Agartha summons

[Swan]

I'm unable to focus too long on something, so i'm taking a break from my herd, but i have to do something in the mean so i thought to expand Agartha summoning possibilities, but need ideas.
I was thinking on something on this line:

-Something flying (a bat or you have better ideas?)
-Nation only version of monster fish(eel-like)
-Some kind of spider
-A worm/snake
-The thing locked by the seal

Have idea? post
have pic? post

Tonight or tomorrow morning i shoul have finished the first image.

Edit mod info
V 0.2
-3 new weapon.
-3 new armor.
- recolored spider.
- killer moss.
- the pretty well done snakefish.
V 0.3
-manawyrm
-fixed constructiom items.
V 0.4
-new assasination spell
-corrected manawyrm enc, now is 300.

V 0.5
-pantzerkrab and Cilosyb finished
-wrong manawyrm sprite, i'll fix it later
-need playtest

V 1.0
-added a farsummon for the mushroom(N3/A1;conjuration 6; 15 gem; 3+ independent summon)
- 8 new spells; all require H4 X3; 0 research
F)Seal o' magma: stronger version of strange light[anti demon spell]
A)Seal o' haze: bigger, cheaper version of sulphur haze[damage+poison cloud]
W)Seal o' lakes: a gemless version of acid storm [anti-armor spell]
E)Seal o' land: a cheaper version of acashic record [full lvl9 magic search in province]
S)Seal o' crystals: a cheaper version of raging hearts [harassing ritual spell]
D)Seal o' rest: a stronger version of wither bones [anti-undead spell]
N)Seal o' wild: a cheaper version of animal horde [multi-animal summon]
B)Seal o' dark blood: summon an endless(...20 tbh) pack of bats [battle summon]

[vfb]

The thing! That's what I wanna see.

[Swan]

eh eh, we all want to see it.
Take a tip on it: 4 shape

[Swan]

double post

[chrispedersen]

In my balance mod,

One of the my ideas of agartha is a race that body swaps. They already have the construct theme - this seems like a logical extension to this.

So, in my mod they have

a). The ability to change bodies to a gem finding ethereal worm
b). The ability to change to a Divine Oracle
c). The ability to change put on three variety of war skins.

I have sent a message to KO asking what the three gods behind the seal were like (got no reply).

Bats are in process as well, which are basically size 1, do a stun attack, and have dark vision.

Also, I have created a two headed hero, and a multihero 'Seekers of the Flame' type organization.

[Stavis_L]

Long, long ago, a powerful Agarthan oracle had a vision regarding the caverns of the Agarthan homeland. In the vision, the caverns were entirely overrun by hideous creatures with horribly smooth yet oddly dry skin bristling with odd tufts of hair, *two* eyes, stunted growth, and a total inability to breathe in the sacred birthing pools. When a small tribe of these creatures wandered into the mouth of their capitol's cavern one day, this oracle caused the entire tribe to be sealed away behind a mystic door, and all memory of the creatures, save for the overwhelming sense of dread at what lay behind the door, to be erased from the minds of the Agarthans. The effort to permanently seal the mystic door was immense, and required the sacrifice of countless gallons of ritually spilled Agarthan blood; even then, the mystic rituals continued to suck the vitality of those who remained, even unto the current day...

[Swan]

ok, upped the sprite for the ancient moss, have yet to decide what will the behind-the-door-thing be, ma it will be dark and multi shaped. and overpowered.

#name "Ancient Moss"
#descr "The living moss is an ancient plant that infested the caves where agarthians were born. It can be awakened by the oracles to unleash death and fury on the enemy"
Its stats:

#hp 30 #gcost 0
#rcost 0 #size 4
#maxage 100 #prot 25
#startage 1 #mor 30
#fireres -100 #mr 10
#fear 1 #enc 0
#weapon 413 #str 10
#weapon 253 #att 12
#weapon 71 #ap 5
#prec 9 #def 0
#mapmove 1 #blind
#end

[chrispedersen]

Cool sprite!

[Swan]

well thanks, but 75% of your cool have to go to Honeybadger

[Swan]

ok, i finished the Agarthan cave spider, it will be just a giant spider with new color, i uploaded my "model" too.
You like as it is or do you think a couple of tentacles should be putted on it?

[HoneyBadger]

A few ideas:
Cavemen--a spell that cheaply summons say 6 or more of these guys at a time.

Grue--3 headed blue-black worm things that vaguely resemble hydra hatchlings (to save a bit on sprite creation), but only have bite attacks, no poison. Stealthy, blind, 3 bite attacks, extremely weak, but gain a great deal of strength in darkness. Slow moving.

Low level spell that gives you a skeletal undead cavebear. Tougher than a normal skeleton, with all the advantages/disadvantages except for armour/weapons. 2 claw attacks, size 4.

Stygian Crawler--giant vaguely hermit crablike creature (shell resembles a cluster of stalagmites). 4 claw attacks, very slow but fairly tough, amphibious, decent prot, 1 eye.

Silent One--The Size 6 immobile skull of a gigantic Agarthan that's been encased in cave matter over centuries (thus both undead and construct). Excellent Prot, lots of hp, single bite attack, fear, blind. Useful for defense, to attract fire, and to break up charges.

Yogi--a spell that summons the identical Patala recruitable mage. Helps to better tie Agartha in to it's mythological roots, while providing a reasonably decent Astral mage.

Urgrue--Mother and Father of grues (hermaphrodytic, in other words). Unique summon, much more powerful high level SC/commander version of grue.



Agartha could also use more heroes, and possibly some forgeable items as well.

The reason I'm opposed to having whatever's behind the seal break free is because keeping whatever's there in it's prison seems to be integral and fundamental to the setup of Agarthan society. Release the Big Bad, and you make Agartha--which is already a tragedy--a meaningless, pitiful failure, as well.

[Swan]

hmm, i fear you are right Honey about the Thing Behind The Seal.
About the other summons my idea would be about what lives in the depths of the cave, and no undead.
The silent one will be used and i'll make some new armor/weapons with the ...ium, a light, durable and rare metal(mainly for commanders).
Now i'm looking for ideas on a cave fish, as all i found are white standard fish, maybe i'll use the crab(hard to do) or to work on the giant fish, paleing him and adding some tentacle

[HoneyBadger]

Well, don't forget that Agartha already gets the Umbral, as well as good access to death magic, in which I think they're subpar, compared to Earth and Fire.

The big giant stone heads don't have to be undead, though. I was originally going to have them just be constructs, without the Fear, but I decided it would be nicer if they were more niche/interesting.

[Swan]

Ok, i created 3 weapon and 3 armor, check the text file, but do i chose their look when forging?
added also attack sprite for the spider, but i don't like it [it's suposed to be a stomp, but i think i's just a mess] (spr1 and spr2 on giant spider are the same or i have a problem?)
Oh, Do you think this mod is balanced? i can't play and i will not for a long time, so need your info.

[Swan]

Ok, for tonight i'm over.
choose what fish you like

[Swan]

I finished the sprite, now i need to wrote stats of the agarthan snakefish

[Swan]

i decided to release my mod, you can find it in my first post.
-3 new weapon and armor for agartha(check 'em, dunno if they works)
-a recolored spider
-a killer moss
-the snakefish(pretty proud of it)

[Swan]

What do you say about this as a giant agarthian skull?
And what use can i find for this star-nosed mole? i mean, it's pretty scary

[HoneyBadger]

Giant starnosed mole with spikes on it's tentacles.

[Swan]

v 0.3 finished, added a manawyrm to perform magic site search.

[Swan]

Version 0.4
-corrected manawyrm enc, now is 300
-a new assasination spell based on earth attack but with a killer mole

[HoneyBadger]

That looks incredibly terrifying. Good work. If you need any help, I could try working on the giant skull-head, and see if I come up with anything useable.

[Swan]

Thanks very much, i really cant come up with nothing showable about that head.

[chrispedersen]

Really like the gray icons.

Honey, I would love an icon for essentially a flying shrieker, if you can be persuaded.

Essentially it will be a flying small mushroom that will shriek for a radius stun damage on death.

[Nasser]

A race of pale, fleshy one-eyed aberrations an their flying mushroom pets.

[Swan]

Never thought 'bout flyin' mushrooms.
I finish the horseshoe crab tank then i'll start lookin' for some nice mushrooms photo.

[Swan]

Ok, the horseshoe crab tank is ready, it will be an heavy armored, mindless, mechanical that fire 2 tones at time. BUT i have 2 issues:
a)do you find sprite decent enough? i couldn't make anything better but if you say they suck i'll work on 'em again
b)a name for it? horseshoe crab tank isn't very catchy

[chrispedersen]

Who needs to know that they are horshoe crabs.

Looks more suitable for Rlyeh, tho. But I love your approach of looking for photos..

[Swan]

i have to, last time i drawed something on my own my bro' painted it and laughed for days. it was pretty depressing.
Ok, the horseshoe crab tank(aka panzerkrab from now on)will go on the maybe room, even if to do so i wait 24 if someone says he wan' it.
His stats+spell

#newmonster
#name "Panzerkrab"
#descr "The panzerkrab is a great creation of the agrthian's engeener. Basically it's giant stone worked to protect a big stone thrower. Even if to fire it has to stay immobile, the tank is gifted with wheels so it can move. His mechanisms are very delicate and suffer from ice and fire attack, but the structure is made to be almost immune to shock and physical damages."
#hp 22
#size 6
#prot 30
#mor 30
#mr 8
#enc 0
#str 0
#att 0
#def 0
#prec 10
#mapmove 2
#ap 0
#gcost 0
#rcost 0
#maxage 1000
#startage 1
#mechanical
#weapon 603
#fireres -25
#frostres -75
#poisonres 100
#shockres 50
#blind
#recuperation
#onebattlespell 388
#nametype 144
#end

#newspell
#name "Build tank"
#descr "The agarthan engeeners create a giant tank, very useful to clean enemy chaff. Beware,it suffer from cold and hot "
#school 3
#restricted 12
#restricted 36
#restricted 57
#researchlevel 6
#path 0 3
#pathlevel 0 4
#effect 10001
#fatiguecost 2000
#damage 2295
#nreff 1
#end

[Swan]

ok, i looked for mushrooms, and basically came up with 2 ideas: a coloured one, which cast hallucinogen spores on battlefield then fly to eat his pray and a pale one with aoe poison around him, immobile, very hard to kill(don't ask me why it can be useful, because i really don't know).

[HoneyBadger]

ok, i looked for mushrooms, and basically came up with 2 ideas: a coloured one, which cast hallucinogen spores on battlefield then fly to eat his pray and a pale one with aoe poison around him, immobile, very hard to kill(don't ask me why it can be useful, because i really don't know).


Immobiles are good because they can be used to break up charges and draw fire. Giving it a poison cloud and making it very hard to kill only makes it more effective.


As far as mushrooms go: Since mushrooms are just the fruiting bodies of a fungus, what if you had just a Sprite of a shadow on the ground (representing the ground being permiated with the fungus), and then had it summon mushroom "allies" in combat?

In that way, you could do something that I don't think has been seen in the game yet--build a wall right across a battlefield, and have it grow stronger, the longer the battle continues. You could even possibly use the fungi to trap attackers and prevent them from leaving the battle---nasty, if they're also putting out AOE poison clouds.

[chrispedersen]

My plan was to copy the monster from the elder things, who have a special ability that they cause stun when they die.

I figure this made sense - underground things using echo location (DV) underground 'see'.

I was deciding between giving them a sound lance ability (stun damage) and no attack whatsoever- only the stun damage of death.

You can use either idea - or none, of course

[Swan]

ok, i looked for mushrooms, and basically came up with 2 ideas: a coloured one, which cast hallucinogen spores on battlefield then fly to eat his pray and a pale one with aoe poison around him, immobile, very hard to kill(don't ask me why it can be useful, because i really don't know).


Immobiles are good because they can be used to break up charges and draw fire. Giving it a poison cloud and making it very hard to kill only makes it more effective.


As far as mushrooms go: Since mushrooms are just the fruiting bodies of a fungus, what if you had just a Sprite of a shadow on the ground (representing the ground being permiated with the fungus), and then had it summon mushroom "allies" in combat?

In that way, you could do something that I don't think has been seen in the game yet--build a wall right across a battlefield, and have it grow stronger, the longer the battle continues. You could even possibly use the fungi to trap attackers and prevent them from leaving the battle---nasty, if they're also putting out AOE poison clouds.

that's a good idea! i'll start to work on it

[Swan]

After 2 days of work, cut, paste and search i choose for the easy route.
Maybe i'll work on it more to improve colors, but 90% it will be like that.
This sprite really made me go loco, i'll take a break and restart monday morning to work on this mod.

[chrispedersen]

After 2 days of work, cut, paste and search i choose for the easy route.
Maybe i'll work on it more to improve colors, but 90% it will be like that.
This sprite really made me go loco, i'll take a break and restart monday morning to work on this mod.

WOW.

Incredible! I know you have done a lot of work on it and may not want to visit it at all...

but to convey the idea of flying.. how about some sort of 'cloud' underneath the mushroom - ethereal blue?

[HoneyBadger]

That's a beautiful sprite, Swan. The colors could perhaps look a little more like neon filling glass? Or (allow me to date myself) possibly a lava lamp. Since the basic sprite seems to be transparent(ish).

Looks really cool though, as-is, and I'm just fumbling at it in the dark, afterall.

[Sombre]

I'm not sure how good that's going to look on the backdrops you get in the game. Try filling the black in with green or brown, see what it looks like.

[HoneyBadger]

Sombre has a point. You could maybe fix that though, with careful application of shadow pixels so that bits of the background shine through, like they're reflecting.

[Swan]

The problem is that i can't check how they look in game, but i will be able to in a week. However i'll repaint them in green-brown and post them. It you wish i can release the mod so you can check their looks.
At Chris: this mushrooms will not be flying; for the flying creauture i chose to take an agarthan and to attach him a couple some wings and a beak.

[Swan]

AH! you thought this mod was dead, but my boredom (boringness? oh whatever, you got it) never die!
Now, to be serious, what do you think about the look of this mushroom?

[Swan]

The mod is now released for playtest

[kianduatha]

Manawyrms are grossly overpowered. Nobody should be able to summon something that powerful so early and cheaply. Maybe at 30 death gems, Conj 7. Alternately, you could change it to something like Feast of Crows, but for Earth gems? Can you do that?

Spiders are cool but probably underpowered/too expensive for where they are. Maybe make them the research 1 2+ for 2 gems.

The tank does not have any graphics and crashes the game when it is created.

Killermole also crashes the game when you try to look at the battle, and apparently does not do anything.

Ancient Moss has a hatchet attack.

Raise Cilosyb is an in-combat spell that does not appear to do anything.

[Swan]

Manawyrms are grossly overpowered. Nobody should be able to summon something that powerful so early and cheaply. Maybe at 30 death gems, Conj 7. Alternately, you could change it to something like Feast of Crows, but for Earth gems? Can you do that?

well, i don't think they are overpowered, as they can only search, with their research penalty and 300 encumbarance.
I'll wait for someone else opinion.
but i'll remove the gem generation and create the mamawyrm for it.

Spiders are cool but probably underpowered/too expensive for where they are. Maybe make them the research 1 2+ for 2 gems.

done 2+ for 2 gem

The tank does not have any graphics and crashes the game when it is created.

Killermole also crashes the game when you try to look at the battle, and apparently does not do anything.

ouch, i have no idea where the problem may be, i'll look at that.

Ancient Moss has a hatchet attack.

fixed.

Raise Cilosyb is an in-combat spell that does not appear to do anything.
That should be a ritual.

[kianduatha]

They didn't have a research penalty and only 10 encumbrance. And they had full slots, meaning you had access to every ritual spell/global in the game with minimal effort. And even if they had 300 encumbrance...wouldn't they be able to get off a single spell? Like, I dunno, Fog Warriors or Fire Storm or something similar.

[Swan]

Argh, i forgot to save! they should have research penalty, no slot, 300 encumbarance.

[Swan]

1)snakefish's sprite and weapons are fixed, now the snakefish is holy
2)fixed killermole spell and sprite
3)now manawyrm can't cast in battle

those fixes are not released yet

[Swan]

released new version, now should be bug free.
you can find it in the first post

[Swan]

a)I don't want to look cocky, but i'm shamelessy bumping this, hoping to see it in the mod list.
b)On the useful side, next week a new version will be released, with a farsummon spell and some seals spell(h3, national spells, was thinking something like"seals o' blood"(i'm so original), seal o' dark fire(why the "o'" instead of "of"? dunno, it has a nice sound)[name may change, at least i hope to find something better.]
c)ok after mushrooms, moss, spiders, worm and giant snake, what else do you associate with"dark, but very dark, cave, where a race of 2 feet pink worm-like things live"?[no demons if possible]

[HoneyBadger]

bats?

[Swan]

and bats are!
1hp, darkness bonus, battle summon.
there is a way to mae this spell castable only during darkness?
p.s. manawyrm gem generation will be removed, is too strong

[HoneyBadger]

Well, you probably can't make them castable only during darkness, but I bet you could give them 0 stats in the applicable areas, and then compensate for that with the Stronger in Darkness ability.

[Swan]

i thought that, as you can cast some spell only during storm, maybe there was a wa to do so for darkness.
Oh well, 1 in each stat, darkness power like +5 should do the job

[HoneyBadger]

By the way, did you get my PM, Swan? It kind of relates to this thread, and the Forum occasionally eats my ramblings, in it's carnivorous way.

[Swan]

1) thanks for alerting me about the pm, i never look at them.
2) someone know what spell i have to copy in order to creat an endless batlle summon? like the imp that comes from the lifelong pact? is it impflock?
3) there is a way to make a spell castsable only once, without using #onebatllespell?

[Swan]

daily report:
farsummon: done
bats:
bat's summon: done
seals: 2/8(blood and astral)

[Swan]

daily report:
farsummon: done
bats: Done
bat's summon: done
seals: 4/8(blood/astral/nature/water)

impflock only summon 10 imp once, someone know a spell that endless summon something in battle?
The bats are pretty good blocker, with 12 def and ethereal, but have 0 attack, 1 prot, 2 hp so an aoe spell or heavy ranged should kill them pretty quickly.
they are summoned 20 at once, maybe i'll reduce them if they are saw as overpowered, even if they are hard to cast, with B3/H4, so a crystal shield or the prophet is required.
#descr "The cave bats, also known as S-chree in agarthan, are a race of vampire bats. their strenght is in the sheer number, even if in the darkness they can be pretty dangerous""
#hp 2
#size 1
#prot 1
#mor 11
#mr 10
#enc 0
#str 1
#att 0
#def 12
#ethereal
#prec 10
#mapmove 0
#ap 15
#gcost 0
#rcost 0
#animal
#blind
#darkpower 5
#maxage 10
#startage 1
#weapon 127

To anybody wandering as s-ch is pronounced, s-ch means the sound in poSSible followed by CHurch.
Yes, they are zubat's cousins.

[HoneyBadger]

If you want something to be summoned infinitely, then you might consider giving the basic unit the Summon "1 basic unit" cast at start of battle spell. Each one summoned would have the same spell, so it would then summon another, who would summon another, and another, and so on.

...er, atleast I think it would...

[Swan]

someone once said "modding is 60% code, 30% compromising and 10% clever hacks ".
i'll try this and i'll see what happens

[Swan]

daily report:
farsummon: done
bats:
bat's summon:
seals: 6/8(blood/astral/nature/water/earth/fire)
P.s.
if you have any ideas, please post them, i haven't yet hit spell cap, and i'm not satisfied 100% by some of my seals

#selectspell 87
#copy "Howl"
#name "batsignal"
#descr "call a bat"
#school 1
#researchlevel 9
#path 0 8
#pathlevel 9
#dmg 2297
#nreff 1
#end

This is the spell (87 should be a blank spell), i assigned with #onebattlespell 87 to the bat but it didn't work;does the bat have to be commander?
if they do, there is way to summon commander in battle?

[Swan]

Version 1.0
- bat endless summon just didn't work, so i decided for a 20 bats at once summon
-added a farsummon for the mushroom(N3/A1;conjuration 6; 15 gem; 3+ independent summon)
- 8 new spells; all require H4 X3; 0 research
F)Seal o' magma: stronger version of strange light[anti demon spell]
A)Seal o' haze: bigger, cheaper version of sulphur haze[damage+poison cloud]
W)Seal o' lakes: a gemless version of acid storm [anti-armor spell]
E)Seal o' land: a cheaper version of acashic record [full lvl9 magic search in province]
S)Seal o' crystals: a cheaper version of raging hearts [harassing ritual spell]
D)Seal o' rest: a stronger version of wither bones [anti-undead spell]
N)Seal o' wild: a cheaper version of animal horde [multi-animal summon]
B)Seal o' dark blood: summon an endless(...20 tbh) pack of bats [battle summon]

The new armor and weapon are there but i don't intend to use them, whoever would like to use them can copy, don't even ask

i chose H4 to limit them and to emphasize your prophet, as it will be the only way to have an H4 mage(ok, there is a sword, but it's unique, and a shield, but it's heavy ).
Latest version can be found on first post.

Pantokrator, these spells need better names...

[HoneyBadger]

Swan, have you considered making new varieties of Earth Elemental? Having a couple different types, or just allowing Agartha to summon different sizes of EE, would give them a boost.

[Swan]

Well, what kind of earth elementl you can give? maybe some small tainted with blood, but other than that...

[Stavis_L]

Not that I'm necessarily encouraging the direction this mod has gone, but re: alternative earth elementals:

1) Mud elementals requiring earth and a little water to summon. Perhaps fatiguing aura representing having to slog through mud to reach them, but less protection than standard earth elementals.

2) Could mix death (or maybe blood) and earth to create a creature of blighted earth. Perhaps doing lifedrain, and consumes extra resources.

3) Could do "flavored" elementals of various stones or ores...perhaps gemstone elementals with various resistances, or extra protection in the case of diamond. Basically take the theme of whatever specific "earth" they're made out of.

4) Could do more types of summoning - an (expensive) spell to summon an army of elementals, either permanently or as a remote attack similar to Horde from Hell, would be a different spin on things.

...just as a few options.

[Swan]

1)good idea, but a that means art from zeroes. and a drunken, one eyed, handless monkey could teach me how to draw.
2)there is only one blood/earth elemental, i'll prefer to keep it that way; death could be used.
3)nice idea, i was thinking about frozen earth elemental, i'll try to se what i can do
4)ah, the kind of suggestion i love: easy to write, so obvious i should have thought it by myself and without drawing so i don't have to pay that greed monkey!
Why you are not encouraging the direction this mod has gone? just post your ideas, comments and criticism! "the more the merrier"

now is time for bad news: real life told me i should be studing, as it will be exam's time soon, sor agartha's summons will take a break (no more new modified photos, just code)
plus i have some ideas going around for next enhancing, if just i could rent that book...