Mod: Jomon: The Courts of the Ryu

[shatner]

All three candidate mods can be downloaded from here. The folder contains its own images (most of them are different, part of the next planned version) as well as all three candidate mods (a, b, and c). After some internal testing, a few things have been tweaked from what was originally announced in this thread, most notably changes to the Saigu. I urge you folks to try these out and offer up your feedback; these three mods represent the future of MA Jomon and those three are wildly different so your voice can count for a lot in shaping the mod. Also, let me know if you encounter anything incorrect about the mods (typos, stuff on the change log that isn't in the mod, bugs, sprites with black backgrounds, etc.). Thanks in advance folks, and have fun trying out the mild, hot, and crazy new flavors of MA Jomon.


Revised Change Log:
MA Jomon 1.2a: Small Changes
1) Samurai Cavalry: heavy lance changed to light lance
2) Onna-Bushi: base defense lowered from 16 to 14 (making it an effective 13 with naginata defense penalty)
3) Wokou Captain: new magic paths are W1 + .25xA. -2 research penalty. Gold cost increased from 40 to 50.
4) Onmyo-ji: Fortune Teller reduced to LA Jomon defaults (6 -> 4)
5) Saigu: Made Old, Unrest reduction power lowered from 4/turn to 2/turn, Cost lowered to 300gp
6) Ryujin: Loses auto-cast Divine Blessing, gains auto-cast Power of the Spheres

MA Jomon 1.2b: Larger Changes
1) Everything from version 1.2a
2) Ashigaru Bowman: removed from the list of recruitables
3) Miko: removed from the list of recruitables
4) Adding the Samurai of the Ryu. It's a sacred, amphibious yari samurai with stats similar to the Aka-Oni Samurai of LA Jomon. Recruitable only from capital and UW forts.
5) Envoy of Ryu: magic paths increased to W2H2 + 1xFAEN + .1xFAWEN. Recruitable only from capital and UW forts. Gold cost increased from 150 to 180.
6) Saigu: Made recruit-anywhere. Unrest reduction power lowered from 4/turn to 1/turn. Very Old. Reduced to an H1. Cost lowered to 300gp

MA Jomon 1.2c: WTF?!
1) Samurai Cavalry: heavy lance changed to light lance
2) Ashigaru Bowman: removed from the list of recruitables
3) Onna-Bushi: base defense lowered from 16 to 14 (making it an effective 13 with naginata defense penalty)
4) Wokou Captain: removed from recruitment
5) Miko: removed from the list of recruitables
6) Onmyo-ji: Fortune Teller reduced to LA Jomon defaults (6 -> 4)
7) Saigu: Made recruit-anywhere. Gold cost reduced from 350 -> 250. Unrest reduction power lowered from 4/turn to 1/turn. Has homesickness-50%. Not old. Reduced to an H1.
8) Ryujin: Humanoid form auto-casts Divine Bless, Dragon form auto-casts Power of the Spheres (note you can't get both spells by toggling between forms mid-battle; only cast at very start of combat)
9) Adding the Samurai of the Ryu. It's a sacred, amphibious yari samurai with stats similar to the Aka-Oni Samurai of LA Jomon. It has homesickness 100% (dies after it leaves it's home province) but when it dies it assumes a permanent second form, identical to first form but not sacred (gold cost will be reduced for second form to keep upkeep the same). Will have better stats/abilities than 1.2b version. Recruitable only from capital and UW forts.
10) Envoy of Ryu: magic paths increased to W2H2 + 1xFAEN + .1xFAWEN. Recruitable only from capital and UW forts. Gains sailing. Leadership increased from 10 to 40. Gold cost increased from 150 to 195.
11) Summon Kohona Tengus spell removed from MA Jomon spell list.
12) Contact Kohona Tengus spell created (Conj-3, A1E1, 2 air gems, gets you 3 Kohona Tengus).
13) Contact Kohona Tengu Flock spell created (Conjuration-7, A3E1, 20 air gems, gets you 40 Kohona Tengu)

[shard]

Hi!

I am planning to start a CBM 1.92 game as LA Jomon, mainly since I only just noticed the huge number of changes they seem to have gotten since I last played.

I was wondering if you guys had any general tips. I also have a couple of questions:

1) Does MA/LA Jomon have fixed coastal starts? Can I still be competitive if I dont start next to water? (No Ryujin)

2) Scales production seems like a no-brainer, but I am not so sure about luck/turmoil or order/misfortune. Are the potential heroes and extra gems worth it; in lieu of trying to spam castles for the non-cap mages and their upkeep?

I do wonder though if all those mikos would be comfortable travelling with all those summoned youkai around though... Anyway, I have a soft spot for Jomon (hint: my location) so thanks and keep up the good work with the modding! お疲れ様でした！


Regards,
Shard

[shatner]

Originally Posted by shard

Hi!

I am planning to start a CBM 1.92 game as LA Jomon, mainly since I only just noticed the huge number of changes they seem to have gotten since I last played.

I was wondering if you guys had any general tips. I also have a couple of questions:

1) Does MA/LA Jomon have fixed coastal starts? Can I still be competitive if I dont start next to water? (No Ryujin)

2) Scales production seems like a no-brainer, but I am not so sure about luck/turmoil or order/misfortune. Are the potential heroes and extra gems worth it; in lieu of trying to spam castles for the non-cap mages and their upkeep?

I do wonder though if all those mikos would be comfortable travelling with all those summoned youkai around though... Anyway, I have a soft spot for Jomon (hint: my location) so thanks and keep up the good work with the modding! お疲れ様でした！


Regards,
Shard

1) LA Jomon does have a coastal start preference. We tried to give one to MA Jomon but that is, unfortunately, not something you can mod into a nation so they are placed like any other land nation. However, MA Jomon can recruit their amphibious UW units from their capital (Ryujin, Shark Warriors, etc.) if needed, which helps out if they end up land-locked.

2) The heroes of MA Jomon are worth pursuing with Luck. LA Jomon, less so. Both nations are ravenous for gems so going magic + luck for the gem events is a defensible choice. As MA or LA Jomon, going Order2/3 + Production2/3 + Misfortune2 or something along those lines can work out well since both Order and Onmyo-ji (with their fortune-teller ability) will help mitigate bad events.

3) A better question is if those spirits feel safe traveling with all those Mikos/Onna Bushi and their undead/demon slaying weaponry around.

Glad you like the nation, Shard. Try the mod and let us know what you think sometime; we'd appreciate the feedback.

[shatner]

More LA Jomon tips:

When you expand, you can cut down on losses due to enemy archers by putting arrow decoys up front. One or two Samurai Archers set Fire Closest or Fire Archers will work best but just having a thin screen of Ashigaru works too.

Aka-Oni Samurai should make up the vast, vast majority of your troops. Those guys are awesome and no other infantry you can hire can compete with them in melee.

Samurai Cavalry are surprisingly effective. In MA Jomon I use ten of them as expansion parties and they slaughter almost everything I throw them at. LA Jomon gives them better armor so they should serve as well or better.

You can never have too many Onmyo-ji. Recruit Master Shugenja until you get enough E2s and N2s for site searching (and maybe a few A1E1s for Tengu summoning if that's something you want to do), but after that it should be nothing but Onmyo-ji. Those guys are excellent mages who will negate bad luck events and communion you to victory in combat. When you need to assemble a large force of them at some distant front line, pass around one or more starshine skullcaps to allow them to teleport to a province with a lab. This will allow you to move the ones with the paths you want to the front quicker than their map move-1 might otherwise allow.

Site search manually early on. Your Shugenja and Onmyo-ji are really good at that and you need the gems.

[legowarrior]

I hope you get some time to try out all the mods.

[legowarrior]

The first game is done, and we are taking in all we learned. We are hoping for some feedback from everyone.

[legowarrior]

We've done it everyone one! 1.3 IS OUT! Please download the newest version for your next game.


The changes have been mentioned several times, but I'll go over the list one final time.


1) Samurai Cavalry are now 40 gold, and have a Yari and Longbow
2) Onna-bushi have a defense of 14, but no longer have the patrol bonus
3) Saigu can be recruited everywhere, and start out with E1/N1 + 100% of 2 FAWEN, reduce unrest of 1, and are old (instead of really old), only have H1.
4) Wokou Captain: new magic paths are W1 + .25xA. -2 research penalty. Gold cost increased from 40 to 50.
5) Onmyo-ji: Fortune Teller reduced to LA Jomon defaults (6 -> 4)
6) Ryujin: Loses auto-cast Divine Blessing, gains auto-cast Power of the Spheres
7) Ashigaru Bowman: removed from the list of recruitables
8) Miko: Are staying
9) Adding the Samurai of the Ryu. It's a sacred, amphibious yari samurai with stats similar to the Aka-Oni Samurai of LA Jomon that deal triple damage to large creatures. Recruitable only from capital and very expensive (60 gold)
10) Envoy of Ryu: magic paths increased to W2H2 + 1xFAEN + .1xFAWEN. Recruitable only from capital and UW forts. Gold cost increased from 150 to 180.

Try it out!

Jomon MA, 1.3




Finally, Shatner and I are pretty happy with what we have done. I believe we have decide to stop tinkering it for now. What that means is that I'm going to keep quiet about the nation for now, but it also means we are going to listen to what other people think. If people come up with some great ideas or suggestions, we'll take note. If it is something either one of us had been pondering before, or if other people jump on the bandwagon, there might be changes. The changes we make will probably be side grades, since after tons of testing, it seems pretty balanced at this time.

No more easy Fog Warrior Cavalry, no more easy raiding with Ryujin Tengu (you can still do it, but the Ryujin no longer casts Divine Blessing), and now getting Wokou to do coastal raiding for you will cost a chance of recruiting a power Saigu or something else.

[shatner]

FYI: A bug was discovered where several of the MA Jomon gods were being made available for other nations. That bug has been corrected and the patched mod uploaded and available (same link).