Mod: Kingdom of Angmar - Version 0.52 available

[BigDaddy]

Originally Posted by Trumanator

I actually have a mordor mod nation about 50% done, but my inability to understand sprite editing has left me there for the last few months.

You could release an alpha with stock sprites, or some with color replacement. Color replacement can do the job of making it look unique, without much work... but obviously you don't get novel work from it.

[kianduatha]

Originally Posted by Burnsaber

#copystats, but IIRC, there are only two guys in dom3 with that ability. The Lord of Hell with a screaming mouth for a crotch and one of the grigori.

I think(hope) it's for the 'corruptor' version of the Sauron pretender.

[LumenPlacidum]

Yeah, that's the idea. I'm not sure I like the fact that it seems to be impossible to get the ability and not have flight come along with it. But yeah, the pretender chassis is the "Giver of Gifts" (the form in which Sauron forged the rings of power, 'Annatar'). It will have a forge bonus of 25% and hopefully the Corruption ability. I wasn't planning on giving him the ability to fly, so I might have to make him change form between a male and female form to be able to seduce like a succubus and get whoever. Clearly, this chassis is going to have to be very expensive.

The video card on my main computer may have melted, so I might be a while with the next update. I hope I can grab my files from there, I was starting to work on a kick-*** sprite for the Dark Lord pretender chassis. That's going to be quite the SC option.

I've decided to make another limiting factor of the nation (all the nations of this line that I design, actually) that they can only pick from the Sauron (or Morgoth, for EA) pretenders. It shouldn't be so bad, since I'll have a bunch of themes for them.

Aside from the Giver of Gifts and Dark Lord, there will be the Lidless Eye immobile pretender, who will lower unrest in his province. The Necromancer Shade, who will be a pretty typical rainbow mage, with ethereality thrown in. Finally, the Master of Forms will have the option of being a vampire form, a bat form, or a wolf form.

I'm considering an EA chassis to represent Morgoth (other than the same Dark Lord above) as "Dissonance in the Music" which would have tiny combat stats, a huge stealth score, and would generate a ridiculous amount of unrest in his province, as well as reaping a small amount of the population.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by LumenPlacidum

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I've decided to make another limiting factor of the nation (all the nations of this line that I design, actually) that they can only pick from the Sauron (or Morgoth, for EA) pretenders. It shouldn't be so bad, since I'll have a bunch of themes for them.

Uumm. As far as I know, it's not really possible to edit out the automatic vanilla pretenders without disabling them from all nations. I guess you could houserule it, thought.

[LumenPlacidum]

Haha, really? Oh well, no biggy.

[Humakty]

This civ, while representing the first orc civ, and a really cool one, feels a little under powered. Very capitol centric troops and commanders, mages unable to cast in battle without changing their armor first, and rather weak capitol mages. Oh, and so called mages recruit everywhere, that won't do anything noticeable, research being their bane.

All in all, you very well capture the feel of Middle Earth Angmar, and scarcity of magic. But it won't be adapted to dominions, as troops only get you that far, before they dye in bursts of purple fire.

[LumenPlacidum]

Hey, thanks for the honest assessment. My initial goal was definitely to capture the feel of Angmar before going into the balancing. I have some things I want to add to the mod before I really start to weigh options against those of other nations.

National summons are likely to be a big part of making the nation a bit better, since I intend to give a few levels of thugable commanders. I think in the current version, the Rhudaur Shamen have a base research of 2, but at that cost, I'll probably up that to 3, which should be a pretty big difference.

Is there any specific problem so far that the nation really cannot face against? Against early tramplers, the trolls in the PD work wonders. They do ok against thugs, which is also true of the orcs and savages (assuming you use some shortbows to make your own guys berserk). It's true that I should probably increase the MR of most stuff in the nation. I just didn't really use other nations' numbers to guide what I put in for that.

The early game is great, and the late game has decent blood, strong death, and moderate astral. Those Gundabad Shamen are supposed to be very good blood hunters, so even with only recruiting them at the capital, you should be able to turn them into a respectable income. Getting the odd booster is a suitable role for the Witch King and pretender god, which allow your mages to cast some summons for variety (otherwise, devils are pretty much the staple). Devils are probably strong enough to bring you past the mid-game. The thugs will offer some other options, though. I mean, yeah, their mages aren't top-tier battle casters, but you should be able to push through into the late game after some effort, and once you get there, things shouldn't be too bad.

[Humakty]

Well, the all in one mage in the capitol is interesting, sure, but it's max one per turn, and they are bloodhunting OR researching. Or doing all the other things only them can do. And their magic might is still pretty limited, and random, so each game is a gamble. So by late game you might in fact be looking at middle game spells, not being sure you've got someone to cast those spells. Not sure some devils will change your day.

[kianduatha]

Definitely a bit better research on your recruit-anywhere mages is gonna make a big difference. I'd say still that Elite Warriors are simply not worth the cost(resources, mostly--don't they still have that artificial resource hike?).

Also just for flavor it feels like at least snagas should be partially poison resistant.

I like them so far...the nation seems flexible but not overpowering. Wraiths will be nice to burn gems on to get a bit of magic diversity and some research.

I am thinking this is going to be a hell of a nation to raid. You have out of the box the Witch-king, awesome province defense, and you're almost certainly going to get some vampire lords just to add insult to injury.

[LumenPlacidum]

Originally Posted by kianduatha

I'd say still that Elite Warriors are simply not worth the cost(resources, mostly--don't they still have that artificial resource hike?).

Yeah, because my main computer died, I'm now working with the version I posted. It looks like I wasn't entirely sane when I posted this first version. I didn't include the troll attack graphic, and the units have older stats than what I was running my last tests with. Elite Warriors... I think I might make the normal ones mapmove 1 and lower both their resource costs. Also, the version I posted didn't have the updated hitpoints for all the orcs. I upped the Elite Warrior to have 17 hitpoints.

I'm realizing that I'm not really getting the swarms of snagas that I'd really like. The upkeep builds up too fast. So, I'm going to make them cheaper. Probably 8 gold instead of 10.

Originally Posted by kianduatha

I am thinking this is going to be a hell of a nation to raid. You have out of the box the Witch-king, awesome province defense, and you're almost certainly going to get some vampire lords just to add insult to injury.

Pfft, just wait 'til I do Mordor. That's gonna be a hell of a nation to raid. After all, one does not simply WALK into Mordor.
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I'm so sorry.