Conceptual Content Mod

[cleveland]

Of the extensive list of nations I've played in MP (4), I found that MA Man had the most room for improvement.

MA Man has a pretty predictable strategy: recruit longbows & research Wind Guide. Its national summons included a bunch of unthematic death hounds, or some such nonsense.

As it stands, MA Man has only limited access to Water: capital-only Crones get a 26% shot at W1 and a 0.6% chance at W2. Summoning Naiads is an option, but they'd first need Const6 (for the W boosters), Conj5, and 35W gems...not very likely for a nation beelining for Alt5; plus Naiads aren't really combat-mages, as they lose HP & get afflictions when away from home.

I propose a Naiad-like summon for MA Man. It would be less magically powerful than the Conj5 Naiad (maybe W2N1), but won't lose HP on the move. It'll give Man Quickness for their longbows, open Voice of Aspu/Tiamet, provide a viable path into Water magic, and fit nicely into the King Arthur theme (Lady of the Lake).

Placing it in the Enchantment tree will give the player something to think about: Is Wind Guide now my only option?...Can I make Gift of Flight Work?...Cloud Trapeze? And the mod fulfills it's purpose.


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Initial design thoughts:

"Lady of the Lake" (or "Mother of the Lake," "Naiad of Avalon," "Lady of Avalon Lake," "Daughter of...etc")

W2N1 mage, 40 leadership, amphibian, Awe+0

Requires N3W1 to summon (Edit: making it castable by 27% of Crones), 20N gems, maybe Ench4?

[Dedas]

cleveland said:
MA Man has a pretty predictable strategy: recruit longbows & research Wind Guide. It's national summons included a bunch of unthematic death hounds, or some such nonsense.

Read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dog_%28ghost%29

And do you remember this old jewel?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hou...e_Baskervilles

[cleveland]

Wow, I suppose that makes a lot more sense.

BUT, MA Man needs to take a Death pretender to access those summons on any relevant timescale. I've never seen them in action (Black Dogs & Barghests) so I can't comment if they're worth building a Pretender around.

[Zeldor]

I really don't like the whole concept of national spell not castable by national mages, even with a lot of boosters.

I hope Xietor will give MA Man to Kristoffer in mega-game so we can get that nation fixed after all. They are nice early but when mid-game starts they suck. Against almost everyone.

There should be also smth done with total domination of astral races. Especially over races that have absolutely no astral mages. But that is not for that mod.

[Dedas]

Well, the Ghost King (death magic) is a pretty good choice for MA Man, both thematically and in a strategic sense. Half cost temples will see to that many ghosts of old will haunt the misty highlands of Man. The Ghost King of long past Tuatha sees to that great black hounds hunt in the night (utterdark).
There, now MA Man can fight mid-late game.

[Zeldor]

You will get mind-hunted and trampled anyway

[Wrana]

Must agree on national spells not castable by national mages.
To Sombre:
Mictlan - and what on Crocodile warriors?
Tien Chi - I see they are a great nation as they are, but you asked about all nations! And fighting monks would be too similar to Warriors of 5 Elements, so I mentioned them only as an example... Of course, they would work, but won't add much..
Machaka - well, Zulusi actually DID use two-headed spears! And African "throwing irons" are certainly weird enough, but I don't know what their stats should be, especially as chakram got so sucky ones. They also used many versions of swords, but these should all probably be equivalent to broadsword/falchion. Also they sometimes used a parrying club in left hand, but this probably wouldn't work... Another idea could be a unit with Seasonla power.. And what did you mean about Hyena? (there is also a possibility to rise up something from African Tertian fauna - as Nature summon or Death Enchantment...)
Bandar Log - they already have quite a few kinds of Bandar infantry. Elite Bandar should either get something special, or they won't be taken by anyone as normal Bandar are already stronger than normal human infantry, but even elite ones won't be on par with Vans or Abyssians...
Pythium - unfortunately, it uses Republican Rome as basis for its troops, not Byzantium. I would be glad to make it more Byzantian, but think it goes beyond the scope of this mod. And Vans, even infantry, I think would be almost the same degree of 'too much' as communion troops. Also, Pythium already has solid infantry. Maybe adding 'gladiatorial animals' other than Hydras would be better idea?

To All on Man:
Having no MP experience with it, I still tend to think of it as a solid nation. Also, I think that they were given weaker infantry specifically to compensate for greatness of Longbowmen. However, 'Witch' for me associates with dark (read: Death/Blood) magic. Maybe they should get some?

[Sombre]

That's a nice idea Cleveland. Well thought out and fits thematically.

What would make a nice recruitable troop for Man?

[Twan]

I'd like a good medium cavalry for Man, using sword + shield (high defense if protection is low). It would allow to have a fast troop not as ressource intensive as knights, and able to protect archers.

(I said light, but not as light as the actual bow/spear/buckler cavalry, something between them and the 50 ressources knights)

Or an ambidextrous elite infantry using 2 swords like the lord wardens (say wardens who have faulted and so are no longer sacred). An infantry with high dammage potential would make Man forces less crappy against ennemies able to protect their troops against arrows.

[Zeldor]

Wrana:

Unfortunatele I played them in MP. They suck big time. For that reasons:
- crones got mapmove reduced to 1
- no astral magic [that goes for many nations]
- crappy battle mages
- OLD AGE! on capitol mages, old age starts quite early and even with N4 old age is at 150, all crones start with age 155-175
- wardens are capitol only and resource heavy

There are of course some nice things, like cheap forts, cheap researchers, longbowmen.

What they need would be probably:
- make wardens non-sacred, but recruitable everywhere
- lord warden recruitable everywhere [he may stay sacred]
- maybe add stealthy shortbow units
- add water picks on crones and mothers of avalon
- replace daughter of avalon with something useful or take it out, really stupid and useless capitol-only cheap mage
- considerably lower age of crones [to around 100 years] so they do not die like flies
- make a 2nd random on Crone 50 or 100%, not 10% [so they have some better chance for A4]
- make summonable stealthy beasts

That way MA Man would have an alternative way to make a stealthy army with good backup from mothers and monks. Now that strategy with capitol only wardens is not available.