Merge Sorcery and Summoning?

[Tarquelne]

Two big questions for the new system:

1. Do we need Channeling 1 anymore?
2. Do we need the Sphere Promotions still?

As a result of the above (depending on the answers) does that make some of the existing XML tags available for cross-sphere spells? (Err... Did MagisterC already discuss this? Who can wait 40 seconds between searches? Not I!)

 

[xienwolf]

Well if you wanted to do cross-sphere spells you would need to keep the sphere promotions to make it sensible. Just ditching Sorcery/Summoning/Divine cleared up a tag to make some cross-sphere spells readily available, since you can require 2 promotions and it used to require the Sphere + one of those 3.

 

[Kael]

Two big questions for the new system:

1. Do we need Channeling 1 anymore?

Since in the old system this kept Priests from casting the level 1 spells (inexplicably), and now they can only cast those spells which are hard-coded into them... is there a purpose?

The only remaining unit I can think of off the top of my head for whom Channeling 1 is lacking in the presence of some Rank 1 spellsphere is the Firebow, I don't see why to keep it.

Honestly, I wish I could think of a way to drop Channeling 2 & 3 as well, but there needs to be some method of keeping an adept from learning rank 3 spheres I suppose.

The only reason to keep the channeling is its a good way to control what tier of spells the units can use. Most of that time that controls how high they can advance (as for adepts) but we also play around with it for things like allowing Firebows to learn fireball but not have access to blaze. Just gives us a little more flexibility.

2. Do we need the Sphere Promotions still?

Right now each spell level has 1 spell. So why a promotion with only the effect of enabling that spell which goes by some other name? Why not just have the promotions bear the name of the spells from now on, then you know right away what you are getting. You can keep the pictures for the promotions as they are now so that there is a link between those of the same sphere which is readily apparent.... but otherwise there really isn't much need for FIRE 3, when you can just say CONJURE FIRE ELEMENTAL. Because anyone with Fire 3 does that, and only that.

Yeah I have been thinking about this too. You right that it would be possible to do that. But for now I think we will keep the promotions simply as the sphere teirs. We may switch directly to "learning spells" in a later version if that makes more sense.

 

[Ringtailed]

Personally I think that picking spells as promotions, like "Fireball" instead of Fire 2, is really confusing. It'll be hard to remember whether the unit already knows that spell and I'm going to cast it by clicking that, or if it doesn't know that spell and I'm going to learn it :\

 

[Blackmantle]

Part 2 Comments to the changed Spells / Spheres second Tier 3 Spell sugguestions added as far as i can imagine (continued from suggestion to the system in General):



Air

Fair Winds

making it Permanent will perhaps do and reduce Micro


Maelstrom

neat, Stack busting moved from Fire to Air (perhaps to strong? We will see)


Conjure Air Elemental

2. Spell Tier 3?



Body

Haste

Make it permanently grant Mobility 1 Expand to all units, not just living (to save 1 Promotion, reduce micro, remove several exploits. Help ai since it uses Mobility from Promotions rather rarely)

Regeneration

Making it Permanent will do and reduce micro geatly. Still ok for Tier 2 i think.

Graft Flesh

Still needed as a Spell? (Old Flesh Golems where really nice but not so much AI-Friendly, new ones not so much and Mokkas delivers em en masse and better ones too if i remember correctly)

2. Spell?



Chaos


Dance of Blades

Just make it Permanent, reduces Micro and is AI-Friendly. 1 First Strike is not that extremely strong.

Mutation

Rather leave it to the cultists.
To strong as an easy to get one (one of the best Tier-2 in the System, exept for precious / expensive units but those are not that common at the Time of Tier 2 anyways) and reduces the speciality of OO and Cultists (I often go OO temporary just for Mutation) and whould even become better

Perhaps leave Chaos Marauders? Imo one of the best / most interesting Tier 2 Summons.

Adepts and other Parts of my Army in mortal Training for their EP instead of just sitting around .
As of now, i will dearly miss them.

Summon Pit Beast (replaces rage)
RIP old Rage effect the new one just never has lived up to you.

allright and very nice.

2. Spell Tier 3? (Perhaps the old Rage back. Together with the old Avatar effect. I do like the old effect far more.)


Creation



Death


Raise Skeleton
Summon Spectre (replaces contagion)
Summon Wraith (replaces lichdom)

Very nice. Especially with Sphere change for Sheiam.

2. Spell Tier 3

Lichdom


Dimensional
Escape




Earth

Wall of Stone

Perhaps allright with the new city Defense System if it really works as +25% now.

Stoneskin

Very nice Change / Place. Just right


Conjure Earth Elemental (replaces crush)

Elemental Sphere = Summoning Tier 3 = allright

2. Spell?



Enchantment


Enchanted Blade

allright and Ai Friendly.

Flaming Arrows

Just Replace this one with Magic Weapons (Weapons +1 ) 1 Bonus Magic (? Force or whatever seems fitting) damage Strength usable for all units. For reasoning see spiritual hammer.
Very Nice, unspecific and Ai- / New Player-Friendly. Whould be just right for Tier 2 i think.

Spellstaff

(Allright but perhaps reserve as special for Amurites UU only and replace with something else. so many options what to enchant... Im sure you will come up with something)

2. Spell?



Entropy

Wither

allright

Rust

never used this one, perhaps beef up a bit?

Enervation (now it also causes some death damage)

Sounds neat


Fire


Blaze

Fireball

Conjure Fire Elemental (replaces meteor swarm)

Allright. It has been long time for meteor swarms demise. Just made everything else including summons look bad.

2. Tier 3 Spell?


Force

Whirlwind (push)

Ice



Law


Loyalty
Valor
Summon Hosts of the Einherjar (replaces unyielding order)

Allright but Leave Unyielding Order as second Tier 3 spell It is such a Good and Usefull spell. Just restricting it to order is really sad and imo unnessesary. Whould take away some late game fun.



Life
Sanctify (needs a broader use, maybe this and defile grants bonuses in the tile to angels/demons?)

Sounds allright.

Destroy Undead

Should work vs. Demons as well if it doesnt anyways. Needs to become better. (Perhaps even Merge with Sanctify)

Ressurection (very specific, needs a more general use)

Just make it not use the Node (perhaps Casters Life instead?) and work with all heroes (Would be very powerful but why not? Less reason to reload for those of us who do and whould help AI for sure if it could pull that one of.) perhaps all heroes leave a Graveyard to make it possible instead of some obscure Tag for the Civs Heroes only.


Metamagic

Floating Eye

sounds allright


Dispel Magic

needs some Beefing up perhaps.



Mind

Charm Person

Needs to be toned down a bit perhaps. AI could use it quite well 1 think.

Inspiration
Domination

allright

2. Tier 3 Spell?



Nature


Treetop Defense

hope the new Change helps to make it worthwhile.

Poisoned Blade
Magic Weapon +1 in Enchantment whould replace this one. Im sure you will come up with something interesting. Perhaps reintroduce summon Tiger. The AI really used it after all.

Vitalize

glad that it will stay.

2. Tier 3 Spell?



Shadow

Blur
allright. Perhaps make it permanent if not allready.

Shadowwalk (replaces hide)
Perhaps replace completely if new defense System wont make it usefull.

Summon Mistform (replaces shadowwalk)
allright

2. Tier 3 Spell?



Spirit
Courage
Hope
Trust (probably needs to be more powerful)

Allright. All this sphere needs is another Tier 3 Spell.


Sun
Scorch
Blinding Light
Summon Aurealis (replaces revelation)

Sounds allright

2. Tier 3 Spell?



Water
Spring
Water Walking
Conjure Water Elemental (replaces tsunami)

Sounds allright.

2. Tier 3 Spell

Tsunami (Mutation as Tier 2 OO Priests instead)


Along with that change all of the priests would switch to a new model where they all get the following spell:

Divine spells for all priests:
Cure Disease

very nice (one Reason to leave Mutation only to OO)


And all high priests get the following spells:

Divine spells for all high priests:
Heal

Very nice and new-Player-Friendly.



And each priest/high priest get the following unique spell based on their religion (the first spell is the priest spell, the 2nd is the high priest spell):

Order (start with spirit guide promotion Whouldnt Empyrean also or morely Qualify for this lorewise? I remember a discussion about Spirit Sphere at Order Priests somewher)

Bless (weaker version)

Sounds allright

Unyielding Order

Perhaps allow this to Order-Archmages as well and and add another Spell here.



Empyrean

Revelation

Crown of Brillance

(Cant comment, havent played enough. Perhaps add another Spell here with 1 Overlap to one Archmage Sphere most likely Sun)



Runes

Shield of Faith

Sounds allright

Earthquake

Never used this one much.
Perhaps another Spell here as well and 1 overlap

Fellowship

Bloom

allright as ever.

Summon Treant

Dont like the Idea of Priests as Summoners (exept Kraken). Eats into the Magicans Domain. Perhaps should be Archmage/Summoner instead and Vitalize as Overlap with a new one for second FoL Tier 3.

Esus


Overlords

Tsunami

Perhaps put Mutation back and this one as additional Water 3 Tier 3 spell to both Priests and Mages. (Tsunami) (Cultists should start with Water Walking anyways)

Summon Kraken

Sounds allright, Add Tsunami as overlap.


Veil (start with unholy taint promotion)

Ring of Flames
Summon Balor

At Veil summoning sounds ok (Perhaps at Wraiths or Fire Elementals as second / Overlap)



Here are all the spells that would be removed by this plan:

Burning Blood (maintained for the Moroi)
Could also be for summoned Chaos marauders.
Spell itself wont be missed.

Graft Flesh (would probably remain as a special purpose spell)
Thought you whould kick it out? Whouldnt be sad about the new Graft Flesh going.

Hasturs Razor (becoming a unique spell for Hemah)
Just right.

Rage (maintained for the avatar of wrath)
Bring back old effect for both Tier 3 Chaos and Avatar

Contagion (becoming a unique spell for Mary)
Just right

Lichdom (becoming a special 2nd spell that is available with death3)
Keep as 2. Tier 3 Death

Transmutation
perhaps as a Special somewhere?

Summon Kikijub
wont be missed

Crush (becoming a special dwarven druid spell)
Just right

Spiritual Hammer

Whould be the single most painful cut in the cut-list. Divine Units in this Mod are more abundant than Recon and Archers combined.

But general +1 Strength for all at Enchantment 2 whould be very neat and remove alot of spells and confusion with the same effect so i whould be more than happy with that.

Unholy Taint
Just right

Summon Imp
won't really be missed.

Banish
won't be missed

Summon Azer
Good thing. Never had a use.

Pillar of Fire (becoming a special spell for Chalid)
sounds allright

Meteor Swarm
At long last. Best Change in the mix imo. Dearly needed.

Restore City
won't be missed

Summon Law Bringer
was ok but not really sad about it.

Righteous Cause
Was fun if it worked but to specific and whould have been a headace getting the AI to grasp it

Summon Griffon
RIP Soul Forge Exploit. Not so bad. Just right as as real Unit gained by Event.

Summon Lifespark
Heal should really be priests domain

Hideous Thoughts
Wont be missed much

Summon Guardian Vines

Entangle (becomes a special druid only spell)
just right. But needs to be beefed up seriously.

Hide (becomes a special Esus spell)
Superb Change to make Esus more interesting.

Summon Phantasm
wont be missed.

Whitefire
havent used Empyrean often. So no miss here

Summon Sand Lion
Just right as Malakim special.

Summon Djinn
won't miss

Spirit Guide
just right moving it to Priests

Summon Chaos Marauder
Will be missed Dearly. Mutation rather as Cultist spell and this one to keep for Chaos 2.

 

[WhitewolfIV]

I feel that the summoning trait will be very weak considering that the summons are only at level 3 except death. The Sheaim can be compensaded by doing something to their civilization but you also have to factor in that Keelyn has the trait and isn't a sheaim.

 

[Blackmantle]

Wouldnt be if Chaos Marauders Stay.

But perhaps not the most AI-friendly Summon to pull of properly in its full effect...

(Whould make Necromancy the Tier 2 Summoning department.)

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Would it be possible to make it so that certain promotions had greater xp costs than others? To make promotions, resources, traits, religions, alignments, etc., change the cost of such promotions? How about to here some promotions required minimum level instead of prereq promotions? By the <tier> tags? Required amounts of different resources? Maybe to make it so that certain promotions are only randomly available to different units even when its normal requirements are met? (different individuals just have different natural talents) To make Traits, promotions, resources, religions, alignments, etc., change the chances?

If so, I think it could be cool if each spell were allowed by a separate promotion, which could take into account all of those things. Some spells would take years more of study than others, so you might have to save up xp for the strongest spells. Some spells might require multiple sources of multiple mana types. There would be no more spell spheres per se, but knowledge and mana of various spheres would allow you to craft casters with completely different spells (Including cross-sphere spells).


It could make the system more interesting, but it would of course probably entail adding more spells rather than cutting back on them. (I still don't see any reason to try to simplify the spell system, and would rather see it complicated without any regard for maintaining patterns, especially "one spell per sphere and category" type rules.)

 

[Mewtarthio]

When I first saw the topic title, I was more than a little shocked. Still, when I actually read the post, it made perfect sense. Incidentally, Unyeilding Order makes more sense as an Order spell than as an Arcane spell. Everything's a lot clearer now. Of the spells being cut completely, the only thing I'll really miss is the 'pedia entry for Pillar of Flames.

I feel that the summoning trait will be very weak considering that the summons are only at level 3 except death. The Sheaim can be compensaded by doing something to their civilization but you also have to factor in that Keelyn has the trait and isn't a sheaim.

The Sheaim could have an additional UU: A tier 2 arcane caster replacement (I assume that Eater of Dreams will become their tier 3 caster). It and the Eater of Dreams could have access to additional summons. The Balseraphs already have their tier 2 Puppeteer UU (Perpentach would still get access to whatever unique summons they get; he'd just only get them for one turn), so they'd just need a tier 3 Arcane UU.

 

[R0GERSHRUBBER]

My gut reaction to this thread subject was 'no', but after evaluating your proposal, I think I would prefer this system.

Like many other players, I strongly prefered Mages to Summoners because, with the right spheres, Mages are more versatile: Summoners are only useful in war.

My biggest concern with the proposed spell list is that Summoning spells are favored at higher levels: I would prefer to see Summoning and Sorcery distributed more evenly among levels, although Sorcery should be more prevalent than Summoning to emphasive versatility.

I like the unique spells for Priests, although I think Priests should have more than 1 or 2 spells.

-Comments and Ideas-

Improving 'weak' spells in general
Weak or circumstantial spells can be given additional abilities to make them more attractive.*

For example:

Improving Control Winds (formerly Fair Winds): More capabilities
In addition to current function, Control Winds could provide a bonus versus Archery units, Improve Windmill tiles, and/or affect/direct Forest Fire spreading. (I especially like the last effect because it makes Water mana less essential and synergizes well with Blaze.)

Tier 3 Elemental summons need rebalancing
The various Elemental summons need to be rebalanced to all be equally appealing. I would like to see Collateral Damage on fire and Bombardment on Earth (perhaps automatically applied when the elemental attacks?).

Improving Regeneration: city growth
How about if casting Regeneration in a city gave +, +, or functioned like a Granary? As a result, Regeneration has some use outside of war.

Improving Dance of Blades: semi-permanent effect
I dislike the micromanagement associated with Dance of Blades: how about if the promotion stayed until the Mage left the tile? It's not especially powerful, but it would be more desirable this way since it frees up the Mage for other casting.

New Chaos 1 spell
Alternately, Chaos 1 could be a spell that produced a random effect or spell. This may be too similar to the Infernal Grimiore.

Chaos/Law mana and Crime
Chaos mana and Law mana should affect crime rate.

Appropriate names for spells creating undead
I still think that all of the Death spells should be 'Animate Skeleton' and 'Create Spectre/Wraith'. 'Summon' is definitely the wrong term.

Improving Wall of Stone: Great Wall?
Perhaps Wall of Stone could function outside of cities, using something graphically similar to the Great Wall (such that it won't displace improvements as a Fort/etc. would)?

A more D&D-esque Fireball
I still think Fireball should only do collateral damage.

For Gary Gygax, without whom none of this would be possible
Force 1 - Magic Missile (an Adept level spell that does damage! *gasp*)

Improving Sanctify: combat bonus vs. Undead/Demons
Perhaps Sanctify could apply a temporary bonus versus Undead and Demons?

Improving Life 3/Death 3
Life 3 should have Summon Lifespark + Ressurection as Death 3 has Summon Wraith and Lichdom. Elegantly symmetric.

Metamagic 3 idea: Refresh Node
Metamagic 3 - Refresh Node (needs better name, probably removes promotion for balance. May infringe upon Amurite shtick.)

Improving Trust: Reduced War Weariness
When Trust is cast in a city, the city experiences a temporary reduction in War Weariness. After all, you need your citizens' trust as much as that of other leaders.

Improving Scorch: Grassland -> Plains
There is currently no way to convert a Grasslands tile to a Plains tile. However, allowing this would allow for something far worse than simply pillaging: you could literally convert all of an opponents land to desert.

Treants = elven bombardment
Treants should also be able to Bombard to give the Elves an RP-appropriate option for taking cities.

New Overlords spells represent limited portfolio
Tsunami and Kraken are both water spells and aren't really representative of the Overlords portfolio.

Several 'dropped' spells are appropriate for unique units, civs or religions
Transmutation and Spiritual Hammer - Dwarves or Runes
Sand Lion and Djinn - Malakim
Phantasm - Svartalfar
Guardian Vines and Entangle - Ljosalfar or FOL
Unholy Taint - AV
Banish - Order
Etc.

More spells should scale with Combat 1-5/Spell Extension
I would like to see more spells scale in effectiveness with the Combat and Extension promotions, adding another strategic dimension to promotion selection and rendering the AI's eagerness to give Adepts Combat promotions instead of Spell promotions less disastrous.

*This is essentially what Wizards of the Coast did to improve weaker feats in the revision to D&D 3rd edition. For example, Endurance now allows a character to sleep in Light and Medium armor without penalty and Blind Fight allows a character to retain their Dexterity bonus against unseen enemies, in addition to their previous effect.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

A more D&D-esque Fireball
I still think Fireball should only do collateral damage.

This gets said too much.

People need to take a good hard look at FfH's conventional siege units before they make this comment.

They're stuck at 1 move; there's no way to improve that. Can't be hasted, can't get mobility, can't get commando. FfH war would get so, so much worse if they became the only way to bombard. Seriously, that would suck so hard. Meanwhile, they're amazing for doing collateral. Why? 80% withdrawal rate. They'll do their collateral and be pretty much guaranteed to survive.

Fireballs should serve a DIFFERENT role. We need something in the game that's bearable to use for bombardment. We don't need yet another way to do collateral damage when we have a perfectly good one already. If fireball is to lose an ability, it should be the collateral, NOT the bombardment.

On a different note, design team, I'd like to hear exactly HOW much you plan to nerf Maelstrom by. Some details would be nice.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

Improving Trust: Reduced War Weariness
When Trust is cast in a city, the city experiences a temporary reduction in War Weariness. After all, you need your citizens' trust as much as that of other leaders.

Improving Scorch: Grassland -> Plains
There is currently no way to convert a Grasslands tile to a Plains tile. However, allowing this would allow for something far worse than simply pillaging: you could literally convert all of an opponents land to desert.

Tying Spirit 3 into WW reduction is a very good idea, either in one city with the caster (no WW) or empire wide (WW -20% or something)
As for an additional effect for scorch, I think ice->tundra would be the best.

Treants = elven bombardment
Treants should also be able to Bombard to give the Elves an RP-appropriate option for taking cities.

I've seen this recommended before and agree. It would be a good way for elves to overcome no seige workshop, too.

Several 'dropped' spells are appropriate for unique units, civs or religions

Could be nice to give each religion one summons.

 

[TBox]

Fireballs should serve a DIFFERENT role. We need something in the game that's bearable to use for bombardment. We don't need yet another way to do collateral damage when we have a perfectly good one already. If fireball is to lose an ability, it should be the collateral, NOT the bombardment.

Fireball and Spring are the big newbie Gotchas. Their abilities need to be less singular. I'd prefer this meant that their abilities were available to more spheres, although I understand being loath to duplicate abilities. It could be done with some creativity, I suppose. If you change its name to something appropriate, the idea that great mounds of earth can heave up and smother fires would be a nice boost to wall of stone, for example.

 

[JJR]

I think it's an interesting idea to merge them...although I would suggest what some were saying about having certain mana types keep their focus to a type of spell (offense/support/summoning)

Another idea would be to keep the tech tree for the arcane and summoning techs but being able to upgrade to the mage and arch-mage with either one. However, each branch would provide bonuses (power/radius/turns and etc) to the arcane or summoning spells. This way it still "feels" like you're specializing in one without having a ton of spells to sort out.

I also have a bunch of ideas for spells (new or improvements), but I just state a few:

Dimensional:
T2: Maybe summon a random lesser elemental? (that was cut)
T3: Summon a random planar beast/unit (that was cut?)
I just think there just needs to be a neutral mana type with T2 summons...waiting for only T3 ones for most, other than death mana, would be kind of late for non-evil summoning players.

Spirit:
Trust - could let you have a good relation with a civ for as long as your caster remains in one of their cities. (useful to get AI allies join you in a war or trade resources at a cost of boosting that city's production, culture and/or research...for a minimum amount of turns) Although I like the WW idea too.

Necro type spheres:
One should have some form of Disease and/or poison damage spell (or added to their summons?).

Elemental spheres:
I kind of see the theme that they might be trying for...
Air/Fire being more offensive and Water/Earth being more defensive oriented??...to that effect I would suggest changing the following spells:

Stoneskin: to also resist damage from the air sphere or lightning damage to the stack.
Water walking: rename or replace with a shield spell that resists fire type damage to the stack (could also provide water walking?).
Far Winds: could allow the stack (land units) to pass/enter impassable areas for a turn or two? (I think this might have been suggested before?)

The summoned elementals special attacks can also fit into this theme by:
Air: reducing city defenses and/or breaks fortified units + blits promotion + extra movements (could imbue lightning damage to units in stack?)
Fire: causes collateral fire damage + explodes on death like those prye zombies..i think thats what they're called (could imbue fire damage to units in stack?)
Earth: Always provides a minimum city defense or unit fortification to the stack + doubles the movement costs in the surounding area for the enemy (except for air units)
Water: Protects against fire (or any?) collateral damage (or reduces it) to the stack + str penalty to any attacking enemy in the surounding area (excluding ones with an amphibious type of promotion)
Note: Air/Fire would have higher attack str while Water/Earth would have higher defense str

Also having lvl1 spells (or elementals) that imbues an element-type damage to the weapon-wielding units in the stack (for as long the unit stays in the caster's tile) would be neat. Of course not allowing the different element damage to "stack" with each other would help balance it. (or maybe just use elements from the fire/air spheres since the earth/water T2 spells would help to protect you from them?)

As for the AI, I think the problem is that the AI never upgrades (or rarely ever) their units which have an experience requirement such as adepts or priests. The only magic I ever see them use were their normal spells from their priests/UU or heros. I tried adding a bunch of mages/summoners/high priests/arch-mages to the AI once and holy cr*p did they beat down my army. (the problem is that they still try attacking your units with them if they're not defending a city)

So maybe allowing the AI to build the mages/arch-mage/high priests when they learn the tech that is required to build them? Unless you can figure out a way to force the AI to upgrade their units, but I still think they would kill them off before they get to the required lvl. (maybe putting their stats to 0/3...0/4 and etc would stop them from sending their spell casters into combat?)

Anyhow, just a few thoughts on the matter...

 

[Fenboy]

This gets said too much.

People need to take a good hard look at FfH's conventional siege units before they make this comment.

Plus the whole problem with the elven civs and those which can't build cannons. Siege options for them is pretty much limited to magic.

 

[Genejack]

I had a few more ideas today, just to consider:
vitalize could be changed to a worker action requiring commune with nature. It'd allow for more nature spells and probably be much better on the ai.

If Nikis-Knights idea works for the AI, it might be possible to also add spring as a worker action with a tech (and/or possibly a mana) requirement. Might allow the AI to recover faster from a blight. I don't know if this might help the AI with forest fires also. If it did, it might help player micromanagement from nearby fires also (using automated workers).

Perhaps the same strategy could be used regarding sanctifying hell terrain.
That would reduce micromanagement, but require mana commitment.

Regarding the vitalise spell itself, I'm all in favor of scrapping it to enable more difficult city placement choices (as suggested earlier in this forum). Or perhaps using it as one bigtime effect (for example turning a 3x3 square area into grasslands/hills) which will kill the caster. Flavorwise this would be enervating the land with the lifeforce of the caster.

As for a possible regeneration boost, maybe a small chance for an otherwise destroyed unit to survive? Akin to the withdraw chance of some units. 5/10% to survive a combat with minimum health instead of dying?

Greetings from a lurker all the way from .13 who's finally come out of the closet.
Keep up the great work.

 

[Mesix]

Will this really make the AI better at spell casting. The problem with the AI is that they don't upgrade adept units. Will eliminating the choice between sorcery and summoning make the AI actually upgrade adepts? Isn't there a way to make the AI understand the value of upgrading adepts without sacrificing one of the cornerstones of the mod?

I also think that powerful direct damage and area of effect spells are appropriate for some Tier III spells. Moving all the summons to Tier III seems a bit off. When I think of a powerful archmage, I don't think of summoning elementals, I think of earthquakes and a rain of fire that destroys armies and cities. The Archmage unit seems very watered down in this new system.

...and what's up with Lichdom? Will there still be a way of getting Lich units under the new system?

 

[Algeroth]

On the second look, i don't like how the OO gets only water spell for their disciples. It makes them very map-dependant. Laun, their most RP appropriate folowers, thus became just more powerful on water maps, and nearly useless on others. You could remove Tsunami, give them Hideous thoughts, and make Tsunami tier 2 arcane spell insteaded. And whith the water walking....OO priests should start with water walking promotion right of the temple, and water could have two tier 2 spells.

 

[TheJopa]

I don't like poisoned blade as Nature II spell. I'd prefer summon guardian vines. Buffing other units is too much like enchantment sphere (hell, make poisoned blade Enchantment II, that way you get two spells- to buff ranged and reckon units. Or let alchemy lab give away poisoned blades) and generally I'd expect nature to have more useful, peaceful spell.

EDIT: Also, please revise water walking, as poster above said. It just not very useful and people would only use it as a nuisance to get summon water elemental. Or at least swap spring and water walking, as is most useful spell in sphere is lvl. 1

 

[Wyrmhero]

To be honest, I think that the magic aspect of FfH is completely fine. The only thing I would change is to change the AI weighting of mages/summoners etc, so they build them, or allow them to build them from scratch, as done in Xienwolf's modmod.