Mod: Pythium, the Second Empire

[Burnsaber]

Okay, I made a new version to quickfix the Theurg Artisan and the Theosis summon. I also wanted to get the Cultist intoruduced as soon as possible.

I'd like to hear feedback about two things though that concern me about this mod. They might be abusable.

1) Pyrotes. Although they sometimes fail comically they can really bring things down fast. Could they be abused in MP? The obvious counters to them would be fire magic (duh) and fire resistance and they could kind of be countered with combat summon spam (phantasms, skellies, swarm) becuase the more they have to attack, they more chances they have to fry themselves or their allies.

2) The holy communion spells. The biggest concern for me at the moment is the H8 "Divine Wrath", which is basically renamed "Ark" effect. If you really wanted to, you ceould kind of get it fast with the prophetized Emperor, PoS and 8 communion slaves. The thing about the ark is though that if you don't want it fry you, you can only use Battle Vestals with the communion which makes the whole army kind of fragile. Perhaps I should make it researchable, like the "Calling of the Seventh*"?

* Has anyone tried it out? I made it researcable because you can get it out pretty fast if you want to and dealing with Michael is pretty hard in the early game, especially because he will most likely eat any awake SC pretenders/early thugs alive very easily.

CHANGES FROM 0.7 TO 0.8

-> Theosis made more expensive and harder to cast
-> New commander: Cultist, replacing the generic assassin
-> Now compactible with LA Pythium
-> Pyrotes gold cost to 35 gold (from 30gold)
-> "Divine Protection" spell grants now elemental resistances too
-> Principe gold cost reduced to 14 gold
-> Theurg Artisans got more randoms

Originally Posted by Stavis_L

Burnsaber - had an idea for your more angel-centric Pythium. Perhaps you could use the modified unit type target of Ritual of Rebirth to allow Pythian martyrs to return as (lesser) angels? Perhaps an Angel of the Heavenly Choir or Angel of the Host?

Sounds cool, but I want to keep spell slot usage to a minimum and I don't really think that this Pythium would really get much units to the HoF in a game. Also, it would be kind of dumb to re-awaken a regular Archangel or Harbinger as a weaker angel. It would be kind of nice to have that option, but it wouldn't really get much use.

Originally Posted by Sombre

Does this overwrite MA pythium then? I'd prefer to see it behave like Ulm Reborn or Jomon Broken and be able to act alongside them, to play out mirror universe / civil war style conflicts.

Yes, because a lot of my motivation for this mod comes from the power level of Pythium and I really think that it should be nerfed. IMHO, it's espicially annoying, because MA is the most balanced era (Ashdod does not exist in sensible games) and Pythium really sticks out like a sore thumb there.

I also really like the fact how it uses absolutely minimal modding slots, especially with the increasing amount of mod conflicts people are getting nowdays. If someone really, really wants to see some real Pythium vs Pythium action, they can make the mod for it themselves (it's pretty simple). That kind of matchup would be pretty dumb anyways, because this nation is a lot weaker than the orginal, so the outcome would be pretty clear. The orginal nation has higher astral (mind duel anyone?) and better communions (better masters for them), so it would really just be a slaughter. Actually using this mod would actually boost regular Pythium with the boosted angel summons this mod provides.

Originally Posted by Sombre

I don't care about stuff it interferes with in other ages tbh, since I like the ages to be clearly divided.

Well, to be honest, I don't really care that much either. But I kinda like LA Pythium (although the sacred hydras are really dumb, IMHO, they should be summons) so I don't want this nation to break it. Besides, fixing the compactibility issues was pretty trivial.

[WraithLord]

In my test game I can't recruit battle vestals. Are you sure they're there?- If so, I'm probably experiencing a conflict with another mod.

Also I can recruit varangian cap. as a unit.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by WraithLord

In my test game I can't recruit battle vestals. Are you sure they're there?- If so, I'm probably experiencing a conflict with another mod.

Also I can recruit varangian cap. as a unit.

That's very odd.

Do you have any other mods enabled than CBM?

Also, it might cause odd behaviour if you enable this mod before enabling CBM (I have a warning about that in the OP, but it can be easy to miss).

So, when enabling this mod, enable CBM first and after that the "Pythium, the Second Empire". This is because the mod overwrites mmany CBM changes so it has to be enabled last so that the game reads it last.

[WraithLord]

Yes, I enabled the mod after CBM.
I have diversity and sprites mods on as well, I'll try w/o them.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by WraithLord

Yes, I enabled the mod after CBM.
I have diversity and sprites mods on as well, I'll try w/o them.

I took a quick look and this mod does not clash with either diversity or the sprites mod. The bugs you are having really sound like something CBM did (for example, the Varangian Captain overwrites the Emerald Guard unit, so it becomes recruitable troop if the game draws the recruitment list from CBM instead of this mod). Also the no "Battle Vestals" thing also points out to the game drawing the recruitment list from CBM, since in CBM the Battle Vestal is cap only (and thus produced from a site, not from the list). I don't know why your game is using the CBM list if you enabled it first, put this mechanic could be prone to mystic bugs we don't know depending on OS and other stuff.

Now that I think about it, I could just combine this mod with CBM. I will simply take the CBM mod, put this mod at the end of it. That "combination mod" should be pretty much clash free. I'll make that version once I get home.

[WraithLord]

Yeah. I made sure to enable your mod after CBM. Since 1.6 is so common now it sounds like a great idea to make your sure your mod lives in peace with it. Thanks!