Re: Byzantine Pythium - hype/brainstorming thread
 

What? Pft... lol...

I agree, but your reasoning (apparent) is humorous.

Re: Byzantine Pythium - hype/brainstorming thread
 

i've not read the 4 pages of this topic, but what about adding some ship summons in construction?
aquatic unit, high upkeep, gluttony(you have to feed the sailors), fire vulnerability.
they can have some diversification, like a heavy one for battles, a "commerce" one which brings you money and/or supply.

Re: Byzantine Pythium - hype/brainstorming thread
 

As the battles in Dominions are fought over land or under water I personally would find any sort of sailing ships mostly hillarious.

That actually just gave me a new nation idea though. Drowned sailors being reanimated by ancient evil. The actual drowned ones would be amphibians, but there'd also be a potential for huge masses of poor amphibian standard undead with more scimitars "newly drowned". A sunken magically moving ship would be cool as hell, but I don't really know if you can make it big enough and if I can actually draw a decent looking sprite for one.

For land castles they'd have "shoredrowned" poor amphibians to recruit too. Some of them might be better armored, ie knights and heavy infantry who have fallen to rivers in the middle of battles etc.

Re: Byzantine Pythium - hype/brainstorming thread
 

One other thing about Pythium that amuses and slightly bugs me is that LA Pythium's mythical sources are earlier in history than MA Pythium. All the mystery cults are more reminiscent of the Eastern Roman Empire circa AD 1, while the powerful Theurgocracy is reminiscent of the Byzantines.

Re: Byzantine Pythium - hype/brainstorming thread
 

I'm working on the mod. Just yesterday I made the graphics for 6 units (no preview though, I'm going to get all of them done before I show them off). Now I only need graphics for Theurg Artisans, Divine Emperor and the seven Archangels (Michael is going to be tough thought, his graphic will take a while since he needs armor and no dom3 angels have that, so I need to draw it myself).

@Squirrel

Sorry, it really took me a while to get at what you were going after. Yeah, S2F2A2W2E1 is not that great magic access for forging and so forth, especially because you don't get any air/fire boosters and no access to Crystal Coin. I think I'm going solve this by changing their starting commander to "Divine Emperor" with S4H3 that can get you RoS and RoW with only Crystal Cap, so that you don't need to force S and E on your pretender.


Agree. Ships would just be so out of place and dom3 is no place for them.

Yeah, I noticed that too, but it really doesn't bother me. I think of it as an "alternate" explanation on why Byzantine crumbled. Instead of gradual decline of military power, there was gradual decline in faith for them in the Dom3verse. (not that my Pythium will make any sense to in the context of the vanilla LA pythium, but whatever).

Re: Byzantine Pythium - hype/brainstorming thread
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/pictu...&pictureid=423

Commanders
Imperial Alchemist -> Cap only, 1F1W (110% F/E/W), +1 research, 10% chance of starting with an affliction (alchemy is dangereous).
Ambassador -> Spy, nothing else special
Varangain Captain -> Cap only, very good stats, sailing, high leadership
Theurg Artisan -> Cap only, -1 research, 10 forgebonus, 1?1H 100%F/E/W/S/A. Those with fire are glassblowers, air is singer, earth is sculptor, astral is canthor, water are painters.
Divine Emperor -> Starting commander, not recruitable/summonable. S4H3, automatic communion master.

Units
Varangian Guard -> Northern mercenaries that have become a part of normal military with time. Cap only, good stats, especially high morale, forest survival.
Pyrote -> Cap only, expensive in resources, fire AoE melee attack, negative fire resistance.
Kataprakhtoi -> Noble cavarly, good stats, but are hampered by less than optimal equipment (no plate, only light lance, use maces instead of broadswords)
Verdanriotai -> Northern mercenaries that have become a part of normal military with time. Composite bows, waste/forest survival.

New Spells
-> H1 communion slave (note that this will not work on pure H1 priests, only those who have an actual magic pick -> this piece of data is from my Holy War modding days)
-> H2 communion master
-> F2W1 "Greek Fire" combat spell, likely a fireball that leaves a small "Fire Cloud" behind.
-> Awesome H5,6,7 and 8 combat spells
-> "Theosis", Conj level 7, 40 gems, W3S4 (the caster paints an icon so masterful that it allows him to contact the celestial plane and ask for the help of an archangel.)

The Archangels;
Note that these are the archangels of Orthodox Christian tradition, so they may differ from what you know. Statwise, all of them are close to regular Archangles, expect where otherwise stated

-Gabriel "Man of the Lord" -> Divine messenger and warrior S3A3H3, stealth, high mapmove, higher combat stats, wields a mirror of green jasper* on his left hand.
-Barachiel "Blessing of the Lord" -> Leader of all Guardian Angels and holds dominance over lightning, A4F2H3, lighting attacks, can summon "angels of the host", wields a white rose on his left hand*
-Uriel "Light of the Lord" -> F4A2H3, higher combat stats, extra holy fire attacks but only one hand slot since he always wields the orb of fire*
-Jegudiel "Glorifier of the Lord" -> Patron Saint of all labour and arts. S3E2F1H3, reinvigoration, forgebonus, high leadership, lower combat stats, wields a crown on his right hand* to represent the rewards for spiritual labour.
-Raphael "Healing of the Lord" -> Patron saint of medicine and sciences. S3N3H3, healer 100, reserachbonus, recuperation, regeneration, lower combat stats, wields a jar full of medicine in his left hand*
-Selaphiel "Prayer of the Lord" -> Patron saint of praying. S4F1A1w1E1H4, very high researchbonus, attack value 0, no melee attack, greatly lowered combat stats, domsummons angels of the host, automatic communion master.

-Michael -> He will be a unique combat summon from one of the holy 5-8 spells. No magic (since he would then just spam smite or something equally lame). Extremely good combat stats, wields a very powerful holy lance and can banish people to hell (like the artefact "Hell Sword")

* In classic orthodox iconography, this angel is often painted with that item. I might give the item a "dom3" function, depending if I come up with something awesome for it.

Changes to base Pythium
-> Starting commanders to Ambassador and Divine Emperor
-> Battle Vestal no longer cap only
-> Description edits
-> Starting gem income to: 1F 1A 1W 2S
-> Arch Theurgs will be multiheroes and only slightly old age, magic changed to S3 3? H3 (F/A/W -> linked random)
-> Theurgs - not old any more, magic changed to S2 2? H2 (F/A/W - linked randoms), gold cost increase
-> Theurg Acolytes get an additional 10% F/A/W random.
-> Following units no longer available;
Hydra, Hydra Hatchling, Hydra Tamer, Scout, Emerald Lord, Lizard Catapharact, Lizard Lord, Gladiators, the Master of Games multi-hero


Angel Summon Changes (will affect Marignon too)
Contact Harbringer (OLD, level 6, S4, 25 pearls) -> NEW: level 5, A2 S3, 27 air gems
Angelic Host (OLD, level 7, S5, 50 pearls) -> NEW: level 7, F2S4, 55 fire gems)
Others left as they are. This change is so that the player might occasionally *use* these spells. In vanilla it's just better so save up your gems for Angels of Fury or Seraphs.

Re: Byzantine Pythium - hype/brainstorming thread
 

The Green Jasper mirror could have a 'halt sacred' effect on any enemy sacred that attacked the wielder. That would be kind of thematic.

It would also be interesting if the Divine Emperor was immortal but had a chance to get Lost in Time and Space, representing how there was always an Emperor, but sometimes he was imprisoned/exiled/killed and eventually replaced by another one.

Re: Byzantine Pythium - hype/brainstorming thread
 

25% of alchemists will have water and fire. Making this THE acid nation. So, we have early game legionaires, mid game acid casters, and late game angel summons.

Re: Byzantine Pythium - hype/brainstorming thread
 

Umm, are you planning on anyone recruiting varangian captains? cuz its not gonna happen. Also, kataphraktoi were absolutely covered in armor, it makes no sense for them to have crappy prot in-game.

Re: Byzantine Pythium - hype/brainstorming thread
 

They might hire one (varangian captains) for an initial sailing adventure.

And you're saying the cavalry should have heavy armor. Ussually need some pretty high encumbrance to make a nerf comparable.