Mod: Gaea, Cradle of Forests (3.08 compatible)

[Foodstamp]

I am compiling a list of changes currently.

I am going to lower the Nymph seduction by one step. If I lower it beyond that, I am afraid she will stand no chance of seducing national commanders in the late game. I am also going to raise her summon cost a bit to discourage hording her. I am going to leave enslave on her.

I am also going to add a few new summon spells to the nation , I haven't ironed out any specifics on that yet.

It seems at the moment, that everyone agrees that the nation is challenging, which is what I wanted. But, massing Nymphs is too powerful and people are wanting a larger variety of units to field.

So this mod will see atleast one more version it looks like. When I update mods, I like to accumulate as many changes as possible before updating, that way there is not a new version of the mod every few days. This mod is still version 1.00 and will probably see a 1.01, a 1.02 at most.

[PvK]

Sounds good. The Nymphs are currently very good at seducing, though I have now seen it fail occasionally. They usually win anyway with the enslave mind attack, though, if scripted to Fire Closest (if not scripted and Tangle Vines is available though, they can get themselves killed).

Nymph spam is definitely currently the way to go, at least at first, even if they didn't have N3. They seem like by far the best deal at 15N, and are the clear choice for using gems to expand.

The first two summons (hurler and ent) seem overpriced, particularly since they are immobile. I don't yet see how it can be true that ents will become the backbone of the army.

I am thinking it would be good to give them cheap/easier versions of the nature spells which are thematic for Gaea but not so efficient for other nations, like animal summons, Sprits of the Wood, Strength of Gaia(!), Wild Growth, Faerie Trod, Faerie Court, Enchanted Forest, Beckoning, etc.

[BandarLover]

Everything PvK said.

I still love this mod very much, looking forward to an update.

And it would be cool if hurler and ent could move, just make them....move.....really.............slow.

[UninspiredName]

Really neat mod, but the lack of commanders, especially mobile ones, is sort of annoying. The freespawns don't really accomplish much just sitting in your provinces. Maybe if Dryads could command?

[Sombre]

Dryads can seduce commanders. That's the idea.

[PvK]

Ya, I have more commanders as Gaea than as anyone else (except as Ashen Ermor).

[UninspiredName]

Hm, didn't think of that... Sorry about that.

[Foodstamp]

Version 1.01 of this mod is now available. Just download this attachment for the new version.

Here is a list of the changes!

Bug fixes------------

None reported


Unit Changes---------

Nymph

- No longer has enslave mind.

- No longer has fist attack.

- New ability "Enslavement" added.

- Attack increased by 2.

- Summoning cost raised to 20 nature gems.

NOTE: After further testing, I decided to leave the Nymphs with #seduce 15. With this seduction value, they succeed most the time against independent commanders and they have a chance of seducing the national commanders, which is how I intended this ability to be used to compensate for the weakness in mobility of the nation.

Ancient

- Gem cost lowered to 60 nature gems.

- Ancients now have nature 6 instead of 5.

Sylvan Beauty

- Sylvan Beauty no longer has enslave mind.

- Sylvan Beauty no longer has fist attack.

- Sylvan Beauty now has "Enslavement".

- Casting cost on "Consorts of Leaves" lowered.


New Spells-------------------



Fade into the Veil

This spell gives the caster body ethereal. This spell was added to give the Nymphs more survivability now that their enslavement is a touch attack. It is also useful for building thugs out of the more powerful units such as Force of Nature and The Ancient.

March of Ants

Gaea is limited on combat magic. This spell should help alleviate the issue a little bit. It is a combat summon that creates a small group of magically enlarged ants.

Plague of Dragonflies

Another combat summon spell. This spell summons a massive swarm of dragonflies that can impede enemy units. Unlike swarm, this spell costs no gems to cast.

NOTE: Dragonflies have a strength of 0. This can cause instances where combat sequences cannot play out, resulting in battle reaching 75 turns. I believe the devs are changing Dragonflies to str 1 next patch to fix this.

Call of the Pack

This spell works exactly like Call of the Wild except that it has less effects per casting, can be casted by nature 3 mages, and costs less gems.

Army of Gaea

This is a more powerful version of the Animal Horde spell.

Wrath of Nature

This spell sends an Ancient Presence to assassinate an enemy commander.

Nature's Migration

This is a powerful teleportation spell. It is castable by the Ancient, allowing him and his army to teleport to any land province on the map. This spell should allow the Ancient to join the fights in the late game.

[Shovah32]

Sounds very nice, will try out soon.

edit: My ants and dragonflies dont do anything and die very quickly. They are mindless and magic and seem to be dissolving accordingly.

[Foodstamp]

Yeah, they dissolve without magical leadership. Even so, they can lock up part of an army for several turns if you have one of the nymphs scripted to cast it.

If you have any passive defense in a province at all, you can use the spell defensively without them dissolving because of the Ent commander.

Try casting it with the Ancients, it should yield more permanent dragonflies and ants for the duration of the battle.

Either way, good catch. I am going to leave it as is because the both creatures are actually existing vanilla creatures and the issue only comes up when trying to use the spells aggressively with the Nymph in the early game. Later on you are probably expanding with atleast a Firbolg or two leading your forces, so the spell can be used more aggressively.