[MOD] MagisterModmod

I am debating whether to let them share the Nulstone Golem's ability to block magic nearby
I think that is too much for them to have because they are already powerful units against arcane. It's interesting give the arcane units a chance to fight back and survive hunters. However, if you choose to give them this, I suggest an promotion that is unlocked only if the hunter is very well experienced.
Like an Agent of Esus it can investigate cities and steal plans
Cool. Its nice to have new stealth units but its possible to make them do missions in cities that are at war with the player ? Actually, they could do this only in times of peace and I think its because their strength (as the spy unit doesn't have strength) that doesn't allow the unit to enter the city without attacking its defenders.
I thought about letting Great Engineers be trained directly in the Foundry of Vengeance, but deciding just granting lots of engineer GPP is good enough.
The Fane of Fate grants Shade GPP.
The Docks of Dreams generates Adventurer GPP.
Maybe one of them could give Great Commander GPP too, because few buildings in the game generate points for them.
 
Can you remind me where Civ puts those pics? I've forgotten. And it's not anywhere near where I use for saved pictures.
Inside of Documents directory, search for the Beyond of the Sword's paste. Click it and then search for another named "ScreenShots". There is stored all the screenshots you make of the game.
 
Inside of Documents directory, search for the Beyond of the Sword's paste. Click it and then search for another named "ScreenShots". There is stored all the screenshots you make of the game.


Thanks.


Civ4ScreenShot0129.JPG
 
@Cutlass It appears to be an issue with your screen's resolution cutting off the bottom of the screen. I don't think it has anything to do with any recent changes on my end. I think I had a similar issue a long time ago. It might have been when I first upgraded to a laptop with the now standard wide screen screen ratio.

You could see about changing your machine's default resolution, or just the resolution of the game itself by going to Main Menu > Options > Graphics and selecting something different rom the Screen Resolution drop down menu.

Personally I prefer to play the same in a windowed mode and make it small enough that I can pay attention both to the game and something open in another window.


----

Per Kael's feedback on Reddit, I decided to add a Grave of Asmoday improvement. Exploring it has almost exclusively negative results, but it one place you can find a Mask of the Coven of the Black Candle.

I also allowed Gyra and Condatis to join your cause if you rescue them from Bradeline's Well and The Aifon's Isle respectively. (For Gyra the exploring unit must be level 7+. For Condatis level 5+. Freeing Brigit from the Ring of Carcer now only requires level 9, instead of 12, and freeing Odio only requires level 6.)

Gyra can also be summoned, along with a few Angels of Death and Tomb Wardens, by a unit with Death Affinity in a city with the Mercurian Gate.

If Brigit, Gyra, or Condatis acquire a Mask of the Coven of the Black Candle and level 7, they may cast new spells to Retrieve their respective Gems of Creation. Those spells must be cast in a city and have a 21 turn delay, but when finished it will found the Matronae religion, transform the caster into the appropriate Matrona, and grant them their appropriate Temple in that city. (Each Matrona has 10,000 extra Fire/Death/Cold strength and well as the channeling promotions to use every spell in their spheres.)

If you don't rescue the archangels, you can still train the Matronae in their respective Temples, which can be built with lots of normal production in cities where the religion is already present.

The Matronae religion (if not founded by one of the Archangel's spell) is founded by The Bane Divine Ritual. This ritual now requires an Armageddon Counter of only 35 instead of 70.



After adding the Grave of Asmoday I decided to add 3 more unique features, and am open to adding more.

The Grave of Wode provides Shadow mana and spawns Baby Spiders with Shadow 1. It looks like a smaller version of Yggdrasil and gives free specialists from the Svartalfar Palace, Nox Noctis, etc. It has a nice long lore entry. It cannot itself be explored, but explorations nearby can turn up the Mask of the Coven that Wode stole from Alexis. (Exploring near the Seven Pines can similarly reveal the mask Kylorin locked away there.)

The Tomb of Herve provides Nature mana. It looks like the Ljosalfar palace. (I started to let it generate a Guardian Vines with Air affinity, but my test showed it was generating way too many of those.) Now it just gives happiness and specialists from the Ljosalfar palace and Song of Autumn. I made up a lore entry, borrowing from Kael's character reveals dealing with Faeryl and Arak the Erkling. I took the liberty of claiming that Faeryl commissioned a grand Tomb for Herve as part of her attempt to stop the war with Patria and to try to convince her people that she had nothing to do with ordering his murder.

I added the Tapestry House Entrance, which provides Dimensional mana. It looks like a portal, but it not linked to a specific plot with another portal. It can be explored like a lair, but does not have the big good and big bad results of an epic lair. The most likely result of exploring the Tapestry House is leaving Kanna's realm through the wrong exit and finding yourself stranded at a random part of the map. It has a nice long pedia entry about Ceridwen's hell and the extra-dimensional Tavern/Brothel/BDSM dungeon that her archangel runs there while keeping it a neutral ground where angels, demons, and all other races can co-mingle.

I extended the lore entry for the Broken Sepulcher.



I decided to allow any Priest (i.e., unit with Divine) that is of the Good alignment (unit alignment, not player alignment) cast Bless.

I decided to let Confessors use the Banish spell, previously limited to Priors/Pontiffs. Normal priests can only use it to banish Demons though, whereas the high priests can use it on any Evil-aligned unit.


I decided to make the Maenalus generate Krakens.

I also decided to let the Cultists' Tsunami spell convert any Barbarian Krakens or Drowns to your control, but make them rebellious and have a duration limited by the caster's level. I improved the python help function.


I gave Krakens, Sea Serpents, and Stygian Guards a new Submersible promotion, allowing a Submerge ability. This is works like White Out or Forest Stealth, letting the unit take/keep the Hidden promotion but only while on a water tile.
 
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Seems that no FFh2 modmods based on MNAI are working currently. I have played extra modmod, regular MNAI, and Magister, numerous times and with cntrl-shft-x to autoplay and all of them CTD mid to late game during the AI turns. Went through many of the posts, and error logs, but did not see anything glaring at me. Someone please tell us what modmod and version based on MNAI, that is 100% stable and enlighten us on any new/old settings or maps that will increase/decrease stability. All have been fresh installs deleting all game settings in user profile and deleting and reinstalling FFh2 and patch each time. Playing a regular game of K-mod right now as a control for Civ4 BTS issues, but none so far. FFH2 MNAI is one of my favorite games and I know all of you work very hard with little thanks in the modding community, but IMO, stability should be #1 priority. I would just like to finish a game and would gladly sacrifice new features,graphics, and turn times for stability and competent AI. Not complaining, just looking for some help. Great mod and concepts...
 
I think that is too much for them to have because they are already powerful units against arcane. It's interesting give the arcane units a chance to fight back and survive hunters. However, if you choose to give them this, I suggest an promotion that is unlocked only if the hunter is very well experienced.
I had already implemented it, but now I think you're right. I undid that change and left the code simpler and more efficient.
Cool. Its nice to have new stealth units but its possible to make them do missions in cities that are at war with the player ? Actually, they could do this only in times of peace and I think its because their strength (as the spy unit doesn't have strength) that doesn't allow the unit to enter the city without attacking its defenders.
I think that if the units are invisible and do not have Blitz that they can still enter enemy cities after that have already attacked once. At least, that is how it works for Angels of Death. Agents of Esus cannot do this as they are not allowed to attack anyone.
Maybe one of them could give Great Commander GPP too, because few buildings in the game generate points for them.
I don't think GPP are very appropriate for Sarabride, Morrigan, or Cliodna. I like having them give Engineers, Shades, and Adventurers much better. I personally think that there ae more than enough ways to get GPP, since you can get them from combat rather than just buildings. I guess some people might play without Advanced Tactics though...

What would you think if I added a third "Matronus," by letting Basium use another Mask of the Coven of the Black Candle (I imagine it would be the one Wode stole from Alexis) and steal the Font of Life from Sucellus?

I was just playing around a bit in GIMP. I don't think changing Basium's helmet to look like it is made of strips of flesh crudely sewn together looks good. Showing him still holding the Angelorum Cavea after losing it in Hell seemed wrong too. I then tried making a version of him using the Repentant Angel model, but abandoned it after I realized that if Basium had the Font of Life he would likely use it to heal all of his injuries, including regenerating his old wings. I then tried making a recolored Angel of Death, with its robes changed from black to white and its skin changed to try to match the blue tone of the original Basium model. I also added a mask based on an image I found of a halloween mask of sewed together skin, but you cannot really see that anyway because of the unit's hood.


I just attached a picture showing Basium along with his potential upgrade, the 3 Matronae, the archangel that can tranform into the Matronae, and an Angel of Death. (I changed its wings from white to black a while back and don't think I'd shared that image yet.


I have not settled on a name for Basium's alter ego, but am toying around with something like "Nuada, God of Vigor."
(The other Matronae use the names of Irish divinities. Nuada was a king of the Tuatha Dé Danann before a battle where he was seriously injured, losing his arm. He then fought on with a magic prosthetic arm made of silver, until he could find someone to help him regenerate a new arm of flesh and bone like the original. That seemed like a decent parallel to Basium, who lost his wings before we meet him and would have been destroyed if the Matronae did not rescue him from Hell, but with the help of the Font of Life could fully regenerate to his former glory. Nuada also seems to be the same character as Nechtan, a god of fountains, and Welsh Nodens a god of healing that the Romans equated to their warrior god Mars.)

If I were to him him a temple wonder, then having it grant GPP would seem the obvious choice.




Seems that no FFh2 modmods based on MNAI are working currently. I have played extra modmod, regular MNAI, and Magister, numerous times and with cntrl-shft-x to autoplay and all of them CTD mid to late game during the AI turns. Went through many of the posts, and error logs, but did not see anything glaring at me. Someone please tell us what modmod and version based on MNAI, that is 100% stable and enlighten us on any new/old settings or maps that will increase/decrease stability. All have been fresh installs deleting all game settings in user profile and deleting and reinstalling FFh2 and patch each time. Playing a regular game of K-mod right now as a control for Civ4 BTS issues, but none so far. FFH2 MNAI is one of my favorite games and I know all of you work very hard with little thanks in the modding community, but IMO, stability should be #1 priority. I would just like to finish a game and would gladly sacrifice new features,graphics, and turn times for stability and competent AI. Not complaining, just looking for some help. Great mod and concepts...
If it an Ai issue common to MNAI and other mod's using that code base, I don't think I have anything to do with it or any clue how to fox it. We should probably ask @lfgr
 

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@Deadeyetim: Regarding fixing Crashes in MNAI: First, please make sure that you play the latest version of MNAI-U (2.8.1u) instead of the old MNAI 2.7.1, as the latter is not supported anymore.
If you get a repeatable crash, please post a savegame from directly before the crash in the MNAI-U thread. In that thread you also find information on how to set your autosave interval to 1 turn, which helps to get useful savegames. I can usually fix repeatable crashes with not too much effort.
If the crash is not repeatable (i.e. it doesn't reliably occur after reloading and doing the exact same things), fixing it is much harder. If, at some point, you're in a situation where the game crashes every few turns, you can post a savegame anyway. Bottom line is that I only really have a chance to fix the crash if I can reproduce it myself.
 
I messed up something in the TGA files that was making all the fonts and some of the resource icons look weird.

Fortunately I then managed to find the program I'd used many years ago to make it rather than editing the files manually. That made it easy enough to fix it, and easier than I remembered to move or add new icons.

That got me to reconsider maybe going ahead and adding some cults.

I currently have the TGA files set up to use the religious icons for these religions in this order:
9 Religions that can be State Religions:
The Order
The Empyrean
The Runes of Kilmorph
The Fellowship of the Leaves
The Undertow
The Council of Esus
The Ashen Veil
The White Hand
The Matronae

12 Cults that cannot be State religions
The Cult of the Dragon (I moved this from between the Veil and Hand)
The Children of the One (moved from just after the Hand)
The Occis (previously implemented as Aerons bounty, but The Occis is the canonical name of the cult)
The Laeran Cord (I'm using the Arcane Lore icon, but may change it)
The Circle of Gaelan (I think this is the icon Kael used for this before)
The Chainbreakers (I'm using the Held promotion icon, but may change it)
The Emrys (I'm toying around with a black candle made from inverting the spirit node icon, but may change it back to the dimensional mana icon)
The Unblemished (This is a white butterfly icon in my Modmod's previous tga that I cannot find anywhere else. I may change it just to it can match an icon in the pedia)
The Stewards of Inequity (Currently using the Mercantilism icon, but will probably change it)
The Brotherhood of Wardens (Currently using the Shrine of Sirona icon, may change it)
The Blinded Brotherhood (Currently using a somewhat recolored Reveller's icon, may change it)
The Foxmen (Currently using the old Tracking tech icon, may change it)

Leftover icons (I'm not 100% sure what they go to as if I still have a copy of FfH2 0.30 it is on an external harddrive somewhere)
Ratcatchers Guild?
Guild of Hammers?
Guild of the Nine?
Guild of Wardens icon?


It appears that the game assigns the icons to the religions in order and then after the last religion immediately starts assigning the remainder to corporations. There are no more empty slots left now before the line where resource icons start. I am not sure what would happen if I added more then a total of 25 religions.corporations/guilds/cults, but I imagine it would mess things up. Right now I am working under the assumption that 25 is the most we can consider.

We also need to consider display issues. I think it would probably be look best if in the city screen we show two rows that are aligned the same way, requiring the same number of religions/cults in each. If I make The Children of The One and Cult of the Dragon into corporations, I can simplify the code I used to stop anyone from adopting them.

If I use the corporation mechanic I can more easily give them effects that require the proper sort of mana, and can make two cults compete for the same mana supply.

A major reason to implement the cults as religions would be because so I could use xml spells for specific religions, and so I could easily use cult identity to determine a units afterlife. I an not even sure that I can give ordinary units a cult identity. I can give certain unit types the ability to spread certain corporations or require certain corporations in their city, but am not sure I can even check that in python.

Kael repurposed the game's corporations screen though when he added the scenario screen or Somnium (I forget which). If I go with corporations I might need to find a way to add it back. I already have the Religion screen coded so that I can add an arbitrary number of religions and can scroll over to the left to see more. Rather than try to figure out which of Kael's changes I can reverse without breaking things, it might be easier to change the code in the city screen to divide real religions evenly into two rows.



I think I will probably end up merging the Circle of Gaelan with the Laeran Cord, the Emyrs with the Chainbreakers, and the Blinded Brotherhood with the Brotherhood of Wardens. That would leave us with 9 adoptable religions plus 9 cults, easily displayed in 2 aesthetically pleasing rows.

Laeran Cord is the cult of Oghma, which is more about preserving knowledge (including, but not limited to, the knowledge of sorcery), than any sort of worship. I'll likely give it disciples called Sapere, which could upgrade to Mages or be sacrificed for more research than Savants. I might also let a Sapere upgrade to a Great Sage, perhaps at level 7.

The Circle of Gaelan is canonically an offshoot of the Laeran Cord, as Galan was a member of the Cord who grew frustrated with the organization's limitations and recruited like-minded members to undertake more dangerous experiments. I currently have the Gaelan event set up to require a Mage Guild and to give a Circle of Gaelan promotion to Arcane units. I think it might be better to make it require the Laeran Cord and to give the Circle of Gaelan promotion to all the player's Laeran Cord units.

The Brotherhood of Wardens is a cult of Sirona, devoted to protecting the weak. It would probably be founded by the Shrine of Sirona. I might let Monks, Confessors, or Chancel's of the Guardians spread it too.

The Blinded Brotherhood is a heretical offshoot of the Brotherhood of Warden, found among the Calabim. It has given up on doing anything to help the meek materially and instead focuses on tended to their spiritual needs. It still worships Sirona but its idology is close to that of her archangel Pelian the Suffering. The Blinded Brothers refuse to use any sort of violence, even to defend themselves or others, and teach others that they must submit to their oppressors. I am thinking I may implement the Binded Brothers as a Calabim unique unit that requires the Brotherhood of Wardens in the city. A Blinded Brother might have the ability to stop cities from revolting (like Unyielding Order, but without eliminating unhappiness) and well as to give units a "Pacified" promotion that would block Rebellious, Enraged, Burning Blood, prevent the unit from attacking, and maybe even give a negative amount of spirit affinity (unless that causes problems I don't distinctly recall at the moment.)


The Chainbreakers is a cult of Ceridwen, but they do not seem particularly evil. All we really know about them is that they strongly oppose slavery and that they try to start rebellions in order to liberate the lowest classes from oppressive aristocrats (especially vampire). I'm not sure if I'd just give them a passive effect causing instability and making the slave revolt event more common, or give them an "Abolitionist" disciple that can go through rival lands causing disruptions and using a spell that transforms rival Slaves into soldiers under your command.

The Emrys is another cult of Ceridwen, which is much more evil. They are actively trying to destroy the world. Their main activity though is recruiting magic users (mostly young adepts) to runaway from their homes and settle among the Sheaim where they are free to study the sort of magic is severely restricted if not completely illegal elsewhere. I don't think they have any canon link to the Chainbrakers, except for worshiping the same goddess, but I am thinking I may implement the Emrys as a Sheaim-only unique unit of the Chainbreakers' faith. They would have the ability to capture rival Arcane units. (Now that I have the costs of arcane units increase the more you have, stealing them from rivals instead of training your own gains a greater appeal. It also means you may be getting affinities or free spell spheres to man types you do not control.)


The Occis is a secret society of Assassins who worship Aeron through acts of murder. It would probably be founded/spread by units with the Aeron's Chosen promotion (still initially granted by the existing event), and units with the Occis religion could then purchase the Aeron's Chosen promotion with their xp.

The Unblemished are the cult of Sucellus, famous for being the world's best healers. It would probably be founded by Aquae Sucellus. Its disciples would likely be a Faith-Healer unit, which is functionally much the same as the Grigori Medics, but unitcombat_disciple and requiring Life mana and so they would be vulnerable to the Crucible and the Matronae. (If Basium managed to steal back the Font of Life, I don't imagine things will go well for those who worship the one who stole it first.)

The Stewards of Inequity of course worship Mammon, even if most think they only serve themselves. They are not associated with the madness of Hastur, but more basic greed. I'd make the Bazaar of Mammon found this. I'm thinking maybe giving them a "Rentier" disciple, and perhaps giving them the Embezzle ability instead of Agents of Esus if I can think of something appropriate to replace it for Esus. .

The Foxmen are the highly disorganized cult of Tali. I'm thinking of giving them a "Wanderer" unit, that is basically an Adventurer with Fair Winds instead of the Hero promotion. (I'm also thinking of making Fair Winds give immunity to the Held promotion, so they don't get stuck in cages.) It would still go on exploring lairs that no one knew were there, and if upgraded to another sort of unit could randomly revert back again.
 
Hi all, I am having an issue loading the 'KE huge ICE Empires v1.1' and 'New Erebus' scenarios. I auto-fail each scenario upon loading it, and the map stays completely black. Would be very grateful for any assistance. Have I missed a step in installing the Magister Modmod?
 
@Deadeyetim: Regarding fixing Crashes in MNAI: First, please make sure that you play the latest version of MNAI-U (2.8.1u) instead of the old MNAI 2.7.1, as the latter is not supported anymore.
If you get a repeatable crash, please post a savegame from directly before the crash in the MNAI-U thread. In that thread you also find information on how to set your autosave interval to 1 turn, which helps to get useful savegames. I can usually fix repeatable crashes with not too much effort.
If the crash is not repeatable (i.e. it doesn't reliably occur after reloading and doing the exact same things), fixing it is much harder. If, at some point, you're in a situation where the game crashes every few turns, you can post a savegame anyway. Bottom line is that I only really have a chance to fix the crash if I can reproduce it myself.
I'll start a new game and get some save games this week...thanks
I did see something odd in one of my autoplay games that probably should be fixed. Djinn spawned (held) on dungeon tile inside city radius and AI kept building single warrior every few turns and sending him to attack Djinn. Summoned earth elemental would kill warrior everytime and AI just kept repeating this behavior in a loop.
 
I don't think GPP are very appropriate for Sarabride, Morrigan, or Cliodna. I like having them give Engineers, Shades, and Adventurers much better. I personally think that there ae more than enough ways to get GPP, since you can get them from combat rather than just buildings. I guess some people might play without Advanced Tactics though...

My thinking was that Sarabride, commanding the witch hunters and having a great influence in the Bannor's ascension and expansion over Erebus should have something relationed to war, strategies and training of combatents. Qualities that are the same of the Great Commanders. I think that you choose engineers because of the industrialization which, in my opinion, was a consequence of The Crucible's construction and the tecnological advancement of the civilizations. But the Advanced Tactics really turns this unnecessary. Well, it's just a suggestion that I seem fit.

What would you think if I added a third "Matronus," by letting Basium use another Mask of the Coven of the Black Candle (I imagine it would be the one Wode stole from Alexis) and steal the Font of Life from Sucellus?

Its nice and shows an alternative path to Basium, but I think it should be unlocked under some conditions that doesn't shock with his initial role in the history. Also, if you choose to allow him the Matronae path, how will stay the Mercurian Gate when Basium becomes part of the Matronae ?
 
all those lore-heavy changes seems fun... (maybe unbalanced, but there is balance in un-balancing everything).
I have to confess that I'm starting to get lost in all that is new and both late-game and rare.

however I can comment on this part :
I decided to allow any Priest (i.e., unit with Divine) that is of the Good alignment (unit alignment, not player alignment) cast Bless.

I decided to let Confessors use the Banish spell, previously limited to Priors/Pontiffs. Normal priests can only use it to banish Demons though, whereas the high priests can use it on any Evil-aligned unit.

I decided to make the Maenalus generate Krakens.

I also decided to let the Cultists' Tsunami spell convert any Barbarian Krakens or Drowns to your control, but make them rebellious and have a duration limited by the caster's level. I improved the python help function.
- All good priest get bless is nice : Good need some love
- Order priests get "Banish" is not so good. It looks like a weak man's Force Shield and is useful only against Demons and Summons (?). While useful late game, when Sheaim or AV (or OO by the way) get many demons, early-mid game, when Confessor arrive, it's much less useful. It seems relevant only against permanent summons, so mainly Baleseraphs.
It seems too niche an effect.
However I don't know what would be better.

- Cultists and Krakens and Drown seems thematic enough and marginal... it's good.
 
I just changed Banish so that Confessors can use it against any non-living Evil units, including not only demons but also Undead units like Skeletons, Drowns, and Pyre Zombies and certain Elementals. (I just gave Azer the Chainbreaker's religion and Fire Elementals the Ashen Veil religion. Ice elementals already followed the White Hand, and Mistforms the Council of Esus. Those religions make them evil and able to be banished.) High Priests can use it against any evil units, including those of evil religions and those who have learned evil spheres of magic. .


While thematically I preferred using 3 and 7 as level prereqs for mages and archmages/high priests, I decided that for gameplay purposes it is better to go back to the vanilla FfH level prereqs of 4 and 6.



I recently added these disciples:

Faith Healer, a priest of the Unblemished (a religion founded/spread by constructing Aquae Sucellus). It has Divine, Immune Disease, March, and Medic 1-3. (Medic 2 and 3 can now only be learned by units following The Unblemished religion.) Strength 3 + 1 Holy. The Unblemished does not have any temples and cannot be a State religion, so those cannot be prereqs. Training a Faith Helaer requires Priesthood and an Infirmary in the city. Double Production with Life Mana. The unit can be sacrificed like a first tier disciple to spread the religion or a little culture. If it learns Evangelist it can spread the religion to cities and units. It can upgrade to a Druid or Paladin.

Warden of the Meek, a priest of the Brotherhood of Wardens (a religion that may be founded/spread by constructing either The Shrine of Sirona or the Elohim's Chancel of the Guardians). It has Divine, Guardsman, Homeland, Defensive, and Medic 1-2. Strength 1 offense, 4 defense,+1 holy. The Unblemished does not have any temples and cannot be a State religion, so those cannot be prereqs. Training a Warden requires Priesthood and the Brotherhood of Wardens religion present in the city. Double Production with Spirit Mana. Can move in rival territory. The unit can be sacrificed like a first tier disciple to spread the religion or a little culture. If it learns Evangelist it can spread the religion to cities and units. It can upgrade to a Monk, Druid or Paladin. It has a special ability: Rescue Refugees. This transfers population points from cities that are in revolt, or starving, or have anger about conscription, rushing, or vampire feasting, to a better off city that you control.

Blinded Brother, a Calabim Unique unit that replaces Warden of the Weakest. It has the same prereqs as a Warden, but zero strength of any sort. It starts with Divine, Medic 1-2, and Pacified, a promotion that makes it unable to attack and gives negative spirit affinity. It has an ability which passes on that promotion to other units, and also ends revolts in cities just like Unyielding Order.

Sapere, the priests of the Laeran Cord (a religion that may be founded/spread by constructing either the Library of Oghma or the Crown of Akharien; note that the crown can be found from exploring a lair and that dropping it in any city will spread the Laeran Cord. It can still be built too, but not if someone discovered it from a lair already). It starts with Divine, Arcane, and Medic 1-2. The Laeran Cord does not have any temples and cannot be a State religion, so those cannot be prereqs. Training a Sapere requires Priesthood, a Library, and the Laeran Cord religion present in the city. Double Production with Metamagic Mana. The unit can be sacrificed like a first tier disciple to spread the religion or a little culture. Can move in rival territory. If it learns Evangelist it can spread the religion to cities and units. It has a special ability, "Research," which reduces the unit's XP to 0 but gives you 10x as many research points towards your current technology. The Circle of Gaelan event gives every Sapere the Circle of Gaelan promotion. A Sapere can upgrade to a Mage.

Wanderer, a disciple of the Foxmen. The religion is founded by whoever learns Cartography first, and the unit requires only the religion and an Inn in the city. Double Production with Air mana. It is basically a non-heroic Adventurer, which can upgrade to various units but may randomly revert back and which also starts with Light, Fair Winds, and Medic 1. Can move in rival territory. The unit can be sacrificed like a first tier disciple to spread the religion or a little culture. It does not have divine, so it cannot learn evangelist. (This is an early but very disorganized religion with no formal priesthood or easy way to control its spread.) Units of the Foxmen religion can learn Light at Exploration, Immune Lightning at Elementalism, and Winged (allowing the Fly ability) at Alteration. (Scouts are back to having 2 base movement and lose the light promotion.)

(Edit: I am thinking now that instead of founding the religion automatically at Cartography, I may add a new wonder requiring that tech which founds the faith and act as a holy Shrine providing air mana and +1 adventurer points. I am leaning towards calling it the "Slyph Search," after the Air Spirits that are known to fall in love with mortal men and form very happy marriages give birth to very wild children. I figure wooing a Slyph would be a common quest among those who worship Tali. As is appropriate for Tali and very different from every other shrine, this wonder will not stay put. It will automatically relocate itself to a new Foxmen city every few turns. The wonder itself is cheap, since the benefits may pass from you to a rival without warning.

Rentier, the disciple of the Stewards of Inequity (a religion founded by the Bazaar of Mammon). Requires a Moneychanger and the Stewards present in the city. Double Production with Mind Mana. Starts with Divine and Mind Affinity (allowing Charm Person greater, but not Inspiration without channeling 1). Can move in rival territory. The unit can be sacrificed like a first tier disciple to spread the religion or a little culture. It can learn Evangelist to spread the religion without sacrificing itself. Can use the Embezzle ability.


Insurrectionist, a disciple of the Chainbreakers. (The religion may be founded/spread by either constructing The Nexus or a Sheaim Planar Gate. The religion causes instability anywhere but Sheaim lands) Requires a Dungeon and the Chainbreakers present in the city. Double Production with Dimensional Mana. Starts with Divine, Hidden Nationality, and Rebellious. Can move in rival territory. It has a Servile Revolt ability, which removed Loyalty, transforms rival Slaves into your soldiers, and can cause revolts in cities whose owners are running the Slavery civic. The ability cannot be used if you are running Slavery, in which case its prereq will make the unit rebellious again.

The Emrys, a Sheaim UU replacing the Insurrectionists. Requires a Planar Gate and the Chainbreakers present in the city. Double Production with Dimensional Mana. Starts with Divine, Medic 1-2, Sundered, Stigmata, and Demon Possessed. Has 1 dimensional affinity. Can upgrade to a Mage or Eidolon. Has a special ability "Seduce Sorcerers" which works like Mesmerize but for Arcane units instead of animals, letting you steal rival Adepts, Mages, and even Archmages (although stronger disciples are more likely to resist the ability).

The Occis has no disciples. The Aeron's Chosen promotion allows spreading it to cities, and units on the same tile as Aeron's chosen can cast Initiate into the Occis to take on the religion. Units of this religion can learn Aeron's Chosen (at Way of the Wicked), Strong (at Alteration), or Irabund (at Rage, allowing them to cast rage like a Brujah or Odio). Odio starts with The Occis and Aeron's Chosen. Only an Occis unit can free Odio.
 
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Hey,
first, thank you for your effort and hard work, I used this quarantine to play some Civ4 and had a really fun two games :)
I'm looking forward to new changes!

Now some bugs, issues and observations:

1) It seems that whenever I cast city spell, like Inspiration, I get a MASSIVE drop in nationwide stability. Source seems to be "Unyielding order" spell (even though it is not casted and it gives -100 national tability per turn
2) Possibly related to 1, it seems that some national stability effects work in reverse. That phantom Unyielding order spell seems to be removing national stability instead of improving it, and so do the dungeons.
3) I know that Revolution mod component isn't developed by you, but could you please increase garrison revolt reduction? Like at least double or triple it. I feel that constant revolts are getting out of hand, and that effect of trops in city really isn't strong enough, and it should be quite a simple change, First, both gameplay wise and role-play wise, a recently conquered 3-size town shouldn't be able to revolt if it has 20 units inside. Secondly, would help the AI while making revolts still common enough for really over extended empires. Maybe liberty civic can reduce garrison stability bonus?
4) If you do want to look at the revolt modcomp a bit more, several suggestions that aren't simply changing values but still probably possible:
a) newly conquered cities should get stability bonus for first 30 turns or so, allowing you to stabilize city a bit and prevent revolt immediately after capturing. This can be done with a temporary building maybe?
b) There could be some more ways of dealing with unrest in addition to buying off a city. Some additional options can be added: Enforce Martial Law (req. evil or neutral or at least not liberty) - adds Martial Law building, that provides stability but decreases gold and hammers. Removed after 10 turns. Infiltrate the ringleaders (req. Council of Esus) - costs less gold than bribery Grant local autonomy - decreases gold and culture, but increases stability
c) Dungeon building should provide more stability (now it provides as much as market or elder council) and also halve culture and distance instability if possible
5) What are Elohim monks intended for? They are strength 4 about on the same tier when Axemen become available (also 4, 5 with copper) and can't really upgrade until very late, can't use weapons, and have no special powers as far as I can see. I thought that they have pilgrim promotion but they don't. Am I missing something? Is Spirit affinity really that good (I haven't tried spamming Spirit mana, but maybe this could make them viable). Maybe give them pilgrim, OR let them get XP automatically like mages OR let them get special promotions that give them extra base strength after Combat V OR let them get extra strength point at level 5, 10 and 15 (this would fit with Monk archetype in D&D - they have no weapons or equipment, therefore low strength and upgrade potential, but experience and promotions should give them a big boost instead).
5) How exactly Pilgrimages work - do Devouts get extra promotions if they stay on feature longer? What are promotions they can get generally (I only got 1st level spells and fire/cold immunity on my Devouts, not really impressive)

Regarding new guilds and cults: those all seem really cool! Especially rescuing refugees and starting rebellions. But, would you care to look in some other ways of spreading them? I am worried that, as it stands, player has no incentive of ever spreading them to other civs, as they are beneficial to your opponents, and spreading them takes resources anyway (you need to build units to spread them). Unless other civ conquers a city with a cult, or they randomly spread, they will stay confined to small number of cities, and de facto become a property of founding civ. I don't think that it's appropriate from role play standpoint (cults should be non state actors trying to spread as much as possible) and it's not interesting in game play as it behaves just like another religion. I'd suggest that cults could spread randomly through events. For example, building an adept should have a chance to spread Laeran Cord. Or having a library and mage guild. I'd maybe even take away the ability of units to spread the cult deliberately, to make things more interesting. Otherwise, most cults won't spread ever, they'll stay in one civ that founds them. I'd rather have cults be mixed bag, semi-autonomous, spreading on their own, giving bonuses but also some penalties, possibly destabilizing you and giving your inquisitors something to do.

I am thinking of more interesting option (but not sure if possible): what if all cults and guilds belong to their own, separate civ (The Unaligned or Diplomats), that is always at peace with everyone?Founding the first cult spawns this civ. They can then randomly get units from cities with their cult, and can move them across the map, use them to spread their cults. Then, you could recruit their units by approaching them on the map. Also, we could have reverse-hidden nationality promotion, where units instead of barbarian, appear to belong to this "peaceful" civ (I'm not sure if possible without C++). Elohim Counselors would then always be peaceful to everyone and would never be able to be attacked. We could even have neutral caravans and fleets trading around, making would look alive, and give pirates something to do.
 
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Some more observations from my playthrough:

1) Could disciple units also use enchanted weapons? Seems counter intuitive that my axemen lose enchanted weapons upon upgrading to paladins, while keeping their Iron weapons. Ideally, all units that can use metal weapons should also be able to use enchanted weapons I guess. It would also make non-melee units a bit more attractive. Currently, plain melee units are quite often the best choice.

2) Late game Economy civics are not quite good enough, considering how late they are and how good early ones are. I was running Agriculture my whole game because both Mercantilism and Foreign trade are much weaker. First, Foreign trade shouldn't reduce gold. What is the rationale? First, money gained from extra trade is often less than -10% gold, AND you also have the opportunity cost of not using another civic. Second, Foreign trade should bring gold to a civilization in a FfH setting - I'm picturing busy harbors filled with traders, and that should mean prosperity, not proverty. Third, civic is also underpowered as it is, especially considering how late it comes. I suggest removing gold penalty and giving civic +1 gold to merchants. If you want a drawback, it can be -10% hammers or -1 hammer from village/town, representing loss of domestic production to imports.

3) "Unhappiness to civs without Republic" effect should be moved to Libery. IMO it makes more sense. Republic in FfH is probably more like merchant republic or noble republic, it doesn't have to mean citizen representation. It is not something that commoners would fight for or that would benefit from. While liberty is something that everyone enjoys and it makes more sense that citizens would demand it.

4) I resurrected Sluagh from graveyard, it was a warrior with level 7 but only 2 promotions. Which made it worse than regular warrior as he had less promotions and was harder to level than if I simply built him. Considering how late I got resurrection, it was quite disappointing. Maybe buff Sluaghs a bit, at the very least give them appropriate amount of promotions. I love the idea though. Also, is it possible to resurrect long lost units and how? And are sluaghs truly invisible? I saw them in worldbuilder, but couldn't detect them even with units with true sight of metamagic eye summon.

5) Since we have Hide in forests and Hide in snow/sea etc., could we have Hide in Town, for more urban units? I can imagine sneaky shadow mages or some heroes hiding among civilians and crossing rival borders. It would work in cities, villages and towns and be removed by ending a turn out of the improvement.

6) What are your opinions on spawning all wild mana as raw mana? If all mana was raw, then mana from unique features would feel more unique. Also, since you need technology to harvest mana, mana from unique features now feels WORSE than either raw or typed wild mana. My suggestions: make unique features provide mana as soon as you get them in border and connect a road (no tech needed) OR make them provide 2 mana resources of same type (I think that this would actually be a simple XML change)

7) I love the new Great Commanders! Joining them resets the unit XP to 0, letting them level again quick, which is cool but maybe not intended or too strong? I love taht Commanders let their units have some extra promotions they wouldn't normally have. Anyway, what do you think about letting Great commander promotion lead to a set of Leadership promotions, just like Heroes can learn Heroic strength? Those promotions would benefit not only Commander's unit, but also the entire stack, each level giving 5% strength to all units in stack. Higher levels could also grant Commander the ability to cast Resupply, giving entire stack Haste and healing them a bit, at the cost of some gold, or Prepare Ambush, giving entire stack +20% withdrawal rate for a turn.

8) Shouldn't Heal spell be more widely available? Considering it is one of the most basic and ubiquitous spells in any universe, including FfH. Right now, it is only available to Medic 3 units. I'd give it to Life 3 and maybe Body 3 casters as well. Also, I'd make a weaker version of the spell available to Life 2 casters, that heals only a single, most damaged unit in the stack. Healing is very useful in the game, and also simple mechanic, and I'd love to see more of it.

9) Why is Guardsman promotion not protecting my mages from Paramanders? I got absolutely decimated by Khazad paramanders and there was nothing I could do to stop them. It was very frustrating. If Guardsman deliberately doesn't work against Paramanders, maybe remove this ability from them. They are a religious order, not some super assassins that can bypass my defenses better than Shadows and decimate my mages.

10) I got a druid with Life affinity and it could make my entire army immortal. It was late in the game so I couldn't use it, but isn't this super-OP? Druids in the lore are strong, but not make-entire-army-immortal level strong. This is power level of Blood of Phoenix late game ritual. Maybe Life mages should give immortality only for a turn? Useful before a major battle but not constant immortality to everyone like now. Or maybe let them give immortality only to one unit. This can be done by letting spell create the item "essence of immortality" and then letting another unit consume it?

Thank you for your time :)
 
I'm thinking of making the Foxmen be founded not by Cartography, but my a wonder like the other cults.

I just added the "Slyph Search," a cheap earlywonder available at Cartography. It spreads the Foxmen, grants air mana, is produced faster than air mana, adds Light, removes Heavy, and generates 1 Adventurer point. (I might change this to a Wanderer point it if is too strong, although I'd have to adit a python file to assign an icon to a new type unit for it to display correctly.)

I don't know of any real canon lore connection to the Foxmen, but decided that they love their quests and that a common quest would be an attempt to woo a Slyph. Canonically Slyphs are beautiful air spirits that are known to sometimes fall in love with mortal men. Their marriages are always quite happy and usually result in a great number of very adventurous and troublesome children.

A key feature of the Foxmen is that they do not stay still or settle down anywhere. As such, their holy city and its holy shrine will not stay put either, but will randomly relocate itself every few turns to a random city chosen from among every city where the Foxmen are already present.


Hey,
first, thank you for your effort and hard work, I used this quarantine to play some Civ4 and had a really fun two games :)
I'm looking forward to new changes!

Now some bugs, issues and observations:

1) It seems that whenever I cast city spell, like Inspiration, I get a MASSIVE drop in nationwide stability. Source seems to be "Unyielding order" spell (even though it is not casted and it gives -100 national tability per turn
2) Possibly related to 1, it seems that some national stability effects work in reverse. That phantom Unyielding order spell seems to be removing national stability instead of improving it, and so do the dungeons.
3) I know that Revolution mod component isn't developed by you, but could you please increase garrison revolt reduction? Like at least double or triple it. I feel that constant revolts are getting out of hand, and that effect of trops in city really isn't strong enough, and it should be quite a simple change, First, both gameplay wise and role-play wise, a recently conquered 3-size town shouldn't be able to revolt if it has 20 units inside. Secondly, would help the AI while making revolts still common enough for really over extended empires. Maybe liberty civic can reduce garrison stability bonus?
4) If you do want to look at the revolt modcomp a bit more, several suggestions that aren't simply changing values but still probably possible:
a) newly conquered cities should get stability bonus for first 30 turns or so, allowing you to stabilize city a bit and prevent revolt immediately after capturing. This can be done with a temporary building maybe?
Since this is less about my modmod than the modcomp included in MNAT, maybe @lfgr would be a better person to ask.
b) There could be some more ways of dealing with unrest in addition to buying off a city. Some additional options can be added: Enforce Martial Law (req. evil or neutral or at least not liberty) - adds Martial Law building, that provides stability but decreases gold and hammers. Removed after 10 turns. Infiltrate the ringleaders (req. Council of Esus) - costs less gold than bribery Grant local autonomy - decreases gold and culture, but increases stability
I'll think about it, but probably won't do anything in the next version. The revolution code is rather complex and I'm not too familiar with it.
c) Dungeon building should provide more stability (now it provides as much as market or elder council) and also halve culture and distance instability if possible
I just doubled their local stability
5) What are Elohim monks intended for? They are strength 4 about on the same tier when Axemen become available (also 4, 5 with copper) and can't really upgrade until very late, can't use weapons, and have no special powers as far as I can see. I thought that they have pilgrim promotion but they don't. Am I missing something? Is Spirit affinity really that good (I haven't tried spamming Spirit mana, but maybe this could make them viable). Maybe give them pilgrim, OR let them get XP automatically like mages OR let them get special promotions that give them extra base strength after Combat V OR let them get extra strength point at level 5, 10 and 15 (this would fit with Monk archetype in D&D - they have no weapons or equipment, therefore low strength and upgrade potential, but experience and promotions should give them a big boost instead).
Monks' affinity already makes them quite powerful if you get enough spirit mana. I decided to let them free xp like priests though.
5) How exactly Pilgrimages work - do Devouts get extra promotions if they stay on feature longer? What are promotions they can get generally (I only got 1st level spells and fire/cold immunity on my Devouts, not really impressive)
Units with Pilgrim get specific promotions whenever they end their turn on a unique feature, or explore a lair. Staying there longer does not prvide extra bonuses. Some bonuses are better if the unit has the right religion or alignment. When first trained or promoting to Pilgrim, they et one based on a random unique feature in your empire.
Regarding new guilds and cults: those all seem really cool! Especially rescuing refugees and starting rebellions. But, would you care to look in some other ways of spreading them? I am worried that, as it stands, player has no incentive of ever spreading them to other civs, as they are beneficial to your opponents, and spreading them takes resources anyway (you need to build units to spread them). Unless other civ conquers a city with a cult, or they randomly spread, they will stay confined to small number of cities, and de facto become a property of founding civ. I don't think that it's appropriate from role play standpoint (cults should be non state actors trying to spread as much as possible) and it's not interesting in game play as it behaves just like another religion. I'd suggest that cults could spread randomly through events. For example, building an adept should have a chance to spread Laeran Cord. Or having a library and mage guild. I'd maybe even take away the ability of units to spread the cult deliberately, to make things more interesting. Otherwise, most cults won't spread ever, they'll stay in one civ that founds them. I'd rather have cults be mixed bag, semi-autonomous, spreading on their own, giving bonuses but also some penalties, possibly destabilizing you and giving your inquisitors something to do.
They will still spread passively, perhaps faster than most major religions, and I'll likely add some a bunch of events eventually. I already have it so that you can rescue their priests from lairs.
I am thinking of more interesting option (but not sure if possible): what if all cults and guilds belong to their own, separate civ (The Unaligned or Diplomats), that is always at peace with everyone?Founding the first cult spawns this civ. They can then randomly get units from cities with their cult, and can move them across the map, use them to spread their cults. Then, you could recruit their units by approaching them on the map. Also, we could have reverse-hidden nationality promotion, where units instead of barbarian, appear to belong to this "peaceful" civ (I'm not sure if possible without C++). Elohim Counselors would then always be peaceful to everyone and would never be able to be attacked. We could even have neutral caravans and fleets trading around, making would look alive, and give pirates something to do.
No. I am not adding any new civs, certainly not any related to cults or requiring any such diplomatic coding. I wouldn't really like the idea even if I had a clue how I could code it. Coding a hidden nationality type promotion to make it look like a different civ is far beyond my coding skills.
Some more observations from my playthrough:

1) Could disciple units also use enchanted weapons? Seems counter intuitive that my axemen lose enchanted weapons upon upgrading to paladins, while keeping their Iron weapons. Ideally, all units that can use metal weapons should also be able to use enchanted weapons I guess. It would also make non-melee units a bit more attractive. Currently, plain melee units are quite often the best choice.
I'll think about it. I wish there was an easy way to make spells apply promotions to units that already other specific promotions, but without using python (which can get inefficient if used too much, and requires a pyprereq if I have a pyresult) I can only make them be granted to all the units that have their unitcombat included in the promotion's xml defines. I cannot let Paladins use the promotion without letting all other disciples do so, unless I change Paladins to Melee units.
2) Late game Economy civics are not quite good enough, considering how late they are and how good early ones are. I was running Agriculture my whole game because both Mercantilism and Foreign trade are much weaker. First, Foreign trade shouldn't reduce gold. What is the rationale? First, money gained from extra trade is often less than -10% gold, AND you also have the opportunity cost of not using another civic. Second, Foreign trade should bring gold to a civilization in a FfH setting - I'm picturing busy harbors filled with traders, and that should mean prosperity, not proverty. Third, civic is also underpowered as it is, especially considering how late it comes. I suggest removing gold penalty and giving civic +1 gold to merchants. If you want a drawback, it can be -10% hammers or -1 hammer from village/town, representing loss of domestic production to imports.
I just changed the Foreign trade -10% gold to +10%.

The schema does not let me let civis give extra yields to specific improvement types. I'll consider letting it grant +1 gold for every specialist, but tat may be too strong.
3) "Unhappiness to civs without Republic" effect should be moved to Libery. IMO it makes more sense. Republic in FfH is probably more like merchant republic or noble republic, it doesn't have to mean citizen representation. It is not something that commoners would fight for or that would benefit from. While liberty is something that everyone enjoys and it makes more sense that citizens would demand it.
I just reduced the effect for Republic by half and added it for Liberty at the strength Republic used to have.
4) I resurrected Sluagh from graveyard, it was a warrior with level 7 but only 2 promotions. Which made it worse than regular warrior as he had less promotions and was harder to level than if I simply built him. Considering how late I got resurrection, it was quite disappointing. Maybe buff Sluaghs a bit, at the very least give them appropriate amount of promotions. I love the idea though. Also, is it possible to resurrect long lost units and how? And are sluaghs truly invisible? I saw them in worldbuilder, but couldn't detect them even with units with true sight of metamagic eye summon.
I just figured out how to give Sluagh units promotions appropriate for their levels about a month ago. This was the first of the fixes that will make it into the next release.

Sluaghs are invisible with a different type of invisibility than other units, to keep them truly invisible. I thought about letting Angels of Death or units with Arawn Death affinity the ability to see them, but that just causes problems limiting their ability by making them fight and kill such units.

Heroes should always leave Sluaghs behind to be resurrected. Very high level non heroes do to.

The Sluaghs added randomly to Graveyards have a limited duration, unless the grave is Hallowed with the Death 1 spell. That spell makes the sluaghs permanent so they may be resurrected later.
5) Since we have Hide in forests and Hide in snow/sea etc., could we have Hide in Town, for more urban units? I can imagine sneaky shadow mages or some heroes hiding among civilians and crossing rival borders. It would work in cities, villages and towns and be removed by ending a turn out of the improvement.
If I recall correctly, hidden units are hardcoded in the dll not to be invisible in the owner's own cities, as if they were invisible then enemy units could capture the cities without them defending it.

I'll think about adding such a promotion to work in hamlets/villages/towns/enclaves though, just because such an ability does seem appropriate for the Luchuirp's Gargoyles.

6) What are your opinions on spawning all wild mana as raw mana? If all mana was raw, then mana from unique features would feel more unique. Also, since you need technology to harvest mana, mana from unique features now feels WORSE than either raw or typed wild mana. My suggestions: make unique features provide mana as soon as you get them in border and connect a road (no tech needed) OR make them provide 2 mana resources of same type (I think that this would actually be a simple XML change)
No, I prefer having certain areas of the world naturally stronger in specific mana types even without unique features and encouraging players to research techs based on the mana available nearby. The Dispel Magic spell would be nerfed by going to all raw mana like in vanilla FfH2.

Having a tile provide more than one source of mana is impossible without some major C++ changes or some very ugly and inefficient python code.
7) I love the new Great Commanders! Joining them resets the unit XP to 0, letting them level again quick, which is cool but maybe not intended or too strong? I love taht Commanders let their units have some extra promotions they wouldn't normally have. Anyway, what do you think about letting Great commander promotion lead to a set of Leadership promotions, just like Heroes can learn Heroic strength? Those promotions would benefit not only Commander's unit, but also the entire stack, each level giving 5% strength to all units in stack. Higher levels could also grant Commander the ability to cast Resupply, giving entire stack Haste and healing them a bit, at the cost of some gold, or Prepare Ambush, giving entire stack +20% withdrawal rate for a turn.
Probably not.
8) Shouldn't Heal spell be more widely available? Considering it is one of the most basic and ubiquitous spells in any universe, including FfH. Right now, it is only available to Medic 3 units. I'd give it to Life 3 and maybe Body 3 casters as well. Also, I'd make a weaker version of the spell available to Life 2 casters, that heals only a single, most damaged unit in the stack. Healing is very useful in the game, and also simple mechanic, and I'd love to see more of it.
Minor healing is represented by the normal healing effects of the medic promotions units start with (they benefit units on the same or adjacent tile, not just the unit with the promotions itself), or the effects of Regeneration for Body mages. Life Affinity grants similar healing to medic one and can randomly grant medic 2 to a unit.

A spell to heal only one unit (other than the caster) would require python code to pick the unit and be more complicated/inefficient to code than one that heals a whole stack.

The extreme level of healing allowed by High Priests should be rather rare, outside the Faith Healers of the Unblemished Religion. You can train unlimited Faith healers with Medic 3 in cities with Infirmaries and the Unblemished faith in the new version, which should be more than enough.
9) Why is Guardsman promotion not protecting my mages from Paramanders? I got absolutely decimated by Khazad paramanders and there was nothing I could do to stop them. It was very frustrating. If Guardsman deliberately doesn't work against Paramanders, maybe remove this ability from them. They are a religious order, not some super assassins that can bypass my defenses better than Shadows and decimate my mages.
Paramanders, Luonnotar, Witch Hunters, and Runewyns have the ability to target specific unit classes and unit combats, using a BtS mechanic that is not effected by the Marksman or Guardsman mechanic. I definitely want to keep those abilities for Luonnotar, Witch Hunters, and Runewyns. I'll consider removing it from Paramanders, as Witch Hunters fulfill the same role more thematically. Maybe Paramanders should instead target Air/Chaos units Air Elementals and Chaos Marauders.
10) I got a druid with Life affinity and it could make my entire army immortal. It was late in the game so I couldn't use it, but isn't this super-OP? Druids in the lore are strong, but not make-entire-army-immortal level strong. This is power level of Blood of Phoenix late game ritual. Maybe Life mages should give immortality only for a turn? Useful before a major battle but not constant immortality to everyone like now. Or maybe let them give immortality only to one unit. This can be done by letting spell create the item "essence of immortality" and then letting another unit consume it?

Thank you for your time :)
I already made units likely to resist this spell. I may also add a level prereq.
 
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Thank you for your responses and your time! And for considering and implementing my opinons. :)


A key feature of the Foxmen is that they do not stay still or settle down anywhere. As such, their holy city and its holy shrine will not stay put either, but will randomly relocate itself every few turns to a random city chosen from among every city where the Foxmen are already present.

This sounds great and appropriate. What exactly are the benefits of their holy city compared to just religion being present?

Since this is less about my modmod than the modcomp included in MNAT, maybe @lfgr would be a better person to ask.

I'd love to hear from them, in general stability system is weird, but it is also one of my favorite features. I would love if it could be made more interactive, intuitive and balanced.

I'll think about it. I wish there was an easy way to make spells apply promotions to units that already other specific promotions, but without using python (which can get inefficient if used too much, and requires a pyprereq if I have a pyresult) I can only make them be granted to all the units that have their unitcombat included in the promotion's xml defines. I cannot let Paladins use the promotion without letting all other disciples do so, unless I change Paladins to Melee units.

Yeah, I'm not sure what to do about this. If Melee/Disciple distinction was based on how unit fights, then Paladins (and paramanders, crusaders etc.) should be melee units and not disciples. They use melee infantry tactics, weapons and equipment and should get access to their promotions. Disciple units should be ones that fight with spells and prayers I guess, making them similar to arcane units. But I'm also not sure what other implications on game this has.

It doesn't even seem that there are that many promotions available to disciples that are not available to melee. Maybe they could be tied to "Disciple" promotion, and Disciple unit combat could then be done away with. But again this may have other implications I'm not aware of.

Regarding this specific problem, I think that in the worst case, priests using enchanted weapons is not that bad after all. I guess that they would indeed use some enchanted equipment rather than mundane, and it probably still wouldn't make them overpowered in close combat. Alternatively, you could make two versions of the promotion: enchanted weapons (heavy) and enchanted weapons (light), giving heavy version with bigger bonus to melee, and light version with reduced bonus to disciples.

I just changed the Foreign trade -10% gold to +10%.

The schema does not let me let civis give extra yields to specific improvement types. I'll consider letting it grant +1 gold for every specialist, but tat may be too strong.

Thank you. What about giving foreign trade unlimited merchants? This is already tied to guilds, but guilds also allow unlimited sages and so does scholarship. So this would be an alternate source of unlimited merchants for those who do not have guilds. It is useful and also thematically appropriate. Civ running foreign trade could expect many great merchants, which sounds nice. Or, maybe allow Caravans only to those who use foreign trade and make them stronger?

Regarding Mercantilism, it also isn't very powerful compared to Agriculture, and comes in the late game. In our would and probably in the lore, mercantilism is based around accumulation of physical wealth in the form of precious metals, by exporting as much goods as possible in exchange for gold and importing as little as possible. So this is basically a Khazad ideology. Ideally, Mercantilism should be such that dwarves want to use it. Could you make it so that Mercantilism allows a better version of wealth, which converts 100% of hammers into gold instead of 50%? This would allow industrial powerhouses like Khazad to use their industry to amass even more gold. Alternatively, it could give +1 hammer or gold to towns.

Guilds civic shouldn't really give national instability. It is not as if guilds are hated by the population. Plus, for balance reasons, we don't need more late game instability anyway, and guilds aren't overpowered to need a penalty.

Conquest prompt that appears when you discover its tech says that it provides extra gold on city capture, but that it also makes cities lose extra population. Is this still true? Maybe add it in the civic description or remove the info from the prompt.

Sluaghs are invisible with a different type of invisibility than other units, to keep them truly invisible. I thought about letting Angels of Death or units with Arawn Death affinity the ability to see them, but that just causes problems limiting their ability by making them fight and kill such units.

Lore-wise I guess it would be appropriate, because Angels of Death would basically send their souls off to Arawn. Game play wise, I'm not sure, maybe it isn't a good idea because the only unit that you'd use to find the souls would also be the unit that forces you to destroy them.

How do you know who can be resurrected? I was curious and used world builder to find the soul of Baron Duin and managed to resurrect him. It was very cool, but without worldbuilder I wouldn't know where to use the spell. For non heroes, it can be even worse as you don't even know if you can find them, let alone where.

Maybe losing an unit that turns into sluagh should teleport sluagh in some graveyard near owners capital city, or in capital city itself if no graveyard is available, with a popup saying that "legendary warrior was buried in X"? So that you can know where to look at?

This is also where the "reverse hidden nationality" would come handy, one that makes units peaceful to everyone instead of hostile. That way you could find sluaghs without having to kill them.

The Sluaghs added randomly to Graveyards have a limited duration, unless the grave is Hallowed with the Death 1 spell. That spell makes the sluaghs permanent so they may be resurrected later.

Sounds nice. In my games, every graveyard had one sluagh inside, so I guess that they spawn and disappear constantly, Does it mean that hallowed graves can eventually collect many sluaghs, if they keep appearing but not disappearing?

No, I prefer having certain areas of the world naturally stronger in specific mana types even without unique features and encouraging players to research techs based on the mana available nearby. The Dispel Magic spell would be nerfed by going to all raw mana like in vanilla FfH2.

Having a tile provide more than one source of mana is impossible without some major C++ changes or some very ugly and inefficient python code.

This is fair argument, I agree. Too bad for the limitations.

Paramanders, Luonnotar, Witch Hunters, and Runewyns have the ability to target specific unit classes and unit combats, using a BtS mechanic that is not effected by the Marksman or Guardsman mechanic. I definitely want to keep those abilities for Luonnotar, Witch Hunters, and Runewyns. I'll consider removing it from Paramanders, as Witch Hunters fulfill the same role more thematically. Maybe Paramanders should instead target Air/Chaos units Air Elementals and Chaos Marauders.

Thank you. Just consider that targeting Air elementals and Chaos marauders first could make them less useful, as they are usually summoned units that you do NOT want to target, as they disappear on their own. Instead, maybe give them bonus against units with Air and Chaos spell promotions, like the Slaying promotions give bonus against racial promotions?

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Is it ever possible to spread Order in the Veil or Undertow holy city? Would doing so make the holy city disappear? I wasn't able to spread it, cultists always won in the street clashes, so I gave up :/ I wanted to keep the city for its wonders, but maybe I made a wrong choice. :D
 
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