Mod: Conticeos - Servants of Priores (EA nation)

[Baneslave]

In dark depths of history civilization of Priores was destroyed from unknown reason. Their technology and culture was wiped from history with one horrible disaster.

Only their tomb cities were left behind. In those cities survived people of Conticeos, servants of Priores. Conticeos still follow their oath to protect those tombs and wait for their masters return. For thousands of years this race has defended those holy places and not a single sign of Priores return has come to their ears. Still, they will wait and fulfill their oath.

But times are changing. Old god has fallen and new pretenders are raising. With lead of a pretender god people of Conticeos march to gather new magic and call their masters back to this world.

---

Conticeos, that is name for this new nation. It will be put to Early Era, so that I can continue this saga later, if I want.

People of Conticeos are race of humanoids that have taken oath to protect tombs of Priores, their masters. They are weaker and less enduring that normal human, but their reaction time is faster and their stamina is somewhat better than normal human's. They are very devoted for their nations oath, so they have much higher morale and magic resistant than normal people. Technology is their major advantages, but it is mostly devoted to ranged warfare and for siege warfare; yes, their armor sucks.


Basic profile:
hp - 8 (weak)
prot - 0 (they are basic humanoids after all)
str - 9 (weak)
att - 10 (good initiative, but not very aggressive)
def - 11 (good initiative and reason to stay alive)
ap - 8 (they use slow and sturdy formations and rarely flee)
mr - 11 (devoted)
mor - 14 (extremely devoted)
prec - 10 (nothing special)
mapmove - 2 (nothing special)
size - 2 (small humanoids, but not small enough to be dwarves)


Nation profile:
Strengths:
+ Troops have great morale
+ Repeater crossbows give good archery for early era
+ Versatile magic
+ Good astral mages
+ No capital only units
Weaknesses
- Troops start falling from weak breeze
- Troops are pretty slow
- No cavalry

Troops:
Citizen guard (? - ?)
Basic profile; spear, buckler, leather cuirass
"Every citizen spends every tenth day to practice military duties in Citizen guard. They practice under Council members. Training is centered around formation fighting. Every third citizen is trained in usage of repeating crossbow."

Citizen guard (? - ?)
Basic profile; repeating crossbow, dagger, leather cuirass
"Every citizen spends every tenth day to practice military duties in Citizen guard. They practice under Council members and practice formation fighting. Every third citizen is trained in usage of repeating crossbow."

City defender (? - ?)
Basic profile; sword, buckler, leather cuirass
"City defenders are professional soldiers who spend their days practising. Their skills aren't much better than City guard's and their equipment isn't much better either. City defenders aren't too costly to field, though."

Gate keeper (? - ?)
Basic profile, +1 att, +1 def, -1 ap; sword, round shield, ring mail cuirass
"Most talented City defenders are promoted to Gate keeper units. Their duty is to hold enemy at other side of city gate. When taken to other side of wall, they usually make second line of troops just after City defenders."

Tomb guardian (? - ?)
Basic profile, +1 att, +2 def, +1 mr, +1 mor; sword, round shield, ring mail cuirass
"Tomb guardians are strongest soldiers among Conticeos armies. Their eternal duty is to protect tombs of Priores. Tomb guardians are also used as protectors of Tomb priestess in battlefield."

Tomb watcher (? - ?)
Basic profile, +1 prec; repeating crossbow, dagger, leather cuirass
"Tomb watcher marksmen are collected from lines of Citizen guards. Soldiers who show better shooting skills than other soldiers in his or her units is usually promoted to Tomb watcher unit."

Engineer student (? - ?)
Basic profile; siege bonus +4; heavy crossbow, dagger, leather cuirass
"These siege units are collected from Tomb of Ancestral Knowledge's engineer students. They use their basic knowledge about engineering and mechanics to wield heavy crossbows in battlefield. They also used as workforce of older engineers as they build their siege engines."

Fallen soul (? - ?)
Basic profile, +2 hp, +3 str, +2 prot, +1 att, -2 def, +1 mr, +3 ap; berserker +3, ambidextrous 3; axe, axe, soul scream, leather cuirass
"Most tombs are dangerous but interesting places to stay at. Most souls are ripped apart and their hosts killed. Other just go mad and turn in to Fallen souls. Fallen souls are usually used as shock troopers in battlefield."

Chosen soul (? - ?)
Basic profile, +1 hp, +2 str +2 att, +2 def, +1 mr, +2 mor; sacred; sword, icon shield, helmet, ring mail cuirass
"Most tombs are dangerous but interesting places to stay at. Most souls are ripped apart and their hosts killed. Some are favored by Priores and with their guidance Chosen souls return from tombs. After their return they are taken to temples to train martial arts and holy rituals."


Leaders:
Captain of citizen guard (? - ?)
Basic profile, leadership 40; sword, leather cuirass
"Captain of citizen guard is senior soldier who has gained position their position from City council."

Noble captain (? - ?)
Basic profile, +2 mor, leadership 80; sword, ring mail cuirass
"Noble captains are failures of noble families. Most nobles are trained as priests or mages, but Noble captains weren't wise enough to be chosen to either of these. Most captains try to repair their pride with excellent military career, so most of them will study strategies and warfare and thus became great leaders."

City Council member (? - ?)
Basic profile, leadership 80; stealthy +0, spy; dagger
"City council members have very prestigous position in Conticeos hierarchy. They are used as diplomats in foreign countries and most of them are wise enough to collect some data from areas they pass."

Senior engineer (? - ?)
Basic profile, leadership 10; 25%AE; siegebonus 25, siegedefence bonus 10; hammer
"Senior engineers have studied ancient scriptures and have gained knowledge about powerful siege weapons."

Tomb council member (? - ?)
Basic profile, leadership 40; priest 1, sacred, standard +10, patrol bonus +20; whip
"Tomb council members work for religion and for law. They keep law and order in cities and military. Their presence is good reason to work much harder, as they reward those who devote themselves to Priores."

Tomb priestess (? - ?)
Basic profile, leadership 40; priest 2, sacred; sword, icon shield
"Tomb priestess' are very influentical women in Conticeos community. They choose members to Tomb council and also do most of religious duties in tombs."

Tomb sage (? - ?)
Basic profile, leadership 10; priest 2, sacred; S1 25%S 10%AS; dagger
"Tomb sages are mages that chose the way of religion instead of greater knowledge of magic. They know ancient customs and some of Tomb sages can call Priores beyond the grave."

Mage of four corners (? - ?)
Basic profile, leadership 10; oldage; S1 100%FWAE 50%FWAE; dagger
"Mages of four corner are elementalists who chose to follow way of foreign magic instead of ancestral knowledge. They are very versatile mages, but their skills come with price; most of them are already old and their services cost good amount of gold.

Mage of nightly sky (? - ?)
Basic profile, leadership 10; S2 50%S
"Mage of nightly sky is astral mage who followed way of Priores and studied magic at its purest form. Their services don't cost much, as they get favoured position in the community anyway."

Member of royal court (? - ?)
Basic profile, leadership 80; S1D1 50%SD; sword, ring mail cuirass
"Members of Royal court are most influentical people in Conticeos community. Their influence comes from kings themselves and as there hasn't been king for hundreds of years, they have considerable power. Royal court is always ready to crown new one, if so great authority is ever needed."

Summons

Sacred king (Summonable only, 3D, 25 death gems)
Basic profile, +2 hp, +2 str +3 att, +3 def, +2 mr, +3 mor leadership 120; priest 3, sacred, standard +25; S2D2 50%SD; sword, ring mail cuirass, crown
"This king was elected by Royal court, blessed by Tomb council and favoured by City council. He is a strong mage, a great warrior and a very good strategist. Only other kings are this influentical."

Longdead consort (Summonable, 2S2D, 1 death gem)
Basic profile, +1 str, +1 att, +1 def, +1 mr, +2 mor; undead; sword, ring mail cuirass, helmet
"Kings of Conticeos are usually more than two hundred years old when they get the throne and most of their past loves have died ages ago. If king has even little bit of affection towards his old loves, he might call them beyond grave to serve him yet again."

Dark prince (Summonable, 2D, 10 death gems)
Basic profile, +2 hp, +2 str, +1 att, +1 def, -2 mr, -2 mor, leadership 40; stealthy +5, ambidexterous; light repeater crossbow, axe, dagger, leather cuirass, crown
"Dark prince are executors and torturers of Royal court. They hand out law and justice that once turned them to dark beasts. If a member of Royal court does crime, their destiny is to die in horrible torture or turn in to Dark prince."

Dark warrior (Summonable, 1D, 1 death gem)
Basic profile, +1 att, +1 def, -1 mr, -1 mor; stealthy +5, ambidexterous; light repeater crossbow, sword, dagger, leather cuirass
"Dark warriors have seen and felt the justice of Royal court. Murderers are given to Dark prince, who then corrupt their minds with overdose of souls. Most of murderers die, but some turn in to shadowlike Dark warriors.

Haunted statue (Summonable - ?)
28 hp, 15 prot, 18 str, 12 att, 8 def, 7 ap, 10 mr, 50 mor, 10 prec, 2 mapmove, 3 size; mindless, magical, ambidexterous +2; axe, axe
"Soul of Priores has possesed bronze statue and now leads it to fight agains't common foe."

Weak soul of Priores (Summonable - ?)
8 hp, 4 prot, 10 str, 11 att, 11 def, 14 ap, 12 mr, 9 mor, 10 prec, 2 mapmove, 2 size; ethereal, sacred, stealthy, magical; life drain, paralyze
"This soul has been called from beyond of a grave. It is sacred for people of Conticeos. This ghost like soul isn't strong enough to do any greater decicions, so it will only follow Conticeos mages or other souls."

Soul of Priores (Summonable - ?)
9 hp, 5 prot, 10 str, 12 att, 11 def, 14 ap, 13 mr, 9 mor, 10 prec, 2 mapmove, 2 size, magical leadership 10; priest 1, ethereal, sacred, stealthy, magical; life drain, paralyze
"This soul has been called from beyond of a grave. It is sacred for people of Conticeos. This ghost like soul is strong enough to lead other souls to battle."


Ps. I need volunteers do some graphics for me! Sorry, I suck at drawing.

Pps. Does my English suck?

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Only mildy. I've seen much worse. You're more understandable than some Americans, I'm sad to say.


In the dark depths of history the civilization of Priores was destroyed by an unknown cause. Their technology and culture was wiped from history in one sudden, horrible disaster [changed for flavor, not quality or grammar].

Only their tomb cities were left behind. In those cities survive [again, flavor] the people of Conticeos, servants of Priores. The Conticeos still follow their oath to protect those tombs and wait for their masters return. For thousands of years this race has defended those holy places and not a single [sign of/rumor] about Priores return has come to their ears. Still, they wait and fulfill their oath. [passage was somewhat redundant]

But the times are changing. The old god has fallen and new pretenders are rising. With the leadership of a pretender god the people of Conticeos march to regain their old powers [regain new is kind of contradictory, since you cannot regain what you've already lost] and call their masters back to this world.

Your english is actually pretty good. You do have a tendency to forget "the"s and "an"s and so forth. Though I am not certain all of those "the"s I added were necessary, they seemed appropriate.

[Baneslave]

Thank you. I rarely get [any/so mature] feedback, so it is really refreshing change.

I made some changes to text and added King's consort unit plan. I will start coding these units really soon.

[Burnsaber]

Very cool idea. I hope that you will continue working on it.

Baneslave said:
Ps. I need volunteers do some graphics for me! Sorry, I suck at drawing.

Not to discourage you or anything, but this is very unlikely to happen. Most people want to work on their own projects.

But, I'll tell you a little secret. I also suck at drawing, horribly (I'd lose to freaking 5-year old), but went and did a nation mod anyway http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...=5&o=&fpart=1.

If you look at the graphics closely (see the preview pick in the link), you will see that they are just clever hacks of regular Dom3 graphics. Just recolor it and position the arm in different location and BAM, you have a graphic. I haven't received any negative feedback on them at all, just positive ("they look Dominionsy") and they're really easy and fun to make.

What you need is GIMP (just google it) and the Organized dom3 sprites, which can be received here:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...=559516&Forum=

If you need to have a quick look what kind of sprites are 'available', http://www.dom3minions.com/sprites/ is also useful.

[Baneslave]

Okay, thanks Burnsaber. I will try to do some graphics. I am kinda lucky Conticeos are pretty human like, just bit smaller and so on.


Edit. Well, I am pretty happy with results. I attached image to message. It is a Citisen guard with a spear and a buckler.

[Endoperez]

I wrote a Gimp tutorial a while ago. With this and the zip that has all the Dom sprites, it shouldn't be hard to manage some simple graphics. If you don't have the zip yet, check the last post of the mod list.

[Burnsaber]

Baneslave said:
Okay, thanks Burnsaber. I will try to do some graphics. I am kinda lucky Conticeos are pretty human like, just bit smaller and so on.


Edit. Well, I am pretty happy with results. I attached image to message. It is a Citisen guard with a spear and a buckler.

Looks very much like my first works. It's good that you're happy with it, but you can do better. Shading is crucial, but luckily it's not that hard to make. If you're not sure how to shade it, look how it is done in excisting sprites and imitate that. (that's what I did, at least) GIMP has a amazing sliding color selection for getting darker/lighter colors for shading.

That shield also looks a bit odd, it's pretty small, like a buckler. I usually just copy-pasted a shield from a excisting sprite and used it. Same thing for armors. Just open up a shielded sprite in GIMP and select the shield with the "loop" tool. Then it's just simple Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V.

Of course yuo're free to go whatever artistic direction you want. These are mere suggestions.

[Baneslave]

Is this better or worse? Does it look too armored for you?

[llamabeast]

That looks a _lot_ better to me. Good work.

[DrPraetorious]

Some balance comments now that you're moving on the artwork.

A typical early era nation has a 3 or 4 in from 2 to 3 paths, and 1s or 2s in another 2 or 3 paths.

EA Ermor, for example, gets F3D3S2A1E1W1N1. EA Marverni gets E4S4N2W2.

Now, there are a lot of balancing factors to consider - EA Niefelheim gets more magic paths than other EA nations, but because their mages are all so expensive that more or less balances out (Niefel's troops may not be balanced, but that's a distinct question.)

So if you have a nation that gets S2D2F2A2E2W2 - well, if those mages they get are very cheap for their level of magic potency, this could be very strong, especially if they also get a good selection of forts to help make a lot of them.

But, really, since your military is kinda a joke, you could justify giving them very powerful mages, and/or low level national combat spells to even the playing field somewhat.

Can the tomb priestess animate/lead conventional undead?