If you could create a unit...
 

Lately, I've noticed that unit diversity in Dominions is kinda weak. You've got plenty of different men to hire, but each seems to be an improved/downgraded Version of another. I just played a game as Abysia and it was boring as hell! (actually, hell's probably not a boring place, you've got your fire, brimstone, wailing souls, CEOs, and pitchforking imps.) The only thing available in the way of units were Heavy Infantry (True, there are many types, but they all overlap), light infantry, and Salamanders. Atlantis also lacked variety, with Atlantian infantry, overgrown Atlantian infantry and War Lobsters who can't even go up on dry land. That's essentially tramplers and infantry. Don't get me started on Mictlan.

So, (not that I expect anything here to make it into the game) if you could design a unit (hell, you can design a whole nation/theme if you want) what would you make? You can make one to make a nation more flexible, because you think it'd be a cool concept, or because you're bored.

Please no Posts like "this game's fine, you're a jerk" or "you're unit is (insert degrading comment here), what were you thinking?!"

I'll just do one right now to get things started

Pythium: Catapult - Immobile unit with 1 strategic move. It looks like a catapult operated by 2 engineers in Lorica Segmentata armor. It has a low gold cost (around 40) compared to its resource cost (around 200). In battle, it could chuck boulders like a Jotun Hurler, with 8 precision and 20-30 strength. It eats as much as two normal soldiers (the operators need food). The real trick is that they count as 20-30 normal men in sieges.

[ April 15, 2004, 00:51: Message edited by: Zen ]

Re: If you could create a unit...
 

I just want an aquatic blood hunter and amphibious/aquatic blood slaves. And maybe a new water demon similar to Tien Chi's.

Re: If you could create a unit...
 

Oh, it's so tempting... so tempting...

Re: If you could create a unit...
 

Isn't "Bind Ice Devil" a water devil spell? There's an elemental demon for every element.

C'tis: Piper - Using potent herbal poison found in the swamps of C'tis (it's all natural http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif ) pipers tip the darts of their blowpipes with a paralyzing poison. Pipers are cheap, at 8 gold apiece and 2 resources (like woodsmen blowpipes). They have no other equipment.

T'ien Ch'i: Imperial Magazine Crossbowman Team(that's a mouthful) - They're VERY expensive archers that utilize the Magazine crossbow. It fires bolts with the same stats as shortbow arrows, except it does it 5 at a time. Each bowman is assisted by a shieldman who holds a giant shield (are they called Pavice shields?) for him, which gives bonus defense against arrows (like other shields, but more) although it is no use against melee weapons. Since there are two men, the team eats like two men. The heavy equipment restricts move to 1 strategic and 3-4 on the battlefield. It's all at a grand total of 55/40 (give or take).

Re: If you could create a unit...
 

Agreed, most troops are an upgraded or downgraded Version of another.

So my created units would add some more 'unique abiiity' type units :

Ermor : Greater Skeleton (or Greater Longdead http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif ) - same low stats as the current basic longdead, but after non-holy destruction (ie. banishment), rises from the ground where it Last fell every 5 turns to fight again during combat (until all undead leading commanders killed off, or no remaining units left on battlefield, or turn limit expires).

Any : Medusa - stone any non-shielded non-ethereal unit until end of combat at short-medium range. Max 3 units per battle. Stoned units have a huge protection boost and are nigh impregnable to damage, however cannot move nor attack. If any stoned unit's side wins the battle they are returned to normal at end of battle (effect gets dispelled). If battle is lost, destroy all stoned units at end of battle. Stoned commanders' units do not auto-rout.

Any : Giant Beetle - has the ability to devour any smaller sized unit. Flyers are immune. Devoured unit loses 1/4th of hp's per turn that heal the beetle [max 20hps per turn, any hp regeneration ability inactive on target unit while in this state. Undead units only lose hp's but do not heal the beetle]. Devoured unit cannot attack while 'in' the beetle. Effect Lasts until the units or beetle's death at which point beetle can devour another unit, or upon the beetles death the unit appears on the battlefield with whatever remaining hp's. Can come in size 3 and size 5 varieties.

Re: If you could create a unit...
 

Hate 'ta do this to you, but Medusa is already Pangaea's national pretender http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

I'm going to, as I suggested to myself, create my own nation *maniacal laughter*

<--- is new at this, so bear with him

This game has nations that reflect history, religions, and cultures, but I want to try something from a stereotypical fantasy book. The orcs!

Orcs - race of green, brown, and greenish brown skinned men. They lack in sophisticated intelligence, but possess a keen animal cunning which make Orc commanders brilliant strategists and thus able to command many men. Their society centers completely around the skills, strengths, and ability of individuals, not their bloodlines. Every orc, from the lowly rank slave-worker to the arrogant Body Leaders are constantly trying to prove their worth to the community. *yoink from Spellforce*

The Orcish military utilizes highly specialized troops and every Body Leader knows the role of each soldier. The Bodies are formed from a heavily armored Chest, the fast-as-lightning-and-just-as-devastating Fists, and the all important Heart.

The Orcs respect and fear magic so only the best and brightest of the clans are allowed to wield it. Every magician starts out on their path as either a Kennel Watcher or Ailmenter Maker and eventually ascends to the status of Totem Carrier or Disease Crafter and then, after a lifetime of training *that they're not guaranteed, http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif * to survive an old and depecrepit orc is admitted into the secret societies of the Pack Leaders or Plague Shapers. This is one of the greatest honors an orc can have. The Orc magicians are so greatly respected that they are also granted priestly authority.

Note: This is supposed to be a drawback for Orcs because the magical priests are also very snobby and arrogant and won't join your army unless you shower them with cash.

I'll be making a couple Orc units/commanders a day.

Note: Orcs have stats identical to humans, except their hunt for honor often leads them to do daring but ultimately stupid feats, causing in a +1 attack skill, -3 defense skill, and +1 morale in their base stats.

Note: Orcs like Jagged, Barbed and Serrated weapons. They're cumbersome and usually give penalties to attack and defense, and are a tad more expensive than other weapons, but increase chances of inflicting Afflictions by 40%.

Orc Trainee

Cost: 6 gold, 13 resources

Abilities: +1 morale

Equipment:
Jagged Short Sword - 4 dam, 0 atk, 0 def, 2 length

Barbed Javelin - 3 dam, ran = str, prec -3, ammo 2

Partial Scrap Armor - 5 prot, -1 atk, 0 def, 2 enc

Buckler - 1 prot, 1 def, 0 enc

Description: Trainees are orc soldiers who haven't been assigned a role because they haven't proved their aptitude yet. Because they're low in society, Trainees don't cost much to train and because they are eager to prove themselves fit for a higher position, trainees don't route easily.

I'll be posting more on Orcs and other unit ideas later.

Re: If you could create a unit...
 

Heh? Perhaps I should release my "Experiments" mod but then again it's an insult to game balance since I just use it to try out concepts.

Units I made that seem to be somewhat functional without turning the balance:

Abyssal line creatures - Created by using the sprites of aquatic aliens from Duke Nukem.

Abyssal Terror, Size 6 amphibian "army scythe" with a lot of hitpoints and areashock ability. Costs a fortune but is essentially a SC pretender for sale. Drains the economy and quickly racks up the afflictions. But can potentially break a massive formation in the endgame. Currently assigned to Atlantis.

Abyssal Scourge, Size 4 unit that's essentially an amphibious medium cavalery in function. Berserk +3 and venomous. Assigned to the slow moving Atlanteans.

Abyssal Maw, Size 4 amphibian slowmoving flyer with big bite, tentacles and Lifedrain. Assigned to R'Lyeh.

Mythical Creatures - Derived from Hexen and Heretic sprites as well as others less known. Pretenders so far since I don't know how else to create singular creatures in the game.

Earthsunderer - Giant Minotaur with big hammer. Trampler, Berserk and very strong. My switch for the somewhat silly Lord of Fertiliy. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Reaper - Giant Satyr with Scythe of Slaying. Death and Nature Pretender for the cycle of life. My switch for the Father of Serpents.

Gaeas Avenger - Female Nataranja in red bikini. Unarmed but with earth and nature magic. Switch for the Great Mother.

Earthfires Fury - Flaming Giant Gargoyle. A bit on the higher end of power tough. Fire and Earth pretender with heataura, high protection and firebreath. Doesn't heal and weak against cold. Switch for Phoenix.

Draconian Empress - Three headed giant draconian/hydra hybrid pretender with no magic. Basically a variant of SC. Switch for Manticore.

Targeteer - Robinhood style pretender with 20 precision. All other stats are very poor though. Switch for Crone.

Undermountain King - Big Dwarf pretender complete with Axe, Shield and Beard. Earth Pretender that can function as a mini SC with a little planning.

Wanderer - Hooded Mage with fire, air, death magic. Switch for Frost Father.

Icewind Lord - Nemesis of Earthfires Fury. Giant Icecreature with frostaura, high hitpoints but no healing and fire weakness. Air and Water pretender.


That's all I feel are working as for now. Got a Giant Metal Flying Skull, Imp and Devourer sprites from old Doom, Giant Mummy, Giant Fire Elemental and Big Demonic Flying Head with Arms Thing left to assign names and stats.

Re: If you could create a unit...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Say, is it possible to replace just the sprites for a pretender? No functional changes (and it would still look the same to other players). But I'd be a lot more willing to play the Earth Mother if she didn't look like this girl I slept with once.... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: If you could create a unit...
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Sure. Just select the monster and then replace the two images with your own .tgas. Seems like it should be pretty simple to do, probably a minute or two of typing. And then, no more post-traumatic stress syndrome for you.

And I'm all about the Earth Mother as she is. That's pretty much the way I've always envisioned them and there's a lovely "Mama SMASH!" quality about them. In fact, I've got one running around in a game I'm playing now. At High Dominion, they're sort of fun. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: If you could create a unit...
 

A C'tis cavalry'ish thing. Something in between light and heavy cavalry. The C'tis will be riding on green big poisonious lizards. I'd made the animation and done some scripting, but I need illwinter to release script codes to change themes, I called it 'The Marsh riders'. Not specific original name but it fit nicely http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Also a Draconis race to play with like they have in age of wonders series (don't hit me for that statement http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) would be nice.


Thilock