.com.unity Forums - Mod Urdheim, The Infinite Horde

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Hello everyone.

I'm your friendly neighborhood long-term lurker. I've decided to step out of the shadows, because I've been working on some mods for quite a long time (just for my own amusement), and one of them is (IMHO) getting to a level where, with significant balancing and some additional attackgraphics/polishing, it could be enjoyable for others. The reason, of course, is that I've enjoyed so many great mods by the community (and of course the basic game itself; Thank you devs and modders!), so I'd like to give back. This is my third new nation mod, which is called 'Urdheim, The Infinite Horde' and consists of kobolds and dragonkin, lead by Half-dragon mages. I'd like it eventually to have moderate to above average balance when compared to most vanilla nations.

This is inspired heavily by DND kobolds, and the name Urdheim, comes from old-school dnd winged kobolds known as Urds. It should be noted there are no Urds per se in the nation, though there is some decent variety amongst the bloodlines of the kobolds. I've also pursued about every fantasy resource freely available on the web on all topics related to kobolds, draconians, dragonkin, drakes, half-dragons, and all things draconic.

I suppose I'd also like to see the level of interest in a Kobold Nation. I should have a beta download ready either this weekend or the next one. By posting this, I am basically committing myself to finishing it, which helps along with positive interest in the community, as far motivation goes. (It's hard to stay motivated after spending hundreds of hours scouring the web for reference pictures for sprites, and various sources for ideas for units.)

Anyway here's the detailed nation info:

Era: Early
#descr "A nation of Kobolds. Kobolds are tiny and weak lizardlike creatures possessing great speed. They are aggressive, xenophobic, yet quite industrious. Kobolds are noted for their skill at using poison, building traps, preparing ambushes, and mining. While having longer lifespans than humans, they reach adulthood in a matter of months, and breed frequently and in great numbers. They claim to be distantly related to dragons, which they worship as deities."
#summary "Race: Kobolds. Military: Small and stealthy light infantry with good leaders. Prefer Heat 1."

MAGIC: Fire=4, Earth=3, Death=2, Water=1, Nature=1
PRIESTS: LVL=1, sacred Ascendants

Numbers used in mod:
-- Weapon 880-898
-- Armor 380-381
-- Monsters 2865-2899
-- Sites 880-881
-- Nation 78

Fortresses:
Capital: Cave City
Default: Cave Fort
Farmland: Motte-and-bailey
Mountain: Cave Castle
Swamp: Swamp Fort
Forest: Forest Fortress

Province Defense:
Commander at def 1: Kobold Warchief
Units at def 1+: 2x Kobold, 1.5x Kobold Lt. Infantry
Commander at def 20: Kobold Sorceror
Units at def 20+: 1x Kobold Med. Infantry, 0.5x Firebrand

Strengths: Strong if highly focused magic, Stealthy and highly mobile troops, tough sacred unit, some potent national spells, good province defense, small production bonus.

Weaknesses: Weak priests, most units are cold-blooded, most units wear no armor, lack of true archers or cavalry, morale problems, no recruitable sacreds.

Kobolds have stealth, cold-blooded, 25% resist-fire, mountain survival, 50% darkvision, and are size 1.
Also: good leadership, good speed, good attack/def, good magic-resistance, pathetic hitpoints, low strength, poor morale.

kobold regular should have:
5 hp
6 str
11 att
11 def
4 prot
9 mor
12 mr
4 enc

units recruitable:
kobold (shortspear)
kobold skirmisher (shortspear/net)
kobold raider (hammer/torch) + pillage + animalawe
kobold light infantry (shortspear/shield/^poison dagger)
kobold medium infantry (shortspear/scale/cap/shield/^poison bolt)
kobold miner (pickaxe/pickaxe) + siegebonus + defense
$ firebrand (fireblast/firebreath) + fireimm. + gluttony + (nostealth)
$@ winged hellion (firespikes/barbed tail) + magicbeing + blind + heat + fireimm. + flying + (nostealth)

commanders recruitable:
kobold ranger (shortspear/net trap/leather) + stealth10 + spy + patrol + okleader + wastesurvival
kobold warchief (shortspear/^poison bolt/blades trap/scale/cap/shield) + summons 5 light infantry + good leader
kobold firelord (fireblast/firebreath/plate) + awe + makes 1 firebrand + gluttony10 + incunrest3 + (nostealth) + excellent leader
waterborn (quarterstaff) + amphibian + poisonres + (100% water/nature random) + (nostealth)
blessed one (magicstaff) + amphibian + poisonres + sacred + 1 holy + (120% water/nature random) + (nostealth) + supplybonus 20
kobold summoner (claw/summonflame) + makes 1 ash wyvern + animalawe + supplybonus 20
kobold sorceror (magicstaff) + 2 fire + 1 earth + 1 death + (100% earth/death random) + (10% fire/earth/death random)
@ scion of glaurung (claw/firebreath) + sacred + 3 fire + 1 holy + (20% fire) + (20% fire/earth random) + flight + heataura + (-research) + (nostealth)
@ scion of sirrush (claw/firebreath) + sacred + 3 earth + 1 holy + (20% earth) + (10% death) + regeneration + fire/poison immunity + siegebonus + (-research) + (nostealth)

makemonster unit summon:
Ash Wyvern (Same as normal wyvern, except: Size 3, -2 strength, +50% fireres)
Magma Drake (Sacred Drake on steroids, can go berserk, is weak to cold, bonus in hot provinces, and costs some gold upkeep)

ritual unit summons:
Kobold -Conj. 0 x30 E ( 5 earth gems)
Glaurung Ascendant -Conj. 0 x4+ FFFF (16 fire gems)
Kobold Skirmisher (farsummon) -Conj. 2 x30+ EEF (12 earth gems)
Kobold Raider (farsummon) -Conj. 4 x40+ EEEFF (18 earth gems)
Cursed One -Conj. 5 x2 DD ( 2 death gems)
Ancient Gargoyle -Ench. 7 x1 EEEA (20 earth gems)

ritual commander summons:
Dragon Ancestor -Conj. 3 x1 DDE (12 death gems)
Draconic Demilich -Conj. 8 x1 DDDDD (80 death gems)

heros:
Kobold Strider (Wicked Polearm/Strider Claws) + rejuv. + excellent leader + standard
Kobold Evoker (Staff of Withering) + 2 fire + 2 earth + 2 death + 2 (fire/earth/death) random + fear + rejuv.
Scion of Abraxas (Enchanted Sword/Lightning) + sacred + 2 air + 1 holy + shockimm
Master Summoner (Partial Displacement) + Summon MagmaDrake

pretender:
Ancient Dracolich
Arcane Dragonstone

$ = I was for a long time considering throwing mounted firedrake riders, or flying wyvern cavalry into the kobold mix, but for the following reasons I went with a different route: 1. they seemed way too far on the strong/expensive side of the scale, 2. along with cavalry seeming unthematic for kobolds, and 3. the firedrake riders being too reminiscent of Agarthan caveknights.
^ = 1 time use only ranged weapon
@ = Capital Only

As for their idiosyncrasies and things to consider;
1. It should be noted they have no sacred recruitables, though they have a potent early sacred summon that about 30% of their Glaurung Scions can cast. Large sacred armies should still be quite a rarity nonetheless.
2. They also possess some potent farsummons, which definitely help in the ambush concept.
3. The sorcerors can combatsummon skirmishers on the edge of the map (a la the howl spell), for even more ambush feel.
3. While they have no archers per se, the firebrands are more of a close-range artillery, though they are very fragile and as often as not, get themselves, or other kobolds killed.
4. The ranger is an incredible commander (spy, 3 mapmove leader/raider, and patroller), though it suffers from over-generalization and thus is somewhat expensive for any of the various roles it could fill.
5. They are highly mobile. With a mapmove spread of 2 to 3 (& mountain survival) they generally are fast responders.
6. Powerful battlemage thugs in the form of the two scions, should be on par (or almost there) with both Neifel Jarls, and Yomi's Dai Oni.
7. The cheapest mage has only 1 random, and no base magic, and so can be recruited without a lab.
8. While all kobolds possess natural armor, most units don't wear any normal armor, so most earth-based protection boosters won't benefit much.
9. Summoners are not sacred, and quite expensive, but Ash wyverns have no upkeep, and the summoners themselves possess a very good ranged attack (at least in the early game).
10. They start off with 2 fire, 2 earth, and 1 death gems. This is less than the usual early age 6, but it is more than made up for by a gold and resource bonus site, and a death magic scry site "The Obsidian Sphere". Both of which go hand in hand with kobolds industrious/mining nature, and their stealth/spying concept. For RP purposes, one can call the latter an artifact from a long lost dragon's horde.
11. An extrapolation of #2 and #10, the precision scrying works wonders with the farsummons, for precision raids on unguarded or lightly guarded areas.
12. Cursed Ones possess both melee and ranged strength draining attacks, this is effective at whittling away small/tough armies, and can combine quite well with firetrap spamming sorcerors.
13. Due to their poor encumbrance, battles involving lots of kobolds tend to be won quickly or not at all.

As a bit of a preview, I put together an image of some of the recruitable kobold units.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...ldinfantry.jpg

Edit1: Here's some more units, as promised:
Glad to hear all the positive responses, more unit stats will come later.

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...ndomunits2.jpg

Edit2: Here's some unit stats as promised:

Glaurung Ascendant (size 3) (sword/firebreath/helmet/plate/towershield) + sacred + fire imm. + neednoteat

Cursed One (steal strength/curse/weakness/weakness) + ethereal + cold/poison imm. + amphibian + magic being + lifeless + stealthy + neednoteat + blind + affliction chance

Ancient Gargoyle (size 5) (claw/claw) + flying + blind + lifeless + magicbeing + noheal + neednoteat + fire/cold/shock res. + poison imm.

Dragon Ancestor (size 6) (lifedrain) + 3 holy + sacred + immobile + heat + neednoteat + spreaddom + incunrest-2 + nobadevents5 + fire/poison imm. + lifeless + noheal + blind + (smallgoldupkeep)

As for the rest about the Draconic Demilich, I think I'll save it as a bit of a surprise in the mod.