Abilities, Traits, and History's Modification [REL Version 0.46]
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UPDATED for 1.08 release :
Download Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?a9xdsi62pah7ac1
Alternate: http://www.ultimateelemental.com/downlaods/download-mods/Elemental-War-of-Magic-Downloads/mods/miscellaneous/Abilities-Traits-and-Historys/
** IMPORTANT: Ensure that you delete the old .XML mod files before updating. This does NOT modify any core files. **
DO NOT use the "/createxmlbinary" EXE command for this mod.
You must start a new and fresh game to see the changes.
HELP NEEDED:
I need a coder to inform me of how I can implement "attribute based abilities".
My goal is to see traits and abilities improved. With this mod most traits and professions gain a "passive bonus" that usually benefits you while stationed in cities. A merchant, for example, gains more gold stationed in a city then in the wilderness. He also gives the city a small multiplier bonus. This makes more sense instead of him scouting the landscape he is remaining in the city trading.
HOWEVER, I've been trying to tie these bonuses to the character's attributes with no success. I need someone to fill in the blanks in the coding here. For example, I want a merchant to gain .2 gold + (1/100) wisdom + (1/25) charisma + (1/30) intelligence/ per turn... how do I code this into the <Modifier> in the .XML. I'm stuck.
With all attributes at 10 the Merchant should gain ~+0.8 gold/per turn while stationed in a city. I don't want it to be a "perfect" number, I like the randomization of it. Might need to nerf the equation for late game concerns though.
I'd also like merchants to gain XP for being stationed in a city. No idea how to implement that either...
I also need testers to inform me of bugs, errors, and balancing issues.
Elemental Abilities, Traits, and Histories Mods (Version 0.46) Created by James009DI've modified a lot of the core backgrounds, abilities, and histories to offer more unique and fitting bonuses. This also helps to display the importance of leadership as you will now gain some small but important bonuses to keeping units stationed in cities. For example, a merchant king now generates about 1 gildar outside the city but generates another when stationed (which is added to the city income and modifiers) and grants a 5% trade bonus. Another example is the diplomat which generates 1 diplomacy point every 5 turns but can also generate 1 diplomacy point every ~3 turns while stationed in a city and improves the effeciency of the embassy while there by 10%. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
(Update) This mod now makes heroes, champions, and sovereigns even MORE meaningful and useful by adding bonus HP to each unit (4-10 depending on class). Heroes and sovereigns should now be more useful and survivable.Mods included:
How to install:
Using the mods:
New Histories: The old histories have been updated to be a little more meaningful and fun. Each history (both sov and NPC) also give the unit a bonus in HP from 4-10 to make them last longer and stronger. This should, altogether, make heros, champions, and sovereigns (especially) more meaningful, powerful, and useful.
New Histories:
The Abilities: Many bonuses are changed in such a way that they give you a greater bonus while inside a city.
Modified NPC Histories: These are available for the old NPCs and champions.
New NPC Histories: These are available for random NPCs or created NPCs.
Bugs:
GOOD LUCK! I hope to see Elemental strive into all it's modding glory!TO DO:- Implement personality traits- Fix background text- Add bonus HP (and possibly defense or dodge) to all heroes and sovereigns- DONE- Implement Mage mana restoration (Celerity)- Discover how to implement passive experience gain- Discover how to implement "attribute based bonuses"- Introduce a trait to reduce wages- Re-create all the core NPCs to have new abilities and more uniqueness.- Balancing
Want to help?
If you'd like to help contact me on the Elemental forums (James009D) or on either of these threads:https://forums.elementalgame.com/389531https://forums.elementalgame.com/389389
Also, submit your created heroes for the "Community of Heroes Project"!Changelog:
Old and Outdated Links:
[.34 Link] http://depositfiles.com/files/jvwbozk82
[.40 Link] http://depositfiles.com/files/u4le3c8j2
[.45 Link] http://www.mediafire.com/?u1dq5iala9c5ot2
Took me a while to notice you changed your name Folcik.. sneaky. I posted this line of code that I found on the tech tree in another thread, and in case you haven't seen it here it is:
<GameModifier> <Target>Player</Target> <ModType>Resource</ModType> <Attribute>DiplomaticCapital</Attribute>
<!-- Use the sovereign's charisma stat to determine how much diplomatic capital they get -->
<Calculate InternalName="Value" ValueOwner="PlayerSovereign"> <Expression><![CDATA[5 *[UnitStat_Charisma]]]></Expression> </Calculate> </GameModifier>
In the other thread I claimed it was commented out but right below it it was repeated again and tied to Refined_Diplomacy tech. The file is Tech_Amarian.xml and if this actually working then I believe it's what you and I have been trying to do. Of course I tried implementing that in many ways and failed, but thats to be expected since I'm basically blind guessing. Hope this helps ya out, you've done some nice stuff already and I look forward to seeing your ideas take shape
CivFreak, ive tried similiar systems for it, however it seems that not all ModTypes, allow for their <Value> tags to be calcable. It seems to depend on the value of the <ModType> for that modifier.
James, Ya ive tried a bunch of things, the game seems to be fairly rigid when it comes to game modifiers. Kinda anti-modding IMO, since the system shouldnt are if your using calcs or not for something, yet it seems to when it comes to units.
I was wondering if it was on purpose that you can only choose the talents attractive or Family Oriented, not both, when creating a new sovereign?
Yeah, that was originally set to be a "Children" trait but I've decided to move "Attractive" to a "Charisma" trait. I might scrap that and have a "Beauty" section of traits (and move Ugly to that). The conflict has been with the Ugly trait as I don't want change the default settings for things too much. What do you think?
Also, I'm hoping to release a rather major update today but the Warlord trait doesn't seem to be working correctly.
Hi James,
Sorry for the newbness, but I want to use your mod, especially the abilities mod, but I have no idea what " You must use the "/createxmlbinary" EXE command for it to function properly." means.
I searched the Elemental folders for a file with that name, no luck.
What super obvious to non-nubs thing am I missing? Or is that line only for those who want to "use" your mod in their own mods?
Thanks!
Al
LIKE DUH! Isn't everyone using /createxmlbinary these days?
haha. no, it's one of the more "advanced" things for Elemental modding but necessary to properly implement mods. You put it into your Elemental.EXE shortcut after everything. I put mine in my launcher using this for the shortcut's target "C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Elemental\ELLaunch.exe" /createxmlbinary (quotes included).
That code regenerates the data file and loads all the "new" content. Maybe it'll work without that command, let me know.
BAD IDEA FOR 1.06
btw, I'll be out most the day but later tonight I'm going to fix the rich trait (via a spawn-able chest at start), remove the duplication of many things, try and add HP (or defense) to all heroes, and maybe start adding some "Ability" traits (tactical abilities like Cleave) and some personality traits (cosmetic).
Sounds very interesting and worth waiting for. Hmm... I was considering some kind of multiplier for all champions stats (sort of like the Hardy trait works for the sovereigns hitpoints). Of course, I couldn't figure out how to do it.
My idea was that all champions start out weak, as to not steamroll the early game, but with each point into their stats they get exponential returns (sort of like x1.2 to x1.5 the stat value). That would allow late game champions to have considerably more hitpoints, defense, attack and spell power. Also rewards specialization and equipment since every additional point into a stat gives an even greater return.
Same thing i was thinking of doing, I just don't know how far to go with it. I certainly want all the sovereigns and champions to have more HP and be more powerful. I'm definitely going to give them a couple bonus HP based on whatever their class is (Adventurer gets more HP then a Merchant) and I'll probably do the same with defense. I'll probably make attack bonuses specific to only "warrior types".
Still wish we could do variable expressions for these things
Also, regarding Rich, I'm going to make a couple options for "Sovereign_Wealth" if my plan is successful. Essentially, you could start off a VERY wealthy merchant or something.
UPDATE:
Just released version 0.45 with new shiny goodness. Major improvements include:
To-Do:
Notes:
Good luck and enjoy!
Great work, James009D.
I spotted some typo errors in ModNPCExtras
<Backstory>locked indoors, your fiencee
Should changed to this :
<Backstory>Locked indoors, your fiancee
lol, you'll probably spot a lot of typo errors. Don't even begin reading the background text that's generated for the histories. That'll hopefully be cleaned up and smoothed out over time. Right now 92.7% of time now is spent just getting things to work properly.
Regardless, that's fixed for the next release now
If I'm reading the OP correctly, it now says do not use the command, correct?
I know I can bookmark threads but I wish there was a way to mark a thread as a favorite so it was saved in my forum profile. This would be one of them.
Curious though,
When you say bonus HP to your champions, sovs, etc.. is that going to be applied through Each Level? or is that just a one time bonus? As besides the nice increase when your see them, they are still going to be pretty rough mid to late game, so wondering whether or not I need to raise that levelupperpoint stat to help with that.
great work as usual.
thanks,
I think alborrelli posted that before the discovery that /createxmlbinary broke the game. Thanks for the comment
All sovereigns and champions gain somewhere between 4-10 bonus HP added to whatever they start with. This is a worthy increase for the beginning of the game (Peasants shouldn't be able to immediately kill them, for example) but really isn't super helpful lategame. I've implemented a code that adds +10% HP to the warrior to see how feasible that would be as a late game option (could be applied to everyone), I might try implementing that with the next update or as an experimental release. Let me know what you guys think.
I wish I could more easily just tie HP to the character's level but the game doesn't work that way yet
Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it
How does this mod affect the balance of power between players and AI factions? Will the AI understand how and when to use all these new bonuses?
Here is what I just told someone else who asked a simular question:
Modding isn't a perfect science, it's like research and development which requires testing and feedback. Thus, we need people to play the mods and see what is good and what isn't...
Obviously, there is a lack of gameplay feedback despite the rather large number of downloads (I can see you!) so I don't know precisely what is happening in everyone's game. People say that they like it, it's being downloaded, so I'm keeping with modding it.
I will say that, at least in my games, the AI seems to be doing well. Most of the bonuses are automated. The most complex one would be to garrison a city. I don't see too many Merchants scouring the wastes alone, I usually see Generals leading their armies. It probably depends on the AI level that they are playing on (aka difficulty). They probably don't use them too different from the default heroes.
Yea,
Tonight will be my first true game with this mod with my created Kingdom of Camelot, hehe, so I should be able to tell how the AI reacts, along with your Average Difficulty Mod too. I will however, put in my own leveluppoint to 2, only because I really feel that we need that to keep the Champions on par with the rest the world.
I think the biggest problem right now, is AI Naval Invasions are not to great, and I can only play that huge map Frogboy created so many times before it gets a little boring. As that seems to be the only map, besides the TA: Kingdoms Map one, that starts you off in a decent position that your not swarmed by every single AI in the beginning of the game, but the problem with the TA Map, is the coastal water stuff really just drags the AI down a bit, which hasn't help in keeping my games consistent all the way through, so I'm sure many people are experiencing similar problems which is why feedback is limited somewhat.
Naturally, keep it up though, as this totally helps keep the interest in the game, till Stardock releases some good fixes to this game.
Is it sad that when you said that this is the first thing that came to my mind:
King Arthur: May God grant us the wisdom to discover right, the will to choose it, and the strength to make it endure.
Oh, and I also made my levelup points to 2 as well.
LOL, yea that movie actually wasn't to bad, if it wasn't for the gawd aweful ending I probably would have enjoyed it even more as the action scenes were pretty cool and let's be honest, Julia Ormond was pretty hot at the time.
All in all, my most favorite King Arthur movie defiantly has to be the Clive Owen one, really liked that one.
And we do have a Excalibur remake to look forward too in 2011 I think.
Really hope the 'passive' XP gain can work out. That is one of the things that I would like to see. Only problem is that it is more appropriate for a skill based, levelless system than the current D&D style system. By that I mean, it would be cool if your Scholar NPC that sits in the city all day could keep gaining experience that would help him be a better Scholar. This makes sense since it is what he is doing all day. Instead, your NPC that is working as a Scholar all day will be getting XP that can be spent on combat skills. This is the old kinda funny issue with these systems...I kill tons of Orcs and when I level up I add a skill to read Dwarven books. The assumption has always been that you are studying in your off-time...still, I have always liked systems that reward skill use.
Have you thought about this with regard to passive XP and leveling? Maybe there is a way to unlock new abilities with passive XP, ie: the Scholar starts with a small bonus but can earn a larger bonus by earning passibe XP while studying? Might be more complicated than we want / can do. Personally, I try to play from an RPG perspective, not a powergaming perspective and I design and build characters by what is characterful, not just most powerful.
Well, I hope you update your mod as it has great potential but too unbalanced for now. I could destroy one faction easily with just my sovereign and several units in early game.
I think that rather than empower your sovereign and champions from the beginning, you should create equipments / magics that make them able to match up against the middle / late game monsters / AI. For warrior class champion / sovereign. For the HP issue, well, the champion is indeed more powerful than early custom unit. a merchant champion with 9 HP is at least has better HP than the 5 HP peasant. The problem is that he can't keep up with the monster in middle / late game (well troll is too powerful for him)
So rather than empower him from the beginning, just make something that he can be strong at the middle / late game
I have some ideas for you as I'm lazy to create my own mod
Create some packs and add it to the adventure techs
example :
- Warrior Pack : Add HP and STR, give your basic warrior talent
- Knight Pack : Add more HP and more STR, basically stronger version of Warrior
- Crusader Pack : Add more than Knight HP and more STR, and give him your well... talent
- Paladin Pack : Well...
- Thief Pack : Add Speed skill (your speed talent) and Dex
- Rogue Pack : Stronger version than Thief Pack
- Cleric Pack : Add healing skill and several buff
- Archer Pack : you know what should be improved.
Etc... etc... etc
So... you want a melee champion? Just give him the warrior pack / knight pack / etc, want to be a healer, give him the cleric pack, etc. Just limit this to your champion and please prevent the custom unit to use it. I think there is no need to empower the mage as the original mage is already strong. Add essense early on will give the champion capability to spam spells.
The thing is that I'm trying to bulk up champions altogether. An early merchant champion SHOULD be able to kill a peasant and it shouldn't be a problem for him. He should, however, have trouble against a group of peasants or a trained swordsman. Late game, however, a Merchant champion should probably not be able to stand up to a cave troll all alone. You'll need to group the champions mid to late game if they want to survive against monsters. At least, this is what I'm envisioning.
I am thinking of adding packs that units can use, however, these wouldn't be for heroes. Early on I decided that creating hero-based-packages wasn't going to lead to the results I wanted. I certainly don't want to require the player to purchase "training" for their hero which is then equipped and can be switched out. However, unit-based-packages will help and I'd like to do a "Military and Might Mod" in which you can specialize custom unit training a little more (at an expense of gildar and time).
This mod certainly needs some balancing. What did you think was unbalanced? Should I change the costs of any abilities and traits?
I know that some things may be overpowered and, if they are, then try not to abuse them. I do feel, however, that these modifications does help keep heroes alive and make them more meaningful, which was the goal.
Other then the Mage history I haven't even touched on magic yet because, frankly, I don't know what to add. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open.
Also, regarding "unlocking" future talents and abilities: unfortunately, that is currently impossible right now due to modding and game limitations. I've played around with code that would be dependent on pre-reqs and levels but it just isn't working. I'd LOVE IT if the Warrior, for example, could slowly unlock new special attacks.
Lastly, I'll try to release an update this week. I'm aiming for whenever they release the patch so I can ensure it works and maybe add in new features or tweaks. I've also implemented some small bonuses to hero units such as dodge for thieves and attack for warriors. Nothing huge but every little bit can help.
Oh thank you for responding my post
Just equip your sovereign will all warrior enhancement you mod has, and you'll see that how powerful he is.
I know that Elemental has lack of skills (ala AOW or Heroes Might & Magic), you can't even create a Diablo II type of hero in this game as there is no skill tree for our champion. But don't worry, we can make different approach with this 'unfinished' game. Of course, the heroes will always the same. But with the capability of equiping items, learning magic books, and even give him talent, these notable person guys will become stronger in no time
Just like Einstein say that everything is relative to what you see. What you need is just to change your point of view and see Elemental from different perspective. Your first turn is just forget your previous lovely games, and you'll see unlimited idea for your mod
Believe me, I've tried using durations. There should be a whole section of code that is commented out with all the variations (unless it got deleted) I tried for implementing experimental stuff.
I spoke to a dev about that and they said that <calculate> currently only works with items and spells, both temporary things. However, they said this should change in the future because of it's possibilities. I'm not going to hold my breath. They also said there may be a way to "trick" the engine into using it though because the engine is pretty open, maybe I haven't found the combination yet.
I'll play around with it some more.
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