Re: New Mod: Insectoids
 

So why the death 1?

Re: New Mod: Insectoids
 

Yes, dominion effects the amount of insects that you get.... but again why would you choose death when you need blood slaves to buy nationals. You can not use gold and resources - you convert population to blood slaves then to queens. So killing off the population with Death-1 or worse Death-3 must have some benefit and I can not see it. If you harvest but don't sow where will you future harvest come from? Do you expand so rapidly that there is always a new green pasture? Does a dying population provide rotting corpses that attract insects providing more workers/soldiers?

When I played this mod, I trashed order and production (chaos3 / sloth3). And then I even took -2 in magic. It seemed that Growth +3 not death made the most sense (and some luck taking advantage of more random events). Then I read that the players were suggesting death-3 over death-1 and now I am totally lost.

Help, I really don't get it. Even though I have no idea what I am doing, I still loved your mod.

Re: New Mod: Insectoids
 

Death 1 because the insects eat the population.

The insect hordes grow so fast that they cant think about future harvest. They expand or die from hunger.
Death 3 was proposed as an offensive strategy.

Re: Insectoids
 

Version 0.13

- Gave all Nest and Hive insectoids stormimmune, because even the Nest fliers can borrow and move through underground tunnels;
- "Nectid Queen" got beckon 15 and stealthy 25 so that you have even more reasons to summon her.

Re: Insectoids
 

Amos, has the Pretender had her 'Holy' removed yet?

Great mod, by the way.

Re: Insectoids
 

Why would I do that? The holy is thematic.

Re: Insectoids
 

Because, dear Amos, it doesn't actually work on a Pretender. Or atleast not on that particular Pretender. When I could still play the game, I always had to change it in the DM file to get it to work. I'd otherwise get the 'No Holy' error. And this was a fairly late version of the mod.

Re: Insectoids
 

I'm sorry you got this problem, but it always works for me, and I have played every version of that mod. Is there any solution you can offer that doesn't include removing holy from the pretender? Maybe adding another non-holy version as well for those who has this problem? Or, it can cast "Divine Blessing" as the #onebattlespell, which will not require it to be holy. That will solve this inconvenience for this mod at least.
I'll test the onebattlespell and report back.

Re: Insectoids
 

It didnt work :(

Re: Insectoids
 

If you could do a non-holy Pretender version of the mod, that would help a lot :)

Re: Insectoids
 

Re: Insectoids
 

Thank you very much!

Re: Insectoids
 

Are Insects a race that could possibly go to space?

Re: Insectoids
 

Definitely.

Re: Insectoids
 

Just watch Starship Troopers or read the Ender series by Orson Scott Card.

Re: Insectoids
 

'Armor' by John Steakley (who also wrote 'Vampire$'-a novel that was much, much better than the John Carpenter movie that was based on it-also much darker and nastier, in a good way), is another very good military sci-fi "bugs" novel.

I was confused by parts of it, but still enjoyed it very much.

Too bad Steakley doesn't write very much-he's great if you like gritty, graphic stuff-and he manages to write the most out of there, unbelievable scenes, in a very down-to-earth, matter-of-fact way.

Re: Insectoids
 

Well Llama, Trumanator and Honey.. I know they can go into space lol.. I was sort of asking Amos if I could use this mod (to start with ... everything in it :D and most of all the sprites) to base a nation on (base on actually means I'll use it as it is except I'll need to think of something for space.

So Amos.. I know you are too busy to create a nation yourself.. so can I steal this one?

Re: Insectoids
 

Sure. Go ahead.

You can make it so that the Females will change into Queens only on planets (base building).

Re: Insectoids
 

yeah I could use only the plainshape with a shapeshift command.. but I'm thinking it's kinda strange if all them insects could just cross space...

I'm thinking a sort of inactive cocoon form for space travel (launched by god knows what sort of powers) but that would make very very vulnerable armies. So I think they will have one sort of specially evolved spaceflier to defend the cocoons. Still very vulnerable so I think the cocoons will have high prot and also a high shield value (bioshield or something). Also there will probably need to be some (a lot really, but one good ranged unit at least) sort of ranged attack else they will not be competative unless I give the melee a lot of AP to cross the field fast.. but in big battles that will probably not be enough.. so I think one good ranged unit and high AP.
Also there will need to be some more AP (or AN) attacks since damage output and armor are quite a bit higher in dom 3K. Though it would even be nicer not to have that but just have relatively weak insects swarm the opposition.. your mods are usually a bit overpowered (so I've heard) so maybe the difference isn't that bit to start with.
A tank-bug (starshiptroopers) might be needed too (but a resize of your sprites could provide that.
It will probably be very hard to balance but whatever it's different ..

Does that sound acceptable to you? Or do you (as creator of the race) think other choices should be made?

(I'm currently working on a orc race that works very similar to start with but in the end will probably be useable next to this. But since this is already nearly useable for the space mod I think I'll work on this first if we can agree on how the race should be.)

Re: Insectoids
 

You seem pretty creative so I'll leave the mod to your consideration :).

Re: Insectoids
 

As an alternative to a bio-shield, you could couple high prot with a decent amount of health and fast regeneration or luck. But cause them to gain fatigue as the fight goes on. It would be like when they're in the cocoon form they massively speed up their metabolism to keep the cocoon intact while people are trying to destroy it. But eventually they start running out of energy and it becomes easier to destroy them (by scoring critical hits and getting throught their protection faster).

Re: Insectoids
 

PS you advice pplz to play with death 1 for thematic reasons.. wouldn't it be better to give all queens #leper 0? I'm thinking that should kill pop (manual doesn't say how much, but should be enough) and 0% chance of afflictions on troops.

in addition to that you could use #incunrest at some value..

seems thematic and less of an option than death 1

Re: Insectoids
 

#leper 0 or 1 doesnt do anything. #leper 2 kills too much for my tastes.

Re: Insectoids
 

Amos, here's an idea for your desire to have the hive devour everything and still have a viable slave income.

Make the queens generate two or three slaves a turn, and at the same time kill off the population

Re: Insectoids
 

How do they generate the slaves? Do they produce human children as well as insectoids? If not, where do they get the slaves in 0 pop province?

Re: Insectoids
 

It could be explained as: There's no pop because they have all been processed into the hives/nests, rather than killed. Some are kept for breeding/hosting processes, some are simply eaten, some are used as part of the nest itself. Think Aliens I guess. The population on the planet weren't a real population any more, but weren't technically dead yet.

Re: Insectoids
 

They breed people like cattle-or more like ants farming aphids, in this case.

Re: Insectoids
 

Those are good ideas if I ever do MA Insectoids. I like the way it works now. Wouldnt want to break something that works.

Re: Insectoids
 

Amos, I'm surprised to see you have the scarabs (with flavor texxt saying they are siegers) castledefbonus and no siegebonus. Is this your intention or a small mistake?

On Insects in dom 3000

PS for my mod I think I'll remove the worshippers again, make the males the spaceflyers (but since they are a lil race the queen also gets a summon2 command) and I've given the nest females wings too so they can lead those males in space. All other troops get a cocoon (rear end of queen) spaceform. The soldier has gotten a corrosive acid attack and the Dreadnaught will probably get a more powerfull ranged attack.
The teleport spells have been disabled since they don't fit with traveling through space.

I'm also thinking about implementing the idea of mkire to let queens generate slaves and use leper to kill off pop (having 2% of the troops get afflictions might not be that bad and could be countered by either upping some stats or giving more options to create troops or just give some or all troops the #heal ability)

The fact all units are holy is nice.. but it also means that you sort of need to play it with a bless (or just loose a lot of potential for the nation).

Re: Insectoids
 

PS amos on those scarabs why are they leaders and why only summon 1?

basicly even with siegebonus of 3 they are not worth summoning even for sieges I think. better to make them a trooper and summon 5-10 of them with a higher siegebonus so they will actually have an impact on siege time.

Re: Insectoids
 

The scarabs have #copystats 748 (Siege Engineer) so its a bug. I'll remove the copystats and add siege bonus. Should probably also report it as a bug.

The scarabs are leaders so that they are able to travel independently. You summon only one because they have (or should have) the high siege bonus of 25.

Re: Insectoids
 

I just checked and it works as intended with copystats. I have no idea why you didnt get the siege bonus. But its not a problem since we have the #siegebonus. So, I removed the copystats and uploaded the new version to the top of the thread.

Re: Insectoids
 

aw damn my error again (I should've know with your excellent mod record) and it made you do extra work, I'm sorry.

I was working on my mod (with your line in it) during my night shift (no game on hands)and I didn't see the copy stats just that there was no siegebonus.... so was probably already ok then.. I just hadn't though you'd copystats for a siegebonus either.. you implemented that before the mod command existed?? (I only mod way after the command existed I think so to me it seems like a hard way to go about getting a siegebonus)

anyway:

mea culpa

Re: Insectoids
 

aw damn my error again (I should've know with your excellent mod record) and it made you do extra work, I'm sorry.

I was working on my mod (with your line in it) during my night shift (no game on hands)and I didn't see the copy stats just that there was no siegebonus.... so was probably already ok then.. I just hadn't though you'd copystats for a siegebonus either.. you implemented that before the mod command existed?? (I only mod way after the command existed I think so to me it seems like a hard way to go about getting a siegebonus)

anyway:

mea culpa

Re: Insectoids
 

Believe me I make a lot of mistakes. And I appreciate it when someone notices them (since its hard to determine what the moder has intended and what is or isn't an error). Ex. in my "Angelic Crusade" mod it took me about a year to notice that I've made a mistake with multihero command. So, thanks for reporting the mistake, whether it was one or not. Its not that much work to check a unit and if needed to fix it.

You are correct. I created the "Insectoid" mod before the command was available.

Re: Insectoids
 

Version 0.14

Added domkill 2 to the nation (no need to set Death scales).

Re: Insectoids
 

Question, is the male suppost to be a scout or a trooper that you need to cast Gift of Reason on to use it fully?

Re: Insectoids
 

You can use him in any way you like.

Re: Insectoids
 

I only ask because of what the discription says about them and they join as a troop unit.

Re: Insectoids
 

If you GoR them they become spies.

Re: Insectoids
 

Ressurecting the thread just to say that I am a big fan of the nation!

A few notes though-
1: The description at the beginning still says that you should take Death 1 even though you have updated them to have domkill
2: Are there any heroes that will arrive?
3: Will we see an MA Insectoids?

Re: Insectoids
 

Didn't I remove that? I thought I did.

Since Insectoids don't have individuality I thought it would not be a good idea to give them heroes.

That probability is extremely low. I haven't done any mods in a long time and it's unlikely that I'll get the time to create a mod any time soon. I only visit the forum once a month or so to see if anyone found any bugs in my mods.

Re: Insectoids
 

Thats too bad. :( Well, thanks for your contributions, and I hope that you find some inspiration again sometime soon!

Re: Insectoids
 

Trumanator I have searched the Insectoid.dm file and I can't find the "Death 1" statement you are referring to. Maybe you are using the older version.

Re: Insectoids
 

hmm, maybe I am... Oh well, easily fixed.

Re: Insectoids
 

Well if desired you could add a hero based on mutations... perhaps a 3-armed or 2-head insect? ;)

Re: Insectoids
 

how exactly does this mod work?

I must be doing something wrong because i cant summon anything and there are no spawns. i am stuck wuth just the starting troops.

Re: Insectoids
 

this mod is like delving into the deepest darkest pit of hell in the Dom3 world. Amos was either very evil, or very drunk when he made it.

but i am the completely wrong person to tell you about it. i think trumanator knows pretty well.

Re: Insectoids
 

Caveat: I haven't played this, just looked at it briefly.

It appears (since there are no recruitables) that you need to take an awake pretender and use that to cast summoning rituals to obtain the "queen" type units, who will then domsummon "worker/soldier" type units (i.e. a number will appear each turn depending on the strength of your dominion.) So, basically, you'll need:
1) An awake pretender (probably only the custom one.)
2) A relatively high dominion (so the domsummon is effective)
3) Paths appropriate to casting the relevant summoning rituals.

I haven't checked for any mod conflicts, so it's possible if you also have other mods installed that some of the necessary units or spells are overwritten. This mod is not too recent, so it's unlikely to have been updated to mesh with e.g. recent versions of CBM or the like.

Note that since your domain causes population loss (albeit much less than e.g. LA Ermor), there might be some give/take balance factors re: high dominion.

Re: Insectoids
 

In theory that should be how the mod works I guess, but in practise for me no matter how many different magic scales i try there is nothing listed under ritual summons, and the queens wont spawn anything no matter how many turns i wait and no matter how much dominion i have. I have disabled all mods except for this one and am using a standard map that came with the game. anybody have any ideas?