Blademaster Era (V1.05)
 

This is sort of a quickie mod, not really a nation in and of itself. It instead takes a different path towards Jomon, the Late Age samurai nation. The reasons for this are 1: Because Dom2's Special Dominions were cool, 2: As said before, quickie mod, and 3: Because I needed practice editing the sprites of existing units. Still, it should (hopefully) be a unique and balanced look at a somewhat popular nation.

The premise is that, when the humans took over Shinuyama, they brought the curiosity of humankind with them. Thus, countless new weapons, varrying in weirdness, can now be seen among the Jomonese ranks.

Features of this mod include:

-7 new recruitable units, joining three from the normal Jomon.
-1 (boooooo!) new recruitable commander, joining all except one of the old Jomonese commanders.

Update History:
Version 1.05: Arm Blade defense reduced to 2, Arm Blade Samurai Ambidexterity reduced to 2, Sun Spear damage reduced to 4, Chaos Shield attacks once every other turn, Forge Magician bonus reduced to 10%, given a fire attack that wasn't stolen from a monster three times his size.

Coming soon from Uninspired Mods:
-A brief addition to the Mushroom Kingdom.
-Possibly a new map, if I turn out to be a half-decent artist.
Also keep an eye out for more additions to this one, if it gets a decent reception.

Jomon: Blademaster Era is brought to you by Uninspired Mods.

Have a complaint? Help improve our mods. In particular, as I suck at drawing my own sprites from scratch, any critique or comments on the sprites would be appreciated.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

Uninspired, my dad used to appraise swords for auction-houses (every time the local dealers wanted to auction off a sword, they'd call him to appraise it and that's how he made a living for a number of years). Anyway, he has several excellent books on antique and unusual weapons, a couple of which have been out of print for a number of years (one's been out of print for over 50 years). When I finally get my scanner back-he "borrowed" it from me for 2 years and counting, I'll see if I can scan some of the more exotic weaponry for you.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

Thanks, I'd appreciate that. I'm all for weird weapons.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

Me too, everything from shamshirs to holy water sprinklers to war boomerangs to scissors-khatars.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

It figures two mods would come out right after this one and overshadow it...

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

Thanks for the mod, UN. I'll give it a try.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

Hooray! Thanks for the pity. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

I've tried out your mod now UN. To be honest I'm not sure what to think of it. Your custom weapons are interesting.
Not very strong in suspending disbelief but interesting nonetheless. The trouble with fantastic weapons is that it's hard to make comparisons to RL weapons.

Armblades are way too effective due to the fact that one can use two of them at once. +6 defence is a bit over the top. Especially since there's no real downside to them. Put a +1 amibdexterity on this unit and add 3 base encumbrance. You get a good high damage unit that can tie up a lot of enemies but fatigues quickly. But why would a sword worn on your arm be a more defensive weapon? By looks alone it appears very very clumsy, though I guess that you could indeed put more weight into each stab (forget about cutting). Would make more sense to me to use this kind of weapon together with a shield. Seems very dangerous to have both your hands tied up like that.

The tripple katana is really wierd. I assume it would hurt a lot but with three blades would be very hard to pierce armor, and it would be way easier to parry. A katana would be exceptionally sharp but fragile so I assume there something more to it then two extra blades welded onto the same tang. Since it's basicly a huge claw it would benefit a lot from increased leverage. Perhaps you could remake it into some sort of polearm?

Turn the Wakashi and Flail into a single twohanded weapon. This weapon should be very effective since it can be used to disarm and confuse an opponent. I doubt it would function like a flail though (striking past a shield) but rather have a high attack value to symbolise the "lasso effect". This weapon would be hard to master so increase the gold cost of these units to reflect the training.

The Sunspear is fun. Sort of reminds me of a Spetum. Damage is way to high though. A Longspear is dam 4 and it would be way more balanced then this thing. It should be length 3 as well, possible even length 2 considering the way you must hold it. At the moment these guys go trough enemies like a hot knife trough butter, especially when teamed up with the armbladers.

The Chaos Shield is way out there. Sort of like cross between a spiked buckler and a chainsaw. With a W9 bless this guy can't be touched and drills trough everything. There's no reason to by anything but this unit since they tend to survive just about anything.

The Forge Magician has access to very good attack and defense magic. He's a thug right now and can quickly take on armies with just a few bodyguards. The forgebonus just adds insult to injury. He needs a handicap. Either make him old (with firemagic aging him quickly) or remove the forgebonus and the elite stats.

Just trying to give some constructive feedback.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

The idea behind the armblades is that A: it's much harder for the foe to stagger you or break your guard. Normal blades, since they're more extended and less, let's say fortified, can be knocked aside easier. Also B: that, due to the blade's 'back extension', it's much easier to block attacks to your sides. Think blocking with your arm, except it doesn't get hacked off. I will agree that the defense is much too high, though. I thought it would only actually count one of them. (My only past experience was with the Main Gauche of Parrying). Also, keep in mind that the stats for this weapon were based off the Katana (Grossly overpowered in my book), which means it, in fact, is clumsier. Probably not clumsier enough, though. And if its defense was any lower it wouldn't be any better a defensive choice than the Katana, except for a sort of cheat-y Ambidexterity bonus. Still, it definitely has too much defense.

Triple Katana... Yeah... I don't know how I got it in my head that would be easier to attack with. I would imagine it would be significantly easier to parry with, though, as the opponent's blade would be likely to get caught in-between your multiple ones. Unfortunately, that works the other way around as well.

The Wakizashi and Flail was based off the Kusari-gama, except I can't draw a Kama for the life of me.

The Sun Spear's stats were based off that of a Naginata (Like a glaive, except even tougher. They sort of overdid the japanese weapons.). I suppose that's not the best idea, considering the blade's really hard to cut with. Good call.

Ah, the Chaos Shield. I couldn't resist putting in at least one over-the-top one. Interestingly enough it gives less defense than the Arm Blades together, but they're overpowered too and I suppose it's put on top of a higher base defense.

I never thought of the Forge Magician as a Thug. He still goes down nigh-instantly to archers, fliers, or cavalry, and doesn't have much of a defense against any melee units that actually reach him. I don't see any "Elite stats", though, aside from two extra hit points and and militia-like attack and defense (Which might be pushing it), so I guess it would be the Flame Strike. I'll customize a new weapon instead of stealing from the Fire Elementals.

Thanks much for the feedback. I'll start a balance patch.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

Well the Forge Magician does go down quickly to archers if you just send him in alone. With a few troops to attract the initial fire he has time to cast invulnerability and then alternate between firecloud and bladewind. Thug is probably the wrong description but in my initial test five of these guys held two opposing nations at bay with just twenty Enlivened Statues acting as bodyguards.

I know the AI is a poor substitute for a real player it's just that these units are extremely efficient for their cost. Since they also get a forgebonus you can quickly give a bunch of them dwarven hammers and the churn out 1 fire helmets and 1 earthboots at very good discount.

If you ignore a bless strategy and go for heavy gold scales instead you can mass a respectable number of these mages quite quickly, use earth gems to summon bodyguards and fire gems to fuel battle spells.

The elite stats comment implied the unusually high stats for a mage unit, which wasn't really explained by their descriptions.

If the armblades are based on Katanas, instead of say indian Katars, it feels a bit odd. I understand the idea though, which would look great in a movie, but I feel it sort of works against the design of a sword. The units are sort of wielding katanas with their elbows, which is a bit curious. In RL you would get a lot better results by simply using reinforced bracers (or perhaps two smaller bucklers) while wielding two shorter blades.

I of course have nothing against your vision, which for a modder is by far more important then realism. Heck, if I can dominate the battlefield with a rapid snakewoman, that has two stacks of dogs coming out of her sides, armblades seem like the very foundation of logic. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

I'm glad you keep working on this mod. Would be great to see you expand on this idea with national summons. I'm sure these guys could come up with some nasty improvements on Clockwork Horrors.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

When I said based on, I meant stats. I didn't even know the Indians thought of it before I did. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

And weilding Katanas with elbows is sort of... Odd, but it also improves the weapon's weight and gives you more leverage. I guess it would probably require special training, though. Maybe I'll give it to a national hero.

I really was going for some believability with this one, (Okay, aside from the chainsaw shields and fire auras) so I really appreciate the input in this regard. Anyways, the patch is out.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

Couple things here: first of all, forget about the triple katana-it's just not a good structure for a weapon. Possibly it could work like a big rake as a polearm, but katana blades are too fragile for that kind of thing, generally, and the overall concept would be unwieldy if the blades were too long. I'd personally rather just be armed with a staff or a spear because then the balance wouldn't be off. You can talk claws, in which case the Indians and the Japanese both came up with some good ideas there, but they're much shorter, normally 6 inches or less, and as often as not lack blades, being just points. What gives katanas their excellence in combat is the single, razor sharp blade, and the skill of the samurai in using the weapon-a skill which is different than that of other swordfighting. The concept is somewhat similar for a glaive/naginada. A single heavy, relatively simple blade, designed for direct action, rather than other polearms which often used hooks or different types of weapons on a single shaft-ala the billhook, halberd, or lucern hammer. The Naginada was an evolution of the spear but also of the katana, rather than evolving from a farmtool like more of the European and Western polearms. Nunchaku (numchucks) were based on farm implements, as were other weapons, but not the Naginada. Infact, there's a type of weapon (I can't remember the name off the top of my head) that's in between a Naginada and a No-Dashi, featuring an extended handle (3-5 feet) and a blade that's almost the same length as the handle. Armblades are alright, and would provide some defense, although not as much as a shield or maybe even a buckler, especially against larger weapons, since you're taking more of the impact directly on your bone instead of distributing it along the face and length of the shield. Such weapons would also be very close, which is a disadvantage to defense as well as attack and while they'd be quick to use (which is why Gloves of the Gladiator allows 4 attacks), they may lose something in sheer power.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

I always thought Katanas, with the folded steel, were really durable as far as swords go. Though I still regret the Claw thing, and am trying to think of a suitable replacement. As for the arm blades, though, they actually extend pretty far outward. The extended backs are as much for balancing the blade as defense. And who's heard of weilding two bucklers?

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

the layers of steel do help, but the reason the swords are layered is to make the steel flexible while still enabling them to be sharpened to a razor edge, the edge being the more important aspect, because the sword needs to not only take an edge but hold it for a long time through severe but specialized use. They're really durable for what they're intended use is, but they weren't really made for cutting through heavy steel plate or shields or for directly parrying a Scottish broadsword, for example. You can turn blades with them, and you can cut through bamboo or even most kinds of armor, providing you have the skill necessary to use the blade correctly. Three blades next to each other would really reduce the ability to harness the skills involved. A katana isn't the weapon of a peasant farmer because the peasant farmer not only can't afford the sword, he also can't afford the time it takes to learn kendo properly.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

By the way, Uninspired, please don't regret that you made this mod, it's a great idea and I hope we get more diversity in weapons and other areas of Dom3. There are things that can be done just as you have envisioned them, it's just perhaps unfortunate that you settled on the name Katana, since that means a certain very specific thing used in a very specific way. I do appologise, I think perhaps my third post was more negative than I ever intentioned, and I hope it hasn't in any way put you off what certainly should be an interesting and useful mod.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

I definitely don't regret making this. Just the claw, because I ran out of ideas. If nothing else, it gave me good practice messing with the existing sprites, and I do plan on expanding on it. I still have one weapon reserved for a national hero. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I really do appreciate the constructive criticism.

Re: Mod: Blademaster Era
 

No problem, it's my pleasure. I've got a brain filled to the brim with useless and semi-useless information, and this forum is a great outlet for that. I've forgotten a lot of what I used to know about weapons, but if you've got any questions, I'll be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.
One area in Dom3 which I think has a great deal of untapped potential is that of passive position-denying weapons, namely caltrops and other such items. Especially in a magic-rich environment, one where-for mysterious reasons known only to the gods!!! (quewe background thunder gag) there are no field defenses or field artillery, you could expect this to be a fast-paced business. I can see various creatures, constructs, spells, and weapons filling this gap. Tien'chi has the right idea with their pikes, but imagine chariots with pikes mounted on the front and a couple of small ballistas mounted above those, and a reinforced roof made from soaked hides above those to deal with fire, acid, and lightning bolts, and whatever else fell out of the sky. It'd look a little ridiculous, until you had to deal with a few hundred of them, parked and guarded by hoburgs with spears and little pistol-crossbows, and it wouldn't even require magic.