Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

There's a huge amount of background info on the slayer king, why he took the slayer vow, where he got the dragon cloak from etc.

I can send it to you if you want. He's one of the main characters in the older army books. Thogrim too, he came before alarik.

I don't think a mechanical hand is out of flavour for dwarfs with no gunpowder - it's just magic like a mechanical man or clockwork horror.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

If you have any fluff on Slayer King, I'd appreciate it.

Good point about mechanical men (I'll probably make him summon some to drive the point home), I'll try to gear him up for the release.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

I did some graphical works, decided to show it around, because those damn orcs are stealing my thunder :P.

http://xs344.xs.to/xs344/09413/dwarf_preview_5250.png

1. New and improved Slayer King

2. Dwarrow Statue.. of some sort. I just played around with the recoloring tool and made this. I might make it a pretender or a summon of some sort (or not).

3. New and improved Engineer Guildmaster. The mechanical hand should be a lot clearer now.

4. Ancient Mother. Pretender modeled after the dwarf goddess Valaya. The pretenders for Grungni and Grimnir aren't as high prority (mostly because I just felt the itch to draw a female dwarf).

5. New and pretty final flag. I did some soul-searching and came to the conclusion that the flag just had to be stone. However, I took heed of the feedback and made a new one, which is a lot taller and thinner. This makes it stand taller than forts and therefore doesn't get covered by them like the old one did.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

Very nice Burn, as usual!

1. Is the Slayer King wearing a full mail suit? And if so, isn't that, like, against Slayer code?

2. I like the statue. Could be a kind of Watcher like construct.

3. REALLY like the Engineer Guildmaster! Lots of detail in that little sprite.

4. Ditto on the ancient mother.

5. Yay for the stone 'flag'!!

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

:doh:

Oh right, I had some annoucments to make too, but I forgot that in my sprite craze.

1) I wasn't able to make #battleform work out. Well, I sort of did, but the battleform sometimes ended up getting afflictions from the killing #onebattlespell, which was something that a)I couldn't thematically explain, b) would just sometimes cripple the player randomly (like getting your Runelord feebleminded when he switches to combatform). Hence I had to make some changes in how Oathstones and runesmiths will work.

New Oathstones: Now Thane and King have the option to change shape into a "oathstone" form, which gives them standard + boosted stats + "runic ward" special shield alongside with a special #onebattlespell which boosts troops. However, once you go Oathstone, you will be immobile and can't change back (you've sworn an oath to defend the land, you can't just 'take it back'!)

New Runesmiths: Smiths will retain their picks, but I'll cripple them in combat with heavy armor (enc 2 armor + enc 1 "Runic Ward" shield) and some negative reinvigoration (-1 for smith, -2 for Runelord) to represent the difficulty of using runic magic in combat.


The thing about him is that he's sworn the King's oath too. In dwarf culture, King Oath > Slayer Oath . So it's not that he wouldn't want to be out there getting heroically slain, but he has to remember his duties as a King too and keep himself alive for the benefit of Karak Kadrin. Hence the armor.

As for his gameplay stats, he'll be a bit less beefier on stats than Dragon Slayer, but he'll summon a lot of slayers, have a big standard and possess some runic wards to protect him from harm.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

Does it mean that you cannot change back at all, even after the battle ?
No "#firstshape" command on the oathstone form I suppose ?



By "retain their picks" you means that they won't get their path reduced for battles ?

I don't think giving them some negative reinvigoration is the best solution.

You can always use some reinvigoration bonus, and with a high Earth blessing, give a shroud of the battle saint to the smith, and you both remove the 2 end armor, and give more reinvigoration.

For the same result, I would rather increase the base enc of the runesmiths, or give them some "bonus" armor that could not be replaced with a magic item (I don't know if it is possible without removing an item slot, is the #bonus flag useable on armors ?)


Will it be a Domsummon or the summon order ?

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

Nice new sprites,burn:D But I must say that the Slayer King looks quite...dull in that dark grey armour. I think that a characteristic of slayers is their bright colouring.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

Yeah, once you step into an oathstone, you're stuck there. This will represent the Dwarf incanting a oath to defend that province to the bitter end. I know that this will cause confusion and perhaps even some accidental turn do-overs due to misclicks, but without #battleform it's the only at least somewhat thematic way to implement them.

If you could freely shapechange between oathstone form and regular form, it would open up for a lot of retarted unthematic tricks with them. (like starting on oatstone form, stepping out, taking a few steps and then taking it up again).

Yeah. It simply can't be done as I visioned without them randomly getting afflictions at the beginning of the battle.


Hmm, I forgot about bless reinvogration. My basic premise was that if you need to equip your each battlemage with Girdle of Might (to negate natural exhaustion), Shroud (to negate armor), things like "hammertime" and "magetime" start to get into equation.

But ugh.. The more encumeberance & fatigue penalties I give them, the more important and a "no-brainer" choice would an earth bless be. If I calculate a basic earth bless into their spellcasting enc, I'd basically be penalizing the player for not choosing an earth bless.

Ugh. Why couldn't the #battleform just work?! The closest equivalent I can think of now is to make them cast a onebattlespell causing the "mute" affliction on them, but then I'd have to make healers widely accessible so that the Smiths aren't permanently magic-crippled by just taking part in an combat.

I think that it's not possible. However, taking the body slot away from them would probably be the "cleanest" solution. Hmm.. Perhaps I'll give them a "Runic Armor" with enc 3 (for casting enc +6!) and remove the exhaustion penalty. I'll just have to devise an excuse for why they can't exchange it.


Likely both. Domsummon for Trollslayer and summon for Giant Slayers (as troops)

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

Like was sugested in the ork thread, can´t you just make them cast a #onebattlespell reducing their paths during battle?

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

That suggestion was for boosting orc shaman paths in combat by making them #onebattlespell the "Power of the Spheres" spell.

However, there is no spell (nor mechanic to mod one in) to make you lose power in magic.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

Ah, too bad.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

Hum, maybe it is possible to mod a new spell by copying "Power of the Spheres" and giving it a negative damage (not sure if it will works, but it might be worth a try) ? You could then use this spell with #onebattlespell.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

I can see what you mean, but it just cannot be done. The "Power fo the Spheres" is a hardcoded buff effect. Modding it to reduce paths would be like trying make Regenreration to be hp-loss (a'k'a impossible).

I think that I have good compromise with the "enc 3 Runic Armor" treatment. The loss of a body slot is a shame, but not that much of a loss (whoa, you can't use Robe of the Sea! Big deal).

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

99% sure it doesn't work that way.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

On a different notice, I've been thinking about the Gyrocopter. I've reached to the conclusion that even with "runemagic did it" explanation, I just can't see them thematically fitting with these no-gunpowder Dwarfs I'm making. It would stand out (in a bad way).

So I'm in a need of some ideas for an A1E1 engineer-summon (to mirror the F1A1 flamethrower summon). My mind keeps on drawing blanks.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

Net launchers/harpoon guns.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

I'd suggest thunderers or perhaps a scaled-down organ gun, firing runic lightning or something instead of bullets to keep within the NO GUNPOWDERS restriction. (...though it may well risk getting too skaven-y.)

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

For Runesmith, I have been thinking on another solution, that would use the #<landtype>shape commands to give them alternate forms with a negative magicboost in all lands except montains, so fluff-wise it would means having the runesmiths stronger in their home montains.

However there is no #mountainshape yet as far as the manual says. Maybe giving them #watershape, #plainshape and #forestshape ? But then they would get their increased shape in not only mountains, but also caves (no problem there I think) and swamps (and here, I have a hard time justifying it).

I suppose it could be almost

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

#plainshape doesn't mean plains, it means 'not forest'.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

Oh, missed that, thanks.

So for now we can only mods a special shape for forest or land/water, too bad ... :(

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

That's genius. It:
1) fits the paths
2) is a wordplay refering to the miniatures
3) synergizes with my intention of making Engineers master marksmen
4) I already have a pretty wicked idea for their graphic.

Overall I can fit "Thunderers" with lighting guns in pretty well.

Yeah, there are many ways to almost do it. But your idea about using form mechanic gave me an idea. Does anyone know how the unit from pretty new Jomon mountain summon works? IIRC, I think he had a sort of mountainshape. I could overwrite him with the Runelord to create a sort of "half solution".

I also updated the first post with the current changes.

Re: Warhammer Dwarfs, discussion/hype thread
 

I tested he Jomon summons. Their idea is that they get -1 to all paths when they leave their home province (which could have worked for the smiths). Unfortunately they are ethereal and magic beings, which are tags I can't get rid off and would be quite unthematic for Runesmiths. So in short, I'm sticking to the Runic Armor plan. I'll devise some story about how the custom armor is necessary for them to channel runic magic and that's the reason why they can't exchange it for any other armor.

On another tangent, I managed to draw graphics for the Grimnir pretender and thunderers. So only graphics missing from the current troop line-up are Thorgrim, Thorek and Grungni pretender. But since they are big, work-intensive sprites, I'll save them up for another update and concentrate on producing the .dm file.