New guy, few questions.

[OneoftheLost]

Well, I guess this would be my first post. I am fairly new to Civ 4 so bear with me here. Ill even number my questions to make 'em easier to respond to.

1. What exactly is the storyline of Fall from Heaven 1? Does it take place before the ice age? during the actual fall from heaven? or is that the BtS scenario?

2. Is FfH 1 required (story-line wise.) to play number 2? or can I just jump into 2?

3. Currently I am downloading FfH 2 .23 and the media pack. It says the media pack adds a ton of media to the game... why not include it in the latest version? or does it have higher requirements? Or is it just a preference thing?

4. I own CivIV Gold, it includes CivIV and Warlords... (although I'm not really a fan of warlords...) any known problems? since it isn't just vanilla? (Gold edition has some new items and stuff...

5. Does the Bluemarble mod work with this? or do you have your own custom landscapes?

That should be about it... for now, both my DL's are at 30% Im pretty sure I will have more questions once I start playing. Also, despite those questions, I have been reading up like crazy on the backstory, races, heroes, and magic, so I kind of have an idea of what Im leaping into, but whats a good starter... civ/race? Bannor? (might of spelled it wrong.) or the race with the kid who's trying to create a 'heaven' on earth' his civ starts with a Ky something....

 

[Silverkiss]

Answers

1 and 2. Basically none. The flavor just begins with FfH II, really, so you don't need to play the first. The BtS scenario is another thing, and it is worth playing.

3. The media pack add things like music and videos that are not required to play, but add to the fun of it. Some people don't want to see them or can't because of not-so-good computers, so the Team has put it as an optional download.

4. I don't know, but I think there is no problem with that.

5. I think it is alredy implemented. Even if not, FfH II do has its own custom landscapes.

About the civilizations, I find the Elohim, specially with Ethne the White, to be a nice civilization for new people. It doesn't have anything too complicated, and it's pretty easy to play.

 

[JDexter]

1. FfH 1 is just an earlier, not so fancy and elaborate, version than FfH 2. The story is exactly the same, as is the time frame.

2. Not required, see 1.

3. FfH2 is already a pretty big download and so is the media pack. There are still quite a few people who don't have a broadband flat rate and wouldn't like to have to download double sized files each version (and since there are updates pretty often it's even more painful).

4. Not that I know of. Vanilla is the same no matter which version, except for some map scripts or the like.

5. Yes it does work, I think the changed terrain (hell) overwrites whatever is used per default.

Hope that everything is correct and useful.
Welcome to a GREAT mod!

 

[OneoftheLost]

Hey thanks! Didn't even think of the Elohim. Hmm.. well that clears all of that up, thanks for the help, I may have more questions later. ( 64% before I can play. >.< )

 

[Silverkiss]

No problem, every time you have a question come here and someone will answer it for you ;D

Oh, and you should play at a lower difficulty than you do on normal Civ IV. And protect your cities well, the barbarians are restless =x

 

[CXDamian]

wow, everyone posts at the same time =p

 

[Nikis-Knight]

Blue marble is the default FfH 2. Not sure about the BtS version yet, but I'm sure that's the plan

 

[TheJopa]

Oh, and you should play at a lower difficulty than you do on normal Civ IV. And protect your cities well, the barbarians are restless =x

At least for first few games. After you get used to all the new mechanisms you will probably want to play on higher difficulty than vanilla because you will learn how to use heroes, spells etc. more efficient than the AI.
And welcome!

 

[Silverkiss]

Yea, of course, of course. But it's sad to play your first game and have only 1 warrior per city, and be slaughtered by the barbarians.

 

[OneoftheLost]

Hm.. umm well its done isntalling, and its all in the right folder, but how do I tell if the media pack is installed? The exe. put the game itself in a different directory then what my CIV is in, so I had to move it..

 

[Nikis-Knight]

If you see an opening movie, the media files are installed.

 

[OneoftheLost]

Wow. Just... wow. I played Elohim first. Good stuff. Then I sat down and read the Civilopedia. I was floored. So much history and good writing in there. The Civics and leaders sections are simply amazing.

However, in my search for a new civic, I came across several that arn't playable races. Namely the Skidar (not sure of spelling, the Shades, or wraiths.) and the Mecurians (Dunno about the spelling here either, basically they are the angels that are waging war against the demons in hell.) are these guys random encounters? Or are they kind of like barbarians? and when can I play as them.?



Also, while playing I came across the Armageddon counter. Any way to stop this? I know Elohim, or is it Bannon? anyway one of the civics can perform a ritual that extends it, or slows it down... Hmm..

Oh and @ the FfH2 team: AMAZING JOB.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

The Sidar, the Svaltafar, and the Illians are not fully implemented yet (the first two will definately be fleshed out in shadow, the third might take until Ice), so they are not playable for human players. They can already appear in games under AI control. It is retty simple to make these civs playable for the human player using zml or the excel file that comes with the mod (it has macros that rewrite the xml for you). All you need is to change "bPlayable" in the leader defines for their leaders (Morgoth, Faerly Viconia, and Auric Ulvin) from a 0 to a 1.

The Mercurians and the Infernals cannot begin the game, but they can enter it latter on. The Infernals enter the game when "Infernal Pact" technology (which requires the Ashen Veil State Religion) is first researched. If a human player is the first to research it, they are given the option to switch over to playing as these demons, leaving their old civ in AI control. While the Infernals are in the game, the "Mercurian Gate" wonder is buildable for any civ with the "way of the wise" technology not under the Ashen Veil state religion (but cannot be built in the capital city). Building brings the Mercurians into the game, and hands the city with the gate over to them. A human who build this wonder is given the option of switching to control the angelic civ. either way, the wonder's builder enters inot a permanent alliance with Basium (the Mercurian leader). This is true even if you already have an alliance or if alliances are not otherwise allowed. If Basium is under AI control, he will outomatically declare war on all civs with the AV state religion, dragging his summoner into war with him.

 

[MrUnderhill]

The Sidar, Illians, and Svartalfar are not playable yet because they've yet to be fleshed out conceptually (i.e. they're generic civs). The Infernals and Mercurians are "unlockable" civs that appear as you play through the game. If you're the one who unlocks them, you have the opportunity to abandon your current civ and play as them instead.

(edit: Magister beat me to it. )

 

[OneoftheLost]

Hey, thanks for the info! I started another game, this time as the Amurians...wow. Just wow. After about year 90 I realized Adepts are builder units, so my small empire of four cities had several adepts, workers, and about four warriors. Then Othgur found me. I lost miserably. So I started as Khazzad. This time I went the hardcore military route. It still took me eight seperate Dwarven Soldier units to take hime down, note that these where all upgraded strength and melee units. Is there an easy way to take him down? He always attacks me, and me only. It wasn't long after he FINALLY fell that the dragon came, and a fire started near my eastern borders. Not sure what to do, I took my warriors and workers out of the city before the fire reached it. Immediatly a barbarian took the city. I was wondering if fire destroys cities?

Also, I know I shouldn't even be considering multiplayer. (Im a terrible civ player.) But I was wondering how lag affects things? FPS type games its a game killer, RTS games as well, what about civ? (I ask because my friend is letting me mooch until I can get settled in to my new home. It's stable, but not for more then two hours time.)

 

[Sureshot]

best way to deal with orthus is to get him to attack a crappy unit who has a good defensive position and then counter attack orthus when hes badly hurt.

 

[psychoak]

Fire burns forests, it wont hurt your city. The dragon is actually quite helpful some of the time. If you've got lots of jungle covered calendar resources it's a godsend to have the guy spawn in it. The best way to kill orthus is from a forested hill across a river, but barring that, a stack of warriors in a forest or forested hill will do just fine. He's really not that dangerous, by the time he spawns you should be able to take him just fine, and it's quite easy if you can get him to attack into a 75% defense tile. Just make sure you don't have him move into your 75% defense tile.

Killing the dragon is another matter, you should probably wait for tier 3 units to be safe. A damage caster of some sort will make a very big difference in taking down that 19 strength, and a couple of the religious units have very nice abilities like plague or crazed that can aid you as well. Just having greater than 0 for your odds is the biggest thing though. If you try to drop the guy earlier, you might drop him with a dozen and you might just give him a few levels and never get above a 0% on the combat odds. Whatever you do, and this holds true for orthus as well, do it all at once and don't give him a turn to level up. I'd apply the same philosophy to any attack for that matter. With more xp and promotions that are twice as strong, if you try to whittle away at things over multiple turns, you'll squish yourself.

 

[SwordofStriker]

The dragon and it's hoard are actually quite easy to deal with if you happen to have the Trojan Horse, which in my opinion is WAY overpowered and needs big nerf.

I was playing as the Amurites if I recall correctly, built the Trojan Horse (which is a bunny actually), loaded it with mercenaries, and then walked it into the dragon's city and claimed it without a fight, which also gets rid of the dragon. I discovered this after learning my entire army was afraid of the dragon even though I had managed to reduce it to something like 2.?? strength with spells.

Anyways, to summarize, just use the Trojan Horse, but I'm really hoping that thing gets a nerf later as it's way overpowered.

Also, I wonder how many people caught the Monty Python reference.

 

[Miloe]

I was playing as the Amurites if I recall correctly, built the Trojan Horse (which is a bunny actually), loaded it with mercenaries, and then walked it into the dragon's city and claimed it without a fight, which also gets rid of the dragon. I discovered this after learning my entire army was afraid of the dragon even though I had managed to reduce it to something like 2.?? strength with spells.

sounds like a bug or glitch

 

[TheJopa]

Also, I wonder how many people caught the Monty Python reference.

Well there are plenty of Monty Python references if you look close enough!