"So, is this mod the prequel to Aria The Escalation?"
It is not. Both are spin-offs based on a separate original setting. This is how the same characters appear in both mods despite being wildly disparate in timelines.

"You need to take another look at the custom cataclysm."
Hi, thanks for pointing this out, I forgot to set it back to 100 turns after testing it. I have pushed an update with this fix, plus some balance changes based on suggestions taken up from the comments.

So, is this mod the prequel to Aria The Escalation?

You need to take another look at the custom cataclysm.
After enabling it the message that it is disabled still shows up (confused me quiet a bit).
Also it began almost instantly, the 'Cataclysm has come.' event showed up 1 year in, preceded by drain scales.

I played as Caelum with thrones victory and Horror Cataclysm disabled, if that is relevant.

Thank you for pointing this out, this will be fixed in a future update

Just noticed a bug: Dragoons start the battle as size 3 and then switch to size 2. Probably should be 5->3 if I understand what you're doing there.

Then that person is someone generic, like a general

but as a mortal someone will replace them to take their role

An addendum to avoiding friendly fire, I just remembed that cannon AoE is fire damage, so if you cast some fire element resist spells on your troops, like Fire Fend, then you can *reduce*, but not outright prevent cannon friendly fire.

"Also any tips on how to reduce friendly fire from artillery, since my volkstrum and pike kept dying from artillery?"
Unfortunately, the most you can do in this game is set your cannons to Hold and Fire Archers.
In the 2 turns that they are holding, they will actually not shoot at archers yet, so they should fire 1 volley at frontline units. After that, it's just hoping the enemy doesn't run out of archers or the friendly fire starts happening in earnest.

"And will there be option to recruit General of the Artillery and Grand Marshall of the Royal Guard. If they somehow die?"
They are mortals, so unfortunately not. The Queen and Empress being recallable as gods is already stretching it a bit, but it's a compromise with the game system. Maybe you can twiceborn or simulacrum them somehow.

Also any tips on how to reduce friendly fire from artillery, since my volkstrum and pike kept dying from artillery?

And will there be option to recruit General of the Artillery and Grand Marshall of the Royal Guard. If they somehow die?

Hi, there will not be any of those.

will there be third path option, that focus on blood magic? Since Aria is full of young girls.


Also MG team and 300mm MLRS when?

"The starting site should probably provide a fire gem"
Your red mage remnants are decent fire site searchers, so you should reasonably find fire gems eventually. Think of it as oil exploration to fuel your thermal plants. When playing as Aria, the theme is that you're playing a nation *in the middle* of its industrial revolution, and to leverage it, you need to find and exploit the necessary resources - fire, air and water gems among them.

"Perhaps the Arcane Industrialists should have a chance to pick up Air or Water?"
This is a conscious decision to leave no natural water access to the nation prior to "unification". The rationale is twofold: gameplay-wise and lorewise. Gameplay-wise, Aria is intended as a nation with a narrow magic lineup, particularly at the start. The idea is for you to lean more on your very strong national troops rather than mages (cannons being viable alternatives to Evocation spamming). This only opens up later on as you unlock new heroes, finish reunification and find hybrid magic sites. It is intended to be difficult to break into other magic paths as Aria. Lorewise, you are correct in saying Air/Water is the rough analogue I chose to represent Blue magic, and that is the school Aria is weakest at due to its acute shortage of magic stones.

"The mount-system changes have hit the cav pretty hard, they die really fast for their price. Giving all the horses at least Light Barding would help."
Thematically, napoleonic cavalry are unbarded and that is the basis of this decision. Schwarze Reiters as well, though more late medieval, also typically don't bard their horses. Aria's cavalry is specialized in two ways: First, their standard role cavalry - hussars and border patrol, are on the cheaper side, their costs modeled from LA Tienchi's barbarian cavs. Second, their specialized cavalry, that is, everything else, have something special or unique to them that demands the cost increase. Such as the Lippizaner's Pipette Lance, or the Schwarze Reiter's bulk gold recruitment option. For what it's worth, the Kingdom-side's cavalry are more traditional - medieval, in that they are all heavily barded, so you might be interested in checking them out.

Thank you for the feedback!

"Imperial commanders should be drain-immune for both thematic and mechanical purposes"
They are primarily military commanders with mage abilities. Thematically speaking, they aren't researchers in the job sense - any research they do provide will have something to do with their magical talents, so not having drain immune fits.

Some thoughts: 1) It feels like the Imperial commanders should be drain-immune for both thematic and mechanical purposes, or at least the Captain and Witch Hunters. The nurses also can't cast most of their special spells--there's no f/n crosspath, and only one level of nature until you finally get the slime hero.
2) The mount-system changes have hit the cav pretty hard, they die really fast for their price. Giving all the horses at least Light Barding would help. The Reiters especially should probably have heavier armor to match their riders.
3) Perhaps the Arcane Industrialists should have a chance to pick up Air or Water? That's Blue magic, right? It would make it much easier to create the national items; at present there's no national e/w crosspath available on either version of the nation.
4) The starting site should probably provide a fire gem, to get your Industrial Zones online and reliably enable the Strategy items early so you can create one or two to help with the Civil War.

@Crayon Swagalicious my dude, twas curious. Original stuff is always cool.

Hi, this is based on an original setting created by me.

Is this based off an anime or something? Most of these all female nations are usually based off Touhou or something. Just curious otherwise swag nation.

Ive been waiting for an pike and shot faction, thank you

This is deeply clever in using mechanics to stretch what is possible in Dom

Thank you for the feedback! I will consider them for a future update!

"Palatine knight's destriers aren't sacred"
This one is intentional.

Palatine knight's destriers aren't sacred, ergo do not benefit from knight's bless (RiP my swiftness bless idea).

The pure military commanders are way cheaper then vanilla commanders of similar skill (1 command for 1 gold is the cheapest it gets normally for good leaders, here it's closer to 2:1).

Imperial guard has 19 damage armor piercing magical weapon (an in built sword of sharpness) on chasis with bunch of perks, +10 gold really does not reflect the jump in quality. Especially since you have more then enough earth to buff their prot.

Magic complex: pinpoint defence grants strong resistance to everything for 6 gems, way to cheap. Imperial cross - similar situation.

Palatine Balif is cheaper then Lord Captain, even though she's better in every way (except armor, but that's easily remedied and accounted for in resources).

Cannon - were it not 1 attack every 3 rounds it would be better then every single fire evocation (fire&flame storms excluded). Still a strong contender.

Awesome, I love to see it and to see your work continue! Thank you for the fun in multiple games.

Yes, they're all from the same original setting.

Given Aria and Yuri of Caprice is this the same factions theoretically as the Starsector mods?

"I have some qualms about pricing, but suspect this isn't supposed to be balanced, so I won't bring it up."
Please, feel free to share all of your feedback! I'll give it careful consideration.

"With Caparice mentioned in the industrialization part, are you perhaps considering porting them for Dom 6 as well?"
Of course, all three will be updated, in time. It just takes a lot of work and time to do so.

"The 'Slash Princess' pretender gives -1 magic, but since you already have -2 magic I suspect it does nothing."
Ah, thanks for pointing this out. That is indeed the case. I was under the impression that it would be additive. I will change it to -3.

"I would have much rather it was two or three nations"
The civil war mechanic is the primary feature of the mod, so this would invalidate it.

"...which makes the whole feel unfocused"
The dynamic is that the nation starts out with the same base pike and shot tech and can either tech up or down with either path - their power levels balanced out by magic. And I don't think there's enough content in its constituent parts to make up a fully fledged nation to my standards.

"Maybe give the imperial officers and combat medics poison resist"
Hmm, I'll consider it, but they aren't supposed to get close enough to the front to worry about that sort of thing.

With Caparice mentioned in the industrialization part, are you perhaps considering porting them for Dom 6 as well?

Either way it's great to see your mods return!!!

Maybe give the imperial officers and combat medics poison resist so that they have resistance to mustard gas grenades and make them in line with other imperial troops?

The 'Slash Princess' pretender gives -1 magic, but since you already have -2 magic I suspect it does nothing.

The idea of having a nation that differs depending on pretender etc is interesting and unique, but frankly I would have much rather it was two or three nations. The starting troops and commanders alone are interesting enough that I would like to use only them for a game, same for both paths. It also muddles the theme of the nation. Base is late pike&shot, Imperials are WW1 with sprinkling of magic and the Royal is magical kingdom which makes the whole feel unfocused.

I have some qualms about pricing, but suspect this isn't supposed to be balanced, so I won't bring it up.

Good spritework all around, I especially like how firearm units look.

Woohoo! I was worried that I would never see your mods again! Awesome!