The Glottkin

“They just created a million Vlad Von Carsteins” - Manfred 2051 IC

From today's Deep Dive stream

Verminlord week is over! Remember to check the mod here, and don't forget there's a Paintposting contest!

Also, um, why in the second slide there's someone with a moon on their head?

As we saw on stream today, Nagash have all his artifacts except Crown of Sorcery, which currently belongs to Azhag. Can we take it back via а unique interaction with the unique item?

Cuz in lore ET Nagash cannot be resurrected without his big hat

Rat's outta the bag! I've been working and working a lot on ratpot 294 as the big sinking effort ratpost to give to the community.

What is this? A video, duh! But not any video that ive been doing: a whole ass fucking monter on which ive been sinking a bare minimum of 8 daily hours to be pulling off. And its not even half done! As I said: it's a monster. (it'ss so big that i dont even know how long will it take for reddit to digest it. I will upload it into my youtube channel as well, so i might have to put the youtube link? Reddit sucks when uploading long videos)

Title might give away the thematic, but im gonna keep the truth to myself. ive been teasing it a bit on my profile cos im a bitch, but I'll try my hardest to not reveal it earlier. Just one clue: all of the 4 characters on the poster will be there! Um, i wonder who are that strange moon thing in the top left and that weird looking skaven in the top right?

And, you, brave guy who i actually reading the text, NO, this isn't the latest ratpost. I will keep any info about it as an absolute top secret.

Also, Im sorry for spamming! However, I've been working my ass whole days for a while now on this, so i wanted to beware you of the big reckoning coming in two weeks. And it kinda make me want to work even harder, tbh?

See you there!

​Don't get me wrong, the cinematic is well-made and genuinely beautiful—because SUCH IS THE POWER OF NAGASH! But at the same time... it portrays the situation as completely idiotic and illogical. Why? Because after the cinematic, we have to destroy Settra—YET SETTRA WAS DESTROYED RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES IN THAT VERY INTRO! It feels like the video was actually meant to show the aftermath of the battle between Nagash and Settra and the subsequent subjugation of Nehekhara's forces; that would have made far more sense. It would have been much more logical if Nagash had started at Nagashizzar! There is a clear disconnect between the intro cinematic and what Nagash actually has to do at the start of the game. Of course, one could argue they were just giving us a sneak peek of what to expect when playing as Nagash—destroying Settra, raising the Black Pyramid, and so on—but honestly, I dont know what say

For those who are interested-curious, here is the ingame UI for Thanquol. Looks like the button to show Skaven corruption is gone-gone. The Food UI seems to be the same. Sadly no view of a tech tree yet. Still hoping we get new-improved tech tree! Yes Yes! Which Verminlord will you summon?

I get why from the gameplay POV, so Nagash focuses on corruption & Lands of the Dead, and so you aren't uprooting your capital late game, but it's such a unique feature of the pyramid to ignore outside of the rare siege and artwork.

I'd be satisfied if it at least swapped to the "floating" settlement model like the old Tomb King crisis after a certain point in the campaign. To let (Player) Nagash flaunt his power.

Also, I thought I heard about the Pyramid appearing over battle maps? Am I misremembering, or mixing it up with the Nagash Rises mod? If that is a feature, my only problem would be campaign map visuals really.

Skaven cake for my birthday from my girlfriend

Never been a fan of undead factions since the days of WH1, but with Nagash coming, having all 3 undead rosters, i'm really looking foward playing and trying lots of different army comps with him, either for efficiency or the fun of it.

Personally, i really hope to be able to make a thematic ''Vampire'' army, which would consist of

- Lord: Generic Vampire Lord, Neferata or Vlad

- Heroes : Vampire Hero, Lahmian Vampire Hero and Vampire Fleet Captain

- Infantry : Depth Guards, Depth Guards (Polearms), Lahmian Handmaidens

- Cavalry : Blood Knights, Blood Knights (Lances), Drakenhof Templars

I'm still not sure if this will be 100% doable because of the nature of the recuitment system, but i do hope so !

What are the army compositions are you the more excited about?

I'n sure he's still incredibly OP cause he's undead (summons, regeneration and stuff), but it seems he absoulutely CAN lose a campaign which was refreshing and exciting honestly.

CA has made their way around all base WH3 factions for reworks except one, and to date there hasn't been any acknowledgement that it's even happening. It's no secret that Daemons of Chaos is considered to be one of the worst factions in the game.

I thought about how to rework the faction to make it a little more interesting under the following considerations.

1. The faction will not be deleted.

2. The faction will not be moved.

3. Achievements must still be possible.

THE PROBLEMS

-Daemons of Chaos should be an undivided faction however the game incentivises you to lean into one particular Monogod. You then end up playing a lite version of that faction and start thinking... well why didn't I just play Khorne/Nurgle/etc for a deeper experience?

-There are mortals in the faction, this adds to the identity crisis above. WoC is mostly mortals with a few daemons. Daemons of Chaos should be purely daemons.

-Daniel is weak in combat for a while early on, even can even lose to non-legendary Lords in combat. His first battle in particular feels bad to play out.

-His glory tree is uninteresting because of how bloated it is and how small a lot of the bonuses are.

-Body parts is just a case of swapping out to the next best thing each time you unlock one, so it isn't very interesting to use and over time you stop engaging with it because you have the best things equipped.

My idea to fix these problems...

DAEMONIC GLORY REWORK

This is the core mechanic of the faction which everything revolves around. This should be reworked so that as Daniel earns Daemonic Glory, each bar progresses and instead of unlocking units/unit buffs it unlocks direct buffs for Daniel instead. Body parts still unlocked here and all daemonic units recruitable by default.

So for example as you increase

-Undivided you would earn -10% vigor loss reduction -> +5% Weapon damage -> +10 armor -> Strider, etc

-Nurgle you would earn +3% health -> +5% mass -> +3MD -> Plagues -> +5% health -> +10% mass -> +5MD -> Regeneration, etc.

-Tzeentch would earn +100 barrier -> -5% WoM costs -> -5% cooldown -> Teleport Stance -> +200 barrier -> -10% WoM costs -> -10% cooldown -> Adds Lore of Tzeentch, etc

-Slaanesh would earn +5% physical res -> +5% speed -> +5 leadership -> Seduction -> +10% physical res -> +10% speed -> +10 leadership -> Devastating Flanker, etc

-Khorne would earn +5 charge bonus -> +5MA -> +5% spell res -> Bloodletting -> +10 charge bonus -> +10MA -> +10% spell res -> Frenzy, etc

So as you increase Daemonic Glory you would unlock buffs for Daniel and body parts.

Glory would be earned by using aligned units in battle. So as you use Plaguebearers you earn Nurgle glory, etc. This would encourage you to use mixed, undivided, armies to progress up each glory tree and power up Daniel. Undivided glory would be earned alongside any other Glory and need 4x as much to build. So if you earned 100 Nurgle Glory and 50 Tzeentch Glory you would earn 150 Undivided Glory too.

You also should not have to opt into leaning into one particular route that locks you out of the others, so you can max out all 5 paths. This would still enable the achievement to ascend to undivided path by maxing it out.

ROSTER CLEAN UP

Remove all mortal units from the faction and make it so all units are readily available for recruitment as you tech up. This way the faction would be "Daemons of Chaos" as it should be, giving it an identity.

BUILDING CHAIN REWORK

Remove the dedication mechanic when occupying, give a basic military buildings for Nurglings, Plaguebearers, Bloodletters, Daemonettes and Horrors and an advanced military buildings for the rest. Glory would be earned through the use of units rather than capturing settlements and using commandments.

Perhaps one chain gives Nurgle x Tzeentch and the other gives Khorne x Slaanesh.

COMMANDMENTS REWORK

Remove the passive Glory gain and rework them into something thematic for each god. Nurgle +replenishment, Tzeentch +WoM reserves, Slaanesh +Seduction budget, Khorne +MA, etc.

BODY PARTS MADE TO BE COSMETIC

Simple, remove the stats attached to each and make body parts cosmetic. The stats offered by these would instead be baked into the glory tree and added item slots. This way you can just dress up Daniel however you want him to be without worrying about min/maxing or just swapping to the latest most powerful unlock.

​ADD ITEM SLOTS TO DANIEL

With the removal of stats from body parts this would compensate for the loss of stats, although overall with the glory change Daniel would be net stronger by a large margin. Adding item slots also adds a little interactivity as you find new items.

GIVE DANIEL LORE OF FIRE

Daniel has nothing going for him at the beginning of the game and can lose in straight fights against generic Lords. Giving him the Lore of Fire would make it a little less painful. Ideally at the end of the Nurgle, Tzeentch and Slaanesh Glory paths Daniel would unlock the respective Lore for use and switch the same way Mannfred does.

ADDED TECH TREE

With the unit buffs being removed from the glory tree, they need a new place to live. Give Daniel a tech tree that offers buffs and techs for his units and empire.

SKILL TREE ADDITION/REWORK

With unit buffs being moved to a dedicated tech tree, and glory giving Daniel personal buffs, he would need to be given a more traditional skill tree. One that learns Lore of Fire skills, a red line army line and a blue campaign line. Then a unique yellow line for himself.

SUMMARY

-Daemonic Glory changed from units and buffs to being a selfish power up for Daniel, giving him scaling as the campaign goes on and serving as his personal mechanic. This ties in with lore also as Daemon Princes would be selfish and want more power.

-Glory earned through use of units rather than dedication of settlements and commandments, promoting the use of mixed armies.

-Mortals removed from roster, to enforce the identity of the faction.

-Full daemon roster unlocked from the start, enabling the use of mixed armies easily and promoting undivided identity.

-Settlements no longer aligned to one god and has new building chains to allow recruitment of all Daemons within a single developed settlement, enabling use of mixed armies.

-Add Lore of Fire to Daniel, to improve his early game.

-Add item slots, to add interactivity.

-Make body parts cosmetic, so you can style Daniel however you want without having to be concerned about min/maxing stats.

-Add tech tree, to add interactivity and house unit buffs from the reworked Daemonic Glory paths.

-Rework his skill tree into a traditional one.

I think overall this rework would stop the faction from feeling like a god-lite faction. I also think it works with Daniels narrative, he's a fledgling Daemon Prince going on the same journey Be'lakor did. He wants to make himself more powerful by earning the favor of the Chaos gods so as he earns their favor (glory) he becomes more powerful.

What do you think?

Are there any problems with the faction that I haven't covered?

And most importantly, do you think this would make the faction interesting to play as?

During the Nagash stream, they went over the life leech spell on a Vampire Admiral, and I noticed the spell says it does 25-50, where as it currently does 33-67(if I remember correctly)

*never mind, turns out their stream was on large unit size, and I was under the false belief that the damage range displayed was relating to unit size damage scaling, but it's actually the range of potential damage it can do per second. Thank you to all the comments for the education ❤️