Mod: New Nation: Sylvania (Elves, son! - Update v1.1)

[zepath]

Presented here is a new Late Ages nation for your game-time enjoyment:

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Woman2.gif[/img] Sylvania [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon23.gif[/img]

In an ancient mythic time, the elves were the rulers of the world. Their grace, beauty, and strength surpassed that of every other race and they lived out their immortal lives as semi-divine lords enthroned above a simplistic world of mortals. Those times are gone, and the elves have faded almost entirely from the world. In the lush forests of Sylvania their last city yet stands, a secret enclave hidden from the eyes of mortals by ancient magics. While in the woodlands the sylvankind hunt [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Target.gif[/img] and live peacefully at one with nature [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Panda.gif[/img], their cosmopolitan cousins in the city engage in the millennia-old quest for knowledge, skill, and honor. There the Phoenix King resides, supreme lord of the elves. With the coming of a new god, the elves see a chance, a faint glimmer of hope, to reunite the world under their wise tutelage once more and restore the lost Empire of Dawn. Now, for the last time, the elves march to war.

This nation is an addition to the normal Late Ages nations (nation number 72) and will not replace any of the original nations. This mod was a lot of fun to make and is a much more traditional sort of nation than Sanguinia. I wanted to provide a "purer" version of Pangaea for the Late Ages as well as build a mod based on some of the elven armies from Warhammer Fantasy Battles. This is the result. Load it up, check out the readme file, and give the pointy-ears a try. Please let me know your impressions and concerns so I can make this mod even better!

v1.0: 59 downloads

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CHANGES FOR v1.1:

-Cited name list usage in readme file
-Sylvan Warrioress and Aspect Archon heroes given Sacred ability
-Eldar Blades and Eldar Knives given an attack and defense rating increase
-Bows for Summer, Autumn, & Winter Aspect Archers given additional damage values
-Damage and precision on the bow for the Spring Aspect Archers reduced for balancing (now 6 and 0); each of them essentially has a superior version of a greater magic item (Vine Bow) and while quite useful I found this was a little too advantageous
-Phoenix Guards given a new weapon, Dawn's Edge, based on bardiche stats
-Phoenix Guard gold price increased
-Phoenix Lord gold price increased substantially
-Swordmasters given significant skill increases
-Sea Guards given a slightly higher defense skill
-Loremasters given a 50% chance of having a third level of Astral magic
-Sorceresses' random magic abilities tweaked to give a more truly random feel and variability between individuals -- they can even get death magic -- with a total maximum of 6 possible paths
-Sylvan Priestesses given a 25% chance of having one level of Nature magic

[Shovah32]

Very nice mod, as usual.

Troop suggestions:The aspect archers bows (while having nice effects) all have 0 damage which, imo makes them too weak for their cost. I believe both the eldar knives and blades could use an attack (maybe just 1 point) and defence (i would suggest 1 or 2) boost. The elves, imo could also do with +1 or 2 defence and possibly -1 health. I think the phoenix guards could do with +2 damage to their weapons damage and a +9/14 (or else, even with their high resources, their fear could be a bit too powerful). I think the swordmasters could also use a rather large boost (i would have them with a basic attack and defence of 15) with a slightly higher gold cost. I think the seaguard are a bit too expensive (just like in warhammer) and could do with some sort of boost though im not sure what.

Commander Suggestions: The phoenix lord could do with a gold boost up to 150-180 gold (hes very nasty) but fear(as with the guard) would be fitting too imo. The mages could also do with some kind of randoms.

Unit Suggestions:
Assasins would be nice and fairly fitting (+10 or so stealth). You dont need scouts since they have alot of stealthy commanders but assasins would be good imo.

Overall i really like the mod so keep up the good work

edit: The world tree pretender seems to have a (not sure if its meant to have it but it dosnt seem like it) problem. Whenver i look at it in the god selection screen (there-fore generating a new unit for it) it gains random afflcitions.

[zepath]

Shovah32, thanks for all the specific suggestions. I got hooked on making a fourth nation (based on Chaos) and have been building greater daemons all day (there will be four new pretenders, one for each of the Ruinous Powers). That being said, I did not play-test Sylvania today as I had planned. I will give it a more thorough testing soon and probably factor a lot of your suggested tweaks into v1.1.

Point-for-point...

The Spring Aspect Archers have damage on their bows since entangle would cause no extra damage when it occurs. As for the others I reduced damage to 0 because the secondary effects were causing as much damage as a normal composite bow (on which the aspect bows were based). I may add a few points, to validate their cost as you say, but probably not much more than 6.

I agree on the blades. I nerfed them after having originally given them two attacks per turn which resulted in some pretty keen slaughtering.

The Phoenix Guard bardiches are stock weapons from Dom 3. I'm thinking about giving them holy damage bardiches (with the same dmg, just holy, and a defense boost) and bringing their cost up a bit.

In the testing I did before release I found the Sea Guard to be rather tough and really didn't feel the pain when buying more because it was taking a lot to kill them. I may increase their defense skill.

Will def. increase the Phoenix Lord's costs.

As for assassins, since I gave this nation a good selection of stealth troops to facilitate players who enjoy stealth strategies I was unsure about also giving assassins. I don't think I'll include one yet unless I hear more requests for such.

The World Tree... yes, I've noticed the same strange bug and cannot explain it. I actually used #copystats from the Treelords to give the pretender it's weakness to fire and it may be carrying over from that. Still, the afflictions seem to vanish once you actually enter the game.

Again, thanks for the detailed critique! Now, to work on more Chaos...

[Shovah32]

Also some of the mages seem oddly priced, is there a specific reason for their pricing?

[Teraswaerto]

Playing with the nation now, and I like it.

The entangling arrows are deadly since they break up the enemy charge. They don't need any buffs IMO. Haven't tried the other aspected archers much yet.

[Shovah32]

Ive been mostly using archers of the spring myself, i have them set to hold and attack closest, shielded by some phoenix guard with the same command and with flanking glade riders (the bow kind) set to hold and attack rear.

The spring archers arent actually bad in melee, with 2 attacks and the entangling they are fairly effective vrs low prot enemies.

[zepath]

Teraswaerto, glad you're enjoying it! I will be boosting the damage for all Aspect Archers except for the Springs in v1.1.

Shovah32, the pricing is a little odd it's true. I intended the Sorceresses to be used for battlefield magic, summons, and forging, but to be much less useful for research. They're fiery and short-tempered mistresses who channel raw magic rather than lock themselves away in towers to study and experiment. So, they have a research penalty and in v1.1 will be able to get up to six paths of magic with new random tables (level 1 Nature base, 100% chance of a level 2 Elemental, 75% chance of 1 additional Elemental, 25% chance of 1 add. Nature, and 5% chance of level 1 Death). The Loremasters are the opposite. They are obsessed with knowledge, cataloging, and study. Thus, they have a research bonus, but are not very effective as utility mages. In v1.1 they will have a 25% chance of coming out with level 3 (instead of 2) Astral.

Hopefully the v1.1 changes (almost all of them positive) will satisfy! I should be able to release it tomorrow or shortly thereafter.

[Shovah32]

If your keeping the loremasters the same cost i would give them a 50% chacne rather than 25. Also with hte added bonus randoms sorceresses should be fine.

[zepath]

FYI, Sylvania has been updated to v1.1 to address some of the suggestions made here. Enjoy!

[zepath]

Play-tested Sylvania some today in a game with all LA nations (including the other two I've created) and found that the Loremasters (w/ no Magic scale boost) are capable of pumping out some serious research. I surpassed all other nations and was heading into an increasing lead by the end of the first two years. This agrees with the "fluff" in that the elves have a secret library thousands of years old in which to study, but might end up being the key to a middle or late-game upset since they have decent access (level 3 poss.) to at least six paths of magic.

If anyone else is giving this nation a try, what are your impressions?