I was originally planning on having Caravans be a land-based Malakim-only replacement for the Merchantmen other civs would get, but now I'm thinking it may be best to make them separate units and let any civ build either of them. (The main thing that changed my mind was a reference in the Ashes of Brigdarrow to a Ljosalfar Caravan that was expected to visit Barathrum soon.) I had let Merchantmen/Caravans/Smugglers construct a wide variety of buildings (like supplies), but then decided against it. (I also played around with letting caravans join cities as merchants, but that is too easily abused by players who want unlimited GPP towards great merchants.) Smugglers can still build Smuggler's Ports and Caravans can build Markets, but that is it. I'm also thinking of letting Merchantmen hurry production like slaves.
I am currently playing around with making every tier 3 spell sphere promotion grant +1 affinity for its mana type, and making the Affinity promotions grant not only +1 affinity but also +1 strength of a damage type thematically appropriate for the given mana. That is largely so that barbarian Djinns are not so weak.
I just just changed the various elementals to have lower base strength but the same total strength, as they get more of the typed damage.
I'm thinking of making the Summon Djinn spells work more like other summing spells, where the greater version summons 3 of the summon rather than only one summon with Mastery of Magic. (I find that when I can pick affinities from a summon I feel compelled to keep purchasing Creation 3 to have Abundance in as many cities as possible, rather than relying on the chance blessings of Amathaon to give me such mages/archmages.)
Canonically Djinns are very strong to magic but easily thwarted by non-magical traps. I'm thinking of making them Magic Immune (instead of only Magic Resistant) but giving them a significant weakness to Physical damage. Would that make them too similar to Runewyns though?
I had not realized Magic Immune/Magic Resistant did not grant resistance to Psychic damage. I just corrected that oversight. Temperance was not changed, as it is specifically meant to help neutrals defend against angels and demons, not to protect against mind mages. Golems have been immune to Psychic damage since I fits added that type.
I was thinking Physical damage was the same as what base strength uses, but slightly surprised to see that when I assign a unit physical damage it is not added together with the base strength but listed separately like the rest.
I just made it so that when the Disrupt ability is used to steal a city the caster may get injured by the city's defenders. The function pCaster.doDamage(getCombatOdds(pUnit, pCaster)/10, 99, pUnit, gc.getInfoTypeForString('DAMAGE_PHYSICAL'), False) won't work if I don't give it a damage type, so physical it has to be.
My most current version of Disrupt lets you flip cities to your control (without the bNoCapture restriction I had placed a few days ago) only if you are at war with the owner. Agents of Esus would not be able to enter a city while at war, but one could remain in the city if stationed there before the war starts. To flip a city the caster would also have to be more likely than not to win hypothetical combat against all defenders. Since Agents of Esus were reduced in strength, that it unlikely to happen unless all the defenders are picked off first. The spell also lets you turn the city to Barbarian control if the caster is hidden nationality. Shadows upgraded from Agents of Esus can do so easily (perhaps too easily, so I may change this) but normal Agents of Esus would need to use the Shadow Affinity + Channeling 3 greater mask or the Svartalfar world spell to become hidden nationality. Note that this disrupt spell is still impossible before the Fund Dissidents resolution passes and the city flipping (like the occupation timer) effects require CoE as a state religion. When cities flip through Disrupt it counts as it being acquired through conquest, and so has an occupation timer.
I decided to let Agents of Esus sacrifice themselves to add culture and end revolts just like all the other basic disciples.
Agents of Esus can carry cargo of 1 great person, which may be useful for smuggling kidnapping victims through rival territory. Whisperers and Unseelie shadows can carry more persons.
On the subject of alignments, evil is the most clearly defined in FfH terms. Evil gods are those who openly rebel against The One and his plan. The difference between good and neutral is more nebulous. You could argue that the neutral gods are the most loyal to The One, as they remain the most focused on doing what he designed them to do. The good gods are those who swore to protect the children of Nemed from Agares' machinations, but they often get carried away and focus more on defeating the enemy than on protecting the innocent. Agares' main goal to to prove that everyone else is as inherently corrupt as him, because The One is not perfect but as flawed as his creations. All of the good and neutral gods are indeed hypocrites for using the power of the gems of creation that Agares stole. (More recently Kael revealed that not every sphere had a gem of creation to provide infinite resources, but there are such gems in the heavens of Lugus, Bhall, Sucellus, Kilmorph, Tali, and Danalin.) Mulcarn was the least evil of the evil gods, but he still sided with Mulcarn and openly rebelled. Mulcarn does not mind using demons. His hell is sort of like limbo. It is not especially unpleasant compared to lower hells, but it is a vital part of the machine that makes demons. It is mostly for those who lacked the drive and convictions to do much with their lives. Unlike with other hells, one descends past it not by embracing its vice but by eventually overcoming the urge to languish there longing for a return to how things used to be. Mulcarn was never fully sold on creating humans and after Gabella's rebellion decided she should be unmade rather than protected. In the Age of Magic when he saw how mankind had advanced, he wished them to return to the primitive state they were in during the godswar. After Agares seduced Bhall to fall, he broke the compact with a subtle nudge from Agares but no explicit coordination. He did not like how the other evil gods have embraced his old enemy Bhall, but certainly did not become good or neutral. Mulcarn is of course dead now. The sphere chose Auric to take his place. Although Auric was quite decent as a child, it seems in his quest for power he might become more depraved that Mulcarn himself ever was.
Esus is evil and lets his vault be used as a sort of relief value to recapture souls seeking redemption from hell lest they become demons. He does not actually like demons very much though. Some demons do serve Esus, but he has a strong preference for living beings. He likes to take his most devout worshipers to his vault before they die, so that they can live there forever and never be processed into demons by his allies. Esus's plans are often at odds with those of other evil gods. He actively opposed Ceridwen and Hastur's plans to destroy the world or unite Erebus with hell, choosing to task the Svartalfar with aiding the forces of good in the Dead Lands and Fane of the Lessers. He prefers the subtler evils of wicked mortals who portray themselves as paragons of good.