Mod: Warhammer Dwarfs, version 0.92 -- Quickfix

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by kianduatha

With a normal shield, Runeguards become just Clansdwarf Heavy Warriors with higher stats(across the board, prettymuch). So...shouldn't they be mapmove 2?

Heavy Warriors have mapmove 2 because they are trained for offensive missions. Runeguards are well.. guards. As for the gameplay aspect, I'd like to keep the Runeguards "down" so ti speak. I really don't want dwarfs to become a bless nation.

[kianduatha]

Ah, okay. That makes sense.

I'm currently scales-rushing a F4S4D6N4 Skavenblight, so I'll have more data in a bit. This is gonna be really rough, though, since it's No Indies and so I have no chaff(or cheap archers).

[Burnsaber]

Okay, I'm currently working on a new version and it will be likely up in by the next weekend. There will be a lot big changes that I want to announce though.

But I'll start with the new content.



These guys can be summoned through a new Primal Rune "The Rune of Doom" for ench 9. It casts darkness, dooms all opponents and summons six of these of guys to the battlefield.

There will also be a new national spell like the "Ritual of Rebirth" that rebirths the hero as this unit instead of the mummy (this will be especially nasty with dead anvils and runelords which are in the HoF).

Now for the other changes:

-Runeguards back to basic shields, reduce enc by 1, lose sacred. Runehammer gets some intresting secondaryeffect (either curse or minor lightning attack) -- explained below

-Fix typoes in nation description, slayer (layer) description, runebearer, basic units (n't)

-Change nation number for llamaserver compactibilty (will fix the "pretender for the wrong age" bug)

-Built-in dwarven hammers for basic Runesmiths (They lose hand slots, but get forgebonus 30), Runelords will retain their slots but get decreased forgebonus to 10. I will boost their randoms to compensate -- explained below

-Lose the curse attack from PD (it's just annoying and unfair for the opponent. It also looks rather inelegant)

-"Slaying" changed to not be a magic weapon (so that there is something you can do to protect yourself against it, besides, Slayers are monster slayers, not ghost hunters)

- "Rune of Grungni" spell completely revamped. It does not boost troops anymore, but gives caster "Summon Earthpower" + "Phoenix Power" effects. (The old version of the Rune of Grungni is quite rebundant, since you have extremely easy access to Legions of Steel anyways)

Okay, I'm gonna get a lot of slack for this, but Runeguards have to lose their sacred status. It just never made sense for dwarfs to have sacred units besides runesmiths, I just added them because it's sort of excepted out of a nation for there to be sacreds. The problem is that Dwarfs are intended and are balanced on the premise that they'd start off slow, the extremely solid PD and big forgebonuses are very problematic on a nation with good early game. Runeguards are just an so obvious way to counteract this weakeness that it just makes the whole design intention rebundant. It also makes the pretender design boring since you will always just go for Runeguard bless.

Usually I'm just happy if players find intresting ways to play the nation I designed, but I'm calling BS on Runeguards. They just make the nation another bless rusher (a thing that dom3 does *not* need) because they need very special counters from the opponent and you can easily leverage your good PD to easily protect the lands you conquered to prevent the counter-raids. I can't seriosuly nerf them and let them keep their sacred status, because there are just two options here. Either they are useable (and thus be used always) or be too nerfed to function (boring), obvious lose-lose for me. To make long story short they are currently unthematic, no-brainer choice, warp the nations gameplay and pretender design and are annoying for your opponent to deal with.

So I'll make them lose sacred and lower their gold and resource costs based on that. I'll also give them a new niche by adding some nice secondary effect to their Runehammers (either stun, minor lightning damage or curse). If the dwarf expansion or the nation itself is too weak without sacred Runeguards, I'll just do what I should have done in the first place: boost troops.

As for the tweaks to Runesmiths and Runelords, getting big forgebonuses is very abusable and are the current reason for their really poor magic. If I limit the forgebonuses they can achieve, I can boost their magic and make the nation less dependent upon the Anvils.

[Burnsaber]

Actually, with the recent discoveries relating to the "Polymorph" spell, I might be actually able to fulfil my orginal intention and give the Runesmiths -1 to all magic in combat. The current thing with the heavy encumberance armor and missing body slots is just a hackish alternative I was forced to implement. I'm pretty sure I can make the negative battle path thing work out and with it, the Runesmiths and Runelords will likely get completely revamped.

[Jack_Trowell]

What are the discoveries about polymorph exactly ?

A new way to change unit type with onebattlespell without getting afflictions ?

[kennydicke]

Jack_Trowell

Burnsaber quote from another thread:

The spell effect "polymorph" (number 54) allows for different #damage values for different shapes. How you can use this? Just attach it to some buffing spell as #nextspell and you can have spell that grants the caster the form of a dragon for the battle or something just as cool.

"How many Vorlons does it takes to change a lightbulb ?"

Do you mean Vogons?


Burnsaber
Sounds awesome! Looking forward to the changes.

[Sombre]

No he means Vorlons. Babylon 5 species.

[kianduatha]

Yeah, there's no real way to fix Runeguards as is--as long as they're blessed Dwarves will be a bless rush nation.

On a somewhat related note...in my multiplayer game I'm being eaten alive by high upkeep costs. A lot of the reason I've been leaning so hard on Runeguards is that all my other troops are ridiculously expensive. I was all ready to start massing Thunderers and Flamethrowers to counteract that when I realized how much gold they cost, too. I have to be aggressive or else I'll go bankrupt. Maybe lowering crossbow/arbalestier costs some?

Also, tip of the day: don't send Anvils against Bandar Log. Ugh.

[Burnsaber]

New version. Lot of nerfs, mostly based on the backlash I got on IrC about their performance on the Scruntlefunt game. Very glad about getting the Runesmith battleform to work. This nation is now a lot closer to my original intention.

-- Runeguards no longer recruitable

-- Added some fatigue to the Primal Runes
-- Changed nation number for llamaserver compactibilty ("pretender for the wrong age bug")
-- Lost the curse attack from PD
-- Runesmiths got improved picks and lost the heavily encumbering armor. They now get -1 to all paths in combat thought.
-- Runesmiths and Runelords got improved forgebonus (both in 30), but lost their hand slots to prevent forge bonus abuse
-- "Grudgestone" spell revamped, no longer curses, AoE 1 and casts "Panic" as nextspell
-- Lost "The Rune of Valaya/ Grimnir/ Grungni" spells
-- Summoning Anvil of Doom now makes you lose the caster, but you now get 12 Runeguards
-- "Call of Fate" made cheaper = 14 gems (old cost 18 gems)
-- Slayer commanders now auto-berserk themselves and some units near them at the start of the battle and they got reinvigoration 2 to combat the berserk fatigue.
-- Journeymen Runesmiths got a small random
-- Anvil of Dooms are a tool of vengeance, and got a negative forgebonus and researchbonus
-- New summon: "The Anvil of the Dwarrows"
-- New spells: "Debts Unpaid", "Rune of Doom", "The Anvil of the Dwarrows"
-- Updated the secrets file with these changes

[Sombre]

Are anvils of doom now immobile?