Pythium: The Second Empire v.0.86, A more byzantine version of MA Pythium

I made this nation out of my annouance with the MA Pythium. The dom3 vanilla nation has some Byzantine flavor, but it overshadowed by the Hydras and the annoying Arch Theurgs. I also disliked the Pythiums pretty absurd power level. Hence this mod, which overwrites most of the vanilla MA Pyhium. This mod nation takes some heavy influences from the Byzantine Empire, albeit in a very romanticed way to make it fit to Dom 3 universe.

Of course, if you like the basic Pythium this won't likely be your mod. What I'm aiming for here, is to bring a breath of fresh air into a power nation that has been played to death since Dom:PPP. Perhaps allowing for a option for those who want to play the glorious "Second Rome" instead of herding some very old dudes like sheep to prevent them from dying to disease.


IMPORTANT NOTE: This is designed to be used with CBM. It overwrites the vanilla MA Pythium for modding slot preservation. To use this mod with CBM, you need to always enable it AFTER enabling CBM in the "mod preferences" screen. If you don't want the hassle of this, you can use the alternate version, which is rolled with CBM into a single mod. If you want to play this nation in MP, I'd highly suggest you use the version combined with CBM to avoid bugs.

This mod also makes changes to the Angel summons, which slightly boost MA+LA Marignon when this mod is enabled. This mod also overwrites the "Call Lords of Civilation" spell from EA Hinnom, giving it a slight nerf.


*Only new graphics shown
The graphic file for the mod also includes some base sprites and other miscallenous stuff from the sprite edits I did for this mod. If you are intrested in the stuff, you should take a look.

Changes from version 0.85 to 0.86

NATION DESCRIPTION

The Empire of Pythium is a splinter empire of the great Empire of Ermor. As dark arts were practised in the heart of the Empire, the stars warned the Theurgs of Pythia to flee the impending doom. They led Pythia away from the falling Empire and formed a glorious Second Empire under their wise rule. However, as Ermor crumbled, the provinces of Pythium rebelled and became independent. Emperors of Pythium could not reclaim the rebelling lands and the power of the Second Empire diminished over the centuries.

The Pythian army is based on the old legionnaire army of Ermor with some modifications. During the rebellions, barbarians from distant lands tried to conquer the glorious capital, but were beaten back by northern mercenaries hired by the Emperor. With time, these mercenaries have become an integral part of the Pythian military. Theurgs are also supporters of sciences and the famous alchemists of Pythium have recently invented new weapons to fight the legions of the Fallen Empire.

Strenghts: Very solid infantry, Pyrotes, Angel Summons, communions and good mid-game battle magic.

Weaknesses: Expensive castles, poor magic access, somewhat capitol centric, extremely debendent upon the starting "Emperor" unit (if he dies early, it's GG for the nation)

Basic strats & hints:
(no strategy guide yet)

So now, in the graphic folder of this mod (from v.0.81 and up), there is a a .txt file called "Pythian Secrets", which explains the many nuances of the mod and effects of the spells in gamplay terms. Warning though, the file could be considered as a spoiler fest, but good for players who do not want to second guess what a spell actually does.

Note that the single random the Theurg get in this mod is linked. I unfortunately caanot make it obvious because of modding limitations. but now that you know of it, IMHO it shouldn't much of a problem.

Pyrotes play a lot like Hydras in the sense that they are extremely powerful troops in the right circumstances, but will do more harm than good if played incorrectly. They have an AoE 2 fire attack, so whenever they attack they basically have 1/9 chance of frying themselves. You should use them mixed with chaff troops (Velites work well, since both have the same AP) so that two Pyrotes are not in the same square to minimize your losses in the case they manage to shoot their own square.

Four out of your five total heroes are mages, so investing in a luck scale will most likely pay off. However, you should not rely on getting them and design your pretender in such a way that you will be able to build the boosters you need even without their help.

Do not be afraid of the affliction chance on Imperial Alchemists. Even if you really get unlucky with one that is feebleminded or mute, they can still act as makeshift artillery with their "Pyros" ranged attack. Some Alchemists with a legionnaire meat screen is also a good way to get rid of Heavy Cavalry independents in the early game.


Changes to base Pythium
-> Starting commanders to Ambassador and The Emperor
-> A bundle of new units and commanders
-> Completely revamped heroes
-> A new angel summon "Theosis" (conj 7, S4H3, 50 gems)
-> Changes to vanilla angel summons
-> Battle Vestal no longer cap only
-> Description edits
-> Starting gem income to: 1F 1A 1W 2S
-> Arch Theurgs will be multiheroes and only slightly old age, magic changed to S3 3? H3 (F/A/W -> linked random)
-> Theurgs - not old any more, magic changed to S2 2? H2 (F/A/W - linked randoms), gold cost increase
-> Theurg Acolytes get an additional 10% F/A/W random.
-> Following units no longer available;
Hydra, Hydra Hatchling, Hydra Tamer, Scout, Emerald Lord, Lizard Catapharact, Lizard Lord, Gladiators, the Master of Games multi-hero


Changes to Angel Summons
(these changes will affect Marignon too)

Contact Harbinger (OLD, level 6, S4, 25 pearls) -> NEW: level 5, A2 S3, 28 air gems
Angelic Host (OLD, level 7, S5, 50 pearls) -> NEW: level 7, F3S4, 55 fire gems

Other angelic Summons left as they are. This change is so that the player might occasionally *use* these spells. In vanilla it's just better so save up your gems for Angels of Fury and completely ignore Harbingers and Angelic Hosts. These changes also mean that Marignon is a bit poorer in summoning Harbinger than the new Pythium, but respectively has easier time summoning the fiery smiting Archangels than the new Pythium. I think nicely reflects the small differences between the faith of these nations. Marignon Angels are more about smiting as Pythian Angels are bit more "artistic".


Burnsaber's Fix List for the next version:
-> Nothing at the moment

This mod uses following modding slots:

Weaponslots: 730-734
Armorslots: 351
Monsterslots: 2690-2693
Spellslots: 6

*The cbm and pythium combined mod does not include the "worthy heroes" graphic folder of the CBM mod to save space. If you don't have it, DL the actual CBM mod to get it. The upper file of the listed downloads below contains the combination mod with the newest version (0.85). The one at the bottom is the "base" version

Download the from here
--Base version is "Byzantine0.86.zip"
--And the version combined with CBM is "Byzantine_plus_CBM1.6_v_0.86.zip"

Updated in the preparation of the Legendary Ordeals II game.

Is this mod incompatible with the Single Age and Magic site mods? I tried to use it with CBM 1.6 + Single Age + Magic Sites mod and it crashed... with the "name2spell" error....

It has no reason to be compatible with either, so I would assume it is incompatible.

But there are mod combining scripts out there if you want to run things together. pyg has one on this forum.

Made it work... did not need to change anything, just deactivated all mods and activacted then in the order CBM + Single Age + Magic Sites + Pithium...

thanks

i use dominions ver 3.24 and pyg mod combiner. Can put the script here, if someone cares

There's a big problem with the Byzantine Pythum: it starts without fort, so it is impossible to hire troops on the 1st turn

#startfort directive cures the problem

i've set forts for myself this way:

and what are the vanilla Pythium forts?

and what are the vanilla Pythium forts?

That's odd. I think that fault is likely on the mod combiner script, because the basic mod does not define forts at all (it just uses the ones that vanilla Pythium uses). Perhaps the mod combiner script moved the mod into another nation slot?

For Pythium forts, you can consult your manual. If you DL'd the game (and don't thus have the manual), just say so and I'll list them here.

Not passing Pythium thru mod combiner fixes the problem

Unfortunately Pythium+output of mod-combiner is incompatible

It is no fun for me to play without CBM, magic site mod and extra nations, so currently i don't play modded Pythium

Have you tried using the Pythium + CBM compilation Burnsaber provides and running that through the mod-combiner?

The problem, if i'm understanding how the mod-combiner works, is that it finds 2 MA Pythiums and does *something* to Burn's new one. If you use the version that's already bundled with CBM, it only finds one MA Pythium and thus doesn't have to change anything.

I can think of some slightly more time consuming ways to combine mods if the mod combiner script is still failing for you after that. Do you know what armor/monster/weapon slots your other nation mods are using?

I'm usin 4 non-nation mods (CBcomplete sitemod BlackTome diversity) and several nations, and don't plan to learn which armor/monster/etc slots are taken

As for running Pythium+CBM combination thru mod-combiner, i will probably try

tried to replace CBcomplete_1.6.dm with PythiumandCBM1_6 when combinin mods

the result does not work. The game does not start, saying name2spell: no such spell!!

i tried to 2 variants: putting PythiumandCBM1_6.dm first and last

the script is

Managed to merge Byzantine Pythium

The trick is
1) Fix case-sensitivity errors
2) Correct one number after applying combineMods dated 11 august

In the code below, 81 is the number given to Byzantine Pythium by the script

note that last line changes 81 to 29 in only one place (#selectnation directive)

I've playtested the combination playing Byzantine Pythium up to Arcane Nexus/Heliophagus, did not try top-level combat spells (such as Divine Wrath) yet

I'd like to make a version of this mod that can be included in my "Expanded Nation Packs". But the new version would have to not overwrite the default Pythium.

Do you have any interest in making such a version Burnsaber? If not I can have a go but I'm not sure I'll do such a good job.

What I would do:
1) Move nation number to not overwrite Pythium
2) Check that this nation doesn't inherit much stuff from Pythium, so that it still works (perhaps I'll have to make new versions of the angel summons, in which case I can also have the costs and paths you've chosen here without affecting Marignon and Pythium; those changes are probably good but would be a thing for CBM rather than the ENPs I think)
3) Change the national angel summoning spell to a set of spells, one for each possible angel. This is a bit sad but I think is the only way to avoid clashing with Hinnom

Thoughts?

Just looked at this for the first time, Kind of sad that the mages aren't 'theologians' I reckon that would be more byzantine. All the intellectuals were theologians in that empire, there wern't any theurgians...

I have actually already started doing this. Should finish tomorrow.