Spartan Mod 0.2

[deadmeat1471]

Ive just completed the 0.1 version of my spartan mod for dominions 2, so far theres isnt much except the units in it, theres a little background but not near enough that i want.

im looking for a few people to test it out and report back with helpful comments


Spartan Empire 0.1
The mod is eventual going to be combined with my friends mod hes in process of making and hopefully transfered to dom 3.

Dont get me wrong, this is a fictional nation who resemble in many ways the spartans of greece, but in this fictional land there will be innacuracys and fantasy elements.


Attachment compressed in Winrar.
thanks in advance for any help



*** 0.2b finished ***

--Changes--

-Use of dom3 armors implimented
-Javelins AP removed
-Name changes
-hoplon changed to 4 def 4 prot and 3 enc as opposed to tower shields 3 prot 4 def 2 enc.

[deadmeat1471]

The empire

In the beginning the Spartans were only a tribe in the central plains, but the chaos lord 'Carnage' began to expand his domain due to his waining power in this world.
being good fighters and devoutly living by their ideals the Spartans joined the neighboring clans to repulse this expansion, but it was too late one by one the armies were pushed back into their own lands and then the chaos lord began systematically exterminating every living thing which refused to join him.

The clan elders met and after long deliberations they all agreed the only alternative was to make an exodus to the barren northern coldlands.
Taking everything they could carry they made their journey away from their homeland and began planning the new.
Upon arriving to this new land the people began to settle down, and to the tribes delight the chaos lord was too busy fighting rebels in his own lands to send an army north.

The weaponthane of this middle age were the strongest of all time, send out by several different kings they would come back carrying loot and bring glory to each kingdom.
Occasionally a kingdom would squabble over a piece of treasure or land, but the north was harsh and no kingdom wished to risk open war.

Eventually the chaos lord crushed the rebels and began sending the armies north, when they arrived on the borders and began pillaging the kingdoms met and decided to elect Hashrak III, the king with the largest fief to become Emperor until the chaos was defeated, and thus the age of war has come to the Spartans.

[shovah]

Sounds good, however my dom2 haproblems so i wont be able to test it until dom3 is out and it is transfered. Also when (if) you transfer it to dom3 i would like it in zip instead of rar since (due to my dumb sister) our comp cant handle rar files anymore.

[deadmeat1471]

i thought some people might have trouble wiht rar, from now on ill zip it.

[Frostmourne27]

Hmmm... If you zip it could you possibly include a rar too? My computer doesn't handle zips too well, and they usually turn out smaller, which is a bonus. BTW, this looks like it will turn out to be a neat mod.

[Arralen]

• You don't need to make every weapon you use. There are already Long Spears (check Arco), Short Swords and Javelins (and lots of other weapons). There's not much room stat-wise to 'squeeze' in another weapon without rendering another one 'obsolete' or breaking the balance.
• Pila weren't "armor piercing" but "shield piercing". we don't have seperate shields in Dom2 (and I think you can't pierce them in Dom3). Armor piercing missiles are a severe balance problem anyway, better use the standard javelins instead.
• The stats of the Hoplon are those of a light magical hide shield, not of a heavy infantry shield. Treat the Hoplon as a tower shield stat-wise, with at least "encumbrance: 2".
• The Hoplon was the name-giving shield of the Hoplites. It would have had little use for light troops, because it was too heavy and meant for forming an interlocking shield wall, not give maximum protection to skirmishers.
• If you want to follow the games' "naming convention" it should be "Lorica Segmentata" not "Lorica Segmentata armor". But there's already a "Lorica Segmentata" in the game I think - check Pythium.
• The "lorica segmentata" was a medium-late roman armor. Hoplites used various forms of plate cuirasses, light ones made from leather to ultra-heavy bronze casts. It was made for easy manufacturing and giving the troops ok protection while retaining their mobility. Hoplites formed a shield wall and wheren't that mobile (Phalanx). In fact, the roman concept of lighter armor, slightly lighter shield and short sword to stab with was developed to break up Phalanxes into smaller, mostly defenseless groups.
• The "Lorica Segmentata" is way too good. A non-magical prot-12 armor should have at least (enc 3) and defense (-1).
• Do not use 2 body armor over each other. While this may appear to work, it may cause all sorts of strange behaviour 'behind the scenes'.
• If you're making completely new units, don't forget to 'declare' the equipment slots. While this seems unnecessary for non-commanders, there could always be a player who GoRs them, resulting in very strange results
• "Weaponthane": Map move 2 for a heavy infantry is seriously unbalanced ..
• You complete forgot about helmets. Hoplites used heavy bronze cast helmets ...

Other than that its a great mod - keep up the work

[deadmeat1471]

although i agree with the balance issues totaly must remind you of one of my opening statements...

"this is a fictional nation who resemble in many ways the spartans of greece, but in this fictional land there will be inacuracys and fantasy elements. "

although being a big fan of history i mainly named the armor so i could remember which is which, lorica heavy armor , hoplon, 'a shield' etc, but as the mod progressed from the beginning it seems to be becomming more 'realistic' in terms of army structure, so i will definetly be modifying most of the issues you raised Arralen.

Thanks for the scruteny, and also thanks for possibly pursuading me back into a more historical spartan race
just today i was reading about the battle of Thermopylae, im interested heavily in all periods of history and alot of what you said i know but failed to thus far impliment
For certain your historical accuracys for armor will be implimented!

I find that after a while of modding you have to stop, step back and take a look at it to see what is insane because so far ive failed to notice the obvious insanitys of the mod :/

[deadmeat1471]

Progress... (to save people restating noted problems)


-Armor and weapon historical accuracys
-Helmets done
-Body Armors done
-Shields done


-Balance issues of overpowered armor and weapons
-pilum done
-heavy armour done


-Unit name changes
-Provostai - to be changed in 0.2c

[Arralen]

No problems with some "artistic freedom"

Just make sure you don't use names already in the game. This will not only confuse the players but the game engine as well, if they weren't only very similar but really the same accidently .
For standard (non-magical) equipment, better go with those items already existant - there are plenty of things to borrow from the original nations and themes. Makes balacing easier as well.
And if you really have to introduce equipment, make sure it sufficiently different from the 'generic' items but still balanced - if this doesn't work, it's obviously too similar to warrant using an item ID for it.

If you're heavily interested in this time period, you might want to try out the 'big' demos of "Gates of Troy", "Spartan" and "Chariots of War" by Slitherine Strategies Software UK Ltd if you not already know them.

[deadmeat1471]

ive played some slitherine games, spartan for one my interest isnt to just play any spartan game i feel like creating my own fantasy spartans in the dom2/3 world
much of what we talked about is being implimented as we speak mainly using already existing weapons where possible, but of course must have the corinthian helms!