New Nation: Dreamers
 

Version 0.03

Theran Empire: Time of Dreamers

"Theran nations expansion brought it into contact with various people and civilizations. Bantu tribes wandering the wasteland, Budaya forgers of enchanted jade armor and Tetsu steel makers and Dreamers all became a part of the new Theran Empire. Before encountering Tetsu people the Theran nation had limited knowledge of magic. Now Tetsu Dreamers are the primary providers of magic for the fledgling empire. Dreamers gained their knowledge and power by breaking through the barrier that separates Dreams and reality. Through this barrier they summon nightmares and give form to dreams. Lord of Dreams, the guardian of the barrier and the guide to the world of dreams, has become the main God in the imperial pantheon."

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/pictu...&pictureid=107

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

I've had a bit of a play around with the nation now. They have a butt-load of Astral power, don't they?

The sprites are great, and the race is very atmospheric.

Prot values on their troops are definitely on the high end for EA - barring the sacred, it's all 11s and 15s. And of course the Iron Guard with their 17 prot, which would be pretty heavy even in MA. I guess the high Enc makes up for this . Having to choose whether to take Sloth for the research bonus at the cost of being able to buy almost no troops might be tougher if the Dreamers weren't good researchers anyway.

I'm not sure I understand why most of the troops have Animal Awe though.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

This mod completes my "Theran Empire" trilogy. It explains how the "Horror Scourge" happened. I'll need to add some more units and summons before its complete. Although it is playable as is.

Animal Awe represents the Sarissa. All of my mods use AA to represent pikes.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

Sounds interesting, would you add a preview image to top post?

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

Version 0.02

Added "Summon Karakura" and "Create Giant Rift" spells.
Added sprite preview to the main post.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

Thanks for adding a preview Amos - along with descriptive text this is something that really helps people get a feel for which mods they'd like to try.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

Fixed "Dreamer", "Dark Dreamer", "Acolyte" and "Bishop" attack sprite. The shadow had a wrong color.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

BTW, the AI is very effective with the "Travelers" nation. I'm testing this mod against it, and the AI is kicking my butt.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

Breath-taking sprites, Amos! Very reminiscent of Gerald Brom and H.R. Geiger. How you manage to do that in a bitmap, I'll never figure out...You really ought to post some of your sprites on DeviantArt.

Would you *please* add a preview to all of your Mod Nations?

Pretty please?

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

I really cant take the credit for some of the sprites. Some of them are borrowed from concept art of other people. The sprites posted in this preview are purely mine.
As for adding preview images to my other mods, I'll see if I have the time.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

Added a multihero "Master Slayer".

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

Thanks for atleast giving it some consideration.

I think you'd find that people in general would appreciate and use your mods more often, if they got a look at them first.

It's just the way people seem to work.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

"Dreamer" can now turn into "Astral Self":

"The Astral Self of Tetsu Dreamer is extremely vulnerable to damage as the connection to the body is tenuous and can be easily severed. The Astral Self is short lived and is unable to use magic. Those disadvantages are offset by the ability of the Astral Self to change reality in its vicinity to a greater degree. The Astral Self is able to move through dreams like dream beings. The Astral Self is lucky in battle and melts city walls during a siege. In a province it is able to prevent evil tidings and sends pleasant dreams to its inhabitants. The Astral Self can never return to its body."

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

Version 0.03

Added a spell "Dream of Holy Creation":

"The caster summons an Arcane Artificer. Artificers are servants of the Lord of Dreams. They create magical weapons and armor for the defenders of the barrier - the Wardens. Like their master, they move through mortal dreams. The Artificer's knowledge of the astral arcana is unequaled."

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

Did anyone test the mod? Any thoughts?

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

I'd test it out if I were able to, Amos, but hopefully someone will be along shortly to give you some feedback?

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

I don't know... I tried it out but I don't feel like I'm qualified to give feedback on your mods. Usually I find I struggle very hard with them where I would normally do much better, and yet many people say your mod nations tend to be very overpowered. This is the first one I've played where I feel it really is overpowered, but at the same time it's got to be the least magically diverse nation ever conceived. The troops can be frustratingly useless at times, but then I realized you have 25 gold h2 priests that can lead as many troops as most of your commanders and began teleporting dreamers to provinces where I had to do a lot of killing and that problem disappeared. I have lots of sp experience but very little mp experience, so while I can say pretty certainly that it's a hideously strong nation against vanilla nations in sp, I don't really know enough to say whether they'd remain that way otherwise.

They do have a very hard time making decent thugs, but on the other hand you almost don't need them if you keep a few dreams of holy protection with your armies. I haven't tested out all the spells and abilities... I'm familiar with some from the horror scourge mod and I don't have all the others in my game yet. I believe I was working toward being able to cast the rift when I stopped. I was basically at war with the entire world at once and the war was going very slowly as I had a lot of ground to cover and had been using my resources very inefficiently for much of the game.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

Thank you for the feedback.

I usually test my mods against my other mods. In "Dreamers" test game this nation had a hard time against Travelers with bad scales and Angelic Crusade with good scales even after I researched "Dream of Madness". I started making some progress only after "Astral Corruption" killed most of their strong casters. Even then, Crusade with armies 800 each and strong dominion is very hard to defeat. So, could you tell me - why this nation is so overpowered compared to vanilla?

As for diversity, some of my other mods are even less so.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

The main reasons I think it is so overpowered compared to vanilla are the dreamers, casting effectively will of the fates for just the cost of being able to get them where you want to go. You should have lots of dreamers so using them like that doesn't hurt much. Also the cheap priests combined with bantu infantry is a very useful combination, plus the mass luck and wooden warriors if you like. It's very easy to get lots of buff spells out on your armies even relatively early in the game. Also the dream wardens and the pretender are incredibly strong, especially for the early age. My pretender has been in quite a few battles and I think he still hasn't been hit by a melee attack yet (plus he's immune to nearly all magic). The troops in and of themselves I think are a bit weaker than average for the most part but the things I mentioned above more than make up for it.

I can understand how the travelers nation could be hard for them to defeat - trying to fight immortal, ethereal mindblasters isn't really my idea of fun. I have to admit I'm not as familiar with angelic crusade, I tried it a long time ago and I don't remember it that well.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

I'd test it out if I were able to, Amos, but hopefully someone will be along shortly to give you some feedback?

The Following User Says Thank You to HoneyBadger For This Useful Post:
Sombre

/me wonders wether Sombre is loosing his mind or that it's just sarcasm..

Anyway, Amos I think most of your nations are a bit on the strongish side so comparing them with one another might not give the best of balance for vanilla gaming :D

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

Why does everyone assume that Sombre hates my guts? I'm pretty confident that he doesn't, atleast because I'm a big fan and promoter of his mods, and mod Nations in general.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

Some people think my mods are overpowered, others think they are underpowered. I think that means that they are as balanced as they can be. Anyway, I appreciate any feedback on the nations that you give me. It allows me to 1)include playing styles different than my own; 2)fix errors I missed.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

hmm can't remember much pplz saying that your mods are underpowered but you'd know that better than me :D. I do know they are graphically overpowered compared to vanilla game though :D

Honey, don't didn't say, nor do I have an opinion on Sombre's feelings for your guts. (I happen to know he hates me though, he admitted that somewhere, since you read everything I suppose you read it) I just didn't think that post of you was worth a thanks (no offence but it wasn't you most enlightning post ever you'll have to admit) so I was wondering wether it was sarcasm of his mind being gone.. I've though of a 3th option though with includes intoxication with either alcohol or drugs.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

It's not for me to read Sombre's mind or understand his motivations :p I doubt he'd appreciate the attempt, in any case.

And it wasn't meant to be enlightening, it was just meant to bump the post, and not to leave Amos hanging. I'm a fan of Amos's mods, as is Sombre--that's something he's publically stated.

So, just possibly, it's thanks for taking an interest in something we mutually enjoy?

In any case, I try to think the best of someone, until and unless they give me a clear reason not to. And I'm certainly not about to make judgements upon a person for simply clicking my 'thanks-o-meter' without explanation. If someone does something nice, that's a good thing. I don't have to look it in it's mouth. If they did it out of less than pure motivations, then they have to live with that burden on their conscience, not me. Life's too hard, short, and brutal to waste time on second-guessing the good bits

It's not always an easy standard to hold myself up to, and I've been known to jump to conclusions, but it's better than distrusting everyone automatically. Ofcourse, it's a much easier and more valid way of life on these boards where we're physically safe from harm.

We seem to find ourselves in a society where showing gratitude or appreciation is viewed as showing weakness. I think the opposite is true, because any situation where an intelligent, confident person can afford to appear soft-by choice-in any way, is one where that person already has the upper hand.

Whether or not simply saying "thank you for this free mod you've created with your time and talent" is showing weakness--well, if you have to ask yourself that question, it's in itself a sad commentary on the times we live in. But we still don't find ourselves in Feudal Japan, surrounded by ninjas, where death might come from any direction, at any time, for anyone.

Nobody's twisting my arm, and Amos lacks any key to my fate. And-think of me what you will-I'll vouch for Sombre being atleast a reasonably intelligent person who doesn't do things out of pure berserk randomness very often. It's just politeness and respect to show someone that they're valued.

I choose to value Amos, and Sombre, for that matter, for the work they've done to make the game better and more enjoyable for everyone, and in turn, I choose to feel valued, myself. Whatever else I might be, I'm not afraid of that.

Re: New Nation: Dreamers
 

/me starts to throw up.

The post I started this about, nor this last post are cause for much thanks... even though some misguided souls seem to think differently :D

The second part of your last post certainly has nothing to do with what I was talking about anyway.