Hydra Tamer
 

What the heck is this fool used for?
Can he actually make hydras?

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

No, he can't create hydras, but he has the advantage of being poison immune so you don't have to worry about their poison cloud killing the guy off. Doesn't make much sense to use the Tamers if you just place your commanders properly anyways, but it's thematic, so there you go.

I forget, do they have Animal Awe? Could possibly be useful for stopping elephants, if you are broke and desperate.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

Elephants will never be a problem for Pythium, hydras eat them for breakfast.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

I know, that's why "broke" and "desperate" were used as qualifiers :)

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

I don't think he has animal awe anyway, no matter how broke and desperate you are.

I'd like to see them actually do something. Possibly have animal awe and a dt_large weapon.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

What about a "summon allies" for hydra hatchlings? That could fit in CBM.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

Hydra tamers are perilously close to useless.

They are useful for the retreating hydra trick: set the hydras near the front with guard commander order, and the commander at the back. They then retreat, leaving a poison cloud behind them. Enemy units move through the posion cloud to try to engage the hydras, and start dying as they chase the hydras to the back of the map. Try that without a poison-resistant commander, you'll have cause for embarrassment.


Could give them a summon hatchling ability. You'd have to increase their cost a lot, as that's a HUGE advantage.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

I was thinking more of a summon allies with only 25% chance of getting an hydra hatchling. or 75% chance of not getting anything.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

I don't think that can be done, but I'm not an expert modder.
As far as I know, you can either automatically summon 1 or 5 units automatically(not BETWEEN 1 and 5, just 1 OR 5), give them the ability to spend a turn for 1,2 or 5 units, or use the automatic summoning dependant on dominion strength, but that isn't really thematic for Hydras.

EDIT: Now that I think of it, there could be a way to have them summon Hydra "eggs", but I fear that the maximum incubation time would be 1 month. Still, better than nothing.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

Hydra tamers should be able to safely lead hydras on raids into miasma-covered provinces. It is not much, but at least it is something.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

You can:

Have them autosummon per month regardless of anything else: Either 1 or 5 units.

Have them summon allies: 1,2,3,4 or 5 units.

Have them domsummon: Full strength, half strength, 20th strength.

Regarding units which change over time (like eggs hatching) it can be done and you can have it take X months where X is the number of unit ids you are willing to use up. However every time they get into a battle, it also 'accelerates' their 'growth' by the equivalent of 1 month. For eggs not so much a problem.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

how would you do that without casting a spell sombre?

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

#firstshape changes the unit at the end of a turn or the end of a battle.

Pretty simple.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

WAY COOL!!!

I forgot the turn bit.

OH. The sad part: Battles will age them.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

well a tamer with archer gear behind the hydra "can" be pretty effective

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

No more effective than any other commander with archer gear.

Battles would 'age' the eggs, but I don't think it's too problematic. Easily explained that nearby conflict stimulates the growth of the hatchling.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

Immobile, 1 hp and I don´t think they´d see that many battles. I´d favor a weak domsummon ability. So every one in a while you´d get an egg. Then it could take 5 months or so for them to hatch.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

I do like the immobile bit....
Overall I like this a lot more than the hydra hatchling that dies of old age..

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

You can get round the battle aging with some more unit numbers.

egg1: firstshape=egg2, secondshape=egg1a
egg1a: firstshape=egg1

egg2: firstshape=egg3, secondshape=egg2a
egg2a: firstshape=egg2

etc.

When egg1 dies, it turns into egg1a, which turns back into egg1 at the end of a battle. Now, the reason this helps: give egg1 #onebattlespell "Suicide" where Suicide is a spell that kills the egg1. It'll become an egg1a for the duration of the battle (which is indistinguishable from an egg1), and change back to an egg1 at the end of the battle. No aging has happened.

Quirk: Eggs can't easily be killed by remote spells.

Worry: Oddly, I'm not sure whether you can do the #onebattlespell "Suicide" thing. I seem to have a vague memory of having problems testing something similar.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

Somebody suggested a while back that they start out equipped with the Hydra Skin armour--the one with the 15% regeneration. That would make them more interesting/thematic, and slightly more surviveable. These guys are humans, so it wouldn't be a huge balancing problem, either.

Re: Hydra Tamer
 

You can do onebattlespell suicide (for commanders) - you just have to trick them into casting it via a different buff followed by a kill self nextspell. There are a few onebattlespells like that. Slightly buggy behaviour, basically.

But that would force the egg to be a commander, which I think it less interesting.