ULTIMA X : Battle of Britannia - Civ4 Warlords

[Gen. Maximus]

Behold! The ultimate Ultima is back! This medieval setting scenario pits Lord British against the rest of Britannia to reclaim his kingdom, it means every city, outpost and dungeon. In this scenario, you play as Lord British with the Avatar and his companions fighting on your side. Your immediate concern is to put up a defence as much as you can as attacks comes from all angles. Your heroes are off-positioned and you need to rush them to where help is needed most.

Map is mouse-drawn for this large map scenario, every terrain tile is placed to live up to the original Britannia continent and with focus on making sure the map surroundings and town layouts simply look good. You're not going to find a plain map, it is very much diverse and pleasing to the eyes, something worth conquering The Isle of Avatar is still fiery from volcanic activity, mandrake is harverted from the swamplands, blood moss from the bark of the damp forest bark, elements of Ultima added wherever possible.
As is previous Ultima scenarios created, do your best to prevent from being overrun, dig-in and then the eventual push out. You got to as time is limited to 260 turns. Playable from Monarch to Deity, see readme file for further game details.

The story...
Battlecrys are once again heard in the ancient kingdom of Britannia. Lord British has lost hold of his kingdom with the breakaway of seven city-states. Lord British who preaches the Way of the Avatar and its Eight Virtues is now under siege in the city Britain that is being attacked from all sides. The renegade states are under the influences of a rising movement known as The Fellowship and Britannia is not big enough for both. The mutinuos city states are some lead by warlords who were once companion of the Avatar who have turned against him. Once again, the Avatar, champion of Britannia is called upon to fight off the hostile forces against Lord British. Through the mystic Moongates, the Avatar has arrived in the spiritual holdout of Stonegate east of Britain to the waiting arms of his close companions - Sir Dupre, Lord Shamino, Iolo the Bowyer and their ragtag band of disciples who are still loyal to king and believers of the Way of the Avatar. The city of Britain, capital of Britannia is unfortunately sited on central plains of the kingdom meaning it vulnerable to be attacked from all sides. Paladins of Trinsic to the south, Rangers of Skara Brae to the west, Druids of Yew from the north and Tinkers of Minoc from the east are closing in, threatening the outskirt towns such as Paws and Cove. The royal regiments are just about to be deployed from the royal castle in Britain, can they stop or even survive the onslaught? Can the Avatar and his comrades save Britain in time? All are in your hands.

Briefs on the factions:
Civilization - Race - Unique unit(STR)/Unique buildings
BRITAIN - Bards - Royal Guards(6)/Fortress Wall
TRINSIC - Paladins - Mounted Swordsman(8)/Citadel
SKARA BRAE - Rangers - Spirit Rangers(6)/Apothecary
YEW - Druids - Forest Druids(6)/Springwater Baths
MINOC - Tinkers - Fire Arrows(5)/Merchant Guild
MOONGLOW - Mages - Arcane Cannon(6)/Apothecary
JHELOM - Fighters - Valorian Riders(8)/Valorian Stable
NEW MAGINCIA - Sherperds - Guardian(5)/Market Square
Pirate Hordes - Pirates - Sea Raider(6)/Trading Post
Gargoyle - Gargoyles - Gargoyle Militia(7)/Cothon

For details of the leaders traits and special abilties of each unique units/buildings above, refer to Civilopedia Civilization section. Lord British is at war with all except the last two, Pirates and Gargoyles.

The game has a turn limit of 260. Each turn duration is one week meaning Lord British got 5 years to to retake Britannia. Research has been slow turn by a factor of 4 to ensure the newer units or buildings doesn't spoil the flavour of the scenario. Ideally, macemen and knights may appear (if ever) only at the very game end. So the majority of the units are of archer-swordsmen-longbowmen generation with unit strength of 3-6. Unique units pushed up the strength level of 7-8. Game intended and tested at Normal Speed. Scenario are set at Always War with Aggressive AI. It means no peacemaking. No city razing and barbarians except the ones initially placed. Wonders are renamed to suit Ultima theme.

Link to download:-
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8941

Enjoy and feedback!

IMAGES:

You as Lord British, the defender of Britannia!

Britain and its surroundings.

World of Britannia. Worthy of your conquest! Every island, major rivers or site of significance are accounted for!

The fiery Isle of the Avatar where the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom resides in the Temple of Codex. Hold it if you can!

Avatar and his companions arrival in Stonegate. Looks like Sir Dupre is pose to rush the right flank of the advancing Minoc forces... your decision!

 

[GarretSidzaka]

WHOA!!!! this looks interesting! what mod elements did you custom make for this one??

 

[Gen. Maximus]

WHOA!!!! this looks interesting! what mod elements did you custom make for this one??

Units, buildings, wonders, religion... quite a number. You can see from the XML files that come bundled with the mod file
All unit graphics are from the original game, it already has quite a wealth of unit types I can use. I never thought I would have make it this extensive but unfortunately I can't stop trying to perfect things once I get started. It took me three months to develop and test this mod out, that long mostly because I could not dedicate enough time all this.

 

[woodelf]

Looks cool. You should add it to the updates thread so I don't forget it.

 

[Gen. Maximus]

Have added link to scenario directory and announcement thread.

After ~1 month of play testing, the game balance is should be good. Have verified that enemy do attack, cash flow balance, reasonable tech research time etc. I'm playing at Deity though, but if this level works, other lower levels should be fine. The last 'bug' I cleaned up before I post the download link is when one I realise one of the scenario wonder, The Order of the Silver Serpent at Serpents Holds disappeared after it fell into enemy hands, I'd realise it was missing when I captured it back on the next turn. Derived it from West Point which is a National Wonder hence it explains the destruction. Fixed in time for v1.00.
Please do read the readme file. Excerpts are also in the Civilopedia Civilization section for Kingdom of Britannia. Read hints section if you get into trouble.
Feedback if any. enjoy

 

[woodelf]

It's an excuse to find my Warlords CD I guess.

 

[Deon]

That's just WOW!!!
As a man who wasted about 2 years of life in the Ultima Online this very close map touches my heart!
It's a pidy I don't have warlords, just the bts...

 

[woodelf]

Great job on the map and creating the feel of Ultima. It's a bit overwhelming at first with so many units, so poor of an economy, ect. Fun though.

 

[Gen. Maximus]

I have actually played till 60+turns on my actual game. I could set my science at 80% and now I am worried if I am researching techs too fast.
The big gold boost came from my prophet who build the shrine obviously and losing out some of the faraway outpost to the enemy that reduces maintenance cost. And of course building of holy buildings.
Economy has been warned as an issue, see hints to overcome it. Get the right techs & capture the right wonders. Even if I have a can have a large surplus of gold every turn now if I reduce my science rate lower, this is really needed as every city you conquer gonna incur some gold cost of at least 5gp and as you expand further out, it will be closer to 10gp or more. There will be some time gap as you rush the necessary buildings to cut the cost.
So sad to hear that that, Deon! I hope you're willing to part some cash for Warlords since you're parting monthly some for Ult online!

 

[Gen. Maximus]

Ver1.1 changes
- Withdrawal chance for The Avatar unit reduce from default 65% to 60% to avoid non-promotion bug.
- Paladin's UU Mounted Swordsman changes as follows: Add Immune to 1st strike, change to no defensive bonus, add 20% withdrawal chance, iAsset from 4 to 2 and iPower from 8 to 6.
- Fighter's UU Valorian Rider add Immune to 1st strike, iPower from 4 to 6.

The above changes made. Main bug is that The Avatar unit with default withdrawal bonus of 65% (95% with Tactics promo) could not be further promoted. Missed this as the modification to 65% occured after I started a game, only realised it when the unit could not promote despite the accumulating experience. I tested the withdrawal number 61% and the promo functions still work but not at 64% and above.
The only other experience related to this when I was playtesting is that withdrawal chance could not exceed 100% or above, otherwise the promo option that will take you over the threshold will not appear. Didn't expect problem at 95%.

The other main changes are on the Mounted Swordsman Unit. Details was edited from the Conquistador which was pretty much different from the standard Horse Archer as it has defensive bonus, no withdrawal chance and no 10% city attack penalty. Changes made to closer match to the Horse Archer defaults but the city attack penalty is not added.

Minor change on Valorian Rider, probably invisible to players.

Goto download link to get the latest version. Thx!

Additional note:
Changes within CIV4UnitInfos.xml so existing ver1.00 scenario savegame can be continued to be played. Other changes are in the readme file and civilopedia CIV4GameText_Warlords_Civilopedia.xml to reflect the changes made. For those already started the game, simply overwrite the CIV4UnitInfos.xml in the Ultima mod XML folder from the ver1.1 download.

 

[Gen. Maximus]

Have played into the turn of 120+ out of turn limit of 260 and loose my last surviving hero The Avatar that has an XP of ~200 in an pre-assault on Trinsic. The tech pace is a lot faster than I thought as the AI are trading between one another. They trade more aggressively in Deity I believe which I'm playing at. The AI has Maceman and Pikeman units and I am still about 2-3 techs behind with my trusty Royal Guards (Swordsman) & Spearman!
It gonna be a tough battle ahead. Hard but fun!
Anybody out there got anything to say?

 

[Gen. Maximus]

Completed Domination Victory into the 2nd quarter of the 5th year in Deity level (1 turn=1week). However I am still playing to see if I can complete a total conquest before time is out by end of the 5th year.
The techs came out faster than I thought as my cities grew larger than size 10 resulting in better economic strength. I thought I'll end this game with Maceman/Knights but I got from Musketman to Grenadiers! The AI who were swapping techs amongst each other like crazy could actually churn out more advance units ahead of me, except for the Grenadiers. At that time, I have conquered Yew and Trinsic that were major powers so they do not have a strong researcher.
Now busy with island hopping to complete conquest. Must get back holy Isle of Avatar!!!
For those has played, please do rate the scenario! Thx!!

 

[Gen. Maximus]

Finally completed the total conquest of the scenario on the November in the 5th year in Deity. By right it should be 4 turns left to go, so I'm unsure why the remaining turn counter says 25turns. I had already won by domination 50 turns earliar but could not consider Lord British winning without capturing the last Fellowship haven.
It is into the age of Grenadiers. Most if the conquering begin only in the last 40% of the game time. Once you start rolling, you become stronger and unstoppable! Last move of the scenario is my humble Longbowman finishing of the last defender in the Colony of the Abyss on the Isle of Avatar.

Final screenshot

 

[marsrover21]

Looks cool. Where does the story come from?

 

[Gen. Maximus]

Ultima started back from the 1980s. Saga ended with the release of Ultima IX back in 97-98 I think. Just wanted to relive the experience thru Ultima X

 

[thadian]

Ultima Online FTW!! Now, mod in The rest of Britania and make it for BTS - ill be the biggest fan.

 

[thadian]

Ultima has a very unique story and was the first REAL mmo - it was also the mmo that was made famous for a hacker possibly changing the game forever. I don't remember his name but... There was someone who used a glitch to kill Lord British. Now, speculaters note that as EA when they bought UO did not want to deal with liscencing issues were not going to use Lord British or Lord Blackthorn, and events to kill off such characters happened in the Beta before the real one was actually released.

But they honored their community, and in worlds (servers) where the players rose to defend evil instead of good still has Lord Blackthorn (Sonoma, and i think Drachenfels)