CBM 1.95 released
 

Well, it's been quite a while since 1.94 was released, and dom4 is coming up very soon. But I wanted to make another version with all the changes I had planned before starting to think about dom4.

This may be the almost-last version of CBM for dominions 3, but as always bug reports are very gratefully received. I would like to get dom3's CBM relatively bugless before moving on.

Epic changelog (download at the bottom):

Change to scales:
- Production scale now only gives 2% to income (was 3%), but gives 20% resource boost (was 15%).

All eras Pangaea:
- All centaurs now count as mounted units, bringing their encumbrance in line with the cavalry of other nations (they were heavily penalised).
- Harpies gained +2 attack. They will have some ability to hurt unarmored units.

LA Pangaea - significant changes for a previously weak nation with limited options:
- Benefit from harpy and centaur changes.
- Able to recruit Satyr Warrior (same as EA), giving them a light unit with a shield.
- Grove Guard are now sacred, cap only, and have map move 2.
- Keeper of Traditions gained H1, cost increased to 70 (from 60).
- Pans gained an extra 50% random.
- Panic Apostate's random increased from 10% to 25%.
- Black Dryad cost reduced to 120 (from 150).
- Carrion Centaur cost reduced to 8 gems (from 10).
- Carrion Woods now costs only 30 gems for LA Pan (was 50).

MA Oceania:
- Ichtycentaur landshapes now count as mounted units, consistent with the Pangaean centaurs.
- After some consideration, ichtycentaur seashapes are also now mounted units.
- Trident Knight gold cost reduced to 80 (from 100).
- Trident Lord gold cost reduced to 90 (from 130!).
- Sirens and Mermages given a 10% AWEN random.
- Biggest change: Mermages no longer lost a level of water magic on land. I was reluctant to make this change, but in practice it just wasn't very fun, and oddly made Oceania quite a weak water nation once on land.

EA Oceania:
- Share changes to Mermages (no loss of water magic on land, gained 10% random).
- Triton Queen (high level summon) became significantly more magically powerful, and also slightly cheaper to summon (45 gems down from 55).

Other national changes:
- Summon Gandharvas to 14 gems (was 18), research level 4 (was 5)
- T'ien Ch'i's mounted horsemen still had poor precision, while other nations' had been improved. Fixed.
- Sauromatia's Androphag encumbrance increased to 5 - the previous value of 3 looks like a bug. Cost reduced to 50 (from 60) to compensate.
- Eriu's Sidhe Lords had the powerful Golden Lance with the False Fetters effect. They now have a Golden Spear, and the Lance is reserved for Tuatha (consistent with EA).

LA Pythium:
- Several new national spells for the Serpent Cult.
- Slight cost increases for Serpent Acolyte and Serpent Priest to reflect their new powers.

MA Marignon:
- A number of new Holy spells, themed along the concept of Cleansing Fire.
- All Marignon's priests automatically gain the "Inner Sun" effect (as soon as they see battle). Undead strike down Marignon's priests at their peril.
- Gold costs of Knight of the Chalice, Paladin and Inquisitor all slightly decreased.

Angel summons:
- For Marignon, Angelic Host and Heavenly Wrath cost fire gems instead of pearls. The spells are unchanged for Pythium.
- Angelic Host and Heavenly Wrath are somewhat cheaper. Heavenly Choir is much cheaper (144 gems -> 80).

Changes inspired by Calahan's CBM1.94 version:
- Arcane Nexus cost further increased to 250 gems (was 200).
- Burden of Time cost increased to 100 gems (was 70).
- Astral Corruption path level increased to B8.
- Forge of the Ancients cost increased to 120 gems.
- Crystal Shield is now E2S2 (was E1S1).
- King of Banefires costs 40 gems (was still 50, out of line with other elemental royalty).

Tartarians etc:
- "Shattered Soul" reduced to 10% (was 20%). People don't seem to find it fun, and Tartarians are more rarely used now anyway.
- "Restore Soul" cost reduced to 10 gems (was 20)
- Tartarian Gate cost increased back to 10 gems (was 8)

Some summoning spell cost reductions:
- Ether Gate to 55 pearls (was 70)
- Troll King's Court and Sea King's Court to 45 gems (were 50)
- Call of the Wild to 12 gems (was 15)
- Summon Draconians to 25 gems (was 35)

Pretender changes:
- Father of Winters cost reduced to 75 points (from 100).
- Allfather cost dramatically reduced to 50 points (from 125). Minor hp increase to 90 (from 82).
- Son of Fenrir made actually good at fighting. Gained some hp, attack skill and a "Claws" attack. Cost increase to 50 (was 25).
- Lord of Storms automatically casts Storm on land.

Misc changes:
- Torgrin's Armada (from Ghost Ship Armada) got a major overhaul. New sprites (with huge thanks to Executor), a new kind of buccaneer with a crossbow, and most importantly all damned buccaneers are now ethereal. It is a ghost ship armada after all.
- Bogus' Greenstone Armor is now a genuinely powerful item (prot 24, def -2, enc 2). However there' still not much I can do for Precious until dom4.
- "Quickness" now has range 1 in line with spells like Aim and Body Ethereal, for easier scripting.
- Blink is now an S2 spell (was S1) to prevent silly casting by S1 mages.
- "Bind Scorpion Beast" now summons two Scorpion Beasts, at double the cost. Name and description changed accordingly.

Minor changes:
- "Wayward Star" spell for Marverni now has similar protection to other kill-caster spells to prevent abuse by immortal casters.
- The Hinnom hero Ezekiel holds the Staff of Storms. It now causes storms as expected.
- Behemoth now has hidden magic of D1 (only discoverable if you use Restore Soul on one).
- Long Spear does +1 damage.
- Limne "Queen of Water" got swamp survival, since she turns battlefields into quagmires.
- Lord of the Forest's domsummons toned down a little.
- Ziz research level reduced to 4 (was 6).
- Abysia's Summon Scorpion Man spell reduced to Conjuration 6 (was 8) and made to summon a commander rather than a troop. This brings it in line with C'tis' version (a previous version of CBM accidentally changed one but not the other).
- Tartarian Monstrum's weapons made to match those of the Manticore, giving him an extra bite and another claw.
- Monster Fish made female, on biological grounds.
- Forge Lord restored to an epic forge bonus of 50%. But costs 125 points (up from 75, same as vanilla).
- Bone Melter changed to W2N2 (was W3N2).

Bug fixes (to CBM or dom3):
- Catoblepas turns out to have always had very little movement (mm 1, ap 6). Now has mm 3, ap 18.
- The new C'tis scout accidentally had leadership 40. Now set to zero.
- Barathrus wasn't blind as intended (his weapon was!).
- Hierodules tagged as "female".
- Son of the Fallen had a magic paths error.
- Kelp Ogres were size 2; changed to size 3.
- One LA Caelum hero was bugged.
- Fixed bug with Green Dragon's dominion (was listed as 1 but acted as 2)
- Fixed some issues with EA & MA Oceanian heroes.
- The descriptions for "Darkness" and Bogarus' "Summon Zmey" had accidentally been overwritten; fixed.
- LA Atlantis hero The Thawed One given H3 (was H2), in line with his description.
- Fixed bug with MA Mictlan's starting army soldiers having mapmove 1.
- Fixed a couple of bugs with Pyriphlogos' second shape: his heat aura was a bit wrong, and in weird situations he could turn communion slaves into copies of himself!