Mod: Squirrel Balance Mod (Current Ver: v0.05)

[Squirrelloid]

Current Release: SqBM v0.05
Status: Alpha, unstable
Changelog History: Complete text (with CBM context as applicable) is included as a text file.

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v0.05 Highlights
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------General------
Blood got hit with a substantial nerf bat. The overall goal here is to make the cost of blood summons (and occasionally other blood spells) better match the value you get from those summons. Many blood spells doubled in cost or more. And the scary part is I'm not sure I went far enough.

I would be happy to discuss proper price points for any or all of these spells, but an important point is that blood slaves cost gold to acquire and then get spent like gems for gem-quality summons. Since its in addition to your other gem income, blood summons should never be cheap. And its not like Bloodsummons are subpar summons - the best troop summons in the game are blood summons!

------Nations------
-EA Mictlan
Capital only mage prices increased across the board. The various H2s are only a little more expensive (and still a good deal for what you get), the H3 HPotSun increased in price substantially because Mictlan is a bloodsacrifice nation. Additionally, the recruit anywhere Mictlan Priest has had its cost increased 33% (call it a stupid cheap bloodhunter tax).

-EA Lanka
Rakshasa cost increased to 320g so its no longer cheap for a pure mage, much less a thug chassis.

-EA Marveni
New national spell "Entice Blood Henge Acolyte", which summons a poor mage (B1H1) who is an exceptional bloodhunter, but at a substantial cost in nature gems (20n). Also note he costs upkeep (4g/trn).

Basically, Marveni is frustratingly dependent on getting its multihero to do anything with the fact it is sort of a blood nation. The new option is expensive, but it does give Marveni limited guaranteed access to blood mages.

-EA/MA Vanheim, LA Midgard, EA Helheim
Vanjarls are now A2B2 to make up for the loss of dousing rods.

-LA Mictlan
Priests similarly more expensive, especially King of Rain, which is now priced more like the thug it is, in addition to being H3.

-MA Agartha
I know, nothing to do with blood, but I did increase the Golem Crafter's 10% random to 50%.

------Spells------
Reorganized the Blood spells in CBM so they are more logically arranged and easier to browse.

Almost every non-national blood summon spell had its cost increased, with the sole exceptions of Demon Lords and Succubi. Most notable, the various elemental demons are much more expensive (they were stupid cheap before), and the Vampire Lord is now at 100b. Succubi were actually substantially reduced in price, because they were seriously overcosted.

Lanka's national blood summons increased in price. Especially notable: Dakini at 100b, Davanas at 105b for 3, and Mandeha at 175b. The lower level troop summons weren't too bad at their price, so cost increases weren't especially substantial.

Mictlan's national blood summons increased in price to varying degrees. Most notable are its commander summons which were increased to 40b and 60b for civateteo and tlahuelpulchi respectively. (Upkeep-free bloodhunters should not be cheap).

A few other spells received cost increases, most notably Rain of Toads (now 25b).

------Items-------
Sanguine Dousing Rod and Jade Knife are now artifacts.
-The dousing rod was basically a gem gen, and should be treated similarly. It is also harder to forge now (15b, B3 mage required).
-Blood Sacrifice is too good relative to the cost of acquiring blood slaves. Unfortunately, neither the real cost of slaves nor the effectiveness of blood sacking can be modded, but making the dagger unique reduces the ability to concentrate blood sacrifice as much, and thus helps address the problem.

------Sprites------
Blood Henge Acolyte has new sprites (recolored and slightly modified Blood Henge Druid). (Preview not updated yet).

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Future Update Plan
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v0.06: Item Tweaks, possibly tweaks for UW nations who need help. Also expect to do something with Jomon.
v0.10: 1st Stable Release. Likely very close to v0.06.