Mod: MA Nation: Shangri-La, Hidden City of the Secret Masters v1.49

[kennydicke]

I'm not quite sure what to say. I'm pretty dismayed with recent events, and am shocked and disappointed at how it was handled and the sort of attitudes revealed on the part of people who I think should have known better.

I'll continue to update here for now, and will try to finish projects started, but I have to say that working with and modding the game in this context has lost much of its savor -- the mod community has been effectively splintered in what has come out to be a rather heavy-handed and destructive phenomenon that could have been avoided several times over by a little more respectful handling.

Ironically, I had just been having a conversation with a friend, about a week or so ago, about how the Dom3 modding community was unusually cooperative and integrative, a state of affairs I fear is pretty much in doubt now.

Absolutely spot-on.

[Globu]

Awesome feedback, mehrunes_dagon. Much thanks.

Originally Posted by mehrunes_dagon

Played the game to the final stage (against mighty AI). Got nearly killed at the beginning, due to low income of money and gems.

Yeah, that's a pretty serious disadvantage at the beginning. Did you tend to get a lot of your sacreds and hidden masters? (At 60 or 70 a pop for the sacreds, and 400 for an HM, that's quite an expensive proposition.)

I like no-upkeep troops but most Shangri-La summons cost money. The only exception IMHO are Klu and Yetis.

Globu, why Klu mages are free, but undead and demon summoned infantry is not? I suggest that demons/undead should cost no money but bring unrest and/or eat population.

Good point. I'll look into that.

And why no difference between two forms of Klu? Judging by description, human form should at least travel faster. But the only difference i noticed is lack of boots slot on serpent form.

I haven't checked out the summons in too much detail yet, but it's about time to. Yeah, you're right about that. Plus AP should be lower on the serpent form, and a few other things. That's definitely on the list of things to fix for the next version or so.

I suggest that human form be made faster, not cold-blooded, and unable to go underwater.

Makes sense. I'll check the vanilla nagas and check for other appropriate points of difference.

In general this nation is interesting to play. It does not look overpowered, though has full magic coverage and powerful priests.

Crowds of yeti are good against most middle-era nations, but the problem is to survive the beginning with 9 water dormant pretender and lucky scales, and find enough water gems.

With construction 6, evocation 4 and conjuration 6, and some earth and air gems, crowd of thunder-striking theurangs is a win.

With scales set to easy win later in the game, surviving debut is difficult. So playing this nation is interesting.

Again, great feedback! Will fix the klu/naga and upkeep issues (which I suspect are likely from copy-pasted stats, and Nounours simply forgot to zero out the gcosts), and look forward to any more feedback you have if you play more.

Oh, as an aside, I'd like to know what you think about the changes to the Rje and Gelug gold costs, having played through with it. And about whether it would be a good idea to throw priest 1 on the Rje, gameplay-wise (the description would need to be edited slightly to adjust for it, obviously).

[Lingchih]

Sounds like a nice mod. I'll have to check it out.

[mehrunes_dagon]

Originally Posted by Globu

Yeah, that's a pretty serious disadvantage at the beginning. Did you tend to get a lot of your sacreds and hidden masters? (At 60 or 70 a pop for the sacreds, and 400 for an HM, that's quite an expensive proposition.)

Yes, first victories were won by crowds of Mi Dred. I only fought Skaven and Nekehara at that point, but i think that with quickness bless Mi Dred is the best soldier money can buy. Guardians of the hidden valley are slower, and thus suffer more from ranged attacks before they charge enemy.

Originally Posted by Globu

Oh, as an aside, I'd like to know what you think about the changes to the Rje and Gelug gold costs, having played through with it. And about whether it would be a good idea to throw priest 1 on the Rje, gameplay-wise (the description would need to be edited slightly to adjust for it, obviously).

Rje is capital-only, costs more than Mi Dred, and is slower. Secondly, with my sloth/disorder/cold dominion capital lacks resources for buying enough Mi Dred, so i did not buy any Rje.

Gelug with crystal shield is the divine blesser, so one per sacred army is needed. He can also be communion master. Unfortunately i did not try to use mage communion in this game, because in the beginning i did not know enough spells to make it useful, and later used crowd of thunderstrikes.

Since i did not use Rje, used only few Gelugs and other top-ranking mages, i have no opinion on the price of commanders.

About making Rje able to bless himself. Self-blessing and well-equipped Rje is a small auxillary army. And i further suggest that Rje be hireable everywhere. Many nations can hire nice sacred commanders everywhere. Marignon, for instance. IMHO this makes games more interesting.

[Globu]

Good feedback. Thanks again.

I'm not sure yet of making Rje recruit-anywhere, since its rationale is capital-restrictive by definition (Shangrilan "kings," as it were) but I did go ahead and add a priest level. It'll at least give a good consolation prize when plopping down 400 for a Hidden Master or 240 for a Wise One is too expensive.

There are a number of other changes, including revising almost all human sprites. I'll be getting to the nonhuman sprites shortly.

If you play another game with it, I'd be happy as a clam if you keep that feedback rolling in. (And you should notice some improvement (hopefully) in the sprites and in a few other things -- notably, PD still wasn't working 100% correctly, and Mi Go weren't showing up in 20+ like they were supposed to.) For myself, I'm currently playing an SP game on the 700-province Anastasia map -- pretty huge.


Anyway, for everyone else:

UPDATE: I'm currently maintaining this mod in its latest versions at the new forums. Please go there, linked at the top of the OP, for version 1.51.