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Old March 3rd, 2009, 12:57 PM

Sombre Sombre is offline
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Inspired in part by Baalz's thread in the main forum gathering links to his various (and excellent) guides, I've made this thread to collect together my moddy offerings and post about general ideas and general progress. Specific updates will go in the respective mod threads as usual.

This is going to take a little tinkering before it's of much use, so bear with me.

Skavenblight, Rise of the Under Empire



Era: Middle
Current Version: 1.1
Finished: 99%
Heroes: Yes
Spells: Yes

This is my pride and joy. It recreates the Skaven from Warhammer Fantasy Battles and is largely faithful to the army book, though I have changed some things to better fit Dom3. It has a variety of national spells and summons to go along with its many units, commanders and heroes. I really think I captured the feel of the Skaven in the mod, their unpredictability, variety, sneakiness and attitude to friendly fire (they're all for it!). Future updates will be the usual tweaking but essentially they're a finished product. As of the 1.1 update they're probably the deepest mod nation out there in terms of spells, units, heroes, summons etc

Tharoon, Decadent Overlords



Era: Middle
Current Version: 0.2
Finished: 45%
Heroes: No
Spells: No

This unfinished nation is based on a nation from the old PC RTS Warwind, the Tharoon. It's far from a straight adaptation and less faithful than my Warhammer nations, I just felt that the race was interesting and stylish and would make a nice fit for Dominions. I plan to continue work on them at some point but they are playable as they stand (if a bit limited) - if you have any suggestions or want to encourage me to do some more for them, please post in their thread. They will definitely get an update in the coming months, if only to make sure they are compatible with the latest patch and to add things I've already added to them in my version of the mod.


Arga Dis, Blood of Warriors



Era: Middle
Current Version: 1.35
Finished: 95%
Heroes: Yes
Spells: Yes

This nation is loosely inspired by the film 300. I think the mod suffers a little from a samey colour scheme, graphically speaking, but it does play very well and some of the graphical work I did is pretty cool. There's an excellent guide to Arga Dis by Amhazai in the main forum. I think the nation is quite well balanced and sufficiently interesting that there's little I'd like to add to it in terms of content, so much like the Skaven all it's likely to get is tweaks in the future. I do intend on releasing an update to it quite soon though.


Ogre Kingdom, Gathering of Might



Era: Middle
Current Version: 0.9
Finished: 85%
Heroes: 2 with 4 more planned
Spells: Yes

This is a recreation of the Ogre Kingdoms army from Warhammer Fantasy Battles. It diverges more from the straight army list than the Skaven mod does, but it still captures the raw brutish power of the Ogres and has the distinction of being perhaps the most disgusting nation in dom3. Playing as the Ogres is interesting as they have by far the worst research of any nation but for the most part can concentrate solely on the Blood path, possibly with Construction thrown in too. You should also find yourself challenged to keep your armies of gluttonous monsters fed, though there are various solutions to that problem. I intend the next update to the Ogres to be major, changing their mid and late game significantly and taking them even further from the original Warhammer army list by adding a variety of demonic blood summons, one of which will allow them to shoot for mediocre research. They are completely playable as they stand though and a lot of fun. Not for squeamish types though.


Itza, Servants of the Old Ones



Era: Middle
Current Version: 0.75
Finished: 80%
Heroes: 1 hero, 1 multihero - 5 or so more planned
Spells: Yes

This is another Warhammer Nation like Skaven and Ogre Kingdoms. I think this mod represents some of my best graphical work which is partly because the lizardmen use bright colours and each have a very distinctive look. Like the Ogres, the Lizardmen are something of a nation of extremes, with perhaps the best mages in all of dom3 (though also the most expensive) but with no midrange mages between their level 1 magic priests and their crazy rainbow magepriest Slann. They also have the fairly major handicap of extremely expensive forts in all kinds of terrain and 600 gold temples too. The recent update brought new spells and summons as well as the recruitable Stegadon, one of the largest units in the game. I still have a variety of heroes and a few extra summons planned for the Lizardmen and they still need balance fine tuning, so any feedback is welcome. If you like a powerful alien feeling race with interesting drawbacks though, they are a great choice as they stand.

Altdorf, Pride of the Empire

Era: Middle
Current Version: Yet to be released.
Finished: 10%
Heroes: No
Spells: No

I've been working on the Warhammer Empire nation for ages now, but getting very little done. I am absolutely certain I will have them up to the standard of the other Warhammer nations at some point in the future, but it really could be a while yet, especially as they are such a broad nation - even the Skaven and Lizardmen are dwarfed by comparison. I'm going to aim to release a very early beta of them to start balance testing as early as possible though, before doing the huge numbers of summons, heroes and spells they'll get in the final version. I hope they'll be popular (the Warhammer race certainly is) and they'll perhaps feel a bit less alien than the Ogres, Skaven or Lizardmen - to an extent they are much like a combination of MA Ulm and Marignon.

Jomon Broken



Era: Late
Current Version: 0.8
Finished: 90%
Heroes: Yes
Spells: Yes

Jomon Broken was inspired by watching Japanese horror films and considering their messages about gender. They're a rich topic for Feminists and they also make a pretty fun base for a nation. Here we have a male dominated Samurai culture essentially enslaved by mysterious demon women. If Ulm Reborn is a 'good' LA Ulm then this is an 'evil' LA Jomon. You get plenty of undead and demons to play with and in the future I intend to add more powerful fox demons as summons. I'd also like to add some spells and the nation could use more than 2 national heroes, so I'll do some of those two. For whatever reason this is probably my least popular mod - personally I think it's a blast to play.

Ulm Reborn



Era: Late
Current Version: 1.5
Finished: 95%
Heroes: Yes
Spells: Yes

This was the second mod nation I made and it originally replaced Ulm, Black Forest in the Late Era. Now it can be used alongside that nation, for people wanting to play a civil war between the two Ulmish factions. It's a mix of Germanic enlightenment and overzealous religion. Almost like a reformation version of MA Marignon in a way. It boasts some of the heaviest armour in the game and was quite popular amongst people who wanted a 'good' version of LA Ulm, or felt Ulm was a bit weak overall. In the future I may add extra content like more heroes or spells, but the nation is essentially finished.


Avernum, Crystal Souls



Era: Middle
Current Version: 1.5
Finished: 95%
Heroes: Yes
Spells: Yes

This was the first mod nation I made and as I didn't feel confident I'd be able to do graphics at that point, I chose to base it on the Exile series of games by Spiderweb Software. I got permission to use their sprites which fit rather well into the Dom3 world and evoked a great deal of nostalgia for Exile players like me. I've continued to update Avernum since that first release and it's come a long way - it's not so complete as Skaven, but it does feature national summons, a wide variety of units and a full set of interesting heroes. It's a lot of fun to play and is definitely a strong nation have very powerful and diverse magic along with recruitables that fill a number of roles. I have no plans to add content like extra units or spells, but I could certainly see myself tweaking the balance in the future.
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Last edited by Sombre; April 17th, 2010 at 08:28 PM..
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  #2  
Old March 3rd, 2009, 02:10 PM

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Default Re: Sombre's Mods

Thanks! I've learned more about modding looking at your mods than anywhere else.
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Old March 3rd, 2009, 07:12 PM

Sombre Sombre is offline
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Default Re: Sombre's Mods

Gosh but that's a cute little piglet. I'm glad my mods were helpful to you. They aren't very heavily commented or structured, but they do tend to use a lot of different commands.

I'll slowly update the first page over the next couple of days. I'm adding graphical teasers for each mod, because often they give a better idea of what the nation's about than the descriptions.
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Old March 3rd, 2009, 07:34 PM
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Default Re: Sombre's Mods

I really wish you´d finish the Lizardmen, it´s absolutely beautiful!
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Old March 4th, 2009, 07:40 AM

Sombre Sombre is offline
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Default Re: Sombre's Mods

I did a little work on the Lizardmen yesterday, just fiddling around with 3rd generation Slann. I think they'll get an update relatively soon with 3rd gens and many changes to sacred spawnings.

They are quite playable as they stand though, having almost all of their recruits (missing only stegadons iirc) and all of their fort buildable commanders.
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Old March 4th, 2009, 10:10 AM
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Default Re: Sombre's Mods

Fantomen, I always tell him that, but he never listens...
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Old March 4th, 2009, 05:43 PM

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Default Re: Sombre's Mods

Sombre your mods are great, I've had alot of fun with all of them. When are you gonna try to finish the Empire one by, I'm really interested in seeing how it comes out.
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Old March 5th, 2009, 08:41 AM

Mordici Mordici is offline
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Default Re: Sombre's Mods

I just have to echo XLegend here and tell you again how much I love your mods. Especiallly the Skaven. And also ask when we can see a rough Beta of the Empire mod. From what you have said about it I might grow to love it as much as your Skaven mod if not more!

Keep up your excellent work Mr. Sombre!!
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Old March 5th, 2009, 10:41 AM
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Default Re: Sombre's Mods

Great stuff! I can really see the joy you have derived from bringing these nations to life. Now what would be cool would be a MP game based solely on modded nations - see who comes out on top.

One thing I wouldn't mind doing when i get some time is trying to devise a points method of creating new nations. Say give a base line of various atributes per unit, points for choosing archers over slingers maybe - points per school of magic for a nations mages, points for national summons etc.. that way a competitive basis could be established upon which to experiment with different flavours of strenght and weakness.

Man i would love a couple of weeks to do bugger all!
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Old March 5th, 2009, 10:47 AM

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Default Re: Sombre's Mods

Quote:
Now what would be cool would be a MP game based solely on modded nations - see who comes out on top.
There have been a couple actually! I played in one recently with me as Lizardmen, RadioGibbon as Skaven, rdonj as Tomb Kings and Sombre as Ogres. I nailed the skaven while the Tomb Kings and Ogres got locked in a costly and vicious war. I was able to build up and then take down first the Ogres with some brutal Stellar Cascades spamming, and then the Tomb Kings with a mad dominion push (because they had a lot of Immortals).

Quote:
One thing I wouldn't mind doing when i get some time is trying to devise a points method of creating new nations.
DrPraetorius did this a while ago. I'm not sure how far he got. Personally I'm a bit skeptical that this could work well, being as the balance of a nation is a complex thing, but Dr. P seemed to be going about it in a pretty clever way.
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