[MODMOD] Elohim, guardians of the holy places

[Opera]

New features! Ha! Teaser? Write-up? Something?

And how exactly is the AI? Did the small DLL tweak I did enhance it a lot?

 

[Pazyryk]

Opera, everything is in changelog in second post, although not all working yet. I haven't added any new toys. Just small adjustments.

My biggest effort is toward AI. This is all only possible after your DLL change. I think now I can entice the AI to settle with UFs in fat cross. I want these guys to be flavorful to play against, ...so your elfish scouts or Dovello beastmen will find them in the empty waists, guarding those holy and unholy places...

 

[Opera]

Ha, dumb me, I should have checked! Seems good

Did you think about adding "Seal" spells to purge evil UFs from their evilness?

 

[Pazyryk]

I never thought of that, no, but it sounds very fitting. I guess it would be a spell, castable on UF, that removes any bad mana, makes it explored, and has minus effect on AC. Anything else? Maybe it should not be permanent: Elohim have to maintain cultural control of tile, or else the good effects are undone.

 

[Pazyryk]

And evil Elohim could seal good UFs and unseal bad ones. Mwahahaha...

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Did you think about adding "Seal" spells to purge evil UFs from their evilness?

It should be noted that Brandeline's Well (and the other Wells of Creation) are only really evil unique features when they are sealed. The wells of creation are essentially Erebus's natural drainage system for removing the souls of the dead from the realm of the living. When a well is closed, the spirits are still drawn there but they cannot find peace, and so can easily be enslaved by necromancers or seduced by demons. Unless and until Laroth ascends to be God of the Dead, the Elohim would probably try their best to keep the wells open, and reopen those that have been closed.

On the other hand, they might also find it important to guard against what few souls might try to leave the well too though. The laws of the Once Elves demand that anyone or anything that has been to the Otherworld never be allowed to return to Erebus, although as they have been to the Otherworld it seems they have no problem with such people remaining in the liminal world of the well. The Elohim might have similar rules.

Laroth and the mercenary army of Arak the Erkling fled to the Isle of Nemora just before Kylorin rebelled against the corrupt system he had created. (Laroth had read his heart and felt his guilty conscious becoming mroe powerful than his desire for power, so he predicted the rebellion before the emperor had made his decision.) When Kylorin tracked him down he discovered a great Well there, but could not find the archmage or the elves. (They had descended through the Well into the Netherworld, while still alive). Overcome by the beauty of the place, he declared it sacred. It remained unspoiled through all the age of magic and age of ice, until Ceridwen led Tabryn Arbandi here when she resurrected him in the Age of Rebirth. She showed him the runes he needed to seal the well, and he used all his strength to perform the task. (The Archangel Gyra tried to stop him, but failed. It is unclear whether his runes just blocked her from entering Erebus to stop him, or if they closed both ends and left her trapped within the passage. If the latter, then until the well is unsealed there is no one left to lead the forces of Arawn against Laroth, or to fight the undead he abhors.) This destroyed the paradise, causing it to become overrun by restless spirits and making no one nearby able to heal. The Sacred Isle of Nemora became The Deadlands. The fact that Ceridwen ordered it implies that closing the wells of creation may be an important step in destroying the world.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

so then it should be unsealing the well instead of sealing it, right?

 

[Pazyryk]

Wow! I'd really like to hear your ideas, Magister, for spells that could be cast by Elohim on specific UFs. The effects could be big world changing ones (or not). Probably should be only castable where an Elohim city guards over the UF, so the particular ones you can do would vary from game to game.

 

[xienwolf]

For killing off settlers after a few turns you can use the duration promotion effects to slap a duration on all settlers belonging to AI Elohim (use onUnitCreated python, not autoacquire). Give them a duration of 20 or so and that is how many turns they auto-delete after. DurationChange can apply a duration to permanent units, DurationAlter can only adjust the duration of a unit which already has one. There might be a small glitch though, I am pretty sure the solution for keeping Black Mirror settlers from making cities was a check for hasCast, but it might be fore getDuration instead (reasonably certain it is based on cast though)

 

[Pazyryk]

New update 0.33 (will break saves)

This one should have full text now for all of the mod-specific Elohim changes. Please comment or tell me if I missed something.

After a lot of frustration, I've given up (for the moment at least) trying to make the AI settle at distant sites near UFs. So now, AI playing Elohim will insta-settle near UF with monk unit. (Human player still spawns a settler with monk.) Anyway, it is very flavorful to play against, as you will might find them anywhere on the map but always near a UF.

1. Update to Orbis 24H
2. [XML] Peacekeeper trait looses +30 research when at peace (following Opera)
3. [py] Reliquary and Holy Relic change: Reliquary now needs to be built. It has all stats and tech requirement (cost, GP points, unhealth, Way of the Wise, etc.) as in base Orbis, plus it will also provide Holy Relics as I've already modded (i.e., 1 for each owned UF that is nearest to that city). The only other difference is that it is linked to Elohim-specific tech, rather than Elohim unique building, so it is buildable in any Elohim city. I did this partly as a nerf (so you need to tech and build reliquary before the HR bonus) and partly because I liked the original Reliquary text so much that I wanted to keep it. (It still python swaps as before to give different HR bonuses, similar to Khazak vault, but you need to build one in a city first.)
4. [XML] Many Civpedia text updates throughout
5. [py,XML] Python code overrides map script for Elohim starting location. Finds best of all map tiles that would have UF in fat cross. Based on tile "found" value with river modifier (x1.3) and distance to other units modifier (for anything closer than 10 tiles)
6. [py] Spawning occurs at best tile near UF, rather than nearest valid tile. Best is based on found value modified by river (x1.3).
7. [py] If AI plays Elohim, no settler spawns or starting settler. Instead, a new city is automatically founded in the tile where settler would appear. (I gave up on making the AI settle.)

 

[Pazyryk]

0.33a, b, c, etc are small tweaks to Elohim starting location. I may update these frequently while I play with this. These won't break saves and won't change anything but starting location.

 

[Opera]

Nice, Pazyryk

I'll definitely try to play a game against an Elohim AI!
(and I'll definitely convert it to LENA, even if I still don't know if it will be in the main mod or as a module )

 

[Knickohr]

Thanks Pazyryk for this nice Mod, never played the elohim before, thinking they were a little bit boring, but now i cant get enough of them.

 

[Pazyryk]

Updated to 0.34 (works with 0.33)

The built in getFoundValue function makes no sense to me. It almost seems to prefer non-river, or having lots of sea tiles in a non-coastal city. So I built my own city locator function just for Elohim. Your settler will spawn there (or for AI, will automatically settle there). It works pretty well, if I do say so myself. You will almost always be on a river, if a river tile exists near UF. You will either be on the coast or have few or no sea tiles. It also tries to balance short term needs (a few tiles with very good food) with long terms needs (many tiles with much potential). Keep in mind that the UF is determined randomly, then best tile found, so the location might still suck if all sites with UF in fat cross suck. Let me know what you think.

1. I hated the city found function (for locating ideal city placement) so I built my own (only effects Elohim)
2. Fixed a couple potential out of range errors (reading off the map boundary)

Edit: Opera, this only changes CustomFunctions from 0.33 (in case you started merging)

 

[thomas.berubeg]

copmatible with LENA, yet? or not?

 

[Opera]

Not yet

 

[Quetz]

Not yet

The sooner the better imo!

 

[Brokenbone]

Just a quick post to say thanks for this mod. I've played a couple of Elohim games now, and really, really enjoyed them. It's definitely a unique way to manage gameplay along with lore... the Elohim end up strongly disincented to keep conquered "useless cities" (read as: nowhere near a UF), unless those cities are needed as a cultural or other strategic buffer.

The monks and their progression are a lot of fun as well. Especially in the early game, they are a precious commodity, you only get the ones who were escorting settlers, and you won't be able to replace them until far off Monasticism. When you do get Monasticism, everyone and their brother should get their couple of levels of Monk training, again, it's a very fun thing once you get it, kind of like how Amurites need to survive until Sorcery or how Calabim await their key tech of Feudalism. For just a tiny bit of flavour, I find myself in the habit of naming Monks to remember why I got them, where they came from etc., stuff like "Order of the Mirror", "Order of the Tree", "Order of the Gate" if I had cities guarding the Mirror of Heave, Yggdrasil and Gate to the Underdark, respectively. It also helps remind me when I see combat messages between turns like "Your Order of the Pyre has killed a Barbarian Goblin!", I sure know where to look on the map to determine if any planning etc. is required.

Again, thanks, this is a lot of fun and flavour, good job!

 

[Pazyryk]

Thanks Brokenbone! I'm quite proud of it.

I always name my higher level monks from a page of Myanmar monk names http://web.ukonline.co.uk/buddhism/namedata.htm. I even thought it might be cool to code this in, so at some level (maybe 7 or so), if you have not named your monk already, it automatically gets a name: Brother Abhayalankara, Brother Adiccavamsa, etc. Perhaps too Eastern sounding for Elohim, but I like them. (There are girl names too but that might seem a little odd with the shirtless monk models.)

Your names (Order of the Tree, Order of the Gate, etc.) gives me another idea though. These could be different initial promotions given to monks (or maybe any Elohim unit) based on the UF where they spawn or are built. These could each give some minor boost that is appropriate to the Order.

 

[Opera]

Yeah, I don't think those names sounds really Elohim