Mod: Avernum, Crystal Souls v1.5 UPDATE

[Sombre]

PREVIEW IMAGE.




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Summary: A new Middle Era nation based on the Exile series by Spiderweb Software. The mod contains a large amount of new graphics and the nation is densely packed with new content. Vahnatai and immobile crystal souls rule over an alliance of Nephils (cat people), Slith (lizard people) and Avernites (humans). Includes 6 trog national summon spells.

Strengths:
Varied selection of both infantry and commanders
Nephil stealth armies
Very powerful and varied magic
Semi-Amphibious Slith armies
Great research ability
Summonable trog superheavy infantry

Weaknesses:
Generally expensive
Best mages all have drawbacks
Extremely vulnerable to missile fire
High risk sacreds
Capital centric nation
No cavalry

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UPDATE VERSION 1.5


-- TWEAK - Vahn ranger greatly reduced in cost

-- TWEAK - Vahn mages and shapers slightly increased in price

-- TWEAK - Avernite mage nerfed a bit

-- TWEAK - Costs of various commaners fine tuned

-- TWEAK - Stealth of Nephil normalised at 10

-- FIX - Moved nametypes to overwrite ea ulm ones, since we've run out and Avernum is an MA nation




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Re-Download please.

UPDATED: Version 1.4 is out. It makes a host of balance and costing tweaks, cleans up a lot of code, sorts out the darkvision once and for all, adds a new nephil scout commander and gives onebattlespell of light of the northern star to the crystal souls, as well as improving their research. It's a must have update damn your pig eyes!



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Original post and premise:

First let me start by saying I have obtained permission from spiderweb to use some graphics from their Exile series, provided the mod is only for our private use (the frequenters of this forum). Spiderweb make a number of excellent old-skool RPGs and I strongly suggest you check out their stuff at http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com

This mod adds the Middle Era Avernum nation to Dom3. Avernum is an underground nation of exiles and their new masters the Vahnatai. I have altered things quite a bit from the story of the Exile series in order to fit better with the feel of Dom3.

[Foodstamp]

I think the graphics look fine. I am using the original graphics for my master of magic mod and they seem to fit in alright.

[aku666]

Will there be Erika as a random hero for Avernum?

[Sombre]

Hahah, yeah I could do Erika for Avernum. But then I'd do Hawthorne for the Empire of course. Is it possible to do those one-off heroes in modding right now?

[Stryke11]

Erika would pwn Hawthorne.

LA Agartha is pretty Avernum-ish. Well, not really, but sorta. Lotta differences actually, but the idea of a human nation living underground are similar.

I see intense cave by cave battles, if someone could design the map (I guess is would like like an ant farm. Actually, that's an awesome idea...a VERTICAL map, where the top line of provinces are the surface, and the rest are many levels of interconnected tunnels. Tons of chokepoints. Oh the sheer joy )

[DrPraetorious]

Vahanatai would be more interesting, I'd think. They live in caves, and they have earth magic, but otherwise nothing in common with Agartha, really. They tend to be armed with wave blades and shuriken .

Alternatively, as the ages progress they should *acquire* the ability to recruit Vahnatai - who tend towards earth/astral/nature, or earth/astral/holy (two types of shapers). Human mages would do death/fire/water/air (since that's basically what "magic" does in Exile.)

Crystal souls are available as a national summon. They're immobile, but magically powerful incl a holy of 4.

[Sombre]

Well I was going to add Vahnatai to the Avernum nation in MA and as sacred types. I've pretty much decided to make "Avernum, The Awakening" as a MA nation first. I'm using the Exile series as a base but I'm effectively considering a 'whatif' scenario to tie them into the world of dom3. In this scenario a clan of awakened Vahnatai and a particularly powerful crystal soul (pretender) have saved the exiles from the onslaught of the empire and unified humans, nephilim and slith under the rule of the shapers (priests and mages). I'm looking at it this way because exile is a story driven game of fighting and magic without much 'MY GOD IS THE ONE GOD' stuff. By having the Vahnatai effectively take command of the underground world you get a pretty solid dom3 MA nation.

Features:
Human, Slith, Nephilim and (expensive/sacred) Vahnatai troops. Similarly the numerous leaders are pretty varied in race and ailities.

Human Exiles are a guard force (patrol bonus) of medium infantry and archers. Mages and priests are average.
Nephilim (catmen) are all stealthy, plenty of missiles. Limited shaman.
Slith (lizardmen) are naturally heavier infantry and are poor amphibians. Polearms feature heavily. Ok mage/priest.
Vahnatai are excellent at most things but physically pretty frail. I was thinking astral magic more than anything (they are ET-esque) but I'm open to suggestions.

Some weaker crystal souls as expensive recruitable leaders - immobile but excellent holy and magic. This keeps the focus of the nation on defending.

Yes, this is a lot of stuff for one nation, but if I can get MA Avernum done I might well spread some of this stuff out to early and late ages instead, or maybe even make nephilim/slith/vahn nations. For now I just want to concentrate on getting an interesting and hopefully balanced nation with something for people who've played exile.

Sound good? I'm going to make some slith units today I think.

[Sombre]

Progress so far has been pretty quick. Dom3 modding is pretty damn user friendly and the graphics from exile require very little modification to fit the game. I should have a very basic version to upload,.. tomorrow probably.

So far these are playable but still have stuff like proper names missing etc. The graphics and basic stats are all there though.

UNITS
Avernite Guard
Avernite Archer
Nephilim Brave
Nephilim Archer
Nephilim Warrior
Slith Warrior
Slith Warborn - sacred

LEADERS
Scout (standard vanilla one)
Avernite Captain
Slith Lord - sacred
Nephilim Chief
Nephilim Shaman - sacred, Priest1, Nature1, random other pick
Slith Pyromancer - Earth1, Fire2
Slith Hydromancer - Earth1, Water2

PRETENDER
Splintered Crystal Soul - Immobile astral4, dom5, 50 points.

To be added.

UNITS
Vahnatai Warrior
Vahnatai Soulguard

LEADERS
Vahnatai shapers etc that I haven't decided on yet. No nonmagic leaders for Vahnatai.

HEROES
I might not add the actual heroes from exile series, I'm not sure. I sort of prefer to have my own versions - what do you guys think?


Is it just me or are the slots for modding nametypes extremely limited? I mean every unique hero you need takes up a whole slot with their name. I guess you can go overwriting the slots of nations that aren't in the era your mod is for,... but what the hell?

[Aeshi]

Remember Slith have a little fire resistance. (5%-25%?)

[Sombre]

I've given slith poison and fire resistance. They are the basically the best troops Avernum has. The warborn also have some regenerative ability.

Can people here come up with some more random Slith and Nephilim names for me to use?

So far my name pool looks like this,..

------- Slithzerikai names

#selectnametype 145
#clear
#addname "Slaan"
#addname "Sleethi"
#addname "Ssersses"
#addname "Slither"
#addname "Slassga"
#addname "Slisskril"
#end

------ Nephilim names

#selectnametype 146
#clear
#addname "Frrrg"
#addname "MrrPrr"
#end

------ Vahnatai names

#selectnametype 147
#clear
#addname "Bon-Ihrno"
#addname "Tesa-Ihrno"
#addname "Volas-Ihrno"
#addname "Merak-Ihrno"
#addname "Tekora-Tel"
#addname "Ramda-Tel"
#addname "Tesa-Tel"
#addname "Yosa-Tel"
#addname "Braha-Tel"
#addname "Omni-Tel"
#addname "Pak-Tel"
#addname "Cesa-Ka"
#addname "Mara-Ka"
#addname "Brasa-Ka"
#addname "Morta-Ka"
#addname "Torra-Ka"
#addname "Patma-Ka"
#addname "Remako-Ka"
#addname "Tero-Ka"
#addname "Meni-Ka"
#addname "Jorip-Ka"
#end