MarnokMod

I love having more fort options! Ahwaric has done a lot of great work on forts if you wanted to borrow his Orbis code, as well as do some play testing from what he has already done. One of the good things about Orbi forts is they grant cultural borders if in the wild.

I like the idea of area around forts limiting movement to 1 square per turn (except for flying units). As well as the a. b. c. options you listed.

One other option I would consider is a garrison fort ability (available at warfare?) - allowing units to garrison a fort for less upkeep (or no upkeep) cost. Thus giving incentive to put units on the front lines.

Another idea is create early forts (available at crafting) like "peel towers" and have workers "work" them to become forts, keeps, castles. the ability to work the tower tiles can be given at construction or another similar tech.
Because keeps and castles upgrade from ancient towers, I think forts, keeps, and castles should keep the extra visibility range. One of the main purposes of defensive structures was to give early warning... and that also stops the micromanagement of using hawks for all your cities (which gets annoying).

A possibility for reducing movement around forts is traps (castable by units garrisoned in the fort, or fort commander). Traps could be made like grasping vines in that they can't move. Since attacking takes a movement it will slow an army. A combination of reduced movement and traps would be really deadly.

I should stop here... I have too many ideas for forts because I would like to see them as a big strategy part of defense.

 

I'll be testing the full Fort stuff for next release, I will certainly check out Orbis and a few other modmods, if I get time to actually play!

What I am currently planning for forts:
add 3x3 culture based on total 'tier' of defenders, multiplied by a variable for fort type (so units in a Citadel exert more influence than those in a Fort).
stop enemies who move into an adjacent plot.
add to defence and defensive strike bonus to units within.
Allow units within to Sally forth and strike attackers.
Allow enemy seige units to bombard defences (need to look into this).
forts only buildable and upgradeable by "spell-like" ability.
fort upgrade possibly requiring special units or sacrifice of workers.
fort upgrade requiring time, possibly considerable (build a fort quick, 8 turns to upgrade?)

I have a lot to test, so perhaps I'll try and get Forts done next, then Villages, then the expanded lair exploration. Most of it relies on AI tweaking though, so I may need to play around quite a lot to understand how the AI works within the dll.

 

Might it be possible to tie fort upgrades to the Masonry line?

 

Just so you know I am still working, progress report:
Yesterday, I made all the Barbarian units who would normally stay behind to guard a lair, actually go into defensive stance! They are digging in now instead of just being stuck in place. Did this in Python so I feel confident I can get civilized AIs to do the same thing in forts. Now I am writing a script which I hope isn't too processor-heavy to help civilized AIs decide how many units to allocate to defending each plot. At first it will just be like the barbarian "stickiness", that is, if a unit happens to step in to a sticky plot it will defende it. Next I will add in a calling function to order units to go to plots as needed and hold them. Once I do that, I can make the AI send workers to build forts at these places.
I'll upload a MarnokX when I think it is ready.

 

Marnok, you have gone quiet for quite some time???

Is this still progressing?

 

Hi, still working, but been busy for a few days. Also someone keeps patching the main mod which means I have to adapt and retest

 

Hmm, if this works for version Q, that's good, but you might want to update the first page. It says K.
Also, don't forget, it's up to S now.

I used to use a very old version myself, so this will be fun to play with. Here's hoping I don't get attacked at turn 1 by flying uber-dragon monsters.

 

ok I'm dowloading the latest patch and hope to update and release before the team release another one.

I had better get back to this with the current patch, people would pity me as a fool if I didn't update for "T"

 

Hey Marnok, Are you lost in space?

 

<crickets chirping>

 

Sorry, been busy and distracted. I'll let you know when I'm back on this!

 

Good news.

 

presumably you're still a busy bumble bee?

Just to let you know that there are still those of us who remember the good times of Muris Goblins that you could deal with, villages and towers that you could absorb into your Empire, and big bad barbarian bosses that gave a real sense of penning you into your fledgling borders.

Perhaps if I can source some ruby shoes, and say "There's no modmod like Marnok's" three times an update will magically appear?

 

Hi!

Been hibernating. I downloaded the "z" patch but I've been working on some projects and never seem to get time to update! Then the "z" made me feel sleepy again. zzzzzzzzz....

Since there is still a spectacular demand for the modmod (1 person), I'll definately try to find time for an update, even if it is just a fit-existing-stuff-to-current-patch thing. Just need to make sure that I don't get all wraped up in it and let my work slip! As soon as I thought about updating, I thought, I might as well change the way culture spreads from cities, add another 4 dozen lair events, etc etc.

 

Blimey Marnok - that was a quick and very positive response! I didn't even have a chance to try on those ruby slippers (obviously I'm waiting for the weekend when I can also don wig to go with them...)

Perhaps it may be better to wait for the next patch is released before updating, seeing as it is a gamebreaker and has been building up for a week or so now? Obviously no guarantee that Kael will release it soon, but I can imagine that if you were to release an update, and the patch was released 20 minutes after it could perhaps be a tad disheartening!

 

Yeah just about every time I patch, some sinister fiend releases another official patch. I'll probably wait.

(I can respond quickly because I am a rogue sentient AI)

 

you can count me too, so that will make 2 people

 

2??? ok now this is just getting out of control.

 

....would you play it yourself.....'cos that'd make it....errrr [gets abacus out smilie]....3

and three, as De La Soul would say, is the magic number

 

I'm not playing this joo fuen chse, I got better things to do with my time!