Nomadic Devourer Civilisation for Erebus - Panivo

Lplate

Esus (Allegedly)
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Hi,

As far as I can see, there hasn’t been a truly nomadic civilization created but the idea has been considered a couple of times (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=320919, http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=284611 ).
I’m aware of the Warlords scenario with the Mongols but this isn’t the route I want to take.

As a beginner modder, I took the relatively simple solution to creating a nomadic Civilisation, inspired by wondering why anyone would move their city in Civilisation if they select city sites to make best use of the available resources. The obvious reason for moving a city is that the territory around it becomes less valuable over time.

This is what's in the current version of the mod:
Spoiler :

The module introduces a new civilization, the Panivo.

PANIVO CIVILIZATION
Spoiler :

“Sucellus is dead. Cultivating crops and tending herds is doomed to failure. If we are to survive we must be sure to gather every remaining morsel of nourishment in these lands. We must pray to Lord Agares that he will delay the wastage so that we may gather all the food in time. Mammon will aid those that aid themselves. We must hoard our food lest it be claimed by other tribes.”
“But what shall we eat when there’s no food left here?”
“Then we will move on and take what ever food is available in other lands.”
“This will leave a wasteland in our wake.”
“Then Lord Agares will bless us. Remember that Mulcarn and the rebel Gods are in ascendance. Agares is chief among the rebel Gods.”
“And what shall we do when all Erebus is a wasteland?”
“Why then, the divine Ceridwen will open the portals to allow us enter other worlds. The Godless vault of Sucellus will provide a feast for our people.”

The Age of Ice taught the Doviello to gnaw the marrow from the bones of their prey like wolves. It taught the Panivo not to be so wasteful. They consume flesh, hair, blood and bone. Over time, almost all life around them is devoured and they are forced to move on. Once they leave - the land recovers, life renews, plants begin to
grow, animals breed and then ... the Panivo return...

The Panivo differ from other Civilizations in their relationship with land and nature. They do not farm or tend animals. They exploit the land and cull herds. As the herds die off, the Panivo rustle more from further afield. When an area around their city has been impoverished they move on.
They hate Sucellus, never having forgiven him for allowing his own death after all of their devotion. They hate everything associated with him - nature, animals, Fellowship of Leaves. They have no animal or mounted units but are better in combat against such units. This anti-nature tendency also limits their arcane units, who seem incapable of developing skills in some of the magical spheres. The Panivo hatred of nature prevents them from performing the Genesis and the Nature's Revolt rituals.
In a nut-shell, they are nature-hating nomads, who will destroy the land within their territory. Surrounding Civilizations will also find their lands poorer because of the presence of the Panivo.


LEADERS
Spoiler :

There are currently three selectable leaders.
Gorta has the Adaptive, Expansive and Raider traits. Leader art based on Fanart Conan King by kamyu.
Seerson has the Expansive, Industrious and Spiritual traits. Leader art based on Evil Wizard by Daniel Egeland, danilolatino on deviantart.com
Ocrann is Emergent, Ambitious and Arcane. Leader art based on The Puppet Master by AlishmcMalish.
All leaders are blocked from making Fellowship of Leaves their state religion.


IMPROVEMENTS
Spoiler :

The Panivo can found OnSeason Cities or OffSeason Settlements. It is necessary to keep a balance to allow the Panivo to move between these. Founding only OnSeason Cities would handicap the Panivo relative to the other civilizations, as their unique improvements would degrade and never have a chance to recover.

Senser Camps: These are just like normal camps but will not upgrade. Senser Camps outside Panivo land become normal Camps. Camps and Yarangas in Panivo territory become Senser Camps.

Culling Fields: The Panivo do not tend herds. Rather than cultivating wild herds of cattle, sheep or pigs in pastures as other Civilisations do, the Panivo will massacre these herds. They will slay every last one. For a time, they will have all the benefits of wool, leather and food that such herds provide but soon the herd animals will be locally extinct. The Panivo rely on the rustlers to provide them with further supplies of animals.
Culling Fields differ from most improvements in that they will degrade to Dormant whether they are worked or not. If they are worked by an On-Season City, then they will degrade even faster. Once the Culling Field becomes Dormant, the underlying herd bonus is removed. Pastures and Homesteads which come within Panivo territory are converted to Culling Fields.

Mobile Trading Camps: The trading camps have a population boom whenever the nearest primary camp comes into season as the merchants scramble to supply the large population. Of course, the merchants can not survive without food and so as the food in the area diminishes, so many of the merchants will move on. Over the seasons as the population returns again and again, the associated trading camps will become more established and developed providing a greater and more varied selection of traded goods.
The four first tier improvements are: New, Established, Old and Deserted Small Trader Camps. If Established, Old or Deserted Trader Camps are within the fat cross of a city when the Panivo relocate to it, they become New Trading Camps. Further Relocations will upgrade the improvements to New Large Trader's Camps and ultimately New Massive Trading Camps. The variously sized trading camps go through the cycle: New, Established, Old and Deserted.
Once Trading Camps become massive, there is a chance that the underlying terrain will start to degrade down to desert/tundra.
Pillaging of a Mobile Trading Camp converts it to the Deserted form of the next lower tier. Pillaging of Small Trader Camps converts it to an Empty Site. Mobile Trading Camps which end up outside Panivo territory become Empty Sites.

Empty Site: When a Panivo trading camp ends up on the wrong side of the border or a Small Trader Camp is pillaged, the people there get up and leave. If the Panivo reclaim the tile and relocate to a nearby city the empty campsite will gain new inhabitants but must start again on the first tier as a New Small Trader Camp.

Exploited Land: The Panivo Foragers are skilled at finding more food in an area than any other Civilization's workers, resulting in high early food yields in a city supported by exploited terrain. Overtime, this exploitation is unsustainable and the amount of food returned diminishes. If the land is not given some time to recover, it will ultimately cease to yield any food at all. There is the added possiblity that the intensive exploitation will result in degradation of the terrain, even if recovery time is allowed - Exploitation ultimately will yield deserts or tundra.
Exploited lands goes through the following improvements, each with lower food yields; Initial Exploitation, Continuing Exploitation, Diminishing Returns Exploitation, Weak Returns Exploitation, Break Even Exploitation, Scarred Land, Ruined Land. Initial Exploitation will also provide whatever crop bonus (rice, etc.) is on the tile but the bonus will be destroyed by the exploitation cycle. Knowledge of Poisons and Tracking will improve the food yield during Initial Exploitation.
Exploited land can only recover to Dormant, when it is not in the fat cross of an On-Season Panivo City. The more exploited the land, the lower the likelihood of this recovery and the greater the likelihood that the underlying terrain will itself have degraded.
Other Civilizations can remove Exploitation using the Vitalize spell.

Dormant Land: When the slaughter in a culling field is completed the land becomes Dormant. When exploited land is no longer within the fat cross of a Panivo On-Season city, it has a chance of recovering to Dormant. When a Dormant tile is within the fat cross of a city that the Panivo relocate to or that they upgrade from OffSeason to OnSeason, then it changes to Initial Exploitation. Some herd/crop bonuses will be removed if there is a Dormant improvement on the tile.

The Withered One: A successful casting of Wither the One by the Nihilists will replace Yggdrassil with The Withered One, which provides entropy mana. It also gives nearby Animal and FoL units the Shadow of the Withered One promotion.


TECHNOLOGIES
Spoiler :

Their unique technology is Exploitation, allowing them to build the exploited tile improvements, culling fields and mobile trading camps.
They can not develop the following technologies: Way of the Forests, Hidden Paths, Horseback Riding, Armored Cavalry or Warhorses.

Technologies which are of particular interest to the Panivo include:
Animal Husbandry allows Panivo recon units to rustle herds.
Animal Handling allows the creation of the hero, Slitinn.
Carnivals allows building of Mammon's Banquet.
Cartography allows the casting of the Panivo Worldspell, Openings and also Ghetto.
Code of Laws allows Starved units.
Deception allows Squatting.
Fanaticism allows Nihilist units.
Knowledge of the Ether allows building of Ceridwen's Maze.
Necromancy allows building of Rings of Entropy. This technology is also of value to the Panivo as it enables them to build Dimensional Nodes. The more Dimensional Mana the Panivo possess, the easier it will be to successfully navigate Ceridwen's Maze. Those arcane units with the Ceridwen's Chosen promotion will also benefit through their affinity with Dimensional mana.
Warfare allows the melee units to Efficiently Pillage.
Way of the Wicked allows casting of Sentient Feast by captured slaves.
Poisons and Tracking provide one additional food to Initial Exploitation improvements.
As the Panivo can not develop any of the mounted technologies, they will need to research Sailing if they want to develop Trade.
The Panivo gain nothing from Commune with Nature, except the possibility of developing Omniscience.



CITY SPELLS
Spoiler :

Relocate - The relocate spell allows the Panivo to transfer the population, units which are currently in training (excluding Nihilists, Beastslayers and boats), mobile buildings, stored food, specialists from a current OnSeason city to a target OffSeason Settlement. The OffSeason Settlement switches to OnSeason. Any Dormant improvements in the fat cross of the target settlement switch to Initial Exploitation improvements. Trading Camp improvements in the fat cross of the target settlement switch to the new version of the Trading Camp at the next size level. Religious beliefs (except FoL) are transferred along with the population. Only the state religion (and religions that the casting city is the founding city for) are left in the casting city.

The target settlement also gets a temporary happiness boost (nomads are happier when they move than when they are stationery). The casting OnSeason city is reduced to a one population OffSeason settlement.

OnSeason - This converts an OffSeason settlement into an OnSeason city. Any Dormant improvements in the fat cross of the casting settlement switch to Initial Exploitation improvements. Trading Camp improvements in the fat cross of the casting settlement switch to the new version of the Trading Camp at the next size level.

Openings - This is the Panivo World Spell. It opens borders and gives a diplomatic boost between the Panivo and all known Civilizations that they are not currently at war with. It also temporarily gives all of the Panivo units the Ceridwen's Key promotion, which gives them a large drop range.

Disperse - This spell will provide a Diaspora unit and reduce the population of the casting city. The reduction in population is related to the cost of growing the population relative to the cost of building a Diaspora.

Salted Earth - This is cast in an OffSeason settlement. It reduces the settlement to a ruin. Any exploited tiles in the fat cross of the casting city are degraded to the next worse version of exploitation. If there is three or more scarred or ruined lands around the new ruin and no ruins within 2 tiles, then the armageddon count is increased.


UNIT SPELLS AND ABILITIES
Spoiler :

Inquisition - This can now be used to remove Ghettos. If Order is the state religion, it also removes Temples of Triumvirates.

Efficient Pillage - This is performed by Melee units in enemy towns. It takes three turns to cast and provides a Supplies unit. The town is completely removed.

Ghetto - This is castable by Diaspora. It creates a ghetto in an opposing civilization's city, which consumes food, reduces culture and increases war weariness. The caster is killed.

Add to City - Diaspora can add 1 population to an existing Panivo city. The caster is killed.

Sentient Feast - This is cast by slaves in a Panivo city. It creates the Sentient Feast building which provides extra happiness. The caster is killed.

Enter the Maze - This is cast in cities containing a Ceridwen's Maze. There is a chance that the unit will be killed. If the unit survives, it emerges with the Mobility 1 and Sidestepper promotions. Adept units, which survive, gain the Ceridwen's Chosen and Mobility 1 promotions. The pedia gives information on how to improve survival chances.

Distorted Senses - This is cast by recon units with the Senser promotion. If successful, they temporarily gain the Distorted Senses promotion, which provides an extended range of vision and the ability to see invisible units. If it goes wrong, the unit is struck with Blinding Headaches, which temporarily reduce vision and hold the unit where he is. This is autocastable.

Rustle - Rustle is cast by recon units with the Rustler promotion to remove a herd type bonus from a tile and gain the appropriate herd promotion. There is a (small)
chance to get the unit killed and start a war if the theft goes pear shaped. Rustling can not be performed if there is a non-Panivo unit on the tile.

Leave Herd - A Rustler who is carrying around a herd casts this spell within the fat cross of a Panivo city in order to lose the herd promotion and leave the appropriate bonus on the tile.

Rot On the Branch - This is cast by the Nihilist units. It will destroy crop bonuses on the casting tile. It has a chance to poison enemy units in the surrounding tiles.

Squat - This requires at least three combat units and at least one Diaspora on the tile. It strips the tile of cultural control (as it is ethnically cleansed), allowing the Panivo to found a city there. It will trigger war with the civilization that previously controlled the tile.

Wither the One - This is cast by a Nihilist unit (supported by two others) at Yggdrassil. It replaces Yggdrassil with The Withered One. It causes temporary anarchy in all FoL cities. FoL civilizations, the Elohim and the civilization on whose territory Yggdrassil was located will declare war on the Panivo. (I know that this spell could be regarded as fluff but I thought the chance to destroy Yggdrassil fitted well with the Panivo mentality.)

Devour Slave - This is a spell for all cannibals, not just Panivo. It allows injured units with the Cannibalize promotion to consume a slave which is on the same tile. Essentially they get the benefit of eating without the risk of the combat.

Quench - Panivo Adepts who master Water 1 can not cast Spring. Instead, they can cast Quench, which does not restore life to deserts but puts out fires in a wider radius.

Vitalize - This spell has been amended so that it can also remove Exploitation from the surrounding 9 tiles.


PROMOTIONS
Spoiler :

Hand of Agares - Only one of the Triumviratic Profanes can be the Hand of Agares and it must be selected when the unit is created. The Hand of Agares has Entropy Mana affinity and has Entropy 1 and 2 promotions. He causes the tiles he is on to move closer to becoming Hell Terrain (based on the current Armageddon Count).

Hand of Ceridwen- Only one of the Triumviratic Profanes can be the Hand of Ceridwen and it must be selected when the unit is created. The Hand of Ceridwen has Dimensional Mana affinity and has Dimensional 1 and 2 promotions. He also has an extra 5 tile teleport range.

Hand of Mammon - Only one of the Triumviratic Profanes can be the Hand of Mammon and it must be selected when the unit is created. The Hand of Mammon has Mind Mana affinity and has Mind 1 and 2 promotions. He has an extra 20% chance of converting defeated opponents.

Path of Destruction - When a tile that Slitinn is on degrades, he becomes visible for two turns. This gives opponents and barbarians a chance to kill him off even if they can not see invisible units. After 2 turns he becomes invisible again.

Glory Seeker - This is a free promotion for Beast Slayers but is available to units with the Adventurer, Crazed of Heroic Strength 2 promotions. It increases strength by 1 when in combat against opponents with higher base strength. If the unit defeats a unit where there is more than 5 in the difference between base strengths, then all units on nearby tiles receive the Morale promotion.

Shadow of Withered One - This is automatically gained by animals and FoL units that come within 2 tiles of the Withered One improvement. It gives them -30% to combat.

Devourer - This is the race promotion that all the Panivo get. It provides bonuses against animal and mounted units. It prevents gaining of the Subdue Animals and Subdue Beasts promotions.

Senser - This promotion is gained by Sensers (Hunter equivalent). It allows casting of the Distorted Senses spell.

Distorted Senses - This temporary promotion extends the visibility range, allows the unit to see invisible units and provides a bonus against illusion units. The promotion lasts 1 turn.

Sidestepper - This promotion is gained by a unit on a successful navigation of the maze following casting of Enter the Maze. The unit ignores terrain costs, ignores building defences and has a withdrawal chance to reflect the way that such a unit slips between this and adjacent dimensions. It also allows the gaining of the Dimensional 1 promotion or Mounted unit promotions.

Panivo Worker - This promotion is gained by workers/slaves captured by the Panivo and prevents the building of farms, cottages, plantations and pastures.

Rustler - This promotion can be acquired by Recon units once the Panivo have mastered the Animal Husbandry technology. It allows them to remove a herd bonus from a tile and gain the equivalent herd promotion, allowing them to transport the bonus close to a Panivo city.

x Herd - The appropriate herd promotion for whichever bonus type is on the tile when a rustler casts Rustle is given to the Rustler. The promotion lasts 15 turns.

During this time the rustler must cast leave herd within the fat cross of a Panivo city or else the carried herd (and potential, associated bonus) will be lost.

Waywarper - This promotion is gained by Adept units, which successfully cast Enter the Maze, instead of the Sidestepper promotion. It provides them with an Affinity for Dimensional mana, providing +0.5 movement and +0,5 strength for each Dimensional Mana. It also allows the gaining of Mounted unit promotions.

Ceridwen's Key - This promotion is gained by all Panivo when their world spell, Openings is cast. It increases the drop range for every unit by 25. The promotion only lasts for 10 turns.

Blinding Headache - This is the promotion a Recon unit suffers if they miscast Distorted Senses. Their visibility is reduced by 2, they can not cast spells and they are held. The promotion lasts 2 turns.

Taunted - This promotion is gained by Starved units in a city with a Taunting Pit. It provides experience but increases the chance of the unit becoming Enraged. The promotion is lost when they leave the city.

Feeder - This promotion can be gained by Panivo Commanders. It allows them to use Controlled Rations to control their troops.

Controlled Rations - Gained by units in an army led by a Feeder. This makes them Loyal and prevents them becoming Enraged. It also makes them immune to fear (they fear starving more than anything else.)



BUILDINGS
Spoiler :

The unique buildings that they can build are; Slaughterer's Rock, Taunting Pit, Mammon's Banquet, Ceridwen's Maze, Temple of Triumvirate, Entropic Rings and Withered Grove.
They can not build; Stables, Dancing Bear, Grand Menagerie, Spider Pen, Tiger Cage, Lion Cage, Wolf Pen, Gorilla Cage, Ride of the Nine Kings, Winter Palace & Aquae Sucellus.

Panivo Palace - Their palace provides Mind, Dimensional and Entropy mana.

Ceridwen's Maze - This can be built once the Panivo have Knowledge of Ether. It is a pre-requisite for casting of the Enter the Maze spell.

Temple of Triumvirate - This is the Panivo version of Pagan Temple. It provides extra happiness if Ashen Veil is the state religion and extra unhappiness if Empyrean or Order is the state religion.

Entropic Rings - This can be built once the Panivo have Necromancy. These provide health at the cost of food. Extra health is provided if certain food bonuses are available.

Withered Grove - This is the Panivo equivalent of a Grove and allows the building of Nihilists.

Mammon's Banquet - This can be built in a city with a Carnival. It costs a food to maintain but provides happiness for the food bonuses that the Panivo can not establish permanent supplies of, e.g. cows.

Ghetto - This is created in an opposition city by the casting of the Ghetto spell to reduce food, culture and provide war weariness. Ghettos can be removed by Inquisition or Purge the Unfaithful. FoL Civs can automatically remove Ghettos using Inquisition or Purge the Unfaithful. Civilizations with a different state religion must be at war with the Panivo and must have a different state religion to the Panivo in order to remove the Ghettos using Inquisition or Purge the Unfaithful.

Sentient Feast - This is created by casting the Sentient Feast spell to provide happiness.

Slaughterer's Rock - This provides the Combat 1 promotion to melee units if there is a Culling Field within the BFC of the city when the unit is built. It provides xp at the rate of 1 xp per turn for melee units when there is a Culling Field within the BFC of the city up to 16 xp.

Taunting Pit - Starved Units in the city gain the Taunted promotion. This provides xp but increases the chance that they will become enraged. It also provides happiness to the city.


UNITS
Spoiler :

Their unique units are; Triumviratic Profane (Profane), Slitinn (hero), Diaspora (Settler), Senser (Hunter), Wanderer (Ranger), Gorger (Phalanx), Starved (Catapult), Beast Slayer (Beast Master),

Panivo Adept (Adept), Panivo Mage (Mage) and Nihilist (Druid).
They can not build; war Chariots, Chariots, Knights, Horse Archers, Horsemen or Hawks.

The Triumviratic Profanes have a weaker base strength than standard Profanes. The Incense requirement has been removed for them and instead the require a Temple of the Triumvirate. When created, they may become the Hand of Agares, Hand of Ceridwen, Hand of Mammon or remain a basic Triumviratic Profane.

The Panivo Hero is Slitinn and he is available with the Animal Handling technology. He is a Wanderer who starts with the Hero, March, Senser and Invisible promotions
and can freely enter other Civilizations' territories.
Each turn that Slitinn starts outside of Panivo territory, there is a chance of degrading the features (forest, jungle, etc) on the tile or changing grasslands to plains or plains to desert on the tile.
If Slitinn dies whilst outside of Panivo territory he is resurrected in the capital but loses all experience and promotions that he has gained.
As long as Slitinn is within Panivo territory he has the Weak promotion. If he dies in Panivo territory, he will not be resurrected.

Diaspora replace Settlers. They can cast Ghetto in enemy cities. They must be among the units in the stack in order to Squat. They can cast Add to City. A Diaspora can be built or the city castable Disperse spell can generate one.

Sensers are the Panivo equivalent of Hunters. They can not carry hawks but gain the Senser promotion (as do the higher Recon unit types) to make up for this.

Wanderers are the Panivo equivalent of Rangers. They can not carry hawks but gain the Senser promotion (as do the higher Recon unit types) to make up for this. As with all Panivo, Wanderers can not learn to subdue animals or beasts.

Panivo Adepts and Panivo Mages are like other adepts and mages except they can not build nodes nor gain the first level promotions for Nature, Life, Death, Creation or Body mana.

Building a Nihilist requires a Withered Grove and the Fanaticism technology. Nihilists are not limited by the state alignment (whatever the state currently believes, ultimately those beliefs and the state that espouses them will crumble into nothingness). They replace Druid units and can cast Rot on the Branch and Wither the One.

Building of a Starved unit requires a courthouse. They cause collateral damage and start with the weak and cannibal promotions.

Gorgers replace phalanxes. They start with the Heavy and Poison Resistance promotions.


PROJECTS
Spoiler :

The Panivo have no unique projects and are barred from performing the Genesis and the Nature's Revolt rituals.

The Song of Spring can be performed by those who've discovered Hidden Paths to create some new bonuses in the world.

Spoiler :

Some scoff at those who think that they can improve the growth of their plants by talking to them. Such doubters are silenced when the meet the Congregation of the Whispering Oak. When they sing the Song of Spring, plants don't just visibly grow quicker, life erupts. Dural scholars who've studied the effect claim that the apparent benefits of the Song of Spring are not limited to plants, as improvements in herds have also been observed. Claims that the Congregation's singing has effected other continents have not been verified.

Purge the Unfaithful can be used to remove Ghettos.


MISCELLANEOUS
Spoiler :

The Panivo slaughter populations when they conquer cities, leaving only a population of 1. The Revolt time is reduced to 1 turn.
Crop/Herd bonuses on tiles where the Panivo found cities or on tiles where the Panivo conquer and claim a city are destroyed.
Forbidden developed mana nodes (Nature, Life, Death, Creation or Body mana) which are captured by the Panivo will be destroyed unless Strength of Will has been researched.
Captured workers are converted into slaves.



Updated to Version 2.0. This is compatible with RifE 1.41 and Snarko's patch. The AI can now play as the Panivo.
AoE compatible (complete) version also uploaded.
Patch a issued - this just prevents the Glory Seekers generating free units in python.

Credits (I really should have put this in ages ago)
Spoiler :

Obviously thanks to Firaxis, FFH team, Rife team and Freya for providing the foundations that the mod is built on.
Thanks to Baldyr, Valkrionn, Asaf and all others who take the time to answer Noob questions on python
Thanks to Gingerbreadman, TGA, Kael, Cool3a2 and all others who've already given their time in preparing tutorials
Thanks to the artists that provided the art for the leaders.
  • Gorta is based on Fanart Conan King by kamyu, www.deviantart.com.
  • Ocrann is based on The Puppet Master by AlishmcMalish, www.deviantart.com
  • GobiDesert by Fir0002 used as basis for the civilization Image.
  • Evil Wizard by Daniel Egeland, danilolatino on deviantart.com, used as the basis for the Seerson portrait and button.
  • Morroco Sahara Nomade by Celso Flores used for Slitinn's popoup portrait and button.
Thanks to the other artists that I based buttons on;
Thanks to those who created images that I used from the web but were unable to identify the creator of.
Thanks to anyone who provided suggestions or comments in the thread or tried the mod



Lplate
 

Attachments

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Cities

There would be two types of cities, On-Season City and Off-Season Settlement.

Off-Season Settlements are the same as the Settlements used by the Kuriotates. They can ugrade to an OnSeason City using the "OnSeason" spell.

On-Season cities have a growing population and can build any available building, essentially the equivalent of your standard city. They have a unique spell, “Relocate”, which must be cast from an On-Season city and targeted at an Off-Season settlement. This converts the On-Season city into Off-Season and all population (except 1), all mobile "buildings", current production and current grain stored is transferred to the selected Off-Season city, which now becomes On-Season. Any troops in the casting city would remain there.

I'm giving the Panivo a maximum allowable number of cities of 25 (I've never got near this on the maps I've played on), which will give the player the option to select On-Season cities or Off-Season settlements when they found a city.

I’m hoping that this approach will avoid the problem of creating unit promotions to represent each building and having units walk from one city to another to pop-up the moved building.

Lplate
 
Improvements

The exploited improvements would go through a cycle from maximum production, down through negative production and the back up to dormant (no production difference from the standard unimproved terrain).

Dormant Exploited terrain, within the fat cross of a Panivo city with a population greater than 1 (i.e. On-Season) are converted into Exploited 1 and start the exploitation cycle again. Possibly to force the Panivo to move on, the improvement might only be able to develop from negative values up to Dormant when it isn't within the fat cross of an On-Season city.

The Exploited improvement can not be pillaged by another civilization. How do you pillage a territory which is already being unsustainably diminished of resources? However, a Dormant Exploited terrain within any other Civilisations cultural borders is removed, allowing the civilization to build on it.

The Cottage, Hamlet, Village, Town equivalents would each have a similar cycle of increased bonused, degrading to negative values and then back to dormant but in order to make the step up from cottage equivalent to hamlet equivalent, the improvement would need to be dormant and within the fat cross of a city which has just been converted from Off-Season to On-Season.

The cottage, etc. equivalents could be pillaged down to the next level and it would take the Panivo longer to build them back up as it would require a few Relocations.

I wasn’t going to allow them to build Lumbermills but would instead give them an extra food/hammer bonus for clearing a forest/jungle.

There mines would be the same as normal mines.

Culling Fields
The Panivo do not tend herds. Rather than cultivating wild herds of cattle, sheep or pigs in pastures as other Civilisations do, the Panivo will massacre these herds. They will slay every last one. For a time, they will have all the benefits of wool, leather and food that such herds provide but soon the herd animals will be locally extinct.

Lplate
 
Origins

For the origins of the Panivo, I was going to go back to the death of Sucellus.

Spoiler :
“Sucellus is dead. Cultivating crops and tending herds is doomed to failure. If we are to survive we must be sure to gather every remaining morsel of nourishment in these lands. We must pray to Lord Agares that he will delay the wastage so that we may gather all the food in time. Mammon will aid those that aid themselves. We must hoard our food lest it be claimed by other tribes.”
“But what shall we eat when there’s no food left here?”
“Then we will move on and take what ever food is available in other lands.”
“This will leave a wasteland in our wake.”
“Then Lord Agares will bless us. Remember that Mulcarn and the rebel Gods are in ascendance. Agares is chief among the rebel Gods.”
“And what shall we do when all Erebus is a wasteland?”
“Why then, the divine Ceridwen will open the portals to allow us enter other worlds. The Godless vault of Sucellus will provide a feast for our people.”


This ties the Panivo fairly directly to Ceridwen, Mammon and Agares, placing them at the heart of Evil. Their palace would generate Dimensional, Mind and Entropy mana. The Ashen Veil is the obvious religion for them and they would be excluded from Fellowship of Leaves – why would you worship Cernunnos? You might as well bow down to Cassiel or Basium if that’s your attitude. As well as excluding them from adopting FoL, I was considering an extra negative diplomacy value with any FoL Civilisations.

I’m not an Erebus lore guru so if this is a massive misinterpretation of the lore/Gods then let me know and let me know how I could tweak it.

Lplate
 
Units

As the Panivo consume anything, I was planning on making Cannibalism available as a promotion for any Panivo unit.
On the other hand, as they consume everything, animals (hawks, horses, elephants) aren’t available to them for their units.

Forager – this is the worker replacement and can create Exploited 1 (instead of Farm) or Mobile Traders 1 (instead of cottage)

Sensers – this is the Hunter replacement. As hawks aren’t used they can not carry them and taming animals is not an option. To make up for this, I planned on giving them a spell, Distorted Senses to allow them +1 visibility range and see invisible units for 1 turn and which could only be cast every 5 turns.

Spoiler :
“The Panivo’s deals with the dark God Ceridwen are most noticeable in the manner in which populations of entire cities uproot and move to other locations, with no record of their passage over the intervening terrain. Another gift of Ceridwen is manifest in the Sensers. By meditating and focusing their thoughts and prayers to Ceridwen, they can distort the fabric of space to make distant objects appear closer and reveal hidden objects. This can allow a Senser to gain information on more remote territories. More often they use it to discover hidden prey. The resultant headaches prevent the Sensers from overusing this ability.”


Diaspora – unique unit, can cast Ghetto
Spoiler :
“There are of course those who grow weary of the constant uprooting and resettlement that is part of the Panivo lifestyle. Gorta heard the disquiet of his people and provided them with a simple solution – banishment. If a sedentary life is what they seek then they shall find it among the sedentary tribes. The Diaspora will settle in any city that will accept them, forming their own community within it’s walls. They never fully forget their old ways and will continue to hoard more than their fare share of the city’s produce.”


Casting Ghetto would create the Panivo Ghetto within the target city, which gives -1 food and -1 culture. If I can work out how it would give -10% war weariness when at war with the Panivo I’d add that in too.

I want the Ghettos to be removable but not easily so the options that I’ve considered are:
1 Civ at war with Panivo – don’t want to use this as it avoids the war weariness part of the ghetto
2 Purge the Unfaithful and not same religion as Panivo
3 Purge the Unfaithful and at war with Panivo
4 Inquisition and not same religion as Panivo
5 Inquisition and at war with Panivo
6 Can not be removed by Tolerant (if still in use) civilizations. E.g. Elohim and Kuriotates are stuck with them
I think my preference would be options 5 and 6 together.

I was considering that the Diaspora should only be created by an event when there’s unhappiness in a city due to overpopulation, which creates a Diaspora and reduces the population by 1 rather than making them directly buildable.

Wanderer – ranger equivalent
Spoiler :
“There are those for whom the nomadic lifestyle of the Panivo is too settled. These individuals strike out into the wilderness on their own, rarely staying in any place for more than one night.”


Sidesteppers – I thought I needed to give the Panivo a more mobile troop seeing as they won’t have access to horses
Spoiler :
“Blessed by Ceridwen, these warriors seem to distort the ground over which they travel, a day’s journey is finished before noon.”


Gorgers - Phalanx equivalent with Heavy and Poison Resistance promotions.
Spoiler :
These man mountains are the highly visible result of Mammon’s influence within Panivo society. Where Gorta drives his people to strip the land bare and bring all food back to the camps for the good of all Panivo, the Gorgers feed themselves before and at the expense of any other Panivo. Beneath the deep layers of fat, a hideous amount of muscle is hidden meaning that only a very foolish Panivo chooses to come between a Gorger and whatever he wants.


Starved - As the Panivo would be rippping down forests, I didn't think catapults and similar siege weapons would fit. Lunatic type unit with Cannibalize and Crazed promotions that would require the Panivo Courthouse to build.
Spoiler :
“In a society driven by consumption of food and resources, the most feared punishment is to be denied the right to feed. This punishment when meted out can break the mind of many a Panivo, resulting in a crazed, ravenous monster ready to charge into combat against ridiculous odds, dealing out damage to everything in its path until it stops to feast on whichever victim has fallen before it.”

Hunger makes good sauce. It also makes terrifying soldiers.

These start with cannibal and weak promotions.


Given the Panivo anti sustainable growth/anti-nature approach, I also need to work out an appropriate Druid equivalent, as there’s a possibility that they might be neutral in the end-game. Looking for inspiration or direct suggestions (whichever comes first).

Lplate
 
Spells

The Panivo specific spells that I think I’ll need to create so far are:
Relocate – Switch On-Season city to Off-Season city
Distorted Senses – give the Sensers their bonus visibility
Ghetto – create the Panivo Ghetto in enemy cities.
Exploit – create the Exploited 1 (instead of Farm) improvement
Trade – create the Mobile Trader 1 (instead of Cottage) improvement
Mortal Feast - Slaves taken in combat have typically one use for the Panivo. Such slaves don’t know the Panivo ways and so are inefficient at exploiting the land. They do however provide an alternative source of meat. Typically they’re eaten as soon as they reach a Panivo city, so that no food is wasted maintaining them. Castable by slaves when in a city – provides 1 happy and 2 extra food to the city for x turns.

World Spell: Ceridwen’s Doors
“Mammon opens the minds. Ceridwen opens the ways.”
This would force all Civilisations (except those currently at war with the Panivo) to Open Borders with the Panivo for x turns and allow all Panivo units in cities to teleport to any city with which the Panivo have open borders for the x turns.

This would allow evacuation of troops away from a massive threat, saturation of a target Civilisation with Diaspora or sudden massing of troops for an invasion. As it’s a gift of Ceridwen, I was going to make an arcane tech a pre-requisite for it.

Lplate
 
Leaders

The basic concepts for the leaders at this stage are:

Gorta – a pragmatic warrior who is doing what he sees as best/necessary for the survival of his people. “If the world is going to be destroyed, I’m going to make sure my people are there to see the end of it.” Barbarian, Expansive, Raider.

Seerson – a descendant of the Seer who originally saw and explained the death of Sucellus. He’s a rampant proselytiser for Ceridwen, Agares and Mammon and hence ultimately the Ashen Veil. Barbarian, Industrious, Spiritual.

Lplate
 
Events

Events that I’d need to develop include:
Chance of Generating Diaspora when city is unhappy due to overpopulation
Chance of degrading from Grassland to Plains when an improvement becomes dormant
Chance of Plains degrading to Tundra or Desert (depending on latitude) when an improvement becomes dormant.
Removing Dormant Exploited terrain improvement if it is not within Panivo cultural borders.

Lplate
 
Arcane Limitations

I'm also considering that Life, Nature, Creation, Body and Death should not be available to the Panivo, to reflect their unsustainable/anti-nature tendancies. The adepts/mages would not be able to develop such mana nodes. Possibly the adepts/mages couldn't learn the spells even if a developed mana node of the requisite type was culturally claimed.

Should I look more to giving encouragements for the Panivo player to develop magic in alternative directions rather than blocks to stopping it going against my (still developing) lore?

Lplate
 
This is a very interesting idea... Your variation on "nomadism" (essentially permanent camps, but only a small skeleton group is there year round while the core population moves) is both simpler to implement, and realistic... Nice work. :goodjob:

The actual implementation should be possible in any mod given python; May be clearer in RifE, given city spells (IE, spells cast directly by the city itself), but that's just presentation.
 
I agree with Valk and Gekko, this seems to be a very creative approach to a nomadic civilization. As you noted, people tend to think of the Mongols scenario in Warlords, but that has a lot of limitations.

One quick comment, though. One of the benefits of Hawks is their ability to see invisible units. If the Panivo won't be able to build Hawks, then you might want to consider giving their recon units this ability. The spoiler text for Sensers suggests that that's what you're planning, but might help to clarify.
 
Hi,

The intention of the Distorted Senses spell is to make up for the lack of hawks so it will grant the temporary ability to see invisible units.

I'll amend the Units post to indicate this and add in a couple more units.

Lplate
 
Buildings

For buildings, I'm adding a bmobile tag to the schema to identify which buildings are moved when the Panivo cast Relocate.

Mobile, bmobile=1
Spoiler :

Alchemy Laboratory
Altar of Luonnotar
Apothecary
Archery Range
Asylum
Barracks
Bazaar of Mammon
Bowyers
Carnival
Celestial Compass
Circuit Court (Courthouse)
Command Post
Crown of Akharien
Dragon’s Hoard
Elder Council
Embassy (Inn)
Eyes and Ears Network
Fletcher
Forge
Gambling House
Guild of the Nine
Herbalist
Heroic Epic
Hunting Lodge
Infernal Grimoire
Infirmary
Library
Mage Guild
Market
Master xxxx
Mokka’s Cauldron
Money Changer
National Epic
Necronomicon
Prophecy of Ragnarok
Shrine of the Champion
Siege Workshop ??
Silver Circle
Smokehouse
Stigmata on the Unborn
Sylvien’s Perfect Lyre
Tablets of Bambur
Tavern
Tax Office
Temple
Temple of Triumvirate (Pagan Temple)
Theatre
Thousand Slums
Training Yard


Fixed buildings, bmobile=0
Spoiler :
Bone Palace
Brewery
Catacomb Libralus
Dungeon
Exchange
Form of the Titan
Granary
Great Library
Great Lighthouse
Guild of Hammers
Hall of Kings
Harbor
Heron Throne
Lighthouse
Mines of Galdur
Monument
Obsidian Gate
Palisade
Pillar of Chains
Public Baths
Shipyard
Shrine of Sirona
Soul Forge
Smuggler’s Port
The Nexus
Theatre of Dreams
Tower of xxxx
Walls
Well


Not Buildable by Panivo
Spoiler :
Dancing Bear
Grand Menagerie
Kennel
Lion, etc. Cage
Ride of the Nine Kings
Spider Pen
Stables
Summer Palace
Trophy Halls
Winter Palace


So far these are some Panivo specific buildings:

Palace - provides Entropy, Mind and Dimensional magic. I'm doing my initial drafting for the mod based in vanilla FFH so initially, Dimensional will be missing. This is a mobile building.

Rings of Entropy
Spoiler :
“I’d travelled these roads many times in the past as an envoy to the Hippus and I’d always been awestruck by the majestic herds of horses galloping across the plains. I travelled these roads now to negotiate a peace treaty with the Panivo who’d taken these lands from the Hippus less than a month ago.
Now, no horses moved on the plains. No animals moved on the plains. The reason became evident when I reached the Panivo settlement of Iosomor. Hundreds of dead horses were piled high in mounds, each with their throat slit. I could detect no stench of decay nor see any flies. When I went investigate, my path was blocked by an Adept of Entropy -
‘Take one more step toward the slow ring and I’ll tie you down in a fast ring myself. A fat man like you should keep the meat fresh for a week.’”

Rings of entropy are prepared and constantly maintained by Adepts of Entropy. There are two coupled rings, a slow ring and a fast ring. Within the slow ring, food is perfectly preserved. Within the fast ring, a sacrificial amount of food is placed. All the forces of entropy that would normally be decaying the food in the slow ring is focused on whatever is placed in the fast ring. The Panivo sacrifice a small portion of their food (-1 Food), in order to preserve the greater amount for when it is needed (+1 health and bonus health when herds are available).

As the Panivo kill off herds within their territory they have fewer owned sources of health than most Civilisations. The Rings of Entropy give the Panivo an extra health boost when they do have access to herds – either temporarily through Culling Fields or through trade.


Temple of the Triumvirate
Spoiler :
Long before the Ashen Veil became established as a formal religion on Erebus, the main worship among the Panivo was to three of the fallen Gods: Agares, Ceridwen and Mammon. Even with the establishment of formal state religion, many Panivo continued to focus their devotion to these three Gods.

Temples of the Triumvirate act as Pagan Temples. They give an extra 1 happiness if the state religion is Ashen Veil but a negative 1 happiness if the state religion is Empyrean or Orders from Heaven.


Ceridwen's Maze
Spoiler :
The identity of the Panivo Adept of Dimensional Magic who created the first Maze of Ceridwen is lost, as he himself was lost within his own creation. It has since proved an insightful piece of transdimensional architecture. Adepts who navigate the maze are destined to become true masters of Dimensional magic. Warriors who navigate the maze are gifted with the sidestepping ability from Ceridwen as the dimensions of space no longer appear the same to any who successfully pass through a maze.

Building Ceridwen's Maze is a pre-requisite to building the Panivo equivalent of the fast mounted units.


Feast of Sentient Flesh
Spoiler :
Slaves taken in combat have typically one use for the Panivo. Such slaves don’t know the Panivo ways and so are inefficient at exploiting the land. They do however provide an alternative source of meat. Typically they form the main course in a banquet as soon as they reach a Panivo city, so that no food is wasted maintaining them.

A delicious banquet of the lesser tribes of Erebus always keeps the population happy.

Building is created by a spell that must be cast by a slave and provides 1 happiness to the city.


Lplate
 
Thanks,
That's another tutorial to look up with along with how to edit Python.
Lplate
 
Hi,

I’ve a couple of questions:
1 Is there a limit to the number of events that can occur in a single turn? If so, should the degrading of grasslands to plains and plains to desert/tundra be handled through Events?
2 Is latitude a normal condition for Events/EventTriggers or would I need to add this to allow the degradation to desert or tundra to be latitude dependent?

Lplate
 
Hi,

I’ve a couple of questions:
1 Is there a limit to the number of events that can occur in a single turn? If so, should the degrading of grasslands to plains and plains to desert/tundra be handled through Events?
2 Is latitude a normal condition for Events/EventTriggers or would I need to add this to allow the degradation to desert or tundra to be latitude dependent?

Lplate

I believe there is, yes. I would do it via python, just check for one of their active cities and degrade tiles being worked.

Or implement it in one of the mods using the Climate system (IIRC, Orbis and RifE), and set the civ to terraform to a specific climate; I'd be able to help you set up the climate itself (have a chart of them, it needs to be pretty specific to avoid crash issues).
 
Status

I think I've got most of the basic xml done and have now started trying to decypher python. As someone for whom python was a complete black box, I have to recommend http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=97183 for taking the initial mystery out of it. That said, development is probably going to slow down while I trek up my learning curve.

I think I'll leave out use of the bmobile tag and just identify the relevant buildings in the python for the Relocate spell.

Lplate
 
Hero

While trying to do the python for degrading the terrain within the Panivo territory, I finally came up with a hero for this civilisation.

Slitinn will be a wanderer (ranger), with a chance to degrade features/terrain he's in, when outside of the Panivo territory. He'll be weaker at attacking cities but will have march and invisibility promotions and be able to enter rivals' territory.

Spoiler gives pedia entry.
Spoiler :

"The Temple of the Triumvirate was filled with the sonorous murmurings of the worshippers. The weekly ritual had proceeded exactly the same as the previous thousand, until the invocation of Mammon. When His name was said, the temple was filled with the cacophonous roar of a bustling city. A single gold coin dropped from on high and bounced off the altar. It spun on the ground, reflecting the candles' light and catching everyone's attention. It stuttered to a halt. The congregation looked up to see that Slitinn had returned once more. He lay on the altar. He was injured. In truth, he looked more dead than alive. They brought him to the healer, Ospuin. Under her care, Slitinn's body began to recover. Even Ospuin could not heal a mind, when the God of Greed himself had cleared it. Slitinn knew his name as everyone kept calling him Slitinn. He knew he had travelled from the tantalising glimpses from half-stored memories of distant lands. Each demi-memory called him, making him immediately want to get up and leave but he did not know where any of these places were. Each skill he demonstrated only made him yearn for all those he'd forgotten
The only certain knowledge he possessed was that he had not succeeded yet. He had not found it. He had to leave. What he sought was not here.
He left before his body was fully healed. Each Panivo he passed offered a prayer to Mammon and whatever coins they could to His priests."


Balancing the favour of three Gods isn't easy, particularly when one of them is the God of Greed. Many, within Panivo culture praise one or other of the triumvirate less than the others. In this Slitinn was much like any other. He also happened to be the greatest wanderer of his generation. When his devotions to Mammon were lacking, others noticed. When his devotions to Mammon were lacking, Mammon noticed.
Slitinn is cursed to never be satisfied with what he has. He is restless and must constantly travel in search of that which will make him happy. He rips the landscape apart as he travels, constantly seeking that which he may never possess. Even death provides no release for him - Mammon brings him back, weaker, stripped of memories - an empty shell driven purely by unquenchable desire.
Some claim that for Slitinn to break the cycle of the curses he must first overcome the drives that Mammon has imbued in him and settle down to live and die amongst his own people.

Each turn that Slitinn starts outside of Panivo territory, there is a chance of degrading the features (forest, jungle, etc) on the tile or changing grasslands to plains or plains to desert.
If Slitinn dies whilst outside of Panivo territory he is resurrected in the capital but loses all experience and promotions that he has gained.
As long as Slitinn is within Panivo territory he has the Weak promotion. If he dies in Panivo territory, he will not be resurrected.
 
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