Mod: Nation : Machaka Spider Cult

[Twan]

This mod add Machaka Spider Cult as the nation 77 for Early Age.

The nation mostly use the sprites of MA Machaka (and the flag from the Streamers and Standard mod) but is in fact very different. Machaka Spider Cult has mage-priests instead of the 3 priestly orders and the sorcerers/black sorcerers, including a very powerful shapeshifting king and the anansais, priestresses able to take a spider form when wounded (who are also the best spies and mages of the nation -and the only good researchers-).

To resume...

Weaknesses :
- the only heavy infantries (hoplites) cost 33 res and are capitol only ; all other non sacred troops have no armor
- most mages have a research malus except the capitol only anansais (but witch doctors are cheap) ; the griots need sloth to become good researchers
- fewer good mages
- weaker nature magic
- heavy initial prices for useful units (as most are sacred)

Strengths :
- 4 sacred units, 3 of them non-capitol only (all spider riders are sacred, and a size 1 sacred little spider has been added -showing why I prefer to use existing sprites , I'll remake the sprites for the next version -)
- powerful and stealthy anansais
- an exceptionnal mage/priest, the king, and the nation starts with one (but he's more than bad in research and cost more than a little fort)
- more versatile magic (on anansais only)

v0.3 :
- research -5 for the king's spider form
- Fallen Anansai shapechanged back to Black Sorceress, fixed

v0.4 :
- made many changes after testing the nation in endgame (new anansai and king's picks, cost of the king changed, added a new mage the griot...)
- added pretenders (including Endo's Anansi, some Machaka ME gods and 2 new ones)
- tried to make the grey spider sprites nicer but it's not a real success

v1.1 (probably definitive except if there are bugs) :

Compatible patch 3.04.

Nation number changed (now 77), secondshapes fixed.

2 dm files are included :

"Machaka Spider Cult" (machakaspidercult.dm)
- many minor balance fixes (+/- to units costs or stats)
- the machaka scout is now a cheap but weak assassin
- added some heroes

"Machaka Spider Cult without King" (machakaspidercult_withoutking.dm)
- same changes except :
- the kingdom start with a normal commander instead of the King
- King's cost lowered

nation ID 77
unit ID used 2650-2683 + 2991-2992 (Anansi pretender)
armor ID 398
sites ID 800-801

[Shovah32]

Only started playing but noticed one problem, the king seems to have lost his negative research by shape changing.

[Twan]

Edited, thanks Shovah.

(added research -5 to the spider form 2661)

[Shovah32]

Also i think the king could use a reduction to 800 gold. niefel jarls and dai oni for example are only 500, have far better stats, better research and 3 or so (iirc) less magic paths. (sure you can bump up the kings stats with a shape change but the magic ability and slot loss means its not really worth it imo).

[Endoperez]

I would've suggested incorporating my Anansi pretender mod in, but you seem to have added your own version of the tricksters already

[Twan]

I've re-edited the mod, fallen Anansai shapechanged back to Black Sorceress after being in spider form.

@Endo : Yes of course the Anansi pretender was my first inspiration.

@Shovah : In fact my first intention was to make the king unique but recruitable if killed, but there is no #unique command, so I've given him a very high price, can't say if he worth it, starting with levels >4 (up to 6) in a path is invaluable when you can use rituals but not that useful before. Finally I'm perhaps going to make kings heroes, except the one given at start (Machaka desserves a king as first prophet anyway), and perhaps add princes with lower magic and a far lower cost or another kind of mages.

[FrankTrollman]

Only the default pretenders can be used as the command to add pretenders may make them unavailable to other nations. Special heroes have not been added yet

Here's the current workaround:

#copystats and #copyspr a pretender you want to add to your nation. Then give that copy of the original pretender a nice #restrictedgod 68. That will make a duplicate of an already existing god that only works for the nation you want.

Eats through unit IDs fast, but it does give nations the correct feel.

-Frank

[Twan]

My first test being finished I've made the following changes :

- made the grey spiders better (13 def instead of 7, catching a running little spider isn't easy ; they remain crappy against missiles and ae spells)
- suppressed the air random on anansais to reduce the number of cross path items they can forge (and make them a little less powerful, mistformed spiders with fire shield and invulnerability in addition to a bless and eventually water/nature buffs were a little too good)
- kings now cost 750 gold but 300 ressources, to represent the ceremonies for their crowning which paralyze the nation ; I've also changed their picks, giving them nature 2 instead of the 50% random and 1 of their earth levels (note : the display of remaining ressources is buggy when you give a so huge res cost to a commander, but the creation works properly)
- added the griot as a new commander recruitable everywhere. Griots are storytellers using some illusion cantrips to illustrate their sagas. They have a standard capacity and air 1 (+10% of +1 air/nature). They also have a research bonus in sloth dominion like a philosopher

The new cost of the kings coupled with the griot bonus gives an interesting strategic choice to the nation. Without production in most cases to recruit a king will mean recruiting no other capitol only mage during 2/3 turns. Without sloth, griots are not better than witch doctors for research and have weaker magic for the same price (but may still be useful mages as they are the only ones with an access to air) ; with sloth 3 they become very good researchers for their price.

I've also added pretenders including a lich version of the machakan king and a legendary griot (rainbow human mage with dom 3 as many machakan believe that the First Storyteller has invented the world with his words).

[Shovah32]

Im running a rainbow (3 in all other than blood) griot with order 3 sloth 3 misfortune 2 magic 3, suddenly my 80 gold non-capitol only griots have a research ability of 8

[FrankTrollman]

I don't even know what you're doing here. I just ran a test game where I captured every land province adjacent to the Capitol and I had Order 3 AND Productivity 3, and I made 271 Resources.

Do you always play on 125% or 150% resources or something? Because a lot of us don't, and the King is by no means garanteed to ever be recruitable before you can cast Riches from Beneath.

Of course, in high resource games or just plan games where you happen to find a Great Iron Mine next to the capitol you could hire one every turn. It's not balanced at all.

Some Machaka positions will never be able to recruit this bad boy and other Machaka positions can crank 'em out.

I strongly suggest going back to the drawing board, because this version doesn't work on first principals.

-Frank