Conceptual Balance Series (Mod)

[Boron]

Zen said:
Yes, I know there is alot in the game that is there that you cannot mod because they have not been 'unlocked' or made to mod. Belphegor produces Bloodslave and Turn by Turn summons Militia.

the #gemprod works for every other type of gem except for Blood Slaves, unless there is a different syntax for Blood Slaves than the standard

Hm i tested it with #gemprod 6 1 which should produce after my understanding 1 nature gem / turn but it didn't work either .
Is my above mentioned syntax correct or did i do a typo there ?

A small suggestion : What do you think of making Ryleh freespawns upkeepfree and making maenads Neednoteat ?

And a question cause i haven't much modding experience yet : Is it possible to make e.g. Daugthers/Mothers of Avalon not capitol only ?

[Pocus]

Zen,

Do you plan to make changes to the units cost? We knows that less resources for lighter units (IW belief) is not enough to have them on par - interest wise - with the heavier ones (except in some special situations, there is always exceptions). A slight reduction in gold cost would do some goods, while we wait for new rules for light units (as we dont know if these rules will appears a day).

[Zen]

Boron said:
Hm i tested it with #gemprod 6 1 which should produce after my understanding 1 nature gem / turn but it didn't work either .
Is my above mentioned syntax correct or did i do a typo there ?

I don't see a typo. You can look on the Monolith in my mod to see that it produces Nature gems just fine. Though you could be filling up the 'special abilities' slots on a unit (there is a limit). Try testing it like this:

#selectmonster nbr
#clearspec
#gemprod 6 1
#end

If it doesn't work then, I don't know what's up.

A small suggestion : What do you think of making Ryleh freespawns upkeepfree and making maenads Neednoteat ?

I have ideas about Nation balance, but that is one I'm going to attempt to stay away from until I get the Pretenders where I like as well as Items more diversified (IMO). When doing nations my first target would be my favorite, which is TC

And a question cause i haven't much modding experience yet : Is it possible to make e.g. Daugthers/Mothers of Avalon not capitol only ?

No you cannot unless you totally remake and replace the Man Nation (no applicable Themes) Then make the nation list to include whichever one you'd like to be non-capital and make a new unit with the same sprite/stats as what your tryin to uncapital and put it in the nation selection. Then at the Capital you'd have 2 Daughter/Mother because the Magical Site is what allows them.

Final Answer Alex: More work than it's worth and still wouldn't seem right.

[Zen]

Pocus said:
Zen,

Do you plan to make changes to the units cost? We knows that less resources for lighter units (IW belief) is not enough to have them on par - interest wise - with the heavier ones (except in some special situations, there is always exceptions). A slight reduction in gold cost would do some goods, while we wait for new rules for light units (as we dont know if these rules will appears a day).

I have thought alot about this, I haven't found a happy place yet for this. I've considered trying a few things with morale and lowering their gold cost in order to make them more attractive as a screening force. I've also considered making them have more AP in order to have them engage the enemy significantly quicker than a main force in order to simulate skirmishing (sort of).

I'd need some devoted mod testers when I release this type of thing because it affects how the entire game is played and not just the selection of choices that you have (with the Pretender Mod and others). And it's a hard thing for me to gauge singly. I would love for there to be a way to make LI attractie and worth their cost for what they do, but it's a tough cookie for anyone (From IW to me) to figure out

[Edi]

Boron said:
Where can i download your Weapons&Armor spreadsheets ?
And is there a document with all modding commands shown ?
Thnx for the info

You can find the W&A spreadsheet in the Modding projects sticky thread, it's there as an attachment in my post.

Afaik, there is no document that lists all of the modding commands. Most can be found in the modding.pdf, but some were introduced in a later patch and the documentation is not ready. IW made some noises about the documentation being forthcoming as soon as they can get it done, but I've no idea when that is.

Edi

[Edi]

Zen said:
I didn't ignore it, but I haven't been able to find a happy medium. Blood is one of the few paths of magic with 3 Path Boosters (Brazen Vessel, Armor of Souls, and the Blood Thorn).

Actually, most paths have three boosters. Not counting rings of sorcery and wizardry and unique items, all of the elements have two plus staff of elemental mastery, blood has the three you named, nature has four (thistle mace, moonvine bracelet and Treelord staff, which counts as two boosters even though it is incompatible with thistle mace, and Armor of Twisting Thorns, which boosts both nature and blood). Only astral and death have just two boosters each, but death has a large number of cheap artifact boosters (Sceptre of Dark Regency especially), more than any other path.

Edi

[Boron]

Zen said:

I have thought alot about this, I haven't found a happy place yet for this. I've considered trying a few things with morale and lowering their gold cost in order to make them more attractive as a screening force. I've also considered making them have more AP in order to have them engage the enemy significantly quicker than a main force in order to simulate skirmishing (sort of).

I would love a bit more useful national troops too .
I think making all Li like militia Need not eat would be good than the supply problem wouldn't be as severe .
I made a small mod today changing maenads to need not eat cause i think it is thematic and does wonders while not disturbing balance .
The base commanders should have all doubled - tripled normal leadership then that they can use e.g. 100 militia and you have no hidden costs for having to use 3-4 leaders with 200 militia instead of 1 with 30 knights .
Finally reducing the goldcost 3-5 gold for militia and light infantry would do wonders i think .

If there would be a command to make an unit cost e.g. 10 gold but only 0.1 upkeep would be awesome .

[Boron]

Zen said:

I don't see a typo. You can look on the Monolith in my mod to see that it produces Nature gems just fine. Though you could be filling up the 'special abilities' slots on a unit (there is a limit). Try testing it like this:

#selectmonster nbr
#clearspec
#gemprod 6 1
#end

If it doesn't work then, I don't know what's up.

Yeah i tried it with the FoB without #clearspec . There neither bloodslaves nor (nature) gems were generated . Perhaps it is because of his douse ability .

[Boron]

May i ask why you think lifedrain weapons are too good atm ?

- Lifeless troops counter them . 1 ghost rider spell has good chances killing a SC who relies on lifedrain and doesn't have additional damage via e.g. fire shield or regeneration .

- There are some not bad LL summons like especially living statues/mechanical men and all the longdead , which ermor gets for free and finally manikins/mandragoras .

- Herald lance costs 10 astral gems , flamebeau 20 fire gems . Especially the flamebeau is superb against any undead/demon if my understanding is right that fire resistence doesn't negate the damage from the flamebeau .

Vs. magical beings a Moon Blade isn't bad and it costs only 5 astral gems .

Finally there are the AN-weapons .

So the lifedrain SC rocks against common national troops but loses against Anti-SC SCs .

So imo the lifedrain weapons are ok because blood thorns are not that easy to get with nonblood nations and Wraithsword/Hellsword is 2-handed , so you are lacking a slot .

[Soapyfrog]

Bloodthorn is just kinda foolish. I mean, its a knife. You have a big hulking Ice devil equipped with a knife... its silly.

Sadly it a ubiquitous weapon, becuase it is single handed... so if you CAN make them you make them for combat on your SCs rather than for their purpose as sacrificial daggers.

At least the hellsword and wraith sword are balanced out by being two-handed. They are not SO bad! The blood thorn is just.. silly