Current projects

[Sombre]

I thought I'd make a thread going over a few things I'm working on right now, find out which things interest the people here - after all I don't want to make a mod that no-one else will play. I will probably make all of these mods, I just want to know which ones you are interested in, if you have any suggestions etc.

LA Jomon, Broken Swords (name subject to change). This replaces Jomon in the late era. The feudal reign of the samurai began as normal, but then a great catastrophe struck. The Taiko, ruler of all Jomon became quite mad; raving about demons and vampires he murdered his wife and consorts, had his personal guard slay all the women in the capitol and put out an order for all females above the status of peasant to be dealt with in similar fashion. Worsening the situation, as the country descended into frenzied bloodshed and factional disputes a great plague swept the land, devastating solely the remaining female population. Exactly one year after the chaos strange and alluring women appeared from the east and within a generation dominated society completely, bending the minds of the once proud samurai and symbolically breaking their swords.

Samurai are replaced by samurai thralls - they are still well equipped (though not with forbidden katana) and skilled, but they have lower morale and are physically weak: their wives drain their energy to remain young. Thrall commanders lead the main military forces.

The nation is ruled by catlike demons who take the form of women and by immortal female vampires who drain blood through their fingernails. Plenty of blood magic here. They are supported by the spirits of young girls who were slaughtered in the chaos; The Buried (earth magic), Burned (fire magic) and Drowned (water) - aesthetically think of J-horror films. They all get death magic too.

You also get jawless clawed zombies (the corpses of women killed) called 'Handmaidens' and flying severed female heads. See, the women of the capitol were beheaded by the Taiko's personal guard who have now been cursed to become the sacred elite of the nation - they are still allowed their nodachi, which are possessed with constant hunger and snarl as they slice into enemies to drink blood (lion attack sound).

I'm going to make this one for sure because I've put a lot of thought into it, but perhaps people here aren't too keen on it, so maybe I'll make something else first. Here are three other projects I'm also working on.

Firstly, The Empire. These are the counterpart to the Avernum nation I made first. They have evil priests, precise and numerous battlemages and some nice heavy infantry. They also have ogre brute squads. No cavalry. For MA so they can go up against Avernum.

Anglia, Land Overturned is a nation based on the literature of the English Civil War. They are a society divided between the Aris (magical humans who are all about tradition, poetry and drinking) and the Parling, who are mortal humans of simple tastes, pure religion and solidity. The nation has poet-mages, Puritan priests and various other contrasting units. Becuase the Aris are magical and the Parling ordinary you need to have different commanders to lead them. The nation is also a refuge for satyrs fled from Pangaea who have become sacred and empowered by Arisian wine - they form the sacred bands of Bacchusian warriors. I haven't decided on period, but LA or MA is all that makes sense.

Arga Dis, Blood of Warriors (another name change in waiting) is a sister nation to EA Arcoscephale in much the same was as Lanka is to,.. Bandar is it? Or Patala? Anyway, it's a nation of extreme warriors (think spartans) who worship war and bloodshed. They have elite Red Achillans who are virtually invulnerable having been 'dipped' in blessed blood, various psychotic infantry units, Helgrot slave chaff and blood drinking cavalry riding the hated man-eating Mares of Dis. All of their leaders are fighters, some with blood magic. The giant Gilgans are at the top of the food chain (literally, they constantly eat slaves and injured warriors) and have considerable power. Many Arga Dis units will fight on after taking lethal damage, only to collapse dead at the end of the battle. This tends to make their conflicts incredibly violent, especially given their insane morale and berserker units. Their priests cannot preach (they have no interest in arguing their way of living to slaves).

[BandarLover]

I like all of the ideas you have here. The Empire nation would be cool to have since I already have the Avernum nation you released. And the other nation ideas sound very strange indeed. (Non preaching priests? Waaaa?) So just clone yourself and work on all of them at once.

But I guess if I had to choose, I would go with the Jomon idea. Mainly because the Jomon nation as is is sorta bland (besides their summons, I guess) Plus, you do real good work on replacement nations. Iron Faith Ulm Reborn is fantastic.

[lch]

Broken swords sounds really cool. You should make some of the units you described, like the disembodied flying heads, into national spells, like "Call Ancestor". Otherwise very nice concept.

The Empire is what Ermor already is in my eyes. Sounds a bit like LA Marignon, too.

Anglia is interesting. I somehow dislike the Bacchusian warriors because I can't make the link between satyrs and english noblemen/commonfolk, but the basic idea sounds good.

Arga Dis sounds like what people that watched Frank Miller's 300 already asked for (? haven't seen it, dunno), I don't know how you are going to implement the ideas you had about them, though, the thing where they drop dead after battle for example. Does this mean that they somehow get additional HP that are removed after battle, or do you want to make one-shot troops like gladiators? The priests are going to have to make blood sacrifices like Mictlan, I see...

[Sombre]

Arga Dis: They will have dominion spread and temples will work in the normal way. Their priests just won't be able to preach. They won't be able to make blood sacrifices. You can quite easily make units fight on after they're dead - you just give them a temporary second form when they 'die' like the lobster rider, wolf rider,.. only you make sure the second form has the same name, uses the same graphic (or a copy, bloodied up) and has similar abilities. This way you can win a battle but have half your guys drop dead afterwards. I said in another thread that I was going to make a nation within similar themes to 300, but there's no direct link.

Empire: I suppose they're a bit bland and standard 'evil empire'-esque, but they do have their own nifty graphics and they're obviously fun for Exile fans or people who play Avernum. I'll use my imagination to spice them up a bit (like Avernum).

Anglia: If you read some Cavalier poetry you'll see plenty of links between England and a mythologised classical world. This isn't a historically accurate civil war military nation; it's firmly based on the literature. In the Anglia backstory they have magical wine which powers their poets, transforms people into satyrs and so on. The Parling make for more reliable, cheaper and heavier troops though (New Model Army).

Broken Swords: The severed heads and zombie women will be summoned somehow. Possibly call allies, possibly a cheap spell, possibly a battle only summon. Not sure yet. Everything else (including humanoid demons) will be recruitable, like Lanka.

I'll see if anyone has more comments. I don't mind which order I make these in, since I plan on making them all for sure eventually. It's up to you guys.

[Sombre]

I've decided to work on Arga Dis and Jomon Broken for the moment, while finishing off updates to Ulm Reborn and Vaettihiem (balancing changes mostly).

Here's the Jomon Broken details for you all. I'm far from finishing all this stuff so don't expect it for a bit. I'll put up the Arga Dis details later.

Jomon, Broken Swords (LA)

Strengths:
Good magic variety
Cheap samurai thralls
Seduce, spy, assassinate - they do it all
Undead swarms, some flying
Cat Demons hard to finish off
Stealth army capable
Loyal Dog Samurai

Weaknesses:
Morale problems
Vulnerable to priests/holy damage
Good troops very expensive
Dodgy thrall based PD
Capitol only Sacreds

Troops.
Samurai Thrall (yari) - str 9 hp 9 mor 9 on all thrall
Samurai Thrall (naginata)
Samurai Thrall Cavalry (lance, mace)
Bandit Cur (stealthy, prototype of Dog Samurai)
Dog Samurai (demon, loyal with mor 14, 15 gold or so, tesubo weapon)
Cat Demon (aggressive werecatesque demon - changes to very hard to hit -awe 3 morale 1- female form and flees when badly hurt. Expensive.)
Sheathless (Elite no-dachi armed samurai guard, sacred undead, growling hungry blades)


Commanders.
Thrall Vassal (40ldr samurai thrall)
Twisted Daimyo (demonised daimyo, 80ldr, powerful physically, no morale problems)
O-Toyo (Stealthy Flying female seducer/spy/ruler/mageB2+element, second shape is the High Cat Demon)
High Cat Demon (stealthy, very powerful physically, same magic and leadership as first form)
Note: I don't think the AI uses shapeshift, so I'm making both forms available to recruit.
Drowned (little girl spirit, W2D2, undead)
Buried (as above, but E2D2)
Burned (as above, F2D2)
Shrine Maiden (Jomon human females respected/needed by the demonkind - H2 priests and undead leaders)

Summons.
Handmaidens (female undead, aggressive zombies)
Krasue (flying severed heads - mostly chaff)
Gaki (nasty little vampire ghoulesque undead with whipping tongues and lifedrain)
Kyuuketsuki (powerful flying female vampire leaders with long claws, immortal and B3D2 - summonable with only B2)

What do you think?

[Sombre]

Arga Dis, The Blood Oath (MA)

Story: A society which venerates war and bloodshed. Their city nation watched over the imprisoned Gilgans, blood giants of great powr who had defied the Pantokrator. The Argan love of battle stems from a belief in an afterlife which rewards great warriors with sensual bliss; nonstop orgies of the palate and the loins. Following a terrible series of defeats, their city faced destruction and in their darkest hour they turned to the Gilgans. They were offered a pact; swear a blood oath of allegiance to the Gilgans, free them and provide slaves to satisfy their hunger and in return the Argans would receive a gift which would save their city. The nobles agreed, Arga must not fall. The 'gift' was a glimpse of the afterlife for all who swore it - not a place of bliss, but a terrible abyss of conflict and neverending struggle ruled by those who could boast of killing the most, of feasting on flesh and blood. Those oathsworn Argans turned to their foes as changed men and fought like devils, consuming the fallen, killing their own kind too cowardly to join them in battle and bathing in the blood of their enemies. Arga was saved, at a price. It is now a brutal nation of war where glory and strength is all important and the common populace are mere slaves,.. even food for the Gilgans. Warriors swear a new form of the old oath, less favourable to the Gilgans. Some descendents of the original tragic oathsworn survive, though they lead the life of cursed untouchables.

Strengths:
Truly elite infantry
Powerful, frightening cavalry
Great morale
Haimgrot blood hunter
Commanders quite thuggable
Powerful Gilgan commander
Many troops fight on after lethal damage
Red Achillans

Weaknesses:
Weak priests
Shoddy PD below 20
No preaching
Generally expensive, outnumbered
Top troops aren't sacred
Scary Gilgan gluttony
No magical variety
Missile troops are for cowards

Troops:

Note: All sworn and oath units fight on after death in a temporary 'mortally wounded state' with berserk.

Helgrot (cheap, awful slave chaff with javs)
Argan Hoplite (upgraded basic hoplite)
Argan Mymidon (identical to hoplite with different equipment)
Sworn Brother (Available in hoplite and myrmidon flavours)
Sworn Orphan (double punchdaggers berserker)
Sworn Companion (ride nasty man eating mares which cause fear)
Oath Brother (myrmidon flavour only. Argan stats, but sacred, fight on after death, lower morale.)
Red Achillan (Super elite and very costly. 80 gold each maybe. They have very high natural protection, making them very hard to kill.)

Commanders:

Argan Captain (80ldr - solid warrior)
Sworn Champion (80ldr - excellent warrior)
Oath Father (40ldr, B2 H1, sacred - solid warrior)
Haimgrot (noleader, B1 dousebonus 2)
Original (120ldr, sacred - superb warrior)
Gilgan (B3, BFED random 50% 50%, giant, glutton, berserker, very expensive)

Thoughts? I've actually made quite a few Jomon Broken swords units now. I like my dog samurai :]

[Juzza]

Ooo sounds interesting! if you by chance need a hand, heh anyway I think you've done well, except, I think you either need some more units, just 1 or 2 or some nation summons, just for variability! Because variability rocks! ahem, anyways yes sounds good, I can't wait to try this, is it done, when will it be done, I'm so excited.

[Sombre]

Well that's just the stuff that will be in the first release. It's possible they'll get more content after that, although I'm not going to make anything as content packed as Avernum for a while.

And no, it's not done yet. It probably won't be done for a while too as I don't have that much free time coming up. I have about 20% of arga dis done and 30% or so of broken swords. Attached is a little bmp of dog samurai, just for fun.

In the meantime, I've made three other mods which I'm still fiddling with. You could give them a go. Ulm Reborn, Vaettihiem SE and Exile/Avernum.

[Juzza]

Ah yes, tried a few of those, except Vaettihiem and since it's made by a fellow fan I now must try it!

[Sombre]

Progress is very slow, but I'm still working. I've sort of been sidelined by renewed interst in the conceptual balance mod and making CBM friendly versions of my mods (and zepaths too possibly).

Attached is another little preview, this time of a big ole kitty cat. This might end up being a pretender, or it might be a regular cat demon (nekoni) of some kind. It's for Jomon, Broken Swords.