[MOD] MagisterModmod

[MagisterCultuum]

The Amurite Palace does provide Enchantment mana, along with Meta Magic and Dimensional mana.

(In vanilla FfH it provides Meta Magic, Fire, and Mind, but since Kylorin was trained by both Ceridwen and Nantosuelta I considered it thematically appropriate to change that a long time ago.)

I honestly consider Enchantment 1 to be rather week benefit, as the Tower of Alteration grants enchanted Blade to all eligible units in the city anyway. Also, Firebows (another Amurite UU) already start with Enchantment 2, and Wizards start with the Spell spheres that would otherwise be produced by the Enchantment 3 spell.

Giving out Water 2 or Earth 2 without mana would be much more overpowered. I'd be more likely to give the Arcane Guards Meta magic 2, mostly to let them dispel rival magical buffs although resetting mana types seems to be the spells more common use.

 

[Nothrazim]

How precisely does the + damage to spells work? Meta 3 gives +50 bonus to spell damage, but it explained anywhere in the pedia what precisely this entails?

 

[Calavente]

The Amurite Palace does provide Enchantment mana, along with Meta Magic and Dimensional mana.

(In vanilla FfH it provides Meta Magic, Fire, and Mind, but since Kylorin was trained by both Ceridwen and Nantosuelta I considered it thematically appropriate to change that a long time ago.)

I honestly consider Enchantment 1 to be rather week benefit, as the Tower of Alteration grants enchanted Blade to all eligible units in the city anyway. Also, Firebows (another Amurite UU) already start with Enchantment 2, and Wizards start with the Spell spheres that would otherwise be produced by the Enchantment 3 spell.


Giving out Water 2 or Earth 2 without mana would be much more overpowered. I'd be more likely to give the Arcane Guards Meta magic 2, mostly to let them dispel rival magical buffs although resetting mana types seems to be the spells more common use.

I understand.
this construction will somehow allow amurite to not need enchantment mana, and not have adepts/wizards spend xp on enchantment line.

however I disagree that enchant 1 is weak : it's 20-25% on all melee units !!! thus, having these arcane guards will allow to boost all your axemen and champions easily without specializing in Enchant mana. (however having enchant mana in palace makes that cost not too heavy, so the gain is marginal).
Arcane tower is not an "easy" target ; it's a mid-game boost ; and you'd have to move all your units to that city ; wheras a mobile enchant I caster can move to the front to cast it.

Comparatively, EarthII only boost the unit... which is a limited unit at 4/empire... so this is not OP at all, while making the unit interesting. You just have to balance there inate str to take this boost into account.
WaterII is also not a huge OPness : those are not casters nor ranged (and as they are forbidden from learning from govannon school they will never learn fire II)... thus being able to walk on water is not OP ; it only allows to go fight against sea monsters or pirates or explore shipwrecks: which is a nice trick, but not OP at all.

What makes Water II slightly more OP than Enchant I is the following (IMO): amurite get enchant I in palace, so they only need to sacrifice 1 adept to get, so, for amurites, enchant I is not costly. however that doesn't make WaterII OP.

further, maybe you could have water mana and/or Earth mana as requirement for building the units??? so it wouldn't be "unit get Water II/ Earth II without the mana" ; it would be "melee unit with water II and Earth II that needs many mana to be built".
(FYI : normal Royal guards give spirit II without access to mana)

Anyway I think that those units would not be of much interest to Amurites : Champions can learn all those magical promotions ; and Firebow can do the same; which will be much more OP.

 

[Tasunke]

Arcane Guard ... Spirit II + Guardsman for sure. To make them at least equivalent. After that, possibly meta 1, mind 1, or what not. (screen defense via visibility, and city boost respectively)

(possibly earth 1 to boost city walls ... but that would allow it to get earth II via spending a level ... granted it wouldn't be for free)

 

[Tasunke]

What if the Tower of Respite makes the whole empire impassible to the undead, prevents death spells from being used there, and binds units who die there to the netherworld so they can't be resurrected or return as angels/manes? The AI might not understand that as well as a benefit like giving everyone in the city Life II, but I think it is more thematic. I think I'll test it to see if the code runs fast enough.

Edit: Actually, it might be easier more efficient to simply kill every Undead unit that ever enters the borders of a player with this Tower, much the same way as the defect abilities work. Giving Netherbind to the player's units rather than units within the borders would be easier and more efficient too.

Edit2: I'm liking the name "Tower of Mortality" better now. I currently have it working so that the wonder grants +1 in every city, removed the Immortal promotion from units in the city, kill all undead units within your borders, prevents any Death magic from being cast there, makes all units within your borders mortal (except Avatars, as it want Auric Ascended to still be harder to kill), and binds souls to the netherworld so they cannot be resurrected or return as angels or manes.

I'm kind of liking your latest version of Tower of Mortality, but is it possible to code?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I'm kind of liking your latest version of Tower of Mortality, but is it possible to code?

I think you may have misunderstood the phrase "I currently have it working."

It is not only possible to code, but the code was written and functional by the time I made that edit to that post.

The real question is whether the code would slow down the game unacceptably. The code runs often enough that that was a serious concern, but I have not noticed a lot of extra lag.

The undead-killing effect works through a dummy spell effect using the PyPrereq tag for an effect (similar to that which I use to make some units defect based on religion or which I use to make Auric Ascended fully heal or regain his immortality). Such calls would be activated whenever a unit is selected or when it moves. This is actually more efficient than most of my passive spell effects. This dummy spell has the Undead promotion as a prereq and kills the unit if it is on a tile owned by a player who owns a Tower of Mortality. It sends a message alerting the unit and plot owner about the death. (Unfortunately it seems impossible to stop the message from repeating itself, as the game crashes if I don't use Delayed Death and the code has time to run again if I do.)

(Making the whole empire impassible to the undead slowed the game down much more, as it required checking for who owns the plots and who owns the wonder every time any unit was moving anywhere and also any time the AI was considering moving any unit anywhere.)

I replaced the reqManaAllowed(pCaster, 'VOTE_NO_DEATH_MANA') tag I was using for the death spells with a new reqNecromancyAllowed(pCaster), which calls reqManaAllowed(pCaster, 'VOTE_NO_DEATH_MANA') only after checking whether the caster is Sidar or on a plot owned by a player with the Tower of Mortality. I also replaced helpManaBlocked(lpUnits, 'VOTE_NO_DEATH_MANA') with helpNecromancyBlocked(lpUnits), which calls the former but adds warning that the spell is blocked by the Sida or their UB national wonder.

In def onUnitKilled(self, argsList): I added 4 lines of code which run whenever any unit dies. They check if the unit;s plot is owned, if the owner has the Tower of Mortality, whether it is an avatar of the leader, and then may apply Netherbind. This is just before the code which makes any unit with Netherbind mortal and prevents it from returning as a Mane, which was already there to handle the Netherblade's effect.

I also have it so that it removes access to death mana in that particular city, which would remove the health penalty there and would prevent the Tower of Mastery from being built on that site but would not block it in any other city.


I suppose I could go ahead and release a version with these features this week (Halloween does seem like an appropriate occasion), although I am hesitant because I still not found a way to prevent some random crashes that were introduced with Tholal's last MNAI update.

 

[Nothrazim]

How well does the AI handle the Tower of Mortality? Is it smart enough to avoid sending in Undead units wholly, or could you still bait them into suiciding their armies?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

The AI does not really understand anything about it. I'm not sure it would ever be possible to teach it. The Sidar could definitely cause their enemies to loose all the undead portion of their armies to this wonder. Most AI players don't rely that heavily on the Undead though, especially if you ignore summons. It is really just Drowns, Diseased Corpses, Hollow Men, Pyre Zombies, Liches, and the products of Mokka's Cauldron that could be lost. Since casting Death spells is blocked within the borders, enemies mages would just use other spells there.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I just went ahead and uploaded the new version. (It may take a while before a mirror becomes available though.) Happy Halloween!

 

[OKSleeper]

I called for the Wild Hunt when I was Doviello and the computer immediately locked up.

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

I am enjoying the current version just like I have been enjoying the previous ones, and have three things to comment:

Considering Council of Esus's whole behind the shadows theme, wouldn't it make sense to perhaps give it some bonus related to crime rate? E.g. the Aphotic Throne could maybe subtract the crime rate from maintenance costs? That is, the more crime your city has the cheaper it becomes to maintain as long as the Council of Esus is behind the corruption? Or if that seems counter-intuitive, how about a +% commerce or gold bonus or something like that?

Secondly, I can't remember if that was already the case in earlier versions, but pre-chopping forests doesn't really work. The game is supposed to stop workers from finishing the job one turn before completion, but it never does.

Thirdly, why is Slavery no longer restricted to Evil civs? It seems kind of weird to have civs like Elohim, Malakim and Kuriotates adopt it. Is there some sort of lore reason for it? It rubs me the wrong way.

 

[Qgqqqqq]

I kept getting an error involving a item of equipment. I ignored it, and it installed fine from there.

 

[ZeroMatteX]

Hey, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post it, but I just recently started playing FFH2 again and decided to give this mod a try. While I really like it, in every game I get a repeatable crash sometime after turn 150 (second game in a row now). No idea if it's due to the Magister ModMod or due to the More Naval AI mod Magister Modmod is built on. I attached a save file below. The crash always happens for me at turnover.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I was just playing around with alternatives to the bonuses given by the Demonic Pact events. I'm frustrated by the fact that an event can apparently give only a single promotion to any specific unitclass or unitcombat. If I try to assign multiple promotions, only one shows up in the game. I also cannot target specific unittypes or those with specific promotions this way, and I cannot easily keep track of what events have already been triggered or by whom. The effects are also always permanent.

I'm thinking of changing the bonuses to work through dummy traits (some of which might grant normal xml-based advantages while others serve only as placeholders python effects). Each demon lord himself would start with a "Pact with X" trait (making them all a bit more different from each other) and would share this trait with his summoner, but only so long as they remain on good terms. The benefits of the pact could be revoked if the player breaks the terms by leaving the Ashen Veil State Religion or by allowing the demon lord to be vanquished from Erebus. (I might also revoke the trait if the players go to war with each other, but I haven't figured out how to code that yet.)

Since the benefits of the pacts might be only temporary, I think we could afford to make them a bit stronger too.

What do you think of that idea?

Hey, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post it, but I just recently started playing FFH2 again and decided to give this mod a try. While I really like it, in every game I get a repeatable crash sometime after turn 150 (second game in a row now). No idea if it's due to the Magister ModMod or due to the More Naval AI mod Magister Modmod is built on. I attached a save file below. The crash always happens for me at turnover.

It is possible that if you posted the logs from before the saved game I could find a cause, but I doubt it.
I think the crash is due to More Naval AI. I postponed uploading because I was having similar issues I couldn't figure out.

 

[asza3l]

Hello everyone,

I'm still playing your mod and I still f**ng love it. I'm facing only two problems and I would appreciate any advise:

1.) I really forget about time when I play this mod - Yesterday I actually placed like 13 h straight and had a wonderful game as the Calabim ))
2.) I love to play huge maps with as many enemies as possible. Is there any chance to reduce the waiting time between the rounds? How do I have to upgrade my PC?

Cheers

 

[Nothrazim]

I like the demonic pact as it is, but i wouldn't be opposed to it getting love however. I tend to only enact the ritual when playing as the Sheiam, and that's mostly to just cause mayhem and chaos, or to play with whole team options (which makes the pact really fun).

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

2.) I love to play huge maps with as many enemies as possible. Is there any chance to reduce the waiting time between the rounds? How do I have to upgrade my PC?

What are your specifications?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I currently have the Infernal Pact working like this, but am open to suggestions of how to tweak things.

Completing the Infernal Pact Ritual still gives you a choice between one of the 7 Demon Lords. There is still a limit of 7 instances in the world and 3 instances per team, but the death of a demon lord decrements the count for the player that summoned him so that that player can summon another one, or the same one again.

The Demon Lord leader avatar units would no longer be naturally immortal, but another greedy mortal can bring him back to Erebus through completing an Infernal Pact again (unless the avatar unit is Bound by the Netherblade, Clava Vindex, or Carcer Judicii).

Summoning a demon lord would give the summoner a "Pact with [Demon Lord's Name]" trait. This trait would be lost when the summoner leaves the Ashen Veil state religion, or when the Demon Lord is vanquished. (I'm about to test another way of coding this which would also remove the trait if the summoner and demon lord are ever at war with each other, or if the avatar unit is allowed to die.)

The Infernal players themselves also benefit from their respective Pact traits, but cannot use the ritual to gain another one.

A player who looses a Pact with [Demon Lord] trait would loose peace with the Barbarians unless he still has another Pact trait or the barbarian trait.

Summoning a demon lord still gives a diplomatic bonus with that demon lord, but also a penalty with other demon lords.

Non-Sheaim AI players would no longer be blocked from using Infernal Pact to gain any of these very useful traits:

Pact with Hyborem:
Grant the Stigmata promotion to all unit combats
Grants the Hero promotion to all Balors
Provides a 25% discount on unit upgrades
Grants peace with the Barbarian State

Pact with Judecca:
Grants +1 duration to summons (which may stack on top of the Summoner trait to let summons start with 3 duration)
Grants Unholy Taint to all Arcane units
Grants Channeling I to Adepts, Channeling I & II to Ritualists, and Channeling I, II, & III to Profanes
Grants peace with the Barbarian State

Pact with Lethe:
Grants Stealth and Hidden to Savants, Ritualists, and Profanes
Grants Shadow III and Mind III to Profanes
Doubles production speed and provides happiness with Demons Altars
+20% Great Person Point generation rate
Grants peace with the Barbarian State

Pact with Meresin:
Grants Plague Carrier to Diseased Corpses
Grants Air II to Ritualists, Air II & III to Profanes
+2 Health in all cities
Doubles production speed of Infirmaries
Grants peace with the Barbarian State

Pact with Ouzza:
Grants Strong and Fire Resistance to all Melee, Mounted, and Beast units
Grants Chaos I & II to Ritualists and Profanes
Grants +1 combat xp
Causes -1 happiness in all cities
Grants peace with the Barbarian State

Pact with Sallos:
Grants +6 culture per city
Grants Body III and Mind III to Profanes and Succubi
Doubles production of Succubi and Public Baths, Carnivals, and Theaters
+2 Happiness from Public Baths
Grants peace with the Barbarian State

Pact with Statius:
Grants +66% pillage gold
Grants Command I-IV to Ritualists and Profanes
Grants Demon Possessed promotion to living units, removes Exorcist and Blessed
Acts like the Tolerant/Arrogator trait, allowing access to (possessed) versions of other civs' UUs.
Grants peace with the Barbarian State

(Once Statius is summoned, Succubi become trainable with the Consumption civic, Drama tech, and Public Baths building.)

I'm also playing around with a similar mechanic for The White Hand ritual, with a Pact with Winter trait. I've had some trouble applying the Ice spell sphere promotions properly based on mana supply, so am playing around with simply giving them out for free with this trait, and also making this trait grant all units the Resist Cold promotion. It would also double the production speed of all the Hand units and Buildings, which would otherwise cost more. Other players could still build these buildings and units, but not get the free spell spheres or cold resistance that makes them so worthwhile.


I'm also toying with a new "Banish" spell, currently requiring the Exorcist promotion and the Righteousness tech. It pushes adjacent hostile demons back onto Hell terrain (or an AV player's territory), and grants them the "Bound by Compact" effect so they cannot return to untainted lands. It also kills nearby hostile limited duration summons. Evil players cannot use this, and it does not work while on hell terrain. It can be resisted.

 

[Tasunke]

Banish spell sounds pretty awesome.

powerful demon units could probably have increased resistance (heroes, avatars, et al) ... maybe a promotion called devil or demon lieutenant.

But yea, powerful divine casters should be able to banish many evil demons away from their lands ^_^

Edit: Are permanent alliances still only with 1 ally? So possibly the best option would be to summon one Demon Lord, form permanent alliance, and then possibly summon two more? Or hmm ... how do you actually get 3 lords onto your "team" ??

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Banish spell sounds pretty awesome.

powerful demon units could probably have increased resistance (heroes, avatars, et al) ... maybe a promotion called devil or demon lieutenant.

But yea, powerful divine casters should be able to banish many evil demons away from their lands ^_^

Edit: Are permanent alliances still only with 1 ally? So possibly the best option would be to summon one Demon Lord, form permanent alliance, and then possibly summon two more? Or hmm ... how do you actually get 3 lords onto your "team" ??

I believe the strength of a unit is already automatically taken into account when determining whether a unit can resist a spell, and I know that promotions like Hero boost the chances. I do not plan to add more promotions just for that effect.

It is possible to use python to add an arbitrary number of players to a team, but the normal diplomatic interface only lets a player negotiate for a permanent alliance when your team has only one member. The Infernal Pact does not grant a permanent alliance but merely a Defensive Pact. Demons are known to be untrustworthy, an often betray their summoners once strong enough. You could already use the ritual to summon one Demon Lord, wait to try to get that player to agree to a permanent alliance, and then summon more in the hopes of making them agree to be your vassals.