Orbis - the original thread

[Gilg]

... Deleted.

 

[Seon]

By the way, doesn't this mean that body magic sphere is essentially useless to the Scions as Haste does not work on undead, regeneration does not work on undead, and you cannot add to flesh golem if you are undead? I think you should keep corpus spells as Scions unique body magic sphere or at least make normal body spells affect undead.

 

[Dzhel]

Hmmm... deadly silence on weekends, I assume everyone is pressing refresh every few minute to see anything pops up (like I am doing right now)

You bet I was

Thanks for giving us a heads up on your progress Ahwaric. I always look forward to the next release but I definitely understand how busy things can be. The work you and the rest of the modders have done for this game has been unbelievable and I greatly appreciate it.

 

[Tarquelne]

bone horde explodes on lost combat

Sorry, the XML I put together for them isn't very robust. If you like I can take a look at them for you.

[*]no corpus magic, use normal body (need to check if haste works on undead, I want it to)

As has been mentioned, Haste and Regeneration don't work on Undead. And there was a problem with Flesh Golem too, IIRC. One of the reasons I added Corpus. (The reason I didn't change the Body spells - other than the possible hue and cry - was because I almost *always* used Haste with any other civ and wanted to do something different.)

The problem is just the spell's use of "ImmuneNotAlive", so it's not exactly an insurmountable obstacle.

 

[Seon]

By the way, I added that 'bring back corpus magic thingy' without even knowing what corpus magic is. I know they are Scions UU of body sphere magic, but what does it do?

 

[Tarquelne]

By the way, I added that 'bring back corpus magic thingy' without even knowing what corpus magic is. I know they are Scions UU of body sphere magic, but what does it do?

Heh. Be careful what you wish for.

Corpus I: Draw Strength - Cast only within Scion borders. +10% strength, expires with combat. (May change to a magic resistance effect that lasts only a limited time beyond borders in the next patch.)

Corpus II: Death Geas - Resistible, -10% strength, -10% magic resist, expires with combat, 2% barb. chance/turn.

Corpus III: Grand Ward - Range 2 "push" vs. living units.

 

[Ahwaric]

Thanks Tarqueline!
I was about to describe the spells, but it is always better if the creator himself does it

Sorry, the XML I put together for them isn't very robust. If you like I can take a look at them for you.

I made BH explosive because of the description (take the cart of blasting powder and deliver it to crypt...) If you had something else in mind, I will be obliged to know it and do the appropiate changes.
Regarding abominations, main reason to not include them is because I already use the art for infernal berserkers plus they are not very distionct. I hope the removal is just temporary, though I am a bit tempted to make it replace berserker...

As corprus err... corpus magic goes, I decided to just add new scions-only spells for body magic (so they can cast both, the "living", not that usable version and undead-only one). I do not think it is that overpowered, not many scion units are alive plus I think that bvody magic mastery fits them well (in and extraordinnary way
So far:

• body 1 - replenish, +10% to heal rate, castable on "gifted" units only - scion undead excluding BH, skeletons, wraiths...
• body 2 - untiring flesh, like haste but only 25% expire chance, same requirement as above (thought of tossing blitz in and making it lvl 3 but that is too much)
• body 3 - flesh golem, I think that flesh studio is good enough proof that scions can do it - it will be possible to add scion gifted units to a golem
• I think also of a plague - like spell...

I did big changes to priests too:
names: doomsayer -> augur -> pontifex
Augur spells

• mend - heal that works on undead
• geas - removes blessed adn shield of faith/runic shield, -15% withdrawal, increases chance to defend stack. range 1

Pontifex spells

• glory of the empire - combat bonuses, +25% capture defeated enemy, 100% expire
• grand ward - pushes out living units, range 1, autocastable (like crown of brillance)
• I merged hand of the reaper with old death geas...

The changes are quite big and I hope you did not started your anti-sect writing yet

 

[Seon]

I have a feeling that .21 is almost here

 

[Gelvan]

wrong thread kkk

 

[Tarquelne]

If you had something else in mind, I will be obliged to know it and do the appropiate changes.

Nope. I was just afraid they were exploding due to some mistake I'd made.

[*](thought of tossing blitz in and making it lvl 3 but that is too much)

Neat idea, though.

[*]geas - removes blessed adn shield of faith/runic shield, -15% withdrawal, increases chance to defend stack. range 1

How long does it last, is it resistible? I ask because while the "base" Scion Doomsayer spell increases chance to defend stack almost every unit in the stack gets hit with the spell (-10 resist.) So it rarely matters. Which is too bad, because I think it's a neat "curse." Were I to start over I'd consider a spell that's easier to resist and is more variable in it's duration. Maybe I'll just go change it....

[*]I merged hand of the reaper with old death geas...

Ouch. Not a happy-making spell.

I like the new priest names.

 

[arkham4269]

First off, FF & Orbis have ruined me for normal FfH. It if wasn't checking out the scenarios, I wouldn't play it.

Some thoughts.
1a. You said agnostic music would be hard. Is there a tutorial out there for this or could it be set up where the agnostics get their own 'religious' music folder and then some sort of tutorial could be made that would let people fiddle around on their own time to put in their own music. I mean maybe I want the Imperial march for AV?

1b. The music in general I like. In fact the Dead Can Dance album that the Orbis theme is on has lots of music that would be appropriate. Again, as in 1a. it would be nice if there was a way to change music that you are just plain sick of.

1c. You said Civ specific music is hard to do; I would think why would you need to? I would think it would be easier to do it by religion with the only question is does game have a separate folder music when a Civ doesn't have a religion yet, but isn't agnostic.

2. Don't know if it would be hard, but I REALLY like the Erebus map of FF where you can fiddle with the amount of mountains. It's hard to find a good map and while Erebus map was okay, the mountains channeled way to much. So the new map seems to be an improvement over the Tetonics map I usually play with.

3. Still hoping for a change to Mokka's Cauldron that will allow the owner to build zombies! I mean why should the person that gets Baron Halfmorn be the only one to get a unit that can create new units? Who doesn't want to command, "Get him my zombie minions!"

4. Any chance you'll be changing to the new FF theme where workers can build anything from Day one, it just takes longer?

 

[Iceciro]

Orbis, shameless question for stealing away to a modmod here - how did you re-enable Great Generals from combat experience? Is it something in python/xml, or did you have to mess with the dll itself to make it behave?

...I miss my great generals.

 

[Wauthan]

@Arkham4269

I sure know what you're talking about. After hearing the same old songs over and over I'm really glad Civ4 has a built in mp3 player. Might not do wonders for the immersion, but relaxing to my own favorites is a lot better then anything Ahwaric can cook up. Errh... No offence of course Ahwaric.

I always use the PerfectWorld script these days. Tectonics feels sort of predictable now. And I don't know if zombies would be an upgrade for the Cauldron. It already makes undeadish demon units out of the dead. What I would like is to put the damn thing on wheels so I could move it around. Would be neat if it was actually some kind of unit that could be captured. Heh, The Great Cauldron Wars.

 

[arkham4269]

After hearing the same old songs over and over I'm really glad Civ4 has a built in mp3 player. Might not do wonders for the immersion, but relaxing to my own favorites is a lot better then anything Ahwaric can cook up. Errh... No offense of course Ahwaric.

I keep forgetting you can do that. It's somewhere in the options, right? I might have to look into that. However, most of my music is set up for iTunes so knowing my luck it won't work.

And I don't know if zombies would be an upgrade for the Cauldron. It already makes undeadish demon units out of the dead. What I would like is to put the damn thing on wheels so I could move it around. Would be neat if it was actually some kind of unit that could be captured. Heh, The Great Cauldron Wars.

Well I'm not sure where I posted about it; I'm on a lot of threads on a lot of different mods. I think it may have been on the Jotnar thread where I was pushing for zombies. A lot of good comments came out of it, but good or bad a lot of the consensus was "no you don't get zombies; you got pyre zombies, what more do you want?"

Well pyre zombies aren't zombies and neither are Diseased Corpses; both of these are just animated corpses directed by the animator. To me, zombies are those who bite you and you become a zombie.

So after some wrangling we came up with the idea that instead of having zombies for a Civ, you could only make them if you built Mokka's Cauldron. I mean have anyone actually managed to build it in a city close enough to an enemy to be of any use? Maybe in the Erebus maps which is highly channelized but for the most part it's worthless. Now if you could build zombies, then it would be worthwhile.

The Cauldron zombies (probably with a limit of how many you could make & maybe in keeping with the flesh golem idea, you'd have to sacrifice a unit to make one) would be slow, tough and when they attack would cause disease.

The other thought is the disease promotion would be a special one that would give a % chance every turn of making the unit become a barbarian zombie. Units killed by a zombie would become a weaker zombie, but one under control of the player. This idea was more to be used if there could be some sort of Ritual that allows you to create zombies and this would be later in the game. Thus while you'd have more zombies available, players would have access to medics/priests so they could heal any units wounded by zombies so they wouldn't have to be ticking time-bombs. Of course what could be nasty is that perhaps when one gets diseased by exploring a dungeon or lair, one doesn't know if one is has a 'normal' disease or a zombie disease! You'd only find out when your unit suddenly became the Walking Dead!

Another zombie suggestion would be to have weaker zombies as a barbarian monster that generates out of ruins and certain evil Unique features. These zombies wouldn't be too tough, but enough to potentially eat any warrior or scout that comes their way. Since this could get really bad quickly (It's World War Z!) if players aren't careful, one could have a 'toggle zombie on/off' in the custom game screen. The danger of zombies is if you throw a unit against a Frostling and lose, well it's a pain but not that bad. Lose a warrior against a zombie and now you a chance of a two wounded zombies.

 

[Ahwaric]

I have a feeling that .21 is almost here

You bet it is. I gave myself a deadline for tomorrow evening (my time) and plan to keep it. Right now the code is done, I just do some bug testing and adjustments. Also, I try to do some art changes. Lanun units are in the forge now, I still need to do some scions and look for some buildings for them.

I like the new priest names.

Great, I was worried what will you think of them...
Regarding spells (especially geas), you are right, I will try to make it work better.

First off, FF & Orbis have ruined me for normal FfH. It if wasn't checking out the scenarios, I wouldn't play it.

Well, I try to make sure scenarios work fine in Orbis. I played half of them and it was fun.

Regarding music, there are two things that can be done. Music is linked to current era (religions just are treated like eras) so you can:

• add new music ( or even replace old) to classical/medieval era. This way, most of the civs will have religion music while agnostics will have flavored medieval
• add new era, which can be accesed by civ-specific tech. That would work best for the mechanos (new era after researching steam power), a bit worse with scions and mazatl (they start with their specific techs, so civ-specific music from the start) and would require adding special tech for grigori just for music

The first method is much simpler while second allows for tailoring civ-specific music. But both are quite a lot of work, mostly with looking for new tracks that fit. If given the list I might add it one day, but mp3 player mentioned by Wauthan might still be a better idea, more adjusted to personal needs...

Don't know if it would be hard, but I REALLY like the Erebus map of FF where you can fiddle with the amount of mountains.

I did not mess with map scripts before, but will check it. It might be possible that it will work without trouble after just coping it to the right folder.

Any chance you'll be changing to the new FF theme where workers can build anything from Day one, it just takes longer?

Do not think so. IMHO it kills the flavour of technological development of the land, plus I do not to want to see windmills in stone age. Also, no idea how Ai works with it.

@ Wauthan @ arkham4269
I agree that current cauldron is better than zombie or skeleton producing one. It scales to tech development, if own demon factory is not enough for you.
It will be quite easy to make it movable - consider it done. I was thinking of adding it as equipment to mokka, but that would require mokka spawning in every game, even if illians are not in (not that it is such a bad idea...)

@ Iceciro
Use anything you find usefull, it is not a shame (or at least I keep telling it to myself). And the answer is easy, I have just added the right unit. In FfH it just do not find UNIT_GREAT_GENERAL I think, so it does not spawn

EDIT: Seems we have some Zombie infestation already. First Deon, now Arkham... But I will think of the idea...

 

[Seon]

Speaking of that, which Time Zone do you live on?

 

[Ahwaric]

Central European Time - GMT+1
But I am still an hour or two away from posting...

EDIT: Or maybe more. Sorry for another delay, but I will post it tomorrow morning/noon (GMT). Some minor fixes and install preparation left and I am just too tired to do it now...

 

[Seon]

Darn.... (was pressing refresh every 10 minutes)

 

[Ahwaric]

Darn.... (was pressing refresh every 10 minutes)

Once again, sorry.

The good news is, it is ready. Get it here.

Please note that I decided to skip the version number in installation directory. So make sure that you use the right directory (just Orbis).

Also, I got annoyed with game options not saving. So, please RUN ONE GAME IN START NOW MODE. You can then leave to the main menu to start new game the way you like, but it is required to clear stored options.

I got to go now so I can't write a few things on the Scions I want, but you are welcomed to explore on your own. And Traqueline, please be merciful

 

[arkham4269]

The good news is, it is ready. Get it here.

Will this break saves? If so I guess I need to finish the game I'm in today!

Plus, did I miss something? I'm playing CoE and I'm able to create mages. I usually don't play CoE but I thought they were just limited to adepts. This isn't a complaint, just something I wasn't sure was a change or was something Orbis related.