Mod: Malazan Empire

[Deathjester]

Originally Posted by Aethyr

Deathjester, thanks for picking this project up. I look forward to spending some time with it.

Glad to hear you're going to try it out. Be sure to check back as I will be refining and updating for some time yet.

Some updates graphically, two drafts:

Thyr mage:


D'riss mage:

[Deathjester]

Made a whole new graphic for the Thyr mage, and remade the old one into a quite cool Adjunct Lorn. See the preview image in the original post.

[Deathjester]

Major update. First post updated.

All current units, summons and heroes have complete graphics. I like them all but will be improving and polishing them (or even changing them). The Emperor and Empress pretenders still has Dominions graphics, though, I will update these shortly.

A number of new units and a number of fixes/revisions done. See the more important details below.

Version 0,65
- Bug Fixed: Empress was bugged.
- Changed randoms for Cadre Healer to just 10% Death.
- High Mage of Denul got their DN pick back. Price increased 150->170
- DN random magic skill chance reduced, on cadre mages 40->20, on High Mages 40->30
- Marine Sergeant HP 12->13
- High Fist HP 12->13 and price 100->110
- Empress: bug fixed (mounted with 8 AP), point cost 20->40, hp 10->15, prec 18->16, removed glamour
- Emperor: added A1 to start magic, point cost 10->20, standard 50->30, hp 15->18
- decreased precision for sharpers -1 -> -2
- revised stat lines for MR and Morale for commanders and mages and made minor changes to be in line with other human nations
- slight tweaks to High Mage stat lines, mostly for fluff reasons
- added 1 air gem to starting gem income
- NEW UNIT: Sergeants: Slightly above average soldier with minor standard (4)
- Morale lowered on medium infantry 12->11, Heavy infantry 14->13, Marines 14->13
- Marine Sergeant given minor standard ability (4)
- NEW SUMMON: Added Red Blades summon: "Coerce Red Blades" Fierce desert warriors who are experts at hunting foes down.
- NEW SUMMON: Wickan commanders can now train 2 Wickan Cattle Dogs per month (giving them an use, except leading map move 3 units)
- Edited heroes that lack sprites out. Will be added back in in the next version: Quick Ben, Kalam, Tayschrenn. Heroes that are in the mod version 0,6: Lorn (with Otataral rusty blade), Coltaine and Fiddler.
- Completely new nation description, tying it in with the Dominions universa
- Finished baseline graphics for this version. They are in constant revision, though.

[Deathjester]

New version. Fixes some issues with case sensitivity and also fixes two crucial things: Adds a national scout to the lineup and gives the priest the holy level he always was supposed to have. Apart from that some tweaks to the mages and a correction of the Red Blade cost. See details below:

Version 0,68
- lowered research on Claws by another 2.
- Bug fix: Priest given holy magic level 1, as intended
- fixed case sensitivity issues (hopefully)
- national scout added
- composite bows added to red blades
- cost for Red Blades set to 10 F gems. Upkeep removed. Now meant as a niche unit for getting gold income quick, raising a larger army quickly and/or for fighting in hot lands.
- mages given (ordinary) armor and/or weapons where appropriate

[Deathjester]

New version up. OP updated. Changelog below. It's really two updates in one, as I decided to add an extra thing or two to version 0,75 before release.

Version 0,79:

Bug fixes
- Bug fix: Red Blade troops were called commanders.
- Bug fix: Graphical glitch with Medium Infantry w/ spears and javs
- Shortened national description so it fits in the window!

Unit changes
- Marines att 13->12, def 13->12, cost stays at 16.
- Emperor Pretender: Pathcost 40->20, Cost 20->30
- Claw price 250->190, with their research malus the price was too steep even considering their sacred status. They should be a potential key unit, not something that is never worth it. Their research malus decreased to -2 instead of -4.
- Marine Sergeants given normal leadership (okleader) of 40 troops instead of 10 troops. It was too hard to utilize them as stealthy forerunners as it was and that was not intended.
- Kenryll'ah given "kick" attack. They now have three attacks at high strength and deal considerable damage.
- Changed nametypes for most commanders (except scouts and fists) to have Ermorian/Pythian names to align with the new back story of the nation.
- Coltaine given awe +2 instead of +1, and also given a "onebattlespell" of fanaticism. He can also summon allies to gather more wickans when not leading armies representing his ability to gather the clans.
- Sappers given 10% fire resistance. Makes next to no difference in gameplay, but is thematically fun.
- High Fist standard ability set to 15, to be more in line with other commanders with standards.

Sprites
- Pretenders now have sprites.
- Sprite cleaning and polishing, especially attack sprites.

New units
- Heroes added: Tayschrenn, Kalam and Quick Ben. Their stats have been revised since them being included in an earlier version.

New spells/spell changes
- Coerce Red Blades research level 3->2.
- New Spell: Moranth Riders, essentially a Gateway (conj 5, A3 cast req, 10A gems)
- New Spell: Moranth Assault, essentially an Astral Travel (conj 8, A3 cast req, 25A gems)
- New spell: Bridgeburner Ghost summon, a border summon battlespell (enchantment 6, 2D1S, 2 gems) that summons dead heroes from the grave
- New spell: Commission Burner, that summons sappers armed with Burner munitions (constr 3, 1F, 8 F gems)
- New spell: Bind Korvalah, that summons a terrible demon with a huge pillage bonus and a quirky mechanic where it grows in power with each death in combat (conjuration 7, A2S4, 30 A gems)
- Kenryll'ah Tyrant now summonable with W1S3, and 20 W gems.
- Kenryll'ah Troops now summonable with W1S2, and 5 W gems.

This and that
- Changed flyspr and sounds for weapons to more reasonable choices.
- Flag added! (and High Fist flag recolored/remade)
- Some descriptions improved

[Deathjester]

New version. See original post for details on version 0,82. Balance wise they are quite substantial changes. In short, High Mages thematically, and balance wise, needed to be different. They are now "level cities"-powerful and very strong in battle. The price of this is, well, the price - they have the highest upkeep of any mage in this era.

Enjoy!

[Hully]

I just want to say thank you Deathjester

I've tried many race mods and while we all have different preference this is by far my favourite mod... It just works really well, not saying it perfect but I'm having a lot of fun with it, thanks for all your hard work.

I'm hoping the mod still active? lol

Thx

[Deathjester]

Thanks, always glad to hear someone is enjoying the mod!

Yes, the mod is active. It is being played in a few multiplayer games at the moment and I have been waiting for complete feedback from the players and opponents before rolling out a new version.

As to what is planned for future updates (not a complete list, probably):
-T'lan Imass, as summons and as farstrikes.
- Summon Sirinth, another Imperial Demon.
- Mott Irregulars, swamp troops, they've got to be in there..
- Summon Galayn Lord, a powerful Demon Lord.
- Summon Jaghut, everliving ice mages
- Summon Toblakai, giant warriors
- Summon King Iskar Jarak

Maybe:
- Summon Barghast, beastly barbarians
- a raven spell for the Wickans
- Summon Wickan Warlock

If you have any other ideas or feedback, I'd be welcome to hear them.