Nation design

[Sandman]

Re 'Carthage' - how about a Late Era version?

Rathgar: An seafaring empire destroyed by Ermor, with the capital being burned to the ground. The dark magic which cursed Ermor has also affected Rathgar, and the burning dead now seek revenge.

The troops consist of fire-immune (and not cold-immune) undead. Their national undead are less numerous and powerful than Ermor's longdeads, but have a wider variety of weapons available. They have skeletal slingers and (non-banefire) archers, as well as sailing commanders. Their elite units (the burning dead) have fire-shields. Their lesser undead include humanoid beings of ash and smoke.

The undead mages use death and fire (might be too similar to Desert Tombs).

Others:

An 'Inca' nation with strong astral/blood mages and powerful priests. Very good with horrors.

A late-era African nation (Machaka?) with a strong line in domesticated animals - zebra cavalry, armoured war rhinos, enormously powerful war elephants. The 'trampling' nation, in other words.

[B0rsuk]

Slavic nation is missing and I'm going to mod it myself once the game arrives.


It would also be sweet to have 100% nomadic nation(s). Say, three different peoples having in common only religion and trade. Some highlights:
- very poor capitol without magic sites, just fortified camp etc.
- poor forts
- no capitol only units
- great site searchers to compensate for lack of initial sites
- lots of stealth, survival, pillage abilities
- great adaptability, independence on capitol. Able to migrate underwater with some air/water mages.
- no immobile pretenders, period.

[Endoperez]

Interesting idea, but I'm not sure if it would work.

Capital WITHOUT magic sites wouldn't work. However, giving them sites that give just gems would work. They could even be normal indy sites. Forgotten temple, etc. Only 1 gem/type, and of gemtypes they can't find any easy use for. 1 Death gem/turn doesn't do much when all your Death comes from randoms, as an example. It would let you cast Dark Knowledge, I quess, but what'd you do with THOSE death gems, then?

No capital-only units, and very good national units and mages.

Perhaps lots of random magic. 100% true randoms, even, and/or one or two 10% randoms.

Their castles on all terrains are very cheap. Perhaps take the cheapest overall fort, and they build it everywhere. Also, if possible, BOTH halved lab and halved temple prices.


VERY poor PD. If possible, negative castle defense on all units.

[Nerfix]

You know, they could be given a gem-producing non-combat unit ala Ark of the Covenant that has gem production equivalent to a site, but can be killed (even if that wouldn't be easy...) but is useless in combat. Or perhaps not useless, perhaps it could have some Holy magic, perhaps even Holy 3.

Now that would certainly be interesting!

EDIT: For clarification, they would start with the unit but they couldn't build any more of it. Lose it and...well, you're in trouble. Or at leasy you've lost a significant asset.

[Folket]

I would say Arcoscephale is Greece/Macedonia/Mesopotamia.

[B0rsuk]

Nerfix said:
You know, they could be given a gem-producing non-combat unit ala Ark of the Covenant that has gem production equivalent to a site, but can be killed (even if that wouldn't be easy...) but is useless in combat.

Great idea, if possible.

VERY poor PD. If possible, negative castle defense on all units.

Makes sense. 1 Light Infantry / PD level would suck enough. The ones with bow and no light lance.

Their castles on all terrains are very cheap. Perhaps take the cheapest overall fort, and they build it everywhere. Also, if possible, BOTH halved lab and halved temple prices.

This, however, is dangerous. It smells too much of Dominions2 watchtower spam. Could make Nomad provinces curiously hard to conquer, which isn't very nomadic. If only forts without defence (just admin value and supplies) were possible !
Interesting idea: with new spell modding commands, it should be possible to mod Three Red Seconds into something different, and make Nomad castle spam limited by something other than gold.

Still, I have a LOT to read (Nomad peoples) if it's going to get anywhere. Thanks for ideas. I read a lot about slavic tribes and I'm still unsure how to make their ordinary national units feel special.

[Endoperez]

Cheaper Labs and Temples, at least, would be interesting ideas. Cheap castles might be too good, that's true.

I like the idea of them starting with a gem-generator. They could have national pretender gods that generate more gems useful for them, too.

[Amos]

Quote:
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Nerfix said:
You know, they could be given a gem-producing non-combat unit ala Ark of the Covenant that has gem production equivalent to a site, but can be killed (even if that wouldn't be easy...) but is useless in combat.


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Great idea, if possible.

I made something like that with Hamadryads in Blood Elves mod.