Mod: Babilu, Gateway of the Gods

[HoneyBadger]

This is a possible EA Nation mod that is meant to exist as a sort of "flipside" to my Partha Nation. While researching for Partha, I discovered that there was a huge gap where Mesopotamian mythology was concerned. The body of lore was extensively alluded to, and touched on at the fringes by Abyssia, but was nowhere represented in-depth. The problem with that was that Partha isn't meant to exist in such a vaccuum, and to proceed and make progress with Partha, I felt it was necessary to create the proper mythological "environment."

That's the primary purpose of this mod. Secondarily, it's an opportunity to create a third sacred/demonic EA Nation that is unique from either Machaka or Lanka, as well as the other EA Nations in the game. While there are numerous and diverse sacred/demonic recruits, commanders, and summons, the real focus here is on the heroes. Each hero and multihero is designed to either cover a National weakness, or to open up a new opportunity of play.

That's not to say the Nation can't be played with poor Luck scales, or poor scales in general: Babilu comes with strong holiness, troops (demons) that can exist on poor scales, powerful but expensive Pretenders, and ofcourse strong temptation-in the form of lots of Sacreds-to use a Bless strategy. So the choice in the end of whether or not to use good scales may turn out to be a difficult one.

Strengths: Excellent heroes, holiness, sacred units, recruitable Surrush, access to healing.

Weaknesses: Crap PD, recruitable anywhere human troops don't stick around, very Capital-centric, it can be difficult to find commanders to lead your demonic/undead troops.

Magic Sites:

Ishtar Gate: 100 Gold bonus, 1 Earth gem, 3 Blood slaves.
Tower of Babel (site searching ala Agartha), Increases Unrest.
Hanging Gardens (2 Nature gems, increases Growth)
Enki Marshes (increases Growth, allows recruitment of Sirrush)

Recruits:

Ahhazu (demon)

Arad (very cheap enslaved slinger, only fights in 1 battle)
Amtu (soldier armed with hammer, shield, seige bonus, only fights in 1 battle)
Engar (soldier armed with scythe, pillage bonus, only fights in 1 battle)
Sipad (sacred human, armed only with a shepherd's crook, banner, only fights in 1 battle)

Capital Only Recruits:

Nappasu (elite soldiers armed with pikes)
Redu (elite soldiers armed with spear, shield)
Halam (elite calvalry with pillage bonus)
Enkud (elite archers with patrol bonus)
Mandu (elite soldiers armed with battle mace, shield)
Dimme Kur (Demonic charioteer)
Sirrush (Sacred)

Commanders:
Azugal (healer with research bonus)
Lagaru (priest)
Nagiru (scout)
Ensik (chieftain archer with patrol bonus)

Capital Only Commanders:

Lilu (stealthy scout demon, no command ability, stronger in darkness, mistform)
Abigal (priest with holy 1/death 1)
Qadistu (priestess with random water/nature)
Issiak (Priest King Holy 3)
Labasu (sacred demon commander with blood 1)

Summonables:
Bit Ili (immobile sacred monolith with 1 Earth/1Holy)
Gidim (undead)
Labartu (female sacred demon commander armed with scourge, lower body is that of a giant millipede)
Namtaru (sacred demon commander, prevents bad events)
Gallu (etherial, strength-draining sacred demons)
Alu (sacred winged bull demon commander with air 2/earth 2)
Rabisu (stealthy sacred demons)
Edimmu (undead minotaur armed with bronze battleaxe, bronze scale, bronze helm)
Labbu (sacred water demon)
Scorpion Man (identical to Abyssia)

Unique Summons:

Utukkus (powerful sacred demon commanders):

Ayaya (Grandfather)
Tanehu (Lament)
Anungia (Strength)
Ersetu (Earth/Underworld)
Tasgertu (Deception)
Namutu (Derision)
Ahulu (Malice)
Anzillu (Abomination)
Karmu (Ruin)

Huwawa the Terrible (giant sacred demonic SC)

Heroes:

Hammurabi the Bringer of Law
Isum the Glorious Sacrificer (minotaur lord with Blood 3)
Hero-King Gil Gamesh, summons Apkallu (similar to mermidons)
Enkidu the Wildman
King Nebuchadrezzar
Nerigal the Demon Prince (SC sacred demon berserker, armed with lion-headed mace, surrounded by poison cloud,
Fire 3/Blood 2/Death 1)

Multiheroes:
Ilu Limnu (sacred demon commander mounted on fiery chariot)
Sons of Ut Napishtim (immortal sailors)
Lilitu (sacred demon scorpion woman seductress)
King of Elam (undead minotaur lord with superior undead/demon command)
Tablet of the Law (sacred stone with Holy 3/Fire 3)
Annunaki (giant winged sacred demon colossi with random magical powers)

Pretenders:

Merodach (immortal king of the annunaki, armed with lightning, armoured by the Tablets of Destiny)
Nimrud (titan hunter)
Scorpio (SC giant scorpion)
Ereshkigal (demon queen of the underworld)

Special Items: Anbar Blade (meteoric iron) magical blade, armour-piercing, gives 100% shock immunity

[Jack_Trowell]

Is it supposed to be only a preview of a upcoming mod, or did you forget to upload the file ?

[Humakty]

If Honey had had a penny for each frustration he has caused to players, he already would be able to hire a lead programmer to finish his mods !

[Gregstrom]

Sad but true... lots of great ideas, lots of sprites, but ne'er a .dm file.

[HoneyBadger]

Nope, you get no DM file until I get a computer that I can actually play Dom3 on.

Misery loves company.


Please Note: That isn't entirely out of bitterness or spite---all this downtime gives me time to get these Nations correct, in terms of balancing, sprite quality, and the ability to look at all the many clever things other people do, so that I can steal ideas and incorporate them. It also gives me a chance to look at what's going on with CBM, and the game in general.

[Swan]

I think he likes more workin'on mods than finishin' them

[HoneyBadger]

Originally Posted by Swan

I think he likes more workin'on mods than finishin' them

No, I like more playin' them than anything .

Working on them is fun though, and I like very BIG mods, so it just happens to take a long time to finish them, balance and rebalance them, and then refinish them (not that they'd be finished anyway, since I can't playtest.).

I put a lot of research into them, also, so what you see here is only about 1% of all the work and time I'm actually putting into each Mod. I'm basically giving myself degrees in ancient history, midieval history, and world mythology.

You also don't see nearly all the Mod Nations I've come up with. I've got atleast a dozen in the wings--each of which could be fully realized and posted, minus sprites, within a week to a month--that I don't have a good enough reason to show you, due to their not relating closely enough to my posted Nations.

[Quitti]

Ah, few pointers, you probably meant Mictlan instead of Machaka as an EA demon/sacred nation, and is Surrush = Sirrush (s3n3 lizard with head+2misc slots)?

Anyway, I see a small problem with the nation. What if you start with your cap in the middle of a swamp, with access to very little resources around with this nation? Your whole game is pretty much ruined. Also, how does this nation gain research in addition to the cap-only mages? They have only priests/scouts in non-cap forts (in addition to indeps ofc, which generally suck as researchers unless you got magic3 or something).

I don't mean to bash this idea, it's a good one, but those are simply flaws in my opinion that make the nation somewhat... unplayable. I like the idea of capitol-centered nation though, but I've seen that at least in MP they don't really work that well. Being a mod-nation it's not that much of a problem, since they are rarely used in MP games, but there is an occasional game with them in the game.

[HoneyBadger]

Yeah, Mictlan. And just the Sirrush (I can't spell), as an animal, with no casting ability. Infact, I'll probably rename it to "Mushrushu" and play around a bit with the stats, to differentiate the final result.

Bash away! This is a very early Alpha, so there's plenty of more thought and balancing to put into it. I'm happy to have anyone take a real interest in the inner workings of this, or any of my Mods. The more input and constructive criticism I recieve, the better the chances are that this and my other Mods will be enjoyed by more than just myself. I'm all for that.

And you make some good points.

These guys are meant to have a serious research handicap. Is it possible for a unit to research without having any magic? If so, I'll consider giving the Azugals the ability to research and making them non-Cap.

If you end up in the middle of a swamp, you'd probably be better off than a lot of other Nations. Just don't bother recruiting soldiers (it's not really meant to be worth it, anyway, outside of early expansion and special uses), shore up the PD, and put your efforts into researching and summoning. Babilu won't have any extremely heavy resource units, and the Ishtar Gate will have a gold bonus.

For that matter, maybe I'll make these guys lizardmen. Give C'tis some competition. That way, ending up in the middle of a swamp would actually be a good thing.

[Quitti]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

These guys are meant to have a serious research handicap. Is it possible for a unit to research without having any magic? If so, I'll consider giving the Azugals the ability to research and making them non-Cap.

Yes, you can have research without magic paths. I think Arcoscephale has such guys in one era.