Alugra, City of Wonders v1.06 - Stable version

[Burnsaber]

Thread Moved. (http://z7.invisionfree.com/Dom3mods/index.php?showtopic=66)

[archaeolept]

i'd be rather worried that any cheap national gift of reason will be hard to balance... I take it that it works on normal summons as well?

[Zylithan]

sounds interesting. I'd help, but I'm afraid that my advice is worth nothing, with 0 mp games under my belt. But I have thought a race with more random magic and low level variety could be interesting...

[Burnsaber]

archaeolept said:
i'd be rather worried that any cheap national gift of reason will be hard to balance... I take it that it works on normal summons as well?



Yes, but there is a complication. The GoR uses astral gems (note; the best gems ever) -> Your mages suck -> You need to GoR your troops to get more mages, especially in the early game -> it costs astral gems -> you'll have few astral gems to spare to the amazing things you could do with them = lame.

Besides, is really *that* more poweful that your Tartarians cost 10 death and 5 astral instead of 10 death and 20 nature?


Zylithan said:
sounds interesting. I'd help, but I'm afraid that my advice is worth nothing, with 0 mp games under my belt. But I have thought a race with more random magic and low level variety could be interesting...



Don't worry about balance when playing then. Just focus on the question number 3. Is it fun to play?

[Burnsaber]

The next version, 0.2, will include:
(The units whose placeholder graphs can be seen in EA will be done first)

-Logo
-Flag
-Thug graphics
-Gambler graphics
-Watchman graphics
-Multihero (About him, let's just say that I'll be using the Kappa sprite as a base. Gowabunga, dudes! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif)

Well, has anyone tried it out? Even if you just skimmed through the units, don't be afraid to tell your opinion.

Also, one more question to those who have tried the mod:
Did it bother you much that the graphs were placeholders? I'm just curious since I'm thinking just leaving the current Master graphic as it is. It's just too damn perfect for the job. I really don't know what to add to it.

About the national heroes, I'm looking for some suggestions regarding to the missing two. So far, I have idealized these;
- The multihero I already mentioned.
- "Captain Alugra", the captain of the watch with indestructable shield
- Maker of Villains (since Maker of Heroes is also in EA, I couldn't resist the power of the Pun. And yes, he will be the Hero maker's evil identical twin.)

So I've got room for two more. Since this nation is so much tilted towards Order/Misfortune (high gold cost, low res units), I'm thinking of making the Heroes really good and numereous to encourage taking some Luck scale.

P.S: I couldn't find the Valkyrie sprite along the sprites KO released in the "Sprites: Request to Devs"- thread. I went them through 3 times and found only despair. Is there any other way I could find it?

[Humakty]

I looked at them, and even GoR at least 1 of each gifted, just to have a precise idea. Having access to many paths and forgers compensate, I think, the cost in astral gems.
I'll maybe playtest them as I want to test the new map eight gates, and never play capitol centric factions on my usual 400+ maps. It is true that access to air/astral inders the capitol centric flaw.
Why is this faction tilted toward misfortune ? Isn't sloth the scale to take ? As you have access to many paths, fortune could bring you the gems needed to start remote site search.
The faction seems pretty complete, and I guess the graphics are good as they are, would you dress like a superheroe if you had superpowers ? Imagine all an army dressed like them, their ennemies have to take a morale check against 20, or spend 3 turns laugthing.
You should change the graphics for those who use a common indep graph (ie : workers), as it could be confusing if you recruit some of them.

[Zylithan]

I didn't try them yet... I'm super busy in rl, but would check them out if things calm down later. i'd vote for new graphics, but i havent even looked at it.

[Burnsaber]

Humakty said:
Why is this faction tilted toward misfortune ? Isn't sloth the scale to take ? As you have access to many paths, fortune could bring you the gems needed to start remote site search.
The faction seems pretty complete, and I guess the graphics are good as they are, would you dress like a superheroe if you had superpowers ? Imagine all an army dressed like them, their ennemies have to take a morale check against 20, or spend 3 turns laugthing.




This nation is tilted towars misfortune becuase it is tilted towards Order. High Gold cost units = Order. And everyone takes some Misfortune with his Order.

I'm distinguishing the gifted from other units by making them wear differently colored capes.

Workers = No cape, just blue overalls. (they're already quite distinquished enough)
Smith = Orangish cape.
Watchmen = Red
Gambler = Dark Green
Sailor = Blue
Villain = Purple
Manifest = Light Blue
Preacher = Black/ Dark Red

I'm not ready to tacle the Worker yet. I need to find his sprite first. Couldn't find it on the database. I better ask about those "missing" sprites in another thread.

To Zylithan;
Have no sweat about it. I mean, you're not *forced* to play it or anything.

[Maraxus]

I've looked at the dm file.

One thing I'd suggest:

I don't know if it works (some special effects don't work with some effects), but
#spec 16
should say, that only magic beings are effected by a spell. You might want to aply that to your "The Power Within" spell (if it really works)

[Burnsaber]

Maraxus said:
I've looked at the dm file.

One thing I'd suggest:

I don't know if it works (some special effects don't work with some effects), but
#spec 16
should say, that only magic beings are effected by a spell. You might want to aply that to your "The Power Within" spell (if it really works)



Yes, I knew of that possibility too. It's a thematic decision to not do it that way. Even if I specced it to affect only Magic units, it would still work for Living Statues, Gargoyles and whatnot.

I really can't think of any reason why the Masters would be able to train a Living Statue, but not a Tartarian. Besides, I find the mental image of a 5-feet tall master giving martial arts lessons to a 60-feet tall undead giant extremely funny.

I really haven't used the Tartarian stragedy on a large scale, so I can't say this for sure, but I really think that it won't matter much if your tartarians cost 10 death/5 astral instead of 10death/20nature. Your maximum death capacity is D3 on a villain (if you get lucky), which is not enough for economic tartarian summon (all of the Tartarian summoners would need: Skull Staff, Skullface, Ring of Sorcery, Ring of Wizardy). So you'd need to summon the D4 lichs, which cost death gems and research on enchanment path and it still wouldn't be too economical (even the Liches would need Skull Staff, Skullface, Ring of Sorcery), good luck finding those astral gems for Rings of Sorcery when you need to GoR like a madman to have the mage-power a late-game nation needs. So you're mostly restricted on Tartarizing with your Pretender, which anyone can do. You just do it a dat cheaper.

Yeah, I could make it affect only magic units and put it in the description "that it only works for gifted", but that would be lying, and I'm not too hots on that.

[Burnsaber]

Version 0.2 is up! It adds graphics for Gambler, Watchman, Worker, Thug and adds a new multihero(es), the dreaded Ninja Turles! The mod now has a logo and a flag, too.

About the Graphics, I'm not really aiming for a stunning graphical quality, more to a "if it works, it's fine"- attitude. If something hurts your eye, report it and I'll do my best to fix the issue.

I'm still looking for feedback on balance. The current prices are only estimates, and probably need tweaking.

I'm aiming to make a fun nation, with a different gameplay from other nations and a good balance for possible MP play. If MA pythium and MA Ulm are bith 'balanced' I at least have a quite large area to land on when it comes to balance http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif.

If someone is up to playing against me in a blitz this (or any) weekend using this nation, I'd be glad to accept the challenge. That would be a awesome oppurtunity to test the balance.

I also had a idea for a new hero, so I only need idea for one more. I really can't use the "just uberize a recruitable commander"- idea, as this nation is just a too good of an opportunity to make lame jokes and references. This is what I'm thinking; The next person to post the name of his favourite comic book superhero gets it added as hero in this nation (altered for flavor, of course)

[Endoperez]

Baa'lah of Pawn (www.pawn.se, NOT safe for work!)

EDIT:
Now that I've posted my suggestion, I'll fill in the details.

Pawn is a webcomic drawn by a Swedish artist by the name of Fredrik K. T. Andersson. He's an awesome drawer and is one of the reasons I want to learn arts - I want to be able to create stories like he does in his pictures. Any way, Baalah would be a female demon that has two forms; a size 2 one and identical, much larger form. Neither form is winged. Size 2 form would probably be stealthy and seducer. Also, both forms should be male. She can only seduce women, and be seduced by women. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif Shape-changing is an old and respected tradition in comic books, so it goes fine.

Martian Manhunter would also be cool, but he'd be pretty strange with Mind Burn, etherealness (or at least very high stealth/glamour), flying, rejuvenation etc. He'd make for an insane thug, even with his fire vulnerability.

[Burnsaber]

Endoperez said:
Baa'lah of Pawn (www.pawn.se)

EDIT:
Now that I've posted my suggestion, I'll fill in the details.

Pawn is a webcomic drawn by a Swedish artist by the name of Fredrik K. T. Andersson. He's an awesome drawer and is one of the reasons I want to learn arts - I want to be able to create stories like he does in his pictures. Any way, Baalah would be a female demon that has two forms; a size 2 one and identical, much larger form. Neither form is winged. Size 2 form would probably be stealthy and seducer. Also, both forms should be male. She can only seduce women, and be seduced by women. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif



I knew that I might end with something obscure, but there was a *no way* to see this coming. I was actually familiar with Frederick's works beforehand, I have skimmed through his archives in Elfwood. I like his works (especially the humoreous ones, the 'daddy' ones are just way too good).

Now I just need to figure out a way to strike her into the backstory of the nation. Summoning spell gone awry? Hmm.. you're given me much to ponder.. (don't worry, I like challenges). I'll start working on her once I have made all other units in the nation. (I still have: Cutthroat, Villain, Fisherman, Minion, Manifest and Librarian to make)

[Endoperez]

A shapechanging human would work, for the most part. The comic hasn't really come to the revelation part yet. A half-demon would also work, if we handwave certain problem with the comic's two characters...

[Burnsaber]

Edited for great justice!

[Burnsaber]

The mageupdate that is 0.4 is here. All recruitable units have now graphics! I also added a new combat spell for Preacher and Watchmen to use.

I also added a new hero. Only two more to go! I know that llamabeast just posted his Khemri-mod, but I'll try to hang on as I can. Perhaps a small tease will work for luring players?

Here is a screenshot of the new hero (he won't come with experience, he just fought a battle before taking that pic)
http://xs220.xs.to/xs220/07443/Joe.png
Then I sended him alone to a independent province. This is the result:
http://xs220.xs.to/xs220/07443/Joevstheworld.png

I hope that I managed to arouse your curiosity..

[Shovah32]

Heh. Joe the Tanner is called Wonde ^^.
Second form or something?

[Morkilus]

Heh. It's like the time I cast Enslave Mind on Thuella the Air Queen and she came back from a Gift of Reason with some generic commander's name. A good blow to the head will do strange things.

[Burnsaber]

Shovah32 said:
Heh. Joe the Tanner is called Wonde ^^.
Second form or something?



Oh.. Durr.. I took pic of the wrong guy! I have several of these lying around in my test game. (made them recruitable to test them out), that one was recruited before I haxed him to always be named Joe.

Proof:
http://xs220.xs.to/xs220/07443/TherealJoe.png

[Shovah32]

Wonde is superior to Joe! o_o

Even without the experience Wonde seems to have 1 more hit point, 1 more defence and 2 less encumberance.

[Burnsaber]

Shovah32 said:
Wonde is superior to Joe! o_o

Even without the experience Wonde seems to have 1 more hit point, 1 more defence and 2 less encumberance.



That's because Joe is standing on a swamp. And the first experience star doesn't give any hitpoint bonus, so they're pretty much equal.

Joe is heorically stupid and Wonde has Iron Will. The normal magic resistance for "Joe the Tanner" is 5.

[Sombre]

Just thought I'd let everyone know that I gave this a look today and came away with a very good first impression. I'll certainly be playing with this mod a bit in the future and I hope Burnsaber keeps working on it, with feedback of course ;]

[Burnsaber]

Sombre said:
Just thought I'd let everyone know that I gave this a look today and came away with a very good first impression. I'll certainly be playing with this mod a bit in the future and I hope Burnsaber keeps working on it, with feedback of course ;]



Thank you very much for your kind words, Sombre.

Version 0.5 is up!
Changes include:
- Toned down the gifted
- Other balance fixes
- Added 9 national spells
- 5 new pretender choices, 1 national unique
- improved grammar and spelling
- Added hero: Captain Alugra

I went through the descriptions 3 times and put them through a manual spelling fix. Unfortunately I haven't actually studied correct english in a while, so internet has managed to corrupt my english quite well. If there are any more spelling/grammar errors, the odds are that I don't even realize them as mistakes. If you would be kind enough to point any spelling/grammar errors in the mod, I'll fix them for the next version.

Yes, you read that last paragraph right. I'm asking you to be a Grammar Nazi. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

Some of you might be thinking that having 6 national personal buff spells is a bit excessive, but I really want to encourage to use the Manifests and trained gifted as thugs instead of battlemages. Superheroism is all about smashing face, not throwing fireballs around.

If someone would be kind of to tell me why the forum isn't showing my awesome nation preview pick in the first post, that'd be super. (problem fixed, thanks to Sombre)

[Morkilus]

I had a little written up about this mod, but I feel I need to play it a bit more. Now there's more stuff! Yay.

[Morkilus]

I'm having trouble using the Watchmen, but they make excellent mages and are flying, so they have a niche. The workers and villains are amazing in melee.

Descriptions, esp. for the Fisherman, are awesome.

I really like the graphics. They're very "dominions-y".

I've caught a couple descriptions errors, but you've probably caught them with the spellchecker.

Overall, the "Gift of Reason" nation is fun to play with just to try for different possibilities. It also is fun to be easily able to give various dumb-summons leadership.

[Sombre]

There are still quite a few little problems in the descriptions Burn. I'm willing to go through the entire mod and just tweak bits in the descriptions if you'd like. Tonight I'm a bit busy but on Thursday I could certainly do it.

Couple of other thoughts - should ungifted soldiers have flail, the two-handed(?) weapon used by flagellants, or morningstar, the one handed weapon used by ulmish infantry with shields? Also it seems like librarians are a bit too hot at research. I know that's the point of them, but 200 gold for 10 research in a single mage is pretty amazing. I don't know, perhaps they aren't too good, I'm not very good with EA mage balance and they aren't useful as mages really, just for research.

[Burnsaber]

@Morkilus
Thanks for feedback, Morkilus. Watchmen are flying elite heavy infantry (like Caelum ice armor flyers, expect that they don't suck), they just slaughter archers.

I'm glad that you liked it.

@Sombre
Thanks for volunteering to check the descriptions. When I see you on IrC, I'll show you the Baa'Lah description. You don't necessarrily need to check the Smith description: I'll be changing it for next version. I found that they are *very good* for early expansion, as they're practically immune to archers. I'm making them able to "morph" into metal and before each battle they morph with a Full Plate Armor. Yeah, just like Iron Man with his battlesuit. (it's a eloborate excuse to rise their resource cost since the armor in which they morph into has to be made first, you see?)

I was also thinking of making a national summon. It's a huge metallic statue, in which 5 smiths have morphed into. Two of them makes the legs move, two make the arms move and one controls. No, the word "Voltron" means nothing to me. "Power Rangers", doesn't ring any bells either. Yes, I'm a extremely silly person.

Yeah, it's meant to be a morningstar. I was working on it quite late in night and forgot the name for that "one handed flail", I just looked at the DB and found the 1-h flail. So I gave the "Lava Warrior" Flail to them..
It will be fixed for the next version.

About Librarians. Yeah, they're a bit too boring. You just recruit them whenever you can (even if I nerfed their research). They kinda overshadow the Master and Preacher as capitol only commander and discourage taking Magic scale (Magic is *very* thematical for this nation). I was thinking of making them recruitable troops (they'd then be Mind Blast archers, like Illithids). I might give the master a small price decrease. Then the capitol would probably produce about 50/50 Preachers and Masters. Masters are pretty good mages (Astral magic is awesome afterall, and if you get one with F/D random: hello Nether Darts/Astral Fires!). Preachers are just leaders, until you research the AoE Charm spell for them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif.

[Burnsaber]

Version 0.6 is here. Now with 100% more naked demon chicks!
This is quite final version, I'm not intending to add any more stuff (since I just noticed my .dm is just as big as the skaven mods .dm file -> a good sign that I have enough stuff in). So now on it will be all about balancing, balancing and more balancing.

Changes:
- Added "Inner Reserve" spell
- Added Colossus and Baa'Lah, alongside with the spells to summon them.
- Made Librarians troops instead of commanders and fiddled with their randoms dramatically
- Gambler randoms made better
- fixed the armor issue on the Ninja Turle
- many minor bugs fixed
- minor nerfs to many gifted troops
- Manifests now sacred to make bless matter something for this nation

Ok, Endoperez, how do you like Baa'Lah? I decided against her having the human sized second shape for three reasons;
1) Female seduce is so marginal ability that the player would probably still just use the badass form 99.9999% of the time.
2) More artistic work (I'm lazy like that)
3) She can only change shape by a virgins kiss in the comic, so it's not like that she can change shape at will.
I'm basing the "Baa'Lah" became good on the part of the comic where she feeled sorry for that knight she remembered slaying, as she seemed to have gained "soul", so to speak, after Ayalah bound her into her servitude.

[Burnsaber]

Eh.. I accidentally had worng version uploaded. If you downloaded your version beifre I posted this, it might be a good idea to download again.

[Sombre]

I just went through the .dm and tweaked a load of descriptions, ironing out typos and clunky sentences. I didn't want to change it too much though :]

Anyway, the .dm is in the attached zip. It has the same name as the original, so careful if you want to make a backup.

[Burnsaber]

Sombre said:
I just went through the .dm and tweaked a load of descriptions, ironing out typos and clunky sentences. I didn't want to change it too much though :]

Anyway, the .dm is in the attached zip. It has the same name as the original, so careful if you want to make a backup.



I went them trhough and they're clearly superior. They will be added to next version. Many thanks for this.

[Burnsaber]

Folket raised many good points on IrC today and I went through the units again and hitting them with nerf stick. I compared the various gifted troops to other national infantry of similiar abilities and compared res & gold costs. I'm now pretty sure that both the gifted regular troops are now quite balanced. The nerfs and Sombre's grammar fixes are now in the version 0.65

Now the big balance question is the magical diversity and cheap national GoR.
Are they too powerful?

I hope that my coming duel with Folket will shed some light on the issue.

[Endoperez]

Burnsaber said:
Ok, Endoperez, how do you like Baa'Lah?



I just noticed this mod again, and decided to check it out. If I don't post anything else, everything was fine but I felt lazy. Seems interesting, any way.

[Endoperez]

Joe the Tanner is awesome! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Burnsaber]

Endoperez said:
Joe the Tanner is awesome! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif



Since Joe is a bit "special" hero, I'll have to bug you about this a bit more spesifically.

1) How did you figure out how to use him. Did you need the "hints" I gave in this thread, or did you figure it out yourself?

2) Do you think that he's too powerful? I may have went overboard with his "special" power, since he can't wear too much stuff when his special power is "activated".

[Huzurdaddi]

Very impressive mod, really cohesive back story. It oozes flavor.

[Burnsaber]

Huzurdaddi said:
Very impressive mod, really cohesive back story. It oozes flavor.



Thanks. I'm kinda suprised that people seem to like the backstory. It's just your basic superhero myths and cliches altered to fit a medieval setting. Perhaps that's what people like about it?

Unlike one might think, I haven't claimed any 'inspiration*' from the "Heroes" tv series. It started showing on finland a week after I started working on this project.

*read: blatantly steal

[Burnsaber]

Okay, the blitz had to be premately ended, but my underwater struggle revealed some ugly sides of the fisherman unit.

Fishermen completely OWNED underwater independets with their high def and nets, making it quite difficult for Folket to counter them, since he was playing C'tis and only could recruit underwater independets. You really can't use their weak point, battle magic (40 gold heavy infantry unit, nice target) against them in uderwater.

I nerfed them in the new version along other gifted troops, just to be on the safe side.

I also scrapped the starting elemetal gem income. You have accees to all path expect nature, but only starting income in one. So you'll have to maunally site search for 7 paths of magic. A royal pain in the *** and it will make it harder for the Alugra player to capitalize on his magical diversity early.

You see, my plan was to have Alugra rely on the Gifted troops early, but as the game goes forward and there will be all sorts of nasty combat spells flying around, your magical diversity will start to kick in and patch things up a bit. Kinda like some nations are very vulnerable early, but strong in late game (shinyama). I'm planning on a nation that won't be especially weak (but not strong) in early/mid/late game.

I also made the Manifestation pretender a bit better. He now has small area fire and shock as his attacks. He seemed to be a pretty good early SC, but he will fall apart against anykind of planned opposition (I'll give you all a hint, he has no arm slots = no forged weapons and his natural attacks are all elemental damage. A high attack thug with fire and shockres 100 will completely own him). The new attack (or the combination of the two explosionsprites) also looks cool as hell on the battlefield. Seriously, look it up.

I played a bit the new version and to tell you the truth, I'm not at all sure what is the right way to play this nation. There are many, many stragedies to explore.

[Burnsaber]

Okay, I gave myself bit to take a look on this mod and I noticed few major bugs. The Ninja Turtles and Cutthroats didn't assasinate due to me being unable to spell. Fixed!

On my six month hiatus there must also have spurned new players and modders on these forums. Feel free to test this mod and give feedback.

[llamabeast]

Good to see you again Burnsaber. Hope your hiatus has been good.

[Burnsaber]

Well, I'm still in the army, so my is still limited even after I get the laptop. So it's like moving from being on hiatus to moving on crawl speed.

*shrugs* a change for the better at least.

[Burnsaber]

I'm looking for players to test this mod in MP. 3 volunteers should be sufficient to make long enough test game. Say if want to play Alugra, the game would just more objective if I'm not playing Alugra.

[Ferrosol]

I will be playing this nation in the forthcoming mod nations game so if you want I will report anything I find that is completely off balance.

[Burnsaber]

I will be playing this nation in the forthcoming mod nations game so if you want I will report anything I find that is completely off balance.

Yeah, that would be awesome. What name is the game? I'd like to keep an eye on the thread.

I've compared the gifted units to troops of other EA nations and they were comparable, so I think they're balanced. Especially with their inherit weaknesess that human player will likely abuse (Watchmen hate poison, Smiths Lighting, Villains combat magic and magic weapons..). They might take an unprepared opponent by suprise, thought.

I have tons of suggestion and hints going on my mind, but I think I'll stand back and watch. It will be really intresting to see what stragedy yuo'll choose (and how it fares out).

[Natpy]

Spell "Experiment" does not work. It is not represented in the list of spells when I try to cast it.

[Burnsaber]

Spell "Experiment" does not work. It is not represented in the list of spells when I try to cast it.

That's odd.. I'll try to take a look on the issue. I never got around to test the "experiment" & "improved experiment" spells. Thought that they would work since they show up on the list. You sure that your mage had sufficient blood magic?

I've tested all other spells, so they should work, if that's any help.

Thanks for reporting the issue

[HoneyBadger]

I'm not too familiar with this mod-sorry, I was checking it out when my last laptop broke-but, going along with the whole SuperHero element that it represents (as far as I can remember, anyway), and given that we now have the 'Unique' tag, it seemed to me that it might be fun if you included a set of "Unique Experiment" spells, labeled by number only, say-but with fun descriptions (to cause a bit of confusion, since we can't do random summons yet), each of which summoned up a unique superhero type hero/critter.

Just a thought.

[Natpy]

Yes I am sure.

[Ferrosol]

Btw I forgot to post this originally but now that the mod nations game has started if any of you are still interested in the city of superheroes progress, you may get occasional glimpses into my progress (or lack thereof) here http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=40609

[Burnsaber]

I'm not too familiar with this mod-sorry, I was checking it out when my last laptop broke-but, going along with the whole SuperHero element that it represents (as far as I can remember, anyway), and given that we now have the 'Unique' tag, it seemed to me that it might be fun if you included a set of "Unique Experiment" spells, labeled by number only, say-but with fun descriptions (to cause a bit of confusion, since we can't do random summons yet), each of which summoned up a unique superhero type hero/critter.

Just a thought.

Nice thought. It's just a tad late. I'm not really into adding any new units. It's quite a ragtag collection of units at the moment really.

But it seems that I have to figure out something to replace the "experiment" - spells. It's just too thematic thing for villains to cast. It's a shame that copyspelling crossbreeding doesn't seem work.

[Burnsaber]

Okay folks. New version.

I'd be especially grateful on feedback about the new pretender choice. I admit, she's a oddball pretender. Not combanant, not rainbow. More of a supporter for the Nation.

[HoneyBadger]

Since I can't check, what does she do, exactly?

By the way, this is one of my favorite mods, due to the great graphics, original concept, and I really like the theme, and your brilliant execution, thereof.

[rdonj]

I was playing a game with this mod before the patch came out and after it did, I was unable to cast several national spells (colossus, the evocation guardian spell, use inner reserves, and earth force that I caught). Did you get any of this, and or is it fixed in the new version?

[Alderanas]

Just wonderin if there is a zip file of this anywhere?

[Burnsaber]

I was playing a game with this mod before the patch came out and after it did, I was unable to cast several national spells (colossus, the evocation guardian spell, use inner reserves, and earth force that I caught). Did you get any of this, and or is it fixed in the new version?

I just did an test game with Dominions version 3.21 and the current version of Alugra. I casted all nationals at least once. There shouldn't any problems.

Since I can't check, what does she do, exactly?

By the way, this is one of my favorite mods, due to the great graphics, original concept, and I really like the theme, and your brilliant execution, thereof.

Mastermind produces one of every type gem each month and autosummons nice sacred units. She isn't much of a combanant thought, and not a powerful mage.

Just wonderin if there is a zip file of this anywhere?

Here you go. See the attachment.

[Endoperez]

Mastermind produces one of every type gem each month and autosummons nice sacred units. She isn't much of a combanant though, and not a powerful mage.

Wow. Certainly very different. :up:

[HoneyBadger]

Just gems, or a bloodslave too?

[Alderanas]

thanks for the zip file.

[Burnsaber]

Wow. Certainly very different. :up:

So that everyone knows what we are talking about, here is the pretender in question
http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08474/mastermind738.jpg
And she autosummons one of these every turn. If you train them, they have holy 3, air 1 , fire 1 and 2 100% random picks in A/E/F/W/S/B/D and autosummon one manifest (as a troop) each month
http://xs433.xs.to/xs433/08474/faithful779.jpg


Yeah. The idea is that you get power, but it just isn't the kind of power most pretenders give. She won't conquer provinces by herself on turn 2 and cast awesome globals at the late game. She is expensive, with starting dom only 1, and no magical picks to start with. This hurts especially because she has to be awake to get the most of her.

What she gives, however, is the ability to start using "radar" spells immediately with her gems and some nice, free gifted units to boost your expansion. If you give her right picks, she could be a mid-level combanat in early game with some buffs, since she comes pre-equipped.


Just gems, or a bloodslave too?

Yeah, a blood slave too. She has them imported monthly from an Abyssian trader named X'thal, who doesn't want to get any Villains breaking in to his villa to give a "friendly message". It's pretty bloody difficult to protect yourself from ethereal guys.

[Burnsaber]

I'm planning on doing a major update on Alugra. It seems that I have 72 downloads, so I guess someone cares? If someone has suggestions or wants something improved now is your chance to speak up.

The update will be mostly changes on excisting units, since my year in military service gave me much needed distance from this mod. With distance came objectivity and I was able to give "my baby" a critical look it needed.

- Biggest change will likely be changing the Gifted picks. Smiths/Watchmen/Villains and Fishermen have 12% chance to have 3 in one of their paths and this is dat too much. Since you have diversity, you must pay for it. In the next update these gifted will have 2 in both of their main paths and 50% chance for astral pick.

-I'm also adding a new unit, since I noticed a thematic hole in the nation. Are really all gifted one of these? What about Jack the cobbler and Hanz the Slaughterman. I'm unable to take screenshots on this stupid laptop, but I'll attach the graphics to this post and give away their description:
"Workers, Librarians, Watchmen, Villains, Smiths, Gamblers and Fishermen. They are the 'Seven of Alugra', the most powerful of the gifted. However, there are numereous lesser gifted. They possess great strenght, dexterity and superhuman senses like the seven, but lack their other special abilities. Masters very rarely train them and they thus lack presentation in the forum of the gifted. Throughout the ages, many have left Alugra because of this fact and made a great living amongst regular mortals. As Alugra is now expanding territories in the name of the awakening god, these foreign gifted are conscripted to military service. Their high strenght and great eyesight make them naturally deadly javelineers and they are also trained and equipped to handle themselves in melee. Most of them are quite alienated with the gifted society and lack the motivation to fight to the bitter end in the battlefield."

Gameplay-wise, they're elite heavy infantry. gold cost about 25 and res cost 17. Fights with javelin and morningstar.


The national combat spells will see lots of changing too. I was heavily restricted by the fact of not having #nextspell available back then and was forced to compromise away from my orginal vision.

- Use Inner Reservers" will be a lot more instresting. I originally intended it to be used to clear spell fatigue after buffing on your gifted thugs (I want to encourage using gifted as thugs, since it is thematic. Superheroism is about punching opponent into the face, not casting fireballs over and over again). But it seems that the casting AI uses it a lot to clear combat spell fatigue too. I'll change it to heal all fatigue and all damage, but it will blink you. Let that sink in for a while. I'll use a bit of #nextspelling to make casting AI unable to cast it unscripted.
- I'll change the "Use XX Power" line of spells to affect only magic units and try to make them especially suited to buffing the gifted unit with access to that path combo.
- The national GoR, "Power Within" will be changed to magical units only.

I'll do some thematic changes. I'll switch names of several existing astral sites to something "leyline" themed.
I'll add some uncommon magic sites with Alugra theme.
-Forgotten Outpost, blood 1, recruit: Minion, Minion
-Change the "Villain Lair" into "Criminal Hideout", recruit: Villain (the vanilla one), Thug.

-I'll also add one new "Alugran" magic item, "Gambler's Dagger", a astral 1 to forge level 2 construction item which gives the "lucky dagger" attack of the gamblers.

- I'll now use the CBM units as measuring sticks for balance. It seems to me that CBM has become the new vanilla. Thus I need to review the balance measures. I'll be using simple and inaccurate "cons vs pros" system. It's basically just a guideline. Since I have my notes here on my computer, I'll just post them.


Minion(bow) vs Bakemono Archer(EA Yomi)
-= costs 1 more gold
0= less prot(-4), but more morale (3)
+= More mr(1) and less encumberance (-1)
+= More Str(1) and Def(1)
--= Less Prec(-2)
+= More stealth(+5) and battlefield move (12)
-= no survival skills and darkvision
-= dagger better than claw
+0?= size doesn't really matter for ranged units.

End result -1. Minor beefing? I was thinking of giving them afflictions (being horrible mutants and all) and reducing mr (they have been highly affected by magical athmosphere so are likely less magic resistant than ordinary folk) and buffing them up in elsewhere. More prot and morale could be thematic and perhaps some mutantic poison resistance?

Thug vs Axe Warrior(EA ULM)
++=same gold cost, but needs less resources(-6)
-=Less hp(-2) and prot(-2)
0= Less morale(-2), but more MR (+2), same encumberance
--=Less str(-1) and less att(-3)
0= Same def and stealth
-= no frost resistance
-= no survival skills
-= No thrown weapons
-= axes better that club and kick

End result -4. Ouch. I'll probably bump their base def and att back to 10 and I was thinking of making a new attack "Tricks of the Street", basically a kick (dam0, att0, def0, lenght0)with secondaryeffect "kick while he's down!", basically another kick. So if the "trick" attack hits, they get a another hit in automatically. dam 11 attacks aren't really scary, but if the opponent has accumulated fatigue, critical hits will happen.

Minion(shield) vs Warrior(EA Ulm)
++=same gold cost, but needs less resources(-6)
-=Less hp(-1) and prot(-4)
+=More MR(+3), but less morale(-1)
--=Less str(-1), less attack(-3)
++=more def(1) and shield blocks missiles
0= no frost res but more stealthy(+5)
-= no survival skills and less battlefield move
--= Axe & Broadsword >> Claw & Bite

End result -1. I'm probably bumping their natural prot a bit. If I change bowed minions with affliction chance and reduced mr, I'll probably give these guys berserk. "These higly mutated minions are mostly insane and aggressive, but they all still have dreams of being human, having friends, handling objects, being able to speak. But every time wake up as they are. Their jealosy and hatred allows them to fly into a berserk rage.

Ungifted Slinger vs Slinger(EA Ermor and Arco)
-=same gold cost but need (2) more resources.
0= same prot, str and attack
-= less def(-1) and battlefield move
++= more morale(+2)

End result +0.

Ungifted spearman vs Sauromatian Amazon (the same thing basically apply to the morningstar version)
0=same gold cost and needs only 1 resource more
0=same hit points,prot,mr,encumberance and str
-= less morale (-2)
-= less attack (-1)
-= less def (-2)
+= Long spear < spear


End result -2. This is kinda ok, since they're kinda supposed to suck. I'll bump their MR by 2, thought. These people are unaffected by the magical atmosphere and have likely higher mr than "normal" people.

Gifted vs Pricipe
--= Same resource but need more gold (7)
0= higher prot(2) but less morale(-2)
++= more MR(2) and less enc(-2)
++= more str(3)
+=more att(1)
--=less def(-4)
++= more prec(2) and more bf move(3)
-= Tower Shield blocks missiles better
-= magic being

End result +1. Since Pricipes are good units, I'll give these guys some minor nerfs.

Librarian vs Giboleth(EA R'lyeh)
0= same gold/res cost
-= Less hitpoints
-= Capital only
++++= not aquatic
-= Poorer weapons and prot
+= less str and att, but more MR, Prec and Def
-= No darkvision
+-?= smaller size (size doesn't really matter for ranged units)

End result +1. Since Gibolets and Mind Blasts are R'lyehs gizmo, needs weakening. R'lyeh should have *the* best blasters.

As commander:
+Research bonus,
+Heal
+Diverse picks to get access to forging paths
-No leadership
-nonexistend Combat magic

OK, I guess? These will be mainly recruited early on to start your research/ search for magic sites, but researching won't win you the game. They simply blow as combat mages.

Worker vs Horite Champion(Hinnom)
--=7 higher gold cost
0=same hp
++=better prot(1), morale(2) and MR(1)
+=Less encumberance(-2)
+=Less str(-2), more att(1), more def(2)
-=No survival skills, no darkvision
-=Magic being & Capital only

End result +0. Could use a minor boost as Horites are not the hottest choices, probably MR to 10, str+1 and low shock res?. I don't really know if Horite Champion is actually a useable unit, it just might be overshadowed by the other options Hinnom has.

As Commander:
- Poor leader
- Size 3 and low MR
- Research Malus
++ Elemental path combat magic

Fisherman vs War Chambler(EA Atlantis)
----=11 higer cold cost + 6 more res cost
-=7 less hp
0=same prot and Enc
+=2 more MR
-=Less morale(-1) and str(-3)
+++=more attack(2) and def(3)
+=Net
+=Harpoon
+=less size
0=more (battlefield) move but no darkvision
-=magic being
-=capital only

End result -1. Probably fine, since +=high Def and nets rule underwater

As commanders
+ Only one with water picks
+ amphibian

They have a gizmo and will be trained when it's necessary. OK.

Watchman vs Iron Crow(EA Caelum)
-----= costs 22 cold more and 1 less resource
++= 3 more prot and hp
+= 5 more morale
++= more MR(2) and less encumberance (2)
+= +1 str and def
+= Lighting attack
+= Standard
+= Lighting Immunity
+= Less size
-= Poison Vulnerability
-= Magic Being
-= Capitol Only

End Result 2+. I know, Iron Crow probably isn't the hottest unit in the game, but Watchmen own them completely. I'll probably scrap the Lighting attack, since it was mostly a gag on superman anyway, I've got their holy lighting as a national spell anyways. Lighting immunity is also a bit steep. Perhaps 75%?

As commanders:
+= Absolutely ridicilous leadership
--= Both of his paths can be supplied by other gifted
-= Air/Fire.. not the hottest path combo on earth. There's not even any cool items they could forge!

They could use help as commanders. Some cool #onebattlespell?

Smith vs ???
These guys are troubled right now. I changed their theme halfway in the development, and you can see it in their stats. Why they have base attack 12 and defense only 8? If they're unencumbered by their armor, why are they so slow? They are the best gifted unit by far and most recruited, as they are a resource sink. Besides str 21 is pretty excessive. 16 will get the image of superhero strenght through just as well. I'll change the theme that althought they don't really tire from wearing the iron skin, but the mass of it makes them slow. So here's what I'll do:

Base attack to 8(-4)
Base defense to 8 (+0)
Str to 18 (-3)
Enc to 3 (-2)
Mr to 13 (+1, to be in line with other gifted)
Now they're not going to hit any elite infantry, but they'll outlast them. I can see it now, some miraged fey folk dancing circles around them, but unable to penetrate the skin. The smith bides his time, waits for the opponent get tired and then BAM! 30 damage to the head! But anyone with AP or AN weapons will just humiliate them as they are unable to hit back.

As commanders
++= forge bonus (I'll reduce the forge bonus to 20. Forging is Ulm's thing and they shouldn't be as good as they are)
+= only ones with Earth
+= Earth/fire, best combat paths ever?
+= Earth/astral, Crystal coin & Gifts from heaven
-= no armor slot

It seems that I'll have to give them something to disencourage training them. I'll reduce their slots further. No helmet slot from now on. (no Astral Caps or Flame Helmets for you, suckers!

Villain vs ???
There's no unit to compare to. These guys have their own thing going on with this ethereal raider thing. I really have no idea why I gave them the "Physic Strangulation" attack, it's a beeping Darth Vader gag, that happens to be a unresistable counter against solo SC's. What was I smoking? Dirty Trick just tops it off and sends it to space on a rocket ship. Seriously, "Eyeloss"? These bad boys are getting overhauled!

- scrap "physic strangulation" and "Dirty trick", instead they'll get "Tricks of the Street" (see the thug entry)
- base def and att to 13(+1) (to represent their street fighting skills)
. mor to 8(-1) to make their weakness more clear.

As commanders
++= only ones with blood or death
+= Autosummon of minions
+= good leadership
+?= spy, but they're too valuable to be used as spies so this bonus kinda moot.

Something little to tone them down as commanders? Or buff others?

Gamblers vs ???
Anyone know any troops with AP throwing weapons? Anyone? These are so oddball, there's no one to compare to. They are quite effective against unshielded, high prot troops, actually, anything unshielded. "Strenght of Giant" these guys and there will be blood. But ammunition 5 hurts. In melee, these guys are like beefed up wolf tribes and won't be stopped by shields. But die nearly as easily as their wolven brothers. I like them, but I have a gripe with "lucky charm", I really don't like the "designer note" thing. It's just so inelegant and metagamish. I'll have to get rid of it. I'll probably give them low stealth to compensate "watchmen are always looking for these miscreants and have learned to lay low when the need arises". Glamour would be thematic, but there's no way I'm going to try to balance that.

As commanders
+-0= Feeling Lucky?
+= Prec 15 makes a nice sniper chassis, especially if they manage to get some air magic.
+= automatic "personal luck" is quite ok.

Well, it all comes down to luck. I've gotten some with awesome picks (W3S2D1) and some with S1. Thematic, me thinks.

[VedalkenBear]

I'll be taking another look at this, Burn, in the near future.

[Burnsaber]

Changes from 0.93 to 1.00

Version 1.00
* Stuff majorly changed. Here's the a list of the major changes

- Chaged gifted picks so that none of them can get to level 3 in a single magic path. See the link at the end of this post
- Masters are now base S2H2, but have 200% AEFWSBD picks
- Manifests are now S1H1 base and have 120% AEFWSBD picks
- Preachers now F1A1H3 with no randoms
- Added new recruitable everywhere unit: Gifted (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs537&d=09106&f=gifted746.jpg)
- Added 2 new holy spells, Supremacy of the Gifted (H3A1 - Large AoE mr+ buff and Masters' Presence (S2H2 - Fanatisicm for magical units only)
- Added a new summonable Unit: Temple Guardian (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs537&d=09106&f=templeguardian458.jpg) and a spell (F1H3 Call Guardians 15 gems for 5 of these) to summon them
- Added a new forgeable item: Hellfire Bracers
- Changed the names (and only names) of 3 vanilla astral sites: Maze->Crossing Leylines, Painted Cave -> Majot Leyline, Crystal Garden -> Leyline Geyser
- Changed the infamous "Bringand Lair" Blood site into "Criminal Outpost" which allows recruitment of Crime Lord and Thugs in addition to the basic Villains
- Changed the theme of the "Mastermind" pretender and her autosummon troops (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs537&d=09106&f=shodowson296.jpg)
- Scrapped the "Maker of Villains" and replaced him with "The One (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs137&d=09106&f=theone444.jpg)"
- Scrapped the "Use Death Power" And "Use Blood Power" spells and replaced them with "Villains' Escape" (B2S1 - basically "Returning" And "Call Lesser Horror" in one package), "Animate Shadows" (D1S1 - summons shades in combat)
- Scrapped "Use Inner Reserves" and replaced with "Use the Leylines" (s1 - heals all fatique, but blinks the caster)
- All national combat spells now usable only by magical units (exceptions: Animate Shadows and Purging Lighting)
- Gifted troops finetuned to CBM balance and some silly stuff removed
- Changed PD. Now 20+ points in PD give 1 Gifted and 1 Ungifted Soldier(with Morningstar)
- Some bug fixes

These changes really fix the face of this nation. Less of popular culture references and more orginal themes.

I'd also like to take opportunity to give you(the reader of this post)the chance to play this nation in MP. Just PM me and I'll put the wheels in motion to get a duel (perhaps larger game, if there's a lot of applicants) hosted on the llamaserver.

I'll be taking another look at this, Burn, in the near future.

Thank you. The best way for one to improve the modding scene of dom3 is by feedback.

[Endoperez]

- Changed the names (and only names) of 3 vanilla astral sites: Maze->Crossing Leylines, Painted Cave -> Majot Leyline, Crystal Garden -> Leyline Geyser

Why this, instead of making new sites? The other changes all seem interesting, but I don't see any reason for this.

[Burnsaber]

- Changed the names (and only names) of 3 vanilla astral sites: Maze->Crossing Leylines, Painted Cave -> Majot Leyline, Crystal Garden -> Leyline Geyser

Why this, instead of making new sites? The other changes all seem interesting, but I don't see any reason for this.

Well, my explanation for the magical raditation of Alugra is that it's situated on top of the nexus of all leylines. But in vanilla, there is no mentions of these "Leylines" so I want to add some magical sites with Leyline theme. You know, so that it would seems that the Leylines have already been there and be there even if you're not playing Alugra.

I didn't make new sites, since I didn't want to mess with the distribution of magical sites. I don't know if adding some astral sites would mean that it's more likely for the map have more astral sites than in vanilla.

So I decided to play it safe and change excisting sites.

[Burnsaber]

When I started doing this mod, I had some slow days at work and were able to scribble some thematic notes, including a flowchart of Alugras' history. I've been Gamemastering Pen & Paper games for a long time now and hence I don't usually do anything without at least 2-3 pages of stuff written down. I was just cleaning my room and noticed my notebook in a forgotten drawer, doing nothing. Thought that I might just as well post them. The notes are pretty frantic and short so I'm expanding them a bit (actually a lot).

Warning: This text wil make a lot more sense if you are familiar with the units in the mod.

History of Alugra

It all started when pantakrator organized the world. He knew that there had to be magic, but it was wild and would not settle down. And there was a lot of it, altering his children. So Pantakrator willed the Leylines, undergroung rivers of pure magic that would forever go round and round under the globe. The huge amount of everlasting Gaia above the rivers dwindled the effect that the magic had on his children. But the rivers had to start somewhere and thus the Nexus was born. The radiation from Nexus was strong and fountained pure magic into a patch of land directly above it.

Pantakrator knew that this site would be dangereous to mortals and even to himself if mortals learned to tap into its power. So he bound Baa'Lah, the Princess of Hellfire to guard the site and created some astral beings, named ”Masterminds” to take care of the underground Leylines. Masterminds directed the Leylines and guarded them from visitors beyond reality. Time passed, but Pantakrator underestimated the effect of leylines' wild magic on the Masterminds. From time to time, their immense magic resistance failed and something very chaotic and very deadly happened. Pantakrator's response usually was to just create more Masterminds to replace the perished ones.

This was very nerving to other Masterminds, as they knew that at any time they could be the next ones to face a horrible demise. Then one Mastermind, (later be known as Ayanah) was affected by the leylines but did not perish. Instead, she prophetized the eventual fall of Pantakrator and the Ascension Wars. So she rallied all of the Masterminds and devised a plan.

Together with about half of her fellow Masterminds, they left the Leylines and traveled through Gaia and possessed some mortal bodies. The rest of the Masterminds fooled Pantakrator by telling that half of the Masterminds had perished on an unexpected visit from the Eater of Gods. The mortal ”Masters” travelled to Alugra and faced Baa'Lah in battle. They were new to their mortals bodies and unable to fell the demonic beastess. But Ayanah knew the spell that was used by Pantakrator to bind Baa'Lah and was able to twist the spell to make him the Master of Baa'Lah.

Those were truly the Early Ages as giants & fey dominated the earth. Most primitive humans were either ensalved or killed by creatures just so much more powerful than them. Then strange men came to human tribes, talking of a place magical place that would be a safehaven against the magical folk. Some tribes stayed where they were and eventually became civilized and able to defend themselves, but some believed the Masters' word and migrated to Alugra. Numereous tribes tried to be clever and take the magical site by force, only to be fended off by Baa'Lah.

It did take long for the humans to be altered by the magical radiation. However, as former caretakers of the Leylines, the Masters were able to direct the raw possibility of magic and make the alteration positive in effect, making the altered become something he always dreamed of being. Numereous monstereous Giants and fickle fey had noticed the migration to the site and tried to raid it in hopes of a feast or slaves. They became unprepared, underestimating the humans and the Gifted were able to slaughter them. After that, no giant or fey has come even close to Alugra, for their racial memory is long and their fear great.

But Pantakrator noticed that Alugra was inhabitated and studied his binding spell. Then he knew of Ayanah's betrayal and in anger struck her down with lighting. He continued by imprisoning Baa'Lah for her failure. Then he manifested in Alugra, ready to tear the city apart and find a new guardian for the site. But Ayanah had foreseen this and the Masters were prepared. They had collected all of the humans together and when Pantakrator appeared, they held out a great cry and the gifted flew to face the Pantakrator. The gifted fought bravely but were no match to the King of Kings. But their bravery touched Pantakrator and he eventually stopped smiting and heard the Masters, who were cloaked as mortals.

They begged the Pantakrator to spear their lives and allow them to live in Alugra, for it proved them protection from the monsters and made their dreams come true. Hearing and seeing the good that magic had done these people, Pantakrator spared them and allowed them to stay. And thus the Masters' dream came to be. The Masters kept on channeling and experimenting on the magical radiation. The Masters also honed their bodies and martial skills, since they remembered their first humiliating defeat at the hands of Baa'Lah.

Alugra prospered, although problems occured. A Single gifted was able to do the work of ten men single-handledly and even skilled craftsmen struggled to compete with the Gifted. Althought the Gifted becaume quickly rich, they still worked relentlessly by the orders of the Masters. The Masters wanted to see how their ”experiments” fared and would they be suitable to serve in the Ascension Wars. The immigrants lacked jobs and found it hard to make their living. Out of each 10 gold pieces that ”Alugra” earned, 9 went to gifted. Criminal activities started to rise, but Watchmen were able to keep the worst riots out of Gifted Quarters (and thus out of the sight of The Forum of the Gifted).

The goverment in Alugra is solely composed of Gifted, but people rarely find this aggravating. Unlike the system of nobility or theocrazy, anyone was able to become member of the ruling class. The Masters were just able to direct the alteration, not its target. Raving drunkards were just as able to become gifted as the most skilled craftsmen. People found this romantic and secretly dreamed of waking up as gifted themselves some day. Thus the gifted were allowed to rule as their subjects dreamed to become one of the rulers.. ”some day”.

But Ayanahs betrayal had sown the seeds of doubt on the Pantakrators mind. He knew that one Mastermind had betrayed him and was not sure if there were more rebellious Masterminds around. He grew untrusting and paranoid, sometimes failing to replace the Masterminds as they perished. As the time of the Ascension wars grew near, Pantakrators power started to wane and he stopped to replace the masterminds completely. The number of Masterminds dwindled quickly and they struggled to keep the leylines in check.

This caused a sudden increase in the magical radiation and the number of the altered quickly grew out of control. Now the Masters were not able to have complete control over the alterations. People started turning into horrible mutants, or were suddenly teleported inside some mountain on the other side of the globe, or have their souls switch bodies with some stranger. The Masters did what they had to do, and concentrated on channeling 7 basic gifted types, which they had decided would be most useful in the Ascension Wars.

Suprisingly, the people seemed to care the problem of sudden occurences of ”Minions” themselves. When someone was mutated, he quickly found himself shunned by his former friends. For everytime when a someone gazes on a Minion, he is istantly reminded of the fact that the same thing can happen to him. People have always been fools in the sense that they prefer good dreams over the nightmares. So the Minions were shooed to the sewers. Out of sight, out of mind. Alugrans' also have developed the habit of hushing up any strange magical phanomena.

But the Masterminds dwindled and dwindled and the radiation got just worse. The Masters had to take themselves to their limits to keep the number of chaotic events at minimum. This strain had effect on their bodies and now the Masters are growing old and meek. It was truly a relief when Pantakrator finally disappeared. The Masters know that they have to win. If they don't triumph, no one will replace the fallen masterminds and eventually, all Masterminds will perish and the Leylines will flow freely, with horrible consiquences.

---End of notes

I actually had a spell planned for summoning the Masterminds at some point. But I decided against it since I it would have been a astral summon and then it would have kinda competed with the ”Power Within” spell. Like you can see, I wasn't really able to put all that lore in to the mod. There's just so much text you can fit into descriptions.

[VedalkenBear]

Burn: Right now, I'm still trying to get the hang of the City. It's obviously quite different from most other nations.

[Burnsaber]

Heh, I just did some testing and noticed something totally sweet.

Apparently, the "Use the Leylines" (it heals all fatigue, but blinks the caster) spell I did works like magic in communions. The main effect of the spell is that it's a mr-negates-easily spell that gives haste, just to fool the casting AI.

Apparently this has also flagged it into a buffing spell and thus if your master casts it in communion, it will heal your slaves fatigue and blink them too.

It was never my intention for it to work like this, but it is nevertheless awesome. I created some nice communions with 6 manifest slaves and a watchman and gambler as masters. Those manifests are pretty sweet when they are blessed, fire shielded, astral shielded, ironskinned, heat aura'ed, legions of steeled, given ap weaponed, personal luck'ed, body etherealed, mistformed... etc. Once I had buffed I just had my Watchman & Gambler (which was placed at the end of the battlefield) retreat and the super-manifest woke to action whereever they might have blinked to. It's pretty thematic too. Team work is basically the number 1 theme in superhero lore.

Now that we know that there is an effect like this, one might be able to make spells that are especially suited to be cast in communions. Just have the mainspell be a weak self-buffing spell and #nextspell something. The #nextspelled spell(s) will be casted once for each communion slave, centered on them.

[Gregstrom]

I might be confused here, but IIRC communions spread the love on all spells that target 'self'. You shouldn't need a weak buff as the first effect just to accomplish that.

[Burnsaber]

I might be confused here, but IIRC communions spread the love on all spells that target 'self'. You shouldn't need a weak buff as the first effect just to accomplish that.

Is that so? I really don't use communions a lot and I avoid nations which are encouraged to communion. Tried to read Baalz's guide to communions once, it nearly fried my brain.

I just got intrested when I read about all that stuff on the Lizardman reverse communions with the slann going dormant.

[llamabeast]

Communions are awesome, but I have decided not to worry about the precise amounts of fatigue involved!

[VedalkenBear]

Burn: Playing around with Alugra a little bit, I have some feedback.

1) Alugra is an incredible Blood nation. I'm sure that I could check what the Villain's Blood magic is, but I haven't seen less than 2. It would seem that a very good starting strategy is to buy a Preacher for your commander first turn, and then a Master + Villain + whatever for second turn, Gift the Villain, put him out to the first suitable Blood province, build a lab, and start hunting. Meanwhile, the Master you have will be Gifting Librarians so that you can get to Blood-2 as fast as possible (and for Alugra, that is pretty fast).

The Blood Sergeant is way too cheap for its effect. It has Dousing 1, correct? The Sergeant could easily be doubled in cost, and it wouldn't matter. I might suggest taking off the Dousing (as I don't think you could make them Blood-0 with Dousing-1 and make it work).

2) Librarians seem to be too efficient. Research-5 is too much, it seems, as research is blindingly fast. Research-3 would probably be a bit better. As it is, if I wanted to, I could probably take Drain-3, and not really care.

I'm about to start testing thugging/SCing Gifted commanders to see what happens. Smiths with their buff + Summon Earthpower might be overpowered.

BTW, I wanted to apologize for not getting to this sooner. The Jomon patch coming out, plus some school stuff, conspired to put this on a back burner for a few.

[Radio_Star]

Smiths definitely seem like the go-to mage. Earth and astral individually are pretty awesome paths on the field and having both is tons of fun. Battlefield buffs, blade wind/magma eruption/falling fires/gifts of heaven depending on what chaff vs. heavy ratio you're looking at, prec. 100 astral fires if that's your need and since your national buffs (use air power is perfect here) scream reverse communion, you can buff up, reverse communion rattle off some gifts then blink your way into buff melee destruction. On top of all that, you've got a nice forge bonus in some very forge-friendly paths.

Baalz's guide to Marverni has some excellent tips on the dirty tricks you can pull with E/S druids most of which applies to smiths and requires substantially less equipment.

[VedalkenBear]

I was actually thinking of their abilities as thugs, but battle magic is another useful way of using them.

[Radio_Star]

It's the cross-utility that makes them so appealing, to my mind. As you pointed out, they've got clear thug potential. On top of that, you also get fierce battle magic, mobility via the astral path, -and- forge bonuses. Total package, so to speak, making them the go to recruitable.

Whether or not they're overpowered in their own right, they definitely overshadow the rest of the choices for a mage to mass. In your thug testing, I'd also suggest taking a look at GoR'd temple guards. At least I think that's what the unit is. It's the demon national summons. They're 3b2f, sacred with good stats and an alternate ranged attack that's pretty respectable.

[VedalkenBear]

Radio: I'll take a look at that. While the Smith is quite good, his capital-only nature and, IIRC, 1 Strategic move means that he is only good as a commander. Sure, he can't be hurt, and that can be nice when throwing battlemagic around, but I prefer somewhat more offensively-minded troops.

As far as his utility as a commander goes, he's at _least_ third on my list of troops to Commanderize (after Librarians and Villains, respectively). Well, I do have one early in my current game, but that was so he could get empowered to Blood-3 (from 0) to make Blood Stones.

Burn, I'm going to be testing a lot of different starts to see if I can get a better one, but currently, I have a ridiculous blood slave income. I'll give you the details tonight.

[Burnsaber]

First of all, my sincerest thanks to both of you.

Burn: Playing around with Alugra a little bit, I have some feedback.

1) Alugra is an incredible Blood nation. I'm sure that I could check what the Villain's Blood magic is, but I haven't seen less than 2. It would seem that a very good starting strategy is to buy a Preacher for your commander first turn, and then a Master + Villain + whatever for second turn, Gift the Villain, put him out to the first suitable Blood province, build a lab, and start hunting. Meanwhile, the Master you have will be Gifting Librarians so that you can get to Blood-2 as fast as possible (and for Alugra, that is pretty fast).

The Blood Sergeant is way too cheap for its effect. It has Dousing 1, correct? The Sergeant could easily be doubled in cost, and it wouldn't matter. I might suggest taking off the Dousing (as I don't think you could make them Blood-0 with Dousing-1 and make it work).

2) Librarians seem to be too efficient. Research-5 is too much, it seems, as research is blindingly fast. Research-3 would probably be a bit better. As it is, if I wanted to, I could probably take Drain-3, and not really care.

I'm about to start testing thugging/SCing Gifted commanders to see what happens. Smiths with their buff + Summon Earthpower might be overpowered.

BTW, I wanted to apologize for not getting to this sooner. The Jomon patch coming out, plus some school stuff, conspired to put this on a back burner for a few.

1) You can see all gifted magic picks from this link (it's in the first post, you probably missed it): http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs537&d=09106&f=picks497.jpeg -> Villains have automatical B2. It was orginally D1B1S1 base with 50% chance of second level in each path, but I changed it after a test game where I gifted 4 villains without any B2 for TBS. Since their "personal" spell (Villain's Escape) has to be b2 (so that b1 manifests are unable to cast it, due to balance and thematic reasons).

I think that I deluded myself into thinking that having summonable blood hunter would be somehow worse than having recruitable one. Yeah, Blood Sergeants have douse 1 and it doesn't work without the B1. I'll probably bump the cost (to 10-15? range) and remove the dousing. I alsohave this idea of making them increase unrest(5), since they don't have *official* status of a bloodhunter like most nations have. They're just monsters who snatch away daughters. IMO, Alugra isn't supposed to be a major blood nation (unless you *really* focus on it, since everything has a opportunity cost).

2) Yeah, I'll probably have to reduce it. The massive bonus is probably a leftover from the times when they had single AEFWSBDN pick.

Huh, I never realized that Smith can negate his fatigue gain with Earthpower. But I'll write more about that guy later.

Oh, Vedalkenbear see the "to-do" list in the first post. I've added some stuff from your first PM there.

Smiths definitely seem like the go-to mage. Earth and astral individually are pretty awesome paths on the field and having both is tons of fun. Battlefield buffs, blade wind/magma eruption/falling fires/gifts of heaven depending on what chaff vs. heavy ratio you're looking at, prec. 100 astral fires if that's your need and since your national buffs (use air power is perfect here) scream reverse communion, you can buff up, reverse communion rattle off some gifts then blink your way into buff melee destruction. On top of all that, you've got a nice forge bonus in some very forge-friendly paths.

Baalz's guide to Marverni has some excellent tips on the dirty tricks you can pull with E/S druids most of which applies to smiths and requires substantially less equipment.

It's the cross-utility that makes them so appealing, to my mind. As you pointed out, they've got clear thug potential. On top of that, you also get fierce battle magic, mobility via the astral path, -and- forge bonuses. Total package, so to speak, making them the go to recruitable.


Yeah, the instant I got the idea for Metallic Smiths, I knew that they'd be troublesome. I can't really change their path combos, since it's just too thematic the way it is. I want to encourage training the gifted diversly. Everyone is going to have a favourite, but it's be nice if all of the Gifted start from the same line. I'll probably do one of the following nerfs to Smith;

1) Reduce Slots even further. Taking away either hands (no hammers/Crystal Shields) or boots (no earth boots) will likely hurt.

2) Make them F1E1 base with 50% F/E/S/S. Could be annoying if you don't get E2 to "Gnome Lore"ing, thought.

3) Make the second astral pick 10%(or 20%) so that only one in 20(or 10) will have S2 and be thus able to teleport with crystal coin.



In your thug testing, I'd also suggest taking a look at GoR'd temple guards. At least I think that's what the unit is. It's the demon national summons. They're 3b2f, sacred with good stats and an alternate ranged attack that's pretty respectable.

Temple Guardians are quite sweet, but hard to thug. Neither F nor B is very bufftastic path and they don't have S for the national buffs, so you'll have to communion to get the ones that count.

It's probably just easier to have them use Phoenix Power and drown your foes in Hellfire :evil:. Their mainpurpose is to give easier access to Baa'Lah. Oh, that reminds me, I really need to do that national hellfire spell.

Thanks for the feedback. It's really helpful to see what others think. You can't truly be objective when testing your own mod. These balance tweaks will surely be appreciated in the Alugra MP game, started once I've managed to finishsome old ones. I'll have to remember what's most important though. It's that Alugra is a fun and thematic nation to play.

So have you guys been having fun? :D

[Radio_Star]

Less astral access on smiths is a good start. You'll wind up with thug-smiths and battle-mage smiths instead of just the one-unit-does all. You'll also have to keep at least a few of the precious astral smiths at home for forging, further reducing the available pool of mobile, battle-magic flinging thugs.

As for GoR'd temple guards, I had the thought of just adding them to the happy reverse communions you're likely to be running instead of trying to self-buff them.

[VedalkenBear]

Burn: Overall, the Gifted have too many paths I think. The issue with 'hidden' mages is that you're giving Alugra both recruitable mages (and reasonable-to-good ones) _and_ LA Ermor-esque 'mage summon chains'. Consider that it costs 7 Astral Pearls, ~40g down plus appropriate upkeep, to get a _fantastic_ mage. I can't think of another spell that can do this, can you? The contenders, I think, would be Spectres (20 death gems), Lamia Queens (rather harsh requirements), or something similar.

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about not being able to do site-search spells, since Alugra is perfectly set up to do Acashic. It even wants to research to a minimum of Conjuration-3 for the Power spells.

Anyway, I'll get right on doing more.

[llamabeast]

I don't think you can compare the gem cost of Alugra's mages with other summonable mages as such, because Alugra is unique in that it has to summon all its mages.

[Burnsaber]

I don't think you can compare the gem cost of Alugra's mages with other summonable mages as such, because Alugra is unique in that it has to summon all its mages.

Well, you have some recruitable ones. Masters are 230gp S2H2 capital only mages with 200% AEWFSBD picks. If you are lucky you might get some that can cast useful battlespells (like one with S4 or S3D1), but mapmove 1 sucks. Your recruitable everywhere Manifests are 140gp with 1S1H with 120% AEWFSBD. Mostly useful in thug communions.

The recruitable mages can be useful, but pale when compared to the stuff that's available in EA.

Having the mages be 'summonable' is both a curse and a blessing. They cost astral gems (the best gems in the game), which holds the opportunity cost of not casting any Wishes and making the forging of Rings of Sorcery and Wizardy.. quite painful experience. And althought the training spell can be casted anywhere the troops are capital only, making Alugra even more capitol centric*.

It's a blessing in the sense that you can recruit more mages than you actually have forts. It's also pretty useful to "stash" your experienced (like 3 stars or more) gifted units in a special province and have a Master teleport there for some Training. Any gifted unit with 3 stars of exp will make an especially nice thug.

*= If I ever face Alugra in MP, I'd probably rush for a unrest-causing remote spelland spam it on *the* City of Wonders. I once got hit by a full volley of these spells from AI and it nearly crippled me.

[VedalkenBear]

Llama: I believe my point is exactly what I said. Alugra can recruit more mages per turn than it has labs. That is something that must be balanced. Also as Burn points out, you have perfectly serviceable mages that you can recruit.

Burn: I realize the danger of being capital-centric. What's more worrying, really, is that all of your 'thugs' have low Astral magic (which makes Magic Duel a serious concern). However, it's not like Alugra can't have a Dome up on their capital before anyone both gains unrest spells and is able to find your capital.

Also, this should be in an FAQ about GoR, but if you want to Gift two units of the same type, don't recruit them sequentially. If you recruit, e.g., Librarian-Librarian-Villain, and try to GoR both Librarians, you'll only get one (because the targeting screen for GoR doesn't distinguish). However, if you recruit them as Librarian-Villain-Librarian, you should successfully Gift both.

Burn, I think you may underestimate the Masters and Manifests. The Masters have _excellent_ combat spells. They have Astral Fire, the Nether spells, Mind Burn (not as good, but still), and possibly Enslave Mind and Soul Slay, and that is without a communion. If you go that route, I think that Banner of the North Star is almost required for your serious armies.

[VedalkenBear]

Burn, could you care to spill the beans on what the Tanner is supposed to do? I must confess, I'm assuming it's a comic book reference, but I don't know it.

[Burnsaber]

Get him killed for being the useless jerk he is*. Do it in combat. Perhaps he will score a critical hit on an important enemy troops with his sling.



*New item to the to-do list. Make the use of the Tanner clearer in his description. Perhaps something about mysterious blackouts whenever he was being provoked and the odd streak of destruction that follows him..

[VedalkenBear]

Oh, okay. I figured it was probably some sort of alternate form, but I'm very hesitant to lose heroes. :p

[Natpy]

Awesome race. It still some overpowered but realy interesting to play in SP. I try play with turmoil-sloth-luck-magic scales and N4W4 Mastermind with total blood economic, and it was impressive. Note: trained Shadow Son is very important part of erly expansion.

[Burnsaber]

Awesome race. It still some overpowered but realy interesting to play in SP. I try play with turmoil-sloth-luck-magic scales and N4W4 Mastermind with total blood economic, and it was impressive. Note: trained Shadow Son is very important part of erly expansion.

Thanks for feedback. "Awesome" is exactly what I'm going for with this nation :D.

Would you care to elaborate on the overpowerdness? If I know what excatly bothers you, I can tackle the issue on the next update. I know that the blood economy is too good. I'll address it on the next update (Blood Sergeants will then cost 13 slaves and cause 5! unrest per month in the province where they dwell. They're horrible monsters that snatch away daughters in the night, people will be upset about their presence!).

The gifted (as units) are too good in SP, I admit. The AI is just too stupid to try to counter them effectively. In one SP game, the AI assaulted my Smith army with Wolf tribe warriors. Dam 13 attacks vs prot 20 guys? I was thinking of making MP and SP versions of this mod at the next update. In the SP version, all gifted will probably get a hefty +10gp price tag and Power Within will be a tad more expensive.

Why W4 in your pretender? The reinvogration from E4 bless is lot more useful in my opinion and you can easily get into higher water by forging water bracelets and then robes of the sea with Fishermen. Assasin expansion with shadow sons isn't the fastest way, but it's really fun to play. Especially once you manage to research "Shadow Animation". Use Air Force also allows them to really snipe with their crossbow.

[Natpy]

Blood Sergeants will then cost 13 slaves and cause 5! unrest per month in the province where they dwell. They're horrible monsters that snatch away daughters in the night, people will be upset about their presence!
I think 13-15 slaves price will be fine. This change will make them inefficient as cheap and upkeepless researchers. But 5 unrest/turn is just more micromanagement, i think is bad idea.

Why W4 in your pretender? The reinvogration from E4 bless is lot more useful in my opinion and you can easily get into higher water by forging water bracelets and then robes of the sea with Fishermen.

Yes, any minor bless can be good, because of supercheap Shroud of the Battle Saint (2 gems). N-bless is most important. You can even use it for your almost dead fewer fetish bearers, while librarian heal them. 3W1N on my pretender just for clamming ability and for "Contact Naiade" spell, W-bless is a side effect.

Assasin expansion with shadow sons isn't the fastest way, but it's really fun to play. Especially once you manage to research "Shadow Animation". Use Air Force also allows them to really snipe with their crossbow.

Yes, assasin expansion with shadow sons isn't the fastest way, but it is not the only way, it`s just the boost. Shadow son can kill any indi commanders even with bodyguards, without reserch.

[Burnsaber]

You're probably right about unrest increase. I'll probably just increase the price. If they cause problems even after that, Blood Sergeants will lose their dousing bonus.

Intresting stragedy with Fever Fetishes and Clamming. Nice way to feed alugra's everlasting hunger for gems. I don't really clam myself (I hate the micro), but clad to hear that it is working for you.

I've lost few Shadow Sons to independents. The Amazon leaders are a tough nut to crack. Bodyguards and spell spam.

[Burnsaber]

Ok, new version. This has been sitting on my computer for weeks, bit I've been to lazy to upload it.

Version 1.03
* Balance update.
- Librarian researchbonus got reduced.
- Increased gold cost of Preachers & Masters & Manifests
- Minor nerf to Smith astral path randoms.
- Increased cost of Train Blood Sergeant
- Blood Sergeants lost douse bonus.
- Fishermen got a drastic cost reduction.
- Mastermind now also produces nature gems.
- Some hero description fixes.
- Changes to forts. No castles under 1000 gold.

[Burnsaber]

New version.

With the feedback from the Tourmaline game, I think that version 1.05 is pretty much MP-balanced

[Alpine Joe]

New version.

With the feedback from the Tourmaline game, I think that version 1.05 is pretty much MP-balanced

I've installed this mod, and when I try to click on the capital, it says "can't open ./mods/./City of Wonders/Worker_1.tga"

Is this just a case of an image being missing in 1.05?

[Sombre]

Why not check and see if it's missing?

[Burnsaber]

Is this just a case of an image being missing in 1.05?

It's an error in the .dm file. I'll fix it once I get home.

[Alpine Joe]

Is this just a case of an image being missing in 1.05?

It's an error in the .dm file. I'll fix it once I get home.

Thanks for the attention! I actually solved the issue by just making a copy of Worker_2 and renaming it and sticking it back in the folder....I don't know anything about mods, but it is running without crashing!

[Burnsaber]

new fixed version.