Design: Spells

[MagisterCultuum]

I'd like a spell that you could use to revive your defeated allies. Perhaps they could add a life or creation spell that gives a settler or perhaps gifts a city to a player that has been defeated, bringing them back into the game. The revived leader should then have a huge diplomatic boost, like a +10 "You helped us rebuild our society." If you revive an ally or a player who was indifferent to you, this could be great. It might also be interesting if an enemy would occasionally be revived instead, who might still want revenge.

It might also be nice if a high level creation spell could introduce some players who weren't there at the start into the game. If you find that the map is ideal for some other civ, you could then switch to them. This would work in a similar manner as summoning Hyborem or Basium, possibly too similar.

On a loosely related note, why do you need to be within a civ's cultural borders to gift it a unit? I would like it if this were changed.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

That would be cool, but I don't see it as a spell. It'd be too infrequently used and so would make the whole sphere less useful to take.

 

[Chip56]

I agree that would be cool as a ritual though.
But unless the revived nations cans a lot of goodies it wont last very long

 

[MagisterCultuum]

You are right, a ritual would make much more sense. The game could actually use some more rituals now that so many have been replaced with functions of the AC, . It would make Celestial Compass more useful. The revived nations could begin with all the techs they had when defeated plus all those of their revivers. It would make sense for creation and life mana to increase the ritual's build rate.

Perhaps the city that builds the ritual should be turned over to their control, behaving like the Mercurian Gate. (I also think that both the ritual and the Mercurian gate should let the city keep all its specialists, great people, buildings (except illogical ones, like instance Temples of the Veil and Demons Altars in AV cities), and possibly turn control of the units garrisoned there over to the city's new owner (not so much a problem for Basium, since he starts with his army).

Alternately, it could restore the revived civ's original capital to their control as it was at some earlier time (perhaps this city could return to how it was strongest, or when the player was strongest, possibly with whatever units were defending it at that time). This could work whether the city was raised or is occupied. (but it could cause problems if the city were raised and then another one built there or too close by). If occupied by someone other than the reviving civ, this would cause both the reviving and revived civs to declare war on whoever's city was had to be taken.


I only proposed it as a spell because I had seen so few decent ideas for this sphere. Perhaps some creation sphere spells could let you build units instantly, found cities where there were none before (maybe even in impassible or enemy owned terrain), or create random resources. Creation summons could be permanent, since they are created on the spot, not called in from some plane to which they must return. Maybe Creation III should not have any summons, but let any other unit created by a Creation III Summoner be permanent (lacking the summoned promotion). There is also always the idea a creating special objects when they and quests are added to the game.

 

[Miloe]

i find it illogical that mercurian gate removes ashen veil from its city because you can build both code of junil and stigmata of the unborn in same city and thats even less logical but doable.

 

[Kael]

i find it illogical that mercurian gate removes ashen veil from its city because you can build both code of junil and stigmata of the unborn in same city and thats even less logical but doable.

Its very possible for a siingle city to be the holy center of multiple religions. Even when those religions are at war with each other, we have examples of that in our own world.

But I have more difficulty imagining Basium allowing anyone to worship the veil in his city.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I have to agree with Kael here.

 

[Gelvan]

Another use to transmute would be a good idea; maybe iron <-> gems.

that's not what I've meant - I think Earth III is lame comared to Nature III - therefore transmutation should be as useful as Vitalize, which could be done by giving Transmutation the capability to change an ore to any other ore.

if stone and marble are the same category - I don't think so.

 

[BlazeRedSXT]

I could see transmute doing something like that. Have it cycle the resources with each cast(after all, it takes several castings to get Tundra to Grasslands with Vitalize).
Maybe something like Copper->Gold->Iron->Mithril->Iron->Gold...etc...

 

[eerr]

that's not what I've meant - I think Earth III is lame comared to Nature III - therefore transmutation should be as useful as Vitalize, which could be done by giving Transmutation the capability to change an ore to any other ore.

if stone and marble are the same category - I don't think so.

or just change it so you can "make any metal" where you want it, by saccing a great engineer with the spell.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

That wouldn't make sense. It would make the spell useless unless you have spare great engineers, which have better uses, and would not really be transmuting-turning one metal into another. I would like it if you could chose what metal, but it should require some starting materials (pre-existing metal resources).

 

[eerr]

That wouldn't make sense. It would make the spell useless unless you have spare great engineers, which have better uses, and would not really be transmuting-turning one metal into another. I would like it if you could chose what metal, but it should require some starting materials (pre-existing metal resources).

then it becomes the new spell-dwarven mine? idk

 

[Gelvan]

I could see transmute doing something like that. Have it cycle the resources with each cast(after all, it takes several castings to get Tundra to Grasslands with Vitalize).
Maybe something like Copper->Gold->Iron->Mithril->Iron->Gold...etc...

Maybe it would be also nice to cycle

1. Copper Gold Iron Mithril Copper Gold Iron Mithril (then you could destroy your opponents Mithril sources)

2. Stone, Marble, Gem, Stone, Marble, Gem...

3. to choose which ressource if you are Dwarven...

 

[iamjooish]

To the FFH team: is terraforming considered overpowered as it is?

Needs a few adjustments, limitations?

I think that if nature magic can give you the ability to turn any base terrain into grass/broken lands, it goes to follow that creation magic could gift you with an additional means to enhance plot yields favorably. Namely food yield; since creation magic (and the angel that represents it) seems to have a growth flavor to it; followed by commerce, and maybe a hammer or two, if any at all.

Since new, spefic-instance improvements confuses ai and stunts worker use, this enhacement could come in the form of a new, unique feature, type of elavation, new type of flatlands, or even a yield-only, untradable, unconnectable resource. Call it "Aura of Creation" "Heaven's Bounty" or some such.

If this enhancement is unbalancing or a little too potent for sorcery, you can always make it divine and religion-specific (the fellowship, apparently). I say this because I've noticed divine spells have a great deal of utility and no one civ can have them all available at once...

Well, anyways... needless to say I absolutely jump all over the ability to terraform in this game/mod, -especially considering you can squeeze some grassland underneath the oases/flood plains!!- and wouldn't mind seeing this game feature expanded on a bit, as long as it's balanced.

 

[Love]

Maybe it would be also nice to cycle

1. Copper Gold Iron Mithril Copper Gold Iron Mithril (then you could destroy your opponents Mithril sources)

2. Stone, Marble, Gem, Stone, Marble, Gem...

3. to choose which ressource if you are Dwarven...

Exept that stone is deleted now...

 

[kenken244]

... and that was from back in april

 

[AlegXander]

I think that if nature magic can give you the ability to turn any base terrain into grass/broken lands, it goes to follow that creation magic could gift you with an additional means to enhance plot yields favorably. Namely food yield; since creation magic (and the angel that represents it) seems to have a growth flavor to it; followed by commerce, and maybe a hammer or two, if any at all.

Maybe the caster could duplicate any resource he stepped on during the game by casting his level 3 creation spell. Though by itself this could get very powerful anyways when you think a caster could duplicate cows indefinitely. It would need to be limited in some way. Once per resource or 1/5 of the cities you own.

 

[BCalchet]

It might be interesting to let Creation 3 + Sorcery create any mundane resource, but only so long as the caster stands on the plot.

Say, cast once to create Wheat, again to convert it to Corn, all the way through all plants and animals. When the caster finally moves, whatever resource was on the tile is removed again. This shouldn't be much more powerful than Unyielding Order for the Law-casters.

 

[kenken244]

i believe it would be hard to program and kind of buggy. like if you were to have an existing wheat and cycled it to another resource it would most likely have to remove even the existing wheat when the mage left so the only way to get around this is to add duplicates of every resource or something similar. but we only have one open resource slot( metamagic mana) so if it happens at all it will happen after we convert to bts

 

[katika]

Not a new spell, but a suggested change for Rust: Rust should remove all units' weapons, not just melee units'. Why should Chariots get rustproof weapons? I would also like if it targeted the whole stack instead of an individual, but that might be too powerful.

Also, I think that Meteors should be able to cause collateral damage to more than four units. Other T3 spells can affect all of the units in a stack, and even the lowly catapult can damage more units than a meteor.