Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

UPDATE: 90210. Yea, thats the date today...anyway...

*I decreased and narrowed magic on most mages.
*Increased cost and lowered research bonus on the Sages (Salvija).
*Decreased HP, Prot, Def and nerfed power of magic weapon, along with removing the fear on Cyclops (Vienu Aci) but left them recruitable everywhere, along with their lords.
*Increased HP and removed awe from Titan warriors (Dieva'Dels)
*improved titan Lords armor, kept Awe, and lowered air magic skill and narrowed random paths.
*removed bonus gold from capital.



This is my Ea version of my LA mod I put out a little bit ago. The idea of this mod is that there is a great city that is ran by old gods and their children. Most of the human troops are weak and dumb, with poor equipment while the children of titans and cyclops are powerful and armed with magic weapons. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

How about not just an old city, but a ruined one?

Maybe even the ruins of Atlantis, destroyed by the Pantokrator in an age beyond memory, now risen once more from the depths?

And maybe it's residents are the scions of primordial titans, creators and rulers of a fetal cosmos, long before even the gods were born?

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

Ooh, that's an interesting idea, that's sparking some brainstorming.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

I think I am going to stick with my original idea, kind of based on the Roman god Saturn, unlike his Greek counterpart, he wasn't just some jerk who tried to eat his children, but he ruled over a Golden Age and was a god of fertility and growth. That will be represented in the EA, then The armies of Ermor come, raise the city, put it to ruins and the people of the city are scattered become barbarians, and then many generations later return to the city, along with many other refugees from other nations, that is the idea behind the MA. After the refugees arrived, they intermarry, rebuild the great city and form a new people and new nation, and that is the idea behind the LA.

But I also like the Idea of an Atlantis like nation, returning from the depths after being sunk to the ocean, that is more like the Atlantis that I think of than the one that is already in the game. I may work on a separate one on that idea.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

The atlantis is the game is based on the atlantians from the cthulu mythos iirc, I haven't actually read any of H.P Lovecraft's books.

So they aren't supposed to be based on the Lost City of atlantis myths. It would be interesting to link the two however,

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

You could always go with Lemuria or Mu, two other, lesser-known parallels to Atlantis. Both were present in real-world mythology, and both had similar stories of being great Nations that were sunk beneath the waves.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

I'm a bit concerned, having installed and played around with it, that this faction has too much going for it. It has Fear +1 Giants available from every fort, a fairly massive resource and gold bonus to the capitol for no really discernible reason, and their primary research mage, the Salvija, is as far as I can tell the most efficient researcher in the game by a wide margin. They have 8 base points of research for 100 gold and are sacred. That means that, with a single magic scale, they can get three research points per gold upkeep per turn, which seems absurd. I really dig the concept, but the faction as it stands has way too much going for it and really needs to be toned down. Also, the Awe on the sacred giants seems a bit much.

Overall, it's a neat concept that still needs a bit of tinkering with.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

While the Cthulhu mythos is more than just Lovecraft. I can't really recall atlantians in the stories of Lovecraft, it is more based on the deep ones and Dagon. (the Shadow Over Innsmouth story http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Over_Innsmouth). Read this story, it is one of the best ones from Lovecraft.

A race of underwater beings mating with humans, to create half human half toad creatures. And they live in old underwater ruins. But I imagined these as more of a shallow water society than a deep in the ocean group (which the Atlantis nation is).

Reading the wiki page I just discovered that the Deep Ones do indeed live in a city deep beneath the sea. The fact that the Lovecraft Deep One city is listed as being under a reef makes the coral weaponry of the Atlantians more fitting.

I think that the Deep Ones where both the inspiration for the Atlantian nation. And the mechanic of R'lyeh that coastal forts get freespawn.

This distinction makes the Shadow over Innsmouth story even more interesting. That way, the Deep ones would not have been the bad guys of the story, because they would have been controlled by a alien influence.

WAAAAAAAYYYYYY offtopic I know ;).

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

Thanks His, balance issues are really things I need help with. Should I tone down the research bonus and increase the cost on the sages (Salvija) and drop the fear and awe? That seems reasonable. The resource and gold bonus for the city is meant to reflect the City as a well organized, massive metropolis, a truly fantastic city. But if it too much, I can take it off for balance.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

Also took a brief look. Don't have much to say, except that I agree quite a bit with His Rotundity. Also, have you noticed how many magic paths they can get to 3 or greater with just randoms (and 5a, caelum level air magic)? And the crosspath potential on said same mages? And how the recruit everywhere forge bonus giants are absurdly good, and are actually better than the cap only sacreds as SCs? The goblin assassin mages are actually potentially very powerful too. The nation's sacreds don't seem absurd looking at them, but that's when compared to the recruit everywhere giants which are seriously good enough I wouldn't even bother with a bless, unless it's something to help your mages.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

Yea, I can see that, I need to tone down the awesomeness of some of the units and mages. I think I overcompensated for their basic troops being so crappy.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

In fact, I should tone down the Cyclops and make them capital only. That makes sense. I really appreciate the feedback guys. I really make my mods for me to play, but I want them to be as balanced and creative as possible,(thus more fun for me) that is why I come here and post them. So thank you very much for taking the time messing around with them and offering advice.

List to do.
Remove/lower magic paths on mages
Take away awe/fear from giants.
Make Cyclops capital only and nerf
Lower research bonus on sages and increase cost.
Remove city bonus resources/gold.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

You can probably hang on to a Resource bonus in the capitol, if only for thematic reasons. With all the other stuff toned down, you can keep the resource bonus to represent the glory of the ancient city without it being too powerful, in my opinion.

By the way, I really like various Giant sprites. The God King is a bit rough around the edges, but the cap-only Titan sprite is pretty darn good. It's clean, fits in with the base sprites, and I think conveys the idea of "Beautiful, godblooded titan" as best as a sprite can.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

Thank you, I tried to make them as best as I could, worked pretty long on some of them and pretty proud of most, I dont have a lot of experience doing this kind of thing. And yea, the God King needs some work, rough around the edges is a pretty nice way of putting it. It's not near as bad as my Fire Giant Pretender for another mod, that thing is horrid, but the God king does need some work.

Also, if anyone is wondering about the strange names, they are simple Latvian words like "Flower", "Sage", "Funeral", "One Eye", "Wizard", "Goblin", "Giant", and "God's Son". When I was trying to think up names for the units, I couldn't think up anything clever or original, so I figured simple in another language would make the appearance of cleverness, lol.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

Which ofcourse suggests a direct Latvian-inspired mod.

Go Perkuns!

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

I actually thought about adding Perkons, Saule and Menes in somehow, but couldn't think of a good way to do it, maybe as a powerful summons.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

Okay, dumb question time, but how do you give unique heroes individual names? I have a War Master Hero, right now he comes with a random name, how can I make him "Menes" The War Master? Does that question make sense?

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

You either have to have renaming on, or turn an entire nametype into his name. Generally, renaming is the method for handling this, and just make sure to use the name in your hero's description.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

Thanks, that's kind of a pain in the ***, so I think I will leave as is.

Also, updated the mod with some balance changes.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

I was thinking about a Perkuns unit, and I think it would be a flying chariot (flying trampler) with fire or shock aura, and a Patrol bonus of maybe 5.

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

I agree, he would have to be a chariot type unit. Menes is neat too, I mean, how many Male Moon gods of War are there?

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

This has some balance changes since "Remove/lower magic paths on mages"? :)

Let's see:
Fire 2 with 33%
Air (2 with 33%, 3 with 3.1%; 3 with 33% and 4 with 11% in capitol!!!)
Water 2 with 33%
Earth 3 with 33%
Astral (2 with 25%, 3 with 3.1%; 33% and 11% in capitol)
Death 2 (3 with 12.5%)
Nature 2 with 33%

Every single 1/1 combination without Blood/X, Nature/Death and Water/Earth (Fire/Water with only 6.25%, everything else >10%).

Hinom is not balanced, nobody is supposed to have "almost everything".

Your troops are a nice couple, as far as I see. Leaving the sacreds out, you have some humans that are on average okay for their cost but direly damage-minimized. And then you have 2 giants, that are nothing but raw damage.
Your capitol only Giant has some defense in addition to his damage, your human sacred is all-round good (and well-priced for that).
Overall, the troops are okay. Maybe even a little on the weak side, but the commanders ...

A Healer (usually a healer 20 is not so serious since the common trooper is not worth getting brought home to heal average 5 turns but in this nation it synergises well with the Dieva Dels)

A reasonably good researcher, who is a fortune teller 15 on top of it.

An assassin with Air magic

A forger 25 with fire+earth

and most important:

A reasonable good thug. Construction 4 for Boots of the messenger and Gridle of might and then Alteration 3 for "Body etheral, Mistform, 3 hold and attack", and the Diva Del Lord can conquer reasonable light defended provinces alone. ... I have not yet tried, what happens if you choose an imprisoned bless good, say ... Cyclops, Earth 9, Order + Magic Scales up.
My guess is: Divine Blessing (Whoops, the 2 or 3 bodyguard giants are blessed, too), Body Etheral, Mistform works, too.
And it's just getting meaner and meaner: Soon they cloud trapeze and the Smiths replace their allready good mace with an area-firebrand, they forge for cheap. All those nice budget-items and maybe personal regeneration if you can effort the fatigue.
Good thing - with some nations you could counter with magic duel, unless I'm totally killed by surprise in round 20 or earlier. Other nations do not even have astral.

In other words: I like it. :D
...but it's overpowered. Good for single player. ;)

Re: Ul'Darath EA. (work in progress)
 

I only play single player, so, to be perfectly honest, I make my mods for me to play alone. But, thought some others might enjoy them, and well, I wanted your guys ideas to make them better to increase my fun. I want them to have at least some degree of balance to them, otherwise they are not as fun to play. But, don't mind if they are a bit overpowered and certainly far over versatile. I think the troops are pretty weak, and somewhat uniquely so. I have a really strange affection for the Home Guard units.