Conceptual Balance Series (Mod)

[Graeme Dice]

Turin said:
ok didn�t really think about the extra slots and got the costs wrong too. Still I think the nataraja is somewhat lacking compared to other titan sized pretenders.

Lacking what though? It's only real weakness is that it has only 1 miscellaneous slot, and everything else can be easily made up for with the extra weapons and the base cost of 0.

[Boron]

Graeme Dice said:

Lacking what though? It's only real weakness is that it has only 1 miscellaneous slot, and everything else can be easily made up for with the extra weapons and the base cost of 0.

Yeah makes the natarajas imo a serious option to be wished for in lategame . With 4 arms you can make a combo which has both lifedrain weapon , an - weapon or flamebeau and a shield This way you are a normal SC as well as an Anti-SC

[Zen]

Voila. The Spell portion of the Mod series is complete enough for me to release.

The following post will be a semi-explaination of some of the changes, the reasoning and a few other tidbits.

Find the mod here: www.techno-mage.com/~zen/concepts14.zip or as an attatchment to the post.

For feedback, please use the Pretender God's formula for it, and it's best if you prequalify your feedback with which mod you are giving feedback for (Pretender Gods or Spells).

[Huzurdaddi]

Nicely done Zen. I like a lot of the changes. Kudos.

[Edi]

Zen, a couple of things about the readme: I added the commentary to the beginning you had snipped, because it explains the notation just in case it isn't self-explanatory to everyone. Also, I changed the tab-separation you had used in your additions to single space separations (it's better to use contiguous spaces instead of tabs, or there will be display problems in different text editors), and I switched the national special summon monster modifications to the monster section where all the other monsters reside, so the format of both the readme and the mod file are internally consistent.

I replaced the files into the zip, and the updated ones are attached to this post.

Edi

[Beorne]

A little "thematic" note about CBS-Spells1.4:
For me is not appropriate to give to (981) Dying Treelord some death levels and to take a nature level. Dying Treelords have much experience and big nature power, but in no case they should be attuned to death. They are dying becuse they are very old (thus very experienced) not because they are death liking. Lastly, for me are obviously very appropriate the Forest Survival and NeedNotEat properties for all the TL.
My two cents.
I forgot to thank you for your wonderful support for this wonderful game.

[Zen]

Reasons for:

Celestial Soldier - To allow the Celestial Masters to cast this T'ien Ch'i specific spell without relying on the random system or having your pretender cast this spell.

Celestial Servant - These things are hard to cast in the first place, but are quickly a misuse of Earth gems as the game progresses. Even though you will (probably) not cast them when you get Mechanical Men, Clockworks or any other variety of Earth summons when you can get them, they are efficent with a blessing if you so choose.

Summon Sea Serpent/Cave Drake/Ice Drake/Fire Drake - These spells were not on par with the other reasonable use of gems in the "Summon Wyvern" spell. Now each has been adjusted to not be 'skipped' over and consideration for using these for early armies is a temptation. Inlcuded with this is an increase in Att and AP.

Summon Animals - A blatant misuse of nature gems. Animals in and of themselves are not very attractive, but paying 2 Nature gem per animal is even less attractive.

Summon /Elementals/ - This spell caused alot of contraversy in Dom1, it was also, I feel, nerfed into oblivion. While it does still retain some of it's granduer, the micromanagment of putting gems on casters that will or will not use your gems in the best fashion, even when you script their spells, makes this line of spells either a "Do it in communion or waste alot of gems" mentality that, more often than not, is ignored. I have kept the micromanagement of the one troublesome and most powerful elemental (Air) but I have reduced the micromanagement of all other elementals so that they can be (ab)used without nearly the hassle.

Bane Lord - He was too cheap and too prevalant. He is rarely used for his command ability so his primary role, as a SC he was reevaluated and cost was upgraded to reflect that.

Raven Feast - This was a loss of gems 90% of the time, the new cost is to allow the Raven Feast to have more of a niche use. Note: This also helps out Return of the Raptors in a slight degree.

Contact Harbinger, Angelic Host, Ether Gate - Astral Conjuration Summons have been lowered to reflect their use. I am still unsure if Ether Gate is a real investment, but that is to be determined.

Corpse Candle - See Elementals

Aim - I couldn't increase the AoE or make the caster target himself first, so I just made it accurate enough to hit where the caster wanted it.

Soul Vortex - Due to it's power, generic usefulness and widescope use, it was changed to reflect that. Since those that use this are mostly SC's in a melee fighting role, the gem use doesn't tremendously impact them.

Quickening - It's AoE is only 5. It was reduced from Gem use in order to allow armies more of a punch.

False Horror - Horror Spam still exists, just not in it's previously glorious form. By changing the fatigue I was able to stop low end casters from being able to horror spam, but let high end casters do so if they wish.

Iron Pigs - All the love of being animals with all the cost of earth gems. What's not to avoid? The Pigs are now more magic resistant and cost less per pig. Due to their smaller size and primary attack of oinking and trampling, this is a change that might garner a little interest for those looking for 'wacky' things.

Transformation - Without the real ability to change the forms assumed, chance of feeblemindedness or anything in the nature of the spell, I have changed it's cost so that if you do happen to try it there will not be as much of a loss of investment.

Army of Gold, Army of Lead - This change was in order to give the game more of a "Army with high powered Magic" feel to it. These spells have been made more accessible and less "Out of control pretender only can cast these spells". The gem cost and research level have been lowered as well to allow Armies to play a more significant role with the proper support of battle magic in the late game.

Magic Duel - Not a fix, but this can't really be fixed. Oh well, this increases micromanagment if you want to Mind Duel spam upper astral casters.

Breath of the Dragon - Minor Precision increase. When combined with Eagle eyes, might be semi-accurate.

Wrathful Skies - The big one. Put more in line with the other Battlefield spells. Not all nations can bootstrap up a Battlefield caster now, thus allowing armies to be semi-safer from instakilling. Air primary nations are still nasty with it, however I hope you will see a decline in the wrathing squads.

Bane Fire - A great spell with a huge range. Due to the targeting of the AI and the range of this spell it's rarely accurage. While this doesn't change this at long range, it gives midrange a slight boost and close range SC's should feel the burn while not too many friendly units are fried.

Stream of Life - This is another 'quirky' spell that can have a huge impact or go raw on you. Luckily most SC's have high MR and so it is patently less useful against them with that in account it's precision has been remarkably improved for use against units.

Shimmering Field - With Wrath's increase Shimmering Fields (which is a more devastating spell, but requires more magic) was lowered slightly as well as given a lower gem cost.

Niefel Flames - Modified to be comparable to it's opposite fire spell.

Heal - The fatigue cost was lowered so you might see the AI chose this spell significantly more when near only friendly injured units

Faery Trod - Modified to fit into the "Treelord" theme. See Treelords for more information.

Arrow Fend - Raised a Level in order to give Missile Units a little more shelf-life.

Ward(s) - The Ward spells only provide partial resistance. When gems were required they were rarely cast because of the micromanagment of carrying around extra gems then the magical attack/burn gems tactic that rendered them almost totally useless in the lategame. They are now castable and usable to protect armies at least partially from elements and poison. Expect armies to have a little more umph with proper magical backup.

Relief - The Fatigue change here was to trigger the effect of casting Fatigue for the AI. With the change the AI will have a greater chance to cast Relief without having to create and build special trigger troops to get your caster to cast his spell.

Serpent's Blessing, Storm Warriors, Muspelheim/Niefelheim, Gaea's Blessing - These were lowered in Research in order to provide a quicker counter to the army wrecking battlefield spells. Another change in order to try to make normal or elite armies more attractive and less likely to fall due to poor AI.

Sailors' Death - See Stream of Life

Touch of Madness - Growing Fury is 1 research level up and 1 Nature more. Yet costs the same as Touch of Madness while doing the Entire battlefield. While I can see why Touch of Madness might be more useful in certain situations (Like not wanting your mages to be Berserked, but if you could control where the bugger cast the spell, it'd work even better). Touch of Madness was reduced to allow it's effect to be cast without gem-managment.

Blood Boil - Less Fatigue for one of the only Blood battlefield spells. The AI actually tries to cast it once in a while.

Sabbath Slave/Master - Another effort to reduce micromanagment. Blood shuffling is a very real issue and Blood (from my perspective) is supposed to have the same type of Communion ability as Astral but more of a cost associated with it. I tried changing to straight 99's for fatigue but it didn't really change the dynamic of Sabbath. Sabbath is now twice as fatiguing as Communion but no longer requires you to give each slave and master a slave in order to cast it.

Bind Devil - A slight increase, I doubt you'll see this affect Devil Production at all. However it does make the lower devils slightly more attractive costwise, even if they are not abilitywise.

Hellfire - The only other spell to not require blood slaves to be cast. This might actually see some use as well, watch out!

Bind Ice Devil - Cost raised to be akin to Arch Devils. While already superior in Paths, stats and cost, they are now on equal terms. No more Turn 12 Ice Devils (I hope) and blood investment is more biting requiring more of a decision around them. Ice Devils have also been given an inherent weakness to fire akin to the Arch Devil. I never understood why they didn't have one in the first place. While still probably cast first, at least they share some of the same costs and vulnerabilities as their counterpart the Arch Devils.

Curse of Blood - Same cost as the Devil Commanders. This probably won't stop anyone from 'hoarding' them, but it does make their cost with Summon Allies vs the normal Curse of Blood spell seem in line.

Angels - All Angelic Beings have been given armor worth 9 Prot, this is in order to try to find a happy balance between what Angels should 'thematically' be strong against and what they are currently strong against. There is less of a trouncing that Devils will do to Angels (and with a half-decent blessing Angels will trounce Devils of equal or greater numbers depending on the situation). Hordes of undead will still kill an Angel, though they Last significantly longer than they used to (I.E. 1 round)

Trolls - Trolls have been given more attack in order to allow them to perform the role of SC mauler at least to a semi-decent degree.

Hama Dryad - In theme with charming unsuspecting souls, the Hama Dryads have become a little more attractive for their 'stay at home' abilities. I doubt they will see much play, but could be situationally very useful.

Vine Creatures - Given a free Barkskin.

Seasonal Spirits - Another overnerf of Dom1 days. The seasonal spirits without the Mod are extremely ineffecient use of gems. The only one being situationally useful being spring hawks because of their mobility and lightning attacks (stun damage and AP). Now Seasonal Spirits might have more of a place in your armies and cannot be countered with only a volley of arrows.

Corpse Construct - Hey, I tried, maybe you'll cast 'em.

Heliophagi - The poor weaker-than-the-other-two-devil-commanders heliophagi. Now they might be worth their extra cost. I had a hard time imagining the Commander Devil patterned after Fiends of Darkness being placed higher in the Research chain, more costly and being more unique (I.E. fewer summons) being weaker than the two spells in the previous research levels. Rather than moving it down I increased their power.

King's of Elemental Fire - More attractive. They still can't fly and they only have one spell in their primary path (fire) that they can cast as a SC (Phoenix Pyre).

King's of Elemental Earth - Reduced their Enc to 0, same as all the other Elemental Royalty.

Devil Troops - Reduced their morale to 18 for A.) Being under the effects of Awe and B.) Not fighting to the Last man. Even in myth, legend and folklore devils and such never seemed to take their stubborness to this extreme. Even now they won't break very often, you can mix them with normal troops (if you want) in order to increase the group morale.

Treelords - AH, the treelord. They have been totally revamped in order to put them into the "Ooooh, a Treelord, I want one" instead of "Hum, Treelord, I'll spend my Nature gems on something useful instead". There are alot of changes here, Most of them to allow Treelords to provide dominance of the treelands. Their gem income is there in order to allow them to chance to use their strengths (They can now Faery Trod if they wish) summon beings to help them and if/when they get into a fight, put up a decent fight.

[Zen]

Ah, Beorne. I forgot to add in the part about Forest Survival and Need not Eat. I had to clear them in order to make the Treelords able to be able to cast Faery Trod so I forgot to replace them in the original readme. 1.4 should have NNE and Forest Survival (if I didn't change them).

For the Dying Treelord:

I had a tough time with him. I think his name is mainly the factor here. I think a better name might be "Vengful" or perhaps "Angry". If you look through the spell lists you'll find some of references and uses of the Nature/Death Combo (Haunted Forest, Manikins, Mandragora). This was the feel I was trying to capture instead of the "Old" Treelord. Perhaps I should rename it to the "the Dead Treelord". Akin to Anthrax and Pedoseion, one who was either killed or has turned evil some how.

[Cainehill]

Or the "Undying Treelord", albeit given how long it takes trees to die, I can see how a Treelord dying for centuries would become attuned to death from being on the threshold for so long.

Trees and Forests are both life and death, so I think it is perfect thematically to have one of them with death, without being undead, thematically evil, etc.

[deccan]

Say Zen, couldn't you throw up a webpage at www.techno-mage.com/~zen/ listing the files that you have there? WIth all the different Versions and soon-to-be many modules, it can get kind of confusing to find what we need...

Edit: I like the list of changes! Haha, no more cheap false horror spam, no more easy ice devil SCs massacring entire armies...