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-   -   Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit... (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=39418)

Poopsi June 23rd, 2008 11:38 PM
Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
I started by creating a dark deity of the grove. It was made for Pangaea, but I think it is also themathic for other nations, particularily Sauromantia. For that I just copy-pasted the following and changed the nation number to 4 (for that matter, you have to do that to put it up in Middle and late pangaea too):


Quote:

#newmonster 2994
#name "Dark Deity of the Grove"
#spr1 "./mytheology/BlackGoat.tga"
#spr2 "./mytheology/BlackGoat2.tga"
#descr "The Dark Deity of the Grove is a cthonian fertility deity that has been worshipped by secretive druidic blood cults

since times past reckoning. Until now it kept it's presence to the groves deep in the forest where the faithful made their

offerings, but it now sees a chance to turn all the world into a luxuriant dark eden. The deity mannifests as a dark

ectoplasmic emanation, very resistant to normal weapons, albeit vulnerable to fire and sunlight, which can banish it.

However, this entity cannot be truly be destroyed: if defeated, it's shape will reform in it's grove once again"
#ap 13
#mapmove 2
#hp 20
#prot 10
#size 6
#str 8
#enc 1
#att 10
#def 10
#prec 14
#mr 14
#mor 30
#gcost 150
#rcost 1
#female
#onebattlespell "Summon Earthpower"
#weapon "Life Drain" 63
#weapon "Life Drain" 63
#weapon "Plague Breath"
#fireres -50
#demon
#neednoteat
#ethereal
#immortal
#pooramphibian
#researchbonus -10
#makemonster2 330
#startdom 3
#pathcost 50
#magicskill 3 2
#magicskill 6 2
#magicskill 7 2

#poorleader
#okmagicleader
#okundeadleader
#nametype 140


#restrictedgod 11


#startage 5000
#maxage 20000
#older 200
#itemslots 28672

#end
The idea is that as a pretender it can be a fairly decent spellcaster for battles, and one difficult to hurt at that. Also, it lacks HtH combat abilities (so you cannot make it a full supercombatant), and the restricted item slots mean that you´ll have a hard time using magic boosting items (so you'd better boost those paths you like from design, or be prepared to dish out lots of gems)
-------------------------------------------------------
Next: some custom blood spells for Pangaea

Quote:

#newspell
#name "Create Demon Tree"
#descr "The caster calls forth a spirit from the void and binds it to an ancient oak. The resulting entity is immobile, but

skilled in blood and nature magic, and specially adept at summoning and enthralling potential ritual victims. The entity's

presence twists natural things in their surroundings, which tends to disturb the inhabitants of the province in which it's

rooted."
#school 6
#researchlevel 3
#path 0 7
#pathlevel 0 3
#path 1 6
#pathlevel 1 3
#effect 10021
#nreff 1
#fatiguecost 1500
#damage 2900
#restricted 11
#restricted 40
#restricted 61
#end

#newspell
#name "Carrion Festival"
#descr "The caster performs the ritual over a cauldron full of a mixture of dirt from an enemy province and sacrificial

blood, and pours the contents on the ground. Ghoulish vines will pull corpses from their graves, and more sensitive women

from the province will tear their clothes in revelry and go to the streets to dance along with the dead, in a ghastly parody

of a festival."
#school 6
#researchlevel 4
#path 0 7
#pathlevel 0 3
#path 1 6
#pathlevel 1 4
#effect 10038
#damage 314+435
#nreff 30
#fatiguecost 1000
#restricted 11
#restricted 40
#restricted 61
#end


Now, more stuff: Tcho Tcho's. I made them basically as a way to allow late age pangaea to blood hunt reliably. Also, as some cheap skirmish troops.
Quote:

#newmonster 2901
#name "Tcho Tcho witch doctor"
#descr "The Tcho Tcho are wildland-dwelling human tribes with a penchant for cannibalism and human sacrifice. Their priests

are the leaders of a vaguely druidic blood cult, and often combine knowledge of nature magic with necromancy or

demonology.Tcho Tchos are cowardly, and will retreat from battle if things look dire. Tcho Tcho sorcerers are rumored to

reach prodigious ages."
#copyspr 1891
#clearmagic
#clearspec
#magicskill 6 1
#custommagic 4096 50
#custommagic 16384 50
#custommagic 4096 5
#custommagic 16384 5
#custommagic 8192 5
#researchbonus -2
#poorleader
#stealthy 3
#ap 8
#hp 4
#mapmove 2
#size 2
#prot 0
#enc 3
#str 9
#att 8
#def 8
#prec 8
#mr 10
#mor 2
#gcost 120
#startage 160
#maxage 120
#older 30
#end



#newmonster 2902
#copystats 125
#copyspr 125
#name "Tcho Tcho hunter"
#descr "The Tcho Tcho are wildland-dwelling human tribes with a penchant for cannibalism and human sacrifice. Their hunters

are stealthy and use blowtubes with poisonous darts. They don't wear any armor, and avoid close combat."



#end
That's all for now. Any thoughts?

Poopsi June 23rd, 2008 11:40 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Forgot: demon tree (for the spell)

#newmonster 2900
#name "Demon Tree"
#descr "This dark tree seem to sway ominously even when there is no wind, and the rustle of it's green and

healthy-yet-unwholesome leaves seems to carry eerie whispers. In truth, the shape is but the physical confinement of a demon

from Outside. The demon is a skilled blood sorcerer, but it's shape renders it immobile."
#spr1 "./mytheology/DemonTree.tga"
#ap 10
#mapmove 0
#hp 15
#prot 14
#size 4
#str 14
#enc 0
#att 10
#def 10
#mr 13
#mor 20
#gcost 100

#weapon 63
#weapon 63
#weapon 63
#weapon 63

#demon
#blind
#immobile
#poisonres 100
#startage 200
#maxage 4000
#heal
#neednoteat
#regeneration 2
#douse 3
#magicskill 7 2
#magicskill 6 2
#itemslots 4096
#nametype 140
#noleader
#entangle
#stealthy
#forestsurvival
#animalawe 2
#incunrest 5
#end

Basically a blood version of the treelord.

Poopsi June 23rd, 2008 11:45 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
for the record: yes, as far as I am concerned, I added this stuff to the mytheology mod (which is rather cool). But it should work as a standalone.

Hell, in fact, if you do use mytheology, bear in mind that I deleted the Pantokrator entry to put in Shub Niggurath.

And the spell "Carrion festival" was inspired by a horror story I read in an old book concerning a town where the dead drowned at sea came out the night of the 24th of july to dance with the living in a festival...

HoneyBadger June 23rd, 2008 11:48 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Absolutely awesome. I'm a little confused about the demon tree though. It summons a demon tree? If so, would you mind posting the stats? I'd love to take a look. Am I missing them?

Oh never mind, there he is http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

HoneyBadger June 24th, 2008 12:09 AM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
This is a really nice effort, Poopsi. Thank you very much!

Poopsi June 24th, 2008 12:13 AM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
(Caveat: the spell "summon demon tree" is fairly straightfoward and should work, but I´ve not playtested "Carrion Festival" yet. I´m concerned about a potential mass rout through lack of leaders.)

Poopsi June 24th, 2008 01:54 AM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 

Thanks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

To add the Tcho Tcho's to late Pangea:

#selectnation 61
#addreccom 2901
#addrecunit 2902
#end

I was thinking on adding them to Sauromantia, as well, but I dont think they really need them, either balance wise (it´s expensive, but they can blood hunt with witch kings), or thematically (The Androphags are a good thematical substitute, I think)

Poopsi June 24th, 2008 11:10 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Ok, I am focusing mainly on Late Pangaea. I think they can use the Tcho Tchos as base blood gatherers, and the like.

I tried my hand at adding two new units, one of which would be an archer/skirmisher with very light armor, and the other a somewhat decent commander. But I´m having problems adding armor. Maybe it´s ok for the skirmisers as balance, but I do think the commander should get a scale mail at least.

Edit: Done. Any suggestions for a more glamourous name than "Raid leader"?

Quote:

#newmonster 2903
#name "Tcho Tcho marauder"
#descr "The strongest and ablest members of a Tcho Tcho tribe get martial training, and go forth from their abodes in

mountain forests to raid other peoples for livestock and slaves. Marauders are crack shots with their compound bows, and can

put up a decent fight in close combat with their crooked knives, but they wear only light armor, and are easy to rout."
#copyspr 123
#ap 13
#mapmove 2
#hp 10
#size 2
#str 10
#prot 0
#enc 2
#att 11
#def 11
#prec 11
#mr 11
#mor 8
#gcost 13
#rcost 1
#weapon 264
#weapon 256
#weapon 256

#holy
#forestsurvival
#mountainsurvival
#swampsurvival
#stealthy 3
#ambidextrous 3



#end


#newmonster 2904
#copystats 2903
#copyspr 2903
#descr "The strongest and ablest members of a Tcho Tcho tribe get martial training, and go forth from their abodes in

mountain forests to raid other peoples for livestock and slaves. The Tcho Tcho Raid Leaders are the chosen leaders for those

expeditions. Armed with claymores, they can cut down any enemy that survives the deadly hail of arrows from their great bows.

Raid Leaders are heavily armored, something unusual for Tcho Tchos."
#name "Tcho Tcho Raid Leader"
#copyspr 123
#ap 13
#mapmove 2
#hp 15
#size 2
#str 12
#prot 0
#enc 2
#att 13
#def 13
#prec 13
#mr 11
#mor 14
#gcost 70
#rcost 10
#weapon 266
#weapon 258
#armor "Ring Mail Cuirass"
#armor "Ring Mail Hauberk"

#holy
#forestsurvival
#mountainsurvival
#swampsurvival
#stealthy 3
#ambidextrous 3
#okleader

#end


Poopsi June 25th, 2008 02:40 AM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
1 Attachment(s)
a TGA for the Dark Deity of the Grove


Poopsi June 26th, 2008 06:49 AM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Ok, update on the Tcho Tcho WD: I´ve been playtesting it and it doesnt work as intended. The idea was to have a 50% chance of death+ nature, and a 50% chance of blood + nature. Instead, it has 25% of an extra point of death, 25% of an extra point of nature, and 50% of no extra points. Also, the description is a bit poorly written, so I´m revamping that too.

The new Tcho Tcho WD will get a dot of blood magic, with a 25-25-50 chances of getting nature-death-nothing as an extra point, as well. He wont be that old, either. I intend to keep it with low research skills to avoid exploiting it, as well.

#newmonster 2901
#name "Tcho Tcho witch doctor"
#descr "The Tcho Tcho are wildland-dwelling human tribes with a penchant for cannibalism and human sacrifice. Their priests are the leaders of a vaguely druidic cult, combining ghastly blood rituals with necromancy and nature magic. They are secretive by nature, and thus poor research collaborators."
#copyspr 1255
#clearmagic
#clearspec
#magicskill 7 1
#custommagic 4096 50
#custommagic 16384 5
#custommagic 8192 50
#researchbonus -2
#poorleader
#stealthy 3
#ap 8
#hp 4
#mapmove 2
#size 2
#prot 0
#enc 3
#str 9
#att 8
#def 8
#prec 8
#mr 10
#mor 2
#gcost 120
#startage 160
#maxage 180
#older 30
#end

llamabeast June 26th, 2008 07:18 AM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Quote:
The idea was to have a 50% chance of death+ nature, and a 50% chance of blood + nature
If you want that you just need to give him 1N, plus a 100% DB random.

Poopsi June 26th, 2008 11:02 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Thanks, I´ll try that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Althrough I was thinking on making them a bit more blood-focused (as they are there to allow late pangaea to pursue a blood path), so I might make it l00% DN random instead.

I suppose there is no way to throw in a secondary bonus that randomly boosts one of the paths further, but only in one of every ten units, right?

Endoperez June 27th, 2008 02:17 AM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
You can make a 10% Blood random without any trouble. It's not common, but it can be done, and some recruitables have something like that. LA Man's Judges have a 10% Death random IIRC.

Poopsi June 27th, 2008 03:03 AM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Without removing the blood 1 default one I added? The idea was to make it so that most of them are mostly for blood hunting (albeit with occasionally extra skills in nature or death, which might make boosting them convenient) and occasionally, you´d find while recruiting that you had one more talented (say, with blood 2 instead of blood 1). Since these would be scarce (as in, really scarce) they´d not be a real substitute for blood enhacing to get proper spellcasters. The idea was to allow a blood economy for Pangaea, without making it particularily easy (I was considering limiting these guys to the capital, like EA Abyssia, but that might make it too hard to do) or too detrimental in other paths (as in, it might be convenient to do a combined arms approach instead of a full blood path)


Speaking about spellcasting: I´ve tested the spell Carrion Festival, but it fails. For one, it doens´t spawn Manneads. For another, the mandragora it does spawn stay idle on the battlefield without moving. And in fact they die from time to time. I suppose what failed is that they need a leader, so that will need to get fixed

Endoperez June 27th, 2008 03:07 AM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Custommagic can be given multiple times and it doesn't affect normal magic skills or other randoms.

Poopsi June 27th, 2008 04:44 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
On a side note: I made this "Vampire Warlord" generic pretender. It´s loosely inspired by the LoK series. I had a TGA, too, but I hadnt scaled it properly.

#newmonster 2905
#name "Vampire Warlord"
#spr1 "./mytheology/VWarlord.tga"
#spr2 "./mytheology/VWarlord2.tga"
#descr "The Vampire Warlord was a proud warrior and leader of men in ages past. When one of his foraging parties burned a cottage in the woods, the witch that owned it cursed him to 'thirst for the blood of the living', in a move that in hindsight doesn't seem too brilliant. Over the years, the gift continued to evolve, eventually allowing him to make a bid for godhood. The warlord is a skilled fighter, and damage to his immortal flesh heals almost as fast as it is dealt, but by contrast his magical abilities are limited, having been honed but little."
#mapmove 4
#ap 16
#hp 25
#size 2
#prot 2
#str 14
#enc 0
#att 13
#def 14
#prec 13
#mr 18
#gcost 100
#rcost 1
#pathcost 80
#startdom 1
#eyes 2
#weapon 11
#armor "Plate Hauberk"

#undead
#immortal
#startage 800
#maxage 5000
#older 100
#standard 5
#fear 1
#regeneration 50
#supplybonus -5
#fireres -50
#researchbonus -5
#incunrest 2
#magicskill 7 1
#nametype 100
#expertleader
#okundeadleader
#douse 3
#end

HoneyBadger June 28th, 2008 02:23 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
I'm surprised you didn't base him on Brian Lumley's vampires, Poopsi, given your affection for the C'thulhu Mythos-yes I'm well aware that he's not the second incarnation of Shakespeare, but I've enjoyed worse, and I found his vampires interesting and original.

Actually, that might be fun to mod into the game-vampires gaining the Secondform of a nasty little Cth'octopus (Def. "Cth'octopus": A weird/bizarre/unnatural, specifically tentacled, creature-usually evil or amoral, often sentient, that is based on, inspired by, or connected in some way to; the Lovecraft "C'thulhu" Mythos. Origin: your friendly, neighborhood HoneyBadger.) that disappears after the battle, since they can't exist outside the Host.

Would make vampires a little more formidable and hard to put down, without destroying balance, and if the Vampire Queen had a particularly tough one, that *didn't* disappear after battle, it might well restore her to some level of prominance.

P.S. Who else thinks the VampQ-and maybe Vamp Counts as well-ought to produce the occasional Thrall?
Perhaps Thralls could even contain an Aboleth Polyp-like Vampire larvae. That would serve to bulk them up a bit, as well, and if the larvae were weak-like polyps-and left after battle, that wouldn't make them overpowered, either.

lch June 29th, 2008 10:30 AM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
I absolutely love your new spells for LA Pangaea. But I don't think that the witch doctors are really thematic. Druidic blood priests might be something for a twisted Marverni or for Mictlan, but I don't think that male humans fit into Pangaea thematic-wise.

HoneyBadger June 29th, 2008 03:16 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Speaking of a bloodhunting Pangaea and vampires (and general weirdness), don't forget that there's a large body of thought and evidence these days, connecting vampires to ancient blood-sacrifice rites among fertility and nature cults. After all, blood makes for great fertilizer http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Poopsi June 29th, 2008 03:54 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 

Quote:
I'm surprised you didn't base him on Brian Lumley's vampires, Poopsi, given your affection for the C'thulhu Mythos-yes I'm well aware that he's not the second incarnation of Shakespeare, but I've enjoyed worse, and I found his vampires interesting and original.
I read a bit from him. My biggest beef with Brian Lumley is that his main character is a bit too "super-hero-ish" (I mean, in the first Necroscope novel he becomes practically a demigod), and, to make it worse, fails to meet the fate of all Mythos heroes (namely, insanity, getting killed, or becoming horribly twisted).
His vampires were ok, through. Far more compelling than other conceptions. I might as well have cited him as "vague inspiration". In general, I meant that the V. Warlord was supposed to follow more the lines of the "hideous, ugly and fearsome cannibalistic monster" vampire than the "borderline slashfic" one (and we all know what famous novel I mean in mind with the last one...)

Quote:

Actually, that might be fun to mod into the game-vampires gaining the Secondform of a nasty little Cth'octopus (Def. "Cth'octopus": A weird/bizarre/unnatural, specifically tentacled, creature-usually evil or amoral, often sentient, that is based on, inspired by, or connected in some way to; the Lovecraft "C'thulhu" Mythos. Origin: your friendly, neighborhood HoneyBadger.) that disappears after the battle, since they can't exist outside the Host.

Would make vampires a little more formidable and hard to put down, without destroying balance, and if the Vampire Queen had a particularly tough one, that *didn't* disappear after battle, it might well restore her to some level of prominance.
I was thinking on adding a blood spell to pangaea that summoned "The astral leech" or something like that, which would be a "red, palpitating gelatinous mass, with thousands of protuding appendages, and hungry mouths opening and closing". Such a thing might do well as a vampire's "monster form". Would reçuire extensive modding to add it to existing units, through...

Quote:

P.S. Who else thinks the VampQ-and maybe Vamp Counts as well-ought to produce the occasional Thrall?
Perhaps Thralls could even contain an Aboleth Polyp-like Vampire larvae. That would serve to bulk them up a bit, as well, and if the larvae were weak-like polyps-and left after battle, that wouldn't make them overpowered, either.
I thought they came with a "summon allies" function (or you mean an automatic spawning?)


Quote:

I absolutely love your new spells for LA Pangaea.
Thanks, bear in mind that demon tree works as intended, but Carrion Festival fails. I´m not having success at making it spawn different sorts of units, and as such, the spawned undead remain leaderless (and dont work), and manneads dont spawn at all.


Quote:

But I don't think that the witch doctors are really thematic. Druidic blood priests might be something for a twisted Marverni or for Mictlan, but I don't think that male humans fit into Pangaea thematic-wise.
Well, late age pangaea is supposed to be already de-wildizing. And the idea was giving the Late Agers a reliable blood hunter, and potentially decent blood mage. (Which they dont have, currently). Humans per se aren´t too ill-fitting, methinks -Manneads are already there-, but maybe the TT would fit better in other context. Maybe make blood druids recruitable for LA Pangaea ? ((on the lines of "Notebook found in a deserted house")

HoneyBadger June 29th, 2008 07:12 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
I hated the same thing about Necroscope. First of all, I didn't care for Keogh much as a protagonist, and secondly, the ending was, although original, kindof lame.

rtyffg June 30th, 2008 02:51 AM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Why not turn maenad into blood(+rare nature/holy) mage in LA? Something like: when wild revelry started to lessen, maenads regained their sanity, but some of them decided to preserve that rage through learning blood magic.

HoneyBadger July 3rd, 2008 04:02 AM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Well...and I know this may make some of us males in the Dominions forum a little queasy, but facts-of-life speaking, women do go through a monthly cycle that involves/is related to A: blood, and B: the moon (atleast tangentially). So I-male that I am-would find a femininst nation specialized in astral/blood magic quite refreshing, as it's not too often that the menstrual cycle is portrayed in spiritual terms. And having a clearly female-oriented nation that's meant to actually appeal to women more than men, might draw some more females to the game.

Poopsi August 2nd, 2008 06:01 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Some kind of Mannead Acolyte? melieks that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

HoneyBadger August 3rd, 2008 10:04 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
Maenads? I think that's a great idea, Poopsi. Could maybe do a Triple-goddess theme, with Maenads as the maidens, with mother and crone units. To take it a step further, the Mother units could be large, powerful warrior women (we don't have a lot of female giants in the game, so maybe something like that), and the Crones could be spellcasters.

Poopsi August 4th, 2008 03:21 PM
Re: Lovecrafticing Pangaea/Saurom. a bit...
 
I like. For now I´m going to substitute the witch doctor with a one blood point mannead acolyte, but I do want to add those three. (Maybe make the one blood point the maiden, the Mother a more battle priest type -aka, lead troops + priestly powers) with crones being a more decent mage type, with 2 blood and 2 nature-and possibly one random- with old age? -no death magic, as the Black Dryads already fill that slot)

As a sidenote: does anyone have a hint on how to work multiple remote summons spells? I still cant make carrion festival work . (I wanted it to be somewhat like the Arouse Hunger, or Pale Riders, spells)


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