Mod: Conticeos - Servants of Priores (EA nation)

[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?

[Baneslave]

I was wondering about magical diversity, too.

Conticeos native magics are astral and death, their mages are cheap and plentiful in these paths.

Mages of four corners are going to be expensive and old aged. I was also thinking if I should make them cause unrest. They have left their homeland for years and now return with foreign magic. People of Conticeos are xenofobic and there is only one greater truth for them, path of Priorers, so it would be very thematic.

Should I boost astral and death paths?

Well, I am ready to do some balance changes later,

[Aezeal]

imho a repeater crossbow in EA is not good.. crossbows aren't really there let alone repeating crossbows. But that is my opinion. I see this race more as an MA race.. you could continue the story in LA and the stuff before the fall of the priores in EA then?

[Baneslave]

Well... Where did I put my notes? There were at least one good reason why Conticeos should be based on EA.

Still, I could use my other ideas, even if I moved them to MA. And history of Priores sounds very interesting thing to write, too.

I will find my notes and write some more later.

Edit. Are these magic paths good for Middle Era? Also, how many death + astral based nations are there in MA?

[Burnsaber]

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

That looks good. If every one of your unit are about that level of quality, I'm sure that you will hear no complains about graphics. Once you've done a bunch of those basic troops you should have basic idea of how to do shading. That allows you to do those more "challenging" graphics later on. knowing how to do basic shading also allows you to fiddle with poses. Moving the arm around a bit allows you to do a wild number of different poses, which will allow the player the identify the troops and leaders even if they have same equipment (Ok, my leader is the guy holding his sword high up in the air).

For example, that bronze statue summon will require some hacking, since there are currently no bronze statues in the game. You could recolor the Living Statue and edit out his shield and spear to give him two axes.

About non-graphical issues, the only thing that jumps into my mind is the Longdead Consort. Why would anyone spend 2SD2 mage time to summon single glorified longdead? I'd rather just research. You need to pump him up a bit more. The flavor is good, but what kind of powers could ex-bedwarmers have? Perhaps he could summon a harem of them

Hmm.. I got an idea. There is one "gimmick" thing that really hasn't explored in any mod so far. Fatiquecost 0 ritual summons. Basically, free rituals. It works, I've tested it. You could get a "kind of" reanimation by making a bunch of 0-gem cost national rituals summoning basic longdeads. It would be different from MA ermor reanimation by needing research, mages instead of priests (unless you make them holy summons) and a labrotory in the province where the reanimation happens.

[Baneslave]

Burnsaber said:

About non-graphical issues, the only thing that jumps into my mind is the Longdead Consort. Why would anyone spend 2SD2 mage time to summon single glorified longdead? I'd rather just research. You need to pump him up a bit more. The flavor is good, but what kind of powers could ex-bedwarmers have? Perhaps he could summon a harem of them

Actually, I was thinking that he would summon whole lot of them. I just thought that basic cost would be 1 gem per 1 Longdead Consort. Should it be cheaper, like 1 gem per 2 Consort or something? Hm, maybe they should be unbreakable or something. Or maybe have greater hp and protection, as they are most likely mummified or something. (King canditates are almost always nobles, so their lovers should be nobles too, so mummified.)

Oh, and paths come from kings paths. So, that only a king can reliably summon them. Those are just basics, though, I am ready to change many things later, if they make sense.


By the way, I finally thought out the major philosophies behind Conticeos' magic. They don't worship the death of Priores itself. They are protectors of their tombs and their legacy. Conticeos aren't there to raise Priores back to life, they are there protect their tombs until Priores raise back to life with their own strength.

So, summary:
Astral, because it is purest form of Priores magic and so most religiously devoted people study it. Priores are rarely summoned from Netherworld as Conticeos are afraid to distrupt their eternal rest. Only in most gravest situation they are called from Underworld and even then no nobles or anybody important is called, so spirits aren't too strong. They also have bad morale, as they don't wish to go back to death. Some of them possess statues or other items, as it gives them more survivalibity.
Death, because the oath Conticeos made is eternal, so most devoted of all them will serve the oath even after their death. It is great honor to be raisen from death to serve Priores yet again, so most undead of Conticeos are very brave and so on. This is reserved for nobles only, though, so no skeleton spamming or anything. Also, soul mutations are done by overdose of dead souls, so death magic it is.