How about instead of Earth III summoning an earth elemental, it allows all water tiles within a 1 tile radius to became plains at the expense of the promotion. this could over time, allow you to expand your empire, let you create a landbrige, or if on a ship, even make a whole new island. i think this could make for some interesting strategies.
Spell Idea
- Thread starter jimi12
- Start date
Crazy_Ivan
Chieftain
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2007
- Messages
- 60
I like it.
cyther
Lord of the Dance
That sounds cool but I enjoy Earth Elementals (sometimes). It might also be used as a force spell and work in both ways.
rocklikeafool
Warmaster
Ok, that sounds cool.
MagisterCultuum
Great Sage
I don't think it really fits Force very well.
I'm thinking that in my modmod I'll make all the Elemental Summons be cross-sphere summons, requiring Dimensional 1 as well as either level 2 or 3 (I'm not sure if I should nerf them slightly and let mages summon them, or make them stronger) of their elemental sphere. These are after all extra-planar creatures, so requiring a basic knowledge of how to bing them into this dimension makes sense.
That leaves room for at least 4 more spells in those spheres.
I added lots of terraforming in my pre-BtS personal modmods, but they are trickier now. You can't target which tile you want to effect except by moving the unit to that tile. That makes adding spells that changes land to water (or peaks) and vice versa problematic. The caster would either have to be able to move on those normally impassible tiles, or else you would need a work around like making the spell actually summon a flying unit that can serves no purpose but casting the actual spell.
I'm considering going with the proposal that Water II have water walking as an intrinsic ability, and letting Water III be Part seas--creating a temporary land tile on the caster's plot. I'm also considering making Tsunami go back to sort of what it was before BtS, a water III spell that dealt damage and had a chance to turn land to coast. I would have a higher chance to turn it to coast, but make it a Temporary terrain type so it would only last for a few turns. I wouldn't let it completely destroy cities either.
Would there be a problem with Water II not having a spell and water III having 2 (or 3, if you include a the elemental, which also requires Dimensional 1) if water II itself allowed water walking?
I was thinking that I might also make creating a destroying hills and peaks be a random outcome of Earthquake. I was also thinking of letting Earth Elementals move through impassible terrain (peaks) and causing them to randomly cast earthquake sometimes when they die.
I have already made my Ice III spell temporarily turn tiles with its range (which is effected by the extension promotions) temporarily to Snow (even if they were water tiles), in addition to dealing cold damage.
I'm thinking that in my modmod I'll make all the Elemental Summons be cross-sphere summons, requiring Dimensional 1 as well as either level 2 or 3 (I'm not sure if I should nerf them slightly and let mages summon them, or make them stronger) of their elemental sphere. These are after all extra-planar creatures, so requiring a basic knowledge of how to bing them into this dimension makes sense.
That leaves room for at least 4 more spells in those spheres.
I added lots of terraforming in my pre-BtS personal modmods, but they are trickier now. You can't target which tile you want to effect except by moving the unit to that tile. That makes adding spells that changes land to water (or peaks) and vice versa problematic. The caster would either have to be able to move on those normally impassible tiles, or else you would need a work around like making the spell actually summon a flying unit that can serves no purpose but casting the actual spell.
I'm considering going with the proposal that Water II have water walking as an intrinsic ability, and letting Water III be Part seas--creating a temporary land tile on the caster's plot. I'm also considering making Tsunami go back to sort of what it was before BtS, a water III spell that dealt damage and had a chance to turn land to coast. I would have a higher chance to turn it to coast, but make it a Temporary terrain type so it would only last for a few turns. I wouldn't let it completely destroy cities either.
Would there be a problem with Water II not having a spell and water III having 2 (or 3, if you include a the elemental, which also requires Dimensional 1) if water II itself allowed water walking?
I was thinking that I might also make creating a destroying hills and peaks be a random outcome of Earthquake. I was also thinking of letting Earth Elementals move through impassible terrain (peaks) and causing them to randomly cast earthquake sometimes when they die.
I have already made my Ice III spell temporarily turn tiles with its range (which is effected by the extension promotions) temporarily to Snow (even if they were water tiles), in addition to dealing cold damage.
rocklikeafool
Warmaster
Or is it easy to code? Prolly can done with python, but why bother when Magister's stuff is prolly easier to code. (Not that I know personally, but it sounds easier jus cuz I'd guess there's less python involved. And from wat I unnerstand python is a b*tch.) So, if someone really wants it, they can code it themselves.
MagisterCultuum
Great Sage
Python is a very high level language, which mean 2 things:
1.) It is basically pseudocode, so it is one of the easiest language for coders (of you have a list of functions permitted by the DLL, and it runs quite slowly. C++ is the other way around. It is harder to program (although it is also more similar to my fist programming language, Java, and not so finicky about white space. The big problem with C++ though is it must be compiled, so it takes a long time to get around to testing)
2.) It runs slowly.
No, my modmod is actually quite python-heavy. I've tried to code it as efficiently as I can in python, but it does unfortunately slow things down sometimes. I try not to use as much/as complicated python code for things that are used the most often.
(There is often a noticeable delay while it is doing the calculations for the Blizzard spell, which is probably the most processor intensive of my spells because it generates a seperate random number for each tile t cycles though. I don't mind so much for a level 3 spell though, and it doesn't look right is a 3x3 square of ice all melts at the same time.)
I would like to move a lot of it to the SDK, but that is beyond me at the moment. I can successfully compile a new DLL, have changed some minor things in the SDK before, and have even added a couple more functions to be called in python before (it compiled, but I hadn't tested my Temporary Feature and Temporary Improvement functions before a graphics change caused the game to not load properly), but my attempts to make changes in the XML schema have never worked. (I've been trying to convince Kael, Xienwolf, and Vehem to do this work for me.)
1.) It is basically pseudocode, so it is one of the easiest language for coders (of you have a list of functions permitted by the DLL, and it runs quite slowly. C++ is the other way around. It is harder to program (although it is also more similar to my fist programming language, Java, and not so finicky about white space. The big problem with C++ though is it must be compiled, so it takes a long time to get around to testing)
2.) It runs slowly.
No, my modmod is actually quite python-heavy. I've tried to code it as efficiently as I can in python, but it does unfortunately slow things down sometimes. I try not to use as much/as complicated python code for things that are used the most often.
(There is often a noticeable delay while it is doing the calculations for the Blizzard spell, which is probably the most processor intensive of my spells because it generates a seperate random number for each tile t cycles though. I don't mind so much for a level 3 spell though, and it doesn't look right is a 3x3 square of ice all melts at the same time.)
I would like to move a lot of it to the SDK, but that is beyond me at the moment. I can successfully compile a new DLL, have changed some minor things in the SDK before, and have even added a couple more functions to be called in python before (it compiled, but I hadn't tested my Temporary Feature and Temporary Improvement functions before a graphics change caused the game to not load properly), but my attempts to make changes in the XML schema have never worked. (I've been trying to convince Kael, Xienwolf, and Vehem to do this work for me.)
rocklikeafool
Warmaster
Yeah, see, I'm not too familiar with python. But I don't like that it uses python cuz that's rather too complicated for me. So, I mostly try to do things in XML and plead for help if I can't figure it out.
MagisterCultuum
Great Sage
XML uses C++ too, for the schema. C++ reads the xml, and decided wha to do with the values it finds there. You can't change the schema and expect it to work without changing the C++ that reads it.
The "real xml" used for schema and the LS system (used for some graphics) is probably the hardest code to deal with in modding Civ. Hardly anyone has a clue as to how the LS system works.
The "real xml" used for schema and the LS system (used for some graphics) is probably the hardest code to deal with in modding Civ. Hardly anyone has a clue as to how the LS system works.
rocklikeafool
Warmaster
I know that; I prolly didn't phrase it right. (I changed it above to better reflect wat I meant.
) But actually codin in python is hard to me. So, I try to avoid it. Bout the LS system, I have no idea wat that even is. (Wat is it?) And why does it get used (by I assume Firaxis and others who allow easy moddin of their games) if it makes it harder for us modders to do wat we want? I mean graphics is a major portion of it all and it needs to be easy to work with. Hence, why my minor skill in graphics is utilized in 3ds Max 8.
CockyWizard
Chieftain
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2005
- Messages
- 52
I just want to point out that pre-BtS Sureshot had already done this with the spell Raise Earth (Earth III Sorcery). Tsunami was also changed to always lower the land tiles by one step, as opposed to a percentage chance to turn it to water regardless of what is was before.
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