MOD: Zulu

[RedRover]

Endoperez: Yes, I used the add commands back when I was doing the Grey Elf mod. I had to cut a few commanders/units out of that mod because it wouldn't let me build more of either than what Caelum had. On the other hand, I may not have used #clearrec, because I wanted the winged elf holy troops to have the "Fly in Storms" ability, and I think the #clearrec would have erased that.

Wow! You have put together a truly impressive list of sites! I knew you couldn't mod themes, but I thought that also meant you couldn't use the theme sites. This opens up a whole new field. Can't wait to get started.

Can you mix-and-match capital sites from more than one nation/theme? Can more than one copy of a capital site appear on the same map, or are they sealed in some arcane fashion?

I agree that Golden Age is probably the best fit overall, but, on the other hand, the Golden Age is probably a contemporary, since in theory the Zultu were wiped out fairly early.

Man is probably the next best fit. I wonder if using the Knights for the Sorcerer is too harsh. It would be interesting to have a fixed-sized wizard circle, but that might really kill the nation on a big map. Thirteen is quite a lot though--I can't remember building that many major wizards in any of my own games.

I am somewhat drawn to the Celestial City, but T'ien Chi has been modded so many times that I'm reluctant to add another mod to that list.

Great food for thought. And you are right--Death magic is definitely out for this nation.

Thanks for the heads-up on Mother of Lions. She sounds fine as is--and Great Lions are welcome, too. I'll think about a dedicated Pretender. First though, I'd like to get the core troops up and rolling.

[Endoperez]

#clearrec doesn't affect units' abilities, it only applies to units a nation has access to (can recruit from every castle). I think you confused it with #clearspec, which would take all special abilities away from a creature...
Also, if you hit some kind of a maximum value, I don't think it was from the nation. When I made the Unit Replacement/Null Mod series, the different nations could replace each other almost any way. If Ulm can replace Abysia and Abysia Ulm without there being any chances I could notice, there should be no problems with adding units.

You can't use different nations' sites, but you can match sites from the themes. If you modded e.g. Warlocks of Smouldercone, you would change Abysia's capital-only units too. Also, I think only Abysia (or modded nation replacing it) would be able to recruit the units from Smouldercone, regardless of who starts with it. However, there are few annoying restrictions to using themes' sites. Man has two other sites in its Last of the Tuatha theme: one is named "Forest of Avalon" (the same as the base theme one), the other "Avalon". Only Avalon can be added as a site, because Forest of Avalon finds the first FoA, the one for the base theme, and there is no way to make a difference between them.
Also, you can't actually have the Zultu appear as a theme. You can use the Golden Era's sites as you can use any other site in the game, but you can't mod a theme with the nation modding commands.
You could replace all the units/commanders with modded ones, but it's not worth it, as modding normal nations using the theme's sites gives you much finer control over the result. However, I think Golden Era would still show up as a theme under the chosen settings... It'd be an interesting theme if themes were moddable, though, because it has forced Sloth scale.

I quess using the Knight heroes as a template for Sorcerers would be all right. The sorcerers needn't be much better than your normal ones, though. The chance to get them isn't very big even with Luck 3, but 13 Angerbodas or even Blind Ones would be a bit much. And remember that some people use forging Clam of Pearls, massing up Astral income of hundreds and chain-casting Wish as a strategy on the big maps... Some people do recruit more than 13 high-tier mages.

[quantum_mechani]

Endoperez said:
... Some people do recruit more than 13 high-tier mages.

I would even say almost everyone does.