Mod: Warhammer Dwarfs, version 0.92 -- Quickfix

[Burnsaber]

A new version, 0.7, is up! The changes mostly consist of balance changes and fixes based on the feedback on this thread. I'd like to give my sincerest thanks for all the constructive feedback, it has really helped me to move this project along.

One new thing thought is that I manged to scrap up a dwarf nametype with about 230+ names. I cheated a bit thought and used a random dwarf name generator, so some of the names aren't that.. awesome, but if people are bothered by them, I could try to replace the more bothersome ones.

[Stavis_L]

I was interested in your dwarfnames, and noticed a few things along the way...

Line 42, 62 --> "RUne" should be "Rune" (although no-one will ever see it in-game)

Line 334 --> "Dwarf Lighting" should be "Dwarf Lightning". I think. LOL.

Why all the "Dwarf Weaponname/Armorname" bits? Are they *that* different? Weapon slots are limited too, you know :-) Couldn't you just bump the stats on the dwarfs?

Also, since you're not using "Dwarves", should you be using "Dwarven" or "Dwarfish" or just "Dwarf"? (in your weapon/armor names)

Dwarven Axe
Dwarfish Axe
Dwarf Axe
Dwarvish Axe

...personally, I like the 'v', but since you seem to be moving away from it.

Line 626, 794, 1439, 1579, 1819, 1946, 2071 --> Dwarven vs. Dwarfish in description
Line 1439 (again) --> "Dwarves" should be "Dwarfs"

Along that vein, your mod directory is still "Dwarves". Need to be consistent :-)

Also - your forts differ from the details posted in the first post Hill Fort --> Hill Castle:

Capitol 42 --Mountain City
Swamp 37 --Hill Fortress
Farm 38 --Hill Castle
Forest 37 --Hill Fortress
Mountain 9 --Mountain Citadel
Default 38 --Hill Castle

...and after all that, I like your name list, although the potential for humor exists with names ending in 'i'. (I met this dwarf engineer who was afflicted with a broken leg. His name is 'Hurri'. Apparently his brother accidentally hit him with a hammer. His brother's 'Thorri'. ) I'd leave them in, though. The dwarfs won't be laughing.

[kianduatha]

Initial thoughts: Awesome. I like the gold/resource changes--I don't feel obligated to just get crossbowmen anymore, and my front line is more varied too.

Some other things I saw: I like that Clan Kings get some research, but they're not drain immune so it ends up only being 1 research.

Did Distill Flame/Thunder get a higher price because of the lower research level? Because with the efficiency of Dwarven construction, I'm not sure I can justify getting at least the Flamers--that's 3 Lightless Lanterns a bit later in the game, or a few fire brands.

[Trumanator]

I'm surprised Sombre hasn't popped in to correct your "stragedy". (Its strategy.)

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by Trumanator

I'm surprised Sombre hasn't popped in to correct your "stragedy". (Its strategy.)

He has, in other threads

Burnsaber's (mis)coinages are growing on me, though:

Stragedy - A strategy destined for tragedy. Suits dwarf history.
Disencouraged - Discouraged via the encouragement of other options.

...they always seem to make sense in a weird way

(Hope I'm not being too harsh Burnsaber; heaven knows what my posts would look like if I was trying to write in Finnish!)

[Trumanator]

Originally Posted by Stavis_L

He has, in other threads

Why else would I find it curious?

[Swan]

Originally Posted by Stavis_L
...and after all that, I like your name list, although the potential for humor exists with names ending in 'i'. (I met this dwarf engineer who was afflicted with a broken leg. His name is 'Hurri'. Apparently his brother accidentally hit him with a hammer. His brother's 'Thorri'. ) I'd leave them in, though. The dwarfs won't be laughing.

i didn't get it

[Graeme Dice]

I'm wondering if, now that there are seven playable Warhammer nations, that somebody might want to go and make a total conversion mod. There are a lot of spells in the base game that probably aren't appropriate to the feel of the Warhammer world, and it might be neat to strip the game down and rebuild it a bit.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by kianduatha

Well, I am comparing them. Fire Drakes with Dragon Master are way cheaper, have longer range, more ammo, don't cost upkeep, and are significantly tougher. They're capable of forming a frontline, while Flamethrowers are...not. Well, they can in a pinch, but you have better options once you get into melee.

These guys are summons, you can't just compare the units onene, you have to take into account how easy they are to summon. First of all, Dragon Master + Fire Drake reguires more research (not much, I admit), mage-time from N3F2 mage (unless you need boosters, which makes it reguire even more research). Where as you can just research alt 3 and just start summoning them, no need for extra research or boosters or mage-time from a 5-pick mage. Fire Drakes also have pretty poor accuracy, often causing pretty heavy friendly fire casualties (a problem flamethrowers don't have, you can use them with non-fr troops with no problem). As for frontline abilities, drakes can tank, but that's the extend of their ability. In prolononged melee, they will just fatigue out and die, because they have serious issues dealing damage in melee. (being size 4 and having to solo everything doesn't help). Flamethrowers have higher mr, prot and are smaller size, making them much more difficult to counter with spells (even basic stuff like Sleep Cloud is painful for drakes).

But in conclusion, yeah, you can't form a frontline with them, but that's not really their point (remember that dwarfs are all about working in community & teamwork). They are slightly behind your frontline, throwing flames until they run out and then wading into melee to support your melee frontline with their 14 ap fire damage with 14 attack value + dam 3 bonus attack staffs. I'd say that they're pretty comparable, but flamethrowers are easier to mass. You have a point about there being other uses for your fire gems, so I might go down to 5 gems if more people feel that they're not worth going for.

Originally Posted by kianduatha

Storm Demons are an entire league above Thunderers, between the flying(in storms, too!), storm power, no upkeep, and a nicer ranged attack(theirs scales with strength). Oh, and they're ethereal and take blood slaves, which are renewable.

[/quote]

Once again, compare the summon spells. Storm Demons are pretty god damned hard to mass (whereas Thunderers are not), and require *much* more mage time. Thunderers also have slightly higher prec on their weapons and ignore shields (although, to be fair, I think that Storm Demons might too, but I'd have to test to be 100% sure). Besides, one more thing going for Thunderers is your lack of other uses for air gems (air level 1-2 items pretty much suck) and air gems are pretty easy to get, even with just a engineer manually site searching, since over 50% of air sites just reguire Air 1 to find. [8 common sites and 12 uncommon ones, to be exact]. And god help if you luck out into a A2 engineer. He can find over 90% of air sites, just by manual searchs.

But in conlusion, I'd consider Thunderers overall performance. Just try them out. You can easily get, say 9-12 of them by turn 18 if you sent out Engineer to site search early. They were just absolutely wicked in my test. Of course, the AI didn't try to counter them, but Thunderers don't really have that many counters. Get lighting resistance or die.

Originally Posted by Graeme Dice

I'm wondering if, now that there are seven playable Warhammer nations, that somebody might want to go and make a total conversion mod. There are a lot of spells in the base game that probably aren't appropriate to the feel of the Warhammer world, and it might be neat to strip the game down and rebuild it a bit.

Wrong thread, try the "Warhammer Nations" thread. That thread is for discussion WH stuff & nations in general, this thread is about the dwarf mod. (not that I'm against the project, but I'd like to keep this thread in the point)

[kianduatha]

Yeah, Thunderers are still wicked; all I would want to do is change Thunderers to have the same ranged weapon as Storm Demons(so that strength buffs affect it, and to save a weapon slot), and maybe 5 ammo for the Flamethrowers.

I disagree about the air gems once you hit Const-4, though. Boots of Flight are prettymuch the most important item you can forge, right after Slave Matrices. Giving your Runelords mapmove 3 and flying just can't be beat. Dancing Tridents about double the life expectancy of a Slayer in melee, what with the repel and some ridiculously high attack stat.

It would really be nice to get better randoms on at least the Runelords. It feels kinda weird that Runesmiths have more reliable Astral, and you just don't have the stability to be able to count on basically ever getting a water random before year 3 or something. You also might go for owl quills if you had any chance of getting an Air1 Runelord before they were obsolete.