MA: Jomon: The Courts of the Ryu - Looking for insight - Page 6

shatner · #1 February 10th, 2012, 03:29 PM

The Miko is excellent against undead/demons but against everything else they are merely a high-accuracy, low, low defense/protection archer. Being sacred combined with cap-only is a real disadvantage for archers since they need to be massed to be truly effective. Also, most blesses don't really help archers (just air, death, and water). As such, we have two routes to take balancing this: make the Miko really cheap (easy but boring) or make them interesting...

To achieve the latter I'm thinking we can add a shield with high parry, zero protection, and zero encumbrance (we can call it something like "spirit ward"). This will be very effective at stopping incoming arrows (and a few projectile-based spells) but will do nothing to prevent damage in melee (since even with a shield block, it's adding zero protection). That way we have a flimsy, high accuracy archer who is almost impossible to take out with arrows.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm stealing this idea from a high elf warhammer mod I checked out once.

legowarrior · #2 February 10th, 2012, 04:57 PM

I can see it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto#...otective_items

Let's throw it in for now, and see if we can get some feed back on it when we put it out for others to play.

legowarrior · #3 February 10th, 2012, 06:36 PM

We should think about forts. I would argue for something very impressive for the starting area (Jeweled City or Tel City or the Great City!) but the default to be something like a Castle. Maybe a Fortified city in Farm land. I really hadn't thought of it, but we are looking at a civilization that is more centralized in the Middle Era than in the Late Era.

shatner · #4 February 10th, 2012, 11:54 PM

The Jomon of this era are supposed to be those refugees who fled the Yomi and Bakemono and swore fealty to the Ryujin. If this exodus was recent then MA Jomon's should be more of a military civilization. However, the spans of time between ages are considered pretty... nebulous. If lots of time has passed since the Jomon resettlement then they could have built up big, fancy, high-admin forts. Really, I'm open to anything. Just pick a range of forts and run with it.

LA Jomon's forts are:

#startfort 3 -- Fortified City
#defaultfort 40 -- Fortress
#mountainfort 37 -- Hill Fortress
#forestfort 34 -- Forest Fortress
#swampfort 11 -- Swamp Fort
#uwfort 12 -- Kelp Fortress
#deepfort 13 -- Kelp Citadel

legowarrior · #5 February 11th, 2012, 12:31 AM

Thought the default was Fortified city already.
When the dom3server is up, I'll look through all that.

elmokki · #6 February 12th, 2012, 07:03 AM

Wokou sounded cool and I was bored so I drew a quick sprite (using err... Ninja, Ronin, Ashigaru and Seal Hunter)

I didn't draw an attack sprite since I don't know if that's anything like what you want or if you just want to draw them yourself

Feel free to do anything you like to that, ie cut for other sprites or draw on top on if you wish.

I was tempted to put the harpoon to his other hand, but I doubt that'd look good.

legowarrior · #7 February 13th, 2012, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elmokki

Wokou sounded cool and I was bored so I drew a quick sprite (using err... Ninja, Ronin, Ashigaru and Seal Hunter)

I didn't draw an attack sprite since I don't know if that's anything like what you want or if you just want to draw them yourself

Feel free to do anything you like to that, ie cut for other sprites or draw on top on if you wish.

I was tempted to put the harpoon to his other hand, but I doubt that'd look good.

I like it. I'm going to use the it, but if want to created the Wokou Captain, and attack images, I would definitely use them. Otherwise, I have no trouble making attack sprites and captain sprites based on what you've created.

legowarrior · #8 February 12th, 2012, 10:01 AM

That looks really good. I used a slinger base myself, and the long sword facing down, but the problem is that when we use it in batter, the guy is partial invisible.

legowarrior · #9 February 13th, 2012, 04:33 PM

I think an update is in order since some things have changed in our little mod. No word on when it will be released but we are looking for volunteers to test the mod out when it is ready.

Theme: The Jomon of the Middle era have 3 interwoven themes that we are upholding. One, is because it is based on the Heian Period of Japan, we are looking at a stronger centralized authority than in later periods. This means more units that are Capital only. For now this includes the Seigu, princess trained in the priesthood, and the Miko, shrine maidens trained in the use of bows.
Alone with this theme is the war with the Oni and other dark spirits. The exemplify this both the Miko and Seigu have Amulets that protect them give them resistance to Fire and Cold, elements used freely by the Oni, as well as sacred weapons that deal extra damage to undead and demons. Besides these capital only sacreds, there is the Onni-Bushi, women trained to protect there homes from demons and oni. Although they can be hired anywhere with a temple and a castle, they suffer from home sickness, preventing them from being used to take the battle to other territories.

Finally, there is our original theme, that of the Ryujin. In later eras, it would take an underwater fort in order to recruit the Ryujin, but in this era, the Jomon have turned to the Ryujin for protection, in response the Ryujin have created a powerful enclave inside capital where amphibious shark warriors and Ryujin can be recruited. This allows the Jomon early access to the sea if they desire.

Interesting units:

Onni-Bushi: These Warriors defend the home when there husbands, fathers and brothers go to war. Skilled in the Naginata, they are sacred and can easily dispatch minor demons and undead. Unfortunately they do not recover well when dispatched away from there homes.

Miko: Skilled archers wielding sacred bows, and serve to hunt down and destroy demons and undead.

Seigu: Princess trained in the arts of the Five Paths, skilled priestesses and mages.

Attendants: Bushi (Maybe a better name?) who are trained warriors, and fight for Samurai. They use No-Dachi and Naginatas, but do not have the protection that later Samurai would have.

Envoys: Dedicated priests that act as a go between for the Ryujin and the Jomon people as a whole. With some skill in water magic, they have the ability to take a few normal people down into the sea. During peace times, this would be envoys of the emperor or courtiers, but with the rise of a new god, the Envoys play a stronger role in helping conquer the underwater world.

To balance the rise of magical might that the Jomon now posses, they have yet to make certain advances that the later Jomon would make. First, they lack Heavy Samurai Armor, and Kabutos are only used by a few skilled samurai, so the protection of the Jomon is less. Second, Shugenja are a minor force in this day and age, and lack masters to help with magic. This means they are more reliant on weaker spell casters.
Finally, many of the more powerful mages are only recruitable in the capital.

legowarrior · #10 February 14th, 2012, 11:03 PM

If anyone wants to help, one of the things I'm looking for is the Onni-Bushi,
Naginata wielding, Samurai Armored, Jingasa helmented Women. We are looking for something in a red pants/skirt/robes that are flowing a bit, but really, I just can't seem to crack this concept right. If anyone has any ideas or something, I would love some help with it.