Idea for a mod

[odd_enuf]

With the choas mages, I compare them to lore masters, who are 120 gold for fr4 with a research bonus of eithor +4 or +7. Chaos mages have 1 more random path, but they get a research penalty instead of a bonus, plus they have the random afliction, at about the same cost. seems like a fair trade to me. About the good heavy infrantry, there weapon is damage 0 and attack -2, so while they can take a lot of punishment they can't deal it out. With the flame blades, they can dish out a bunch of damage, but with a defense of only 8 and only 10-12 protection, they can't take a lot. With proper troop placement you may be able to make the shiled bearers take all the damage, while the flame blades deal it out, but that is difficult to do. While the archers do have high precision, they can't increase it further with wind guide, like man, caelum, and tien chi, plus there only shortbows, not the more powerful long or composite bows. Plus, like ulm, they don't have level 3 priests, so they can't cast sermine of courage to keep there units from routing. If the units end up being too powerful, you can always increase the costs to a fair amout, though the turmoil scale gives a -28% decrease in income compared to the order 3 scales most players take.

I also forgot to mention heroes.

"name" the arch-theug
"name" idiolized the old theugs, even after the destruction they wrought. Once he gained acceptance inside there ranks he searched for any remaining texts from before the fall of the theugs. His studies were successful, he has relearned many of the lost knowledge, becoming almost as powerful as the arch-theugs of old. This knowledge comes at a price however, he is feared and distrusted by the remaining population.

stats- same as an arch theug
magic 2a 1w 3s h3
leadership 0

"name" the master of choas
"name" showed great magical talents from a young age, he started casting spells while still a child. As he grew older, he knowledge and controle only increased. He achieved mastery over the chaotic magical energies released by the chataclysm, allowing to achieve the dream of the theugs who created it, becomeing the most powerful mage in the world.

stats- same as chaos mage, but no random afliction
magic 10 fr
leadership 25

as for the Last hero, I was thinking of someone who was talanted in all the magic abilites of the warrior societies, thus having the bonuses of each of them. Thus he would have stats higher then the gifted, glamour, reinveration 4, full amphibion, aim cast at the start of battle. As for the fire bonus, if you give him the same fire daggers as the flame blades he loses this bonus if you give him a different weapon, so you could give him permant flame weapons, like the blessing, or cast weapons of sharpness on him at the start of each battle if that is too stong. however, when you start adding up all these bonuses, he might end up too strong, hard to say.


odd_enuf

edit-
hmm, something big, somethign with style, I suppose that troglydites would fit, they were unleased when the cataclism opened great rifts in the earth, have have now been tamed.
Alternetly, you could let them keep the hydras, though I prefer the first.
A third Idea, the mutated, humans who have been so warped by the magical energies they are no longer reginisable as human. I'd have to think about what stats and abilities they would have, though they coudl be similer to the more powerful crossbreeds. Without knowing there abilities, its too early to assign a cost to them, though they would probably be low resourses, high gold.

For a bit more varity, I was thinking of a nature infrantry, give them spears, javalins, furs, and a suply bonus of 1-4, costs 10-13 gold.

for starting sites, you would then have ten thousand things, 5 gem income, e,w,a,f,and n, then the swamps, mod the full hydra into the trogladites, the hydra tamer into the savants, and get rid of the hydra hatchling

For the tweaking, raising the price of choas mages to 130-150, shield bearors to 14, and flame blades to 15-16, might help balance them. Also, give the wave walkers armer so they have prot 10, plus make them full amphibions, raise there price to 12 gold. When you factor in the 28% turmoil penatly, the effective price becomes roughly 180 for the choas masters, 100 for the savants, 140 for the gifted, 20 for the flame blades, 18 for the shield bearors, 13 for the archers, though of course this penatly will be offset somewhat by alchamy and gold/gem mines.

[Endoperez]

Give "the master of chaos" level one in everything. And 'sacred'-status. He has achieved *everything*. Besides, I'm not sure if heroes can have random picks.

The "arch theurg" shouldn't have priestly magic. Atleast not at level three. Sermon of Courage from someone everyone is afraid of...

For the Last hero, he seems thematic. However, you might consider giving him half of the powers of all other, instead of their full powers. After that he would have stats of the gifted, reinvigoration 2, poor amphibion, aim cast at the start of battle but poor precision, ambidexterity 2 and dual-wielded longsword and a flaming dagger. Notice how his powers in fire are only enough to affect the second weapon.


About Chaos Masters: 5 full picks is much. The idea has been thrown around a few times, but it is still very powerful. 120 gp is not much, research is on par with any 3-pick mage and the afflictions could be bad but they are so cheap that it doesn't affect much... Even if 25% of them were feeble-minded when bought the price to get a useful one would be about 160 gp (120*4/3) in the long run. And much less than 25% of them are useless! I would up the cost to that 160 gp's, at least. In the very end I compare the research values of their three mages, and I put my suggestion in there too.

This nation would have access to all magics at atleast 3, and with all the different paths they can easily make all boosters. Including Rings of Wizardy! One S2E2 mage can do Starshine Skullcap, Crystal Coin, Ring of Sorcery, Ring of Wizardry... All forged with Dwarven Hammers, of course. And in the end of endgame they would have Chaos Masters equipped with Staff of Elemental Mastery, Robe of the Magi and Ring of Wizardry/ Sorcery for total magic bonus of 3 (2 true plus plus both sorc. & elem. bonuses), reinvigoration 5, immunity to fire and cold or lightning and prot. 15 depending on the type of the staff used, and penetration bonus of two.

All this for 5+5 gems for Staff, 10 gems + 10 slaves for robe, 10 + 20 pearls for rings for total of 60 gems/pearls/slaves. Earth 2 will be good enough to cast Forge of the Ancients after they get the booster-mill going, they will find all the sites so have gems to keep it up and have access to all magics atleast at 5 without any boosters spesific to that magic. They also have easy access to Hammer of the Forge Lord, and exteremely lucky Masters could even be able to cast Wish... They also have cheap communicants in sacred Theurgs.

AND to the top of it all, their best researcher is their best mage. As seen under, 24 gp/rp for CM, 40gp/rp and cheaper upkeep for others. However, CM researchs more than twice the amount of Savant and almost twice the amount of theurg, being much more useful than either of them... In very long run and/or with magic scale one could consider theurg, but SHH versus ????? seems rather weak.

research point (rp) formula used: 2 + (# of picks) +- bonus

Savant: 80gp / 2 = 40 gp/rp, upkeep of 5,3 gp
Chaos Master: 120 gp / 5 = 24gp/rp, upkeep of 8 gp
Theurg: 120 gp / 3 rp = 40 gp/rp, upkeep of 4 gp

my Chaos Master: 160 gp / 5 = 32 gp/rp, upkeep of 10,7 gp

This is more balanced, as it is no longer the best researcher for 20+ or whatever turns. I'm not going to calculate how many turns it takes for upkeep to make this cost more than the others, but it will happen much faster than in your original case.


Your idea is somewhat raw, it could use some more consideration, tweaking and balancing, maybe some more units (supply guys seem nice) but it could work. Do you have a name for it? It would be nice to know what I am waiting for... :P

[odd_enuf]

hmm, looking at the research, if you make the chaos master cost 140-150, and increase the reseach penalty to -3, then research woudl be 35-37.5, gifted as is would be 27.5, take away there research bonus and there cost becomes 37, which seems about right, about a name, I was thinking of somethign along the lines of enchanted lands, though comeing up with names for things is what I'm worst at.