Mod Components for FfH2

[vorshlumpf]

Hello everyone,

I started integrating some of my favourite mods into FfH2 as soon as version 0.15 came out, and I'd like to share my labours with anyone else who is interested. If anyone finds this useful, I'll keep this thread as up-to-date as possible.

Let me know of any bugs you come across and I'll do my best to address them. As well, if you are using any mods, please make sure you mention this if you report any bugs in the FfH2 bug threads.

If there are any changes you'd like to see to any of these mods, let me know and I'll see if it's within my abilities. You can also request such changes of the owner of the mod if you think it's something that would benefit the Civ4 community at large - keeping in mind some of those modders are essentially MIA or swamped with other mod work.

When adding these mods it is best to keep a clean copy of the entire FfH2 folder. It will prevent you from having to re-install FfH2 if something goes wrong. Plus, if you play multiplayer with people who don't have the same mods, then you can just switch to 'Vanilla' FfH2 with a pair of quick changes to folder names.

Please thank the original mod creators on the appropriate threads if you enjoy their work.

If anyone else feels like doing similar work for mods for FfH2, I can include your work in this post.

Installation:
Download the mod(s) you want from this location: http://niilo.ca/FfH2Mods/
Extract the files to a temporary location, then you can simply move the Assets folder into the "C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Mods\Fall from Heaven 2 015\" folder. Select Yes to All for overwriting files.
Some of the mods come with a config file - these should go into your "C:\Documents and Settings\[UserName]\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\" folder.

Some of these mods are not compatible with each other if you want to choose more than one. You can either go with my ModComp package which uses them all or ask me how to integrate them (it's actually quite easy).

I have left the original readme files with each mod. However, do not follow any directions you do not get directly from this thread.

- Niilo

Mod Components

Civ4lerts by Dr Elmer Jiggle
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=157088

Spoiler :

This mod will give you alerts at the beginning of your turn for various events. Right now it is limited to some trade opportunities and city-growth warnings (I really like having the warning that my city is about to surpass its happy or health cap).

This mod uses a configuration file for choosing which alerts you want active.

Enhanced Tech Conquest v0.4.2 by TheLopez
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=171748

Spoiler :

If you conquer a city belonging to a Civ that knows one or more techs that you don't, you can now get some of that knowledge.

This mod uses a config file - I've currently got it set up so that you can get knowledge of multiple techs, but the amount you get is drastically reduced (it ranges from 0% to 5x[City Size]%.

The tech stealing does not work for the Clan of Embers - I assume because of their Scorched Earth trait. Bug or feature? - I'll let you decide.

Trade Route/Tech Leak by AltarisGreyhawk
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=177236

Spoiler :

You can gain small amounts of tech from other Civs through trade routes. This makes Open Borders even more desirable. See the original thread for details on how this works.

There is no config file, and I have turned off notification of the tech leak (you can get inundated with messages with the way it's currently set up). You can change the notification back on by changing BTMAddon.py.

I also made a change to how much tech leaks so that it diminishes as you learn more about the tech, making it unlikely that you learn a bunch of techs from trading partners while you spend 50 turns rushing for The Order

RealFort Mod by Bhruic
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=140957

Spoiler :

Makes forts more useful. I had to make considerable code changes to this mod to make if compatible with FfH.

Each unit within a fort gets the appropriate fort promotions automatically. This applies even to attacks against adjacent enemy units. Animals and Beasts only get access to Fort I. Fire and water units get no Fort bonuses.

Fort Bonus I:
+20% healing rate
+10% strength

Fort Bonus II (requires Optics):
immune to first strike
+1 visibility range

Fort Bonus III (requires Precision):
+1 first strike chance
10% withdrawal chance

MagicPLE

Spoiler :

You can now cast spells using the Plot List Enhancement that Kael added to FfH. Now I can use Haste without switching to my arcane units! Yay!

Niilo's Mod Pack

Spoiler :

Everything rolled into one.

(yes, I know, a pretty sorry excuse for a spoiler tag, but I'm trying to be consistent here)

 

[vorshlumpf]

Here's the stuff I may integrate next:

Improvements Outside Borders
(Changes the SDK)

Route Pillage Mod
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=181587

Modified Special Domestic Advisor
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=148109


Bugs/Changes to Current Mods:

Tech Leak notifications: make them more concise
Tech Leak notifications: have them appear after all other messages, not before
MagicPLE: Spells that require a selected target don't work off the PLE - fix this
RealFort Mod: Make modifications to the Fort promotions
RealFort Mod: Possibly add more promotions based on other techs (without going overboard . . .)


Requests:

JFort Mod
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=169009

 

[Sureshot]

wow, good compilation and work

especially hope for the improvements outside borders.. so many fun things could be done with this

 

[vorshlumpf]

Thanks.

For the improvements outside borders, keep in mind that the mod doesn't give you access to resources, it just allows you to build. The two benefits I see from this are 1) forts, 2) pre-building resource improvements in preparation for border expansion.

- Niilo

 

[Sureshot]

those are nice, but the reason i like it is for using the mechanic for other things.

like, before i made a nomad unit for the hippus that could build a camp, and when it finished the camp, it reproduced (thus eliminating the need for cities to produce units). and to upgrade or gain research whatnot, they could build a camp on certain places, like maybe a mana node for research, or gold for gold, or copper for better weapons, etc.

but before i had to do a hacky way, whereby they built camps that were just roads with a different icon then removed the road and added a camp in OnRouteBuilt event if it was the nomad doing the building, because that was the only way to initiate a build outside of borders. there were possible exploits with this method. but with normal improvements being buildable i could create a better system, but also theres other things that could be done, like pirates coves being built instead of being an instant effect.

basically i think it opens up some decent ideas, particularly for scenarios where you dont have any cities

 

[woodelf]

How is the Tech Conquests mod working in FfH2? Does this make the Barb trait civs overpowered or is it fairly balanced?

edit - saw the Spolier tag about the Clan and their scorched earth trait. Too bad, but I really like this idea overall.

 

[clut]

Thank you very much for doing this. I love Civ4lerts, and was considering putting it in FfH2, but you've not saved me the job.

 

[vorshlumpf]

basically i think it opens up some decent ideas, particularly for scenarios where you dont have any cities

Well, since you're so interested, I'll make it the next one I look at.

How is the Tech Conquests mod working in FfH2? Does this make the Barb trait civs overpowered or is it fairly balanced?

The TechConquest is actually a recent addition, and I've only played games with the Bannor and the Clan using it. And in those two games I haven't gotten any tech by conquest yet (the Clan for the obvious reason and the Bannor because my only victim so far was behind me in tech).

Who else has the Barb trait? The Doviello. I don't know if it would overpower them. I've heard that they are not a favourite Civ by any means, so it could be a means of making them more desirable. If it's deemed too much by anyone who tries it out, I could always check for the Barb trait and apply the same penalty to their tech conquest that they have for tech research.

edit - saw the Spolier tag about the Clan and their scorched earth trait. Too bad, but I really like this idea overall.

Do you think I should try to fix this?

Thank you very much for doing this. I love Civ4lerts, and was considering putting it in FfH2, but you've not saved me the job.

You're welcome. It makes it more worthwhile to have someone else find this useful.

- Niilo

 

[vorshlumpf]

I'm sorry, Sureshot, but the improvements outside of borders mod requires changing the SDK.

- Niilo

 

[Quetz]

very nice work, only can i suggest replacing Realfort with the newer and much better JFort, or just adding JZoC (adds zone of control to forts.)

And how about the Ranged Bombardment component from Dale's code factory? *drool* lessen the effectiveness gap between normal siege engines and mages a bit, so the non-mage-using AI has a chance vs my Amurite horde

 

[Sureshot]

I'm sorry, Sureshot, but the improvements outside of borders mod requires changing the SDK.

- Niilo

im not surprised it would require an SDK change.. now i must figure that out so i can do it, i want improvements out of borders even if its a SDK change lol

 

[vorshlumpf]

very nice work, only can i suggest replacing Realfort with the newer and much better JFort, or just adding JZoC (adds zone of control to forts.)

I'll take a look at JFort for you, but the reason I didn't choose it was because I don't like passive ZoC. The RealFort mod adds just enough functionality to give active ZoC (well, it's not so effective now, but I plan on making some adjustments, like increasing Withdrawal chance).

And how about the Ranged Bombardment component from Dale's code factory? *drool* lessen the effectiveness gap between normal siege engines and mages a bit, so the non-mage-using AI has a chance vs my Amurite horde

I'll add it to the list

- Niilo

 

[Sureshot]

the problem with making forts useful is that the AI still wont build or use them.

ive come up with a method that makes them build them without spamming them, i just make Sentry Towers workable with Forts, and make them give +1 commerce and +1 production bonus yield when built on sentry towers. The AI will then build forts on any sentry towers in its borders and even guard it

 

[vorshlumpf]

I've been reading your thread on fortresses. There are a lot of good ideas there, and I've been meaning to put in my 2 cents - my brain's just been too fuzzy from trying to figure out all this Python code . . .

Quetz, Dale's combat mod is all SDK, so I can't grab the bombard from there.

- Niilo

 

[Sureshot]

any chance you want to do a SDK mod too?

i can deal with SDK changes so long as i get what i want lol

 

[vorshlumpf]

any chance you want to do a SDK mod too?

Hah! Now that would make my head explode.

Maybe sometime in the future but, right now, I just want to get a handle on this Python environment.

- Niilo

 

[Quetz]

poo. Ranged bombard is such a fun mod.

Oh well. Does anyone know if using this pack will screw up playing multiplayer, with people using only the regular FfH?

 

[Sureshot]

just always make two folders, one standard for multiplayer, and one for modding, and rename as required for the situation

 

[Sureshot]

me and quetz tried the pack multiplayer but were getting an OOS after about 20 turns

 

[Sureshot]

my ffh is in the my games/civ/MODS folder tho, so it may have been my fault.. is there anything in the complete pack you got that might cause OOS? it may have been some differences in my and quetz installs too for all i know

fun pack tho