Legatus Legionis
Sometimes a handful of peasants just can't do the job of taming the wilds. That's where Legatus Legionis comes in.
Due to the centuries of war and the ensuing cataclysm in Elemental, it stands to reason that more was lost than just the standard practices of metal working and blade forging. Centuries of war breed economies and societies dedicated to war, as those that did not follow such tides would be overwhelmed for the mere sake of survival.
As such, it is my goal to bring a form of legion to the world of Elemental. I've not modded for years, but this is something that seems to be missing in such a world. Legions were extremely effective, as were other professional and uniform groups such as phalanx armies.
The initial versions of this mod will be accomplishing the following goals:
Create base equipment for legions:
-Kits that add aditional combat, movement, health, and other bonuses due to the efficiency of uniform unit combat
-Also, the kits will allow the creation of a special sub-settlement, a legion camp.
-The legion camp will allow for frontier fortification.
-The camp will generate a minor ammount of income to counter-act the cost of fielding a standing army, as a way of balancing out the differences in cost between running a mobile force and a stationary force without having to delve deeply into game mechanics.
-The camp will act much like the fortification, in that when units break camp, the camp disolves.
-Gladius blade and other pieces of legion equipment with varying stats and uses, in an attempt to encourage players to create balanced and uniform forces.
-One thought I had was:
-Create a gladius and shield combo that work well together*, and then a two-handed phalanx spear (i.e. uber long spear) that can attack units two squares away but not within one square**. This would mean that you could create a line of gladius/shield fighers with a phalanx line behind them, where the legionairies in front would be a shield wall to the phalanx in the back, who would have weaker defenses but greater offenses.
*(Perhaps a gladius that adds combat speed but removes defenses due to shortness and a shield that removes the speed bonus but adds the defenses, as Stardock seems to have forgotten that the hilt of a sword or lack thereof is a great defense mechanic that can make or break a combatant. Certainly, a dagger is faster than a sword and can add combat speed, but to have the sword wielder and dagger wielder have the same defense score is rediculous)
**(I'm not certain how this would be done, animation and game mechanically speaking, but I'm sure there's a way.)
-Specialized equipment based on legion ranks that would grant various bonuses, which could be given to soveriegn/champion units or soldier units. Morale bonuses, etc.
Tech tree additions and changes:
-Rename the unit strength descriptors (i.e. Shock troops/zealots) to legion ranks (Velites, Hastati, Principes, Triarii) (Well not necissarily ranks - Velites were poorer citizens who couldn't afford their own gear, hastati were fresh soldiers, principes were in their prime, and triarii were veterans)
-Rename group descriptors (i.e. raid) to things like cohort, century, etc.
-Change text relating to various changes
-Add legion kit research as well as research for various other legion-related items
-Add legion camp research
And for fun:
-Add a new faction to the game with romanized architecture, units, and names
-Possibly create some AI tweaks that causes the AI to fight with legions
-Create new locations and quests built around legion equipment, perhaps finding an old history book that could be deciphered would map out the hows and whys of a legion camp and unit standardization, etc.
-Add Romanized armor graphics and emblems
-Add new siege equipment
-Add new text for the quotes on unit cards
-Picket line ability - Basically a unit that is fortified but set for auto-retreat, that advanced scouts would have through the scouts kit. I think auto-retreat is already in the game somewhere so I may not have to worry about it.
Unit wise, it will all be up to the player either way, as I know I generally rarely use the pre-created units, and generally retire them all and create my own. However, the most basic units will be included to be unlocked from research.
Primarily, the only unit creation I'd be looking for initially would be:
-Engineer
-Unit that could create roads from city to city like a carivan, but would be able to defend itself on its journey and would not be used up to create the road.
-Also would be able to create permenant legion camps (Forts) that would act as minor towns, generating a single resource as well as some coin due to increased trade to the outpost.
-Would also be able to create roads to these permenant legion camps.
Current status:
Item list/stats in progress (Minus phalanx spear)
Legion camp tile created
Researching tech tree related xml
Researching fortification related xml (For creation of legion camp)
If anyone wants to help, let me know. I'm more than happy to create the whole mod myself, but it'll be slow coming due to my lack of recent experience.
Also, if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to list them here.
