Mod: Warhammer Nation: Lizardmen - v0.75 minor update

[Sombre]

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-- version 0.75

-- TWEAK - remove 1 astral income

-- TWEAK - major reduction of magic weapons, now only on the Temple Guard halberds (it was severely limiting options vs Lizards, which was lame)

-- FIX - Salamanders now animals!

-- TWEAK - Stegadons considerably higher cost in res and gold



-- version 0.7

-- TWEAK - Poison res values changed across the board to better match dom3 styling

-- FIX - Crest plate for warchiefs, no crest plate for skink scouts

-- TWEAK - Temple Guard now spawned by Slann when they first arrive in their 'awakening' state

-- TWEAK - Both 4th and 5th gen Slann more expensive to recruit, but same upkeep

-- TWEAK - Sacred spawnings now have armour for e9 bless, but still no helmets

-- FIX - 3rd gen shapechange further fixed, doh

-- FIX - flood of serpents cost bug fixed


-- version 0.6

-- FIX - Skink Warchief given swamp survival

-- FIX - 3rd gen Slann shapechange fixed

-- FIX - One who fathomed the depths now amphibious as intended

-- FIX - Tail Spines now ranged attack


-- Version 0.5

-- CONTENT - Nakai the Wanderer national hero added

-- TWEAK - Temples now cost 600

-- TWEAK - Sweeping morale changes to reflect effectiveness of 'cold blooded' in the warhammer tabletop - effectively it's +2 ldr - so skinks have same ldr as humans

-- TWEAK - Repriced commanders according to new scheme

-- TWEAK - Spawning of Huanchi moved to conjuration, descriptions tweaked

-- TWEAK - Blowpipes no longer ignore shields, do more damage, skink hunters better prec

-- TWEAK - Skink costs reduced significantly

-- TWEAK - Slann can no longer ever be empowered in blood

-- TWEAK - 4th gen Slann slightly more likely to get nature, another 10% on elements

-- CONTENT - Terradon summon added

-- CONTENT - Stegadon recruitable added with placeholder graphic, no attack sprite

-- CONTENT - Added flood of serpents, rain of snakes and serpents of sotek spells

-- CONTENT - Added Third Generation Slann

-- CONTENT - Added Second Generation Slann of the Seas

-- CONTENT - Added watershape to Tzunki spawning

-- CONTENT - Added Nightscale of Huanchi, Bloodscale of Sotek, Deepscale of Tzunki, Sunscale of Chotec

-- Version 0.4

-- TWEAK - Tepok spawnings now teleport (fly)

-- TWEAK - Temple Guard gold and resource cost raised

-- TWEAK - Terradon mount attacks att improved

-- TWEAK - All summoned sacred spawnings now upkeep free

-- FIX - Resolved weapon ID conflicts with CBM and my other MA mods + Tomb Kings


-- version 0.3

-- Changed salamander breath to avoid conflict with cbm

-- Added Skink Shamans

-- Reduced cost of skink cav and terradons, made terradons size 3

-- blowpipes more accurate, less damaging




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Ok, these guys are now out of beta and into version 0.2

They have a lot of their stuff ready and are essentially playable. They still need more spells, the stegadon troop, heroes, a better flag, some graphical tweaks and of course the 2nd and 3rd generation slann summons. These will all come in time.


------------------------ ORIGNAL POST --------------------------


Today I started work on the Lizardmen from Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I'm still working on Empire and other stuff, but I really like the look of lizardmen and feel inspired to do their graphics.

Before that though, here's a rough overview of the nation. The thing that makes them unique is basically their crazy powerful Slann mage priests. The /weakest/ of these guys are basically the best mages in warhammer and I'm going to translate this to dom3. The downside being their ridiculously high costs. Lizardmen will not have massed battlemages because they will lack the steps between basic mage and uber mage - you either get a skink priest or you get an incredibly expensive Slann. There's no all purpose middle guy.


STRENGTHS

Extremely potent Slann magepriests
Access to all paths but death with top tier astral
Specialised troops like kroxigor, stegadons and salamanders
Excellent morale across the nation
Devastating and relatively easy battlefield communions

WEAKNESSES

Below par skink province defense
Temples and forts very expensive
Slann are most expensive mages in the game
No real mid tier combat mages
Somewhat weak against missile fire

[Shovah32]

Sounds like fun. To me, it seems like the Saurus troops wont be as good as they should be. If they are only getting weak armour then that protection 8 will be killer. Natural protection of 10 or so seems better to me. Slightly higher strength, maybe 13(perhaps even 14), also seems more appropriate - right now they're barely above tough humans. I know that they shouldn't have too much armour thematically, and I don't think they should in game, but they will need something to keep them a little above alot of the heavier human troops in terms of survivability with all the missile weapon love that exists.

Which units will be capitol only? Temple guard seems likely, and maybe chameleon skinks(although I hope not). Possibly some of the bigger beasties too.

And for commanders? I would guess 4th generation slann, but what about the 5th generation guys? Sure, you don't want them having too many slann, but large cost should handle that. And having both slann capitol only would both really reduce the magical strength of lizardmen and also mean that 5th generation slann would rarely get used, even if they were alot cheaper than the 4th.

I know the second generation slann will be completely badass, but any idea about their actual magic levels?

Just throwing some random thoughts around.

ps: If you don't finish this quickly, you may have to start getting all your anonymous mail scanned.

[Sombre]

I'm actually not planning on making Slann or Temple Guard cap only (they can teleport between their cities after all). Instead they'll be restricted by seriously high costs. Well the Slann will anyway, the Temple Guard will just be an average level sacred.

As for the Saurus, they actually are fairly vulnerable to missile fire in warhammer, where toughness 4 will only get you so far, but you might be right that they need natural prot of 10+. I don't want missiles to be their bane or anything, just one tactic that works ok against them. They will be very cost efficient and powerful close combat troops though. Regarding their strength, in Warhammer they hae strength 4 which is the same as Ogres and strong orcs, humans, dwarfs etc. I gave Ogres str 14 in dom3 because they're size 3 - clearly they're at the top of the group that has strength 4 in warhammer. Meanwhile strength 4 humans, such as those found in the empire, might only get str 11 in dom3. So Saurus will get either str 12 or 13. They're subsantially stronger than humans, but they aren't like ogres or trolls or kroxigors or anything. Also their Obsinite weapons will have nice stats, so they'll do enough damage in close combat I'm sure.

The second generation Slann will probably be rocking something like S6 guaranteed, with 4s and 5s in other magic coming up too and chances of higher levels. I'll need to think about it but believe me they really will have crazy magical powers. They'll be H5 for one thing, being basically the holiest (and oldest) things in the entire warhammer world.

[Shovah32]

I am very glad to here that Sombre, very glad indeed. Now get to work, before I get out the whip.

[samoht]

I just tried out both of the other Warhammer mods you've done and I'm impressed.

I've always thought the Warhammer universe could lend itself well to the Dominions style of gameplay and you managed to really capture the feel of the Ogre Kingdoms and Skaven. I don't know if you're looking for any input/feedback on those mods, but I'd be more than happy to tell you more of what I think via PM if you're interested.

I'm very much looking forward to this one being completed.

Just a couple general questions tho...

How long does it normally take for you to complete a mod like this?

Do you plan on making mods for all of the various Warhammer armies?

[DigitalSin]

Thank god for you, Sombre. I've been kicking around the idea of making a lizardman mod for god-knows-how-long, however never got around to making it due to school and other games distracting me. If you want some input, I'll be glad to help!

[llamabeast]

These really are very, very nice.

Also I agree with my past (but forgetful) self that the salamander is an awesome sprite.

Losing the Slann must have been infuriating. I _hate_ it when that kind of thing happens.

[HoneyBadger]

I had exactly the same thing happen to me. Really nice graphics set, maybe 18 units with attack sprites, that went bye bye along with my laptop. Immensely frustrating. That's why now, if I do a single graphic, I post it to the board that night.

And I know how hard it is to get back up on your horse and ride, but if it's any consolation, Sombre, I've had similar things happen before, and mostly the second time comes out a little better than the first set did.

Anyway, I'm still very excited about the lizardmen, Sombre. You do beautiful, creative work, very consistently, and these are certainly no exception.

[Kristoffer O]

> I am leaving the Slaan for a while because like I said, I had done a lot of work on one and lost it all. That's a real demotivator believe me.

Yep! At times I've lost a number of sprites due to save format of the .trs file. A long number of sprites are stored in the same file. If I accidentally save over army12.trs with a new file I lose all sprites since last backup. Quite annoying. It happened in CoE andÂ*I've been quite careful ever since. Still, I have lost a couple of sprites at times.

[Sombre]

Arf. I have done a little work on attack sprites today. The real progress will come on the weekend when I have more free time. I'm really happy with the way the skinks have turned out.