Orbis - the original thread

[Caradoc]

The 3 movement on the Sea Serpent means that it can attack you out of the dark. Yikes.

The only way I travel anymore is with a Fawn who can Mesmerize Animals. (Fortunately the Sea Serpent and War Turtle did not get promoted to Beasts.) Once you catch a Sea Serpent, it will handle the surprise attacks. And when it loses, you just Mesmerize the newcomer. Before long, you have a nice escort.

 

[KingArthur666]

Yeah, those sea serpents move way too fast. At least they don't get stronger like they do in FF. The BlackWind is the only ship that can safely travel the oceans in FF anymore. Even then you have to be very careful.

 

[Seon]

I hope I am not pushing anything, but when do you think the next Orbi is going to be released?

 

[Wauthan]

I hope I am not pushing anything, but when do you think the next Orbi is going to be released?

Hehe, well I have to agree that Orbi 0.21 show all the signs of truly becoming teh Awesome. Ahwaric already posted that he hopes to have it wrapped up this weekend. I'm amazed by his productivity. He's matching the work of the FFH team almost as fast as they can post it.

 

[Alzara]

I know this has been mentioned earlier, but about the Orbis music:

I was listening to it the other night when I realised it's from The Mist!!!! Right at the end

However, whenever I load up the Orbis screen now, the music sounds quite depressing (watch the film )

Anyone else think that the Orbis music could do with a little *umph*?

Al

 

[arkham4269]

However, whenever I load up the Orbis screen now, the music sounds quite depressing (watch the film )

Anyone else think that the Orbis music could do with a little *umph*?

Al

Actually I believe the music you hear at the start up (from the band Dead Can Dance, song The Host of Seraphim) was first used in the movie Baraka during the part that showed human suffering throughout the world.

Baraka is an interesting movie because out-takes from the film were used for many of the Wonder movies in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Also, in the scene in Matrix Reloaded, when Neo confronts the Architect, you see a lot of out-takes from Baraka on the TV screens during the part when the Architect is talking about Humanity in general.

Personally, since most music is keyed in FfH to your religion, I wish the agnostic Civ's could get their own music. I'm tired of hearing "CIV standard" music while playing them.

 

[Seon]

Hehe, well I have to agree that Orbi 0.21 show all the signs of truly becoming teh Awesome. Ahwaric already posted that he hopes to have it wrapped up this weekend. I'm amazed by his productivity. He's matching the work of the FFH team almost as fast as they can post it.

he did? Wow, that was sooner than I ever expected!

 

[Seon]

Eerie Silence.....

P.S sorry for double posting

 

[Methuselah]

Eerie Silence.....

P.S sorry for double posting

It's not the weekend yet.

 

[Seon]

It's not the weekend yet.

I know, but this thread usually blazes off a post every few hours and it is pretty strange that no one said anything in 24 hour period.

 

[Methuselah]

I know, but this thread usually blazes off a post every few hours and it is pretty strange that no one said anything in 24 hour period.

It was a day off for the thread?

 

[Seon]

The thread is still on vacation, I see

 

[Methuselah]

The thread is still on vacation, I see

Yeah, it's having fun in Spain last time I heard.

 

[Dzhel]

Believe me, I am thrilled for the new version. Patiently (and quietly) waiting.

But that does remind me, man it's been way too long since I've had a vacation.

 

[Seon]

yeah.... I better get quiet now...

 

[sputnik323]

This forum has been quiet lately.... guess everyone is patiently waiting for .21
There were some ideas in the forum I would like to relate. There was a suggestion for a new water tile, the delta. Basically if its a river + coast then there would be an extra X, X, and X trade route bonus. I think it adds more flavor to water tiles.

The other idea I found was to allow cultists to cast kelp on water tiles. Cultists seem to need an extra bonus since their abilities seem restricted to water/coast.

An idea that I'm not stealing from others is a new water monster, the giant spikefish, or shark or something. A much weaker unit than turtles and sea monsters that appear early in the game and would be an animal instead of a beast. That way the seas aren't so deadly early in the game (because there would be no turtles and sea-monsters) and there still is a chance of danger. Plus you can upgrade sea units from the start of the game.
One last thought... if you did choose to add in Master Smith, ect. and the FF promotions, the FF team made them a more common result from searching lairs (for example a lair result is the mastercrafted weapons promotion). I think that is a great idea. Lairs with more diversity is always better.

 

[Alzara]

Delta? Oooh that sounds good

 

[arkham4269]

There were some ideas in the forum I would like to relate. There was a suggestion for a new water tile, the delta. Basically if its a river + coast then there would be an extra X, X, and X trade route bonus. I think it adds more flavor to water tiles.

I've always pushed for the addition of the "River Port" which is a building they have in the Rise of Mankind Mod. Considering historically how big some inland ports are (St. Louis comes to mind) this would be a nice thing to have, especially for those who like to play the Erebus map that has long rivers.

An idea that I'm not stealing from others is a new water monster, the giant spikefish, or shark or something. A much weaker unit than turtles and sea monsters that appear early in the game and would be an animal instead of a beast. That way the seas aren't so deadly early in the game (because there would be no turtles and sea-monsters) and there still is a chance of danger. Plus you can upgrade sea units from the start of the game.

I totally agree! The early sea critters are far to nasty. Plus, unlike the land, there is always lots of Fog of War so sea creatures will spawn the entire game so having them get nastier makes sense.

Plus, two comments about Cultists or maybe Luann.

First, one of my favorite units from the old Civ III Rise & Rule Mod (predecessor to the Civ IV Rise of Mankind Mod) was the Polynesians had a out-rigger unit really early. It could go anywhere, coast, sea, ocean but if it ended it's turn in a sea or ocean tile, it had a chance to sink. It could hold one unit but it could be of any type. It was a great unit for finding and colonizing islands before anyone else could. I think it would be a good unit for Luann and maybe for followers of the OO.

Secondly, about Cultists casting Kelp. I think ships should be able to get some sort of animal capture ability and then if a shark or giant turtle is capture, you could cause it to create some sort of marine resource sort of like how capture animals can be made to create new lairs.

I'd also like to reiterate my long held belief that when a ship is attacked by a pirate (or a pirate is attacked) that there is a chance a 'prize ship' is created. These ships wouldn't be very good ships, but when brought back to port, would act as 'super slaves' in the way of hammers when sold.

 

[Seon]

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)

 

[Ahwaric]

I am really sorry for both the silence and the delay.
Tarqueline did a great job and Scions are really well developed so importing and adjusting them takes much more time that I expected. I just hope you will like the effect.
The good news is, I am almost done with the code work, mostly some loose ands to tie now. I still want to change some art, so please give me a 2 or 3 more days. I hate to release only half finished work

Some of the changes I did to scions:

• new units: triari (pikeman) and hastati (axeman). Honored band replaces spearman
• velite is archer replacement, scions get normal scout. No abomination for now, bone horde explodes on lost combat
• no corpus magic, use normal body (need to check if haste works on undead, I want it to) - i rework scions disciples, and some corpus spells will be used by them (though many are changed)
• units and buildings in general replace normal ones (i.e. emperor's dagger replaces shadow, no CoE religion, but still can cast mask)
• hounting lands mechanics is not in for now, I need to import some dll code first and have problem with this part. Same applies to creepers. Also, some changes to both.
• changed graphics

Regarding recent proposals:

• CoE promotions are great and I want them in, but need above mentioned dll for it. So later.
• delta is a nice idea, but rivers operate outside plot system and coast plots are not at the side of rivers. So far no idea how to make code recognize such plots
• sea spawn rate hopefully fixed (FF fix), but new sea monster is a nice idea. if only there is an existing graphics... I also want kelp to be castable/plantable, but not sure if OO needs another sea synergy (and it is a food bonus, not something I associate with OO) -maybe sea versionb of FoL? Or lanun special? Or just sacrifice/long delay spell for workboat
• I quite like the music. If you have better idea, I am open to proposals. Just not that much time to look for it.
• Music for agnostic civs - some additional music can be added for later eras (medieval especially). Civ-specific music is hard to do as it is controled by eras (so one extra era per civ just to get more music diversity?)