If you could create a unit...

[Baalz]

Instead of a new race, how about some new themes for the thematically challenged races?

Spider cult of Matchaka
Similar to Pythium’s serpent cult
Requires 1 growth scale
Looses witch doctors and sorcerers
Looses all spider riders, gains ability to recruit both kinds of riderless spiders, both of which are holy.
New unit Spider Queen. (Capital only) Stats similar to black spider, is also a standard bearer.
Looses Voice of the Lord
Gains Spider Priestess, (Capital only) 3 holy 2 death 2 nature 1 random
In a nutshell: Gains a mage with a random slot, but looses all non-capital mages. Should have some fun tactics with holy spider webbing squads. Supplies will be a big limmiter on the spiders because of thier size.

Mictlan Hell Bent
Requires 2 turmoil, non-positive luck scales, and heat +1. Starts with spell Summon Demon.
Mictlan has become controlled by the demons with which they consort.
Looses all wizard/priests
Jaguar, Eagle and Sun warriors gain berserk +3
New unit named Possessed – (Capital only) 3 holy 3 fire 3 blood – has demon flag, can summon small number of imp allies every round, can fly
New Mictlan Hunter 2 blood
New Demonologist 2 blood 2 random (elemental, linked)
In a nutshell: The possessed unit has a lot going for it, but is also very expensive and has a lot of roles to play. Should he summon imps, lead demonic troops, lead the holy troops or sacrifice blood slaves? The Mictlan Hunter is great blood hunter, however there is no easy access to jade knives, and no cheap blood sacrificers so keeping you domain will be more challenging. The demonologists should give Mictlan access to all the different demon summons, so with the added blood this will help compensate for the hit that turmoil will put in the size of the army.

[ April 15, 2004, 16:26: Message edited by: Baalz ]

[HotNifeThruButr]

Originally posted by Thilock_Dominus:
A C'tis cavalry'ish thing. Something in between light and heavy cavalry. The C'tis will be riding on green big poisonious lizards. I'd made the animation and done some scripting, but I need illwinter to release script codes to change themes, I called it 'The Marsh riders'. Not specific original name but it fit nicely

Also a Draconis race to play with like they have in age of wonders series (don't hit me for that statement ) would be nice.


Thilock

That'd be doable, you can have the flamer breathing fire like Fire Drakes, chargers acting like cavalry, slithers turn into scouts/assassins of some sort, elders become Air and something mages and Flyers become some sort of flying attacking. Hydras become... hydras. You've also got your heroes done for you.

Orc Shield Bearer

Abilities: -2 encumbrance, +2 morale, -6 atk skill, +2 def, causes poison when attacked with short weapons, double patrol effectiveness, 1/2 pillage effectiveness.

Cost: 9 gold, 28 resources

Equipment:
Gauntlet - -1 dam, 0 atk, 2 def, 0 length
Tower Shield - 4 prot, 3 def, 2 enc
Spiked crude mail - 13 prot, -2 atk, -2 def, 5 enc

Description: Shield Bearers are trainees that show an aptitude for survival and taking damage. This is measured by the amount and size of scars that a trainee survives in his first battle. While Shield Bearers aren't trained to inflict much hurt on the enemy, they can strike back with a heavy ironclad hand. Shield Bearers are often put in the Chest, the protector of the Heart.

Edit: Shield bearers now have a bonus in patrol and penalty in pillage

[ April 15, 2004, 23:35: Message edited by: HotNifeThruButr ]

[JaydedOne]

Originally posted by Thilock_Dominus:
A C'tis cavalry'ish thing. Something in between light and heavy cavalry. The C'tis will be riding on green big poisonious lizards. I'd made the animation and done some scripting, but I need illwinter to release script codes to change themes, I called it 'The Marsh riders'.

Actually, I don't know that you need to wait. I'm incorporating something similar for my C'tis mod. Just replace one of their units that you find to be redundant (I'm choosing the runner) by upgrading cavalry and go to town.

[JaydedOne]

Originally posted by Wauthan:
Heh? Perhaps I should release my "Experiments" mod but then again it's an insult to game balance since I just use it to try out concepts.

Earthfires Fury - Doesn't heal and weak against cold. Switch for Phoenix.

First off, how'd you get the weak vs. cold? I may totally have missed it in the mod manual (I don't have it in front of me) but I thought the only thing we could mod in there was resistance and that that was currently locked at 100% no matter the value. If we -can- mod in weaknesses, that makes me extremely happy.

Second, I'd love to see you put your experiments out there. Complete or no, the more mods to look at, play with, and draw inspiration from, the better.

[Wauthan]

Sorry Mr Duran but you're quite correct. The descriptions I jolted down are from my "designer notes" so they reflect what I want rather than what is. I try to set the critters up in such a way that their lack of elemental weakness balances out. I guess I should have chosen my words a bit better.

I've been thinking about releasing an "Avatar" mod with my altered Pretenders but sort of felt really silly when I examined my mod more critically. It's not a mod that would actually add something to the community, since the current Pretenders have been so carefully tuned.

And to make matters worse I'm using graphics from other games, "abandoned" as though they may be (graphics have all been available free on the web) I'm fairly sure that Illwinter can't host them due to copyright issues. I guess I could zip the unit tgas I created and send them to one of the fansites so other modders can have a go at them. But whom would want to host something like that?

[delacroix]

Originally posted by HotNifeThruButr:
Hate 'ta do this to you, but Medusa is already Pangaea's national pretender

fair enough . But it has wings and snake hair as the more traditional Greek representation of the Gorgon... boooo hehe. The developers also implement petrification as a fear effect and not the ability to literally turn to stone [to my knowledge at least]. Lastly there is no unique ability for shielded units to avoid that petrification like in the tale of Perseus & Medusa.

So while the units do have the same name, they function differently in terms of abilities / use / rarity (pretender vs. common troop).

Besides, my Version of the Medusa would have the more mainstream, snake-body with snake hair appearance (no wings) .

Oh and BTW, nice job on the orcs hehe. I was going to say there is a surprising lack of greenskin type race in the game, but then I remembered there's some nations that have reptilian type creatures that are green . But it still feels like there is no 'greenskin' race to me, so the orcs fill a nice void there. I seem to differentiate between green-reptiles and 'greenskin' lol.

[ April 15, 2004, 19:59: Message edited by: delacroix ]

[HotNifeThruButr]

*cough Vaettir cough cough*

I was actually surprised that they had no technological race with at least crude fire arms (cannons or arquebuses).

Actually, Ulm's kinduva tech race.

And in closing, I would like to say: My might cannot be matched.

edit: Adding to Orcs

Note: Serrated weapons give less penalties to but decreases chances to afflictions to +20%

Note: Orcs designated to Fists are often more savage and barbaric than their more civilized brothers in Chests so they bonuses to Pillage, like barbarians while Chest warriors get bonuses to patrol. Both are not as good in the other role though.

Orc Ripper

Cost: 12 gold, 18 resources

Abilities: -3 def, +3 atk, -1 morale, +1 effect in pillage, -1 effect in patrol

Equipment:

Serrated longsword: 5 dam, 0 atk, -1 def, 3 length
Jagged dagger: 1 dam, 0 atk, 0 def, 1 length
Crude Partial Armor: 7 prot, -1 atk, -2 def, 2 enc

Desc: Rippers are the least honored warriors of an Orc Fist. While just as aggressive and barbaric as the other Fist warriors, Rippers are on foot because they can't learn to ride well. They are often employed by commanders who are short on gold because they're also cheaper than the rest of the Fist.

[ April 15, 2004, 23:29: Message edited by: HotNifeThruButr ]

[Vicious Love]

Busy ripping off Games Workshop. Been at it for two days of tweaking, testing, and balancing. Results inconclusive. Desperately need expanded modding options, have jury rigged EVERYTHING. Will get back to you when have nagged semicompetent friend into making sprites.

That is all.

PS: Lord help us, they're in the vents!

[ April 15, 2004, 12:42: Message edited by: Vicious Love ]

[mivayan]

fair enough . But it has wings and snake hair as the more traditional Greek representation of the Gorgon... boooo hehe. The developers also implement petrification as a fear effect and not the ability to literally turn to stone [to my knowledge at least]. Lastly there is no unique ability for shielded units to avoid that petrification like in the tale of Perseus & Medusa.

Anything trying to attack the Medusa in close combat gets petrified (instant death), unless it succeeds a magic resistance check. It is a very cute ability and would make the medusa great if it was not wimpy enough to sometimes die from a few lucky militia. The unique shield the Aegis does the same thing.

[Kristoffer O]

Medusa is a gorgon. One of three sisters, IIRC the other two sisters did not petrify onlookers. I only remember the names of one of the other sisters at the moment, Euryale.

Edit: this was written by JO. I didn't notice Kristoffer was logged in.

[ April 16, 2004, 15:37: Message edited by: Kristoffer O ]