Proposed Modding Cost Guidelines

[Wauthan]

Seems very reasonable. Remember that I was just curious about the lower tier weapons and armor. Higher tier items would be reserved for summoned units and commanders and they can be outfitted the normal crafting way. Thank you for the help.

Giving a Robe of Invulnerability and Elemental Armor to normal units with only the cost of gold? That totally throws the entire issue of paths, forging, wait time, and many other aspects. 800 Gold for a unit that is better than a fully equipped Blood or Conjuration 7 unit is low. Especially considering the factor of speed.

[Graeme Dice]

These costs bear almost no relation to how difficult an item is to actually get in the game. Black steel full plate is available on Ulm units for only a resource cost. Elemental armour is only marginally more expensive than BSFP, with fire 1 added to the requirements.

A robe of invulnerability on the other hand, takes an earth 5 mage and 80 earth gems. You shouldn't be able to even buy such an item unless your nation also includes earth 5 mages as a standard unit, and has an earth gem income of a few hundred per turn. Otherwise where are all those magic resources coming from? A robe of the magi for only 480 gold is also pretty extreme, since it's normally an extremely expensive and rare item.

Giving a unit 30 protection for no research and only gold costs seems just a little strange to me.

[Kristoffer O]

The Black Steel of Ulm is not as good as the magical Black Steel Armor. Not much difference, but they are different.

[Kristoffer O]

Generally, when you think a cost is good and balanced increase it by x1.5 or x2 and you are probably better off. If you have given it rare abilities x3 is probably right.

[Bossemanden]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
These costs bear almost no relation to how difficult an item is to actually get in the game. Black steel full plate is available on Ulm units for only a resource cost. Elemental armour is only marginally more expensive than BSFP, with fire 1 added to the requirements.

A robe of invulnerability on the other hand, takes an earth 5 mage and 80 earth gems. You shouldn't be able to even buy such an item unless your nation also includes earth 5 mages as a standard unit, and has an earth gem income of a few hundred per turn. Otherwise where are all those magic resources coming from? A robe of the magi for only 480 gold is also pretty extreme, since it's normally an extremely expensive and rare item.

Giving a unit 30 protection for no research and only gold costs seems just a little strange to me.

I disagree about your points regarding BSFP vs. Elemental Armor. BSFP is a level 0 construction item, while the EA is a level 4. Hence the difference in resources. It doesnt cost that much more gold.
Regarding the highpriced items I agree. It would not be reasonable to give these highpower items for gold/resource only. So I think that lv 6 items should probably not be given at all.

Otherwise are you satisfied with the price range? I mean it would be possible to add costs on a item by item base, but this is an attempt at a quick and dirty rule.
if you are in favour of some kind of general rule/direction when adding magic items to units, then please give your input.

[Uh-Nu-Buh]

I'll summarise this, and repost the guide with the changes. For now, I am going to keep the guide in text, as it makes it easier to edit, append, etc. When it comes time, I will PDF it for Version 1.0.

I also plan to have a couple of running examples that can be used for each of these. As in "If we make the Steel Brigade units amphibians, this will add Xgold, Yresources...."

All right, what about movement? I think strategic movement is !very! important. Getting your units where the need to go can make the difference between a stalled front and a major victory; or conversely, a staunch defence or a massacre on the homefront as your inner provinces get gutte. I am thinking:

1mv militia, hv infantry
2mv lt infantry, hv cavalry
3mv light cavalry
4mv elite light cavalry
5mv flying units

For every 1mv above the regular for the unit in question, you add 5gp.

E.g. The elite light cavalry units have 4mv, and cost 10gold/unit more (just for movement) than light infantry at 2mv.
E.g. Heavy Infantry normally have 1mv, but elite HV Infantry might have 2mv and cost 5gp/unit more.