INTRODUCTION:
I tried to create a race, that would offer an original gameplay experience compared with the clonic factions we have right now with the ingmae editor. I used my favourite race in MoM, the lizardmen, as bace concept: a race which grows quick and has good map control due to being amphibious. I ended up mixing some concepts from Lovecraft's Cthulhu to spice things up as I like them and fits with aquatic race idea.
UNIQUE GAMEPLAY FEATURES:
- Decent strategic regeneration of 3 mana per turn for all your units when using this race!
- Base lizardmen starting unit with tactical regeneration, but only 3 hp instead of the normal 5, so you can't tak emuch advantadge of it in early battles.
- Base unit also helps with food and prestige production if it stays inside city (5% bonus to both, need to test if this scales when creating squads- tested, it doesn't scale, works as intended)
- Expensive shaman unit with Sion-like abilities, that enhances prestige further and provides more arcane research, it can also be customized. The required building for them is a temple, where blood sacrifices take place, decreasing prestige by 5 and effectively halting all growth on the city. This reflects the precolombine tendency of indigenous races to hunt people for their sacrifices in minor villages, this view comes from novels and books, so forgive me if it's wrong
- Monster units (Dragon turtles and leviathan) unlocked in cities through the new buildings, without requiring extra overland resource tiles like other monsters in the game, but they require food to be built and have food maintenance. They are quite cheap for what they do, so the food limitation balances them.
- 2 Food producing buildings to simulate their race's quick growth and to help feed the above monsters
- Fast expanding and bigger Zone of Control for lizardmen cities.
- Skath mounts (thanks to Gnilbert for the idea and knowledge to do this!), which require food to be allowed to be built, find a compromise between expanding your empire and training big squads with those mounts!
- Only 1st level of house, it will take more food to get high lvl cities, this helps to compensate for the food producing buildings
- Amphibious units! may be the answer to an AI that doesn't know how to use ships, so you get a competent enemy in island maps (needs testing to see if the AI is actually competent using this)
- Customizable caravans to allow you to design an assassin able to move deep into enemy territory for a surprise attack or simply to defend themselves from wandering monsters, no mroe caravans dying at the start of the turn without being able to do nothing about it.
- You can create new units without upgrading the basic amphibious regenerating unit, if you feels it's too powerful. Males will be the usual 5 hp unit and females will be skaths . Don't worry though, lizardmen offspring will be humanoid no matter what as they have superior genetic breeding, like the shamans, which are all female.
- Necronomicon (Easter egg), leads to new economic victory!.
- Crazy city with moving tentacles at lvl 5
- All new items introduced are buyable in city! (except the accesory which is bugged for champions, so it's not vailable there, only for unit design)
- Lots of stuff I'm surely forgetting, but need to get screenies and mod up and writing this is taking forever, but unexplained features are somwhat useless aren't they?
- Extend your cult and search for those who followed the Call of Cthulu (tech research, which decreases diplomatic capital), once you decipher the secrets of the Dreaming One, you will be able to awaken R'lyeh. You'll most likely need to get contacts around the whole world to achieve this or learn the whole cooperation/diplomacy tree. This should be an option to experiment with the diplomatic aspect of the game (you need diplomatic capital to get the sunken city built).
- Strategic regeneration of health to full life each turn
- Unique housing with no cost, but only increases population cap by 5
MOD SUMMARY:
- 5 new units
- 2 new NPC champions, that START WITH MANA
- 5 new techs ( 1 researchable to get firebreathing weapon / imbued fire, the other one was an starting tech used to define racial goodies)
- 2 new weapons (1 needs research)
- 1 new accesory (needs research)
- Complete designs for all cityhubs levels, 2 different ones for level 1 (6 tiles)
- Complete designs for exclusive new wallset of swampy ruins (14 tiles)
- 4 New buildings (3 tiles,1 construction tile for pyramid, reuse game tiles for other construction tiles)
- Redesigned tile for houses (1 tile)
- Many new icons, faction logo and new backgrounds for designed units
TOTAL: 26 new tiles
SCREENIES!:
Answers are coming..
New buildings:
NewCityHubs:
Close up on some details of lvl 5 city (still nothing like seeing it ingame moving the tentacled parts )
Early version of lvl 5 city:
Cthulhu roaming the world:
Cthulhu duel (You could get a controllable one in the development version)
City wallset of swamp ruins in action: (may need to change them, as they have many objects, please provide feedback), it's an ugly example, but it was the only screen I had already made so
Close up on the center of the city:
CHANGELOG :
- Fixed crash related to techs appearing before categories in the custom tech tree
- Changed game effects of the Lizard Lake Settlement and added tech requirement
- Added sunken cities and related tech, massive 2x2 Full tiles sized design (the building itself is only one tile of course)
- Added shadows for tiles, which were missing before
- Now uses the new mod structure from 1.09 to make it easier to keep my mod appart (you will need to delete old files)
TO DO:
Redesign middle cityhub designs (lvl 3,4)
Implement new technologies
Neverending balancing of more broken things once I get feedback, it was enough work to get it working, when I started. As the game will radically change over the new patches, finetune balancing isn't needed / worth the effort
Release minor factions of lizardmen, probably as standalone mod replacing original minor factions, as we can't control the number or which minor factions appear
Implement reward /victory for killing cthulhu (right now, he can only be hit with bows and it's likely to wipe armies in one turn, so goodluck with that)
Improved IA for Cthulhu so he attacks cities instead of randomly moving around...
Fix exploits, in the meanwhile pretend they don't exist or abuse them fully, depending on your preferences XDDD
DOWNLOAD:
Core files of the mod (1,7MB):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2613529/Elemental/LizardmenFiles.zip
Optional new backgrounds (4,5MB)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2613529/Elemental/CthuluBG.zip
Instructions:
As always extract these files in the Elemental folder inside your personal document folder. Respect the existing structure inside the zip so units get unzipped into your Units folder and so on. Alternatively all xmls can go into Units folder, I'm almost sure icons must go to Units/Icons. Alternatively you can unzip into your mod folder where game is installed, and activate "Use Mods" option inside the game. I don't use this last option so won't be bale to answer questions regarding it...
KNOWN EXPLOITS / BUGS / EASTER EGGS (don't read if you don't want to be spoiled, highlight to see):
.
lol my keyboard got out of battery when I was tipying this section, XDDD
- Sovereigns starting with mount cannot get rid of it ever, only change them. Why is this a problem? Becuase mounted units get slower combat animations, specially with ranged attacks and in many instances the special effects won't even show. In some cases the xml for the mounted sovereign also get a missing correct model, so they won't work right if you comment the mount afterwards! beware using mounts in sovereign customization!.
- Sovereigns starting with a weapon suffer from the same bug (this is true for every item, I think) also there's a secondary bug with this mod. If you use the new firebreath weapon with your sovereign and he had another starting weapon, the range will be overrided with the original weapon one, instead of 4 tiles. So if you had a bow, your firebreath will have 8 range for example.
- The Necronomicon can be bought at all city lvls, 1-4 will be a version that summons a roaming Cthulhu monster, that will move randomly around and it also drains your resources massively, have fun trying to hunt this godly monster. You can try setting him free near enemy territory for some fun, beware it will lay waste to your armies and cities if you have bad luck (it's not very inteligent). Lvl 5 version will grant you a new type of victory (Economic one, as it will cost 10K gold, it actually uses the code and video for the Spell victory)
- Exploit derived from above point: you can buy any item in the shop whenyou have negative money, it's a problem with the game, so I don't think I can fix it
- Amphibious units: actually they're flying ones and can go over mountains, but didn't want to play with terrains to avoid mod conflicts in the future.
- Shaman cost doesn't get changed when edited, maybe it needs a higher base cost to take this into account
- Shaman designs don't retain the buildingrequirement in their code, so this can be exploited to build them in other cities or in a new game...
- Female new units will have a clipping problem and also may be overpowered if equiped with certain weapons, must find a way to limit their customization options
woot!
for you mate... excellent effort!
Awesome sauce! Make sure to post it here too: https://www.elementalgame.info/
Ok mod is up, screenshots as well.
Updated some wrong information as well, I had more tiles then I thought.
Thanks for the karma and the kind words! I hope you enjoy using it. You can count on me playtesting it, now that release version is out I plan to finally play a full game with them.
I hope I'm not forgeting icons as the last time... as always if you notice anything missing, just tell me. There are no dummies, all defined icons do really exist.
I will need feedback about NPC champions working properly, they might depend on thir party mod that added armors (unless the mod only makes them available to sovereign, if they already existed in game it should be fine).
Sure I will post the mod in the fansite as well, no problem
FORGOTTEN EXTRA FEATURES:
- In lvl 5 city you can buy a map, that respawns quests, goodiehuts and NPCs, so you can enjoy the RPG aspect of the game endlessly. Sadly the code for making roaming monsters respawn, seems to not be functional.
- Included icon for Sss'ra a wizard of MoM, ready to use with your sovereigns
- The pyramid increases the influence radius
- Can make caravans from the start (This was actually for playtesting comfortability, but fits with the expansionist concept and the focus on food)
I plan to work in the future in 2 further races: desert nomads and dark elves (mix of D&D and MoM concepts there). The desert Nomads already have their city hubs and feature list planned (I know someone is working on Azracs, which are similar, but as I like to try radical concepts in my races, I prefer to develop my own project). I hope to have time to get them done soon, sadly my academic duties may obstaculize a soon release.
Please consider changing RaceClassification to Fallen.
It is the variable that responds to a check against
<Prereq> <Type>Race</Type> <Attribute>Fallen</Attribute> </Prereq>
and I intend to release a library in a few days that will mod all standard buildings to require their respective "race". The purpose will be that this will allow us to replace the standard buildings for new races, like Hut and Workshop (which is currently impossible). I will also describe how to add your own custom RaceClassification to standard buildings.
Good work.
Thanks for pointing this!, I had mighty problems with that working right and ended up changing requirements to a specific starting tech of the race, just before realizing how to to it right with the release of the undead mod as example. Also good work discovering how to use the alignment tag, saw you were starting the library project there
The problem right now, is that I use all buildings of the fallen except the houses and this would conflict with your library. I may replace more buildings in the future, but will do it slowly, so I guess I will need to make a copy of all the fallen improvements with changed InternalName. So it will take some time.
Actually the alignment prereq was a dead end, it never worked.
Don't do any work yet. I have a few ideas I want to toy with first, and the lib won't be used until the elf race mod is releaced anyway.
PS. Congrats on release.
Okay so this is the problem, this is why I want to make a library.
<ImprovementType InternalName="F_Hovel"> <Prereq> <Type>Race</Type> <Attribute>Fallen</Attribute> </Prereq> </ImprovementType> <ImprovementType InternalName="F_Shanty"> <Prereq> <Type>Race</Type> <Attribute>Fallen</Attribute> </Prereq> </ImprovementType>
from your code. This will break the building for any custom racemod not using a standard raceclassification.
On the other hand, your LizardHovel lacks a raceclassification, which makes it available to every empire race.
That is the problem in a nutshell.
The library would put a fallen/men pre-req on all 5 standard buildings for each allegiance.
This means that the individual racemod (with a unique raceclassification) would need to copy only the 5 standard buildings and include a pre-req for their own raceclassification.
Absolutely true.. I wonder how I could've overlooked that, quess I saw there was a prereq there and thought I had it done right. I have to admit I rushed the release, because otherwise I wouldn't ever consider this suitable for release and I didn't like the idea of teasing with screenies only
I'm thinking about keeping my workaround with the tech requirement for utility buildings with new mechanics AND using the race requirement mostly for cosmetic changes like the house replacement (or the new designs for the elf race), that way things are more modular and you can reuse assets for other races without major problems, what do you think?
I think I will move "cosmetic tile designs" to another xml so it can be checked with more ease.
I replaced requirement of lizardhovel to:
<Prereq> <Type>Race</Type> <Attribute>Lizardmen</Attribute> </Prereq>
Has been tested and it works
Also made a new tech for the pyramid that enables shamans, with a prerequisite of learning the first custom tech first. Added medallions to all buildings, it's needed to show images in the tech descriptions.
Also updating missing description of features in initial post in a moment and the changelog
I found out there's was a crash happening, when checking completed techs, has been fixed.
Bear in mind the xml files for this mod, although a bit chaotic in some parts, are heavily commented and may be useful for people learning to mod. More skilled people may get annoyed by the huge ammount of them, so I will remove them on request.
Updated version will be uploaded soon.
Here is the library for empire buildings, I already defined it, must still needs testing:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2613529/Elemental/EmpireImprovements_FallenRestriction.xml
And the kindom one:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2613529/Elemental/KingdomImprovements_MenRestriction.xml
There were some errors in the Empire file, they have been corrected. Must look how this will work out for Kraxis and what to do with MP-only improvements, guess we should leave these alone.
Fhtagn!
(link is harmless)
I made a post here:
https://forums.elementalgame.com/397602
Since you understand the issue, please read through it and comment.
PS. Adding requirements for ALL buildings is not smart. The racemodder can already modify what buildings are available indirectly through the techtree. Only those buildings that don't have a tech prerequisite need the "fix".
PS2. You're effectively using solution A now. It's only working because yours is the only racemod out at this time. But let's say someone else releases a version where the workshop is custom, and adds the prerequisite for "fallen race" to the normal workshop?
Hmm now this is EPIC (epic complication as I can foresee each modder choosing one of the solutions for ultimate chaos )
I've read trhough the topic and cannot make up my mind, guess I'll have to reread it a lot of times and meditate about it. I'll comment there when I make up my mind and do some more tests.
Stacking same requirement should give no problems I think... I will be testing that as well.
Unfortunately, it does. Having two race-requirements means noone gets it.
I meant having the same one twice, actually
Ok, the only building remaining seems to be the moneychanger for some reason, I may have missed it or have a modded copy for some reason
Testing kingdom now
Also let me know how to give you more karma
you really deserve it for all the work in modding.
Edit: yeah I'm a bitch and keep editing all my posts and forget to mark them as edited, I'm used to the forum doing it automatically . well tested kingdom, everything working as expected. Also tested having twice the same requirement isn't a problem either, I expect to use the file with all definitions together anyways. So yeah I'm going with solution one and define all the buildings again in each mod. edit fixed the money changer entry, another copy paste error on my part.
Very true about the patches, they may break all the work done
If you're talking about building a mod to make all default kingdom buildings require race:Men I think it's a bad idea. See my previous post about using technology instead.
I just had an idea:
If we use internal names for the requisite, we may be able to override it. Testing that now
Nevermind, that would involve edit core xmls and rebuilding the data.zip as there is no way it could work with modded files with doubled definition, it's plain stupid. Guess I will reread the options proposed again.
Well the pre-req is actually defined in the mod, but it didn't work anyway.
Answered you in the other post, finally. I agree to stick to Solution E being the best option.
Edit: Actually I made up my mind and will forget about replacing basic buildings, choosed to make the building have more unique effects
Updated first post with extra details and screens, the link remains the same, as I'm using Dropbox, but the mod has been updated.
I find it is really hard for a lizard race city to grow into level five since the basic housing of lizard lake is only 20 per structure thus make it easily consume all the 50 construction tiles to reach 1000 population, even with the technology of proper housing.
You have to do something to increase the capacity of either lizard housing or construction tiles for a lizard city.
Thanks for playing with it Dante. Actually yes, download last version of the mod and youw ill have a nice surprise, then you get:
- Normal housing for Fallen
- Extra cheap fast build low pop houses
- Very difficult to get sunken city raises max to 1K directly. You may win the game without being able to build this unless you concentrate on getting diplomatic capital. That tile has many other effects and is really powerful, though.
Also bear in mind shamans give major prestige bonuses in stationed city and Lizardfolk do that to a minor degree.
Lizardmen do have 60-80 construction tiles depending on level anyways, so it will be a bit harder to fill them. The details of the settlement may show otherwise, while your zone of influence is small or you have blocked tiles by forest/resources.
If you only want to see the lvl 5 city directly, regardless of gameplay you can edit line 25:
<TileStageDesign>swampcity_lvl1b</TileStageDesign>
and change it to:
<TileStageDesign>swampcity_lvl5</TileStageDesign>
You can also use a custom map, the tile will be in the props section at the bottom.
Let me know if my advice is enough to get a lvl 5 city, it should actually be easier then with other races.
Also tell me if you find it mighty impossible to build the sunken city (tech requirement is 1st level diplomacy tech)
Great mod.
You can host it for free at:
http://www.ultimateelemental.com/
May the Master of Magic mod team have permission to include your lizard race in our MoM mod?
Very nice work.
UltimateElemental> Yes everyone has permission to include my race or a modified version of it in their mods, I would like to be credited for doing it, though.
Awesome work. And the frosting on the cake? This: I enjoy reading the 'back and forth' about your though process as you grapple with various issues because it is teaching me how to mod in this enviornmnent. Later, when the dust is settled, I may try modding also. And you will have beenb one of my teachers! Double kudos to you fro sharing the mod, and sharing your process! Karma coming to you...
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