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

[elmokki]

MA Al-Nadim: The Thousand and One Nights


Magic levels etc in images might be outdated. Militia hasn't existed since 0.87, there's now light infantry that's essentially a leather armored spear infantry. Also Beduin Sorcerer is not in the picture.

I personally won't link to Dominions 3 content made by me any more and I hope no-one else will either (old links are fine, whatever). You should be able to find them or most of them by asking on IRC or googling the other forums

0.92 (15.3.2011)
Fixed summon paths and tweaked higher tier summons.

0.93 (18.3.2011)
- Beduin cavalry tweaked to be more in line with Sauromatia light cavalry
--> Beduin troops hp, att and def reduced 12 -> 11
--> Beduin Raider gold cost 40 -> 20
--> Beduin Mounted Archer gold cost 40 -> 18
- Mubarizun gold cost 18 -> 15
- Mubarizun commander hp 13 -> 16 to be more in line with for example Marverni Boar Lords.
- Dervish gold cost 25 -> 20
- Camel unit prices lowered to be more in line with similiar powered cavalry units
--> Camel Cavalry price 50 -> 25
--> Camel Archer price 25 -> 20
- Camel sprites got a very subtle tweak
- (lesser) Marid stats brought to be more in line with (lesser) Ifrit stats.
- Marids of all levels get glamour again. There's a risk this is overpowered, but we'll see.
- Alchemits research bonus increased 2 -> 3
- New unit: Beduin Sorcerer
--> Mounted mage with 1F1E and 110% FEW, stealthy and 140g cost

1.00 (24.3.2011)
- Nametype of 79 names implemented (id 151)
- Llamabeast's id changes and spelling corrections implemented
- All djinni have #gcost 0 to remove upkeep
- Viziers and Grand Viziers are slightly younger. Viziers should now never be old when you recruit them and Grand Viziers should still be old, but a bit less so and with luck maybe barely not old.
- Beduin Sorcerer pathes changed to 1S and 110% FSE, 100% FE

1.01 (27.9.2011)
- Summon Lesser Ifrits/Marids moved up in research (4 -> 6), named to "Summon Band of Lesser Ifrits/Marids" and increased cast requirements by one level of magic (2W/F -> 3W/F)
- Added Summon Lesser Ifrit/Marid at conj4, summons 1 marid/ifrit for 2 gems at 2W or 2F.
----

Weapons: 915-916
Units: 3622-3657
Nation: 85
Sites: 788-789

Copypaste:

Al-Nadim is a mod nation inspired by the One Thousand and One Nights and Arabian culture in general. The mod is in no way supposed to be a realistic representation of Persian/Arabian/Middle-Eastern nations of the time, but more of a generic Arabian nation that makes a player that isn't a huge history buff feel like he's playing a mod where there are turbans, scimitars and camel riders.

Unit list as of 0.91. Pictures below should be only used for graphical examples, the unit stats won't be correct.

Units:
- Light Infantry (spear, shield, light armor)
- Infantry (spear, shield, medium armor)
- Infantry (scimitar, shield, medium armor)
- Beduin Mounted Archer (scimitar, short bow, light armor, mounted, stealthy)
- Beduin Raider (scimitar, shield, light armor, mounted, stealthy)
- Camel Archer (scimitar, composite bow, light armor, mounted, awesome)
- Camel Cavalrey (scimitar, shield, medium armor, mounted, awesome)
- Dervish (two scimitars, almost no armor, sacred, berserk, high stats)
- Mubarizun (scimitar, shield, medium armor, high stats, capital only)

Commanders:
- Al-Nadim Scout
- Assassin (a custom al-Nadim variant that's fairly similiar to the default one)
- Al-Nadim Commander
- Beduin Chieftain
- Camel Commander
- Mullah (H1 priest, decent commander)
- Mystic (stealthy, H1S1 magic)
- Vizier (2F1W 110% FAWS)
- Mubarizun Commander (capital only)
- Alchemist (1E2? 210% FAWE, capital only)
- Imam (3H, capital only, old)
- Grand Vizier (2F2W1S 110% FAWS, capital only)

Summons:
- Camels
- Ghul (stealthy death/fire mage with seducing and ability to turn to a were-hyena)
- Ifrits (3 tiers, fire/earth mages with some skill in death and astral)
- Marids (3 tiers, fire/water mages with some skill in air and astral)

[the Vanishag]

Those sprites are looking good - and I like the proliferation of mounted units: mobility on the battlefield should be a major advantage of an Arabian faction.

If you're setting up al-Nadim against Hinnom, you could play off of the tangle of myths surrounding Sulayman/Solomon, in which he tamed, captured or enslaved the jinns (or, according to Christian Goetic sources, the demons of hell) - that could make for an interesting hero, at least

And if you decide to do a MA version, you could go with a "Great Caliphate" theme - think of something a little like EA Aeroscaphle and MA Tien Chi: that would play off of the scholars, poets and alchemists of the 1st & 2nd Caliphates and the anti-Caliphate (Moorish Spain) - these historical empires had their heyday during Europe's "Dark Ages."

I don't have much advice regarding Arabic mythology - the previous paragraph was drawn from what I remember from some of my undergraduate history courses.

Another thought: it might be interesting to imagine them as caught between Abyssia (which incorporates some Middle-Eastern tropes) and Hinnom. If you don't want to do a MA version of al-Nadim, that's more than enough explanation.

Sorry, that's probably too many suggestions too quickly. I'm like that when I get going.

Short version of this post: Neat! I can't wait to see more.

[Burnsaber]

Those graphics look nice. Good editing.

Also, IIRC someone did a nation waaaay back (like 2 years ago) with arabic themes. Can't remember the name thought. Perhaps a forum search could help?

Also, you should understand that F & A is the suckiest path combo in Dominions. You only have one (niche) crosspath spell and the only forgeable item is an artifact. I suggest that you add some national Fire/Air and Air/Fire spells for them*. You also could consider making a new Air & Fire item to forge.

*Some humble suggestions for Air/Fire spells
- A national version of "Blessing of the Desert Winds" from my CPCS mod. (which gives flaming arrows + air shield on small area)
- Battlefield summon for weak imp-like djinns?
- "Wrath of the Desert" - spell that sucks out all water from the opponents causing sever dehydration (fatigue damage, mr negates or die?)
- Sand Storm - fatigue damage + mr easily negates blindness? Hmm.. actually this sounds more like air/earth

Originally Posted by elmokki

Oh, btw, how do I predetermine a hero's name? I don't want random name the supreme vizier.

The only way is to do this is give the hero a modded nametype with only one name on the list. Althought it's pretty wasteful to spend an entire nametype on a single hero.

[Sombre]

Perhaps the heavier troops and cavalry should have helmets, graphically?

I like the look of it very much so far - simple, clean changes result in good looking dom3 style troops. It fits in with haida gwaii, alchera, shangrila etc as very dom3 style nations.

[Nasser]

I was totally brainstorming ideas for a nation based off of Arab myth a few months back. I think it has real potential to be a fantastic nation thematically. The way I saw it the EA version could be based wholly on pre-Islamic Arabia, followed by MA in which 'the prophet' arises and you have a conflict between the old polytheistic sects and the followers of the prophet/pretender (muslims). Finally in LA the new religion has taken over.

For the EA version, which I'd been thinking about first, I thought it'd be neat to have the troops divided by the city vs desert. You'd have the disciplined city troop and cavalry to do the heavy lifting, backed by the wise and learned scholars and mages that only a metropolis can cultivate. There'd be splendidly bejeweled captains of the Magnificent Host, culled from the royal families to lead the armies. Then there'd be the other units from the desert, based on the Bedouin. Could be stealthy raiders or ferocious fighters with poorer moral, maybe have a mystic or shaman to lead them.

Of course then there'd be so many types of djinn to summon that you could easily make it a summon-intensive nation too. I guess I'm just rambling, so I'll say I really like the theme and wish you luck!

[llamabeast]

Ooh, this looks exciting and the graphics are very nicely done.

I have two graphical comments though. Firstly, it looks off to me that they all have naked legs. Shouldn't they be wearing full-length robes, or perhaps billowy trousers? (my Arabic knowledge is poor at best, althuogh as it happens I am currently writing from a library full of Arabic students!)

Secondly, I think the source graphic for the viziers is unfortunately one of the lower quality graphics in dominions, so they don't quite match up to the excellent quality of your other graphics. They're still fine, it's just noticeable that they're not quite as good.

All in all I'm very much looking forward to this mod!

[llamabeast]

Oh yeah, and I really like the spinning thing for the dervish, but is he meant to look like he has very long grey hair? Cos he kind of does at the moment.

[Sombre]

While we're on the subject of graphics, it might be an idea to get the horse rearing up graphic from the vanilla sprites and apply it to the attack sprites of your non missile cavalry - currently the movement from one sprite to the next is a bit too subtle for a large (size 3) unit.

[elmokki]

Originally Posted by Burnsaber

Also, you should understand that F & A is the suckiest path combo in Dominions. You only have one (niche) crosspath spell and the only forgeable item is an artifact. I suggest that you add some national Fire/Air and Air/Fire spells for them*. You also could consider making a new Air & Fire item to forge.

*Some humble suggestions for Air/Fire spells
- A national version of "Blessing of the Desert Winds" from my CPCS mod. (which gives flaming arrows + air shield on small area)
- Battlefield summon for weak imp-like djinns?
- "Wrath of the Desert" - spell that sucks out all water from the opponents causing sever dehydration (fatigue damage, mr negates or die?)
- Sand Storm - fatigue damage + mr easily negates blindness? Hmm.. actually this sounds more like air/earth

Yeah, that's why I wanted to give them more diversity. In the end, fire feels like the only path that really is mandatory for a nation that is centered on djinn/efreeti/whatever, especially as I consider them to be more elemental beings than angelic (or demonic) beings, so I guess it might be a decent idea to give the mages some fire and a random chance of getting several fire/water/air/earth random picks. That'd allow more synergy, though it'd also give a rather good diversity since I was also thinking of sage-like astral scholars.

[elmokki]

Originally Posted by Sombre

Perhaps the heavier troops and cavalry should have helmets, graphically?

I wanted to add that first, poking from under the white turbanish thing that covers their head, since that seemed realistic, but I failed at my first try so I ended up with everyone having their helmets completely covered. Got to see if I get better results next time I'm bored enough to start tinkering with sprites