Dwarf nation mod Thread - Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

Alright, now I'm officially back in the ring! Click on the picture for the download.

UPDATE 10.11.2013 --> Version 1.01

-- Fixed the abuse potential of Miner Ambush & Rune of Doom
-- Slayers now autoberserk+luck correctly
-- Fixed runebearers having 1000 darkvision

Changes from the previous dom3 version
- Gold cost for dwarf units raised and encumbrance for dwarf armor raised for balance against dom4 vanilla
- Oathsworn forms of Thanes and Kings increase province defense and can collect taxes
- Removed retinue from Ranger Champons, but they (along with rangers) can be recruited from forests without a fort
- Prospectors, Runebearers and Miners are recruitable from caves without a fort
- Runesmiths and Runelords are slow to recruit
- Slightly touched up some graphics
- Added new pretender, the Ancient King. He is basically a national version of Ghost King.
- Added a summon for Runeguards, "The Pool of History" in alteration 3
- Runeguards are now recruitable from capital, but with recruitlimit 3
- Clan Kings are now recruitable everywhere, but slow to recruit
- Now with 25% more dwarf names with 100% more clan names!

This nation very heavily inspired the Dwarfs in the Warhammer collectible tactical figurine game. All right belong to Games Workshop and this a non-profit parody, please support the official release and so forth.

The Dwarfs are an ancient race, said to have been sculpted from solid stone by Pantokrator in the early days. This seems plausible, for the spirit and body of a dwarf are hardy like stone. A long time ago, dwarfs ruled a vast and glorious empire, from great rune-endowed halls full of laughter and song. However, dwarfs had many enemies and the empire slowly eroded in the face of skaven, orc and elf invasions. And so, like a great mountain that had been dwindled by rain, water and wind, the dwarf race is just a shadow of what it used to be. But as the other races squabble amongst themselves and forget the wisdom of their fathers, dwarfs hone their skills and work together to build a second empire. As the the time of the ascension wars draws closer, the power of dwarf determination grows stronger. Dwarfs are few in number, but each one of them is equipped with dwarf steel and draws power from the spirits of his wronged ancestors."

Pros:
- All dwarfs are clad in superior equipment and all of them are trained for war
- They are good at forging and have good access to powerful rituals
- All of their forts get 10% more resources
- Their superior masonry and engineering allow them to build LA castles in MA
- Dwarfs in general have very good morale
- Some dwarf units are able to travel stealthily underground and ignore terrain
- Dwarfs have good national province defense

Cons:
- Dwarf empire is slow in and out of the battlefield. Their research is slow and their fort building is slow too.
- The best dwarf magic users lose magical power in combat.
- Dwarfs are few in number and cost a lot of gold and resources to recruit
- Dwarfs have pretty limited access to sorcery paths

Some tips and tricks:
- Thanes come with 5 clansdwarf warriors when recruited. You can use this to quickly build expansion forces. Clan Kings come with 5 Hammers. Both of these commander can swear an oath of hearth and hold (by using their shapecchange command) to permanently become immobile commanders with increased stats. Oathsworn thanes and kings organize province defense and can collect taxes.

Known bugs:
- Power of the Spheres no longer boosts holy, so the Anvil of Doom and the Anvil of the Dwarrows have pretty high holy values. This is a placeholder solution until I can figure out something more elegant.

- Runelords and Runsmiths show as being size 6 in the map screen. This is a modding quirk I need to do to make them lose magical power in combat. They will shrink to size 2 at the start of combat.

To Do list for the next version:
-- Figure out a more elegant way for Primal Runes and Thorek and Rune of Doom
-- Rune of Grimnir combat spell
-- More heroes?
-- Dwarf only items
Download from this link

Edited by: Burnsaber

When i try to cast a ritual spell with a runelord it show me this:

Edit: probably the patch has altered the national fire spells, all the fire mages (national, native & pretender) have problem casting fire ritual spells and scripting them.
PS: Sorry for my bad English

Edited by: Federebus

That is definately interesting. Do you have several mods enabled?

It might be that the patch somehow broke the mod. I'll investigate once I get home.

Thank you for reporting.

There's some oddities with the new patch. I've updated the Holy War mod for dom4 for my use. Yesterday it worked fine, today Marignon's inquisitors can't cast anything. Seems to be linked to moded spells + having the fire path.

Edited by: knightofni

could the Dwarfs get a Hero called Urist McSomething?

The latest patch seems to have fixed the issues with the kill caster spell not working (although a modified version of kill caster that I wrote from scratch still doesn't work, that's ok because you can use the basegame one).

You'd have to give Urist Berserk and Insanity as well. As a child, he was lost in the caverns and had to survive off mushrooms, grubs, and muddy water before coming back several years later with only a shred of sanity. He was then thrown into the "danger room" an experimental training method where the recruit gets bludgeoned for hours on end with wooden spikes until they're rendered unconscious. Despite being primarily a crossbow dwarf, he prefers to use his teeth and fists to painfully mutilate an enemy to death.
Pretty much the average dwarf in my fort.

Edited by: amuys

Who is Urist? I think I' missing a reference here.

I did a quick update in preparation of the mod game. It fixes the abuse potential of Miner Ambush & Rune of Doom mods and makes the Slayers auto-berserk & luck themselves correctly. Download from OP

Burnsaber wrote: Who is Urist? I think I' missing a reference here.

Dwarffortresswiki.org

Edited by: Pohjanmaalainen

Great mod! I love dwarves and I am glad to see that they made it into this game. Would you consider adding an ancestor statue as a pretender in the future?

ElderDays wrote: Great mod! I love dwarves and I am glad to see that they made it into this game. Would you consider adding an ancestor statue as a pretender in the future?

That is possible. I think I have unused sprite for that in that sprite folder, but I did not use it, because I weren't happy with it, because it was just a recolored father of runes sprite.

Once I make the next update for dwarfs (they still need national items) I can see if I get inspiration on a way to make a new sprite for the statue with a bit more prazazz. I also should figure out what mechanical niche it could fill.

Would it be possible to add a hero named "Thibbledorf Pwent"?
Imagine troll-slayer status berserker with a spiked helm, spiked gauntlets, spiked plate armor, spiked boots... nothing but spikes!!!
He also drinks a "Gutbuster" ale that not only is a potent intoxicant, it also acts as an anti-toxin AND anesthesia!
I know your dwarves are of warhammer, but Pwent should feel right at home!

Here's a link!
Forgottenrealms.wikia.com

DariusFF wrote: Would it be possible to add a hero named "Thibbledorf Pwent"?
Imagine troll-slayer status berserker with a spiked helm, spiked gauntlets, spiked plate armor, spiked boots... nothing but spikes!!!
He also drinks a "Gutbuster" ale that not only is a potent intoxicant, it also acts as an anti-toxin AND anesthesia!
I know your dwarves are of warhammer, but Pwent should feel right at home!

Here's a link!
Forgottenrealms.wikia.com

I read those books when I was younger. Pwent would be a tad odd comic relief for the grim tone I'm going for in the mod.

A small update.

UPDATE 10.11.2013 --> Version 1.02
-- Fixed compactibility issues with Byzantine Pythium
-- Some spites were "muddy" due to freaky alpha channels or some shit, fixed.

There has been talk on the dom4mods boards that the troops are too expensive for the bang that you get. Anyone here agree?

Edited by: Burnsaber