New civ : Dagda's Tears

[sylvain5477]

they're very green and blobby

The rooted Tears are very green.
The units should be very colorful.

 

[Jabie]

You have some interesting concepts here. It might be kinda cool to make this Civ the Neutral equivalent of Basium / Hyborem - dropping four or five tears in random locations from a mid-game ritual. You need to retcon your original backstory and provide players with a decent motivation to use such a ritual... Perhaps the development of a one-off magical Nuke (Force of Oblivion) causes Dagda to flip out and try and save the world from itself. (This also gives a nice B Movie riff to play off against)

 

[sylvain5477]

You have some interesting concepts here. It might be kinda cool to make this Civ the Neutral equivalent of Basium / Hyborem - dropping four or five tears in random locations from a mid-game ritual. You need to retcon your original backstory and provide players with a decent motivation to use such a ritual... Perhaps the development of a one-off magical Nuke (Force of Oblivion) causes Dagda to flip out and try and save the world from itself. (This also gives a nice B Movie riff to play off against)

Once the civ is complete, we may find an original way to make it enter mid-game is not already there.

But starting at the beginning of the game should make them much more dangerous

 

[KillerClowns]

You're . .. .. .. .ing insane. I like it. While the leaderhead definitely needs an upgrade of some form, I suspect this civ, for now, is best left "Human Only" in the Restrict Random Leaders anyways. EDIT: And I suppose there's no diplo to be done with it anyways, though that may change as you develop this. I especially look forward to throwing this... thing... on a world with the Legion of D'tesh, the Illians, and the Sheaim. Ooh, maybe I should turn on Last Days as well...
That sound you hear is the followers of the Fellowship crying...
I'm gonna hunt down a new LH for ya first. I'm thinking I'll delve around the artists listed in the credits... more under landscapes than portraits, though.
EDIT 2: Here we go. Landscapes since the leader/civ/whatever is a landscape. All the work of Daniel Dociu; his style seems to fit.
A more crystalline aesthetic. Normally, I'd say FfH should stay the Nine Hells away from crystals, but when they're world-devouring abominations... the use of a great, big, cold crystal might help emphasize the inhumanity of the Tears. That said, you do seem to be aiming more for "blobby" than "crystalline." Consider this a wildcard.
Might be a bit too red-and-black, but the identifiable facial features make it a bit more leader-y.
A more organic feel, gives a more fungal-hive-mind feel.
Big glowy blue thing. Looks like a tear. My personal recommendation.

 

[sylvain5477]

You're . .. .. .. .ing insane. I like it. While the leaderhead definitely needs an upgrade of some form,

Really ? Ho s**t, I thought it was the best piece of "Art" of the whole module !

I suspect this civ, for now, is best left "Human Only" in the Restrict Random Leaders anyways.

It will be human only and selectable until the IA can be made to use to correctly and dangerously. For now i"*'m focusing on human interaction, but the goal is to provide a good opponent for human players as well. Some reaction like "s**t, the Tears are in the Game!" would be perfect

EDIT: And I suppose there's no diplo to be done with it anyways, though that may change as you develop this.

Currently no diplo as you are at war with everyone in the same time. And well, you cannot talk, only absorb and mutiply. (that's why you should do it a lot). No plan to add it in the future for now, unless someone comes with an idea about it.

The next monster civ (2 others in the pipe I cannot talk about yet) will have diplo however.

 

[KillerClowns]

...Currently no diplo as you are at war with everyone in the same time. And well, you cannot talk, only absorb and mutiply. (that's why you should do it a lot). No plan to add it in the future for now, unless someone comes with an idea about it...

Well, if you end up making it a summonable, at least the summoner should be able to have some communication with it. It should probably have all texts, or as many as possible, be custom-made, though, with a fittingly alien structure. The alien civs from SMAC come to mind.

 

[sylvain5477]

Well, if you end up making it a summonable, at least the summoner should be able to have some communication with it. It should probably have all texts, or as many as possible, be custom-made, though, with a fittingly alien structure. The alien civs from SMAC come to mind.

I may be too much the nose in the f****g buttons right now to project in the far future (to make them summonable).
However I guess than even in that case they still would not be at peace with the summoning faction, but it may rain tears on the summoner ennemies.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

hmmm "Rain Tears"... i feel a world spell comming on...

also, Kudos on this mod, it looks very interesting all well put together.

 

[Switchblock]

Hmmm, maybe this is just my lack of coding skills, but it seems since the civ is based completely around units that spawn anyways, it seems to me that the units would just need tags like worker, exploration, and defender (or whatever the tags are), or is that to simple a solution for the AI?

 

[sylvain5477]

Hmmm, maybe this is just my lack of coding skills, but it seems since the civ is based completely around units that spawn anyways, it seems to me that the units would just need tags like worker, exploration, and defender (or whatever the tags are), or is that to simple a solution for the AI?

I'm not sure I understand your proposition, especially what you mean by "tags" ?
If you simply mean to use meaningful names like your proposed instead of "Sadness Tear", "Jealousy Tear", and so on, it could be done, but "lorewise" less interestsing don't you think ?

I'll make a graph of unit hierarchy some day so that everyone understand the current mechanic (in which case you can choose to upgrade and in which case it is automatic).

If I misunderstood you proposition, please consider explaining with an example so that I might catch your meaning.

 

[Valkrionn]

I think he meant giving each unit a corresponding unitcombat/ai that the AI will understand.

As in, your worker UU starts with the Worker AI, so the AI knows what to do with it.

 

[sylvain5477]

I think he meant giving each unit a corresponding unitcombat/ai that the AI will understand.

As in, your worker UU starts with the Worker AI, so the AI knows what to do with it.

It seems obvious that the units will have default IA corresponding to their function. I cannot understand the link with the spawning.

 

[xienwolf]

He is saying that the main AI hurdles are to get them to put out the right units at the right time. But might not have understood in your design that these guys come with other potential issues, like figuring out where/when to spread.

 

[copx]

Great concept! Please make them playable from the beginning. I don't like the mid-game spawning civs because they require you to start playing as a different civ and when I am ready to summon the civ I actually wanted to play I have become too attached to my already existing empire. Daemons/Angels as late spawners are more than enough.

 

[Babel]

If you want to maintain their always war state, but make it useful for the person summoning them, the idea of the summoner targeting them like a nuke would be good. It would make the civ a double edged sword, if you summoned them, but did not choose to take control. Fire them off into your biggest rival's area, and hope that they weaken each other enough for you to take them both out when the time is right.

 

[sylvain5477]

Great concept! Please make them playable from the beginning. I don't like the mid-game spawning civs because they require you to start playing as a different civ and when I am ready to summon the civ I actually wanted to play I have become too attached to my already existing empire. Daemons/Angels as late spawners are more than enough.

If you want to maintain their always war state, but make it useful for the person summoning them, the idea of the summoner targeting them like a nuke would be good. It would make the civ a double edged sword, if you summoned them, but did not choose to take control. Fire them off into your biggest rival's area, and hope that they weaken each other enough for you to take them both out when the time is right.

Ok The idea right now is, concerning their chance to be in a game:
+ The human is playing them (from the start)
+ An IA (random or selected by the player) is playing them (from the start)
+ The player or an IA makes the ritual which invoque them mid game, then a new IA player is created to control them (not possible to switch to them!), than would then rain on the summoner rivals but it would still be at war with their summoner as well, so a risk that after the rivals have suffered badly it is the summoner turn

I like to introduce new mecanics, so it seems good.
Does his clarify your questions/worries and satisphy my future customers ?


@xienwolf: sure thing the IA will have different problems. I'll focus on human first to be able to release not to late (the art is so painful at the moment), then I'll focus on AI.

 

[WarKirby]

I like the look of the crystalline picture. You should use that, I think.

 

[sylvain5477]

I like the look of the crystalline picture. You should use that, I think.

Thanks. Actually for the portrait, I kind of satisphied with the current result. I have difficulties with the units (3D) that I'm working on at the moment

 

[sylvain5477]

I finally did it.
To keep the public interested , I added a screenshot including all units of the V0.1 which should then be released soon (did I say that already?)

 

[Korias]

I keep having flashbacks to the Crystalline "Hero" being the Crystalline Entity from Star Trek. But other than that, I really cannot wait to test this civ out.