Law of the Commonwealth
 

Version 0.13

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Hey there! mind if I share my opinion my opinion of the mod? hope not!

I think things may be almost underpowered considering their cost like, the light blades, they cost, what 16 or 19 gold thats a lot for the weakest unit and their not even particularly worth it, the cold resistance shouldn't really add to the cost that much I mean, the Atlantian deep ones have both 50% fire and cold and they don't cost 16 gold!

So, if I were you, I would lower the units gold cost a little, or make then a tinsy bit tougher, thanks for listing.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

I appreciate any comments.

I'm not balancing against vanilla (I mean what nation would you balance against? R'lyeh that can summon dozens of Vastness free of charge, or Ermor that summons hundreds of undead, or the permanently underpowered Mictlan?) , but even if I did I would be balancing whole nations not individual units. This mod is one of my more vanilla friendly mods but its a basic structure. It will change when I have some time to play with it.
When I balance I do it against internal consistency of a mod, not against other mods.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Version 0.02

Added 5 more units in 2 summoning spells.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Gave "Defense Form" Lightning and raised the cost to 10 gems.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

I think the defense form is either very underpowered or far too expensive. It dosnt look particularly useful in battle(1 decent ranged attack) and its fortress defence bonus is far too low for its cost(i can get the same bonus from a 130 gold commander)

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

It has two forms so it has twice as much hp. But I'll drop it back down to 7 gems.

Uploaded.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Frigates cost 70 gp for upkeep purposes.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

I really like this mod Amos, its very different from all the other nations, though, the commanders are ment to be far supiror than the troops right? whenever I find myself playing it I end up with a about 10 of Those Elders with 5 water magic destroying armies with falling frost, I find most of the troops just act as guards for them not going a lot of damage themselves.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

I play slightly differently: I find a chokepoint and load it up with those builder guys in terraforming mode then raid deeply with wormholes, ships and the units generated by builders.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Thats what I hope for when I make my mods. That, although the mod stays true to itself, there are many different avenues of playing it.

Version 0.03

Added a third hero.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Version 0.04

Lowered prices.

I wouldnt call this mod vanilla balanced. More like vanilla friendly.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

I've played it and I like it, it's a good npc for me. I'm curious about why it was decided to place it in middle-era, though.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

I already have 4 nations in LE, the magic is too high and there is no LE armor in the mod.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Fixed magicboost error.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Version 0.06

-Inventory fixed;
-Teacher, Messenger and the Book of Law lower unrest.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

There was a mistake in "Energy Shield". For some reason I put the value in protection instead of in parry (recent post reminded me to check). Fixed and uploaded.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Added new spell "Craft Turret". Tell me if it should cost more.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Amos, are there more than 3 mods in the trade confederation arc? Do some of them replace others?

Which 3 are most current? Obviously this matters mainly for megamod purposes.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Is there a trade confederation arc?

The only nation called Trade Confederation I've seen is this one:

LA Trade Confederation, New Dawn


Then there's this mod, which is:

MA Commonwealth, Landfall


Are they part of the same arc?

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

They are not in the same arc. Trade Confederation is a stand alone mod. I just used some of its numbers for this one. What I meant before was that if the Trade Confederation was an MA mod then New Crobuzon would be its LA.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Amos, Just a thought here:
I think your mods have reached a critical mass that may justify opening a new thread that summarizes and classifies them. I for one am constantly hunting through the threads here to get all the updates for your various mods. Well worth the trouble but I think it would be cool to have info. and access to all your mods from one thread.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

There is the Mod List. All my mods are nicely grouped together in MODDER PROFILES at the bottom of the first thread.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

This mod list is cool http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Thanks.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

All thanks must go to Sombre. Its his baby.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Version 0.07

A lot of small sprite changes.
Raised "Warden of the Law" att and def by 1.
I'm thinking of giving Heavy guys a shield. There is almost no reason to recruit them otherwise.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Very handsome. I particularly like the simian.

Perhaps the Elder units should be capital only? Capital admin of 10 would be kinda crippling, so maybe not. A Jeweled City could also be made of ice, perhaps (that's admin 40.)

Suggest a national spell that lets you put up a Crystal Citadel for water gems, at a relatively low construction level (that's effect 10063, damage 24); also, I think the alteration nationals should be construction.

The elder units are kinda fragile for a size 4 unit - their strength and hit points seem more like size 3 to me (the simian has absolutely huge wings so that's okay.) If they're that fragile for their size, maybe the description should reflect this?

Several of these units could have a much higher MR (the sacreds, the Teacher of the Law.)

410 gold is kinda a lot for your only priest - I understand that this is deliberate, but the effect will be to get people to use indie priests exclusively.

Why did you rename all the ice equipment? Are you planning to change the stats, later? Otherwise, it's kinda confusing.

Yeah, give the heavy sword and shadow of the law an ice aegis (or crafted shield, if you wish). Warden could maybe have two winged swords? With a strat move of 2 and a shield they'd be worth taking productivity to recruit.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

I like that. I'll do some testing.

I'll do that.

What did you mean by that? Could you elaborate?

That was intended. I may need to give more reasons for recruiting the Teachers.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

All of the equipment you've given them has the same stats as the equivalent caelum ice equipment but you gave it different names, is all.

Given that, from the descriptions, it sounds like the same stuff, this seemed a bit odd, that's all.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

I just wanted to give them my own names for the flavor.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

The construction tree is too limiting in the spell placement.

They have low mr on purpose. But I think I'll give them a +1.

I was struggling with the shield question. In the end I decided against giving them shields. You get most of them through province defense without recruiting. I'll think what to do about Shadow.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Version 0.08

- New spell "Craft Citadel";
- Raised resource cost for Energy Shield;
- Warden got patrol bonus;
- Shadow got stealth bonus and +1 to def & mr;
- Elders and Teacher got +1 to mr.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Ships are too skilled in Astral. They can cast imprint soul, afair without boosters, and craft rings of sourcery(of wizardry too, if given a crystall coin/RoS). IMHO you need to lover their skill and requirements of "Wormhole" spell to 4 or even 3. Wormhole is national, so there's nothing too bad will hapen.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Played a bit more. Spotted that Book of law has Holy 1 and Sacred. This is strange - always thought that pretender can't be a priest of itself.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

I believe that in the current version, pretender/priests do not crash the game, but personally I avoid using them (either all of the pretenders should be priests, or none, is my feeling.)

I'm not 100% sure of this, though - do you sometimes still get the "no unholiness" error?

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Raised the "Craft Ship" cost to 50. There is no need to drastically change a unit if you can simply tweak its price.
As for holy magic, I'm of the opinion that most pretenders should have holy magic (unless the chassis is simply inappropriate for it). After much debate I've started to add the holy magic frugally in cases when I felt the pretender just couldnt do without.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Methinks holy magic on pretender is a stupidity. That will automaticaly cause the prophet to be 'more holy' http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif than god itself. God is a GOD, not a priest, especially a weak priest.
The only way I see a holy magic on pretenders is an extra lvl of holy magic(holy5), restricted to gods only...

P.S. Raised a 'Craft Ship' price to 50 to. Removed holy magic from book's stats. Sorry http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Version 0.09

Gave all crafted units coldpower. There is a bug. The coldpower command doesnt work but gives the unit chill instead.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

- Lowered price for "Craft Defense Form" spell to 1;
- Lowered price for "Craft Turret" spell to 3.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

One Suggestion:

I'd give the most expense guys (410) a bit more access to Astral Magic. For a nation that has a 5S nation spell it sure has a hard time casting it.

I think this would also help DrP's observation and make them more attractive to recruit (I found I didn't really need them).

Great looking art and theme though. Seems pretty well balanced compared to vanilla.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Tnx. The "Wormhole" is a cheaper alternative to "Astral Travel" thats in the same school as the Ships. The spell is not meant for the Teachers and is made 5S on purpose. If I give the Teachers more astral they will cost even more. I'll test the issue and see what I can do.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

There are many reasons to recruit Teachers:

- they are the only national priests;
- they lower unrest and got patrol bonus;
- they are heavily armored for casters which makes them good battlemages;
- they provide astral magic at the beginning of the game;
- they can summon ships without going to Construction school first.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Version 0.10

Commander prices lowered.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Fixed a mistake. The "Terraforming Tower" should have had command over magical units. Now it does.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

- Turret's cost raised to 5 gems (it was too good for 3);
- All immobile units had their defense reduced to 0.

Re: New Mod: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Version 0.11

Changed unit numbers to 2550-2580.

Re: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Version 0.12

- "Frigate", "Builder", "Crafted Ship" and "Ancient Ship" got #stormimmune;
- "Terraforming Tower" has cold 10.

Re: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Amos, isn't parry 14 very high?
I'm not really into the shield balancing but rdonj was complaining of to effective shield when I gave a shield parry value 4.. and yours are 14..
not to mention they end up with a defence value of 24.

I wonder why the warden is so much more expensive he has a blade that deals less damage for 1 defence more (seems like a elite troops could have a better weapon) and his stats are all the same except his patrol 2 bonus.. and that makes him cost 5 extra?? (I hardly patrol myself and would rather have extra soldiers for that cash if that is the only benefit)

Is it intended that the turrent has 4 cannons with 4 shots per turn each (12 dmg AP)

your commanders seems a bit cheapish in gc (20 for a 40 leader, 30 for a 80 leader and 60 for a 160 leader, I know you don't balance to vanilla but this is a bit strange to me) The mages seem cheapish too I must say :D high magic very low priced, even with a forge bonus on one of them.
Not much magic variation but then again water magic is pretty allround, decent combat magic, some decent summons.



On your advice I'm thinking about getting them in dominions 3000 but they need more restructuring than insects I think. The lack of ranged weapons is somewhat annoying, I do like the turret idea but I have to test them yet... probably means I'll have to put them in Ulm too since they'd craft anything out of blacksteel that others can make.

I can see a race that is so into watermagic and astral to animate it and lead it into space, and can make everything out of it would not go to much into other tech while still being a spacefaring race.. incorporating some other races in their neighbourhood before coming into contact.

I'd probably need to make spaceships (frigates) a bit more accesable (recruitable) and get another ship between the frigates and your crafted ships (which are quite powerfull with their magic and wormhole casting so should remain summons)
The builders and the towers would need something extra too I think (starting to make towers a lil less vulnerable, by giving them a shield) seems a bit expensive for what they do... they can't really lower cold in provinces can they?

Re: Law of the Commonwealth
 

Parry 4 is a very average level of parry, but if I remember correctly KO once said that a parry value of 8 always catches missiles.

The parry is such a big deal in your mod because most of the things with the 4 parry shields have very high armor, and when you combine it with the armor from the shield it makes them almost completely immune to 90% of the ranged attacks in the game. For example, ulmish black knights have 39 prot when their shield blocks a hit. The defense value is also definitely an issue, but most of your things with the better shields have fairly low starting defense so it's not a big deal generally.

Re: Law of the Commonwealth
 

I'll start from the bottom.

The towers act as factories for frigates and stationary prophets. They should be able to spread the dominion and the cold with it.

The commanders are pretty balanced in my opinion. Their stats are low except for leadership. Try a game with them and you will see.

Yes it is intentional. It was an experiment and I liked it so much that I decided to leave it in the game. The regular soldiers dont have any ranged weapons. The only ranged weapons they get in the early game are stationary. I thought it was cool.

Warden has higher moral, basic attack and defense besides the patrol bonus. So, I thought he should have an appropriate price. They are situational soldiers so you might not even use them in your game. In large numbers they should be good at warding off the assassins in your mage heavy provinces.

Since the Commonwealth soldiers dont have ranged weapons I thought it would be appropriate that they would have a very good defense against them. Troops with energy shields have very low level of armor so it balances out.

They still get slaughtered sometimes(very rare occurrence) by effective ranged troops even with their high shields, so "always" is incorrect.