[MOD] Fall from Heaven

[Kael]

Thanks, I was hoping for an easy solution. Me being dumb in this case.

As for the ongoing barbarian debate, I don't have much of a problem with the current activity levels. It is frustrating when hill giants kill all your scouts... which they tend to do for me. Orthus is a problem if he spawns right on top of your capital. But overall it's a pretty decent setup, especially on a terra map if you can get Baron Halfmorn to the New World before anyone else arrives.

One more question... never mind, it's listed in the version updates.

FYI: Orthus only spawns in tiles where there are already barbarian units. I poll all the barbarian units on the map and randomly drop Orthus on one. So if you want to keep Orthus out, you gotta keep the barbarians out. Not always possible, but the cleaner you keep your lands, the less chance you have of getting him.

 

[Chucko]

I do have one question. Does it matter where the mods are loaded? My mods all load under: \My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\MODS

 

[Kael]

I do have one question. Does it matter where the mods are loaded? My mods all load under: \My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\MODS

Yes, there are some thing that don't run correctly when you run the Mof out of that directory. Firaxis has fixed most of them, but in general I just dont trust it and I prefer to use the Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meiers civilization Iv\mods\ directory instead.

 

[naf4ever]

This is off topic, but ive been studying your mod as a way to learn more about modding civ 4 in general and have a question. Which xml file are you altering to put in your own graphics and music on the main menu at the beginning of the game? I cant seem to find which one it is.

 

[Kael]

This is off topic, but ive been studying your mod as a way to learn more about modding civ 4 in general and have a question. Which xml file are you altering to put in your own graphics and music on the main menu at the beginning of the game? I cant seem to find which one it is.

Neither of these is xml changes, just file swaps.

The main menu changes are just from changing the Assets\art\interface\main menu\civtitle.dds and civtitle2.dds files.

The soundtrack was changed by replacing the Assets\sounds\soundtrack\OpeningMenu.mp3 file.

 

[zeysoft]

I'm create a patch for include UnitUpgrades (by Vovan) & TechWindows in Fall from Heaven.

This patch is compatible for versions 0.95 to 0.95e of Fall from Heaven.

For install, unzip in Civ4 mods folder (folder where is install Fall from Heaven 0.95)

Old save games is compatible because only change Civilopedia's windows.

Download the patch

Screenshots: (first & second image are image assemblies)
UnitUpgrade in Fall from Heaven 0.95

UnitUpgrade in Fall from Heaven 0.95e

TechWindow (left: old tech window; rigth: TechWindow)

 

[AljayBoy]

After a few more FfH games I have a few more suggestions and would like to see what everyone else thought about them.

I think Assasins are understandably strong on the attack but should be weaker when defending against melee units. IMO the assasins are too powerful on the defense. A 100% against melee units is understandable, but an assasins strength lies in the ability to suprise attack opponents undetected until its too late, meriting the large bonus. However, I think that they should have a -30%? bonus which comes into play when being attacked by melee units. This keeps them strong against melee units, but means they are stronger when attacking than when they are defending, which is what I would expect of a "real life" Assasin.

I also think that the Baron should be immune to disease, as werewolves in general, getting disease just doesnt feel right for me. However, to try and balance it out, why not make it so that only werewolves personally "sired" by the Baron would be immune also. Giving the werewolves in the Barons lineage a better significance than those werewolves created by his offspring. Even if it is not Immunity to Disease, I think there should be a bonus for werewolves personally created by the Baron.

Also on the werewolve topic, have you considered giving the Ravenous Werewolves the beserk promotion? Seems fitting that a newly created deranged ravenous werewolf could also be described as being beserk, with an attack bonus and a reduction in defence. This fits with my image of a ravenous werewolf on the rampage, more comfortable attacking everything in sight than employing cautious defensive tactics. To balance it out a bit their strength could be reduced to 4?

The basis for these points mainly comes from a few turns in my current game. I am currently playing with the Ashen Veil and noticed that their units dont have any cure disease ability, well I think they should have maybe one unit that has this ability because, as someone mentioned in an earlier post, its a pain in the behind having Rosier the Fallen catch disease, fair doo's they are the bad guys though. I also had the Baron catch it, as one werewolf attacked a city stack which had disease, when it was successful, the newly created Ravenous Werewolf also had disease and, as it is spawned in the tile that its creator attacked from, it infected everyone in that tile, including the Baron! Quite infurating!

 

[Kael]

After a few more FfH games I have a few more suggestions and would like to see what everyone else thought about them.

I think Assasins are understandably strong on the attack but should be weaker when defending against melee units. IMO the assasins are too powerful on the defense. A 100% against melee units is understandable, but an assasins strength lies in the ability to suprise attack opponents undetected until its too late, meriting the large bonus. However, I think that they should have a -30%? bonus which comes into play when being attacked by melee units. This keeps them strong against melee units, but means they are stronger when attacking than when they are defending, which is what I would expect of a "real life" Assasin.

I also think that the Baron should be immune to disease, as werewolves in general, getting disease just doesnt feel right for me. However, to try and balance it out, why not make it so that only werewolves personally "sired" by the Baron would be immune also. Giving the werewolves in the Barons lineage a better significance than those werewolves created by his offspring. Even if it is not Immunity to Disease, I think there should be a bonus for werewolves personally created by the Baron.

Also on the werewolve topic, have you considered giving the Ravenous Werewolves the beserk promotion? Seems fitting that a newly created deranged ravenous werewolf could also be described as being beserk, with an attack bonus and a reduction in defence. This fits with my image of a ravenous werewolf on the rampage, more comfortable attacking everything in sight than employing cautious defensive tactics. To balance it out a bit their strength could be reduced to 4?

The basis for these points mainly comes from a few turns in my current game. I am currently playing with the Ashen Veil and noticed that their units dont have any cure disease ability, well I think they should have maybe one unit that has this ability because, as someone mentioned in an earlier post, its a pain in the behind having Rosier the Fallen catch disease, fair doo's they are the bad guys though. I also had the Baron catch it, as one werewolf attacked a city stack which had disease, when it was successful, the newly created Ravenous Werewolf also had disease and, as it is spawned in the tile that its creator attacked from, it infected everyone in that tile, including the Baron! Quite infurating!

I really like the idea of having Ravenous Werewolves be enraged. I added it (along with your balancing suggestion to lower the strength to 4) to 1.0.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

when is 1.0 due for release?

 

[kevjm]

Seafearing civs will want their cities to be on the coast, but that will mean that city maintanence will be higher (as their cities will be further from the capital going along the coast)- perhaps they should get reduced maintanence or no maintanence for coastal cities?

Perhaps one of their bonus' could be to have a fishing boat automatically placed on any sea resources which fall into their borders

 

[Pyrrhic]

Seafearing civs will want their cities to be on the coast, but that will mean that city maintanence will be higher (as their cities will be further from the capital going along the coast)- perhaps they should get reduced maintanence or no maintanence for coastal cities?

If it's possible, ocean tiles could count as a shorter connection-to-capital distances (for seafaring civs, at least) than normal land tiles o_O

 

[OblivionOdyssey]

I'd love to see the trait system completely revamped. You have added so many things to this game it seems a pity to only have two new traits. How about:

Religious- faster spread of religions
Passive- less barbarian activity
Peaceful- automatic +1 from all leaders
Demonic- automatic -1 from all leaders without the demonic trait, automatic +1 from all others with demonic trait, faster production of "evil" units
Militaristic- faster production of world units, allowed 4 national units (instead of 3)
Motivational- all buildings required to train soldiers (Hunting Lodge, Wizard's Tower etc.) built twice as fast, all units start with a new promotion- Motivated (plus 10% strength when in own civilization's borders)
Nature-aware- increased rise in barbarian animal activity, all units have +50% strength against animals, all units start with the Calm Animal promotion (this trait would be great early game, but useless later)
Engineering- faster construction of buildings, slower construction of units

Hope some of these might come in handy.

Once again, thanks for all the great work, can't wait for the next release!

 

[Oran-ge]

Hello. I think you're doing a great job on the mod, especially in terms of creating completely new gameplay possibilities.

I was wondering, would it be possible to be able to make it so that you could play as a single 'Hero' civ? Baron Halfmorn, for example, could be as powerful as an entire civ if he's used correctly. The 'Hero' civs would consist of a powerful hero unit and followers if he/she has any, and they could be hired by other civs as mercenaries or try to do their own thing.

And continuing along the Heroes of Might and Magic ideas, will you add more items in the game?

Other proposals:
-a vampire unit (takes the damage it deals enemy units and heals itself by that amount, 25% chance of creating another vampire)
-allow beastmasters to summon permenant animals (that's stronger than regular animals)
-an ancient unit (starts with woodland II, can 'eat' forests to heal itself, can plant forests, can entangle, can bombard, has room to load units)
-have air units

 

[Kael]

when is 1.0 due for release?

I dont know. Something else, that is outside of my control, needs to happen first. Hopefully soon.

 

[Lunargent]

I'd love to see the trait system completely revamped. You have added so many things to this game it seems a pity to only have two new traits. How about:

Religious- faster spread of religions

Since religions and religious wars are a major part of the mod, this would be overpowered IMO.

Passive- less barbarian activity

Barbarians only spawn (with the exception of Orthus) in land that is hidden from all civs, so this wouldn't do anything.

Peaceful- automatic +1 from all leaders

This might be usefull, though there are leaders who will declare war on you even if they are friendly if they sense weakness out there.

Demonic- automatic -1 from all leaders without the demonic trait automatic +1 from all others with demonic trait, faster production of "evil" units

There is a demonic civilization planned, though not for a bit into phase2. But since there is only one (so far), the first part might not be that usefull. The second part could be very usefull though. And there's already going to be planned animosity between evil and good civs.

Militaristic- faster production of world units, allowed 4 national units (instead of 3)

Very overpowered. Some of the national units, such as the archmage, can single-handedly make or break an assault. With this, i could destroy any civ that didn't have it with ease. And I shudder to think what it would take to break a city defended by 4 city garrison3 flurries and a high priest with an infirmary. ( I've seen 3 in one city, that was a tough nut to crack)

Motivational- all buildings required to train soldiers (Hunting Lodge, Wizard's Tower etc.) built twice as fast, all units start with a new promotion- Motivated (plus 10% strength when in own civilization's borders)

Very overpowered. The other traits that give building bonuses only give bonuses to one or two buildings. This gives bonuses to 21 different buildings! Maybe limit it to bonuses to training yards and colloseums-they are motivational and military in nature.

Nature-aware- increased rise in barbarian animal activity, all units have +50% strength against animals, all units start with the Calm Animal promotion (this trait would be great early game, but useless later)

Subdue Animal is available as a promotion from a starting tech, so it can be acheived quite early. And as mentioned earlier, barbarians spawn outside of civilizations.

Engineering- faster construction of buildings, slower construction of units

This one I like. It would be good for a peacefull civ that just wants to turtle and build in peace. Nice trade-off of infrastructure versus power.

 

[OblivionOdyssey]

Well at least some of my ideas aren't completely useless! As I said, they were just some branistorms. I realise many of them are overpowered, and they aren't perfect, but they're just ideas.

 

[noshelter]

It sounds like there may have been a mistake loading the mod. The differences are usually pretty apparent. If you want to make sure go into the pedia (F12) and look and see if you see new units, promotions, leaders, etc.

After you have installed the mod you load it by going into the advanced options from the main menu, selecting load a mod and Fall from Heaven should be one of the mods you have listed. Select it and the game should restart, you will see a new title screen and you will be all set to start a game.

If you don't see it listed then it wasn't installed in the right location. The mod defaults to installing in the correct location for the english version of the game but you may need to change it if you have a german install.

First, I must say that this is an awesome mod. I've already spent a few sleepless nights on it. However, one slight problem prevents me from fully enjoying this mod:

I was having the same problem as the german guy, with my american version. The mod installed into the same directory as Desert War, Tutorial, and all the other preloaded mods. However, this mod did not appear in the load mod screen. After much troubleshooting, I decided to rename the .ini file and parent folder to desert war. This allowed me to load the mod, but left me stuck in the North African desert (not a very hospitable place). Any ideas as to why this happened? I'm patched and using english version, just mod was not selectable...

Has anyone else had this problem??

 

[Furin]

Has anyone else had this problem??[/QUOTE]

I would suggest you execute the content into a seperate folder (for example c:/downloads or whatever) and then manually move the complete created subfolder "...Fall from Heaven 095" into your C:\Programme\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Mods directory.

The mod works perfectly for me and I am useing the german version.

 

[noshelter]

I would suggest you execute the content into a seperate folder (for example c:/downloads or whatever) and then manually move the complete created subfolder "...Fall from Heaven 095" into your C:\Programme\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Mods directory.

The mod works perfectly for me and I am useing the german version.

Thanks, I'll try that when I get the chance

(Edit=stupid noob)

 

[Yakk]

Very well done.

I'm in the middle of a "highland, ridge-lines, thin, small-lakes", with raging barbarians and normal gamespeed.

The barbarians are winning. There are 3 civilizations left, and the only NPC civs that have not been wiped out are the ones behind my empire.

I saw a column of barbarian troops, stacks 3 to 8 deep, marching along a road for about 5 turns... (that is on the order of ~100 barbarian troops...)

Raging barbarians is sick in this mod. =)

Impressions of the mod in general:
If you lack copper, you are pretty screwed unless you go for dwarf/elf troops. Dwarven troops are better than elven troops, because you can build cities on hills.

Warriors, even max-XP warriors, get destroyed by axemen. Would a shift of +1 combat strength ruin the game?
(scouts: 2, warriors: 3, dwarves/elves/hunters/horsemen: 4, axeman: 5)

It would make a high-XP warrior a match for a low-XP axeman.

Alternatively, the rareness of the iron/copper ores could be delt with by making the resources "high quality copper/iron".

Hatchetman: Strength 4
Axeman: Strength 5 (requires copper or iron)

or, give barracks +50% production of the units it builds with copper or iron.

Axemen should be able to cut down forests. This gives them a toy like the dwarven mining.

The large amount of availiable +% defence in terrain is rather sick. Might I propose that forest/hill +% defence abilities grant +% attack in the same terrain?

Tech in the ancient eras is agonizingly slow. I assume this generates a nice long ancient era on purpose? =)

Maybe the "adept" type units should be renamed "arcane". Saying a spell is an "adept" seems wierd to me, but saying a mage is "arcane" works.

The "must build unit factory before building unit" is interesting. It causes cities to specialize as factories of certain kinds of units (because building the factory at more than one location can be less efficient). Could this be extended somehow?

How good is the AI at understanding mutually exclusive buildings? Is there a way to teach it about them?

Dwarven Stronghold: Extra dwarf production, penalties on non-melee unit production. Bonuses for hills/mines. Bonus promotion (hill I?) for dwarves/melee?

Elven Grove: Extra elf production, penalties on non-archer unit production. Bonuses for forests/treehouses. Bonus promotion (forest I?) for elves/archers?

Human Castle: Extra horse unit production, penalties on non-melee unit production. Bonuses for planes/farms. Bonus promotion (mobility I?) for horses/melee?