D E S E R T   D E A T H
                   v3.0        By oogaBooga
Desert Death was a plugin made for TFL long ago by an associate of mine named Lady ShŒr, of the clan =A= (Alliance). By TFL standards it was a good plugin, and many people back in the heydey of early b.net were avid fans of it, especially the =A= clan. It was a couple meshes based on the Desert Between Your Ears level, and it changes only the units that you would find on that map, with the exception of berserks and heron guards who were changed to paladins because warriors aren't prevalent enough in Myth 2 to make full use of the Paladins. To compensate for the Paladin's warrior-like speed in the original, I have upped it from 0.033(normal warrior speed) to 0.037 (just under heron guard speed, 0.039). This is the only very significant change from the TFL version to the M2 version, other than unavoidable M2/tfl engine differences(which we all hope 1.4 will eliminate:) ).

 One thing to keep in mind while playing this, is I tried to keep it extremely consistent with the TFL version. Physics have been changed to match this. Dwarf bottles are now akin to their TFL cousin. Same goes for pus packets. Basically lightning won't set them off automatically, which means it's possible to Carpet Bomb(accelerate dwarf bottles by gracing their path with fetch lightning). Also, it's possible to "carpet bomb" with only dwarf bottles by selecting a group of dwarves and attacking the same point at the same time (the bottle(s) that do not explode are accelerated by the other bottles' explosions.

  Herein is a layout that contains detailed descriptions of all units and how they balance each other gameplay-wise, and which units they replace.

   UNITS:
     
    Archer Veteran: Uses fir'Bolg collection. Better archers with more health (less than a warrior's), better aim, longer distance, and faster arrows. However, they lack something important: flame arrows. Sidenote: their collections have been altered slightly, instead of having the tunic and loincloth being primary and secondary colors respectively, both of them together become the primary color, and the secondary color has been changed to the boots and quiver color (and unfortunately the blood color for dead body parts, which I sacrificed to be able to HAVE the boot/quiver color option). This is only aesthetic, however. 
REPLACES: Archers, Flameless Archers, Dark Archers.

 Archer Legend: Same as the archer veteran, except a hero version (you can imagine what THAT's like...) By the way this has been added only to play with the Shiver level and any levels that contain hero versions of archers). 
Replaces: Archer Heroes

 Death Healer: Uses normal myth 2 Jman collection. Yes, this is pretty much THE most unbalanced unit in the plugin. However, I must ask you to keep in mind it's precisely how it was in TFL. Primary attack is a stoning arrow which is shot at a fairly fast pace. Can be shot long distances(30 WU), which can cripple an enemy's ranged units and formations. Journeymen are immune to stoning. Their secondary attack is a ranged healing special ability, with an archer's range (20 WU's) and is infinite. In case the only two units left on a given multiplayer map happen to be Death Healers, I added an upclose melee attack to settle issues of Jman Mortal Kombat :).
 REPLACES: Journeymen

 Paladin: A strong warrior using the Balor collection (which has been updated with some nice new aesthetics). The trim on the sword, the contrail, and the gold chain on the front of the armor have all been changed to take on the secondary color of whoever controls it. I did not choose primary for the reason that people in co-op would not be able to recognize their own troops when handed out. The primary color is ignored, leaving the suit white. They have an added "hard death pieces" sequence. I took the time to extract images from turning/walking/etc animations and turned them into different animated body parts. Personally this is my favorite thing about the plugin, as I think I did a good job on the pieces:). His soft death leaves behind a beheaded body and also he drops his sword(which has been turned into a projectile). The reason I kept the head falling off animation is (a) it's funny:P, and (b) it would be too tedious for me to go through all of his dying animations and paste a head on him. However it does look odd when an archer arrow or trow kick decapitates him, but such is life. Anyways, the gameplay physics are as follows: He has 12.0 health, which is double a normal warrior's, which may seem too strong. This however is balanced by the fact he has a relatively weak and slow attack. Also, he can be paralyzed by the Ka'Rall units, which can potentially wipe out your entire melee squad if you are not careful and misjudge the amound or health of an enemy group of Ka'Rall. They have an infinite close range healing ability(a little farther than a journeymen's, but still relatively close) that is mana-based and recharges quickly.
 REPLACES: Berserk, Heron Guard, Warrior

 Devout Paladin: Same as paladin, except 16.0 health and faster (much faster) attack rate, Also, you can tell between regular and Devout by the goldish tinge on the Devout Paladin's armor. They are more resistant to paralyzation, also. Primarily for the Shiver level (and a few levels in the solo campaign that have a sort of 'captain' berserk, such as Stair of Grief, Deciever and Gonen's Bridge(garrick).
 REPLACES: Berserk Hero, Heron Guard Hero

Dwarven Vet: These are a big portion of the fun youll be having, as they are extremely similar to the TFL's dwarven pathfinder. They throw the same, except a tad farther, and the bottles have TFL physics embedded (as explained above in the opening paragraphs). They have infinite airstrike grenades (yes, i know this can be unbalanced, but I will explain why it's not as overpowered as you think after I explain the rest of their attributes) but the ammo icon shows "6". This is because when they die they not only explode like a normal myth wight, but they leave behind six airstrike signal grenades which can destroy anything paralyzed but not killed by the initial wight explosion. THIS is the main reason why there's a chaotic form of balance to this plugin. If you have any units close to your dwarves when they die, it could potentially kill all of them. Not to mention setting off ANOTHER dwarf in the viscinity. Some people (strelkinov, namely) fail to understand how this could balance out gameplay. For example: if one Ka'Rall manages to paralyze your dwarf, and more swarm on him, he's pretty much a goner unless you can heal him enough times to get him moving and avoid total devastation. Uses TFL dwarf collection.
 REPLACES: Dwarves, Dwarven Heroes, Dwarven mortars, Dwarven Mortar Heroes, Dwarven Pathfinders.

Ka'Rall: Uses Myth TFL thrall collection. They are thrall with a 25% speed increase, a little more health, and an axe swing that paralyzes enemies. They may not sound terribly scary, but let me tell you when there's a swarm of them coming your way and you're trying to escape, anyone who gets tagged and pulled into their melee pile is long gone. A good tip is if you think you can spare a dwarf vet, throw HIM into the pile and let him explode, potentially taking out the Ka'Rall that are chasing you, or at least buy you some time.
 Replaces: Thrall.

Skr™l: Uses Myth TFL Skr¾l collection. Basically a skrael with six special ability pus packets for throwing. Pus packets behave more erratically, like in myth TFL. The skrael is moderately fast and has a sling which he can hurl rocks with at 6 world units (in comparison, a normal MYTH dwarf can throw 10 world units). The rocks do about as much damage as an arrow, and can really mess your ranged units up if you aren't careful. The computer cannot use the special ability pus packets. That's mostly for multiplayer or L vs D. However an interesting side-effect is if a trow kicks one, or if a fetch zaps one to death, it instantly sets off all 6 pus packets. This can be used to your advantage if you know how. Also, it has an upclose spear melee attack. It can pick things up and throw them EXACTLY like a ghol. This is so on some coop levels they wont get confused. Expect to see Skr™l putting their satchels where you dont want them and so on.
Replaces: Ghols.

 Super Wight: Very self explanatory. Different effects for the explosion. Fast as a ka'Rall. No pus packets however, so kiss that goodbye in multiplayer. Besides, Skr™l ALREADY have 6.
 Replaces: Wights.


 If you find any bugs or problems, please dont hesitate to email me at: oogabooga@drunkenbastards.com


Copyright 1998 in whole or in part Bungie Sofware Products Corporation. 
Created with Bungie's Fear and Loathing (and Vista's Amber and Tag Extractor and Also Bungie's "Tagedit" for myth 1, to compare tags.)