Spell system needs to be rethought.

[Jules.lt]

I'd still like an alternative 3rd level spell for each sphere, for variety.
As I understand it there used to be many more spells, so it shouldn't be too hard to reimplement some (the 1st and 2nd level spells can be made acceptable as 3rd level by scaling up their effect, I'm sure).

No pressure, I'm quite confident that some reworking of the magic system will be done in FF before I download it (I have yet to explore a tenth of vanilla FfH's possibilities)

 

[Willgar]

I'd still like an alternative 3rd level spell for each sphere, for variety.
As I understand it there used to be many more spells, so it shouldn't be too hard to reimplement some (the 1st and 2nd level spells can be made acceptable as 3rd level by scaling up their effect, I'm sure).

No pressure, I'm quite confident that some reworking of the magic system will be done in FF before I download it (I have yet to explore a tenth of vanilla FfH's possibilities)

Have a search through the forums, there was an interesting thread about why the spell system was simplified in FfH (and a number of buildings, units and game mechanics removed). There were a few grumbles when it happened but many agree that the game is actually easier to play and much easier to learn.

Variety of spells is cool, it's like icing on a cake but for many people who only really able to play against the AI, adding more icing is less prefereable to a nicer cake.

If i had to list "cake" then getting the AI to use transport ships properly would be high up there. Also, getting the AI to use the current magic system. Rebalancing movement rates for map size (6 movement Hippus Cavalry on a small map - not nice), Getting the AI to play the Scions correctly would be super fruit cake. Reducing the huge amount of micromanagment for spell would be tea cake. Fixing OOS in MP - caketastic.

My own personal cake would be a true Wildlands/ slower expansion option but that is just selfish wishfull thinking

 

[hiphopin]

I totally forgot about the AI aspect of things. I guess I would be willing to wait for any spell changes until the AI is able to fully grasp the current ones. One of my biggest grumbles right now is the fact that civs who can use magic well, specifically amurites, usually suck when fighting them and have terrible mage power. I hate it.

So yeah, I guess I will have to wait, mostly for vanilla ffh2 to get the AI working 100% before I should hope for any changes.

 

[xienwolf]

It is the fact of getting the AI to understand spells which has led to my thoughts of deciding how to change it up, because the only way to get the AI to use spells properly is to move them all into the SDK.

Few of the spells will change radically, because most of them work nicely as they are. There is a lot of difference throughout the spell system, and this thread actually proves it (the only real complaint has been about the summons, nobody seems to find the actual magic unoriginal).

But the primary change which Fall Further intends to implement isn't in the Spell System as it applies from units, but as it applies from magic as a whole. Magic will become integrated into the entire world by the time we are through (in 6 years or so...)

 

[hiphopin]

It is the fact of getting the AI to understand spells which has led to my thoughts of deciding how to change it up, because the only way to get the AI to use spells properly is to move them all into the SDK.

Few of the spells will change radically, because most of them work nicely as they are. There is a lot of difference throughout the spell system, and this thread actually proves it (the only real complaint has been about the summons, nobody seems to find the actual magic unoriginal).

But the primary change which Fall Further intends to implement isn't in the Spell System as it applies from units, but as it applies from magic as a whole. Magic will become integrated into the entire world by the time we are through (in 6 years or so...)

Yeah I guess im one of the few people who have issues with the mass of summons. I dunno, maybe its the fact that I like direct damage spells so much, some of my favorite games involve that (heroes of might and magic 5 for example) so when I see all the summons, it kinda does something to me.

Anyways, what do you mean integrated in the entire world? I just gotta say that now that I think about it, after vanilla FFH2 is finished, fall further is going to pretty much be fall from heavens future. This mod-mod is amazing and I can't wait to see the changes you guys will bring in the near future. But can you elaborate on some things this mod will be most likely doing more on down the line, big changes.

Thanks for your responces in this thread by the way, they are much appreciated.

 

[xienwolf]

I can't elaborate on much because we are still planning/developing it. Could turn out that we cannot manage the code to do what we want properly, or that conflicting goals will come up before our timeline hits something that I mention publically, then it never happens We're kinda the opposite of Magister in here No talking about what isn't released, but lots of releasing (You know we all like ya Magi, that's why I have to taunt you ;p)

 

[Willgar]

I can't elaborate on much because we are still planning/developing it. Could turn out that we cannot manage the code to do what we want properly, or that conflicting goals will come up before our timeline hits something that I mention publically, then it never happens We're kinda the opposite of Magister in here No talking about what isn't released, but lots of releasing (You know we all like ya Magi, that's why I have to taunt you ;p)

On a side note, Magi actually did release his mod. It was maybe a year back and it was actually quite good. Don't think it has been updated but it is certainly not vapourware

 

[sable_twilight]

How about having arcane type magics and summoning magics as separate paths? That would mean coming up with two spells for each mana type.

Another thought, creation of magic items by use of enchanting + another sphere. Or have artificing as a path for each mana type as well.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

that's how it was originally, until sometime in early Shadow, i believe

 

[xienwolf]

Mwahahah, we'll have 3 paths, Mage, Summoner & Artificer! Oh wait, 4 paths, Mage, Summoner, Artificer & Infuser! (Infuser would be someone who uses magical methods to enhance their own bodies/capabilities. Kind of the difference between Megaman (learn ability to shoot something) and Zero (Learn ability to slash in a new way)

 

[sable_twilight]

Nice, infuser would be great as well. Makes me think of the idea of physical adepts types. Might work well for Civs such as the Elohim.

 

[Vehem]

Mwahahah, we'll have 3 paths, Mage, Summoner & Artificer! Oh wait, 4 paths, Mage, Summoner, Artificer & Infuser! (Infuser would be someone who uses magical methods to enhance their own bodies/capabilities. Kind of the difference between Megaman (learn ability to shoot something) and Zero (Learn ability to slash in a new way)

But what about Dreamwalkers and War Wizards? Got to have at least 6...

*cough*

EDIT: Of course, the Dreamwalker could be done mostly as Domination, whilst a War Wizard would need a boosted version of Dance of Blades...
(references to a book - hunt out "The Sword of Truth" series for more details)

 

[hbar]

Actually, it wouldn't be proper FFH canon if there weren't 21 different types of spellcasters. Lets see, 21 paths, 21 mana spheres, carry the 1 ... 441 different spells! Xienwolf, you'll be in charge of keeping the manual up to date during the balance and playtesting period.

 

[sable_twilight]

it's not that hard if it's all broken down into paths on what sort of effect they can have in the game:
summoning creatures
creating items
direct attack
enhancing ally units
enhancing caster
weakening enemy units
city effects
land alteration
(any other areas?)

from there it become almost formulaic in assigning types of spells for each mana type and level.

different civs might have a strength for one path or a strength in two paths and weakness in a third. the different path types require research into them.

 

[Vehem]

land alteration

....

from there it become almost formulaic in assigning types of spells for each mana type and level.

Can you list 21 types of Land Alteration effect though? (or even 63 if you want 3 levels for each type though?)

Organizing the paths would be trivial - populating the spell lists without just duplicating effects or adding "filler spells" is the hard bit.

 

[sable_twilight]

Could it be done? Yes
Can it be done right this second? No
Can I come with a few ideas right off the top of my head? Sure
Would it be a good idea to have a group of people brainstorm ideas? Of course
Would there be overlap of effects? Likely, but I don't see why that should be a problem as long as the majority are not duplicates.

Some ideas to start with:
Air: enhance windmills ---> ???? ---> ????
Body: modifies terrain food
Chaos: ???? ---> ???? ---> Warp Terrain (something that totally randomizes the terrain)
Creation: modifies terrain industry
Death: ???? ---> Haunted Lands ---> ????
Dimensional: ???? ---> Roads gain Rail Road movement ---> ????
Earth: ???? ---> Create Hill ---> Create Mountain
Entropy: ???? ---> ???? ---> Create Hell Terrain
Fire: Blaze ---> ???? ---> ????
Force: ???? ----> increase terrain movement cost for other civs ---> ????
Ice: Snowfall (without the damage effect I see no reason why this should be a channel 3 when effects to counter it are channel 1) ---> ???? ---> Ice Bridge
Law: modifies terrain commence
Life: Sanctify ---> ???? ---> ????
MetaMagick: ???? ---> Dispel Magic ---> Create Node
Mind: ???? ---> ???? ---> Forget (hides/removes from other civs maps)
Nature: Bloom ---> Age Forest ---> ????
Shadow: ???? ---> Fog (places terrain under permanent or duration fog of war for other civs) ---> ????
Spirit:
Sun: Scorch ---> ???? (Increase farm output?) ---> ????
Water: Spring ---> Create River ---> Create Lake

Some of the levels could be filled in with area effects.

edit: added a few ideas

 

[zup]

I'd like the highest level spells to do some insane stuff, no matter if the 'AI' will ever grasp it. Raising continents from the ocean, siege (arch)magi pummeling an entire Kuriotate metropolis into ash with meteors, instant death spells (resistable of course), extreme body augmentation. Chaos and randomity on epic levels.

 

[Tyrs]

It doesn't have to be 21...that would be absurd. You could have 7 lines for 21 spheres. So you only need to make 147 spells. Silly.

 

[far_wanderer]

I did some thinking about the spell system, and kind of got carried away and came up with a complete re-balance. Fewer summons and redundant spells, the situational spells become a bit more generally useful, and things are generally simplified a bit. It’s quite simple, there’s only one new spell (the mass-hide effect suggested by previous posters), and that spell and the changes to Dimensional are the only things that would need programming that isn’t already available somewhere else.

The new layout – asterisks indicate spells that would be altered in some way. My reasoning and explanation is in italics.

Spoiler :

Alteration
Body: Haste, Regeneration, Flesh Golem
No change here. (but see my suggestion at the end)
Creation/Nature: Growth, Fertility, Vitalize
These two spheres are quite similar thematically, and with some spells from each going other places they combined perfectly.
Metamagic/Enchantment: *New Spell, *Enchanted Blade, Spellstaff
See Creation/Nature, above.
Law/Force: Loyalty, *Valor, Wall of Force
Wall of Force fits well with Law, and Force is now otherwise non-existent. Valor gets a significant change and moves down a level to be the offensive version of Stoneskin.
Divination
Mind: Inspire, Charm, Dominate
No change here.
Life: *Sanctify, Cure Disease, Resurrection/Birth
Destroy Undead always seemed far too specialized for a level 2 spell, but occasionally useful, so now it’s still there but has other functions. Cure disease gets added in as thematically perfect, possibly freeing up some more variety in divine spells. Birth is there so that there is a reason to make getting Life 3 useful more often.
Spirit: Courage, *Host of the Einherjar, Trust/Spirit Guide
Hope moved so that each mana node tech would lead to a city improvement spell, and Host moved it to make the level two summon non-alignment themed. Spirit Guide is added for the same reason as Birth was in Life.
Sun: *Blur, Blinding Light, *New Spell
Scorch went over to Fire, freeing Sun up to be more army-support themed. The new spell is there to give people a few more options for damaging spells.
Elementalism
Elementalism received fewer changes than the other three categories. The level 3 summons with affinity are still there, encouraging specialization in a single element. Ice got simplified a little bit to take out the different-but-similar spells for arcane and divine, and to bring back another damage spell possibility.
Air: *Arcane Eye, Maelstrom, Elemental
Earth: Wall of Stone, *Stoneskin, Elemental
Fire: *Scorch, Fireball, Elemental
Ice: *Ice Elemental, Stasis Curse, Snowfall
Water: Spring, *Water Walking, Elemental
Necromancy
Chaos: *Hope, Mutation, Wonder
Dance of Blades gets cut for redundancy, so Hope got moved over to give Necromancy a city-boost spell.
Death/Entropy: Skeleton, *Rust, Lich/Wraith
Summons make sense for Death, which is why skeletons are still there. I felt that it should do something else, though, so Rust and Wither got melded and brought over to replace Spectres.
Dimensional: *Treetop Defenses, *Escape, *Teleport
Escape and Teleport are both upgraded a level to balance out their new ability to affect multiple units, with pushed out Gate and made it less useful. A less terrain-specific Treetop Defenses fills the level one hole, making Dimensional mages ideal army escorts.
Shadow: Slow, Shadowwalk, New Spell
The new level three spell to replace Mistform (cut for redundancy with Elementalism) is the closest thing in this rework to an entirely new spell.

Changed Spells
Enchanted Blade – Affects all units that can use Bronze/Iron/Mithral weapons
Makes the spell less specific and allows it to absorb several other single-unit-type buffs.
Rust – When cast on units that do not have a weapon promotion, inflicts Withered
Makes Rust a level 2 spell and now useful against people without weapons.
Escape – Now affects all units in the stack
Teleport – Now affects all units in the stack
Sanctify – Includes slightly weaker Destroy Undead effect
Because both Sanctify and Destroy Undead were very situational.
Arcane Eye – Re-themed to be an Air-related scouting spell.
Water Walking – Affects all units in the tile, but only for one turn (so the Mage has to stay with the units and keep casting until they hit land again)
No longer mage-only, but in compensation prevents the caster from using other spells while moving.
Scorch – Includes the effects of Smoke
Now a more accurate mirror of Spring.
Blur – New picture representing a heat shimmer
Stoneskin – Affects all units in the stack, +2 defense power, Heal 10% after combat, removed after combat
Simplified and slightly de-powered, but now no longer mage-only.
Valor – Affects all units in the stack, +2 attack power, Heal 10% after combat, removed after combat
Changed to be the offensive version of Stoneskin.
Treetop Defenses – Now works on any terrain, but the units may not move next turn. Also, re-themed to represent Dimensional magic
So now it’s useful when there are no forests. The one-turn wait is to balance the significant increase in usefulness.
Hope – No longer provides free Courage promotion, re-themed to be a Chaos-based entertainment act.
Courage was not Chaos themed, plus now all of the city-buff spells except Wall of Force are Adept-level.
Ice Elemental – Now has zero base strength (but still has Ice Affinity)
Always seemed like a weak level 2 summon, now it’s a weak level 1 summon with the potential to become a quite strong level one summon in the late game.
Host of the Einherjar – Re-themed to be a neutral spirit, normal strength instead of holy strength
Having two identical summons themed for different alignments was even more redundant than most, so now they’re combined. If possible, having the special damage type be based on the alignment of the casting civilization (or even a different unit based on alignment) would bring back some of the old flavor.

New Spells
Shadow 3 – Grants hidden to caster and all units in the stack, so long as the mage remains with them. Cannot be cast while inside enemy territory (so once a unit becomes visible, you have to leave to recast it
I always thought Shadow should have something to do with invisibility, and judging from this thread I’m not alone. That’s why I felt comfortable with this spell, which is the closest thing to an entirely new spell I’m suggesting.
Sun 3 (Sunburn) – Like Maelstrom, but only hitting enemy units
More options for damaging spells, but with a twist to make it worth Level 3.
Enchantment 1 – Creates a building that increases provides a small amount of production and trade (probably 2). The theme being that the unit is setting up shop in the town and enchanting things
A nice complement to the other city-buffs, similar to Inspiration or Hope.

Spells that go somewhere else
Fair Winds – Becomes Arcane Barge only
It was only used on naval units anyway. It should probably be improved slightly to balance out not being available as soon.
Dispel Magic – Now a Mage/Archmage ability that requires Arcane Lore
Frozen Lands – Becomes High Priest of Winter only
Smoke – Rolled into Scorch
Wither – Rolled into Rust
Destroy Undead – Rolled into Sanctify, effect weakened to balance out being available earlier
Summon Frostling – Now Illian only, similar to Sand Lion
The Force 2 ranged attack – Becomes a default ability of Mages, with Archmages getting a slightly stronger attack
Summon Pit Beast – Host of the Einherjar now covers both.

Spells that are actually gone
Dance of Blades – redundant with Valor, now.
Poison Blade, Flaming Arrows – redundant with Enchanted Blade, now.
Summon Djinn, Aurealis, Spectre – redundant with other summons
Summon Mistform – Level three summons are now the sole property of Elementalism and Death Mana. This is the one spell that I cut that I feel should still be available somehow, just more rare. Possibly a Gibbon Goetia only spell.
Accelerate – I’ve never actually been able to use this spell for some reason, but as near as I can tell it’s redundant with Haste.
Create Portal – With Escape and Teleport being more useful, this becomes much less useful and its spot went away.

Other mana-related issues
The elements all have summons with affinity bonuses, as does Death, and Nature has actual units with affinity bonuses. But I think that the others should all have cumulative effects. Chaos can get Earth's chance to discover resources (being chance based, after all), Shadow gets the old Entropy effect, and Sun could give a small percent-based culture boost, like mind does to research.
For Dimensional, I was thinking increased road movement, but that seems like the kind of thing that would be easy to abuse. Another option would be (if possible) to lower terrain movement penalties within your borders.
Lastly, in this system all of the palaces easily convert to the slightly smaller variety of mana (no palace produces both of any of the four pairs that got combined). However, Stigmata of the Unborn would end up producing Death, which makes three building that can produce Death mana (and still none other than shrines that produce any of the other types). I therefore suggest either Dimensional or no mana at all (replacing it with some kind of hell-themed bonus instead).

A few other suggestions:
>I’d like to see Flesh Golems change to a National Unit, because it’s really irritating to have an Archmage waste a promotion on a spell that only gets cast once, and then later on have the Archmage die and lose the golem too. The only reason I didn’t suggest that above was that I couldn’t think of a good replacement Level 3 Body spell.
>Grasslands are not always better, and so it would be nice to see Vitalize function in reverse as well.
>It would probably be a lot more difficult programming-wise, but it would be nice to see the Dimensional spells actually create one-turn portals, so you could selectively move units.

I'll probably try it myself when my programming skills get better, but that could take a while.

 

[hiphopin]

I did some thinking about the spell system, and kind of got carried away and came up with a complete re-balance. Fewer summons and redundant spells, the situational spells become a bit more generally useful, and things are generally simplified a bit. It’s quite simple, there’s only one new spell (the mass-hide effect suggested by previous posters), and that spell and the changes to Dimensional are the only things that would need programming that isn’t already available somewhere else.

The new layout – asterisks indicate spells that would be altered in some way. My reasoning and explanation is in italics.

Spoiler :

Alteration
Body: Haste, Regeneration, Flesh Golem
No change here. (but see my suggestion at the end)
Creation/Nature: Growth, Fertility, Vitalize
These two spheres are quite similar thematically, and with some spells from each going other places they combined perfectly.
Metamagic/Enchantment: *New Spell, *Enchanted Blade, Spellstaff
See Creation/Nature, above.
Law/Force: Loyalty, *Valor, Wall of Force
Wall of Force fits well with Law, and Force is now otherwise non-existent. Valor gets a significant change and moves down a level to be the offensive version of Stoneskin.
Divination
Mind: Inspire, Charm, Dominate
No change here.
Life: *Sanctify, Cure Disease, Resurrection/Birth
Destroy Undead always seemed far too specialized for a level 2 spell, but occasionally useful, so now it’s still there but has other functions. Cure disease gets added in as thematically perfect, possibly freeing up some more variety in divine spells. Birth is there so that there is a reason to make getting Life 3 useful more often.
Spirit: Courage, *Host of the Einherjar, Trust/Spirit Guide
Hope moved so that each mana node tech would lead to a city improvement spell, and Host moved it to make the level two summon non-alignment themed. Spirit Guide is added for the same reason as Birth was in Life.
Sun: *Blur, Blinding Light, *New Spell
Scorch went over to Fire, freeing Sun up to be more army-support themed. The new spell is there to give people a few more options for damaging spells.
Elementalism
Elementalism received fewer changes than the other three categories. The level 3 summons with affinity are still there, encouraging specialization in a single element. Ice got simplified a little bit to take out the different-but-similar spells for arcane and divine, and to bring back another damage spell possibility.
Air: *Arcane Eye, Maelstrom, Elemental
Earth: Wall of Stone, *Stoneskin, Elemental
Fire: *Scorch, Fireball, Elemental
Ice: *Ice Elemental, Stasis Curse, Snowfall
Water: Spring, *Water Walking, Elemental
Necromancy
Chaos: *Hope, Mutation, Wonder
Dance of Blades gets cut for redundancy, so Hope got moved over to give Necromancy a city-boost spell.
Death/Entropy: Skeleton, *Rust, Lich/Wraith
Summons make sense for Death, which is why skeletons are still there. I felt that it should do something else, though, so Rust and Wither got melded and brought over to replace Spectres.
Dimensional: *Treetop Defenses, *Escape, *Teleport
Escape and Teleport are both upgraded a level to balance out their new ability to affect multiple units, with pushed out Gate and made it less useful. A less terrain-specific Treetop Defenses fills the level one hole, making Dimensional mages ideal army escorts.
Shadow: Slow, Shadowwalk, New Spell
The new level three spell to replace Mistform (cut for redundancy with Elementalism) is the closest thing in this rework to an entirely new spell.

Changed Spells
Enchanted Blade – Affects all units that can use Bronze/Iron/Mithral weapons
Makes the spell less specific and allows it to absorb several other single-unit-type buffs.
Rust – When cast on units that do not have a weapon promotion, inflicts Withered
Makes Rust a level 2 spell and now useful against people without weapons.
Escape – Now affects all units in the stack
Teleport – Now affects all units in the stack
Sanctify – Includes slightly weaker Destroy Undead effect
Because both Sanctify and Destroy Undead were very situational.
Arcane Eye – Re-themed to be an Air-related scouting spell.
Water Walking – Affects all units in the tile, but only for one turn (so the Mage has to stay with the units and keep casting until they hit land again)
No longer mage-only, but in compensation prevents the caster from using other spells while moving.
Scorch – Includes the effects of Smoke
Now a more accurate mirror of Spring.
Blur – New picture representing a heat shimmer
Stoneskin – Affects all units in the stack, +2 defense power, Heal 10% after combat, removed after combat
Simplified and slightly de-powered, but now no longer mage-only.
Valor – Affects all units in the stack, +2 attack power, Heal 10% after combat, removed after combat
Changed to be the offensive version of Stoneskin.
Treetop Defenses – Now works on any terrain, but the units may not move next turn. Also, re-themed to represent Dimensional magic
So now it’s useful when there are no forests. The one-turn wait is to balance the significant increase in usefulness.
Hope – No longer provides free Courage promotion, re-themed to be a Chaos-based entertainment act.
Courage was not Chaos themed, plus now all of the city-buff spells except Wall of Force are Adept-level.
Ice Elemental – Now has zero base strength (but still has Ice Affinity)
Always seemed like a weak level 2 summon, now it’s a weak level 1 summon with the potential to become a quite strong level one summon in the late game.
Host of the Einherjar – Re-themed to be a neutral spirit, normal strength instead of holy strength
Having two identical summons themed for different alignments was even more redundant than most, so now they’re combined. If possible, having the special damage type be based on the alignment of the casting civilization (or even a different unit based on alignment) would bring back some of the old flavor.

New Spells
Shadow 3 – Grants hidden to caster and all units in the stack, so long as the mage remains with them. Cannot be cast while inside enemy territory (so once a unit becomes visible, you have to leave to recast it
I always thought Shadow should have something to do with invisibility, and judging from this thread I’m not alone. That’s why I felt comfortable with this spell, which is the closest thing to an entirely new spell I’m suggesting.
Sun 3 (Sunburn) – Like Maelstrom, but only hitting enemy units
More options for damaging spells, but with a twist to make it worth Level 3.
Enchantment 1 – Creates a building that increases provides a small amount of production and trade (probably 2). The theme being that the unit is setting up shop in the town and enchanting things
A nice complement to the other city-buffs, similar to Inspiration or Hope.

Spells that go somewhere else
Fair Winds – Becomes Arcane Barge only
It was only used on naval units anyway. It should probably be improved slightly to balance out not being available as soon.
Dispel Magic – Now a Mage/Archmage ability that requires Arcane Lore
Frozen Lands – Becomes High Priest of Winter only
Smoke – Rolled into Scorch
Wither – Rolled into Rust
Destroy Undead – Rolled into Sanctify, effect weakened to balance out being available earlier
Summon Frostling – Now Illian only, similar to Sand Lion
The Force 2 ranged attack – Becomes a default ability of Mages, with Archmages getting a slightly stronger attack
Summon Pit Beast – Host of the Einherjar now covers both.

Spells that are actually gone
Dance of Blades – redundant with Valor, now.
Poison Blade, Flaming Arrows – redundant with Enchanted Blade, now.
Summon Djinn, Aurealis, Spectre – redundant with other summons
Summon Mistform – Level three summons are now the sole property of Elementalism and Death Mana. This is the one spell that I cut that I feel should still be available somehow, just more rare. Possibly a Gibbon Goetia only spell.
Accelerate – I’ve never actually been able to use this spell for some reason, but as near as I can tell it’s redundant with Haste.
Create Portal – With Escape and Teleport being more useful, this becomes much less useful and its spot went away.

Other mana-related issues
The elements all have summons with affinity bonuses, as does Death, and Nature has actual units with affinity bonuses. But I think that the others should all have cumulative effects. Chaos can get Earth's chance to discover resources (being chance based, after all), Shadow gets the old Entropy effect, and Sun could give a small percent-based culture boost, like mind does to research.
For Dimensional, I was thinking increased road movement, but that seems like the kind of thing that would be easy to abuse. Another option would be (if possible) to lower terrain movement penalties within your borders.
Lastly, in this system all of the palaces easily convert to the slightly smaller variety of mana (no palace produces both of any of the four pairs that got combined). However, Stigmata of the Unborn would end up producing Death, which makes three building that can produce Death mana (and still none other than shrines that produce any of the other types). I therefore suggest either Dimensional or no mana at all (replacing it with some kind of hell-themed bonus instead).

A few other suggestions:
>I’d like to see Flesh Golems change to a National Unit, because it’s really irritating to have an Archmage waste a promotion on a spell that only gets cast once, and then later on have the Archmage die and lose the golem too. The only reason I didn’t suggest that above was that I couldn’t think of a good replacement Level 3 Body spell.
>Grasslands are not always better, and so it would be nice to see Vitalize function in reverse as well.
>It would probably be a lot more difficult programming-wise, but it would be nice to see the Dimensional spells actually create one-turn portals, so you could selectively move units.

I'll probably try it myself when my programming skills get better, but that could take a while.

WOW...... VERY nice job, I love almost everything about that list. Its not like a gamebrakingly different change but seems to be so much better than what we have currently. I would totally like to see this brainstormed a little more and edited a bit then implemented into the main game.

The changes for the most part are great and the chopping off of a few uneeded summons is exactly what I wanted to see. Very good list....