So what is the deal about FFH II?

[Theben]

Played FFH, it was alright. Saw the thread at CFC and looked interesting. But some people act as though it's the ****. What all does it add as a mod? Do you like it?

[jbp26]

it adds.... quite a lot. every civ plays completely differently. its not just different perks or strategy, but fundamental differences. not to mention units and buildings. theres dozens of new units, divergent tech paths (its basically impossible, by design, to research the whole tree, so you have to commit to just certain paths), custom art and music, new promotions, hero units, magic.. i can't really describe it all here. my only complaint is that the few times i played it, the programming of the AI hasn't been able to keep up with the addition of new content. so its kind of easy.

[Seedle]

FfH is really, really good. I'd say the most impactful thing it adds is play variance. Playing as an elven civ and playing as say, the Sheiam is just completely different. And it does a good job of allowing multiple ways to achieve one end. For instance, how can you get an army in BtS? You can build it with hammers, or you can whip it, or, very late game, you can buy it, slowly and expensively. In FfH, you can build it with hammers (but will you use Arete or Military State to boost production?,) you can use food (teh whip or conquest civic though?,) you can sacrifice captured slaves, or you can use the Guild of the Nine, which is much more efficient in both coins and turns than Universal Suffrage. Or, if you are the Sheiam, you can just build Planar Gates and get units for free. Or you can capture (the much more powerful) animal units and use them (City Raider 3 Bears! Stephen Colbert, cower in fear!) And that's just scratching the surface of one aspect of the mod. It's so deep, you really have to spend several games with it just to realize how much is there.

Also: Somnium. I mean, WTF? Sure it's a simple game, but still, a multi-player functional mini-game? Didn't see that coming...

edit: I agree about the AI not keeping up with game changes. You have to really play a harder difficulty than you are used to, I think. They're supposed to be working on it, let's hope they can do good work.

[ColdPhoenix]

Yeah, the variety in the game is what does it. All the stuff mentioned above but also the religions are very different from each other. There are also special scripted events and items. They may have more now but there's a barbarian unit (some really hard orc) that appears and goes around terrorising the civs. He's got an axe that makes him tougher and if you kill him you get his axe and can give it to one of your units (and it can be taken off you if the unit holding it is killed), I think it gives additional strength to the unit holding it. Also a dragon appears at some stage and if you kill it you can get it's hoard to bring back to a city which will generate additional gold for the city. Also fire spreads and burns down forests.

[MoonWolf]

FfH is IMO a new game based on the Civ engine. It's incredible. That's the only Civ-version/ mod I've been playing the last few weeks and I have so much to learn there. The makers must have done some real, deep programming to get all that stuff working. And thinking that the current version i 0.30 patch f, I can't wait untill it's finish (if it ever will be).

Some civs in there are only availble when you build a certain wonder or research a certain tech. One civ, Kuro[something], can only build a few cities (4 on a large map), but their cities have a range of 3 meaning their BFC is one level bigger! The additional cities beyond max, is only settlements with only the first 9 squares available, don't cost anything and don't produce anything; their only for resource gathering.

I haven't played any evil civ yet (but will next time) as I'm not sure how my production will keep up when all my land is in hellfire. When things are going more and more bad, an armageddon counter increases and the higher it gets, the more evil the world turns. And Hell spread with fire.

FfH is definetily worth a try, but you should play a few games before you give it a final verdict. Just forget a lot of your usual playstyle. And stay small but strong in the beginning, barbs are on a different level here and you have no great wall (unless you are playing a civ with the Barbarian trait; they start with peace with the barbs )

[jbp26]

[SIZE=1]
edit: I agree about the AI not keeping up with game changes. You have to really play a harder difficulty than you are used to, I think. They're supposed to be working on it, let's hope they can do good work.

just played it again this weekend, latest version (.34 i think) and the AI is vastly improved. its not perfect, but much better. on the other hand, the wait between turns is has gotten brutal.

[MoonWolf]

Didn't see it was a new version there, thanks

One thing more: The Kuriotates (those guys with the large, but few cities) have an awesome hero; a big badass dragon Lot's of cool units in this mod!

[Seedle]

Originally posted by jbp26


just played it again this weekend, latest version (.34 i think) and the AI is vastly improved. its not perfect, but much better. on the other hand, the wait between turns is has gotten brutal.

Oh, the AI has gotten better as development has proceeded. Still, I feel comfortable on Noble with standard BtS, but with FfH, the AI has never even come close to being a threat, and I have Aggressive AI and no AI building requirements on. I think it has something to do with the fact I play marathon, when you combine FfH's speed tweaking with the speed changes from Marathon, things get out of whack.

[Tattila the Hun]

FFH?

[MoonWolf]

Fall from Heaven

My first FfH-game was on an Earth-like map (based on Tectonics) where everyone was stacked together in what can be compared to Europe, Africa and Asia. That was on noble and I had problems to fight off the evil AIs.

Note that if you install a newer version of FfH, your old savegames load the old version

[jbp26]

Originally posted by Seedle


Oh, the AI has gotten better as development has proceeded. Still, I feel comfortable on Noble with standard BtS, but with FfH, the AI has never even come close to being a threat, and I have Aggressive AI and no AI building requirements on. I think it has something to do with the fact I play marathon, when you combine FfH's speed tweaking with the speed changes from Marathon, things get out of whack.

FFH is so slow as it is, i can't imagine playing it on marathon. i strongly recommend tryign it at normal speed- it plays like epic on regular civ4. i think this makes a big difference.

[Fistleaf]

The final version 0.40 is out. It is virtually a complete new game different from BTS with its own spells, large units (dragons, gods), mana nodes, distinct religions, scenarios and even a decent minigame (I thought only console RPGs include minigames). Impressive, I would consider buying the mod if it was for sale.

[AllRoundGoodEgg]

Sounds like a really well made mod. Has anyone done a thorough mod that 'individualizes' civs with different tech trees, units, buildings etc but for the normal 'real world civs' rather than fantasy ones? I'd really like something to add a new layer to the interest factor once you know all the civs and their features (after all, in Civ IV there are only a few variables - two leader traits, one unit, one building and the starting techs), or even just to add/change around the civs you can play and play against?

And I'd really like it to be a mod that people rave about - so I know implicitly that it's well balanced!

[wodan11]

It's really really REALLY hard to balance different tech trees / units / buildings. Just ask Bizzard; they tried to do it in Starcraft / Warcraft with only 3 civs. And even then, they patched several times with game balance tweaks.

[Wolfshanze]

Originally posted by AllRoundGoodEgg
Has anyone done a thorough mod that 'individualizes' civs with different tech trees, units, buildings etc but for the normal 'real world civs' rather than fantasy ones? I'd really like something to add a new layer to the interest factor once you know all the civs and their features.

And I'd really like it to be a mod that people rave about - so I know implicitly that it's well balanced!

Sounds like you'd be up for the Wolfshanze Mod.

It's a Civ-flavor-mod, combined with some new units in the biggest gap Firaxis left in the game... the Industrial Age... and a few new civs (Austria, Poland & Vietnam).

First, the "flavor mod" aspect makes each and every civ look and feel completely unique... Aztec cities look Aztec... Chinese cities look Chinese... Russian cities look... well... Russian. Same for the units... Germans look German, Japanese look Japanese, etc, etc... the uniforms and equipment are specific to each nation (Germans will fly Messerschmidt fighters, Americans will fly P-38 Lightnings, etc, etc). This "flavor" aspect is covered from the dawn of civilization in 4000 BC right up to the very end of the game in modern times.

As for the Industrial Age enhancements, the Wolfshanze Mod adds units missing from that age... especially coal-fired navies, ocean-going ironclads, pre-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts, WWI units such as early tanks and biplanes.

Gameplay-wise, the game plays the same as it always has... you can still play from 4,000 BC to modern times just like always... tech progression is the same, old strategies still work the same, you just get better looking units, better looking cities, more units to play with in the industrial age, and better naval options.

Here's a video teaser of what you get... if you see it in the movie clip below, you get the equivalent of it in the Wolfshanze Mod... link for the mod is in my sig-line.

Spoiler:

Click Here to see the Wolfshanze Mod Video Introduction

Wolfshanze Mod