Elemental Magic Idea(s)

[orgonebox]

Regarding the similarity of elemental summons, level two spells, and maelstrom...

Idea: Change the air magic line somewhat.

Restore maelstrom to an archmage spell w/ the 50% damage limit.

Replace the level two spell with some kind of winged sandals spell - gives the caster the flying promotion and the light promotion. Effects could be permanent, or they could have a percent chance of wearing off per turn. This gives the air mage two base movement in any terrain, while losing the ability to use roads. The air archmage can fly up to peaks and maelstrom like crazy, but has to risk rejoining the stack when the civ's army approaches the softened city. Similarly, the sandals provide the benefits of stoneskin or waterwalking in that they serve as an escape from assassins.

The problem with stoneskin, waterwalking, and the winged sandals idea is that the associated mages aren't very good at siege/attack. I'm particularly thinking of the elves, who seriously need mages or scads of mounted units to actively take down other civs outside their own borders.

Thus, I propose that the effects of stoneskin, waterwalking, and the winged sandals become passive effects of having the spell, while each promotion gets its own respective summon or terrain alteration.

Earth 2 could summon a mudbuddy, an immobile defensive unit with guardsman.

Water 2 could create a marsh w/ delay effects

Air 2 could go back to summoning lightning elementals w/ a small collateral damage percentage.

And if everyone thinks these ideas are crap and require too much coding, how about introducing the winged sandals as a piece of equipment?

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

I actually like the idea of a spell that allows flying A LOT. I'd rather have it affect the whole stack though ( it would certainly have to have drawbacks to avoid being uber then - possibly making the units unable to heal ) ( this would work great with waterwalking and stoneskin as well btw )

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Honestly, I'm not a fan of any of your spell ideas.

Having Air II give Flying seems like to much for me, especially if it is for a whole stack. However, I really like the idea of adding a Talaria equipment. I'm also thinking I'd like to change the Enchantment sphere to be all cross-sphere spells that are temporary buffs at level 1, permanent buffs at level 2, and equipment at level 3. Fashion Talaria seems like a good Air III/Enchantment III spell.

I think I like the Air sphere pretty much as it is, although as I like making all level 3 spheres to have multiple spells I am open to having Maelstrom become a second level 3 spell and bringing back the old Air II sorcery spell, or making that spell level 3 instead. I might consider making Air III intrinsically grant the ability to fly too.

Also, I'm thinking it would be quite nice to add a Doldrums feature in the sea that makes ships moving though there very slow (as their is little to no wind to power the sails) and making Fair Winds five a flat movement rate to bypass this.


Stoneskin really seems like a Body/Earth cross sphere spell to me, and like it should effect the whole stack.


I think Water Walking should be an OO High Priest spell, that gives a temporary form of the promotion to the whole stack. I really think that Tsunami should be a Water III spell that does a little more damage and more importantly turns most of the effected tiles temporarily into Coasts. I'd like to boost Water Elementals by letting them carry Naval units over land, but if I can't think of a good Water II spell they may instead loose their affinity and be moved down. Water II or III might also grant the water walking ability intrinsically.

I don't think I really like the "mudbuddy" summon, in part because the name seems silly but mostly because it seems too similar to Guardian Vines, which I insist become a Nature III summon again. I think we may need a spell that represents the psychological aspects of the sphere (like the value of hard work) rather than the physical. A spell that make a bRequiresCaster building that boosts the city's production could be nice. So could a spell that makes gives workers a promotion that makes them build things much faster. It could also be nice for the Earth sphere promotions to boost the unit's own work rate. I'd also consider making Earthquake an Earth II or III spell, and possibly moving Earth Elementals down a level.


The fire spells are probably fine, but I like the idea of adding second Fire III spell, Blaze of Glory, in which the caster sacrifices itself to deal a large amount of Fire damage with no damage cap to all nearby units.

 

[orgonebox]

Honestly, I'm not a fan of any of your spell ideas.

Yeah, so it goes. I'm merely opening a debate on the similarity of level three summons and the relative exclusiveness, limitations, and sometimes out-and-out necessity of some of the level two elemental spells. The two most useful spheres overall remain fire and death, while I find earth 2 almost a requirement in higher-difficulty games where assassins run rampant.

I also thought that water 2 should have some sort of summon or effect instead of mere water walking. Water elementals are wicked cool, but a smaller, weaker slime at the second level might be nice.

Having Air II give Flying seems like to much for me, especially if it is for a whole stack. However, I really like the idea of adding a Talaria equipment. I'm also thinking I'd like to change the Enchantment sphere to be all cross-sphere spells that are temporary buffs at level 1, permanent buffs at level 2, and equipment at level 3. Fashion Talaria seems like a good Air III/Enchantment III spell.

Talaria is a nice term for the sandals. My background is ancient greek, and insofar as I could recall my greek mythology, the greeks didn't have a singular term that applied to that part of Hermes's garb.

I think I like the Air sphere pretty much as it is, although as I like making all level 3 spheres to have multiple spells I am open to having Maelstrom become a second level 3 spell and bringing back the old Air II sorcery spell, or making that spell level 3 instead. I might consider making Air III intrinsically grant the ability to fly too.

Everyone knows the idea of a wizard on a peak shooting lightning from his fingers is a wicked cool thing to have airbrushed on the side of your van. Unless you're in a cell phone commercial.

I don't think I really like the "mudbuddy" summon, in part because the name seems silly but mostly because it seems too similar to Guardian Vines, which I insist become a Nature III summon again.

Yeah, I'm not happy with any of the names I come up with for spells, but I find the fantasy counterparts (and most of language for that matter) as equally arbitrary and absurd. The concept really comes from the brer rabbit tar baby, but that term and the accompanying fable is racially offensive, although mildly brilliant in its encapsulation of the socio-political situation among indigent farmers of the reconstruction-era southern USA. I merely wanted an instant replacement for the guardsman promotion.

The fire spells are probably fine, but I like the idea of adding second Fire III spell, Blaze of Glory, in which the caster sacrifices itself to deal a large amount of Fire damage with no damage cap to all nearby units.

The fire sphere is so perfect that I find it hard to build a good mage strategy without it.