Rumours (Passive Intrigue) Mod - Need some help.

[Jabie]

I'm afraid my connection has an upload speed which is slower than slugs in slurry, so I can't upload this mod, but I thought I'd share my notes, in case anyone else is interested. As this is my first attempt at serious modding, I've also hit a number of snags, so would appreciate it if anyone could help me fix them.

 

[Jabie]

Fall From Heaven 2 – Rumours (Passive Intrigue) Mod – A Proposal

Compatability notes: Works with FfH 32 and/or FF 41. Does not work with FfH 33 yet

0. Introduction

These notes explain how to add rumours (Passive Espionage) to the game of Fall From Heaven. Whilst espionage is represented in Fall From Heaven in many forms (Council of Esus, Assassins, Hawks, Pact of the Nilhorn, Privateers, Veil of Night to name but a few) passive espionage is not covered.

These notes cover the implementation of the BtS Espionage system to represent the acquisition of rumours (passive espionage) that allows a player to build up a more accurate impression of another civilization from the rumours that circulate in their empire. Because we are piggybacking wholesale off the current Espionage system, the hope is that this should be a relatively simple adjustment.

 

[Jabie]

1. Flavour

To maintain the fantasy flavour Espionage (Points) will be referred to as Intrigue (Points). Spy Specialists are known as Rogues. Because we are only implementing Passive Espionage, these missions are known as Rumours, reflecting the fact that they represent the build up of information about another civilisation over a period of time

 

[Jabie]

2. How to turn on Rumours

2.1 Firstly, go into XML\GameInfo\CIV4GameOptionInfos for your mod. Find the GAMEOPTION_NO_ESPIONAGE entry and change the following options:

<bDefault>0</bDefault>
<bVisible>0</bVisible>

NB. Version 33 of FfH requires an SDK hack too. See post #16 below

2.2 ISSUE: Beyond the Sword Patch 3.17 allows users to turn off Espionage. The <bVisible> flag affects the visibility of this option in the options list. Ordinarily this would be a great option; players who wanted games without Espionage could turn it off, whereas those who wanted a game with Espionage, could use it. Everyone gets to play the game the way they want to play it.

Unfortunately the No Espionage option turns all Espionage Points into Culture. As a consequence, until a true No Espionage mode is offered, we can&#8217;t offer a No Espionage option, which means that if you include these changes into a mod, players must accept the changes, rather than make their own decision on how they would like to play the game.

2.3 Go to your XML\GameInfo mod folder and backup the CIV4EspionageMissionsInfo.XML.

2.4 Locate the CIV4EspionageMissionsInfo.XML within C:\..\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\GameInfo and copy it into the GameInfo directory for the FfH2 mod.

The active missions will not be being used, but the four IsPassive missions are in use, so you may want to change their costs using the < iCost> flag. Initially, I recommend multiplying their costs by five, as there are fewer outlets for spending espionage points, however as you cannot focus your Intrigue Points, this is overkill and something in the region of 100-200% is probably more fitting. The affected missions are:

&#8226; ESPIONAGE_CAN_SEE_DEMOGRAPHICS
&#8226; ESPIONAGEMISSION_CITY_VISIBILITY
&#8226; ESPIONAGEMISSION_INVESTIGATE_CITY
&#8226; ESPIONAGEMISSION_SEE_RESEARCH

2.5 Optionally, you may want to get rid of the remaining missions, or you may want to leave them in case you wish to expand the mod. If so, copy the entire file except the following missions

ESPIONAGEMISSION_DESTROY_PROJECT
ESPIONAGEMISSION_CITY_UNHAPPINESS
ESPIONAGEMISSION_CITY_REVOLT
ESPIONAGEMISSION_SWITCH_CIVIC
ESPIONAGEMISSION_SWITCH_RELIGION

Destroy Project affects Spaceship Projects, so it doesn't really apply. With the importance placed on religions, the ability to switch the AI religion is ridiculously overpowered in FfH and therefore shouldn't be used. Civics control Undercouncil and Overcouncil membership so likewise remain the preserve of the AI or player.

The remaining missions may require prerequisite techs. You can control what prerequisite technologies are required with the <TechPrereq> flag. I recommend the following prerequisites for the following missions:

Destroy Improvement: TECH_WARFARE
Destroy Building: TECH_ENGINEERING
Steal Treasury: TECH_TRADE
Destroy Production: None
Insert Culture: TECH_DRAMA
Posion waters: TECH_POISONS
Buy Tech: TECH_WRITING
Counter Espionage: None

 

[Jabie]

3. The Assignment of Intrigue Points

3.0 In an ordinary game of Civ:BtS Intrigue Points can be assigned from the F9 screen, the Espionage Slider, Specialist Assignment, Events, Buildings, Wonders and Civics. In Fall From Heaven, the F9 screen is disabled.

3.1 Buildings

3.1.1 You can locate the XML which concerns itself with buildings and wonders under XML\Buildings\CIV4BuildingInfos. Backup this file first before continuing.

3.1.2 Find the buildings you want to replace and replace the ObsoleteSafeCommerceChanges, such that:

<ObsoleteSafeCommerceChanges>
<iCommerce>0</iCommerce>
<iCommerce>0</iCommerce>
<iCommerce>0</iCommerce>
<iCommerce>XXX</iCommerce>
</ObsoleteSafeCommerceChanges>

...where XXX is the value you wish to assign for the Intrigue Points per turn generated by this building. Obviously, the zero values should be ignored if the building already had values in those positions. For reference, the order is Commerce, Science, Culture, Espionage.

3.1.3 I recommend that the following values be assigned to Buildings:

Asylum 1
Dungeon 1
Governor&#8217;s Manor 1
Courthouse 1
Inn 2
Tavern 2
Grigori Tavern 2
Temple of the Overlords 1
Palace 3 or more

3.1.4 A note about palaces: In the original game, palaces were worth 4 EPs. Initially I suggested setting this value to 1, however I found this value to be too low, epsecially as when a new Civilization was met it was not possible for the points to be divided (See section 7 below). The result was that if you played a civilization whihc only received one point the first civilization you met was always deemed worthy of your points, whereas subsequent civilizations received no attention.

I suggest that the standard level for palace Espionage be set to 4. However this now allows to some civilizations to extra sneaky (bonus points) whereas other ones can be extra naive/honest (fewer points) Here are my suggestions for palaces which should receive the standard 4 points.

Belseraphs (5)
Calabim (5)
Infernal (10)
Mercurian (10)
Lanun (5)
Sidar (5)
Svartalfar (6)
(Archos (5)) &#8211; Fall Further only
Elohim (3)
All other Civs (4)

The Infernal and Mercurian receive more points per turn to compensate for their late entry into the game. In flavour terms this can be justified as watchful eyes from Heaven and Hell monitoring the situation on Erebus.

3.1.4 Save the file, check that it is working by loading up a game and checking the Civilopedia entries.

 

[Jabie]

3.2 Wonders

3.2.1 Presuming that everything is OK, the Wonders also need to be changed. They can be found in the CIV4BuildingInfos XML file. I recommend the Wonders should affect percentages of Intrigue, rather than generating any Intrigue Points themselves. This is reflected with the <CommerceModifiers> Specifically, you need to adapt the Commerce Modifers like this:

<CommerceModifiers>
<iCommerce>0</iCommerce>
<iCommerce>0</iCommerce>
<iCommerce>0</iCommerce>
<iCommerce>XXX</iCommerce>
</CommerceModifiers>

...where XXX is the percentage you wish to apply.

3.2.2 Here are my recommendations for buildings and percentages to modify:

The Necronomicon 10%
Nox Noctis 50%
Tower of Divination 25%
The Eyes and Ears Network 50%
Tower of Eyes 10%
Command Post 20%

 

[Jabie]

4. Turning on the Intrigue Slider

***VERSION 33 AND ABOVE***

4.1 In version 33, the Espionage Slider has been disabled, even if the edits made elsewhere are applied. At this juncture, I have not been able to determine whether this is feature has merely been disabled as a result of the new interface or is fully disabled. In the event of the former this would allow the AI the capacity to (mis)use a facility not available to the player which may result in odd behaviour. In this light it may be better to skip this change for versions 33 and above.

***VERSION 32 AND BELOW***

4.2.1 The Intrigue Slider allows a player to assign some of their budget towards Intrigue. It can be found in the GameInfo\CIV4CommerceInfo XML file. I recommend that you make the following changes:

<Type>COMMERCE_ESPIONAGE</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_ESPIONAGE_CULTURE</Description>
<iInitialPercent>0</iInitialPercent>
<iInitialHappiness>0</iInitialHappiness>
<iAIWeightPercent>25</iAIWeightPercent>
<bFlexiblePercent>1</bFlexiblePercent>

The Espionage Slider will now appear when a new Civilization is met.

If you have researched Drama, you can change the Culture Rating. Unfortunately this now means that you cannot clearly read the sliders easily as the mana symbols are in the way, though it doesn't actually alter the gameplay.

 

[Jabie]

5. Civics

5.1 Civics should have some effect on Espionage. This is accomplished under the GameInfo\CIV4CivicsInfo XML file.

Once more we need to upgrade the <Commerce Modifiers> just as we had to in step 3.2.1, so that they look like this:

<CommerceModifiers>
<iCommerce>0</iCommerce>
<iCommerce>0</iCommerce>
<iCommerce>0</iCommerce>
<iCommerce>XXX</iCommerce>
<CommerceModifiers>

5.2 My recommendations for modifiers are as follows:

&#8226; Nationhood 10%
&#8226; Liberty -10%
&#8226; Military State 10%
&#8226; Overcouncil 15%
&#8226; Undercouncil 15%

 

[Jabie]

6. Specialists

6.1 Specialists allow players to use excess citizens to generate science, culture or wealth or, in this case, Intrigue. In keeping with the fantasy milieu Intrigue-generating specialists are known as Rogues.

6.2 You've got a number of options:

OPTION 1. Rogues are old adventurers who pass on their knowledge and experiences to young pups.

My initial plan was that Rogues would generate Adventurers. This had several problems, it didn't seem to work and it devalued the Grigori civilization, so I rethought this idea.

I pictured hoary old rapscallions sitting in some seaside watering-hole describing to the eager young pups how they escaped from the dragon's lair, fought Orthus single-handedly or risked everything for a kiss from the Contessa. In this light, it makes sense to reduce the bonuses granted by Rogues but allow them to pass on some of their experience and generate GPPs towards Great Commanders.

Go to the Gameinfo\CIV4SpecialistInfos.xml file for Beyond the Sword and copy the section marked <Specialist_Spy> Then go to GameInfo\Civ4SpecialistInfos for Fall from Heaven (or a subsidiary mod, such as Fall Further) and back it up. Finally open the Civ4SpecialistInfos XML file and paste in the <Specialist_Spy> extract from earlier.

There are still a few changes to be made. Firstly change the <Commerces> as follows:

<Commerces>
<iCommerce>0</iCommerce>
<iCommerce>0</iCommerce>
<iCommerce>0</iCommerce>
<iCommerce>4</iCommerce>
</Commerces>

Then change the GreatPeopleUnitClass as follows:

<GreatPeopleUnitClass>UNITCLASS_COMMANDER</GreatPeopleUnitClass>

and

<iExperience>1</iExperience>

Having constructed Specialists we now need to edit our buildings. This can be done in the CIV4BuildingInfos file. In this instance we intend to add the following tags to the SpecialistCounts tag.

<SpecialistCounts>
<SpecialistCount>
<SpecialistType>SPECIALIST_SPY</SpecialistType>
<iSpecialistCount>1</iSpecialistCount>
</SpecialistCount>
</SpecialistCounts>

Recommended buildings are as follows:

&#8226; Carnival
&#8226; Grigori Tavern
&#8226; Inn
&#8226; Lanun Harbour (2)
&#8226; Smugglers Port
&#8226; Tavern
&#8226; Gambling House
&#8226; City of a Thousand Slums
&#8226; Eyes and Ears Network (3)
&#8226; Lanun Palace
&#8226; Grigori Palace

OPTION 2. With sufficient Rogues, you can generate Spies.

Swashbucklers which grant +1XP are pretty darn powerful, probably too much so. An alternative might for Rogues be to generate (Great) Spies. The downside here is that Spies can't do a great deal apart from Generate Intrigue, so the whole effect becomes somewhat circular and doesn't feed in very well with the rest of the game.

Optionally Spies could use the Espionage Missions to increase their potential. Regardless, Spies would need to be added as a new unit to the game, probably with racial artisitry for Orc/Dwarf/Elf Spies.

OPTION 3. There are no Intrigue Specialists.

A third option is for all Specialists to generate 1 Intrigue Point. Bards know plenty of tales from foreign lands, Merchants have dealings with all sorts of individuals, Sages read secret histories in musty old books of lore, Priests receive visions from the Gods and as for Engineers... well can you say Freemasons?

The immediate advantage of this option is that the AI doesn't have to understand the mechanics of Intrigue to take advantage of it. If the AI is running specialists, it's generating Intrigue Points, plain and simple.

6.3 And the winner is... I like the third option personally, as it's the easiest to implement.

 

[Jabie]

7. The F9 Screen

7.1 The Espionage Screen has been disabled in FfH 2032 and above has been replaced with a Coming Soon / Scenarios screen. Although we can&#8217;t focus our espionage any more, we can justify this by stating as rumours of a fantasy world, we have no control on which rumours reach our ears, merely that we keep ourselves open to the rumours will reach our ears.

 

[Jabie]

8. Extensions

8.1 These steps cover possible ideas for extensions. I have not performed these tasks yet.

8.1 Events

8.1.1 The following events could fit in with the Rumours system.

&#8226; Fugitive
&#8226; Looters

8.1.2 ISSUE: Although it is not currently possible to use a No Espionage game with this mod, if this problem is solved, adding new events could cause further problems. It is a known bug that events which produce espionage still produce espionage in &#8220;no espionage games&#8221;, potentially allowing a lucky recipient to gain access to all the rumours with the unfortunate victim being able to do absolutely nothing in defence.

8.2 Building Intrigue

8.2.1 Add the following text to your GameInfo\CIV4ProcessInfos file just after the </ProcessInfo> flag for Culture. In flavour terms think of this as holding courtly balls or paying snitches.

<ProcessInfo>
<Type>PROCESS_ESPIONAGE</Type>
<Description>TXT_KEY_PROCESS_ESPIONAGE</Description>
<Strategy>TXT_KEY_PROCESS_ESPIONAGE_STRATEGY</Strategy>
<TechPrereq>TECH_DECEPTION</TechPrereq>
<ProductionToCommerceModifiers>
<iProductionToCommerceModifier>0</iProductionToCommerceModifier>
<iProductionToCommerceModifier>0</iProductionToCommerceModifier>
<iProductionToCommerceModifier>0</iProductionToCommerceModifier>
<iProductionToCommerceModifier>50</iProductionToCommerceModifier>
</ProductionToCommerceModifiers>
<Button>,Art/Interface/Buttons/TechTree/Corporation.dds,
Art/Interface/Buttons/Beyond_the_Sword_Atlas.dds,8,16</Button>
</ProcessInfo>

and you will be able to build Intrigue when you have researched the Deception tech. The 50 marks the percentage of hammers which are converted to Intrigue Points.

8.2.2 ISSUE: I have been unable to locate where I need to add the TXT_KEY_PROCESS_ESPIONAGE descriptor. Does anybody have any ideas?

8.3 City Watch

8.3.1 The City Watch could be a National wonder available with the Order tech, lowering corruption and the Crime Rate and providing a bonus to Intrigue. Basically the City watch should be the Fall from Heaven equivalent of Scotland Yard.

The closest equivalent is probably the Command Post. I'll add some further notes at a later juncture.

8.4 {Item Crystal Ball}

8.4.1 Acquired as loot from a dungeon. Grants a bonus to Intrigue in the City in which it is located.

8.5 Additional Passive Missions / Enable Active Missions

8.5.1 One valid criticism is that Passive Espionage alone does not accomplish much. It provides valuable intelligence, which may impel a player to act sooner rather than later (For Example: A neighbour is researching the Ashen Veil), but a player must build lots of Inns and Taverns and/or employ a great many rogues to see its benefits fully realised. Seen in this light would a player be better justified in investing in a large military or founding a substantial tech lead.

One option may be to re-implement some of the Espionage missions and apply them to Assassins (or their counterparts) Poisoning wells, for instance, seems espeically fitting in a fantasy world. The <TechPrereq> could allow it to only be available at the Posions technology.

Continued in posts 25 and 26.

 

[Arctic Circle]

This is cool. And if you make it work as a package I'd hope it get integrated into Fall Further.

 

[arcticnightwolf]

Looks like interesting idea ... I'm missing seeing espionage in FfH...

 

[Uberslacker]

This looks great. If I can get some spare time this weekend, I will try to implement your suggestions and report back.

 

[Jabie]

Just downloaded Version 33 and these options no longer seem to work. My (unconfirmed) suspicion is that the code has been tided up and many of the Espionage exits have been removed for the sake of efficiency. I'm not much of a coder but I'll keep monkeying around and try and find out if these can be re-enabled in Python.

 

[Jabie]

Here's the skinny from the main man himself...

Espionage is turned off in the SDK. Check the ::isOption function in CvGame.cpp for details, its pretty easy to remove the block.

I can't find the .cpp file myself. Anybody know if it is part of the .dll (which I can't get into) or is it found elsewhere?

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

just noticed what your trying to do here, adding espionage to FFH. brilliant idea, once completed this will certainly be awesome

 

[xienwolf]

yes, it is part of the DLL, all .cpp and .h are the DLL files.

 

[Jhoniten]

Kael and Vehem have been pretty good at posting their sdk for download so others can tinker with it. Kael also put up an excellent guide on how to setup your own compiler so you can compile your own sdk

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=166933

 

[Jabie]

Thanks for the heads up.

I'm afraid I took a look at the referenced thread and gibbered in the corner, as my mod went from "a few XML hacks" to "gaaaaahhh". Figuring (by the comments in this thread if nothing else) I might not be the only one interested in having the capacity for Intrigue, I went down the path of (hopefully) least resistance and put in an RFC for the next .dll update. In the intervening time, I'll crack on using FfH 32.