New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

Hoburg Champions just not enough for you?

I say it's time to do justice to the little people of Dominions II. If you're up for a diminutive adventure, try this mod that replaces Ulm with a nation of slighty inebriated, heavily-armed dwarves.

Let me know what you all think and please offer help or suggestions if you see things that need improvement. Thank you.

*edit: The file has now been updated to include the full names list which I omitted on first upload.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

First, I really like the mods banner and the units animations...

Although like the animation of the theme (the background for the GUI windows) I think it should be more transparent, as it is, it catches the eye and makes it hard to see the window content.

Also I see the mod comes with a new pretender, the stone king. Is it meant for earth bless strat?

I like the units, mostly the paladins and bolt thrower.

I'm not sure a dwarf scout is thematic.

The blessable mages are very good.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

Zepath, seeing how you are making such nice mods I thought maybe I'll throw something your way in the hopes that it kindles your interest http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

There are two things I really would have like to see a mod for.
The first is the drow, aka dark elves. At least the way they are described by RA salvatore or maybe the similar to their representation in masters of magic.

The second could be a huge undertaking and probably not feasible but I'll say it anyway. It is a mod that reflects the noble houses of George Martine's song of ice and fire.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

dude your mods hate me, i opened it and unzipped it to /mods and the folder isnt there... the only mods that havnt worked for me are yours (which sound like some of the best imo)

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

About the dark elves, and mods in general:
Check out Conquest of Elysium. Illwinter's first game with some interesting features that weren't transferred into Dominions series, it includes elves and dark elves, as well as trolls and draconians and dwarves. Dwarves specialized in siege engines, and had worm riders, and few other things.

Congrats on being able to do so many mods, especially the graphics.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

I would be quite interested in creating more mods. However, I'm still trying to iron out the kinks in those I've already made, and I have certain professional obligations that will be occupying much of my time through the next few weeks.

Dark Elves and/or Drow sound like a fascinating pursuit and would make a good replacement for Ermor or Vanheim. It would be exciting to play as the Drow against the Forest of Loren or vice versa. However, I don't know very much about the lore surrounding classic Forgotten Realms Drow or their representation in MoM. The only Dark Elves I've ever learned much about are those from the Warhammer miniatures game by Games Workshop. It will take some planning, but this is a good idea.

As for the houses from Song of Ice and Fire, I know nothing. You'll have to fill me in. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

*edit: Since Dominions 3 is on the horizon and is supposed to have even greater modding freedom (?) perhaps I'll keep these ideas on the back burner and pay them full attention with the new game.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

DomII mods will work with DomIII. Even then, new modding commands will probably appear.

IIRC, all themes will become their own nations, and that'll make it possible to edit e.g. Helheim of Vanheim into Dark Elves. The current Svartalfs (svart-black, alf-elf) are the Scandinavian version, more or less the dwarves of generic fantasy.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

If you like reading books I'd recommend for you the "Dark elf trilogy" by R.A. Salvatore. This, I'm sure, will give you plenty of ideas for drow.

George Martin's ice and fire is another matter. It is imho one of the best fantasy stories and a must read. I'd recommend that you grab a copy of "A game of thrones" and start the journey.

It is true that dominions III is on the horizon. However it is possible that it will support DOM-II mods to some (large?) extent.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

Lets wait and see. I'm not sure of that but I hope you are right.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

Post#309770

It's not as positive as I remembered, an old post, and things have changed since...

At least we know that the old maps were playable a year ago, when Faerun wasw mentioned in one of the DevDiaries.

From the discussion in that thread, I'd quess most modding commands stay the same, but if e.g. a new unit has been added the modded units' ids must be changed, etc, which might even be possible to automate with a script of some kind.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

I've had some friends who've read Martin's series and loved it, but as I remember those books are heavy enough to kill someone with and I've never picked them up. I usually prefer science fiction over fantasy; e.g. Foundation, Starship Troopers, Ringworld, Hyperion, etc.. Nevertheless I am an avid reader and will have plenty of time for that sort of thing in the coming year. So, I may finally pick up one of Martin's novels.

On the issue of Dom3 and mods. It would be no problem to change simple things in a .dm file like unit ID number. That's why we have the Replace command http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif It's good to hear that mods will be at least similar in Dom3 if not totally compatible. My only worry now is that the graphics in Dom3 will advance considerably. If each monster had, for instance, more than two animations it would increase modding time significantly.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

yay, you know about warhammer dark elves (does this mean we can have war hydras?) but seriosuly, alot of warhammer armies would make good nations imo (vampire counts, PLEASE)

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

I must admit the Warhammer Vampire Counts army that replaced the old Undead army I used to play is quite cool. In Dominions, it would be an awesome variation for Ermor, but I'm not certain if it is possible to give new creatures the power to summon soulless, ghouls, and the like. And it wouldn't seem right to make undead recruitables.

However, a nation that used vampires as commanders and mages and dark elves as its infantry... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the Vampire Counts miniatures from Games Workshop:

http://us.games-workshop.com/games/w...og/default.htm

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

Reanimation comes from Unholy priest levels. The nation effects which undead are summoned. If you replace Soul Gate commanders with Vampire Counts, and they have unholy levels, they summon SG special undead. I think all of the SG special undead are unique to SG. Some interesting possibilities...

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

In the case of a Vampire Counts mod the reanimations of Ashen Empire would better fit. The army in Warhammer is primarily composed of skeletal undead and zombies/thralls/ghouls. The longdead are quite similar to this. If I went down this path, I would revamp all the standard undead summons for Ashen Empire.

I'm inspired to investigate this further and may start planning a mod in this vein, but I'm only a few days from leaving for a month-long obligation. Guess it'll have to wait 'til March to be made. When can we expect Dom3?

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

I would probably mod base ermor instead of SG/AE. give them quite a good amount of starting undead and have wolves, bats, vampires and probably black knights and some other elite units. give vampires decent unholy lvl and death magic (maybe even have the different bloodlines)

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

I've already started thinking about it and you reinforced many of the ideas I came up with or drew from other material. If only I had more time! Leaving in a few days...

*edit: shovah, have you still not been able to load my mods?

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

With Ashen Empire, the nation would either get six types of longdead, or the Reanimation would be changed. Soul Gate has about more unique creatures, IIRC.

You could use summoning rituals from either theme, as both themes have restricted summon spells summoning spesific creatures not used elsewhere. I don't know about the miniatures' world, so you're probably right and Ashen Empire fits better.
It would be nice to be able to mod that Ghoul Hoburg theme, somehow.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

in the table top its basically the living units i said, commander by vampire counts, thralls, necromancers (human and vampire) and the ocasional different commander.
theres also banshees (in very limited numbers) and spirit hosts (basically a bunch of etheral guys again in small numbers) summoning wouldnt really suit as most things are/were alive (eg vamps and necros) or are reanimated for free (hence death magic for battle raising and unholy for making real armies)
they have a core of lumbering undead made from skeletons and zombies (skeletons would be like those in game but i would say zombies should be more easily reanimated but around defence 2 attack 4) and reanimating ghouls fit as undead use ghouls.

a fitting commander would be the starter of one of the 5 bloodlines, and it would certainly make for an interesting race (quite like base ermor but with more combat suited leaders)
and no i havnt been able to get the mods working, maybe some-one could attach them to a post instead of you and i could try (ive kind of given up)

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

Try this. This is rar instead of zip. Maybe it will work for you. Dont forget to decompress in Dominions2/mods folder with folder structure intact.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

daynarr i love you! halls of the underkings is now officially up and running

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

Glad to be of assistance. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
Still have no idea why you had problems in the first place, though. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

yea, same here. and would just like to congradulate zepath on a great mod, it seems like what ulm wants to be when it grows up (and i love me fire bola, boots of strength and gurdle of might under kings with massed hurlers and ballistaes) and i cant seem to find anything explotable unlike alot of other mods ive tried (which spoils it imo)

edit: one comment would be berserk +10 on woad raiders seems a little high, while its fun and makes them easy to kill it slaughters jotuns (even neifel jotuns, which ive just tested)

ps: daynarr, do you want to attach the other mods in their respective threads to one of your posts?

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

Impressive mod. I like it a lot (didn't have time to play much).

Dom2 mods will be almost compatible with dom3. You will probably need to change some stuff to make them work, but basically it will be the same.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

maybe stuff like changiong unit numbers ect? and i agree its a good mod (and any guys that survive their first hit and get that +10 berserk... priceless)

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

I especially like the paladins... with an E9 blessing from the Stone King, a half-dozen of them make great indie-chompers (27 prot with Legion of Steel). I even tried a game against Ermor (the AI picked Ashen Empire, of course) and 18 or so could hold their own against a couple hundred undead. If I had not picked Drain3 I might have been able to get some relief and regen casters, but of course I eventually got swamped. They might be a little underpriced http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I appreciate all the effort that must have gone into this; I like having lots of options for troops.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

i took drain too, and my research was, well, appaling. i also find the axe throwers backed by balistaes to be useful (and the higher end commanders can make ok thugs)

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

I would also love to see Warhammer and Song of Ice and Fire nations in Dominions. There is already a elves mod made, Forest of Lorean, I have yet to play.

Others that would translate well:
Bretonnians - Nation of Knights and cheap men at arms/bowmen
Orcs and Gobbos: Boar Boys, Shammans, Big Uns all would work well.
Skaven - Cheap fragile hard with some elites mixed in
Chaos - All three would be perfect, but I'd love to see Hordes of Chaos. Powerful expensive mages, Top Tier infantry and Knights, great thugs in chaos lords/champions, cheap light infantry and calvary.

And of course with every warhammer race, comes supplied with their own heros.

I have Army builder, and the Codex for Empire and Chaos (the last 2 editions) if you need any help with stats and thematics.

Basically any nation that doesn't rely on seige weapons would work well.

For the Song of Ice and Fire, I don't know how you would best do it. Magic doesn't play a large role, so having multiple houses without magic wouldn't be good. That would have to be thought out pretty well.

Overall though, if you haven't read the books, I would strongly strongly recommend them. I enjoy sci-fi as well, but this is truely one of the best novels I have read. Its the story more then the setting that sets it apart. Martin spins a tale that takes you on a roller coaster ride. It definatley doesn't follow the same blueprint of traditional tales. He really deserves all the accolades this series has recieved.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

just a note on the warhammer concept: skaven rely quite a bit on seige weaponry (well warp weaponry technically) and you forgot a few races:

ogres - tough, fast infantry with gobbo support

dwarves - we have this mod (though its missing an anvil of doom)

tomb kings - free undead spawns and recruitable chariots and skeletal bowmen

vampire counts - vampires and necromancers for leaders (aswell as the occasional wight lord) with banshees and graveguards as elites and zombies, skeletons, ghouls, wolves, and bats

dark, high and wood elves im not too sure about

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

Someone already mentioned VCs, so I figured the undead were covered.

Dwarves rely on siege more then skaven do. I have seen multiple skaven armies with just hordes of troops.

Every army has a seige weapon now, but most armies don't need them. High Elves would probably make the best transition to the dominions game. They have great wizards, elite calvary, archers, and solid infantry.

Priests would have to be conjured out of warhammer lore. Every race in warhammer believes in gods, but not every army has a Priest in the army list.

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

high elves are generally just shoot you and blow you up with fancy magic till you die and a;though i agree with the dwarf comment (alot of cannons/organ guns/engineers ect)i like this mod too much

Re: New Mod: Halls of the Underkings
 

A bump for this excellent Nation.