Amurite Enhancement

[readercolin]

Ok, for the second part of my enhancement, I want to change the units and buildings - give them more of a magical flair. To do this, I am going to look at the units one by one and make changes. To start, these are my ideas.

The first change I intend to have is a new ability - mana aptitude. Mana aptitude checks to see if you have a mana source of that type, and if so, adds strength of that mana type. As an example, the axman listed below, has +1 fire mana aptitude. The staff of fire (wrong name, but I think you know what I'm referring to) gives +1 fire mana affinity. If the axman were to receive this staff, and have 1 fire mana from the palace, he would then have +2 fire strength. If a second fire mana was gotten (say, pyre of the seraphic), he would then get +3 fire strength. Without the staff, he would just receive +1 fire strength. So the axman below, with just the fire mana from the palace would be strength 2 +1 fire. With getting the holy building fore OO or RoK, he would be (OO) strength 2 +1 fire, +1 cold, or (RoK) strength 3 +1 fire. With 1 mana source of each type, he would be strength 3 +1 fire, +1 cold, +1 lightning. With ten mana sources of each type, he would be strength 3 +1 fire, +1 cold, +1 lightning.

Units:

Melee:
Warrior - no changes
Axman - 2 strength, +1 fire aptitude, +1 air aptitude, +1 earth aptitude, +1 water aptitude, can use bronze, iron, and mithril, increased hammer cost?
Champion - 4 strength, +1 fire aptitude, +1 air aptitude, +1 water aptitude, +1 earth aptitude, can use bronze iron and mithril (gain channeling 2?), increased hammer cost?
Phalanx - no changes
Immortal - no changes

Archery:
Archer - no changes
Firebow - attack 5, defense 4, channeling 2, fire 1, cannot use metal, +1 air mana aptitude, +1 fire mana aptitude, +1 nature mana aptitude?
Marksman - no changes
Crossbow - attack 7, defense 9, can use bronze and iron, +2 air mana aptitude, +2 fire mana aptitude

Recon:
Scout - no changes
Hunter - strength 4, +1 nature mana aptitude or strength 3, +2 nature mana aptitude
Ranger - strength 6, +2 nature mana aptitude
Beastmaster - no changes

Arcane:
Adept - gain ritualist promotion - can upgrade to wizard, champion, or firebow
Wizard - gain ritualist promotion, 0 strength, +1 aptitude for all mana types
Archmage - gain ritualist promotion, 0 strength, +1 affinity for all mana types
National unit limit for archmage changed to 8, remove ability to become a lich. (alternatively, I may change all archmage limits to 8, but change how lichdom works - more on that with part 3, spell reworking).

Disciple:
No changes

Buildings:

Forge changed to arcane forge. Arcane forge gives +0% production bonus, but +5% affinty bonus for all mana types. Alternatively, +10% affinity bonus for fire and enchantment mana types.

Mage guild gives a possibility (5% or so?) for newly built arcane units to start with channeling 2. This change would affect the mage guild for all races.

Cave of ansestors gives a possibility (1-5%) for newly built arcane units to start with channeling 3.

Possible change. Grab great sorcerer from Era and Better AI, remove ability to use as caster, and allow him to settle as a great sorcerer in a city for +2 xp for arcane units, and +2 research, or be used to find a new mana node. Great sorcerer points given by mage guild and cave of ansestors, as well as possibly a few wonders (Crown of akharain, Catacomb Liberalus, the 4 mana towers). Great sorcerer can also attach to an arcane unit, gives the arcane unit channeling 2 and 3 (possibly remove), twincast, summoning (is this in regular FFH, or only in FF?) and +1 xp from combat (maybe also give a 25-50% chance for 1 xp from a summon winning combat, I'll need to see how the current system works).

I may also make changes to the 4 towers. What the changes would be, I don’t know yet though.

-Colin

Edit: Recent thought. A promotion available to units with enchantment mana, auto-acquire with arcane forge in the city. Enchantment 1 allows for Arcane apprentice - +1 production. Enchantment 2 allows for arcane smith - +2 production. Enchantment 3 allows for arcane master-smith - +4 production. This would provide a good reason to hold arcane units in cities and grab enchantment mana. May change the requirements to requires forge in city to allow all races to benifit from this. The reason is that production is usually what I'm most lacking in when playing as the amurites - I have plenty of research, and plenty of money. But I'm so short of hammers that I need LOTS of summons to make up for it. It doesn't help that adepts are 90 hammers to an axmans 60 either... Alternatively, allow arcane smith (etc.) when the unit has enchantment and is in the city. Then with the arcane force it bumps up by x2 or something. Ok, maybe that is a bit to OP.

 

[readercolin]

For the third part of my enhancement, I plan to make changes to the spell system. As I see it, death mana is pretty much the best mana type to have, if you are stacking mana. I would like to see other mana types brought up to either its level, or close to its level. FFH is supposed to be a magical universe, but at the moment it is almost better to avoid most magic and focus on smashing people with non-magical weapons. The goal of this is to make mana truly useful and something that people strive to get. So changes are listed below - they are subject to debate, and if anyone has better ideas, I'd love to hear them.

The biggest change however will be to enchantment. I intend to completely overhaul the current enchantment system to make it at once more powerful, and at the same time less. That will all be in the next post however.

The first change however will be to the spell casting system. I intend to change it to be cast spell, and use potion/artifact. This would allow you to cast a spell, then use a potion, or use a potion, then cast a spell. In this, use a potion would also be the same as pick up an item. Why this is important will be seen when you look at the enchantment overhaul.

Elementalism:
Spoiler for current ideas

Spoiler :

Earth:
Earth 1 - Wall of Stone, as is
Earth 2 - Stoneskin changed to stoneskin potion. Potion usable by any unit, puts stoneskin on user, 10% chance of wearing off each use
Earth 3 - Earth Elemental (strength 12 +1 earth affinity)

Air:
Air 1 - Lightning bolt. Causes 5% damage 20% cap. With air 2, 10% damage, 40% cap. With air 3, 20% damage, 60% cap.
Air 2 - flight. Gives the mage the flying promotion, or if it has it, can cast land to land. Affects only the caster
Air 3 - Maelstrom. Causes 10% damage to all tiles within 2 squares, damage uncapped.

Fire:
Fire 1 - forgot, what was it?
Fire 2 - fireball, strength 0 +4 fire, +1 fire aptitude, causes collateral damage
Fire 3 - Incinerate, causes 50% damage to 1 unit, damage uncapped, and 10% damage to other units in stack capped at 40%. Range 1

Water:
Water 1 - spring, as is
Water 2 - Minor water Elemental, same as major, but strength 4 +1 water affinity, weak promo. Strong promotion cancels out the weak promo, and will then be able to split upon death.
Water 3 - summon water elemental, as is

Ice:
Ice 1 - slow, as is
Ice 2 - ice elemental, strength 2 +2 cold +1 ice mana affinity
Ice 3 - snowfall, as is

In addition, each level 2 and level 3 spell promotion adds +1 combat of that type (so fire 2 adds +1 fire combat, etc.) Also, there will be the ability to mix spells.

Air 1, Water 1 - Thunderstorm - summons an invisible, never hostile unit with flying and movement 5 that has a spell that kills itself upon use. Spell puts out all fires within 2 squares, damages all units within 1 square with 5% cold capped at 10% and 5% lightning capped at 10%, and springs the square underneath it.

Fire 2, Air 2 - Firebolt - Fireball, strength 0 +2 fire, +2 fire aptitude, +2 air aptitude

Air 3, Ice 3 - Greater Snowfall - snowfall, range 2

Air 3, Fire 3 -Firestorm - Maelstrom, but range 1 and does 20% damage.

Spoiler for original Ideas

Spoiler :

Earth - earth is wall of stone, stoneskin, and earth elemental
The only one I don't like is stoneskin, because it can only be applied to the caster. As such, I plan to change it to create stoneskin potion. Stoneskin potion has a 10% chance of being used up with each use, and applies stoneskin to the caster. However, as a potion it would be able to be picked up by any unit.

Air - Fair winds, maelstrom, and air elemental
Fair winds is rather meh promotion. I think I have actually used it only once, and proceeded to ignore it ever since. On the other hand, all the level 1 spells are rather meh. I think that changing air 1 from fair winds to lightning bolt - 0 +2 lightning damage, +1 air mana aptitude. So as long as you have a source of air mana, it is strength 3, but if you loose yours it drops to strength 2. Another possibility is to have it give collateral damage on up to 1 unit, max of 10%. The other two spells are useful as they are though.

Fire - create smoke, fireball, and fire elemental
Create smoke (not the real name, but I can't remember it atm), is situationally useful. The problem is, it always causes fires when you don't want them, and never does so when you do. Therefore, I plan on changing it to significantly increase the chance for magical smoke to start a fire, but keep the current smoke as it is. So magical fire would have say a 50% chance of causing a fire, 10% chance of wearing off (numbers subject to change), while regular smoke would have a 10% and 5% chance.
Fireball would be changed to be strength 0, +4 fire, +1 fire mana aptitude.

Water - spring, water walking, and water elemental
Spring is a very useful spell. Water elemental is a useful spell. Water walking is one of the most useless in existence though. The reason is it isn't very useful for your mages alone to be walking on water while everyone else is forced to stay on the land (aka, its only useful when running OO, and escorting drown/stygan guard/cultists). As such, water walking will be changed in the enchantment overhaul, and water 2 changed to a useful spell. Water two will become minor water elemental. The minor water elemental will be strength 4, +1 water mana affinity, and weak promotion. It will follow the same rules as regular water elementals. If the tower of elements is built, the weak and strong promotions will cancel each other out, so when the minor water elemental dies with tower of elements, 2 with the weak promo and 70%ish health will appear.

Ice -Slow, Ice Elemental, snowfall
Slow is kinda meh, but I can't think of anything better. Ice and snowfall are both plenty powerful enough though. I can't decide whether or not to allow ice mana nodes to be built though.

Divination:
Spoiler for current ideas:

Spoiler :

Life:
Life 1 - sanctify, as is
Life 2- Banish, does 60% holy damage to undead and demon units, damage uncapped
Life 3 - resurrect, as is

Spirit:
Spirit 1 - courage, as is
Spirit 2 - Hope, as is
Spirit 3 - Spiritual Awakening. Creates a building that does the following. +100% great person growth rate, +10 culture, +50% gold, science, and culture, and units built in the city get +2 xp.

Mind:
Mind 1 - Greed, +3 gold, +1 GMP
Mind 2 - charm person
Mind 3 - dominate, as is, but instead of loosing upon faliure, causes inability to cast spells for 1 turn upon faliure

Sun:
Sun 1 - scorch, as is
Sun 2 - Tower of Revelation, reveals all invisible units within 2 squares of city, +3 research, +1 GSP
Sun 3 - Summon Aureoles, as is

Law:
Law 1 - Civil Obedience, building, -20% maintenance, +2 happy, -20% GPP, -20% Culture
Law 2 - Valor, as is atm
Law 3 - Oath of Protection, +50% defensive strength, +50% magic resistance, gives defensive (cannot move, but can still cast spells, etc), guardsmen, heals 10% after combat, +2 first strikes, +2 defensive strength, can remove with spell given to unit, given to whole stack

Spoiler for old ideas:

Spoiler :

Life - sanctify, destoy undead, resurrect
Sanctify is a very useful spell, and will remain as is. Destroy undead I'm up in the air over. Its powerful against undead, but useless most of the time. For now though, I'll keep as is. Resurrect is plenty useful enough as is I think - maybe if it also allowed rezzing of religious hero's if possible. Not high on the priority list though.

Spirit - Courage, hope, trust
Courage is a useful spell, +10% heal rate to all units in the stack and immune to fear. Hope is also useful. Trust however, is the worst spell ever, especially of level 3 spells. As such, I propose that spirit is changed to construct a building. Spell name to be determined. Constructs a building that gives +100% great person growth rate, +10 culture, +5 happy, and +50% research, gold, and culture (may reduce to +25%)

Mind - inspiration, charm person, dominate
Inspiration is very useful, dominate is useful, charm person however is a bit meh. I'm not sure exactly how useful it is, as I rarely ever use it. I'm willing to listen to others opinions though.

Sun - Scorch, blinding light, summon Aurealis
Scorch is a very useful spell. Blinding light… not so much. As it is, it is rather useful against the AI as it refuses to split stacks to deal with it. Against a human, its not quite so useful however. Not sure if I should change this or not. Summon Aurealis is one of the best summons in the game however, no changes here.

Law - Loyalty, summon host of E (I can't spell it, can you?), and Valor.
These are commonly considered some of the worst spells in existance. Loyalty is kind of useful in some situations. I'm not sure whether or not to change this. However, I think going with the ideas being tossed around in FF right now are a good way to go for the other two. These changes are valor is changed to be the level 2 spell, while the host is changed to be the level 3 spell. The host is then changed to be strength 6, +3 holy, +1 law mana affinity, guardsman, valor, loyalty, and will stay in existance for another turn upon winning a round of combat.

Alteration:
Spoiler for current ideas:

Spoiler :

Nature:
Nature 1 - Barkskin, +1 defensive strength, +10% heal, 50% chance to wear off each turn
Nature 2 - Vitalize, as is atm, but 2 turn casting delay
Nature 3 - Nature Guardian, Permanent summons, Strength 12 +2 nature mana affinity, +2 first strikes, guardsman, cannot move (can be cast in cities), unit cap similar to skeletons.

Enchantment - Enchantment covered in enchantment overhaul

Body:
Body 1 - Haste, as is
Body 2 - Regeneration, as is
Body 3 - Flesh Golem, as is

Creation:
Creation 1 - growth, as is in FF
Creation 2 - create creature
Creation 3 - create wyrm

Spoiler for old ideas:

Spoiler :

Nature - treetop defense, poisoned blade, vitalize
Treetop defense is rather useless. Poisoned blade is ok, but I plan on changing that with the enchantment overhaul. Vitalize is very useful, but especially in FF and orbis, scorch and spring do most of its work, and it usually isn't all that useful. So to change this, I plan on changing the level 1 spell to something else, I haven't decided yet. Level 2 will then become vitalize. Level 3 will become either summon tree of life (taken from arcane mastery, strength 15 (might be reduced), can cast tree of life, which creates a building that provides 10 food, 5 health, and 5 happy), or Natures guardian. Natures guardian would be a strength 12, +2 nature mana affinity, defensive only unit that starts with woodsman 1 and 2.

Enchantment - Enchanted blade, flaming arrows, and spellstaff
These promotions are useful, but don't fit what I feel is right for enchantment. An enchantment overhaul will be posted further down.

Body - Haste, regeneration, flesh golem
Haste is a very useful utility spell, but 1 caster helps the whole stack. I'm not sure whether or not to change this. Regeneration goes the same way. Flesh golem is also a rather useful spell, but you have to be playing with it to make it work right. If you aren't working it, its rather useless. If you are working it, it can be the strongest summon in the game. For right now, I'll make no changes to the body spells.

Creation (possibility to add, not sure yet)
Creation if I add it will add growth as the level 1 spell. Level 2 will be create being. Create being will create a being taken from the bestiary for the different mana types. Further research will be required, but basically it will allow with level 2 spells from other spheres the ability to create a unit from that god's creation. Level 3 will be create wyrm. The wyrm would be a strength 10 or so summon, but could be changed depending upon what other level 3 spells the caster knows. This would also be a permanent summons, can only summon 1 just like the flesh golem, but if it dies another can be summoned. So if the caster knows creation 3 and body 3, it will create a fleshy wyrm (name will need to be changed, but…) that has a higher strength and some ability yet to be determined. If the caster knows nature 3, creation 3, and body 3, it will be a developed wyrm, yet higher strength, more abilities. Knowing creation 3, nature 3, body 3, and enchantment 3, it will become an enchanted wyrm. Lastly, if a level 3 spell of any other mana type is known, the wyrm will become a dragon of that type. Stats yet to be determined. If one is summoned before knowing all 5 sets of level 3 spells, but you finally get them and want to summon another, then you can delete or otherwise kill the original and create a new one. Would be a multiturn summon.

Necromancy:
Spoiler for current ideas:

Spoiler :

Shadow:
Shadow 1 - Blur, as is
Shadow 2 - Summon Mistform, strength 3 +3 poison, invisible, hidden nationality, illusion
Shadow 3 - Shadowwalk, Promotion given to whole stack, gives 2 promotions. First promotion is shadowwalk, which makes the unit ignore terrain and city defenses. Second promotion is invisibility, which goes away upon casting or attack, and makes the unit ignore first strikes and defensive strikes. Both promotions have a 50% chance to wear off each turn. Invisibility can be removed by reveal or dispell magic, and is immediately removed if in the territory of deus dei.

Death:
Death 1 - summon skeleton, as is
Death 2 - summon specter, as is
Death 3 - summon wraith, as is, lichdom changed. Lichdom now adds undead promotion and 1 use immortality. Can only be cast once.

Entropy:
Entropy 1 - rust, as is
Entropy 2 - summon pit beast, pit beast retains current mechanics of remaining if successful in combat, but changed to strength 4 +3 unholy, movement 2, blitz, and cannibalize, as well as 2 first strikes.
Entropy 3 - Same name, changed to cause 10% damage, capped at 50%, gives new withered promotion. Withered promotion reduces healing by 20%, -60% strength, and -25% resistance to all damage types, but has 50% chance to wear off each turn.

Chaos:
Chaos 1 - dancing blades, changed to 1-3 first strikes.
Chaos 2 - mutate, as is
Chaos 3 - wonder, as is

Necromancy spells, like elemental spells, will add strength (death 2 grants +1 death combat, death 3 grants another +1 death combat, etc.)

Spoiler for old ideas:

Spoiler :

Shadow - Blur, shadowwalk, and mistform
Blur is ok (immunity to first strikes and defensive strikes). I think that I'll keep it as is for now. Shadowwalk ignores city defenses (walls, palisades, etc), but not terrain or cultural defenses. This is… kinda useful, but not especially so. It also is useless on gunpowder units (basically what it does at the moment is changes the unitclass to be gunpowder instead of whatever it currently is). What I propose instead is either A. ignores all defenses, from city, terrain, whatever, or B. give the unit a city attack bonus that is rather significant. I'm not sure which would be better or easier to implement. Mistform is a bit odd. Its usefullness in straight up combat is rather poor. However, it is invisible, hidden nationality, and might be marksman (I haven't checked that). This makes it a useful way to harrass the AI, though most humans will just murder whoever they think happens to be using hidden nationality units against them. For now, I'm going to leave it, unless someone can give me a better idea for it.

Death - summon skeleton, summon specter, summon wraith and turn into lich.
This is probably the most balanced sphere at each level. Summon skeleton is… a bit meh, but it’s a level 1 spell. I may change it to be strength 2 +1 death mana aptitude, or strength 2 +1 death, +1 death mana aptitude. Summon specter is plenty strong, though I may also give it +1 death mana aptitude (so with 1 death mana would be strength 3 +2 death, while 2 death mana would make it strength 3 +3 death). Summon wraith is plenty powerful as is. Lichdom I might change from changing the caster into a lich to giving the caster the lichdom promotion (single use immortality, +2 death strength, turns into undead, slower free xp rate if I can manage it). I will try to keep it limited to 4, but not sure I will or if its worth it.

Entropy - rust, summon pit beast, withered
Rust is a rather useful spell in the early game - might be worth it to have it remove mithril, but I'm up in the air over that. Summon pit beast is useful, but it could use a bit of help. I think that giving it more movement, blitz, and cannibilize would give it flavor. That or increasing its base strength some. I'm kinda against giving it affinity however, as it would then resemble the specter a bit too much. Withered however, needs some work. The problem with withered isn't that it doesn't give a strong detrimential promotion. The problem is that that promotion can be cured by any priest (or does it require heal? That would require a teir 4 priest or druid to do, at least in regular FFH, but is still a bit meh.). To give it a bit more flavor, I would perfer adding more damage that it does (and a higher damage cap, maybe 15% 50%, or 20% 60%, though now you're encroaching on snowfall a bit), and a new promotion, called dessicated or something. You can have it still give withered as well, but dessicated would reduce strength by like 50% or so, reduce healing time, reduce first strikes if it has any, and has a 10-20% chance to wear off each turn. So instead of casting it and having it removed the next turn by a single priest/whatever, you would cast it, the priest could remove withered, but dessicated would take time to disappear.

Chaos - dancing blades, mutate, wonder
Dancing blades is a bit meh - +1 first strike for a turn. I might change it to +1-3 first strikes, and a 50% or so chance of wearing off each turn. Mutate is mutate, useful in some peoples opinions, worthless in others. Personally, I don't much like it, but I also tend not to like tons of randomness. Will leave as is. Wonder. I've never used it. As such, for now, I'm leaving it.

Sorcery:
Spoiler for current ideas:

Spoiler :

Sorcery:
Metamagic:
Metamagic 1 - magic missile, strength 2 summon. Combining with any other level 1 spell adds +1 aptitude for that mana type (so metamagic 1 and fire 1 adds +1 fire aptitude, etc.). With metamagic 2, summons 2, metamagic 3, summons 4.
Metamagic 2 - as is
Metamagic 3 - Summon Djinn - as is, but add +1 aptitude for all mana types.

Spoiler for old ideas:

Spoiler :

Metamagic Mana - Floating eye, dispell, and summon djinn
Floating eye is kinda useful, but the only civ that can use it before sorcery is the amurites, as such, I feel it should at least be a touch more useful, (same function can be easily accomplished with the use of a single hawk), at a much earlier tech, without wasting a promotion, and with the cost of a few hammers for a permanent solution. I propose changing it to magical bolt, a strength 6 summon that is capped at 75% damage (effectively, a dwarven trebuchet without the collateral). Possibly make it summon 2 when metamagic 2 is known, and 4 when metamagic 3 is known, making it more useful at all levels. Dispell definitely has its place, I'll leave it alone. Djinn is possibly considered the worst teir 3 summon in the game. It can become very powerful if you get lots of mana. However, those games you should have either won by now or cheated and gave yourself lots of extra mana. Most of the time when you only manage to grab say 4 mana nodes on a small map, a strength 7 summon is kinda useless, and when you get more mana nodes you're often going to be stacking mana nodes and getting more sun mana nodes or more death mana nodes. However, giving it +2 mana affinity of every type would make it significantly OP. So I propose changing it from being strength 1 + 1 mana affinity of every type, to strength 0, +1 mana affinity of every type, +1 mana aptitude of every type. So now, if you have just the palace mana, it will be a strength 6 summon, but if you have say 5 different mana types it would be strength 10, but if you had 3 different and 2 of the same type it would be strength 9.

-Colin

 

[readercolin]

For the fourth part, enchantment overhaul.

The problem that I have with the current enchantment system is that it takes one unit with enchantment 1, and suddenly all your melee units have +20% strength. With enchantment 2, all of your archers have +1 fire strength. And with enchantment 3, you get a spellstaff. While these are useful, they don't really fit the idea that an enchanted weapon is something that the mage spent time on to design, build and create. Enchanted items should be kind of rare, and powerful. As such, Enchantment mana will receive a complete revamp under my system.

The first thing that I'm going to need to do is improve the strength of great items. These would be things like orthus's ax, the gela, etc. Basically, the object is to make them more powerful than the items any old adept can create. As an example, have orthus's ax, which currently gives +1 fire strength and blitz, give +2 fire strength (or +1 and +1 fire aptitude), +1-2 movement, blitz, and cannibalize (or maybe give it +20% health upon successful), and possibly a few first strikes, and maybe march. Yes, this would make orthus a real pain to take down. On the other hand, with the new enchantment system, +1 fire strength and blitz aint much. This also has the great added benefit of changing great weapons like this from "oooh, shiny" to - "You got the ax?!? ME WANT!!! Wardec for you, you *******!!!!!"

So with the new enchantment system, enchantment mana itself would do nothing. However, combining enchantment with other promotions would allow for the creation of new items. For example, enchantment 1 and fire 1 would allow the creation of a flaming sword, which gives +1 fire combat. This equipment can then be grabbed by anyone though it is created either on the caster or on the ground (I'm not sure which would be better atm), and then can be picked up by any other unit. However, as this could quickly become OP with every unit carrying every enchantment, it will be divided into weapons, armor, boots, wands, and potions, and the unit can only carry one of each (except maybe potions, I might allow as many of those as desired). If there is some way that I can figure out to cap the promotions, I might allow the ability to carry multiple wands, or limit the number of potions able to be carried. When another item is picked up that replaces the first, it will either destroy it, or if I can figure out how to do it, drop it. For things like Orthus's ax though, the ax will prevent the unit from picking up another weapon promo. It can however pick up the weapon if first another unit takes the ax off its hands.

Enchantment 1:
Fire 1 - flaming sword, +1 fire combat, gives collateral damage (2 units, capped at 20%, adds +50% collateral damage, will add to units that already cause collateral). Weapon promo.
Water 1 - water walking, boots promo
Earth 1 - earthen armor, +1-2 defense, or +1-3 first strikes, armor
Air 1 - Wings, flying, armor promo, or lightning blade, +1 lightning combat, +2 first strikes, weapon
Ice 1 - Frozen Armor, 50% reistance to cold damage, +10% strength, armor promo
Life 1 - healing potion, +15% health, removes disease, potion promo
Spirit 1 - Armor of courage, +20% or +30% strength, armor
Sun 1 - Light from heaven, +40% chance to do +20% damage with defensive strike, armor
Mind 1 - Strength of thought, immune to charm person (immune to blinding light?) - armor
Law 1 - Guardian, armor, guardsman promotion
Body 1 - winged boots, +1 movement (will stack with haste, for a total of +2), boots
Nature 1 - poisoned blade, +1 poison combat, +1 nature aptitude, weapon
Creation 1 (if I add it) - don't know, will come up with later
Death 1 - deathly blade, +1 death combat, causes fear, weapon
Shadow 1 - Cloak of Shadows, immune to first strikes, +2 first strikes, armor
Entropy 1 - ?
Chaos 1 - red sword of rage, gives crazed (chance to become enraged each turn), +2 unholy combat, +2 first strikes, weapon
Metamagic 1 - Magic resistance - armor promo

I'm also considering making the +strength promos not be plus strength, but instead +aptitude, so it is only helpful if you still have the mana that aids it.

Enchantment 2
Fire 2 - wand of fire, casts fireball, 10% or 25% chance of wearing off after each use (remember, with the system I plan on having, it would allow a unit to cast a spell and use a wand, allowing a unit with fire 2 and wand of fire to cast a fireball twice), wand
Water 2 - ?
Earth 2 - Armor of Stone, stoneskin, armor, stacks with stoneskin, doesn't wear off after combat
Air 2 - Lightning rod, creates a lightning elemental, 10% or 25% chance of wearing off after each use, wand
Ice 2 - ?
Life 2 - wand of healing, heals the entire stack for 15% health, 25% chance of wearing off after each use, wand
Spirit 2 - Champion of Spirit, +1 happy (maybe +.5 happy, not sure if I can do that in regular FFH), +2 culture while unit is in a city, armor
Sun 2 - ?
Mind 2 - Charming pendant, wand, casts a 1 turn domination on an enemy unit (so you control it for 1 turn), doesn't affect hero's or units of higher level than the caster, 100% chance of wearing off after each use, 50% chance to resist
Law 2 - Heroic champion, +1 strength and valor (stacks with valor), armor
Body 2 - Trolls blood, potion, gives regeneration, stacks with regeneration and march, 10% chance to wear off after each use
Nature 2 - Jade Torc, immune to poison, +1 poison combat, armor
Creation 2 - creation 2 summons will be effected by having enchantment 2, more info if I make creation spells
Death 2 - ?
Shadow 2 - Nationless Unit, gives unit hidden nationality, weapon
Entropy 2 - ?
Chaos 2 - ?
Metamagic 2 - Spellstaff (there is a reason why I'm moving it here, but remember that all units can already both cast a spell and use an item anyways, so it is less useful now), 10% chance of wearing off after each use, wand

Enchantment 3:
Fire 3 - Scorched Staff, +1 fire mana affinity (would this be too OP? requires fire 3 and enchantment 3, maybe limit to caster can only make one while caster exists and staff exists, or maximum of 1 for every caster who can create one), weapon
Water 3 - ?
Earth 3 - ?
Air 3 - ?
Ice 3 - ?
Life 3 - ?
Spirit 3 - ?
Sun 3 - ? (cannot add sun affinity... chalid would become a god)
Mind 3 - ?
Law 3 - ?
Body 3 - ?
Nature 3 - ?
Creation 3 - enchantment 3 and creation 3 will work together to make stronger creation summons
Death 3 - ?
Shadow 3 - ?
Entropy 3 - ?
Chaos 3 - ?
Metamagic 3 - Magic Vortex, destroys all enchanted items (world enchantments like orthus's ax immune, level 1 enchantments have a 10% chance to resist, level 2 25% chance, level 3 50% chance), wand, 50% chance to wear off after each use

I haven't completely thought through everything yet, and will be adding more to this list later. I will also be adding things for having enchantment level 2 and level 3.

Another thing I haven't decided on is whether or not to make enchantments cost money as well. It would make it less useful and rarer, but might also make it a bit less unbalanced, as with these changes you practically can't play without enchantment mana. On the other hand, I could make level 1 enchantments cost 5 gold or so (very cheap, can put it on practically anyone), level 2 enchantments cost 25 gold (might not want to put it on your whole army if you have a big army, but they do have strong effects), and 100 gold or so for level 3 enchantments (you will only use for special units)

-Colin

Edit to continue adding to enchantment.

 

[readercolin]

Reserved for part 5, ritual summons.

Ritual summons is the last thing that I intend to add. A ritual summons for this will be when a wizard or something casts a spell with other wizards chanting in assistance. This will allow greater summons, or special summons, or something like that. I need to put more thought into determining what to allow for it, etc. The other thing is that this can be done in two ways. Way 1, is what I have already lined up - wizards cast chanting, which, once enough chanting wizards are on a tile, the lead wizard can then cast the ritual spell. Way 2 is to use the new FF great commander system to have 1 wizard lead several others, and if they take a support promotion it would allow the leading wizard to cast rituals and the supporting units to do something else. I haven't decided which route to take yet, and this will be looked at after the previous 4 sections are up and running.

As for release, once I finish part 1, I plan to release that for people to use, then move on to part 2. Once part 2 is finished, I'll move on to part 3 and part 4, which I feel need to go together. Once all that is finished, I may do part 5, if I have some good ideas.

-Colin

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

wow, ambitious plan. sounds great, let's see how it works out

 

[readercolin]

Enchantment ideas fleshed out a little bit more. I would love to hear feedback to the new spell ideas and the new enchantment ideas. Stage 1 is pretty much set in stone now, and will only be changed after some testing has been done. Stage 2 is mostly decided, unless someone comes up with a very good objection, or a much better idea (or further ideas to add in), I probably won't be changing it much. Stage 3 and 4 are still up in the air however, and any ideas you have may be put in as part of the new spell and enchantment system.

-Colin

 

[readercolin]

I'm currently trying to add in the chanting promotion, specifically, checking to see if there are enough units chanting on the tile to be able to cast the spell. Chanting promotion taken from this post here

My problem is I'm not sure where I should be putting this. Is this python coding, or XML (looks like python, but I'm not sure where in the python this should be going)?

If anyone can give me some advice about this, it would be greatly appreciated. Basically once I have that, then its just a little bit of work to change all the spells to require that and how many of that, and stage 1 will be ready for release.

-Colin

 

[Sephi]

in your case, you would have to write a python function which checks if there are units with promotion X on the same tile. You might want to take a look at other spells (for example spring, scorch which also use python) to see how it works (Civ4Spellinfos.xml CvSpellinterface.py)

 

[readercolin]

Thanks Sephi. I was having trouble finding that. I had found the spellinfos.xml, but i guess I was suffering from refrigerator blindness cause I couldn't find spellinterface.py

Found it now though.

-Colin

 

[Calavente]

good ideas... keep going.

for the great sorcerer .... be careful when attached to a unit.
if it gives chaneling II and III... the arcane unit can learn lvl3 spells.
when the GS quits to another unit, channeling III disapears (eventualy) but the learned lvl3 spell stays... and the unit can still cast the spell. IMO it becomes overpowered.
or else you didn't want the GS to move from units to units. but it works for the great commander and IMO it is a great idea.

maybe just make it so the great sorcerer promotion adds the effects of twincast, summoner, +1xp per combat and ( maybe effect of magic resistance and/or allows "cast spellstaff" and/or + gives the same effect than the promotion given by the arcane trait) + allows spell "sorcerer quits"

I if understand the way the game works, it would be better to just create a new promotion that have thoses effects than have the "great sorcerer join" action give new promotions that can't be removed.

 

[readercolin]

Just to note, I have somewhat dropped this particular idea, and am currently modding FF. I had part 1 ready for release, but after playtesting, decided that it didn't really work how I had wanted it to, and didn't really enhance the amurites.

Part 2 i have currently dropped completely, figuring that I can make adjustments depending upon how my new magic system balances out.

Parts 3-4 I have put on hold, depending upon how the new magic system I'm working on holds up. If it works how I have planned, then I will revisit these ideas to revise the FF magic system, but it all depends upon how the original ideas work out.

As for the new magic system, check out my thread in the FF forum, changing the magic system. I will be moving all my work to FF as well, simply because it already has much of what I need to make my new system ideas work (FFH definately does not). I will revise the first post to update this as well.

-Colin