Dominions Ice Age Contest

[undead dolphin hacker]

If you wanted to keep Pythium, they could be similar to Ermor in low-level units (like Velites, Legionaries (sp?)) but lack the intensely high-morale, heavy infantry that I envision defining IA Ermor.

Lemme make a quick Pythium list so I don't keep rambling:

IA Pythium::

PROS:
-Bronze nation with low-end "cheap" units second only to Ermor's.
-Extremely cheap scouts and assassins, both of which with respectable leadership values (default 15 or 20).
-Cheap provincial defense (peasants pissed off with Ermor aren't hard to find or train.)
-A strong, average-priced, though somewhat inaccurate ranged unit. (Possibly with Stealth?)
-At least one fast, but lightly-armored, ground troop with Stealth.
-Most Pythium troops are quicker than their Ermor counterparts (on par with other IA races--maybe a smidgen slower).

CONS:
-"Military" leaders are neither strong nor cheap, Leadership values don't start very high (25-30?).
-Magic is roughly half as powerful as Ermor's (all the powerful mages figured they'd stay in the well-established Ermor).
-Like Ermor, few Holy units and middling priests (Pythium disagrees with Ermor more on a political level than religious).
-"Basic" tactics aren't very effective for Pythium at all--from a statistical standpoint, Pythium's military is pretty weak.
-Morale is middling to weak, depending on the unit.

"WOULD BE COOL" FEATURES:

-Pythium assassins and scouts can "Levy Malcontents" in any province with NEGATIVE or NEUTRAL dominion--this ability is much like Mictlan's "Levy Slaves", except the produced unit is more powerful, (after all, they're taking volunteer fighters, not enslaving them), and Stealthy (it'd be no better than "Create Unrest" if they immediately attacked. By using "Levy Malcontents," unrest in the province is increased on a level equal to another Scout/Assassin's "Create Unrest" mission. ADDENDUM--if possible from a mod standpoint, it'd be cool if higher Unrest = more levied Malcontents.

-Pythium attempts to "Create Unrest" in a province are 150% more effective than the normal value.

-Pythium armies which are "Sneaking" are only 50% as big as they actually are when it comes to determining whether a provincial defense or patrolling army detects them.

-Pythium armies which are "Sneaking" are 25% harder to detect than average sneaking forces.

COMMENTS:

My vision of IA Pythium is a struggling rebel faction. Ermor has not fallen, if anything, it's reached the height of its power. When Ermor and Pythium are both in a game together, it is assumed that the rebel Pythium faction has just been detected by Ermorian inquisitors, and is thus an identified threat. Pythium keeps Ermor's "cheapo" units--the average grunt at this time is no better and no more loyal than the average mercenary--but loses what makes IA Ermor IA Ermor--the badass heavy infantry.

Instead, Pythium gets weaker, but more versatile, units. March them against most races in man-on-man combat, and you'll lose. Pythium is extremely weak when one plays "chicken" with your opponent's army. IA Pythium is, obviously, a rogueish nation. Use those powerful, if innacurate, (though what ranged unit isn't in the Ice Age?), ranged units for raids and surprise assassinations. Buy up cheap Scouts and Assassins, cause unrestful havoc in the enemy's back yard, then make armies out of 'em if they don't respond fast enough. Fight head-on when you have to, but win through stealth, strategy, and tactics--not sheer force.

[EDIT: Because I spel gud.]

[ January 20, 2004, 01:22: Message edited by: undead dolphin hacker ]

[Keir Maxwell]

If we are talking really Ice Age then I would have though Abysians and C'tis would need to be drastically different as its just too cold for them. Abysia could live underneath the surface perhaps where rivers of Lava raise the temperature.

The nations should probably feel tribal rather than nations in the main. If they still do have something decribable as a nation then this could be a reflection of a very organised, disciplined, response to the Ice Age. I think you would want none of the nations to bear more than a passing similarity to present nations.

As the game will see the development of grand empires, not normally what happens in an Ice Age, it might make sense to set the game at the end of a period of Ice Age with whoevers God wins gets to decide the conditions in the next period - if its Caelum then its more Ice, Man, Pangaea etc then the greening of the world begins while if its abysia then the Lava rivers spout forth as volcanos light the horizens and the world is roasted beneath the fiery light of great sun.



Keir

[void]

Ice Age...
Illwinter' age?

Its a javalin/slinger age in my impression ^^
Snow-covered lands should makes for common water magic, and horse-rider not available yet. Only a few mystic telepath with unicorns,employs them as troophorse.

heres 2 spell

Avalanche
Conjuration 8,WWWWFF,Province Disaster (Ritual)
35 Sapphires.
Mountain/Snowcovered land only.
The caster summons the occult power,cause an avalanche strike targeted province,kill down 1/4 population,1/2 patrolling garrison and bestrow a magic site.

Icequake
Evocation 5,WWWEE,Battlefield Enchantment
5 Sapphires,500- Fatigue.
Snowfield only.
Deals 7 cold damage and 3 physical damage to each non-flying unit per turn.
Magic resistance Negates(+3).

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Keir Maxwell:
If we are talking really Ice Age then I would have though Abysians and C'tis would need to be drastically different as its just too cold for them. Abysia could live underneath the surface perhaps where rivers of Lava raise the temperature.

The nations should probably feel tribal rather than nations in the main. If they still do have something decribable as a nation then this could be a reflection of a very organised, disciplined, response to the Ice Age. I think you would want none of the nations to bear more than a passing similarity to present nations.

If the Ice Age came suddenly, a modern C'tis would be turning to its shamans, desperately seeking a magical solution. On the other hand... I was envisioning Dinosaur C'tis, made of lumbering giants. Ultimately, of course, the cold kills them off and only the small, agile C'tissians with opposable thumbs, tool use, and mastery of fire survive. However, this extincition has not yet come. Let us say that it is the beginning of an ice age... either way, of course, C'tis would be very different from modern C'tis. Maybe their temples could radiate heat =)

On the other hand, Abysia would be tough to play. I imagine their heat scale would be capped at +1, with the Smouldercone given an additional effect of +2 heat scale in the capitol only - so essentially they would be clinging to their homeland for warmth, and recruiting indies to conquer. Maybe it would lead to the origin of the humanbred, able to tolerate Abysia, and able to conquer cold lands as well.

As the game will see the development of grand empires, not normally what happens in an Ice Age, it might make sense to set the game at the end of a period of Ice Age with whoevers God wins gets to decide the conditions in the next period - if its Caelum then its more Ice, Man, Pangaea etc then the greening of the world begins while if its abysia then the Lava rivers spout forth as volcanos light the horizens and the world is roasted beneath the fiery light of great sun.



Keir

...of course, that would be awesome... but somehow I think it would not be possible with the current or soon-to-come mod tools

I like the idea of Ctis and Abysia burrowing toward the warmth of the core . But I'm not sure how to realistically accomplish it, except on custom maps.

Also, if indy populations had their own scale modifiers, all the Ice Age indies could be set to cold+1 to give a semblance of an ice age...

[Leif_-]

Just a few loose ideas.

Instead of todays longbows, Man should have javelin-throwers with atl-atls - which should give them a range advantage over Ulm's more powerful stone-throwers.

There should be a nunatak special site wich gives + to production. Various glacier-based sites, ice-caves, frozen water-falls, deep-frozen lakes et. al. for other site "themes". Volcanoes, hot-springs and magical fire sites might add a few +1 heat dominions.

Instead of Marignon and Arco, perhaps nations based on Inuit and Lapplanders? (Polar-bear mounted heroes bravely battling masses of spear-throwers fighting from sleighs drawn by reindeer.)

R'lyeh should be land-based in this mod (Re: At the Mountains of Madness) Perhaps even a pre-fall Atlantis

[General Tacticus]

Are you sure about Ulm ?

On the one hand, they are strong and wear heavy armor, which is good.
But on the other hand, normal Ulm is also the most advanced nation as far as forging is : it has the best steel and forging bonuses... Yet you send them back to stone armor. Not even copper, stone...

I think you should at least give them something that announces their coming mastery. Perhaps capital only troops of some kind ?
Here is an idea : Capital site Fallen Meteorite, allows the recruiting of Ulm Ironclubs.
"A Meteorite made mostly of iron fell from the skies. The heat from that fall created a crude form of steel. By putting sharp edged fragments of that meteorite on their clubs, the artisans of Ulm have created a truly awesome weapon, able to penetrate most armor".
And then you make the Iron clubs armor piercing, but with low damage and attack value (they are still crude and cumbersome...)

name=Iron_Club dam=3 (armor-piercing) att=0 def=-1 length=1 hands=1 hits=1 res=5 new=1

or perhaps a 2-handed club (easier to stick the steel to the club) .

name=Iron_Club2 dam=4 (armor-piercing) att=0 def=-1 length=3 hands=2 hits=1 res=7 new=1

And you could the create a "Meteorite smith" leader, which does not get a penalty on item forging...

At first I thought about some kind of armor, but they already have their stone platemail (just imagine the time needed to make stone mail !!), and I like that idea

So, what do you think ?

[Wauthan]

Just had an idea that might be interesting. Something to do instead de-evolving the existing factions, which might be very troublesome since surely the iceage predates the Ermorian empire.

Why not set the time after the events in Dominions 2? Say the coming of the ice was due to the meddling of the pretenders and the existing factions have been thrown back into a serious "dark age". The magic energies that flows trough the world simply couldn't take the massive use of spells. The world was torn apart, which the frequent disasters of "bad luck" is evidence about. Now the survivors cling to what hope their new leaders can bring.

That would allow the use of higher techlevel armor and weapons than what the stoneage implies but still toss the materials used backwards so to speak.
It would also explain why the magic items available still are around, since we can't mod them away.