Re: Skaven updated to 0.7
 

Know your not talking to me but thought id give my 2 cents anyhow http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I've never really bothered with a Bless for em its a pain to set up so you blessed units dont kill all the others by the boatload and such.. I go for good scales and A rainbow pretender.. Your Skyre Warlocks make some very nice battle mages after a bit of research.. If you can survive the early game without falling to far behind your looking good..

Re: Skaven updated to 0.7
 

Quick comment: Chieftan is spelt Chieftain.

Re: Skaven updated to 0.7
 

Yeah it's fixed for te next version. I was copying what I thought was a GW spelling, but it turns out it was some typo from the source I got the unit stats originally.

Re: Skaven updated to 0.7
 

Shameless bump for my favorite mod nation atm....Looking forward to the Verminlord, a new pretender or two and the additional hero.

Enjoy the holidays Sombre and thanks again for an awsome nation that captures the feel of the Skaven in the WH world very very well :-)

Re: Skaven updated to 0.7
 

This one will get an update soonish.

I've done something fairly exciting with the heroes; they now come with their warhammer magical stuff/rules built into their stats/equipment and far less item slots.

Anyway, next version will have the vermintide spell added as well as (hopefully) Throt the Unclean and the Verminlord Greater Daemon. There are also a lot of stat tweaks, with far less sitting around spawning stuff coming from the commanders, with the bonus of a reduced cost.

Vermin Lord preview
 

I'm having trouble with the 2 new graphics for version 0.8. They're both quite large and impressive and I'm just out of practice,.. but they'll turn out ok in the end I reckon.

Anyway I wanted to release 0.8 tonight, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen, so here's a preview of the unfinished Vermin Lord graphic. It's quite likely he will remain unfinished in the 0.8 release then be completed at a later date, somewhat like the screaming bell and doomwheel (which look ok anyway, just not great).

I figure by the time I go through feedback and do more tweaking and balancing, reaching 1.0, all these graphics should be of finished quality.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...erminlordc.png


Oh and just so everyone knows, the next version is AWESOME. Seriously. I don't like to toot my own horn (at least in public), but it represents my best work. I'm having so much fun playtesting it that I keep forgetting to make notes and changes.

Re: Vermin Lord preview
 

Can't wait, dude!

Re: Vermin Lord preview
 

It's here! It's here!

Ok so it isn't that big a deal. But it is friggin awesome ;]

-- Throt and Verminlord added

-- Many stat tweaks to skaven commanders, some pretty much reworked entirely

-- Death frenzy changed, now smaller aoe, less range, less likely to hit casters

-- Warpfire throwers slightly nerfed, casting costs tweaked

-- Various spell tweaks

-- Lots of other things I can't even remember but are totally rad

Go to the first page to download.

Re: Vermin Lord preview
 

Awesome.

Thank You!

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Nice work mate.

Had meant to suggest a AoE nerf for death frenzy given its ability to overcome some of the morale problems of the Skaven.

Looking forward to trying it out - but given I tend to only play MP games I might have to set one up myself to ensure that I get to play the ratties as the deserved popularity of this mod will ensure a queue of players begging to give it a run.

Will have to download the thing to get myself a dose of "rad"

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Death frenzy and a few of the other spells (vermintide particularly) might still be a bit good, but we'll see. I always think national spells should be markedly superior to generic spells to encourage their use. Favour of Nurglitch for example is waaaay better than poison ward, but is quite niche in use and isn't anything balance breaking (especially since poison doesn't get much love in dom3).

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Thanks, Sombre!

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Digress - if you get round to setting up an MP game let me know first, as I want to get in with either Arga Dis or Tomb Kings! Also you are of course welcome to use the LlamaServer if you want.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Just signed up for another game and have hit my maximum. However my stay in one particular game might be short so I will start to prepare a game in the nearish future.

Your offer of the llamaserver is noted and will more than likely be taken up. Cheers.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

I had a crash, just after conjuring a vermin lord (conj lvl 9) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif when I click on the province where he should be (near 112 and 124), the game crash every time

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Wow...........just wow Sombre. I know I already said that this is my current favorite nation mod, but at this point I think the only thing that would make it better would be a finished Zepath Warhammer World Map.

Playing Skaven on that map with all of the special sites would be Dom 3 Heaven for me at this point.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

I had a similar problem mathusaiem. I finally got the ability to summon a Verminlord and when I did it with one of my casters the game now crashes when I try to load it.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Ok I think it's a very simple fix.

Go into the skaven.dm using a text editor and search for vermin lord. Find the bit that says:

#spr1 "./Skaven/Verminlordc.tga"
#spr2 "./Skaven/Verminlord.tga"

and change it to say

#spr1 "./Skaven/Verminlord.tga"
#spr2 "./Skaven/Verminlord2.tga"

Should sort it out. I will update the Skaven for 3.14 soon enough.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

So how about those uniques? I'm posting here since thats the thread you're most likely to read http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Quickest way is just for me to post code.

------ this one has regen 1%, min 1 per turn

#newmonster 2488
#copystats 648
#clearmagic
#spr1 "./Warhammer Empire/Grandmaster.tga"
#name "Master of the White Wolf"

#descr "Master of the White Wolf description."
#fireres 0
#regeneration 1
#end



----- this one has stealth 0



#newmonster 2489
#copystats 650
#clearmagic
#spr1 "./Warhammer Empire/Grandmaster.tga"
#name "Master of the Knights Panther"
#descr "Master of the Knights Panther description."
#end


That's from an old warhammer empire dm. The point is you can get unique with the least possible side effects by copystatting 648 or 650.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Thank you.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

I cant use them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif. They both have armor. I'll use 649 instead although he has glamour.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

You can replace their armour though. Or give them #armor "nothing"

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

I didnt know that. Learn something new everyday http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

The Skaven are nothing if not industrious. An earthquake struck in the Skaven capitol, destroying the temple. But, not to worry ... the people here have raised a temple in honor of their God! All in the same month. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Thanks for making this mod, Sombre, I'm having loads of fun with it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Version 0.9 is up. It isn't really a major update, but it cleans things up nicely and makes use of onebattlespell a bit.

-- removed copystats for the majority of units and stuck in appropriate darkvision values instead

-- removed the stinking fur fix used to get around shields added by now defunct copystatting, freeing up armour slot 321

-- checked IDs against my other MA nations and against CBM complete 1.21, no conflicts

-- Onebattlespells - Snikch (darkness), Thanquol (Twist fate), Seerlord (twist fate), Ikit Claw (Charge Body), Verminlord (divine blessing), Screaming Bell (fanaticism)

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Pox Cauldron is the main content in the next version, which is coming soon. Also you get a version of gift of flight called Skitterleap.

I might have a go at doing an Arch Plague Lord pretender too for you Pestilens fans, but don't hold me to that.

Attached is beta preview of pox cauldron. Like the screaming bell and doomwheel, it is likely to be a beta graphic for a long time. I just don't like doing the graphics for these big things, it seems.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

I had to download the latest version and finally give them a serious try in an SP game. Skaven are one of my warhammer tabletop favorites so I had to try this puppy out!

All the construct spells are really cool although I haven't been able to get a bell up yet. At first I saw all these nasty artillery troops and was concerned about how powerful they appeared until I started fighting other nations rather than just the indies. I have just started getting my blood economy rolling, so have not tried any of those summons as of yet.

The doomwheels are nasty, if vulnerable due to their low health compared to their size. So they definitely remind me of my tabletop uses of these things. Nicely done.

The warp firethrowers also fit the tabletop version well. Adding the damaged immobile version was a nice touch.

Are the warp lightningthrowers your own invention, or were they added after I stopped playing WFB? Either way they certainly fit the Skaven theme quite well.

I didn't see the Jezzail teams. Not sure if they are no longer part of the official canon or if you had not, or were not going to include them. Either way is fine,just an observation. I did enjoy some luck with them, taking down my friend Dave's dryads at long range with my Jezzail teams will always have a special place for me. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Ah,the poisoned wind globadiers. I have a fond recollection of these guys from a massive good vs evil game of WFB we played back when a bunch of us had a wargame club back in Michigan. I was Skaven and Chaos Dwarves mixed, allied to 2 friends that were the Dark Elves and Orcs & Goblins. We were matched against 3 other friends playing the Empire, Dwarves, and the Wood Elves. At one point I had asked Nelson if he would be ok with me hurling some globes over his cold ones, informing him of the possibility of deviation. He gave me the ok but of course 1 globe had to hit his riders. Gotta love the random Skaven war machines! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/stupid.gif

The army truly feels like the skaven army as I tend to do more casualties to myself than my enemies do! I tried not using melee troops or setting them on hold and attack, since they get hammered by my own warpfire, warplightning, and the poisoned globes, but then the enemy just slammed into my vulnerable artillery and I'd rather lose my easily replaceable melee than my artillery pieces. Setting them on fire rear(for the doomwheels) and fire archers or cavalry isn't helping a lot and I cringe every time I watch the mass fire land squarely on my my melee blocks and watch my poor little rats fall to our own twisted inventions! This is spot on for the Skaven so again well done! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image.../beerglass.gif

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

I'm glad you enjoyed the mod! :]

I kept Skaven tactics in mind at all times when making the nation. Hence most armies are plenty of cheap but fairly effective melee troops backed up by extremely powerful but unreliable magical and experimental weapons. The skavenslaves are particularly good for this purpose because they can only lose 1 guy from 3 each time a jet of fire or blast of warplightning falls on them, due to their usage of secondshape. They do suck at fighting, but you can always cast death frenzy on them.

2 units that I chose to leave out of the game were the ratling gun and jezzail teams. I did this because I felt gunpowder weapons don't fit in dom3. They don't work very well under the combat system and there aren't any gunpowder units in the base game. The warplightning throwers are based on the warp lightning cannon weapon from WHFB, but again I don't think big high firepower warmachines fit that well with dom3 (which doesn't feature catapults, mangonels, trebuchets, ballistas etc) so I converted it to be similar to the warpfire thrower.

Doomwheels were simply too fun for me to leave out. I don't know if they're really worth the cost in gems and research and stuff, but they're a lot of fun. If you manage to buff them (body ethereal being the classic) they can be very nasty indeed.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

I am new to dominions and have no idea how to install the mods. I did look around some but cannot find obvious instructions

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

1. Unpack the mod.
2. Move the Skaven folder and the Skaven.dm into the folder called "Mods", which in turn is located inside the main directory for Dominions 3. For example C:\Program Files\Dominions3\mods.
3. Start Dominions 3 and select Preferences, then Mod Preferences. Enable the Skaven Mod.
4. Start a new game, the Skaven nation should be available for the middle era.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

unpack the file in the mods map

the .dm file should be directly in the mod map, usually the graphic files are in a map inside the mod map.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

I cannot believe I did not unpack the mod but just copied the folder into the mods folder. I don't know much but even I know that is wrong. Thanks for the help sorry to waste your time.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

You mean the zip? Because all you need to do with the /folder/ and .dm file is what you did, put it in the mods directory.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Posted A Skaven Strategy guide feel free to check it out and pull it to pieces.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

The strategy guide is very helpful and rare for MOD nations.

One thing that I noticed (that came as an initial shock) was that mercenaries attack first, then a second battle is fought using your Skaven troops. Why does this happen? Did I miss it in the strategy guide? Obviously I wanted both troop types fighting as a team. Is this unique to Skaven?

I started a new game with mixed armies (mercenaries and nationals) and it worked like normal i.e. they both were present in a single battle. Now I have no idea what is happening or if it is even unique to Skaven.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

It's nothing to do with the nation. It's possible you moved mercs and skaven and forgot that the skaven were sneaking. The mercs attacked first, then the skaven sneaked and were caught.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

That had be what happened since it never happened again. I probably re-clicked the attack and forgot to take it off auto-sneak mode.

This is an extraordinary masterpiece mod. Good theme, great unit graphics, best looking national banner, diversity in playing options, no ridiculously overpowered capitol mages (I have seen soon mods with mages having 7 magic picks plus 2-3 holy - not balanced I will not mention the mod), and good pricing.

Sombre, early in this mod's development you choose to use earth and fire for Warplightning summons. Earth and air would have seemed more consistent as all lightning is air related. Perhaps you could help me understand this choice or possibly change it if you update again.

Thanks again for this wonderful mod gift.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Well the idea behind warplightning is that despite the way it appears in the game, it actually jumps from the caster to the target, not from the sky. Unlike regular lightning or weather magic, warpstone is the power behind warplightning, which is essentially just a release of warp energy. I decided early on that warpstone based magic was a mixture of fire/death/earth in dom3 terms - earth/death is the poisonous aspects of it, fire/death is the warpfire and earth/fire is the raw warp energy or warplightning.

Besides that the earth and fire spells native to dom3 all make sense more or less for skaven warlock engineers to be using. The air spells don't fit them at all. Like Agartha they're largely a subterranean race and weather magic isn't their bag.

Ikkit Claw has air magic because he's travelled all over the world collecting arcana. He's a hero available to Skaven. One of the strongest heroes in the game I'd say.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

I've seen the same thing happening with the Arga Dis and Skaven mods, so I'm guessing this is a general issue. (Games that were already started luckily aren't affected, but any new game is)

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Weird. I'll test this and hopefully fix it tonight.

I hope the new patch hasn't ruined mod mages entirely.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Just had a look and you're right - it's broken in all mods.

I've reported it in the bug thread. I can't see any sensible workaround. You could copystats existing mages I guess,.. but basically it seems like the mod commands to do with magic are all broken.

I imagine as a result of the odd linked randoms added for the new nations.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Wow, thanks for the insight. It makes sense to me now.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

I'll release a 1.0 or 1.1 version of this real soon with various little tweaks and bugfixes.

The addition of a sixth hero slot is very useful for this nation - my workaround was having one hero as a multihero and making him unique so you couldn't get two.

I don't think there will be any new content,... though I am considering making a couple of warhammer racial magic items into spells. Fellblade for instance could be a unique summon of a regular warlord with perma berserk/insanity wielding a sword that harms him, but is very, very powerful.

Re: Vermin Lord - Hail the Rats (and Sombre)
 

Just dropping a line to say great mod Sombre (like all you mods I've tried, really loved the exile one myself) and hope you carry on all the fantastic work you do.

P.S I don't mean to sound rude, so I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but are you going to finish that war wind mod you were working on? I remember going through the mod forum and seeing it, and looking at the last post date and thinking "damn, I don't want to raise this one from the dead...hopefully he hasn't forgot it"... it's just I really used to love war wind when I was a kid, great game, infact I think I've got the second one somewhere, I'll have to dig it out.

Anyway hopefully that doesn't come off as rude or anything, trouble with words and the lack of writting abillity, yeah like I said great work and I'm looking forward to the day I can load up dom3 with rats, chaos, orcs, empire, elf, dwarf and all that jazz.

Once again thanks for the great mod.

Re: Warwind mod
 

You don't sound rude at all. It is kind of ridiculous that I've left in untouched for so long and sort of shelved it. I made a pretty good start on it after all.

The next modding I plan to do is just updating Skaven to 1.0 with reordered unit IDs and a variety of tweaks. Little bit of new content too. The nation will then be 95% finished in my eyes. This will probably happen by the end of today.

After that I will go back to the Tharoon mod and I will have a serious try at adding more content (rogues, assassins and jump troops at least). That said I am currently NOT planning on doing the 3 other warwind races. Though I do hope to do them some way down the line, I have to prioritise work on warhammer nations that I've already started above them, as well as needed updates to already released mods.

So if anyone has comments on Skaven make them ASAP before I update, as usual.

Re: Warwind mod
 

Ummm ... it remains superb.

Re: Warwind mod
 

Yes, jolly good. Keep the Pretender, but jolly, jolly good. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: Warwind mod
 

Don't worry, I haven't deleted the seerlord, just dropped his price to 0 :]

Just going through ID numbers now.

Re: Warwind mod
 

Sombre, you make Pretenders like Stradivarius made guitars http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/Sick.gif