The demon is on the house
I generally pop ruins rather liberally, because lizards are rather nasty.
Nearby graveyard s should be conserved because they have a ~25% chance of popping a tech - more useful when its mithril working then crafting.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
(February 14th, 2013, 13:10)Qgqqqqq Wrote: Nearby graveyard s should be conserved because they have a ~25% chance of popping a tech - more useful when its mithril working then crafting.
I disagree. I'd rather pop Crafting turn 5 than Mithril Working turn 150. Also, graveyards also pop for gold (and skellies and spectres and assorted other, less likely results), and gold is much more useful in the early game. However, skeletons and spectres are more damaging early game...hmmm. I suppose I'd pop it as soon as I got that demonic warrior.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Anyone know what hexapodal research is? Six-footed - how?
About Lairs/dungeons, I like the change that I cannot pop 'em with two units on the tile. So I should be safe from hostile popover if I just keep troops on 'em. I want a few extra warriors around anyway, just in case I get surprised and need to pop worldspell.
After a short test, it's a nice start, yes, I can definately go calendar - crafting - mining, think that will be best, allowing for real fast settler spamming. Edu comes in good time anyway.
(February 14th, 2013, 18:46)Molach Wrote: Anyone know what hexapodal research is? Six-footed - how?
About Lairs/dungeons, I like the change that I cannot pop 'em with two units on the tile. So I should be safe from hostile popover if I just keep troops on 'em. I want a few extra warriors around anyway, just in case I get surprised and need to pop worldspell.
After a short test, it's a nice start, yes, I can definately go calendar - crafting - mining, think that will be best, allowing for real fast settler spamming. Edu comes in good time anyway.
New DLL installed so good to go.
Not a clue about what is hexapodal research. Where did you hear about it?
Regarding getting drama: a popular tactic is to get the Drama GBard and use it to bulb sanitation. Solves culture issues + it's the same as researching Sanitation (drama is even cheaper, if I remember correctly).
I recently reinstalled this mod and had an urge to be a little more interactive than just watching everyone. (Last time I actually tried to play in a PBEM game of Civ went badly, though... something to do with an extremely active teammate who made it tempting to sit back and watch.)
Anyway, I clicked on your thread first and then wandered off and decided I wanted to dedlurk someone, so you're stuck with me.
I haven't played Hippus much, since I'm usually too busy building mages, but maybe I'll come up with a non-useless idea sometime. (The useless ideas flow freely...)
The one thought I have so far is that Bronze Chariots require HBR/Construction/BW and are 6/4 while Horse Archers require Stirrups (I saw you lamenting the beaker cost of Stirrups above) and are 6/6 but can't use weapons. If you are trying to smash and grab some cities, and you have an eye towards Rathas anyway, (they can promote to knight, amusingly) chariots are probably the superior choice. Bronze Working is handy anyway and all those Chariots would upgrade another attack point with Iron Working too, if you decide to go that route. All the mounted units except Horsemen and Horse Archers can use weapons, so it's probably worth considering going up that route anyway.
(February 15th, 2013, 02:00)Ranamar Wrote: I recently reinstalled this mod and had an urge to be a little more interactive than just watching everyone. (Last time I actually tried to play in a PBEM game of Civ went badly, though... something to do with an extremely active teammate who made it tempting to sit back and watch.)
Anyway, I clicked on your thread first and then wandered off and decided I wanted to dedlurk someone, so you're stuck with me.
I haven't played Hippus much, since I'm usually too busy building mages, but maybe I'll come up with a non-useless idea sometime. (The useless ideas flow freely...)
The one thought I have so far is that Bronze Chariots require HBR/Construction/BW and are 6/4 while Horse Archers require Stirrups (I saw you lamenting the beaker cost of Stirrups above) and are 6/6 but can't use weapons. If you are trying to smash and grab some cities, and you have an eye towards Rathas anyway, (they can promote to knight, amusingly) chariots are probably the superior choice. Bronze Working is handy anyway and all those Chariots would upgrade another attack point with Iron Working too, if you decide to go that route. All the mounted units except Horsemen and Horse Archers can use weapons, so it's probably worth considering going up that route anyway.
That's a very good point. I used chariots as active defense when I was attacked by Hyborem in PBEM VI and I was positively surprised by their strenght (well, I was agressive and had Iron for 7/5 chariots, but Hyborem had Iron/Sheut Stone champions, longbows, heroes, etc. and I was the Khazad, not the Hippus). They are fast and hit pretty hard. Besides, Rathas are awesome (not sure if blinding light wasn't changed in EitB).
Anyway, we'll need Stirrups eventually for Warhorses, but it's nice to know we can delay it, if needed.
The more I think of it, the more it seems that going Empyrean -> CoE could work. The needed techs are similar and both religions have nice bonuses for the Hippus. Do we need tor evolt to Empyrean to build Rathas or only have religion in the city? If latter is the case, we would be in an awesome position, because EitB counts CoE followers as if they had no religions, so we would be able to build the Rathas (just checked, Rathas need Empy as a state religion, unfortunately).
Welcome aboard Ranamar. We Ride to Ruin, and the World's Ending.
Already an aha-moment, I forgot them chariots can use metal weapons. I will get catapults before too long, so will have siege workshop to make some chariots too. Even vanilla they will be my strongest unit before stirrups, but BW is probably on the list before too long, as the first city I found southwards from start will probably need to clear jungle to really shine. Probably BW before construction, even. Will let me put off stirrups a lil while longer. Maybe after currency/drama-sanitation, whichever I choose. Or after both. HAs have a bit higher retreat chance, and I can upgrade warriors to them (they lose bronze promo I suppose, didn't test).
"I haven't played Hippus much, since I'm usually too busy building mages"
Me too, usually. Singleplayer, play to just mess around and have fun abusing mages. Or lanum with OO. Or being evil. I think I'll need to be reminded every now and then to play to win and stop messing around with all the cool stuff.
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Primepolar's thread is called hexapodal research something.
About getting drama, that is a decent use for the artist. Sanitation means less dependance on Agrar civic too. Religion is a detour, building culture costs 10 hammers for the border pop, saves 30 hammers for monument. I'd sacrifice research for production. But building markets/elder councils instead I get it back. Tricky. I think if I could be guaranteed the GA I should make the effort. But perhaps an elven civ which will found FoL might see a use for one too. If I go (Cal/Min/Edu) Fest/BW/Drama I should probably not get it. Theatres will be +2 happy in consumption + dyes so no waste, but that could wait a bit.
About first turn, I'm really leaning to settle the 1W spot. Nice food, great commerce, and great production. Dunno what would need to be revealed for me to settle elsewhere. Those plains hills are +8 hammers for settler production for me. I'll grow like weed then smoke it.
For city placement, the only problem with 1W is that it's surrounded by hills instead of on one.
Personally, I'd send the warrior onto one of those hills N (probably 1N or 1NW) and look around... the scout probably ought to go on the tower, because that'll show you a bunch, too. (Alternately, on one of the several hills W or S) That should give you a better handle on what all is around you. I think the starting settler bonus will see right over those hills as you walk 1W, too. In any event, its 4 moves gives you a small ability to scout with it before plunking down.
I've been playing around with our hypothesized lategame plan...
Shadowriders look amazing, though I'm just getting to them. Against poisonable enemies, they're at least as good as Knights, even leaving aside their spells. (9 +2 poison + shadow affinity + weapons >= 11/9 + weapons) Rathas upgrade to Knights, too, which could be entertaining.
I actually spent most of the game worshipping Kilmorph, though, because an AI was kind enough to spread it to all my cities. The big problem I had, actually, with doing Empyrean and then Esus is that the beaker space between the two is really small, and I had some bad luck with where the Empyrean holy city was, so I was scrounging for hammers the whole time. (I might overbuild buildings in general, though.) Nox Noctis is still ridiculously powerful, so you should strongly consider getting the Esus founding and then switching to it later when it's convenient. (Humans handle that invisibility better than AIs, though...)
On the other hand, Horselord Rathas are holy terrors. (Shadowriders are, hopefully, unholy terrors. ) Well, really, what it is is that blinding light is very good, especially when you have a stack of units that can spam it. With 4 moves, you can ride up to a stack, blind some of it, maybe take a whack at it, and then run away. Mounted Mercenaries also seem to be pretty good, although they don't spawn with any exp boosts. (none of the AIs seemed to take an interest in currency so I got it easily...)
Finally, you're *really* going to need some sort of collateral, whether it's mobility catapults or sacrificial flanking horses. (Or, at least, I did against the hordes the AI throws at you...) I think the ranking on sacrificial units goes HA>Chariot>Mercenary because of retreat chance. On the other hand, in foreign lands, mercenaries probably fly to the top because they don't cause war weariness. They just also have the lowest base retreat chance. In the endgame, you can have priests of some sort, though -- Ritualists are a classic if we're willing to detour for Ashen Veil, and promoted Empyrean priests work as well. One trick with the priests is that you can upgrade them to Druids, and they won't leave if you switch to Esus. That requires a whole ton of extra beakers, but at least you don't need to research the tech for upgraded priests. (I did it the expedient way: it's available through Arete and Hidden Paths, as well as Fanaticism, so I researched Arete while Kilmorph and came back later. :D) Magnadine's "hire units" ability can also get you (0xp) Catapults in any city, for the endgame.
