Mod: Ulm Reborn v.1.7b - Updated 14th June 2009

[Shovah32]

Is there a reason pentients only have fists in the most current version?

[Sombre]

Probably because I forgot to give them a weapon. It seems like I'm doomed to miss countless little errors with releases of this nation. Probably because I haven't had time to playtest them much at all.

-sigh-

New version will be up tomorrow or the day after. In the meantime I suggest going into the dm file and giving them a flail.

The new version will feature the badass Hochhammer leader, who carries an incredibly powerful divine hammer and has what I think are the best graphics I've done so far. He'll be expensive and have zero magic/priest powers, but he'll make a scary thug commander and have some other nice abilities. I'm tempted to make him a hero, but I want to show off the graphic in the main lineup and I know Ulm Reborn doesn't really like to take luck domain.

After that release I'm going back to work on all 3 released mods at once; I want to get them all to a 'final' version. That means lots of actually playing the game and enjoying other people's mods too (updating modlist in the process).

[Shovah32]

Sounds good, sombre.

[SlipperyJim]

Looks good, Sombre. I'll try it out this evening and send you some more feedback.

[Sombre]

Release tomorrow probably. You get national summon troops (sternkind) and national summon leader (sternheld) with new graphics, as well as the hochhammer.

I've run into a lot of bugs ith modding commands trying to get this stuff working. Contrary to what I was expecting, this has turned out to be the hardest nation to mod so far.

For example - Copyspell doesn't work, aoe on weapons doesn't work, secondaryeffectalways doesn't seem to work properly,.. etc.

[SlipperyJim]

Okay, I played another quick game with v0.4. Here are some more thoughts:

• The Penitent is not sacred anymore. (He also doesn't have a weapon, but you knew that.)
• Stealthy Black Advocates are very cool indeed.
• Reborn Lords are fantastic thugs. N9E9 bless makes them even better.
• Bless me? Bless you!
• The Fortified City is a welcome addition to the capital. Now I can start cranking those lovely Black Templars and Reborn Guardians off of the assembly line in a reasonable period of time.
• The White Priests don't have any Sorcery magic yet. I'm figuring that this will happen in the new release, but I wanted to make sure you knew about it.

I love your description of the national summons. Mighty angels with the Hammer of Truth is a great fit for the Iron Faith. I also agree with your decision to add Sorcery instead of Fire magic. There's no need to steal Marignon's thunder....

I'm a modding doofus, but I think I can read some of the .dm file:
Code:

---

#startfort 3

#swampfort 11

---

Those lines specify that Ulm will get the Fortified City at the capital and a zero-admin Swamp Fort in the swamp, correct? (Lesson for the day: Don't build a castle in the swamp.)

Suggestions for other forts:

• Farmlands: 30-admin Castle (#41)
• Forest: 20-admin Forest Castle (#35)
• Hills: 20-admin Mountain Citadel (#9)
• Other: 20-admin Motte-and-Bailey (#7)

What I really like about this mod is the abundance of tough choices. The combination of high-resource Ulmish units and strong blessing potential makes the player choose carefully when starting the game. Do I go for good scales and a decent blessing, or do I sacrifice scales for a great blessing? And which blessing(s) do I pick? And what about adding magical diversity? You don't have enough points to do everything you want, so you have to choose very carefully.

Great mod, Sombre! I'm looking forward to the next release!

[Sombre]

That's another very helpful response. I especially appreciate you finding the numbers for the forts - I'll add it in just as you posted (I really suck at forts for my mod nations for some reason - I either forget them or enter the wrong numbers).

The penitent is sacred, disease free, flail armed and just as throwaway and swarmy as ever in v.05. I'm actually a bit suspicious of whether domsummon works the way I thought it did (does the white priest attract more than the black priest?). Maybe something to balance and alter for 0.6?

White Priests get S1 in 0.5

The national summons are a bit odd. They're not super powerful, nor are they that expensive and they don't require researching. They're more like extra units in the regular Ulm lineup that you can get (possibly via alchemy) once you have a gem income. The Sternheld has A3 S1, so he opens up a lot of magical options for Ulm (possibly a bit strong actually). They are sacred undead, so I think I'll put in the doctor's bless fix (so you can bless undead).

In 0.5 there are two priest spells - one healing at H1, one lightning bolt (sort of) at H2 - I'm not sure how balanced they are since you don't need to research them but they didn't seem awesome in testing, just a nice addition.

0.5 will be up tomorrow for sure. For now I've attached a graphic preview (also good for people who are considering trying the mod out). I've gone for a fairly unified graphic feel to the whole mod.

[Sombre]

0.5 is up. I think the national summons might not be balanced and the hoch hammer might need to be cheaper and less of a killing machine. I had 4 of them in one squad last game and they racked up a crapload of kills.

0.6 will be balancing changes, maybe add a national hero or two. I might add a penitent farming 'Black Shepherd' commander, or he might be one of the aformentioned national heroes. If you think the nation could really do with something or needs a balancing change please do chime in.

Happy blessings and may the Aufklarung reward ye.

[Sombre]

I'm sticking up v0.6 earlier than anticipated because I found various bugs in playtesting that were pissing me off. I'm hoping there should be less of a tide of penitent in this version, because I've figured out that domsummon didn't work the way I thought it did. In v0.5 you could amass a silly number of them.

Also added a penitent spawning national hero 'The Grey Shepherd'.

[SlipperyJim]

Sombre said:
I'm sticking up v0.6 earlier than anticipated because I found various bugs in playtesting that were pissing me off....

The attachment for the first post is still v0.6.