Re: Here there be dragons!
 

I'd hesitate to focus to much on new animal summons, at least as a way to boost Oceania. They may be cool, but with animal MR, they'd only be useful in the early game and not against R'lyeh even then.

I do like the giant fossil ammonites. But then ammonites are just neat.

Re: Here there be dragons!
 

"In Babylonian myths, Tiamat is a huge, bloated female dragon that personifies the saltwater ocean, the water of Chaos. She is also the primordial mother of all that exists, including the gods themselves. Her consort is Apsu, the personification of the freshwater abyss that lies beneath the Earth. From their union, saltwater with freshwater, the first pair of gods were born. They are Lachmu and Lachamu, parents of Ansar and Kisar, grandparents of Anu and Ea.

In the creation epic Enuma elish, written around 2000 BCE, their descendants started to irritate Tiamat and Apsu so they decided to kill their offspring. Ea discovered their plans and he managed to kill Apsu while the latter was asleep. Tiamat flew into a rage when she learned about Apsu's death and wanted to avenge her husband. She created an army of monstrous creatures, which was to be led by her new consort Kingu, who is also her son. Eventually, Tiamat was defeated by the young god Marduk, who was born in the deep freshwater sea. "

I was thinking along the lines of wrathful seas that Tiamat is the logical angle to extend MA Oceana thematically, being the goddess of chaos and saltwater and already referenced in the game. Probably too powerful to be directly summoned, but she's also famous for creating a hoard of monsters.

"Meanwhile, Tiamat created monster serpents as her invincible weapons. She filled their bodies with venom instead of blood and gave them sharp teeth and long fangs. She fashioned terrifying dragons and crowned them with halos like the gods, so that anyone who looked upon them would perish from fright. Once the serpents stood upright, no one would be able to stand against them. She created eleven monsters in all: the viper, the dragon, the sphinx, the great lion, the mad dog, the scorpion-man, three might storm demons, the dragonfly, and the centaur."

Re: Here there be dragons!
 

I was thinking along the lines of wrathful seas that Tiamat is the logical angle to extend MA Oceana thematically, being the goddess of chaos and saltwater and already referenced in the game. Probably too powerful to be directly summoned, but she's also famous for creating a hoard of monsters.

Re: Here there be dragons!
 

Well she could maybe be a well-fitting national Pretender http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif if the Raging Sea theme finds its way to the light of the sun

Re: Here there be dragons!
 

There are also more water nymphs that aren't currently in Dominions. Technically naiads are river nymphs, whereas nereids are sea nymphs, and oceanids are ocean nymphs. I'm not sure if they provide any gameplay benefits to Oceania and their plight, but perhaps they could provide path diversity but be relegated to water provinces and deep sea provinces respectively.

Re: Here there be dragons!
 

Considering Tiamat - yes, she would be a fitting Pretender (or unique summon in any case)... but this wouldn't fix the general problem. Storm demons may be better - especially as there is no Air+Blood summonable commanders. But here we should also the way to summon them, i.e., Blood mages for Oceania to get (and it can't blood hunt uder the waves in any case).
Considering animals' low MR - at least Orcas could well have MR on par with humans - they are very clever guys! The same could go for Kraken mages... And corall-based monsters can have higher MR for being decentralized organisms with just no central brain/soul to affect with spells/mind blasts/dominations. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif
About water nymphs - yes, there were a lot of them. We also shouldn't forget Nerejos himself - father of one kind of those - who was a shapeshifter and almost could wrestle Heracles to stalemate. And Achilles himself was a sone of one of water nymphs! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif So it seems we can have an opportunity to include some real thugs here...

Re: Here there be dragons!
 

Nah, there are several demons in the game who are summoned with gems rather than blood slaves (mostly national summons). A sea storm demon would make sense to be summoned with W/A, and wouldn't necessarily need to be a commander.

Orca aren't any significant amount smarter than elephants, kinda breaks the paradigm to give them higher MR. Doesn't mean it couldn't be cool, how about a remote attack spell like call of the wild? I don't see orca being frontline soldiers going toe to toe with heavily armed armies in any case, but perhaps stealthy raiders.


Haha, I think I've talked myself into doing a mod nation. Lets see if I can figure out this modding stuff.

Re: Here there be dragons!
 

I have just one word:
JELLYFISH!

Re: Here there be dragons!
 

Many good ideas, but it is laughable that Oceania should get crocs, when MA Ctis does not even have Gators in its swamps.

Swamps are loaded with gators, Oceans are not inudated with crocs.

I see no reason that Oceania has to lose magic when their mages leave the water. Maybe gain air, and lose water. But they really cannot afford to have their mages just get weaker.

One thing Baalz did not do in Kingmaker, to my knowledge, is take a bless with his sacred troops. Maybe the knights can be tweaked to make them a better bless troop.

That may be the easiest fix of all. make the sacreds a bit better, and have their mages gain air, and lose water, rather than just lose magic on land.

Re: Here there be dragons!
 

Hi, new to game so I haven't played Oceania yet....but do they have any good siege units? First thing this topic made me think of was big narwhal-like beasts that would employ their drill-like horns to get a siege bonus.