Mutation spell

[smithsonian]

What does the mutation spell do? The Civilopedia entry for it is just flavor text and doesn't help much. Is it a good thing? Should I do it to my own units?

 

[Civkid1991]

Divine II - Mutation
Randomly does some of the following to all living units in the casters tile that do not already have the Mutated promotion; also grants that promotion (% chance of occurance):

* Reduces strength by 1 (16%)
* Raises strength by 1 (15%)
* Raises strength by 2 (15%)
* Grants the unit the Enraged promotion (16%)
* Grants the unit the Crazed promotion (16%)
* Grants the unit the Diseased promotion (11%)
* Grants the unit the Vulnerable to fire promotion (11%)
* Grants the unit the Magic Resistance promotion (6%)
* Grants the unit the Regeneration promotion (6%)
* Grants the unit the Withered promotion (6%)

- -

 

[smithsonian]

Thanks! Where was that text quoted from so I can look there next time instead of posting?

 

[Civkid1991]

its here
scroll down and click on CHAOS

 

[smithsonian]

So what's the strategy for this? Is there a situation when you'd want to do this? It sounds like it's about 42% chance it'll do something good, and about 77% that it'll do something bad (unless I'm minsunderstanding some of those promotions as being good when they're really bad or vice versa). What would be the reason to ever use this spell?

 

[Sarisin]

Sometimes, you don't have a choice.

If you have Chaos Mana (some civs come with it), there is a random chance units you create will be Mutated.

I don't care much for that as it seems I always get those bad mutations.

 

[Calavente]

it's almost right...
but 76 + 42 is not 100 ...

does that means that you can have combination of promotions ?

like : str+1 AND str -1 or not ?

or regenearatio n+ withered .. fun !!

 

[Halancar]

So what's the strategy for this? Is there a situation when you'd want to do this? It sounds like it's about 42% chance it'll do something good, and about 77% that it'll do something bad (unless I'm minsunderstanding some of those promotions as being good when they're really bad or vice versa). What would be the reason to ever use this spell?

Because getting a unit with +2 strength is well worth sacrifying a few others to get it.
Of course, I'd never use it on a high level unit, or a hero, but cast on a pile of cannon fodder moving toward the front lines, it can be very interesting.

 

[Chip56]

does that means that you can have combination of promotions ?

like : str+1 AND str -1 or not ?

That specific combination is not possible (or at least doesn't affect the unit) but fo example +2 strength, weakness vs fire and crazed are possible and happens quite often.

 

[Calavente]

I thought it was something like that..

but as I never used it yet ..

 

[MisterBenn]

Also I imagine that some of the negative effects can be removed by spells afterwards which could improve the overall effect of using this, but still I find Mutate a little underwhelming and steer clear...

 

[feydras]

I've never found the spell to be overpowered. It can give a nice boost, as a Divine II spell should. I've just recently starting using Mutation to explore it and i like it. The fact that wanting the spell forces you to go OO is a good thing. Each religion has it's perks, mutation just happens to be the OO perk and fits quite well IMO.

The upside to the spell is that by mass casting it on low units you can groom some of the successes up for promotion. I've never found this unbalancing because by that time i usually already have a lot of units promoted up geared for my national unit spots. Of course, i usually play on Huge maps with Raging barbs so that may have something to do with it.
The downside to Mutation is that it requires a lot of micromanagment to use the strategy effectively. I'm sure it is beyond the AI to be that careful.

Flavorwise i love it. I often rename my effected units to match their mutations. A withered, vulnerable to fire macemen unit became the 'scarecrows', a regeneration mutated unit became 'trollkin', etc...

Lastly, i can confirm that the Diseased neg promo caused by the Mutation spell. I believe the Withered can as well but i'm not 100% certain. The other negative promos cannot be healed i don't think.

It would be neat to reserve the effect for Chaos Mana node influence but the Divine II Chaos spell replacement would have to be interesting and fairly useful to make up for it. Maybe a negative only Mutate variant to cast on enemies?
Kind of an irony: use Chaos magic to hurt your foes but the more Chaos nodes you own the more chance your own units will be mutated for better or worse.

Final note: where did all these negative mutations come from? We all know from comics that mutations always have some positive effect?

- feydras

 

[Chip56]

The other negative promos cannot be healed i don't think.

The enraged one goes away after one turn anyway unless he gets crazed too (which might be good or bad)

 

[Jono]

Actually, the enraged one (as well as the regeneration one) seems to stick around for a while before they finally disappear.

 

[JDexter]

In my opinion the spell offers quite even chances for good and bad things to happen (44% bad, 42% good). Crazed and enraged aren't bad, they just change the stats temporarily (crazed each turn offers a chance that a unit is enraged that turn, which increases strength and movement, but lowers defense if I remember correctly - see Lunatic unit for details).
Since I hate units that are worse than they could be I rarely use this (and also I'm a minimalistic unit builder).

But it's great for flavor and I really love feydras RPG idea!

 

[xanaqui42]

it's almost right...
but 76 + 42 is not 100 ...

does that means that you can have combination of promotions ?

like : str+1 AND str -1 or not ?

or regenearatio n+ withered .. fun !!

The strength modifications are exclusive to each other, and are offensive strength only. The others are inclusive, so you could have an offensive strength modification and all the listed promotions (although the chance of that is pretty low).

 

[Caradoc]

Does anyone have an updated list of possible mutations. I've seen several that are not listed here.

 

[Ecofarm]

Enraged gives a 1% chance, per turn cumulative, to make the unit barbarian. Crazed give a chance to cast enraged each turn (caster only). With either promotion, deletion results in the unit becomming a barb and moving 1 tile (free xp).

No more Strong and Weak promos on the same unit?

 

[xienwolf]

Promotions flagged <bMutation>1:

Amphibious
Blitz
Cannibalize
Cold Resistance
Combat 1
Crazed
Diseased (curable)
Empower 1
Enervation (curable)
Enraged
Fire Resist
Heavy
Heroic Defense
Heroic Strength
Immunity to Disease
Light
Lightning Resistance
Mobility 1
Poison Resist
Regeneration
Sentry 1
Stoneskin
Strong
Vulnerable to Fire
Weak
Withered (curable)

Orange = Bad (in my opinion. Some people like Crazed, but till Enraged is fixed, it means you WILL go Barbarian.)

Pink = mixed blessing (good & Bad)

Purple = Temporary (enraged is meant to be temporary, but is not wearing off at present.)

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Enraged is meant to be temporary, but hasn't been since .24 or .25. Crazed was always permanent.