Recommend a Mod or Two
 

I am only a casual player but whenever I visit this forum I am overwhelmed by the choice of Mods available. I use Streamers and Standards mod in the games I play but I haven't tried any others. In other games the mods often have a rating system but I can't find one for the Dom3 mods.

So first question, is there a rating system for the mods?

Second question, are there any 'must have' mods that would suit the casual gamer?

Thanks in advance

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

Well...the casual gamer, first of all, would likely have enough content with the unmodded Dominions to last a lifetime. I personally recommend *not* going casual. This isn't really the game for that. There's too much to learn, and do, and-for me anyway-too much joy in the learning and doing-to take the game lightly.

That aside, I'd recommend the CBM mod-it's shaping up very nicely-as well as any of the terrific Warhammer mods that have come out. They look nice and are pretty straight-forward to understand and use, and they're based on a fantasy wargame that has been aged like fine wine for decades.

They'll give you an idea of the quality of mods out there, and what can be done graphically and thematically, and maybe inspire you to get a little deeper down the rabbit-hole. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

For nation mods, I would especially recommend Sombre's - Skaven, Ulm Reborn and Vaettiheim especially, though all of his are most excellent. I would also recommend my Tomb Kings (linked in my sig)!

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

If you play a lot of single player games and are tired of the AI throwing humongous hordes of completely useless independent chaff like militia at you, I recommend the Better Indepedents mod. Version 2 can be found from the link in my sig.

Some nations also become a lot more dangerous with that mod enabled, because their very good baseline troops have costs close to the disabled units, so they get preference and it shows.

The BI mod is not compatible with other mods that modify the same units, because the final results of what gets modified and how depend on mod loading order.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

I would normally suggest using the Conceptual Balance Mod as soon as you feel comfortable, because it does a huge amount to rebalance dom3 and make various strategies which aren't optimal in basegame far less punishing on the player using them. It reduces the cost of many lower level summons for example, which are otherwise something of a waste of gems.

But if you don't want to go changing too much at once, I think it's probably not the right mod for you. It isn't a Total Conversion or anything, but CBM does make a LOT of minor/major tweaks and changes and that has historically caused some confusion amongst players used to basegame.

I won't suggest my own mods because I'm obviously biased there. These are mods which I feel will give a good impression to someone new to modding though: (Edited because I forgot a couple)

Alugra by Burnsaber
Tomb Kings by llamabeast
Teutanion, Sylvania, Sanguinia, Kharam Dzu by Zepath
Haida Gwaii by Foodstamp
Gaea by Foodstamp
Urdheim by Saulot

Amos' mod nations are generally interesting and different, but not balanced to be played with basegame nations. They're worth a look though for sure.

You can find links to download all of them in the modlist. There are other good mods, such as Hesalt, but they need more work before competing with the above.

We don't have a rating system or a list of the 'must have' mods for a few reasons. Firstly we don't have enough people playing the mods and being vocal about them for a rating system by vote to actually work afaik. It also seems some modders/members don't want a rating system because they don't think it's fair/valid to rate one person's work against anothers. I don't fall into this camp, but plenty of people do. It's also very hard to get people to agree on what constitutes a good mod - shiny graphics tend to attract people, but a mod could have bugs, balance issues, lack of depth etc. Alternatively some people just won't like the theme of a mod or will consider it derivative and thus pointless.

Personally I'd love a rating system, but given people's reactions to the idea and the level of mod feedback in general, I don't think it would work out.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

I can speak, because none of the mods are mine. I've been playing games for the past 2 months with all the mods listed. (On a few I switched eras, just to use them, and I've had to make some other adjustments in nation and unit numbers. They are not all compatable as downloaded.)

Modmakers, forgive the spelling, I'm doing this off the top of my head:

Avernium
Arga Dis
Desdardes
Tomb Kings
Ulm Reborn
Kobald
Skaven
Urdheim

I am also using better independents, modified by me to allow commanders at normal gold/resources, the all era mod and my own (terribly unbalanced) Engineer mod.

All of the above mods are very good, both to play and all are strong AI players.

I'm trying to slip the dwarf mod in also, (love the machinery) but there are way too many ID conflicts right now for me to try and address. Mainly, because my larger half's computer died and she is using my computer and the "what-appeared-to-her-as-clutter" organizational system I use inspired her to reorganize my desk. I cannot find my master list of ID numbers and need to slog through each mod manually because I altered many numbers because of conflicts.

I don't recommend a mod rating system. There are just enough *******s out there so that someone will disparge a mod. Then some great, selfless mod maker will get pissed off and stop submitting mods and we will all lose.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

In nation mods, my favorite for games with vanilla nations too are Zepath's ones.

For modded nations against modded nations, try warhammer ones, or Amos mods (balanced against his other nations only).

And avoid mine (Greyhawk mod was a too big project, and current version is a mess with lots of unbalances, unfinished national pretenders and some id conflicts I can't find the courage to fix).

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

I changed the balance in my mods so many times that you could try my nations against vanilla nations and find them balanced.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

A mod no one mentioned yet, despite being so popular that most MP games started on this forum use it, is the worthy heroes mod. (it is incorporated in the new versions of CBM too though)

It's a beautiful little mod adding or improving the heroes of many nations. It doesn't dramatically change playstyles, but it's a worthy addition it in my opinion.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

Does the BI Mod work with CBM MOd and Worthy Heroes Mod?

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

Wow! Thanks for the great feedback.

I take your point, HoneyBadger, that the vanilla game has enough variation for the casual gamer and that there is a lot to learn. And as has also been mentioned, the mods tweak and expand the game-play without dramatically changing the feel of the game. In many other games mods change game-play so much it is like playing something completely different - which I didn't want.

I'll certainly try BI and CBM, along with some of the new races.

Regarding the rating system, I suppose all that would be required would be an indication in the lists of whether the mod is in Alpha, Beta, or Stable.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

I think most mods are basically in beta. Some haven't received changes in forever and can be considered finished in that sense, though that doesn't mean they couldn't benefit from tweaking. The author does usually indicate in the thread if the mod is underdeveloped or has missing content, little balance testing etc

I still plan to update even my oldest mods though. Avernum got an update not so long ago for example.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

Out of Sombre's mods I really like Arga Dis, because it has that "Sparta" feel to it.

Recently I played against someone who was using Skaven, I got to see the nation in quite a few battles and it looked like ALOT of fun, so I would recommend it as well.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

By the way, I don't recommend my own mod for casual gamers. It's not finished, the graphics are horrible, and there's a high learning curve.

That said-I very much do encourage you to consider at some point making your own mod. It's a great way to get involved in the creative process, it's fun, and it's really, really difficult and frustrating to do!-um *cough* ...by which I mean, if you can do that, you can do anything, yeah!

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

It works with Worthy Heroes. It does not work with CBM unless it loads last, because the CBM modifies many of the same units and only the last modifications are counted if two mods mod the same variable.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

Oh, I like Arga Dis a lot too! Forgot that one somehow. It's most awesome.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

Arga Dis is one of my favorite. Great background, good units, interesting heroes and good balance. Perfect.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

Since Arga Dis is getting some love, I'll make it my next older mod to update. I was thinking of giving it some blood summon satyrs and a blood summon satyr shaman.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

I tried a game as the Skaven yesterday but none of the core units had priest levels or magic levels. Is this right? Once I created the prophet he had priest levels and I assume I need to use my god and pretender to develop other lands with temples and labs before I can really start researching. The description mentioned that the race had certain magic leanings so I was expecting a few of the commanders to be mages.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

It sounds like you've run into the new 3.17 bug where if you have several mod nations enabled the last ones to be loaded can lack magic levels on their commanders.

If you play with less mods enabled it should work as intended.

This will be fixed for the next patch by IW I believe.

Re: Recommend a Mod or Two
 

Thanks Sombre, that fixed it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif