Orcish Empire

[Nagot Gick Fel]

I apreciate the effort that was put in these two Orc mods but I must say I didn't like much of what I saw. No flame intended BTW, I hope this will only be understood as constructive criticism. I can't remember everything I've seen offhand, but these are the main points I'd change:

No priests: nice twist, I like that. Optionally you could add an unholy-1 (no more!) dark priest or priest/shaman akin to Broken Empire's Cultist.

Bad MR: nice twist again, although 9 would be OK too.

Weapons: I think I've seen too much broadswords and too much tweaked weapons. I'd use regular great clubs, mauls, axes, battleaxes, morningstars, flails and spears as primary weapons. Maybe shortbowmen too (give these an axe as a secondary weapon).

Standards and standard effects: drop them all. Add a special (and expensive) standard unit akin to Soul Gate standard legionary which causes Fear(+0) instead of boosting the morale of nearby friendly units. That seems much more thematic to me.

Morale: it's either very bad or insanely high, which seems very odd. Give 10 to regular troops, 12 or 13 to elites.

Hitpoints: way too high. Your Orcs are human-sized and thus should have physical stats akin to Ulm or Abysian standard troops. I'd give 12 to 13 HPs to most troops, base ATT of 11 and base DEF of 9.

Wolfriders: remove the trampling, it doesn't makes sense, since wolves only jump on their targets to put them off-balance, and always use their jaws as their only weapon. I can't remember if they have a bite attack, they should get one that inflicts something like 12-13 damage (no STR bonus) since the wolves have to be fairly large to be mounted by stocky orcs (IIRC standard wolves use a 2 damage bite attack and have a STR of 8).

Stealthy units: +16 seems just silly on standard troops. I'd give them all zero, possibly +10 or +20 only on one or 2 dedicated leaders.

I don't know if it's possible, but I'd try to make one of these Orc nations a replacement for Ulm, and would edit the Wolfherd so you get a special unit that can summon wolves for free from the start.

Well, that's all I can think of now since I can't even remember what the leaders look like, maybe I'll follow-up with more if you need more feedback.

[weiSsi]

hi folks, thanks for ur replies. the thing was, i wanted to change almost every race into dwarves, elves, humans and so on... with changing independents too. but after developing the orcs, i hadnt enough time for going on. i have 2 weeks of university left, then i have vacation for 2 month... so i think in that time i will do some more stuff.
The thing was, that i never wanted to fight against the other races originally in dominions 2
some things u mentioned i just forgot to implement or just werent even possible in Version 2.08 ... if someone of u has some time and fells like doing it, he could change the stats to a "realistic" scale compared to the other nations, so u could mix them.
see u all

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Boron:
what i myself like quite much too is the black moon chronicles mod with the empire of lyhn and the knights of the light . i think this mod is quite balanced too .

The Black Moon Chronicles mod isn't particularly balanced. The Empire's mages are all severely underpriced, as a mage with 2 in one path and 1 in another should cost 140 gold. A random 4 mage should definetly be more than 150 gold.

[PvK]

Originally posted by weiSsi:
... if someone of u has some time and fells like doing it, he could change the stats to a "realistic" scale compared to the other nations, so u could mix them.
see u all

I'll give a shot at this.

A difficulty with replacing all the nations is that there are still thousands of units and equipment which will still exist as independents, mercenaries, summons, items, etc., which would take a long time to remove, unless perhaps you design a map which is meant to be completely used up by starting provinces, or has all modded independents, and you also edit the spell list, etc. Not to mention that spell effects can't be modded and are based on the existing units' values. It's much easier to balance things to the existing system.

PvK

[ July 17, 2004, 17:19: Message edited by: PvK ]

[PvK]

Shall I correct the spelling etc. too, or is that "thematic" because orcs can't spell well?

PvK

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
A random 4 mage should definetly be more than 150 gold.

Actually, a random-4 mage, with the sage research bonus, does happen to be precisely $150. That's what the Loremaster is, and that just happens to be how much he costs.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
That's what the Loremaster is, and that just happens to be how much he costs.

Sure, the loremaster costs that, but they are also a very rare magic site. It's not like you can build them anywhere.