Conceptual Content Mod

[Sombre]

So I was talking to QM the other day about a mod project that I�ve been considering for a while and he�d been thinking about a similar thing. While I enjoy bringing entirely new nations to dom3 and will continue to do so (currently working on lizardmen) I also love the basegame nations and often feel like adding stuff to them, particularly when using a nation that has a very short recruitment list or a glaring lack of national summons.

My original thought was to produce a mod which added exactly 1 national spell and 1 new recruitable unit to each nation, ensuring that this new content was thematically on point and if possible gave the race a new strategy (so a niche unit or spell) or helped balance it a bit. I also wanted to avoid replacing anything currently used by the nation � so no flat out better infantry, no atavi longbows, no pale ones with more suitable weapons and shields,� nothing like that. Instead I might give Jomon a battlefield Koga Ninja troop, or Machaka a pygmy with animal awe for elephant killing duty, or a DN vine based entangle spell that also poisons or causes fear for LA Pangaea.

I like this idea of 1 unit and 1 spell for each nation. It gives a clear goal and everyone can tell fairly easily what�s been added. But on the other hand it�s clear that some basegame nations have plenty of content while others are rather bare � particularly those with no national spells whatsoever. So while I think 1 unit and 1 spell would be a nice minimum to aim for, clearly some nations could use more love than others.

I think a good idea to start would be just looking at the MA nations. At this stage I want to plan things out a bit so I thought I�d get feedback from you fine folks. Any great ideas for content? Which nations need it most? Which have a glaring lack of something?

QM and I agreed that while some national spells could be summons, it might actually be more interesting to add new combat spells rather than rituals, because non-summon national spells are a bit rarer in basegame.

[Zeldor]

I think every nation should get maybe a national SC, like Iron Angel for Ulm, Angels for Pythium/Mari, Tlalocs and demons for Mictlan...

Every nation could get more summons. National summons are really cool. I suppose it will be small project first and it will get incorporated into CBM later, like WH?

Oh, I could work on summons for T'ien Ch'i, probably all ages. My favourite nations and I like Chinese mythology :0

[Sombre]

Tienchi actually already has quite a lot of content, especially in terms of national summons. I would make sure it got the minimum 1 unit 1 spell though.

As for making SCs, well the problem there is that they're major features of the nation and quite hard to balance. They're also usually pretty big projects to actually make. I'm not saying I won't do them though. They certainly provide a lot of scope for theme and fun factor.

[Zeldor]

We could add many magic/holy spells. For example Holy Light [H+F] giving darkvision 50 [or at least 25] to entire army.

MA TC has some crappy summons [for example that Huli Jing]. Maybe they got better with CBM, but vanilla ones are utter crap. I hope summons here do not become like that. And if that mods is for vanilla and we make lower level summons good [especially compared to other ones] it may be really strange. So adding summonable mages/SCs may be easier to balance for standalone mod, not a part of CBM.

I can sit with encyclopedy of mythology and find summons for many nations, I guess Though someone else would have to do stats.

[Endoperez]

What does Huli Jing summon, again? Shapechanging Nature mage or something?

[Zeldor]

Shapechanging [into fox] stealthy mage.

P.S. Done some tests - it seems it has some decent randoms. Tested with CBM but I doubt QM changed that. Seems that 3N is basic. I have no idea what other randoms are, but I got things like just 3N; 3N2W2A; 3N1W2S; 3N1A1E. IT doesn't really help or fit TC really though.

[cleveland]

Of the extensive list of nations I've played in MP (4), I found that MA Man had the most room for improvement.

MA Man has a pretty predictable strategy: recruit longbows & research Wind Guide. Its national summons included a bunch of unthematic death hounds, or some such nonsense.

As it stands, MA Man has only limited access to Water: capital-only Crones get a 26% shot at W1 and a 0.6% chance at W2. Summoning Naiads is an option, but they'd first need Const6 (for the W boosters), Conj5, and 35W gems...not very likely for a nation beelining for Alt5; plus Naiads aren't really combat-mages, as they lose HP & get afflictions when away from home.

I propose a Naiad-like summon for MA Man. It would be less magically powerful than the Conj5 Naiad (maybe W2N1), but won't lose HP on the move. It'll give Man Quickness for their longbows, open Voice of Aspu/Tiamet, provide a viable path into Water magic, and fit nicely into the King Arthur theme (Lady of the Lake).

Placing it in the Enchantment tree will give the player something to think about: Is Wind Guide now my only option?...Can I make Gift of Flight Work?...Cloud Trapeze? And the mod fulfills it's purpose.


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Initial design thoughts:

"Lady of the Lake" (or "Mother of the Lake," "Naiad of Avalon," "Lady of Avalon Lake," "Daughter of...etc")

W2N1 mage, 40 leadership, amphibian, Awe+0

Requires N3W1 to summon (Edit: making it castable by 27% of Crones), 20N gems, maybe Ench4?

[Dedas]

cleveland said:
MA Man has a pretty predictable strategy: recruit longbows & research Wind Guide. It's national summons included a bunch of unthematic death hounds, or some such nonsense.

Read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dog_%28ghost%29

And do you remember this old jewel?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hou...e_Baskervilles

[cleveland]

Wow, I suppose that makes a lot more sense.

BUT, MA Man needs to take a Death pretender to access those summons on any relevant timescale. I've never seen them in action (Black Dogs & Barghests) so I can't comment if they're worth building a Pretender around.

[Zeldor]

I really don't like the whole concept of national spell not castable by national mages, even with a lot of boosters.

I hope Xietor will give MA Man to Kristoffer in mega-game so we can get that nation fixed after all. They are nice early but when mid-game starts they suck. Against almost everyone.

There should be also smth done with total domination of astral races. Especially over races that have absolutely no astral mages. But that is not for that mod.