Re: Ulm beefed up ...
 

I did say it was fearsome. Bear in mind that this mega-smith would NOT be sacred, unlike most top-tier mages, and would be expensive to upkeep.

Even so, I have to agree that it would probably be overpowered, with all the mad forging opportunities.

Alternative Ulm magic ideas:

Apprentice Smiths: A new, low-tier caster for Ulm. One pick in Earth, as well as drain-immunity and the forging bonus. Should probably cost about 70 gold. The inclusion of this unit would enhance Ulm's magical abilities by providing a more efficient researcher and low-level forger, freeing up Master Smiths for more important duties. The apprentice wouldn't be particularly useful on the battlefield. You could get him up to Earth-3 with Earth boots and Earth Power, which might be worth it, although Master Smiths are probably a better choice to give items to.

Alchemists: Ulm has an alchemist pretender, so why not give them regular alchemists, with one earth, one fire and one astral? At a reasonable cost. No forge bonus or drain-immunity for them, of course. But even so, that single astral pick would give them a smattering of new strategies to pursue, most notably crystal matrixes. The 50% bonus to alchemy would be handy as well; possibly TOO handy.

Re: Ulm beefed up ...
 

I agree too that a 2nd weak mage would be nice for ulm imo .

An Earth 1 apprentice could though forge nothing useful expect boots of earth with a pair of boots of earth on him . So without forge of ancients up he would be only useful as researcher probably .
As you said making him able to cast blade wind on the battlefield is not worthy it as well because every normal ulm smith can do this without empowering and additionaly can do magma eruption as well .

The alchemist is not a bad idea imo . For the purpose of alchemizing you need only 1 alchemist though .
Earth + fire magic lvl 1 you don't need also because you have this on your mastersmiths .
So once you find sages or similiar the alchemist becomes obsolete unfortunately probably as well .
Finally i think it is not possible to give units alchemy bonus by modding commands .


Maybe ulm should get a 2nd mage like a sage with 1 random , could be fully random or a sorcery random or an elemental random .
Ulm as a good research nation is wrong though imo as well .


Ulms main problem is probably that it has nothing against Airnations . At least nothing half cost effective .

Giving ulms smiths though 1 random makes them too powerful because of their cheap forging .

Giving them only 1 higher earth or fire magic is problematic as well , especially the earth magic .
Giving them any other additional magic is unthematic as well .

Re: Ulm beefed up ...
 

What about giving them a 2nd mage with 2 randoms , but no good research , no forgeboni , no good stats , no drainimmunity ?
Price 90-120 gold , not sacred .

They can be considered to be bought but are mainly only useful for some forging + some lowlvl summoning + some sitesearching .

On the other hand a spectre is exactly that anyways http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

So the only thing to improve them without changing the master smiths or adding a 2nd mage would be to make ulms troops really the best in the game .

One approach would be to give them non-capitol only blessable troops .
Another would be to make 1 or 2 elite warriors which are very expensive resourcewise , but equipped with e.g. rainbow armors or anything similiar to make them a bit tougher against the powerful airspells .

Re: Ulm beefed up ...
 

I think the 2E1F1R Smith is the only logical solution to make Ulm's theme as a forging nation valid.
As it has been pointed out before, Ulm is supposed to forge lots of items, but seriously, without at least one random there isn't much worth forging.
Or, if 2E1F1R is supposed to be too strong, why not 2E1R?

Re: Ulm beefed up ...
 

If you make the ulm master smiths stronger though you make Iron faith completely undesireable .

Re: Ulm beefed up ...
 

I could find myself warming to two different master smiths...one with 2E1F and one with 2E1R (and maybe making it a random elemental path). Especially if the ones with random were capital-only.

It is encouraging to see folks try to beef up ulm a bit for multiplayer. I see many situations in which defense ends up being more important that sheer protection which is Ulm's forte.

The amount of forging that can be done without the independent magi is quite limited. And empowerment is extremely expensive. (It would be nice if you could empower for forging purposes (and site searching purposes) only for a lesser cost and not be able to use the path for ritual spells or in combat...this would be more thematic for ulm. Powerful forged items but weak battle magic and limited summons.)

I am still amazed that folks have suggested 3E2F1R. That would arguably make ulm the most powerful nation in the game.

Ulm would really benefit from a random elemental magic, especially air, for eyes of aiming on the smiths without having to put air magic on the pretender or get extremely lucky with magic sites.

Interesting discussion. I agree that ulm needs better capital-only troops...perhaps something nice with a strat move of 2 whether or not it is blessable.

Re: Ulm beefed up ...
 

Fix Iron faith after you fix Ulm. Iron faith is pathetically weak anyway.

2E1F1R ( elemental ) seems to be a fine fix. However their cost should be bumped slighty.

Re: Ulm beefed up ...
 

The problem is that forging wise even with base ulm already a lot can be done , especially in lategame .

Ulm can sell dwarfen hammers for blood or hunt itself .
Then empower smiths in blood which is "quite" cheap .

Then you can forge bloodstones at greater discount than anyone and soul contracts and hellswords/blood thorns/armor of souls .

Other empowering is of course too expensive . But a random elemental leads to a big number of W smiths and smiths clamhoarding is athematic . Ulm would become probably the best clamhoarder then .

Re: Ulm beefed up ...
 

Another Idea that would make Ulm something special...
What about giving the smiths higher paths, but take their abilitiy to cast spells. They would be "Forge only" mages, unrivaled in producing things (with maybe 2 in each kind of magic), but useless on the battlefield.

Re: Ulm beefed up ...
 

Would be a great idea for dom 3 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .

In dom 2 it is not possible though afaik http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif . Maybe it is implemented in a new patch though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .



What about the following new mastersmiths ?

E2F1N1 . This way they can forge endless bags of vine .
And in combat they can cast eagle eye for higher precision magma eruption / blade wind .

I am still against giving them E3 or any random .
If they can get E3 their combat abilities would be really greatly enchanced :
With earthboots + summon ep they can cast weapons of sharpness + petrify without needing gems .
Forgingwise they can forge dwarfen hammers asap and need no earthboots .

So what would you think about earthsmiths with E2F1N1 for 150 gold ?