[MOD] MagisterModmod

[FireBlaze]

can't figure out what's wrong with this one other than that deleting all of Cardith Lorda's troops doesn't fix this Waiting on Civ

 

[ShimonSays]

Suggestion:
Implement the "Gone to Hell" victory condition as it was seen in Fall Further.
I just really like the idea of that victory condition, even though I don't like anything else from the Fall Further line of modmods.

 

[FireBlaze]

Should update the civilopedia on dwarven vaults to reflect the new value for overflowing (it still has the vanilla (?) values of +30% hammers +3 happiness instead of the current +25% hammers, morale bonus, GP bonus, etc...)

 

[Deadeyetim]

Ummm...are there supposed to be multiple str9 barbarian fire elementals running around wiping everyone out before turn 200? Shouldn't powerful lair enemies be (held) or something so this does not happen. I have counted 8 of them so far. Other than this I am thoroughly enjoying the mod and changes/additions.

 

[FireBlaze]

I got three Arian Kothrax from a Commander's recruit


e: also have you considered jacking up the weighting for the AI to have them camp Auric in New Muldyr? I end up seeing the AI effectively suiciding him with an understrength stack or even solo and losing all their traits too often.

 

[Maltazard]

I've found a repeatable and unrecoverable application hang up when completing the nature's revolt project, I'm attaching a save on completion turn.

Another thing I've noticed, is that sometimes I get two free units for completing a tech first, i.e. I got two free druids and two free archmages, one in the capital and the other in a random city. Hovewer I only got one free berserker(flurry) instead.

 

[Guru-Meditation]

Whats up with the high amounts of Krakens in the Water?

Cant properly use sea squares untill the late game, where youi can field a navy to to a cleansing battle . But untill then it takes so long that i dont really careabout sea resources any more when city placing. Want to use that Fish? -Too bad, Fising Boat gets eaten bya Kraken every 5-10 rounds. Making it overall not worth to plan for that, or invest resources ito it untill your fleet can preotect it.

 

[Nothrazim]

Whats up with the high amounts of Krakens in the Water?

The Maenalus now spawns krakens occasionally, but their invisibility makes them impossible to counter when combined with their high strength. In an earlier reply Magister said he would change them to be temporary spawns, living only for 2 turns, but as of the current version it's not implemented yet. I don't know when he is planning on releasing the one is working on, but i am looking forward to it for that reason - you need a massive (or very late game) fleet to have a chance against krakens (i have even taken the liberty of using WB to give myself Ironclads that i park on fish to prevent kraken pillaging, but that of course means AI opponents won't even try to attack me at sea..)

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I am getting close to ready to release the modmod, but accidentally broke some python code last night which was working earlier yesterday. I still need to fix that, and see if I can stop sluaghs from being generated when non-world unit heroes upgrade instead of die.


I've also been playing around some more with GIMP/Nifscope to make some better art.

I finally managed to figure out how to copy and paste objects from one Nifscope file to another.

I used this to create some custom art for Badb's Blizzard (combining a Blizzard, the Snow Wolf Den from Master of Mana, and the Calabim palace with some modifications to the skin to add more snow on the roofs), The Grave of Asmoday (combining the Necrototem without its glowing effects with two Jungle Altars; note that part of the Necrototem is underground and will not appear in game), and the Soul Gates (combining a Sepia tinted Tower of Alteration with 8 copies of the Gate of the Underdark from Orbis with the axis stretched to make them taller and thinner).

I tried making a version of the Tapestry House Entrance incorporating Succubus art, but found that units and buildings/improvements use very different versions of Nifscope and that trying to combin them always crashes the program. I ended up deciding that the Devil Portal from Master of Mana was better than the modified Mercurian gate I'd used before. I'm also thinking of giving this unique feature the simpler name "Kanna's Door."


I thought I had managed to add religious halo effects to some units like the Matronae Witch Hunters and Apostates, but while it showed up ok in Nifscope I could not see it in the game.



I never liked the art I'd showed before for Badb or Mikel Dylantyr, so I ended up making vastly superior versions by reskinning Stephanos.

However, I don't think I want these archmages to appear as mounted units, and am having trouble adjusting the models to make them pedestrian.

Most of my attempts to remove the horse model from the .nif file resulted in the game crashing. A couple of times I managed to delete the horse without a crash, but in those versions the rider was still hovering bowlegged as if still on horseback. Since the horse model might as well have still been there, and since I would rather keep the sceptre, I ended up just using the original "cataphractstephanos5.blend.nif" but changing "basic horse kopie.dds" so that the horse was invisible.

I found that using <KFM>Art/Units/Grenadier/Grenadier.kfm</KFM> with the invisible horse gives the unit decent walking and fighting animations, except that it hovers in mid air and faces the wrong direction.


Could anyone help me find a dismounted model for Stephanos, preferably one that works with animations that lets them move and fight like an archmage?

 

[Nothrazim]

Wish i could help with the model work (that Badb is looking sick!) but alas programming is my forte, not modelling or rigging.
The new unique features look very nice, though i wonder what sort of madman would willingly enter the Tapesty House Entrance / Kanna's Gate. Foolhardy adventurers, i suppose.

Is the grenadier file the same used by the recently implemented grenadiers? It is odd that it would give an error since it already exists in game, though saying that i haven't actually seen them in use (but i guess they would work since they look like standard Civ units).

 

[FireBlaze]

You can somewhat cheese various land based solutions to krakens, mainly involving tier 2 magic or loading some ranged units onto a trieme fleet. It's not ideal and a lot of times you wont have the hammers for it, but they're there.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Wish i could help with the model work (that Badb is looking sick!) but alas programming is my forte, not modelling or rigging.
The new unique features look very nice, though i wonder what sort of madman would willingly enter the Tapesty House Entrance / Kanna's Gate. Foolhardy adventurers, i suppose.

Is the grenadier file the same used by the recently implemented grenadiers? It is odd that it would give an error since it already exists in game, though saying that i haven't actually seen them in use (but i guess they would work since they look like standard Civ units).

Vanilla FfH uses <KFM>Art/Units/Grenadier/Grenadier.kfm</KFM> for 5 units, and other Grenadier.kfm files found within specific unit folders for 10 more units. (Most of the customized ones are for arcane units that I presume include special effects to show magical attacks.)

MagisterModmod uses a Grenadier.kfm for two dozen units, including the implemented grenadiers (which just use vanilla Civ4 art from the original model used as the basis for all the others.)

I was frankly surprised that Grenadier.kfm worked as well as it did, given that it is trying to animate a mounted unit as an infantry unit. The other kfm files I tried either caused the unit to be completely static or hovering while bowlegged.




Yeah, while the Devil Portal art is nice I wasn't sure either if it is the best representation for an entry to the Tapestry House. It is part of hell, but should be more seductive than foreboding. I just came to dislike my Mercurian Gate based artwork more.

I've been trying to see if I could find any building or improvement art that is compatible with the Succubus art, and finally found one of each: the Orbis Mod's building for the Weavers Tapestry Guild and the Snake Pillar.

Attached is a possible candidate which combines that building, the snake pillar serpent, and a dozen Succubi.

If I go with this version I'd probably call it "Kanna's Foyer" instead.

Edit: i just uploaded an image of an updated Kanna's Foyer, with some Succubi moved/resized and the color scheme made more appropriate for Dimensional Mana.

 

[ShimonSays]

Speaking of new models/art, are you going to change the model for the Ring of Carcer? It was quite confusing to see the giant Brigit as it currently is as compared to vanilla FfH2 where it's more of an aurora borealis.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

What do you think of this tweak of Kanna's Foyer? Canonically the Tapestry house should be crowded with both demons and angels, as well as some assorted mortals, elementals, etc. I included a few Succubi, some wingless seductresses with the Luidag model, a herald flying out a window, and 3 angels from the Ophanim rider models. (I only used unit models that are a single piece so it is easier to copy and paste them.)

 

[Calavente]

it's cute

I hope you'll make all the right links in the pedia (links to page or strategy text) between all the "new" elements :
- the mask of X allow for X spell in X condition to liberate X.
but also "X can be liberated / awoken if X condition is met using the mask on point X"
- both of "Kanna's Foyer awakens Kanna if Y condition is met" AND "Kanna can be awoken on the Foyer if Y condition is met"
- Z cult can be founded when Z is built. Z can be build with Z tech...etc

otherwise it'll feel like some clutter everywhere (or only circular information that misses the starting point : Aerons cult is founded by a Aerons chosen unit, but the aeron chosen units all need the Aeron cult in city in order to be built.... etc.

(another way would be to use the "quest" feature (I think it is also in MnAI ???) and the existence of X or Y feature + some conditions opens events or "quests" recorded in the "quest" which would allow you to know which of those new features are possible.

...etc

 

[Lord Meire]

Gyra doesn't seem to exist in the game outside of the civilopedia, so the spell to summon her with a shade does nothing.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Thanks to PPQ_Purple we now have working animations for Badb and Mikel Dylantyr, and my Nifscope skills are improving enough that I'm trying to improve some more custom units.


I finally managed to get Gastrius to have the proper blue flames instead of orange, and switched Mikel Dylantyr to orange flames instead of blue.

I could not manage to change Herve's magic glow from blue to green, but did swap his Svartalfar Druid crescent staff for the Ljosalfar Adept Leaf staff.

Since Herve got the leaf staff I switched Majen to using the fancier High Priest of the Leaves staff. It seems to incorporate a Pseudo-dragon, which is a creature of Amathaon that is often a familiar to goodly elven mages.

The new version of Leucetios is a reskin of Mary Morbus (just changing the trim from red to light blue and the hair from red to dark brown), with the toxic effects removed and with Prior's staff with glowing effects. The old version was just the normal female elf settler, which was kind of low resolution and didn't look great when I made the unit larger.


I managed to add Stephanos's crown instead of a crown halo to the previous Laroth model but was still very disappointed in his art compared to everyone else so I've been trying other options. I don't love any of them, but for now I am leaning towards a Sidar shade with the Netherblade and a reskin incorporating the injuries of a Repentant Angel ( as a younger Laroth at least was known to feign self harm and encourage real self harm in others).


I wanted to add a ceremonial mace to Soqued Hozi, since she canonically had one that she used to beat her sister to death. I sort of managed to do that (using Stephanos's scepter), but her animations just held the mace off to the side while beating the enemy with her book. Since that book was part of the model and could not be moved, I ended up making a new model based on a reskin of the Grigori archmage but adding the Order halo and Stephanos's mace with the Malakim immortal glow. I'm thinking this is probably more appropriate for the founder and patriarch of The Order who ruled a corrupt Patria upon the Heron Throne after Kylorin repented of his evil ways.

(Now that I think of it it may be rather odd for Soqed to have a religious halo and no other Imprimatur Council member have any halo. Now that I can add and remove halos without breaking things, I wonder if maybe I should set apart every member of the Imprimatur Council with a halo showing not a religious icon but the button for the mana type they mastered.)


Jenkin now uses a Staff instead of an Axe and has some very subtle recoloring, but is still basically a big Soldier of Kilmorph.

Kezef now used two axes instead of one big paddle thing.



I'm thinking of just calling the unique feature Tapestry House now rather than referring to an Erebus facing entrance by non-canonical name Kanna's Foyer.

I added a couple Tapestries to the walls in the only places that would not get broken up and look horrible. The same two tapestries are repeated on 4 walls, one interior and the lower back exterior walls as they all use the same part of the texture. You of course cannot see any details at this resolution, but both tapestries were copied from renaissance artwork depicting Greco-Roman orgies.

I may have gotten a bit carried away making the Tapestry House a crowded party site. Its guests included many Succubi, 2 Repentant Angels, 3 Ophanim drivers, 2 Heralds, 3 Freaks (one standing on the others' heads), a naked Satyr, a Fawn, 2 Musteval assassins, 2 great artists, an Elohim adept, a Ljosalfar mage, a Sheaim Mage, and 4 Manes.

I'm thinking I may simply things and just call it the Tapestry house now.

 

[rpgarcher]

I'm not afraid of a little manual changing of some files if need be, but there are 2 things I was wondering if someone could give me advice on making happen:
1) how can I disable (or pacify) krakens. IE prevent them from spawning, prevent them from entering culture, or make them unable to pillage. I find that every sea game I play becomes completely overun with krakens, even when I use world builder to delete them at every opportunity
2) is there a way to turn off infinite exploring of super dungeons? I find that every land game I play becomes completely defined by my ability to camp troops on super dungeons, and get infinite xp and artifacts

 

[Nothrazim]

Either set the krakens to only be spawned for a turn or two (as is going to happen in the upcoming patch), or use world builder to park an Ironclad on every resource - they have high enough strength to reliably defeat krakens, and have Perfect Sight so they can actually see the krakens.

 

[Calavente]

I think it is the Rinwell island that spawns krakens.
go in the worldbuilder and remove it.

and I agree that the camping of legendary Lairs is what defines a win.