[MOD] MagisterModmod

should we expect a stability/bug fixing patch anytime soon? Just trying to plot out my campaigns :crazyeye:
 
Having a lot of issues playing past the early game, once civs reach a certain size/tech level it seems like it becomes a race for them to get some hangup
 
How does one get Undeath Affinity Ritualists (for Deathphage)? I tried spawning Ritualists and upgrading Adepts to Ritualists via WorldBuilder in hundreds, but not a single one got Undeath Affinity (though about 20-30% got Entropy Affinity). The same was true for Mobius Witches, only getting Dimensional Affinity.

I know there was a general change so priests only could get affinity for their associated sphere, but i was under the impression Ashen Veil would be an exception (due to Deathphage specifically). As it stands, the only way i can think of getting one is to summon an Imp with a ritualist, upgrade the Imp to Ritualist, and hope it retains Master of Magic for long enough to buy Undeath I + II and Undeath Affinity, which doesn't seem like the intended path. I suppose you could get a Commander with Undeath Affinity, but i don't know if there is one (that also is Ashen Veil or undefined religion).
 
How does one get Undeath Affinity Ritualists (for Deathphage)? I tried spawning Ritualists and upgrading Adepts to Ritualists via WorldBuilder in hundreds, but not a single one got Undeath Affinity (though about 20-30% got Entropy Affinity). The same was true for Mobius Witches, only getting Dimensional Affinity.

I know there was a general change so priests only could get affinity for their associated sphere, but i was under the impression Ashen Veil would be an exception (due to Deathphage specifically). As it stands, the only way i can think of getting one is to summon an Imp with a ritualist, upgrade the Imp to Ritualist, and hope it retains Master of Magic for long enough to buy Undeath I + II and Undeath Affinity, which doesn't seem like the intended path. I suppose you could get a Commander with Undeath Affinity, but i don't know if there is one (that also is Ashen Veil or undefined religion).
The Infernals have a unique disciple unit, the Dybbuk, which starts with both Divine and Undeath Affinity, and seemingly exists for the sole purpose of casting Deathphage since they have 2 strength and no promotion path except Lich (if they somehow reach level 10). They may be only halfway implemented; Magister mentioned intending them to have abilities to raise evil sluaghs and fuse with undead. Profanes can also promote to Liches eventually, though Malevolent Designs is a bit late for Deathphage to be relevant.

There is an ability currently implemented for any Demon to Possess Host and pass promotions to a Profane. This works for Dybbuks and summoned Imps and does allow them to pass casting promotions and Master of Magic (!) but will not pass affinities for some reason. The further problem is, affinity promotions other than Entropy are only available to be taken by Arcane units, and Profanes are of course Disciples, so Master of Magic is kind of useless to them anyway.
 
Ah, the Dybbuk has Divine, that's a good point - i knew they had Undeath Affinity but completely missed the Divine promotion.

They do also appear to be Planar Gate spawns, as i just had one spawn in one of my cities as Sheaim. I'm not sure what building prerequisite they have, however - the pedia doesn't specify, and my capital has built most things available to me in midgame.

Edit: I think Dybbuk are generated by the Temple of the Veil. It would fit with their Pedia requirement and that seems to match up quite well to the rate at which they are spawning.
 
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Some more assorted religious notes:
  • Several of the new religions are in an odd state where the priest spell requires a state religion but the high priest spell doesn't. Since high priests themselves require a state religion, this just means no priests can ever cast unless you follow their religion, which largely removes the point of being able to build a priest per city. I'm not sure if it's intentional or not though, as not all religions have the issue (Ashen Veil, Between, Wardens...)

  • Eternal Cabal's disciple line are lacking a promotion path. Undertakers can't promote to Crypt Keepers, meaning the only way to get them is the one free when reaching Theology or by promoting GPs.

  • Ember Legion has two Divine II spells and no Divine I. From previous posts it looks like Ring of Flames was meant to be Divine I. I'm also not sure how Menolly NuValle can ever be built, as the religion forces evil alignment on conversion. My best guesses were releasing Brigit or restoring Matron Essendi, but the former is impossible for an evil civ and the latter didn't change anything. Menolly is listed as an upgrade unit and comes with Matron Essendi, so was Restore Matron Essendi perhaps meant to create her instead of just turning a Firebrand into an early Ardent?

  • House of Plenty is kind of underwhelming. I never found a single situation where the Divine I Restoration spell was usable in two games with the religion (one Kurio, one Sidar under Shekinah). The Couatl is a neat idea but kinda depends on the spell's miscast chance, and I have no idea if the spell miscasting would be bad because I never even got to cast it once.

    The Museum of Maponos desperately needs a buff or rework, because it's almost entirely negative. You need 10 settled GPs just to balance out the gold it eats, and at that point it's only giving back a measly 10 beakers. At one point the Creation mana it provides was the balance, but that was when Creation Nodes couldn't be built except on natural spawns. It would make more sense if the bonus was applied to all specialists and not just GPs, though probably only in a single city at that point.

    I'm also not really sure what the point of the Pixie Gardens is, or of Pixies in general. I can see the appeal of summoning super-workers, but building them isn't that exciting when you have to wait for an endgame tech like Commune.

  • On which note, Commune with Nature is a barren tech since the old Druids were removed from the game. It's an endgame tech for the nature path but only offers a measly two rituals if you aren't Fellowship or HoP Kuriotates. I'm honestly not sure what could be done with it. Genesis could be made cheaper and repeatable perhaps? The giant beasts spawned by Nature's Revolt could be made buildable instead, as they tend to just run into stacks and die anyway. A more involved addition might be a way to restore the Fathers of Worlds, as an alternate endgame option to Malevolent Designs' releasing the Unraveling.

  • The new mechanics for the Circle of Gaelan are confusing. For one, the Trade Memories spell is only listed under the Circle of Gaelan promotion in the 'pedia. It doesn't say anywhere what the spell is intended to do, which I've gathered is trading a random promotion for a free promotion pick.

    Gaelan seems to have an alternate version which just grants him free promotions, and is the only one with the text about miscasting turning him into the Burnt Priest. But when it does miscast, it just makes Gaelan crazed or mutated or so forth and doesn't transform him or do anything to anyone else. From looking at the python, he needs to be over level 13 and will turn barbarian if the player isn't following Undertow or Stewards. But even with those conditions filled, it throws a python error and Gaelan doesn't transform even when going barb.

    Also, the miscast chance is really low. It seems like the intention is for Gaelan to have high miscast rate, but the inherent -35 from Channeling I and II leaves him with only 10% miscast rate even after his inherent +15, the +5 from Chaos Affinity, and the +25 from Circle of Gaelan. Taking two Metamagic promotions (an obvious choice with Laeran Cord) makes it impossible to miscast, at which point he can just take every single promotion for free with no risk.
 

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I could throw in some musings about the new religions as well:

The Anointed are very enjoyable to play. Their only limit is the late founding of the religion, but if you get an early Corporal or get Hamish as a GM it makes for a strong mid-game civ. I was fortunate enough to found it via Hamish as Calabim (which let me delay Rage for quite some time), and found Minotaurs to be a good unit for their heavy tech req of Alteration + Malevolent Designs. Luidag still has Body III, which is now Strengthen rather than the enraged spell. I don't know whether that is intentional or not, but i like it mechanically at least since it gives you a reliable way to get the Strong promotion on your units (which seems appropriate for the Anointed).

I haven't ran Ember Legion as state religion, but whenever i build the Eternal Flame i always find myself training some Zealots & Firebrands to spread it due to the +2 happiness from Tophets and free Resist Fire. As Natch pointed out, fixing Ring of Flames to be Divine I instead of Divine II would help make the faith more appealing to adopt.
Also, in my most recent game as Grigori i built the Eternal Flame and clicked the popup to convert (since it doesn't matter as Grigori if you say yes or no). Unexpectedly, my alignment was changed to evil (though the religion was never adopted as state religion, as expected). It seems the alignment change happens before it verifies you can switch to it.

I have also yet to adopt House of Plenty. I have been tempted to do so, but the high cost requirement of the HoP wonder has kept me from doing so, and in each case i've found it easier to just try to get Archmages with Abundance to supercharge my cities rather than get the wonder. I too have not used Restoration at all, but the Couatl is a good early unit if you can some extra Creation mana and let it start getting some promotions.

I've mentioned the Laeran Cord before, but just to reiterate: I think adopting it should give beakers (either holy city only, or all cities) and that Saperes should be able to get Channeling II. I noticed Sapere alone start with the Arcane promotion amongst Disciples. As it is inaccessible to other disciples, perhaps Channeling II could be purchasable together with Cloistered? I feel like the Circle of Gaelen's draw has always been the magic resistance and quicker access to Channeling II together with late-game Mages/Wizards with Channeling III, rather than exclusive access.
Also, Embarr costs -1 and as such cannot be trained. I couldn't find any way to get him otherwise (such as via a ritual or Cave of Ancestors)

The Ring-Givers Artificery is a strong building. Even before this patch, I found myself often getting the Guild of Endeavours for the free mana + forges (thereby delaying Smelting significantly), and the ability to (with Alteration) construct Artificeries in each city makes for a powerful transition from mid to late game, even without adopting the faith. The Tinkers and Techtons's ability to build improvements is strong on it's own (as they serve a similar role to Mud Golems for non-Luchuirp civs). I think either nerfing the building slightly or making it entirely unavailable to non-state religion (like the Archive) would balance out the significant boosts it gives.

The Sons of Discord are fun, but strange. I noticed the Eristic are Rebellious, which makes it very important to not sit idle with any and only use them to spread the religion, but at one point i built an Agonist who was rebellious while running another state religion (Laeran Cord i think, but cannot exactly recall). I don't know if i got bad luck on a Mutated roll or if there's an unmentioned cause due to civic, religion, alignment etc.

Tangentially related, i noticed summoned units can get Aspect of War. I had this happen to me multiple times as Sheaim when spawning Spectres, which made for some amusingly strong summoned defenses.


Additionally, as Natch said, some of the Divine spells probably need to be adjusted for state religion requirement. Rescue Refugees i think should require state religion, as should HoP Renewal. I also agree that Vitalize or a repeatable Genesis would be much appreciated. It feels awkward as Calabim for example to switch to Unblemished for ten-odd turns so i can upgrade some terrain, or to be deprived the ability to do so as Grigori or Illians (not that they mind it as much, though).

Finally, i noticed the Doviello can build the Catacomb Libralus, and right off the bat too when they get to Knowledge of the Ether. Perhaps they should be unable to build it at all, considering their less-than-stellar history with books (even ones made of humans).
 
I'd like to get a stability patch release, but things seem less stable now than at my last release for no reason I have yet discovered.


What would you think if I let priests cast their spells without state religion, but with a high chance of miscasting?
I just implemented and am about to start testing a mechanic where the Divine promotion's pyperturn effect (which was already there for letting The Matronae disable divine spells) adds or removes another promotion (currently called "Without Arda") based on whether the unit's religion does matches the state religion or is within national borders of a player with that state religion. The promotion currently does nothing but increase the chance of miscasting.

(Canonically speaking the Arda is the term for the power and protection that a god gives to his servants, including archangels. Kilmorph was not able to stop Odio's assault until Aeron agreed to remove his Arda from Odio, and Cernunnos lost Sucellus's Arda for a time when he left Sucellus's domain to follow Gower into hell. The Compact gives the gods freedom to do almost whatever they want with their own worshippers but limits their ability to use miracles to harm those who do not worship them, so it makes sense for divine spells to work better where the caster's faith is the official state religion. It might make even more sense if it was based on something like the percent influence the religion has, but that code could get more complicated and might involve random number generation that could risk slowing the game or causing OOS issues.)


I fixed the Sexton>Undertaker>Cryptkeeper upgrade path. I'm not sure how I'd overlooked that before.

Yeah, I meant Ring of Fire to be a Divine 1 spell. I just fixed that.

Menolly NuValle was mostly just an easter egg that I included because I liked the art I'd originally made as an alternate Ardent. You'd pretty much need to use worldbuilder to make a scenario with her. Canonically she is from the Age of Magic before Bhall fell, so it may not really make sense to have her in the current age. I have considered making it so that the Ember Legion turns Neutral civs evil while letting the good stay good (which would require Python), but have not made that call yet.


I went ahead and make Genesis repeatable and made Gurid, Margalard, and Xien trainable at Commune with Nature, although the events can still make them appear before that and since they are world units would prevent you from training them if they already existed.


I just eliminated the Museum of Maponos' gold penalty.
I don't know if a weak priest spell is a big deal considering their main ability is to to be sacrificed for a lot of culture/production/research or forcing buildings.

I just added Smelting as a prereq for the Artificery and increased the building's cost a bit.

I'm thinking that in the next version the Archive won't have a sate religion requirement, but that instead of granting Cloistered to all Adept/Disciple units it will allow an ability to grant it only to units with the Arcane promotion and Laeran Cord religion. The Scribe/Hierophant will gain Arcane and keep it if upgraded to an adept class unit. I let Cloistered permit the purchase of Channeling 2.
I had considered a more lore appropriate method of gaining Embarr that would require acquiring and uniting the three pieces of his spirit, mind, and body, but I may just take the simpler route and let you train him for 1000 production or something.
I think you misread the code for Gaelan becoming the Burnt Priest. "if not pCaster.canAcquirePromotionAny() or CyGame().getSorenRandNum(18, "Memory Palace Destroyed") + pCaster.getLevel > 13:" does not mean he must be over level 13, but that he must either already have all available promotions OR the sum of his level plus a random number from 0 to 17 must be more than 13.
I have not noticed the python error but am about to test it (with that conditional commented out and replaced with "if True:") to try to figure out what is going happening. Edit: ok, I see now that when I moved the code for transforming Gaelan before the code for destroying the rest of the Circle fo Gaelan to prevent him from being killed before converted, that I forgot to move where I defined iCircle. That is an easier bug fix than I was expecting.Edit2 I found the game was also hanging in the loop apparently caused by checking for whether units were immune to the spell, but after deleting that is seems to work fine.


What would you think if instead for forcing civs running the Sons of Discord state religion to always be at war , I instead made it so that Sons of Discord units will be rebellious only so long as you are not at war? I think it makes sense thematically for such units to need an enemy to fight and to be loyal to you so long as you give them opportunities for such struggle but to view their leaders as their enemy when not given another target for their aggression.


I have code in place that should prevent Aspect of War from being applied to summons but it doesn't seem to work. I may need to go with a per turn effect for the promotion instead to remove it when ineligible.


I'm not positive, but I think that if I block the Doviello from building the Catacombs Libralus that it might destroy the wonder permanently if they ever even temporarily conquer a city where it was built. Maybe if I block it in python instead of xml it might get around that.


I tried seeing if I could keep the Grey Council as a voting body without keeping it as a civic, but it seems like without a civic prereq every player is automatically a part of it (which I don't mind) and automatically gets contact with one another and can start voting from the very start of the game (which I do mind). I'd prefer it if this vote type did not come into existence until the Grey Council religion is founded
 
These changes sound good overall. Maybe lower the Archive research bonus to 15-20% research ifi t becomes available to all civs, since it's generally so valuable to get control of lots of religions.

Could the Doviello perhaps have an unusable unique version in that case? Collapsed Library or something similar, providing no benefits. On one hand it's very fitting the Doviello would immediately just destroy the library, but i think it would be too frustrating. Perhaps their version costs 99,999 (or -1?) production to build, locking them out from even attempting to build it.

For the Grey Council, perhaps the Temple of Temporance could serve as the founding wonder of the council, a la United Nations / Apostolic Palace. I know the existing councils are already based on the concept, but the code for the Grey Council could perhaps be based on the simpler implementation. Or perhaps even a new wonder could be implemented, requiring the Grey Council state religion and for example Trade, that would actually begin the voting mechanics.
 
I'm not positive, but I think that if I block the Doviello from building the Catacombs Libralus that it might destroy the wonder permanently if they ever even temporarily conquer a city where it was built. Maybe if I block it in python instead of xml it might get around that.
It turns out that a civ having a wonder blocked does not prevent a player of that civ from capturing said wonder through conquest, or of having it captured back afterwards.

Should I block them from building both the Catacombs Libralus and the Library of Oghma, since their inability to build the prerequisite mage guilds and libraries respectively would make both available without the normal building prereq?


For the Grey Council, perhaps the Temple of Temporance could serve as the founding wonder of the council, a la United Nations / Apostolic Palace. I know the existing councils are already based on the concept, but the code for the Grey Council could perhaps be based on the simpler implementation. Or perhaps even a new wonder could be implemented, requiring the Grey Council state religion and for example Trade, that would actually begin the voting mechanics.
That is what I originally had in mind, but it doesn't seem to work that way. I can give a wonder the
<DiploVoteType>DIPLOVOTE_GREYCOUNCIL</DiploVoteType> and <bForceTeamVoteEligible>1</bForceTeamVoteEligible> tags like the Apostolic Palace uses, but if I don't add a civic prereq to a DIPLOVOTE's define then the game seems to make everyone a member of that council from the start and gives them contact with all other members at the start of the next turn. I'm guessing there was some DLL change Kael, Tholal, or lfgr made that is responsible for this.
 
What would you think if I let priests cast their spells without state religion, but with a high chance of miscasting?
I just implemented and am about to start testing a mechanic where the Divine promotion's pyperturn effect (which was already there for letting The Matronae disable divine spells) adds or removes another promotion (currently called "Without Arda") based on whether the unit's religion does matches the state religion or is within national borders of a player with that state religion. The promotion currently does nothing but increase the chance of miscasting.
I like the idea in principle, but it seems like it would need some balancing based on the specific religious spells. For example, Shield of Faith is a permanent buff that only needs to be cast once or twice, so miscast chance isn't that big a deal. Tsunami, on the other hand, is very dependent on timing and positioning to hit the enemy and avoid your own troops and improvements, so miscast chance would cause major difficulties. Under the proposed change I'd still want a Stonewarden in my supply line no matter my religion, but would rarely take the risk on a Cultist.

What would you think if instead for forcing civs running the Sons of Discord state religion to always be at war , I instead made it so that Sons of Discord units will be rebellious only so long as you are not at war? I think it makes sense thematically for such units to need an enemy to fight and to be loyal to you so long as you give them opportunities for such struggle but to view their leaders as their enemy when not given another target for their aggression.
I'm currently running a Balseraph/Discord game and that doesn't quite line up with my experience? Converting to the religion after building the Sanguine Fountain forced the Discord civic on, but when the war ended (by eliminating the enemy civ) I lost the civic but kept the state religion in peacetime. I'm able to build every religious unit except Agonists, and if I do enter a war then Discord kicks back on automatically.

I tend to view Rebellious units as dead men walking since they're more likely to go barbarian than recover, so it certainly wouldn't endear me to the religion if all units effectively suicided when war ended. Granted, I could cast Loyalty to prevent it, but that seems a little out of character. Maybe as an alternative, the religion could cause uprisings in cities when not at war, similar to the Cult of the Dragon?

On a related note, the Balseraph penchant for mutation has let me see a lot of Aspects of War in one game. Several Freaks started with the promotion, and my pride and joy is the Great Bard Sundered Aspect of War Taneath, who mutated due to his Fire Affinity and will probably be used to unleash some Unraveling for lack of better ideas. I don't know if this possibility will be staying in, but if so I suggest Aspect of War should offer an ability to convert whatever unit it's on to a SoD unit, in the same way Wanderlust allows converting any unit to a Vagrant. The Sons are supposed to try and track them down, so they should have some reward for actually acquiring one.

Also, the Disrupt spell seems to be broken, though it's hard to tell what's wrong since it used to be both an Esus and Undercouncil restricted spell and has all those requirements still listed.

I'm not positive, but I think that if I block the Doviello from building the Catacombs Libralus that it might destroy the wonder permanently if they ever even temporarily conquer a city where it was built. Maybe if I block it in python instead of xml it might get around that.
Should I block them from building both the Catacombs Libralus and the Library of Oghma, since their inability to build the prerequisite mage guilds and libraries respectively would make both available without the normal building prereq?
Considering the Laeran Cord lore, the Doviello burning down the Library of Oghma on sight would be quite appropriate.

I assume if the Doviello were locked out of these wonders, the Clan of Embers would be as well? Since the Cord has two options for founding wonders, it wouldn't ban them from the religion entirely, so I don't see a problem with it. The National Epic also requires a Library though, and that one is more broadly useful and makes less sense to be locked; even orcs and wildmen should have an oral history. Maybe the two barbarian civs could share an alternate national wonder, something that still provides Commander points but without the emphasis on GP farming?
 
I think the Civilopedia could use some fixes to make it more user friendly. In particular, the Units category could be split into regular and unique/hero units since it's quite long as it is, and the new religions' entries should have descriptors for what is required to found them (wonders, etc.). I also would prefer if the Civics list could be subdivided into the different categories like it is in some mods but that might just be my own personal preference.

On that note, would it make sense for more state religions to give access to unique civics? Either with some civics shared between religions or with new ones entirely.

-

Unrelatedly, I've also been wondering if it would be possible (code-wise and AI-wise) to represent the Hippus's mercenary occupations through a new diplomacy option, a Mercenary/Client relationship:

-The Mercenary cannot choose its own diplomacy options (at peace/at war), those are the same as the Client's.
-Similarly to The Cult's scenario, the Mercenary gets a sum of gold for killing enemy units. Exceptions are fights against Barbarians or fight involving Hidden Nationality. The Client pays that sum.
-To avoid abuse, the relationship could be limited in time like a Peace Treaty.

I think this could ideally be represented by a "Mercenary" Trait available to Hippus leaders and whoever controls the Guild of the Nine.
 
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Hey! Just passing by to say that this is one of the best mods for FFH, if not the best. The unique content is amazing, all religion and dragon "stuff" are missed when i play the other ones.
I want to adress one revelant thing > The game really take its time between(best religion btw) turns, like 20 seconds on turn 50~, to around 5~8 min on turn 400-500. This happens in "custom" and "play now", in any map config, any size really. I mean, smaller size speeds up the game but its still slow compared to other mods. I have played Ashes of Erebus(RifE), Xtended "updated" (kozar post), ExtraModMod (MNAI), C2C, all of them with faster loading time between turns, at any size.
 
Oh i missed an update!
Thank you very much for your work.Keep it up!

I'm sorry for stupid question, but do i have to install everything from beginning or i could just rewrite existing modfiles (october 2020) with newest patch?
 
You should be just fine replacing existing files with the patch just by copy pasting, overwriting any conflicts. I think the latest patch breaks save games, so you should definitely back up your existing Magister folder if you want to keep playing on your existing saves.
 
You should be just fine replacing existing files with the patch just by copy pasting, overwriting any conflicts. I think the latest patch breaks save games, so you should definitely back up your existing Magister folder if you want to keep playing on your existing saves.
So i did right.
Thanks for confirmation
 
The Elohim feel like they are in a good position right now; with their reliable access to Brotherhood & Defender leaders it really feels like they become a defensive powerhouse in the midgame. One thing i think they could need a touch on is Corlindale; while it's good he got delayed to Strength of Will to keep him more in line with other archmages (inc. Hemah, although he's a step above in power due to Channeling IV), i think Corlindale is one of the weaker heroes. He's got a bigger chance of miscast than ordinary archmages (-25% as opposed to -30%), and while Arcane helps him vs resistance it's not a massive promotion to have. Pilgrim might be the real gem but it is so dependant upon what unique features you get. I don't think there's a list, but i know Bradeline's Well gives Death Affinity which turns him from mediocre to great.
While he is a Hero and as such can become a superior summoner once properly upgraded, the absence of affinity (since every archmage is going to have 2-3 generally speaking) makes him difficult to find a niche for. A pedia entry of what promotions you get from various unique sites might help in this regard.

Another thing i noted is i haven't been able to find the Heartstone anywhere. I don't know if i've just been having bad luck when exploring epic lairs, but i have yet to see it in any game after it was removed from Gosea, and haven't seen any rival units nab it either.
 
I too was rather disappointed in Corlindale in my last Elohim playtest. I'd forgotten about the code change that prevents world units from getting random affinities from their channeling promotions. To be honest I'm not sure there is a lore justification for him to have Channeling III. Canonically he was an ordinary Amurite mage who was excited to go to war and get to throw Fireballs at the Ljosalfar enemies, until he accidentally threw one that killed an innocent civilian woman and her children during his very first battle. He did not have the Strength of Will to pursue his goals no matter the costs (as Malchavic insisted is the most important part of being an Archmage instead of just a Mage) but decided that the costs of collateral damage were too much for fighting a war to be justified.

It would probably make more sense with the lore to remove Channeling 3, lower his prereq to Sorcery (+Way of Wise?), and give him Fire affinity plus maybe Spirit Affinity. (Those would be the same sphere affinities as Ethne the White; there is no reason to think his affinity is as strong as hers, but it may make sense that with the same combination of affinities his power too would depend heavily on whether he maintains faith that what he is doing is right.) It might make sense for him to keep his Amurite Wizard's spellstaff instead of having Pilgrim. I may also give him the Pacified promotion and make him regain it from combat, which would be passed on to his summons and prevent them from being used to kill other units (although I think his fireballs could still be used to take down fortifications.) I could make it so that he is not inherently defensive only but if the Pacified promotion wears off and he does kill it would traumatize him enough to regain it and become defensive only again for a time.


I haven't really updated the Pilgrim python code for a while and would have to look through the code to see exactly what each unique feature gives and then decide if I want to keep it that way. To be honest I'm not positive that the mechanic is worth keeping.


I don't recall seeing the Heartstone in a while either but the python makes it appear that it should be fairly easy to get as a result of exploring a lair near the Whispering Wood or Bradeline's Well.


This morning I made a change to how the various Masks of the Coven of the Black Candle enter the game. Instead of using python to place the masks on the map at the start of the game but not let them be picked up until Arcane Lore, I added this code to def onTechAcquired(self, argsList):
Code:
        if iTechType in [gc.getInfoTypeForString('TECH_ARCANE_LORE'), gc.getInfoTypeForString('TECH_OMNISCIENCE')]:
            iMask = gc.getInfoTypeForString('EQUIPMENT_MASK_KYLORIN')
            if CyGame().getUnitCreatedCount(iMask) < 1:
                pHiddingPlace = cf.findImprovement(gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_SEVEN_PINES'))
                if pHiddingPlace != -1:
                    newUnit = gc.getPlayer(gc.getBARBARIAN_PLAYER()).initUnit(iMask, pHiddingPlace.getX(), pHiddingPlace.getY(), UnitAITypes.NO_UNITAI, DirectionTypes.DIRECTION_SOUTH)
            iMask = gc.getInfoTypeForString('EQUIPMENT_MASK_GABELLA')
            if CyGame().getUnitCreatedCount(iMask) < 1:
                pHiddingPlace = cf.findImprovement(gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_TAPESTRY_HOUSE'))
                if pHiddingPlace != -1:
                    newUnit = gc.getPlayer(gc.getBARBARIAN_PLAYER()).initUnit(iMask, pHiddingPlace.getX(), pHiddingPlace.getY(), UnitAITypes.NO_UNITAI, DirectionTypes.DIRECTION_SOUTH)
            iMask = gc.getInfoTypeForString('EQUIPMENT_MASK_ASMODAY')
            if CyGame().getUnitCreatedCount(iMask) < 1 and CyGame().getUnitCreatedCount(gc.getInfoTypeForString('UNIT_ASMODAY'))< 1:
                pHiddingPlace = cf.findImprovement(gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_GRAVE_OF_ASMODAY'))
                if pHiddingPlace != -1:
                    newUnit = gc.getPlayer(gc.getBARBARIAN_PLAYER()).initUnit(iMask, pHiddingPlace.getX(), pHiddingPlace.getY(), UnitAITypes.NO_UNITAI, DirectionTypes.DIRECTION_SOUTH)
            iMask = gc.getInfoTypeForString('EQUIPMENT_MASK_BARBATOS')
            if CyGame().getUnitCreatedCount(iMask) < 1 and CyGame().getUnitCreatedCount(gc.getInfoTypeForString('UNIT_BARBATOS')) < 1:
                pHiddingPlace = cf.findImprovement(gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_BROKEN_SEPULCHER'))
                if pHiddingPlace != -1:
                    newUnit = gc.getPlayer(gc.getBARBARIAN_PLAYER()).initUnit(iMask, pHiddingPlace.getX(), pHiddingPlace.getY(), UnitAITypes.NO_UNITAI, DirectionTypes.DIRECTION_SOUTH)
            iMask = gc.getInfoTypeForString('EQUIPMENT_MASK_ALEXIS')
            if CyGame().getUnitCreatedCount(iMask) < 1:
                pHiddingPlace = cf.findImprovement(gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_REMNANTS_OF_PATRIA'))
                if pHiddingPlace != -1:
                    newUnit = gc.getPlayer(gc.getBARBARIAN_PLAYER()).initUnit(iMask, pHiddingPlace.getX(), pHiddingPlace.getY(), UnitAITypes.NO_UNITAI, DirectionTypes.DIRECTION_SOUTH)
            iMask = gc.getInfoTypeForString('EQUIPMENT_MASK_FAERYL')
            if CyGame().getUnitCreatedCount(iMask) < 1:
                iFaerylPlayer = cf.getLeader(gc.getInfoTypeForString('LEADER_FAERYL'))
                if iFaerylPlayer != -1:
                    cf.giftUnitToPlayer(iMask, iFaerylPlayer, 0, -1, -1,-1)
I was expecting the code to be inefficient and slow the game down as it has to search the map multiple times for unique features, but when I tested it I noticed no slowdown whatsoever.

I wonder if it might make more sense to give different masks different prerequisite technologies. Maybe Omniscience would show you all of them, while the Mask of Asmoday requires Malevolent Designs and the Mask of Gobella requires Pass Through the Ether. I could make more pieces of equipment get added to the map by various triggers, including technologies, events, the creation of wonders, units, etc. I could for example make the Heartstone get added to the site of Bradeline's Well or the Whispering Wood when Gosea first appears, so she would not start with it but would be encouraged to retrieve it from the Netherworld.
 
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Lowering him to Channeling II makes sense given his lore pedia, and the Fire &Spirit Affinity + starting with Pacified would be really cool. It would force him into a much more defensive role in the beginning, and prevent using him from picking off weakened enemies once you get a few nodes of Fire (or Spirit, more likely, though i personally always try to grab the Eternal Flame for the sweet disciple xp). I was concerned that leaving him with only Channeling II could make him subpar, but this seems like a good balance. Definitely have Way of the Wise as a prerequisite though, i think - Righteousness or Rage would be too heavy tech invest for it.

I'd personally also like to suggest the Tower of the Elements guardian gets removed. It doesn't even need any boost to balance it out; i just find the guardian waking up every turn for orders very annoying. World Builder permits removing Lair Guardian, giving orders and then reapplying the promotion, but even this occasionally stops working and the guardian begins requesting orders. The elemental free promotions & ToM prerequisite are the real values of the TotE, although i just got to thinking maybe it should give free specialists for regular air/earth/fire/icewater nodes in addition to the unique improvements as well.
 
I'd personally also like to suggest the Tower of the Elements guardian gets removed. It doesn't even need any boost to balance it out; i just find the guardian waking up every turn for orders very annoying. World Builder permits removing Lair Guardian, giving orders and then reapplying the promotion, but even this occasionally stops working and the guardian begins requesting orders. The elemental free promotions & ToM prerequisite are the real values of the TotE, although i just got to thinking maybe it should give free specialists for regular air/earth/fire/icewater nodes in addition to the unique improvements as well.
This. The benefit of the guardian is very rarely relevant for me, and is just an irritation.
 
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