Ulm beefed up ...

[Boron]

My suggestions for IF ulm :
Give the black acolyte inquisition ability .

Make the black priest drainimmune . This is afaik not directly possible with modding . So give him just a sage bonus of 3 , which cancels out drain 3 dominion and leaves him this way in drain 3 scale with 4 rp .
Reduce his price to 120 gold , but don't change his magic skills .

Finally the black templar should get a small additional extra compared to the other beefed up ulm units because he is capitol only . So to make considering at least a small bless for him worthwhile he could get one of the following goodies :

-Berserk ( +3 - +5 ) because he is a zealot , a religious fanatic .
-Awe , because he is an impressive force .
-50% shock resistence . All black templars get a minor amulet of shockprotection as reward for becoming black templars , the elite unit of IF ulm .

I especially like the idea of giving them the 50% shock resistence . Ulm as a forging nation should be able to forge such a goodie cheaply , so their elite can be completely equipped with this item .
Because they are capitol only + require a lot of resources you probably really rarely will see more then 20 black templars . If their life expectancy against airnations is roughly doubled by this special ability would be imo a good thing .

Atm every ulmunit survives only 1-2 hits by a lightning spell .
The black templar would survive then 2-3 , with great luck 4 hits by an air spell .
That would at least not (almost) make them obsolete already on turn 5-10 .

[Endoperez]

Berserk above +0 would be too much for Templars IMO. They are religious fanatics, so their morale is high. That is far from berserking!

"Impressive force" is not enough to give anyone Awe. That would mean that *all* titan-sized pretenders would have awe.

And Shock Resistance is quite hard to explain. I agree that, gameplay-wise, it would fit. Unfortunately, it's not thematic! Black Templars are religious knights. For them to have Shock Resistance, they would have to be blessed by their god... by Air 9 blessing, which is possible although costly.

[Arralen]

Boron said:

Why does the chain mail get a higher malus to def than the full plate ? Imo you are more immobile , the stronger your armor is . So with a chainmail you should be more agile then with a full plate imo .

A common misconception, maybe stemming from all those RPG rules which where authored by -to put it midly- some folks which didn't have a clue about either a)statistics (roll your dice...) and b) medieval/ancient combat. Hollywood filmmakers aren't that much better naturally.

Actually, I tried to model the differences, while keeping it somewhat somewhat consistant with the rest of DOM2, between two fundamentally different armor techniques.

First the heavy, ankle-long double-layered chain mail with underlying padding. In the real word (TM) known in principle since roman times, it was the late 1000s when it became "fashion" (don't quote me on the date, I'm notoriously bad with those. But I know where to look it up ) Earlier, it 'was simply too expensive and/or the material too bad to actually manufacture mail that long. This kind of armor was used 'til 1200, when first serious improvements where made: full "pot" helments, later the first "platen", which developed into the cuirass.

Second the full-body "gothic" armor, similar to those made by Lorenz Helmschied, Augsburg (not Ulm ), around 1480 for "Erzherzog Maximilian I." (later Emporer). Those armors are sometimes depicted "gothic", while they where in fact pre-gothic I think. For a visual check the mod icon ! Those are definitly not much heavier than a full chain mail. But a chain mail does not have "articulated joints", so movement is much more hindered in such an unshaped armor. With "gothic" plate, you can you actually jump, sprint, and it's said someone tried cartwheels with it successfully.

While the chain mail is made to absorb a blow and keep the edge from cutting, the plate armor is made to foremost deflect a blow from a weapon - or a missile.

It doesn't matter much though because defense is very low for ulm units anyways . Their main protection is just protection

That is only partly true - even within the constraints of DOM2. If you check it out - the Black Plate Inf with Tower Shield ends up with a Def of 11, which isn't that bad IMHO. And I'm really thinking about upping the Def of the plate armor even more.

From my personal experience of beeing "on the receiving end" of such an armor, I can tell you that it's amazingly difficult to get an effective hit in, especially if your adversary additionally carries a big shield.

Only -but big drawback- of the "hard case armor" is the prevention of air circulation. You may do everything you want in it - but only for some hours at best. After that, you'll have to get rid of some parts or you'll be boiled alive ... . Wearing a full armor on a long march is impossible.

That's why I gave the mail armor troops strat move 2 and the plate armor troops strat move 1 - they simply need more time to get battle ready and have more difficulties hauling their armor in general.

Btw do you plan in future to improve the 2 ulm themes as well ? And tien chi ? And maybe a few themes like return of raptors , pan new age ? Would be cool

Theme modding is still somewhat difficult. Practically it means using the "notheme" switch and re-doing the whole nation from scrap. Something I don't have the time to atm.
And I must admit, I'm e.g. somewhat clueless what to do about TC S&A to give it a faster start. And Pangaea New Age is something I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole

[Endoperez]

I am also doing Ulm Upgrade. In fact, I have got it quite ready. I found out how to take working screen captures from Dom, and managed to make the Black Paladin -commander for Ulm Iron Faith.

I changed three of the four "Commanders of Ulm", and will have graphics ready sometime next week (I hope):
-Warlord of Ulm is good combatant, with hits 17, str 14 and att/def 13. He only leads 25 units, and has Berserk +0.
-General of Ulm *was* a good combatant. Now he is old and bitter, but adored by the young ones. He has Standard 10 and leads 75 units, but is quite weak as far as Ulmish go. He wears Full Chain with no shield, and has a Battle Axe.
-Nobleman of Ulm is the kind of a guy who would be much happier living in less warlike country. He is too afraid to fight as a Commander, so he takes his trusty arbalest and tries to stay as far in the back as possible. They have precision 14 and only lead 10 units.

I also gave Black Lords def 13 (equal to the Warlord's) and Lord Guardian mapmove 2, supplybonus 6.


I don't know if my mod is good, balance-wise, but it will be interesting to see how well my mod stacks with Arralen's...

[Boron]

I didn't know the stuff about armors .
Are you playing live RPGs and have your own armor rebuilds or how do you know that ?

Arralen said:

Theme modding is still somewhat difficult. Practically it means using the "notheme" switch and re-doing the whole nation from scrap. Something I don't have the time to atm.
And I must admit, I'm e.g. somewhat clueless what to do about TC S&A to give it a faster start. And Pangaea New Age is something I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole

I think you can just load the units like the black templar and change their stats . This way you shouldn't need to mod the complete theme i think ( haven't tested it practically but the mod manual implies it imo )

[Endoperez]

To Boron: Yep, it is very possible to edit units in themes, thus changing the theme somehow, although it is not possible to mod themes themselves.

Also, MY Ulm Upgrade is ready. Mainly as I wrote above.
General of Ulm has main sprite made from the base of Battle Deacon of Pythium, but the result is very different. I am quite proud of that. I made attack sprite myself. \O to /O must be the simplest attack animation...
Nobleman of Ulm has graphics taken directly from game. If someone wants, I have green Version too. Played with IrfanView color settings. Again, I made attack sprite.
Black Paladin: main sprite from game, and surprisingly, attack sprite from the game as well! Lots of work, I'll tell you...

Black Lord cost was lowered to make him more useful as a combatant. I would like to have both Warlord and Black Lord be competent Thugs, but I'm afraid Warlord is only useful if you really need flying and don't have any other choice...

I gave supply bonus to Lord Guardian so that Ulm would get one more non-magical support unit, and it makes LG even better during sieges. I think of it as extra storages instead of ability to create more food. I also gave him mapmove 2 he should have.

Liga has graphics up at his page, but those lack shadows. I found out how not to remove shadows...

Looks cool, im downloading it and will try it tonight.

[Tuidjy]

CUnknown said:
Let's play Clash of the Titans, rich world, normal research, normal magic sites, indies strength 5.

Very fair settings. I have never played at indies 5, but I do not expect it
to be too different from indies 6.

But let me get one thing straight. The fight is without the mod, right? You
did say 'although I disagree that Ulm needs much if any beefing.'

You can play any faction but Caelum, Arcosephale, Atlantis, or Ryleh.

I think that Pythium/Abysia/Marignon/Man/Vanheim/Ermor/C'tis would not have
any trouble either. May I just ask why you single out Arco as a dangerous
adversary?

By the way, I will play pretenders I have fielded before. It would be unfair
to tailor my pretender for Ulm. I intend to play one game each with Pythium,
C'tis, and Abysia - i.e. to attempt winning with mages, undead, and troops.

I am fairly sure I'll win 2 out of 3 games under these conditions, unless you are some sort of god player.

Oh, boy. To quote my girlfriend: "He better do it, or you will be even more
unsufferable than you usually are on the Boards." Well, I put her on a plane
this morning, so I am all yours... how do you want to do this?

[CUnknown]

I hate to tell you this, but you're going to lose, Tuidjy.

Of course I'm going to play without the mods! I'm going to use base Ulm, in all it's early-game ***-kicking glory. I am also going to use a god I have fielded before (really the only one I've ever used with Ulm). I typically play Ulm geared more towards the mid-late game, because I never need any help in the early game. Ulm is just that good early on.

I figure Arcosephale is one of Ulm's biggest threats because of their astral mages (mind burn, paralyze, mind hunt, etc. against low MR units) and their easy access to trampling (chariots, elephants). Having a 26 protection on your wuss units loses it's charm if you're being stomped by an elephant. Also their Heart Compainions are equal if not better than Ulm's heavy infantry, so there's no advantage there either. I think Arcos just has Ulm's number, even in the early game.

Why don't we do this by e-mail? I can host, you can host, whatever is easiest.

[Tuidjy]

CUnknown said:I hate to tell you this, but you're going to lose, Tuidjy.

We shall see about that, won't we? Of course, if you lose even under these
very favorable conditions, I expect your vocal support every time someone
tries to talk the developers into beefing up Ulm.