Mod: New Nation: Sanguinia (Update v1.1)

[zepath]

Presented here is a new Late Ages nation for your game-time enjoyment:

Sanguinia

Unknown to mortals, undying sanguivorous creatures of terrifying power - vampires - have long contested one another for rulership of their elite, enigmatic society on the fringes of human lands. When the Malediction befell the nation of Ulm, the vampires who lived secretly on that kingdom's periphery seized the opportunity to unite and forge a new dominion. The Bloodletters, a cabal of wizened, shriveled vampire-mages, speak of a new god who will lay the world of mortals bare for domination by vampiric overlords. Under their guidance and the power of their ritual blood-spilling, the Counts of the Sanguine clan have united the vampire clans, revealed themselves to mortals, enthralled entire villages to their service, and created a new kingdom. To strengthen their realm even more, the Bloodletters have contacted the Heliophagii who advise and aid the vampiric masters of Sanguinia in sating their thirst for the blood of the world.

This nation is an addition to the normal Late Ages nations (nation number 71) and will not replace any of the original nations. This mod is quite a bit different from the nation mods I've done for Dom 2 and from Teutanion, my first Dom 3 nation mod. All of the commanders are immortal vampires statistically modeled after the "native" vampires already in the game. It's a little odd and probably imbalanced in some areas. I've had both stunning success and crushing failure in play-testing and am still playing around with it. I wanted to release it now so others can get there hands on it. With your help and comments hopefully I can put the polish on it! Load it up, check out the readme file, and give the vamps a try. Please let me know your impressions and concerns so I can make this mod even better!

v1.0: 39 downloads

CHANGES FOR v1.1:

-#nopreach flag removed, your vampires can now preach as well as sacrifice to spread their dominion
-Bloodletter Holy magic ability increased to 2
-Reeves, Counts, Original Vampire, and Patriarch given ambidexterity
-Death Dealer stealthiness decreased to +0
-Stalker stealthiness increased to +20 in vampire form

[Shovah32]

I know dominion spread needs to be limited to avoid massed vampires becoming a problem but only being able to preform blood sacrifices (no preaching) along with your best recruitable priests having only holy 1. However, if you can spread your dominion well then e9 (unequiped) vampire counts casting stoneskin are beasts (regen, immortality, insane prot, rapier and life drain, nice stats)

[Ighalli]

This mod is pretty cool, but I'm not sure why the assassin has a paralyze attack. Was it supposed to be a life drain? I'm still going through my test, so I don't see anything else yet. Thanks for working on this!

[zepath]

Shovah32, not having a ton of experience with blood nations, I knew striking the right balance with a blood-obsessed nation would be tough. They have #dyingdom, #sacrificedom, and #nopreach for the very reason you mention -- massed vampires. That tactic was obvious from the start of making the mod and one I sought to prevent while still retaining the immortality of the vamps. My intent was to make the primary challenge while playing as Sanguinia to spread your dominion. Once you've convinced the people of the next province over to accept your god (by sacrificing their neighbors), then the vampires (with the kinds of insane power you mention) sweep in and slaughter the meek and weary.

Perhaps Bloodletters sould be Holy 2?

[zepath]

Ihgalli, I gave the Death Dealers paralyze as an alternative to life drain on purpose. Since it's their task to stalk and murder individual enemies I thought it would be appropriate that they have the ability to make their targets seize up in the moment of action. Think of it as another poison at their disposal. This also gives them (slightly) more of a chance against tougher, mounted enemies.

[Nerfix]

Were cool nation, I think it's very unique in a way that it has a pile of disadvantages coupled with advantages...hmmm, EA Agartha is also like that and I also like them a lot...

Say, this is based on Warhammer right?

[zepath]

Nerfix, yes it is roughly based on the Vampire Counts army from Fantasy Battles. (Teutanion was based on the Empire and Bretonnia.) I'm hoping to make a few more nations with similar inspirations. The next one may be a mix of the High Elves and Wood Elves, but I'm hoping to get some of kinks worked out of Sanguinia at the same time.

[Nerfix]

I'd love to see Chaos.

[DrPraetorious]

Frank is already working on Skaven.

[Nerfix]

That's cool.

you know, I've recently read about Warhammer and I have found some paralels to Dominions which has made me wonder if either of the devs has played it.