Ulm beefed up ...

[PvK]

I still wonder how much of this is from the perspective of having tried really hard to figure out how to make Ulm work in practice, or is from the perspective of having played other nations but not really tried to make Ulm work. Most of the magic improvements mentioned seem to be things which can be done already (via 5-gem Earth Boots, Hammer o the Forge Lord, empowerment, pretender magic, independent mages, etc), but are just harder than being given the ability from the start.

I'm still thinking adding MR, +1 Strength and maybe a little morale to the standard troops would go a long way without needing to add something counter-thematic like more magic.

Other brainstorm ideas:

* Units just get +1 Strength, but Ulm gets a national holy spell which adds MR.

* Ulm gets an optional dominion which actually reduces the magic power of enemy casters... I guess that would mess up spell scripts in too annoying a fashion, though.

PvK

[alexti]

PrinzMegaherz said:
Another Idea that would make Ulm something special...
What about giving the smiths higher paths, but take their abilitiy to cast spells. They would be "Forge only" mages, unrivaled in producing things (with maybe 2 in each kind of magic), but useless on the battlefield.

Maybe leave master smiths as they are, but add a new capital only unit - Crippled Grand Master Smith - with strategic movement 0 and right kind of afflictions (chest would, probably blindness etc) and with 2E2F1R (or maybe with 3E1F1R). They will be good for forging and decent for research, but not for the battles.

[Zen]

Possibility could be to change Iron Will to a Nation Specific Spell for Ulm, Change the cost from 1E to 1H (or 2H) and then it would bridge the gap somewhat, however, the AoE on Iron Will is pretty unspectacular (and no way to mod it) however, this would make me sad since I wouldn't be able to use Earth to cover the MR gap for other nations.

To each their own.

I've gone both ways on my feelings of Ulm. I've played it to death and I really enjoy certain aspects, however, it's crippling aspects, requirement to cover your nation's weaknesses with pretender/non-national mages and the speed at which their units become less viable (Abysia/Jotun/Pangaea on the other hand have more long term viability of their troops, as well as blessables, which base Ulm lacks) makes me shie away from base Ulm in lieu of other similar nations (Vanheim for Earth love, Abysia for armored unit love).

[Boron]

alexti said:

Maybe leave master smiths as they are, but add a new capital only unit - Crippled Grand Master Smith - with strategic movement 0 and right kind of afflictions (chest would, probably blindness etc) and with 2E2F1R (or maybe with 3E1F1R). They will be good for forging and decent for research, but not for the battles.

Hey thats a good idea .
No need to give them wounds , no need to give them strategic move 0 . Just giving them the immobile ability makes them unable to move like the sphinx .
Then they could be only used for capitol defence + forging + summoning .

This approach could be used for pangenea also , immobile old treemen ultramages for forging + summoning + researching and this way improving them a bit as well .

[Graeme Dice]

Boron said:
But forgingwise E3 or 1 elemental random would be maybe too good for ulm .

Vanheim's Dwarves are E3?1, and nobody seems to complain about those too much. Really, Ulm needs a lot of help. I'd probably also give Black Lords 50% resist all elements as well, so that you can slap an elemental armour on them and go to town against SCs. That way people wouldn't be able to ignore the heavy armour so easily.

[Graeme Dice]

Boron said:
I am still against giving them E3 or any random .
If they can get E3 their combat abilities would be really greatly enchanced :

That's the point. It gives them petrify.

[Zen]

My first gut instinct was to give the Black Lords +50% Resists, but only because the nerf to EA really impacted me playing Ulm effectively (no more thugs). I have wavered as of now between giving them 25% resists or perhaps enough of a MR bonus that you have to equip yourself to your resistances and not get paralyze/enslaved easily.

[Sandman]

Boron said:
The alchemist is not a bad idea imo . For the purpose of alchemizing you need only 1 alchemist though .
Earth + fire magic lvl 1 you don't need also because you have this on your mastersmiths .
So once you find sages or similiar the alchemist becomes obsolete unfortunately probably as well .
Finally i think it is not possible to give units alchemy bonus by modding commands .

The alchemist is already in the game, he's a rare indy mage. Costs about 300 gold, though.

[Endoperez]

Okay, I took a break from forum at the wrong time. Back up there, I had written E2D2 when I had meant to write E2F2... :ashamed:

Lots of people here seem to want a random for Master Smiths. However, that would give Ulm very different feel. That one random in eg. Water or Air does not allow them to forge the more powerful items, "only" things like Boots of Flying, Water Bracelet, resistance items and weapons... but it allows them to search for sites! Ulm can empower and then cheaply make booster items. 75 gems for access to 10 gem, at maximum!, Air boosters is not as bad as it sounds. 4 boosters are 115 for Ulm, 80 for Air nations without Dwarven Hammers, and if those nations have Dwarven Hammers they had to trade for it. Which gives Ulm Air gems...

Also, Ulm's mages have only E2. However, each one of them can forge Earth Boots and cast Earth Power. With Dwarven Hammer, Ulmish smiths can make Earth Boots for 5 gems. 5 Gems and 20-something fatique for E4? If they had a chance for E4, as with all E3FxR suggestions, they would have a chance for E6, or E5 for rituals like Forge of the Ancients.

I am not very good at balancing and can't say if that is too much or too little, I am just stating that even an elemental random will make Ulm very different and give them many, many more options.

[Boron]

Graeme Dice said:

Vanheim's Dwarves are E3?1, and nobody seems to complain about those too much. Really, Ulm needs a lot of help. I'd probably also give Black Lords 50% resist all elements as well, so that you can slap an elemental armour on them and go to town against SCs. That way people wouldn't be able to ignore the heavy armour so easily.

Yeah but the vanheim smiths have no forgebonus and they are capitol only !

I share your idea with black lords .
I suggested earlier to give the black knights 50% SR as well to make them endure 2-4 hits by lightning rather then 1-2 .

If you give the black lords 50% elemental resistence from start but don't change their bad MR that would be probably a nice idea . They would be like mechanical men then , killable with mr-negates spells but otherwise really hard to kill .

So new changes :
-black knights have 50% SR
-black lords have 50% elemental resistence
-master smiths cost 150 gold but have E2F1N1 magic

What do you think ?

Giving them E3 would be unfair because the only 2 nations that have that are vanheim and pangenea .
Vanheim i made my reasons above and pangeneas pans are so expensive that you can't field many .