Mod: MA al-Nadim - The thousand and one nights 1.01)

[attackdrone]

I noticed a few minor issues with what is quickly becoming one of my favorite mod nations.

1- Marid/Ifrit Beys and Sultans are not magic leaders. Perhaps the Beys should gain the #okmagicleader tag, and the Sultans the #goodmagicleader or #expertmagicleader tag.

2- None of the Marid/Ifrit Beys or Sultans are priests. Making the Beys a level 1-2 priest and the Sultans a level 2-3 priest would open up some middle-late game strategies that synergise well with the early game. As it is I need to put flying boots on a pack of Viziers (due to #1) and an Imam (due to #2) to link up with my Marid Sultans and Ifrits.

I went ahead and implemented your suggested changes for fort creation and Marids summoned using water only (so a Marid Bey/Sultan can summon helpers - it is much more thematic). I have them making Simple Fortress (1000 gold, 20 adm, 4 turns) by default, with a Forest Fortress (1000 gold, 15 adm, 4 turns) in the forest, a Simple Hillfort (800 gold, 5 adm, 3 turns) in the mountains, and a Swamp Fort (800 gold, 0 adm, 3 turns) in the swamp. This seems to balance well in my test games. They don't need a lot of administration for the triple bless strategy I went with.

...

On another note, Water-9, Fire-9, Astral-9 Dervishes are pretty fantastic! The dual scimitars pack a punch. The price/resource point seems about right, on par with Vanheim Skinshifters and Mictlan Jaguar Warriors. Of course, Dervishes die more often (so use Arrow Catcher shield-infantry)!

[elmokki]

Originally Posted by attackdrone

I noticed a few minor issues with what is quickly becoming one of my favorite mod nations.

1- Marid/Ifrit Beys and Sultans are not magic leaders. Perhaps the Beys should gain the #okmagicleader tag, and the Sultans the #goodmagicleader or #expertmagicleader tag.

That's definately a bug. Being magic beings who are leaders to lesser magic beings they definately should be better leaders.

2- None of the Marid/Ifrit Beys or Sultans are priests. Making the Beys a level 1-2 priest and the Sultans a level 2-3 priest would open up some middle-late game strategies that synergise well with the early game. As it is I need to put flying boots on a pack of Viziers (due to #1) and an Imam (due to #2) to link up with my Marid Sultans and Ifrits.

There's game balance to consider too and I really don't have much clue about that - though it isn't like getting one flying imam should be that huge problem anyway so it shouldn't matter much. In terms of plausibility I reckon that in the general theme of al-Nadim it'd make sense that the djinni are devout followers of the new god and could well have some priestly powers.

Besides, in a more djinni orientated EA version atleast the marids would definately have priestly powers.

I went ahead and implemented your suggested changes for fort creation and Marids summoned using water only (so a Marid Bey/Sultan can summon helpers - it is much more thematic). I have them making Simple Fortress (1000 gold, 20 adm, 4 turns) by default, with a Forest Fortress (1000 gold, 15 adm, 4 turns) in the forest, a Simple Hillfort (800 gold, 5 adm, 3 turns) in the mountains, and a Swamp Fort (800 gold, 0 adm, 3 turns) in the swamp. This seems to balance well in my test games. They don't need a lot of administration for the triple bless strategy I went with.

By the looks of it there's a version I released that I didn't bother to release on these forums. It's available at http://nikita.tnnet.fi/~elmokki/alnadim090.zip and the patch notes are as follows:

0.87 -> 0.9 changelog
- Scout stealth nerfed to the usual +10
- Camel Commander has finally stopped biting the enemies himself and now lets his camel do that.
- Beduin Horse Archer lost his buckler.
- Ghul are sacred in both forms. They still are technically djinn, even if tainted and evil and whatever.
- Ghul gets stealth +10.
- Highest tier summons removed.
- Marids are now just "djinn" while ifrits are special, stronger djinn. Due to that marids now have fire resistance instead of cold resistance and slightly worse stats.
- Djinn Bey (old marid bey) now has F2A2S1 with 110% FAES (same as grand vizier)
- Ifrit Bey now has with 2F1A1D 110% FADE
- Djinns are summonable at research levels 4 and 5 and ifrits at 5 and 6. Gem costs are slightly adjusted too.
- Viziers and Grand Viziers swap their W to A and their E random is changed to W random as I happen to love acid spells.
- Start fort changed to Great City, as it does suit better.
- Built forts are:
-> Fortified city for farm, plains and waste
-> Mountain Fortress for mountains
-> Forest Fortress for forests
-> Swamp Fort for swamps

Now, I seriously can't understand the reasoning for the magic path changes and I would now reconsider the removal of the most powerful summons, so I'll probably have to make a 0.91 that fixes that soon.

Regarding the fort changes, I don't remember the fort stats for those, but I believe that they are apart from Swamp Fort relatively big forts. I think it'd suit to make them smaller, more like what you suggested.

...

On another note, Water-9, Fire-9, Astral-9 Dervishes are pretty fantastic! The dual scimitars pack a punch. The price/resource point seems about right, on par with Vanheim Skinshifters and Mictlan Jaguar Warriors. Of course, Dervishes die more often (so use Arrow Catcher shield-infantry)!

Sounds like they are filling the exact role they are supposed to be filling. I just hope that they aren't too powerful in comparison to the alternatives since what I wanted was to have a sacred that is atleast somewhat viable with a bless BUT that isn't so overpowering that the only competitive way to play the nation is to go for a bless. Al-Nadim just has a good pile of other tools too.

Besides I still think the camels look very damn cool and should have some use

Also, I'm tempted to add some sort of a mounted beduin magician that has enough magic to be an useful addition to a stealthy beduin raiding party.

[elmokki]

Instead of studying I actually updated the mod: http://nikita.tnnet.fi/~elmokki/alnadim091.zip

I'd really like some input on things.

First of all, the sacred unit should either be niche or useful but not dominating all other strategies. I do believe it's either one of those (they may kill a lot, but they also drop like flies), but am I correct in that regard?

Secondly, are the beduins useful? What should be done if they're not useful enough as stealthy raider cavalry?

Thirdly, is Mystic an useful unit? If it isn't, would it be as a possibly mounted (doesn't matter much though since inside enemy territory it's one province per turn anyway) mage with 1H1S1F 110% FS instead of the current 1H1S? That might solve some problems if beduins aren't viable too. At 90 gold mystics probably are cheap enough to be used as communion slaves for Grand Viziers though - which is a thing I'm not really sure what I should think of.

And lastly, should the camels be buffed? I really would like to see them in action if I ever stumble into a multiplayer game with al-Nadim.

Forts are still something to update later.

[elmokki]

There'll be a patch to fix summon path requirements tomorrow.