[A17] Epic Omega - Fantasy Total Conversion (WIP - Build 13c) [29 Oct 17]

[The-Eroks]

Epic Omega - Fantasy Total Conversion

Chapter 1: Keepers of Time I - Precipice Spearca and The Annuals of Earthen

This mod is a fantasy-themed total conversion that is based on the DnD universe of Epic Omega... from the Infinite Dream to the Ultimate Darkness Device, lead your adventuring party to glory or damnation. Guide your team to stake a claim in the new world and build an empire, explore dungeons and ancient ruins for treasure and fame, or hunt down the fragments of the Godstone and restore The Shattered One to power (or claim that power for yourself)!


Epic Omega is fantasy-themed mod comp which presents RimWorld between as a fantastic megaverse between the Prehistoric Era to the Renaissance Era and beyond into The Age of Steam and High Magic.

New Scenarios and Storytellers. You play as a Fateweaver, a powerful demigod entity whose task is to influence the events of time and space. Your orders come from the elder Fatekeepers. An omen has signaled the coming darkness of a dire prophecy and you must prepare a team of adventurers for the challenge ahead. You venture to Eorth, the prime material plane of The Fallen Goddess, located at the center of the Grand Order multiverse.

Three scenarios await you:

Awoken Adventurers

Four steely-eyed adventurers awaken from The Time Immortal and appear onto Eorth, guided by you, a Fateweaver. Your orders from the Fatekeepers are elusive at best: create a realm in this world and prepare for a disaster unknown. But your orders were issued in haste as there is trouble in The Realm of Fates...Precipice Spearca, First Weapon Master of the Guardian Order, stands accused of crossing The Realm of Fates and murdering the God of Trickery. In her absence, voiders, creatures of nightmare and horror, were allowed to slip into the universe to reap havoc.

The Lost Tribe

You cannot. The words echoed in your mind as you approached the forsaken tribesfolk. Their defeat was self-evident. The reports stated that they came in the night, voiders, horrid aberrations from beyond. Although sometimes these nightmares slip through Heaven's Fence, never have they made it to Eorth. Their old tribe was destroyed by those void creatures and six of them managed to escape.

The Loremaster's Rite

Loremasters are esteemed scholars, warriors, and adventurers. It well known that Loremaster's play an important role in the universe at large, and in particular, within the society of the Tower of Prime. They are selected based on their wisdom and fitness to gather lore in the universe. As a final test and rite, an aspiring Loremaster must enter Eorth alone and return with a new secret. Normally, passage through the Realm of Fates is forbidden to all outsiders, but the role of Loremaster's and their Rite of Secrets is an exception.

New Alignment System. Your characters in EO can be lawful or chaotic, good or evil, or anywhere in between. Not only do their traits effect how they perceive the world, their specific alignment will drive their feels and mood as you respond to the worlds challenges.

New Research Project and Technology Tree. As a baseline, EO features an entirely new Technology Tree. Currently features 320 research projects from the Prehistoric Era to Enlightenment. Future versions will expand into magic, clockpunk, steampunk.

Expanded World. EO includes new animals, creatures, plants, and mineral types. The final version will include many new biomes, worldscapes, dungeons (and dragons!), creatures of all varieties, and numerous factions. Monsters and magical beasts wander the landscape and the most devious seek to crush your settlement.

Medieval and Fantasy Warfare. To Arms! EO includes an entire array of arms and armor, crafting systems, and various industries. Defend your castle with siege weapons and alchemist contraptions or destroy your neighbors with the same. The complete version will include a vast assortment of equipment, arcane and divine magic, steam engines, wondrous machines, and mystical creatures you can persuade to attack your enemies or defend your allies.

Complete Experience. With permission, Epic Omega integrates various mods to create a complete and enhanced playing experience. This gives you a simple, clean, no-hassle experience without the "load order" woes.

More to Come! If there are features, mods, or ideas you want to see included in Epic Omega let me know in the comments or message me. This project's vision is to create a baseline fantasy mod that you can create mods for yourself.

INSPIRATIONS:
Media: Bleach
Gaming: Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 (Thanks WotC!); Caveman to Cosmos (Thanks C2C Team!); Fall From Heaven II and Ashes of Erebus (Thanks Kael!)
Musical: Coheed and Cambria, AFI, Silversun Pickups

COMPATIBILITY:
- It should be compatible with any mod that doesn't rely on original research projects, even though it completely patches the Core folder. The original research projects were simply relabeled, so as an unintended consequence, other mod's assets may be unlocked through some odd prerequisites.  Please try your favorite mod out and let me know!

NOTE: If there is interest, I'll create a mod-modders guide to Epic Omega.

LICENCE:
- Free to use, no credit necessary; but please see the individual licenses of the included mods. Mod components are clearly marked in the individual folders.

Included Mods: These mods are those that have been implemented in one way or another into Epic Omega. No need to download updates or worry about load orders. Key mods are usually upgraded further for better integration into the Epic Omega megauniverse. Used with Permission:

(+) RimBeast by rooki1
(+) Ish's Medieval Mods by IshOfTheWoods
(+) Expanded Traits by TheFlameTouched
(-) Cats! by Fluffy
(+) Medieval Times by Vindar
(+) Ancient Asian Weapons by eatKenny
(+) RimBakery by Ykara
(+) Rimshire Music by Bombadil (see License on mod's page)
(+) Dragons by blaze7736
(+) XtraPlants and Biodiversity by Igabod
(+) Animal Armour by XeoNovaDan
(+) MegaFauna by Spino
(+) Community Fantasy Animals
(+) Dinosauria by Spincrus
(-) More Consumables and Mutagens by AtomicRavioli
(+) Editable Backstories, More Trait Slots, and Pawns Are Capable by dburgdorf

Key:
(.) Assets Used, but majority not implemented
(-) Partial implementation, toward design goals
(+) Full implementation, consistent with design goals

DOWNLOAD:
[A17] Epic Omega WIP Version - Build 13c: [ Google Drive ] [ Dropbox ] (Released: 29 Oct 17)

Installation:
1. Place EO Folder in your mods folder
2. Ensure that is the last item on your load order list

- There are more detailed instructions in the download file -

Errick's Note: Starting to look more like a fantasy mod 

The Latest Lore

The Signatory of Vaults
Extract from The Annuals of Earthen
~ Loremaster Harken, First Counselor of Serenity

...The Vaults, of course, play a major role in the balance of the multiverse. Each can be considered its own universe, in a sense, complete with their own unique laws of physics, magical and divine affinities; major, minor, and pocket planes; and extraordinary denizens. The various individual deities, gods, goddesses, demon lords, arch angels and devils, and multitude of demigods that make up Pantheon of Pantheons reside among The Twelve Vaults. In addition to the vaults, there are several superstructures which account for rest of the multiverse's celestial machinations: Heaven's Fence, which encloses the multiverse and separates it from The Void Infinite; The Realm of Fates, located centrally within the Multiverse, this realm serves as a hub for all energies and is where individual souls begin and end their existence; Eorth, also centrally located within The Multiverse and co-existing parallel to The Realm of Fates, is considered the origin of existence and where the remaining, undiscovered pieces of the Shattered One are located; and finally, the Tower of Prime, which is said to span infinitely tall (or deep, depending on your perspective) and houses The Three Thrones at the furthermost level with The City of Serenity and Chaos at the level before it. The Esteem of Twelve is located at the heart of The City, and includes twelve Prime Deities (one from each vault) and The Grand Prime Deity (usually the most powerful and eldest of deities, chosen from a previous Esteem)...

A Celestial Perspective
Extract from The Annuals of Earthen
~ Loremaster Harken, First Counselor of Serenity

...if one where to awaken as a newborn within one of the various vaults and never learn of the grand design of the multiverse at large, it is likely that they would assume that their existence was unique and vital to the process known as The Celestial Machinations. We know this to be false. If one were to have infinite wisdom, they would know that each vault has a Prime Deity and that Deity holds the dual role of Vault Master and "Leader" to the Esteem of Twelve. As Vault Master, they reign over their respective vault's universe within the confines of The Unspoken (powerful, fundamental rules of the universe--created by The Shattered One before her betrayal). As an Esteem Leader, they collaborate with the Esteem of Twelve to deliberate the fate and rules of the multiverse. Within this celestial order, The Grand Prime offers these deliberations to the Throne Keepers as a fourth check on the balance of celestial power...

Credits:
The-Eroks - Loremaster (Dungeon Master)
CopaKindred - Awoken Adventurer (Writer)
Modraneth - Awoken Adventurer (Writer)
pwndemic - Awoken Adventurer (Play Tester)


Art Credits
The Spriters Resource
Art Modification Resources Thread
Open Game Art

Music Credits:
Vladan Zivanovic - Composer of the delightful music. See Steam Power Studios for Vladan and his wife's other creative endeavors.
Nancy Lorenz - Creator of the Hobbiton Brushhand font. See Nancy's webpage for her other LOTR fan works.
The Last Days Mod Team - Sound effects. An open source mod for Mount and Blade that made their content available for use. See here for more details.

Special Thanks:
- Civilization IV and all those who've contributed that mod scene over the past decade
- The Authors of DnD 3.5
- VBall_Ldy and Rocket

If beauty sits the child's kiss
Of laughter I amend
Can you catch her if she runs?

[The-Eroks]

Who Will You Guide?

You can play a tribal member, an adventurer, or a loremaster. Here a loremaster on their Rite of Secrets sets across the desert with his friendly Furx by his side. Epic Omega has tons of new animals, beasts, magical beasts and monsters of all varieties. Animals and beasts will roam around the area, but not generally bother you. Monsters will attack your settlement in raids or as manhunter packs. Beware!

Many dangers await to be discovered...

Our Loremaster should have taken a sword with him, it's dangerous to go alone!

New Character Stats, Backstories, Traits, Skills, and Scenarios



In Epic Omega, your characters have an Ethos determined by their childhood backstory and a character class determined by their adult backstory. Your ethos determines your alignment, what traits you can generate, and starting skills, and possible character classes. Your character class further refines your traits and skills.

The skill tree has been rebuilt to include ability scores and a few key skills. These skills determine how success your character is at combat, crafting, and various professions.

New Research Tree and Projects

Epic Omega has a diverse research tree that you'll need to progress through while you explore the World of Eorth.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Looks cool, will definitely be keeping an eye on this!

Btw, speaking of Kael, there have been slight hints (not from Kael directly, mind you!) that we may see an update to Fall from Heaven. My opinion, and I don't believe I am alone, is that the mystery 4x game announcement Stardock is going to have this year will be a version based on the Fall From Heaven mod Kael made headed up for Civ4.

Pretty sure it will be on the Nitrous engine (same engine as Ashes of the Singularity) which should improve greatly upon Stardock more recent 4x Fantasy which have all been based on updated versions of the same engine as their somewhat embarrassing Elemental: War of Magic from about 7-8 years ago. Those have all had some major/minor flaws that hopefully will be vastly improved with the usage of Nitrous. It certainly won't hurt the performance! Anyway, gossip/prediction over!

[InterstellarOrbit]

Looks great! 

[SpaceDorf]

Your links do not work

Also if this mod keeps what you promise, you are utterly and totally batshit insane

Keep up the good work.

[The-Eroks]

Your links do not work

Also if this mod keeps what you promise, you are utterly and totally batshit insane

Keep up the good work.

Oh jeez... url tags  That should be fixed now, thank you.

[koni]

I have not really an idea about DnD, but is it necessary to have research projects about inventing language?

[The-Eroks]

Looks cool, will definitely be keeping an eye on this!

Btw, speaking of Kael, there have been slight hints (not from Kael directly, mind you!) that we may see an update to Fall from Heaven. My opinion, and I don't believe I am alone, is that the mystery 4x game announcement Stardock is going to have this year will be a version based on the Fall From Heaven mod Kael made headed up for Civ4.

I hope this is true... although I can't say I would finish EO anytime soon after the release of a Fall From Heave III.

[The-Eroks]

I have not really an idea about DnD, but is it necessary to have research projects about inventing language?

Haha... Yes and No. None of the main civilizations or factions will need to research language, so it's more to illustrate the player's location in time and space. The reason it is there is that lore-wise, any pre-sentient species could happen across a Godstone by chance and be risen into sentience at an accelerated rate as a result. Pre-sentient species in this situation would need to develop language as a foundation for further development and cultural innovation.  C2C is the original source inspiration for the research tree and I want it to be very comprehensive from the prehistoric era into pre-industrial--thus, language.

The early release scenarios will have simple projects such as language enabled at the start, so it wouldn't be a hindrance

[Source]

I like it, this remembers me Final Fantasy.

[Darque]

Mentioning Fall from Heaven II brings back memories of my Civ4 modding days

Anyways, this mod is an interesting concept.  I will look forward to seeing what the final product will look like.

[The-Eroks]

Mentioning Fall from Heaven II brings back memories of my Civ4 modding days

Yep... I really took to RimWorld Modding because of all the xml/python editing experience I accumulated in those days.

Anyways, this mod is an interesting concept.  I will look forward to seeing what the final product will look like.

Thanks! If you have any ideas or features you'd like to see, please let me know. 

[CopaKindred]

Very excited.  Assembling my suggestions here:

1. Find and Replace all instances of Plassteel with Mithral
2. Find and Replace all instances of Vancium with Adamantine
3. Find and Replace all instances of Uranium with Horichalcum
4. Find and Replace all instances of Compacted Steel with Iron Ore

5. Suggestion: Remove the word 'knowledge' from your Knowledge skills?  As Rimworld supports Skills not Stats, and these might get a bit long, simply remove the Knowledge words.  Just an aesthetic issue.  If you want to rename skills (such as Nature) and want better alternatives, just ask.  I have a gift for nomenclature.

6. Arcana, Piety, Religion, Spellcraft:  Whether you want to separate these into their own skills, or combine them up, is a design decision to make NOW. 

7. Skill List: Look into your skill list and determine what skills are fun to play with, and which are overly cumbersome.  One of the best things that Pathfinder did for D&D3.5 was to roll several skills into more tight groups. Move Silently and Hide became Stealth; Listen, Spot, and Search became Perception; Open Locks and Disable Traps became Disable Device.  You're going to want to do much the same with your skills!

*(Craft -) Alchemy: More advanced medicines, grenades?  This skill would be linked to an Alchemy Table Object (see magic table from magic/staffs mod!) in order to create specific subsets of items.
*(Craft -) Art: This is another skill that should probably be left as is.  Use it for sculpture as it stands.
*(Craft -) Carpentry: Building walls and furniture.  Don't worry about Masonry as its own skill!  That's a trap.
*(Craft -) Cooking: Roll your brewing into this.  Anything that makes food of any sort.
*(Craft -) Smithing: I like that this is an option.  Just make sure its all metal things, arms, armor, and accessories.  Don't get overly complex.
*(Craft -) Tailoring: A skill to leave entirely as it is.  No need for Craft - Cobbling.  I've seen mods adding footwear, gloves, socks...  We may wish to stick with the more basic ideas, and simply move 'leg-based enchantments' to the pants slot.  This gives us head, shirt, jacket, armor, pants, plus the 'shield' location from personal shields, all of which are good slots.  Remember that these slots also regulate temperature.  Can't wait to see "Pants of the Winterlands".  XD

I like the rename/definition of ranged/melee attack skills.  Perhaps a change into Might/Strength and Aim/Dexterity to hearken to D&D?  If its possible, you might also be able to change damage mitigation and/or healing with a Constitution 'skill'.  These skills wouldn't be able to be raised outside of magical gear.

Magical Spells: In the exact same way that you can equip bows which rely on your ranged skill, and swords which rely on your melee skill, you should be able to tag and craft Magic Books and Holy Symbols that will allow you to link directly to a characters Spellcraft/Religion/Arcana/Piety skills.  Use the same skills for crafting the symbols and books/scrolls at an altar or library/grimoire, with higher level spells 'skill-locked' in the same way that planting different crops is.  Like grenades, these items could have a limited number or charges.  You might even name them in the traditional fantasy fashion: Lit1 could cast lightning once.  Lit2 could cast it twice.  Fir1 could cast a fireball (rocket launcher much?) once, Fir3 could do it three times before being depleted.  Since characters can only hold a few limited items, they would have to return to their altar/grimoire to re-prepare spells.  There's already a mod that allows you to carry drugs around with you, use that to spec and handle your potions.  Use a Font to make Divine potions, and a Cauldron to make Arcane.

BUGREP: I noticed you have two concentration skills.  Are these planned on being implemented for anything?

[The-Eroks]

Thanks for the great feedback!

1. Find and Replace all instances of Plassteel with Mithral
2. Find and Replace all instances of Vancium with Adamantine
3. Find and Replace all instances of Uranium with Horichalcum
4. Find and Replace all instances of Compacted Steel with Iron Ore

Accepted -- consider it done.

5. Suggestion: Remove the word 'knowledge' from your Knowledge skills?  As Rimworld supports Skills not Stats, and these might get a bit long, simply remove the Knowledge words.  Just an aesthetic issue.  If you want to rename skills (such as Nature) and want better alternatives, just ask.  I have a gift for nomenclature.

7. Skill List: Look into your skill list and determine what skills are fun to play with, and which are overly cumbersome.  One of the best things that Pathfinder did for D&D3.5 was to roll several skills into more tight groups. Move Silently and Hide became Stealth; Listen, Spot, and Search became Perception; Open Locks and Disable Traps became Disable Device.  You're going to want to do much the same with your skills!

I am working on the skills at the moment: what verbiage to use for each and to what extent the skills should represented. I did originally go with the entire DnD 3.5 roster of skills (+99 in total ). Your feedback is inline with the early feedback I'm getting from other sources--99 might be too many.

I am feeling this change as well. I was originally trying to keep the DnD stylization of labeling knowledge, craft, and profession type skills as a CATAGORY - TYPE. But its not visually appealing, the string length seems to be causing some secondary bugs, and again, so many skills doesn't seem like the appropriate design decision here.

Feedback on the nomenclature would be appreciated.

6. Arcana, Piety, Religion, Spellcraft:  Whether you want to separate these into their own skills, or combine them up, is a design decision to make NOW.

Absolutely agree. I think a definite divide between arcana/spellcraft and piety/religion is in order (and later, psionics/psi-craft). However, as noted above, the exact nomenclature isn't set in stone.

The EO lore basically has a place for all of the pantheons, so I am debating between having different alignments of religion represented in skills--or perhaps in other ways. Thoughts?

There is a hard limit on the number of skills that can be displayed without a GUI modification, but no apparent limit on the total number of "invisible" skills. So there is some room to leverage these hidden skills, provably combined with traits, to give characters more flexibility or depth.

I like the rename/definition of ranged/melee attack skills.  Perhaps a change into Might/Strength and Aim/Dexterity to hearken to D&D?  If its possible, you might also be able to change damage mitigation and/or healing with a Constitution 'skill'.  These skills wouldn't be able to be raised outside of magical gear.

Strength and Dexterity are not bad options here. I am hesitant to use ability scores as skill name nomenclature because I feel lacking without the other four abilities. However, it is more inline with the theme than just "Melee" and "Ranged". Also, Melee and Ranged are limited in the scope of what they might apply to (ex: it would be weird to use your ranged attack stat to determine % to dodge; whereas it is natural to use dexterity for ranged attacks and % to dodge).

Magical Spells: In the exact same way that you can equip bows which rely on your ranged skill, and swords which rely on your melee skill, you should be able to tag and craft Magic Books and Holy Symbols that will allow you to link directly to a characters Spellcraft/Religion/Arcana/Piety skills.  Use the same skills for crafting the symbols and books/scrolls at an altar or library/grimoire, with higher level spells 'skill-locked' in the same way that planting different crops is.  Like grenades, these items could have a limited number or charges.  You might even name them in the traditional fantasy fashion: Lit1 could cast lightning once.  Lit2 could cast it twice.  Fir1 could cast a fireball (rocket launcher much?) once, Fir3 could do it three times before being depleted.  Since characters can only hold a few limited items, they would have to return to their altar/grimoire to re-prepare spells.  There's already a mod that allows you to carry drugs around with you, use that to spec and handle your potions.  Use a Font to make Divine potions, and a Cauldron to make Arcane.

Yep.  The early implementation of this will be to soft-replace certain weapons with wands/holy symbols/books/other evokable items to cast (shoot) fireballs (rockets).
One of my implementations was to allow arcane users upgrade their spell books through tiers by "studying". This will be accomplished by building a recipe for the next higher book which required a certain skill level, a book of the previous tier, and some "arcane research" (itself a craftable item). The product would be a more powerful spell book, wand, holy symbol, etc.

Drugs and such will definitely be ported over into potion brewing.

BUGREP: I noticed you have two concentration skills.  Are these planned on being implemented for anything?

At present, if there are two, its definitely copypasta.

[The-Eroks]

Completed initial work of adding every DnD 3.5 skill (+99 in total)... although this list will get whittled down to a more user friendly amount. 

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