Conceptual Balance Series (Mod)

[Edi]

Quantum, I can provide readmes for the Pretender and Spell mods, because I've already got those ready. They need just a couple of tweaks and will be good for the current version.

The scales mod should not be very difficult to do, as it is not very large. The nation and item mod readmes would be the most troublesome ones, and as long as you take care of the item mod readme, I can produce a readme version for the nations.

Edi

[Edi]

I don't know what program you have used to make the spell and nation mods, Quantum, but their formatting when opened up in a basic text editor is completely FUBAR, with /par tags at the end of every line and some other crap liberally sprinkled at the beginning and end.

It'd be nice if they were made with something that produces unaltered plain text instead of adding all kinds of superfluous formatting that more than likely screws them up. It also makes trying to read them with stuff like Crimson Editor or Notepad or other plain text editors a pain in the arse.

Edi

[Edi]

The complete version of the mod also suffers from the same formatting error.

The Pretender mod has one potential problem: You have added Dwarf Elder to the list of pretenders, restricted only to Vanheim, and given it certain abilities, among others gem production (2 earth gems).

You have neglected to take into account that making a prophet out of a dwarven smith turns it into that selfsame monster, the dwarf elder (#324). What this means, in essence, is that Vanheim gets a free gem generator that produces 2 earth gems per turn from turn 3 onwards, because you make some other pretender, recruit a dwarven smith on turn one, prophetize them on turn 2 and from turn 3 onward you get an extra two gems every turn.

And if the prophet gets killed, well, rinse and repeat. This is, in my opinion, something of a serious balance problem, especially in the early game or on maps with low site frequency.

Edi

[Edi]

The complete version of the mod also suffers from the same formatting error.

The Pretender mod has one potential problem: You have added Dwarf Elder to the list of pretenders, restricted only to Vanheim, and given it certain abilities, among others gem production (2 earth gems).

You have neglected to take into account that making a prophet out of a dwarven smith turns it into that selfsame monster, the dwarf elder (#324). What this means, in essence, is that Vanheim gets a free gem generator that produces 2 earth gems per turn from turn 3 onwards, because you make some other pretender, recruit a dwarven smith on turn one, prophetize them on turn 2 and from turn 3 onward you get an extra two gems every turn.

And if the prophet gets killed, well, rinse and repeat. This is, in my opinion, something of a serious balance problem, especially in the early game or on maps with low site frequency.

You have also neglected to specify starting dominion for this god. I don't know if that defaults to startdom 1, but it's another potential problem. I've just commented out the lines from the copy in my mods folder, but I advise removing this new pretender altogether unless you make a completelynew monster and get graphics for it from somewhere.

Edi

[Edi]

The nation/hero mod also suffers from the following problem: For nations whose heroes differ from one theme to the next but retain the same name (specifically Pythium), the heroes for one theme have been modified, while the others have not. E.g. the Pythium hero who rides a serpent (Hierogallus the Hero) is modified for the basic theme (monster #506) but not for Serpent Cult (monster #866).

Edi

[Edi]

I'm going through the nation and hero mod at the moment, fixing the screwed up formatting and checking for errors. I've fixed the Pythium hero problem, but I need to look at the weapon and armor assignments and modding sections.

As far as I know, it is possible now to mod weapons and armor by their ID numbers, wo this is what should be done in this mod as well, as it is NOT being done. I will probably change all of those to refer to weapons and armor by ID number and add a comment in the form of "-- <weapon/armor name>" to the end of the appropriate lines. It will make maintaining the mod much easier, and will eliminate error rate due to spelling mistakes.

Edi

[Edi]

Another problem that I had to fix was that the Pretender mod was happily trying to use new armor types that were only specified in the nation mod. Here's a hint: If you have a series of mods that are supposed to be complementary, make sure that you have ALL the new weapons, armor and modifications to existing ones specified in EACH mod. Otherwise funny and not so funny things might happen. It makes for some more maintenance headaches, especially if using versions that were not updated at the same time, but it beats no having the mod work as intended.

I'll post the checked mods in one single zip file when I'm done, and I'll just add .01 to the version number (i.e. Pretenders 2.5 will become Pretenders 2.51 etc)

Edi

[Edi]

Caelian seraph description talks about them having both air and water magic, but they only have A2, no water at all. I'll ad W1 for them.

Edi

[Turin]

Edi said:
The nation/hero mod also suffers from the following problem: For nations whose heroes differ from one theme to the next but retain the same name (specifically Pythium), the heroes for one theme have been modified, while the others have not. E.g. the Pythium hero who rides a serpent (Hierogallus the Hero) is modified for the basic theme (monster #506) but not for Serpent Cult (monster #866).

Edi

Ah that was my mistake. As far as I know hierogallus is the only hero though that changes between themes.

[Edi]

All right, as promised, the compilation package is ready.

It contains the following mods in their entirety (mod file, icon file and possible readme file):

• Conceptual Balance Pretenders v2.51
• Conceptual Balance Spells v2.01
• Conceptual Balance Scales v1.3
• Conceptual Balance Items v1.31
• Conceptual Balance Nations v1.11
• Conceptual Balance Complete 1.01

The package includes readmes for Pretenders, Spells, Scales and Items. Item readme is made by quantum_mechani, the other readmes were written by me. All mods have been renamed to the format of "conceptbalance_<aspect>_<version number>.dm" for improved recognition and clarity. Readme naming convention is identical, with the word "Readme" added.

The Nations mod does not have a readme yet, because that is such a massive undertaking to produce from scratch that it's going to take several days to complete at a minimum. If I keep getting one day employment gigs, it's going to take a lot longer, and then there are various things from Real Life that will inevitably keep me from the task at other times.

All mods have been synchronized to use the exact same syntax on weapon and armor modding, comment lines, structure and other aspects. Most have more or less improved readability. The spell mod especially has been extensively reformatted to make it more readable and easier to expand upon and maintain.

ALL mods have had the several metric tons of spelling errors in unit descriptions fixed, because they drive me into a murderous rage when I spot them in-game. And for further reference, Guard and guardian are spelled with UA, NOT AU. Next person who repeats that mistake in a mod I undertake to proofread/check for integrity should not be surprised to find me taking a fireaxe first to their doors and shortly after to their heads.

The nations mod has had the following changes made to it:

• The Hierogallus issue has been fixed.
• Caelian seraphs now possess W1 (both standard and RotR)
• Gryphon riders have reverted back to 125 gold, but turn to gryphons when the rider is killed (ala black hunter becoming a hunter spider). This makes them somewhat more useful and desirable, especially since they are fliers, but I am of the opinion that it in no way breaks the game and that the rarity of the garnet amazons combined with their cost makes it a non-issue.
• Unit modding groups all indies together, so nations which have indie units on their rosters (specifically Arco and Man) only have national units unique to them listed under their headings and should refer to indie section for the other changes. Makes for a shorter and more logically organized mod structure.

The Pretender mod has had Dwarven Elder erased and the Ice Robe armor added.

The Item mod has not been tampered with apart from the syntax and structure, but is denoted as modified by increased version number nonetheless.

The Complete mod is a compilation of all of the single aspect component mods, and as such has some structural differences. Weapon and armor modding for standard armors and new armors has been moved to the beginning of the mod, right after scale modding. Duplicated effort from several mods (e.g. Pretenders and Spells) has been removed, there is only one set of equipment modding. Magic item stat modding is in its own section (the very last one) in the Item mod.

All of the Complete mod sections are identified with a large splashy header and have the version number of the individual component mod listed.

For any further development of the CB series, this set should be used as the basis to start from, both in naming convention and mod syntax, so that we will have a consistent set to play with.

That is all. Now hop to it and download the lot.

Edi