tesbs further flavored civilizations [development thread]

[tesb]

Quote:Originally Posted by tesb
I will also add a spell that lifts the mist, but for that i would need a reversed <CreateBuildingType> ==> <RemoveBuildingType>

If you still want to do this I can add the necessary Python for it.

Sephi i need this tag, not only for the sidar, but also for an upcoming civilization.

I also need a second tag: a localized fallow trait, i.e. a building tag that makes the city ignore food (do not gain or loose citizens based on food). Tarquelne already provided me the python code, but i don't know what is easier for you merging the code or adding the tag. The code is:

Spoiler :

This goes in CvEventManager.py, the "OnCityDoTurn" seciont.

		if pCity.getNumRealBuilding(gc.getInfoTypeForString('BUILDING_ACADEMY')) > 0:	
			iHarvest = pCity.foodDifference(True)
			pCity.changeFood(-iHarvest)
			iStored = pCity.getFood()
			if (iHarvest * -1) >= iStored:
				pCity.changePopulation(1)

This goes in the same file, in the "OnCityGrowth" section.

		if pCity.getNumRealBuilding(gc.getInfoTypeForString('BUILDING_ACADEMY')) > 0:	
			pCity.changePopulation(-1)

Of course if you plan on making this a tag it should not check for the BUILDING_ACADEMY, but for the building in between the tag.


I have not tested this yet, but i think it still shows food production, unlike the fallow trait. It would be nice if food would be no longer shown in the city where this building is build.

 

[Sephi]

RemoveBuildingType tag added. The other one I will add but it will take some time.

 

[tesb]

Introduction:

The next civilization being enhanced are the Calabim. While they are pretty flavored i still did miss something about them to quote the manual:

Ancient and powerful, the rulers of the Calabim possess a dark secret. Through fell ritual their lives can be
prolonged at the expense of others. This secret would surely incense all honorable nations of Erebus, but perhaps their
enemies are willing to dismiss the ugly rumors as just that to avoid the danger of sharing the fate of the sad Calabim humans.

Now what would happen if the Calabim civilization would be powerful enough, that they would no longer need to hide their secret? What if they would simply no longer care about what the other races might think of them and fully embrace their powers?

The changes i have made are exceeded my initial plans, so bear with me it is a bit much.


Change 1:

Every Vampire with the promotion death II and body II have access to a new spell Lurid Agitation:

Spoiler :

This spell basically combines haste and regeneration and makes it available to nonliving units as well, especially undead units. The buffs are still constricted by unit combat, so siege engines for example are not effected. This spell will replace Haste and Regeneration and Rejuvenating Burst if you happen to have a vampiric mage. It is only available to units with the vampire promotion.



Change 2:

A Vampire Lord has now the access to mount an Undead Dragon. You can have only 2 Dracolich Riders:

Spoiler :

There are two ways to get them:
1) Get a living Dragon, that can be Acheron for example, any unit with the Dragon Promotion will do. Get them in your city drain their live and you now have a Dragon Graveyard in you city from which you can raise Undead Dragons.

2) Take your Vampire Lord and go to the Dragon Bone Improvement, if it happens to be spawned on the map. You can now cast the same spell:

Spoiler :

Change 3:

This is the biggest and core change. Every Vampire has the ability to cast Death's Embrace:

Spoiler :

What is does is pretty much explained in the description above.
It devoids the city of all life turning it completely undead:

Spoiler :

The Souldrinker Promotion is pretty powerful, but rare, since you can have only one Vampire with this promotion per undead city:

Spoiler :

And it allows to cast Soulharvest:

Spoiler :

This works like feast only that it will not decrease the population and takes three turns to cast. Bear in Mind that only Units with the Souldrinker Promotion in Undead Cities can cat this spell. Vampires without this Promotion can't use feast in undead cities and any Vampire can still cast Feast in any normal city.

Any Vampire can summon Banshees in an Undead City, however this will reduce the population of this city by two. A Banshee starts with the Soultrinker Promotion, and thus can get powerful on her own.

Spoiler :

Edit: I forgot: Every Banshee and Dracolich can cast Wail of the netherworld, this is basically the roar spell of the dragon (causes fear in surrounding tiles), the banshees version is weaker with a 50% resist change.

 

[tesb]

Things that still need work:

-The localized Fallow trait aka the Undead City needs a bit of tuning since it still shows food production, even though it does no longer matter

-The decrease in relationship with other leaders is not currently implemented (It is basically a negative version of trust)


Future Possibilities:
Since those are extensive changes I could imagine to make this an own race with a new population mechanic, for that however i will need help on some minor things, mainly the city layout and some small scripts.

The concept would be:
An renegade Vampire House that completely embraced its necromantic powers. It would have the fallow trait and an national hero with whom it starts. This hero would have a spell that increases the population of a city by 1 with a fairly large cast time. However as the the player progresses in technology the shorter the castime becomes and and in the mid- to lategame it would even increase the population of all cities.

Cities could only produce basic units, the more powerful would be raised, and those spells would cost population and gold.

Sephi if you think i should rather go ahead and implement this new race, please tell me.

@All: Any constructive criticism and feedback is welcome as always.

Also many thanks to Dual for the Model that i used for the undead city and Deliverator for his Drakes and Golshan (the banshee model)!

 

[JujZe]

No more new civs pls there is enough of them.
The calabim really need some.. love

 

[tesb]

Are you sure you don't want an undead civ

Spoiler :

lead by:

Spoiler :

?



I know what you mean, i rather have 5 very unique civilization then 20 similar ones. But this new civilization would have a unique population and recruitment mechanic, and it twitches in my fingertips to implement them

 

[Sephi]

If you wanted, you could make it both a new Civ and an addition to the Calabim. Add a "Dark Secrets" Ritual to the Calabim unlocked at necromancy (maybe a few other civs or evil leaders should also get access to, Ritual could also have an adventure as a prereq like the adventures for the epic destiny victory condition) and when you complete the Ritual, your Civ changes to the undead one (I added code some time ago that allows you to change your civ, no need to go the Summon new Civ route).

As for the decrease in relationship, that would need a new XML tag, but shouldn't be difficult to add.

 

[tesb]

That sounds very good sephi, very good indeed

One question, what data do you need for the code? the whole set for an new civilization?

It would make it also quite easy with the localized fallow trait, i simply give the the new civilization the player morphs into the fallow trait.


Here is what i would do:
- Add Change 1 and Change 3 to the existing Calabim
- Change 2 is reserved for the new civilization.

I will post a concept overview for this new civilization later, i will play a game with 8.30 for now

 

[Till]

This sounds really cool, but i think it changes the Calabim too much and would warrant a new race. In my mind, the Calabim operate as a feudal vampire aristocracy over mortal serfs, not as all out necromancers.

Dracolichs, Banshees, and Soul Harvest seem a bit too obvious for the "dark secret" idea, which you quoted from the lore.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

what I dislike about this is that you flavoured civs that already have plenty of flavour

 

[tesb]

@Sephi here is the design overview, please let me know if any of the proposed changes are not doable or should be tweaked:

The Ritual:

After researching Fanaticism the calabim get an option to build a Ritual which will code-wise will change your civilization. Gameplay-wise the transition will be much smoother. (The player gains new traits, and units but also looses the ability to train certain units.)
The name as of now is Death's Embrace, if anybody has a better name please let me know.


Army Composition:

I want to shift the army composition to numerous and weaker basic undead units and more rare yet more powerful vampires controlling them. To archive this i plan the following changes:
-All living Units that are not vampires are killed upon completion of the ritual.
-You can no longer build moroi, bloodpets or any other nonvampiric living units. Instead the player can build undead version of units (for example undead horse archer etc.) which are a bit weaker then their living counter parts. Exception are adepts which will start with the vampiric promotion.
-After completion of the ritual you can no longer build any more new vampires, instead you can upgrade your vampires to ancient vampires which are a bit stronger. The player will be able to build ancient vampires after researching Advanced Warfare. Ancient Vampire will have a national Limit on them (~15). The surplus vampires you have after completing the ritual and upgrading/building the maximum amount of ancient vampires will slowly fade out, since you can not rebuild them and any loss of those weaklings is permanent.

==> Your fighting elite will be ancient vampires, immortals(=vampire lords), dracolich riders, bruhjas and phalanxes which will get a new model and a new name, while your regular troops will be the undead versions of standard troops which are a bit weaker.


New Civilization Traits:

After you finish the ritual you gain the fallow trait and the agnostic trait. Like demonic citizens show up for the infernal civilization in every city, the undead city building will show up in every city (See the second screenshot in change 3 in post #83, i will recolor the flames to red to match the color of the calabim).


New population mechanics:

There will be two ways to acquire new population:
-A spell that can be cast by Losha Valas which increases the population of a city by 1 with a small / moderate cast time.
-A spell that can be cast by Losha Valas which increases the population of all cities by 1 with a moderate/ long cast time. This spell will also decrease your standings with other civilization every time you cast it

There will also be the possibility to summon more powerful undead units like the banshee, however this will cost you population.

Tweaked feasting mechanic:

Your vampires can no longer feast in your cities, instead like posted in post #83 every units with the Souldrinker promotion will have the ability cast Soulharvest which is feast with a 3 turn cast time and it does not reduce population. The souldrinker promotion will only be available to your elite fighting force (ancient vampires, immortal = vampire lords, phalanxes, dracoliche riders, banshees and maybe archmages)

Some of the changes are already codes see post #83. Any ideas/ feedback are welcome

 

[tesb]

Update on the undead city art and the ancient vampire (he uses the standard vampire sword + glow effect, the body of the old vampire lord and the pauldrons of the bruhja who can also be seen behind the city)

Spoiler :

 

[tesb]

the elite is ready (the phalanx is in the upper right)

Spoiler :

next step: the skeletal army


Edit: Added shields:

Spoiler :

 

[Jabie]

I could see a lot of this work fitting in very well with the Legion of D'Tesh from RiFe. The Dracolich looks amazing!

 

[Valkrionn]

At the very least, on the art side of things. Both the Legion, and a modmod civ that is only announced thus far in the tester's group; Will need to point him here. As that one has ties to both the Legion and the Calabim, it would be rather fitting.

Tesb, mind if I make use of any of your art?

 

[tatva]

Hello. About the Sidar part. Someone wrote:

"The currently low-use Empyrean power about revelation, which breaks off HN status from units, could be adjusted to add a one turn, 100% chance of wearing off type of mistbusting promotion, whether for themselves or the stack... or alternately it could dispel "misty" status on the defenders which will be reacquired next turn (and lost again if the Vicar is autocasting). As with any magic there should be a chance to resist, but if you bring a big stack of vicars blowing off revelation spells, that's maybe a valid RP strategy in Sidar lands full of ghosts and whatnot. (Reminds me, Revelation doesn't dispel Hidden status does it? Be a much better spell if it did!)."

Well, its more about the empyrean than about the Sidar. The point is: empyrean is the less likely religion for me. It has no uber-heros and their spells only good against Essus. Someone said also, in the development thread for adventures, that order work better (in the game as it is) for Malakim than empyrean itself, which is true.

Making Revelation useful against the Sidar gives Empy more appealing. It would be good also to make empyrean good against the vampires. After all, its sun magic, and vampires are destroyed by sunlight.

 

[Valkrionn]

Making Revelation useful against the Sidar gives Empy more appealing. It would be good also to make empyrean good against the vampires. After all, its sun magic, and vampires are destroyed by sunlight.

Vampires are not destroyed by sunlight in Erebus. They function quite differently from stereotypical vampires, as well... Absorbing the SOULS, not the BLOOD. Though many drink the blood as an affectation, apparently.

That said, the first person to be victim to a vampiric ritual was a priest of Lugus, Angel of Sun, god of the Empyrean, so he does have a beef with them. As a result, direct sunlight hurts them, causes them extreme discomfort, but does not kill them. So some kind of effect is reasonable, but I'd honestly just extend the period in which a vampire is held by the Blind effect.

Apparently Lugus would remove this stigma if the vampire would renounce his ways, give up eternal life, and live in service of him. Somehow, I find that a very unlikely scenario.

 

[tesb]

Here is the first skeleton i made, it still needs a bit of work. i also slightly tuned the phalanx and the ancient vampire got new pauldrons, i know it still need a bit of work:

Spoiler :

@Valkrionn/ Jabie

I don't know about that race, but i have a very unique recruitment mechanic in mind:

Your high tier units, the vampires, are limited in their numbers but very powerful. Your normal units the undead cannon fodder will be weak but numerous. They are cheaper to build then their living counter parts and will cost no upkeep. If your research higher tier tech lets say you go from archery to bowyers instead of getting access to a new more powerful unit all your archers gain the ability to cast a spell that will increase their "platoon" size. casting this spell will cost population however.

An example:
A normal skeleton is a 2/2 unit (2 skeletons) if you research bronze working you can upgrade them to a 4/4 units (with 4 skeletons). You will not be able to build the 4/4 skeleton you can only upgrade the 2/2 (which can be build). The upgrade will not cost gold but population. Those undead minions will not be able to carry higher weapon tiers (i.e. bronze, iron or mithril weapons), making them weaker then their living counter parts.

The planned undead units are:
-Zombies (basic city defenders base version will probably have 1/2 or 1/3)
-Skeletons
-Skeleton archers
-skeleton horse archer
-mounted skeleton

A special undead units are the banshees (which got a graphical update too):
they will replace your adepts/mages/archmages. upgrading a banshee will cost more population then normally and the upgrades will give channeling II and III, they start witch channeling I.
Banshees will be able to harvest souls like vampires.

 

[JujZe]

Beast of agares dont go to rampage after demonic enclave is build. Is this intentional?

 

[Valkrionn]

Here is the first skeleton i made, it still needs a bit of work. i also slightly tuned the phalanx and the ancient vampire got new pauldrons, i know it still need a bit of work:

Spoiler :

@Valkrionn/ Jabie

I don't know about that race, but i have a very unique recruitment mechanic in mind:

Your high tier units, the vampires, are limited in their numbers but very powerful. Your normal units the undead cannon fodder will be weak but numerous. They are cheaper to build then their living counter parts and will cost no upkeep. If your research higher tier tech lets say you go from archery to bowyers instead of getting access to a new more powerful unit all your archers gain the ability to cast a spell that will increase their "platoon" size. casting this spell will cost population however.

An example:
A normal skeleton is a 2/2 unit (2 skeletons) if you research bronze working you can upgrade them to a 4/4 units (with 4 skeletons). You will not be able to build the 4/4 skeleton you can only upgrade the 2/2 (which can be build). The upgrade will not cost gold but population. Those undead minions will not be able to carry higher weapon tiers (i.e. bronze, iron or mithril weapons), making them weaker then their living counter parts.

The planned undead units are:
-Zombies (basic city defenders base version will probably have 1/2 or 1/3)
-Skeletons
-Skeleton archers
-skeleton horse archer
-mounted skeleton

A special undead units are the banshees (which got a graphical update too):
they will replace your adepts/mages/archmages. upgrading a banshee will cost more population then normally and the upgrades will give channeling II and III, they start witch channeling I.
Banshees will be able to harvest souls like vampires.

Trust me when I say your setup does not interfere with the planned modmod. Nor should it matter if it does, as your modmod is WM while this one is RifE.

On another note... I love the skeleton. If you keep the skeleton models using polearms/staves, rather than swords, I would love you. That is EXACTLY what I need for the D'tesh.