"Terra Fantasia" Mod Development Thread

OZY... All sounds Good.

The AI does Very Much like Units with more Moves and will Upgrade to get them.

As for the Elephant Units having more Attack Strength than Defense... that of course seems correct but keep in mind that it is the Defense and Hit Points that make the Difference in a Units Strength.
IF you want the Elephants to be Stronger, at least set more hit Points for them if not more Defense.

What I have seen regarding Attack and Defense is Attack strength (other than Bombardment) does Not have the Desired Effect and basically acts much like Zone of Control in that Zone of Control only injures a Unit 1 health point Regardless of Small or Large Attack Settings. Defense and especially Hit Points make a Unit much more powerful. An Elephant with a setting 5/10/ is much stronger than a 10/5 setting and will Kill or do more damage. A setting of 5/5 with 5 Hit Points would be be Far more Deadly yet.
 
  1. OZY... All sounds Good.
:worship:
The AI does Very Much like Units with more Moves and will Upgrade to get them.

As for the Elephant Units having more Attack Strength than Defense... that of course seems correct but keep in mind that it is the Defense and Hit Points that make the Difference in a Units Strength.
IF you want the Elephants to be Stronger, at least set more hit Points for them if not more Defense.

What I have seen regarding Attack and Defense is Attack strength (other than Bombardment) does Not have the Desired Effect and basically acts much like Zone of Control in that Zone of Control only injures a Unit 1 health point Regardless of Small or Large Attack Settings. Defense and especially Hit Points make a Unit much more powerful. An Elephant with a setting 5/10/ is much stronger than a 10/5 setting and will Kill or do more damage. A setting of 5/5 with 5 Hit Points would be be Far more Deadly yet.

Hey Amigo - Just thinking about your post before this one (and the trains of thought it engendered) and now this one, some thoughts have come to mind:
  1. Elephants were nearly as likely to get spooked and turn on their own side's troops, trampling them. I'm all but certain that your aware that South and Southeast Asian mahouts who carried hammers and spears to drive through their mounts' brains should this happen.
  2. The game's engine - no matter how the unit is flagged (A/D) - will choose which units it chooses for which role, so a high DF elephant might simply be used for garrisons.
  3. Terra Fantasia wraps the late Stone Age, Bronze & Iron Ages (in short, pretty much everything before gunpowder.)
    • Era 1 troop densities - especially when Elephants start running amok with Bronze - can be engineered to stay on the low side. Given the AF/DF switches back-and-forth which I hope to make work, Elephants through - whatever set of mechanisms I use - will literally trample their enemies.
      • The AI is built to field one best of each A/D unit; Elephants should be the first "overwhelming" unit on the board - then highly disciplined, trained, and equipped Pikemen will be able to more than stand against them - then Iron Age Elephants will regain the upper hand, until Something Yet TBD will once again turn them back (perhaps gunpowder armed infantry ...
      • ... Then come gunpowder armed Elephants ...
      • ... Rinse; repeat.
Your mention of HP also set my mind going re: Retreat abilities (which are, sadly, game-wide, unless some has @Quintillus has worked some way of setting this on a unit-be-unit basis. That being said, my thoughts about this - and throughout the game - have "evolved." Something along the lines of Conscript ad Regular troops having a 0% chance of Retreat, then perhaps 20% at Veteran and 50% at elite.

Also, re: my comments about "C3" above, it occurs to me that a loooong wait for "Battlefield Medicine" might also work well, giving time for an opponent to develop, and deploy a significant numbers of, appropriating escalating/counter-escalating measures/counter-measures.

Lastly (for now :) ) thank you for the info on the AI upgrading to (simply) higher MF units.

I already knew that I'd have a lot of play testing to get this down. I'll also be building "sandbox" .biqs for various test - e.g., I'm surprised that no one has (to the best of my knowledge) followed up on tom2050's major discoveries about Charm - I'm hoping to make City Walls stronger, as well as giving them a Charm Barrier factor, alongside "Charm siege units," which will be up gradable to Whatever I Can Dream Up. :hmm:
 
Is there an existing Elephant Unit that is animated to Trample enemies for the Attack?

The ability to have different settings for Units that can Retreat or being able to remove that ability would be beneficial.

Given the Function of Charm, the Main appeal seems to be Bombardment of a Stack, injuring all units.
Normal Lethal Land or Sea Bombardment settings will Kill any Unit anyway.

I have not experimented with Charm and tend to shy away from "other" possible Game Settings due to unforeseen/undesirable results. Granted, there are some worth using... simply using the general settings in the Editor provides straight foreword results even when we have to "think out of the box" to gain the results wanted.
As always, Game Testing is necessary.

Other than City Size adjustments, I like the adjustable Defensive Bonus settings for Population and Buildings to add more strength.

City Walls can be set to provide an Auto-produced Unit to add more Unit Strength and the City Walls can be made to be separate for the CIV Types with different names for the Walls. In EFZI2, The Zombies have "Pile Up" (Dead Bodies) as City Walls and it auto-produces a Zombie every 7 turns. Many Improvements can be changed to gain and show what you desire. Rather than City Walls, you could rename the improvement and change the Graphics to have other strengthening structures shown in Game. Each CIV Type could have different structures with different names and Graphics that provide different strengthening capabilities for a City. Each is added as a separate improvement then flagged for the differences in the Editor.

There are indeed a Plethora of possible game changes that can be made and provide Great differences... just requires time and testing, adding to the already very time consuming development of a Game. Like Clint Eastwood would say " Do you feel lucky". In the end, it is Time that is most needed especially when working alone.
 
Is there an existing Elephant Unit that is animated to Trample enemies for the Attack?
I have no idea - there are now dozens of different elephant units, when, once upon a time ( :old: ) there were Very Few.

The ability to have different settings for Units that can Retreat or being able to remove that ability would be beneficial.

I know - it's a "global setting" in the game.

That being said, I'm planning on significantly increased unit speeds per the Techs I cite above, and I (beginning with elephants) I don't want too much "hitting and running." Given the time frame of each turn, I wish the MF to represent "realistic" abilities to deply and engage - and, on that scale, the notion of being readily able to disengage is relatively unrealistic. So my thoughts on the ability for a any unit with a MF >1 to retreat is:
  • Conscript: 0%
  • Regular: 0%
  • Veteran: 10%
  • Elite: 20%
Given the Function of Charm, the Main appeal seems to be Bombardment of a Stack, injuring all units.

I'm planning on setting up a "sand box" to test this. Frankly, given tom2050's reports of unqualified successed, I'm surprised that no one has done this yet.

Other than City Size adjustments, I like the adjustable Defensive Bonus settings for Population and Buildings to add more strength.

Any recommendations? (Bonuses viz. Unit AFs.)

City Walls can be set to provide an Auto-produced Unit to add more Unit Strength and the City Walls can be made to be separate for the CIV Types with different names for the Walls.

I'm giving much thought to how to best use auto-produced units - and what Improvements they would sensibly be generated by - and different City Walls would have never come to mind. :worship:

-:Dz
 
Ozy... The Population and Buildings Defensive bonus is accumulative so a setting of 20 for both works well. Of course you can change the settings to suit what you want. The Normal Game uses a setting of 16.

Keep in mind that most Improvements can be changed to suit what you want. Just a matter of renaming and changing Graphics and Flags. This is the same as making a New Improvement only we can use existing Improvements such as City Walls that are set up to show on the Map and change the Graphics to show different Walls for the CIV Types or change them to something totally different such as a Tower or what ever will fit Graphically with the City. I use different "Building Walls" for each Faction in EFZI. Hay Bales for the Farmers, Sand Bags for the Company, Barbed Wire for the Authorities, Furniture for the Survivors and Dead Bodies for the Zombies. I also changed the Fortress and Barricade with different Graphics...Furniture and Tires.

Other Graphics additions can be added for "Eye Candy" to be seen on the Map that can provide Food, Shields, Commerce and add a nice addition to the Map Graphics.
I use Billboards that make statements and also have a "Fidget" that state something more. They are on Impassible Terrain so no one, including the AI can bother them. They have no attack or Defense and do not show any Health Bar. I also use Waterfalls as a Resource and animated Unit on the Map for an additional Graphics appeal. The Unit can be captured and is not on Impassible Terrain. The Resource matches the Unit animation so when viewing the Resource the image is a still shot of the Resource that matches the Unit.

Years ago there were what was called "City Units" and I made a few that could be added as an addition. These "Units" are pre-placed on the Map and they appear as a Town. The Default Animation is the Town and the Attack and Death are a Unit that appears out of the town same as a Normal Town to Defend it. When the Unit is Killed, the Unit shows its death then the Town disintegrates, This can be used to provide Resources placed Under the "Town" that can only be obtained by defeating the Town. Just something else that can be used as a Game Play "Tool". This same technique can also be used with other Graphics such as a Fort, Cave, Tree or anything wanted. A Unit animation is added to defend it that pops up when it is attacked and when the Unit is Killed the Graphic disintegrates and reveals the underlying Map and access to any Resource of Goody you place there. You can use your imagination, think "out of the box" and add what ever suits you and your Game.

You can have Any Object rather than a typical Unit as a Unit on the Map. Immobile and set to Defend and have a Death animation where it falls apart, disintegrates, etc... and reveals the Map.

Like any Modding endeavor, you can change or add many New Things to have a Unique Game. It is all for Fun and to express yourself to have your Game depict what you want and appear as Unique as you are.
 
Ozy... The "City Units" can be made from any City Set and Unit. The Main thing to keep in mind is the City and Unit Colors as Both will use the same Palette.
When Made, each Unit can be placed on the Map where wanted.
 
@Ozymandias
We've talked a few times privately - latest time being today - about me getting around to actually making some splashes for the mod. Even though i lost all the art files, if you can let me know which one(s) in the thread you want me to do, I can probably track down the sources images again without too much trouble, and do some work as i am able.
 
Went with the older name. I just like Terra Fantasia - taking "fantasia" in the musical sense of the term. anyway, here's some visual encouragement. Still trying out ideas. got some completely different images to experiment with.

Ovquah.png
Top Center :)
 
Top Center :)
THANKS @Ozymandias . Your project, your choice. Glad you chose that one in a way. Will be easiest image to track down again. I know where I go to regularly whenever I need maps of early epochs.
 
Still looking for a good overall geophysical map of Eemian world to work from. Meanwhile found some interesting interesting items:

Seems it's not enough to take a modern map and adjust for higher sea levels that would've existed at height of Eemian interglacial. There's the consideration of the weight of glaciers that land had not quite rebounded from yet. So, for example, Scandinavia was a large island separated from mainland Europe.

1673843371230.png


1673843410959.png


Found a map (computer model) of probable vegetation based on known fossils and paleoclimatology. No key in the article unfortunately.

1673843471301.png


Speaking of climate - here's a map of Eemian era Köppen climate classification. It did not have a key, but it seems there is a standard set of colors used for most Köppen climate classification maps, so I can use this as a basis for assigning terrains.

1673843518962.png
 

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Oh dear! :eek2: My bad ... The original map I drew up donkey's years ago is the one I'm already working with, with the exception that I'll be eliminating everything north of the Arctic Circle, thereby "expanding" the room on the map available for the Caribe, Med, and Europe (with an exception made to show the Scandinavian Island) My apologies!! This is my third "charge up the hill" for this mod ...

Here are screenshots of the Green Sahara (the world was warmer and wetter then, not only with higher sea levels, but long-lost features like Lake Chad) North America (with a mistake in place which I'm correcting: the Great Lakes were not "unified") and Scandinavia:

TF GREEN AFRICA.jpg


TF NORTH AMERICA (1).jpg



TF SCANDINAVIA.jpg
 
Current attempt at a title screen. You can see that I've changed the composition a bit and added a bit of starfield to relieve the monotonous black background.
@Ozymandias if you prefer I go back to the original composition, that's fine. It's been so long since I did pixel by pixel work I forgot how taxing it is. There are a lot of little things I'd do to clean the image up given time & energy, but at least it's usable for now.

preview is jpeg. pcx file attached.


TERRA FANTASIA TITLE SCREEN.jpeg
 

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Blue Monkey... Although I appreciate what you did , I think it important to present the Terra Fantasia world as dominant Graphically rather then the name.

It Graphically Depicts too much importance of the name rather than nthe World.

... I just feel that Terra Fantisia needs more "elightenment" through Graphics to express and depict it as it is meant to be.

ONLY the author of Terraa Fantasia ( Ozy) would be able to explain/depict the essence of Terra Fantisia to allow the over all understanding and depiction he desires.

BTW... Great to see you ad I hope you are fairing well.
 
I LOVE it! :xmascheers:
@Ozymandias :

As the commissioner of the work, I'm glad it passes muster. As i posted any refinements you wish to see I'm happy to do as I am able. Perhaps at that level of detail any back and forth needed is better handled via private communication.

Lacking a current installation, the one thing I could not do was double-check the pcx in-game. I'm better than 95% certain that the colormap is correct, Meaning there should be no wayward black, pink, green or transparent pixels anywhere in the image. If that is not the case, @Ozymandias , let me know. It's a simple fix that doesn't require much time, energy or effort.
 
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