Sheaim+ Brainstorming thread

[tesb]

In the Style of [to xp]Gekkos threads i'll post my thoughts on the Sheaim:

The Sheaim are seekers of Armageddon, powerfull summoners who wish that the world will come to an end. If i compare this to the current situation it raises several problems:

-the shaim don't benefit as much of an high AC as some other civilisations like the Luchuirp
-their strongest unit the pyrezombie is powerfull no matter what the ac is, you can dominate with ac 0
-their mages are living units, meaning they will feel all the effecs of an high ac
-their planar gates need some love (they are too unreliable and expansive)

with all that they feel more like a faction of flaming zombies with some, mages attached (not the other way around)

I propose the following changes to them to make them more fluffy:

General:
-Give their mages a promotion that negates some of the effects of an high AC

Pyrezombies:
-pyrezombies are no longer buildable instead they become the summon (permanent) of death II for the sheaim (takes several turns to cast; the casting temporarily raises unhappiness in the city and it needs to be cast in a city and lowers the population by 1, after all they need to get the corpses somewhere don't they?)
-pyrezombies are nerfed a bit: they are limited on how much units their explosion affects

Planar Gates:
-Instead of a chance of spawning they will spawn every few turns. How often depends on the AC
-The summoned units are now dependant on the AC (if it raises more powerfull units are spawned)


Sheaim now have some glaring weaknesses:
-low ac won't give them good units
-high ac still affects their cities, and hell terrain wrecks their economy
-the only melee unit they can build are warriors
-getting pyrozombies cripples your economy, but they are summons meaning they don't cost you
-their most important units would be mages (not good at combat, i.e. assasins ruin you day)

And their strengths:
-their main unit of choise is a summon (although slightly nerfed) and it will thus get a bonus from high AC due to the sundered trait
-the planar gates are reliable and more usefull
-a high ac will make you more powerfull, while still wrecking your economy

 

[Pazyryk]

I like this statement: "high ac will make you more powerfull, while still wrecking your economy".

Whatever changes are made, high AC should really really hurt. Maybe a little less for Sheaim, fine. But it should hurt for them too. Hurting others to benefit yourself is just predatory. Hurting others at a cost to yourself is spiteful, self-destructive, evil... as the Sheaim should be.

AC 100 in base FFH is pretty benign. Orbis has this a little better. I haven't gotten there with Wildmana yet (to many memory issues) so I don't know how that plays out. In my mind, at AC 80 - 100, the world should be full of pop 1 cities that are thoroughly crippled. No economy. No research. Same for Sheaim except that their Planar Gates should be cranking out demons at a furious rate.

Edit: I'd like to see the Gone-to-hell victory condition added. After all, that's usually my objective when I play the Sheaim.

Edit2: I think right now, the Planar Gates spawn units based on the number of that type already present. (So you should always use these as fast disposable units to get more.) But I wonder if this should be changed to a constant % chance based only on AC?

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

planar gates need to be cheaper and more reliable, pyre zombies need to have a cap on their explosions and to become more powerful as you gain new techs and more fire mana.

what would be really cool would be separating demons and barbs ( having them be at peace with each other ) and have demons be friendly to AV Sheaim and Infernal. plus hell terrain spawning demons, since now it's not crippling at all. FF/orbis got it right

 

[tesb]

@Gekko i would rather like to see the pyrezombies rising in strength with a higher ac, then with techs or mana.

If we could seperate demons from barbarians and make the demons allied/ in piece with the sheaim we could even make the planar gate summons be controlled by that ai.

If the ac is high it won't be your own troops that will dominate, but the demons pouring from your cities.

To me the sheaim are all about sacrifice to gain power: yes sacrifice your economy to gain powerfull summons, sacrifice your units (military) to gain knowledge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZzbAaHHidg&feature=related

 

[Valkrionn]

@Gekko i would rather like to see the pyrezombies rising in strength with a higher ac, then with techs or mana.

If we could seperate demons from barbarians and make the demons allied/ in piece with the sheaim we could even make the planar gate summons be controlled by that ai.

If the ac is high it won't be your own troops that will dominate, but the demons pouring from your cities.

To me the sheaim are all about sacrifice to gain power: yes sacrifice your economy to gain powerfull summons, sacrifice your units (military) to gain knowledge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZzbAaHHidg&feature=related

I'd only have the demons at peach with the Sheaim if they are AV. Only civ they should always be at peace with is the Infernals.