General Discussion, Announcements

[DarkInterloper]

Alright, thanks to gebilde we now have custom region descriptions like DAC! For now its placeholder descriptions, and is organized around geographic areas (like Hyrule Prime, Lon Lon, Malkariko, and Hylia Marine will all display a "Hyrule Field" description)

Sadly we can't have unique images for regions/settlements.

[UndyingNephalim]

The guide for the Picori is ready:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

On a side note, I'll be without internet access for several days so I apologize in advance if I do not get back to anyone until later this week.

[darnokthemage]

Love the idea of small Minish Armies having warring against Ants and Bees.

[Eldren]

Love the idea of small Minish Armies having warring against Ants and Bees.

agreed.

[Drazule]

This is hilarous and I am glad we can have some levity in this series. Also I'm stoked to see Gohdan in the game.

[djsalibeat]

hey undying im not big fan of deku faction as there weird
but im big fan of river zora as there seem to be evil rebel ripoff of zoras
so im hoping after your done with lizardfos that your gonna work on river zora before deku

[Codeman11]

I honestly can't tell if the Minish are cute or scary.

[King Athelstan]

Both!

[Eldren]

hey undying im not big fan of deku faction as there weird
but im big fan of river zora as there seem to be evil rebel ripoff of zoras
so im hoping after your done with lizardfos that your gonna work on river zora before deku

Me Personally. The Deku Tribes are one of my Favorite factions. And I'm looking forward to their 2nd HD update.
Though I can see why you like the River Zora so much. Remember the Storm Zora just south of their location as well.
On that note, have you (or any one else) played the River Zora recently, And taken the Storm Zora as allies?
What are your thoughts on their unit combos in your armies?

[Bloodly]

Well, neither the River Zora or the Storm Zora get Embassies, so you'll have to fight them down. So you've only got one place to recruit them ever. And like with every other NPC faction, replenishment is 0.1(1 per 10 turns), so they'll never be a significant part of your forces even if you could get them peacefully, as no matter how big their army might be, they'll be hell to keep in the field.

Anyway, the Storm Zora provide large amounts of unit EXP through the Lost Library(+2 to infantry, an extra +2 to ranged. The two stack, so ranged units can get +4 off it). Tiderunners are better spears than your standard, their defences are 3/5/3 Armour/Defence/Shield rather than the usual 3/3/3, before EXP. Hard to judge the rage thing. Causes fear in infantry is always of use.

Vipers provide an early armour-pierce. The River Zora don't get real anti-armour till their settlement hits Settlement 5 via the River Knight. More cause-fear-infantry. 4/3/5 Armour/Defence/Shield can be thought of as comparable, if not worse, than the 3/3/7 of the Geozard that is the baseline heavy troop of the River Zora.

Until Cyclops Ku show up at Settlement 5, the only ranged you have as the River Zora are Outrunners; javelin men. There are advantages and disadvantages. Stormbringers, if I recall, use the same blue-puffs-of-knockdown as some Fairy and Twili units. Missile strength of 3. The missile's counted as Incendiary, so instant-kills abound, I guess. Stormbringers have basically no defences, however(1/1/0 before EXP) or melee offence(Melee 1) where the Outrunners actually have combat capability(melee 3, defences of 3/3/3). Equal range on projectiles, at 80.

[Eldren]

@Bloodly.
Can you build the NPC barracks in any/all of your Settlements? If you can. Then I'm fine with the long wait. But if you can only get their units from their Home land/region. Then they really need to have "Better/more normal" recruiting/replenish times.

Edit:
Good observations by the way.

Edit2:
There is a building called land clearance. or some thing like that. It says some thing about setting land aside for Foreigners or something like that. And i thought it aloud you to build a NPC factions Building on your settlement. I've seen that building in HTW 4.5 and I believe I've seen it in HTW 4.4.

[Bloodly]

That's the thing.

The Absorption mechanic that allows you to build NPC buildings wherever you like requires you to ally with that faction for about ten turns. Then you get a prompt, which you can accept or decline. Then you get to build the unique building; they're 'upgrades' of the Empty land, so you can only build one NPC building per settlement, even with multiple races absorbed so. Each one costs 3800. You'll also get the armies and settlements of the absorbed race.

Now as noted, the River Zora, being raiding bastards who wish only to rape pillage and burn(As the intro text itself says), don't do diplomacy, so don't get Embassies, and can't use those of others.

So they can't send someone to ally with NPC factions...or anyone else. So in truth they can't actually get any NPC on their side besides potentially the Tokay and the Zuna(The only NPC Factions permitted to build Embassies and thus send out Diplomats), since merely destroying the faction doesn't let you recruit the units. It requires the specific event of 'X_joined_someone'.

Only Labrynna can bypass the 'allying with races for absorption' mechanic, via their unique 'enslavement' mechanic.

[Gebilde]

well that does not work becouse npc have there KI deactivatet

[Bloodly]

True. My setup is not default...I run with their AI on.

That doesn't do much for them under default settings, because even Farm buildings are disabled in terms of income for several of them, meaning they are severely limited in what they can do. Making them able to work is a case of activating various buildings for them, giving them equal money/recruitment to everyone, and so on.

[djsalibeat]

so river zora is the only faction who cant do dimplomacy other than gohma?

[Bloodly]

Of the main factions? Pretty much.

[DarkInterloper]

That's the thing.

The Absorption mechanic that allows you to build NPC buildings wherever you like requires you to ally with that faction for about ten turns. Then you get a prompt, which you can accept or decline. Then you get to build the unique building; they're 'upgrades' of the Empty land, so you can only build one NPC building per settlement, even with multiple races absorbed so. Each one costs 3800. You'll also get the armies and settlements of the absorbed race.

Now as noted, the River Zora, being raiding bastards who wish only to rape pillage and burn(As the intro text itself says), don't do diplomacy, so don't get Embassies, and can't use those of others.

So they can't send someone to ally with NPC factions...or anyone else. So in truth they can't actually get any NPC on their side besides potentially the Tokay and the Zuna(The only NPC Factions permitted to build Embassies and thus send out Diplomats), since merely destroying the faction doesn't let you recruit the units. It requires the specific event of 'X_joined_someone'.

Only Labrynna can bypass the 'allying with races for absorption' mechanic, via their unique 'enslavement' mechanic.

Factions that can't do diplo, like the gohma, will still be able to get npcs via the "quests" once they're implemented, like say killing the shadow hag to get tokay.

[Codeman11]

I wish NPC factions had more units.

Honestly, i wish the mod had more units in general.

[Codeman11]

Alternatively, the same unit could be available to multiple factions, with cosmetic changes. Avatar of Majora had something like that planned, but it seems Majora factions are very low-priority, so we'll have to wait for them.

[DarkInterloper]

I wish NPC factions had more units.

Honestly, i wish the mod had more units in general.

Medieval 2 unfortunately has hardcoded limits on the unit count, which restricts us to figuring out how many we can allot per faction.