EA Alchera - now ver. 2.0!
 

"Alchera" is the Aboriginal word that generally gets translated as "Dreamtime." Alchera is a nation with two peoples: the Alchera, inspired by Australian Aboriginal myth and tradition, and the Maohi, inspired by Maori (native New Zealanders).

The Alchera are attuned to the Dreamtime, giving them superior magic resistance, stealthy etherial sacreds, and powerful astral mages (with secondary air magic). The Maohi as physically powerful (above average Str and HP), and have a diverse range of magician-priests (nature, water, air), as well as limited sailing and amphibious capabilities.

I've tried to make this mod balanced, and it may even seem underpowered: Alchera has no archers, no cavalry and no heavy armor. In exchange, it has a great many advantages in terms of mobility, and a very powerful (but very expensive) stealth leader and assassin, the Dreamhunter.

As a strategy gamer, I enjoy figuring out how to make square pegs fit into round holes. I intend for there to be are a lot of interesting "square pegs" in this mod - units that have potential, but will require planning to use effectively. For example, Dreamhunters suffer from the first twinges of old age. Another example are the summonable Maeros - immortal but weak "wild men" who cause unrest.

The inspiration for this mod came as a result of a scholarly article I wrote about Dom 3 for Gameology (shameless self-promotion: <a href=http://www.gameology.org/node/1642>The Kohen Gadol has Horns</a>). Having spent a lot of thought on the issue of Jewish and Manichean myth and history, I turned my thoughts to Machaka.

I don't dislike Machaka, but it is the only "black" and/or "African" nation in the game, only exists in MA (until/unless EA Machaka is completed), and it isn't nearly as interesting in terms of mythology or history as, say, Gath. I wanted to make a mod that reflected unfamiliar parts of an indigenous people's mythology, and something contrary to the "heart of darkess" stereotype. I also wanted an excuse to research Aboriginal myth and tradition, and soon after decided to include Maori myth as well. This mod is the result.

Coming "soon" (meaning whenever if ever):
* national artifact(s) that are tapu or make the bearer tapu ("tapu" is the origin of "taboo," and means sacred and therefore forbidden)
* MA Alchera, in which the two peoples have mostly merged and Maohi culture has risen to predominance
* LA Alchera, where heroes of old have returned and the Dreamtime is becoming corrupted by the influence of the Void (LA R'lyeh)

Feedback very much appreciated.

Update: v2.0
* tons of balance changes - I don't evern remember half of them any more
* some fixes to graphics coming soon
* listing of changes coming soon

Update: v.1.672
* Mac (& Linux?) incompatability fixed

Update: v1.671 - rebalancing
* starting troops improved
* resource costs tweaked down
* Dreamhunter cost reduced to 350, no longer starts old (reaches old age after 1 year)

Update: v1.67
* fixed broken summon spells :doh:
* reversed changes to Compell Maero in 1.66

Update: v1.66
* fixed all the stuff I broke renumbering the mod for 1.65
* balance tweaks:
* Compell Maero now summons only one (was variable by skill), but only costs 2 gems (was 3) and Maeros now have 14 HP (was 12)
* Summon Yarama Ya-who cost increased to 15 pearls (was 10)
* Maohi Diver now has mapmove 1 (was 2 - makes them a little less land-friendly) and MR 10 (Maohi norm)
* Possum Warrior now has MR 14 (was 13) to accurately reflect "+2 bonus" from enchanted Possum-skin Cloak (which doesn't actually give +2 MR, but all units in the mod with this armor have +2 MR relative to a comparable unit without

Update: v1.65
* the mod is now CBM compatible and much less likely to conflict with other mods (see alchera.dm for details)
* unit costs decreased slightly for Maohi Warrior, Javilineer and Diver, greatly for Dreamwalker
* starting army now contains Maohi Warriors in place of Possum Warriors
* Added 1 water gem start site, bringing EA Alchera to the standard 6 gems
* comments added to alchera.dm, including #s used and thank-yous


Update: v1.6
* Taniwha and Tangaroa's Brood spell (summons Taniwha added)
* new art for Tangaroa Tohunga in shark form (no longer generic shark)
* Maui (Trickster Hero) now only autocasts Battle Fortune - meaning he could "miss" himself. Flavor text updated to reflect this
* Tangaroa Tohunga missing weapon bug fixed, and a few other small changes
* "SEMI-FINAL" update: only bugfixes and balancing will be done until I complete MA Alchera
* sprite sheet NOT updated - I'll get to it, sometime

Update: v.1.55
* Linux incompatibility fixed
* national hero Maui now has "grandfather's jawbone" and fire magic
* UPDATED SPRITES! for Maui, Maohi Diver and Dreamtime Warrior (minor changes in each case, but I'd been putting this off)

Update: v1.51
* Fixed "known problems" from 1.5
* various minor changes, including:
1. Raindow Serpent is 10%, not 20% crazy
2. hero Maui autocasts Personal Luck and Battle Fortune at the start of combat (upgraded from P-Luck and Luck)
* I'll change Maui to have luck as a "permanent" w/ next update: for now, this was the easy way (there's no "#lucky" command)
* I'm considering changing the version #s to better conform w/ convention (e.g., ver. 1.0 would become a goal, when all intended features are added and bugs fixed) if I do this, I'll change all of the #s here for consistency's sake

Major Update: v1.5
* National Pretenders (2) and heroes (2) added! (w/ art and everything)
* various minor tweaks and bugfixes
* Known problems:
1. Rainbow Serpent should be 20% insane, and hero Alinda should be 10% insane, but aren't (command used: "#insane 20")
2. Alinda should be a heretic: "spreadom: -1" didn't work, changed to "#heretic" but haven't had time to test
3. Maui and Alinda (the new heroes) aren't named correctly (they get random names). This is an easy fix, but I've already spent much too long working on Alchera today
* Taniwha really are coming, I promise.

5/31: Added "allinone.jpg" image of all sprites

Update: v1.3
* Compell Maeros fixed (calls 1+, not 11+)
* Updated art for Maohi Warrior (with Patu)
* Updated text & art for Tohungas (weapons are now Tiki Wanangas - "Godsticks" in varying shades as well as shapes)
* Maohi Warrior Def +1
* Dreamwalker and Dreamtime Warrior costs reduced (to 25 & 40 gold, respectively)
* Great Dreamer chance of extra astral levels increased to 20% each (was 15%)
* Rainbow Serpent greatly changed (an experiment - feedback, please!): now "Rainbow" in the general sense, with lvl 5 Astral, lvl 3 in all other magic paths (but with almost no research ability) and 160hp (up from 80), but is now lvl 9 to summon (was 8), costs 110 pears (was 90), doesn't autocast in combat (used to autocast Astral Tempest and Unraveling) AND is now 20% crazy (used to be 10%)

Update: v1.2
* Call Mimis now actually calls Mimis
* Stealth bonuses increased: Dreamwalker +10, Dreamtime Warrior +20, Dreamhunter +30 (Dreamhunter max age increased, still starts old)
* Wakataua master now an OK commander (vastly improved Alchera's sailing ability), increased his cost to 50 and resource cost to 24
* cost mods: Maohi Warrior costs 11 (formerly 10), Maohi Javilineer costs 13 (formerly 10), Maohi Diver costs 14 (formerly 15)
* Compell Maero (spell) now only costs 1 Nature and 1 Holy, and gives extra Maeros for high skill
* Maeros now regenerate 6hp/turn (out of 12 hp, still unarmored)
* (Tohunga and Maori Warrior art still not yet fixed)
* (Taniwha not yet added)
* (Maori Warrior subject to further change without notice)

Update: v1.1
* encumbrance values fixed
* Tangaroas now sacred (require temple to recruit)
* Yowie and Rainbow Serpent now summon as commanders
* Dreamhunter now has Holy 1
* Maohi Warrior now has Ambidexterity 3 and a Patu (Maori club) as a second weapon - art not yet fixed
* Tohunga weapons are now "Godstick Patus" and not "Tohunga Spears" - art and flavor text not yet fixed
* fixed "Wrath of Tawhiri" fatal error (whoops!)

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

well I'm certainly gonna try this for your Maori additions

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

OK a couple things I noticed. for your Tohunga. instead of the spear I would give them something like a Patu instead.
your Maohi Warrior. get rid of the shields and give them a Patu as a secondary weapon

and as I mentioned in the Oceania thread. there are some Birdmen Mythos, in regards to the Maori and Easter Island. so a summon of something like a Tengu would be nice.

theres also the detachable flying head vampires. though truthfully not sure were I originally heard those because they ain't a Maori Myth

you have your Taniwha, sea monster. sharks, eels, sea serpents, or something else. it really depends on where your from for its description.

and another thing I can think of are River Spirits

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Penanggalan? They're sort of Malaysia/Indonesia area, IIRC.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Thanks, Lavaere. I'll definitely incorporate the Patu - with the Togungas I was trying to model their weapons on the symbols for each god/spirit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maorigodsymbols.jpg

Do you think I could get away with simply renaming them as Tohunga patu (even though they don't look like historical patu) or maybe "godsticks"?

I definitely need to incorporate the Taniwha, and I intended for MA Alchera (when I make it) to be more Maori/Pacific Islander, including te moku and more of the gods (Ruaomoko and Hine-nui-te-po).

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Alright I playtested this mod a bit, and its very cool, but I ran into a few problems.

Yowie and Rainbow serpent don't summon as commanders, which means you have to GoR them before you can use their abilities.

The evocation battlefield spell appears to do nothing, and costs no fatigue to cast.

The 110 gp sacred casters (can't remember the name) are sacred, but they don't require a temple to recruit, which seems odd.

Dreamhunters have no holy levels, so can't self-bless, don't make good leaders for your sacred troops, and thus aren't really worth the 400 gold....

Also is the 0 encumbrance on the commanders and troops intentional?

Otherwise this nation is very cool, and I would love to play it.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Thanks, Joe. I need to fix all of those things. Everything you mentioned except for the Dreamhunter lacking Holy magic is a bug, and I think you're right about the Dreamhunter as well.

I don't have time right now, but I'll post an update sometime this week.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

This should fix all of the bugs Alpine Joe pointed out. I've also implemented the Patu, but I haven't updated the art yet.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

I just downloaded 1.1 and CTD on trying to start a game. Error message was name2spell: no such spell. Dom3 is fully updated and no other mods are selected. :( I was looking forward to trying it out!

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Sorry... it's fixed now.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

This is great! Thanks! I'm glad to see we finally have a mod that covers Australia.

I agree about the sharp lack of African (and Native American) Nations in the game. I'm working on my own mod based on Ethiopian history/mythology, but I'm extremely slow going at it, so it's nice to see other people working on these themes.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

It's cool to see the research and thematic detail in the mod! I like the Dreamtime theme. Anything you can put in to expand on this seems like it'd be a step in the right direction. On to the nuts and bolts of things, though.

Firstly, call Mimis seems bugged. I got some unnamed legionnaires appearing on the edge of the battlefield. The Dreamtime warriors seem pretty pricey for their benefits. As far as I can tell, the Rainbow Serpent is just a traveling astral tempest. The description seems to indicate it might have another impact .. is that the case? Maohi Javilineers are awe-inspiringly good for the cost. 2 gems and a mage turn for an unarmored immortal with dubious surviability is hard to carry if it also causes unrest (Maero). The recruitable mage variety is really nice and everything feels like it has a niche. The Wakataua masters don't seem to have a function, though. 10 leadership isn't enough to make an impact. Increasing the leadership, giving them stealth and/or priestly powers would introduce a role, and the semi-religious nature of sailing would support it.

While the above is pretty negative, I'm mostly focusing on things that, as a player, I would like changed. There's a lot of the mod that doesn't need changing one bit, so I figured I'd just put all of that into one big AWESOME! at the end.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Thanks, Radio Star - I've made a number of changes based on your suggestions (see changelog).

The Rainbow Serpent is a work in progress - at the moment, it is a walking (slithering) Astral Tempest and Unraveling. In terms of balance, both it and the Dreamhunter have the Horrormark ability: units attacking them become horrormarked (and sometimes cursed?)

This complements the Dreamhunter's ability as an assassin: if he doesn't get his target, they're likely to be left badly horrormarked. I didn't give Alchera blood magic, but they have a lot of air magic, so False Horrors are an option (do they target horrormarked characters just like the real thing? I should test this)

Dreamwalkers and Dreamtime Warriors are stealthy, holy and ethereal. I figure this makes them ideal for raids behind enemy lines, especially with the improved stealth values. So, they should be weaker one-on-one than comparably priced national sacreds (all the more so given the frequency of magic weapons in EA). Also, Alchera's "Follow Songlines" is a level 0, reduced cost Vortex of Returning, so you can get them out of a tight spot easily.

My worry was that Dreamhunter + Dreamtime Warriors would be too powerful, as would "Walkabout" (cheap, lvl. 0 teleport) + Dreamhunter, so I started them off weaker than I wanted to. I want this to be a balanced mod, so I started by erring on the side of caution and underpowering units.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Quick bug report: Compel Maero is summoning 11+11 per level instead of 1+1. Also, Maeros seem to be causing a lot of unrest. What're the numbers on that?

If you're looking for another buff/direction for the Rainbow Serpent, Will of the Fates would be a cool feature.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Great mod, fits perfectly well with the fluff of the game ! Balance seems quite good to me, but I haven't got the MPers talent to spot 'exploits' (falling short of a better word sorry :) ) . The dreamhunters seem a tad overpriced to me, but I don't like assassins much in dom 3. Even if they have many over uses.

I spotted the tohunga of water (sorry...) is, once transformed, unable to go back on land. I can't remember the lore exactly about transformers of theese legends (I do not know if they can transform back in the fluff), but it's highly impracticall. I think it is caused by their aquatic tag, you'll have to recreate a new unit using #clearstat command to get rid of it.(if you feel like it, of course)

Apart from that, the various tohungas would be so sweet with nice coloured crowns/hats. Plus one would be able to identify them easily, which could be handy at times.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Thanks again, everyone.

To Radio Star: Will of the Fates is appropriate, but I want the Rainbow Serpent to be a little dangerous. Also, Maeros increase unrest 1 per turn... per Maero. The only upside is that they roughly balance themselves out if assigned to patrol every turn (do Unrest-causing units get a bonus to reducing Unrest?). I tried to decrease this to a fraction of an unrest each, but the game won't allow it. If this is just too much, I'll have to think of a different way to balance them (Gluttony, perhaps).

To Humakty: doh! I knew I was forgetting something. I'll fix the Tangaroa Tohungas tomorrow (easy fix, but I'm tired). Let me know if you think the colored staves are enough of an identification aid (I'm not entirely opposed to coloring the hats, but it seems too easy... and I just realized that there are pink dots on the base of the Tanematahuta Tohunga's Godstick. Also tomorrow.

Taniwha (monsters summonable only in water) are coming soon (but not tomorrow)

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Staves are enougth, as far as I can say watching a full screen image. As long as you can say who's who with a little practice, it's all one needs. But it's truly necessary for big maps.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

By the way: I'd love to see the graphics for this, if you'd like to post them? I'm not able to playtest this (although I really want to!), but it'd be a pleasure to atleast see what it looks like.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Is the mod intended to be CBM compatible?

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Added a pic of all sprites (link in main post). :)

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

I wasn't thinking about that when I started, but now that you mention it, that'd be good. If you find any incompatibilities, please let me know (at some point, I may revise the mod to use rarely-used unit & item numbers [etc.] to increase general compatibility).

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

The pics look good! I especially like how you've some of them in non-generic poses. I know that's harder to do, and you did it well.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Been meaning to say this earlier but better late than never.

Great job on this mod Vanishag!! Absolutely love the inclusion of Aborigine and Maori flavor to Dominions. Your sprites are top notch and fit in well with the other nations of the game. These guys will def hold me over until KO works out his ideas for Machaka or DaveCG finishes his EA Machaka idea.

I sadly can't give you any input as far as balance goes as I get trounced in any MP games I play and prefer solo play anyways, but everything FEELS right with your units that I've tried so far.

Hope we get to see more of your work soon? ;)

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Hopefully. I'm finishing up my doctoral dissertation (in visual media studies, focus on comics and graphic novels - I love my life) this summer, but I'll be making further additions to EA Alchera and hope to get a draft of MA Alchera out.

I also want to make a map from a hand-drawn original (sepia ink on light-brown recycled paper), e.g., to look like an old map.

Thank you BandarLover and HoneyBadger for the complements on my sprites: I've been sketching in a semi-disciplined way for years (part of my study of comics, line art, and printmaking), but Alchera gave me an excuse to force myself to learn to use GIMP (how's that for a convoluted phrase?). Burnsaber's tutorial was REALLY helpful.

BTW, HoneyBadger, I was reading the thread on Stardock's forthcoming Elemental, and I liked what you had to say about fantasy's black-and-white morality v.s. the complexity of myth, but I have a further argument to make:

"Fantasy" as we know it today is heavily indebted to Tolkein, who drew on myth and folklore, as is directly responsible for adding absolute supernatural good and evil into the mix. I don't think Tolkien was intentionally "colonialist" in his writing, but I do think that the legacy of European, and perhaps especially British, colonial rule has been and still is part of "generic" and/or "High" fantasy.

Fantasy is a bit like the jungle king/queen genre, e.g. Tarzan (though there were many others), except that its assumptions have remained largely unquestioned because it is "fantasy" and thus not "real." (As if James Bond or Tarzan are any more real than Aragorn or Samwise) In Fantasy, Orcs are inherently evil and inferior - and therefore it is OK to exterminate them... if we accept that assumption - and with it, the idea than an intelligent (or sentient, or language-using) race can be inherently evil (an idea that strikes me as either childish or chilling).

I wrote <a href="http://www.gameology.org/blog/becoming_dragon_race_and_the_war_machine">an article about this for Gameology</a>, in terms of a campaign for <a href="http://www.wesnoth.org/">Battle for Wesnoth</a> which deals with slavery and makes Wesnoth's "High Fantasy" setting morally complex.

(I should note that I love The Lord of the Rings - but that doesn't keep me from picking it apart: the "normal" bit of me can simply enjoy something even as the obsessive academic tears it to shreds.)

...sorry, everyone - I didn't mean to turn this into a rant.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

You know if you did make a map. I'd really love based somewhat on the real world. Bandar Log, Lanka, Tien Chi, Yomi and Alchera scenario would make for a really nice game.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

I never really liked the idea of inherant evil. It's reminiscent of the concept of original sin, which has been a carrier for some of the worst sorts of human behavior.

In Tolkien's case, the orcs were furthermore originally elves, who had been twisted and tortured into "evil beings", so in that case, there's the doubled permission to not only kill the different, but by killing them, to put them out of their supposed misery.

I do find, however, that the Aboleths in the game are as close to broadly and objectively evil as anything I've ever encountered. Ofcourse, this is from the point of view of a human, looking upon a society of highly intelligent and extremely alien creatures (who still seem to share our own motivations, oddly enough).

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Lavaere, have you tried Pasha's Asia Twist map?

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

I really like Asia Twist - haven't seriously played it yet, but it looks perfect for a mix of underwater, amphibious and sailing nations. I plan on using it to test Alchera.

Also: MAJOR update today! I've completed two pretenders for Alchera, as well as two random heroes. More is planned, but I need to get back to dissertating.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

"""
1. Rainbow Serpent should be 20% insane, and hero Alinda should be 10% insane, but aren't (command used: "#insane 20")
"""

That's not a real command, you need to copystats a LA R'lyeh dreamer unit to get someone to start with insanity.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Nice looking mod. I'll stick it on my list of mods to try out.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

well, 1.51 is up

Thanks to Burnsaber for the clarification, and to RadioStar, whose suggestion for the Rainbow Serpent became (toned down a little), the trickster hero Maui. Combining Ethereal and Luck is dangerously powerful: in a test, I conquered a number of Independent nations with good soldiers w/ Maui and 10 Dream Warriors (without blessing them!)

I didn't try them against overwhelming numbers - that should balance out the only 1-in-8 hits of Lucky Ethereal units, and of course human players would use spells and/or magic weapons to negate the ethereality, but I still wonder about balance: not basic power, but the "exploitability" of combinations.

to Sombre: I downloaded Jomon: Broken and look forward to trying it - and wow, are your sprites pretty (in the expansive sense, like "look how beautifully drawn that sucking gut wound is"). I'm a little abashed.

to Honeybadger: I have to agree w/ you about the Arboleths - they should be utterly inhuman, which would make them amoral rather than immoral, but they seem to be pursuing very conventional "human" ends, which deprives them of their excuse. Of course, one could also see them as victims of their Pretender God whose response to being enslaved was to enslave others...

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

haven't had a look in a while, but nice to know that Maui is one of the heroes. hope you gave him his Grandfathers Jawbone as one of his weapons, in place of a Patu

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

OK, for the Maui hero. There are many things similar between all the Pacific Islands. One he fished up the land, so Maori's he fished up New Zealand, Tahitians he fished up Tahiti. And so forth, all with the jawbone. Another universal thing is that he brought back or discovered fire, so maybe give him some fire magic.

Everything else is looking sweet. Really wish I could help with aborigine part, but I'm Maori and not Aussie. And Aussie Mythos is different from the rest of the Pacific as far as I know.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Thanks, Lavaere. I really appreciate it. I'll be updating Maui soon - it's a little tricky, as he's such a storied and important character: I've even thought about giving him different traits in each era, reflecting different Maui stories.

I'll add the jawbone and fire magic, but I'm not sure what to do about the story that he fished up the island: it's really hard to reconcile with my having made him a hero and not a pretender (I decided he had too much personality to be a pretender).

Kupe and Toitehuatahi should be less important than Maui, but they fill the "great ancestor" role well and, as far as I've found, have less thoroughly developed stories and personalities, so I felt OK about smushing them together to make a Pretender "type" (thus "Kupe Toitehuatahi").

Please keep letting me know how I'm doing and what I'm missing: I've decided to add summonable bird-people, but not until MA, and the biggest thing holding me up on the Taniwha is that they take the forms of all kinds of aquatic creatures (sharks, eels, octopai), so I'm having a hard time settling on one form (I suppose I could give them two aquatic shapes plus a land shape).

For MA Alchera, I'm thinking about having a number of sacred Moko warriors, based on their whakapapa (geneology/ family history) - they'd have different on-bless specials to reflect their whakapapa. I'm also thinking, once I get Taniwha worked out, about having a "Ritual of Rebirth"-like water + divine spell that allows the caster to be reborn as a Taniwha after being killed, as the possibility of becoming a Tanwha after death is a really interesting part of the myth for me.

Given that it looks like blessed warriors will be a very important part of MA Alchera, I think I may also add a "High" Tohunga with Holy 3 and random magic picks that give him a chance of being able to cast any of the Tohunga-specific spells. For balance's sake, I figure he'd be capital-only.

Ok, I'm rambling, but that should give all of you an idea of where I'm thinking about taking this. Suggestions and feedback are very, very welcome. Oh, and I should post an updated sprite-sheet in a day or two.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Not meaning to rain on your parade, but I don't think you can really do on-bless specials (apart from copying Mictlan's Eagle Warriors), nor do I think you can mod a variant of Ritual of Rebirth. I would be happy to find I was wrong of course.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Llamabeast is right, you really can't do these things as you advertised. But here are some mod haxing ideas.

You can't really mod Twiceborn, but you could make it national for MA Alchera and change it's paths and alter the wight mage unit. This would, however, take away twiceborn from all other nations.

About the Moko warriors, you could mod a different types of blessing spells. Like that Moko Warrior caste A has a corresponding Priest with a modded blessing spell. Since blessing spells don't have any effect once the target is blessed, the Moko Warriors could only take benefit from one of these spells at a time. There isn't any way to make caste A blessing blessing ignore caste B (unless you're willing to give them strange tags, like undead/demon/magic being/amphibian). But you just could make the blessings rebundant gameplay wise. What if the caste B & C blessing spells give something that A has already? Then there really wouldn't be any reason to use cross-caste blessings.

About Taniwha, you could make it like the "Banquet for the Dead" for Ashdod. It would kill the caster and summon a Taniwha (reincarantion of sorts?). If you're intrested, I suggest you PM chrispederson (or was it chrispedersen?) about it, he did some testing with modding the spell effect a while back.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

i'm playtestin the mod, ver 1.51, on land of legends map

//slowly expandin with 2 gangs of thunderstrikers

found 1 error and 1 strange feature

1 error) mod does not work under linux. To make it work under both windoze and linux, change backslash to forwardslash in alchera.dm

2 strange feature) tangaroa tahunga in shark form has all human slots available. Is that a bug or feature?

PS not so many national heroes and national summons. Hope this will be fixed soon?

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Fixed isn't the right word to use here. Do you mean you enjoy the mod so you hope to encourage him to go on making content for it?

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

True about the slashes though. I just had to do a search-and-replace to change backslashes to forward slashes and then it worked.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

i dont use the mod nations but this is def the nation dom is most lacking in. i loooooooooove how dom uses "real" mythology and/or cultures and blends them with the fantasy setting. this setting should be part of the game already

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Thanks, everyone. I've been beyond busy, but I'll have at least some bugfixes done and minor additions/alterations by the end of the weekend.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Fixed Linux/Unix compatability and updated Maui - more to come.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

One thing I notice looking at the preview pic is that the diver graphic isn't as good as the other units. Can't put my finger on why - the spear being too much of a block maybe? Or something about the attack sprite?

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Nice sprites and a great concept for a mod. I agree with Sombre that the diver sprite looks out of place. Did you use a 4 armed sprite and crop off the extra arms? That could explain the odd pose.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

I did the recuitable units first, then the commanders, then the summons, and the Diver was my 1st ambitious sprite. I composited it from the Maenad, Siren, and Battle Vestal, and that's how the proportions got wonky.

It would have been better if I'd stuck closer to the Maenad, but it was a learning exercise. I think the main problem is that the sprite is too tall and probably too wide across the chest (I think the Siren in "mer" form is size 2, but if so, she's a large size 2). Also, in attempting to tone down the Siren's ample bosoms, I think I made the diver appear flat-chested, which, with the already overbroad chest makes her hardly look like a her.

I'll edit that sprite sometime soon.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

New (well, improved) sprites are up! :cheers:

New sprite sheet tomorrow (maybe)

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

The shadow on the flag looks a bit weird. It's like it has a square coming off it at the bottom left.

Also they only get 5 gem income while other EA nations get 6. Their starting army is also a bit odd - it's considerably larger and more expensive than most nations get.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

The tangaroa tohunga doesn't have a staff.

I'll just randomly post whenever I spot possible bugs. I could leave them all for one post but I'd probably forget stuff.

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

Really lovin this mod.

I did notice that with the Trickster Hero, the flavor text mentions his legendary luck, yet he is not a lucky unit. My mod skills are a bit rusty so I don't know if you can mod a unit to have luck or not, but I thought I'd post this (possible?) bug.

Keep up the good work!! I credit the modding community for the longevity of this game on my hard drive...you are all awesome :D

Re: EA Alchera: Aborigine and Maori-inspired Nation
 

It isn't possible to mod a unit to have luck in its profile. However, it is possible to mod a unit to always be lucky in battle, by having it #onebattlespell personal luck.