Mod: Mesothalassa version 1.0 (Underwater Nation)

[Foodstamp]

Mesothalassa is a mod that has been sitting on my hard drive for quite a while, I just have not had the time to release it to the public.

The mod adds a new underwater nation known as Mesothalassa. I derived the initial concept and most of the unit names in the mod from the game Dark Age of Camelot, an MMORPG I used to play. As time progressed, I added my own unique ideas to help round out the mod.

The graphics are all recolors/reworks of existing Dominions 3 graphics, which should give the nation a Dominions feel. Balance wise the nation seems to play fairly balanced, it may actually be a bit stronger in the water than the other underwater nations, but it is very difficult to get on land with Mesothalassa.

The mod replaces nation 48 (MA Oceania) and is set to the early era. Feel free to change the era and move the nation to an empty nation slot by editing the mesothalassa.dm file.

I hope you enjoy this mod. Please feel free to leave any feedback, but try to keep it constructive. Unless there are any bugs, this should be the final release of this mod.

[Foodstamp]

14 downloads and no comments makes me a sad panda.

[DrPraetorious]

I like it - it's reasonably balanced and has a cool schtick, very different from the other triton nations.

I'll have more feedback when I'm done with the late era nations. Are you going to do any more work on Haida Gwaii?

[Foodstamp]

Here is a list of all the things I am currently working on:

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I am in the process of making changes to Haida Gwaii to utilize some of the new mod commands.

Currently I plan to do the following atleast:

Change some of the graphics (They were done before the game graphics were made available)

Kachina will be more of a human type unit. She also gains storm power.

Bear Tyee will receive a #onebattlespell and a random chance for Earth/Nature.

Coyote Mother will get a random chance for astral.

Starting Fort will be modified.

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Cradle of Gaea:

I have completely overhauled all the graphics.

I plan to rework some of the spells, including add some new summonable units.

Forest Zealots will probably get the axe in favor of a new freespawn.

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Master of Magic:

All the graphics are complete (Over 500 graphics last time I counted.

10 Nations are playable at the moment.

Spells, wizards, heroes still need to be added (Their graphics are done)

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Midgard: Dark Age of Camelot

This mod is done beyond limiting the sacred to the capital. I may release it this afternoon

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Rohan:

Add a few national spells.

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Coming soon!

Once I wrap these projects up, I plan to create a nation based on the various early cultures of the Iberian Peninsula. This includes Lusitania, Basque, Belearic, and Tarsis amongst others; Also to a lesser extent Greek, Roman, Phoenician (represented through Arco and Ermor bleed overs, maybe a little bit of Marignon.)

[Saulot]

There is a bug with the Golem Construction Spell.

When you name the new spell exactly the same as the Standard Golem Construction spell, it replaces the description for the old one.

[Foodstamp]

Saulot said:
There is a bug with the Golem Construction Spell.

When you name the new spell exactly the same as the Standard Golem Construction spell, it replaces the description for the old one.

Uploaded a new version of the .dm file that fixes this glitch. Thanks for catching it . The new version is attached to the original post.

If you don't want to download the new attachment, just open the mesothalassa.dm file and change "Golem Construction" to "Superior Golem Construction".

[Saulot]

First thoughts:
Underwater nation with zombie pirates and robots (golems), pretty cool (all you are missing are ninjas)
The sprites look dominionesque.

Here's what I tried, and some feedback:

NI - Cradle of Dominions Map
vs 8 impos. AI (1 of them being Oceania)
6 indep str
All other standard

Strategy used:
Went with a sleeping D9,S6,W4 Lich with 7 dominion
Max scales in Turmoil, Sloth, Cold, Luck
1 scale in growth and magic

Early expansion with one marrow mage, 2 harpers, and some spearfisher chaff. Extensive use of animate drowned eventually kills everything.

Went for Conjuration 2 asap to get the drowned mage, to make it my prophet for reanimation. Then research became low priority.

Quickly stopped purchasing all troops on turn 3, then went for some sacred razorfins after turn 6. Used money saved from not purchasing troops to start constructing a fort on turn 6. Started site-searching relatively early with one marrow mage and one earth razer.

On turn 9 started using 3 marrow mage, 3 harper groups with 0 other units for continued expansion since sharks or other
undersea creatures no longer fly underwater. This drowned strategy resulted in 0 losses until encountering 2 Oceanian Bishop Fishes.

Around turn 12 I summoned a golem. Frankly I was kind of dissapointed with the underwater penalties, so I decided not to use it in combat.

Final Thoughts:
So after around 25 turns, I have to say that while the atmosphere of the nation is similar to that of other water nations, the play style is more than different enough. So in my opinion you've definitely succeeded in regards to flow/style/gameplay. I confess that I have little experience playing water nations or playing competitively, so while for me nothing was unbalanced, there seem to be things that have potential for abuse by stronger players. I suppose I should elaborate, while no individual part was overpowered, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
The assassin, spy/preacher, and 3 different flavors of strong mages just give rise to very broad and flexible strategies to employ against the other water nations. It's difficult to say how the limitations of many of the units being stuck underwater would play out in a competitive game, and I suppose a large part of it would be based on what sort of map it is. I imagine other Underwater nations do not roll over indies in quite the same quick fashion that Meso does, which should give it an early superiority which should lead to a win over the other underwater nation(s). Some more feedback/analysis is probably in order.

Overall, nice job.

[Foodstamp]

Deck that Golem out and send him ashore!

[Juzza]

Something I don't like are your ice tridents, if there're the same weapons Caleam uses then they should not do cold damage and be considered magical weapons. And they look like they're wearing ice armour, but it's just bronze!

I'll give you a bit more feedback later once I get a chance to play it longer. Cool nation!

[Foodstamp]

A wizard did it! Seriously, keep the feedback coming. As soon as I get some more, I am going to compile a list of changes.

BTW, if it is not too much trouble, someone give me some feedback on water to land migration please .

P.S. I really appreciate all of you taking the time to try out my mods.