Warhammer: Wood Elves

alansmithee · #1 December 18th, 2009, 10:31 PM

Before talking about the mod, I'd like to thank Thilock_Dominus for allowing me the use of his graphics from his Dominions 2 mod, and also offering to design a banner for this one (which turned out great in my opinion). And graphical inconsistencies/ugliness is due entirely to my clumsy editing of his originals, which were great. Also, I am using numerous place holder images (glade riders, wind hawk riders, wind hawk rider champion, treekin, force of nature) which will be replaced. There's also a couple of units (shadow sentinel and royal eagle come to mind) which I hope to upgrade later. But since the mod rules are functional, I wanted to start getting feedback. This is my first mod, and is probably quite unbalanced. It should be balanced against (and compatible with) the other Warhammer nations, which I think are generally also balanced against the regular MA nations. Any comments, critiques, or advice would be more than welcome.

A few things about design philosophy. First, I tried to stay as close as possible to the Wood Elf army book. I was also working to create a general baseline elf stat line. What that ended up being is a boosted defense, attack, precision, and AP. This came at the expense of str and hp. I still think the elves are better stat-wise (as they should be), but hopefully the cost will help keep a balance. Also, because of Warhammer rules, archery isn't as devestating (nor is being unarmored in general). The only elf unit that has actual armor is the wild riders, and none have shields. In WH, distance, formation (skirmishers, which elves mostly are), and cover mitigate archer damage. Dominions has essentially 3 protections against archery, and the only one elves really have (based on the army book) is magical. With that in mind, I decided to give one unit true shields (and hopefully costed them enough), and added two pseudo-shields to a couple other units to simulate the protections afforded them in the warhammer rules. Now, I'm particularly worried about one unit in question (the wardancers) being too strong based on their dodge shield, but I think with the cost, low hp, and lack of any other protection they will hopefully be ok. Also, as the premier archers in WH, I gave them a base bow that is extremely strong. However, all units otherwise have very low dmg weapons (outside of charges).

So I hope people enjoy this, and give me feedback. This is VERY early in the testing, so I'm more than open to other ideas or suggestions.

edit: Unit list is pretty much set. Might add windriders back in later (code is there), but that depends on my modeling, and also if I can think of a battlefield role for them. All "forest spirits" now get a forest shape (treekin, force of nature, wild riders + commander, dryads). Orion tuned down a bit, and added a new hero. Wardancers cheaper (still trying to get the balance right on them).

edit: New version, more bug fixes, spellweavers changed, added female tag to seducer. Still graphics need work, I'll try to get some work in later (vacation ended sooner than expected). Attachment 9186

kianduatha · #2 December 19th, 2009, 01:26 AM

Coolio. Initial impressions:

Waywatchers are devastating with their glamour, 36 defense and immunity to arrows. Quite killable, though.

Dryads are scary because they are a recruitable with fear. They're even scarier, though, because they share the same unit number as Orion, King of the Woods. So whenever they leave the forest they become immortal badasses.

Treekin should probably also look like trees(and seem way too powerful for their low cost), and Warhawk Riders should probably fly. Glade Riders and Warhawk Riders should also probably only have 9 hp as well.

I have to applaud you, by the way, on the Force of Nature. It's absolutely terrifying. Ugh, Blood Vengeance on a 150 hp murdermachine who has perfect paths for Strength of Gaia.

It seems like you don't terribly need an armored unit other than the Wild Riders. The parry shield works wonderfully on Wayfarers, and various forest creatures work for your high protection needs. Not to mention just casting Wooden Warriors on your guys.

All in all, very nice. I'm looking forwards to seeing how this one pans out. I am also looking forward to playing against these guys and burning out their forests. Just think of casting Firestorm on a Wood Elf army.

alansmithee · #3 December 19th, 2009, 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kianduatha

Coolio. Initial impressions:

Waywatchers are devastating with their glamour, 36 defense and immunity to arrows. Quite killable, though.

Dryads are scary because they are a recruitable with fear. They're even scarier, though, because they share the same unit number as Orion, King of the Woods. So whenever they leave the forest they become immortal badasses.

Treekin should probably also look like trees(and seem way too powerful for their low cost), and Warhawk Riders should probably fly. Glade Riders and Warhawk Riders should also probably only have 9 hp as well.

I have to applaud you, by the way, on the Force of Nature. It's absolutely terrifying. Ugh, Blood Vengeance on a 150 hp murdermachine who has perfect paths for Strength of Gaia.

It seems like you don't terribly need an armored unit other than the Wild Riders. The parry shield works wonderfully on Wayfarers, and various forest creatures work for your high protection needs. Not to mention just casting Wooden Warriors on your guys.

All in all, very nice. I'm looking forwards to seeing how this one pans out. I am also looking forward to playing against these guys and burning out their forests. Just think of casting Firestorm on a Wood Elf army.

Thanks for the input. Dryad shapechange was a late addition, only has fear in the forests. I thought mounted units usually have higher hp (also in the tabletop game, Warhawk riders actually have 2 wounds). And there were a couple errors (as you found out) on some costs from when I was testing spells, which are now fixed (was supposed to be 15, not 5 gems for 3 treekin). Also bumped up the cost on waywatchers, dryads, and bradwraiths.

Burnsaber · #4 December 19th, 2009, 09:27 AM

Awesome, I'll take a look as soon as I'm able. I might also have some suggestions for editing the missing sprites.

Just out of curiosity, how did you decide to play out the relations between Bretonnia and Wood Elves? In WRFB, those two have it very.. complicated.

rdonj · #5 December 19th, 2009, 01:10 PM

Oh man. Orion. This guy is just a bit much, don't you think? This guy is pretty much the ultimate sc/anti-sc, and you don't even need to give him any gear if you keep him in dominion.

Illuminated One · #6 December 19th, 2009, 03:54 PM

The mod will crash on linux. You must use the same case in all filename on the harddrive and in the *.dm file (best to keep everything lowercase).

Sombre · #7 December 19th, 2009, 05:25 PM

I think you mean linux will crash on this mod ;P

llamabeast · #8 December 19th, 2009, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sombre

I think you mean linux will crash on this mod ;P

.

Radio_Star · #9 December 20th, 2009, 01:34 PM

Messed around with it for a few minutes and noticed the following:

Area fear attack on the summonable riders = iwin button. 1 round of combat drops everything in front of these guys to around -20 or lower morale and then the routing starts. If memory serves, the spell is something like 15 gems and produces around 15 guys each causing area fear. Twice. At 15 gems you can spam multiple copies of this and probably instarout even large armies.

Unicorns keep full slots if GoR'd.

The only hero that popped up for me was a generic multihero. Not sure what's going on with that.

All in all, they already feel pretty diverse and interesting to play. Are there pretender chassis in our future? Any other national spells?

Tollund · #10 December 19th, 2009, 07:12 PM

I like it except for the earsplitting sound that the elven bows use.