[MODULE] Arachnophobia

[LeastCraft]

Hi!

I'm working on an Archos mod where I try to capture the human-spider symbiosis through gameplay mechanics, introduce more asymmetry, try out random ideas, and hopefully fix some balance issues. The first version is currently out now on SVN 354 as an inactive module. If you have any suggestions please let me know!

 

[LeastCraft]

Spoiler v1 :

Animal Packs and Archos now share the same spiders, with hidden nationality

Mother's Nest:
Grants "Spider Blood" to all eligible units
No longer grants +10% tech
Cost increased from 160 to 320

Units:
Baby spider now gains Growth Spurt only after killing a living unit
Tribesman damage limit set to 90%
Huntsman REMOVED (Art kept, lore moved to spiderkin)
Recluse REMOVED (Art kept, lore moved to spiderkin)
Nesting Spider GAINS "Spider Blood" promotion
Spider Rider ADDED (Replaces chariot, same thing but does not require horses)
War Spider ADDED (Replaces war chariot, same thing but does not require horses)

So the main point about this one is introducing the idea that spiders must consume biomass in order to get stronger. Hence baby spiders now have to kill a living unit to gain growth spurt. Tribesman is modified accordingly to help with the process by not killing enemy unit. This will also hopefully balance their early game which some suggested is too strong.
The unique units huntsman and recluse are removed as a process of streamlining the civ for more contents to come, and replaced with Mother's Nest being able to grant Spider Blood, which keeps the effect more or less the same.
Nesting Spider didn't have Spider Blood before which is probably just an oversight and is now fixed.
There's also a suggestion that riding horses doesn't quite fit with Archos lore-wise, so I grabbed the Spider Rider and War Spider from Draconia mod and they act as chariot and war chariot for now. In the future I suppose Spider Rider should be modified into 3 different versions to cover the horseman line and War Spider modified to cover the chariot line, but I am not particularly great in the art department.
The tech boost from Mother's Nest is removed because I'm trying to push them more into a "quantity over quality" situation since they do have a lot of free units, and cost is increased just for lore reasons because I imagine Mother doesn't like moving around very much.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

As far as the art goes I'd be interested in looking into it if you explain exactly what you think is needed. No promises though. Also, would a half spider half human be lore friendly?

 

[LeastCraft]

As far as the art goes I'd be interested in looking into it if you explain exactly what you think is needed. No promises though. Also, would a half spider half human be lore friendly?

That would be great! basically I would like to have the Spider Rider and War Spider modified slightly in terms of equipment and armour (for both rider and spider) to show some sort of era/unit-tier progression. So for the Spider Rider there needs to be 3 versions for horseman/horse archer/knight, and War Spider 2 for chariot/war chariot.
Also currently the cage on top of the war spider does not look great and can use a redo into something like Warhammer Arachnarok possibly. It would also be preferable if we have more people atop the spider for the war chariot version than the chariot version.

I'm not a lore expert but I like the idea of a half-spider personally. Some units like spiderkin already have spider limbs growing out of their backs so it would not be too far-fetched to have, say, spider replacing the lower body entirely.

 

[LPlate2]

As far as the art goes I'd be interested in looking into it if you explain exactly what you think is needed. No promises though. Also, would a half spider half human be lore friendly?

I’d really appreciate such a model if you make it. FYI, there is a Civ V drider unit graphic.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

I am considering it. As soon as my free time opens up that is.

 

[Nor'easter]

DRIDERS! That brings back memories. Unfortunately our AD&D campaign back in the day didn't get to Queen of the Demonweb Pits (Q1), we kind of drifted away in the middle of Hall of the Fire Giant King (G3), so we didn't even get to do Descent into the Depths of the Earth, let alone Shrine of the Kuo-toa or Vault of the Drow (D1 through D3).

The D&D driders are half-Drow, but I take it you want to stay away from that here, right? No real reason to give them a Svartalfar connection, I don't think.

This link doesn't include images, just a detailed history, but you can find plenty of Drider images online.

Drider

In the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game, a drider is an aberration that was formerly a drow (dark elf). Driders are centaur-like creatures in the game, appearing as drow from the waist up, with their lower portions replaced by the abdomen and legs of immense spiders. They are most commonly...

wikiproject-dungeons-dragons.fandom.com

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Either way it won't be happening (if it happens at all) for another month or two as I am busy. So don't get all hyped up.

 

[Nor'easter]

Either way it won't be happening (if it happens at all) for another month or two as I am busy. So don't get all hyped up.

No worries, we all have real life priorities.

 

[LeastCraft]

Whelp, I got a bit caught up with work and other projects, so progress on the new mechanics is a bit halted.
Here's an updated graphics of Mother that I did about two weeks ago. I planned to release it together with other stuff, but apparently that's gonna taken a while so I figured I'd just put the model out to collect some feedback:

Spoiler Mainly I was trying to signify its immense size by a comparison with buildings :

You can also see it in game with the newest SVN revision, after activating the module.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

I like it. It looks suitably dark souls.

 

[Allborii]

This is a common "spiderkin" race (driader) from DnD universe

 

[LeastCraft]

Back with a new version, complete with new graphics, new promotions and new spells!
Haven't tested anything balance-wise as of yet so do play around.

Spoiler Changelog v1.3 :

QoA:
Added help text for Spider Upgrade spell

Graphics:
Updated Mother's Nest model and button

Updated all greater spider variant buttons to have a little star on the bottom right
Updated Mother model and button
Updated Nesting Spider model and button to that of the original Mother model
Updated Berserker model and button
Updated Mage model and button
Updated Archmage model and button to that of the original Haruspex
Updated Haruspex model and button
Added Spider Huntress and Spider Knightess models and buttons

Updated Poisoned Promotion button
Updated Spiderkin Promotion button

Buildings:
Mother's Nest now gives 1 Silk

Units:
Baby Spider combat strength reduced from 2 to 1
Spider combat strength reduced from 4 to 3
Giant Spider combat strength reduced from 6 to 5
Mother gains access to a new spell "Predatory Scream"

Promotions:
CHANGED Spiderkin to give immunity to poison and bonus damage against poisoned units.
Poisoned now have applicable unitcombats so that it can be applied by spells
ADDED PROMOTION_SPIDER_MUCRO_BURROWED which grants invisibility
ADDED PROMOTION_SPIDER_MUCRO_REVEALED1 which buffs attack (+50%) and debuffs defense (-80%), and grants immunity to first strikes for 1 turn
ADDED PROMOTION_SPIDER_MUCRO_REVEALED2 which further grants 1 first strike, immunity to defensive strike and ignore terrain defense for 1 turn
ADDED PROMOTION_MARKED_PREY which grants -50% against spider blood and marksman counter until healed
ADDED PROMOTION_CONSUME_THE_WEAK which grants marksman for 1 turn
ADDED PROMOTION_POISON_FUME which "heals" units in the same tile by -10

CHANGED Rhagodessa to grant access to spell "Poison Explosion 1"
CHANGED Rhagodessa Greater to grant access to spell "Poison Explosion 2"
CHANGED Mucro to grant access to promotions "Burrow" and "Reveal 1"
CHANGED Mucro Greater to grant access to promotions "Reveal 2"
CHANGED Argyroneta to grant "Marksman" and pass "Marked Prey" to enemy in combat
CHANGED Argyroneta Greater to grant access to spell "Consume the Weak"
CHANGED Venenum to additionally pass "Poison Fume" in combat

CHANGED all greater spider variants to be available only to giant spiders, and no longer grants "beast" unicombat

Spells:
ADDED SPELL_POISON_EXPLOSION1 which applies poison with 70% chance to all units in a 3x3 range and kills the caster
ADDED SPELL_POISON_EXPLOSION2 which applies poison with 70% chance to all units in a 5x5 range and kills the caster
ADDED SPELL_CONSUME_THE_WEAK which grants "Consume the Weak" Promotion to baby spiders and spiders (but not giant spiders) in stack.
ADDED SPELL_PREDATORY_SCREAM which applies "Marked Prey" Promotion to enemy units in a 3x3 range

By: @FoxXavier

Removed scorpion spawning
Spider Rider stats have been rebalanced. Now replaces the horseman line. Loses a movement for extra poison damage. War Spider (Knight replacement) has gained a ranged attack.
Baby Spider gains +50% against animal units

Spoiler New graphics :

Berserker	Haruspex	Mage	Archmage
Spider_Huntress	Spider_Knightess	Nesting_Spider	Mother

Archmage is taken from the original Haruspex and Nesting Spider is taken from the original Mother.

 

[LeastCraft]

New version's out with new mechanics

Spoiler Changelog v1.4 (idea from black_imperator) :

Graphics:
Updated buttons for growth spurts, fort spider I and fort spider II

Promotions:
CHANGED Marked Prey to no longer grant marksman counter
RESTORED Spiderkin to original(+1 poison combat; pass poisoned to enemies)
FIXED Mucro so that it cannot Burrow and Reveal in the same turn to get free buff
SWAPPED Venenum and Greater Venenum effects:
CHANGED Venenum from (+1 poison combat and pass "Poison Fume" in combat) to (ranged attack)
CHANGED Greater Venenum from (ranged attack) to (+1 poison combat and pass "Poison Fume" in combat and +25% withdrawal)

ADDED Symbiotic Communion promotion which allows the haruspex access to sacrifial rites
ADDED Symbiotic Communion End promotion which removes Symbiotic Communion promotion and excludes it for 1 turn

ADDED 5 spider mutations for the Symbiotic Communion:
Venom Secretion: +1 poison combat, immune to getting poisoned
Jointed Limbs: +1-2 first strikes
Chitin Carapace: immune to first strikes
Trail Pheromone: +30% vs poisoned
Spitter Gland: ranged attack

Spells:
ADDED 5 spider mutation rites:
Rite of Ruby: Sacrifices the weakest RED spider and grants Venom Secretion on melee and recon units in the same stack
Rite of Topaz: Sacrifices the weakest RED spider and grants Jointed Limbs on melee and recon units in the same stack
Rite of Diamond: Sacrifices the weakest RED spider and grants Chitin Carapace on melee and recon units in the same stack
Rite of Sapphire: Sacrifices the weakest RED spider and grants Trail Pheromone on melee and recon units in the same stack
Rite of Emerald: Sacrifices the weakest RED spider and grants Spitter Gland on melee and recon units in the same stack

New mechanics:
When a spider with variant promotion is stationed in a city, +10% chance to grant the respective mutation to newly created melee and recon units in the city.

Spoiler Graphics for the new spells :