as to what the mechanics are and how you are doing. Frustration with it is what drove me away from Hephmod in the first place, though I copied several of the unit variations
... (there's that CustomAssets folder again).

--
Had a Greed quest last night for Iron adjacent to a Carthage city. Got the quest just after getting iron working, though I had 2 unmined sources within my own borders. By the time I was ready for the assault the barbs must have razed it, but I still accomplished the quest once I settled at the same location (the quest description said the city must not have changed hands or be razed).