Exalted Mod

[Scott Hebert]

Greetings, fellow forumites. This is to announce the start of the Exalted mod for Dominions II. This mod is based off of White Wolf's Exalted setting, and will feature high-powered commanders. If magic items could be modded, I would have all of the artifacts from Exalted in as well, but that will have to wait.

Now, for those that know Exalted, I had a question. Should I base the 'nations' off of the type of Exalt (Terrestrial, Lunar, Solar, etc.), or should I base it off of the actual nations that exist in Exalted (Nexus, Lookshy, Haslanti League, Coral, etc.)? I lean towards the former, because the Celestial Exalted at least would have to be relegated to the status of Hero if the latter approach were taken.

Now, a separate question for everyone, as this pertains to 'balance'. How much would you charge for a FSHH?????? mage? I figure somewhere in the 450-500g range. This would be the 'big draw' of the Solar Twilights.

Some 'basics' for those who may not be familiar with the Exalted setting.

You have the Terrestrial Exalted. These are people who inherit the power of one of the five Elemental Dragons (standard 4 + Wood). The Terrestrial Exalted run the 'Realm'. I figured for the 'Realm' nation, there would be at least five types of Terrestrials, one for each element. Probably 2 in their Element (so a Fire Terrestrial would be Fire-2), one random (with maybe that random restricted to Element), and a Holy 2 priest (all of the Exalted are going to be at least Sacred... and probably at least all level-2 Priests). I would make one Commander for the 'Terrestrial Exalt', but I don't how to restrict a Random-2 to one of the four elements OR Nature. I figure these will run around 150-200g. However much they cost, the other Exalted will run about 3 times that much, because that is about the power ratio in the Exalted setting.

The other Exalted are the Solar Exalted (Chosen of the Sun, really nasty against 'creatures of darkness' and overall badasses), the Lunar Exalted (think glamoured Werewolves, but much stronger), the Sidereal Exalted (Masters of Fate and Martial Arts), and the Abyssal Exalted (deathknights).

Hrm. Well, I'll post up a preliminary mod sometime tomorrow so that you can see where I currently am at, and you can comment on any problems you foresee with it.

Comments appreciated.

Scott

[Slygar]

yikes... a 10 pick mage

Sounds cool though.

[Scott Hebert]

Well, 8-pick + Holy-2 Priest. But rather, yeah. All but the appropriate 'priest' Caste of each type of Exalted will probably only be Sacred, but still, they're supposed to be the most powerful Mages.

Scott

[Duncanish]

First off, the mod sounds damn good. Exalted has turned into my favourite WW setting, since it has nothing to do with the WoD stuff (even though they hinted at it in all the advertisements). I'm also looking forward to see the sprites you use.

Second, I definitely think you should use your first idea, one nation per rather than the different regions. You'd probably end up with several nations with repeat units (like Lookshy and the Realm). A 10-pick mage does sound a bit staggering, but it's also appropriate. I'm a bit conflicted on that part. Also: Sidereals. How are you going to mod the "masters of fate" portion? All having Luck?

[Blitz]

Now, a separate question for everyone, as this pertains to 'balance'. How much would you charge for a FSHH?????? mage? I figure somewhere in the 450-500g range. This would be the 'big draw' of the Solar Twilights.

While such a mage would be easy prey in MP due to magic deul, I would caution you against including such a powerful unit. However, there are guidelines and you can extrapolate to get a rough idea what you should charge for the unit.

Mages, first path
Lvl 1: +30
Lvl 2: +90
Lvl 3: +150

second path
Lvl 1: +20
Lvl 2: +60
Lvl 3: +100

third path
Lvl 1: +10
Lvl 2: +30
Lvl 3: +50

I calculate your unit like this:

Base leader cost = 50 gold
First path - 6 random = 300 points
Second and third paths = 30 points
Priest level 2 = 20 points

So 400 points, 600 if it's sacred... but I'd advise against sucha unit in a mod. Up to you though.

[Tris]

To get the flavour right Exhalted need to be able to deal with TONS of normal troops, without special equipment. I'd suggest lowering the power of all the infantry units, and making those multi-path spell casters powerful fighters as well.

Could easily be an unbalanced mod, but I think it would be fun.

One problem I can see is that Solar exhalts are supposed to be just reemerging, and mainly sneak around because there are just SO many Terrestrial Exalts that known Solars are hunted (just not as much as they used to be).