"War of the Ring" thread

[Kristoffer O]

Originally posted by Miguel Duran:
Here's something I don't get -- aside from obviously coded effects specific to themes (like destructive domain), don't you pretty much replicating the creation of a theme every time you mod a nation? In theory, I could, given enough typing and use of Photoshop, remake Last of the Tuatha for Man as a mod if IW decided tomorrow it shouldn't exist anymore. I couldn't force anyone to take certain scales (although it could be recommended in the design doc) and I couldn't set up a design point price (which, admittedly, might be a shortcoming if trying to create better-than-average themes which required balancing) but I could alter heroes, change out selectable units, offer different starting sites, etc.

Is there some other way to end-around theme creation by basically setting up mod commands to force certain scales or design point costs (perhaps just increasing cost for all Pretenders for that mod nation), effectively jury-rigging themes even if the mod name itself doesn't appear as a "selectable" theme?

What other issues am I forgetting? Are any of these ideas workable?

You are correct. A mod is much like replicating a theme. What people would like (theme modding) is the possibility to make a theme that is not replacing the default nation. Currently everyone knows that you are playing a mod. This is of course only a problem in MP games.

If you are making a scenario you can fix scales of a particular nation in the map file.