Modules for Fall Further

[WarKirby]

Hello everyone.

Afeter a lot of tearing my hair out and screaming at the limits of modular loading, I've finally managed to squeeze my xml tweaks into a few manageable modules, adding some new stuff along the way, and dropping some other stuff which just wouldn't work..

In case you're not in the mood for reading, download here -------> http://www.magotek-industries.com/files/WarKirby Modules v1.0.zip

First of all, to use these modules, you need to enable modular loading. To do this...

Spoiler :

1. Find the file "Fall Further 050.ini" This is located in \Sid Meier's Civilisation IV\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Fall Further 050
2. Change the first option in there, where it says

; Modular XML Loading
ModularLoading = 0

To

; Modular XML Loading
ModularLoading = 1


3. Save
4. Go into the Assets folder in your FF directory, and create a new folder there. Name it "Modules" (without the quotes). If you've been using other modmods, you may already have one.
5. Place all modules you get inside this directory, and that's it! They will automatically load up on startup.

Do modules break savegames? Short answer, no. You can install them and load a game in progress though with some oddities.
Long answer

Spoiler :

Some things don't update properly when adding new functionality. Most notably, promotions. If you change the effect of a promotion, any units which gain that promo after it's changed, will have the new effect. But those which already had the promotion, will keep the old effect instead.

Farther adding to confusion, the promotion will display the new effect, regardless of whether the unit has it. If you load my Promotion Tweak module, which adds +20 hill attack to Guerilla I, that will be shown when you hover over the promotion on any unit which already had it, but those units will NOT get +20 hill attack in the combat calculation.

So, for best results, it's a good idea to start a new game. But you don't have to. If you can live with a few oddities like these, feel free to load modules into a game in progress.

Now, without further ado, my modules.

Sabathiel

Spoiler :

This module adds a second hero for the Bannor, their angelic leader Sabathiel. Choosing to fall from heaven, and lead his people personally in the fight against the tides of darkness.

Sabathiel becomes available at Righteousness, costing 1000 but double production speed with Law mana.
He has 6 base strength, +4 holy, and he also carries a magic sword, Justice, which gives him a farther +2 holy strength, and reduces the AC a little every time an enemy is killed, redeeming their souls.

So in total, 12 starting strength. Sabathiel also has 3 movement (including the +1 from Flying)
Farther to this, however, Sabathiel has +2 Law mana affinity, allowing his power to scale quickly, and match up to most of the best endgame heroes.
Due to the free Law mana from Code of Junil, Order is a natural religion choice for the Bannor, but not the only one. Sabathiel cares primarily about opposing evil, and will tolerate worship of Lugus, Kilmorph, or Cernunnos, as long as the Bannor remain on the side of law and order. Sabathiel cannot be built if your alignment drops below good.

In addition to raw power, Sabathiel has a lot of utility. He has access to all spells in the Law and Life spheres, all Order priest spells, as well as Cure disease and Heal. His full list of starting promotions:

Medic I-III
Hero
Life I
Law I
Divine
Channeling I-III
Demon Slaying
Angel
Flying
People's Champion
Command IV (this is due to a limitation. Despite his unit religion being Order, he was unable to learn command IV unless the bannor were Order state religion.)
Justice (his sword. +2 holy strength, and lowers the AC by 1 after battle)

Caveats:
At present, Sabathiel does not have a unique model. He uses an enlarged version of the Seraph model, which is still quite awe inspiring. I hope to make a unique model for him as my art skills improve.


I'd certainly welcome some feedback about him. The Sabathiel module is the biggest project I've done so far, and I'm wondering if I maybe made him too powerful. Let me know if you're steamrolling the AI too badly, and perhaps suggest what to do to tone him down without sacrificing flavour.

Omniscient Auric

Spoiler :

I grew tired of the Final Boss of Erebus being so disappointing. I feel that successfully building Auric should essentially be a victory condition for the illians, and that short of taking him on with the Godslayer, nobody should have any real hope of standing up to him.

With that in mind, I present my Omniscient Auric module. Just a few tiny tweaks to make auric horribly overpowered and unstoppable.
Auric now has:

45 Base Strength +30 cold. 75 Strength total.
11 movement (inc. flying)
4 first strikes

And the following Free Promotions:
Flying
Avatar
Sentry I-II
Blitz
Cannibalize
Implacable
Perfect Sight

Try and stop him now. Muahahahahahahaaha

Sighting and Archery

Spoiler :

Unfortunately this module has kind of been torn to pieces, by modular loading limitations. I had to cut the changes to bowyers, precision, and perfect sight. And Vehem already incorporated my changes to Dextrous, so this module is now a fairly minor thing. Changelog:

Wall Defender gives +1 Ranged Combat
Wall Defender gives +1 visibility
Wall Defender now has Walls of Stone as an optional prereq
Flying grants +2 visibility

Unit Tweaks

Spoiler :

Just a few minor tweaks to various units. mostly of the not-obsoleting kind

Baron Duin halfmorn now starts with Cannibalise, as per his lore entry
Moroi never become obsolete
soldiers of kilmorph will never obsolete.
Diseased Corpses never obsolete
Treants now cost no maintenance. For Ljosalfar world spell

Promotion Tweaks

Spoiler :

This module adjusts a few promotions, that didn't seem to be worthy of individual modules

Mounted, disciple, and archery units can now learn Scourge promotion
Twincast now has no promotion prereq, and instead requires lv10. It is also learnable by Disciple units, as well as Arcane units. And can now be learned by non-heroes
Woodsman I now available to archery units.
Guerilla I tweaked. Reduced hill defense bonus, but gain some hill attack bonus too.
-Guerilla I - 20% hill attack, 30% hill defence (down from 40% defence)
Elven racial now gives +15% forest attack (was +10%)

The Twincast change is perhaps the most notable thing here. Firstly, I found it annoying that this ability was limited only to heroes. I also found it illogical that to reach the pinnacle of arcane power, your unit had to train in hand to hand combat. It makes no sense. Also, promotion prereqs don't work with modules. My main motivation was just making it available to disciples, but I had to go with the minimum level route, to prevent it being available to anyone at lv1

I had intended to alter the rather overpowered Guerilla II, but limitations of modules made that impossible.

Better Radiant Guard

Spoiler :

RG are one of my favourite units. Not sure why. This module makes them a bit more than just a generic axeman alternative, instead making them a valuable defensive unit.

Radiant guard are now Disciple units (they can still get equipment promos, like Paladins)
Radiant guard get +1 str (to 5)
Radiant Guard lose +10% city attack bonus
Radiant Guard gain +25% city defence bonus
Radiant Guard get free Guardsman promotion
Radiant Guard will never become obsolete

That's all for now, but I hope to add more to this list in future.


All my modules can be downloaded in a .zip here: http://www.magotek-industries.com/files/WarKirby Modules v1.0.zip
Please do post your thoughts, comments, complaints, death threats, and indifferent "mehs" here.

 

[Quetz]

Sabatheil sounds way too strong.. interesting, but OP. He's far better than Sphener as you have him, not to mention Basium/Hyborem. I don't really see the need for all the spells. And he starts with Command IV?? And Medic III? Why is the holy smiter wasting his time healing?

Afaik the Bannor palace gives Law mana, does it not...? If so makes the 1/2 hammer discount rather superfluous...

 

[WarKirby]

Sabatheil sounds way too strong.. interesting, but OP. He's far better than Sphener as you have him, not to mention Basium/Hyborem.

A comparison with basium or hyborem is pretty much a moot point. Those are both acessible considerably earlier.

Sabathiel isn't that much stronger than Sphener unless you invest in more law mana nodes. With the bannor's starting one, and one from code of junil, he has 16 strength, which is equal to sphener.

I don't really see the need for all the spells.

Well, perhaps not a need, but extra spells are useful. Sphener and Chalid boh have similar amounts of spells. Sphener has Order priest spells and Life sphere. Chalid has Empyrean preist spells, and Law/Sun spheres.

And he starts with Command IV??

As mentioned, this is due to an annoying limitation. Command IV requires the order STATE religion, rather than UNIT religion, which seems frankly silly considering only priests and angels can learn it.

Take note, that he does NOT start with Command I, II and III. Command IV gives a 20% capture rate, but he still needs to invest 3 levels to gain the others and get it up to a reasonable level.

And Medic III? Why is the holy smiter wasting his time healing?

Well, he's "wasting" his time doing what you want him to do. Most disciple units have medic promotions in general. Paladins and crusaders have it, as well as Sphener, and pretty much all priests. It seemed a fairly natural thing. I gave him medic III because it's the prereq for the heal spell. But healing is just one of the options he has.

Evil may never rest, but good has to. Medics keep the crusaders and paladins ready for battle

Afaik the Bannor palace gives Law mana, does it not...? If so makes the 1/2 hammer discount rather superfluous...

There is the possibility of trading the mana away, or being forced to give it after being vassalized. This mechanic is similarly seen in the House of the Grey building for sidar, which gives them bonuses based on their palace mana.

Do you think he would be less overpowered if he was moved back to Divine Essence? would he be too weak then, perhaps?

 

[Sephi]

excellent

 

[black_imperator]

i think that the comparison with basium is important , they are separed by only one tech ( and the time to build the mercurian gate isn't negligeable). Command 4 does not match the background ( i don't think he would convert demons ^^).

Basium starts with 7+4 Holy + 2 from Iron Weapons
Sabathiel starts with 6 + 4 Holy + 2 Holy from justice + 2 From law affinity at least
reduce law affinity to 1 , even if it means increasing a little his basic stats

Otherwise, if you have ideas for others Leaders units, i would be glad to look at them since i am working on a regicide mod

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I just thought I'd note that the Command promotions only work against living units, so it never converts demons.


Also, it makes sense for Sabathiel to be a lot stronger than Basium, because Basium lost his divine ara when he defied Arawn and chose to fall, while Sabathiel is still extremely loyal to Junil who would still provide him some protection. (It isn't quite clear what an archangels ara is, but Kilmorph was not able to capture Odio within the earth until Aeron took his ara away and Cernunnos described the feeling of loosing his ara when he went to fight for Gower as feeling like having his soul ripped out of him.) Sabathiel did have to leave the Bannor in order to have time to rest and recover from the exhaustion of fighting in hell for centuries, but presumably he would be well rested by the time he is summoned back. Divine Essence does seem the most appropriate prereq.

 

[black_imperator]

wanted to say ritualist instead of demons

Good point concerning the ara, but if he enters into creation to lead his people himself ( not as a leader but as an unit as it is the case here) , he should have lost his too . He broke the Compact, after all. I don't know if breaking such a law is a mark of loyalty to the God of Law ( just playing with words i know, but i like it )

 

[MagisterCultuum]

The Compact does not stop archangels from entering creation, it just limits what they can do while there. He have a fair amount of leeway in defending those loyal to his god, especially while in their own lands, but would be almost powerless if trying to invade lands dominated by demon worship.

So far he has held himself to an extremely strict interpretation of the Compact which keeps him out, but no one would fault him for a looser interpretation. Well, no one but Junil. Yeah, he probably would loose his ara and be forced to fall if he were to take on such an active role.


Personally, I don't like the idea of Sabathiel being a unit, except maybe if he was limited to always staying in Bannor lands. (Sort of like how in my version Hyborem is unable to leave hell terrain.)

 

[Tarquelne]

Personally, I don't like the idea of Sabathiel being a unit, except maybe if he was limited to always staying in Bannor lands. (Sort of like how in my version Hyborem is unable to leave hell terrain.)

I like that idea.

I don't know how appropriate this would be for Sabathiel, but I also like the idea of an archangel granting significant civ-wide benefits for as long as he's not a unit. Instead he's doing mystical/spiritual stuff elsewhere or in some immaterial form. But each time a city is taken or razed there's a chance (based on the city's value) the angel "falls" - his compassion (or anger, or whatever) drags him directly into the conflict: He becomes a unit. The civ loses the civ-wide benefits. Make the unit more beneficial than the civ-wide bonus and you've got a rubber-band mechanic.

 

[Iceciro]

I don't generally like the idea of Sabathiel being an actual unit for the Bannor. I think in a way it's trying to fix them in a place they don't need fixing... one unit, very lategame, way past crusade, available only to a certain alignment of Bannor.

The Bannor need help not mechanically, but because they're almost flavorless/lifeless civ in many aspects outside of Crusade.
--------------------------
As far as sabathiel goes, though... if you're going to put him in, make him always stay in Bannor lands. It lets Donal go a-conquering.
Tarq's idea is also great. I just feel like there should be something else for non-good Bannor.

Ever play OO Bannor? Hillariously FUN.

 

[Tarquelne]

Tarq's idea is also great. I just feel like there should be something else for non-good Bannor.

There's already another civ(thing) I've got in mind for it...

 

[WarKirby]

I Had a look through Sphener's pedia. He seems to have the right idea. I envision Sabathiel as falling like him, to join the fight against evil within creation. That's why I didn't give him immortality, for instance

Limiting him to within bannor borders would somewhat defy the purpose of adding him, which was to create a big demon-smiting unit. That's why I made so much of his strength Holy, rather than just base. Although demons do invade your territory as the AC rises, most of them are out rthere, in evil lands, or eating your friends. Sabathiel doesn't seem the type to sit around at home and wait for the enemy to come to him. When I first started playing FFH, I envisioned an army of the bannor led into bttle by a massive angel. I found it disappointing that this wasn't the case. Sabathiel isn't just a generic powerful unit. He's an angel. He has wings, and flies, and smites things. I feel that divine spark is something the Bannor were lacking

Also, do bear in mind that Righteousness has the 4096 cost, and then building Sabathiel is 500 (1000, but double speed)

So he generally going to be a bit later than basium.

As far as balance goes, I really like the +2 Law affinity. I'd lean more towards reducing his base strength, or moving his tech prereq up a little. The only problem I have with divine essence is that it feels a bit TOO late. Aside from being horribly expensive itself, it also requires Mythril working, another really expensive tech.

 

[Vehem]

As far as balance goes, I really like the +2 Law affinity. I'd lean more towards reducing his base strength, or moving his tech prereq up a little. The only problem I have with divine essence is that it feels a bit TOO late. Aside from being horribly expensive itself, it also requires Mythril working, another really expensive tech.

I'd have to agree with the others that +2 Law affinity makes him just a little too powerful at Righteousness. I don't really even like the fact that Chalid gets a +2 affinity from the moment he's created given that his tech isn't massvely out of reach and he can reach strengths equal to the Dragons if you base your strategy on doing so (I kinda want to give him a level prereq before he gets the full benefit of his affinity - and it'd be a fairly high one). Divine Essence does seem a better option, or at least Righteousness + Theology.

====

That being said - it doesn't matter too much what others say if you like the mod you've created. You'll never manage to make something that everyone agrees 100% with (for example - you and I have had a few disagreements about the best way to implement certain features in the past) but the discussion often leads to something that is better than either of the original ideas.

Looking through the module collection in total however, there are some nice ideas/implementations - welcome to FfH Modding It's all downhill from here...

 

[WarKirby]

I don't really even like the fact that Chalid gets a +2 affinity from the moment he's created given that his tech isn't massvely out of reach and he can reach strengths equal to the Dragons if you base your strategy on doing so (I kinda want to give him a level prereq before he gets the full benefit of his affinity - and it'd be a fairly high one).

This is true, but I'd say the dragons in FF are a bit underpowered.
One of the things I noticed, is that Eurabatres' strength is down from 28 to 23 in FF


My next project is to make dragons (and other assorted big things) stronger.

Theology and righteousness does sound like a good prereq. I think I'll go with that. It seems fair considering he gets acess to the high priest spell, so you should need the high priest tech.

 

[Vehem]

This is true, but I'd say the dragons in FF are a bit underpowered.
One of the things I noticed, is that Eurabatres' strength is down from 28 to 23 in FF

I think he just never got increased (to be honest I hadn't noticed that he had been increased). I'd agree though that the dragons/other uber units need quite a bit of a boost.

 

[MaJa]

Hi warkirby,
I wanted to try some of your modules but i can't get them to work.
first off i can't find the fall further 050.ini. it's called fall from heaven2.ini just like in regular ffh2 and if i change modular loading in that one from 0 to 1 it doesn't load your modules. Any advice on how i can get it to work.
thx in advance

 

[The NeverTide]

@Maja: I might be able to help. When you go into your mods folder there should be a seperate fall further 050 folder outside of the fall from heaven folder (at least that is where mine is). Inside here is where you'll find a configuration document that is titled "Fall from Heaven 050" and this is where you'll change the modular loading from = 0 to = 1. It should be the first or second line up top to alter. Then go into assets, then modules and place warkirby's modules in there. Boot up FF and check the pedia for Sabathiel. Should be there. If not we'll figure it out. Hopefully that was clear and saves you some time waiting for someone else to respond.

 

[MaJa]

@Maja: I might be able to help. When you go into your mods folder there should be a seperate fall further 050 folder outside of the fall from heaven folder (at least that is where mine is). Inside here is where you'll find a configuration document that is titled "Fall from Heaven 050" and this is where you'll change the modular loading from = 0 to = 1. It should be the first or second line up top to alter. Then go into assets, then modules and place warkirby's modules in there. Boot up FF and check the pedia for Sabathiel. Should be there. If not we'll figure it out. Hopefully that was clear and saves you some time waiting for someone else to respond.

yeah well that is the problem, the fallfromheaven2.ini file is located in my fall further 050 folder instead off the fall further050.ini . even if i do a fresh install of fall further 050 it allways has the fall from heaven.ini
I don't know why it does that.

 

[WarKirby]

The fall further.ini does not exist to start with.

Start a new game, then quit. it should be there then.

 

[MaJa]

The fall further.ini does not exist to start with.

Start a new game, then quit. it should be there then.

Nope, doesn't work either. I am going to try and rename the references to fall from heaven 2 to fall further 050 and see if that works.