Mod: Caelis Immolatum ON HOLD

[VedalkenBear]

Endo: Before anything else, thank you for the highly detailed feedback. Now, on to the chase!

I deliberately used Caeline as opposed to Caelian. Really, there's nothing to differentiate the 'High Caelians' from the other Caelians, and so I tried to make it a bit 'clearer'. If you think it's too jarring I can always change it back.

As far as the sprites go, I was trying for a definite 'difference by tribe' wing color scheme. As long as they're sufficiently different from each other (with the Spires golden and the High Caelians rather brilliantly white), I'm fine.

Sorry about the legacy on the two action .tgas. To make those, I basically took half of the left-hand side of the wing and pasted it on the right side. I thought I had erased the remnants but apparently not. I'm really not that comfortable with layers so I brute-forced each one.

The Poison Resistance on the Raptor units is supposed to show one of the fruits of their research into the undead; they are becoming resistant to the toxins they all too often have.

The High Seraphine is supposed to be an Inquisitor. I've been told that the only way to do that at the moment is to take an extant Inquisitor unit and #copy his entire block to the new unit, and then modify accordingly. I can definitely see their random including Holy (which looks quite possible but I may be misremembering), but if I can get them to be an Inquisitor, a Stealthy (spy, incidentally) Holy-3 Inquisitor sounds a bit overpowering.

I meant to give all the Caelian units #mountainsurvival, but that went away after a bit.

Re: the Seraphs, do you think they're _too_ good? I don't want them to be capital-only in the final version of the mod, but I'm not sure of the appropriate cost. It would seem something like 225 or 240 might be appropriate.

Re: the base troops, since all Caelians presumably belong to one of the three tribes, I would at the least have to put each unit in the correct 'feather color'. Also, the Caelians in this mod don't use the ice weapons and armor that the normal nation does, so I found it simpler to just make my own troops rather than use the stock ones.

Re: Poison, it's again the best way I could find to show the Raptor Clan's interest. I'd _like_ to give them 'Undead Awe', but that's not really an option. So I made them the ultimate pragmatists who guard Caelum against everyone _else_ so that the High Caelians and Spire Horns can rid the world of the undead.

Well, I'm not sure if dual-weapon fighting is useless against undead/demons. Against certain undead (i.e., the chaff), the banishment strategy would be better. However, when going up against the more thug-oriented undead (and demons), the upgraded Spire Horn troop gets two attacks at 13, with a Magic weapon, that does IIRC _45 damage_ (All depends if the x3 multiplier is before or after Str is added. Even if before, it's a 25 dmg strike.)

In the somewhat limited tests I've done so far, the protection on the troops seems fine. The 'normal Raptor infantry' gets spears, while the Legionnaire indeed gets a Short Sword.

Idea about Javelins for everyone is an intriguing idea, though I shied away from something like that to try to give each Clan a distinct 'feel'. If you like, though, I can sort of 'switch' the Raptors and the Spire Horns. Keep the Raptors with the Javelins but give them dual-weapons while the Spire Horns get the shields and the 'staying power' of melee.

Hold&Attack would seem to waste their Javelins, I think. But that's a tactical issue, not a 'design issue'.

Thanks for the idea about the 'custom shield'. I'll _definitely_ look into that.

Thanks again. I'll take it all into consideration and get back to you.

[llamabeast]

This looks good. I have to agree with Endo that the wing colours look a bit psychedelic though. They're not the same style of colours as the dominions art in general. For example, normal Caelians are meant to have white wings, but because of the shading the pixels aren't actually very close to white. Similarly look at a priest's robes - you know they're white, but the colours used are darker, which gives a more realistic look and allows for more contrast.

Unfortunately I haven't had a chance yet to think about more than just the graphics, I'll try to take a look soon if I get a chance.

[VedalkenBear]

I find this odd, since it's not that far off from what Caelum already has. It's probably an issue of shading, which I am pretty bad with already.

If someone wants to do a little project, take the High Seraphine and give her wings aspects of all three Clans. Think of making her wings look like they're 'dyed', but with roots showing (going through all three clans).

People think the Raptors looks okay; any suggestions there?

[Shovah32]

Are they meant to have no temperature preference?

[VedalkenBear]

Yes, they are, Shovah, though that's a minor point. I could see Cold-1 or 2, but then I'd feel obligated to put Cold Resistance on almost all of their units almost by reflex.

It's kind of amusing the idiosyncrasies each of us have.

[Shovah32]

Yay . Also the anti-undead archers(cant think of the name) dont seem to have any projectile visual(they still do damage. just dont see any arrows). The mods looking nice, undead get demolished by W9 sacreds+anti undead archers(39 damage vrs undead with each shot ) and regular units dont do much better due to insane battle magic(the A2F2 100% FA random seraphs are amazing in combat) and tough raptors.

Im having fun with this mod but feel it may be a little bit overpowered.

[VedalkenBear]

Shovah: Yes, I know the 'no projectile' issue with the Icefire Archers. That should be fixed.

I am very interested in concrete (if at all possible, quantitative) discussion regarding the power level. Given my by-now rather notorious 'balance' bent, it would be the height of hypocrisy to turn around and hand out in finished form an overpowered mod.

The sacred unit is probably going to be a summon at some point (at least slightly buffed), with trying to find a happy medium for the elite-but-recruitable dual-weapon unit.

As far as undead are concerned, they are _supposed_ to keel over and die to this nation. As long as you use the proper tools, this nation shouldn't have a problem with undead of almost any type.

Having said that, this should be a magic-focused nation after the initial expansion. This is why almost all of their commanders are mages, and the Seraphs almost invariably fearsome battle mages. If I'm 'up to it', I will probably remove _every_ Undead summon from their spell list, though. Another thing I'd like to point out that they are not using what IMO are the best long-term magic paths (Earth, Astral, Nature, Blood). Discussion on this topic would be appreciated.

I'm also interested in hearing ideas how I can keep their ability to expand early while not overpowering their national troops.