Forest Of Loren - Release

[Boron]

Nice mod Thilock . My first glance at it looks very promising and your Unit-Graphics are really superb .
I will start a few SP-Games with it for sure after finishing my first 1 or 2 Hoi II campaigns .

[Thilock_Dominus]

No, I havn't uploaded it yet with the new changes. I thought it was minor changes which wouldn't affect the game play.

Great with all the feedback ....I'm surely get busy to solve all things out, thanks

[Thilock_Dominus]

But if you're curious how the new flag looks like: http://thilockdominus.freehomepage.c...hotnewflag.jpg (big file 1431.25 KB)

Kristoffer O. Said:
I was surprised when my quickly made pretender showed up with a random elven name instead of the boring old ones.

Yup, I made it that way for those who wouldn't bother with names.

[Thilock_Dominus]

Updated the FOL. Changed some of the unit stats and cost.

It can be downloaded at the first post. I have included the old banner if some don't like the new banner. It's in Fol_Animation/Icons change OldFOL.tga to FOL.tga

[tinkthank]

ok -- Great mod Thilock!!

These are my first impressions.
- I really really like the work you did here. The graphics are incredible. In fact, they are fantastic. Hat's off!
- I have no idea what Warhammer is. I have heard that word once or twice, but have no clue what it is. Sorry if I am therefore misreading something... Since many of your descriptions still read "test", I cannot exactly make sure of a lot of it. You may want to contact a native-speaker of English for some of this (you can contact me!! I would be happy to help) to polish it up. Since there is not yet any description, I didnt understand the water path on the Forest Priestess.

In terms of balance, I want to say this to contextualize my suggestions below:
The pros:
- There are no non-stealthy units whatsoever. The entire recruitable force is without exception stealthy.
- With only one exception, the least amount of stealth any unit has is +10. Every single unit but the Treant has a stealth rating between +10 and +20. This also includes the armored troops with prot 10+.
- There are quite a number of very variable units -- 11 troops, ranging from the butch treant to the lightning-resistant faery to the prec-14 archer to the awesome unicorn, standard infantry, and cavalry. There are 14 recruitable commanders, including spies, and 7 magic-users. Of the 25 units, 2 are capital-only.
- Three of the troop units are sacred; none of these are capital-only.

The Cons:
- Many of the units cost a lot of gold. (Good.)
- Average priests (but cheap temples make up for that).

Although I love the feel of it, in my three little tests I just steamrolled my impossible AI opponents. It was fun! But basically, the only problem I see is a lack of weaknesses.
The troops are all top-notch, and there is no weakness or lack of ... anything but some magic paths (which I had on my pretender). You have cheap troops (some of which are 100% shock resistant) for fodder, elite ground forces, THREE types of sacred troops, all of which are incredibly powerful (imagine a wardancer with any kind of bless effect!) and two of which are cheap.

You beat the pants off my Oglalas, whom I thought were *THE* stealth race so far. Wardancers cut through just about anything with ease, but backed up with archers with a Faery Queen casting wind guide, a few Faeries as tough-to-hit distractors, and flanked by Glade Riders and unicorns, I had no trouble surprising just about any army by showing up in their backdoor with any combination of crack stealthy troops. Faery Queens, Faeries and a few commanders with rings of Shock Resistance did a nice job with Wrathful Skies as well.

I played once with an a4 Titan, once with a d-6 Prince of Death, and once with a Rainbow. I didnt try a F9 Moloch, but that will be next; then I will try your own new pretenders!

It is great fun, but I would tend to want to tone it down a lot, without losing too much flavor. So without trying to change too much, I would probably do this, if I had the choice and I were in charge:

- Reduce the stealth of ALL units by approx. 8-12. The Scout and the Waydancer should still be very stealthy, but otherwise, I would suggestion having at least most troops stealth +0 or max +5, since they are forest dwellers, and least 1/4 to 1/3 of the troops non-stealthy (I would choose for this EVERYthing with protection above 9 plus the unicorns as well as treants and meadow priestesses.)
- Reduce Fear effect of Wardancer to -4. (Fear stacks with bless.) Reduce Defense by 6. Reduce MR by 1. Make ritual sword not armor-piercing. Increase cost by 10. Make them capital-only. (Similar for the corresponding Commander, except I would reduce MR for him by 2
- Increase cost of Dryads by 10. Reduce MR by 1. Make them capital-only.
- Decrease precision of Elven Archer by 1.
- Make the scouts scouts, not spies. They shouldnt be able to start uprisings.
- Get rid of the shock resistance on Faeries.
- Remove fear on Treants. Remove Recuperation. Reduce MR by 2. Reduce Prot by 3. Remove armor-piercing and magical attack of the thorned claw. Reduce cost to 250. Alternatively, I would make them ritual summons (could replace a carrion summons).
- Make Faery Queens capital-only, and not shock-resistant. Magic Resistance should definatley not be higher than 18.

What do you think? I dont want to "knock" your excellent mod; it is truly great, and looks so wonderful. And fun to play too!

If you ever need help with some English-proofing, let me know.

[Arryn]

Thilock_Dominus said:
Updated the FOL. Changed some of the unit stats and cost.

It can be downloaded at the first post. I have included the old banner if some don't like the new banner. It's in Fol_Animation/Icons change OldFOL.tga to FOL.tga

I regret to mention that the download in your first post is still your original 0.9 release. If you've updated the archive, the downloadable version from this forum lacks your updates. You might want to attach it to a new post. Or you can email me the file so that I can update the version I have available on my site.

[bone_daddy]

Too late, tinkthank. I already offered my services.

[Yvelina]

I just used the Injuns! vs Forestfull O'Elves. Boy, did I get steamrolled.

The Oglalas may be a better mid-late game nation, but the elves are an early game powerhouse. This will teach me to overlook basic troopers - these are anything but basic. Wardancers are nigh unkillable, if the player positions and scripts them right. By turn 13, my magical superiority started showing, but by then, I had lost half my lands...

How powerful I think this mod is? I don't know anymore. But Petar offered to use it against the Black Moon mod, and that mod is scary.

Good night now.



The defense most definitely needs to

[Thilock_Dominus]

Arryn said:

I regret to mention that the download in your first post is still your original 0.9 release. If you've updated the archive, the downloadable version from this forum lacks your updates. You might want to attach it to a new post. Or you can email me the file so that I can update the version I have available on my site.

Sorry I thought I could update it through the first. So here it is.
One of the biggest changes is that I've removed sacred on wardancers. Made unicorns a bit cheaper, corrected rcost on elven warriors. >Redone the Forest Shield.
Added new Flag
Added New Banner

I'll look into the problems that you guys posted above.

[Arryn]

Thilock_Dominus said:
Sorry I thought I could update it through the first. So here it is.
One of the biggest changes is that I've removed sacred on wardancers. Made unicorns a bit cheaper, corrected rcost on elven warriors. >Redone the Forest Shield.
Added new Flag
Added New Banner

Thanks for the update. I bumped the version number of the .dm file to 0.91 on the copy I host on my site.