Contest: Design a Spell public poll

Which spell do you think would be best for FfH2?


  • Total voters
    75
  • Poll closed .

Kael

Deity
Joined
May 6, 2002
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17,401
Location
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Thanks to everyone for the submissions, again an excellent batch of ideas. Even for those that aren't included in this list there were parts of the submission that we relly liked. You may be seeing similiar version of some of these spells showing up soon.

Some spells didn't make the list because we knew they would have to be changed siugnificantly to work (and we compared them only on the creators design, not what we might turn them into) and some were cut for practical reasons. Skavians Cave Worm fits into this last category with everyone liking the concept of the spell but I cut it because I didn't want to commit to the art recsources needed to do it well.

We went through a few rounds of cuts trying to get this down to 3 (as far as runners up goes Janusi's Pandemonium was the last spell cut) and we weren't able to so we will instead be voting on 5 choices. The reason I origionally limted to 3 was that I was worried that we would be able to find 3 truely viable spells in submissions. Spells can be so difficult to get right. I think its a testament to the caliber of the community that we got so many good submissions.

Enough babbling. Here are the details on the spells we selected for the final 5:

Just War
by bebematos
Law 2 Sorcery

Description:
It is a defensive casting spell. A defensive casting spell is auto-casted when the mage's stack is attacked by a enemy unit and the mage didn't casted a spell last turn.
When Just War is casted all non-summon units in the mage stack gains the Just War promotion. This promotion gives the unit +15% combat bonus for each spell buff in the attacking enemy unit.

Role:
The spell system favor now the attacking player,who can cast spell buffs on his units before attacking. The aim of the Just War spell is create a tool to counter this strategy. The aim of the defensive casting mechanic is create a reactive spells that turns attacking a stack which have a mage more dangerous.

Might from Magic
by Thunderwing
Body (Sorcery) 3
The caster turns into a powerful warrior, roughly as strong as a a level 4~6 tier 4 melee unit, but looses the abilty to cast spells above first level in any sphere but body, and any spells from mind and metamagic at all. This spell is replaced in the Body 3 slot with a spell that undoes its effects while it is active. The caster levels and gains promotions as a melee unit while this is active and retains any non-magical promotions. Casting this spell, obviously, fully heals the caster, while it's reverse reduces him to his orginal strength.

Inspired by Tenser's Transformation in D&D.

Swords to Plowshares
by Starship
Swords to Plowshares - Law II Sorcery - Same concept as the Magic card. Lowest value combat unit in tile is turned into a worker. Ownership doesn't change hands, it's just turned into a worker. You can use on your own units, or enemies. (Doesn't work on demon, hero, or undead.) Takes two turns to cast.

Unyielding Order
by Zurai
Law 3 Sorcery:

Can only be cast in one of your cities.
Automatically turns all angry citizens and protesting citizens (from conquering a city that isn't yours) into normal citizens and assimilates the city instantly. In addition, the city will not suffer from distance-from-palace corruption.

The effects last as long as the mage remains in the city; he's presumed to be continually renewing the spell. As soon as the mage leaves the city, the previously unhappy citizens will return in addition to a few (2-3) additional citizens that are unhappy because of the magically enforced order, and corruption will return to the appropriate levels.

What can be more orderly than having all your little citizens doing exactly as they're told without question? This spell could be very powerful if you have access to few luxuries, and would always be useful to instantly assimilate conquered cities or to help shore up a new distant city until you can get corruption reducing buildings constructed. Plus, what mage devoted completely to Law (as any Law3 Archmage should be) wouldn't jump at the chance to enforce the Law completely and utterly? EDIT: Oh, and in addition it would obviously be useful to prevent culturally isolated/newly conquered cities from flipping, since they wouldn't go into civil disorder while Unyielding Order was active.

Valor
by abman
Law Sorcery 2
Doubles experience gained by units in caster's stack until next turn. Only lasts one turn. Nuff said.
 
mmmm.....nothing really interesting:sad: . Let's go for Valor...:(

The (unhappy) Frog
 
I liked Just War and Might from Magic the best. Ended up going with Might From Magic because I think Just War may make conquering too difficult.
 
Just War is by far my top choice, adding a defensive nature to magic adds a whole (and very welcome) element to combat.

I also think the Unyielding Valor could be useful, that would be my second choice
 
Unyeilding order is what I picked. Any conquerer should definatly make use of its Law magic. It even seems very fitting to be unlockd by "Unquestioning Obedience".

All of these options seem to have their time and place though. :)
 
Unyielding Order!

But, i like an idea of 'Just War'. I think it must be added into mod, like GrigoryMedic from previos poll, just becouse it 'must have' feature. With only one exception, not to buff own stack, but dispell enemy buffs.
 
I voted for Unyielding Order, I think it is a great concept for Law casters, and I think it will add another dimension to the spell system. It will make Archmages more utilitarian, and will force you into a decision as to whether to keep the Archmage in the city you just conquered to make sure it doesn't flip, or send him along to continue supporting your conquering army.
 
Bump for the last 12 hours of the contest, just to make sure that everyone who wants to has voted.
 
Congradulations to Zurai for winning the Design a Spell contest! His spell is in 0.13 and everyone can go try it out for yourself. Nothing gets an angry city under control like an archmage skilled in Law magic.
 
Congratulations Zurai and Abman! The law sphere has some teeth now. Which is awesome, because they normally get the shaft.
 
Chalid said:
Congrats Zurai and abman of course too, whose spell got included without winning.

I may be stealing a few more of the submissions as well so thanks to every who submitted ideas!
 
I'm glad my idea was useful for the mod :)

EDIT: Now to go play Kuriotates with an emphasis on getting 3 Law3 Archmages to control my cities! :p
 
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