Mod: Pax Malazica.

[Dragar]

I haven't had a chance to download this yet, just some comments from what has been written in this thread:

1. I love the idea of the claw, and feel that making them sacred (appropriate if you have Laseen as pretender) would give them the boost they need, and be something pretty special. I don’t think there are any sacred assasins currently?

2. Unless there is a sacred recruitable unit I’m not aware of, why not have the Bridgeburners(or Bonehunters) as sacred versions of the marine and sappers? Just add Sacred and up the gold cost appropriately. I’ve got to say I’d love to play them with an S9 bless, Twist Fate seems highly appropriate

3. I love the common astral theme through the cadre mages (which are fine) and the High Mages. National spells relating to teleportation would be excellent. I’m not sure if its codable but if you can create a ritual for dropping unrest in a friendly province, that would link nicely to their ability to assimilate conquered lands. I don’t think any summons are necessarily needed or thematic.

4. In terms of the cadre mages, the large variety of magic types in cadre mages in the books can be covered by indy mages, I don’t think they have to be available as national troops. You’ve got it fine as is

5. I don’t think sailing is needed – its not that central to the feel of the Malazans, and with easy access to air, water and astral (with bonus gate spells) you shouldn’t have any hassles crossing the oceans anyway.

There is huge scope to add other races in to this mod, it could be very interesting. Who wouldn't want to play the toblakai, or the tiste andii?
If you ever create a letherii race make sure to give them sensational admin values on their forts

[Calchet]

Oh, actual feedback!

Thanks to both of you, and I'll try to respond to everything. Let's see...

Attle:
The PD is an oversight on my part - it has been replaced with Medium infantry and some Marines in my internal version.

The Sapper siege bonus missing is also an oversight, and has been included now.

I agree that the Claw has somewhat sub-par stats currently, and have bumped them up.

Heroes should be present in the next pre-graphic version, to be released soon unless something unexpected happens.

Dragar:
1. Slapping Sacred on the Claw might not be a bad idea - however, that would give them cheaper upkeep, and my current plan for them is having them available everywhere, but very expensive, and Sacred would counter the upkeep part of that. I'll look into increasing their purchase price even further and adding sacred and see if that works out.

2. Bridgeburners, other than the possible previously mentioned Bridgeburner Veteran multi-hero, will not be appearing - they belong in a Middle Age version, where Kellanved still rules. Bonehunters, on the other hand, I could see being a sacred choice - if nothing else, Tavore will produce them somehow.

3. They already have one teleport-related national spell, a research-free S2 Cloud Trapeze called "Travel the Imperial Warren". (Only Claws and Lasseen have the paths required to use it naturally.) If unrest-manipulating rituals are possible, those could make sense.
For national summons, I'm playing with the idea of having a couple of high-level Construction rituals for copying some of the more destructive munitions, probably implemented as summoning a free sapper wielding it.

4. Agreed.

5. Sailing is currently on the High Fist, who is the resident Leadership monster that needs anything he can get to compete with the High Mages, and the Marine Sergeant, who is likely resourceful enough to steal a boat for his squad when required.

I'd love to add some additional races, but first, I have to get past the part of this one I'm worried about -- graphics.

...and again, thanks for the feedback.

[HoneyBadger]

If you still want them expensive, just double their cost-if I recall correctly, Sacred only reduces the upkeep by half.
I might be mistaken on this though...it might mean 0 upkeep?

[Dragar]

no, it reduces by half. Doubling cost is likely an overkill though

[HoneyBadger]

In that case, maybe compromise at a 50% increase in cost? That still would give you a gross 25% upkeep, without making them prohibitively expensive.

I don't think there's a resource-upkeep in the game, but it would be kind of fun if there were-maybe reduce Prot (armour) and Move (calvalry) for certain units, over time, that were out of areas with proper infrastructure to maintain their equipment.
Along the lines of Starvation in areas without enough Supply.

[Attle]

Some of my thoughts on the troops. The heavy infantry is great at soaking up damage. The sappers are a bit volatile, just as in the books. With the siege bonus they will be a solid unit too. The marines are very good, with their precision 14 almost all their bolts hit the target. Though some might say that precision 14 is a bit high, don't think there are many if any other ranged troops with that high precision. But on the other hand they are quite expensive. The wickans are superb, I don't really need any other troops than them. A priest to keep the morale up and then I just watch tear through the enemy. Haven't used medium infantry yet, but shall from now on since I think the heavy are a bit too slow. It don't seem to me that any of the troops are overpowered since Malazans don't have any sacred units at all and I think you should keep it that way. Malazans are in no way a religious people.
I've also been playing a bit more with the claws. While their astral magic is really good I still think they need some better stats to reflect that they are indeed the "elite" or maybe you could leave them as they are and lower their cost a bit.
I've also noticed that the high fists start out really old which is not a real problem in any way, it's just that it sucks when they go and get diseased and die during a campaign resulting in my armies getting stuck.
A bug that I found is that all the great hawks that I summon are named Laseen. Neither is this a real problem but I was a bit surprised when I saw that Laseen had fled in to enemy territory while still being imprisoned.

[Calchet]

Progress!

Here's an updated version, with the following changes:

Claw: Better stats.
Marines: Less precision.
Laseen: Should no longer conflict with bird names.
Two new heroes! (The high mage and one of the adjuncts.)

Still no graphics - but I'll be unable to mod the game or even access my computer for a few months, so I figure I might as well post what I have. (If nothing else, I'll be able to download it and include some graphics from elsewhere if I find the time.)

Updating first post to include the download.

[Attle]

Nice! Will try it out.

[DonCorazon]

Cool idea! I just came across this now so will need to give it a try but since I can't hold back an idea on summons: the Empire had those demons they could call into battle like the lord of the Galyan or the Kenyll'rah.

Anyway, thanks for the effort and look forward to checking this out!

[Conq]

Thanks for directing me here clachet.
After reading through the entire post, I just have a few suggestions even though I haven't played it yet. (I am still running Dom2, planning on getting Dom3 for xmas)

Just some conceptual suggestions (i've read Erikson up to Toll the Hounds, and just finished Esslemont's Return of the Crimson Gaurd, its all still fresh in my head)

From what I saw you have all of your hero's covered except the Sword of the Empire. Korbolo Dom is the sword atm but at one point it was Dassem, so this could be the difference between MA and LA. Korbolo isnt as badazz and Dassem was/is so he would have slightly weaker stats.

I agree with DonCorazon about the summons, the only real "summoning" that I can recall in the books were those demons and the Imass (kinda). Or you could have the Moranth as a special summon since they were allies of the empire on Genabackis, and the brigade of Gold ended up helping on Quon Tali.

In Return of the Crimson Gaurd Laseen fielded a lot of skirmishers, basically villagers with crossbows, so you could maybe implement that, although from what I remember thats not really standard procedure.

But since i've yet to play it all I can do is look at the code you got, and its looks fine to me.

Keep it up bud!