Making a new Magic System Part II: Spells

[tesb]

rain

i made something similar




ok two new spell effects:

8) acid rain

Spoiler :

note: the actual rain is very tiny on this pic i upscaled the rain drops in the attached file already.

edit: acid rain one post below


9) a buff (no name yet but i looks angelic)

Spoiler :

basically an angel image appears around the caste gets bigger changes color and fades out. (the colors ingame are slightly different looks still awesome)

edit:
@sephi i suggest at least a scale of 2.5 for the buff

 

[tesb]

i tweaked the stormclouds a bit so the clouds themselves look a bit darker (more like storm) and the acid rain has slightly bigger rain drops (beware: the picture is not up to date)

on the picture is also the buff (it starts on the left and ends on the right)

Spoiler :

 

[Sephi]

some bugs i noticed:
-when a spell adds a promotion to enemies it does not work (i.e. boiling blood does not apply the enraged promotion)

this one is not a bug. A spell will apply Promotions only to the Unitcombats listed in the Promotiondescription (same for Globalenchantments. Fair winds is only applied to naval unitcombats). In this case you would have needed to add

<bAnyUnitCombat>1</bAnyUnitCombat>

to xml of PROMOTION_ENRAGED.

 

[Sephi]

ok flamestrike reworked and functioning

@sephi
if you implement those effects i suggest you scale them all to 1 except for:
meteor: <fScale>0.5</fScale>
flamestrike: <fScale>0.8</fScale>




now to fix the storm clouds

what do you suggest for storm and stormcloud effect?

Also storm has 2 nif files. Is it storm_hit or storm2_hit?

 

[Sephi]

sephi, i created some spells:

1)
nether blade: needs dimensional 1 researched and dark blessing: deals a high amount of damage to one target

2)
rift: needs dimensional 2 researched and dark blessing: deals a medium amount of damage to all units within the enemy stack and makes them immovable for one turn

3)
burning blood: need vampire promotion and body 1 researched: deals a low amount of damage to five enemy units and enrages them.

I merged them, but nerfed their damage/targets quite a bit and made some changes.

1) obsoleted by enlarged nether blade (dimensional 3). Increased Damage/limit and chance to hit Enemy on adjacent plot.

2) obsoleted by Greater Rift (dimensional 4). Instead of immobile has forcedTeleport effect. Targets will be teleported to a nearby plot in which they can move (so only on water if they have waterwalking, not into enemy stacks, etc.). Spell is great to wreck havoc on enemy formations.
3) normal spell only needs body1. Vampires have access to a better version (more targets, a little bit more damage/limit

also added Meteor and Meteor Swarm Spells.

 

[tesb]

what do you suggest for storm and stormcloud effect?

stormcloud and acidcloud should be fine with a scale of 1 at least that is what you see on the screenshots. i will test storm later
(since the effects are based on mid_mjolnir2_hit which has a scale of 0.5 this should work for those two effects too)

Also storm has 2 nif files. Is it storm_hit or storm2_hit?

both versions should work, the difference is that in storm_hit there is a quite an impact when the lighting hits the ground and in storm2_hit there is only some lightning without any impact. i'll upload some screenshots later so you can choose what version you like more, of course you could use both. the reason i did not really pay attention to those two effects is that they are basically the mid_mjolnir2_hit.nif with the difference that the hammer is missing (and in the case of storm2_hit the impact is missing too).

please keep in mind that the storm_hit and storm2_hit both uses billboard nodes, that means the effect will always face the camera. while this causes no issue in the normal zoom, it will look strange when zoomed out, since camera angle changes and instead of striking from the sky it will more look like striking from the side. like i said i will post some screenshots later so you can decide if you want to include those effects.

edit: i forgot:
since both storm_hit and storm2_hit are based on mid_mjolnir2_hit the lightening will not strike until the ~2.1 second mark. i could change that so it hits earlier but that would mean quite a lot of work since it uses NiVisController i.e. i have to change the time index of a couple hundreds of keys.

I merged them, but nerfed their damage/targets quite a bit and made some changes.

1) obsoleted by enlarged nether blade (dimensional 3). Increased Damage/limit and chance to hit Enemy on adjacent plot.

2) obsoleted by Greater Rift (dimensional 4). Instead of immobile has forcedTeleport effect. Targets will be teleported to a nearby plot in which they can move (so only on water if they have waterwalking, not into enemy stacks, etc.). Spell is great to wreck havoc on enemy formations.
3) normal spell only needs body1. Vampires have access to a better version (more targets, a little bit more damage/limit

also added Meteor and Meteor Swarm Spells.

feel free to change the spells to your liking, like i said they are more of an side product of the new effects.

if you have any requests or ideas about new effects please let me know. (or if you issues with the current ones i provided)
keep in mind that we still have to add the miracles for the religions and angelbuff in post #81 would be a good candidate for such a thing. so if you have a list of miracles you wanted to add but no fitting effect , please let me know.

one thing i wanted to add is a fist of heaven type of spell, i.e. a fist in the air appears and hits the ground.


also note i still have to do a minor fix the meteor nif, basically the meteor tail is not perfectly aligned with the path of the meteor. this is only a minor thing and you just need you to replace the *.nif once i uploaded it.

 

[tesb]

ok sephi i tested the storm_hit or storm2_hit nifs and i conclude that they don't really look good.
1) the effect is delayed by ~2sec and fixing this is a lot of work
2) it simply doesn't look that good

i would recommend not using them altogether.
for lightning effects you still have the stormcloud and the old effect from the maelstrom spell

edit: here is a screenshot from storm_hit.nif with a scale of 0.5

Spoiler :

in the download thread you posted a picture of a meteor swarm spell. if you want i can give you a second (or more) meteor effects where the meteor gets delayed so they don't fall from the sky at the same time, just say if you want it and i make them.
(the meteor swarm would need to use a mix of the different meteor .nifs i don't know if this is possible, alternatively i can make an effect that has multiple meteors in it and they hit different tiles on the ground, although this would be a one tile spell that looks if it would affect neighboring tiles)

i will have a bit more time this week, so i hope i can make some new effects.

i also made the fix (i.e. the tail is now aligned with the path of the meteor) for the meteor it is in the attachment
but i must say this is barely noticeable, since the meteor is so fast anyways.


if you have any requests for new spell effects feel free to make them.

 

[tesb]

ok next effect is ready:
starshards: basically rotating stars fall out of the sky and hit the ground. upon landing a rainbow appears and a pink unicorn steps through it .. oh wait that does not happen only the starshards fall out of the sky

Spoiler :

the size of the effect on this picture is 1.5 (i would downscale it to 1.0 or 1.2 at maximum)
it looks like a rather weak spell on one tile, so more advanced versions should affect more tiles, akin to the meteor rain spell


also we still have one big problems: fitting sound effects!

 

[PhoenixMuse]

Economic Spells

There's too few economic effects for magic. Most of the spells suggested here are purely combat focused, whereas I'd like to see some stuff that's more economic. Perhaps this could be integrated to some new magic based victory.

I couldn't agree more!

I love the spells Inspiration, and Courage. I think the level I stone spell that creates a wall is bad-ass. Let's see more spells that revolve around terrain changing, city upgrading (or city-degrading for offensive spells), and so on.

Mage Towers

Archmage could be put in towers, and they could be used to achieve some kind of victory where you ascend to a higher dimension. You could have tower improvements, and they might be required to do some kind of summoning ritual in a city. Maybe more tower's would result in more powerful rituals.

To refine the tower thought... (Which I love.)

Tower Types based on Mana Types
1.) There could be one type of tower for each mana. Each of these towers would have a minor city benefit when they are first built, and would cost around 50 production (or something equivalent in mana with the new magic system.)

Magical Units Added To Mana Towers
2.) When a relevant magical unit is in the city (adept, mage, archmage, or whatever makes the most sense with the new magic system in 9.0) that unit has the ability to join the tower. When hovering over the option to join the tower, it would say something like; "Increases X between 5% and 50%". The range would depend on the power/upgrades/affinity of the unit in question.

Tower Limitation
3.) Each city can have up to six towers. Each tower can only have one unit. The unit can be removed and replaced once. (I suggest it being able to be removed and replaced once so players don't get angry when there isn't a very good buff from that unit and destroy the building and rebuild it looking for a better result.)

National Wonders with Tower Combinations Required
4.) Various combination of six towers within a city could open the doors for national wonders that can only be built when you have certain requisite towers. Because mana types are limited, you would only be able to build one to four of these in your average game.

New Magical Victory Type
5.) Perhaps if you build every one of the different national wonders that are enabled through various combinations of Magic Towers within cities, then a world wonder is enabled that grants a magical victory. Since this would require all types of mana and many different cities creating particular combinations of towers, and then building a large number of national wonders, I think it would make a very satisfying victory.

Either way getting magic integrated into economy would be ideal.

Also perhaps effects like Ilian winter spread would be a maintainable spell.

I'd like to see a spell that has the appearance of Ilian's territory. That would be awesome. If it turned a bunch of terrian into ice for ten turns or so with a blizzard above it. That'd be super cool looking, and a nice 'ouch' to the enemy player or AI.

New divine summons will be needed too. Perhaps more concepts along the lines of the planar gate/mercurian gate could be used-> build a gate-> get stuff crossing over.

I like the idea of more buildings that create gates that allow for new civilizations or monsters or whatever to cross over.

I really like the Pact of Nilhorn and think a Pact with Dragons and Pact with Unicorns and Pact with Pegasus and so on is in order.

 

[tesb]

Pact with Unicorns

that will not be possible unless they are bloodthirsty carnivore unicorns who impale their prey with their horn.


there are indeed a ton of economic spells, for example inspiration becomes global enchantment. the are also new debuffs that will weaken you enemies. from what i can tell there are about 4-5 different buffs and a similar amount of debuffs. magic will therefore have an impact on your economy and that of your enemies
edit: it is probably even more ...

i don't know sephis plans for divine summons, i just now that faith will be used for religion specific miracles.


@Mage Tower idea:
what would be the purpose of this in game mechanics? i can see the basic idea behind it from an lore perspective but what would it change in terms of game mechanics? ('sacrifice' high level casters for more mana income?) please elaborate.

also note that there are already towers ingame (and they could use an overhaul especially the tower of mastery) so it would be nice to start with them, imho

 

[Caradoc]

ideas:
-polymorph -- changes target unit's race
-summon familiar -- unit gains an animal totem as its familiar
-sing -- not just for Guy T anymore, gives city +1 happiness

 

[IlikeTanks]

Are there still going to be kill spells like fireball? Otherwise i gotta learn some python quick :/

 

[tesb]

spells work quite differently now, take for example the new fireball:
instead of a summoned units the spell fireball is targeted like ranged combat. it can't kill since it has maximum amount of damage but with the right promotions your casters may kill with spells (since some raise the damage cap and damage or increase the chance that adjective tiles are affected too, etc.)

 

[IlikeTanks]

awww man that sounds like orbis now The poor wizard has to rely on the meele now

 

[tesb]

what? no, i guess you should just wait and see. magic is much more important now, but you also have to prioritize on what you use your mana or how you specialize you mages.

 

[IlikeTanks]

Well i trust you But for the amurites, for example, can mass produce mages... but with a damage cap, whats the point of 10 mages when 4 can easily hit the cap.... damn you orbis...!

 

[Pohlmann]

i would like to try it now

wasnt sephi going to make the beta public yesterday?

 

[scutarii]

i would like to try it now

wasnt sephi going to make the beta public yesterday?

remember, this is a DARK FANTASY mod - so negative surprises are actually expected

 

[tesb]

look at my walls, they are made out of magic. yay

Spoiler :

 

[Valkrionn]

look at my walls, they are made out of magic. yay

Spoiler :

Thought you should know: That doesn't work unless you have access to that forum. For the rest of us, doesn't show anything. So pointless to post in this thread, anyone who can see it will have seen it there.