Spell reworking for FF

[Thunder_Gr]

I believe that the spell system has been left out of development for a long time, especially concerning the Arcane units.
What I intend to do is provide 2 lines for each spell sphere, one Normal and one Offensive.
The choice of lines will be made on the first level of the sphere. In case of multiple mana resources for a specific sphere, the choice will be 50% randomly applied to the unit on creation, and subsequent upgrades(automatic or manual) will follow this line.

Most level III spells will be Arcane units specific, and will be very strong. They will also have a few turns of spellcasting block for the caster. The more powerful or gamebreaking, the more the cooldown period will be. Some spells may have more drawbacks as well, details will be presented on their description.

Some existing spells may be adjusted or removed, hopefully for the better .

The spells I post here are first estimates. Final adjustments will be done after they are uploaded and tested, according to feedback.

The initial discussion started on http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=317307 but, as WarKirby pointed out, it drove the thread off topic.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

FIRE

Normal Line
Fire I: Blaze. The one we all know
Fire II: Fire wall. Does 20% damage to units attacking the tile. Fire Immune units are unharmed. The spell can be cast everywhere.
Fire III: Summon Fire Elemental. As usual

Offensive Line
Fire I Offensive: Firebolt. Summons a firebolt. 2 str(fire),0 mov(+1 with flying). Single target
Fire II Offensive: Fireball. As already implemented
Fire III Offensive: Meteor Storm. 40% damage to surrounding tiles up to 90% max. After casting this spell, the Archmage cannot cast any spells for 3 turns. This spell can only be aquired by Arcane units(So, Govannon manufactured "Archmages" from disciple units are cut off). This spell has a chance to set forests and jungles on fire.

EARTH

Normal Line:
Earth I: Stonewall. As it is
Earth II: Stoneskin will be applied to the whole stack with 30% chance to wear off each turn.
Earth III: Raise Land. Transformes flat land to hill or hill to Peak. 5 Turn Casting Time. The caster will be unable to cast any spells for the next 5 turns after the cast(a total of 10 turns of no cast). The spell will be available only to Arcane units.

Offensive Line:
Earth I Offensive: Stone barage. Attack surrounding tiles with a stone barage. 5% damage to a maximum of 10%
Earth II Offensive: Summon Earth Elemental. An Earth Elemental with 6/8 str. Earth Mana affinity.
Earth III Offensive: Earthquake. Range 2. Damages all units within range 35% up to a max of 75%. The Caster will be unable to cast anything for 3 turns. This spell will only be available to Arcane units. There will be a chance to destroy improvements in range.

AIR

Normal Line:
Air I: Fair Winds. Same as it is now
Air II: Strong Winds. Temporarily removes all formation promotions from enemy units in adjacent tiles
Air III: Fly. The caster's stack gains the ability to fly for one turn. The units cannot attack this turn. Units that have already attacked this turn will not gain fly. The caster will be unable to cast any spells for 2 turns. The spell will be available only to Arcane Units

Offensive line:
Air I Offensive: Lightning bolt. Summons a lightning bolt 0(+2 lightning), 1(+1 with flying) movement, single target. 5% chance for the target to be shocked for 1 turn(Immobilised, -10% strength).
Air II Offensive: Chain Lightning. Summons a Lightning 0(+4 lightning), collateral damage up to 5 units. Units that get hit(>0% damage) have 10% to become severerly shocked for 1 to 3 turns(Immobilised, -20% strength)
Air III Offensive: Lightning Storm. Does 0 - 90% damage to all units in range 2 up to a max of 90% damage. Units hit have a chance based on the damage they have taken to become very severly shocked for 2 to 5 turns(Immobilised, -40% strength). The caster will be unable to cast anything for 4 turns. The spell will only be available to Arcane units.

WATER

Normal Line:
Water I: Create Pond. Creates a pond in a city, which gives +1 +3 . The building needs the caster to be present.
Water II: Spring. As it is now + will remove the FireWall promotion from units in adjucent tiles.
Water III: Waterwalking. It will give the stack the ability to walk on water for 1 turn. Units left midwater will be stacked there, until another waterwalking is cast or a ship goes there to pick them up. The caster will be unable to cast any spells for 2 turns. This spell will be available to Arcane Units only.

Offensive Line:
Water I Offensive: Summon Frog. Summons a permanent frog. 2 str 1 move, waterwalking.(I hope I can find a frog summon somewhere)
Water II Offensive: Summon Water Elemental. Summons a water elemental 5/6 str, 1 move, water walking, water mana affinity, split.
Water III Offensive: Tsunami. As is tsunami for the OO priests, 45% damage for a max of 95% damage. The caster will be unable to cast any spells for 3 turns. The spell will be available only to arcane units(in this form)

 

[Thunder_Gr]

reserved for spells

 

[Thunder_Gr]

reserved for more spells

 

[Thunder_Gr]

I think this is enough for spells

 

[WarKirby]

Are you taking suggestions for spells?

Personally, I'd love to see high end spells damaging more than just units. Things like meteor storm, would be nice if they also pillaged improvements, damaged city defenses, and ignited forets.

 

[Thunder_Gr]

Are you taking suggestions for spells?

Personally, I'd love to see high end spells damaging more than just units. Things like meteor storm, would be nice if they also pillaged improvements, damaged city defenses, and ignited forets.

Of course, suggestions are always welcome.
Meteor storm already is set to ignite forests and jungles. Now that you mention it, it may as well have a chance to destroy improvements and city defences.
This will make it more difficult to use for defense, but I like the idea

 

[[to_xp]Gekko]

sounds like a great idea. Maxastro also had some nifty ideas about new spells in his RLD modmod, I'm sure he'll help as soon as he reads this

 

[Honor]

I think we should have a new spell sphere (Elemental Mastery?) for the really powerful elemental spells, which requires the mastery of all elements to unlock - i.e. an archmage would need to have access to Earth, Air, Fire and Water III before he can unlock Elemental Mastery (only 1 tier or if we are creative enough I, II and III).

We could have similar mastery spheres for the divine, alteration and necromancy spells as well. Would add a lot to the game without being too imbalancing IMO, since they would be really hard to get.

BTW, I think mages should gain xp from casting spells, especially offensive ones, based on the total amount of damage their spell inflicts on enemy units.

 

[BenjaminEmbarec]

I dunno, Kirb, this seems pretty much the topic I'd intended in the first place. I just was TOO specific. I really was just wanting to stir up a bit of interrest on enhancing magic in general... I just messed up by talking about the ideas I liked the most.

That being said, It's about time!

 

[Sarkyn]

I very much approve of this I'd love to see a slightly more interesting magic system.

My first thought - If it is your intention that a caster can only be either "Utility" or "Offence" then perhaps just make them two units with two different names?

It would simply move the choice from the point where you take the first upgrade, to the point where you decide what to build.

You could use the Pen-and-paper D&D distinction - Wizard (utility) vs Sorceror (battle).

My second thought was that Summons are offensive, and use up valuable 3rd tier slots for utility mages that would otherwise by taken up by great utility spells. I really like the idea of magic having very visible and viable effects on aspects of the game OTHER THAN combat.

For instance, the spells I think are great ideas are Unyielding Law, Hope, Inspiration, Wall of Stone, etc. Additionally the ones that add useful (but most situational) promotions like Blur, Shadowwalk, etc.


May I suggest either breaking out Summons as a third line (as in FFH about a year of patches ago), or using them very sparingly as 3rd tier. Each "dull" summons stops us from having a brainstorm about a useful spell in it's place.

 

[WarKirby]

If there's going to be a raise land spell (and there should be), there must also be one to remove peaks. Being able to create unremovable peaks would be a huge problem.

Also, can I suggest calling the spell "Move Mountains" Raise Land sounds a bit mundane

 

[WarKirby]

Oh, death magic. Something I've thought of.

Something along the lines of "Claim Soul". Name isn't too important.

Essentially, just an instant death spell. It should be lv2, not 3. Affects only a single target.

A chance of sucesss based on strengths and levels. Generally so that it would almost never work on heroes, but usually work on weaker fodder troops.

 

[Honor]

Targetting could be a problem there, if you want to hit the fodder in a stack. Maybe a marksman-like mechanic? That could be overpowered, though.

 

[WarKirby]

Targetting could be an issue.

Generally, I'd say it should target the most powerful enemy that it has a "reasonable" chance of sucess on. Say... 60% odds.

If none meet that criteria, then it should simply target the one most likely to be sucessful against.

 

[Rystic]

Targetting could be a problem there, if you want to hit the fodder in a stack. Maybe a marksman-like mechanic? That could be overpowered, though.

I assume it could be resisted.

 

[WarKirby]

I assume it could be resisted.

YEs, of course. It would be affected by magic resistance.
I was also thinking, that world units should have a farther inbuilt 50% resistance to this spell, representing the difficulty of claiming their powerful souls, and essentially making it useless as a hero assasination spell.

The main idea, generally, is to give an arcane way to KILL things. Because so many spells have damage caps. Balancing it would be the single-target nature, and the relative unreliability of it, unless the caster is massively more powerful than his victim.

When it works, it should do 100% death damage to the target, essentially killing them instantly. What that means of course, is that a unit with even a slight amount of death resistance, would be unable to be killed by it, only severely injured. Of course, it would also be a spell that only works on living targets.

But I think generic magic resistance should affect the chance of falling victim to it, rather than reducing the damage.


But anyways, on another note. Something that's always bugged me. Why does the Mind III spell, Dominate, make you lose the ability to cast the spell if it fails.
Whenever that happens, I just reload the game, every single time. BEcause I'm not going to tolerate the archmage I've been training for the last few turns, being so horribly croippled because of an illogical and arbitrary design decision.

I'd really like to suggest removing that silly penalty. Reduce the chance of success if necessary.

 

[TheJopa]

But anyways, on another note. Something that's always bugged me. Why does the Mind III spell, Dominate, make you lose the ability to cast the spell if it fails.
Whenever that happens, I just reload the game, every single time. BEcause I'm not going to tolerate the archmage I've been training for the last few turns, being so horribly croippled because of an illogical and arbitrary design decision.

I'd really like to suggest removing that silly penalty. Reduce the chance of success if necessary.

Obviously, to balance the fact that enemy gets -1 unit (akin to instant death) AND you get +1 unit. If you think that it is too harsh, remember that previously, failing to dominate granted your archmage to your enemy.

In any case, I think that dominate is fine as-is, just my 2 cents.

 

[Breez]

Is there a way to tie damage of a spell to the number of nodes you have for that mana type?

For Lightning storm is it possible to say... 60% max damage +10% max damage per node (caped at 90%)?

Heck for that matter is it possible to cap mana affinity damage on a unit? +1 damage per node (capped at X)?

 

[xienwolf]

Actually since you are in Fall Further land you can limit Mind III much better, by making it so that the dominated unit becomes a slave to the caster and prevents any further domination until lost (so basically it works like doing a permanent summon, you can only have 1).