[MOD] MagisterModmod

I probably would have released an update yesterday had Kael not asked me to help him edit a full History of Erebus google document, including the events of the Age of Invention and the Age of Ruin that followed. It go me thinking of making some more changes to fit the new lore.

I am not supposed to share the document so I cannot reveal too much, but did at least get his permission for a pedia update for Gaelan.

I also learned where the Unraveling were locked away, and how the Four Horsemen were unleashed. It did not happen until the Age of Ruin, after the Matronae have fallen.
Spoiler :


The main change in Gaelan's story is that he did not summon Hastur, but rather a Root of Fear, one of the Seven Aspects of Mammon. It also however references a mind palace be built in the dream world of Euphoria, a world created by Condatis and Hastur before the Godswar, back when the two archangels were lovers, and ruled by their daughter Caer.


Stephanos was imprisoned within the Heron Throne, before the Patrians found it and made it the seat of the Order, long before they gifted it to Falamar and Rhoanna. Once it is destroyed by Belphegor (the son of Agares and Bhall, a Prince of Hell greater than any Archangel, who was summoned into the body of Flauros by a group of possessed by demons which Gosea had released from Basium's maul), The White King escapes and proceeds to conquer.

Buboes was locked within the Murderer's Blade, which Badb had locked away in his wandering castle. One of Belphegor's servants unleashed by Gosea kills Badb with this blade, unleashing Buboes, who took the blade and caused war wherever he went.

Yersinia is imprisoned within Seven Urns or Rotting Flesh. A plague is released whenever any is opened, but they must all be opened for Yersinia to escape. Another of Belphegor's servants unleashed by Gosea does so.

Ars Moriendi is locked inside the Heartstone. After Belphegor seduced Sarabride, she destroys the Heartstone and the Lilim for refusing to give it to her, unleashing Ars Moriendi.

Abbadon, Lord of Locusts was bound in a pit in the Underhome. In later ages the dwarven city of Vallum is built atop this pit. The Vigil of the Deep and the Umberguard make sure Abbadon is never released. Belphegor sends servants to unleash Abbadon, but they are caught and executed.

Meshabber of Dis was bound within the City of Dis. Gosea herself tried to return to hell to release him, but Basium intercepts her. At the Throne of Hell, he reclaims his maul and defeats Gosea and myriad demons she unleashed against him.

Apophis the Endless Hunger wanders Erebus as an immortal goat, who seems like a normal animal except that anything he eats is utterly destroyed. He is bound in that form by a bone circlet that lies at the bottom of the black sea beyond the razor-glass plains of Naraka. Belphegor sends an agent to retrieve it, but she is killed by Wraiths.


Another unrelated reveal that I think I can share is that the Masks of the Coven of the Black candle are not merely magical artifacts, but True Angels. The Masks are the Seven Aspects of Esus, the greatest of his servants besides the archangel Iaegus. The Compact does not apply to the Seven Aspects of any god. Presumably wearing one of his Aspects is the loophole Esus used in order to get around the Compact and enter Creation on his own.




I'm thinking that in order to reflect this lore in my modmod, I'm going to allow evil players to summon the Four Horsemen on their own (if their events have not introduced them as barbarians already).

I'd probably make them permanent summons that require Sundered (making this easiest for the Sheaim, although Gosea has the promotion too and anyone can train her as the Coven* hero) as well as the appropriate equipment promotion.

(I made the Heron Throne into an item that can be dropped into or picked up from a city, like Mokka's Cauldron or the Crown of Akharien. It has art based on the Statue of Zeus wonder, but with Zeus himself made invisible and the rest of he model desaturated and brightened.)


At first I was thinking each Unleash Unraveling spell should just have an AC requirement of half of the associated unit's Armageddon event, but that might let the Sheaim summon Stephanos way too early. I'm thinking now that it should require Malevolent Designs, and am wondering about whether to include an AC prereq at all.

I don't want the spell to be able to create multiple versions of each Unraveling, so I'd only let the spells work if none has appeared yet. I think I'll increase the AC requirements for the Four Horsemen to give the player a chance.


I'm thinking I may also add Apophis, Abaddon, and Abaddon's Pit to the game.


* The document says that Ceridwen's religion is named "The Masked Coven," but also called "The Between." It is "a small religion of mostly sorceresses whose spirits, minds and occasionally bodies explore worlds beyond Erebus." Technically the Emrys and the Chainbreakers are separate cults, although they also serve Ceridwen.

I just changed the name of the religion from "The Chainbreakers" to "The Between," with "Coven" used as the adjective form of the religion's name.

I changed Chainbreakers to be a religious champion, available at Fanaticism like Paramaners and Crusaders. They can ignore border restrictions, stir up Servile Revolts, target slaves, convert slaves to more Chainbreakers. The art is a recolored Repentant Angel, with a whip of chains, plus a dark hood and cape based on the Sons of the Inferno.

The Emrys is the Sheaim replacement for the Chainbreakers, available at Sorcery.I changed the art to a recolored Son of the Infero, with a Svartalfar Druid Crescent moon staff and the religion icon halo. The Emrys can now move through rival territory and steal arcane units from rivals without war.

I'm thinking I may make Mobius Witches into the clerics of The Between, allowing any civ to train them and letting them spread the faith. The Sheim would still get them for free through planar gates, and would likely found the religion through such a Mobius Witch.


I altered the art of the Satyr Beastmaster, Druid, and Yvain. The beast master has the same head and sholder covering as the human beastmaster. I used that same nif model and added a cape for Yvain and the Druid


I included new art for a variety of Items so that is is easier to tell equipment apart when it is dropped. I spent way too long trying to figure out how to make the body of a Lanun maceman invisible just to use his boots. I never did discover how, but instead opted to flip him upside down so that everything but the boots would be rendered below ground. I took a similar tactic on Pelian's Pallium and the Umbra Cloak, using part of the Malakim immortal art that also includes a spear which I could not eliminate but could change the coordinates so that ti would be hidden underground. Unfortunately it still shows up if dropped on hills or mountains. I couldn't make the model low enough to always hide it and not sometimes hide everything else. For the Heart of Stone I tried really hard to use just a single gem from the Dragon's Hoard, but the gems were in groups of multiples and trying to resale things and hide most underground prooved too hard. I ended up using an old druid staff/club with the handle hidden underground, as I could not figure out how to make it invisible.
 

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Would that mean the four horsemen are actually four of the Unraveling, together with Meshabber, Apophis and Abaddon? Or was that unrelated to the four horsemen bit, and the knowledge found elsewhere in the document? Either way, it sounds super cool and i'm looking forward to when he releases it publicly.

The idea of summoning the four horsemen sound great, but maybe there should also be an Ashen Veil requirement - aren't they working towards the same goal ultimately?
If you decide to not have an AC requirement, the summoning should at the very least increase it substantially (ideally to the same threshold that would spawn them in the first place).

Would the Unleash Ravaging spell simply summon the first horseman not already summoned (so it would go Stephanos > Buboes > Yersinia > Ars Moriendi), or would it be expanded to include any of the other three major evil figures? If not, would Apophis be a random event causing him to spawn, and Abaddon the result of a lair exploration or likewise?

The Chainbreakers/Between change sounds good, and i especially like the idea of making Mobius Witches trainable to other civs with the right religion. Chainbreakers/Between were already good even for non-Sheiam, but with that added risk or restriction for slavery.

As for your release schedule, i personally would prefer to see a release in the near future of features already tweaked or discussed in the thread, versus a larger update that includes all of this updated canon. The kraken spawn issue is rather substantial, and it makes water resources almost impossible to control.
 
Would that mean the four horsemen are actually four of the Unraveling, together with Meshabber, Apophis and Abaddon? Or was that unrelated to the four horsemen bit, and the knowledge found elsewhere in the document? Either way, it sounds super cool and i'm looking forward to when he releases it publicly.

The idea of summoning the four horsemen sound great, but maybe there should also be an Ashen Veil requirement - aren't they working towards the same goal ultimately?
If you decide to not have an AC requirement, the summoning should at the very least increase it substantially (ideally to the same threshold that would spawn them in the first place).

Would the Unleash Ravaging[sic] spell simply summon the first horseman not already summoned (so it would go Stephanos > Buboes > Yersinia > Ars Moriendi), or would it be expanded to include any of the other three major evil figures? If not, would Apophis be a random event causing him to spawn, and Abaddon the result of a lair exploration or likewise?

The Chainbreakers/Between change sounds good, and i especially like the idea of making Mobius Witches trainable to other civs with the right religion. Chainbreakers/Between were already good even for non-Sheiam, but with that added risk or restriction for slavery.

As for your release schedule, i personally would prefer to see a release in the near future of features already tweaked or discussed in the thread, versus a larger update that includes all of this updated canon. The kraken spawn issue is rather substantial, and it makes water resources almost impossible to control.

Yes, Kael publicly revealed that the Four Horseman are all members of the Unraveling on Reddit almost a year ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/fallfromheaven/comments/doq9nh/apophis_the_endless_hunger/

Tying the release of the Unraveling to The Ashen Veil may make sense, but tying them to The Between would make just as much sense if not more. Ceridwen is the deity most intent on destroying the world, while Agares would rather corrupt it enough that The One will destroy it Himself.
Spoiler :
Of course, Agares had already been deposed before the Age of Ruin.


I was going to have a separate spell for each member The Four Horsemen, each requiring the specific piece of equipment to which they were bound. I'm not sure whether I'd add a similar ability for the other Unravelings.
 
Please suggest why I can not attach Commander to an unit. Do I need to research some technology? Any other requirements?
I installed latest version of Magister modmod (from the first message of this thread). I set 'Advanced tactics' options on, using Decius via Calabim in this game.
 
You should have a new button on your moroi that attaches the GC, rather than clicking the commander himself.
 
I believe I now have the next update ready for release. I just created the archive and installers, but plan to play one more full game to make sure no error crept in at the last minute.

I had thought I'd release around at midnight, but I'm tired and have to go to work in the morning. I'll probably upload around dinnertime tomorrow.


This versions includes all the Imprimatur Council members, with custom art. (I don't think I have changed them since I last shared a picture, except for adding effects like flame auras.) Most, but not all, can be resurrected from sluaghs placed on unique features. Some will require Worldbuilder.

It includes all the Unraveling (The Seven Aspects of Agares, corrupted from Amathaon's Seven Fathers of Worlds), with means to summon them to your side.


It introduces new equipment:

Apricus, the Sword of Life, called Demonsbane as it shines with a light sufficient to slay most demons without even touching them. (Basium created this from a Phoenix using the Font of Life, at the end of the Age of Ruin. Only mortal hands can touch it. Non living units cannot pick it up and will automatically drop it.)

The Bone Circlet, which attracts hostile Wraiths and can transform Apophis the Endless Hunger from a goat back into a world-devouring giant serpent.

The Heron Throne, which is still built as a wonder but becomes equipment if the city is razed. It may be dropped into a different city, or destroyed to release Stephanos the White King, the first of the Four Horsemen and of the Unraveling.

The Urns of Rotting Flesh, which can make its carrier a Plague Carrier and can be destroyed to release Yersinia the Raining Ash.

The Uror Band, a necklace in which Os-Gabella imprisoned the Seven Norns, the Aspects of Arawn, when they failed to kill it. Its grants high death affinity but will kill any mortal that tried to carry it.

Tan'elyn, the Crown of the Fey, which Arendel and Faeryl used to pass back and forth as the seasons changed. Those with Nature affinity may use it to dominate either Elves or Dark Elves, although they may resist. (It uses the old Crown of Akharien art, but with the gem changed to glow green. It bothered me that the unit art and button for the Crown of Akharien looked so very different from each other, so I changed it to use unit art based on the Shade's crown.)


The Heartstone can now be destroyed to release Ars Moriendi. Gosea no longer starts with this equipment.

Every piece of equipment now has different artwork so you can tell them apart before picking them up.



New Unique Features include:

Abaddon's Pit, a prison beneath the Underhome where Abaddon (one of the Unravelling) is chained and guarded by Dwarven forces loyal to Kilmorph. It can be explored and provided Entropy Mana. There is a spell to release Abaddon under your control.

Carnivean's Crag, where Carnivean may be resurrected.

The Clockwork City, where Velgyr can be raised

The Grigi Abbattoir, where Kezef may be raised

The Soul Gates, where Jenkin may be raised

The Spire of the Sun, where Tamesis may be raised

The Temple of Atonement, where Soqed Hozi may be raised

The Wandering Castle, where Badb may be raised. (Badb has the Murderer's Blade, formerly called "War," which may be used to release Buboes). This moves around randomly, taking Badb or his sluagh and any explorers with it.

The Cave of the Ancestors, which any unit may attempt the Trials to gain free promotions and magical abilities, but the odds of survival are pretty poor except for Wizards. Gastrius may be raised here and attached to another unit.

The Tapestry House got new art and a simplified name.

The Grave of Asmoday got new, better art, and Asmoday himself may be raised there.




Every god has his or her canonical religion mentioned by name, at least once in passing.

The Great Mediator event text was changed to reference an Adjudicator of the Grey Council, the church of Dagda.

The Nantosuelta constellation event mentions her artificer faith the Ring-Givers.

The City of a Thousand Gardens (The Kuriotates City of a Thousand Slums UB) was renamed the House of Plenty, after the great temples of Amathaon that focus on lavish hospitality.

The Shrine of Camulos event mentions upsetting the Sons of Discord rather than the gods.

The Occis religion is given its canon name "The Anointed," with the Aeron's Chosen promotion changed to mark certain elite warriors as the Occisors.

The Wardens of the Meek now have Stealth, and can carry more great people, as the Brotherhood of Wardens operate as a secretive Underground Railroad-type organization in evil societies.

The Church of Bhall is called The Ember Legion in the Tophet pedia entry. The Bhall-Orcs' "Sacrifice to Bhall" spell (which killed slave to let them cast again) has been replaced by "The Ritual of the Smokeless Fire," the canonical greatest ability of the worshipers of Bhall (mostly practiced by the Sanctus Inquisition of the Age of Magic). This is when a Bhall worshiper self-immolates in hopes of attracting the attention of an Ifrit (one of the Seven Aspects of Bhall, non-corporeal true angels that can only act through hosts) and becoming possessed with enough power to devastate armies. The Ifrit are represented by a powerful new promotion, sort of a combination of Rage and Herald's Blessing. The spell has a +75% chance of miscasting and just killing the caster. Even when it works it gives the caster a limited duration.

The Shrine of Arawn mentions that the religion of Arawn which the god completely ignores is properly called the Eternal Cabal. It also references The Haunted, the canon name for the agents of Laroth who worship his as the new god of death.

The Chainbreakers have been renamed "The Between" (with the adjective form "Coven" as Kael presentd the offical name as "The Masked Coven" which "The Between" being an alternate term), while the Chainbreakers are a religious champion available at Fanaticm. The Calabim cannot train them, and the Shaim have Emrys (availible at Sorcery) instead. Everyone can train Mobius Witches as the primary clerics of The Between.


The Foxmen gained a new late game religious champion: The Wind Knight. This is a Pegasus-Rider, with very high mobility and the power of flight and Air Affinity. (The Wind Knight is no longer a Hippus UU, but the Hippus can now have 7 ordinary Knights plus 7 Wind Knights.)

The Stewards of Inequity got new art for their Rentiers and Duergar, but their abilities remain the same.

The Circle of Gaelan promotion now marks units as evil, as this splinter group from the Laeran Cord believe they still serve Oghma but in fact follow Angels of Ceridwen. Gaelan's Summon Hastur Ability has been changed to Summon Root of Fear, but still transforms him into The Burnt Priest while otherwise replicating the effects of Hastur's Razor. Gaelan gets a new pedia entry taken from Kael's still secret lore revelations.

Hastur's Razor now causes units to flee in fear, as well as causing psychic damage and redistributing damage randomly.

The priests of the Laeran Cord are now canonically called Hierophants rather than Saperes.



Four canonical diseases have been implemented:

The Curse of Camulos acts a lot like Enraged, but is passed on to other units through combat. I think I forgot to add a way to add it initially except through worldbuilder.

Elven Pox prevents unit from casting and makes them almost magic immune. It spreads to casters when their python spells are resisted, but making it spread from resisting xml-only spells was not possible. I think I forgot to add a way to add it initially except through worldbuilder.

Gallowblight prevents healing and can deal lethal damage, but a unit can recover from it and gain Disease Immune and March.

Deathphage can be added by an Ashen Veil Death Affinity + Divine spell, or a stronger Undeath Affinity Channeling IV "Call of the Grave" spell that also deals potentially lethal death damage and raises nearby sluagh's as undead (including rival heroes and Imprimatur Council members, whom the Undeath Affinity Channeling III "Raise Undead" spell cannot). Any living unit that dies with Deathphage will return as Undead (unless blocked by a Tower of Mortality or Hallowed Ground). They normally become Barbarians, but if they die with territory owned by someone with a Tower of Necromancy then they will belong to that player instead.



The Death Affinity Channeling IV "Make Mortal" spell is now just called "Mortality," and can deal lethal leth damage to living units as well as holy damage to destroy the undead and removes immortality from units nearby.
 
I can't get this to work, I did a fresh install of ffh2, media pack, patchN. Then the modmod, but I keep getting Load Error, fail to initialize primary control theme? I'm playing on Windows 10, through steam. Is there something obvious I'm doing wrong?
 
I can't get this to work, I did a fresh install of ffh2, media pack, patchN. Then the modmod, but I keep getting Load Error, fail to initialize primary control theme? I'm playing on Windows 10, through steam. Is there something obvious I'm doing wrong?
I have never used steam for Civ IV, but I believe I have heard that it installs mods in a different location. It may be the installer is trying to copy the base FfH2 files to or from the wrong place. You may have to manually copy the Fall from Heaven folder, manually rename it "Magister Modmod for FfH2," and copy the contents of the zip archive into it.

I just noticed that the archive this time leaves everything inside a "Magister Modmod for FfH2 October 10 2020 Changes" folder instead of "Magister Modmod for FfH2." You cannot just copy that folder into the FfH2 folder, but would have to copy its contents into it to overwrite all the changes.

As I note near the bottom of the first post, the mod's directory has to be that listed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Magister Modmod for FfH2\Resource\Civ4.thm:
Code:
// *** Control Bitmap Theme file

// Set the resource
resource_path   "Mods/Magister Modmod for FfH2/Resource";

// Setup common properties
include           "Mods/Magister Modmod for FfH2/Resource/Themes/Civ4/Civ4Theme.thm";

If you rename the mod without updating that file then it will look for the art/primary control theme in the wrong place. (If you play a copy of the mod but still have the original version with the right name it can still work, but will be reading some files from the other directory.)
 
I just found a couple of python bugs.

iLev is undefined in def helpCallAnimal in CvSpellInterface.py
You can fix it by adding this around line 7815
Code:
   iLev = 0
   for pCaster in lpUnits:
       if pCaster.canCast(eSpell, False):
           iLev = max(iLev, pCaster.getLevel())


In CvEventManager.py, iCasswallawn can be called in the mimic code's list of promotions not to be copied before it is defined in the code that lets an arcane unit become a Casswallawn by defeating the prior Casswallawn. iCasswallawn = gc.getInfoTypeForString('PROMOTION_CASSWALLAWN') should be moved up to the top of the function define, not within so many if statements.


Around line 852 of CvEventManager.py, under def onBeginGameTurn(self, argsList): in the code that moves the Badb's Wandering Castle around the map, I just added this code so that any signs identifying Wandering Castle (those placed by the Celestial Compass or for the Elohim at the start of the game) will move with the improvement tather than arking where the improvement used to be.
Code:
               if pBestPlot != -1:
                   sCaption = CvUtil.convertToStr(gc.getImprovementInfo(iBB).getDescription())
                   lCaptionPlayers = []
                   for i in xrange(CyEngine().getNumSigns()):
                       pSign = CyEngine().getSignByIndex(i)
                       if pSign.getCaption() == sCaption:
                           loopPlayer = pSign.getPlayerType()
                           lCaptionPlayers.append(loopPlayer)
                           CyEngine().removeSign(pSign.getPlot(),loopPlayer)
                   for loopPlayer in lCaptionPlayers:
                       CyEngine().addSign(pBestPlot,loopPlayer, sCaption)

(I would have just checked pPlotBB, but did not find a function to read the caption of a sign at a specific location so I instead had to search all signs. This code has the benefit of clearing up any signs that might have been left over from the improvement wandering around in games saved before you add this code though.)



In my next game after the release I played as the Sheaim in a game with several Arcane trait players (Alexis, Thessa, and 3 different Amurite leaders). I found the Emrys' ability to Seduce Sorcerers was way too easy to exploit. I'm thinking that the Emrys tech prereq should be moved back to Arcane Lore instead of Sorcery, that the odds of resisting their ability needs to be increased, and that they should probably be National units with a limit of 7. I'm considering making the Emrys bAlwaysHostile or bHiddenNationality so that other players can ill them off rather than letting them steal all their mages. I'm thinking I might remove the channeling promotions from the Emrys too, and perhaps give Channeling 2 back to the Mobius Witches since I made them national units with both Sorcery and Priesthood as prereq.


Does anyone else have feedback from the latest release?
 
How stable is this version? This is by far my favorite modmod but the last couple versions have frequently crashed midgame. I don't want to get involved and have it crash just when it gets exciting.
 
How stable is this version? This is by far my favorite modmod but the last couple versions have frequently crashed midgame. I don't want to get involved and have it crash just when it gets exciting.
basically this, my heart can't take another debugging session once everyone starts rolling out mages
 
I got the following Python error. I'm not sure whether it was a coincidence or not, but the Night Sun constellation event occurred at the same time.

Code:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "BugEventManager", line 366, in _handleDefaultEvent
  File "CvEventManager", line 8508, in onCityRazed
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'getCivilizationType'
 
How stable is this version? This is by far my favorite modmod but the last couple versions have frequently crashed midgame. I don't want to get involved and have it crash just when it gets exciting.

It is at least as stable as the last version, if not more so. I have not had any crashes, although a couple times it did still freeze up during another player's turn.

While using WB to search for any new unique features in the map that I was playing, I have found two Graves of Asmoday, which I believe that is supposed to have only one per map. I have a save of this game in case if you need it.

View attachment 572039
I noticed the Grave of Asmoday being duplicated too a couple times in my earlier play-tests after more unique features for this update. I never found out why it happened, but had not noticed it happen again in over a month. At one point I was thinking it was caused by the <bOutsideBorders>1</bOutsideBorders> tag, but some other unique features have that too and hey were never duplicated.

I got the following Python error. I'm not sure whether it was a coincidence or not, but the Night Sun constellation event occurred at the same time.

Code:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "BugEventManager", line 366, in _handleDefaultEvent
  File "CvEventManager", line 8508, in onCityRazed
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'getCivilizationType'

I assume it was a coincidence. This code is what runs when a city is razed. I recently changed it to that a razed city's population turns into sluaghs of settlers so that the inhabitants may be resurrected and used to found the city anew. The error seems to be in the code that gives the sluaghs the appropriate racial promotion. Apparently it is possible for iOwner to be null, so I should have checked whether it equals -1 before running some of the code.
 
Random notes from playing a bit: maybe increase the amount of turns between the wandering castle moving? Also maybe shrink the Temple of Atonement and Tapestry House models by something like 20%, rn they're overflowing from their tile and dominating the landscape a bit too much. Unsure if the turns are taking a bit longer to process from some new addition to the code. Otherwise seems cool and fun (and so far stable), though I haven't had the chance to poke around with much of the new stuff.

edit: just raised the city with the heron throne and didnt get any equipment. I spawned the equipment manually and seem to be unable to pick it up by anyone (or be deleted, but I figure breaking it is a spell)?
 
Last edited:
Hi! I hope this isn't a frequently asked question, but is it intended that cities have to be founded with a minimal distance of 3 tiles rather than the 2 of Vanilla Civ? It makes planning your city grid so much harder.
 
I haven't logged in in years, but I had to log in and thank you for this mod. FFH2 has been my favorite game for years. I can't believe you have been modding it this whole time. I stumbled across this two weeks ago and am almost through my first play through. The amount of content is staggering. Thank you for an amazing FFH2 experience.
 
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