[MOD] MagisterModmod

[MagisterCultuum]

Sytgian guards are buildable Demons with waterwalking. They are not upgrades for Drowns, largely because the extra strength for Drowns from stronger units could not carry over. I think having different racial promotions caused issues anyway, and there was never a lot of lore behind allowing the upgrade.

You are right that with strong drowns their role is diminished though. I think I will allow them to cross Oceans (not just coasts) without any tech prereq, while Drowns still need Theology to go there. I'm thinking of making them resistant or even immune to Psychic type damage too, and maybe giving them the Boarding promotion.

Drown-Created by dark rites the Drown are similar to zombies but guided by unholy power. They are also capable swimmers, and are often used to attack enemy ship

Stygian Guard -The stygian guard are the silent servants of Hastur. They exhibit no attempts at communication and little evidence of thought outside of their ability to ruthlessly follow commands. When they aren’t being commanded they seek out pools or other bodies of water and sink unmoving to the bottom unless disturbed.

Any Crazed unit in a city with an Asylum can already use the Commit to Asylum spell, which replaces Crazed and Enraged with the Committed promotion. That should let them stay put in the city, but is replaced by Crazed and Enraged again whenever they leave the Asylum. I already have it coded so that any Enraged unit has Crazed and Enraged replaced by Committed automatically when they are built in a city with an Asylum. I'm not positive when I made that change, so it might not apply if you are not up to date, but in the current version that means any Lunatics trained in cities (rather than upgraded from slaves outside of cities) should stay put in the city until you move them out.

The Runes of Kilmorph is associated with earning gold through honest hard work, but the Undertow is associated with coveting gold and exploiting people for their riches. It is a Mammon/Hastur aligned religion.

I just got to thinking that giving the Temples of he Undertow extra gold from water tiles would be an incentive to spread the religion and build temples but no incentive to actually convert to the religion early in the game. It might be better to make Asylums grant extra gold from water tiles, which could help balance out the unhappiness the building causes. It would probably be more thematic too, as asylums could earn more money exploiting those whom the seas are driving mad. I could make it apply to river tiles too, as those are still a source of rivers and would help out some cities further from the coasts.

• The force of the ocean is also the power of dreams, sleep and madness. Their power is strengthened with contact with water, but most are able to draw off of the moisture in the air and in their own bodies to cast.
  
  
• In the Age of Rebirth, most practitioners struggle with horrific nightmares. The intensity increases with their affinity with this dominion. Ironically many gifted with affinity in this dominion are afraid of water, either that fear or an early trauma with water seems to have deepened their connection.

 

[Akbarthegreat]

Its religious hero hero Hemah is one of the most powerful units in the gam, having Channeling 1-4 and affinity for both Water and Mind.

Channeling 4 ?!

I seem to have missed a lot around here

 

[Cutlass]

I haven't played in a while. Which is the latest version?

 

[Dominus the Mentat]

Its the December 1, 2019 version

 

[Cutlass]

So I've got a different problem now, one I've never seen before. In the change civics screen, the button to cause the change to happen isn't there any longer. Any idea what happened, or how to fix it?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I've been away from modding for a few months but got back into it in the past week. I may have a new update ready soon, but there is still the occasional unexplained crash I'd hope to fix first.

I'm thinking that the Tower of Mastery may be too easy to get now that I have each type of mana double its production rather than being prereqs to build it.

Having each Holy Shrine grant 3 types of mana is probably too much. I'm now playing around with making each shrine instead grant +2 of only its primary mana type, but causing effective mana bonuses or penalties for multiple mana types instead. (Recall that effective mana is used to determine the odds of getting each type of affinity, for mages and now also for priests, but does not suffice as a mana prereq for anything and does not boost strength for units with that type affinity.)

I wonder if instead of having the mana bar show an x + y = z format if it might be better to add separate columns for mana of different types, with separate columns based on real mana sources, leader based bonuses, religion bonuses, etc.

I'm thinking I may add alignment based effective mana bonuses, with good civs have +1 effective mana for good gods' mana types and -1 for evil gods' mana types plus force, evil civs have +1 effective mana for evil gods' mana types and -1 for good gods' mana types plus force, and neutral civs +1 effective mana for neural gods' mana types without a penalty for good or evil types.

I am also playing around with giving Adepts, Mages, and Archmages an iInstanceCostModifier, so that the units become more expensive to build or upgrade the more of them you already have. That would help balance out the late game when player with a lot of mana could spam lots of affinity-wielding mages, and represent how magic is more difficult when there are more channelers competing for the same mana supply.


I'm testing out letting Adepts upgrade to Ritualists and giving Ritualists the Channeling 2 promotion again, so they can be used to access mage level spells. (The channeling 2 promotion would not grant them any guaranteed affinity though, as they are not Arcane units. AV priests would have a chance to get evil mana sphere affinities, but most would get none.) That would be a way for Arcane civs to get around the iInstanceCostModifiers, and would would let the Khazad get mage spells that would otherwise be unavailable.

I have for now removed the ability to upgrade Ritualists to Archmages and Mages to Profanes though.

So I've got a different problem now, one I've never seen before. In the change civics screen, the button to cause the change to happen isn't there any longer. Any idea what happened, or how to fix it?

Do you mean the Revolution Button, or do you mean the Icon for a specific Civic?

If you mean all but one or two of the civic's buttons within a specific civic option, then the other civics are likely being blocked by a resolution of the Overcouncil or Undercouncil.

 

[Cutlass]

I've been away from modding for a few months but got back into it in the past week. I may have a new update ready soon, but there is still the occasional unexplained crash I'd hope to fix first.

I'm thinking that the Tower of Mastery may be too easy to get now that I have each type of mana double its production rather than being prereqs to build it.

Having each Holy Shrine grant 3 types of mana is probably too much. I'm now playing around with making each shrine instead grant +2 of only its primary mana type, but causing effective mana bonuses or penalties for multiple mana types instead. (Recall that effective mana is used to determine the odds of getting each type of affinity, for mages and now also for priests, but does not suffice as a mana prereq for anything and does not boost strength for units with that type affinity.)

I wonder if instead of having the mana bar show an x + y = z format if it might be better to add separate columns for mana of different types, with separate columns based on real mana sources, leader based bonuses, religion bonuses, etc.

I'm thinking I may add alignment based effective mana bonuses, with good civs have +1 effective mana for good gods' mana types and -1 for evil gods' mana types plus force, evil civs have +1 effective mana for evil gods' mana types and -1 for good gods' mana types plus force, and neutral civs +1 effective mana for neural gods' mana types without a penalty for good or evil types.

I am also playing around with giving Adepts, Mages, and Archmages an iInstanceCostModifier, so that the units become more expensive to build or upgrade the more of them you already have. That would help balance out the late game when player with a lot of mana could spam lots of affinity-wielding mages, and represent how magic is more difficult when there are more channelers competing for the same mana supply.


I'm testing out letting Adepts upgrade to Ritualists and giving Ritualists the Channeling 2 promotion again, so they can be used to access mage level spells. (The channeling 2 promotion would not grant them any guaranteed affinity though, as they are not Arcane units. AV priests would have a chance to get evil mana sphere affinities, but most would get none.) That would be a way for Arcane civs to get around the iInstanceCostModifiers, and would would let the Khazad get mage spells that would otherwise be unavailable.

I have for now removed the ability to upgrade Ritualists to Archmages and Mages to Profanes though.





Do you mean the Revolution Button, or do you mean the Icon for a specific Civic?

If you mean all but one or two of the civic's buttons within a specific civic option, then the other civics are likely being blocked by a resolution of the Overcouncil or Undercouncil.

The revolution button. It's not on the screen at all. This is start of game when only the first change is available.

 

[Calavente]

Hi !
thanks for still being working on a future update !!!

getting less mana per holy Shrine is useful (if you manage to still get secondary effects to other manas...)

Balance on TOM
the difficulty for the TOM was thematically only : "Science" & "Hammers" (& the prerequist of the 4 intial towers : being able to rotate between at least 4 sets of 4 manas (now 4 sets of 5)).

The difficulties were not in "how to be allowed to build the ToM once the 4 towers are made".

so IMO, the TOM cost should only be here to allow all the world 5 turns -10 turns to rush onto the TOM-manufacturer. (same as Altar Cost). (it should be a defensive battle for the TOM builder)

TOM was, like Altar, the ways for "small-but tech-heavy empire (Tall)" to be able to win.

Making it harder even might be unbalanced in making the TOM unreachable for small-but-Tall empires. And TOM would go back to being a "wide" empire win.

but Wide empires already have the conquest, domination and Religion victories that they are the only one that can win, and they already have an advantage for TOM for the 4 towers prerequists / and parallel building of the 4 towers.

Regarding removing Mana...
- The "-2 mana" from religions are already a bother, especially to reach the TOM.
- the "Over Council" bans on Death/Entropy are another issue for TOM (they should bar the use of the mana for spells, but maybe not for the tower of Necromancy / TOM)
- adding new ways to remove mana might be overboard !
(it means you need to commit 3 Mana nodes to get 1 mana...it's huge)

Reduced effect / lower effect of spells / malus / 1 level loss ..etc might be ok .. but barring the whole aspect is damaging game-wise.

Adept--> Ritualist
-->this is good ! (save that AV is already really powerful, and with few negatives.. this make it even more powerful)
could there be another alternatives ?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I think you are misunderstanding the removing mana mechamism.

It only applies to effective mana, not the real mana supply.

The real mana supply is all that matters when it comes to using it as a prereq for buildings, units, or the old fashioned spell sphere promotions. It is all that matters for the extra strength granted by affinity promotions. It is the only thing that effects resource based changes in ahppiness, health, research, or great person generation. Those are all XML/C++-only mechanisms, while effective mana all works through python.


The effective mana is mostly used for the mechanism to decide what Affinity promotions will be applied to arcane units or priests.

You never need to have 3 mana nodes for 1 source of mana to put towards building the Tower of Mastery (or any building, unit, or promotion that exists in vanilla FfH2), but might need 3 nodes to overcome a penalty to give your mages a chance to be gifted affinity in that sphere.

The free promotion picks granted to Elementals from the Tower of the Elements, or to the Undead from the Tower of Necromancy, do depend on Effective Mana.

The Temple of the Hand's terraforming effect depends on the relative supply of effective mana of Ice vs Fire & Nature.

The Shrine of Arawn's ability to block Undead and the Ring of Warding building's ability to block summons depend on the unit's level vs the city owner's effective mana supply of death or force mana. The Ring of Warding Improvement depends on the effective mana supply of Force for being impassible to other units too.



The Overcouncil bans on Death, Entropy, Shadow, and Chaos (and the Undercouncil ban on Sun Mana) are mostly XML/C++, which remove the real supply and prevent units from purchasing spell sphere promotions, although I also use python to have it negate the effective supply too.



Currently I have the effective mana bonuses and penalties working like this:

Most leaders have +1 bonus for at least one sphere (based on the leader's own affinity if Kael revealed it), some a +2 bonus or penalty for a sphere or two.

Every civilization gets +1 effective mana for its patron sphere, and -2 effective mana for the opposing sphere. (E.g., the Malakim get +1 Sun and -2 Shadow. Force has no opposing sphere, so the Grigori +1 Force without any penalty.)

Every member of the Overcouncil or Undercouncil gets +1 effective mana for the patron sphere of every other member of the same council, assuming that mana is not outlawed by a resolution.

Every Neutral civ gets +1 effective mana for the 7 spheres of the 7 neutral gods, and -1 effective mana for Fire (as Bhall is an extremist who turned from good to evil but is never neutral)

Every Good civ gets +1 effective mana for the 7 spheres of the 7 originally Good gods (including Bhall's Fire) and -1 effective mana for the 7 spheres of the original Evil gods (not including the fallen Bhall)

Every Evil civ gets +1 effective mana for the 8 sphere of the currently Evil gods' spheres (including the fallen Bhall's Fire), and -1 effective mana for the 6 spheres of the currently Good gods (not including Bhall)

Players with No State Religion get +1 effective mana for Force.

Players with The Order State Religion get +1 effective mana for Law, Fire, Force, Life, and Enchantment, and -1 effective mana for Entropy, Chaos, Death, Creation, Nature, and Spirit.

Players with The Empyrean State Religion get +1 effective mana for Sun Fire, Fire, Spirit, Life, and Creation, and -1 effective mana for Shadow, Entropy, Body, Dimensional, and Ice.

Players with The Rune of Kilmorph State Religion get +1 effective mana for Earth, Enchantment, Ice, and Body, and -1 effective mana for Entropy, Air, and Mind.

Players with The Fellowship of the Leaves State Religion get +1 effective mana for Nature, Life, Air, and Creation, and -1 effective mana for Ice, Fire, Entropy, and Law.

Players with The Undertow State Religion get +1 effective mana for Water, Mind, Chaos, and Death, and -1 effective mana for Sun, Fire, Enchantment, and Law.

Players with The Council of Esus State Religion get +1 effective mana for Shadow, Mind, Body, and Dimensional, and -1 effective mana for Sun, Entropy, Fire, and Law.

Players with The Ashen Veil State Religion get +1 effective mana for Entropy, Body, Mind, Chaos, Fire, and Dimensional, and -1 effective mana for Creation, Life, Spirit, Enchantment, and Law.

Players with The White Hand State Religion get +1 effective mana for Ice, Water, Metamagic, and Law, and -1 effective mana for Nature, Fire, and Life.


There are similar effective bonuses for units of each religion. Units of the Cult of the Dragon religion get their bonus effective mana based on the Wyrmholds you control.

There is a +7 effective mana bonus for a unit on a plot with a source of that type of mana.

Effective mana is neutralized by The Crucible, before real mana sources start disappearing.

edit: I just decided to add an ability to toggle The Crucible's effects on and off, so that you do not have to raze the city where it is built in order to save the world of magic. There is now a Crucible (Inactive) dummy building and an Activate Crucible and Deactivate Crucible ability that swaps one for the other.

 

[Calavente]

Thanks;
I was indeed commenting about the old ways of removing mana... not the "effective" construction you made.

Is there a way to see the effective mana available ?

 

[plasmacannon]

Looking forward to the new changes in the next version update.

I like to conquer cities as I expand towards a Dominion Victory and I had 4 cities revolt into a their own empire hostile towards me.
IIRC I had built an Elder Council and was building other buildings that reduce revolutionary sentiment, however I still lost them.
I was on turn 352 or so, so I'm guessing most would have a decent size empire by then.
I was playing as Bannor and was in all the Civics that I could find that reduce Revolutionary sentiment.
I had built a Winter Palace and many Elder Councils, Monuments, Archery Ranges, Courthouses & Basilicas in my main cities already. The new cities were on a 2nd smaller continent, were pop 5 and under with few buildings yet.
To have to build Galleons to send troops over to retake them while at war with Lurchip and it's largest force in the game, would keep me on the defensive on the main continent.
I was towards the end of the tech tree and I had used many prophets to construct Altars towards that Victory as well.
Lots of chaos in this game for me. Any advice?

 

[Dominus the Mentat]

The Cult scenario is not working properly as before. When the scenario loads, besides the introduction of the scenario, the only thing that appears is a message that says: You have been defeated!!! and the only thing I can do is end the game.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

What would you of adding The Matronae to the next version? Canonically they are the major religion of the Age of Invention, led directly by 3 goddesses (archangels with gems of creation) who aim to suppress the worship of all the real gods so that The Compact will prevent them from using mortals as pawns.


I was just playing around with GIMP, and decided to recolor Brigit's artwork to create these models for Gyra/Morrigan the Goddess of Fate and Condatis/Cliodna the Goddess of Dreams.

I'd rather have wings that flap like those of an Angel of Death, but I think putting those on a female form is beyond my rusty graphical skills. Accurately depicting the Masks of the Coven of the Black Candle that they each ware is likely behond my skills too. I decided to black out the area around Gyra's eyes anyway, although I'm not quite sure if that it meant to indicate Barbatos's mask or the blindfold she was wearing in Tebryn Arbandi's pedia entry.

The icon for the Elementalism tech seems like it could suffice as an icon for the Matronae religion, as it shows what could pass for the Heart of Fire/Corundum Ardens, Ocean's Tear/Beryllus Abyssi, and Ending Stone/Opalus Mortis (although I am pretty sure that it supposed to be a clod of dirt).

It is easy to use that icon for the pedia, but I'd have to remember how to alter a GameFont.tga file to make the icons show up right in most other places. Right now the next religion would default to the icon once used for The Occis cult, and the Aeron's chosen Icon.

Now that I have the shrines of the major religions only produce one type of mana, I wonder if it would be worth considering adding more cults to other gods giving other manas from their shrines? I probably would not fully implement them all before the next release, but if I am to try to edit the TGA files I might as well get icons working for all of them at once.


Edit: I went ahead and edited the TGA files to add The Matronae's icon (a modified version of Elementalism, with the clod of dirt made into black stone to represent the 3 stolen gems of creation), and added 3 wonders to serve as the temples of the 3 "goddesses."

The Fane of Fate grants +100 Death mana (from the Ending Stone/Opalus Mortis), GPP points for Shades, removes Diseased, adds Spirit Guide, and gives free Elder Councils in all cities. It provides clean power. It allows Morrigan to be trained.

The Foundry of Vengeance grants +100 Fire mana (from the Heart of Fire/Corundum Ardens), adds Morale, removes Slow, provides (dirty) power for all cities on the continent, and enough Great Engineer points that you can pop one out almost every turn and complete your railroads fast. It allows a level 3+ Brigit to upgrade to her Sarabride form.

The Docks of Dreams grants +100 Water mana (from the Ocean's Tear/Beryllus Abyssi), free Shipyards in every city, a decent number of great engineer points, clean power, adds Boarding, removed Crazed, and allows the training of new Ironclad warships as well as Cliodna.

 

[Cutlass]

So I've got a different problem now, one I've never seen before. In the change civics screen, the button to cause the change to happen isn't there any longer. Any idea what happened, or how to fix it?

Do you mean the Revolution Button, or do you mean the Icon for a specific Civic?

If you mean all but one or two of the civic's buttons within a specific civic option, then the other civics are likely being blocked by a resolution of the Overcouncil or Undercouncil.

I unistalled the game, downloaded it again, and reinstalled. And the revolution button is still not there. I don't know how I could be not finding it. Or what might be the problem.

 

[Dominus the Mentat]

What would you of adding The Matronae to the next version?

I think its a cool addition to the mod but, relationed to the lore of the game, I think they would fit only in the late game (as they have appeared in the Age of Invention, they should be more close to the late game, as the techs there are relationed to Kael's descriptions about of that age). Supposing that:

• What dynamics would enable them? A tech, an event or both?
• What strategy would have their religion in a late game?
• What would be the game dynamics relationed to Brigid's prison and freedom event with a religion that she is a important caracter?
• And about the masks (as they are now implemented in the game) how would be their dynamics in the game if the Matronae (that use three of them) are implemented?
• Would the stones be items that can be taken by any unit of the civilization or only if they die; or none of the options, but they would be represented by the spell abilities of the units?

is beyond my rusty graphical skills

I think they are quite good.

(although I am pretty sure that it supposed to be a clod of dirt)

I dont know if it is possible, but you can try blacking the dust to make more close to the Opalus Mortis.

I wonder if it would be worth considering adding more cults to other gods giving other manas from their shrines?

Just an idea that can help: maybe this could be relationed to the Pagan Temples and spread like companies do in BtS, but it would be minor religions instead.

 

[Calavente]

Re Matronae, It's too early for me to understand how their presence might offset everything....

re religions : why not, but this seems good:

Just an idea that can help: maybe this could be relationed to the Pagan Temples and spread like companies do in BtS, but it would be minor religions instead.

there shouldn't be much presence of those religions... and minimal bonus. (unless you get into free religion / no state religion : then you get bonus from those... on top of the normal religions.
How would civ-religion civs work with those smaller religions ? how would Grigori or Illian react ?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Yes of course, The Matronae religion would definitely be founded in the very late game. I was originally thinking that the Matronae would be founded by Future Tech, but a quick test showed that that technology can never actually be completed. You don't get anything allowed by Future Tech (1) when you proceed to Future Tech (2) or Future Tech (3).

Right now I have it so that it is founded by building any of the 3 temples of the Matronae.

The Fane of Fate currently requires Death mana, Omniscience, Divine Essence, and Pass Through the Ether.
The Dock of Dreams currently requires Water mana, Omniscience, Divine Essence, Machinery, and Astronomy.
The Foundry of Vengeance currently requires Fire mana, Omniscience, Divine Essence, Machinery, and Blasting Powder.

None of those can be built unless The Crucible is active somewhere in the world, as that machine draining the world of mana is what ushers in the start of the Age of Innovation. (I took away the AC prereq from The Crucible, so we may start seeing it in more games, but it is less annoying since it can be deactivated.)

(I wonder if it might be easier though just to make The Crucible found the Matronae religion, and then have the temples of each archangel's alter-ego require the religion already present.)


The Matronae are basically an anti-religion religion, like a much more aggressive and utilitarian version of the Children of the One that can be made a State Religion.

The Matronae religion spreads faster than any other faith and causes disruptions similar to that of the Children of The One. It also reduced the Armegeddon Counter like The Order.

Morrigan, Cliodna, and Sarabride all have Inquisitor and Evangelist promotions, and the Matronae version of Evangelize Units spreads Evangelist and Inquisitor too.

The Matronae have no priests or divine spells of their own. They can however use Witch-Hunters, which are no longer an Order/Bannor unit but may be trained by any civilization (except the Grigori) of any religion while running the Theocracy civic.

There are now 3 levels of the Scourge promotion, each stronger than the last. Scourge II requires the unit follow The Matronae, and Scourge III requires The Matronae as a state religion.

After The Matronae is founded, priests of other religions have a chance of loosing their Divine promotions (and maybe even their religion type) which is equal to the percent of the world that follows The Matronae religion.

In theory, a world where The Matronae has displaced all other religions would be a world where no divine magic has any effect.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if maybe it would be better to make the Divine promotion have a per turn effect that removes itself (and the religion, and any religious affinities) in the event that the Matronae grow too influential.



As far as introducing other cults, I might consider it in the long term but not for the next release. We still don't have enough canonical information on them, and what we do have does not lend itself to easy implementations. The fact that some gods have multiple cults (like the anti-slavery Chainbreakers and mage-recruiting Emrys for Ceridwen, the Brotherhood of Wardens, the heretical Blind Brotherhood offshoot, and the old Sisters of Sirona for Sirona, etc) and others might not have any also complicates things.

If I do eventually implement cults using the corporation mechanic, I'd want to make sure that the number of religions and cults is equal so they can be displayed in 2 neat rows in the city screen at least.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Yesterday I wrote this as a reply to one of Kael's posts on Reddit:

I'm planning to include the Matronae religion in the next update of my modmod. Are there any more details about the faith that could make for a more fun or faithful implementation?

I know you said that they do not grant any priestly powers of divine magic, but are there any specific religious units that would fit the faith? Maybe a Paramander/Fawn/Crusader/holy warrior equivalent?

I was thinking I could add Ironclad warships for Cliodna and railroad-building engineers for Sarabride, but am not sure of what sort of units could come from Morrigan's temple (since Airships are already a Kuriotate UU).

Are there any fitting religious buildings, other than of course of the three great temples?

Do their temples in Niveus, Braduk, and the Bay of Laurus have specific names?

(I currently have them implemented as "The Fane of Fate," "The Foundry of Vengeance," and "The Docks of Dreams," but am open to changing them.)

Do the Matronae keep all of the mana from their respective Gems of Creation for themselves, or do they share any with their followers? Are others able to channel from the gems when in their vicinity, whether with or without permission from the Matronae? Could sorcerers (either with or without the Matronae's blessing) still channel Fire, Death, and Water magic from the vicinity of their temples after The Crucible has made magic almost worthless everywhere else?

(I guess what I really want to know is how much if any mana I should let the Matronae shrines provide, and whether I should make that immune to the effects of the Crucible. I already had the Crucible implemented as a wonder that causes all sources of mana to disappear and starts removing channeling and spell sphere promotions. I just recently added the ability to toggle the effects off and on again, rather than only disabling it when the city is razed.)


How much of a connection was there between the creation of The Crucible and the rise of the Matronae? It is just a coincidence of timing? Was The Crucible an important part of the Matronae plan?

Would it make sense for me to let building The Crucible wonder found the religion directly? or would it be better to make it a prereq for building the 3 shrines which could then be built without the religion and then spread it?

And got this reply:

The Crucible isn't related to the Matronae.

The Matronae don't provide divine powers. They could train mages but they are unlikely too.

Sarabride outlaws magic entirely and has an army of witch hunters specifically trained to kill mages. She also has a formidable force of cannons and steampunk style riflemen and pistoleers. Unknown to most, a small group of true angels of Bhall serve, guard and protect her.

Morrigan is served by the Apostasy, an army of worshippers who intend to kill all believers of the old gods and remove any trace or memory of those religions. They are a strong fighting force, but more effective as a spy network as they have thousands of undercover members helping them to find and destroy hidden sects to the old gods.

Cliodna is probably the most friendly of the three. She doesn't raise a large army and prefers to hire adventurers (which are plentiful in the Bay of Laurus) to investigate, explore and attack her enemies. These typically aren't military expeditions because she becomes focused on stopping the spread of madness and disease through her region than fighting battles.

Yes mages can still channel fire, death and water (though the Crucible weakens that of course).

I haven't named the temples.

As such I am thinking of making a few changes.

The Crucible is not going to be required for the Matronae to be founded.

I'm thinking Witch Hunters will be a Matronae unit instead of something anyone with Theocracy can train. They will have not have a building prereq, but will train faster with Fire mana. They can be upgraded to Seraphim, at least for the Mercurians. I am debating whether to let them share the Nulstone Golem's ability to block magic nearby.

I just added a new Agent of Apostasy unit. They will have not have a building prereq, but will train faster with Death mana. They can be upgraded to Angels of Death, at least for the Mercurians. Like an Agent of Esus it can investigate cities and steal plans. Like a Luonnotar it targets disciples and is very strong against them. It can also be used as a regular Assassin. It starts with Evangelist and Inquisitor. Most importantly it has the "Kill Clerics" ability, which can deal lethal levels of death damage to any unit that has a Religion Prerequisite other than Matronae or None.

I decided to let Ironclads be built in any city with a Shipyard and a Matronae presence, rather than only in the Docks of Dreams city itself, and to double production with Water mana.

The Docks of Dreams grants a free Shipyard in every city, the Foundry of Vengeance a free Siege Workshop, and the Fane of Fate a free Elder council.

I thought about letting Great Engineers be trained directly in the Foundry of Vengeance, but deciding just granting lots of engineer GPP is good enough.
The Fane of Fate grants Shade GPP.
The Docks of Dreams generates Adventurer GPP.

I changed the Crucible effect code so that it no longer removes any source of the types of mana each Matronae temple provides so long as said temple exists.

I decided that letting a Matronae temple provide hundreds or thousands, much less infinite, mana would be way too unbalancing. I might go as high as 7, but probably just 3.

I'm thinking that in addition to mana I may make each temple grant grant 2 other bonuses.

I went ahead and added Effluvium, making it boost research, GPP, and health, plus provide a production boost to Kuriotates Airships.


I was never a huge fan of having Summon Seraph be the Channeling IV Sun affinity spell. (Most Seraphs do follow Lugus now, but since some follow Sarabride I'm thinking they should no longer be Empyrean units or Sun summons. I am thinking of changing it to "Epiphany," which would basically have the same effect as the Eye and Ears Network, stealing the visibility of every team friend or foe.

Are the Matronae related at all to the Bane Divine Ritual? I had forgotten it existed since its high AC requirement means it gets used so rarely and since I don;t think you ever shared any canon lore about it. Its goals seem very much in line with that of the Matronae, enough that I am wondering whether I should make the Matronae a prerequisite for the ritual or make the completion of that ritual found the Matronae religion.

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I think that's a really cool thought, but there isn't any narrative support for Bane Divine. But I think tying them together makes perfect sense.

You could also consider adding an Isle of Scorpions or the Grave of Asmoday unique improvement. Then if you rescue Bridgit from the Ring and take her to the Grave she claims a Mask of the Black Candle, becomes Sarabride and starts the religion. You could have a wonder that allows Gyra to enter the world and take her to Barbatos to get a Mask to transform her to Morrigan and start (or strengthen) the religion. And you could have a special island that put out like of kraken's that Condatis can be rescued from. And if she is taken to the Seven Pines she recovers the Mask, transforms and does the same.

Each archangel transformed strengthens the religion. All the "old" religions hate the new religions (and players with it as their state religion). The archangels would be big powerful units, but their death would be a massive setback for their religion. Other players that follow the Matronea would have a huge bonus to players with an Archangel.

I am thinking that the main way to found the Matronae will be The Bane Divine, but that it will be possible for Brigit, Gyra, or Cliodna to upgrade earlier than that if they get a Mask of the Coven of the Black Candle. An upgraded Matrona could then spread the religion and get things started early.

I just added a Grave of Asmoday improvement and am thinking of making Maenalus generate Krakens. I'm thinking Gyra and Condatis could be very rare lair exploration results for Bradeline's Well and the Aifon Isle. I'm also thinking of letting Death affinity units use the Mercurian Gate to summon Gyra and a small army of Tomb Wardens and Angels of Death instead of Basium and his angels.

 

[Cutlass]

So no one has an idea on what my problem is?

 

[Imperator Knoedel]

So no one has an idea on what my problem is?

Got a screenshot for us? Also, does pressing F3 still work?