Mod: Dominions 3000 v0.81 - lots of new indies, new map (using the brand new map commands)

[Loren]

Originally Posted by Aezeal

more territory? why? I don't get that all races can go into space.. dragons most easily even since they can all just go there without going to another form..

The nations here are relatively more powerfull so dragons which are balanced in vanilla might seem to have a disadvantage but their high HP will make them survive the first shots and in melee they should still rule supreme (and they fly into that ASAP).. all the AP weapons will be annoying but if it's all too much I'll lower dragon costs a bit during the game.

Only the ice plated dragons can get into the water without items.

[Aezeal]

in dom 3K there is no water well there could be but there just isn't.. there is space and several landtypes.. using water next to that would make it a bit complicated (even MORE units needed, or amphibious indies (that would then also be able to go into space)

[rdonj]

Yeah, I know. I was a bit insistent on the males, but then I started realizing what the end game would look like with all those males... I think either the makemonster for males needs to be removed, or the domsummon. And yeah, the bugs definitely are too strong. You just get too many if you're left alone long enough.

It may be you are right about the troops, but in my experience rlyeh's melee troops die very fast to ranged firepower, while the pirate raiders die a lot slower. So my entire thinking is that they dilute the amount of ranged damage the illithids take, and that's the entire pupose they're serving.

Loren - to clarify what aezeal said, space is represented by forest provinces. There were a lot of issues with using water as space that were hard to work around, so forest terrain was chosen instead.

[Darkwind]

I've finally gotten around to working on the Pirians. As a sort of teaser, here's the code for one of their heroes(the Trueblood Hero, heh). I still can't figure out how to apply a custom name, so no go there. It should be easy to follow even if you can't mod Dom3.

#newmonster 2235
#name "Firstblood Hero"
#spr1
#spr2
#descr "The Firstbloods were the first generation of Pirians, magically powerful, physically strong, and long-lived. Lahatiel was a great warrior among great warriors, known for his martial prowess. As Piria's strength grows, Lahatiel has awoken, ready to blaze a trail for the Pirian nation in the cold depths of space. His very presence inspires Pirians to greater deeds."
#holy
#ap 12
#mapmove 2
#size 4
#hp 25
#prot 13
#str 15
#enc 1
#att 16
#def 13
#prec 14
#mr 14
#mor 12
#gcost 10
#rcost 1
#maxage 75
#fireres 100
#coldres 25
#poisonres 75
#shockres 25
#maxage 1000
#older 200
#firepower 3
#fireshield 14
#heat 10
#standard 10
#goodleader
#researchbonus -3
#magicskill 0 2
#weapon "Greater Starburst"
#weapon "Starsword"
#armor "The Brightshield"
#end

And the weapon and shield:

#newweapon 665
#name "Starsword"
#att 4
#def 2
#armorpiercing
#dmg 10
#rcost 5
#sound 8
#len 3
#secondaryeffectalways 216
#magic
#end

#newarmor 668
#name "The Brightshield"
#type 4
#prot 10
#def 8
#enc 0
#rcost 0
#end

Well, there you have it, the first preview of the mod in action. This Pirian, at least, isn't going to be felled by merely shooting metal at him until he drops. And I expect the combination Heat Aura/Fireshield makes Pirians hard to fight in melee. And you can't effectively shoot spells at him, with his numerous resistances. I doubt if he's an SC, but definitely a higher-end thug. I hope

By the way, that 171 in the sword's code means small area fire. The defense value on the shield is actually the parry, and that magicskill means the hero has 2 Fire magic. The spr1/spr2 are the sprites. I still have none Puppies lament my poor spriting skills daily.

[Aezeal]

NICE keep working.. his shield seems a lil powerfull but whatever.. (and thanks for the explanation of the numbers.. I guess they are for those who never mod though )

Is he meant to have very old age, might be a weakspot?

you can't give names ad far as I (and those I asked and replied) know so don't worry about that. If he's not unique it's not usefull anyway.

About sprites.. which seem to be your bottleneck (as they are honeybadgers).. if you have idea's about how they look you might just look for them on the net and adapt some pic into a sprite.

[rdonj]

Did a little more work on the map. Just need to set poptypes now and it will be playable.

Also, that pirian looks like it would make a pretty decent thug. Might want to raise the fire magic a bit though, 2 seems a little low for a pirian hero... though you did say he was a warrior. But about all he could do with that is cast phoenix pyre. Alternatively, maybe give him a dash of something else?

[Aezeal]

Astral will probably be a first choice.. and of course if you insist don't hold back.. but there is a lot of astral in dom 3K already (since I have to admit for me the 2nd choice of magic for any space nation would automatically be astral) so if you can somehow think of another 2nd magic choice that would be great. I'd say the nations should be a mostly fire nation though.. I'd just give them randoms.. death (for banefire), air and blood are magic types I've not used much and which feel (to me but I know near nothing about pirians) like they might fit.

Just one nasty question.. why does he have prot 13.. fire.. doesn't seem to have natural armor.. I could imagine some sort of fiery armor.. but a being of fire having a natural protection equalling very strong armour.. less so.

[rdonj]

On the other hand, how does being hit hurt fire?

[Aezeal]

There must be something under there I guess... or they should be ethereal, arent fire elementals ethereal.. I still wonder how ethereal creatures are hit by mighty blows but that isn't my problem to talk right since that is how illwinter made the game. Having said that.. an all ehtereal nation might need some balancing.. it WOULD make this hero more thugable

[Darkwind]

Ethereal would solve the arrows problem (Pirians generally won't have shields, ie that slinger army you recruited from Backwoods Province 9845 will rain rocky death upon a Pirian army). It might be a bit much though, I mean 75% of all attacks stopped? I'm thinking it might be a good idea to include a low-level Fire spell that gives Air Shield (maybe 25%)to all units on the battlefield for a gem.

On a side note, about how thuggable would you rate the hero? 0 being nonthuggable, 10 being an SC among SCs. I figured the effective 20 attack (16+4 from weapon) and 15 defense (13+2 from weapon), plus the 18 damage (I meant to add in 8 AP fire damage, actually, I'll add it in right now) combined with considerable strength makes him an effective attacker, at least. He has a heat aura to rival the Niefels and a free Fire Shield to boot, so melee units can't really touch him. Not without fiery death at least. I'd hope he's at least a highly effective thug (being a hero, he should add something). With that Air Shield spell, he'd also have less to worry about from that slinger army and they'd have more to worry about from him.

@magic paths: I think the Pirians will have a bit of astral (I remember saying something about this before, or rather reading something I said about this before). Death and blood won't be common, and at best they'll have small randoms on a recruitable mage or two, but I do plan on including a multihero Trueblood Warlock and a hero Firstblood Revenant or something like that. The Warlock would have F/B, the Revenant D/F, with maybe a little bit of Blood. I'll probably include a couple spells in the Blood line (Lowbloods like I said, Trueblood Revenants, maybe a unique fire demon). Pirians won't have air though.

As to the magic on the hero, I purposefully set it at only 2 since he's a warrior, not a mage. A Firstblood Mage (hey, that might make another hero) would have more like 5 Fire on average, and a truly great one could likely have up to 7, which means Flame Storms possibly doing 20+ AP damage over a 40 AoE and Falling Fires with maybe 7+ AoE. Using Phoenix Power and a couple boosters you could get truly awe-inspiring fiery death.

@age: He's meant to be old, but not old-age-old. I doubt he'd be older than 8000 before the age bonus, so this should achieve that fairly well.

Babelfish says this is a "muur van tekst" in het Nederlands.