Black Company Mod

[Bossemanden]

Its a series of books by Glen Cook.
Here is a link to the first book. I´ve only finished the third at the moment, but they are very good.

Essentially the Black Company is a mercenary company. Theres nothing "Good" and nothing "Evil", but then again, maybe thats not quite true.

[Uh-Nu-Buh]

Peter et al--some darn good points. Four (counter) points:

1. Toadkiller Dog. Ok, it's going in as a hero. Tonight!

2. Regeneration 10 means regeneration of 10%, not 10 points. This means a Taken will regenerate 4 pnts/round of combat.

3. The immortality thing is valid. I *think* that they are only immortal inside their dominion, however. I'll test that. If they are immortal outside their domain, I might remove it and increase their regeneration to 20% instead.

4. Mod will be available at the end of this week. Look for it Thursday or Friday. I am finishing up an n'th game (first one to end-game) and working on minor play-balancing issues--ok, and some major ones as well. The Boomers are hard to make just right; and the Forvalaka look pretty weak compared to Werewolves, so I need to beef them up and make them much more expensive. I also just reread the first book, and need to redo the Limper and Shapeshifter--make the first less physically powerful, and the second more physically powerful.

One of the problems with the mod right now is the extremely primitive graphics I have employed. I am lacking in visual artistry. Meaning the .tga files are butt-ugly, but functional.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Uh-Nu-Buh:
3. The immortality thing is valid. I *think* that they are only immortal inside their dominion, however. I'll test that. If they are immortal outside their domain, I might remove it and increase their regeneration to 20% instead.

Immortality is an extremely valuable statistic, even though it only applies in your own domain. It makes the units ideal defenders, as they need not worry about any losses and can attack turn after turn, gaining HOF points just for dying. When you look at how much a fay boar costs compared to its statistics, you'd need to make an immortal mage with decent stats significantly more expensive than a Niefel Jarl. This is very true if they have good built in equipment as then it doesn't cost any gems to re-equip them.

[Kapnkirk]

For those of you new to the Black Company in the U.S., click here. Easily my favorite book series. Cook's world is gritty and real. Not sterile or squeeky-clean like some.

Great Mod idea! I'm really looking forward to this one!

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
When you look at how much a fay boar costs compared to its statistics, ...

WAY too much, IMO. But mainly because they are weak. High upkeep on a boar is strange, too.

BTW, you (UNB) might find the combat sim useful for balance-testing the mod; it's much faster than doing it in-game. It can import mod (.dm) files, though I never really documented that feature.

The command is (assuming your mod is in black_company.dm):

java Converter black_company.dm

The output is creatures_black_company.txt and unittypes_black_company.txt, the contents of which you can copy to creatures.txt and unittypes.txt in the data folder.

It only rips the basic stuff right now (not ethereality, elemental resistances, and etc), but it saves some time. Maybe I'll finish that functionality tomorrow (add regen, awe, etc).

-Cherry

[ February 24, 2004, 07:25: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

[Uh-Nu-Buh]

Thanks Cherry!

[velk]

I am forced to point out that the taken are dominated mages, they are neither undead nor immortal.

Even the most immortal-like of the lot of them, the limper, does not escape even remotely unscathed from his apparent deaths.

I know some things can't be modded at the moment, but I think a life-after-death type effect could be good for that.

On a related note, the howler should probably have a forge bonus given his tendencies toward magic carpet construction.

[Uh-Nu-Buh]

Good points Velk. The Taken are not undead, nor immortal, but they are undying and so close to immortal that even when they were defeated 400 years before the beginning of the first book, they were imprisoned instead of killed/destroyed.

If there is no way to kill them, then they are de facto, and for the purposes of the game, immortal....

However, I have finally agreed with Peter and the others who have argued that immortality throws the game balance off, and changed it so the regular Taken units are a little tougher but no longer immortal. They are more along the lines of Bane Lords now, instead of Wraiths. Essentially Bane Lords with some magic levels, and regeneration. The hero Taken like the Limper are still immortal, as they should be; but in the interests of play-balance I have relieved them of much of their armor. It's more thematic this way anyways!

Toadkiller dog, otoh, is darn near indestructible, but not immortal. And he likes to use arms as play-toys.

I am still making changes, but planning on making a play-balance Version available Thursday or Friday.

After all this talk, I hope nobody is disappointed....

[Kozi]

One thing though. Its 'Shapeshifter', not Shapechanger. You could consider adding a special magic item to represent his staff, that superthin elongated female form. No idea what it does, though.

And don't forget the other taken:

The Faceless Man - Hey, no icon needed!
Moonbiter - Immensely Strong
NightCrawler - Had some good infantry, remember Queens Bridge...
Stormbringer -
The Hanged Man -
One other who I cannot remember.

[Kozi]

Oh, and if Toadkiller Dog goes in, you gotta add Tracker. Can you make him a moron if Toadkiller Dog (Got to use his whole name!) is not in the same territory?

He'd also need his special bow & arrows...