New Ulm Pretender ?

[PvK]

Ok, I'm working on it now.

The problem with unwanted abilities on the pretender appears to have been solved in 2.08, as well as the needed abilities to mod starting dominion, path cost, and leadership values. Thanks Illwinter!!

So, the only real drawbacks now are that you lose a pretender choice in order to gain this one, and you can't add varieties of Kings to Ulm in one mod without offering them to several other nations at the same time. Also, the pretender effect on hitpoint based on domain strength isn't really thematic with a mortal king.

I thought another way to mod this would be to have a pretender Pope, and give the warrior king as a starting commander to Ulm. This would make sense because you can always ressurrect a pope , but the King would be mortal and not subject to Domain effects on health. However, the warrior king unit would be a big advantage to Ulm even if they don't take the pope pretender, so it'd be unbalanced in that case, unless I chop down the number of starting military units Ulm has. Maybe that's the way to go.

Or, do all three - mods are easy enough to make, except for the graphics.

PvK

[Ctennyson]

Hey:

I have just completed a mod similar to this one. I am not going to publically release it, since it blatantly steals the graphical work of Sube, unless Sube specifically authorizes it, but I do have 1 slight snag.

1) #domstr # is not changing the starting dominion strength

Pretender stats go thusly:

Hp: 50
Prot: 24(Full plate, helm, shield)
att: 14
Def: 18
Move: 2/25
Leadership: 125
MR: 18
Str: 16
Prec: 10
Morale: 30
Dominion Strength 2 (if it worked)
Path cost: 20
Pretender cost: 50
No starting paths
Heal
Trample

I was going to make him immortal, but I decided on healing instead...might change to immortal and back depending on mood.

Here is the #desc "As Ermor fell from grace, some of its heroes took up quests to prevent its ultimate demise. The White Knight was one such questor. He found an elixir of life, and drank deep of it. By the time he returned, however, Ermor had fallen. Great was his anger, and he blamed the death cults and mages for its demise. Now, armed, and guarded by steel, He will cleanse all magic, save his own, from this world."

The elixir could easily be a sword, a dove, a banana, whatever, but the elixir, ie the grail/chalice, would allow for #heal, or #immortal depending on flavor. Arthur and Excalibur was said to be invincible(immortal) while he held the sword, so that would also work, for flavor.

Edit: Also, fors and against would be cool as well. I tried to keep the stats reasonable for the cost, if you think its undercosted(or over) please chime in.

[ February 22, 2004, 00:19: Message edited by: Ctennyson ]

[Ctennyson]

Specifically directed to PvK: They also apply to prophets, don't forget(the dominion hp bonus), so your Black Knight can end up with a boatload of hp now.

Just ignore the "Mortal King" thing. He's donning a "godly mantle" as the descriptions keep saying, and is no longer quite mortal.

If you consider a magicless Wyrm can become a God, why not a powerful knight? It's all about faith, once the populace believes in you, you gain strength. Take it in game context, and you'll be much happier.

[PvK]

I decided to make two different mods.

One turns the alchemist into an Avatar of Ulm, which is like yours, though with somewhat different stats. Every single other pretender has an MR of 18, and 18 is supposed to be the max for anything except certain otherworldlies, so I used 18. I didn't give either of them healing abilities. I did give them a 1000 path cost (practically impossible) to start with any magic paths.

The other is a Warrior King of Ulm, and he isn't the pretender. He's a starting commander, whose offsetting disadvantage is that while he's a great warrior, he can't be bothered with stately affairs, resulting in a 50 gold cost to Ulm's treasury while he is the king. Also the starting units are only him and ten maul infantry - this represents the expense and chaos of his recent coronation, and helps balance the advantage of having a supercombattant from turn 1. The Warrior king has lower stats that the Avatar Version, and is completely mortal (though he has a 15 MR), but he could of course be propheted (not the best idea, since then he'll be weak when attacking in enemy domain), and he'll most likely get a heroic ability, which the avatar Version can't since he's a pretender.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with it, though I haven't quite finished the attack graphic yet.

PvK

[Ctennyson]

The mr for mine is 18, 20 was a typo. Sorry =)

I dont think recuperation makes him a supercombattant, really. He's a fair fighter, but he isnt on par with very many of the real SCs. Course he is cheap, and his paths are 25, so while not an easy rainbow, he is kinda decent at both.

[PDF]

PvK
Without ANY possible path (if I understood correctly your proposal), the Ulm Avatar isn't going to be really playable unless he has much more fighting power than a Dragon (who incidentally "only" has path cost= 80...)!
IMHO the Avatar could have Ulmish magic path (F+E). So an Ulm player choosing it will have a potential SC but forfeit any magic versatility he could have had with a RB .

[PDF]

Originally posted by Ctennyson:
Hey:

1) #domstr # is not changing the starting dominion strength
(snip)

Johan K replied on the "bug" thread that there was a doc error, the correct command is #startdom