Mod: Conceptual Balance 1.3, updated documentation

[Sombre]

New jomon summons looked at.


Contact Jigami - N1, RL4 - 1 / 10 vanilla. Castability: Very Easy. A Commander summon. A sacred N2 mage. You have N2 mages already though, basically. Some have suggested summoning him for research, which is boring as hell. The fact he has summer power, sacred and ethereality makes him a little more interesting, as does the 45 supply bonus.

Contact Ujigami - E1S1, RL5 - 1 / 8 vanilla. Castability: Easy. A Commander summon. 40% of your Onmyo-jis can cast this. He goes from H2 to H1 if he leaves his home province, which is balls. However with standard 20 he is actually useful to jomon, who have morale problems caused by missile fire. Being ethereal and with excellent stats (for a size 2) he looks like a great thug, but then you see his enc. 7 with the armour. If they were enc 0 they'd be great.

Contact Mori-no-kami - N3, RL5 - 1 / 21 vanilla. Castability: Average. A Commander summon. You'll probably have to boost up to get this, but N2 mages are available. Inside a forest it's a semi thug with ethereal, enc 1 and N3E1 magic. Outside it shrinks and is N2. That's a pretty nasty restriction really and while the N3 is useful for climbing the nature ladder, this doesn't seem great for the cost. They summon three wolves in combat, which is fun but not important, unless against a random assassin.

Summon Kenzoku - S1E1, RL6 - 1 / 9 vanilla. Castability: Easy. A Commander summon. 40% of your Onmyo-jis can cast this. Their stats are better than those of the Ujigami and they have awe 1 instead of priest levels and a standard. As such they're more thugs than leaders, which is a fun distinction. Again though, they have 7 enc with that armour, so it needs to be replaced, making them less budget. They also cost astral. Reduced enc would be great, as would a drop in research level for the two samurai kami.

Summon Gozu Mezu - D3, RL6 - 2 / 7 vanilla. Castability: Very Hard. Your nationals don't have death. While this is in reach of rainbows and you can bootstrap to D3 from very little, the gems just aren't there. You get two troops; ox-head and horse-face. They have soul catchers, which are nifty polearms that cause false fetters on hit. Basically they're non sacred slightly superior demonic Celestial Soldiers. However being hard as hell to cast, they aren't as good.

Contact Yama-no-kami - E4, RL6 - 1 / 28 vanilla. Castability: Average. A Commander summon. You can boost a Master Shugenja to E4 with relative ease. If the yama leaves the mountains he loses power just like the mori. In mountains these are powerful A2E3N2 badasses with solid stats, regen, ethereality, oh and they're sacred like all kami, so they can certainly thug with some equipment. Good, but again overcosted due to inability to function well outside of their chosen terrain.

[thejeff]

I just had the Jotun Hero multihero show up. Oddly he came with 2 shields and no armor instead of the Golden armor in the description.

It looks like the new items from Worthy Heroes didn't get pulled into CBM, even though heroes using them did.

[Tifone]

Can someone explain me why someone using the Star of Heroes, I'd suppose to hit others, has his armor shattered too?

[llamabeast]

Presumably because it's been given an AOE > 1, leading to it sometimes hitting himself?

[Endoperez]

Pronlem with the Ulmish hero? It's really annoying, especially it will take so long until his armor is fixed, and he usually has Black Knight bodyguards who are also affected.

Few pages back, I suggested giving him Star of Thraldom or Holy Scourge.

[Sombre]

LA BOGARUS

Conjuration

Summon Simargl - A1, RL2 - 1 / 1 Vanilla, 1 / 1 CBM.

Castability: Very Easy. With flight and patrol bonus 10 these things are damn near the perfect patrollers. In fact they're basically Celestial Hounds with all the patrol and little of the combat ability. I personally think they'd be more fun if there were lots of them and they had less patrol bonus.
CBM Suggestion: I think bringing their patrolbonus down to 3 and setting them at 2 / 5 would be a good idea - that way they might also be used in a combat role now and then.

Summon Firebird - F1S1, RL3 - 1 / 2 Vanilla, 1 / 1 CBM. Castability: Very Easy. Nearly as fragile as a random hawk and size 3, but with an 10 ap capped damage fire attack - still don't hit very hard. The problem is they're too expensive and too hard to mass given their ridiculously short life expectancy and fairly weak offense. The concept here is a unit which can harm ethereals/elites and is pretty destructive, like a one-off fire spell.
CBM Suggestion: I think they should be given a medium fireshield and firepower 1 (more thematic than anything). The cost change in CBM isn't really enough to help and I believe with the added abilities they still need to be 5 / 5 or so, as they are so fragile.

Summon Lady Midday - A1D1, RL3 - 1 / 1 Vanilla, 1 / 1 CBM. Castability: Average. One in four Starets can cast this, but they will almost certainly have better things to do. Fear 0, flight, ethereality and a powerful weapon is counterbalanced by subhuman stats. Everything about them screams undead to me, yet they are magic beings. With flying boots you can have a commander lead a squad of them around, but they're very hard to mass. They're sort of like downgraded Morrigans though one use for them might be attacking and diseasing a SC pretender.
CBM Suggestion: I'd like to see them at 5 / 5 or thereabouts.

Contact Sirin - S2, RL3 - 1 / 8 Vanilla, 1 / 6 CBM. Castability: Very Easy. A Commander summon. A straightforward flying seducer. Note that as seducers and not succubi, they need to border your territory which makes them less impressive. They do seem to have decent seduction ability, though they are unlikely to kill anything but the weakest mage if they fail. CBM cost is fine.

Send Vodyanoy - W2, RL4 - 1 / 20 Vanilla, 1 / 20 CBM. Castability: Very Hard. A Remote Commander summon. None of the recuitable mages can cast this, but it is only W2 and provides a W3N1 mage itself, so it could get cast. It's unusual in that it's an aquatic unit with stealth. W3 is pretty useful but combined with N1,.. CLAMS AHOY! It's a really good summon with two big drawbacks in that it's aquatic only and, for Bogarus, very hard to cast. Cost seems ok therefore.

Summon Rusalka - W1D1, RL4 - 1 / 16 Vanilla, 1 / 6 CBM. Castability: Very Hard. A Commander summon. Like the Vodyanoy, she can't be cast by recruitables but if you get one, it can summon more. She's another seducer, this time amphibious, which could maybe come in handy. As a mage summon she's W1D1 so doesn't grant any new paths and her ability to lead troops underwater only extends to 5 guys, which is effectively useless. The new CBM price is perfect and they are relatively useful when so cheap.

Contact Alkonost - S2, RL4 - 1 / 15 Vanilla, 1 / 8 CBM. Castability: Very Easy. A Commander summon. You get a H3 flying commander with standard 20, so clearly it's good for supporting mundane troops. Bogarus' regular H3 is rarely built after all. A bargain at the new CBM cost.

Summon Likho - D1, RL4 - 1 / 10 Vanilla, 1 / 2 CBM. Castability: Very Easy. A Commander Summon. They can spam curse on stuff and they're stealthy commanders. But there's nothing to them. Curse is annoying but hardly terrifying. I think they're supposed to be used vs multiple elite units, but even there just cursing stuff isn't very helpful. I would never, EVER pay 10 gems for one. The drastic reduction of price in CBM is spot on.

Summon Zmey - F2, RL5 - 1 / 8 Vanilla, 1 / 4 CBM. Castability: Easy. All Starets can summon these and Alchemists could with a small boost. The fact that these are cold blooded is a bit of a pain, but they are offensively powerful and fairly tough. Like upgraded wyverns. Though they have a breath attack their utility is as melee fliers. The CBM price is great and I'd use them at that.

Send Bukavac - W4, RL5 - 1 / 5 Vanilla, 1 / 5 CBM. Castability: Very Hard. A Remote Indy Commander summon. Even harder to cast than the Vodyanoy. It vanishes after combat and if it wins leaves the province as an indy territory. The unit itself looks impressive, similar to an asp turtle, but due to low AP it's very slow to trample troops and isn't that hard for a group of them to take down.
CBM Suggestion: I think it should be W3 to summon and perhaps even 1 / 4.

Contact Gamayun - S3, RL5 - 1 / 25 Vanilla, 1 / 20 CBM. Castability: Easy. A Commander summon. You get a S2A2H2 flying commander with fortune teller. As a mage summon the paths aren't helpful, but as a commander it has clear utility and fits a variety of roles. It's one of those jack of all trades mid level commanders like the Kinnara for monkey nations. With 30 magic leadership it can lead your middays and firebirds.

Contact Beregina - W3E1, RL6 - 1 / 35 Vanilla, 1 / 25 CBM. Castability: Very Hard. A Commander summon. Like the previous two water summons, this requires planning to cast. Unlike it's little sister the Rusalka it isn't a stealthy seducer. Instead it has W3E1N2, so it actually does offer a new path in nature. It's amphibious and can bring 10 people underwater with it,.. the problem is it's hard to cast and in many cases the Vodyanoy is going to be a better bet. CBM price makes it a lot more attractive.

Contact Cloud Vila - A4, RL7 - 1 / 40 vanilla, 1 / 40 CBM. Castability: Hard. A Commander summon. Although Bogarus has A2 mages it has virtually no chance of A3 and air is hard to boost up. Cloud Vilas are A3S1N2 so do offer diversity, though they aren't a great deal for that. They are nice flying mages but aren't thuggable unlike Air Queens. They're more comparable with Faery Queens - they have heal 20 instead of 30 and weaker nature magic. They also don't come with sprites. Overall Faery Queens are better and only one research level higher. Cloud Vilas are slightly easier to cast, but not by much.
CBM Suggestion: I think they should be 1 / 30 to reward actually getting A4 and to elevate this national above the faery queen. They do have seduce but I'm not sure how strong it is.

Contact Mountain Vila - N4, RL7 - 1 / 40 vanilla, 1 / 40 CBM. Castability: Very Hard. A Commander summon. Bogarus has no nature mages. This summons one of course. Your best bet to getting the nature required is by boosting the N2 Cloud Vila. The problem is the Cloud Vila is also hard to cast. They don't fly, are N3S1A2 and are healer 40, twice as good as Cloud Vilas. One comparison here is with Ivy Kings who also offer N3, worse mages, but tougher and cheaper. Mountain Vilas are fragile like their Cloud sisters and slightly worse battlemages.
CBM Suggestion: Again I think 1 / 30. They offer little in the way of paths, but do have some useful abilities like healer and seduce (depending on how good it is).

Contact Leshiy - N6, RL8 - 1 / 60 vanilla, 1 / 45 CBM. Castability: Very Hard. A Commander summon. If you can get to N4 for the Mountain Vila you can probably stretch to N6 for this. Outside of forests he basically sucks with crappy magic and a lack of brawn. In a forest he's a size 6 monster with N4E2A2W1, full slots, a great deal of brawn, regen - plus he can change into a size 6 trampling super bear. He's definitely cool and a powerful SC chassis, but ONLY in the forest. As a mage summon he nets you no new paths. The CBM price reflects these weaknesses and makes a very cool unit more usable.

[chrispedersen]

I don't know if suggestions for CBM are taken here.. but I'd like to suggest the following:

1. Bump up confusion one level. The number of effects for this spell is simply too high - this spell is devestating.

2. Bump umbral down to 6. For any other race a 7 mght be worth it. However, Agarth is not a major contender, and the nerf is a bit extreme.

3. Light v. darkness. Darkness was 6, Solar Brilliance was 7.

If somoene has't researched the SB tree, they can be hosed by darkness for a Loooooong time.

I don't know if the code monkeys could hack this, but another spell, whose effect was merely to cancel darkness (aka no retina burning) at a lower level, would be welcome.

Make it cost a gem, so people dont just default cast.

[chrispedersen]

Documentation problem:

CBM 1.3 lists Axe of hate as Defense 14.
Its actually damage 14.

Suggestion:

Decrease cost of Acashic Record 5 gems.

[chrispedersen]

Most of the bows ranges and ammo were increased.
Bow of Agonizing Death was not.

[Tifone]

I think Acashic record is balanced as it is personally chris