[MOD] MagisterModmod

[MagisterCultuum]

Long-time lurker, first-time poster and big MagisterMod fan reporting in. MC, would it be at all possible for me to get this pre-settled 21 Civ map to work with your modmod? What technical restrictions might be preventing it from working at the moment?

It did not have my modmod set as its mod path, and it contains close to 3 dozen references to units, promotions, improvements, or buildings which no longer exist in my modmod.

I changed all of those issues in Notepad++, and it seems to be working fine. (It wasn't working the first 4 times, because there were some changes I'd forgotten until I noticed them in the error logs.) I haven't played more than a couple turns, but any problems should have shown up upon loading.

(I'm a little upset because I was intending to come back to a game which I had forgotten to save in over an hour, and testing this map deleted the autosaves. I'm also kind of glad though, as it made me notice an error in my recent changes to the code that lets Barnaxus teach other golems. If I hadn't played a map with him already present then Barnaxus's ability would not work in my next release.)

The same changes I just made would probably make it work fine with older versions of my modmod too, but I haven't tested to be sure. Rather than upload the corrected version now, I have decided to place the file in the Scenarios folder of my modmod and include it in my next release (which should be before the weekend).

If the technical hurdles are too great, I'd be willing to use WB to re-create this scenario from Nikis-Knight's original 19-Civ map. However, I lack the know-how to add in the Mercurians/Infernals/2nd Illian cannon-fodder Civ, and how to modify each leader's attitude towards each other. Is there a more comprehensive WB-esque downloadable out there that could help, or would I have to pick up XML modding and the like? (I've been meaning to do this anyways... It would be a nice excuse to start).

The scenario files are not actually xml, but the worldbuilder saved game file type. I didn't know much about them until recently, but they seem even easier than XML. The biggest issue is being careful not to accidentally delete a BeginPlot or EndPlot reference and wind up with a missing plot in the middle of the map.

There are a lot of things that are impossible to change in worldbuilder which are easy to change by editing the file directly. (There are still some things that should be but aren't though, like the religion of a unit.) I'm sure you can figure out how to modify each player's attitude if you just open that map's file and search for AttitudePlayer.

On an unrelated note, might I have your thoughts on some humble, Illian-centric questions/suggestions?

- This was a patch or two ago, but I couldn't seem to build Aquilians, even in my White Hand holy city (with the state religion and Immortal Essence, of course). And when I used WB to give myself one, it appeared to be flying very, very low. Like, using-its-wings-to-burrow-through-the-earth low. Did Fiacra mate with a mole during the thaw-down? Can this be remedied?

Were you playing as the Illians, and did you have The White Hand as your state religion? Those are also prerequisites.

Edit: I just checked the pedia, and can see that they were somehow set to have a team limit of 0. I should probably go back and edit CIV4UnitClassInfos.xml so that UNITCLASS_AQUILAN has a -1 under <iMaxTeamInstances> like all the other units, as allowing 0 per team means it can never be built.


I really couldn't figure out why the Aquilans are flying so low, since the art define was just copied from Fiacra. Then I remembered that, since I was told that Fiacras art was identical to that of a normal hawk, I just used the normal hawk art rather than copying the art folder from AoI. I just compared their .nif files, and noticed that the normal hawk is sitting right at the origin whereas Fiacra is above it at a distance slightly greater than her wingspan. Borrowing the AoI art should fix the issue. (I'd need the art in a different folder if I am to reskin it anyway.)

- Recolored, blue-ish / icy white Aquilians and Nives would make this Illian player quite happy. At the moment they both look like plain 'ol wild animals, as opposed to mystical beasts of the Winter. Some minor graphical tweaks to Wilboman to distinguish him from generic Frost Giants would be dandy, too. Oh, and Auric Ulvin is a very, very tiny man. How time-consuming would it be to re-size him, making his entire model like 10% larger?

I am my no means an expert on modding graphics, but a basic re-coloration should be within my ability. Don't expect anything near as good as my vampire knight art, as I can't work off of a base as good as Magnadine's art. The only dds files that will work here are the low resolution ones from vanilla civ.

The Bestiary actually says that Nives have thick grey fur, but because they are usually covered in snow I guess making them white would still be ok. The picture next to them in the bestiary is mostly white with a little blue too.

I just changed Auric's size in his art defines, from <fScale>0.46 to <fScale>0.51. I believe that should make him almost 11% larger.

- I checked with WB, and I can't upgrade my level 7 Dumannios to a High Priest, nor can I Ordain a Great Prophet. All the building/technological prerequisites were met. If a certain ritual is required for this, it isn't listed in the 'pedia. Otherwise, something appears to be wrong. Didn't have this problem last patch. And speaking of upgrades, could Wilboman get the option of upgrading to a Frost Giant Berserker when Rage is researched? That, or some other type of bonus so that his generic-unit lookalikes don't have more raw power than the unique Hero?

It seems like it should have worked for you, but I don't think it is worth my time to figure out why it wasn't; I have completely rewritten the prerequisites to such upgrade spells since my last release already, and it new version seems to work fine.

Upgrading heroes is a bit tricky, due to the way the resurrection spell works in my modmod. I don't feel like adding more python workarounds for it. (Tholal was supposed to have edited the SDK to prevent such issues, but it didn't seem to work. Maybe it will after his next release.)

I just reduced Wilboman's base strength by 1 and gave him 1 Ice mana affinity. I also made him slightly larger than the other Frost Giants so you can tell the difference.

- I've seen 2 or 3 other mods with a UU "Ice Druid" priestess. IIRC she summons Frostlings and grows forests on ice terrain. Any chance of including her? How difficult would this be?

It would be easy to add, but I have no intention of doing it.

- Drifa (and Thalatth, for that matter) seem rather weak compared to the rest of the dragons. I can understand Eurabates being the powerhouse that he is, but what's your reasoning for making the White and Blue dragons so much weaker than Abashi/Acheron?

I believe that in the Lore Abashi and Acheron were much renowned for being among the most powerful of beasts. No one really knows anything about the blue dragon other than that a mortal killed him during the age of ice. Is having a god not enough for the Illians, that they need a stronger dragon too? (Drifa is already the only dragon that can kill whole stacks with a direct damage breath spell.)

- The Auric unit's Crazed promotion. Auric losing his sanity as he nears godhood is all well and good - but having your most valuable unit randomly rushing off to kill crap and bite off more than he can chew - isn't. Woe to the player who forgets to prepare a Spirit 3 Archmage to Assuage/Babysit the God-King. Plus, does it really fit the lore for Mulcarn's legacy to make Auric go rushing out of his camp to charge the enemy head-on by himself? IMHO the Insane trait is enough.

And some non-Illian ones:

- How about setting a 50-turn waiting period after you explore the Broken Sepulcher, Bradeline's Well, etc. before they can be explored again? Perhaps only after a "positive" result. The point here is to stop unscrupulous players from racking up free Great People.

But, what if I am one of those unscrupulous players?

Waiting 50 turns seems rather long to me, particularly on quick games like I usually play.

I think that the way that other modmods add such waiting periods is to replace the improvement with an identically dummy version of itself, which upgrades to the normal version after a while. I don't really want to do this, on account of all of the buildings that grant free specialists for being near unique features. Either the building would not be able to give the specialist when the lair cannot be explored, or the mouseover for the building would appear to list the same thing multiple times.

It is easy to disable the python for a plot to prevent a lair from being explored again without resorting to dummy improvements. It is also easy to reactivate the python, but not so easy to tell the game when to trigger the code that does this.

I suppose I could come up with some other world around. One way would be to generate a barbarian dummy unit on the tile, with limited duration and the same sort of complete invisibility as Sluaghs have. The python prerequisite code for lair exploration already cycles though units on the tile to prevent a unit from exploring the lair while another unit is already doing so. It would be simple enough to add 2 more lines of code in order to prevent the spell from being cast while such a dummy unit is present on the tile.

- The Grapes of Wrath are a great idea. Could this be extended to seafood resources? And with the awesome reskins you have for the 6 lesser Demon Lords, surely crimson "Demon Carp" and black/purple "Crustaceans of the Damned" should be doable.

I'm planning to do something with them, but am not quite sure what yet. I might try to think of a good name for a replacement resource, or I might make the resources turn into barbarian sea monster units.

- On a somewhat similar note, any chance of different artwork for Hell Terrain coast/ocean/Ice/Tundra? I haven't looked around, but I'm sure that some non-FFH mods might have suitable artwork that you could ask to borrow if graphical editing is too time-consuming.

All the terrain types have had unique art for a couple weeks already on my computer.

Initially I just borrowed some terrain art from other FfH2 modmods, but I didn't really like how it went with the rest of the terrain so I made my own. I also fixed the grids on some of the base FfH2 artwork, although trying to do so on Broken Lands resulted in the game crashing.

Firaxis made it really hard to have multiple types of water art. I wanted to make hells seas like hose described in the pedia (a black mirror-like surface that reflects stars from outside of creation), but that is not even remotely possible.

When I tried to borrow the starscape from the Final Frontier mod, the stars were visible through every type of terrain on the whole map. They also stay in the same place when you zoom in our out instead of staying associated with any plot. It was really detracting.

The waves are not handled at a per plot basis, and must be raised or lowered for the map as a whole. Making the plot's art black only results in a slightly darker blue.

The boundaries between different water terrains are a real pain. I had to change the normal coast art to prevent sandy beaches from being places where ever it met its hell equivalent. I believe the beachless version I am using now was taken from Master of Mana. The boundaries are still not perfect, but they are far less jarring that they would be if I had not changed it.

(Since they didn't look the part, I changed the names Black Sea and Abyss to Sea of Sorrows and Ocean of Despair, respectively.)

- If Saverous can be redeemed, can Rosier also be made to see the light?

I'm sure he could, but I don't think it is likely to happen. Nothing in the lore indicates that it would, so I'm not adding the possibility to my modmod. On the other hand, Saverous being a good guy after he was freed from the Burnt Priest's control is canon.

Looking forward to that next new patch. Keep up the good work, man!

I'll try. (Hopefully I'll find a job and not have much time for it soon though.)

 

[Aurelazza]

Thanks for the speedy and comprehensive reply! Looking forward to those Nive/Aquilian/Wilboman/Auric aesthetic changes. (Is Auric keeping Crazed, btw?)

The same changes I just made would probably make it work fine with older versions of my modmod too, but I haven't tested to be sure. Rather than upload the corrected version now, I have decided to place the file in the Scenarios folder of my modmod and include it in my next release (which should be before the weekend).

Looking forward to it. I trust that you'll spend a little time re-balancing things, given the changes that come with your mod? For example, Falamar's capital would get *seven* free specialists on the very first turn, given his Palace, Heron Throne and Lanun Harbor. How commonly would Creation nodes be found? How about all the Dragon Bones locations? Would The Palus make an impregnable choke point into Perpentach's realm? Etc. etc. etc.

Of course, it couldn't hurt to do just the bare minimum to speed up this week's release, then make further balance adjustments based upon people's feedback.

- I've seen 2 or 3 other mods with a UU "Ice Druid" priestess. IIRC she summons Frostlings and grows forests on ice terrain. Any chance of including her? How difficult would this be?

It would be easy to add, but I have no intention of doing it.

Might I humbly inquire as to why? From what I recall their lore didn't seem very fitting, but that can always be changed. This may just be my imagination running wild, but I'm seeing an "Ice-Shaper" unit that loses Vitalize and the Nature line of spells for the ability to spread Ice/Tundra further afield with a reverse-Scorch type ability, while still providing Fertility/Abundance bonuses at home. Plenty of ways to limit the number of converted tiles to prevent glacier-spam. And Lore permitting, they could summon randomized mobs of Frostlings instead of Guardian Vines. Come to think of it, what's the Lore's stance on Frostlings coming to the Illians' side as Auric grows closer to Ascension? Do they begin to recognize his power?

I believe that in the Lore Abashi and Acheron were much renowned for being among the most powerful of beasts. No one really knows anything about the blue dragon other than that a mortal killed him during the age of ice. Is having a god not enough for the Illians, that they need a stronger dragon too? (Drifa is already the only dragon that can kill whole stacks with a direct damage breath spell.)

All fair and reasonable points. Why doesn't Abashi have the prerequisite of wiping out another civ, though? Eurabates could do with some other (yet more peaceful) summoning condition, too.

The Grapes of Wrath are a great idea. Could this be extended to seafood resources? And with the awesome reskins you have for the 6 lesser Demon Lords, surely crimson "Demon Carp" and black/purple "Crustaceans of the Damned" should be doable.

I'm planning to do something with them, but am not quite sure what yet. I might try to think of a good name for a replacement resource, or I might make the resources turn into barbarian sea monster units.

Don't make them disappear to become barbs - players still need that food, and coastal cities generally don't have a lot of room for farms. Ideas off the very top of my head:

Fish - Make the Fish resource graphic a shade of bloody crimson. Reduces / in adjacent water tiles when there's a Fishing Boat deployed in their square. Possible names: Crimson Pike, Bloodgills, Spitefins.

Whales - Replace the Whale graphic with a miniature Kraken. Occasionally spawns debuffed (Weak/Enervated/Etc.) barbarian Kraken with the AI Script that Elephants have. When the turn count or AC hits a certain point, all wild Kraken gain Crazed/Enraged. Possible name: Hafgufa.

Crabs - Same as Whales, but with Sea Serpents instead of Kraken. Possible name: Jörmungandr.

Clams/Pearls - Black shells for both, sickly green meaty bits on the clams. Occasionally casts a weakened Tsunami. Possible names: Storm-Chitin, Molluscus Mortuorum. (Is that Latin grammatically correct? It's been a while...)

Edit: If one or more of those don't seem feasible/appealing, another option is to turn 'em into an aquatic Snake Pillar of sorts, that provides and but no . D'teshi Aquatic Pyres from RifE would look the part.

If Saverous can be redeemed, can Rosier also be made to see the light?

I'm sure he could, but I don't think it is likely to happen. Nothing in the lore indicates that it would, so I'm not adding the possibility to my modmod. On the other hand, Saverous being a good guy after he was freed from the Burnt Priest's control is canon.

I should have made myself more clear. I meant to ask if there was any kind of similar easter egg to revert him to Oathtaker-mode. Just a thought, but it might be fun to redeem him through some ridiculously obscure set of parameters. Sailing into the Maelstrom with a level 8+ gorilla and a mutated orangutang, while simultaneously equipped with a Timor Mask, Jade Torc and Rod of Winds, for example.

Edit: I forgot to mention this in my first post, but when I was playing the Blood of Angels scenario in your mod, I got a popup about Bridget but was totally unable to free her. First I grinded my War Machine up to level 15, then I converted to the Order so I'd be good, then I camped the Ring of Carcer for a couple of turns, hoping she'd eventually show. Then I gave Lucian the Hero promotion and made him level 15, still nothing. Then I felt all dirty inside when I gave up and tortured/maimed/butchered Cassiel ... Could this have been avoided?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Thanks for the speedy and comprehensive reply! Looking forward to those Nive/Aquilian/Wilboman/Auric aesthetic changes.

How do the graphics in the attached screen shot look to you?

That is the Nive on the left and the Aquilan on the right, obviously. You can also see the new hell versions of tundra and ice. I added some of the hell versions of oceans and seas just above them, but you couldn't really see them in any screen shot that got a good view of the units' graphics. At the very bottom I noticed that the coasts are not blending all that well with snow terrain, even when hell isn't involved. I'm not sure what to do about that.

(Is Auric keeping Crazed, btw?)

I may decide to change it latter, but I don't think I will for this release.

Looking forward to it. I trust that you'll spend a little time re-balancing things, given the changes that come with your mod? For example, Falamar's capital would get *seven* free specialists on the very first turn, given his Palace, Heron Throne and Lanun Harbor. How commonly would Creation nodes be found? How about all the Dragon Bones locations? Would The Palus make an impregnable choke point into Perpentach's realm? Etc. etc. etc.

Of course, it couldn't hurt to do just the bare minimum to speed up this week's release, then make further balance adjustments based upon people's feedback.

I had not intended to rebalanced it really, only make it compatible.

It is probably pretty important to have the dragon bones on the map though. In the lore it seems like the dragons bones are all pretty near each other, in an area beyond the Pristinus Pass with the Sheaim on one side and the Kuriotates on the other. Since the map already places the Guardian of the Pristinus pass in a bit of a wasteland between the Sheaim and Kuriotate empires, I think I'll put the various dragon bones near there. Since Acheron is already alive, I should not add his bones but instead go ahead and make his city the holy city of the Cult of the Dragon.

I guess I'll go ahead and add a couple sources of Creation mana too, and put some ice mana where the dragon bones were formerly located.

The Aifon's Aisle does not look close enough to any city to give such a bonus.


Were you wanting to play this map with the advanced tactics or puppet states game options that Tholal added? If so, I'd have to add them near the top of the scenario file. (Of you could edit the file yourself to do it, It is a simple change.)

Also, do you want to be able to summon the other 6 demon lords? If so, the GAMEOPTION_NO_HYBOREM_OR_BASIUM needs to be removed from the scenario. In my modmod doing this would not allow the existing Basium or Hyborem player to be duplicated like could happen in base FfH2.

Might I humbly inquire as to why? From what I recall their lore didn't seem very fitting, but that can always be changed. This may just be my imagination running wild, but I'm seeing an "Ice-Shaper" unit that loses Vitalize and the Nature line of spells for the ability to spread Ice/Tundra further afield with a reverse-Scorch type ability, while still providing Fertility/Abundance bonuses at home. Plenty of ways to limit the number of converted tiles to prevent glacier-spam. And Lore permitting, they could summon randomized mobs of Frostlings instead of Guardian Vines. Come to think of it, what's the Lore's stance on Frostlings coming to the Illians' side as Auric grows closer to Ascension? Do they begin to recognize his power?

I don't think that it says much about it, but in my modmod the Frostlings all have The White Hand religion and so will join Auric after he finishes The Draw if they are near any of his units or his territory.

All fair and reasonable points. Why doesn't Abashi have the prerequisite of wiping out another civ, though? Eurabates could do with some other (yet more peaceful) summoning condition, too.

None of the dragons have such a prerequisite in my modmod. Stir from Slumber only requires Divine Essense and the Cult of the Dragon religion present in the city performing the ritual. Upon completion, all of the dragons are awakened on the sites of their bones, including those of enemy civs.

Don't make them disappear to become barbs - players still need that food, and coastal cities generally don't have a lot of room for farms. Ideas off the very top of my head:

Fish - Make the Fish resource graphic a shade of bloody crimson. Reduces / in adjacent water tiles when there's a Fishing Boat deployed in their square. Possible names: Crimson Pike, Bloodgills, Spitefins.

Whales - Replace the Whale graphic with a miniature Kraken. Occasionally spawns debuffed (Weak/Enervated/Etc.) barbarian Kraken with the AI Script that Elephants have. When the turn count or AC hits a certain point, all wild Kraken gain Crazed/Enraged. Possible name: Hafgufa.

Crabs - Same as Whales, but with Sea Serpents instead of Kraken. Possible name: Jörmungandr.

Clams/Pearls - Black shells for both, sickly green meaty bits on the clams. Occasionally casts a weakened Tsunami. Possible names: Storm-Chitin, Molluscus Mortuorum. (Is that Latin grammatically correct? It's been a while...)

Edit: If one or more of those don't seem feasible/appealing, another option is to turn 'em into an aquatic Snake Pillar of sorts, that provides and but no . D'teshi Aquatic Pyres from RifE would look the part.

Eh, none of those names particularly appeal to me yet.

The art for resources is actually somewhat complicated. There are many different files related to animations, the LSystem, etc. I never actually found the portion of the art that controls what the grapes themselves look like, only the woody vines and multiple versions of wineries, so Grapes of Wrath just use normal Wine artwork. The water resources don't seem to require dealing with the dreaded LSystem, but they do involve extra files to control the way the water appears to ripple around them.

Switching the water resources to improvements or features would be easier.


(Molluscus is an adjective that means soft. Its feminine form mollusca is now used for the taxonomic phylum of mollusks, but in classical Latin referred to a kind of soft shelled nut rather than a sea creature. Its neuter form molluscum referred to a kind of fungus that grows on maple trees.

Mortuorum is a masculine or neuter genitive plural of the word dead.)

I should have made myself more clear. I meant to ask if there was any kind of similar easter egg to revert him to Oathtaker-mode. Just a thought, but it might be fun to redeem him through some ridiculously obscure set of parameters. Sailing into the Maelstrom with a level 8+ gorilla and a mutated orangutang, while simultaneously equipped with a Timor Mask, Jade Torc and Rod of Winds, for example.

I don't really want to add such Easter eggs unless their prerequisites are thematically appropriate.

Edit: I forgot to mention this in my first post, but when I was playing the Blood of Angels scenario in your mod, I got a popup about Bridget but was totally unable to free her. First I grinded my War Machine up to level 15, then I converted to the Order so I'd be good, then I camped the Ring of Carcer for a couple of turns, hoping she'd eventually show. Then I gave Lucian the Hero promotion and made him level 15, still nothing. Then I felt all dirty inside when I gave up and tortured/maimed/butchered Cassiel ... Could this have been avoided?

What do you mean "hoping she'd eventually show." Are you under the impression that a held barbarian version of the archangel has to be on the time in order to free her? That is not the case. I never saw the point of including such a dummy unit, which just complicates things particularly when hidden nationality units are involved. You simply have to move a unit of at least level 14 into the Ring of Carcer's tile and cast the Free Brigit spell, which also requires the Fanaticism technology and a non-evil alignment. Freeing her makes you good, but in this particular scenario as soon as she is creates she looses her immortality, is killed, and your alignment becomes evil.

 

[Aurelazza]

How do the graphics in the attached screen shot look to you?

Love the hell ice and tundra, and the Nives. The Aquilian could use a little something that I can't quite put my finger on, but I wouldn't worry about it. IMHO it looks solidly passable. How satisfied with them are you?

At the very bottom I noticed that the coasts are not blending all that well with snow terrain, even when hell isn't involved.

I've had some problems with snow-coast in the past. I smoothed things over by turning all the snow tiles around the problem area into plains/grassland, then changing them back to snow. No clue why, but it worked for me.

In the lore it seems like the dragons bones are all pretty near each other, in an area beyond the Pristinus Pass with the Sheaim on one side and the Kuriotates on the other. Since the map already places the Guardian of the Pristinus pass in a bit of a wasteland between the Sheaim and Kuriotate empires, I think I'll put the various dragon bones near there.

Hmm... I'd like to try it and see how it works from a gameplay perspective. I can see a bloodbath on the turn that the Four all wake up right next to each other, and very bad things happening to the Grigori to the North regardless of who wins. Perhaps a single set of bones resting at Pristinus Pass would suffice - this may just have to be one of those instances where Lore takes a back seat to gameplay. Besides, the Lore on this map is all messed up anyways. (Decius hasn't fled the Bannor yet, but the Empyrean has already summoned Basium for the fight at Tempus Mor. Falamar starts with an empire full of OO followers despite being hand-picked by Danalin's Archangel to help stop the Overlords. Etcetera.)

Were you wanting to play this map with the advanced tactics or puppet states game options that Tholal added? If so, I'd have to add them near the top of the scenario file. (Of you could edit the file yourself to do it, It is a simple change.)

I've been playing it in Vanilla FFH2 via the "Play A Custom Scenario" option, which lets you pick everything except the leaders and the map settings. If you leave it as it is, people can modify the settings however they see fit, no?

Also, do you want to be able to summon the other 6 demon lords? If so, the GAMEOPTION_NO_HYBOREM_OR_BASIUM needs to be removed from the scenario. In my modmod doing this would not allow the existing Basium or Hyborem player to be duplicated like could happen in base FfH2.

I could go either way on this one. I'd just recommend telling people that they can summon the other 6 if they unclick the "Compact Enforced" option in the "Play A Custom Scenario."

Switching the water resources to improvements or features would be easier.

Personally I'd like to see at least some aquatic life remain. A mix of edible bonuses and workable improvements/features would get my vote.

What do you mean "hoping she'd eventually show."

That's what I like to call a failed attempt at humor. And Fanaticism was the thing I was forgetting. I'll have to replay that one...

Oh, you may as well do away with the minor Illian leader and give all his starting cities to Auric - All he's there for is cannon fodder to summon Drifa. Forgot that isn't necessary with your modmod.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Love the hell ice and tundra, and the Nives. The Aquilian could use a little something that I can't quite put my finger on, but I wouldn't worry about it. IMHO it looks solidly passable. How satisfied with them are you?

They aren't my favorite of my custom unit artworks (that distinction would probably go to the Vampire Knight, which turned out nicely with surprisingly little work), but I'm not really sure how to make them better. I'm still a novice at gimp, with skills mostly limited to desaturating , adjusting brightness/contrast, colorizing, and adjusting a few pixels here and there.

They'll suffice.

I've had some problems with snow-coast in the past. I smoothed things over by turning all the snow tiles around the problem area into plains/grassland, then changing them back to snow. No clue why, but it worked for me.

That didn't really seem to help when I tried it. The issue didn't seem to show up though when I turn water tiles into Snow. It wasn't as noticable on randomly generated maps either, although the graphics for the adjacent terrain type carry over more than they seem like they should in the bottom left hand quarter of the tile.

Hmm... I'd like to try it and see how it works from a gameplay perspective. I can see a bloodbath on the turn that the Four all wake up right next to each other, and very bad things happening to the Grigori to the North regardless of who wins. Perhaps a single set of bones resting at Pristinus Pass would suffice - this may just have to be one of those instances where Lore takes a back seat to gameplay. Besides, the Lore on this map is all messed up anyways. (Decius hasn't fled the Bannor yet, but the Empyrean has already summoned Basium for the fight at Tempus Mor. Falamar starts with an empire full of OO followers despite being hand-picked by Danalin's Archangel to help stop the Overlords. Etcetera.)

It does not seem fair to only place one set of dragon bones on the map, and only allow one of the players to resurrect his dragon.

At least the Grigori are the best suited to facing dragons, what with their Dragon Slayer UU. I just decided to change their starting Warriors to Dragon Slayers.

I didn't put them right next to each other. The Guardian of the Pristinus Pass is located at (62,33), the Bones of Drifa are at (60,30), the Bones of Eurabatres at (62,36), the Bones of Abashi at (67,31), and the Dragon Bones for the blue dragon are at (67, 35).

I think I may change Falamar to Hannah, and possibly delete Decius and rename House Achare.

I've been playing it in Vanilla FFH2 via the "Play A Custom Scenario" option, which lets you pick everything except the leaders and the map settings. If you leave it as it is, people can modify the settings however they see fit, no?

I could go either way on this one. I'd just recommend telling people that they can summon the other 6 if they unclick the "Compact Enforced" option in the "Play A Custom Scenario."

I didn't realize you could do that. This is probably because I mostly load the scenarios directly from the files, or occasionally try to load them though the scenario screen as Kael intended (although that tends not to work very well in More Naval AI or Magister Modmod).

I think you can only load custom scenarios if the scenario file is located in the standard Public Maps folder. They scenarios in the Scenarios folder which Kael put within the xml folder do not appear when use the load scenario or load custom scenario options in the main menu.

Edit: I don't know why, but the game always seems to crash as soon as it finishes loading if I try to play it as a custom scenario, even if I don't actually change the game options. It seems to behave the same way that the Lord of the Balors scenario did before I filled the empty player slot, except that it still works fine if I load from the file directly.


It still works fine when I load it directly.

Personally I'd like to see at least some aquatic life remain. A mix of edible bonuses and workable improvements/features would get my vote.

They are not a high priority, so I probably won't change them at all before my next release.

That's what I like to call a failed attempt at humor. And Fanaticism was the thing I was forgetting. I'll have to replay that one...

The popup informing you that you can win by freeing Brigit to sacrifice her is supposed to be triggered by learning the Fanaticism technology. (There is a similar one triggered by learning Rage, which informs you that you may also win by freeing Odio.)

I just noticed that the code responsible never bothers to check what team has just learned the technology. You might have gotten the popup because Sabathiel, Cassiel, or Hannah learned Fanaticism. It would have revealed the Ring of Carcer's location to that team instead of you, but it seems that popups are always shown to the human player.

I just placed said code within an if gc.getTeam(iTeam).isHuman(): conditional, so it should work as I intended in the next release.

Oh, you may as well do away with the minor Illian leader and give all his starting cities to Auric - All he's there for is cannon fodder to summon Drifa. Forgot that isn't necessary with your modmod.

Honestly, I'm more tempted to add Anagantios, Dumannios, and Riuros to the game, and give Braeden's cities to them.

 

[sunbeam]

When you mention the three Priests of Winter, that brings to mind a question.

Do you intend to add the minor leaders? I think right now some of the civs only have one leader, so as far as I know you can't set up a puppet state. I'm not totally sure on this because I usually only set them up with the Kuriotates, and I usually go for the Tower or Altar victory with them, so don't bother a lot of times.

Also it gives some of these civs a really different flavor, at least that is my experience playing some of the other mods.

You might just want to keep the historic leaders, but I am curious about your plans. That kind of replay value is something I miss from the other mods.

 

[Aurelazza]

After taking a second look at the Aquilian, I figured out what was bothering me. The head is pure white while the rest of the body is shaded. If I knew how to change it myself, I'd either make part of the wings white to match the head, or make the head match the rest of the body. But like you said, what you've got at the moment can suffice.

It does not seem fair to only place one set of dragon bones on the map, and only allow one of the players to resurrect his dragon.

At least the Grigori are the best suited to facing dragons, what with their Dragon Slayer UU. I just decided to change their starting Warriors to Dragon Slayers.

I was thinking that the other 3 sets of bones would spawn in the borders of their respective Civs, not be excluded. When it comes time to fine-tune the map, I'd advocate walling off the Grigori with a series of peaks coded to be totally impassible. But that can come later.

I think I may change Falamar to Hannah, and possibly delete Decius and rename House Achare.

Makes sense. Perhaps Capria over the long-gone Sabathiel and Tasunke in charge of the Hippus, too.

Honestly, I'm more tempted to add Anagantios, Dumannios, and Riuros to the game, and give Braeden's cities to them.

I'm personally against this. It would most likely result in several weak, hemmed-in, single-city leaders. Plus, it's a slippery slope - give Anagantios a city, and then it's only fair that Keelyn get a little niche of her daddy's realm. Then the Kuriotates aren't really into strong central government, so Cardith would probably appoint a Centaur or two to govern his outer fiefdoms. Flauros wouldn't take kindly to his dear sister being in charge of the entire empire, so you'd need two vampiric leaders. And when you add in 6 more potential Infernal empires, the diplomacy screen would get... messy, to say the least.

Edit: I don't know why, but the game always seems to crash as soon as it finishes loading if I try to play it as a custom scenario, even if I don't actually change the game options. It seems to behave the same way that the Lord of the Balors scenario did before I filled the empty player slot, except that it still works fine if I load from the file directly.

Does it crash if you try to play a fresh version of it as a custom scenario in Vanilla FfH2?

Edit: Since your Infernal champions can't set foot on untainted land, it might be wise to do something about the "No Hell Terrain" feature that's currently in place.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

After taking a second look at the Aquilian, I figured out what was bothering me. The head is pure white while the rest of the body is shaded. If I knew how to change it myself, I'd either make part of the wings white to match the head, or make the head match the rest of the body. But like you said, what you've got at the moment can suffice.

In the original model the bird was colored like a bald eagle, with dark brown wings and body but a white head and tail. To get to what I showed you I significantly lightened the brown bits, slightly darkened the white bits, desaturated and colorized the whole thing. When I try to make the face darker it ends up greyer than the body, and matches worse than it did before. I just made the wings and body a bit lighter which I think makes them match better, although going all the way too white does not look right.

I was thinking that the other 3 sets of bones would spawn in the borders of their respective Civs, not be excluded. When it comes time to fine-tune the map, I'd advocate walling off the Grigori with a series of peaks coded to be totally impassible. But that can come later.

The Bones of Abashi are just barely outside the Sheaim Border, and those of Eurabatres barely outside the Kuriotates border. Both of these borders were fairly close to the Guardian already. The blue dragon is not associated with any particular civ, and in the lore Auric had to search far beyond the Illian borders to find his dragon.



Dragons can fly. A mountain range would not keep the dragons out, but rather hold the Grigori in. I could make the mountains (or any plots really) impassible using python, but there is not a spare game option for me to use to let said python code know to work in this scenario and not in other games.

Makes sense. Perhaps Capria over the long-gone Sabathiel and Tasunke in charge of the Hippus, too.



I'm personally against this. It would most likely result in several weak, hemmed-in, single-city leaders. Plus, it's a slippery slope - give Anagantios a city, and then it's only fair that Keelyn get a little niche of her daddy's realm. Then the Kuriotates aren't really into strong central government, so Cardith would probably appoint a Centaur or two to govern his outer fiefdoms. Flauros wouldn't take kindly to his dear sister being in charge of the entire empire, so you'd need two vampiric leaders. And when you add in 6 more potential Infernal empires, the diplomacy screen would get... messy, to say the least.

What if they Illian players were all on the same team, like in the Mulcarn Reborn scenario? Having them in the game would mean that the White Hand ritual would give the named priest units to them as their avatars, as opposed to giving them all to Auric.


I was thinking that deleting him could cause the kind of problem that Lord of the Balors had before I added Einion, but since I see Braeden is the last player listed I guess it probably would not.

Does it crash if you try to play a fresh version of it as a custom scenario in Vanilla FfH2?

The original file I downloaded seems to work fine as a custom scenario in vanilla FfH2. The version I adjusted to be compatible with my modmod crashed when I tried it with vanilla civ.

That might have something to do with the fact that I changed the modpath so as not to require it to use my modmod but did not bother to remove references to things like the Bones of Eurabatres unique feature that is not present in base FfH2.

It could also have to do with the number of players. The vanilla FfH2 DLL only allows for up to 35 players, whereas the More Naval AI DLL that I use allows for 50 players. Playing a scenario in a mod that allows more players seems to automatically edit the file to move barbarian cities/units from being owned by player 35 to being owned by player 50, and adds empty player slots to fill the gap. The extra player slots might be the main cause of incompatibility.


I also just noticed that there seems to be less information given or those empty players that were added automatically.

BeginPlayer
	Team=34
	LeaderType=NONE
	CivType=NONE
	Color=NONE
	ArtStyle=NONE
	Handicap=HANDICAP_NOBLE
EndPlayer
BeginPlayer
	Team=35
	LeaderType=NONE
	CivType=NONE
EndPlayer

I wonder if specifying a Color, ArtStyle, and Handicap would aid compatibility in custom scenarios.
Edit: nope, didn't work.

I also just tried a copy of the original download with More Naval AI, and found that it crashed the same way in a custom scenario. (That was actually on my second try; it crashed before it finished loading the first time.)

Edit: Since your Infernal champions can't set foot on untainted land, it might be wise to do something about the "No Hell Terrain" feature that's currently in place.

I presume you mean the Infernal leader avatar heroes, as the Sect of the Flies Champion UU does not have such a restriction.


If hell is allowed to spread, then the Infernals should probably not start out with so many cities, lest it spread too fast. I think that the Infernals tend to grow faster in my modmod anyway, what with Manes keeping their XP from their previous lives and then turning said XP into culture and production when they are added to the population of a city.


I might have to do something about the hell terrain already on the map too. When hell terrain is set in a scenario that does not use the No Plot Counter option, it stays hell terrain (even if sanctified) until the tile's plot counter rises above the point when it would normally become hell and then drops below that threshold again. The spread of hell near the Infernal lands could actually be the only way to get hell to move back.


For the scenarios in the game so far, I over come this by including this code under def gameStart(self): in ScenarioFunctions.py:

		for iPlayer in range(gc.getMAX_PLAYERS()):
			pPlayer = gc.getPlayer(iPlayer)
			if pPlayer.isAlive():
				if pPlayer.getStateReligion() == gc.getInfoTypeForString('RELIGION_WHITE_HAND'):
					pPlayer.setAlignment(gc.getInfoTypeForString('ALIGNMENT_EVIL'))
				if pPlayer.getStateReligion() == gc.getInfoTypeForString('RELIGION_THE_ASHEN_VEIL'):
					pPlayer.setAlignment(gc.getInfoTypeForString('ALIGNMENT_EVIL'))
				if pPlayer.getStateReligion() == gc.getInfoTypeForString('RELIGION_THE_ORDER'):
					pPlayer.setAlignment(gc.getInfoTypeForString('ALIGNMENT_GOOD'))

		iNodeAir = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_AIR')
		iBonusAir = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_AIR')
		iNodeBody = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_BODY')
		iBonusBody = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_BODY')
		iNodeChaos = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_CHAOS')
		iBonusChaos = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_CHAOS')
		iNodeCreation = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_CREATION')
		iBonusCreation = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_CREATION')
		iNodeDeath = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_DEATH')
		iBonusDeath = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_DEATH')
		iNodeDimensional = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_DIMENSIONAL')
		iBonusDimensional = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_DIMENSIONAL')
		iNodeEarth = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_EARTH')
		iBonusEarth = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_EARTH')
		iNodeEnchantment = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_ENCHANTMENT')
		iBonusEnchantment = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_ENCHANTMENT')
		iNodeEntropy = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_ENTROPY')
		iBonusEntropy = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_ENTROPY')
		iNodeFire = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_FIRE')
		iBonusFire = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_FIRE')
		iNodeForce = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_FORCE')
		iBonusForce = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_FORCE')
		iNodeIce = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_ICE')
		iBonusIce = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_ICE')
		iNodeLaw = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_LAW')
		iBonusLaw = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_LAW')
		iNodeLife = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_LIFE')
		iBonusLife = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_LIFE')
		iNodeMeta = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_METAMAGIC')
		iBonusMeta = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_METAMAGIC')
		iNodeMind = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_MIND')
		iBonusMind = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_MIND')
		iNodeNature = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_NATURE')
		iBonusNature = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_NATURE')
		iNodeShadow = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_SHADOW')
		iBonusShadow = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_SHADOW')
		iNodeSpirit = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_SPIRIT')
		iBonusSpirit = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_SPIRIT')
		iNodeSun = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_SUN')
		iBonusSun = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_SUN')
		iNodeWater = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MANA_WATER')
		iBonusWater = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_MANA_WATER')
		iBonusFruit = gc.getInfoTypeForString('BONUS_FRUIT_OF_YGGDRASIL')


		iYggdrasil = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_YGGDRASIL')
		iOdio = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_ODIOS_PRISON')
		iPines = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_SEVEN_PINES')
		iStones = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_STANDING_STONES')
		iTarch = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_TARCHS_TOWER')
		iTomb = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_TOMB_OF_SUCELLUS')
		iPalus = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_PALUS')
		iCarcer = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_RING_OF_CARCER')
		iPool = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_POOL_OF_TEARS')
		iPatria = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_REMNANTS_OF_PATRIA')
		iPyre = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_PYRE_OF_THE_SERAPHIC')
		iLetum = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_LETUM_FRIGUS')
		iMaelstrom = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MAELSTROM')
		iMaenalus = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_AIFON_ISLE')
		iMirror = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_MIRROR_OF_HEAVEN')
		iWell = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_BRADELINES_WELL')
		iSepulcher = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_BROKEN_SEPULCHER')
		iBonesBlue = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_DRAGON_BONES')
		iBonesAcheron = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_DRAGON_BONES_ACHERON')
		iBonesAbashi = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_DRAGON_BONES_ABASHI')
		iBonesDrifa = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_DRAGON_BONES_DRIFA')
		iBonesEurabatres = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_DRAGON_BONES_EURABATRES')

		iHallowed=gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_HALLOWED_GROUND')

		iNecrototem = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_NECROTOTEM')
		iHellfire = gc.getInfoTypeForString('IMPROVEMENT_HELLFIRE')

		iBrokenLands = gc.getInfoTypeForString('TERRAIN_BROKEN_LANDS')
		iBurningSands = gc.getInfoTypeForString('TERRAIN_BURNING_SANDS')
		iShallows = gc.getInfoTypeForString('TERRAIN_SHALLOWS')
		iFieldsOfPerdition = gc.getInfoTypeForString('TERRAIN_FIELDS_OF_PERDITION')
		iWasteland = gc.getInfoTypeForString('TERRAIN_WASTELAND')
		iGlacier = gc.getInfoTypeForString('TERRAIN_GLACIER')
		iSeaOfSorrows = gc.getInfoTypeForString('TERRAIN_SEA_OF_SORROWS')
		iOceanOfDespair = gc.getInfoTypeForString('TERRAIN_OCEAN_OF_DESPAIR')

		bPlayer = gc.getPlayer(gc.getBARBARIAN_PLAYER())

		for i in range (CyMap().numPlots()):
			pPlot = CyMap().plotByIndex(i)
			iTerrain = pPlot.getTerrainType()
			iImprovement = pPlot.getImprovementType()

			if iImprovement != -1:
				if iImprovement == iNodeAir or iImprovement == iTarch or iImprovement == iMaelstrom:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusAir)
				if iImprovement == iNodeBody or iImprovement == iOdio:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusBody)
				if iImprovement == iNodeChaos:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusChaos)
				if iImprovement == iNodeCreation or iImprovement == iBonesEurabatres:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusCreation)
				if iImprovement == iNodeDeath or iImprovement == iSepulcher or iImprovement == iWell:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusDeath)
				if iImprovement == iNodeDimensional or iImprovement == iBonesAbashi:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusDimensional)
				if iImprovement == iNodeEarth or iImprovement ==iStones:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusEarth)
				if iImprovement == iNodeEntropy:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusEntropy)
				if iImprovement == iNodeFire or iImprovement == iBonesAcheron or iImprovement == iCarcer or iImprovement == iPyre:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusFire)
				if iImprovement == iNodeForce or iImprovement == iPines:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusForce)
				if iImprovement == iNodeIce or iImprovement == iLetum or iImprovement == iBonesDrifa:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusIce)
				if iImprovement == iNodeLaw:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusLife)
				if iImprovement == iNodeLife or iImprovement == iTomb:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusLife)
				if iImprovement == iNodeMeta or iImprovement == iPatria:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusMeta)
				if iImprovement == iNodeMind or iImprovement == iPalus:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusMind)
				if iImprovement == iNodeNature:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusNature)
				if iImprovement == iNodeShadow:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusShadow)
				if iImprovement == iNodeSpirit or iImprovement == iPool:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusSpirit)
				if iImprovement == iNodeSun or iImprovement == iMirror:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusSun)
				if iImprovement == iNodeWater or iImprovement == iMaenalus or iImprovement == iBonesBlue:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusWater)
				if iImprovement == iYggdrasil:
					pPlot.setBonusType(iBonusFruit)

			if not gc.getGame().isOption(GameOptionTypes.GAMEOPTION_NO_PLOT_COUNTER):
				if iImprovement != iHallowed:
					if iTerrain == iBrokenLands or iTerrain == iBurningSands or iTerrain == iShallows or iTerrain == iFieldsOfPerdition or iTerrain == iWasteland or iTerrain == iGlacier or iTerrain == iSeaOfSorrows or iTerrain == iOceanOfDespair or iImprovement == iHellfire or iImprovement == iNecrototem:
						pPlot.changePlotCounter(66)

Does anyone happen to know whether this conditonal is met for any scenario of if it depends on the scenario game options that Kael added to the SDK? If it is the former, then there wouldn't be a problem in this modmod. If the latter, then I guess I should probably move the previous code into CVEventManager.py even though it might slow down game loading on random maps where it is not necessary.

		if CyGame().getWBMapScript():
			sf.gameStart()

 

[lastofthelight]

Just some feedback. I decided to try a quick partial-game as the Kuriotates, to tide me over while waiting for the next version. Has anyone else noticed, when playing the MagisterMod, that if you found a religion, it can be founded in a settlement...but you cannot make the holy building there? Likewise, you cannot use -any- unit to make a building in a settlement, which seems rather unfortunate, as that is the main way to get the settlements producing culture.

Just wanted to point that out.

Fun mod!

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I've noticed it myself, but don't know what to do about it. I know that in base FfH2 settlements are considerably less likely to become holy cities, but perhaps Tholal removed that code.

I just added this bit of python code to def onReligionFounded(self, argsList):

		iCityId = gc.getGame().getHolyCity(iReligion).getID()
		pCity = pPlayer.getCity(iCityId)
		if pCity.isSettlement():
			pCity = pPlayer.getCapitalCity()
			if pCity != -1:
				gc.getGame().clearHolyCity(iReligion)
				pCity.setHasReligion(iReligion,True,False,True)
				gc.getGame().setHolyCity(iReligion, pCity, False)
				iCityId = pCity.getID()

I just tested it, and it seems to be working. I gave myself bunch of great prophets and used them to bulb my way to having all the religion founding techs, and saw my capital become the holy city. I then decided to try using a Priest of the Hand to found The White Hand in one of my settlements, and saw that again it was my capital on the other side of the world that became the holy city. It happened fast enough that I never saw the holy city mark appear on the settlement, although the text announcing the religion's founding

Perhaps I should use a different name for the capital city so I can use the first city pointer to remove the religion from the settlement that founded it. Otherwise religions might spread too fast then the Kuriotates found them.


I wonder if I should also give the Kuriotates spells to let them sacrifice great people to build holy shrines in settlements, for cases when they capture a holy city before the original owner gets a chance to build a shrine.



I just noticed that a change I made to how the Dragons Hoard works doesn't work as I expected. I decided that Acheron should not be held, but instead have effectCultusDraconis end his moves and transport him back to his city if he leaves it. He is allowed to breathe fire this way, to take promotions, and even occasionally attack an adjacent tile, but won't leave his lair unguarded. So far so good. I want the hoard to grant Mithril but don't want the barbarians to have access to the mithril weapons promotion so soon. When Acheron was held I could give him the Dragon's Hoard promotion and he couldn't drop it until he died, but now he can. I decided to make Acherons Lair be a UB for the Dragon's Hoard which grants great people points towards Disciples of Acheron instead of a source fo mithril. I thought this was working fine, until I noticed that this UB is always being deleted when the city is captured instead of reverting to the standard version of the building. The actual Hoard was thus always inaccessible. Now I think I have to add it using python triggered when Acheron dies.


In order to make sure not to duplicate the Hoard, I at first used if not (CyGame().isUnitEverActive(gc.getInfoTypeForString('EQUIPMENT_DRAGONS_HOARD')) or CyGame().isBuildingEverActive(gc.getInfoTypeForString('BUILDING_DRAGONS_HOARD'))):, but I found that it was never getting created this way so I switched to if CyGame().getUnitCreatedCount(iUnit) == 0:, which seems to work fine.

Thismakes me concerned though about the if CyGame().isBuildingEverActive(iSoulForge):, if CyGame().isBuildingEverActive(iBMC):, and if CyGame().isUnitEverActive(gc.getInfoTypeForString('UNIT_MOKKA')) or CyGame().isUnitEverActive(iUMC) or CyGame().isBuildingEverActive(iBMC): conditionals which I started using in order to make the Soul Forge and Mokka's Cauldron codes run more efficiently by not bother to cycle through buildings or units if there is no chance of finding the object of its search.

Edit: I just looked in Tholal's source files for the DLL, and found that neither CyGame().isBuildingEverActive nor CyGame().isUnitEverActive do what I thought they did. CyGame().isLeaderEverActive and CyGame().isCivEverActive tell you if a leader or civilization has yet been present in the game. CyGame().isBuildingEverActive and CyGame().isUnitEverActive don't tell you whether that type of unit or building has been present in the game yet, but rather they tell you whether any player that has been present in the game could have access to that unit or building type. CyGame().isUnitEverActive(gc.getInfoTypeForString('UNIT_EURABATRES')) would return true if there was one a Kuruotates player present in the game, even if he was killed on the first turn and never got close to awakening the dragon.

I better search for all the places I used the functions and change them before the next release.

 

[Acrux]

Thanks for all your effort on this. I'm eagerly looking forward to the next release. It's the best FFH2 mod by far.

And best wishes on the job search.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I think it is pretty much ready for release now. I'm just about to unpack the old Magister.FPK so I can add the new art to it and repack it again, make a full copy of the modmod directory, use Winmerge to compare my files with base FfH, delete any files that are unchanged, and get the installer ready. To make sure that I included everything I'll need to install from the exe and play a couple quick test games, but I think I can have it all uploaded while it is still 10/11/12.




I since Kael's scenario loading screen doesn't really work, I decided to move all the scenarios to the PrivateMaps folder instead of keeping them in Assets/XML/Scenarios. That will allow you to load them from within the game, using either Play A Scenario or Custom Scenario. I still have no idea why that huge 21 player map Aurelazza wanted adapted to MagisterModmod crashes when you try to play it as a Custom Scenario, but it works as a regular scenario and the updated versions of Kael's scenarios all seem to work as Custom Scenarios too.

(Since I don't know how to tell the installer to ignore a particular folder, the scenarios folder will still exist and contain the vanilla versions of the folder. You can ignore or dete those yourself.)


Keep in mind that changing the settings of a scenario can result in some strange and unintended things happening. I am currently in the middle of a Custom Scenario version of Lord of the Balors, in which I activated Advanced Tactics and Permanent Alliances. By now every player but Keelyn and Ouzza has made a permanent alliance. By accepting the temptation of Duke Sallos's Succubus, I was able to make peace with Sallos and Meresin at the same time. I was able to make peace with Hyborem and Lethe when Sallos asked me to do so, without giving in to a temptation from either of them. (The way I wrote Hyborem's temptation code though makes him declare war on you when you no longer have The Ashen Veil state religion, so that peace did not last long.) Strangest of all is what happened when Judecca asked me to declare war on Basium, who was my permanent ally. I agreed expecting that it would do nothing (I'm pretty sure that it impossible to be at war with your own team even when forced by python in vanilla FfH2), but was very much wrong. The attached screenshots show that I am not only at war with myself, but am able to capture my own cities too.


Edit: I'm uploading the files to gamefront right now. The .7z archive just finished uploading, but it did so at a rate that makes me not want to stay awake to make sure the .exe uploads properly. They will both probably be accessible using the old link by the time anyone reads this.

Somehow the size of the files almost doubled from last time. It doesn't seem like I added enough new art for it to do that, so I'm thinking I may have neglected to delete some files that weren't really necessary. Oh well. It seems to work fine, and is nowhere near the gamefront size limit.

I'm going to try to get some sleep now, and put off explaining any changes until tomorrow.

 

[youtien]

Am I the first to reply? This is good!

Played Against the Wall thrice, set difficulty to deity at first and 2nd times and failed. Back to noble.

 

[BobCW]

Haha, you can experience the "war against yourself" bug fairly easily in regular FFH too- just set the game to AW and then summon & switch to Hyborem. You'll be fighting yourself because your summoner automatically declared on you, and since you inherit all of their wars...

 

[lastofthelight]

Thoughts on the mod after playing it for a few days (including the new version last night):

I don't know why, but it seems as if this mod is somehow...faster, then other mods. It seems to be more stable. I've run some fairly big games on it, and I've never gotten one of those annoying CTD's that I get playing large maps late in the campaign with some mods. Its very nice. It does seem to have less events then what I'm used to, and all of the 'good' results from barbarian villages/dungeons/etc seem to have been removed, but its a very, very nice mod.

I particularly like the revolution mechanic, and some of the advanced, more subtle options. It adds a great deal of complexity and realism to the game, especially in today's modern world of resistance, rebellions and uprisings, where we recognize that foreign populations won't necessarily do what we want because we have a big army.

I do think it is a bit hard to keep Kuriotates settlements from rebelling (even when cheating and adding in all sorts of buildings), but if I recall, because its been awhile, the vanilla revolutions code that I've played on non FFH civ 4 mods is hamfisted as well. It seems almost inevitable that certain settlements will rebel. It would be nice if some cultures were more or less likely to rebel (barbarian civ's conquered cities more likely, since they are barbarians...no matter how close they are to your capital, as long as you arn't a barbarian, and Kuriotates settlements less likely, no matter how far away they are, as long as your Kuriotates), or if some races liked different government civics in differently (Kuriotates preferring decentralization would be logical, since most of the populace live far from government) ... but that is not only beyond the scope of the mod, but beyond the scope of the module the mod is using. As implemented, its fine and a nice improvement.

I also like the numerous small changes made. While hard to quantify, the little touches such as how the cult of the dragon and the white hand were handled feels very nice. Effort has been made not only towards improvement and balance, but keeping things in feel with realism and lore; moreso then the original fall from heaven, in some ways.

The mod also seems to bring together the best of the 'little touches' others have done over the years, such as the improved AI, the puppet states, and some of the other features mentioned above, in a package that is really not available in any of the 'larger' series of modmods.

Its very nice.

 

[lfgr]

I believe settlements should never revolt at all (At least in Tholal's mod, wich is the base of this). What version were you playing when that happened?

 

[lastofthelight]

Last and current. Both 'original' and 'created from conquered city'.

 

[sunbeam]

I have the latest version. I tried to build a nature node in a spot where workers had built a lumbermill.

I got the message "You need smelting to build a nature node."

Sure enough when I got smelting I could build one. That is the only one I built so I don't know if it was some glitch or a global issue. Unless you are pumping up Yvain I'm not sure having multiple nature nodes does anything for you, so I usually only build one if that.

 

[Acrux]

Sounds like it's only because of the lumbermill. I can build them with Elementalism. If that's a change made by the mod, I actually kind of like it...it takes some effort to renew the environment from those nasty industrial buildings. ;-p

I absolutely love this mod -- it's one of the few experiences that really feels like an RPG in a 4x game.

 

[McBeardly]

It's probably because you put a lumbermill in an ancient forest. They now require smelting to chop down.

Also 2 things. Devouts no longer seem to be able to get Aeron's Chosen. This makes sense I was just making sure it was intended. Also does Perpentach have some special event for exploring the Palum.