No Independents - Modded Solution

[Edi]

Since quite a few people here do not read the mod forum too regularly, yet still play SP games, they might be interested in a mod that eliminates most independent units as recruitables, thus eliminating the massive chaff hordes so beloved by the AI. With the AI forced to rely on its own national units, one should start seeing more powerful armies composed of national units without the need to resort to NI (No Independents) maps and the attendant total lack of independent mages and consequent truncated magical expansion and research options.

Linky

[MaxWilson]

Excellent! I've started playing on NI maps and I really like the armies the AI builds, but I've missed the extra magic paths. Thanks for thinking of this!

-Max

P.S. The other thing I like is the extra strategic constraint on troop-building and fort-building. It's kind of cool to have to worry about the research cost of making a fort-builder and to have no way to replenish chaff deep in enemy territory without taking a fort or building a lab and summoning. (And also to know that the enemy operates under the same constraints.)

[Edi]

First version did not work due to overly big numbers. Has now been fixed.

[Edi]

It turns out that the respource cost increase did not work due to the way the AI handles recruitment priorities (it uses unmodded values, hence tries to produce units it can't ever get out the door). So I have tried a new solution, increasing the gold cost of undesirable units to 9000. Except Militia #18 since you can get that from events, of course.

Download links are in the original mod forum thread, if you're interested in testing this out.

[Edi]

Links in the mod forum thread fixed, they stopped working for some reason. I need to have a few words with my ISP...

[Morkilus]

It seems to be working pretty well in my test game using the Amos Insect mod; I faced a nice army of dual-wielding Ulmians and a good mix of F9/Nsomething blessed Burning Ones so far. Much better than piles of Deer Tribe Warriors.

[MaxWilson]

I haven't downloaded the gcost version, but the resource version is still working quite well for me. Actually the game seems a lot harder than ever before and I'm considering backing down from Impossible for a while. AI research is higher than mine, wonder of wonders, and I'm worrying about how to handle the army of illithids parked on my doorstep while I fight off an invasion of T'lan Imass and finish crushing LA Agartha. Lovin' it.

-Max

[llamabeast]

What's this T'lan Imass of yours Max? Have you posted them on the Mods forum? I've not seen them.

[MaxWilson]

I haven't posted them. They're really still just a sketch of a nation, one unit type and two commanders, probably not balanced against vanilla. They're taken from the Malazan books by Steven Erikson, though, and Kristoffer has said he is "quite fond" of the books and that the Imass are, in fact, alluded to in the Unfrozen spell description. 300,000-year-old Neanderthal zombies with a genocidal grudge against a magically powerful race of tyrants (who really weren't all that bad) that they've already mostly wiped out. The most interesting game features are that they have high natural Protection and can turn to dust at will (= flying, maybe stealth) as well as having high hit points but never healing. (They get cut to pieces in the books but just keep on going, missing limbs and all, until you damage them sufficiently to break their connection to the Ritual of Tellann. Then the other Imass bury them under a rock or something and forget about them while the damaged ones think dead thoughts about futility. Or you can dissolve them in the ocean, which really and truly kills them.)

Probably most interesting to those who are already fans of the Malazan books. If there is sufficient interest I will polish them up and release them, but for now it's just a bit of flavor for my SP games.

-Max

[lch]

MaxWilson said:
The most interesting game features are that they have high natural Protection and can turn to dust at will (= flying, maybe stealth)

Sounds more like ethereal / mistform?