Mod: Conceptual Balance Mod 1.6

[quantum_mechani]

This version is coming out a little early (some games are waiting for it) so an up to date readme and a split version of the mod will be along later. The change log posted here is fairly complete though, so combined with the old readme there shouldn't be any problems.

General changes:

*Clams, Blood stones and Fever Fetishes Unique items.

*Lord of Corruption stealth boosted.

*Midget Masher revamped: now does AOE 1 damage but needs lots of strength to work at all.

*Dancing trident 2a to forge -> 1a.

*Serpent king given more dominion.

*Great warlock given astral magic.

*Vampire queen got another -10 to new path cost.

*Gorgon 150 points.

*Herald lance cheaper.

*Tartarians -25% hp.

*The Sharpest Tooth, Percival the Pocket Knight, Holger the Head, Fenris' Pelt, Trident From Beyond, Carcator the Pocket Lich, Jade Mask all cheaper/easier to forge.

*Claymen 5 gems -> 3 gems.

*Hidden in Sand, Hidden in Snow cheaper again (this is partly due to trying to give water gems better value, and make earth help earth summons having trouble even with bloodstones involved).

*Naiad Warriors cheaper (this is also related to the clam change, the aim is to make them not just an OK deal but a great deal to help fill the void).

*Burnsaber's underwater mod water breathing item changes adopted (breathing items drastically cheaper).

*Juggernauts got awe.

*Many heroes given special weapons (either named after the hero or called hero's spear/morningstar/etc.), which are magic and most also have a bonus vs larger beings.

*Many heroes improved by autocasting personal luck in battle, you can tell they get the luck in battle if they have one of the weapons mentioned above.

*New forgable item added: Hero's Blade, 2e, const level 2 to forge. Mostly similar to sword of sharpness except on hit it does 15 extra ap damage to most enemies, and 45 ap to larger enemies.

*Treelords generate vine men instead of nature gems.

*Bell of Cleansing takes 2w, research 6.

*Umbrals cost 3 gems and are back at research level 5.

*Dragons and dragon scale mail got +2 protection value.

National Balance:

*Sounder of Boars, Sloth of Bears, Pack of Wolves, and Ambush of Tigers (one of the spells, the other one can't be accessed with mod commands) all research 0.

*MA Agartha got crossbows, capital only stone hurlers, a 10% random on golemcrafters, and lower research level on enchantment summons.

*EA and MA Agartha oracles 50 gold cheaper.

*Pans, Pandemonics, Panic Apostles and Capricorns all cheaper.

*Centaur archers 25 gold -> 22 gold.

*MA Oceania now gets mermages in coastal forts, and Capricorns only lose 1w when out of water.

*EA Atlantis coral priests now have a chance at magic, mages of the deep are cheaper, basalt pillars improved, and given a starting fort with more admin.

*Sauromatia poison archers increased to 20 gold (given the bug with them is unlikely to be fixed).

*MA man crones got improved randoms, cheaper knights of avalon, wardens and lord wardens everywhere.

*LA Bogarus Khlysts and Skopets cheaper.

*LA C'tis tomb wyrms got fear, grave consort slightly cheaper.

*Marverni druids 40 gold cheaper and cheaper boar warriors, board lord got 1 holy level.

*C'tis priest kings cheaper.'

*Tiger Riders, Wind Riders and Black Hunters cheaper.

*Kailasa capital only mages cheaper, and all sacred troops -5 gold.

*EA Arco engineer recruitable everywhere, mage engineer better at sieging.

*Niefel Jarl, Baal, Adon, Talmai Elder and Melquart increased prices.

Bug fixes:

*Chi shoes attack now a bonus weapon.

*Ry'leh hybrid trooper with -4 from two weapons got ambidex.

*Shade beast price fixed.

*Farm of plenty removed from game (it is bugged and has no effect).

*Thrown boulders have 5 ammo (it was an unintended nerf that they were 2 ammo last version).

[P3D]

Now MA Man will be interesting to play with for sure. Sacred recruitable everywhere stealth troops, ouchie.

Kailasa now have more affordable sacreds. Less Ghandarvas, and reason to recruit monkeys at all.

MA Agartha Golem Crafters should get the random at 25-50% not at 10%.

[Trumanator]

Very nice, many thanks to qm!

[kianduatha]

Very nice job. I'm kinda terrified by the MA Agartha changes though, just because there were so many. I know the blood stone change nerfed them a fair amount, but there's so much going on here I can't help but think it's an overcompensation.

Mostly I'm afraid of the Golem Crafter random--giving them critical mass in fire and water is pretty good. You get even better sitesearching, rune smashers with a water bracelet, and staffs of corrosion, as well as the standard evocations. Native astral access is another beast entirely. One booster and your astral forging is self sustaining; You get Gift of the Heavens, ethereal crossbows, and mind hunt immunity. Even better, you don't have to desperately rush for specters/hidden in sand to defend yourself.

Add on top of that the reduced level and cost of your statues, plus umbrals down to level 5 again, and it seems like you have an absolute powerhouse.

All that being said, the earthstone nerf is pretty major; we'll see how things pan out. And if all those buffs turn out to be justified...what about Ulm? What does it get to compensate?

[Trumanator]

I just can't wait to mass LA C'tis tomb wyrms now

[Squirrelloid]

wow, a sacred serpent chassis (admittedly undead) that might actually be playable as a sacred? Inconceivable!

[Sombre]

No compensatory earth booster? Interesting. Earth as a path just got a bit weaker. So did astral, arguably.

[rtyffg]

These lines in LA Pan seem to be a typo as it makes them cost 330g (more then MA version):
-Panii
#selectmonster 706
%gcost 300
#end

[quantum_mechani]

Originally Posted by rtyffg

These lines in LA Pan seem to be a typo as it makes them cost 330g (more then MA version):
-Panii
#selectmonster 706
%gcost 300
#end

Thanks, I missed that typo.

Zeldor and llamabeast: Quite a few things that I wanted to put I didn't make it in this version, but the gem changes are pretty major so I'll let that issue settle before doing more changes I think.

Kuritza: I understand the change to gem gens is probably the most radical single thing CB has attempted. However, the suggestions and feedback I have gotten back on it has been overall very positive. It is of course possible that after some games with it people will come to find it has more drawbacks than anticipated, but I hope you will at least consider trying game or two with it.

As far as LA Ermor and Ryleh are concerned I think it is mostly matter of an already existing problem that gem gens just obscured a bit. It's possible other changes might be undertaken to work on them.

And yes I realize naiad warriors is a fairly token boost in comparison, but I think it goes to show a bit how broken clams were.

On mackaka: They did get something of boost for their hunter spiders in this version. Also, they can get underwater just fine with the new manual of water breathing (1n). And their death, nature and earth magic is actually not band under there.

Boosting their PD is one thing I meant to do and didn't get around to though.

[llamabeast]

Looks awesome, thanks QM!

I don't suppose you squeezed Mark of the Champion in there did you?