Ea R'lyeh Aboleths.

[HoneyBadger]

What do you think mechs and death rays and Darth Vader and C'thulhu/Lovecraft are, if not mythology? Besides, have you taken a close look at what's already in the game? We have mechanical men, we have hyper intelligent Pretender squid-gods with magical powers (Ancient Kraken), we have a king of the Fomorians that has a death ray for an eye...Everything you mentioned, aside from a Darth Vader clone, is already in there without ever touching on Lovecraft, and for more far-fetched reasons than alien (to humans) technology.

The game doesn't need to be completely humanocentric, and it doesn't need to be totally based on our best guess of whatever we imagine some culture's world-view might have been 1500 years ago. Neither of those things add anything to the game, they're just self-imposed limitations that frown on the idea that people today might have imaginations as important and valid as they did in ages past.

And really, discussing why you don't want Aboleths-a made up race probably invented by Gary Gygax in the 70's-to be somehow tainted by a more purple shade of weirdness than you're comfortable having applied to giant, sentient, mudfish/squids that are born from giant holy corals...I just don't know where to begin.

[HoneyBadger]

Well, I'm thinking that, since the Aboleth mothers produce approximately a bijillion babies, that a summons of that type wouldn't have to keep track of yet another spawn. It would just be assumed that perhaps that particular spawn was deemed "special" in some way, and kept in the laboratory for research, until a use could be found for them.

[HoneyBadger]

Since the mech idea doesn't seem to be going down all that digestably for some, maybe instead spawn could simply be attached to living creatures, magically? They might combine with sea trolls, giant crabs, mantas, etc., dissolving their will with direct psychic enslavement, while the bodies of the aboleth spawn themselves grow into the hosts, creating a new and far more horrifying being.

[Sombre]

I like ea rlyeh too, but I'm not a fan of any of the suggestions in this thread,.. other than the reverse thetis' blessing spell. I'd really like to see aquatic only troops zipping about on land. The spell would have to be castable early enough for it to matter though.

[JimMorrison]

chrispedersen said:
But if I WERE to make thematic spells or units
I'd like to see assassins that with a hit take control of the subject unit... perhaps turning them into a brain dead zombie (just not undead).

Oh MAN! Either an "assassin" type unit, or a national spell..... It doesn't generate a combat, so you won't see a report and know which commander to get rid of.

Don't have it take direct control of the commander, let it stay as a parasite on the host. The parasite waits, and when it sees that the commander is in a "stressful" battle situation, it suddenly turns and begins attacking or casting spells at its own people.


And I really..... DEATH BEAM SQUID TANKS ..... That's all I have left, don't take it away from me.

[MaxWilson]

Sombre said:
I like ea rlyeh too, but I'm not a fan of any of the suggestions in this thread,.. other than the reverse thetis' blessing spell. I'd really like to see aquatic only troops zipping about on land. The spell would have to be castable early enough for it to matter though.

Reverse Thetis' Blessing is the only one that appeals to me, too. I mentioned the tripods/WotW only in order to justify it thematically.

-Max

[Tifone]

Sorry HoneyBadger, I didn't really want to make you any angry. My apologies.
I didn't want at all to belittle your suggestions. I was just saying that sci-fi high-technology isn't something I expect from Dominions 3. And about the mythology thing, prolly I expressed myself the wrong way - sorry, I'm not that good in english. I was saying that I was a little doubtful about putting the mechs into a world which is mainly /religion and mythology/. I mean, they would be funny in a mod, but maybe if you people think that the vanilla EA R'lyeah needs an improvement, maybe for vanilla we should seek and suggest a little more straightforward way of improving it - only my opinion of course.
The Darth Vader summon thing was just sarcasm, as you surely understood, I just wanted to make it clear.

[Slobby]

HoneyBadger said:
also considered one of the weakest and also most difficult to use.

Really?

[Endoperez]

Inability to get anything out of the water is enough to make them one of the weakest nations. IIRC, they don't even get Air/Water mages for Amulets of the Fish.


As far as Darth Water goes:
Wears black, surrounded by mysterious aura, has magical powers, not a human any more, wields a colored magical sword:

Bane Lord:
Wears black, has a chill aura, not a human any more, has a colored magical sword.
Alternatively, MA Agartha is the Empire. Darth Vader is an Iron Corpse Gift of Reasoned, propheted and equipped by pretender Palpatine.

[Lingchih]

I think, Death Beam Squid Tanks are good.