Avernum, Crystal Souls v1.5 UPDATE
 

PREVIEW IMAGE.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...%20Avernum.png


----------------------------------------

Summary: A new Middle Era nation based on the Exile series by Spiderweb Software. The mod contains a large amount of new graphics and the nation is densely packed with new content. Vahnatai and immobile crystal souls rule over an alliance of Nephils (cat people), Slith (lizard people) and Avernites (humans). Includes 6 trog national summon spells.

Strengths:
Varied selection of both infantry and commanders
Nephil stealth armies
Very powerful and varied magic
Semi-Amphibious Slith armies
Great research ability
Summonable trog superheavy infantry

Weaknesses:
Generally expensive
Best mages all have drawbacks
Extremely vulnerable to missile fire
High risk sacreds
Capital centric nation
No cavalry

-------------------------------------------

UPDATE VERSION 1.5


-- TWEAK - Vahn ranger greatly reduced in cost

-- TWEAK - Vahn mages and shapers slightly increased in price

-- TWEAK - Avernite mage nerfed a bit

-- TWEAK - Costs of various commaners fine tuned

-- TWEAK - Stealth of Nephil normalised at 10

-- FIX - Moved nametypes to overwrite ea ulm ones, since we've run out and Avernum is an MA nation




-------------------------------------------



Re-Download please.

UPDATED: Version 1.4 is out. It makes a host of balance and costing tweaks, cleans up a lot of code, sorts out the darkvision once and for all, adds a new nephil scout commander and gives onebattlespell of light of the northern star to the crystal souls, as well as improving their research. It's a must have update damn your pig eyes!



-------------------------------------------

Original post and premise:

First let me start by saying I have obtained permission from spiderweb to use some graphics from their Exile series, provided the mod is only for our private use (the frequenters of this forum). Spiderweb make a number of excellent old-skool RPGs and I strongly suggest you check out their stuff at http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com

This mod adds the Middle Era Avernum nation to Dom3. Avernum is an underground nation of exiles and their new masters the Vahnatai. I have altered things quite a bit from the story of the Exile series in order to fit better with the feel of Dom3.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

I think the graphics look fine. I am using the original graphics for my master of magic mod and they seem to fit in alright.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Will there be Erika as a random hero for Avernum? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Hahah, yeah I could do Erika for Avernum. But then I'd do Hawthorne for the Empire of course. Is it possible to do those one-off heroes in modding right now?

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Erika would pwn Hawthorne. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

LA Agartha is pretty Avernum-ish. Well, not really, but sorta. Lotta differences actually, but the idea of a human nation living underground are similar.

I see intense cave by cave battles, if someone could design the map (I guess is would like like an ant farm. Actually, that's an awesome idea...a VERTICAL map, where the top line of provinces are the surface, and the rest are many levels of interconnected tunnels. Tons of chokepoints. Oh the sheer joy http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif )

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Vahanatai would be more interesting, I'd think. They live in caves, and they have earth magic, but otherwise nothing in common with Agartha, really. They tend to be armed with wave blades and shuriken http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Alternatively, as the ages progress they should *acquire* the ability to recruit Vahnatai - who tend towards earth/astral/nature, or earth/astral/holy (two types of shapers). Human mages would do death/fire/water/air (since that's basically what "magic" does in Exile.)

Crystal souls are available as a national summon. They're immobile, but magically powerful incl a holy of 4.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Well I was going to add Vahnatai to the Avernum nation in MA and as sacred types. I've pretty much decided to make "Avernum, The Awakening" as a MA nation first. I'm using the Exile series as a base but I'm effectively considering a 'whatif' scenario to tie them into the world of dom3. In this scenario a clan of awakened Vahnatai and a particularly powerful crystal soul (pretender) have saved the exiles from the onslaught of the empire and unified humans, nephilim and slith under the rule of the shapers (priests and mages). I'm looking at it this way because exile is a story driven game of fighting and magic without much 'MY GOD IS THE ONE GOD' stuff. By having the Vahnatai effectively take command of the underground world you get a pretty solid dom3 MA nation.

Features:
Human, Slith, Nephilim and (expensive/sacred) Vahnatai troops. Similarly the numerous leaders are pretty varied in race and ailities.

Human Exiles are a guard force (patrol bonus) of medium infantry and archers. Mages and priests are average.
Nephilim (catmen) are all stealthy, plenty of missiles. Limited shaman.
Slith (lizardmen) are naturally heavier infantry and are poor amphibians. Polearms feature heavily. Ok mage/priest.
Vahnatai are excellent at most things but physically pretty frail. I was thinking astral magic more than anything (they are ET-esque) but I'm open to suggestions.

Some weaker crystal souls as expensive recruitable leaders - immobile but excellent holy and magic. This keeps the focus of the nation on defending.

Yes, this is a lot of stuff for one nation, but if I can get MA Avernum done I might well spread some of this stuff out to early and late ages instead, or maybe even make nephilim/slith/vahn nations. For now I just want to concentrate on getting an interesting and hopefully balanced nation with something for people who've played exile.

Sound good? I'm going to make some slith units today I think.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Progress so far has been pretty quick. Dom3 modding is pretty damn user friendly and the graphics from exile require very little modification to fit the game. I should have a very basic version to upload,.. tomorrow probably.

So far these are playable but still have stuff like proper names missing etc. The graphics and basic stats are all there though.

UNITS
Avernite Guard
Avernite Archer
Nephilim Brave
Nephilim Archer
Nephilim Warrior
Slith Warrior
Slith Warborn - sacred

LEADERS
Scout (standard vanilla one)
Avernite Captain
Slith Lord - sacred
Nephilim Chief
Nephilim Shaman - sacred, Priest1, Nature1, random other pick
Slith Pyromancer - Earth1, Fire2
Slith Hydromancer - Earth1, Water2

PRETENDER
Splintered Crystal Soul - Immobile astral4, dom5, 50 points.

To be added.

UNITS
Vahnatai Warrior
Vahnatai Soulguard

LEADERS
Vahnatai shapers etc that I haven't decided on yet. No nonmagic leaders for Vahnatai.

HEROES
I might not add the actual heroes from exile series, I'm not sure. I sort of prefer to have my own versions - what do you guys think?


Is it just me or are the slots for modding nametypes extremely limited? I mean every unique hero you need takes up a whole slot with their name. I guess you can go overwriting the slots of nations that aren't in the era your mod is for,... but what the hell?

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Remember Slith have a little fire resistance. (5%-25%?)

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

I've given slith poison and fire resistance. They are the basically the best troops Avernum has. The warborn also have some regenerative ability.

Can people here come up with some more random Slith and Nephilim names for me to use?

So far my name pool looks like this,..

------- Slithzerikai names

#selectnametype 145
#clear
#addname "Slaan"
#addname "Sleethi"
#addname "Ssersses"
#addname "Slither"
#addname "Slassga"
#addname "Slisskril"
#end

------ Nephilim names

#selectnametype 146
#clear
#addname "Frrrg"
#addname "MrrPrr"
#end

------ Vahnatai names

#selectnametype 147
#clear
#addname "Bon-Ihrno"
#addname "Tesa-Ihrno"
#addname "Volas-Ihrno"
#addname "Merak-Ihrno"
#addname "Tekora-Tel"
#addname "Ramda-Tel"
#addname "Tesa-Tel"
#addname "Yosa-Tel"
#addname "Braha-Tel"
#addname "Omni-Tel"
#addname "Pak-Tel"
#addname "Cesa-Ka"
#addname "Mara-Ka"
#addname "Brasa-Ka"
#addname "Morta-Ka"
#addname "Torra-Ka"
#addname "Patma-Ka"
#addname "Remako-Ka"
#addname "Tero-Ka"
#addname "Meni-Ka"
#addname "Jorip-Ka"
#end

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Bon-Ihrno is an important character (hero?) from the game I think

Nephilim Names:
Mrrrrrrr
Frrrmrrr

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

I don't think that merging Avernum and Vahnatai as one race is a good idea. Vahnatai are aliens to men (even enemies in A3). Avernum should be like in A4 (if you played it) - men, cats and lizards. Without aliens http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
Maybe add Vahnatai as a third nation? That would be cool.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

I haven't played much of the Avernum series although I played all through Exile 1-3 back in the day. Although it was Vahnatai in Exile 3 causing most of the trouble in Exile 2 (mid era effectively) they were allies of the Exiles.

For now I've pretty much come up with a 'whatif' alternate scenario for avernum/exile (exile II era) which allows them to semi-fit into the dom3 world. In the future I may well create a seperate Vahnatai faction as well as 'feral' Nephilim and Slith nations. As it stands this nation has a bit of all 4 races but it is clearly ruled by the Vahnatai and at least in v0.3 the avernites actually only have 2 units and 1 leader (that I /will/ be changing in the next release version).

I could make a totally faithful Exile mod but it would take a lot longer and I'm not sure how well it would fit into dom3 anyway. For the time being enjoy the nostalgic graphics and give me a little feedback (be as critical as you like, but try to be constructive).

Cheers ;]

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Note to other mac users:this mod is NOT mac compatible.Enabling this mod anc clicking "create new game" results in a crash http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Are you sure that's a mac compatability issue?

I admit I don't know anything about macs but I can't see why there would be any problem with this running on any copy of dom3. Does anyone else have it working? It's possible there's just something up with the copy I uploaded.

For now all I can say is it works for me,.. I'm running dom3 version 3.00.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

I'm running version 3.06 and I can't downgrade my version to verison 3.00 (maybe you should get the patch?)

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Well I don't see how the version I'm running would alter anything either. All that has changed regarding mods is the adding of more available commands, at least as far as I am aware....

Unless of course there's some new weapons, units, names, nations etc added in the patch which conflict with those in this mod. I doubt that because I didn't use the numerical values immediately following the vanilla ones.

Well I'll wait for some more feedback on whether it's working or not then I'll see what I can do. Obviously half the point of making this was that other people would enjoy it.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Version 3.04 adds a new EA nation (Lanka) maybe that has something to do with it?

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Well, I'm a fan of the series, played all four of them so I'll definitely try your mod in my next game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

I'd love to hear that someone actually has this working.

In the meantime here's a pic of the recruit units screen. As you can see it's something of a multicoloured nation. Very disney.

Having playtested them a little bit my own conclusion is that missile weapons are their absolute worst enemy. A lot of their units wear no armour at all and if there's anything heavier than a light drizzle falling from the sky those expensive Vahnatai (the warriors particularly) just fall to pieces. I think I need to lower a lot of the gold costs too, considering how fragile the units are.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Nice.Hope you can get it to work with version 3.06!

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

You probably shouldn't go leaping to conclusions. I mean you've effectively suggested to people that this mod doesn't work with 3.06, doesn't work with macs and probably doesn't work with 3.04 either,... when in fact it might just be that it's not able to work on your computer for whatever reason. As I said, I don't think it likely that the 3.06 patch would make a difference. Out of interest did you run the mod without any others enabled?

Until there's confirmation that it works/doesn't work from more people I'm unable/unwilling to try anything to 'fix' it. Instead I'll add national heroes and work a bit on balance.

Dark/Death Vahnatai national hero,....

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

No other mods enabled.Downgraded to 3.01 but that didn't work so I re-upgraded to 3.06

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Weird. Thanks for trying out the downgrade. This would seem to suggest the problem isn't anything to do with conflicts with Lanka or whatever else was added in the patches. I'll upload a slightly newer version and you can see if that works for you. It's possible that the first download or upload process was corrupted, or that I didn't pack it right or something.

If that doesn't help then you might be right about the mac issue. It's frustrating for both of us believe me and I do appreicate you giving it a go.

Ok, a random screeny of a battle attached to this post. I'll upload version 0.4 back at the start of the thread.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

New one doesn't work with 3.06 or 3.01 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Sorry man, I honestly have no idea why it isn't working for you,... Other than some possible mac compatability issue,... and that I kinda doubt.

In the near future I'll be updating my copy to 3.06 so maybe I'll be able to work out what's wrong, but I strongly suspect that my 0.3/0.4 will work with dom3.06 on my computer anyway.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

I couldnt get it to work on my PC with 3.06 but i dunno...

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Hmm. Ok I'll see what I can do. I'm downloading dom3.06 now,...

Possibly something to do with #nratt or the age commands actually working from 3.01 onwards maybe,.. Steelfang's attempt with 3.01 would suggest there's a problem from that update onwards. Crashing when you press create game is something I know happens if there's a #end missing, maybe it also happens if you stick in an invalid value or have one of the newer mod commands missing.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Ok, installed 3.06, installed 0.4 - create game, got an error message relating to #nratt. Looks like I was right with the guess in the last post. I just accidentally deleted a value at some point and since it was missing that caused the game to crash.

So if you were getting an error message about #nratt,... well it'll work now. If not,.. I still suggest you try it again because 4.01 works for me on the PC dom3.06. It's attached to the first post. Oh and let me know if that works or not. I'm sure there are some more things I can try.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

It works! *happy dance*

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Very nice mod. However i think that the two types of slith and the nephilim warrior cost a bit too much gold.

I think the mages are pretty nice but giving a random to the vahnatai mage could use a 100%(maybe 75%?) F/A random to make them viable battle mages without boosts being needed (fire random=falling fires, air random=thunder strike)

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Yeah the gold costs on some of the units are a bit steep and I've already reduced them from what I originally had them at. I didn't want people building entire armies of slith because in the exile games they aren't that common as a race. Plus they do have some fairly impressive stats for basic troops. Exile armies (apart from the avernites) tend to have a lot of high skill (att and def) but low protection troops.

I can drop the prices of those three somewhat, but Exile is going to remain a gold powered nation,... actually a gold and astral powered nation since the Crystal Souls can end up giving you quite a lot of pearls. I'm actually tempted to make them produce 2 APs per turn, since they cost 400 and can only move via teleport. That encourages you to build a 'chamber' of them in your home province doing research and cranking out the gems.

As for the mages - I'm going to give them basic f/a/s 1 and then 2 f/a randoms at 100%. That way you still get solid 2/2s but you also get some 3/1s who have specialised in fire or air and can get the key level 3 spells. I initially figured boosting magic might be viable for some mages (like shapers and hero archmages) because of the gem spawning souls, but maybe 1 AP per turn is too little to encourage empowerment and/or skill item forging.

Any other thoughts?

Edit: I've reduced some gold costs across the board. Slith and nephilim are now more useful as you can afford to take some casualties before getting in close. The changes to the vahnatai mages have made them more interesting and I like to grab as many as I can now to back up the troops with heavy artillery - mist can be useful if you decide to go with the elite melee troops, as can body ethereal and the buffs offered by the shaper. Crystal Souls with teleport are surprisingly handy at securing provinces under threat, though I prefer to keep them at home researching and cranking out pearls. The Slith troops go well with the pyromancers and vahnatai mages because stray sulphur or fire damage is reduced.

I'm still working on 0.5 (all 5 unique national heroes, hopefully ages fixed, maybe new flag etc) - but attached is the 0.42 .dm file with reduced gold costs. The fixed prices will work with saved games.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

I dont think giving them 2 pearls per turns a good idea, they are already fairly strong as-is. My basic plan was taking an imprisoned S9 Dom10 crystal soul with good scales. I prophetised my starting commander and recruited as many soulguard first turn as possible. Then i continue to ferry soulguard up to the frontline while recruiting many crystal souls who research evo6, thaum5 and then construction 8(then whatever i feel is needed). The soulguards(along with some shapers and mages i recruit if i run into tough opposition from another nation) are all i need to expand as they are very survivable(good defence, 100% regen and twist fate. With the bless they have 18mr which is great vrs illithids http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif) and tend to kill 1 unit each per turn (the sword brings them up to 16 attack with 20ap damage) so not much can stand against them. By the time i reach const7 i will usually have 15-20 crystal souls(that is if i have needed to recruit quite a few shapers and mages at my capitol) and have a huge astral gem stockpile at which point i will mass produce and equip golems.

Even before golems i have a powerful battle-tactic. I attack the enemy army with a scout to see if there are any astral mages, if there arent then thats fine and if there are i send squads of rangers to try and remove them. Once the enemy army has no astral mages my crystal souls are free to mind hunt all the commanders in it, generally making it rout as soon as its attacked.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

So do you think the Soulguard are somewhat overpowered? I mean they're restricted to the home province,.... playtesting them I had a lot of problems against missile fire - the regen wasn't really cutting it against a rain of arrows, javs etc... but since that point I've changed them around a bit and now maybe they're a bit too good (depending on the bless).

I came to the same conclusion about crystal souls - they stay at one AP per turn, though the pretender gets 2 per turn.

One thing I really didn't want to do with this mod is make an overpowered unit or an overpowered nation, because that really punishes people who enjoy variety. If you like to use pretty much exclusively Vahnatai by choice, that's fine, but if it's because certain units are so much better than the others that there's no point in using them,.. well obviously some tweaks are needed. Anyway, glad you enjoyed giving the mod a whirl ;]

Did any of the national heroes turn up? It seems like I hardly ever get them when I playtest.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

I was using misfortune2 so no heroes turned up. I dont think the soulguard are overpowered, i think they are just about right. I had them shielded from missile fire by a small screen of shielded troops and their twist fate also helped. Once they reached combat their high defence, regen, twist fate and offensive power kept them going. I think the crystal soul pretender might be a little over-powered as its basically a super oracle(imprisoned i took him with S9 Dom10 order3 prod3 growth3 misfortune2 magic1) if you going to take advantage of any of his strengths(high dom and astral magic)

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Hmm. Good point. I'm bumping the pretender point cost up a bit. The high astral is simply to force people to go astral with the nation, after all it's the main magic of the vahnatai.

0.5 is going to be delayed a little while,.. but I'm pretty confident I'll get this nation to a final version this month.

Next national hero is a slith berserker. He's going to be interesting but not that powerful. I'm debating whether to add a crappy avernite mage (1 random element, 1 true random at 50%) and priest (basic h1).

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

I personally find 20 nephil braves (or even better,nephil warriors) and 20 nephil archers lead by a nephil chief to be a very good stealth team.Very handy for sneak attacks

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

With the cost reduced to 10 the braves make good screen or flank troops as well - they can really chew up light infantry and archers in close. Oh and all nephilim are useful for patrols. In 0.5 they'll have forest survival too.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

New version attached to first post. Go read for details of update.

This thing's getting damn near to being finished. I really just need to sort out that crappy flag and start messing around with spell modding for some vahn magic.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Ok the first post has been changed a bit to better convey what the mod is about. I have obtained email permission re: the graphics from Spiderweb (with minor conditions).

The next version of this mod will hopefully be compatible with a couple of other mid era mod nations and possibly with the worthy heroes mod. It will include national summons introducing the fearsome trog race - compact little giant killers who were sealed away in times past and can be 'gated in' to assisst Avernum against surface enemies.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Thank you for getting permission on the use of the graphics.
I would hate to have pulled the mod since it seems popular.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

It's cool. I'm happier with Spiderweb being informed about it too.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Update to version 0.8 imminent. The update makes the usual stat changes, seeks better balance and most importantly adds 6 national summons.

As with Vaettihiem if you want anything new added or changed now would be the time to say something. I've played this mod a lot recently and it's still the best thing I've done in my opinion. It really does add a whole lot of stuff (much like Amos' mods) and it's feeling balanced (although it's a strong nation for sure).

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

New version is up. Comments not only appreciated, but expected ;]

Especially you Bandarlover -shakes fist-

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

O.k. O.K. Sombre. I'll certainly get to it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I've got a lot on my plate lately (real life wise) so I've been lucky just to play my turns on the MP games I got going on.

But as soon as I get the opportunity I'll play this and give you my thoughts. Though I'm not exactly sure why my thoughts are so important since I know next to nothing balance-wise.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Why nearly all of normal units are old? I don't recall Avernum being a nation of old people and what ruler would make a regiment out of 68 year old archers? Stevie Wonder would shoot better. If that was meant to be a way to balance things then it's a wrong way IMHO.

BTW this mod conflicts with Sylvania mod.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

First - It doesn't really conflict with Sylvania because Sylvania is a LA nation and this is a MA nation. There's no reason to have them both on at the same time.

Second - Age should work fine as long as you have 3.06 installed. Since that's the latest version, that's the standard version my mods work with. I don't believe anyone with 3.06 installed would have this problem.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

I finally got around to test this wonderful mod. I've no experience of Avernum though, so I take my comments with a pinch of salt.

1. The Vahnatai warrior has a suspiciously shorter life expectancy compared to the other Vahnatai units. Is this intended?

2. All your casters got higher attack, strength and defense then mages in other nations. I assume this is because of the setting?

3. The Avernite Mage is a bit of an oddity compared to the other casters. I found little use for her. The Nephil Shaman is a much better researcher (holy ability makes him much cheaper in upkeep). And all the other mages are more competent in battle. I'm not sure how to make this unit more attractive without breaking the theme. But you could perhaps give her access to all paths of magic, as per the units description, or make her the "General" unit with a higher command ability (normal or magic units).

4. Why do the Slith units and the Vahnatai Soulguard have mapmove 1? I assume this is because the Slith are sluggish lizards (though that isn't explained) but why is the unarmored Soulguard such a slowpoke? I reckon it's because their reluctance to leave the ancestors unguarded or because they are not trained to make long marches.

5. Avernum is a nation that lives under the ground, but can't see in the dark. In my game I started out next to Agartha and promtly lost my capital due to my own forces fighting blind in their own home. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif (I still beat the snot out of Agartha though, but that's not the point)

6. The Avernite Guard could use a bit little more oomph to set him apart from independent infantery. He looks like he's using a wall shield instead of a kite shield, and his helmet looks more like a half helmet instead of an iron cap. Then again if these guys become better protected you need to cut down on the PD. Makes sense to me though. These guys wouldn't have the numbers to field large defensive armies outside their home province.

7. Your choice of sacred units is nothing short of pure evil. These guys practically shout "Water 9 blessing, dammit!" but the Soulguard works so darn well with Gift of Health that it brings tears to my eyes. So of course you made the nature blessing completely redundant. Kudos to you for a great balancing move.

That's all for now. Expect more feedback as I make my way through early game. The units look so good that congratulations for an excellent crossgame transfer is in order.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

Ah, I greatly appreciate the comments! :]

1. The Vahnatai warriors have standard Vahn hp of 8. The problem is that next to the 12hp regenerating soulguard (a result of their connection to the crystals) they seem very fragile. They are certainly a weaker unit and a hard pick with SG available,.. however they are much cheaper and can do just as much damage in the right circumstances. They also have mapmove 2 and aren't cap only. I'll do more tests, maybe make them a little cheaper (or SG more expensive).

2. Partly because of the setting, partly because I didn't do my research when I first put the values in. It doesn't make a lot of ingame difference, but I might change it. Well spotted.

3. I might well drop the cost. I like the random picks as they are (no blood here, astral is Vahn territory). I could also give them ldr40. It's also possible the nephil shaman is a bit too good.

4. You got it right. Soulguard don't like to leave the soul chamber far behind and Slith just aren't much for marching around. Both units are nasty enough that it's worth the wait though.

5. Yes, I just realised this. Problem is you can't mod darkvision. Until it's possible, I should probably give them a different home fort.

6. Good suggestions. I'll go with them. Avernum's PD is already pretty crappy though, all things considered.

7. I went with an astral/air bless on them once, which made them much less fragile, but the MR was sort of wasted and I had to send my crystal pretender to sleep, which wasn't the smartest move. Avernum is a nation that isn't a /clear/ bless candidate, but it is very tempting, especially with the crystal pretender (which might still be too good for the cost).

I'd like to hear your opinion on the trog summons. In my tests they ended up mangling the hell out of everything, but now I might have somewhat nerfed them.

Re: New Nation(s): Exile/Avernum
 

1. Errh... Regarding the Vahnatai Warriors my intended meaning was about them growing old at an earlier age (50 years) compared to other Vahnatai (350 years), not their survivability on the battlefield. Poor choice of words on my part. (I actually found that they last a lot longer then the soulguard thanks to their missiles killing of a few units before meele).

3. Don't drop the cost. 90 gold is actually too cheap. After playing a bit longer my suggestion is to increase to cost to 125 gold and increase the chance of random magic to 70% and 50%. Also I recommend that you let the first random pick include death and nature as well as the elementals. This means that with enough "gambling" I can score 3 nature or 3 death magic on one of them. That's enough create boosting items and then go for the global enchantments. This change will make Avernum one of the most flexible nations around.

6. The PD is actually pretty good. Beats the freaking snot out of both Machaka and Mictlan. The Nephil Braves die by default though. Might want to change the "Elite PD" to either Nephil Archers or Nephil Warriors.

7. Yeah it's very tempting to choose the unique pretender. The 4 astral picks feel a bit restricted though. Why not 1 Water, 1 Earth and 1 Astral with 80 point buy for other paths? Great triple whammo bless pretender and it follows the Shapers picks.

Haven't tried the unique summons yet since I'm going for Achasic Record first. It's basicly free with enough Crystal Souls around. Why are Crystal Souls subject to old age at 1200 years by the way? They're basicly rocks and oughto "live" forever.