Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.27


Added hot fixes for blessing type spells by Dr. Praetorious.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

I didnt like the plume on "Maester", so I changed the helm a bit.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Only had enough time to glimpse the mod. Its very pretty!
I hope to have time to play test is soon...

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

I looked at the spreadsheet but I've been too busy with the end of the quarter to try it. It looks really cool and I'm going to test it over break! Thanks for producing these mods!

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Changed "Ghoul" sprite. Head Hunter's cost changed.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

I played a bit of a game with this and i liked it. Fun concept,nice art,and decent implementation. Every other mod i have tried except one has been obviously and massively overpowered, but this one seemed ok. Good job and thanks!

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Trust me, its overpowered. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif It's just not as noticeable as in my other mods. Head Hunter is a real balance breaker.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.02

-Minor graphics changes;
-New pretender "Reborn Emperor".

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.03

-Added a unit.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.04

Fixed a conflict between weapon numbers of "Horror" and "Theran" mods.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Amos, I didn't find the Headhunter unit itself terribly overpowered, but I could see it being, with certain strategies. if you feel it is, maybe you could redo just that unit and balance everything out? It's a good mod and worth being playable against the "vanilla" nations.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

I play mostly against my nations and Ermor. So I need every advantage I can get. Thats one of the reasons I made the Head Hunter. But the main reason for his high blood hunting is that I don't like the micromanaging of it. Two Hunters in a non-profitable province with 0 taxes and my blood needs are satisfied. After all in both Theran and Horror mods the priests cant preach, so you need blood. Head Hunter is not horribly overpowered but if you choose a blood strategy he becomes the main unit.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Unless I'm wrong, Head Hunter only has 1 blood. That's not so bad, although maybe his cost could be raised to 130 gold to make him a little pricier than EA Abyssia's Warlock Apprentice?

Amos, I really enjoy your mods. Are you planning to do a prequil in the same er vein (no pun intended)? I hope so, as I'd love to see what you'd come up with for an Early Age Nation (since, unless I'm wrong, you've got Horrors for the Middle Era and Vampires for the Late Era). Maybe something based on the inhabitants of Tartarus (undead titans, cyclopes, etc.), just off the top of my head?

Your artwork is excellent, your nations are about as inherantly creepy as anything I'd expect in Dom3 (and considering they're humans, as alien and inhuman as any human nation ever needs to be), and I really enjoy the feeling that there's a lot of "story" going on in these nations, behind the scenes. It's definitely (as far as I know) original too, and very impressive because of that.

Do you happen to have any lengthier backstory I could read?

I'd also like to see the Tetsu when they were still young and in the midst of the other "old clans".

Thanks for all the goodness!

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

The Head Hunter has a #douse 3 and #researchbonus -4 so balancing him against a Warlock Apprentice will be a little difficult.

I'm trying to finish Nephilim middle era, but I just cant find the time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif.

The narrative and the backstory are all in my head, I'm afraid. But I borrowed the Horrors idea from the same source as the devs of Dom - the "Earth Dawn" series.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.06

All undead had their cold resistance reduced to 50%.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.07

A lot of small changes to the sprites.
Head hunter's douse and price reduced.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.08

-Gave Tetsu chain armor (they were too lightly armored for Late Era) and changed the sprites;
-Lowered prices on most units (they were too high).

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.09

Added a fourth hero (as he gets hurt he gets more powerful versions of berserker);
Tweaked pretender's cost lowered his magic;
Other small changes.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.10

Lowered natural protection for vampires.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Are my knights of the blood rose meant to be unblessable by grand maesters(or anyone for that matter. Even prophetised living commanders cant)? Even without the bless the knights are great but i would love to see them with my e9w9 bless.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

It's the "undead cant be blessed" bug. There is a mod fixing that somewhere on this forum.


Changed Rage's armor to Plate Cuirass.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Slight price adjustment:

Tetsu Apprentice 10gp
Tetsu Veteran 13gp
Black Legionnaire 24gp

I believe now its more vanilla friendly.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Hmm, well I'll mark it as such in the modlist in the near future. I think vanilla balance (or near about) will attract more people to the mod.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Im not sure about vanilla balanced, those sacred vampire troops are pretty insane.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

This nation was so close to vanilla already there was no reason not to balance it further. Though, vampires are still incredibly powerful when it comes to independents. I cant change their stats without hurting the spirit of the mod. The only thing I can do is play with their price but the change should be within the limits of the formula I use for the rest of the units or I break the inner balance of the mod (meaning, you will only use 1-2 of the units in any given game like you do in vanilla. The more I balance it against vanilla the more I make it so.).

I cant resist my natural tendencies to overpower http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif . So I wouldn't add it to the Mod List as balanced. I wish there was a way of giving vampires disease spreading ability (signifying their feeding on population) without making them unique or ethereal. I gave the troops Harvesters number but I guess it only works on leaders cause it didnt take.


My solution is: I removed natural protection from all vampires, but gave them 50% regeneration.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.12

I believe this version balances the vampires.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

True that often vanilla favours using 1 or 2 of the elite units (usually sacreds). I try to keep variety in my mods by balancing the units only roughly to vanilla standards, but trying to make the nation overall no more powerful than an average vanilla one. That way you can keep variety but it won't be so easy to roll over vanilla opponents.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.13

Lowered def,mr and mor on vampire units.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.14

Changed Vampire(405) and Vampire Lord(404) stats and sprites (I think they look more like vampires now). I'll also change, in a later version, the Vampire Count(1019) and the Blood Marshal(1035).

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.15

-Changed Vampire Count(changed sprites, weapon as well as def, regen and cold res);
-Changed Blood Marshal(Ulm hero's def, regen and cold res);
-Added national spell(True Blood Master has the same sprite as Vampire and True Blood because those are essentially the same unit. If you cast Gift of Reason on True Blood it will become Master. As opposed to those two Vampire doesnt have domsummon. You will need very high dominion to get any True Bloods, thats why the Master has very low blood cost. If you dont count the domsummon he is just a weak commander);
-Thrall's cost is lowered to 9 gp.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Added another unit- Tetsu Applicant.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.16

Gave all vampires 50% fire vulnerability to show that they cant regenerate wounds inflicted by fire as well as other types of wounds.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.17

Added offensive blood spell.
Vampire and True Blood fire resist changed to -75.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.18

-Thrall's changes: mor 18, weapon changed to quarterstaff, cost 0 gp, no longer recruitable but summoned;
-Thrall Berserker mor 18;
-New summoning spell (summons 20 Thralls);
-All leader vampires (even if made so by Gift of Reason) domsummon20 Vampires;
-Vampire heroes (except for Rage) summon Vampires as allies;
-Other changes I cant remember.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Uploaded correct Thrall Berserker sprites.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.19

Added a fifth hero Red Cardinal (copied unique Belphegor[810]) that lowers dominion but automatically summons 5 Thralls (instead of Belphegors militia) and calls another new unit - the Red Monk. Belphegor is unaffected.
The spell "Create Thralls" obviously costs too much. Its not expected that a player will use it. It's there for a flavor and for AI summoning.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

You could make it so it didn't cost too much though, couldn't you?

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

1) No one really uses thralls if they have a choice. Its just a flavor unit.
2) It wouldnt make too much sense if you got 20 Thralls from 5 slaves (I could explain it as a cloning ritual or something but it would feel forced).

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Well you could just say the blood from 5 slaves is used in a ritual to dominate the minds of 20 villagers. Makes as much sense as 36 slaves or whatever to make a vampire.

People use thralls as chaff in the game, or for patrolling. They aren't entirely useless.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Before I changed the cost to 0 in the recent update the cost for the Thralls was 9gp. Most of the Tetsu cost 10gp and they are better armed and armored. Even if you want to use cheap troops for chaff and patrolling, the Tetsu are much better for this role. They dont get rolled over in the first turn by heavy cavalry like Thralls do. IMHO the Thralls are worthless as a unit.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.20

Ghoul Soldier changed to replace Thralls as chaff. Resource and money costs significantly lowered, mor 20, def 5 and noheal.
Added Death scale requirement to nation's description.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

I was thinking that if you just want interesting chaff, it might be fun to have thralls that, after a certain amount of damage has been done to them, a bat (with slight fear effect) explodes from their chests, where their heart used to be, and attacks.

It would still be a weak unit as a thrall with a pitchfork, and the bat would have like 1 hp and very low stats, but it would be thematically pretty spectacular to see a bloody bat exploding from a thrall's chest-cavity, it my opinion. You could have a somewhat tougher version that metamorphosed into a giant rat or even a wolf or a spider, or one with giant leeches bursting out of the still-living thrall to attack you, or even a high-level one possessed by a nasty demon. Maybe they could be national summons? It would be quite a surprise to attack a group of thralls, expecting to roll right over them, but then suddenly some of them are turning into monsters while others have monsters eating or exploding their way out of their own bodies to attack you.

That would make your basic thrall a really useful, still very weak unit, because it would serve as a camoflage for the more dangerous versions-you'd never know what you might get when you attack that group of thralls.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Added an even more chaff like Ghoul Soldier (9gp 5res).
I dont understand why Quarterstaff is a better weapon than a pitchfork.

HoneyBadger I was planing to use the "bat" idea for a multihero. Would be a shame to use it on chaff.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Still can! After all, the bat isn't really intended to be a new form as much as a last-ditch kind of shock-tactic.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

It's just an idle thought though-I think it would be neat to have "hidden" units that look like regular, everyday, weak units-if not in your excellent mod, then atleast some mod in the future.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

I got that in my Nephilim and Stigian mods.

As for bat form I decided to give it to True Blood Master. Otherwise he was just too weak. Now he turns into a giant bat. I'll upload when I'll finish testing.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.21

-True Blood Master turns into a monstrous Bat when hurt in battle;
-Blood Trap costs 30 slaves.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Changed Bat's sprites.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Changed Bat's attack sprite again. Other small graphical changes.

Re: New Mod: Reign of the Vampiri
 

Version 0.22

Inventory fixed.