FF's Kushan Mod (Berserk nation) Thread - Dominions 4: Thrones of Ascension

Hello all!

I've been working on this mod for a few weeks now ironing out bugs and errors and I feel it's ready for public testing!
This mod introduces the Kushan Empire from the Berserk manga/anime into Dom4's MA.
Kushan Mod

Commanders, Recruits and national summons (except Kundalini) are DONE! I'm sure they're horrible unbalanced I feel, but that's why I'm posting them here!
I see this nation using cheap slave troops to absorb arrow fire and cavalry charges, then having its professional troops do the real work of killing the enemy.
The dakas are disposable shock troops while the pishachas serve different roles such as flankers, tanks and tramplers.

I chose a mix of Tien Chi and Arcoscephale for the national recruits, with commander sprites taken from Ulm and Marignon.
I've set the national summons to research 0 and only 1 slave so as to allow testing of the Pishacha and Daka units.

Concerning Kushan's magic paths, I chose blood and nature with mages getting a random choice of one of the elemental paths. Blood for obvious reasons, nature due to their use of animals to create their demons and an element for its combat spells.

[01/08/14]
Overwrote MA Bandar Log to test nation
Added national troops
Slave peltast
Slave tower shield + spear
Slave pike
Slave short bow
Professional glaive
Professional composite bow
Professional, elite longspear phalanx
Professional, elite medium cavalry
War elephant

Added commanders
Assassin
Taskmaster (40 troops, recruit anywhere)
Commander (120 troops, siege and castledef bonus, capital only)
Minister (Holy 1, patrol bonus, increase prov def, reduce unrest, taxcollector)
High Minister (Holy 2, greater bonuses, capital only)
Magi Apprentice (Blood hunter)
Magi Adept (recruit anywhere battle mage, crossbreeder, daka caster)
Magi Master (capital only, crossbreeder, pishacha caster)

Added national summons (Daka + Pishacha)
Daka: Disposable shock troops
Ankaboot: Anti-armor, poisonous
Gorbeh: Fast, berserk flanker
Sag: Loyal, hard hitting guards
Temsaah: Heavily armored berserker
Khook: High HP, Regen tank
Pil: Hard hitting elite summon
Makara: Amphibious trampler

[01/10/14]
Moved Kushan to its own nation slot (MA 199)
Added nation description, summary and brief.
Added custom made national flag! (I'm honestly not satisfied with its quality, but tried my best!)

Added 4 new battle spells (Blood school, 1 per element)
These spells are set to research lvl 0 and only fatigue cost so far.
Fire: AoE Rage
Air: AoE False Fetters
Water: AoE Numbness
Earth: AoE Resist Magic

Added Makara Pil national summon
Added spell descriptions to summon spells
Added descriptions to troops, summoned creatures and commanders.

[01/12/14 Update]
Added Emperor Ganishka as hero1, added a temporary spell to summon him to allow testing.
Warning: He is overpowered as he should be! He does have heretic 1 in human form and heretic 3 in shiva form.
I'm considering making him a pretender instead of a hero.

Added Bakirakas as multihero1, elite assassins that come as a troupe of 5.
They carry nets and poisoned shuriken. Added a temporary spell to summon them to allow testing.
Both heroes still don't have descriptions, any help in writing them would be much appreciated!

Ideas for other national heroes:
Hero 2: Rakshasa (Unique Bakiraka assassin)
Hero 3: Dhaiva (Unique Master Magi)

Please take a look and help me balance these units! This is my first attempt at creating a new nation, so I"m sure there are many balance issues.
I need feedback especially on the national summons, my goal is for each to serve a specific role in the Kushan army.
Finally, I apologize for the horrible sprite quality, due to my lack of skill at painting, I did the best I could with my meager abilities.

Edited by: DariusFF

Those elephants are pretty freaky looking

Will try to take a look tonight.

I can't retrieve the document or don't have permission, Google drive says! D:, but I think it's a cool idea for a mainly berserking. If you don't have this, I think blood magic would be quite thematic for this nation, since when you go berserk you can cause a lot of bloodshed.

MartinGG99 wrote: I can't retrieve the document or don't have permission, Google drive says! D:, but I think it's a cool idea for a mainly berserking. If you don't have this, I think blood magic would be quite thematic for this nation, since when you go berserk you can cause a lot of bloodshed.

Berserk is the name of the comic the nation is based on, it's not referring to the game mechanic.

Oh you have to click on "File" then download, for some reason It wont let you download with just a click and i cant figure out how to fix that.
And yes, the mod is based on the Kushan nation from the Berserk manga/anime.

[01/18/14 Update]
Added descriptions for Emperor Ganishka and Bakiraka.
Added custom sprite for Ganishka emperor form
Changed Ganishka Apostle form's Heretic 3 >>> 5
Changed the Kushan Commander capital recruit >>> recruit anywhere StR
Changed High Minister's unrest reduction 1 >>> 2

To those who tested this:
Thank you so much!

What are your opinions on the kushan commander?
I feel like I should make him recruit anywhere but StR, as he was capital only before. Is this better or should I keep him capital only?

Opinion on the Minister?
I feel like I put too much into one commander. Maybe bump up his costs?
Same with the High Minister.

Any thoughts on spell costs for the summons?
I was thinking 1:1 blood slaves for the daka, 1:4 for animal pishacha, 1:8 for humanoids, 1:10 for large humanoids and 1:15 for makara.

Opinions on the summons?
I feel like the tiger doesn't deal enough damage and the spider is too squishy especially since he's so large.

Finally, Thoughts on adding more troop types?
I was looking at other nation mods and they have alot more choices of troops than mine... I feel like I have all the bases covered with my current troop choices, but is there a type of troop I should add in?

Really hoping to finish this mod soon so I can start working on its counterpart: Midlands!
Any ideas for it would be much appreciated as well!

[01/26/14 Update]
Added fireshield 5 to Pishacha Gorbeh

Removed test spells for summoning Emperor and Hero assassins.

Updated all spells with appropriate costs and research level.
Daka (lvl 1 blood, 1=1 ratio, scaling)
Ankaboot (lvl 2 blood, 2 = 1 ratio, scaling)
Gorbeh (lvl 2 blood, 2 = 1 ratio, scaling)
Sag (lvl 3 blood , 2 = 1 ratio, scaling)
Temsaah (lvl 3 blood , 2 = 1 ratio)
Khook (lvl 4 blood , 2 = 1 ratio)
Pil (lvl 4 blood , 2 = 1 ratio)
Makara (lvl 5 blood , 4 = 1 ratio)
Elemental battle spells set to lvl 2 blood research

Added new units:
Kushan Broken: Mindless slave, armed with a flail and a deathwish.
Kushan Trooper: Professional soldier, armed with a falchion and tower shield.
Kushan Horseman: Professional medium cavalry, armed with a light lance and composite bow.

Added new commander:
Iron Minister: Resource bonus and siege expert.

Edited by: DariusFF