Empyrean+ Brainstorming

[[to_xp]Gekko]

I know, I'm opening too many X+ Brainstorming thread all in one go. and Empy is not nearly as much in need of an overhaul as some other things. right?

well, not really imho. let's take a closer look at it. Empy is supposed to be a peaceful, peacekeeping religion. what it actually does ingame is give you some kickass troops and arguably the best hero in the game ( Yvain can be great too, but I still think that Chalid is godlike ) . it's actually a great warmongering religion.

but don't we have enough of those already? every other religion is warmongering in some way or another. having a truly peaceloving religion would greatly add to the variety of the game imho.

I don't have any truly great suggestions right now, but I'll post them as they come. please post any good ideas you might have

a couple points I feel like making:

1) Empy is connected to the overcouncil. the OC IS in great need of an overhaul imho. it's pretty damn crappy, especially when compared to the undercouncil. so, suggestions to improve it would be very welcome.

2) I find myself agreeing with people suggesting that spells like pillar of fire, crush, ring of fire etc. needing a nerf. but if we nerf PoF, we nerf Chalid and suddenly Empy loses much of its appeal. thus, it needs something else to make it more appealing and unique.

3) one thing Empy should definitely do is providing help to twarth enemy espionage. very flavourful. this opens up a dilemma though:

if we give espionage only to Esus, this special ability of the Empyrean will only be useful when someone is actually using Esus, and lose much of its usefulness when Esus is not around.

if we give espionage to everyone and make Esus give a large boost to it, Empy stays useful all around. Esus will lose some uniqueness, but I still find this option preferrable to the above one.

there you go. let's all share ideas for a better Erebus!

 

[Lone Wolf]

Empyrean Temples should receive +25% and -20% or so military .

 

[Sephi]

If you want to make a module/modmod, go ahead Gekko Pretty sure other modders will help you out in case needed.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

eh, I suck way too much at modding stuff and I don't want to make a half-assed attempt. plus I'm starting work in a couple days so I won't have much free time on my hands. stirring some discussion definitely can't hurt though

 

[Sephi]

modding is something you can learn. And you have all the time you need, no need to rush

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

I also now myself. if I start modding, it will soon snowball into overwhelming proportions. I've tried that once

for now, I'm happy enough to encourage discussions and provide suggestions, and let the experts do the work. lame I know, but it's not like I'm forcing them

plus, I'm curious to see if others agree with the OP or if I'm just a nagger

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

bump. I cannot believe nobody has any opinion on the OP

 

[Jabie]

A long time back, I added some notes on how to hack the XML in the mod section on how to enable passive espionage. I hit a brick wall around .32/.33, when the code enabling Espionage got commented out in a .dll or some other portion of the code that I haven't got access to (No Dev tools, only Notepad++, and currently no Internet at home anyway thanks to Virgin Media. Grr!)

If the offending comment line were re-enabled, it should be feasible to re-add (Passive) Espionage back to the game relatively simply, surfing off the back of the core BtS code. The rest is just balancing the costs.

 

[firenu]

More sun mana/desert synergy perhaps? For example commerce somehow.
I was playing Amurite just now and got 2 radiant guards for free and loved them instantly. (freeze enemy armies (mostly) in place and spam einherjars :-D killed Maros and Arthendain and Losha Valas. Playing Tya Kiri / free law I II + summoner +1 turn duration)
Never had that happen against me (spam freeze when i'm attacking) other than randomly by dragons. So if you're looking for combat advantages, perhaps something having to do with Blinding Light. Resistance modifier? range? chance of awesomeness (like damage) ? (only when you have empyrean as state religion)

As it stands (and I am sure a lot disagree with me), unless i play very specific terrain-synergy races (frost/jungle) I tend to want grassland/ancient-forest/lumbermill or flood plains/cottage, almost always playing leaves as state. How about some deserts? Maybe even flood plain synergy for empyrean? with flood plain creation? (at the moment, with adv terraforming --> sun1 scorch scorch -> water1 -> viola, floodplains/desert -> vitalize -> flood plains/plains -> overpowered, but the last step requires nature III, as in archmage or druid or yvain or gibbon or whatever else).

Hope my ramblings are coherent enough for reading.

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

what about giving civs with Empy as a state religion the Peaceful trait, giving -1 ATK outside of your cultural borders, but bonuses to GPP, science and culture?

 

[MiKa523]

Dunno if this was already suggested, but how about adding a benefit to the outlawing of evil mana.
For example, outlawing a certain mana type weakens it's effects and spells in overcouncil territory.