Monster SCENARIO Project

[Gandalf Parker]

Suggested by Dr Praetorious for Timed Events:

Firstly, it'd be cool (and more balanced, I think) if all of the "rainbow" pretenders had common, keyed events that give you commanders (mostly indie mages):

- Mother of Monsters. (thanks to QM for giving me this idea, btw) Gives an Abomination who is also a commander, kills 1,000 people, and spreads dominion 5 times.
"The Awakening God has born a son! He is terrible beyond men's worst nightmares, and when he devours 1,000 people, his wrath inspires the people to a frenzy of worship."

- ***** Queen. Gives you a dire wolf and hundreds of wolves.
"The king of the wolves has sought out the Awakening God and challenged her dominance. Because she triumphed, she is now alpha of all the wolves in the world, and the wolf king has vowed to serve her along with his entire nation."

- Great Sage. Gives you a loremaster.
"A scholar of great reknown has travelled from a distant land to study the sage teachings of the Awakening God. Having finally found the true path to wisdom, he has pledged himself to the new God."

- Frost Father and Skratti. Gives you an unfrozen mage.
"An ancient sorcerer has awoken from the icy slumber of the ages. He pledges his art to the true Lord of the Cold."

- Archmage. Gives you a wizard or a deep seer if you are aquatic.
- Great Warlock. Gives you a (MA) warlock.
- Master Lich. Gives you a lich.
- Smoking Mirror. Gives you an (EA) priest of the sun.
- Fomorian Sorcerer. Gives you a Fomorian Druid.
- Arch Seraph. Gives you a (MA) Seraph.
"The True God has finished training an apprentice. He will wield his powers in the service of his master."

- Druid (various kinds). Gives you a presence and a host of vinemen.
"An ancient presence has stirred in %s; coming upon the awakening God, it is so impressed by his love of the land that it pledges itself and its minions to your cause."

- Crone. Gives you a spectral mage.
"In her youth, many centuries ago, the Awakening God had many lovers, all long dead. Now that her ascension is nigh, one of them has returned from the next world to woo her again."

- Parthalonian Sorceress. Gives you a
"In her youth, long ago, the Awakening God had many suitors, and she thought them all long passed from the world. But

- Great Enchantress. Give you an ether lord.
"In a dream, the awakening God has sought wisdom among the higher spheres. Amid a vast ruin in the flickering aether, she comes upon an empty suit of armor atop a crumbling marble throne. A voice from within the armor challenges her to a contest of riddles: if she loses, she must give up her body and take his place on the throne. Having accepted the challenge and won, the dweller of the place must now serve her."

- Freak Lord, gives you a Succubus
"On a strange whim attending a travelling carnival, the awakening God finds one of his old companions from his wandering days, eating the still-beating heart of the carnival barker in the midst of an act of passion. Down on her luck and hunted by mutual enemies, she accepts the awakening God's generous offer of servitude."

- Divine Emperor, gives you a Prince General, 500 gold, an open ended die / 2 of gems of 3 random types, and up to 4 magic items as equipment on the prince general.
"One of the many sons of the awakening God has reached his majority and left the care of the harem. His martial skills and fanatical loyalty to his father are such that his paternity is acknowledged at once, to much celebration and accclaim; gifts of gold, gems and magic are presented to commemorate his majority."

- Ghost King, gives you a Wraith Senator and a host of longdead horsemen.
"An ancient vassal of the awakening God has returned from the underworld with his knights to renew his vow of fealty."

I'll finish later.

- Master Alchemist
- Void Lurker
- Polypal Mother
==============================
FoodStamp suggested:

I would like to see rare random events where an independent monster attempts to conquer a province, if successful he moves around the map randomly taking provinces until he is slain.
============================
Endoperez suggested:

I like the idea of wandering monsters, but I like the idea of wandering groups even more! I haven't tested if it's possible to give an independent mover (like the Unfettered) units, but if it works:


Druid with N3H3
guarded by a Kithaironic Lion, Great Eagle, Fall Bear, Dire Wolf
10 Great Lions
10 Dire Wolves
10 Moose
10 Giant Spiders (MA Mictlan, spawned after a rider dies)
15 Horned Serpents
various Wolves, Black Hawks, Great Eagles, Spring Hawks, Jaguars etc
Message: A druid has lead the animals of the province in crusade against their oppressors. 2000 people have been killed and unrest has increased. (Growth 2+, Magic 1+)
Alternative (Kailasa, Bandar Log, Patala only): A druid with an army of animals has decided to serve your cause. (Luck 1+, Magic 1+)


Troll King
Trolls, Moose Knights, War Trolls etc
Message: A Troll King has declared war on your land, and lead a suprise attack through a previously undiscovered tunnel. (Misf 1+, Magic 1+, adds an Earth site that increases unrest).


Skratti with Brazen Vessel, Blood Thorn
2 Niefel Giants (EA Niefelheim)
4 Jotun Skinshifters
4 Jotun Hirdmen
Message: A renegade Skratti has experimented with forbidden knowledge, and has managed to reawaken some of the ancient Niefel Giants. Now he's wandering in the countryside, capturing virgins to summon Illwinter!


Incanus the Shadow Seer (ethereal mage from the Tower of Nexus) with F4S4, Sword of Swiftness, Ring of Wizardry
guarded by two Hoburg Champions and one Ivy King
30 Heavy Horsemen (MA Tien Chi, light lance, comp. bow, prot 14)
40 Vine Ogres
60 Vinemen
Message: A strange wizard clad in grey garb has lead an army to free the world from your tyranny. The locals claim that he's been protecting them for centuries.


Telcontar the Warden with Fire Brand, Wraith Crown, Stone Sphere, Pendant of Luck
guarded by a Black Plate Infantry (MA Ulm, battleaxe)
guarded by a Defender (LA Man, HI, sword and crossbow)
a Yavana Archer (EA Kailasa, immortal magic being with awe and bow)
20 Wights
20 Wardens
20 Banes
40 Woodsmen
Message: A man who claims divine ancestry has declared himself the King of all humans, and his army of the dead has started carving his kingdom by conquering yours!


Also, if stealthy independents are possible:
Underhill the Horticulturist (hoburg independent, stealthy N1 mage) with Duskdagger, Weightless Scale Mail, Precious
a unit Hoburg militia (hoburg independent, stealthy)
a unit Likho (Bogarus summon, old hag that causes misfortune)
Message: Strange events are occuring and superstition among the people is increasing.


Also, what would be more fun than:
Message: A Doom Horror has decided to wreak havok on this world! (needs Misf 3, Magic 3, can't appear before turn 50).
=======================================
my own stray though (Gandalf's) for
-- Bogus Group:
If I wanted MY DnD adventurers party to show up in the game like Johan and Kristoffer have done, can I? Yes but the overhead for that would probably make it something that is best done as a seperate mod than as part of this big-scenario project.
======================================

[Gandalf Parker]

LordChance reports this:
Poked around in your ideas for the scenario earlier noticed that you asked about AI using custom spells it does...
By chance I made a really mean and cheap spell (was intended as a ritual not a combat spell ) and in the following test that AI killed everyone (including me) was a summon spell and likely there is a reason that most in combat spells are resonably bad or cost gems.

[Gandalf Parker]

To answer Azael from another thread...
Actually one of my many partially done projects was the testing of mid-game mod changes, with an offshoot into what does and does not have to be part in the mod that the player has. (as far as I know Ive finished testing host map vs player map, now on to mods)

So far it appears that for an AI a player side mod (programmers use the term stub-file so I call it stub.dm) must name the nation, assign it a nation slot, and should set the color that the nation uses in the scoreboards. Maybe also set the name and slot of magic sites (not done testing that part). The host stub.dm controls the units that can be recruited, and maybe the features of the site. So it would seem possible so far to do what you want. Have a game where the AI nation would be bare and unfeatured until a certain thing is seen in the game.log such as a number of turns passed or a particular site attacked or a global cast. Then the host can swap in the stub.dm that has the AI as a full featured nation able to recruit.

The nation would be active before that so it would build up gold and possibly gems. But that might be controllable also. It still needs some testing to find out the full capability but the early tests seem to indicate that SOME level is going to be possible.

That also applies to the random AI nation project I was working on. Not the mid-game part but seems to show that the player only needs to download a bare stub.dm file in order to play games over and over on my server where the nations they are playing are completely changed with each game.

[Gandalf Parker]

Hmmmm come to think of it..
an AI nation could have all versions of units geared toward a very specific style of playing. All expensive elites, defensive, minimal movement, possibly high on research to create a nation which the AI (even the stupid AI) would be forced to play as a slowly building up and "preparing" sort of nation. And then when it is attacked, the units all switch to cheaper, possibly less armored, good movement troops better oriented toward a barbarian horde style of playing. Ticking them off would suddenly cause them to "burst forth onto the landscape".
That might be fun.

And the reverse could be tried also. One that starts out aggressively expansive. And when attacked switches to a more lock-down and defend version.

[Aezeal]

So how do you add units or a nation during a game then, and have you actually tested it?

I can see how you could change a nation by having a zillion extra unitnumbers which could even have a greyed out version with unavailable over it as the pic, 999 gc and 999 rec cost, and 0 for each stat and thus making them quite unappealing to recruit and then later change the mod and give those units stats, a good pic and price and either grey out the original ones or just have the newer (improved versions) have a better price/power ration. (I think this is more elegant than using 3 castles (which would imho recruit the same units anyway so I'm not getting that at all anyway).

Anyway I could see that work.. but how to add a new nation or place units during the game.. I'm not seeing which commands I could use.

[Gandalf Parker]

There are some things the game reloads during each bootup and some it doesnt.

The map for instance is not used except for the initial creation of the game, and then only by the host. In direct connect games (like mine) the user receives a map graphic and never needs to see the .map at all.

On the other hand, a mod is loaded everytime the game brings up a game using that mod. So it can do some changes. So the "commands" is just restarting the game with the changed (but named the same) mod in place.

I have only gotten as far as testing the use of units that the users copy of Dom3 already "knows". If I grant abyssia infantry and caelums mages to a nation then Dom3 knows how to show the battles to the user.

Im guessing that if I make up a unit then the users copy must list the new ID numbers and some basic info on how to display it. Graphics can be a problem. If the player already has the graphics then its ok. In other words you could probably change units with #copyspr but referring to a self-made image would mean it has to be included in the copy that each user gets. Im afraid I havent tested host-only mid-game changes yet either. This is all based on "bugs" reported by others that differences in the mod versions caused strnge things to happen if the mod doesnt have a #ver to tell the game that the version has changed. Im trying to turn a bug into a feature before Johan fixes it.

But, at least it SHOULD work (or at least have the best bet) if you want to create the the entire unit in the users mod. If unit 3456 is fully defined and graphiced, and unit 3457 is also, then the users copy will know them both. If 3457 is all the nation can recruit at the beginning of the game, and later the recruit list removes it but puts in 3457, then thats something only the host is really caring about on an AI nation.

Properly tested (which Im not good at) it would start with everything in the users mod and then gradually see how much of it can be changed at the hosts end. Even better to find out which items can be deleted entirely from the users mod without affecting battle replays and what happens when you take the AIs castle (most of my tests crash at the taking of the castle)

[Aezeal]

I'm willing to believe you can change units (by modding in a .dm file) in a game.. since I've been doing that a lot lately.. same for graphics.. no doubts there. But you said it would be possible to place units (which are already in the .DM file just not used (or even once already in use) somewhere, and nations even.. and THAT would be most interesting (since else there would have to be a unit on the map.. somewhere from the start of the game which would make it much less playable (I can think of solutions though.. a nation with only a commander/pretender and army with a teleport army spell on a seperated province no connections which I could then teleport to a province where I want them... maybe even with that nations nation only sites there so it could even build from there.. now I think of it this is a VERY good option) anyway.. you said it would be possible to ADD nations and troops and I wonder how (if you said it in the previous post I didn't get it and I'm sorry) the thing I mentioned just now might really work though so that is nice too .

[Gandalf Parker]

As far as I can tell, adding troops as recruitables to a nations list should not be a problem as long as its a unit that the player will be able to see.

OK lets say that the mod file of Stub.dm:
#newmonster 2345
#newmonster 2346
#newsite 4567
#newsite 4568

And it also
#selectnation 94
#startsite 4567
#startsite 4568
#addreccom 2345

So at the beginning of the game, player and host both have the nation defined and able to recruit 2345. Unit 2346 is defined but not in use.

At midgame, the hosts stub.dm is edited and
#addreccom 2345
becomes
#addrecom 2346

Any of the 2345 units still in the field will stay the same. The game, both at host and player end, understand what that is. But at the nations capital its no longer on the recruit list. Now, 2346 is recruitable so that AI begins filling its armies with that unit.

[Aezeal]

yeah I see how that works, but actual troops placement on a province... an army out of nothing coming to take your world

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by Aezeal

yeah I see how that works, but actual troops placement on a province... an army out of nothing coming to take your world

Watcher nation and spell that makes custom units independent that stay in the affected province. I don't know of any easy way to do it, unfortunately.