Mod: Dominions 3000 v0.81 - lots of new indies, new map (using the brand new map commands)

[Aezeal]

ah well more fodder for R'lyeh is a thing I'd thought of already.. and as soon as I find more indies I'll give them too r'lyeh

Do you really think Ulm is strongest?
I'd have tought it would be the weakest of the bunch.

PS Jomon misses a regular infantry (the militia you could say) it will come though.. it'll be a strong militia though, with plasma bow and light sabre. Jomon usually has decent PD

[hunt11]

From what i have tried Ulm has some units that really work well together, blood knights and any type of infantry with good firepower and with this simple combo they can be very powerful indeed with the knights holding down the enemy as your firepower eats away at the enemy

[Aezeal]

yeah it's hard to balance the increased firepower which sort of needs to be in space age with close combat troops which is why I gave Ulm strong infantry with flying.

Maybe I need to weaken those a bit or make them much more expensive in either gold or resources

I thought that the new artillery for r'lyeh with the blue aliens or space trolls in front fo them would be very strong too.

Jomon is a bit weaker but has a lot of resistances (also on troops and the powerfull summon) so should be stronger end game. And JOmon has the sacred oni which I think are very blessable much better to bless than the other sacreds

Well please keep playing and let me know.. the more feedback I get the more I can improve.

[Panpiper]

I only played for an hour or so on the new map, enough to conquer the planet I found myself on, my city in the middle, surrounded by provinces (nice start for Ulm). I discovered upon processing turn one that the Ulmish scout is not stealthy. Er... Taking the surrounding provinces was trivially easy for Ulm. For troops I purchased nothing but Personal Artillery Marines and deployed them to the far rear of the map. I put my starting troops to the far rear as well. Not a single troll ever reached my firing line. They got close the first couple of battles, but as far as Ulm is concerned, the indies are not over powered.

Then having taken all the planet provinces, I went to move my army onto the large planet surface at the bottom of the map only to discover that only my Vampire Knight prophet could make the leap (he having flying). Hrmm... says I. Right, build troop transports, I think in a fit of lucidity. This still does not permit jumping to the bottom planet surface. It does however seem to permit going into space, so off to take the moon space, then the planet inside, then back to moon space, then the second of the three 'space' spaces around my main planet and... And here is a sticky one, I am not allowed to fly into the third space that encompasses my planet even though the space I am in is adjacent to it. Hrmm... So back I go to that first space sector and from there I can jump onto the bottom planet surface.

And there endeth my play for the day.

The Ulmish Navy Capital Ship had what seemed to me an odd effect in the Death Match. It appeared to do little damage (no firing sprite?) and yet both opponents routed off the field after doing damage to the ship. Go figure. No reward mind you as the ship has no hands. Oops.

The Chief Engineer has a strategic movement of only one, while all the other magic using commander have two. This is most inconvenient for site searching, forcing extra micromanagement upon us. I'd prefer that they all have the same strategic movement.

All in all I think you've got something here. The game appears to adapt itself nicely to the role of a space game. Thank you for the divergence.

[Aezeal]

about the scout: thanks.. he wasn't stealthy 5 but stealty 5 which seems to make all the difference. --> fixed

I kinda feared that the personal artillery might be a bit overpowered, recruitable AoE long ranged attacks can do that.

I'll increase their resource cost (and the blood knight) a bit I think, fits with my idea (and description of ulm in Jomon troops) that they use a heck of a lot of resources to create powerfull weapons.

The map things you encounter are mostly intentional: the land on the bottom of the map is a seperate planet from the one in the middle above it so only linking via space. (I wanted a few start sites on the planets with 3 or more provinces... the planet you started on has more but most are waste or swamp to compensate and the bottom planet is split in 2 by a mountain range (see the name of the middle 2 provinces))

Can you give me the space numbers of the province which should be connected but aren't?

The Ulmish capitol ship indeed doesn't have a firing sprite but it should do damage it has twin blasters so up close and ranged it should have a weapon with 2 attacks. I'm still not sure what happens if you give a ranged weapon 2 attacks but imho he should just have 2 shots.

The chief engineer is just like a lot of higher level mages.. map move 1 intended and will stay like that, sorry

[Panpiper]

Originally Posted by Aezeal

I'll increase their resource cost (and the blood knight)...

Actually I ommitted to report that I did an aborted start of the game, playing only three turns before restarting. In that game, I recruited for troops only Blood Knights, with the starting troops providing rear fire support. I built up long enough to recruit and prophetize a Vampire Knight then hit my first province. The trolls cut through my Blood Knights like they were paper dolls, not a one survived. They did some damage and the starting troops were able to rout the trolls before they got slaughtered. Suffice to say that I do not believe that the Blood Knights need to be nerfed at all. Rather the contrary, that or the trolls need toning down, which would then make them even easier fodder for the ranged troops however.

Originally Posted by Aezeal

Can you give me the space numbers of the province which should be connected but aren't?

31 & 17

[Aezeal]

Hmm I'd think that the bloodknights and the trolls are somewhat equal.. but I guess the HP of the trolls makes them survive long enough.. When they attack they will probably always kill when they hit, AP and high strength.

I wonder if I've gone a bit overboard with AP and AN attacks..
but with the high protection I was using on Ulm I thought I had to balance that (not to mention that nearly all ulms ranged attacks are also AP)

The provinces are now linked.. I'll attach it to the first post the next time I update it again

[hunt11]

the real value of blood knights is that they hold down the enemy giving you a chance to destroy them with your heavy guns

[HoneyBadger]

You might possibly consider adding something like the big bug-headed creature from 'This Island Earth' if you want a good slave race. It's a classic sci-fi movie, (one of the first major sci-fi movies made in color) and I've always thought that the mutated crab-shambler guys from MA R'lyeh were somewhat based on the creature/mutant at the end of it. The 'This Island Earth' critter (just called a mutant) is also pretty recogniseable.

[Panpiper]

Provinces 18 and 22 on 'spacemap' do not connect either even though 18 is the planet surface and 22 is the immediate space above it. In order to get to space from 18 I have to jump to the moon first and then to space.