[MOD] MagisterModmod

[Cromulus]

I've encountered the Gibbon Bug as well, was annoying, I deleted units in the tile in the world builder to end the spam.

How on earth do I counter whisperers btw? I have one outside of my capital casting paranoia every turn and its super annoying.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I have not been able to reproduce the Gibbon bug yet. I suspect that is because of a fix I made in CvSpellInterface.py right after the release.

def effect(argsList):
   pCaster, eProm = argsList
   if pCaster.getUnitType() != gc.getInfoTypeForString('UNIT_SLUAGH'):
##   if not pCaster.at(0, 0):#I do not want any Sluaghs casting spells
       prom = gc.getPromotionInfo(eProm)
       eval(prom.getPyPerTurn())

My guess is that effectChangelingAbandon(pCaster) is running every turn on the Sluagh that Gibbon left behind, killing that unit and making it leave another Sluagh behind.

When all Sluaghs were placed on tile (0,0) this was blocked by checking that tile, but in the last release I made Sluaghs drop where the units were killed so that Mass Ressurection could be used on those tiles. There were a few more references to the old netherworld tile I have since removed or replaced with checks for the Sluagh unit type.


The main counter to Whisperers and Agents of Esus is using the Empyrean Revelation spell to reveal them and make them Paranoid (and thus HN) so you can kill them.

I would prefer to make them inherently HN so you can kill them whenever they are visible (so Perfect Sight should be enough), but HN units cannto enter rival cities to cause problems there.

 

[Cromulus]

Ok see, this was my thought as well, but revelation is not revealing the whisper, so there must be a bug and I'll just delete it in the worldbuilder.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I just recalled that there was an issue with units that are invisible due to <bInvisible>1</bInvisible> in their unit defines not being revealed like those with invisibility due to the promotion. I'm trying to remember what the reason was why I did not remove that tag.

 

[Ivor250]

Greetings, I have not been following updates for a long time and therefore I want to ask, do random crashes still occur during the game? The modmod is cool, it only stops having crashes.

 

[thegreekweegee]

Greetings, I have not been following updates for a long time and therefore I want to ask, do random crashes still occur during the game? The modmod is cool, it only stops having crashes.

I never experienced any random crashes during my gaming sessions, and I don't think anyone else did either recently; you should be fine playing it.

 

[mrmcmoney]

Hello, I assume that the ice empires map in scenarios is no longer compatible with the mod, as I usually get a crash after the first turn. What changes to the map would I have to make for compatibility?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Kael recently released a reddit post details all the different types of Dragons. https://www.reddit.com/r/fallfromheaven/comments/cxwqk7/dragons_of_fall_from_heaven/

I am thinking the Cult of the Dragon religion is going to need a major overhaul in the next release

I am planning to have 21 different types of Wyrmhold, one for each dragon species/mana sphere. (I might decide to have more than that, if I decide that the named dragons from vanilla FfH2 are special enough that their associated civs deserve a superior civ-specific UB version. Eurabatres' Wyrmhold would then be a Kuriotates-only replacement for a generic Golden Wyrmhold, Abashi's Wyrmhold would be a Sheaim only replacement for the generic Obsidian Wyrmhold, etc.)

The Wyrmholds would no longer be holy shrines that require the Cult of the Dragon Holy City, but rather more like temples that may be built in cities with the religion present. I would probably forbid having more than 1 type of Wyrmhold in the same city. I am undecided whether they will be limited as world or national wonders.

Wyrmholds will no longer provide a source of mana, but would require the associated mana be present in the city in order to be constructed. They may increase yields, happiness, etc, based on maintaining that mana supply. I have not decided whether they should be built with hammers or sacrificing great persons. It might differ based on the dragon type.



I plan to add most if not all of these dragon types in my next release in some capacity too. They might be late game lair exploration results, only possible after Stir from Slumber is created. They might be summons only available to Archmages that have the Cult of the Dragon religion. I may tie each of them to a Wyrmhold, probably not simply allowing a dragon to be trained in a city with the appropriate Wyrmhold but maybe letting them be granted by random events that require possession of a Wyrmhold and the completion of Stir from Slumber.


Unfortunately I do not have any still in making new unit models, so I cannot accurately portray such things as a 3 headed Seed Dragon, a Wingless Fang Dragon, or a legless Feathered Dragon. All I really know how to do is resize or change the color balance on existing skins. It would be nice is someone more skilled volunteered to provide custom art.

I guess I (or someone) ought to also try adding custom art for Dragon Fanatics and Wyvern riders that honor each new dragon type.

Greetings, I have not been following updates for a long time and therefore I want to ask, do random crashes still occur during the game? The modmod is cool, it only stops having crashes.

I've gotten a couple crashes in the past week, but much less than before lfgr's MNAI updates.

Hello, I assume that the ice empires map in scenarios is no longer compatible with the mod, as I usually get a crash after the first turn. What changes to the map would I have to make for compatibility?

I am not sure what map you mean.

Is it a python mapscript? A scenario of the .CivBeyondSwordWBSave file type?

If it is a scenario, you can open it in a text editor like Notepad++ and see if it refers to any units, buildings, promotions, features, or terrains that are missing from the game. You could check to make sure the game options are listed in the proper order. You can make sure that a team is not skipped. There are a bunch of little things that could cause problems, but usually that would be upon loading instead of at the end of a turn.

If you mean one of Kael's scenarios, it may be that something introduced an error in ScenarioFunction.py

 

[thegreekweegee]

Kael recently released a reddit post details all the different types of Dragons. https://www.reddit.com/r/fallfromheaven/comments/cxwqk7/dragons_of_fall_from_heaven/

I am thinking the Cult of the Dragon religion is going to need a major overhaul in the next release

Oh boy, I feel something big is going to hit us in the near future. The Cult of the Dragon always felt a bit gimmicky as a religion, so to see it expanded to the level of the rest would be very welcome.

I am planning to have 21 different types of Wyrmhold, one for each dragon species/mana sphere. (I might decide to have more than that, if I decide that the named dragons from vanilla FfH2 are special enough that their associated civs deserve a superior civ-specific UB version. Eurabatres' Wyrmhold would then be a Kuriotates-only replacement for a generic Golden Wyrmhold, Abashi's Wyrmhold would be a Sheaim only replacement for the generic Obsidian Wyrmhold, etc.)

Do it. I always felt the named dragons we've seen so far are exemplary members of their group. But while I have no problems with all other dragons, Thalaath and the Lanun being linked doesn't make much sense to me; I'd rather link it to the Overlords instead, though that'd probably interfere with the Cult of the Dragon needing to exist... maybe have Thalaath's Wyrmhold require a Temple of the Overlords first?

Unrelated, but I'm starting to work on my 21 sphere interpretation as promised. As each sphere's analysis is quite big, however (think 6 short paragraphs and a single one-sentenced paragraph), it's going to take some time. At the time of writing this, only Fire, Water, Earth, and Air are complete, and I'm starting to work on Sun and Shadow. If you're interested, I can toss you a PM of what's done so far.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I am leaning towards each Wyrmhold being a World Wonder (so they are preserved when a city is captured), and making them incompatible with each other so that only one type of Wyrmhold is ever permitted in a single city.

I am leaning towards allowing the training of each dragon in a city with the proper Wyrmhold. Dragons would be Team/National units with a limit of 1. You could train another if the first dies, but never have more than one of the same dragon type per team.


I would probably keep the previous dragons as world units in their own unit class, so they would not count towards that dragon limit. The Kuriotates could thus have Eurabatres plus one lesser Gold Dragon at the same time.

Some dragons might have state religion or alignment prereqs, or blocks, e.g., Shield Dragons might only serve those who follow The Order, and Pit Dragons the Ashen Veil. Obsidian dragons might require Evil, and Shimmering dragons good.


I am thinking of taking advantage of the <EveryoneSpecialUnit> and <EveryoneSpecialBuilding> tags in Civ4ProjectInfo.xml, to make it so that the Wyrmholds and Dragons are only able to be built/trained after Stir from Slumber is completed by someone. Completing this ritual would make every type of dragon and Wyrmhold available to every player, even those who are nowhere near the tech level required for that ritual. I was thinking all the Wyrmholds would have Fanaticism as their tech prereqs, but could be convinced to change that. Using SpecialBuildings I could let everyone build them once anyone knows Divine Essense.

If I decide to use UB versions of Wyrmholds, I'm thinking that they might differ from the standard version primarily by not having the <SpecialBuildingType>SPECIALBUILDING_WYRMHOLD</SpecialBuildingType> tag. I think that would let those civs build their version of the wonder long before the completion of the Stir from Slumber Ritual, preventing other civs from getting the soup on them and getting the world wonder first.

I am thinking of making normal Wyrmholds remove the Divine promotion from priests built in that city, so that priests would loose the ability to use their spells. The UB versions might also lack that malus. I may make normal Wyrmholds require CotD be present in the city already, but let Abashi's, Acheron's, and Eurabatres' Wymholds be built in cities without the religion already present (in which case they spread it there).


Thalatth has no special tie to the Lanun. They certainly would not get a special Wyrmhold for him.

To be honest, I am not sure whether I want to keep Thalatth in the game at all. Kael said that all of Danalin's dragons were sleeping during the tragedy that destroyed the Aifons, and that if anyone of them were to wake up now they would be confused but still quite sane. They would all be on the side of Condatis, fiercely opposed to the Overlords.

However, he also said that if any Scaled Dragon had been present at Maenalus during the tragedy, it would either be dead or extremely insane.

If I do keep Thalatth, then the OO state religion would be a prerequisite for him and his Wyrmhold but would block access to any other Scaled Dragons or Scaled Wyrmholds. His Wyrmhold might grant Crazed or even Enraged to every unit and removed Committed instead of removing Divine, so you could still train OO priests there but could not keep the insane locked up in an Asylum.


I am thinking that with so many dragons in the game I might want to change how Dragon Bones work. I am thinking the dragon heroes might be resurrected the same way as other heroes. Adding 21 different types of Dragon Bones unique features would be too much. They would crowd out every other kind of unique feature. I am thinking of maybe making Dragon Bones not be a unique feature at all. I might go back to having only one Dragon Bones as a unique feature like in vanilla FfH2, or I might decide to make it a non-unique improvement that can be placed on the map like Ancient Towers or City Ruins. If I do that, I might randomly assign a mana type to the bones whenever it is placed, and perhaps place a sluagh there to represent a dragon of the associated mana type.

Kael said that the Spire Dragons are extinct, as they all died fighting Odio, and we do not know the truth of whether there is the rumored clutch of Spire Dragon eggs hidden somewhere. I'm thus thinking that a Spire Wyrmhold would never permit the training of a Spire Dragon, but perhaps Resurrection could bring one back to life on the site of Dragon Bones with Metamagic mana.

 

[FireBlaze]

Should pit dragons be a sort of defensive summon that can rebase like hawks?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

What do you think about these dragon reskins?

I have no idea how to make models or animations, so I did not even try to make the Seed Dragon 3-headed.

I was able to make the Fang Dragon's wings perfectly transparent, so the only flightless dragon appears to have no wings. It left a couple transparent spots on his body where the wings connect, which I could not figure out how to eliminate, but I think it looks ok if you do not inspect too closely.

I also made a Feathered Dragon copying the feathered texture from an Angel of Death's wings and making the lower legs transparent so it looks like it would never set foot on the ground. I had to leave the thighs opaque or else there would be huge holes on either side. Making the front legs invisible also resulted in ugly empty spaces. I'm sure this Feathered Dragon looks very odd from the bottom, but you'd never see that angle in the game.

I took a screenshot at an angle as it was hard to see some feature head on.

The back row contains the 5 names dragons from previous releases.

The second to back row shows the Elder Dragon, Obsidian Dragon, Furnace Dragon, Gold Dragon, Winter Dragon, and Scale Dragon. (The Elder dragon is a giant desaturated version of Eurabatres's art, with sepia toned eyes. The others are just resized versions of the previous dragons.)

The middle row has a Dawn Dragon (smaller Eurabatres with white instead of green eyes), Blood Dragon (Dark red version of Abashi), Coral Dragon (overexposed version of Acheron), Vault Wyrm (darker, dingier version of Eurabatres), Dracolich (Eurabatres turned partially transparent, de-saturated, with black and red starburst eyes), and Grave Dragon (partially transparent desaturated Eurabatres with green eyes).

The second to front row shows a Rune Dragon (Eurabatres turned mostly transparent and blue green), Pit Dragon (very dark Acheron reskin), Siege Dragon (Slightly less part Acheron reskin), Shadow Dragon (desaturated Abashi with blue instead of yellow eyes), and Shield Dragon (brightened desaturated Eurabatres)

The front row shows a Seed Dragon (Green version of Acheron), Fang Dragon (Sepia tones Eurabatres with invisible wings), Feathered Dragon (Eurabatres with the lower legs invisible and the wing and body texture changed to feathered from copied from the Angel of Death and turned Sky Blue), Spire Dragon (Drifa with values inverted and then wings lightened as the other change made them ugly), and Shimmering Dragon (Eurabatres with some color inversions and increased brightness but no desaturation so there are subtle teal and purple tones.)


I originally mixed up the models more, but found I could not stop good dragons from blowing filthy black smoke if I used Abashi or Acheron models and that the Abashi model retained a purple glow no matter what I did.

 

[thegreekweegee]

I was able to make the Fang Dragon's wings perfectly transparent, so the only flightless dragon appears to have no wings. It left a couple transparent spots on his body where the wings connect, which I could not figure out how to eliminate, but I think it looks ok if you do not inspect too closely.

Pretty much. It looks kinda goofy, but not that bad. Then again, my stance on models is if it isn't stuck on a t-pose or looks immensely atrocious, it's fine.

In general, for a quick hack job to diversify the dragons, the result's fine. Not great, not terrible, I wouldn't stress over it.

 

[Teutorix2]

Hi. I have lately gotten frequent bug and cotd that is related to "delayed death" of barbarian galley. I left log file if it's any help, seems to happen every time Lanun unit kills barbarian vessel and is solved after removing the barbarian galley in WB

 

[FireBlaze]

They look fine, I wouldn't worry too much about the graphics as-is when there's so much hype to be had with the next patch going full MAD but with dragons.

 

[Dominus the Mentat]

I plan to add most if not all of these dragon types in my next release in some capacity too. They might be late game lair exploration results, only possible after Stir from Slumber is created. They might be summons only available to Archmages that have the Cult of the Dragon religion. I may tie each of them to a Wyrmhold, probably not simply allowing a dragon to be trained in a city with the appropriate Wyrmhold but maybe letting them be granted by random events that require possession of a Wyrmhold and the completion of Stir from Slumber.

Or could be all of these requirements, depending of the type and caracteristics of the dragon. Some wyrmholds could be unique features appearing at random in the map that could be explored, just like dungeons. When triggered, will appear an event that have three options: the unit will not enter, the unit will challenge the dragon or the unit or player will pay the price for disturbing the creature. I think that this applies to some like the Blood and Rune Dragons. Dragons like Shield and Pit, could be spawned pleasing their respective gods. The Shield Dragon, for example, can appear in two forms: building X temples to Junil and be at war against Infernals or AV civilizations or building Judicium and the Crucible. But this last they will be bound to the city, as they are focused guardians. Others could need a special building that could be built to give favors in order to increase the chances of an Archmage summoning them. In the general, I believe that Dragons should be very rare and a bit difficult to find and bind them to your will. I see special events and unique features related to techs and dynamic tasks as a way to representing this.

Unfortunately I do not have any still in making new unit models, so I cannot accurately portray such things as a 3 headed Seed Dragon, a Wingless Fang Dragon, or a legless Feathered Dragon. All I really know how to do is resize or change the color balance on existing skins. It would be nice is someone more skilled volunteered to provide custom art.

Maybe the forum could provide models for some dragon types. I have found some ones that could fit them, if you're interested. About the others, you could try to request in the respective threads or make models close to the their descriptions, as you have done. Here the links to the models I have found:

https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/drakes-pack.14354/

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/saibotliehs-units-graphic-collection.489271/#post-12242414

https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...ions-from-kohan-ii.350259/page-9#post-9751896

https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...ions-from-kohan-ii.350259/page-7#post-8962873

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/fantasy-unit-conversions-from-kohan-ii.350259/

Kael said that the Spire Dragons are extinct, as they all died fighting Odio, and we do not know the truth of whether there is the rumored clutch of Spire Dragon eggs hidden somewhere. I'm thus thinking that a Spire Wyrmhold would never permit the training of a Spire Dragon, but perhaps Resurrection could bring one back to life on the site of Dragon Bones with Metamagic mana.

Maybe an unique feature called Boneyard of Dragons or Boneyard could be created to make possible resurrect one of them or periodically a few.

I've gotten a couple crashes in the past week, but much less than before lfgr's MNAI updates.

I have found the reason for The White Hand ritual crashing: Its the missing of Letum Frigus unique feature in the maps. As it appears at random, some maps could have it or not. When the Doviello or the Illians complete the ritual the game crashes because there's missing a Letum Frigus in the game to turn in New Mulyr and create Auric and company. My suggestion is to place Letum Frigus as a permanent, ever appearing unique feature. As the White Hand ritual is now global, makes the necessity of having this allways present in the game.

 

[lfgr]

Hi. I have lately gotten frequent bug and cotd that is related to "delayed death" of barbarian galley. I left log file if it's any help, seems to happen every time Lanun unit kills barbarian vessel and is solved after removing the barbarian galley in WB

This is related to recent changes in MNAI-U. Do you have a savegame?

 

[Teutorix2]

Left save file in the attachment

 

[lfgr]

@Teutorix2: I finally got a chance to check this. I don't get the crash when ending the turn. Maybe I wasn't clear enough, I'd need a savegame from before the crash happens.

 

[OKSleeper]

Recently (9 Sept) downloaded the new Magister, but have had problems with this version crashing. Previous versions were not a problem. I've now had several games that couldn't be finished. However, I did get through my last game, though still not without problems.

I was playing as Lanun on Monarch level, large map, torroidal and again had problems with it crashing. This time, however, I noticed a definite pattern. Any time someone's ship was sunk, it crashed - any type of ship. It also crashed when using the Boarding Party. It crashed again when anyone sunk one of my ships. Bombard worked, though, so I had to bomb them until they sunk, and between turns hide from them so they didn't sink me. Barbarians may have been exempt, but I'm not sure on that. I never did try my World Spell, since for Lanun it was Raging Seas and I thought it would crash for sure. But, the pattern was unmistakable, sink a ship and crash, so you might want to have a look at that. For instance, my earlier crashes of this version could have been due to another Civ losing ships between turns & I never would have known.

That being said, I've finished a couple of dozen games of Magister now and absolutely love some of your programming choices. And I am still running into new spells or units. Back in September, my first download didn't work right (my fault) but I ended up playing a game of FFH2 Vanilla (if you know what I mean) and didn't like it nearly as well as Magister. But both are masterpieces in my mind. So much more that the Civ4 vanilla, and leaps and bounds ahead of Civ 5 & 6.