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SHANGRI-LA, HIDDEN CITY OF THE SECRET MASTERS: An MA nation for Dominions 3
Version 1.49 (May 3, 2010)
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Original and Primary Author: Nounours
Revising Authors: Globu and Pyg
Current Maintainer: Globu


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DESCRIPTION
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Shangri-La is an MA Nation based on Tibetan myth and history. The nation is
centered around the hidden city of Shangri-La, ruled by powerful mage-priests
who seek spiritual ascension and enlightenment.

Its military is composed of Bhdpa mountain tribesmen, well-armed Shangrilan
troops, and Mi G ape-men similar to the Bandar of Kailasa.

The mod has thus far been checked for compatibility with CBM, UWGIM, Magic
Site Mod, and Endgame Diversity Mod, and is compatible.


Troops:
-------

- Bhdpa spearman, archer, mountaineer (light infantry)
- Bhdpa yak rider (light cavalry)
- Shangrilan archer, crossbowman and heavy infantry; Dmag-Dar (banner-
  bearer) & Dmag Hrag (veteran soldier)
- Light Bhdpa Cavalry & heavy Shangrilan Rta Pa Cavalry.
- Mi G and Mi G hunters (Mi G are intelligent ape-like creatures, related
  to yetis. And yes, there are yetis )...

Sacreds:
--------

- Guardian of the Hidden Valley
- Mi Dred (sacred Mi G warriors armed with clubs made of enchanted ice)

Commanders:
-----------

- Bhdpa Scout
- Bhdpa Sde Pa (Clan Chief)
- Shangrilan Dmag Dpon (Officer) and Rje (king)
- Shangrilan Monk (Drapa)
- Mages: Ngagspa (sorcerers who dabble in dark magics), Demon-hunters (Tibetan
  stories and legends seems to be full of demons!) and Ragyapa (priests
  charged with practicing funerals by cutting corpses to small pieces and
  feeding them to vultures and other birds of prey).
- Lamas: Red-Hat lama, Yellow-Hat lama and Black-Hat lama
- Hidden Masters (powerful mages and occult masters of Shangri-La)

Summons:
--------

- Yetis
- Theurang, Klu & Lha spirits
- Srin Po, Bdud and Btsan demons
- Snow Lions
- Citipatis (undead who haunt cemeteries and dances on corpses)


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REVISING AUTHOR'S NOTES
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Nounours seems to have disappeared for a while. Pyg put up a version that
corrected case-mismatched sprite filenames, and two missing sprites, on the
mod's thread. Seeing that, and finding myself charmed and impressed by the
mod, I decided to correct some other errors and apply a bit more polish to
this excellent nation mod.

The bulk of my revising work has been in two major areas.  First, I've done
some extensive textual editing of the descriptive and flavor text (Nounours is
clearly an excellent non-native English speaker, but there were a good number
of textual gaffes that could use some love).  Second, I've added a few sprites
and variants (the Yak, Yak Rider and Lama of the Frozen Heights pretender) and
polished up the existing spritework a bit -- sprites that had awkward shading,
stray pixels, outright mistakes (such as the Dmag Dpon's helmet changing
color) or other problems -- while trying to remain consistent with the
author's style.

However, I've made a number of fixes and, I hope, improvements as well,
including revamping the PD, commenting the .dm file, and fixing a few minor
problems.

I am currently still in the process of polishing up the artwork, and will
likely be making some minor changes to correct any other oversights I find and
to better balance the mod.

If you like this mod, but find it imbalanced in some way (particularly for MP
play, since I haven't played MP and don't have a feel for it), please do pipe
up and let me know how it could be improved.

If you come back and see this, Nounours, cheers to you for this incredibly
good nation modand I hope you'll continue with your fine work!  (And, of
course, I will be happy to release the mod back into your care.)



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RESOURCES USED
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Overall, unit IDs 2700-2799 should be considered reserved for this mod.

Also, the following ID numbers are used:

-- Nation 89
-- Magic Sites 821-822
-- Weapons 901-906
-- Armors 250-251
-- Nametype 127
-- New Spells Used: 15

Specifically, the following Unit IDs are in use: 2702-2707, 2709-2712, 2714,
2721-2722, 2729-2730, 2734, 2740, 2742-2751, 2753, 2755-2769, 2772-2782 and
2786-2787.

Feedback is welcome on whether any IDs should be changed to make for better
compatibility (yes, yes, I know it's impossible to make *all* mods compatible,
but nonetheless).


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VERSION HISTORY
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v1.49
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[*] Sprites tweaked: Shangrilan heavy infantry, archers and crossbowmen.
    Overhauled Shangrilan heavy cavalry (Rta Pa and Rta Dmag Go), Ascended One
    (hero) and Ascended Master (pretender).


v1.48
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[*] Rje reduced in cost 140 -> 110 gold.
[*] Gelug (Yellow-Hat Lama) reduced in cost 270 -> 220 gold.
[*] Sprites tweaked: Overhaul of Shangrilan basic commander (Dmag Dpon),
    standard-bearer (Dmag Dar), elite heavy infantry (Dmag Hrag), Guardian of
    the Hidden Valley, and king (Rje). A few more fine tuning tweaks to Bhdpa
    Horseman and Yak Rider sprites.

v1.47
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[*] Shangrilan Crossbowman map move 2 -> 1 to be consistent with other troops
    in similar armor.
[*] Bhdpa Yak Rider and Horseman helmets changed from Half Helmet to
    Reinforced Leather Cap to be consistent with other Bhdpa units, including
    Sda Pa commander.
[*] Added second "Yak" form for Yak Rider (#secondtmpshape). Now, when Yak
    Riders are killed, their mounts continue fighting (albeit with 7 morale)
    and disappear when combat is over.
[*] Yak Rider combat movement rate 22 -> 18. Gold cost 25 -> 32. Name changed
    from 'Yak Rider' to 'Bhdpa Yak Rider'.
[*] Swamp fort type changed from Wizard's Tower (gold 600, admin 30) to Swamp
    Fort (gold 800, admin 0). Rationale: doesn't make much sense to give such
    an advantage; the people of the frozen mountain heights would not be
    likely to be better than almost all other nations at building effective
    structures and administrative functionalities in swamplands.
[*] Sprites tweaked: All Bhdpa troops and commanders. Bhdpa Yak Rider unit
    sprite completely replaced (rationale: the original version's rider wasn't
    Bhdpa, and the thing it was riding wasn't a yak), as was the Bhdpa
    Horseman (rationale: it was basically a generic T'ien Ch'i without much
    modification, and didn't look Bhdpa either). Both should now look
    distinctly Bhdpa.

v1.46
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[*] Ragyapa, Demon Hunter and Demon Slayer were priests but not sacred. They
    are now.
[*] Mod name changed from "Shangri La.dm" to "Shangri_La.dm" in order to avoid
    problems with the Llamaserver. For now, a copy with the original filename
    will be included as well for those who have ongoing games with the old mod
    filename.
[*] Mod directory name changed from "Shangri La" to "Shangri_La" in order to
    avoid problems with the Llamaserver.
[*] Flag altered to fit the style of Zepath's Streamers & Standards.
    (Nounours's original, done in the vanilla Dom3 style, is included as an
    alternate.)

v1.45
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[*] Summon Yeti spell corrected (#effect 10000 --> #effect 10001).
[*] Made shiny new mod banner. The original one was wrongly-sized and
    overpixelated.
[*] Fixed nation flag (it had an off-black section of the background).
[*] Lama of the Frozen Heights pretender added by request.
[*] Yet another round of textual edits.  I was tired.  Also, some descriptions
    were just too long, and were a bit verbose. I have tried to keep the core
    of what is being said in those entries, while chopping them down to more
    manageable size.

v1.4
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[*] Readme created and documentation updated.
[*] Spell "Contact Lha" was summoning the wrong creature (a Btsan); changed it
    to the correct unit ID.
[*] Problematic PD changed completely (original version used Citipati,
    normally undead summons, and referenced an unused unit ID). In favor of
    balance for an otherwise well-powered nation, basic PD has been changed
    from Shangrilan soldiers to Bhdpa spearmen and archers, with Bhdpa yak
    riders and basic Mi G appearing at 20+.
[*] Some further corrective edits to descriptive text.

v1.3
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[*] Case-mismatched sprite filename references and missing sprite references
    fixed by Pyg.
[*] Magic Site IDs moved from 852-853 to 821-822 to adjust for conflict with
    Magic Site Mod.
[*] Shangrilan Crossbowman armor changed from Full Leather to Scale Hauberk to
    match description and sprite art.
[*] All descriptive and flavor completely edited and revised.


Previous Versions
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It appears that Nounours did not maintain a version history to this level, so
the version history shown herein begins with Pyg's and my revisions.



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CREDITS AND PERMISSIONS (from the perspective of primary revising author)
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First and foremost credit is to the author of this mod, Nounours, for the
superb work he has shared with us.

Secondary credits are to Pyg for correcting some problems and inspiring me to
polish other aspects of the mod.

Big thanks to Johan K and Kristoffer O for their excellent work, which even my
*wife* loves, and on which most of this work is based.


All edits and further development of this mod are done without the permission
of the author. I know of no statement of his feelings on permissions. The mod
concept, design and original work remains his own (though it is based on
vanilla Dom3 sprites, and thus derivative of the work of Kristoffer O's
artwork).
