The Gaming Den

I wanted to learn to make Dominions mods, and I decided it would be fun to make a series of factions based on the popular Avatar: The Last Airbender Cartoon. Ideally, I'd like the completed mod to look something like:

Early Era:

• Fire Nation: The Sun Dance
• Air Nomads: Mountain of the Siddhi
• Water Tribe: Children of the Moon
• Kyoshi: The Lost Isle

Middle Era

• Fire Nation: Phoenix Kings
• Water Tribe: Northern Icecrafters
• Earth Kingdom: The Walled City

Late Era:

• Republic City: The Metropolis
• Water Tribe: Tide of Blood
• Air Nomads: Spiritual Legacy

Phoenix Kings seemed like a decent place to cut my teeth, so I'm going to sketch out my intentions here.

The Basics
Prefers Heat 1
Income: Fire 4 Earth 1
Race: Humans with minor resistance
Military: Sailors, Firebending Infantry and Komodo Rhino cavalry
Magic: Fire, Astral, some Earth and air; National lightning spells and summonable Nature casters
Priests: Average priests, sacred fire throwers.

The Military

• Recruit-Anywhere:
• Militia, Shortbow Archers, Falchioneers, Heavy Infantry (generic humans with FR25%)
• Bender Infantry (Heavy Infantry with flame kick, one-shot flame throw and FR50%)
• Komodo Cavalry (Size 3 trampler)
• Sailors (unarmored sword/crossbow units)

• Capital-Only
• Firebender Elite (Cap only sacreds, either armored multiattacker with heat or long-range fire thrower)
• Dai Li Renegades (Stealth troops with patrol bonus and poison daggers)

The Commanders

• Recruit-Anywhere:
• Lowborn Officer (40L, throws flames)
• Highborn Officer(H1 80L, crossbow)
• War Engineer (F1E1, 25% Smith bonus)
• Highborn Scholar (F1H1+.5A)
• Artillery Commander (F2+.1A, autocasts phoenix power)

• Capital-Only:
• Fire Sage (F2S2H2 old woman)
• Princeling F3H2+1.1FA
• Admiral (120L, Sailing

Heroes, Spells, and Summons

• Royal Prodigy hero is F3A3, Flying
• Acrobat hero is a high-MR assassin
• Revered General is a shock-immune F4 heretic with sailing
• Contact Mentor Dragon: Conj 4 F3 spell summons a Couatl-like commander with S3N1H2+2.1FN for 40 Fire gems.
• Lightningbending: Lightning Bolt at F2A1; Thunderstrike at F3A1; etc..

New Pretenders

• Spirit Dragon: S/N monster pretender
• Phoenix King (high dom F3 human with good stats and pathcost 30)
• Avatar (FAWE Immortal rainbow with Pathcost 100)
• Fire Crone (as Crone but F1 instead of D1)

[/list]

Oni already have fire and lightning as throwable weapons. You could probably lift some code from Yomi.

I definitely think the Fire Nation should prefer Heat 2.

In any case, they want a Captain who is a commander who has Sailing. Probably also Throw Flames.

The basic troops can be mostly copy pastaed from MA Tien Chi. See the Footman (796), Archer (797), and Imperial Guard (798).

Basically what you want are the following units:

• Fire Nation Footman (Full Scale Mail, Half Helmet, Spear, Tower Shield, FR 25%).
• Fire Nation Footman (Full Scale Mail, Half Helmet, Broadsword, Tower shield, FR 25%).
• Fire Nation Footman (Full Scale Mail, Half Helmet, Falchion, FR 25%).
• Fire Nation Footman (Full Sclae Mail, Half Helmet, Glaive, FR 25%).
• Fire Nation Guard (Scale Mail Cuirass, Broadsword, Patrol Bonus, FR 50%).
• Fire Nation Guard (Scale Mail Cuirass, Spear, Patrol Bonus, FR 50%).
• Fire Nation Bender Infantry (Scale Mail Cuirass, Horned Helmet, Spear, Throw Flames [Weapon 383], Kick [Weapon 397], Sacred, FR 50%).
• Fire Nation Archers (Full Scale Mail, Half Helmet, Crossbow, Broadsword, FR 25%)
• Komodo Cavalry (Scale Mail Cuirass, Iron Cap, Light Lance, Gore, Trample, Size 3, FR 50%)
  
  Capital Only:
• Imperial Firebenders (Full Plate Mail, Horned Helmet, Throw Flames, Flaming Fist [Weapon 320], Kick, Sacred, FR 50%, Patrol Bonus)
• Yu Yan Archers (Full Leather Armor, Leather Cap, Composite Bow, Broadsword, Stealthy, Patrol bonus, FR 25%)
• Dai Li Renegades (Full Leather Armor, Iron Cap, Poison Dagger, Shuriken [weapon 382], Kick, Stealthy, Patrol bonus, Sacred, PR 50%)

Now your leaders are:

• Fire Nation Scout (Full Leather Armor, Leather Cap, Broadsword, Composite Bow, Leadership 40, FR 25%)
• Low-Born Officer (Full Scale Mail, Half Helmet, Shield, Falcion, Throw Flames, Leadership 40, FR 50%, Sacred, F0.5)
• Highborn Officer (Full Scale Mail, Horned Helmet, Flaming Fist, Throw Flames, H1, FR 50%, Sacred)
• Captain (Full Leather Armor, Iron Cap, Falchion, Throw Flames, Leadership 40, FR 50%, Sacred, Sailing)
• War Engineer (Full Leather Armor, Throw Flames, Broadsword, FR 50%, Sacred, Leadership 40, Magic Leadership 40, Siege Bonus +25, F1E1R0.1, Forge Bonus 25%)
• Fire Sage (Leather Cuirass, Leather Cap, Flaming Fist, Leadership 40, Magic Leadership 40, Undead Leadership 40, Sacred, F1S1D1H2R0.2)
  
  Capital Only:
• Fire Assassin (Flaming Fist, FR 100%, F3, Stealthy, Assassin, No Leader)
• Admiral (Full Leather Armor, Iron Cap, Falchion, Throw Flames, Kick, Leadership 120, FR 50%, Sacred, Sailing F2H1)
• General (Scale Mail Cuirass, Flaming Fist, Throw Flames, Leadership 120, FR 50%, Sacred, F3S2H2R1.1)
• Fire noble (Full Leather Armor, Crown, Flaming Fist, Kick, Leadership 120, FR 50%, Sacred, F3A1R1.1)

Fire Nation Randoms are FESA. Expectable maximum paths are:
F4,S3,A2,E1,D1

You need to build Fire Temples in all your castles, because without one, all you can build are Fire Nation Scouts. You need a Lab as well as a temple to build anything other than a Low-Born Officer, High-Born Officer, or Captain. You will probably build a whole lot of War Engineers, because they are build anywhere and your only realistic chance of getting E2.

-Username17

Wow. That certainly makes this nation sound a lot more approachable. I know I at least don't really like having to code new weapons and armor.

Does giving Horned Helmet as unit armor also grant the extra attack of the magic item?

Avoraciopoctules wrote: Does giving Horned Helmet as unit armor also grant the extra attack of the magic item?

Actually, I misremembered. I thought the Horned Helmet was the same as a Full Helmet that just happened to say "Horned Helmet", but it doesn't. Actually it just gives you a Full Helmet and a Gore. So all the guys with "Horned Helmets" just have "Full Helmets". Doesn't make any difference game mechanically, but it would have been cool to have it say "Horned Helmet" on their armor list. Such is life.

-Username17

Now, let's talk about the Water Tribe. Their Randoms are (of course) WSNB. And they use the following weapons:

• Harpoon - 452
• Ice Blade - 37
• Bone Glaive - 455
• Ice Lance - 36
• Quarterstaff - 7
• Mace - 12
• Cold - 160
• Sling - 9

And the following armors:

• Furs
• Full Leather Armor
• Leather Hood
• Full Leather Armor
• Shield
• Ice Aegis

Your basic infantry goes into battle with furs, a leather hood, a mace, and a sling. That is terrible, but at least it doesn't cost a lot of resources. The hunter is more interesting, because Harpoons are awesome.

• Northern Tribe Warrior (Furs, Leather Hood, Mace, Sling, CR 25%)
• Northern Tribe Warrior (Furs, Leather Hood, Bone Glaive, CR 25%)
• Northern Tribe Hunter (Furs, Leather Hood, Mace, Harpoon, Stealthy, CR 25%)
• Northern Tribe Soldier (Full Leather Armor, Leather Hood, Shield, Ice Lance, CR 50%)
• Northern Tribe Soldier (Full Leather Armor, Leather Hood, Bone Glaive, CR 50%)
• Northern Tribe Soldier (Full Leather Armor, Leather Hood, Shield, Mace, Harpoon, CR 50%)
• Bender Infantry (Full Leather Armor, Leather Cap, Ice Aegis, Ice Blade, Cold, Sacred, CR 50%)
• Bender Infantry (Full Leather Armor, Leather Cap, Ice Aegis, Ice Lance, Cold, Sacred, CR 50%)
  
  Capital Only
• Northern Tribe Raider (Full Leather Armor, Leather Cap, Ice Aegis, Ice Lance, Harpoon, Cold, Sacred, CR 50%, Stealthy)

Commanders:

• Chief (Full Leather Armor, Leather Hood, Mace, Sling, CR 50%, Leadership 40)
• Warrior Chief (Full Leather Armor, Leather Hood, Mace, Sling, CR 50%, Leadership 80, Sailing)
• Hunter Chief (Full Leather Armor, Leather Hood, Mace, Harpoon, CR 50%, Leadership 40, Stealthy)
• Water Witch (Quarterstaff, Female, Sacred, CR 50%, Leadership 10, Magic Leadership 10, Healer 30%, S1N2H2R1.1)
• War Bender (Full Leather Armor, Leather Hood, Mace, Cold, Sacred, CR 50%, Leadership 40, W3H2R1.1, Sailing)
• Ice Crafter (Full Leather Armor, Leather Hood, Quarterstaff, Cold, Castle Defense +25, Sacred, CR 50%, Leadership 10, W1R0.2, Forge Bonus 25%)
  
  Capital Only
• Raider Captain (Full Leather Armor, Leather Hood, Mace, Harpoon, Sacred, CR 50%, Leadership 80, W2, Sailing, Stealthy)
• Spirit Guide (Female, Sacred, CR 50%, S2B1H2R1.1, Fortune Teller 5)

You can expect:
W4N3S3B2

-Username17

So soldiers don't have great defense, but will pack at least one pretty nice weapon if you buy the good ones. Not sure what a Bone Glaive would do in human hands, but it's probably decent at least.

Water nation would be capable of clamming with a bit of luck on randoms, and a bless would benefit both sneaky raiders and some mages. Not sure if an Earth bless would synergize with both of those especially wonderfully, but it could certainly bolster the faction.

Now let's talk about the Earth Kingdom. The obvious would be to make them based on Earth magic, but that's wrong. Earth Bending in Avatar makes you live longer and produce great bounty from the soil, which means in Dominions-speak it is actually Nature magic. Just as the Fire Nation gets a bunch of national spells that let them shoot lightning bolts with Fire Magic, so too does the Earth Kingdom get a bunch of national spells that let them throw rocks at things with their Nature magic. Yes, that means that Wolf Tribe Shamans in the Earth Kingdom can cast Flying Shards. Merry Christmas.

• Flying Shards Copypasta - Evocation 0, N1, 30 Fatigue
• Earthquake Copypasta - Evocation 5, N3E1, 300 Fatigue
• Rain of Stones Copypasta - Evocation 7, N4, 90 Fatigue
• Earth Grip Copypasta - Alteration 1, N1, 10 Fatigue
• Earth Meld Copypasta - Alteration 2, N2, 60 Fatigue

Weapons of the Earth Kingdom:

• Maul - 14
• Broadsword - 8
• Light Lance - 357
• Bite - 19
• Spear - 1
• Katana - 378
• Glaive - 308
• Boulder - 27
• Poison Dagger - 126
• Shuriken - 382
• Kick - 397

• Earth Kingdom Militia (Scale Mail Hauberk, Iron Cap, Broadsword, PR 25%)
• Earth Kingdom Militia (Scale Mail Hauberk, Iron Cap, Spear, PR 25%)
• Earth Kingdom Militia (Scale Mail Hauberk, Iron Cap, Glaive, PR 25%)
• Earth Kingdom Soldier (Scale Mail Hauberk, Iron Cap, Maul, PR 25%)
• Earth Kingdom Soldier (Scale Mail Hauberk, Iron Cap, Shield, Spear, PR 25%)
• Earth Bender Soldier (Scale Mail Cuirass, Iron Cap, Broadsword, Boulder, PR 50%, Sacred)
• Earth Bender Soldier (Scale Mail Cuirass, Iron Cap, Glaive, Boulder, PR 50%, Sacred)
• Ostrich-Horse Riders (Scale Mail Hauberk, Iron Cap, shield, Light Lance, Bite, Boulder, PR 50%, Sacred, Mounted)
• Earth Kingdom Archers (Scale Mail Cuirass, Iron Cap, Composite Bow, Broadsword, PR 25%)
• Earth Kingdom Bandit (Full Leather Armor, Broadsword, Broadsword PR 25%, ambidexterity 4)
• Earth Kingdom Bandit (Full Leather Armor, Maul PR 25%)
• Earth Kingdom Bandit (Full Leather Armor, Shield, Spear PR 25%)
  
  Capital-Only
• Kyoshi Warrior (Scale Mail Cuirass, Crown, Katana, PR 50%, Sacred, Stealthy)
• Dai Li Enforcer Dai Li Renegades (Full Leather Armor, Iron Cap, Poison Dagger, Shuriken, Kick, Stealthy, Patrol bonus, Sacred, PR 50%)
• Royal Guards (Full Scale Mail, Iron Cap, Glaive, Boulder, Sacred, PR 50%)

-Username17

I want to implement at least one new weapon: a "flame jet" melee attack that does straight fire damage with Length 5. That way the Imperial Firebenders can use repels against enemy militias. I also still think Fire Nation needs elite Falchioneers to give them a unit that can actually do damage to Abysia or Ashdod. I had also intended to give them a cap-only Dai Li Exile with E2 and Spy, but I forgot.

Thematically, I don't understand why the General has Astral magic. The Fire Sages get it because they see the future and predict the Avatar and shit and their temple connect to the spirit world. What's the General's excuse? Also, I had originally conceived of the Fire Nation as an imperial cult where anyone "noble" would be sacred. That's why the "Highborn Officer" is a priest. If you're keeping that nomeclature, then Fire Noble should be a priest rather than General.

You'll need to give MA (and maybe LA) Fire Nation recruitable or summonable mountain-climbing tanks and zepplins. And maybe even a really big drill.

Nature-heavy Earth Kingdom is really causing me some cognitive dissonance. I understand the rationale but there's a part of me that rebels when I look and see more N than E.

Zeppelins are tough. Dominions isn't really set up to handle transport vessels, since commander movement is limited by the transported troops. Your choices are either to make little zeppelins with crossbows or arbalests or something as mobile air support, or get creative.

I think the best bet might be to stat up a Fire Nation Paratrooper unit which is an Imperial Firebender with Flying. Then let them have an E2 spell that summons 10 paratroopers and a Zeppelin "commander" with leadership 10.

You could certainly make the Generals be Earth casters instead of Astral casters. That would make them occasionally bust out with Magma Eruption instead of Astral Fires. Also, it would make the faction as a whole better at crafting and worse at transporting armies. It is the army transport function that I latched onto when making the Generals the way that I did. Nothing says "leader of the army" like being able to wear an item or two and carry the army across the map.

I really don't see nobles having more than maybe Holy 1, because that would involve them spending time rallying troops instead of shooting lightning at people and kicking them in the face. And Fire Nation Nobles seem to really want to spend more time face kicking and less time rallying troops.

-Username17

Frank, these write-ups are really cool. So much so that I am tempted to divert from my present project to try doing some work on them. I'm not sure how I'd start with the spriting. There's 2 basic approaches. I could watch the show again and look for soldiers I could clip out of screenshots and trace, or I could just use the show for reference and frankenstein together existing sprites in an attempt to remain true to the Dominions style.

Which sounds better?

*sees that you did not mean Bender from Futurama*
*clicks back button*

Avoraciopoctules wrote:Frank, these write-ups are really cool. So much so that I am tempted to divert from my present project to try doing some work on them. I'm not sure how I'd start with the spriting. There's 2 basic approaches. I could watch the show again and look for soldiers I could clip out of screenshots and trace, or I could just use the show for reference and frankenstein together existing sprites in an attempt to remain true to the Dominions style.

Which sounds better?

Definitely start with the Dominions Sprites and Palette Swap them.

I mean, Earth Nation Soldiers are dressed like this:



Open up Units 1238 and 1240 and palette swap their clothes to green and tan. Then swap some weapons around.

Fire Nation troops should start with Tien Chi units as described.
And so on and so on.

-Username17

Here's the ashigeru with some appropriate color shifts. I'm not sure what to do with the leather cuirass. I could go with the green, the tan, or a combination. Or I could leave it pretty much as is.


EDIT:
note to self:
cloth hue 120
metal hue 50, saturation 35
leather hue 70, saturation 35

Orion wrote:I want to implement at least one new weapon: a "flame jet" melee attack that does straight fire damage with Length 5. That way the Imperial Firebenders can use repels against enemy militias. I also still think Fire Nation needs elite Falchioneers to give them a unit that can actually do damage to Abysia or Ashdod.

Glaives will cut up giants and Abysians just fine, especially if you toss on strength of giants or weapons of sharpness... then it gets messy.

If you really want the Fire Nation elite to have a good repel weapon, make it a length 6 fire attack that does a maximum of 1 damage (like a whip). That way they can use it to keep militia at bay but not use it to burninate the countryside.


Should we assume the Water Tribe are Cold Preference +2?

Also, how much earth magic (as in, earth paths) will the earth nation actually have? Will they be able to summon trolls and forge hammers and all that? I also didn't notice a forge bonus on any of their commanders, making them actually worse at forging than either the Water Tribe or the Fire Nation. All that nature magic is fine for the sake of the setting, but it does seem weird to have the Earth Kingdom full of plant summons and fairy queens instead of trolls and earth elementals.

Man, the posture for maul attacks is really different from polearm stances. I'm making more changes to these sprites than I expected.
EDIT:
The Earth soldiers use straight swords, right?

I think I'm going to take a break and do social stuff. But here's most of what's been sprited:

Avoraciopoctules wrote:Man, the posture for maul attacks is really different from polearm stances. I'm making more changes to these sprites than I expected.
EDIT:
The Earth soldiers use straight swords, right?

Yeah, they use straight swords.


You'll need to create a new boulder weapon for the earthbenders. All the existing ones have a range of 1/3 strength, which doesn't really work for non-giants. There is an unused version of the boulder (weaponid 471) that could work but we really want this weapon to have the #bonus attribute so that your earthbending commanders can chunk rocks at people even when you forge equipment for them. Should these boulders be AoE-1 so they aren't blocked by shields/air shield?

A few more thoughts:

The Water Tribe should be able to cast Freezing Mist (W3A1), which will require them getting access to air or them getting a national version of the spell. They should also have some sort of blood-based spell which causes enemy units to attack one another (but doesn't cause them to change sides) to represent blood bending.


Why does the Water Nation have death access? What is the thematic or mechanical justification for that?


Unless earth paths are common enough for the Earth Kingdom commanders, they'll likely need nature versions of stoneskin, iron skin and invulnerability since those are all thematically appropriate.

Shatner wrote:A few more thoughts:

The Water Tribe should be able to cast Freezing Mist (W3A1), which will require them getting access to air or them getting a national version of the spell. They should also have some sort of blood-based spell which causes enemy units to attack one another (but doesn't cause them to change sides) to represent blood bending.

Agreed. An area confusion effect based on blood seems pretty reasonable.

Why does the Water Nation have death access? What is the thematic or mechanical justification for that?

They have a Stygian Paths in their house. It's right next to the Koi pond, you can go commune with dead ancestors right there. If anything, they should probably have more death. Also: this way they can cast Hidden in Snow.

Unless earth paths are common enough for the Earth Kingdom commanders, they'll likely need nature versions of stoneskin, iron skin and invulnerability since those are all thematically appropriate.

During this period, metal bending is unheard of. Having access to Iron Skin and Blade Wind is definitely something they shouldn't have. Unfortunately, they'll have an Earth on casters, so Iron Skin will definitely happen sometimes. It's sad.

But for the most part, their buff of choice should be Strength of Gaea. Strength boost, barkskin, regeneration. Sounds pretty good.

-Username17

That makes sense. Alright.

Now, Water Tribe troops. They have some good weaponry but for the most part they sound like LA Atlantis without the awesome ice and bone armor. That sounds pretty harsh, especially since we're dealing with humans rather than atlantians. Are they going to have some sort of racially superior defense stat, or some other stat/economic advantage that'll make their flimsy, flimsy troops perform better? Regardless, like LA Atlantis, I think they should have universal map move-2 on their troops.

EDIT: Also, they don't seem to have a scout specced out, but I assume that's just an oversight. If added, I'd like him to have sailing to really push their "this group is mobile over the water but isn't amphibious" motif.

I don't think that the Water Tribe really needs a Scout on top of their Hunter Chief. I mean, the Hunter Chief already gets to scout, he just happens to also lead troops and throw harpoons. I suppose having a 20 gold Fisherman with no leadership but stealthy and sailing would be a fine thing to include. And yeah, I think that Water Tribe people should be genetically higher in defense and MR.

Now, let's talk about summons.

The Earth Kingdom should get Badgermoles. The Water Tribe gets Polar Beardogs. The Fire Nation gets Dragons. That's just your basic bending companions. But obviously it should be a bit more than that.

The Water Tribe gets the Moon Spirit and the Ocean Spirit. Those both start with copystats from the Queen of Rivers, so they are unique. The Ocean Spirit is basically just a Queen of Water that happens to be summonable on land and always gives you an amphibious one. The Moon Spirit is a Flying, Amphibious Astral caster, but conjuring it in the first place is a big Blood Summons. For Death, you get Koh the Face Stealer (also unique) and copypasta of the ancestor spirit summoning spells from EA Tien Chi.

Earth Kingdom gets Canyon Crawlers, and a special version of Living Statues that is exactly the same except requiring only a base of 1 Earth instead of 3. The latter is to get the Earth Kingdom to spend their Earth gems on thematic living statues instead of unthematic clockwork horrors and mechanical men. Also, they should probably be able to summon Eelhound Cavalry. Should also get a combat summoning that pulls in Wolfbats from the corners like Howl does for regular, non-flying, wolves.

-Username17

I glanced at a couple reference photos for the Dai Li sprite. This would probably be a commander, but I'm not sure what to use as a base for the robe of lower-level soldiers or how much of their circle emblem to show.