Ngomele civilization, a modmodmod for Orbis

[civ_king]

crap, that is a issue, make the rituals cost 1 and unlock them at their special tech

 

[Valkrionn]

Assuming the issue was with buildings improving the tiles rather than workers, 1 is far too low.

Rituals give more control anyway, as they're done via python... We know that food can be removed from a tile because of the damn Muris goblins, so I'd start with looking at that code.

 

[Opera]

Yes, 1 is out of question.

However, the thing was that with buildings, I could have a clear description of what it does (adds +1 to all grassland tiles in BFC for example) and the bonus would be lost with the building. You can't lose the ritual, so you can't lose the bonus.

I searched deeply in the source code and all to find how riverplots are handled, to see if I could come up with an XML tag for PlainPlot and GrasslandPlot, etc., but it is hard to understand...

 

[Valkrionn]

Hmm... Well, if you wanted to go the cheap, easy way, make several clones of each terrain type, increasing the terrains food, hammers, or commerce... Then, when the ritual is cast, it has a chance to make each plains tile into a Plains1 tile, and so on... then, in the onCityLost function in CvEventManager, write a function that, when the Ngomele lose a city, reverts any enhanced tiles to the vanilla yields.

Only issue is you'd have to have a large amount of terrain clones, since you'd need one for each combination. Not sure if it's possible to make terrain not show in the pedia either...

 

[Opera]

I think it's possible to hide it from the Pedia with <GraphicalOnly>, as the tag exists in the terrain file. It would be kinda clunky but it could work. It would have to check for any preexisting "terrain modifs" before applying the one from the ritual.

 

[Valkrionn]

Didn't know that tag existed in the terraininfos... Haven't had any reason to add any.

Personally, I'd set up a few tiers of the rituals, increasing in cost/tech requirements, and then have each ritual apply the terrain change to a random set of allowed tiles in the BFC... Having it check for a tile type would rule out wasting it on any already upgraded tiles.

And yes, it would be very clunky... But I can't think of any other way to revert the terrain ..... d'oh.

Increase terrain yields the same way the Muris event works. Then, in oncitylost, check to see if the city belongs to Ngomele. If so, check each tile's yields against the base yields for that tile type... I know you can do it with unitstrength. If the tile has yields more than it should, decrease it by (tile's current yields - tile's correct yields).

Might be more processor intensive, but unless you're losing 5 or 6 cities at a time, it shouldn't be an issue. And it's MUCH cleaner.

 

[Opera]

You mean repeatable rituals? I thought it could check usable tiles (Grasslands for example) and increases them all by 1 then the ritual wouldn't be usable anymore... This would be problematic if some tiles become grassland afterwards, though... Huh. Or it could check, every five turns or so, if the ritual has been completed in the city and if there are grasslands not upgraded, it would upgrade them. But now, another issue: is it possible to tie rituals to cities? (I may pop a building upon completion and it would hinder the possibility to proceed the ritual; the check would be for the building...).

Very clunky all of this I asked the Fall Further team about the new XML tag. I'll see what answer I'll get

 

[Opera]

I thought about two things involving deserts:

1) A ritual, "Rain Dance" (available at Knowledge of the Ether, requiring Deadgnolls Copse): change all surrounding (BFC) desert tiles into plains tiles. The drawback is that it is not permanent. It has to be either repeated (but it cannot be so until five turns after expiration... so it's not a good way, as it will have 5 turns of desert + x turns more for processing of the ritual) or extended by something I didn't thought of yet; maybe the sacrifice of a unit, or a drain of gold or both (flavourwise, the drain of gold would be for preparing the ceremony (gameplay: adding a promotion to a unit) and the unit would be sacrificied... using its fervor and blood to extend the duration of the ritual.

2) An event, "Drought": inside the Deadgnolls Copse of [city], someone felt a drought was coming. It's possible to don't believe it (the Drought happens), to try to sooth the Sea (-, a unit or two killed -> 50% chance Drought happens) or to make a great festival of fervor, busying the city for 5 turns and reducing its pop by 1 or 2 (Drought won't happen). What is the Drought? All tiles in BFC+1 convert to Desert tiles. Maybe the event will only applies if "Rain Dance" has been used somewhere in the empire. The event may be a bit extreme

"Rain Dance" would be very useful if the entire Arcane line is removed to favor a "druid" line only, with very limited uses in terms of mana, ie: no Water I.

 

[civ_king]

I had misunderstood your post, I was thinking that you make a building and it unlocks the ritual to solve the Levee issue

 

[Opera]

Huh, I don't get it: I'm trying to add a building graphic (the Mage College imported by Walter Hawkwood from Kohan 2) but I can't get it to work. Here is the ArtDefine:

		<BuildingArtInfo>
			<Type>ART_DEF_BUILDING_MBUMGWU</Type>
			<LSystem>LSYSTEM_2x3</LSystem>
			<bAnimated>0</bAnimated>
			<fScale>1.0</fScale>
			<fInterfaceScale>0.60</fInterfaceScale>
			<NIF>Art/Structures/Buildings/Ngomele/gaurimagecollege.nif</NIF>
			<KFM/>
            		<Button>, ,Art/Erebus_Atlas.dds,2,11</Button>
		</BuildingArtInfo>

I have the four files that came with the download in the same folder. The ArtDef is correctly linked to the BuildingType Mbumgwu... Is this related to the LSystem?
(the button is a placeholder)

 

[Valkrionn]

I had the same issue... The building is actually there. Change <fScale>1.0</fScale> to around 14 or 16. For some reason the graphics are vanishingly small.

 

[Opera]

I'll try. The thing is that the entire pedia article is wrong: there's only the button and the rest is blank.

 

[Opera]

Tried. It doesn't work. However, I added another building and tried another graphics and it worked! Maybe the file doesn't like my building?

 

[Valkrionn]

Hmm... All the buildings I've ever added have been <LSystem>LSYSTEM_2x2</LSystem> rather than <LSystem>LSYSTEM_2x3</LSystem>

 

[Opera]

I tried that too... It seems that all the dwarven buildings don't work with me. Huh, I'll have to check that. Apart from that, here is a list of what I've used as building graphics:

- Mbumgwu: Gauri (Dwarven) Mage College
- Council Tree: Wildwood
- Shurmbumgwu: Watchtower
- Deadgnolls Copse: Haroun (Elven) Quarry
- Well of the Green (Pagan Temple replacement): Temple of Stone

All from the Kohan 2 Fantasy buildings brought by Walter Hawkwood

I don't have the time to put a comprehensive list of what I've done but here is some outline:

- Buildings added: Deadgnolls Copse (Mage Guild replacement), Well of the Green (Pagan Temple replacement), Street Play (created by the Perform Street Play spell of the Mbumgwukha (Entertainer) unit), Mbumgwu (Colosseum replacement), Ngomele Palace (Bannor Palace replacement), Shurmbumgwu (Unique building), Council Tree (Unique building).
- Units added: Mbumgwukha (Entertainer, unique unit), Banung the Blind (Hero), Nga Eye-Eater (Hero).
- Promotions added: Mbumgwushur, Gnoll, Child of the Councillors.
- Spell added: Perform Street Play.
- Leaders: Mvadang, Vungu.

That's all for now. I've a lot to detail, though. I plan on adding a Play that would require the Mbumgwu building in the city and will only be available for the upgrade of the Mbumgwukha. I've also all the Shur and Mounted lines to work. And a bunch of other things

 

[Opera]

I think my idea of food carrying is more clear now. Let's have a text:

Each time a unit wins a fight, it has a chance of dropping a "Meat Chariot". This item can be taken by any unit and dropped after, like any item. When carried, it adds the "Food carried I" promotion. When the unit wins a fight while having this promotion, it has a chance of gaining "Food carried II"; this can upgrade till "Food carried V".

The "Food carried" promotion won't last forever. The unit has an imparted time for going back to an owned city where it can perform one of three actions (described after). The "Food carried" promotion don't just go away, it decreases. Not bringing back the "Food carried II" will transform it to "Food carried I". The thing is that the imparted time is lower the higher the promotion is (10, 8, 6, 4, 2) but much lower if in decreasing trend. Say, a unit has "Food carried V", so it has 2 turns for bringing it back. It doesn't do it. So it has now "Food carried IV" but instead of having 4 turns it has only 3. For "Food carried III", instead of 6, it has 4. For II, instead of 8, it has 5 and for I, instead of 10 it has 6. I tried to mirror the fact that if a bit of food is spoiled, the rest will be more likely to be spoiled too, so the decrease happens faster.

There is a unit whose purpose is dedicated to carrying meat. It's a very mobile unit (mounted one) that cannot attack or defend itself. When meat is carried this way, it has a longer imparted time.

Also, there is a building that gives the free "Conservation arts" to any unit created in the city it's built in. This promotion extends the duration of the food promotions. So, a "Meat Carrier" with "Conservation arts" is the ideal for bringing back food home.

So, there is three actions doable in the city:

1) Stocking the food (Food I and higher)
Adds in the granary an amount of food relative to the promotion.

2) Making a feast (Food II and higher)
Adds culture in the city relative to the promotion. Higher promotions give "King day" things.

3) Sharing with the people (Food II and higher)
Adds production and temporary happiness relative to the promotion. Higher and repeated sharings may give permanent happiness.

 

[A Golden Dragon]

complex, but nice.

I believe the Ngomele will be very unique to play with, but i like that.

any idea on when we can expect a first (trial) version?

 

[Opera]

any idea on when we can expect a first (trial) version?

I don't know. Most XML will be done rather quickly but I may have a hard time with python, so it could take some weeks. It will also depend on real life issues. I can't promise any release date right now

Edit: Do I tie up the Soul-forge-but-for-food-building to a building automatically built on city founding? Or to a building that would have to be built? I think the first would be better, considering how many things they would have to build already...

 

[Opera]

Complete list of things I've added and of what they do:

Buildings

Deadgnolls Copse​

requires Knowledge of the Ether
replaces Mage Guild
double production speed with Arcane trait
+2
1 artist slot
+1 for Nature mana
+1 for Nature mana
+2 XP for Arcane units built in the city
120​

Well of the Green​

requires Mysticism
replaces Pagan Temple
double production speed with Spiritual trait
+2
+15%
1 priest slot
+1 for Incense
100​

Street Play​

+1/turn (Artist)
+2:culture
+1
Cannot be built​

Mbumgwu​

requires Festivals and Construction
replaces Colosseum
double production speed for Creative trait
+1
+30%
+1 per 20%
1 artist slot
1 engineer slot
+2 XP for Melee units built in the city
180​

Shurmbumgwu​

requires Strength of Will and Construction
National Wonder: limit of 2
+15% maintenance
+3
+6
+3 XP for Arcane units built in the city
free Mbumgwushur promotion for Arcane units built in the city
350​

Ngomele Palace​

replaces Bannor Palace
provides 1 Nature mana
provides 1 Earth mana
provides 1 Sun mana
free Palace Guard promotion to unit in the city
makes this city the capital
reduces maintenance in nearby cities
10% stocked
+1
+40%, -20% external (+20% internal?)
+1 in river plots
+1, +8, +3, +2
-10 crime
requires at least 4 cities
160​

(continued in the next post because of too many images)

 

[Opera]

Council Tree​

unknown prereq tech
National Wonder: limit of 1
double production speed for Philosophical trait
provides 1 Nature mana
-30% maintenance
+10% rate in all the empire
+2 XP in the city
+2
+1 in the city
+3, +1
-15 crime
free Child of the Councillors promotion for units built in the city
requires at least 3 cities
170​

Units

Mbumgwukha​

0/2 2
can only defend
cannot reveal the map
requires Festivals
requires Mbumgwu
50
can use the Perform Street Play ability
[well, in fact, I think I'll cut Street Play and just make Play (Street requiring Mbumgwu)]​

Nga Eye-Eater​

requires Iron Working
8/6 1
+1 Nature affinity
1-2 First strikes
immune to First strikes
+1 maintenance
+25% City attack
starts with Gnoll, Hero
200​

Banung the Blind​

requires Sorcery
requires Deadgnolls Copse
2/4 1
+1 Nature affinity
can build Nature node (300%)
starts with Gnoll, Hero, Channeling II, Nature II
120​

Promotions

Mbumgwushur​

available for Arcane units
+1
+10 Spells damage
cannot be learned by XP​

Child of the Councillors​

available to any unit
immune to capture
immune to Enraged promotion
cannot be learned by XP​

Race: Gnoll​

double movement in Plains
+15% heal after combat
cannot gain Cannibalize, Iron Weapons, Mithril Weapons​

There. XML isn't finished yet. I've still many things to add and balance