Re: Enhanced Gameplay Mod [project]
 

About these items in general, most seem like artifact power levels, but IMHO, there probably is enough benefit in reaching con8 first already. But this a good chance some to "fix" some less atractive path combinations. Fire/Air for example, has no forgeable items. Since we are also removing some items (the gem producers), we could use these to let those path combos have something to forge.

Crown of Katafagus - Clearly an artifact, could be a con6 thought. It's just a skull helmet on steroids.

Crown of Ptah - Now, this is intersting. Artifact? It's not *that* good thought so perhaps the pathcost could be like D4F3?

Greenstone Armor - This is just useless piece of poop. It has only slightly better protection than normal armor but encumberance 6! freaking 6! Only enc 0 units can use it then.. suggest you completely scrap the thing by modding the "Greenstone Armor" armor. It could be the "summit" of armors, something just so well made that it works like charm. The color is intresting though, perhaps this could ne N/W item to replace Clam?

Hammer of the Cyclops - Do we really need another artifact-level uber hammer? This probably could just stay con12.

Precious - Hmm.. I'd probably make it con6. By changing the description a bit, you probably could have this as F1N1 item to replace Fetish.

Robe of the Sorceress - Sorcery paths are pretty easy to boost already. Could be a semi-nice artifact thought. Blood/Earth artifact to replace blood stones?

Shortsword - This is an very interesting item. Good for human nations to leverage against Giants, should be low path cost and con cost to be easily accessible. Perhaps E1A1 con4?

About the "sun" gear. I think that one of these could be the F/A item (not all of them thought, that would be just nuts)

Sun Armor - Encumberance 5? It would be just another item only good on those already popular thugs with enc 0.

Sun Helmet - Wow. This is pretty damn good helmet. Should be an artifact most likely.

Sun Shield - Not that intresting. More like a Shield of Gleaming Gold with some bonuses. Probably only item that could be easily forgeablr from the sun gear

Sun Sword - Hmm.. This is intresting. The berserking is a real downer and balances this thing (no buffs, vulnerability to 50 turn limit, extra fatigue..). I think that this could be a intresting con6 F/A item. F3A1 perhaps?

Admiral's Sword - This is intresting too. The weapon is pretty good (12ap dam, att5, def2, len2, curses), could be a different piece of thug gear (not all those brands all the freaking time), not sure about what paths it should be and what cost.

Vial of Frozen Tears - This could only be an artifact, but do we really even need *more* death boosters? It's quite the boost-tastic path already.

Well, that is a bit more difficult than it seems. Even if we had the graphics we only have 136 spell slots left. Since modded spells can only be restricted to one nation this means that should I make a modded summon for Arco, I'd need to make three versions of it (one for each era) even if they are identical.

Thus, just creating two summons for each nation is simply impossible, just because of the spell limit (Which is already tight because of CPCS + Holy War).

But, luckily this isn't CBM. We can take stuff away from base game. There are some pretty rebundant spells ('Freezing Touch', anyone?) in the game. By writing over those, we could add some more spells.

I could perhaps be intrested in making summons. But we probably should save these for the nations which are clearly troubled.

About the graphics, there are ways over this. Since the mod will likely use nearly all spell-slots, it won't be compactible with modded nations. This means that we could use graphics straight out from already excisting mod nations without any possible confusion. You want to boost man*? How about we just give them a summon for some Eriu/ Tir' na' Og mage to diversify paths? No need for new graphic or even a new unit!

If people would just pick up on my "mod spritedump" - project, using mod graphics would just be a lot easier.

Holy crap! This is so awesome! There just are some nations can not be reedemed by changing the stuff the stuff they have. Let's take EA Oceania for example. They simply own everything underwater but cannot be taken seriously above water. It's kind of quirky balance and does not make for a intresting nation, I've never seen anyone willingly play them.

But do you know what is the last nail in the coffin? EA Oceania can only recruit turtle infantry & turtle chief in land castles.

Let that sink in for a while. No mages, not even stinky priests above water. Just indy-level light infantry. It's just so sad that you can't help but to laugh.

My solution: I'd give them non-amphibious human troops. Some primitive human tribes that are slighlty based on the tribal people on philippines which have made an alliance with the tritons. I have a nice book of myth lore in my house, I'll check on pacific tribal myths for some cool summon ideas. As a balancing measure, some troops could be made less ridicilious underwater (I'm looking at you, Knight of the Deep!)

Amen to that.

Althought it seems that some people don't really understand the consequenses of playing with a map with over 15 provinces per player and over 12 players. IMHO, I prefer games with <11 players.

Well, in my opinion dom3 is not a game about economy. That's why there are only 3 buildings. It is about pretenders samshing each others into the face. Clam spam + turtling does not make for an intresting game, since it removes interaction between players.

It also bugs me how far gem generators have gone from their orginal purpose (lessen the need to restock gems to marching army mages). They were meant for that, not to power your late-game into ridicilious levels. Whenever I clam, I feel like I'm abusing a bug or just exploiting in general. But perhaps that is just me.

Well, considering the range of changes this mod-pack will do, everyone will probably find something not to like about it. But try to not think about that one single chance, more about big picture.

* or perhaps just use the Ma man boost mod by that dude-whose-nick-I-can't-remember. Was it Xietor ot Tudjy?

Re: Enhanced Gameplay Mod [project]
 

Yeah, most of that items would be const6 or const8. I also agree on hammer of the cyclops, we don't need 2, as they'd be probably grabbed by same player. Other stuff can be tweaked. Sun items look especially nice, good way to spend F gems on cool gear.

I was also thinking about getting summons in a way you suggested for some nations. They will take spell slots too though. Man indeed could use TNN mages/thugs as summons. That nation totally sucks and is now worse even than Ulm. There are more nations that could use summons from previous eras.

Also Ashdod balance mod could be added here. That is made first. Right now that cool nation is usually banned. They'd need some serious nerf, but they'd be playable. I was thinking about nerfind PD [is it possible?], changing heat to neutral or 1 [same question], making their forge bonus guys summons [mid-game, 40-50 gems], removing 3rd misc slot, making Zamzummites cap only.

And yeah, that was Xietor's MA Man mod. I don't think it was big enough, but it could surely be added, before we do some other serious modifications. It's way better than vanilla or CBM Man.

Re: Enhanced Gameplay Mod [project]
 

I think adjusting PD for a nation is possible. Heat 1 would be more thematic than neutral temperature preference.

As for Zamzummites, I'd say punt the cost up a lot rather than have them cap-only. If they cost 300+, that'd be enough of a barrier to stop there being too many of them (until the late end of the game, when it's less of an issue I think). Rephaite sages are adequate battle mages for many purposes. Making the Talmai expensive summons would mean Adon became the thugs of choice most of the time, I guess. Until the sci-fi era of the late game, I guess you'd be forced to keep the few summoned Talmai you could afford back home forging. I sort of like the third misc. slot on the Talmai, as it feels thematic.

Re: Enhanced Gameplay Mod [project]
 

They are just giants. It's not like they have one more magic pocket for additional bracers. And yeah, that 3rd slot is just for stacking E9 bless bug.

Zamzummites are almost SCs, they are at least very good thugs. If they were cap only you'd have to choose between Adon and Zamzummite. And it would be a fair choice to make. And you'd be still left with non-cap mages other nations can dream of.

Zamzummites would be still probably the strongest recruitable fighters in MA. Way better than Jotun cap-only giants or other weak thugs.

Re: Enhanced Gameplay Mod [project]
 

Taking provinces is merely a function of economy also. Clamming is not very interesting, but if you're stuck between a rock and a hard place it's better than just waiting or going kamikaze against neighbours you can't beat now.

It's unproblematic in midgame, everything else just keeps happening. I think the real reason for late game unfun is that attacking becomes very unrewarding.
Luck is a much larger factor than in midgame (maybe the largest), first spell and 50 round advantage, and 90% of your holdings can be replace by the first province you conquer with a 20 gem thug.
If I ended up with the largest income in late game I would just sit back without clams, my position doesn't get weaker.

Re: Enhanced Gameplay Mod [project]
 

Err.. that quote in your post is from me, not from Zeldor.

If you're stuck between the rock and the hard place, how about building forts+labs for more mages and research? Clamming isn't the only option to improve your position when you can't assault someone. Besides, clamming does not neccessarily mean that you have to turtle. You just have 1-3 mages doing clams and that is the extent of your resources. Strong nation is able to wage war and clam fine. Clamming isn't somehow more beneficial to nations in poor position.

You have a point about the late-game wars. Gold doesn't really mean anything, so provinces only really serve as buffers.

I get my late-game kicks from seeing all that epic stuff happening. Attacking is exciting for me, since I can't really be *that* sure about what I'll exactly be facing. But I really haven't played too much late games in MP. I could imagine that vets no longer experience that thrill, having seen everything all ready.

If you have largest income (you probably mean gem income, right?), you can also clam more than any other nation, giving you a theoretical timevantage (since the gems from the clams would allow you to clam even more). So your statement holds true even with clams in the picture.

Re: Enhanced Gameplay Mod [project]
 

Illuminated One:

If you can clam, he can clam too. And if he is stronger, he can clam more.

As Micah stated in Preponderance thread - late-game is longer and more challenging because general level of MP community is higher. Earlier vet could win even quite big games before real end game would happen. Now you can research all stuff on turns 30-40 and be far far away from seeing a victorious nation. So new tactics are appearing. And mass sick clamming is among them. I had 100 tartarians once. I had more than 500 mages more than once. I had over 50 forts. I was crazy clamming. All is ok, until it happens at once. And it does happen, if you want to win. And well, everyone plays to win.

Some people are surprised that Micah has 170 clams in one game and that he can make about 15 clams a turn. The sad thing is that it's quite common to see people making 10+ clams/turn from turn 60.

Re: Enhanced Gameplay Mod [project]
 

Sorry, messed up the names.

Sure that's right and clamming makes it probably worse late game.
I can't call myself a vet only got to something I'd call late game in two games, but all in all I had better battles midgame (killing a water queen in a pitched battle over a cap is more exciting than having the only teleporting thugs you can get killed by two water queens in a province your enemy doesn't care about). :D

Well, usually stronger position means more gold and more research in the long run, so no difference to clamming.
What I mean is that nation balancing doesn't necessarily mean that all nations fight equally well. In fact I'd find that boring.
Instead the weaker nations have or should have several options to outdo the warrior nations on the home front (access to clams, better research, cheaper and better castles, a good synergy with a global).
Hence the suggestion of removing indie mages. If you want a path adjust your strategy around it.


edit: @Zeldor

Yeah, I know what you mean.
Still, I don't think you're getting at the root of the problem by removing clams.