EA Nephelococcygia, Republic in the Clouds v1.39

[ÆtherNomad]

Hello everyone! :D

Today, I am very proud to present you once again a nation that I originally created for Dominions 4 as seen here[dominionsmods.com] and that I finally ported for Dominions 5 as seen there[dominionsmods.com]: EA Nephelococcygia, Republic in the Clouds[drive.google.com]!

This nation was entirely inspired by the famous play of Aristophanes called The Birds. Although I'd very much like to, I wont take up space here to tell you the play's story, so I invite you instead to take a look on wikipedia here[en.wikipedia.org] if you don't already know it and are interested in ancient satyric comedies. Anyway, you don't need to know the play to enjoy the nation, especially since the basic concept is exactly the same, as described in the screenshot below:

In very recent times, a revolution started among the wild bird tribes of the world. Many among them united into a single Nation of the Birds and joined their efforts to steal divinity from the gods and build the wondrous city of Nephelococcygia among the clouds, where inferior humanoid and non-winged mortals are not allowed to dwell. While they are chaotic animals and despise technology, they find precious help in the mystical wisdom of their Sky Tree guides.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1365006684
Yes, Nephelococcygia - in Greek, literally Cloud-Cuckoo-Land - is a nation of BIRDS! Not bird-people, not winged people, not caelians, no, literal, animal, regular birds, that united to form a nation, build a city in the sky, mock mankind and steal divinity from the gods. And yet, it is NOT a joke nation; it was written very seriously, as a realistic mythological opponent of nations from the base game such as Arcoscephale, Pangaea or Marverni.

As you probably can tell from the description of the nation in the screenshot above, Nephelococcygia works in a rather unusual way. It has many important weaknesses, and makes up for them with a huge amount of national spells and items - respectively 60 and 9, to be precise. A special care was given to balance and build diversity, and I hope very much that you'll appreciate the result and have a lot of fun playing it!

In addition, I must say that this nation is extra-enjoyable when combined with my other mod Pantheon Reborn[dominionsmods.com], that balances out vanilla pretenders mostly by buffing Titans. Although the nation shouldn't be too unbalanced without it, and although that other mod certainly isn't required to have fun with Nephelococcygia, it would definitely be more interesting and thematic along with Pantheon Reborn!

As usual, I'm very eager to hear (or read) what you'll think of my mod and to improve it according to your feedback! Bugs, balance concerns, typos, simple suggestions, and even compliments are all welcome here! :D I'm especially in need of your help since I didn't test extensively the nation in Dominions 5 yet; it is entirely possible that some things do not work as intended or that some stats are a bit weird. Please tell me what you think :D

And now, if you wish so... DOWNLOAD EA NEPHELOCOCCYGIA V1.39![drive.google.com]

Note: All of this mod's used IDs (and more!) can be found both on top of its .dm file and in the Mod Compatibility Project[dominionsmods.com].

[ÆtherNomad]

Just released v1.01. A bunch of bug fixes (fort defenses, Idol of Birds, maybe a few other things), a few buffs (Idol of Birds less expensive, Wyrd Birds and Bird Shamans quicker to recruit), Herald of Slaughter slightly reworked (less plague, more misfortune).

[ÆtherNomad]

Just released v1.02. Following feedback, big (and maybe insufficiant) nerf of Thunderer Birds, slight buff of Tempest Hawks, slight buff of Nest of the Rising Sun, price increase of Warriors of Prey, Seasonal Birds and Blood-drinker Birds, fatigue increase for several spammable battlesummon spells.

[Vir027]

Better get a tarp for your chariot before declaring war on these fellows :)

[ÆtherNomad]

Hahahaha :D

[ÆtherNomad]

Just replaced the 1.02 files with new ones for a bug fix.

[ÆtherNomad]

Just released v1.03. It's a small fix that simply adds a commander point cost to Birds of Glory, fixes many bugs with national items and replaces the mod's banner with a new one.

[ÆtherNomad]

Just released v1.04! It's a small update that fixes province defense in forts (it was less numerous as intended) and that adds a new cheaper, researchlevel 0 national version of the Hamadryad spell.

[ÆtherNomad]

Just released v1.05, a very small update that fixes the Hamadryad spell added in previous update, making it N4 as intended rather than D4.

[ÆtherNomad]

Just released v1.06, a bunch of small updates. Father-Tree is now 900 years younger, Bird Sorcerers no longer should start old, a few descriptions have been clarified and typos fixed, Heralds of Slaughter and Heralds of Sorrow are now disease immune. In addition, many sprites were improved, in particular those of most golden units and commanders, and the temple picture has been changed.

[Nukular Power]

this is for the birds

[ÆtherNomad]

Haha :D

[ÆtherNomad]

Just released v1.07!

It is a big balance update that also adds some new content and alters a few descriptions. Warriors of the Clouds and Migratory Warriors (but not Birds of Gold) no longer cost any upkeep, special ability changes for several kinds of Warriors of the Clouds, all troops and commanders that had airshield 10 now have airshield 15 instead, Wyrd Birds, Wyrd Masters, Heralds of Slaughter, Heralds of Sorrow and Cloud Avatars now have spirit sight, Spirits of the Four Seasons and Terror Falcons now only cost 65 recruitment points, addition of a new ritual working exactly like Call of the Winds but summoning two new kinds of units: Winged Anarchists, that are upkeepless Warriors of Prey with chaospower, and a Bringer of Anarchy commander, who is an upkeepless Superior Hawk with better leading abilities, unrest generation and chaospower, rework of Revolution of the Birds, that now costs 65 gems rather than 50, but summons Winged Anarchists instead of Warriors of Prey, Bringers of Anarchy instead of Superior Hawks, and a new commander with lower chances instead of Aerial Troublemakers: Aerial Iconoclasts, who are upkeepless, heretic 3, chaospower 3, spread turmoil, have better hps and increase unrest more than three times as fast, addition of a new pretender god: the King of Dawns, who is particularly notable due to his mason ability, Solar Eagle pretender is now a cheap god.

[ÆtherNomad]

Just released v1.08! This update is actually bigger than it looks. Thanks to Urzamax's huge work, many grammatical and stylistic mistakes were fixed, or descriptions otherwise improved. In addition, there were a few balance changes: the King of Dawns now costs 230 points rather than 240 and is a good magic leader, the Father-Tree is even younger than before, the Wings of Anarchy spell now costs 15 rather than 20 gems but summons 35 Winged Anarchists rather than 40, Winged Anarchists now slightly increase unrest in their province, and Revolution of the Birds now increases population more than twice as much as before. Finally, many sprites that were blurry have been fixed.

[ÆtherNomad]

Just replaced v1.08 files with new ones that fix a bug with Awaken Treelord Prophet.

[ÆtherNomad]

Just released v1.09. It's a small update that fixes an incompatibility bug with Isphenople[s7.zetaboards.com], removes Great Wise Owl's upkeep (that shouldn't have existed in the first place) and increases Ancient Owl's gold cost by 15.