Orbis - the original thread

[xienwolf]

Cool to see someone else making use of bits of my source. Feel free to drop in the Mod-Modders guide any time for questions, reccomendations, or gripes about me getting slack in commenting my work (I've noticed that with so much of the code re-written now, and my style being so different, I have started being very lazy about commenting anything, or using the right kind of comments when I do Especially since the FfH codebase should be getting fairly stable and I won't have to merge back very often)

 

[Ahwaric]

Free heroic promotions, you say? How does that work?

When nature's revolt is completed, animals get heroic strength & defense for free. You can upgrade them keeping the upgrades.
I am not sure if it does apply to already captured ones, but I usually play with a landmass for colonization (i.e. terra maps) and there are usually an elephant or griffon to capture.

As to Pearls: How about starting Lanun with Fishing and making Sailing the requirement for Pearls?

Lanun already start with fishing in Orbi. As for the sailing and pearls, in that case Lanun would need another bonus. Ideas?

Cool to see someone else making use of bits of my source. Feel free to drop in the Mod-Modders guide any time for questions, reccomendations, or gripes about me getting slack in commenting my work

You can count on it The changes are really great, as is the documentation, but I still have problems extracting some more complicated stuff (but that is just my fault). Thanks!

 

[Caradoc]

Lanun already get Pirate Coves, bonus food, and the +1 movement at sea, plus a wicked world spell. They have two heroes and two good leaders. I think they can share the Pearls with the rest of the civs and still do just fine.

 

[Alzara]

Lanun already get Pirate Coves, bonus food, and the +1 movement at sea, plus a wicked world spell. They have two heroes and two good leaders. I think they can share the Pearls with the rest of the civs and still do just fine.

Here here!

I totally agree. I've been saying for months that pearls should be available to all civs. Not only because... well... they are pearls, but also because lots of coastal areas are rendered barren because of "hidden" pearls!

Al

 

[Alzara]

I like the look of the changes in patch b...

Do we have an ETA?

Al

 

[Ahwaric]

In 10 minutes

Edit: Ok, here it is.

Both icon space and keyboard shortcut for somnium have been restored to guild advisor. Somnium can be accesed by ctrl+f7 or an icon next to trophy screen. Unit stats are there too.
Let me know if you have any trouble.
I tested it, but this is my first experience on sdk modding.

 

[Gilg]

Having switched from FF back to orbi..... I miss worker exp.!!

Edit: Saves not okay.... tasunke crashed on loading.

 

[Alzara]

In 10 minutes

Edit: Ok, here it is.

Both icon space and keyboard shortcut for somnium have been restored to guild advisor. Somnium can be accesed by ctrl+f7 or an icon next to trophy screen. Unit stats are there too.
Let me know if you have any trouble.
I tested it, but this is my first experience on sdk modding.

WOOT! Ur a legend! This modmod rocks!

Al

 

[xienwolf]

Good job on restoring your corporations

 

[Caradoc]

Looks like another winner. I have not previously had much use for Slavery, but it's looking like the way to go.

 

[Alzara]

Just curious, can Yurts be built on deserts? I'm trying to figure out why anyone would build them (even the Hippus). They don't provide that much of a benefit unless you are playing the malakim and get those cool upgraded versions...

Al

 

[Caradoc]

Played a while last night with no real problems. Had a memory allocation error, but all was well on reloading -- probably a Vista problem.

I played on Sto's Full of Resources map with lots of starting animals. Probably as a result of this start, I had lairs all over the place. I notice the guardians are now most likely to breed true -- bears guarding bear lairs with bear bosses, etc. I had so many bears I was using bears to explore bear lairs and I ended up with a pretty good one. It started out as a boss with the pack leader and blitz promotions and picked up adventurer, some nice mutations, a commander, and a bunch of EPs on subsequent forays. It even got a lion totem, but what finally cracked me up was when it picked up shapeshifting. I now have a bear that can turn into a bear.

Had some more fun with a Castle Commander. It was nice having him next to a couple of lairs so I could hang out there while the bear was exploring. The Commander eventually picked up some EPs so I got him Mobility but he was still stuck there. On the bright side, I noticed it was possible to promote units at the Castle.

 

[Ahwaric]

Just curious, can Yurts be built on deserts? I'm trying to figure out why anyone would build them (even the Hippus). They don't provide that much of a benefit unless you are playing the malakim and get those cool upgraded versions...

That is the point. Yurts reaquire base yeld of 1 hammer, so only desert hills for any civ that is not malakim (well, scrub counts too).
Yurts are intended as no-freshwater plains improvement, especially before you can irigate them. I recently toned them down, so if you think yurts & goums are too weak now, then let me know.

It even got a lion totem, but what finally cracked me up was when it picked up shapeshifting. I now have a bear that can turn into a bear.

The Commander eventually picked up some EPs so I got him Mobility but he was still stuck there. On the bright side, I noticed it was possible to promote units at the Castle.

LOL, great bear story. By the way, Orbi has double animal option checked in by default, so that may may have something to do with the numbers...
Also, bear turned to bear (dire-bear?) is stronger than bear not turned into bear (in human form?). By the way, last time I checked changing to bear required channeling 2, so maybe you turned your bear into wolf? (but as I did not expect this combo, the graphics stays bearish...) Or you happen to have channeling 2 bear?

Commanders are immobile. They have movement point already to let them bombard enemies, but are set to domain immobile, so no amount of movement points will let them move.

After some Ice playing today I started updating Orbi to 0.4. It goes quite well, so I hope to finish it soon, test a bit, and still release before the weekend/christmas.
I am not sure if the scenarios will be playable, but hope so/will try to make them.

 

[Wauthan]

Finished a long, epic, game as the Dovellio. First time I ever managed to get a unit, not hero, to level 20. One bad ass hunter, with wolf totem for the win! Also managed to build the Grand Menagerie, which is a lot easier when you got an entire army that can tame animals. Beastmen upgraded into horsemen means you can get best cavalry in the game, if you luck out on totems. The Dovellio world spell have taken on an entirely different character.

Personally I feel that you managed to balance things very well. The yurts, quarries and farms new spawning ability is really neat bonus, and allows you to "gamble" on otherwise poor locations. The AI seems to have grasped the basic idea as well, and seems less timid about settling deserts. Workshops are still better then Lumbermills though. Perhaps Lumbermills could upgrade along the "nature path" instead together with foresters? That way the fully upgraded workshop and lumbermill give the same bonus but represent two different strategies. Or perhaps a new resource harvestable by lumbermills that improve ships?

For some odd reason the usually feeble Sidar evolved into my main nemesis. Had it not been for that nigh unstoppable hunter literally holding the fort between our empires I would probably not have won. He died before reinforcements arrived though. Also had a truly epic naval battle involving five stacks of twelve Triremes.

Only two oddities popped up. First is that you can build a yurt on a forested tundra, but not on a nonforested tundra. Seems too peculiar to have been intended.

Secondly the Polar Bear totem seems weird. A unit with that totem can't be upgraded and can't be cured of disease or plague. No big deal, just a bit confusing.

Just to be sure. There's no sea serpent or turtle totems available right? I was so close to reaching a few captured units with a waterwalking ranger, but the damn sidar navy wiped them out.

Edit: Come to think of it. No civilization had Duskwood. Might just have been bad luck but on a large map and an epic game that's pretty unlikely. Also I can now confirm that TumTum and the three legendary beasts are very much alive and kicking. Was a hairs breath away from capturing Gurid but he got stomped by massed Hippus cavalry.

 

[Alzara]

That is the point. Yurts reaquire base yeld of 1 hammer, so only desert hills for any civ that is not malakim (well, scrub counts too).
Yurts are intended as no-freshwater plains improvement, especially before you can irigate them. I recently toned them down, so if you think yurts & goums are too weak now, then let me know.


LOL, great bear story. By the way, Orbi has double animal option checked in by default, so that may may have something to do with the numbers...
Also, bear turned to bear (dire-bear?) is stronger than bear not turned into bear (in human form?). By the way, last time I checked changing to bear required channeling 2, so maybe you turned your bear into wolf? (but as I did not expect this combo, the graphics stays bearish...) Or you happen to have channeling 2 bear?

Commanders are immobile. They have movement point already to let them bombard enemies, but are set to domain immobile, so no amount of movement points will let them move.

After some Ice playing today I started updating Orbi to 0.4. It goes quite well, so I hope to finish it soon, test a bit, and still release before the weekend/christmas.
I am not sure if the scenarios will be playable, but hope so/will try to make them.

I think yurts could do with a minor boost, otherwise nothing makes you keep them once you can irrigate all tiles. Just doesn't feel right that even the hippus would start replacing all of their yurts with farms. Maybe they should get another commerce, food or production from another tech? The wheel maybe? Or something?

Just thinking aloud

Al

 

[Gilg]

Tried to delete my ramblings but..... pfehh...... not very successfully.

 

[Gilg]

Played RoK today and noticed that arete hasn't been updated to quarries. +1 food on mines is nice , but with the number of mines nerfed...?

 

[Caradoc]

Been playing some .40 lately (like everyone I suppose) and I must say that after Orbi it feels a bit sparse. Some nice new things, but I miss the added features. So... let me be the first to ask the obvious question: when will will have Orbis 16 for FFH2?

 

[Ahwaric]

Personally I feel that you managed to balance things very well. The yurts, quarries and farms new spawning ability is really neat bonus, and allows you to "gamble" on otherwise poor locations.

Thanks! The resource discovery are intended as a replacement of prospecting and breeding, which I will probably remove soon. Now it is the last time to vote against this change

Workshops are still better then Lumbermills though. Perhaps Lumbermills could upgrade along the "nature path" instead together with foresters? That way the fully upgraded workshop and lumbermill give the same bonus but represent two different strategies.

They have the same base (with all techs) bonus, and lumbermills have +1 hammer and health bonus from forest. I can't see why do you think they workshops are better. But I will check if the bonuses can come from different techs.

Or perhaps a new resource harvestable by lumbermills that improve ships?

An idea I like

Only two oddities popped up. First is that you can build a yurt on a forested tundra, but not on a nonforested tundra. Seems too peculiar to have been intended.

Yurts require 1 hammer base yeld. So, only doviello can build them on flat, featureless tundra. Forest adds hammer as are hills so other civs can yurt them too, but I think that there are better things that you can build there, so I am not so much concerned with it. And yurts on tundra are simply great compared to nothing you can normally build.

Secondly the Polar Bear totem seems weird. A unit with that totem can't be upgraded and can't be cured of disease or plague. No big deal, just a bit confusing.

Strange, works fine for me...
And no, no water animals can be used as totems. Maybe later...
Duskwood works fine, saved me recently

I think yurts could do with a minor boost, otherwise nothing makes you keep them once you can irrigate all tiles. Just doesn't feel right that even the hippus would start replacing all of their yurts with farms.

Yurts are quite weak, but upgrade to goums and goum is +1 food and +2 commerce with just mounted techs line, plus 1 hammer if hippus. I think it is still better than +2 food +1 commerce that you can get from farms. Non-hippus civs may want to farm the area when they can, but that is quite expected.

Played RoK today and noticed that arete hasn't been updated to quarries. +1 food on mines is nice , but with the number of mines nerfed...?

I am not sure I want to add it, arete is really good even with food output from mines only.

 

[Ahwaric]

I have decided to post it separately...

Been playing some .40 lately (like everyone I suppose) and I must say that after Orbi it feels a bit sparse. Some nice new things, but I miss the added features. So... let me be the first to ask the obvious question: when will will have Orbis 16 for FFH2?

There will never be Orbi 0.16... I decided to make it 0.20
I have good news. I have already updated the code and played a bit, so it will not take that long.
Currently I think what to do with some changes. For now, hippodrome & weaponsmith (together with Carminus aureus) will be in Orbi, same applies to machinists shop. Bear totem will probably be gone, and I plan to move rage to feral bond requirement. Gallows may end as bannor specific building. Too much flavor in it...
I have not yet decided what to do with civics, in new version there are way too many in the values category, old compassion category was really dull on the other hand. So, I think what to do with it. Maybe move religion - specific options to a separate category?

I also do some promotion changes - improve drill (defensive strike is not that impresive), some ranged combat related ones. Also, dimensional mana and spell sphere will be in.

Last thing I am working on is scenario compatibility. Against the wall works fine, I had a wonderfull turtle-game yesterday. Some scenarios need minor tweaks, I will try to accomodate them. But all should be playable.
The great thing is, bonuses & features are regenerated on game start, so I have ended with olives & some swamps near my capitol. Same applies to other scenarios.

As you can see, some work to do... But I will post it on sunday, hopefully on saturday. I hope some FfH patches will be out first, too.
I spent christmas in a place with slow connection, so I will be able to post a patch at most - I have to finish base 020 before then