Version 2a
This mod is for everyone who wants more unique factions for large maps or is just tired of the same old factions. The ultimate goal of this mod is to allow players to try new play styles and keep the world of Elemental interesting.
This latest version includes the reintroduction of Capitar and Umbers as playable factions. It also includes a completely new race known as the Hashaini, based off the bandit tribes already in game. These new factions have custom units and traits.
Currently Included Traits:
Strengths
Archaeology: Allows you to build Ancient Monuments which replace prestigious locations, and boost Research as well as Influence. Ancient Temples produce double research.
Mercenary Legions: Units are trained 20% faster, and unlocks the Mercenary unit trait which gives a unit +1 Level, +1 wages, halves XP earned, and -40 to build time. Allows a player to build large temporary armies quickly. Also unlocks Alchemical Bombs and Catapults.
Horse Lords: Stable and Ranch tiles grant +1 materials, unlocks improved Destrier mounts, and Horse Markets which produce horses.
Kennel Masters: Allows players to build Blood Warg Mounts, and Warg Markets which produce Wargs. Warg Kennels, and Dens also spawn Hunting Warg packs.
Trade Houses: +15% to Gildar, and unlocks the Acquire Metal and Acquire Crystal Spells. They allow you to trade 50 gold for 10 metal or crystal.
Faith: Blesses all your unit with +10% Spell Resistance, and -5 unrest in all cities. Unlocks Amulet of Faith which boosts spell resistance and damage versus Elementals, and the Pilgrimage enchantment which boosts influence and growth in a city.
Purification: The opposite of Corruption. Unlocks the Purify spell which converts shards to life shards, and searing Light Spell which damages Twisted. More spells to come.
Extortion: Replaces Consulates with Tolls which produce 2 Gildar in the nearest city and require no tech. Black Markets are more effective and can be upgraded to Shadow Guilds.
Knife Fighters: Replaces shields with offhand daggers and swords which increase attack and can be thrown.
Weaknesses
Corrupt: -15% to Gildar and Influence
Skepticism: -15% to Mana. Oracles, Temples of Essence, Sacrificial Altars, and Clerics are disabled.
Xenophobia: -33% to Influence. Embassies and Missionary Halls are disabled.
Races/Factions
Umber: Kennel Masters, Master Chain, Assassin's Tools
Capitar: Civics, Trade Houses, Mercenary Legions
Hashaini: Knife Fighters, Extortion
Notes
-Thanks Aerion Istari for the sweet jewelry art.
-Thanks Heavenfall for the Duel Wielding skeleton.
-As you should whenever you create a new faction you should play through with them once and create units for them before letting the AI play as them.
-Now merged with Urxen redesign Mod.
Download: Here *For FE v1.3
If you have an idea for a new or existing trait feel free to post it. I am always looking for cool ideas. I especially like ideas that make factions play differently.
Please post any bugs
Looks interesting. Are you using Background stats or at least making this compatible with them?
Updated to .91
I honestly hadn't given it any thought, but now that you mention it I will probably add support if this mod ever gets out of beta.
If you want some ideas, check out the faction bonuses/flaws I have in stormworld_expandedfactions. You are more than welcome to turn them into stuff people can actually use for their own custom factions.
Frostfire. Frost Giants can't use fire attack for normal troops, so they get cold attack items instead.
Meat eaters. Drota can't ride mounts, so they turn the local horse/warg resources into food instead.
Crossbows. Gnomes use crossbows instead of bows. Crossbows replace bows, are slower to fire but penetrate defense.
I have been sneaking peaks at your code for awhile now.... Your traits are good but they tend to be small traits and don't really fit into the point system well. All three you listed would probably be free.
I'm currently trying to think up a interesting farming trait. However I'm drawing a blank when it comes to somehow making it interesting. Anyone have any ideas?
I also would love to hear any brainstorming. Just invent some crazy civilization or culture on the spot. Base it off something real or something from a book or whatever.
Hi Ds,
For starters, I would like to have the Tarth ability (no movement penalty and avoids monsters) separated. Here are some ideas:
A. Scouting: no movement penalty and +1 sight range
B. Stealth: no attacks from monsters
C. Twisted: grants the build ogre/troll farm tech right from the start (I forget what it is called)
I like the idea of a Beastmaster trait. The basic concept is a pet of sufficient strength to be useful is automatically summoned at the start of each combat. The pets would have some unique ability to make them a bit more than just another wolf, panther, bear or spider. Each creature type would have specific strengths. Wolves would have an average attack but a really high dodge to the point where they are almost impossible to hit. A panther would have a lightning slashing attack and a vicious counter-attach but only average defense. Bears do double damage and maul but low dodge and average hit points. Spiders would have high defense (that hard chitin) but really weak attack damage but with a stacking poison ability and cause their opponent to lose initiative every combat round.
*Note: last time I messed around with poison damage is was pretty poorly implemented and didn't work well at all. I think one of the problems was that Poison would not stack so once an opponent was affected by poison and you have a poison spell proccing on your weapon, you could no longer attack them with your weapon until the poison wore off. Without the DOT component, poison loses it's charm. The only way I could figure to make Poison useful and unique was to combine it with paralysis so the target was frozen until the poison wore off. *
It's not something I have put a ton of thought into so there are details to be ironed out and I'm not altogether sure how to balance it as that would be a fairly powerful trait. One thought that occurs to me is to have the caster lose half their HP, Attack and Defense rating - in effect transferring their prowess to their pet. I'm not sure what would happen if the pet dies in combat. Does the caster get their attributes back or is he stuck at half strength? And can the Beastmaster still cast spells at full strength or does spell casting ability also take a hit?
A negative trait might be to limit a race to a particular specific weapon type. For example a really good aligned race might be limited to clubs or staffs (weapons that don't draw blood) or a primitive or woodsy race might be limited to flint bladed spears and/or bows and leather armor (weapons and armor that don't use metal). The latter is negative trait that would pair well with Beastmaster. Restricting a race from wearing ANY armor at all would be a huge negative. You can also restrict a race to one or two elements, like can only use Earth and/or Life or only Death and Fire.
Here are a few other ideas for folks to ponder:
You could have a mature race that starts with 10 tech advances but researches at half the normal rate.
A long lived race that starts at level 5 or 6 (including trained units) but gains experience at half the normal rate.
Or even combine the last two.
Have a race that has naturally high magic power and resistance but physically weak. They might start at level 2 on all schools and get an additional 10 mana per turn or automatic 25% or 33% reduction in casting cost or automatic 25% to 33% increase in spell damage. And/or they might have an inate ability that has the effect of giving them the equivalent of some number of shard temples. So you have a race of powerful spell casters but with whimpy soldiers.
Have a race that each being is essentially a symbiotic parasite and must bind with (as in inhabit or possess) another living being (basically a mount) and gains skills, abilities and weaknesses based on the being it inhabits.
Some of these ideas might be hard to implement as a mod, but hopefully it is food for thought.
You're exactly right, they were designed to be "small" so I could have more different stuff for each faction. They're just ideas, you could boost them up a bit. Or have them as 0 cost abilities.
Some magic stuff maybe?
- All enchantments on all units cost 25% less
- Spellcost in tactical battle is reduced for units defending cities by 10% per citylevel
Also you could have things like giving the player a free iron ore mine, crystal mine, even a shard, near the starting location. Fiery Origins: Can build a Fire Shard Shrine for free at start.
Archaeology: Could you make an equivalent to the Altarian quest map that spawns a lost library or similar instead of a quest (essentially, using your gold surplus to tech up)?
Thaumaturgy: Could this also unlock some upgraded magic weapons that are slightly more technological in feel than the enchanted staves, axes etc? Re: Power grid - is it possible to make this grant +1 shard power to all city enchantments? Even if so, I guess the Beta 4 changes limiting the number of enchantments on a city might make this not so great, but just brainstorming really. If it became too awesome maybe there could be a penalty too, such as some of the more "traditional" magic being lost. Think this one has real potential to make races play differently.
Crossbows: I would make that a +1 trait, penetrating defence seems like a good benefit
Positive:
Eusocial: Reduction to unrest based on city level (i.e. as population grows unrest shrinks, from little benefit at level 1 to absurd benefit at level 5). City militia are more powerful. Gallows, prison etc unavailable.
Negative:
Warmongers: Unable to sign treaties, alliances or non-aggression pacts (in no way is this influenced by the fact that I won my first alliance victory by playing as Yithril and becoming so absurdly powerful that everyone wanted to be my ally).
Nomadic: Much weaker cities but slightly stronger outposts/better trade routes. Not sure if this would work out as a negative or positive, another that would need looking at post-Beta 4.
Fearful: -30 accuracy versus higher-level enemies (essentially a race-wide extension of sovereign weakness cowardly) OR a penalty specifically when fighting monsters/dragons, which might be more interesting.
Abhorrent: Can't hire heroes of other races
Anarchic: Unrest increases as cities level up.
Pacifists: Barracks, training yards & command posts are unavailable.
Also, loving pretty much all the suggestions posted so far, seconding any that prove practical!
Heavenfall, some of the "blood" abilities in Stormworld restrict races from taking certain paths - would it be feasible to make some of these restrictions apply from a selectable faction trait instead? e.g. "anarchic" would prevent the race from taking path of the governor, or "fearful" from taking path of the defender.
Sorry if this is a silly question, at the moment I only have the vaguest idea of how the code works, but figured it would be interesting to have some of those restrictions available for custom factions.
Yeah that is doable. Just do this for all the paths
<AbilityBonus InternalName="PathOfTheAssassinAbility"> <AbilityBonusOption InternalName="PathOfTheAssassin">
<Prereq> <Type>RestrictedAbilityBonusOption</Type> <Attribute>internalnameofabilitybonusoptiongoeshere</Attribute> <Target>Player</Target> </Prereq> <AIData AIPersonality="AI_General"> <AIPriority>5000</AIPriority> </AIData>
</AbilityBonusOption> </AbilityBonus>
but it will be difficult to balance, because people will just choose to play without the paths they never use anyway.
PS. The AI priority tags is so the AI always chooses one of the paths when it hits level 4, instead of choosing one of the random ones which will appear.
Edit: Similarly, you could also have faction flaws that prevent players from building shrines on certain shards. Or you could make it slightly softer - they can build shrines and get the mana, but don't get certain shard powers.
Cheers, this is all really helpful.
Yeah, true, would have to give it some thought there... if it could just be an additional, secondary restriction on an existing weakness that would be my preference, or if not, I would probably make it worth 0 points rather than -1 - available as a self-imposed restriction but not possible to cheese with.
Can we assign more than one prerequisite now? I recall this being an issue in the past, I was wondering if one of the latest updates resolved the issue. I would test it, but I am at work atm.
I haven't had any problems with that.
Edit: Actually I can't think of a scenario when I used multiple prereqs (of the same type). So I really don't know.
I was thinking of using it for racial and base class prerequisites among other things. Base classes would be rogue, fighter, healer, mage. These base classes would unlock generic traits and then the player would choose a promotion class that has at least a base class prerequisite, and sometimes a gender or racial prereq.
So for instance, if someone wanted their Dwarf hero to become a Dwarven Defender, they would need to meet the dwarf and fighter prerequisites. I'll test it out this evening and see if it works.
Some feedback!
I started a game with a custom Urxen faction using Kennel Masters, Dogs of War and Xenophobia (along with some regular abilities: Assassin's Tools, Archers and No Armor).Trying to design a more distinct, bestial Umber that relies on warg riders, monsters and mercenaries rather than heroes.
DoW seems to work fine, so far, but haven't really put the mercenary trait to the test. Kennel Masters is great, although I hadn't realized that the Companion Wargs were heroes (and two were summoned, not sure if this is intentional, as the ability only mentions 1).
Xenophobic made me start with -10 Prestige, meaning that I had zero population growth at the start!
Also, while designing I noticed that Corrupt says it gives -10% research instead of -20% to Gildar and Influence
I didn't play for too long so I'm not sure how the abilities play out, will keep you posted.
Wow thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it. I will update the mod to fix all the mentioned bugs.
I also think Thaumaturgy has a lot of potential. I will probably wait till Beta4 and the essence system before adding Power Grid. I would also love to replace staffs with magical muskets but I don't have models or animations for it. Oh well.
there is already a spell vaguely similar to this for heroes I believe (paragon or somethin), I too think this would be a really neat part of the game if we could do the same to creatures under our control as well, create in a since a "Godzilla" version of creatures (I think of a boar on an all-you-can-eat steriod diet)
"I'm not sure what would happen if the pet dies in combat. Does the caster get their attributes back or is he stuck at half strength?"
I would lean towards them regaining their strength, I picture something like Hades & the Kraken (Crash of the TiTans or somethin), he invests all his energies into the one huge beast & loses the war due to being weak after the creature was defeated by the madusa's gaze, but does eventually recover
"And can the Beastmaster still cast spells at full strength or does spell casting ability also take a hit?"
I would say make it epic for the creature & it's powers, & therefore should weaken 'all' aspects of the Sov to some degree (via a trait that last 100ish turns?), perhaps causes realm wide limitations of a sort
edit: heh, also reminds me of the Red Queen's JaborWookie thing (Alice in Wonderland)
Updated for v0.952.
Actually removed Companion Wolves because with Familiars and Shadow Wolves we already have more then enough wolves.
Hmm I would really like to hear any good ideas people have.
Updated to v0.935.
-Replaced the old style icons with new style ones, see above.
-Also added the Ancient Scroll to Archeology.
I have been experimenting with adding an Amphibious ability but don't think it's worth adding yet. Right now it increases movement in rivers and swamps and adds a skath mount, which replaces wargs. I am having trouble coming up with something else to make it complete. Was thinking of adding a building that can only be built on swamps but I'm not sure how useful that would be. I am also still looking for good ideas for Thaumaturgy. If I don't fell a trait is as good as the official ones I don't release it.
Seriously someone must have a good idea or request for a faction trait...
What about a special spear for the amphibious trait? Something with higher damage and armor penetration instead of boar spear and pike.
That could work, to bad there isn't a trident model laying around.
Some ideas I have come up with are:
-A spell to convert swamp to fertile land.
-A special food and growth improvement that can only be built on swamps called a spawning pool.
-Improved Piers.
The problem with the first would be the AI. Maybe I will just do the last 2 and hope the AI occasionally gets it.
Update to v0.94! Yeah.....!?
Anyway this is a fairly big one. Added custom tiles, and the Faith trait. Also fixed some bugs, rebalanced some stuff, and simplified some of the traits.
I like the new faction trait system where some traits cost 2 points, makes things much easier to balance.
I cannot for the life of me find where to download this?
this looks pretty cool, is it stormworld compatible ?
Near the bottom of the OP. The underlined here beside download. Here is a shortcut.
I would imagine that custom faction with these traits would not clash with Stormworld. No promises though.
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