umba gaya umba gaya .... hallowed brothers of the cult of the Dragons, heed my call to this thread for it is of the Way of the Draco.

Hallowed are the Dragons, deliverers of Origin. The holy flame of the Dragons shall be heard across all the galaxy.

In a more detailed response, I would appreciate a mini-sector of techs refered to as Animal Mastery/ Beast Mastery, which deals with such things as breeding dragons, recruiting dragons, and the possibility of a dragon mount. (although dragons are so rare that MAYBE a higher level unit, like a soveriegn or powerful hero, could use a dragon mount, but it would be rare and unlikely)

after all, a dragon-mount is not effective unless your an archer or magic-user, because these dragons are just so ... gigantic. However, I fully support and agree with small packs of Wyverns that you can capture, subjugate, and master as mounts for all manner of warrior. Afterall, a Wyvern is just a really big, scaly horse, that can fly, and breath fire. Maybe twice the size of a horse, counting the wings. Definitely the mount of the dragon world, if there are any.

Okay, duly noted.

:Ahem:

To properly, and directly respond to your question ... dragons will be EXTREMELY RARE and EXTREMELY POWERFUL ... talking about potentially wiping out thousands of your fodder soldiers before death or heartattack/whatever.

Now then ... A Dragon can be recruited, seemingly an endeavor of massive amounts of prestige (civilization) as well as dragon-speak knowhow (Adventure). It seems to be involved in a mid-game or end-game adventure tech, combined with mid->end game levels of prestige.

A nation (seemingly) can have only one dragon. And while there have been hints of fledgeling dragons, we only know for certain of the possibility of recruiting powerful, ancient, fully grown dragons.

Dragon mounts would be seriously awesome though. Especially since if they put them in by default I won't have to work as hard to Mod them into my Dragonlance Mod.

i hope there will be dragon mounts akin to warhammer

I think Dragons should have in-depth stats like Sovereigns do (only much higher values), and if you are able to speak to it (have discovered the ancient draconic language and learned it, or something), you would interact with Dragon like you would any other rival sovereign. Only this time, you can form a permanant alliance with the dragon, and he can fight for you.

I don't know how large stats can grow ... but from previous examples Im thinking at least double physical stats for dragons, and for things pertaining to magic and diplomacy (intelligence, wisdom, charisma) at least 50% greater.

In some games, Super-Weapons-of-Gods Dragons were immune to magic, or were at least 50% resistant to the arcane. I wonder ... can dragons use any spell within their element? or only Dragons breath? Can they Channel? (I think they have large amounts of essense). How resistant are they to magic? (I'd say 100% of there own sphere (fire, ice, or death) and 50% resistant to all other arcane wiles) .... if its an effect, I would say 50% chance of working, unless its something mind-affecting like sleep, confusion, domination, or charm, because I think Dragons would be immune to such things. (think anything a high level Final Fantasy boss would be immune to, dragons would be immune to as well ... this includes cheap one-shot spells and trample/freeze abilities, as well as backstabs probably, and any poisoning spells or abilities)

Very good book.

Part of why I would want for Dragons to be Channelers, with Channeler-like stats (other than it would seem fitting) is that I would like to easily mod it so that I, the Sovereign, am a Dragon.

Aaaaack creepy avatar!!

In any case, I actually don't want dragons to have the ability to channel essence in any way similar to a regular channeler: building stuff on magic shards and reviving massive blobs of land just doesn't seem......... dragony to me. I would prefer to aheva system where the dragon can do very little in terms of scope (say, resurrecting only one or two squares of land right where it's nest/lair/whatever is or casting only local buff and attack spells) but doing it very powerfully and at little cost to the dragon itself (no real mana limit for spells, maybe a recharge system to keep you from doing too much too fast, but reclaimable essence that doesn't regenerate on its own).

Slightly better................... creepy, yes, but not creepy, if you get me..........

My impression was that if you gave a hero or imbued unit some of your essence, (s)he could spend it to revivify the land just like a channeler could......... but it could be anything and I don't think even the devs themselves know..

How on EARTH (or Tallon IV?!) did you know I was such a big Metroid fan?!

In any event, elemental dragons: agree. I would like to see some that look more Oriental for things like water and Earth that you usually don't assosciate dragons with in the West. Not reviving land....... sort of agree: I could see an area where a dragon spends a lot of time (a lair or nest, basically) slowly becoming more in tune with that element, but other than that no real revivification abilities. Innate spells, wholeheartedly agree: but they should also be able to learn them from channelers/find them in ruins.

Regarding heroes, my impression was that you essenially (if you will pardon the expression) make them into mini-channelers with all the abilities of the original, just not as strong.

It's not a secret in this forum. And I think you were doing a mod for Gal Civ II too?

GW Swicord, I think it was said somewhere in this forum that normal channelers (those imbued) would get essence and increse its quantity each level up (but lower than a sovereign). And they would also be capable of imbuing other creatures. I don't know if the idea is still considered but it was at least once considered.

Oo, way too many threads to dig through to find that old chat easily. My sloppy memory has that listed, but tagged as from the beta crowd, not the devs. Worse, you've made me notice that a minor thread-jacking is in progress...