Design: Spells

[eerr]

this would also end up making the recon line a bit lower str perhaps?

 

[AndrewDJ]

Ok, these may seem a bit strange . . . but they might be cool.

Summon Dancing Blades: Animates weapons to defend the stack the caster's in. Strictly defensive, like the vanilla machine gun. Like that Bannor unit that I can't remember the name of, the Blades will always defend first, regardless of strength of other units.

Summon Gremlin: These aren't like the movie gremlins; these little invisible demons specialize in infesting and destroying machinery . . . like golems and siege engines. A Gremlin only attacks siege engines and golems, and receives attack and defense bonuses against those targets. Any surviving siege units or golems in the attacking stack get a negative promotion to their strength (perhaps gremlin-ridden golems might go barbarian?)

EDIT: Oh, and as a suggestion, would it be possible to allow dwarven adepts to learn the second tier of Enchantment, but no other spheres at that level?

 

[Sashaddin]

Regeneration is not a very good spell as it is, in my opinion. I suggest giving the regenerated unit March for a single turn instead, that way it simulates the unit regenerating during combat and a bit afterwise. We have a lot of static healing bonuses already, like herbalist (10), infirmary (25), courage (10), medic 2 (20) and town (20).

 

[Kael]

Regeneration is not a very good spell as it is, in my opinion. I suggest giving the regenerated unit March for a single turn instead, that way it simulates the unit regenerating during combat and a bit afterwise. We have a lot of static healing bonuses already, like herbalist (10), infirmary (25), courage (10), medic 2 (20) and town (20).

Good point, I'll add heal while moving to the regeneration promotion.

 

[MrUnderhill]

As much as I'd rather not muddle with the existing spell spheres, I feel as if the whole elemental weakness setup right now is a little, well... weak. Only a few units are weak to fire (the Drown is the only one I can recall), and I don't think any units are currently weak to water. The concept is good, but the execution feels tacked on and has little if any effect on actual combat; nobody's going to go out of their way to learn fire spells just to deal with the Drown.

Instead of having "fire" and "water" unit classes, we could just combine them into one category "spells" and specify fire, water, and the like with promotions, such as how Orcish, Elvish, and Dwarvish are already being handled.

We could then give out these same promotions to normal units with an Enchantment spell and an applicable mana resource. If your opponent also has enchanted units, you could strategize your attack around what resources you think they have, and counter with their weakness.

The only difficulties I see are: (A) Keeping these promotions from cancelling each other out, and (B) Giving the player enough reason to specialize instead of going for flat strength bonuses.

 

[eerr]

As much as I'd rather not muddle with the existing spell spheres, I feel as if the whole elemental weakness setup right now is a little, well... weak. Only a few units are weak to fire (the Drown is the only one I can recall), and I don't think any units are currently weak to water. The concept is good, but the execution feels tacked on and has little if any effect on actual combat; nobody's going to go out of their way to learn fire spells just to deal with the Drown.

Instead of having "fire" and "water" unit classes, we could just combine them into one category "spells" and specify fire, water, and the like with promotions, such as how Orcish, Elvish, and Dwarvish are already being handled.

We could then give out these same promotions to normal units with an Enchantment spell and an applicable mana resource. If your opponent also has enchanted units, you could strategize your attack around what resources you think they have, and counter with their weakness.

The only difficulties I see are: (A) Keeping these promotions from cancelling each other out, and (B) Giving the player enough reason to specialize instead of going for flat strength bonuses.

one of the things about the drown, is that they're also immune to a bunch of spells from being undead-fire is and always will be powerful

although all the magical units could be moved into the arcane class and given fire/water promotions quite easily

(magic resistence would become +40%vs arcane)
that is assuming units don't start getting promotions just vs arcane and not vs fire or water spells

 

[QES]

I'm posting to save my life. Apparently eerr demands i post, and so post i did.
-Qes

EDIT: OH i see, cause its at 1000 postings.

EDIT2: I somewhat feel cheated now that THIS is my 1000th post. It could have been grander, more interesting, perhaps even philsophical. But instead no, It was to prevent Forum Muggery.

EDIT3: At least its not On-Topic, that will get some annoyance out of some people, there is something to be pleased about there, i suppose.

EDIT4: GAH! Why am I still awake gawking at my 1000th post, reediting it every few minutes, I Have to call my fiancee in the morning. - GOODNIGHT.

 

[Grillick]

Oh, come now, QES...Who're you fooling? Philosophical? Not from you.

Interesting maybe. Maybe. But not philosophical.

 

[Gamestation]

It seems that some people would really like to see an underdog suddenly be capable of rising out of a hopeless situation after I read the first few posts on this thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=184881
After I had dispelled all the excitement over that kill, I did manage to come away with a fact that I had not known before, a condition can be set to allow a unit to always win a fight as long as that unit is the attacker. I have been thinking about a new spell or special ability being included in the game that I would like to call "Unwavering Resolve." The ability should cause a unit or units to get one of two promotions that look identical to each other but only one of the promotions actually does something. The promotion that does something will make the unit attacking with the promotion on automatically win regardless of how badly the odds stack up against the unit, as long as the odds are stacked up badly against the attacker. What I mean is that a unit could be given the correct promotion but if the unit is told to attack a much weaker unit, the promotion should have no effect over the outcome of the battle. In any case, after attacking the promotion disappears and if the promotion had an effect (winning a highly unfavorable battle and getting 50+ xp), the attacking unit should gain the hero promotion automatically (idea from the thread). Attach this ability to a very early unit and the AI is assured a better chance of surviving an attack by a player who properly specialized with unit tech.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

hmm, that seems strong, but have you seen reversal of fortune on the OO high priest/inquisitor? I don't know just how pwerful it is, but it does something similar.

 

[Gamestation]

Oh, I forgot that there was reversal of fortune, but that is not something a player would often see the AI possessing would it? I really don't know myself since I'm still playing the lower levels of civ in this mod (still learning what each civilization actually has).

 

[BCalchet]

I just wanted to write some spell ideas.


Scatter (Dimensional II, Sorcery)
Each unit in the target tile has a 10% chance to be moved to a random adjacent tile.


Sever (Dimensional III, Sorcery)
All summoned units in the target plot are destroyed. All units in it gain a 'casted' promotion that lingers until the end of their owners' turn, preventing spellcasting.


Phantasm (Mind II, Summoning)
Summons one immobile and magic immune 8-strength unit with fear, but it dies as soon as it takes any damage whatsoever.


Emphatic Manifestation (Mind III, Summoning)
Summons a 14-strength unit with movement 1 and hidden nationality. It is permanent, but it takes some damage at the end of each turn away from its caster. If either the caster or the manifestation should die, so does the other. When in the same tile, the caster can reabsorb the manifestation, gaining 25% of any experience it had aquired.


Drown (Water II, Divine)
Converts one target living non-animal melee unit that is near water into a full-health The Drown unit. Targets owned by the caster are always affected, enemies get a chance to resist it.

(Something like: 80%+2%/level near rivers, 60%+2%/level near lakes and coasts, 40%+2%/level on lakes, oasises and coasts, 10%+2%/level in oceans. Double all numbers for heroes.)


Alternative (rare) Domination failure effect: Exchange control of the involved units. The target gains all experience, levels and promotions of the caster, and the caster gains all experience, levels and promotions of the target.
("Okay, so I failed to steal that berserker outright... but now, my Archmage has 13 strength and collateral damage!")


Bless: Weakened and shuffled over to Law II.

Last Stand (Spirit III, Divine)
The caster is restored to full health while losing all remaining moves.
If the caster's stack is attacked, he is always the chosen defender.
If the caster wins a combat, he is restored to full health.
If the caster loses a combat, he is restored to full health while the winner withdraws.
At the beginning of your next turn, if the caster lost a combat, he drops dead.
If he did not, he instead loses one point of strength permanently.



Special order-specific spell only castable with several elements learned:

Blaze of Glory (Divine, Fire III, Law III, Spirit III)
All damage dealt to any unit you control is instead dealt to the caster of this spell. Once this has been cast, no healing spells will work and any immortal promotions or lifesparks are ignored when death does arrive.

 

[Thonnas]

can we get a top level spell or ability to revert a mana node. to balance requier the sacrifice of the caster. At first I was thinking this might be good for metamagic, but I don't see why any t3 caster couldn't do it.

It be usefull in a pinch but not something you'd jsut do off hand.

 

[upthorn]

can we get a top level spell or ability to revert a mana node. to balance requier the sacrifice of the caster. At first I was thinking this might be good for metamagic, but I don't see why any t3 caster couldn't do it.

It be usefull in a pinch but not something you'd jsut do off hand.

can we get a top level spell or ability to revert a mana node. to balance requier the sacrifice of the caster. At first I was thinking this might be good for metamagic, but I don't see why any t3 caster couldn't do it.

It be usefull in a pinch but not something you'd jsut do off hand.

So you think reverting a node should require sacrificing an archmage?

I'd rather have metamagic work like "colorless" mana in Magic the Gathering.
having any mana will give you access to metamagic spells, but you'll never get them learned for free. (Except maybe the Amurites)

 

[Frozen-Vomit]

I'd rather have metamagic work like "colorless" mana in Magic the Gathering.
having any mana will give you access to metamagic spells, but you'll never get them learned for free. (Except maybe the Amurites)

This would just mean that anybody could get it all to time (with the three mana from your palace)

Maybe give access to level I with 5 mana, II with 10 and III with 15 connected roads.

-> then those spells would have to be really powerfull because of the steep requirement.

 

[mervvyn]

I like the emphatic manifestation (would be nice to have a few more dimensional spells, there isn't much incentive for it right now) but i have a feeling the team has said the programming for the game to track who has summoned which specific unit isn't simple at all.
scatter + sever are cool ideas as well

 

[MrUnderhill]

but i have a feeling the team has said the programming for the game to track who has summoned which specific unit isn't simple at all.

I'm no archmage at scripting, but couldn't you just use SD Toolkit or something similar to store a pointer to the casting unit in the data of the summoned unit?

Maybe give access to level I with 5 mana, II with 10 and III with 15 connected roads.

There are only 16 types of mana in the game, aren't there? That would be a little tough to collect them all, and by then you could build the Tower of Mastery and have no need for the metamagic spells, no matter how strong they are.

I think 5, 7, and 9 would be more balanced, and actual metamagic mana (the kind the Amurites could get in their palace) would count as 2, making it much easier for them to access metamagic spells without giving them immediate access.

 

[Endovior]

A few spells I thought up...

Air Sorcery 1: Bind the Gale
-Gives a naval unit +3 Movement for as long as the caster remains aboard.

(Not sure what sphere these should be... as it currently stands, Creation is quite similar to Nature... as such, I've made these as a distinct and possibly more useful magic sphere... the Creation of wealth. Of course, there's always a price...)

Creation Sorcery 1: Cosmic Loan
-Produces 50 Gold immediately. Caster loses 5 Gold per turn for the next 20 turns.
Creation Sorcery 2: Great Deposit
-Costs ~400 Gold. Creates a Gold or Gems resource on a random square within 10 spaces of the caster.
Creation Sorcery 3: Gift of Mammon
-Produces a huge amount of Gold, as per a Great Merchant's Trade Mission. Increases the Inflation Rate by 5%. This can be cast repeatedly, but the increase of Inflation is cumulative and permanent (and as such, will destroy your economy in short order if abused).

Creation Summon 1: Summon Greed Spirit
-Mid-Strength Melee Unit which, if victorious, produces Gold depending on the strength of the unit it defeats. If it is defeated, it costs the caster ~200 Gold.
Creation Summon 2: Summon Greed Demon
-High-Strength Melee Unit. If it successfully attacks a City, it steals ~100 Gold from the owner of the city. If it captures the city, it also doubles the looted Gold. If it does not attack a city before unsummoning, it costs the caster ~100 Gold. If it is defeated, it costs the caster ~300 Gold.

Creation Divine 1 (Kilmorph): Taxation
-Produces 20 Gold. Generates 2 unhappiness for 20 turns.
Creation Divine 2 (Kilmorph): Prosperity
-Increases a city's commerce by +10% for as long as the caster remains in the city, and adds an extra trade route. Cancelled by Taxation.

Dimensional Summon 1: Portal
-Allows the caster to 'summon' an allied unit from up to 5 squares away.
Dimensional Summon 2: Gate
-Allows the caster to 'summon' an allied unit from any city containing an Obsidian Gate.

 

[Quetz]

Like your ideas Bchalchet, especially "scatter" and "sever"

Is it just me or is the spell Righteous Cause totally not worth your high level caster dying, when he could just summon something a little weaker and not die? Especially when you dont know just how unhappy the enemy city is, and that their better cities might not have any angry citizens at all?

 

[upthorn]

This would just mean that anybody could get it all to time (with the three mana from your palace)

Maybe give access to level I with 5 mana, II with 10 and III with 15 connected roads.

-> then those spells would have to be really powerfull because of the steep requirement.

Well, in my mind, metamagic is the generic, neutral "anyone can learn it" sphere.

I mean, any mage worth his salt can throw a counterspell. (and were counterspells to be implemented as part of FFH, they'd be in metamagic, along with "dispell magic" and whatever else.)