Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

EDIT: fixed a few things, had forgot to give pale ones only one eye...

I like Pale Ones, I understand that they are terribly flawed, but I got it in my head to create a nation of Pale Ones that would be more fun to play (more fun for me anyway). These Pale ones live in a hollowed out volcano that was once inhabited by Fire Giants. The Giants have all but died out. The Pale Ones have adapted since ancient times and are using heavier arms and armor than previous and take warfare much more seriously. They have also adapted to the heat of the volcano and are a heat 2 nation. They get a 20% production bonus at their forts, but their only powerful mage/priest unit is capital only.

If anyone has any suggestions or ideas, I'm all ears.

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

I'm gonna be honest and I say I haven't even downloaded the mod yet, but heat 3 would be thematic as I imagine it's hotter inside a volcano than any desert, and there's no vanilla H3 nations other than abysia. I like the production bonus, as numbers makes up for the pale-ones notorious inability to hit anything.

also how are you intending to make them fit thematically with MA agartha, you either need to include the humans or give some story as to why the agarthans left them. Perhaps a civil war or some other schism in the agarthan society. It may be an idea to site this renegade splinter group of pale ones (volcanus) as the reason why in LA agartha all the pale ones are dead. That is offcourse, if you are not overwriting LA agartha with this nation.

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

I'm having these Pale ones separate from the ones from Agartha after EA, leaving because they see their race dying in Agatha and the humans coming. I want them to be completely separate from Agartha at this point. Maybe even despise humans and especially those that have taken their old home. I could raise them to heat 3, I don't really have a good argument of having them be heat 2 over heat 3. Also, these Pale ones are a little better at hitting things, basically they are a ATT 9 instead of an 8, so not a lot better, but a bit better, and they have better weapons and armor. I need to write more descriptions to get a better "feel" of the nation.

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

well you don't get much hotter than a volcano. So I think heat 3 would be more realistic there. Other ideas could include fire drake riders like la's earth drake riders and more barathus/rhuax pact type spells summoning larger quantities of units.

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

I was thinking of a Fire Drake rider, but I'm afraid of trying to do the sprite, haha. I'm redoing a lot of the sprites I've made for this one already, my fire giant god is particularly horrible.

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

just get a fire drake sprite, then put and infantry sprite on top of it. replace the pale ones legs with a deer tribe's right leg (it's forward and bent so it'll look more feasably like he's mounted).

Edit: oh yeah, and recolour the leg.

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

Interesting idea.

I think that heat 3 might not be the best however: this is not about where the nation lives, it is about what the main population likes.

Abyssians come from fire elementals, and the original jotuns were so much in touch with cold that they were also more like elements themselves, and no nation without such a strong elemental theme should be with Cold/heat 3

Heat 1 could be enough, but heat 2 seems acceptable.

Note that with a base heat 2 dominion, summer will often go to heat 3 in some provinces with the "exessive heat" fatigue malus for most units.
(but if aghartans have fire resistance, even only a few %, they should be immune)

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

IIRC you need at least 50% FR to be immune to fatigue from excessive heat.

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

I did not know that Gregstorm, but I think just by dumb luck, I gave them 50% FR.

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

My argument against the first statement is, why would they move house to a volcano when they don't like the heat?

That said I do find myself agreeing with you on the second point, you win, please come up to the podium to recieve your prize cookie.

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

Okay, heat 2 it is.

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

These guys sound like they would have definitely kept up the Rhuax_Pact.

Perhaps some of the Magma Children have:

• Acquired sentience (no longer mindless) - good fire mages, or maybe heroes?
• Interbred with the pale ones (it's magic, don't think about it too hard) - this could explain the new fire resistance.
• Built up a standing population (perhaps sacred recruitables?)
• They like the heat, so they thrive (advanced summons with size/stats > magma children)

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

That is a very good idea! That is something I am going to work with, thanks.

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

There's a EA Abysia hero (a proto-abysian) that looks like a big Magma child. You could maybe use his icon and/or stats if needed.

Or maybe he was added from a mod (CB/Worthy heroes), I don't remember

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

I think I am going to be working on this mod tonight and this weekend. I plan on incorporating Stavis's idea of the Raux Pact heavily into it, adding heroes, some underwater recruitables(although I don't plan on making these very strong, probably give them some access to water magic, and some basic troops, unless I come up with some inspiration to do more.)

Really need to work on improving my sprites for this one too. I look at that Fire Giant and laugh with shame all the time.

Any more ideas would be appreciated.

Re: Volcanus: LA Pale Ones (work in progress)
 

A thought is to connect them to salamanders. Since Agarthans are already essentially Olm-People, it's not too much of a stretch to say that this nation is made up of a splinter faction of Agarthans that fled their homeland after the early age and devoted themselves wholly to their pact with Rhaux in order to protect themselves, turning them into a different kind of amphibian. I'm thinking full fire resist, red skin in the graphics, and maybe a fire breath attack or something in the sacreds, something like the sacred units are those new breed of Agarthans who manifest the pact physically and become half-elemental or are just super old or something so they're physically enormous. Perhaps cap-only to limit their number and give them a heat aura or something rad like that.

Of course, this makes them conceptually similar to Abyssia, what with them already having heat auras, fire resist, and salamander units, but when you've got a pair of races who live in volcanoes, you're bound to run into some similarities. Making some of their units amphibious and giving them water recruits goes a long way towards differentiating them, so definitely use that idea. Just off the top of my head, it'd be neat as hell to give them some UW recruits that're based on those tube worms that cluster around underwater thermal vents. It's weird, otherworldly, and gives them a thematic excuse to go underwater without sacrificing the volcano theme.