Mod: Mytheology Pretenders

[Psientist]

This is a mod-in-progress that creates some new pretenders and spells. I'll keep adding to it as I go along, depending upon time, learning curve, and the availability of mod commands to support the ideas I have.



Currently - v2.05 - June 19 2008
"32 new Pretenders including 24 brand new deities and eight Pretenders formally available only as Summons and a few new special monsters. Also, a whole bunch of tested new spells.

The new Pretenders include Carrion Lord (Caelum Late), Cthulu (Rlyeh - all) Desire (Middle Man), Toad Demon (CAbysia Late), Fallen Archangel (Marignon Late), Great Egg (Caelum all), Grim Reaper (Ermor All), Monkey King (Kailasa Early, Bandar Log Middle, Patala Late), Morpheus (Arcocephale Late), Pantokrator (All), Shah of Djinn and Ifreet (Marignon Middle), Teratos Rex (C'Tis Early), Thunderbird (Caelum All), Black Dragon (all), Gold Dragon (all), Shadowcat (all), Father of Medicine (all), Great Eye (Earth/Water - all), Great Eye (Fire/Air - all), Great Eye (Astral - all), Menhir of Death (Ermor Early), Menhir of Growth (Marverni Early), Menhir of Courage (Marverni Early), Mother of Assassins (Machaka Middle). Most of the new pretenders have custom graphics.

The summons Pretenders include Heliophagus (Abysia Late), King of Banefires (Yomi Early), King of Deeper Earth (Argatha Early), Queen of the Sea (Oceania Early), Queen of Thunder (Caelum Early), Tarrasque (New - Pangea Early), Yggdrasil (Maverni Early), Vastness (Ryleh Middle).

The new spells include Shards of Hastur (a large-area paralyze), Bind Toad Demon (self explanatory - an amphibious demon!), Feeding Frenzy (underwater equivalent of Swarm), Man O' War (underwater analogy to Raise Skeleton), Diabolic Brigade (Instant Army O' Imps), Trap Visitor (bind, or steal, the Void Gate Visitor), Banefire Veil (Death version of Dome of Flaming Death), Rite of Ashk'Ente (a souped-up Manifestation), Soul Harvest (farsummon 5 Grim Reapers), Aurora Warriors (Body Ethereal version of Fog Warriors), Soulblades (grants astral blades to some soldiers), Eclipse (farcast blindness on an enemy army), Foreboding (farcast the Battle Fright affliction on enemy troops), Storm of Acid (farcast Rusty Armor on enemy troops), Revelation (search for holy magic sites), Sanctuary (a temporary holy dome), Divine Judgement (a holy version of Flames from Afar), Sea of Scarabs (summon hundreds of beetles), Menhir of Fortune, Menhir of Courage, Menhir of Faith, Menhir of Growth, Menhir of Peace, Summon Wraith King (Nazgul!), Loki's Mirrors (battlefield glamours), Dirge of the Drowned Gods (battlefield-wide Sailor's Death), Aria Discordia (battlefield-wide confusion)."


Have fun - the link to download the latest version is http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...?Number=617457

[Shovah32]

who gets morpheus? i cant find him

[Psientist]

SOrry. Morph is in Late Age Arcocephale. Teratos in is Early Age C'tis.

[HoneyBadger]

Wouldn't Teratos be late age Jomon? if he represents Gojira, that is.

[Psientist]

I suppose it could be, but it wasn't my intent to create Gojira (another King of Monsters!). I thought of him more as a leftover king of dinosaurs (T-rex), and thus fitting to the lizard-men. No nuclear breath! But I guess that means somebody needs to do a Gojira mod...

[Foodstamp]

OH...NO.... THERE GOES TOKYO.... GO GO GODZILLA!

[Psientist]

I added a bunch of Summon pretenders to the mod. Caveat - I haven't playtested some of them!

I experimented with creating the Eater of the Dead as a Pretender. It was pretty interesting as a SC at first, but quickly it started diseasing all my commanders and units - and I think even in surrounding provinces. Then by the 10th month, it had grown so powerful that it just attacked my own troops and then bugged off. So, making it a pretender didn't give full control to the player... so I removed it from the mod.

If any other modders have any standalone pretender mods they want me to incorporate, I'd be happy to make Mytheology a "Pretender Collection" mod.

[Psientist]

I added two new pretenders, using some hacks I found and the new mod summoning capabilities in the latest Dominions patch. The latest version adds:

Pantokrator (all nations)
Desire (Man, Middle Age)

I apologize to the devs if the Pantokrator is non-canon, but it was begging to be done by SOMEBODY.

[Psientist]

Added one more pretender: the Grim Reaper (Ermor, Early Age).

[Psientist]

I thought it might help to show some of the sprite graphics I developed for this mod. The Grim Reaper and the Pantokrator (the glowing dude) are all original. Desire is based upon the Succubus monster template, and the Teratos Rex upon some dinosaur model photo I found on the internet, and adapted accordingly.




Also, some strategy thoughts I developed during playtesting:
Desire: Bump up your "dominion" setting at onset. Set up Desire in a high-dominion safe province, assigned to summoning Suitor allies. Equip your various armies with as many Priestesses of Cytherea as she attracts, since that will be infrequent even with a high dominion. Keep your Priestesses assigned to a well-guarded commander, behind the lines. Have a spare commander or two always ready to retrieve your priestesses if they rout. After every battle, make sure you check your "army setup" in case the Priestesses (or your Goddess) have charmed any enemy troops.

Grim Reaper: Use Grim as a SC against independent provinces. Try to keep him in your dominion, especially against other players; while he is deadly as a SC against regular armies, he can be killed by strong priests, magic users, or magic armies (he is "undead", after all). Against other nations' armies, have him assassinate a few commanders before attacking, preferably while backed up with other (regular) armies. Use his high mobility as a "roamer/troubleshooter" to keep dominion high at your frontiers, and fight off incursions at the edges of your domain.