Orbis - the original thread

[Gilg]

About mills.

I think that there is quite enough improvements in the early game and with that in mind, placing them at construction wouldn't be optimal. On the other hand, by the time you have both guilds, machinery and a levee, 3/3/2 or 2/4/2 isn't that great compared to this mods relatively high average tile yield.

A worthy idea, i think, would be to place a semi guild at "guilds", perhaps a national wonder that enabled a building with a wee bonus to food, commerce, hammers and culture per mill in the fat cross.

A wonder idea.

Great people are real important and a second gp city other than national epic would be nice.

+ Whales.... could they have the same placement "boost" as deer? (I'd like to see them worldwide and not just at the poles) They could also use a yield boost.
Loved them back in Civ2 when they gave a fat bonus.

 

[Willgar]

Small things - Fawn cant use metal improvements (Bronze, Iron etc) but other tier 2 scouts can (hunters, rangers etc)

 

[Brokenbone]

Maybe mentioned someplace in this thread, but do griffons and spiders lack a "race", thereby making them uncapturable by units with subdue animal / subdue beast / mesmerize animal, as the case may be?

 

[Brokenbone]

(Deleted, my mistake)

 

[Ahwaric]

I think that there is quite enough improvements in the early game and with that in mind, placing them at construction wouldn't be optimal. On the other hand, by the time you have both guilds, machinery and a levee, 3/3/2 or 2/4/2 isn't that great compared to this mods relatively high average tile yield.

So you propose boosting mills? And possibly moving them to an earlier tech?
I see no problem in improvements diversity - I like it But placing them at machinery just makes sense. Also, what changes do you think would be good?

On the other hand, I do not think that mills should have more synergies with guilds. But the tech might use some more bonuses for actuall guilds.

+ Whales.... could they have the same placement "boost" as deer? (I'd like to see them worldwide and not just at the poles) They could also use a yield boost.

No and yes. I want them limited to the poles. Deer is just any game and fit praires as good as it does in tundra (or even better). Whales on the other hand are most common in cold waters. Also, they are nice to balance the unfavorable land terrain
So, I will check their yeld and possibly increase it. Might allow them to spawn on coast, too.

Small things - Fawn cant use metal improvements (Bronze, Iron etc) but other tier 2 scouts can (hunters, rangers etc)

This is intentional. I have added some more fawn bonuses to balance this.

Maybe mentioned someplace in this thread, but do griffons and spiders lack a "race", thereby making them uncapturable by units with subdue animal / subdue beast / mesmerize animal, as the case may be?

It works fine for me. Other than moving griffins & spiders to beast category (and thus requiring subdue beast) there are no other changes.

I have finally finished a new version. Due to big changes (including art, which makes the patch quite big) and some problems with patching (some people did apply c patches on 0.34g base), I have decided to release it as a version 0.15. You can get it here. Changelog in the second post of this thread.
Just uninstall old one and install a new one. You might need to insert the correct directory (Orbis 015).
Make sure you have FfH updated to H first. Checking Brigit's model is the easiest way - "Valkirie" is G, while red one with wings is H. Red blob means you have installed Orbis on 34g
0.14 and 0.15 can be both present in mods directory if you prefer.

 

[Gilg]

.... I think that mills should have a single boost tech and a little something to stand out amongst the other profitable improvements..... Watermills especially needs consideration.

With the +1 commerce, levees and fresh water rivers are settled earlier... "ish" and for a late improvement to come in and replace towns, farms and other goodies it need some oomph. Watermills start out with +1 food and 1 hammer. It's relegated to freshly conquered land and cities improved after engineering and it isn't favored.

 

[Caradoc]

I installed 015 to my old 014 folder, but the folder name stayed 014, which means the shortcut failed. Easy to get around, so full speed ahead. Started a game and checked 'Pedia entries for new units and buildings, but noticed the icon graphics there were green squares. They were rendered correctly on the world map, however. So let's play. Yikes, that Griffon has a strength 6. Someday I'll slap a saddle on him, but for now ... run away!

 

[scutarii]

My fawn meets all requirements for "mezmerising animal" and yet he is not doing it: maybe b/c of animal stayed in den?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Mesmerize Animal is resistible. Animals with lots of combat promotions have a pretty good chance of not being converted.

 

[Gilg]

The folder is renamed, but the game still crashes on loading.

 

[Ahwaric]

I strongly advise to do a clean install - that is one of the aims of releasing as 0.15 and not just a patch d.
I want everyone to have the same base so I can fix problems with the mod itself, not just problematic installation. It is really hard to help you with the latter.
So, DO A CLEAN INSTALL. Either remove 0.14 first (it can be easily and quickly done from control panel), or make sure you install to Orbis 015 folder. The install script unfortunatelly uses last directory used, which will probably be 014.

I installed 015 to my old 014 folder, but the folder name stayed 014, which means the shortcut failed. Easy to get around, so full speed ahead. Started a game and checked 'Pedia entries for new units and buildings, but noticed the icon graphics there were green squares. They were rendered correctly on the world map, however.

If you install 015 on top of 014, some art in the art pack get overriden with old files from the patches. I have added quite a few new icons, and some of the spaces that are now used were just green squares in 014c. So, the strange thing is that they look ok in the world map...

So let's play. Yikes, that Griffon has a strength 6. Someday I'll slap a saddle on him, but for now ... run away!

That is the point... Before they were weaker than polar bears. And you do not need a griffon, griffin knights can be build directly (but the upgraded one can have some nice promotions )

The folder is renamed, but the game still crashes on loading.

Have you done a clean install? If not, do so. Works fine for me.
If the problem persists, please give me detailed info on what happens (what message are you getting etc.)

 

[Gilg]

.... After installing a couple of times and trowing out old versions it looks like I've made it work (don't ask me how.).

 

[scutarii]

I just deleted after clean install orbi015 shortcut and started mod as usual: BTS-advanced-load a mod.

 

[Caradoc]

Got in 60 turns before bed last night. No problems. Level 4 Fawn w. Mesmerize Animal works fine.

 

[Ahwaric]

I just deleted after clean install orbi015 shortcut and started mod as usual: BTS-advanced-load a mod.

Any problems with the shortcut? Mine works fine, but for unknown reason sometimes I have problems with the icon. It does not stop it from working, though.

Got in 60 turns before bed last night. No problems. Level 4 Fawn w. Mesmerize Animal works fine.

Same here. I guess MC is right about the resistance thing.
Anyway, you can always post savegames. I am willing to check them, both for the particular problem and looking at general effects of different playstyles. It helps me balance things out.

 

[deadliver]

Thanks for the new release, me and my bottle will check this out tonite and get back to you.

 

[Wauthan]

Finally had a chance to play some more Orbi. Made a clean install with 015. The .exe defaults to /orbi 014 which invalidates the shortcut. Easily remedied of course.

After a long good game I didn't encounter any bugs. Some balance issues, some civilizations seems to always come up on top, others always seems to fade. Need to do a lot more playtesting before I can give any valid feedback though.

But the Sheaim seems to be the runt of the pack in my games, possibly due to AI (and myself) not using the best strategy for them. They are strong in the late game but rarely make it there. Besides their planar gates, that greatly depend on a high AC, they don't have anything to brag about. Perhaps the gates could be a bit cheaper? Or they could work differently depending on the state religion?

The new artwork looks fantastic. Like playing FFH deluxe edition.

 

[Caradoc]

I'm confused about Wizard Enclave. First off, as Amurites I should build this in place of Monastery, but I get the plain Monastery. After replacing it using the Worldbuilder, the Enclave worked, but I'm not clear on where it is getting its spells. One Adept started with Chaos 1, even though I don't currently have a Chaos node. (I once had one but needed to dispell it to build something else. I do have a couple of units with Chaos.) The Adept also started with Earth 2, and though I do have two Earth nodes I don't have a unit with Earth 2.

 

[Ahwaric]

The .exe defaults to /orbi 014 which invalidates the shortcut. Easily remedied of course.

Seems that inno setup (which I use) works this way - remebers the last directory used. And it was Orbis 014... I am afraid you have to check it every time you install new version or FF.

But the Sheaim seems to be the runt of the pack in my games, possibly due to AI (and myself) not using the best strategy for them.

Yeah, sheaim are weak unless the AC is really high. I want to work on them next. Also, I want to see minotaurs more, so I think how else can they act in the game...

The new artwork looks fantastic. Like playing FFH deluxe edition.

Thanks. I have learned a lot while making (well, rather gluing together) griffin knight model (thanks Kael!).
So, you can expect some new art in the next patch, especially regarding svartalf which I have messed up...

I'm confused about Wizard Enclave. First off, as Amurites I should build this in place of Monastery, but I get the plain Monastery. After replacing it using the Worldbuilder, the Enclave worked, but I'm not clear on where it is getting its spells. One Adept started with Chaos 1, even though I don't currently have a Chaos node. (I once had one but needed to dispell it to build something else. I do have a couple of units with Chaos.) The Adept also started with Earth 2, and though I do have two Earth nodes I don't have a unit with Earth 2.

I forgot to enable it to amurites, it will be corrected in the next patch (you can use the quickfix attached for now).
Enclave checks what kinds of mana the city has at the moment of building the unit. Next it picks a random promotion of 1 or 2 level from all results enabled by the appropiate mana. So, if you have earth and life mana, you get one and only one promotion chosen from the following: life1, life2, earth1, earth2.
Existing units do not have any impact on that, so you can have a promotion that no other unit has.
I can't explain the chaos thing and have no idea what caused it. I checked the code and it is ok. Are you sure you did not have the chaos mana when you have built that adept? Please check the save if you have one or post it here for me to check.

 

[Caradoc]

I can't explain the chaos thing and have no idea what caused it. I checked the code and it is ok. Are you sure you did not have the chaos mana when you have built that adept? Please check the save if you have one or post it here for me to check.

Looking back, I can verify that I had no Chaos at the time the Adept was built, but ... I did have Chaos at the time the Monastery was built. (Yet not when I used Worldbuilder to swap the Monastery for the Wizard Enclave.) So could it be that the selection of Mana depends on when the Enclave was built rather than the Adept? And it might be that the Mana set was being accumulated at the Monastery but the effect did not start until the Enclave took its place.

This is a kinda odd game for me since my Amurites have only this one free Mana Node and I've had to dispell and rebuild it over and over to get a selection of Mana. Next time I'll keep an eye on what kinds I have when I build Enclaves. It will be interesting to see what happens with several Enclaves with different Mana sets. In any case, without having to swap the Enclave for the Monastery, we can eliminate that as a factor. Cheers!