Mod: Nova Deus II v1.22 (w/ New Content)

[zepath]

Nova Deus II is now available in version 1.22! It includes new artwork and some new descriptions for 20 generic pretender gods in Dominions 3 and adds 16 new pretenders for select nations. I also threw my Pythian Iconoclast mod in there (adds a new priest commander to Pythium). More new art and new gods are forthcoming.

My thanks go out to Endoperez, whose Anansi pretender is included in this mod, and Wauthan, parts of whose excellent Avatar mod for Dom 2 have been revived in this mod.

The new gods are, unfortunately, available to only one nation each. This is because current mod commands do not allow me to easily assign new gods to many nations. If you would like to use one of the new gods with a different nation, simply open the novadeus.dm file, find the god in question, and change the number in the line "#restricted god <nbr>" to suit you.

Version 1.22 addresses an issue pointed out by Edi on the main Dom 3 boards. Namely, some shapeshifting pretenders have variable points costs between their two forms and this causes them to be more or less expensive than they should by rights be. I have added a quick fix to the two pretenders he pointed out.

Updates for v1.22:

-Points cost bug for the Dracolich pretender fixed
-Points cost bug for the ***** Queen pretender fixed

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Updates for v1.21:

-New art & description for Earth Mother pretender

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Updates for v1.2:

-New pretender: Lord of Hate (MA R'lyeh)
-New pretender: Lord of Fear (LA R'lyeh)
-New pretender: Lord of the Abyss (LA Atlantis)
-New pretender: Firstborn (EA Ulm)
-New art & description for Dracolich pretender
-New art & description for Carrion Dragon pretender
-Modified the art of the Lord of Destruction to depict his great axe as being appropriately drenched with blood
-Modified the art of the Arch Druid pretender a bit
-Modified the art of all dragon pretenders to give them eyes
-Modified the art of the Sphinx pretender to give it a slightly different coloration
-Modified the action art of the Watcher pretender a bit
-Restricted the Watcher pretender to LA Arcoscephale instead of LA R'lyeh
-Increased the base hit points of the Heavenly Messenger to 35 and map move to 5
-Decreased the points cost of the Risen Emperor to 100
-Gave the Black and White Dragon pretenders the appropriate magic drain in their dragon forms
Note: not all of the graphical changes are reflected in the preview.bmp file included in the .zip, but you will see them in the game.

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Updates for v1.1:

-New art & description for (Red) Dragon pretender
-New art & description for (Blue) Dragon pretender
-New art & description for (Green) Dragon pretender
-New art & description for Sacred Statue pretender
-New art & description for Arch Mage pretender
-New art & description for Arch Druid pretender
-Modified the art of the Black & White Dragon pretenders to bring them into line with the new art for the generic dragons
-Modified the art of the Vampire Queen to give her a white garment instead of grey
-Modified the art of the heron-form Phoenix to have a lighter color beak
-Reduced the starting dominion of the Heavenly Messenger to 2 and reduced its base hit points to 30
-Changed the starting magic suite of the Lord of Pleasure to N3, B1, reduced his Awe by 2 points, gave him a Magic Sceptre and Enslavement as weapons instead of a simple Sceptre and Devour Soul, and reduced his points cost to 150
-Increased the points cost of the Changer of Ways to 200
-Increased the points cost of the Lord of Decay to 175

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New artwork (and descriptions for some):
* : v1.1
**: v1.2/1.21

Arch Druid*
Arch Mage*
Carrion Dragon**
Crone
Dracolich**
Dragon (Blue)*
Dragon (Green)*
Dragon (Red)*
Earth Mother**
Freak Lord
Great Enchantress
Lich
Lord of Fertility
Master Lich
Moloch
Phoenix (now in two flavors)
Prince of Death
Sacred Statue*
Sphinx
Vampire Queen

New pretender gods:

Changer of Ways (MA T'ien Ch'i)
Colossus (MA Ulm)
God Spider (MA Machaka)
Dragon, Black (LA Man)
Dragon, White (MA Man)
Firstborn** (EA Ulm)
Heavenly Messenger (MA Marignon)
Lord of Decay (MA C'tis)
Lord of Destruction (MA Abysia)
Lord of Fear** (MA R'lyeh)
Lord of Hate** (LA R'lyeh)
Lord of Pleasure (MA Pangaea)
Lord of the Abyss** (LA Atlantis)
Risen Emperor (LA Ermor)
Watcher (LA R'lyeh)
World Tree (EA Marverni)

New commanders:

Iconoclast (MA Pythium)

Load this one up and give the new (and old) gods a look and let me know what you like and what needs improvement!

[UninspiredName]

Oooh, spiffy. I'm looking forward to this one.

[Wauthan]

Well.. apart from The Crone (many thanks for taking that request) there are a few pretenders that keep recieving nasty quips because of their looks, atleast in the mp games I've played.

The Son of the Sun (astral) - I know the old egyptians had a thing for oddlooking hats but why is he balancing a penguin on his head?
The Lord of Fertility - The crazy giant naked man wielding an oversized carrot we all know and flee from.
The Mother of Lions - Propably because of her pose but I can't make out any details on her face or even her head.
The Arch Mage (Lobster rider) - Another figure with an odd pose and coloring, and the lobster isn't really that intimidating.
The Sphinx - A bit sorry to suggest it though. There's been a lot of golden comments about his looks.

[Jack_Trowell]

And of course the "beautiful" Earth Mother (the problem being no with the drawing itself, but rather with the real life model)

[WraithLord]

master druid, great enchantress, great sage, frost father, lich, master lich.

[Jack_Trowell]

If you plan to do white and black dragons (I suppose respectivly with astral or air (white) and death magic (black) ?) what would be their "breath" attack ?

For an air dragon, a lighting bolt (maybe more like thundershock) would do, and I can imagine a black dragon with a pseudo shadow bolt breath attack, but what about astral ?

Of course if you don't plan a dragon with astral magic it won't matter.

While we're on the dragon pretender question, what about a hydra pretender ? Maybe a chromatic hydra (like the D&D Tiamat)

Of course the original Tiamat is something else :

In Babylonian myths, Tiamat is a huge, bloated female dragon that personifies the saltwater ocean, the water of Chaos. She is also the primordial mother of all that exists, including the gods themselves. Her consort is Apsu, the personification of the freshwater abyss that lies beneath the Earth. From their union, saltwater with freshwater, the first pair of gods were born. They are Lachmu and Lachamu, parents of Ansar and Kisar, grandparents of Anu and Ea.

In the creation epic Enuma elish, written around 2000 BCE, their descendants started to irritate Tiamat and Apsu so they decided to kill their offspring. Ea discovered their plans and he managed to kill Apsu while the latter was asleep. Tiamat flew into a rage when she learned about Apsu's death and wanted to avenge her husband. She created an army of monstrous creatures, which was to be led by her new consort Kingu, who is also her son. Eventually, Tiamat was defeated by the young god Marduk, who was born in the deep freshwater sea.

Marduk cleaved her body in half, and from the upper half he created the sky and from the lower half he made the earth. From her water came forth the clouds and her tears became the source of the Tigris and the Euphratus. Kingu also perished, and from his blood Marduk created the first humans.

"The Deep" (Hebrew tehom) at the beginning of Genesis derives from Tiamat.

[Endoperez]

The DomII version of Nova Deus had White Dragon of Air with Lightning Blast (AoE 3 and 12 AP dam), and Black Dragon of Astral with stealth and Plague Breath (AoE 5, MR negates the disease but it also has Area Fear effect). Black Dragon also had poison aura or some other way of poisoning its enemies, it was immune to Poison and had new path cost 10, in at least one version of the mod, but I'm not sure if the one I have is the final version.

[zepath]

Wauthan, the Lord of Fertility and the Sphinx are now on my list of pretenders to improve. I agree their graphics definitely need a fresh coat. What is the monster number of the Mother of Lions? I don't remember her at all.

WraithLord, the humanoid pretenders will probably fall second on my list simply because in so few pixels its hard to come up with something entirely new and interesting six or seven times in a row. I will probably start by writing better, more unique, descriptions for each of them and then working on new sprites for a later release.

Jack_Trowell, I rather like the Earth Mother as she is -- namely a very appropriate depiction of Venus-like fertility godesses worshipped by humans since time immemorial. What would you have me change of her?

The white and black dragons I made for the original Nova Deus (in Dom 2) were based on Air and Astral and had a lightning breath and plague breath attack respectively, but were not entirely balanced. They had the alternate forms of a White Wizard and Dirgesinger (think emo bard). I plan on following the same general design for the new versions of each, but may indeed switch the black dragon to Death.

As for Tiamat, Marduk absolutely ripped her apart and is thus way cooler. The Mesopotamian creation epic is of course chock full of ideas for pretenders, monsters, and such, but for the time being I'd like to concentrate on improving those already-existing pretenders that really need it (like that poor, poor Lord of Fertility...)

[Wauthan]

Mother of Lions is number 387. She's been restricted to ME Pangea in dominions 3. No idea why since she's every bit as valid as the Sons of the sun and the Lord of the gate.

I'm happy that you've taken on the Lord of fertility and the Sphinx. The latter is seriously unepic in both size and apperance but the former must be a pain to repaint. You can be sure that I'll be eagerly awaiting the release of your mod next year.

[Sandman]

I have a request: make the phoenix look cool.