Conceptual Balance Mod 0.9

[quantum_mechani]

I know a lot of people feel they want to explore the base game longer before considering balance mods, however I have been thinking many of the veteran Dom2 players are probably ready to start experimenting with some changes.

So I thought I would release the changes I have been working on so far for CB, a beta of sorts. It's not documented by a readme, and many of the changes are likely not their final versions, but those interested are welcome to try it and give feedback.

A rough outline of the changes:

*Order scale income lessened, luck scale luck effect increased.

*Growth from growth scale increased.

*Pretenders ideal for blessing increased in cost. This was a hard change to commit to, since it makes such pretenders even less suited for roles other than blessing. However, that seems a necessary side effect to making blesses more expensive.

*Bows (shortbows, composite bows, longbows and crossbows) all slightly reduced range, and some increased in resource cost. This is not really enough to counteract their prevalence, but every bit counts.

*All cavalry given hoof attack, cavalry that already had it given warhorse hoof attack. This is bound to be a controversial change, due to it admittedly somewhat stretching realism. However, I see it as the lesser of several evils (such as useless light cavalry, or ridiculously cheap light cavalry) which strike me as even less realistic. More ideas on the issue are welcome, keeping in mind the limits of modding.

*Barding cost drastically reduced on all cavalry. Barding cost is another sticky balance vs realism issue, due to the fact it amounts to, in game terms, paying something for nothing. There doesn't seem a good way to mod in the benefit of barding, so instead I simply reduced the cost's impact.

*Some new factors in unit gold cost. Units wielding spears get a training cost discount. Units wielding a single one handed weapon and no shield get a training cost discount. Units with only leather armour given a discount (the idea being cheaper upkeep, but the way the game is set up that also means lower recruit cost). These are not necessarily universally applied, but then the old unit pricing wasn't exactly 100% consistent either.

*Independent commanders made poor leaders to encourage using national leaders. Independent scouts increased in price for the same reason.

*Some prominent sacred troops increased in price.

*Some primitive archers given a new crude shortbow weapon.

*Some site search spells and booster items more difficult to forge/cast, in order to improve magic diversity between nations. As it stands base game, it is not too hard by the time you have level 9 research in a school, to have dom2-like access to almost all paths.

*Many mediocre summon spells made cheaper.

*Falling frost/fires and similar spells got their range back in exchange for fatigue, and research cost.

*Other evocation spells moved in research and/or changed to allow more niches.

*Many rarely used globals made cheaper.

*No gem battlefield summons made more difficult to cast.

*Several blood battlefield spells improved.

*Treelords given increased magic.

*Many weak items made cheaper/easier to forge.

[Endoperez]

Testing testing...

[Shovah32]

Thanks alot for this. Too bad it couldnt have been released earlier (having a hoof attack on my samurai cavalry would be helpful) but thanks all the same.

[Potatoman]

Excellent work, thank you.

[Graeme Dice]

I'm not sure that you really needed to utterly destroy Ulm by making it impossible for master smith's to cast bladewind without earth boots. I also very much dislike the changes to site searching spells. I'm not going to voluntarily play mods that add to micromanagement, and magic already has far too little effect in Dom3.

[Nerfix]

The cons, on a quick glanse

- Red Dragon is rather redutant now
- The research bonus on Titaness is just crazy
- Moving Phoenix Power and Earthpower to pathlevel 3....wthex, this completely nullifies the purpose of those spells which bootstrapping Fire 2 and Earth 2 commanders to actually useful magic levels. Now they are there just to bring some slight boost to Falling Fires and Bladewind. But wait, with Dominions 3 research times and changes in the mod it's unlikely we'll see either spell in use ever anyway. Whee.
- Moving Lightning Bolt to Evocation 3 makes early game with Caelum feel like trying to piss blood up the wall.
- Bladewind costing a gem..........WTF. I'm sorry, but WTF. Umor, just make the spell have less effects or damage if it is too powerful but you just made earth utterly useless for combat. What are Agarthans and Ulm going to do in combat now? Or Marverni? Magma Bolts? Star Fires and Farstrike!? You have no idea how many nations you essentially invalidated with this move! Half the amount of the blades, make it do less damage or 99 fatigue instead of the 80 it was.
- Thunder Strike at research level 5? Uhhhh...no. Just make it less powerful if you feel it is too strong. It already has a fatigue cost of 80 so it's not terribly spammable.
- I don't like upping pathcosts for site search spells either
- Seven Year Fever, are you sure an AOE Disease spell that scales with power is a good idea?
- No Raise Skeletons at all?
- Abysians are still old
- ME Marignon has Lion TRibe Warrior instead of Friar in recruitable commanders

Pros

- I like most of the stuff you did to magic items
- Raven Guard Captain! I aprove
- Completely selfish, but I aprove cheaper sky titan pretenders, improved Slime and gemless ward spells

To put this all shortly, you were way, way too eager with the nerf stick but the mod does have interesting ideas. I know this sounds very harsh, but it's the way I feel as of now. I'll be following the development in future since CB for Dom 2 was good, but this one is way too radical as of now.

[Nerfix]

Graeme Dice said:
I'm not sure that you really needed to utterly destroy Ulm by making it impossible for master smith's to cast bladewind without earth boots. I also very much dislike the changes to site searching spells. I'm not going to voluntarily play mods that add to micromanagement, and magic already has far too little effect in Dom3.

Earth Boots and a gem.

It's not only Ulm. Agartha and Marverni also.

[Graeme Dice]

Nerfix said:
Earth Boots and a gem.

It's not only Ulm. Agartha and Marverni also.

It's not like blade wind is even that good of a spell. A master smith casting it is likely to kill maybe a dozen troops per cast, which means that he doesn't even come close to paying for himself.

I also can't believe that celestial chastement, which is a superpowered version of enslave mind, is a level 1 spell.

[Endoperez]

I discussed Celestial Chastisement. It's S2, so only 1/4 of Celestial Masters can cast it. CMs are capital-only. It's got a range of 15. Arcane Bolt might be a better option EVEN now.

[Graeme Dice]

The changes also manage to destroy Miasma C'Tis, since they can barely even cast raise skeletons anymore, especially when raise skeletons is the only way that the death nations can even attempt to survive against a dual-bless. Note that even 8 skeleton summoners are utterly effective against a mere 20 F9W9 Helhirdings, which are still underpriced at 110 gold.

I'm not sure why there's so much hate towards battlefield summons. If a spell is going to have a gem cost, then that spell had better be able to completely alter the course of a massive battle with only a single casting. Spells like wrathful skies and firestorm fit this description. The elementals don't. All the gem cost on them does is ensure that nobody ever uses them thanks to the horribly micromanagement of moving gems around. Dominions needs more magic on the battlefield, not less, especially when there are so many almost worthless spells like fireball.