Mod: EA Alchera - now ver. 2.0!

[HoneyBadger]

This is great! Thanks! I'm glad to see we finally have a mod that covers Australia.

I agree about the sharp lack of African (and Native American) Nations in the game. I'm working on my own mod based on Ethiopian history/mythology, but I'm extremely slow going at it, so it's nice to see other people working on these themes.

[Radio_Star]

It's cool to see the research and thematic detail in the mod! I like the Dreamtime theme. Anything you can put in to expand on this seems like it'd be a step in the right direction. On to the nuts and bolts of things, though.

Firstly, call Mimis seems bugged. I got some unnamed legionnaires appearing on the edge of the battlefield. The Dreamtime warriors seem pretty pricey for their benefits. As far as I can tell, the Rainbow Serpent is just a traveling astral tempest. The description seems to indicate it might have another impact .. is that the case? Maohi Javilineers are awe-inspiringly good for the cost. 2 gems and a mage turn for an unarmored immortal with dubious surviability is hard to carry if it also causes unrest (Maero). The recruitable mage variety is really nice and everything feels like it has a niche. The Wakataua masters don't seem to have a function, though. 10 leadership isn't enough to make an impact. Increasing the leadership, giving them stealth and/or priestly powers would introduce a role, and the semi-religious nature of sailing would support it.

While the above is pretty negative, I'm mostly focusing on things that, as a player, I would like changed. There's a lot of the mod that doesn't need changing one bit, so I figured I'd just put all of that into one big AWESOME! at the end.

AWESOME!

[the Vanishag]

Thanks, Radio Star - I've made a number of changes based on your suggestions (see changelog).

The Rainbow Serpent is a work in progress - at the moment, it is a walking (slithering) Astral Tempest and Unraveling. In terms of balance, both it and the Dreamhunter have the Horrormark ability: units attacking them become horrormarked (and sometimes cursed?)

This complements the Dreamhunter's ability as an assassin: if he doesn't get his target, they're likely to be left badly horrormarked. I didn't give Alchera blood magic, but they have a lot of air magic, so False Horrors are an option (do they target horrormarked characters just like the real thing? I should test this)

Dreamwalkers and Dreamtime Warriors are stealthy, holy and ethereal. I figure this makes them ideal for raids behind enemy lines, especially with the improved stealth values. So, they should be weaker one-on-one than comparably priced national sacreds (all the more so given the frequency of magic weapons in EA). Also, Alchera's "Follow Songlines" is a level 0, reduced cost Vortex of Returning, so you can get them out of a tight spot easily.

My worry was that Dreamhunter + Dreamtime Warriors would be too powerful, as would "Walkabout" (cheap, lvl. 0 teleport) + Dreamhunter, so I started them off weaker than I wanted to. I want this to be a balanced mod, so I started by erring on the side of caution and underpowering units.

[Radio_Star]

Quick bug report: Compel Maero is summoning 11+11 per level instead of 1+1. Also, Maeros seem to be causing a lot of unrest. What're the numbers on that?

If you're looking for another buff/direction for the Rainbow Serpent, Will of the Fates would be a cool feature.

[Humakty]

Great mod, fits perfectly well with the fluff of the game ! Balance seems quite good to me, but I haven't got the MPers talent to spot 'exploits' (falling short of a better word sorry ) . The dreamhunters seem a tad overpriced to me, but I don't like assassins much in dom 3. Even if they have many over uses.

I spotted the tohunga of water (sorry...) is, once transformed, unable to go back on land. I can't remember the lore exactly about transformers of theese legends (I do not know if they can transform back in the fluff), but it's highly impracticall. I think it is caused by their aquatic tag, you'll have to recreate a new unit using #clearstat command to get rid of it.(if you feel like it, of course)

Apart from that, the various tohungas would be so sweet with nice coloured crowns/hats. Plus one would be able to identify them easily, which could be handy at times.

[the Vanishag]

Thanks again, everyone.

To Radio Star: Will of the Fates is appropriate, but I want the Rainbow Serpent to be a little dangerous. Also, Maeros increase unrest 1 per turn... per Maero. The only upside is that they roughly balance themselves out if assigned to patrol every turn (do Unrest-causing units get a bonus to reducing Unrest?). I tried to decrease this to a fraction of an unrest each, but the game won't allow it. If this is just too much, I'll have to think of a different way to balance them (Gluttony, perhaps).

To Humakty: doh! I knew I was forgetting something. I'll fix the Tangaroa Tohungas tomorrow (easy fix, but I'm tired). Let me know if you think the colored staves are enough of an identification aid (I'm not entirely opposed to coloring the hats, but it seems too easy... and I just realized that there are pink dots on the base of the Tanematahuta Tohunga's Godstick. Also tomorrow.

Taniwha (monsters summonable only in water) are coming soon (but not tomorrow)

[Humakty]

Staves are enougth, as far as I can say watching a full screen image. As long as you can say who's who with a little practice, it's all one needs. But it's truly necessary for big maps.

[HoneyBadger]

By the way: I'd love to see the graphics for this, if you'd like to post them? I'm not able to playtest this (although I really want to!), but it'd be a pleasure to atleast see what it looks like.

[Radio_Star]

Is the mod intended to be CBM compatible?

[the Vanishag]

Added a pic of all sprites (link in main post).