MarnokMod - (Explorable lairs)

[Marnok]

        <ImprovementInfo>
            <Type>IMPROVEMENT_BARROW</Type>
            ...
            <iAppearanceProbability>[b]375[/b]</iAppearanceProbability>

Is this for real or it is a mistype? Cause in vanilla it's only 75... And in you mod I can barely walk around.

Also Goody_Hut has <iAppearanceProbability>500</iAppearanceProbability>, those values shouldn't be toned down a little?

And the IMPROVEMENT_LION_DEN has two entries.

I'll fix the lion den...

There are meant to be lots of lairs and huts in my mod. I wanted a mod where the wilderness is more dangerous and enduring.. If you want fewer of these, please feel free to adjust the XML to suit your taste. I've actually had people asking for more... and I don't think I can balance it from the python settings.py I've added, unless I zero the appearance in XML and write my own lair-placer, which might be slow.

 

[Marnok]

RIGHT
another fresh upload. I think I have caught the CTD thing - if I am right, it was related to the Treasure placement (and alerting). So now it is different.
When you find treasure, you will receive a unit called Hidden Treasure, which looks like a little flag, and is invisible and immobile. This way, you know where the treasure is without everyone being alerted.
(I may have to amend the unit later to make absolutely sure it is not moveable, and cheat-proof in this regard. Also it is not perfect as it lets you see the surrounding area, and a few other side effects. I will keep thinking and I am open to better suggestions)
Any time a Treasure Hunter unit is in a plot with a Hidden Treasure, even if it does not belong to them, they can dig it up and receive the Treasure Chest unit.
Now I may have to amend these too - they could pop up in rival territory (if you have some sneaky treasure hunter) and could auto-pop to the edge of the controlled area by being kicked out. It would be better if you had to protect the unit all the way home. But that can be fixed later.

 

[Sureshot]

you could do what you did before but just add a Plot Sign to the Spot saying "Treasure" (thats what i did manually to any spot that i could see after being told my unit was now a treasure hunter and that it was out there), also a round popup thingy for its placement like what happens for when a world unit is created.

 

[Sureshot]

Law mana and loyalty spell stops them from going barbarian

not sure loyalty works,, i know at one point loyalty just made it so that if a unit would convert to barb or anyone else that instead of converting itd just die heh

edit added:
wolf den and orthus throne still showing as TXT_KEYs in the civilopedia for improvements
also, the promotions Fearless and Learner show as TXT_KEYs as well
so goes for the spell/abilities Barbarian in Lair, Lair building, and Village Relocating

that should be all of them, a simple look through the civilopedia and they all stand out pretty easily heh


about abashi, in general hes a bad idea not so much because of his strength (which although daunting and civ destroying can be stopped with enough warriors heh), but because the barbs would certainly make one before the sheaim and thus stop them from ever being able to build it. what you could do tho if use his graphics and make a bunch of slightly smaller more manageable units for dragons, then you could avoid using up their world units and avoid having the Name (Abashi) thing too

 

[pimparel]

RIGHT
another fresh upload. I think I have caught the CTD thing - if I am right, it was related to the Treasure placement (and alerting). So now it is different.
When you find treasure, you will receive a unit called Hidden Treasure, which looks like a little flag, and is invisible and immobile. This way, you know where the treasure is without everyone being alerted.
(I may have to amend the unit later to make absolutely sure it is not moveable, and cheat-proof in this regard. Also it is not perfect as it lets you see the surrounding area, and a few other side effects. I will keep thinking and I am open to better suggestions)
Any time a Treasure Hunter unit is in a plot with a Hidden Treasure, even if it does not belong to them, they can dig it up and receive the Treasure Chest unit.
Now I may have to amend these too - they could pop up in rival territory (if you have some sneaky treasure hunter) and could auto-pop to the edge of the controlled area by being kicked out. It would be better if you had to protect the unit all the way home. But that can be fixed later.

It's intended to be able to start a golden age with the treasure? (I got a unit similar to a great merchant)

 

[Marnok]

It's intended to be able to start a golden age with the treasure? (I got a unit similar to a great merchant)

Yes that's right. They essentially are a slightly modified great merchant - after I wrote down everything I wanted the chest to do, I realised the great merchant was almost it! Easier than any SDK changes and easier for the AI to cope with, I think. So unless I find I'm generating too many and unbalancing the game, they can be used toward a golden age. This is supposed to be a Great Treasure after all, maybe not as good as the dragon hoard, but still a famous treasure and if shared about, it could help toward a golden age.

 

[Marnok]

that should be all of them, a simple look through the civilopedia and they all stand out pretty easily heh

Yeah ok, doing the texts is my least favorite bit but I suppose I can put the effort in.

about abashi, in general hes a bad idea not so much because of his strength (which although daunting and civ destroying can be stopped with enough warriors heh), but because the barbs would certainly make one before the sheaim and thus stop them from ever being able to build it. what you could do tho if use his graphics and make a bunch of slightly smaller more manageable units for dragons, then you could avoid using up their world units and avoid having the Name (Abashi) thing too

I dpn't want to step on any civ's toes, so for now, he is just out of the list for generation. I might add more different monster types later, based on existing graphics. It will be a way down the "to do" list though. (unless someone wants to make a modmodmod for me...!)

 

[TheJopa]

I finally got this brilliant mod-mod to work by reinstalling entire FfH and adding the latest version of mod-mod. Few comments:
1) Icon to attack village is same as pillage, could you change it at least a bit. I subconsciously recognized it as usual pillage and ignored it, so it took me few minutes to realize why I can't attack village
2) Also sometimes attacking provokes people from village, but sometimes my unit is killed immediately. Could you remove 'instant death' result and instead just keep the one that damages the unit AND spawns barbarians. The end result is probably the same, as wounded units cant stand up to full strength barbarian, but at least you feel like you have some control over situation, and sometimes you can escape.
3) This mod is brilliant! I fought spectres, my Calabim civilization burned villages for gold, I fought Gargoyles... Also, could you make barbs that come out of villages not orcs but humans?

 

[Marnok]

I finally got this brilliant mod-mod to work by reinstalling entire FfH and adding the latest version of mod-mod. Few comments:
1) Icon to attack village is same as pillage, could you change it at least a bit. I subconsciously recognized it as usual pillage and ignored it, so it took me few minutes to realize why I can't attack village

I'll make some new DDS files soon, so everything looks clearer.

2) Also sometimes attacking provokes people from village, but sometimes my unit is killed immediately. Could you remove 'instant death' result and instead just keep the one that damages the unit AND spawns barbarians. The end result is probably the same, as wounded units cant stand up to full strength barbarian, but at least you feel like you have some control over situation, and sometimes you can escape.

The Attack Village thing calculates an amount of damage based on a random roll and the strength of your unit. Sometimes that is enough to kill it outright. I could put an entry in the settings.py, something like MaxDamageFromAttackVillage - normall set to 100%, but adjustable.

3) This mod is brilliant!

That's what I've been trying to tell everyone...

I fought spectres, my Calabim civilization burned villages for gold, I fought Gargoyles... Also, could you make barbs that come out of villages not orcs but humans?

I quite like the orcs, but I can look into it. It's one of those things though, a warrior belonging to the barbarian nation will look orcy.

 

[Sureshot]

i made some dragons, yay modmodmod heh, an image is in the spoiler below:

Spoiler dragons image :

the dragons at the top are the original dragons, and the middle ones are the ones i made (from left to right: red, black, gold, silver, green, white, blue), and the bottom has a tribal settler for size reference

heres the zip:
Dragons modmodmod download

note that gold and silver dragons usually are good, while the rest i made are typically evil. i made all the dragons a little smaller than the hero dragons and theyre only 15 strength so they are more manageable and dont diminish the big hero dragons. feel free to pick and choose whatever you wanna use heh, also they could use some differentation, maybe some resists or special damage types, black and green dragons are usually associated with acid, blues with electricity and lightning (tho in ffh drifa the blue is about cold), whites are connected with cold usually, so might be good to not use that one, reds with fire, gold with fire, silver with cold.. heres a link for D&D dragons if you want more specifics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_(Dungeons_&_Dragons)

 

[Sureshot]

The Attack Village thing calculates an amount of damage based on a random roll and the strength of your unit. Sometimes that is enough to kill it outright. I could put an entry in the settings.py, something like MaxDamageFromAttackVillage - normall set to 100%, but adjustable.

ya thatd be nice, i hate to have an event kill a unit outright.. i dont mind if its down to 0.1 strength or something, but when it dies outright its just annoying heh

 

[MagisterCultuum]

i made some dragons, yay modmodmod heh, an image is in the spoiler below:

Spoiler dragons image :

the dragons at the top are the original dragons, and the middle ones are the ones i made (from left to right: red, black, gold, silver, green, white, blue), and the bottom has a tribal settler for size reference

heres the zip:
Dragons modmodmod download

note that gold and silver dragons usually are good, while the rest i made are typically evil. i made all the dragons a little smaller than the hero dragons and theyre only 15 strength so they are more manageable and dont diminish the big hero dragons. feel free to pick and choose whatever you wanna use heh, also they could use some differentation, maybe some resists or special damage types, black and green dragons are usually associated with acid, blues with electricity and lightning (tho in ffh drifa the blue is about cold), whites are connected with cold usually, so might be good to not use that one, reds with fire, gold with fire, silver with electricity i think.. heres a link for D&D dragons if you want more specifics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_(Dungeons_&_Dragons)

I really like that Silver Dragon.

I may decide to include these dragons in my modmod, probably arising only though events, like the Gurid one. I'm including Explorable Lairs too, so a lesser dragon might be hiding on one of those too. I'll probably make them about as strong as the current dragons are, and nearly double the current dragon's strength plus let them all fly. Acheron will cost much more though, and the Dragon Slaying promotion will be available to Melee, Mounted, and Disciple Heroes.

 

[Sureshot]

ya ive always wanted more dragonage in the game, more for the dragon slayers to do heh.. the white dragon looks bad.. i never enjoy trying to make something brighter, didnt bother remaking because i think the way blue dragons are theres little reason for white dragons. i might redo the green dragon, i made a better version before im sure of it heh

 

[TheJopa]

I quite like the orcs, but I can look into it. It's one of those things though, a warrior belonging to the barbarian nation will look orcy.

Aaah, but the thing is, only if it has Orc promotion, AFAIK. That is why you can hire orc or elven mercenary and still have it look like and orc/elf even after upgrade. And if you remove promotion, he's human again. You'd just need to write a function that removes 'orcish' promotion from warrior.

Thing is, I thought of the villages as human cities leftovers, but perhaps they could be mixed - some even elven or dwarven? But I think it would make more sense if humans lived inside those villages, instead of orcs.



Also: Could you tweak spell names and descriptions? As it stands the spell is called 'explore dungeon to find... bla bla', a really long name that makes a lot of clutter on screen when you hover mouse over it and when you cast it, and spell description is short, just a few words. You could reverse, give spells short names - 'explore dungeon', 'attack village', etc. and add all the description text to spell description

 

[TheJopa]

ya thatd be nice, i hate to have an event kill a unit outright.. i dont mind if its down to 0.1 strength or something, but when it dies outright its just annoying heh

Seconded...

 

[Marnok]

Aaah, but the thing is, only if it has Orc promotion, AFAIK. That is why you can hire orc or elven mercenary and still have it look like and orc/elf even after upgrade. And if you remove promotion, he's human again. You'd just need to write a function that removes 'orcish' promotion from warrior.

Thing is, I thought of the villages as human cities leftovers, but perhaps they could be mixed - some even elven or dwarven? But I think it would make more sense if humans lived inside those villages, instead of orcs.



Also: Could you tweak spell names and descriptions? As it stands the spell is called 'explore dungeon to find... bla bla', a really long name that makes a lot of clutter on screen when you hover mouse over it and when you cast it, and spell description is short, just a few words. You could reverse, give spells short names - 'explore dungeon', 'attack village', etc. and add all the description text to spell description

OK, I'll look into these, thanks!

 

[Sureshot]

Marnoks Dragons modmodmod

i removed the white dragon and redid the green dragon to be more subtly green, and gave all the dragons the appropriate damage types and resistances/immunities based on lore

edit added:
im trying out having the evil dragons (red, black, blue, green) as being big bad monsters, and having the gold dragon as a possible reward (like a the monk prisoner you can release) for the elohim.. and maybe the silver dragon as a reward that good aligned civs can get
in fact i edited the most recent spellinterface file and uploaded it, heres it:
Marnoks Dragons modmodmod component
you need both linked files to get the dragons being able to be gotten or exist ingame (just paste the assets for both as usual over a marnok version)

any chance youll be adding this in? ive got no intention of trying to keep up a modmodmod heh (i dont even like having to type modmodmod its too long!), just figured id help

 

[Marnok]

Marnoks Dragons modmodmod

i removed the white dragon and redid the green dragon to be more subtly green, and gave all the dragons the appropriate damage types and resistances/immunities based on lore

edit added:
im trying out having the evil dragons (red, black, blue, green) as being big bad monsters, and having the gold dragon as a possible reward (like a the monk prisoner you can release) for the elohim.. and maybe the silver dragon as a reward that good aligned civs can get
in fact i edited the most recent spellinterface file and uploaded it, heres it:
Marnoks Dragons modmodmod component
you need both linked files to get the dragons being able to be gotten or exist ingame (just paste the assets for both as usual over a marnok version)

any chance youll be adding this in? ive got no intention of trying to keep up a modmodmod heh (i dont even like having to type modmodmod its too long!), just figured id help

Excellent! What I am planning is, let people download this file then put in settings.py:

# set this to 1 if you have downloaded and installed Sureshot's Dragons modmodmod
# (not included in my modmod by default, as the files are quite large) 
# http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=9602
sureshotDragons = 0

So, I'll put the stats in my XML files, but the dragons won't appear unless the user sets the variable to 1, to say they have downloaded and installed the file. Users will have to be told not to install the XML. Just means a quick check in the scripts before spawning.

I can incorporate other modmodmods in this way as time goes on.

 

[Caradoc]

OK, I'm headed back for another try. But I could use some info on some concepts that were probably introduced in the prior thread:

-- What does a Barbarian Ally do and how do I get one?
-- What does a Treasure Hunter do and how do I get one?
-- What does an Adventurer do and how do I get one?
-- How do I incorporate a Tribal Village into my City?

I'm also curious about implementation:

Looking at your GoodyInfo file, I see a number of entries that apparently add promotions to the explorer, but there's nothing in the XML to indicate the promotions. Are these handled in Python or somewhere I'm not looking?

Do the entries in the HandicapInfo file matter anymore? Do the encounters scale with difficulty level?

Does the 'bad' flag matter anymore? Do recon units have any advantage over others?

 

[Marnok]

OK, I'm headed back for another try. But I could use some info on some concepts that were probably introduced in the prior thread:

-- What does a Barbarian Ally do and how do I get one?

Some Civ leaders have the Barbarian trait. While they are not too powerful, Barbarians do no attack them. This has a bigger impact in this modmod, where there are barbarians everywhere. So I needed to treat these leaders in a slightly different way, hence my references to BarbAllies.

-- What does a Treasure Hunter do and how do I get one?

Treasure Hunter is a promo granted to units who receive a Treasure result from villages or lairs. It lets them dig up Buried Treasure - units which are spawned as a sort of mini-quest. Find the treasure, dig it up, get rich!

-- What does an Adventurer do and how do I get one?

Adventurer promotion turns a unit into a single heroic character (but not with Hero promotion). Often a unit will become an adventurer. (Plan is that Heroes can take the promotion as a levelup choice, and Adventurers can take Treasure Hunter). Adventurers are often created as a result of exploring a lair (only one guy survived, it seems!) and they get a name. Adventurers get a bonus on lair exploration die rolls.

-- How do I incorporate a Tribal Village into my City?

The Tribal Village vill eventally let you cast a spell and turn the unit into a Tribal Settler. Sit a unit on the village for a few turns to get them used to the idea, and they ought to be willing to join you. Once the Relocate option is used and you get the Tribal Settler, move the settler to a city and you should be able to settle them there, adding to population. Otherwise, settle them somewhere and get them to Join your nation with the handshake option, and they will form a hamlet, farm, mine or something.

I'm also curious about implementation:

Looking at your GoodyInfo file, I see a number of entries that apparently add promotions to the explorer, but there's nothing in the XML to indicate the promotions. Are these handled in Python or somewhere I'm not looking?

I need to edit the Goody file, I initially made the mod and relied heavily on goodies, but now a lot of them are redundant and done better in Python. I'll trim that file when I get time. It may be you are looking at old Goodies, which I have now found a better way to do.

Do the entries in the HandicapInfo file matter anymore? Do the encounters scale with difficulty level?

HandicapInfo is not used. I am putting more difficulty balancing in as I go. The new settings.py file will help. But for actual lair exploration results, there is a python table.

Does the 'bad' flag matter anymore? Do recon units have any advantage over others?

In some cases, nobadgoodies flag is used to give better results. Especially relating to villages. So, yes, recon units get a bonus there, but not in air exploration.