Awesome

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by BandarLover

I stumbled upon a page that might help you with the different genres of metal and what bands are considered the pioneers of said genres and what notable bands followed.

http://www.metalcrypt.com/genres.php

Hopefully the link works

It works and is awesome. Thanks. This will help with those gatgories I'm not familiar with. I like the list of Grindcore bands, I need the hear if they're really as disgusting as their notorious reputation.

I was thinking of making a skeleton mod for this next-week, not really playable (only 1 Singer and the troops by Elmokki). But it'd work as base if people really want to add their own ideas (I'm not really expecting anything like that to happen, but I'm positively suprised by the intrest in this project).

Rock on.

[Burnsaber]

Ok, I made the skeletal version I promised before I go to update my other projects. It's not that playable really, only having 4 troops and 2 commanders, but it works as a sort of sign how the nation is going to look like. Here's a pic of the Death Metal Star



And in case someone is inkling to dip their toes into modding and has an idea for the nation, they can just add it to the mod below and then post the altered version back to this thread. Not that I practically expect anything, but getting 3 free sprites upon announcing this thing kind of suprised me. Just some simple rules on adding your own stuff

1) If the unit is monstreous (like Eddie the Lich, which I will make in due time, it's just too awesome of an idea) please make it either an pretender, hero or summon. The national recruits will mostly be humans.

2) Please follow the numering on the .dm file. All numbers start from a certain number and go down. So if you want to add a new monster, just find the lowest monster id on the .dm file and go from that.

3) Please try to make the stuff at least somewhat balanced. This nation is only half-serious, but balance is always nice.

4) Not really anything else to add, but that all contributions are greatly appreciated! Thanks to Elmokki for the sprites, got me started. Rock On!

[elmokki]

Here's a KISS, Knight in Satan's Service. I planned to make more of them, but I really cba making slightly different sprites to represent all band members of a band I really don't care much about, so it's just a generic knight. You could use him as a Gene Simmons hero too I reckon.

I'm lazy and didn't bother to add it to the mod.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by elmokki

I'm lazy and didn't bother to add it to the mod.

It's okay, I can add it once I've done the needed things to my other mods.

I don't care much for KISS either, but they're a legend, so what can you do?

[BandarLover]

I have no graphics or data to add but since my work has been slow of late I have had some time to brainstorm a few ideas for this oh-so-awesome mod idea.

Is it possible to mod some of the greater demon summons as pretender choices? I'm sure it is, but balancing them might be an issue. But I feel like they MUST be available as pretender options, what with metal being the 'Devil's music' and all.

A few other pretender options-

Prince of Darkness- I believe there is something already similar in game, don't play with the dead nations all that often so I don't recall. But this PoD should be a human sized chassis, similar to a crone but male. He is an ancient rock star who has become so powerful that he seeks to don the mantle of godhood! Though his speech is muttered and often unintelligible, his message of metal in song form is unmistakable! Maybe make him start with Death and Astral magic, strong dominion though methinks.

The Led Zeppelin- A great iron dirigible that has been afloat since time immemorial. I honestly don't know what one could do to make this a viable pretender, I just know that a giant burning Zeppelin MUST be in here somewhere!!

A 20 inch replica of Stonehenge- What else is there to say.

I'm not familiar with some of the other genres of metal to offer any pretenders that could be based off them. I like my metal music, but once it becomes a shrill, double drum bass growl fest I generally lose interest. I'm more knowledgeable - if you wanna call it that - with 'Classic Rock' and late 80's early 90's 'grunge metal' than anything else. Speaking of, a Curt Cobain hero unit would be sweet. He should be a heretic though, since the advent of grunge killed 80's style metal as we know it, and he should freespawn grunge fans who could use the same mechanic as Pan revelers but they should increase sloth in a province as opposed to turmoil.

I'm still in love with the idea of this mod, and if I actually get any time to sit and make some graphics I'll add them, since I know Burn has his hands full with other, more pressing mods at the moment. And of course, I'll post any other unit/ pretender ideas I can come up with.

Is it possible to add sound into a mod? Cause this is definitely one mod that SCREAMS for custom sound files.

EDIT- oh yes, almost forgot. A nation name, as Burn has already pointed out, can be a bit tricky to figure out. So here is my suggestion: Metallonia (pro.: "metal-OWN-ya")
A hero unit or 2 for each genre of music would be cool too. A flute playing Jethro Tull for Folk, a Ronnie James Dio hero (complete with leather armour and broadsword!!) for Hero (?) Metal.

One more thing, for one of the genres, progressive I think, you say the fans should be size 6 for their egos. I know this is a silly mod but we want it balanced so I thik instead of making prog fans literal giants, the unit pic should be a reg sized human unit, with an ethereal outline of a much larger representation of them around the reg size unit, the large ethereal part being the manifestation of their ego.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by BandarLover

Is it possible to mod some of the greater demon summons as pretender choices? I'm sure it is, but balancing them might be an issue. But I feel like they MUST be available as pretender options, what with metal being the 'Devil's music' and all.

Yeah, I have few ideas rolling about on making a "corrupting" heavy metal star, with references to Black Sabbath. I know that they weren't actually the first to be blamed for hidden satanic messages, but their case is the most famous one. I mean, it's kinda funny, the controversy lead straight into the forming of first Black Metal bands (for those not in the known, Black Metal is "the" metal for church burning, the most hardcore genre.).

Originally Posted by BandarLover

Prince of Darkness- I believe there is something already similar in game, don't play with the dead nations all that often so I don't recall. But this PoD should be a human sized chassis, similar to a crone but male. He is an ancient rock star who has become so powerful that he seeks to don the mantle of godhood! Though his speech is muttered and often unintelligible, his message of metal in song form is unmistakable! Maybe make him start with Death and Astral magic, strong dominion though methinks.

Eddie will fill the undead pretender niche, but there are basically unlimited slots for heroes and summons (or I could make the Eddie a hero). I really like the unintelligible speech, if we only knew how the make the guy mute from beginning..

Originally Posted by BandarLover

The Led Zeppelin- A great iron dirigible that has been afloat since time immemorial. I honestly don't know what one could do to make this a viable pretender, I just know that a giant burning Zeppelin MUST be in here somewhere!!

Agreed.

Originally Posted by BandarLover

A 20 inch replica of Stonehenge- What else is there to say.

I'm sorry, but I'm missing the reference. It's beyond mindnight here, so that might be the cause.

Originally Posted by BandarLover

Since the advent of grunge killed 80's style metal as we know it

Man'o'War* (still alive, doing records and concerting around the world), might disagree with your assestment.

Originally Posted by GodsMadeHeavyMetalFromManoWar

The gods made heavy metal and they saw that is was good
They said to play it louder than Hell
We promised that we would
When losers say it's over with you know that it's a lie
The gods made heavy metal and it's never gonna die

emphasis mine :P

Originally Posted by BandarLover

I'm still in love with the idea of this mod, and if I actually get any time to sit and make some graphics I'll add them, since I know Burn has his hands full with other, more pressing mods at the moment. And of course, I'll post any other unit/ pretender ideas I can come up with.

Thanks, all ideas and tangible contributions are appreciated.

Originally Posted by BandarLover

Metallonia (pro.: "metal-OWN-ya")

This is now officially the new nation name. Much better than "Rockon"

Originally Posted by BandarLover

A hero unit or 2 for each genre of music would be cool too. A flute playing Jethro Tull for Folk

Right, almost forgot of him. Defiantely a hero (He basically started the genre). Nightwish hero or summon is also in the "fleshing out details" stage.

Originally Posted by BandarLover

a Ronnie James Dio hero (complete with leather armour and broadsword!!) for Hero (?) Metal.

F*ck yeah. I'm actually listening to Dio as I type. Holy Diver? definately in top 5 metal albums of all time. But it's hard to truly confine the awesome man-beast that is Dio into a coherent dom3 unit. The tempatation to give him awe +100 might just prove too much. He will be definately riding a tiger (if you don't get the reference, you need to listen "Holy Diver" a couple times more).

Originally Posted by BandarLover

One more thing, for one of the genres, progressive I think, you say the fans should be size 6 for their egos. I know this is a silly mod but we want it balanced so I thik instead of making prog fans literal giants, the unit pic should be a reg sized human unit, with an ethereal outline of a much larger representation of them around the reg size unit, the large ethereal part being the manifestation of their ego.

Actually, this was my intention from the beginning. Gameplay wise, they'll be perfect anti-trampler units**. They'll also possess absolutely massive magic resistance and have a armor "Ego Shield". Their high size should also make them good decoys for enemy mages to pester.

*okay, Man'O'War was pretty marginal in the 80's, but anyways...

** There will be a lot of "playing with size" in this mod. There will be a "Frontliner" fan unit with size 1 (with size 2 body). You ever seen how thight people are pacced in the front of the stage? It simply defies geometry.

[BandarLover]

For the mini-Stonehenge reference watch This is Spinal Tap!

If you don't have time for that, the run down is, Spinal Tap (Quasi-fictional 80's hair metal band) hires a prop artist to make a replica Stonehenge for their stage show, the manager didn't write the dimensions down correctly, they get a 20 inch Stonehenge model instead of the 20 foot tall one they wanted, midgets dance around mini model and hilarity ensues. It is a great movie and the perfect example of how a mock-umentary is suppose to work.

We need other people in the forums to post suggestions for hero units that correspond to a particular genre. I can name the BIG ONES only because they are indelibly printed into pop culture, regardless of their metal nature. But I know little to nothing about Grindcore, Black metal and Death metal.