D'Tesh and Fort Commanders

[Moosh]

So I went through the original Legion of D'Tesh thread, didn't see anything and I wasn't sure if I should post there since, well, the last date on the thread was back in May. I'm posting here since I'm playing a FF+ mod and figured perhaps this might be the right location. Basically the gist of it is, I'm play a game with D'Tesh and I realize how important my Obsidian Spire is so I built a circle of forts around it. Problem is that the fort commander is a living breathing human! Also the civilopedia for the Legion of D'Tesh is broken and only displaying TXT_KEY_CIV_DTESH_PEDIA. Don't usually post much on the civilization fanatics boards so I don't really know the proper edict for posting bugs and such so if I need to post this elsewhere just let me know!

Thanks,
-Moosh

 

[Valkrionn]

That's not good... Did he have the undead promotion at least? If it's just the graphic, I can fix that quite easily.

As for their pedia being broken... Mailbox never actually wrote it, so it's just a blank txtkey.

 

[Moosh]

No he doesn't even have the promotion. As far as the blank text file goes, I kinda figured it was never written, I wanted a little lore flavor so I went looking, hence finding the original thread, but no luck.

-Moosh

 

[Brokenbone]

I wonder whether D'Tesh fort commanders would act like most other races' commanders, in terms of free XP and their main tactic being bombarding nearby squares. Mightn't they be like most other "wretched" no XP troops with a huge reliance on death mana? How would their ranged attacks be envisioned, are they "straight" irresistible damage types like a catapult or other siege engine, or are they "deathy" like a Mary Morbus power, or Scion Necromancer Balefire, or something else scary to most races, but less so to other undead etc.?

 

[Valkrionn]

Well, they have to get free xp in some way for the fort's culture to expand....

Maybe make it require sacrificing a unit? The amount of xp could depend on the tier of the unit... 1 for a warrior, 2 for an axeman, so on.

I could see them having a Death spell that does direct damage, rather than a ranged attack...

I already have to make a UU for them apparently, for them to get the Undead promotion, so might as well go all the way.

 

[odalrick]

Maybe an arcane unit instead of siege. Takes care of most things, free xp, ranged damage...

 

[Valkrionn]

The problem with that is I don't want it to be able to cast any spell.

I could make it arcane, but block access to the spell spheres...

 

[odalrick]

The problem with that is I don't want it to be able to cast any spell.

I could make it arcane, but block access to the spell spheres...

Then why make them arcane?

My thought was that they would cast spells instead of ranged damage, Spectres and... Well, spectres mostly.

 

[Valkrionn]

D'teshi Commander

• Stats
  • 2
  • 1 death
  • 1 death affinity
  • 0 range
  • 0 Air
  • No Free Experience
  • Does not gain experience from combat
• Spells
  • Gift Essence
    • Allows you to sacrifice a unit to grant the Commander a set amount of xp, equal to the unit's level. This is the ONLY way a Commander can gain xp.
    • Only castable by units on the same tile as a D'teshi Commander.
  • Flay Flesh
    • AoE Death damage spell.
    • Does 15% damage.
    • NO damage limit. It will deal damage slightly slower than the normal commanders, but will eventually be able to outright kill the enemy.
    • This sounds strong, but remember, units killed in this manner cannot become slaves... Which the D'tesh need for pop growth.

 

[MrUnderhill]

Looks good, but if you're adding another Fort Commander UU, you might want to de-hardcode the claim fort spell. I looked at it while I was trying to add Tower Mages to the Amurites, and right now it seems to only give UU's to the Jotnar and the Khazad, rather than to all civs.

Here's my fix, mostly borrowed from the Recruit Mercenary spell:

def spellClaimFort(caster):
	pPlayer = gc.getPlayer(caster.getOwner())
	iUnit = gc.getInfoTypeForString('UNITCLASS_FORT_COMMANDER')
	infoCiv = gc.getCivilizationInfo(pPlayer.getCivilizationType())
	iUnit = infoCiv.getCivilizationUnits(iUnit)
	newUnit = pPlayer.initUnit(iUnit, caster.getX(), caster.getY(), UnitAITypes.NO_UNITAI, DirectionTypes.DIRECTION_NORTH)

Just make sure that the Jotnar and Khazad commanders are listed as UU's in the CivilizationInfos file, and this should work just like the old code.

 

[Valkrionn]

I knew that was possible, but hadn't checked for the code... Thank you!

 

[Moosh]

I'm sorry but when I read the spell's description all I could think of was Warcraft's Death Knights and their infamous spell "Death and Decay" but that may just be me, heh. I personally like what you came up with for the commander.

Edit: I have another question for you. When you are attacking another civilization and capture one of their workers instead of a slave it gives you an undead worker but you cannot add them to a city for a population point. Was this intended or a programming oversight?

-Moosh

 

[Valkrionn]

I'm sorry but when I read the spell's description all I could think of was Warcraft's Death Knights and their infamous spell "Death and Decay" but that may just be me, heh. I personally like what you came up with for the commander.

Edit: I have another question for you. When you are attacking another civilization and capture one of their workers instead of a slave it gives you an undead worker but you cannot add them to a city for a population point. Was this intended or a programming oversight?

-Moosh

To be honest, I was picturing more one of the warlock spells... Can't of the name sadly, as I generally played a pally or Mage.... Actually, if you go to the armory and look up Valkrionn or Lilpwner, on Daggerspine, you'd see my old characters. Once upon a time I had a full Judgement set... Damn expansions. Don't play the game anymore. And yes, the dwarf pally is indeed where I got the name Valkrionn.

Anyway, workers... Not really either. When you capture a worker, it's not replaced with a UU. I could probably work something out though...

 

[KillerClowns]

To be honest, I was picturing more one of the warlock spells... Can't of the name sadly, as I generally played a pally or Mage.... Actually, if you go to the armory and look up Valkrionn or Lilpwner, on Daggerspine, you'd see my old characters. Once upon a time I had a full Judgement set... Damn expansions. Don't play the game anymore. And yes, the dwarf pally is indeed where I got the name Valkrionn.

Anyway, workers... Not really either. When you capture a worker, it's not replaced with a UU. I could probably work something out though...

Convert worker spell, only castable by workers and other civs' worker UUs, requires player be Legion of D'tesh to cast. May cost gold and/or time, upgrades worker to the D'teshi worker UU. I think this can be done.

 

[Valkrionn]

I already do that for Malakim Bedouins.

I'd rather allow captured workers access to the add to city spell... Less clicking for the player. Could always give them an effect promo, and then write a new req for the spell that checks for slave unitclass, or worker unitclass... If worker, check for promo. That way there is no conversion necessary, and doesn't allow D'teshi workers to add to pop.

 

[Moosh]

To be honest, I was picturing more one of the warlock spells... Can't of the name sadly, as I generally played a pally or Mage.... Actually, if you go to the armory and look up Valkrionn or Lilpwner, on Daggerspine, you'd see my old characters. Once upon a time I had a full Judgement set... Damn expansions. Don't play the game anymore. And yes, the dwarf pally is indeed where I got the name Valkrionn.

Anyway, workers... Not really either. When you capture a worker, it's not replaced with a UU. I could probably work something out though...

You thinking of shadowbolt?

As an aside, I came across Foxford in my latest game. Thought it would be really interesting to run around with some Undead Werewolves. Ran into some interesting issues and I wasn't sure what was supposed to be the deal. I initially infected two units with my werewolf hunter, a Scorpion Clan Wolf Rider and a Lizardman.
The Scorpion Clan Wolf Rider is a mounted unit and had the promotions Crazed, Werewolf, and Wretched. Didn't get the undead, figured it made sense. The Lizardman is a recon unit and had Crazed, Werewolf, and Silence of Death. I believe he got the Silence of Death cause he's a recon unit and in my faction but he's not undead either, so should he get the Silence of Death? When I later upgraded the Lizardman to a Ranger he then took the Undead trait. My Scorpion Clan Wolf Rider died when you took on a Grigori stack when I declared war because he went crazed, my Lizardman is now an Undead Lizard Werewolf.

Just wanted to let you know, not sure what's intended and what's not, so feel free to tell me, heh.

-Moosh

 

[Valkrionn]

It's not intended, but not really an issue... An invisible, undead, lizardman, werewolf sounds rather interesting.

And yes, Shadowbolt is what I was thinking of.

 

[Valkrionn]

Just wanted to say that I started work on this...

What unitart should it use? Can't decide.

The unit stats are exactly as I outlined above... He also has a 15% chance to take slaves, like all D'tesh units.

Absorb Essence is available to any unit on the same tile as the commander, grants xp to the commander equal to the caster's level. Should probably rename it to Gift Essence, if just because of who has to cast it.

Flay Flesh, for now, is an AoE. So Death and Decay it is. Does 15% damage, to a limit of 100%.. can kill. Seems strong, but remember... The whole point of combat for the D'tesh is slave generation. Killing units in this way will NOT generate slaves.

 

[Brokenbone]

Sounds cool, the AoE, weaken invaders to the point when some of your troops can swoop in and get slaving! Don't wander too close to D'Tesh's perimeter, you'll end up part of their empire...

 

[Valkrionn]

I'm actually thinking of giving it a level requirement... So unless you sacrifice enough units (or a strong enough unit) to the Commander, he won't have the spell.