[MOD] MagisterModmod

[Mr. Zub]

The last part was to show that Raiders civ would still gain something from the spell even if Arcane/Disciple units were supported.

Some questions:
Who is the gay that can be ressurected with Sorcery? He is after Lucian and before Wilboman in the list of possible ressurections in Life 3 promotion description.
How the max ranged damage is determined? Unseelie Shadow and Man O'War can kill with ranged attacks, while Flurry or longbowman cannot. Why?
Is there any reqirements for Stir from Slumber ritual except Divine Essence tech? Nobody did it and nobody can, but almost anybody has the tech.

 

[jrandrew]

Hello All --

Doing some more work on the unit upgrade chart included in Magister's Modmod. I've received reports of a couple of crashes (for which I already received the crash log).

Can you please PM me the crash log/trace etc. if you are receiving crashes and haven't already sent it to me?

Also I am open to any other suggestions anyone might have about improving the unit upgrade chart.

Thanks!

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I found out last night that I had to work today, so I have not had time to get back to modding yet. I suppose it did not matter through, as Tholal does not seem to have released the new beta which I was hoping to merge today. My new update won't come out until at least a few hours after his.

The last part was to show that Raiders civ would still gain something from the spell even if Arcane/Disciple units were supported.

Some questions:
Who is the gay that can be ressurected with Sorcery? He is after Lucian and before Wilboman in the list of possible ressurections in Life 3 promotion description.

I have no evidence of his sexual orientation, but I believe you are referring to Gaelan.

He is a mage-hero who at one point was tied to FfH2's short lived Guild system, but now can only be created through choosing the right options in a series of random events.

In this mod I made it so that Gaelan starts with Chaos 3, and so can cast Wonder despite not having the Channeling 3 promotion

EVENT_CIRCLE_OF_GAELAN_1
The guildmaster of the mage guild in %s2_city asks for your help with a problem student. This student insists on trying wild theories that the guildmaster suspects could be quite dangerous, even if correct.

EVENT_CIRCLE_OF_GAELAN_1_1
I will trust the judgment of the guildmaster. Exile the willful apprentice!
(This has no effect other than to prevent the series of events from continuing, and thus making Gaelan unavailable.)

EVENT_CIRCLE_OF_GAELAN_1_2
Your conservative approach to magic is getting us nowhere! This apprentice will be promoted to guildmaster, let him try his theories!
(This option gives 2 :research: from the mage guild, and enables the next event in the series leading to Gaelan.)


EVENT_CIRCLE_OF_GAELAN_2
Citizens in %s2_city are worried about strange occurrences. Livestock are dying without cause, and some of the town wells have dried up. They suspect the mage guild is carrying out dangerous experiments!

EVENT_CIRCLE_OF_GAELAN_2_1
Then we will destroy the mage guild!
(This eliminates the research bonus from the previous event and prevents the series of events from continuing, thus making Gaelan unavailable.)

EVENT_CIRCLE_OF_GAELAN_2_2
Cranky citizens are the price of progress!
(This increases the bonus by another +1 :research: but also causes +1 :unhappy: and allows the following event to occur)


EVENT_CIRCLE_OF_GAELAN_3
Your tax collectors stumbled upon a disturbing scene in the mage guild in %s2_city! Townspeople have been abducted and experimented on! The guildmaster, Gaelan, offers to spread his teachings and increase the power of your mages if you let him continue, but a young man trapped by the guild begs you to free him.

EVENT_CIRCLE_OF_GAELAN_3_1
Shut down this abomination!
(This reduces the mage guilds bonus by - :research: and gives you a free Ranger with the Magic Resistance promotion.)

EVENT_CIRCLE_OF_GAELAN_3_2
Very well, let's keep this between us.
(This option gives you Gaelan)


I'm thinking I might modify the results slightly now that I'm thinking about it.

How the max ranged damage is determined? Unseelie Shadow and Man O'War can kill with ranged attacks, while Flurry or longbowman cannot. Why?

It is determined by the unit's <iAirCombatLimit> tag. The default value is 0, which means it cannot do any ranged damage. The value must be changed to 100 to let ranged attacks be lethal. Of course, the unit must also have a <iAirCombat> tag value greater than 0 to have any chance of doing any damage, or of launching a ranged attack at all.

Is there any reqirements for Stir from Slumber ritual except Divine Essence tech? Nobody did it and nobody can, but almost anybody has the tech.

It has no other XML prereqs, but does have Python requirements. The ritual can only be performed in a city that has the Cult of the Dragon religion present. That is the only requirement that binds a human player, but there are further blocks to prevent an AI from completing the ritual when it would not benefit form the results. The Barbarian state can complete it (to gain Acheron, and possible Drifa and Thallath.) Cardith Lords (or any of her permanent allies) may complete it to give their team Eurabatres. Tebryn Arbandi (or his ally) may perform it to gain Abashi. If Tebryn is not in the game, then another Sheaim player (or teammate) may use the ritual for Abashi instead. Any player with the Octopus Overlords state religion may complete the ritual in order to gain Thallath. (The Blue Dragon will be raised as a Barbarian if the ritual is completed by a player without that state religion.) Once The Draw has been completed, teammates of Auric Ulvin or anyone with the White Hand state religion may complete the ritual in order to give Drifa to Auric. (If The Draw is not completed first, Drifa enters the world under Barbarian control.)

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I have now merged my latest version with MNAI v2.7Beta5. It seems to be working, but I'd like to do some more playtesting before the release.

I'd also like to give jrandrew some time to improve the upgrade charts and Aurelazza time to get me some new art.


Does anyone have any more input on other changes you'd like to see incorporated before the release?





What would you think if I pushed the prereq for Govannon back to Strength of Will, but also made him personally about 5 times more likely to teach magic?

In light of Kael's recent comments about how most Amurites think of him, I think I'd rather give their other magical units (Wizards, Firebows, and Chanters) some chance to shine through before Govannon's Ethics made their abilities redundant.

I'm thinking of giving Firebows the Guardsman, Loyalty, Flaming Arrows, Fire Resistance, and Arcane promotions from the start, and letting them gain spellcaster xp. (They are after all described as especially loyal and talented archers who are given intensive training in fire magic in order to make them better at guarding wizards who are too busy to protect their cities personally.)
Edit: I just realized that Valledia's archery units would have Guardman anyway, any any Amurite would start with Arcane, so I probably won't make them start with that in their xml defines.

I'm thinking of changing the prereqs of Illusionist so that any Shadow 2 unit, including Amurite Chanters, gain gain it with the CoE religion. I'm also thinking of giving Arcane Barges Channeling 1, letting them learn adept level spells, but making them require Mage Guilds in coastal cities to train.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Does anyone have any more input on other changes you'd like to see incorporated before the release?

Are the Illians' bonuses more sensible? I still think giving them two food on ice is too much, they should have to work suboptimal terrain at all times to make up for their various bonuses. If you do insist on keeping two food per snow the Temples of the Hand shouldn't give any bonuses to food whatsoever. The Illians are the last civ that should be able to grow every city every single turn. Either they treat snow like grasslands or their Temples give lots of food with ice mana / have increased storage capacity, but both together is too much. Maybe their specialists, or at least Priests, should only consume one food instead? Imo the Illians should be about slow steady growth (what with the sphere of ice being about reaction and conservatism) and exploring the divine, so 1 Food from ice, extra food storage from Temples of the Hand and 1 Food from Priests would be perfect lore and balance wise.

At any rate I'm looking forward to the release. I recently played a game of MNAI with a friend because your mod unfortunately increases the risk of out of sync errors a lot in my experience, but that only made me appreciate all the changes you made more. Every other turn I was thinking "This is better implemented in Magistermod" or "Why can I just build Vampires on the assembly line like that, the Calabim make so much more sense the way they work in Magistermod" etc.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I suppose I could go back to +1 & +1 instead of +2 , making Ice the equivalent of Plains instead of Grasslands.

I think that it is too limiting in the early game though, when the player is still struggling to get enough food to grow the capital to a decent size and to train his first settler.

What if I made the Illian palace, or maybe every palace except the Infernal, grant +1 so the capital's growth is not quite so limited?

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

I suppose I could go back to +1 & +1 instead of +2 , making Ice the equivalent of Plains instead of Grasslands.

I think that it is too limiting in the early game though, when the player is still struggling to get enough food to grow the capital to a decent size and to train his first settler.

What if I made the Illian palace, or maybe every palace except the Infernal, grant +1 so the capital's growth is not quite so limited?

With +1 Production you have to take into account that it meshes very badly with Agrarianism. The question is whether that is a good or a bad thing lore wise.

Honestly I think it's not too bad if the Illians are limited in the early game. If one plays with the End of Winter game option, as I like to, they are actually better than any other civ in the early game bar the Doviello.

The Illian Palace could have a little extra food storage (not too much, something like 10%) and a small +% Food bonus with access to Ice mana, which it grants for free anyway. Then again +1 Food for every Palace except Infernal could work too, they already all give +1 Production and a bunch of Commerce.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I was about to release an update a few days ago, but the forum was down for maintenance pertaining to the vBulletin to Xenforo upgrade.

Instead I went ahead and implemented a bunch of new features.

I decided to allow Arcane Barges access to all adept spells, and give them free mana-based promotions. They require Mage Guilds now.

I added a new unit called the Fire Ship, a cheap late game upgrade for all the early ships which explodes in combat and damaged adjacent units like Pyre Zombies too. They can be built using either Gunpowder or Fire mana.

I added a new unit called the Witch Hunter, available so far only through events and lair exploration, which is very strong against arcane unit and may target them. It has the Magic Resistance, Inquisitor, and Exorcist promotions. It is unavailable to Amurite or Sheaim players, rebellious against leaders with any of the mage-related traits, and also causes diplomatic penalties with those players. It uses the red Gods of Old Inquisitor graphics. (The Whisperer High priest unit uses black inquisitor art.)

The Circle of Gaelan final event may either give you 5 Witch Hunters or give all your mages the Heroic Strength 1 promotion.

I added a new bonus called Jeteye, based on the addictive drug which Kael revealed was canon in the Reddit forum. All he had written about it was that it was a highly addictive sedative drug which often causes vivid hallucinations, is administered by squirting the liquid into the eyes, and turns the whole eye black. (Also, Os-Gabella became an addict when he discovered the drug while searching for the Netherblade in Falamar and Rhoanna's capital city the Bay of Laurus in the Meditor Sea. That bit of background is now the Heron Throne pedia entry. The Bay of Laurus has been added to the list of Lanun city names) Although wasn't a huge fan of some of my later lore musings, he liked my initial idea of the background for the drug. It is thus derived from the ink of a certain cephalopod, and so closely associated with the Octopus Overlords and Hastur, Lord of Nightmares. I make this resource provide a production bonus for all units and buildings associated with the Overlords. It replaces Incense as the resource prereq for the Overlords High Priest unit. It causes some happiness but unhealthiness, a great deal of commerce, a bonus towards research, a penalty towards great person production, and a chance of mutation. It also causes a diplomatic penalty similar to death mana. The Overcouncil may ban it.

I gave Firebows channeling 2, but not channeling 1, which lets them get Extension 1 & 2 and makes them more useful once Govannon starts training them.

I made increased the base strength of Wizards and Govannon.

I changed how the Mirror of Heaven onMove python call works. It no longer grants a high priest. There is a text explaining what happens when it grants the Honor tech to someone with the Empyrean state religion but not the founding tech. It grants a free Lightbringer with the Eremite promotion on the tile. Any Empyrean unit gains Eremite when it enters the tile. Still only Nomad+Divine units may get that promotion while alone in ordinary deserts, but any Empyrean units may be Eremite on the Mirror of Heaven.


I made Shadowwalk retain the ability to use enemy roads while also making it reduce terrain movement costs.

I made the Shadow III promotion grant Shadowwalk as a summon perk instead of Hidden Nationality.

I changed the Hide Nationality Shadow III spell so that it no longer is cast by the unit with Shadow III to grant the HN promotion to all units in the stack, but instead allows other units on the same tile use the ability to become HN. This way the xml/C++ code is written means that the Shadow III unit itself can never use the ability.

I gave Runewyns Force 2, so they can cast as well as bypass Rings of Warding.

Temples of the Hand no longer require Ice mana to build, but are cheaper with it and more expensive with Nature or Fire mana. The per turn trigger now runs whenever the building is completed. That code also may trigger a revolt if the city owner is at war with Auric. New Mulyr runs similar code now.

I made the Snow terrain act like Plains instead of Grasslands for the Illians.


I made Citadels of Light be an Empyrean-only improvement rather than Malakim-only, and let them stop my improved Shadowriders.


I went ahead and gave Gargoyles not only an increased defensive strength but also the suggested paratrooper airdrop ability and the ability to move through peaks.

I decided to add a Vampire Slaying promotion, and to let Vampires with both the Ashen Veil unit and state religion to purchase Unholy Taint to gain access to more spell spheres. I let Vampires owned by players other than the Calabim cast Feast, but still only let the Calabim use the spell to gain the promotion.

I let units of the White Hand state and unit religion purchase Immune Cold, and those with Octopus Overlords purchase Water Walking with theology.

Units of the Children of the One religion automatically get Magic Resistance and Scourge, and may purchase Magic Immune.

Right now I'm mostly waiting to hear back from jrandrew about the upgrade chart and Aurelazza about some artwork to decide if I should include them in the next update.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I have just finished uploading the new version as an installer, and will probably have finished uploading the archive form before anyone can read this.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Excellent, I shall start a game as Auric Ulvin right away!

Apart from the snow yields change for the Illians, which civ and/or religion would you say was changed the most in this version? Council of Esus? I can't really find a unified changelog, and you tend to describe your changes spread out across a dozen different posts.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

(You know, you don't have to start the game as Auric Ulvin. In fact, you may do better starting with another civ and summoning him through the ritual and then opting to accept the permanent alliance. If the Control Whole Team option is active, you can still control him.)

I thought I consolidated pretty much everything for the changelog in the version description at ModDB, but I guess I could have missed something.

Council of Esus was probably changed the most, since it gained a high priest and Shadowriders gained the ability to move impassible. Also, units with the CoE religion and state religion can purchase Illusionist after Shadow 2.

The Empyrean was changed the second most, as Revelation became even more useful against Vampires and Shadowriders. I also changed formerly Malakim-only Citadel of Light improvement to be available to any Empyrean player, and made it an effective defense against Shadowriders. (I'm thinking of possibly changing this again to be an Overcouncil thing in the next version, perhaps even dependent on a new resolution.) I now let any Empyrean unit of any unitcombat gain the Eremite promotion (making them stronger spellcasters who gain xp faster) on the Mirror of Heaven. I also let most Empyrean units help discover spies (i.e., Agents of Esus) but I'm not sure that really does anything because it looks like Kael may have commented out the code in the DLL that handles that.

Octopus Overlords gained synergy with the new resource Jeteye, which is the new prereq for Speakers and gives a production bonus to basically everything else Overlords related. Overlords units are now able to purchase Water Walking at Theology.

The Ashen Veil benefits most from Unholy Taint's spell damage and passive spellcaster xp gain increasing.

As far as what Civ changed the most, I'd say the Amurites. Govannon is now later, but teaches magic faster. Firebows are better, gaining fire resistance and Channeling 2 (which lets them purchase Extension 1 & 2 and access mage level spells once Govannon teaches them the basics of Channeling 1.) Wizards have increased base strength. Chanters can become Illusionists. Chanters and Firebows are cheaper with the appropriate mana.

The Malakim as already stated loose the unique benefit of the Citadels of Light, but their nomad promotion becomes stronger and their hero starts with the new Vampire Slaying promotion. They no longer gain a free great prophet for entering the Mirror of Heaven with the Empyrean religion before knowing Honor, but they still get Honor for free. Malakim priests still gain Eremite whenever alone in the desert, and other units like Radiant guards who get it from the Mirror can keep it so long as they stay in the desert.

The Calabim vampires have gained more weaknesses, but also more strengths. The promotion does more to make the unit stronger in combat, and grants spellcasters free passive xp. It also lets Ashen Veil units with the Ashen Veil state religion gain unholy taint, letting Vampires like Losha Valas potensially access Dimensional, Chaos, and Fire magic as well as the usual Body, Death, Mind, and Shadow. Alternately, with CoE, they could also become Illusionists.

The Mercurians benefit from Runewyns starting with Force 2 and Ophanim having March.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Oh I didn't even think to check moddb, heh.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

I don't really like to switch between two or more civs every turn btw. There are some PBEMs I'm in where I do that and it's just needlessly complicated imo.

Anyway, that bug where yield percentage bonuses from resources seem to mess up if you lose access to one of those resource still doesn't seem to be fixed. See my attached save file. Losing Letum Frigus disconnected one source of ice mana, and two cities from the rest of my empire entirely. Now those two disconnected cities get -30% to all yields, and the rest of my empire gets no bonuses whatsoever.

 

[Alornal]

I'm sorry, but I can't find the .7z for the latest update? It only has the April launch.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I'm sorry, but I can't find the .7z for the latest update? It only has the April launch.

I thought I posted the archive, but I too only see the previous version when I look for it there. I still have it on my laptop though, so I'm uploading it again now.

It is not a .7z file this time though, but a .zip.

 

[Alornal]

I thought I posted the archive, but I too only see the pevious version when I look for it there. I still have it on my laptop though, so I'm uploading it gain now.

It is now a .7z file this time though, but a .zip.

Awesome, thanks!

 

[Alornal]

I have a unit with Bounty Hunter but I'm not getting any gold after it kills a unit on defense. It is defending against an Ice Elemental each turn. Intended?

 

[scutarii]

Please, give to illians back "grassland" ice tiles - now as "plains" ice tiles - I must build farms everywhere; it kills variety. And + 1 commerce at the (frozen) rivers.

at the options - remove white hand religion - is missing. There is not much you/ AI can do if you happen to start somwhere closer to letum frigus and this new and well equipped civilization attacks; "remove rituals" option is too "punishing"

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

Please, give to illians back "grassland" ice tiles - now as "plains" ice tiles - I must build farms everywhere; it kills variety. And + 1 commerce at the (frozen) rivers.

Variety? 2/3rds of all civs have spamming farms everywhere as their optimal strategy, what does one more matter? I think it's fitting that Illians have to scavenge for every little piece of food they can find. I'm pretty sure the +1 commerce from frozen river still exists.

 

[scutarii]

Variety? 2/3rds of all civs have spamming farms everywhere as their optimal strategy, what does one more matter? I think it's fitting that Illians have to scavenge for every little piece of food they can find. I'm pretty sure the +1 commerce from frozen river still exists.

ok.

how do I get shades as a sidar? yes, from GP pool, but that's random. That usual mechanic - waning 6th level units - can't do it...

found, 7th level...