Ea R'lyeh Aboleths.

[HoneyBadger]

EA R'lyeh is one of my very favorite nations, but they're also considered one of the weakest and also most difficult to use.

With the new nations being, well, spectacular in ways not even fully defined yet, how would you go about raising the Aboleths nation up to this bar?

Here's kind of what I'm looking for: new units, new summons/spells, greater cohesion, advantages that other nations don't have that would appeal to certain playing styles, new abilities in general that take advantage of the new modding commands we now have access to.

I'm hoping that we can take a close look at this nation and come up with a way to atleast mod it to make it more appealing for MP, because it's too weird and too awesome and too just plain different from every other nation (and that's saying a lot) for it not to be atleast a little bit more popular.

[Jazzepi]

I would take a trip 10 bless with -3 scales across the board.

Jazzepi

[MaxWilson]

The MA Oceania suggestion of an aquatic equivalent to Thetis' Blessing would be nice. Ditto for items like Barrel of Water. Imagine shiny watery globes slinking through the city, with tentacled horrors inside. It would be like something out of old science-fiction, where the invaders are often equated with their life-support equipment (War of the Worlds? City of Gold and Lead?).

-Max

[HoneyBadger]

I think you've got something there, MaxWilson. Suppose they had a summons, that wasn't *technically* a summons, high in the Construction field, that gave you an Aboleth "mech", built around a spawn that grows inside of it. The "mech" might be right along the lines of War of the Worlds-hulking amphibious mechanical towers filled with water, on four strong but spindly metal legs, armed with robotic tentacles tipped with manacle-like claws that hold opponents in place, and a psi-powered lightning field that does damage to an area, over time. They could have a second, more aquadynamic, waterform, something like the squid hunter-seekers in the Matrix.

Considering they'd be built around hyper-intelligent, hyper-evil squidforms, they'd be close enough to Daleks to suit me

[JimMorrison]

Death Ray Squid Tanks !!

Why didn't we see this before, this is the only thing Dom3 needs to become so breathtakingly awesome, that our own sun implodes in riotous glory and splendor.

Oh it will be everything we dreamed it could be, but first we must design the tanks.

Creepy slithering water globes filled with otherworldly invaders, and references to Tripods help make this thread complete. I am so happy right now.


How about a national spell too, maybe make it 2W/1S, that gives a commander air breathing, and flight. It's not true flight, but levitation really, but still..... Gigantic whale-like Aboleths, gliding with silent grace through the sky, rending people's minds with their insane coolness. It would work like Life After Death and Dragon Master and stuff, spells that leave a lasting effect on the caster. I think EA R'lyeh needs that spell more than anyone, as they are just about the least likely aquatic to have any Air magic. There could of course be a higher spell that allows them to bring XX aquatic units with them on land.

[HoneyBadger]

Well naturally death ray squid tanks. That's just logic, son.

And nations don't just have to be about representing historical or mythological cultures, they can also represent memes. Everything from the aforementioned War of the Worlds aliens, and Daleks, to the Borg and the more recent Bioshock "Big Daddies" says that monsters are even more terrifying when they're able to use tools and build machines-just like we are-What's worse, a little green martian, or a little green martian with a ray gun?Especially if they lack the sort of supposed "moral disgust" of coupling their own bodies to those machines.

[Tifone]

Personally, and after that you can definitively stone me alive I just wouldn't like at all this imaginative game of mythology and religions, to become an hybrid with mechs and death rays and laser beams and a Darth Vader summon... surely a mod could be fun, but if you think that this nation needs a little boost in the vanilla too not to be left way behind, maybe we could suggest something more strictly thematic to see if we can positively inspire the devs?

Of course if the devs are ok with the aboleth mech (it reminds me somehow the robot with the talking brain inside that was the bad boy of the ninja turtles ^_^ ) I will surely accept them even in the vanilla, despite now being quite duobtful about this

[chrispedersen]

First, I don't think you should raise EA Ryalla to the same levels as the new nations.

A. Because that would leave a lot of 'old' nations even more inferior. ie., I don't think the new nations should become the standard.

A.2 The theme of Ryalla is mind lords - developing along those lines leads to ...

B. Any game with Ryalla in it - becomes cthulish. Some of us prefer our fantasy without that taint. Ryalla taints two ages already. Thats enough = ).

[chrispedersen]

But if I WERE to make thematic spells or units
I'd like to see assassins that with a hit take control of the subject unit... perhaps turning them into a brain dead zombie (just not undead).

[MaxWilson]

Hmmm, so it would work sort of like a Zamzummite casting Feast For the Dead. The Aboleth disappears and a Mech takes its place.

-Max