Making a new Magic System Part I: Summons

[tesb]

tesb : if you'll pardon my comments :
effects : good ones. (maybe stars : none, 1-centered, 2-placed as now in the 2nd icone)
range : remove 1 star in each icone (like Drill 1 has no star), keep the stars that are on top of the "knife thrower guy".
targets : no need of stars, the number of guys being easy to read. If you make stars, maybe you should keep only the second icone, and have : no star/1 star centered/2stars. (it would allow for some spell having, without any extension already a multiple target, and each promotion adding some more target, but not being defined by +1 or +2 targeted units)

color of "aura related icones" (you'll have to check that with someone with a bit of autority) compared to the actual color codes
Deep blue is related to combat modifiers (, firsts strikes....)
so either make it reddish as "chanelling" to show it is arcane related
make it pinkinsh as "spell extension" to show it is spell-related
make it glow, light blue, light green or any other color if you think it is better.
or keep it deep blue as it is a nice color and it feels "official".

In my opinion, icones should be nice to look at, but more importantly they should be really easy to read, especially when if you imagine it on a lvl 20 guy, with more than 25 promotions. If it's your guy, you know him. if it's the AI's guy, it should be easy to read so as to know how dangerous he is but you can't "zoom in" it's promotions.

on it, i will update this post in some minutes

edit: this color scheme?

 

[tesb]

combat auras last try:

apparently i lied

combat auras last try 2:

 

[lemonjelly]

All these buttons are incredible!

Please, please, please, make more, and release them as a pack!

 

[Calavente]

apparently i lied

combat auras last try 2:

OMG you are really good
I told you, for the color code, you'll have to see with someone who is a bit more involved in decisions.
And I'm sorry, I didn't see it was your "last try", I wouldn't have dared criticized it if I knew it was your last try

 

[Lorak]

For what it's worth, I personally think the 0, 1, 2 star format looks significantly better and less cluttered than than the 1, 2, 3 star format.

 

[tesb]

All these buttons are incredible!

Please, please, please, make more, and release them as a pack!

thank you for your kinds words, but:
-i only make buttons on spehis request (or when i add something new)
-they are not that hard to make once you get a good button that you can tweak, if you want buttons look out for the spell buttons of neverwinter nights 2 and ice wind dale 2 or just google search for images and make sure to set the picture resolution to exactly 64x64 in the search options
-you are free to use whatever you like

 

[Sephi]

well, the first summon is mostly complete. It has a fear aura that is quite weak at the start, but scales with level and can be improved with promotions.

Spoiler Orc Warrior cursed by Skeleton Summon :

 

[tesb]

@sephi

how are those buttons:

first is the 'turn on aura button' second indicating that this unit is a summon
will do the xml work now and upload soon

edit: i will wait with the xml work since i need clarification on some questions i send you via pm, please respond

 

[Calavente]

might be stupid but :
-shouldn't summons be a "racial trait" ? like "golem", "undead", "pupet", "illusion"...Etc ?
or can some a summon be both "undead" and "summons" ... ? and could baleseraphs summons be both "pupet" and "summon" ?
-if it is not a "racial trait", maybe it should be a "unit-type marker" as : "beast", "melee", "ranged"...etc Only issues is : will svart skellies be "illusions" + "summons" + "melee".

in those cases, don't take my previous questions into account.

as for the color code, I really think a promotion that is just indicating that the unit is a "summon" should have a color code as a "racial trait". dark yellow figure on dark red. (but it might not be easy to do so...)

 

[DonQuigleone]

Actually with summons now all being permanent, illusion will be a hell of a lot less useful...

 

[esvath]

@sephi

how are those buttons:

first is the 'turn on aura button' second indicating that this unit is a summon
will do the xml work now and upload soon

edit: i will wait with the xml work since i need clarification on some questions i send you via pm, please respond

Yet another marvelous buttons!

On topic,
I like mana "commerce" and spell research, but please don't make it a micro-nightmare

Looking forward for the next version

Actually with summons now all being permanent, illusion will be a hell of a lot less useful...

How come?

 

[DonQuigleone]

Yet another marvelous buttons!

On topic,
I like mana "commerce" and spell research, but please don't make it a micro-nightmare

Looking forward for the next version



How come?

Illusions were only good because it meant they wouldn't "steal" XP from units that needed it, as Summons gaining XP was worthless. However now Summons actually have a use for XP, so Illusion's benefit isn't much of a benefit, as now your summons will never gain experience.

 

[tesb]

illusion are still the perfect defender, i don't know what the current plans for them are though.

 

[Neomega]

Illusions need a redo. Maybe they should be killable, but offer no XP, or maybe they should not actually have the illusion promotion, or maybe they should have 100% retreat chance. The term illusion never quite seemed to match their actual game play.

 

[Folket]

Why not just make illiusions cheaper if they are not that useful?

Since mages do not summon units the illusionist trait will not do anything. Perhaps illusions will just be certain summons or a civilization trait that makes summons cheaper with illusion promotion.

 

[Tarquelne]

What's the Lore on Illusionists and Illusions? Beyond the Black Mirror, which could easily be a special case, I've never been clear on where/how they fit in. And why mages who can summon Illusions always summon illusions.

With the new system, perhaps Illusionist mages could still "Summon" units. Illusionary ones: A unit in the stack is duplicated (or an illusionary Summons created) with greatly increased chance to defend but unable to do damage. Attacking with it could soak defensive strikes and remove an level of entrenchment. (Assuming I'm right about how the combat system works.)

Ideally other players cant discern which units are duplicates.

 

[Neomega]

What's the Lore on Illusionists and Illusions? Beyond the Black Mirror, which could easily be a special case, I've never been clear on where/how they fit in. And why mages who can summon Illusions always summon illusions.

With the new system, perhaps Illusionist mages could still "Summon" units. Illusionary ones: A unit in the stack is duplicated (or an illusionary Summons created) with greatly increased chance to defend but unable to do damage. Attacking with it could soak defensive strikes and remove an level of entrenchment. (Assuming I'm right about how the combat system works.)

Ideally other players cant discern which units are duplicates.

I was kind of thinking something like that. Although it's only kind of a like fear in that it wastes an attack, unless the illusion is alone on a tile. It would be nice if the illusion promotion could be hidden.

Perhaps it could also be thought of as that one level 2 spell in DnD... (brain farting) where the caster gets a bunch of illusions around him... something like...

the first attempt at hitting the unit only has a 1/6 chance of striking
if it hits, damage is done
or
if it misses, 1 "illusion" is lost so...
the next attempt has a 1/5 chance of hitting
if it hits, damage is done
or
if it misses, 1 "illusion" is lost so...
the next attempt has a 1/5 chance of hitting

etc...

 

[Neomega]

Maybe the illusions can be like an aura. The higher the level of summon, the more illusions it can cast, and it just picks the lowest attack powered units of the stack, and replicates them.

The strategy would be to move the stack, then cast illusion, then move the illusion onto other tiles, preferably desert or plains to coax a unit or two out to fight it/land on a less defensible tile.

Of course, super tricky/risky would be to move a real unit out there to maybe sneak past something.

It could also fool an opponent into thinking your stack was bigger than it was. Maybe making the number of illusions cast have some randomness to it.

Perhaps a higher spell could actually cast mentally damaging or terrifying illusions. like after the unit attacks, (or it attacks the unit) there is a chance to become terrified or confused or crazed or will run away

 

[tesb]

@sephi
i have done all the xml work
i also added two new buttons:

i want to use the aura buttons from post #108 for the combat auras available to normal units.

edit: if you play dow2 one button should be familiar (although i tweaked it a bit: removed the sword, changed color, added more flames)

 

[tesb]

i just made a small tweak to one of the buttons: