readme_sylvania_dm.txt

Sylvania v1.1 Nation Mod for Dominions III 

-*- README FILE -*-

Art and Mod By Zepath the Philosopher

This mod adds a new playable nation to Dominions III in the Late Ages game era.

A few technical notes for fellow modders...

This mod uses nation number(s):		72
This mod uses monster number(s): 	2553-2581
This mod uses magic site number(s): 	807-810
This mod uses weapon number(s): 	806-814
This mod uses armor number(s): 		302-313
This mod uses name list(s):		127-128
This mod modifies monster numbers(s):	368

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CHANGES FOR v1.1:

-Cited name list usage in readme file
-Sylvan Warrioress and Aspect Archon heroes given Sacred ability
-Eldar Blades and Eldar Knives given an attack and defense rating increase
-Bows for Summer, Autumn, & Winter Aspect Archers given additional damage values
-Damage and precision on the bow for the Spring Aspect Archers reduced for balancing; each of them essentially has a superior version of a greater magic item (Vine Bow) and while quite useful I found this was a little too advantageous
-Phoenix Guards given a new weapon, Dawn's Edge, based on bardiche stats
-Phoenix Guard gold price increased
-Phoenix Lord gold price increased substantially
-Swordmasters given significant skill increases
-Sea Guards given a slightly higher defense skill
-Loremasters given a 50% chance of having a third level of Astral magic
-Sorceresses' random magic abilities tweaked to give a more truly random feel and variability between individuals -- they can even get death magic -- with a total maximum of 6 possible paths
-Sylvan Priestesses given a 25% chance of having one level of Nature magic

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Sylvania, The Last New Dawn (Late Age)

In an ancient mythic time, the elves were the rulers of the world.  Their grace, beauty, and strength surpassed that of every other race and they lived out their immortal lives as semi-divine lords enthroned above a simplistic world of mortals.  Those times are gone, and the elves have faded almost entirely from the world.  In the lush forests of Sylvania their last city yet stands, a secret enclave hidden from the eyes of mortals by ancient magics.  While in the woodlands the sylvankind hunt and live peacefully at one with nature, their cosmopolitan cousins in the city engage in the millennia-old quest for knowledge, skill, and honor.  There the Phoenix King resides, supreme lord of the elves.  With the coming of a new god, the elves see a chance, a faint glimmer of hope, to reunite the world under their wise tutelage once more and restore the lost Empire of Dawn.  Now, for the last time, the elves march to war.

Example strategy:  Try a World Tree or Lord of the Wild/Forest with high Nature magic and a good productivity scale.  Such a pretender will allow your priests to bless your sacred troops with regeneration, which is quite nice.  Most of your troops emphasize speed and aggressiveness over defense and armor.  The elves move faster than their human counterparts and do not tire as quickly.  Thus, you can win a battle of attrition against many opponents because your troops can simply fight longer and then run them down as they try to flee the field.  But as noted before, many of the elves are not very heavily armored.  Sea Guards are great if you prefer a more "human", slow-and-tough approach although they still have all the advantages of being elven.  Mass the appropriate Aspect Archers against opponents with an elemental weakness or opponents who use elemental attacks.  Use Loremasters for research and Sorceresses as combat mages.

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A bit about Sylvania...

[First of all, to get a look at all the units in this mod at once, open the preview.bmp image file in the /mods/sylvania directory.]

This has been by far the most fun mod to make among those I've created for Dominions 2 and 3.  Sylvania is based on the Wood Elf and High Elf armies from the table-top war game Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  As an old player of High Elf armies from Warhammer, remaking that awesome nation for Dominions was pretty cool for me.  Most of the units and commanders have parallels in the Warhammer world, but in the process of combining two rather different nations I chose to cut out many of the Wood Elf-inspired lords and elites in favor of the High Elves.  You could think of Sylvania as the elven nations before the Wood Elves split off and lost contact with Ulthuan.  The national back story is drawn from the fiction of Tolkien's elves who are fading from the world of men.  Here, the elves see one last chance to save the world from itself and recreate a long-forgotten golden age.

Sylvania is a dual society, the sylvankind living in the lush forests that surround the last great elven city, a metropolis of pristine towers rising high above the forest canopy, while the "high-born" elves inhabit the city itself.  In the woods, skill and cunning count the most while honor and knowledge are most important for city life.  The elves also go abroad, moving secretly among men and mer by stealth or disguise.  In the context of the Dominions back stories, imagine them as a fabled race that hails from a long lost realm, an El Dorado, the location of which no one can remember.  The fable just so happens to be true.

All of the sylvan units (identified by their stealth ability and descriptions) are based on units from Warhammer Wood Elves.  The Swordmasters, Sea Guard, and Phoenix Guard are based on the same units from Warhammer High Elves.  The gryphon was originally meant to be the Phoenix King's mount, but the wings ended up obscuring too much of the king's sweet helm so I stuck him on a pretty horse and gave the gryphon to a new hero.  The exaggerated fire effects of the King's sword are meant to resemble the image of a phoenix, its life force screaming out from the magical blade to destroy the enemies of the elves!  The weapon's statistics are based on the Flambeau, a rather powerful magical weapon already in the game.  The Aspect Archers and the Archon hero were inspired by the aspect warriors of the Eldar (think Space Elves) from Warhammer 40,000.  The Loremaster is a direct import from Fantasy Battles whereas his familiar is at least partially inspired by the servo-skulls from WH40K.  The Sorceress and the Slayer hero were inspired by characters from the "Slayers" anime and the Sylvan Warrioress hero from the banner art for the mod.  Finally, the Enchantresses are inspired by the depiction of Galadriel in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" films.

I don't know if a "World Tree"-type pretender has been done before, but I thought Yggdrasil really needed to appear in Dominions if it hadn't already.  Thus, one of the two new pretenders for this nation...  The constellation pretender is based on Tolkien, who mentioned the great importance of the stars to the elves in the portions of the Silmarillion I have read.  The Phoenix, which is always available as a pretender choice in Dom 3, would also make a great thematic choice when playing this nation.

I've also taken the revamped gryphon art I used for the Gryphon Rider and replaced the existing art for gryphons in Dominions 3.  Hurray for bald eagle-gryphons!

In a few places I have taken in-game graphics from D3 and used them to build parts of the unit art (the bodies of the horses and parts of the gryphon), but all other artwork in the mod is original.

Enjoy!

If you have comments or suggestions (especially if this nation seems very unbalanced in a particular area), find me on the official message boards at shrapnelcommunity.com or send me an email at evarmy98x@yahoo.com.
