Community effort (phase 3)

[Agrajag]

(new post because I feel this warrants it)
How about 4 warring tribes/clans/families/cults/groups/organizations/mega-coroprations (each from one element), that have been recently forced together by powerful and warriorlike priests lead by an oppressive pretender?
What do other people have to say about the general flavour/theme of the nation?

[Maraxus]

I prefer "Guilds"

***edit: updated and attached 3 posts below***

Here is the Earth-Guild Part. It's set up as a Nation so you can watch it in game.

***edit: updated and attached 3 posts below***

Features:
-Slow Guys with big shields.
-The worst mage you have ever spend 90 Gold on.

Stuff:
-Banner, icon, provincal defence, descriptive text are all open to change once some more "common backround" is choosen.
-The National hero is comanding the starting army for demonstration purpose.
-Why do my units allways look blurish in the game, they look sharp outlined in the tga-files? Do I use a wrong format or something?

[Sombre]

They look blurry because the size of the graphics is wrong.

They should be 32, 64, 96, 128 etc pixel dimensions, not 72x72 or whatever they are now.

[llamabeast]

I like your earth bit Maraxus, nicely done. The mage is indeed pretty dire and his forge bonus is virtually worthless being as there's little he can forge, but I guess that's what you were aiming for. Maybe you could give them a better chance of getting a second earth pick at least?

[Maraxus]

There is allways something the Smith can forge, when he get's his 10%.

Earth: Earth boots, then Dwarven Hammers, then maybe something else.
Fire: Shields of Awe and Fire Brands. Lots.
Water: Water Braclet, then Rime Hauberg and maybe Boots of Quickness.
Air: Least useful, imho, but Bows of War are always a good use of 3 Air Gems.

Maybe, I buff the Random chance to 20%. Even higher (Like 100%) might be possible, depending on the Mage-Power of the other 3 Elements to come.


That think with the image size - I should have thought of this. I knew there were restrictions like that, but I didn't check my size, or whet those restrictions were.
Now everything is at 64x64 and looks good. Check the Smith's beard.


PS: Plus, I'm not sure, the new spell "Land War" is not a bit overpowered. It's multiple little earth-melds but each also has +20 fatigue. At medium distance when in two castings some of the enemy squares are hit multiple times, this can potentially be the best combat-earth spell without gems.
And should I ever create the predecessor nation for Bogarus, I'll add this too - and it will also deal cold damage.

[llamabeast]

Yeah, maybe up the 10% to some higher value. To get earth boots (which lead onto a hammer) you'll need an E2, which you only have a 1 in 40 chance of getting! I wouldn't really want to recruit 40 of those guys just to get an E2.

[Agrajag]

Well, I've already finished one unit, and he isn't very pretty, but he works and I like him
And he includes some fancy shmancy modding - his sword has a secondaryeffectalways that causes fatigue damage :O
Here's a picture of him inflicting 7 damage (and 10 fatigue[well, stun] damage). This sprite is actually his "standing" sprite, I have them switched so that when he attacks it looks as if he raises and then lowers his sword. Pose somewhat stolen from Barbarian.

EDIT: About the smith - maybe give him 20%FW 20%EA (or maybe 10% instead of 20%), so it's a bit more likely that he'll get an extra path, and a lucky few will even have two (but will never get conflicting elements together)

[Maraxus]

Nice one, is that a 2 or a 3 Pixel Blade?
I bet this would look extra cool if etheral ...

If it's supposed to be a Rapier, maybe make the back-hand visible on he rear side (So, that he is standing in a fencing-like pose).


Okay, I have uped the Smith's random element to 25%. I still encourage the Pretender to have at least 2 earth to forge the first earth boots for the smith (to have them cast Gnome Lore, to forge more earthy stuff) ... At least if the other mages will be good. If they are bad enough, trying 16 Smithes for that one Earth-Double sounds not to bad, too, if you get one Earth-Fire Forger along the way. Oh, I also increased the price to 110 for this. I think the Quarter randon and the forge bonus make him at least as valueable as a Lizard Shaman.

Then there are the spells:
I have played a bit with flysprites and Explosion Sprites and now, both spells have no flight animation and the Land War spell has a nice Earthy animation, so that you see, where the misses land. A bit further testing showed, that the balancing is okay, I think.

However, then there is my Mass-Buff-Spell.
It looks like "Summon Earthpower" is a commander-only buff. I did not even know, this existed.
The Spell uses #effect 10 with damage #damage 65664 which means stone-skin plus strength boost. And then it uses #nextspell 438 - this should be "Summon Earthpower".
Now, Every unit and Commander in the Area gets Stoneskin and Strength but only commanders get reinvigoration and only Earthmages get +1Earth Magic (does not stack with Summon Earthpower, intentionally).
...Hey, this could be an effect of this strange "Special" field. Summon Earthpower has 8404992 here, what is "underwater" plus the strange 16384 might this be "commander only"?

Answer: No, it seams not. If anyone has an idea, just say so. Spell modding is a secret art.

Oh, btw, the spells are set to level 0, so that you and I can try them. In the fianl, they should be more like level 7 or 8.

[Valandil]

Wow, I must be eight hours behind you people.
Re Dr.P: No, I'd have to spoof quickness using def/att, and a 2x weapon. Quickness would stack with the spoofing, though, and produce a real beast- going to have to scrap that idea. I don't want to use ice stuff, primarily because the element in question is water, and to me that implies, well, flowing water.

As for djinni, here I believe you are mistaken. While the western cultures have certainly revised the original mythology, it seems to me that, since the djinni were formed of subtle fire, that there is at least some elemental connection. I would agree that the best Djinn mention that I can find, in Sura 72, refers only to the Ifrit as a spirit of strength. Marids, though indeed part of the original mythology, are certainly associated with the sea only in modern times (and once with glass, as I recall,) though I do not doubt that the original tradition had some place for sea spirits, as every other culture has.

Nonetheless, I will take your advice- in any case Al_Khazim is the only Djinn in Dom right now, and he's pretty mighty for a non-unique summon. 16 points of magic, IIRC.

Will post tomorrow (well, tomorrow for me) when I've finished some stuff.