Mod: Uz: the trolls of Glorantha

[danm]

"Trolls are the Darkness folk, the Shadow Lords. They worship demons of darkness, eat Men (and everything else), and hate the Light. They are dangerous and treacherous, reveling in the growing Darkness. It is not wrong to say that the trolls are evil.

And yet, the trolls stood with us against Chaos, fought against Gbaji and the dragons, and some say they hate the Red Moon as we do. They are deadly warriors, powerful sorcerers, and see in the dark as if it were day. The dark trolls are
bigger and stronger than Men, but fortunately they are few. The small and misshapen trollkin are far more numerous and attack in screaming hordes."

- Sartar: Kindom of Heroes

hey, all. I'm a long time lurker here, and occasional contributor. I've just recently finished balancing a mod to my satisfaction, and thought it was time to share it with the community at large.

This mod implements the Uz (troll) race from the fantasy world of Glorantha. I believe the mod is complete and reasonably balanced. I am happy with how the race plays in SP, and THINK it would work for MP, but don't really have the experience to make that call for sure. Gloranthan trolls are physically and magically powerful, but have severe breeding issues, and should be challenging in the early to mid game. If they get the chance to gather their strength in the dark corners of the world, they can be very powerful, with a variety of fairly obvious late-game options.

The mod could probably use a few more pretenders, but otherwise I think it's a pretty complete new race for use in Early Age, CBM 1.92.

Grognards will want to avoid researching Enchantment, to prevent the clan mothers from skelliespamming... but otherwise I'm quite happy with how it plays.

This has become by far my favorite race to play SP, and I hope you all will get some enjoyment out of it as well. Feel free to comment (positive, negative, or mixed) and I will update the mod (or not) if I think your suggestion will provide a more "realistic" Gloranthan Uz expreience.

If you want to learn more about Glorantha, please visit http://moondesignpublications.com/ where you can ask questions, research arcana, or purchase the latest fine gaming suplements in one of the finest Fantasy RPG worlds ever envisioned.

Sprite preview:

The huge purple blobs are Dehori "darkness elementals" which operate pretty much just like the elementals for other elements (darkness is an actual element in glorantha, not just a lack of light) The shadow effect looks much cooler in-game than it does in the preview...

the Mod:
http://www.iwcps.org/images/Uz.zip

[Soyweiser]

"If you want to learn more about Glorantha, please visit http://moondesignpublications.com/ where you can ask questions, research arcana, or purchase the latest fine gaming suplements in one of the finest Fantasy RPG worlds ever envisioned."

How much commission do you get? .

You really should update the preview, this doesn't really inspire me to download. (Yikes, troll boobies).

[danm]

Originally Posted by Soyweiser

How much commission do you get? .

now, now, i cross promoted Dom3 just as shamelessly over there - and illwinter doesn't pay me either... wait, i'm doing this all wrong, aren't I???

I've updated the preview with the accurate sprite set, which still needs some work, but is better than what was there, and accurately represents the current state of the mod.

I'd considered still leaving the dehori out of the preview, as that much shadow looks really odd here, but does provide a pretty cool effect with ethereality in game. I also figure the promise of a new set of elemental spells might provide a slightly better hook to draw folk in, given the, well, "less than overwhelming" initial interest levels...

I'll be revisiting the sprites for the next revision to hopefully get them a bit more enticing, and would love to have balance/gameplay feedback from people with some actual MP/late-game experience and reasonable skill at the game.

[rdonj]

Eh, there's plenty of mods that don't get quick feedback. Personally I find it hard to get into a mod if I'm not acquainted with the source material, and if I'm not I'm afraid I'm pretty shallow and need shiny graphics to enjoy to get me interested. I'm very happy that you've put the effort into making your own sprites, but I personally haven't been able to get myself interested enough to check it out, as I am unfamiliar with the source material here, and you don't provide enough background in your opening post to make me think "oh this nation sounds really cool, I should probably check it out".

[danm]

Originally Posted by rdonj

Eh, there's plenty of mods that don't get quick feedback.

I totally understand, and I'm very grateful for whatever feedback I might get. Please don't mistake my eagerness for opinions as anything more than nerdy enthusiasm. It's my job to make the mod worth your time, not yours to make time for my mod )

I've already gotten some good advice on shiney-ing up the graphics, which will keep me busy for a fair while. And with luck I can get additional hints and tips like...

Originally Posted by rdonj

you don't provide enough background in your opening post to make me think "oh this nation sounds really cool, I should probably check it out".

d'oh! yeah, thats a pretty good point - I'll put a bit more teaser text up there. I'm such a huge Glorantha nerd i kinda forget that 99.9% of the world really doesn't know the first thing about it.

[decourcy]

I will second the OP; Glorantha is the greatest fantasy world ever created for gaming.

The computer game 'King of Dragon Pass' is still available, is fantastic and original.

I have downloaded this mod, but i have to ask; do we get Humakti Dark Trolls?

Mike

[decourcy]

Okay, after a quick look, i would say that all of the leaders need a higher gold cost. The Clan Mother is a Mistress Race and thus should have a higher health than a Dark Troll. Probably 24 health.

Wouldn't it be 'Kargg's Son' not 'Kargg Son'?

My first thought was that death was a poor choice as the default troll magic because only Zorak Zoran makes any particular use of undead, but... with the way this magic system was made death is most appropriate.

Good job, i hope you continue to develop this mod.

And designers of Dom 3, you are now required to make a Dom 4 based on Rune Quest/Dragon Pass.

Mike

[danm]

Clan Mothers are intended to be Uzko, not Uzuz, though slightly raised in power to compensate for the fact that I don't have any proper Mistress Race units. I've been toying with the idea of a Mistress Race commander, who would cost > 100 resources and 500-ish gold, but have been daunted by the sprite i want for her... (i know what it should look like, but just haven't drawn it yet) When/if I introduce a suitably impressive Uzuz commander, I'd probably drop the clanmother's magic a bit.

I want the race to be resource-constrained more than gold, to help keep them in the mountains and other properly trollish places. If anything, I'd rather raise their resource costs instead of gold, but am concerned that they could end up unusable without Production scales, which is also kinda unthematic... (though in practice, i've just accepted that in Dom, trolls just aren't as Slothful as they ought to be)

I shared your concerns about death magic, and even tried several variations with clanmothers as primarily nature mages, and other ideas, and it just didn't work - death and darkness are too deeply tied in Dom. It helps a lot if you consider the incorporeal undead to be "darkness spirits" instead of really "undead". (and an awful lot of the undead summonables ARE incorporeal, which is convenient) I have also set it up so you really don't need to research Enchantment at all, which skips the annoying and a-thematic problem of your Kyger Litor priestesses all skelli-spamming all the time. (I tried a 'summon trollkin' replacement, but couldn't get the AI to consistantly use it instead without making it insanely overpowered)

It would have been cool if I could make it so that only Death Lords could cast the corporeal undead spells, and still have clanmothers casting all the spirit-based ones, but I don't think it's possible.

"Karrg Son" is intentional, meaning "son Like Karrg" rather than "Mighty Runelord Karrg Worshipper" - really just a slightly more matriarchal take on the title and the social role of Karrg sons as opposed to the ZZi Deathlords. Sons belong to their Mother, not some mere male, no matter how cool and favored he is.

Glad you like the mod. I've been (slightly) tempted by the idea of a "Glorantha Complete Conversion" mod, but with the time i've sunk into just the Uz, I'm about 99% sure that I'll not be the one to bring such a delightful project to fruition... dfase:

[decourcy]

But imagine a chaos faction with Thanatar head hunter assassins!

Mike

[danm]

Originally Posted by decourcy

But imagine a chaos faction with Thanatar head hunter assassins!

Mike

well there IS a headless hoburg in game already... someone must be carrying his head around.

Chaos would be neat and all, but it would have to wait until after the completion of The Mighty Ducks mod. Cause really, who wants to waste time on scopionmen and broo when they could recruit an army of Hueymakti Deathdrakes?