Shadow Realm Community Expansion - Development

[Hiliadan]

This is a continuation of this big thread on the old Triumph forum: http://aow.triumph.net/forums/topic/shadow-realm-brainstorm


So the topics that were discussed were (http://aow.triumph.net/forums/topic/shadow-realm-brainstorm/page/35/#post-273555):

Replacement for Warp Equipment for the Forge of Dreams
Call it Disrupted Equipment.

Umbral Weaver's name
Opinions are as follow:
– Refineus: Corsair Raider, Shard Stalker
– HousePet, Gladis, Hiliadan: Umbral Weaver Charioteer
– Draxynnic, Dr_K: Penumbral Weaver for the old one
– Gloweye: Umbral Ghost

So we would go for Umbral Weaver Charioteer.

Shadow Gates
FOR only surface: Hiliadan, Gladis, The Mentat
FOR both UG and surface: HousePet, Marcuspers, Ezekiel, Refineus, Dr_K (but broadly indifferent), Draxynnic

Forgotten Throne’s MCU
We go with implementing different variants of the Altar, each unlocking a different unique unit depending on the wizard.
The different options are:
Nimue – buffed Lord of the Deep (Draxynnic) or Giant Lost Mariner (for: The Mentat, HousePet) or buffed King Serpent (Draxynnic)
Nekron – Buffed Bone Collector (for: The Mentat) or Dread Reaper or buffer Banshee (Dr_K) or Bone Dragon (Draxynnic)
Mab – Elder Stone Giant (buffed Stone Giant) or buffed Cockatrix (mix between Kharagh and Basilisk)
Arachna – Elder Queen Spider (buffer Queen Spider)
Wizard King – Elder Eldritch
Artica - Elder Frost Dragon
Yaka - Phoenix (removed dedicated to good)

I don't have a strong opinion on Nimue. For Nekron, I guess an Elder Reaper is more appropriate and balanced (Bone Collectors can be really devastating in auto in PBEM), though Reapers are already very very powerful. Or maybe an Elder Bone Dragon?
Anyone here is able to do retexturing for the Elder units we plan? Or do they exist in other mods?
If we confirm we have the visuals, I'm going to propose stats for the units.

Seals (http://aow.triumph.net/forums/topic/shadow-realm-brainstorm/page/36/#post-273645)
Should Seals spawn on the SR layer?

FOR: Gloweye
AGAINST: Hiliadan (same as UG), HousePet, Dr_K

Liked terrain and movement abilities
HousePet raised this:

Shadow Elves like Dense Vegetation but don’t get Forestry. High Elves and Halflings both like Dense Vegetation and get Forestry as innate. Obviously adding Forestry to the racial properties is a potential balance issue. Perhaps only give Forestry to Irregular units or some other compromise?

Also, it seems a little odd that SEs dislike Blighted and Underground given their heritage (Dark Elves liked Darkland(?) and Underground, had Poison Protection and Cave Crawling). The Racial Governance option removes the Underground dislike and for some reason Arctic. Perhaps that should be Blighted instead?

I had asked the same question here http://aow.triumph.net/forums/topic/shadow-realm-brainstorm/page/19/#post-250741

Drax answered here: http://aow.triumph.net/forums/topic/shadow-realm-brainstorm/page/20/#post-250946

My thinking for excluding forestry basically went as:

1) Shadow Elves mostly stem from Dark Elf stock, which didn’t have Forestry in previous games.
2) We were already looking at Shadow Elves having a lot of racial adjustment compared to other races.
3) While it can be presumed that Shadow Elves still enjoy dense vegetation environments, their focus has probably been more on surviving the Shadow Realm in general (where, IIRC, forests are rarer than in Athla) than forests in particular.

So I did actually think about putting forestry in and decided not to rather than simply forgetting it.

I checked for Blighted, in the brainstorm about SE, Drax wrote:
http://aow.triumph.net/forums/topic/shadow-realm-brainstorm/page/7/#post-245785

Terrains: Likes Mountains and Cavern Walls, like Dwarves. Dislikes Volcanic, hates Tropical. If that’s too strong, could make them also Dislike Blighted, but have a governance upgrade that allows them to tolerate Blighted and Volcanic.

So I guess we can replace Arctic by Blighted in the RG upgrade.

Opinions?

 

[HousePet]

Giant Lost Mariner seem appropriate for Nimue with her tendency to drown her problems. But we would likely be leaning on the Lord of the Deep for stats and abilities as a template.

Seals do rarely spawn underground, but I don't think it makes sense thematically for them to appear in the Shadow Realm. (Unless we can make something mechanically the same but flavoured to be drawing power from a different source?)

 

[Hiliadan]

Ok, thanks for the feedback. @others: what do you think about Shadow Gate UG/surface, Seals on the Shadow layer, the Forgotten Throne's MCU?

Here are one big new topic to discuss and a few more minor ones.

Open beta and full release - how?
So far, we have used .taf in the Dropbox folder to distribute the expansion. But as we move to open beta, I think we need to release it on Steam Workshop. How are we going to do that? I suggest that Dr_K releases it as lead contributor and add all the team as co-developpers:
- Bob5
- Charlatan
- Draxynnic
- Gladen (Refineus)
- Gloweye
- Hiliadan
- HousePet
- LibertyValance (vfxrob)
- Lordoflinks
- The Mentat
I don't think it's necessary to release on Nexus or other locations as Steamworkshopdownloader can help get the mods for non-Steam users (like me).

Shrine of Storms
Should Divine Vengeance be renamed Dark Vengeance for the Shrine of Storms since it does Frost damage instead of Fire damage?

Dark Vengeance rename:
FOR: HousePet, Refineus, Dr_K

Bridges on the new climates (Tundra, Shadow, and probably Autumn)
Bridges are missing on the Tundra and Shadow climate (and probably on Autumn, didn't check).
I see two options:
1/ try to add them back
For: HousePet, Dr_K

2/ add a new strategic hex called "ford" to maps, which replaces bridges for Tundra and Shadow and add a new model based on a mix or rapids and water lily I guess
For: Hiliadan, The Mentat, Draxynnic

I find option 2 more attractive as it brings some new stuff to the game, at least visually.

Shadow Demons and mind-control
Should Shadow Demon be mind-controllable through Convert, Charm, Seduce? Or only Tame Shadow Demon?
I'm for the latter.

Only Tame Shadow Demon:
For: Hiliadan, HousePet, Refineus, The Mentat, Dr_K


Opinions on all this?

I hope we can get one more release by the end of next week on the closed beta, check that no bug were introduced by error, and then release on Steam Workshop by the end of the month. We'll still have a number of unfinished things, but we need to move on.

 

[HousePet]

Shrine of Storms:
Dark Vengeance is good. I think leaving it as Divine Vengeance will cause two entries to appear in the ToW with different damage channels. Adding a new name is one of the smallest amounts of effort to make a change, so let's just do it.

Bridges in new climates:
I'd go with 1. While new content would be interesting, it doesn't make sense for some climates to have bridges and other to not. Its also more work to make the fords and that means its feature creep.

Shadow Demons and mind-control:
Only through Tame Shadow Demon. Otherwise its a super not very interesting ability. We can say that some remnant of the hive mind or just an alien way of thinking protects them from standard mind-control.

 

[HousePet]

I had a look in the SR RMG today. (And yep I'm getting a headache. That stuff is hard to read.)

We are getting Undead Archons simply because its set to generate them instead of Living Archons. It should be easy to fix.

Gold Mines and possibly other unwanted structures that are being generated are likely caused by Shadow Realm - Mini Expansion (Player City) being linked to Shared - Mini Exp. Settings (Player City), not a SR specific one.

Shared - Player Expansion Generator (City)/(Dummy) might need to have Void added to their Blocked placement lists.
I'm also tempted to suggest testing what happens when Void generation is disabled. Then we can have a look at what effects are caused by the Void.

Might be worth capping each Wizard Throne to a maximum of 1 per map.

Tried to work out how Shadow Gates were being created in water. Decided I couldn't make any sense of the layer change portals.

 

[Refineus]

Shadow Gates
FOR only surface: Hiliadan, Gladis
FOR both UG and surface: HousePet, Marcuspers, Ezekiel

Both underground and surface.

Originally shadow gates could be found underground in Shadow Magic.

Shrine of Storms
Should Divine Vengeance be renamed Dark Vengeance for the Shrine of Storms since it does Frost damage instead of Fire damage?

I don't know both sounds kind of good. I would aline more toward Dark than Divine for some reasons.

Bridges on the new climates (Tundra, Shadow, and probably Autumn)
Bridges are missing on the Tundra and Shadow climate (and probably on Autumn, didn't check).
I see two options:
1/ try to add them back
2/ add a new strategic hex called "ford" to maps, which replaces bridges for Tundra and Shadow and add a new model based on a mix or rapids and water lily I guess

Cool idea, but standing on the slopes with a horse at an angle of 75 degrees might not look to appealing. "Mixed"

Shadow Demons and mind-control
Should Shadow Demon be mind-controllable through Convert, Charm, Seduce? Or only Tame Shadow Demon?
I'm for the latter.

Only Tame Shadow Demon.

 

[The Mentat]

Shadow Gates
I'd prefer only on surface.

Forgotten Thrones MCs
Nimue: Giant Lost Mariner is fitting and something new.
Nekron: Visually a Dread Reaper would be more appropriate but from a gameplay perspective I find a buffed Bone Collector more interesting. So I vote for the latter.

Shrine of Storms
For renaming to Dark Vengeance

Bridges
Really depends on how much work it is. If it's easy to implement I'm for the fords.

Shadow Demons and Mind Control
Agree with limiting Mind Control to Tame Shadow Demon.

 

[Hiliadan]

Its also more work to make the fords and that means its feature creep.

Not necessarily. The only difficulty I expect is to create the ford model for the strategic map. But otherwise it's easier because bringing back the bridges will require some work. I had a look at it the first time we spotted the issue and I didn't see how Charlatan managed to make the bridges disappear.

Regarding Arctic and RG, nobody reacted on that, so I guess we confirm the replacement of Arctic by Blighted in RG1 then?

What about the retexturing of the Elder (Giant, Dragon, etc.) units for the Forgotten Thrones. Anybody able to do that?

 

[HousePet]

If nobody actually competent can do the retexturing, I can do it.

 

[Dr_K]

Shadow Gates in UG
Indifferent on where they spawn, but I like the idea of being able to travel between any two of the 3 layers if they spawn in the UG.

We go with implementing different variants of the Altar, each unlocking a different unique unit depending on the wizard.
The different options are:
Nimue – buffed Lord of the Deep or Giant Lost Mariner (for: The Mentat, HousePet) or buffed King Serpent
Nekron – Buffed Bone Collector (for: The Mentat) or Dread Reaper
Mab – Elder Stone Giant (buffed Stone Giant)
Arachna – Elder Queen Spider (buffer Queen Spider)
Wizard King – Elder Eldritch
Artica - Elder Frost Dragon
Yaka - Phoenix

I don't have a strong opinion on Nimue. For Nekron, I guess an Elder Reaper is more appropriate and balanced (Bone Collectors can be really devastating in auto in PBEM), though Reapers are already very very powerful. Or maybe an Elder Bone Dragon?
Anyone here is able to do retexturing for the Elder units we plan? Or do they exist in other mods?
If we confirm we have the visuals, I'm going to propose stats for the units.

Would a really buffed Banshee be a decent middle ground for Nekron? It's a bit less interesting (I think) than the Buffed Bone Collector, but gives us some room to play with various buffs unlike the Dread Reaper since it's already pretty powerful.

I might try to take a stab at editing the unit textures. However, if there is someone else that's interested, they can do it. We could also use the same unit figures, but add/change the particle effects and unit sizes to create the Elder units.

Should Seals spawn on the SR layer?

Lore-wise, I feel like they wouldn't be in the Shadow Realm, unless someone can point me to something that indicates they might be.

Shrine of Storms:
Dark Vengeance is good. I think leaving it as Divine Vengeance will cause two entries to appear in the ToW with different damage channels. Adding a new name is one of the smallest amounts of effort to make a change, so let's just do it.

Agreed. Also, I'm not sure if I have the Shrine of Storms particle effects proof of concept I did a while ago. I might have it in one of the early backups/alternate versions I had. Otherwise, I can recreate them. It was relatively easy.

Bridges in new climates:
I'd go with 1. While new content would be interesting, it doesn't make sense for some climates to have bridges and other to not. Its also more work to make the fords and that means its feature creep.

Agreed. Gut instinct is that this is easier, but I've not worked with the Tactical Map changes too much.

Shadow Demons and mind-control:
Only through Tame Shadow Demon. Otherwise its a super not very interesting ability. We can say that some remnant of the hive mind or just an alien way of thinking protects them from standard mind-control.

Agreed, also I like the explanation.

I think we need to release it on Steam Workshop

I think once it's published on steam, it might as well be the official initial release instead of an open beta as there is nowhere to go after that or get it put back in the "Recently Added" lists in the workshop. It's also not a very good first impression for people that don't know about it if the glaring issues aren't fixed beforehand.

Since the RMG issues are a bit harder to pin down causes and fix, we can probably release with some of the weirder generation issues happening occasionally. As well as make balance updates as people play it and (hopefully) give feedback.

 

[HousePet]

I do have mixed feelings about releasing an open beta on the Steam Workshop as well.
We are going to have glaring faults in it, but on the other hand, we might get the attention of some more people who can help with those faults.

We could simply have Beta explicitly in the mod name, and release a full release under a different mod entry.​

 

[Hiliadan]

I wouldn't worry too much about that. The PBEM & SP balance mod has a beta branch and nobody ever complained it caused troubles when some stuff had issues there. Similarly, vfxrob launched his Insectoid Race mod (and the Witch Hunter mod too) when they were unfinished, and changed tons of stuff (+ had stuff not working) and people still enjoyed it a lot.
I think it's fine as long as we explicitely say it's still open beta and it's not the final version. As HousePet says, we need to say "OPEN BETA" explicitely and visibly in the mod name + also in the description. I don't think it's necessary to have a different mod entry for full release but we can do it if we decide so.

As HousePet says, we'll get useful feedback thanks to more testers than we currently have (though as long as it's open beta, I don't expect too many people to try it).

 

[Dr_K]

As HousePet says, we'll get useful feedback thanks to more testers than we currently have (though as long as it's open beta, I don't expect too many people to try it).

Works for me.

I should have time on Thursday evening and Friday to work on the more problematic issues.

 

[HousePet]

If people that have time can test out the RMG changes a bit, I can fit in another session to iron out issues before we release the Open Beta.
There were still more things I could have tackled, but I was worn out after working on it for 5 hours. Gloweye must have been wrecked just putting it together.

 

[Hiliadan]

Ok so I'm confirming the change to RG1: it is now "Your Shadow Elf cities and units are indifferent to Blighted and Subterranean terrain."

Forgotten Thrones
Should we rename them for each Wizard? With the Wizard's name directly or with the same names as Shrines (e.g. the Fallen Angel, the Earthen Mother, etc.)?
How should the MCU be named? We had "Altar of Elder Eldritch", so should it be "Altar of Elder Frost Dragon"? Or should we use the same generic name for all MCU?
I also wonder whether we should make the units produced T5 with a higher upkeep? They will have stronger stats than T4 after all. Or at least T5 with an extra +50% or +100% upkeep ability which could be called "Elder creature": "This creature has supernatural strength and the associated upkeep."

Seals
Ok so I confirm they can't spawn on the Shadow layer.

Shrine of Storms
I confirm the renaming to Dark Vengeance for the modified ability.


New topics...
Climate/overlay project by Forgotten Thrones
Currently the Thrones project these climates and overlays:
Artica -Arctic
Yaka - Tropical
Mab -Wetlands
Arachna -Blighted
Nekron -Volcanic
Nimue -Wetlands
Wizard King - Temperate

We have the following suggestions:
- Throne of Mab (currently Wetland) could become Fertile Plains (HousePet and Dr_K), Blighted (Draxynnic)
- Nekron (currently Volcanic) could be Blight (FOR: HousePet and Dr_K; AGAINST: Hiliadan, Draxynnic)
- Inioch (Wizard King, currently Temperate) could be Dense Vegetation (FOR: HousePet and Dr_K; AGAINST: Hiliadan, Draxynnic) or Tundra (Draxynnic, Hiliadan)
- Nimue: Temperate (Draxynnic)

I'm in favour of keeping Wetland, keeping Volcanic (as Arachna is better for Blight) and keeping Temperate (it's better to project a climate than an overlay, it has more impact).

Water and water sites on the Shadow layer
Raging Maelstrom and Sword of the Ashen Rose are two sites we had planned for the Shadow layer (see https://age-of-wonders-3.wikia.com/...adow_Realm_Community_Expansion#Treasure_sites), but they are water site and currently the Shadow layer has no water.
In the campaign, there is water in the Shadow layer and it feels pretty natural.
So I'd be in favour of adding a few small pocket of water (about 8-10 hexes big) in the Shadow layer and spawning Maelstroms and Swords there.

FOR: Draxynnic, HousePet, Hiliadan

Opinions?

 

[HousePet]

I would like to see some pockets of water in the Shadow layer. Unsure about the amount of work needed with regard to the open beta happening shortly.
Possibly postpone for the moment?

 

[Draxynnic]

On the bridge discussion: I have a mild preference to keeping bridges in all terrain: it'll be a bit weird if terrain gets terraformed and the bridges change to fords and vice versa. If it really is significantly easier to do fords than replacing the bridges, though, do that.

Shadow Gates
FOR only surface: Hiliadan, Gladis, The Mentat
FOR both UG and surface: HousePet, Marcuspers, Ezekiel, Refineus, Dr_K (but broadly indifferent), Draxynnic (again)

Forgotten Throne’s MCU
We go with implementing different variants of the Altar, each unlocking a different unique unit depending on the wizard.
The different options are:
Nimue – buffed Lord of the Deep or Giant Lost Mariner (for: The Mentat, HousePet) or buffed King Serpent
Nekron – Buffed Bone Collector (for: The Mentat) or Dread Reaper or buffer Banshee (Dr_K)
Mab – Elder Stone Giant (buffed Stone Giant)
Arachna – Elder Queen Spider (buffer Queen Spider)
Wizard King – Elder Eldritch
Artica - Elder Frost Dragon
Yaka - Phoenix

I don't have a strong opinion on Nimue. For Nekron, I guess an Elder Reaper is more appropriate and balanced (Bone Collectors can be really devastating in auto in PBEM), though Reapers are already very very powerful. Or maybe an Elder Bone Dragon?
Anyone here is able to do retexturing for the Elder units we plan? Or do they exist in other mods?
If we confirm we have the visuals, I'm going to propose stats for the units.

Response to the Shadow Gates locations is mostly historic: Shadow Gates could appear underground in Shadow Magic. I'm not particularly fussed, however, and it could be interesting, if practical, to make them more common in one than the other.

On the Forgotten Throne, I'd probably go with:

Nimue: Lord of the Deep or King Shock Serpent (reference to former top Water summon, but the LotD is very Nimue-ish)
Nekron: Bone Collectors work, but I think the Bone Dragon might work better than something that's already available to Necromancers.
Mab: I think I'd be inclined to go with a heavily buffed Cockatrice, actually - make it behave a bit like a cross between a Kharagh and a Basilisk.
Arachna, Wizard King, Artica, Yaka: As above, with no Dedicated to Good on the Phoenix.

(Incidentally, while I'm neutral on using actual names or the same names as the shrines, we should be consistent: if we use names, the Wizard King should be Inioch)

New topics...
Climate/overlay project by Forgotten Thrones
Currently the Thrones project these climates and overlays:
Artica -Arctic
Yaka - Tropical
Mab -Wetlands
Arachna -Blighted
Nekron -Volcanic
Nimue -Wetlands
Wizard King - Temperate

HousePet and Dr_K had the following suggestions:
- Throne of Mab (currently Wetland) could become Fertile Plains
- Nekron (currently Volcanic) could be Blight
- Inioch (Wizard King, currently Temperate) could be Dense Vegetation

I'm in favour of keeping Wetland, keeping Volcanic (as Arachna is better for Blight) and keeping Temperate (it's better to project a climate than an overlay, it has more impact).

Water and water sites on the Shadow layer
Raging Maelstrom and Sword of the Ashen Rose are two sites we had planned for the Shadow layer (see https://age-of-wonders-3.wikia.com/...adow_Realm_Community_Expansion#Treasure_sites), but they are water site and currently the Shadow layer has no water.
In the campaign, there is water in the Shadow layer and it feels pretty natural.
So I'd be in favour of adding a few small pocket of water (about 8-10 hexes big) in the Shadow layer and spawning Maelstroms and Swords there.

Opinions?

Small pockets of water seem fitting to me.

Regarding terrains associated with particular thrones:

I'd prefer to keep them to climates myself - generating dense packets of a specific overlay might not come off well. This may require doubling up on climates.

My inclinations would be:
Artica: Arctic
Yaka: Tropical
Mab: Blighted
Arachna: Blighted
Nekron: Volcanic
Nimue: Temperate
Inioch: Temperate

Yaka could also be Volcanic - his strongest places were often in volcanic locations - but that would have two Volcanic-oriented thrones and no Tropical. In Nekron's case, most of my memory of Nekron's locations in AoW2 were pretty desolate locations, with no life at all rather than the poisonous lfe that seems to be associated with Blighted terrain.

An argument could be made for Nimue to be Tropical instead of Temperate (potentially freeing Yaka to switch) - the Lizards were her original favourites, after all, and later water-oriented entities like the Naga are also associated with warmer climates. It is unfortunate that many tropical terrains appear arid, however.

Inioch should probably be a climate that all elves can appreciate. Might be an opportunity to use Tundra.

 

[Hiliadan]

Inioch should probably be a climate that all elves can appreciate. Might be an opportunity to use Tundra.

I really like that idea! And what about Autumn for Nimue? But then we have nobody for Temperate.


Ok, the big topic of the day now!!

OPEN BETA - Release on Steam Workshop
Here is my proposal for the description of the mods on Steam Workshop:

---------
WARNING: the expansion is currently on open beta! It may still be unstable, may cause crashes, and its content is not yet entirely finalized.
In particular, when you switch the expansion ON or OFF, please use the "Restore default" option in the first screen to create a new RMG map, otherwise you'll experience crashes. This should be fixed by devs.
/ WARNING

The Shadow Realm Community Expansion is a coherent and relatively large package of additional content for AoW3 built by a team of more than 10 volunteers for over 2 years. It contains:
- 1 new layer, the Shadow Realm layer
- 1 new race, the Shadow Elves (31 units, 9 Leaders, 10 heroes, a full Racial Governance, etc.)
- 1 new dwelling: the (living) Archons
- 16 new sites: 2 new spawners; 11 new treasure sites (including 3 from Decodence), including a new Heart; 3 new visit sites
- 6 new Mystical City Upgrades
- 3 new climates (including 2 from Decodence)
- 5 new units non-racial, non-Dwelling units: the Shadow Demons roamers on the Shadow Realm and the Archon Legionnary
- More than 40 new abilities
- 1 new campaign featuring 3 scenarios and 5 maps (multiple endings)

A full manual of the expansion is available on the AoW3 Wikia: https://age-of-wonders-3.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Hiliadan/Shadow_Realm_Community_Expansion_Content It details units, abilities, new sites, etc.

CURRENT STATE OF THE EXPANSION:
Please do NOT play the 2nd and 3rd scenarios of the campaign, they are not yet finished.
A list of known issues can be found here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/shadow-realm-–-closed-beta-tests.1119321 Reports of issues not listed there are more than welcome!

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
Please subscribe to these 4 mods:
- Decodence Map Editor Content: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=520692430
- Decodence RMG Integration: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=582094362
- Shadow Realm: link to add
- Shadow Realm RMG: link to add

In order to play, all 4 mods must be activated.
--------

For the pictures in the Steam Workshop, I suggest to pick some out of those:
- the 7 screenshots of Shadow Elf line-ups in \Dropbox\AoW3-Shadow-Realm-expansion\pics
- \Dropbox\AoW3-Shadow-Realm-expansion\pics\ShadowElf_LeadersHeroes\Leader Meandor.jpg
- this picture of Shadow Demons: https://www.my-league.com/games/273...98/273/152861834820180610_SR-open-beta_SD.jpg
- then it would be interesting to have 1 picture from the beginning of the campaign (the dialogues where you pick the Golem) and 1 picture from the Shadow Realm from the campaign (with some nice sites, etc. in high quality visuals)


Also, I'd like to stress again that I don't agree with the inclusion of the edits to the surface and UG layer that Decodence RMG Integration brings. For me they're not part of the expansion at all and they break balance and fun. The Autumn and Tundra climates can't be properly set in the settings. The sites' defenders and rewards are not properly designed in terms of balance. And their distribution across the map is also not balanced. I think it's too complicted to remove it now and I'm sad we did that choice back when we started the RMG Integration (at the time I didn't understand how RMG worked so I didn't realize it was actually NOT needed at all). I hope this can still be reversed in the future, but probably not before (non-beta) release unfortunately.

 

[HousePet]

A hilarious thing happened yesterday: I had the Shadow Elf Warlord leader as my last saved leader and turned off the SR mods. When I loaded the main menu I just had a floating hat, two eyeballs and a pair of hands displayed. But at least it didn't crash. XD

"WARNING: the expansion is currently on open beta! It may still be unstable, may cause crashes, and its content is not yet entirely finalized." I feel like this is an understatement, but maybe we should leave it understated.

Meandor's Leader page is excellent and should be used. But I'd use the "step 1" part, so we have a description of the Shadow Elves on the pic. We might want to fix the race icon and check if the description is what we want first though. Set the race filter to Shadow Elves only as well. Showcase everything we can in one pic.

The Decodence integration can be reversed with a bit of effort (its not hard, just time consuming fiddly stuff). We'll have to ensure we maintain giving credit for anything we are using. (I hope someone has been keeping track of who deserves credit for assets.)

Unless someone has seen something else wrong with the RMG, its about as good as I can do for the moment.

 

[HousePet]

We can also mention that we are open to people that would like to help out with the mod.
This is not a trap. Ignore the Shadow Demon Brain sneaking up behind you...