What is the point of feasting?

[Bluebags]

I've been playing as the Calabim recently and I am really struggling to find the point of the "Feast" ability. From what I understand from all the material I've read, the ability is supposed to do the following:
- Remove a bloodpet in the stack from the game
- Partially heal the vampire unit using it
- Allow the vampire to attack again

Now, the first two happen fine, but the third doesn't. If I want to get my vamps to attack again I have to give them Blitz, so I'm guessing I've read the Feast descriptions wrong.

So in the end all this ability is doing for me is healing the vampire a little bit at the loss of a support unit. Given the only time this would be useful is if the vampire is exposed, but facing only a small threat, it feels like a poorly implemented ability, especially considering one could just use Haste to potentially escape said, minimal threat.

Any ideas for getting more use out it that is worth the expense of having my economy pay for the extra bloodpets?

 

[Tasunke]

Well, it really should allow an extra attack, as well as probably more healing than it does now.

 

[Doug Piranha]

I think you mean "feed". I was confused when I read the title of this thread, since feasting is the whole point of the vampires in my games.

But, yeah. Feed is pretty worthless.

 

[DaveGold]

I can't remember ever using pet food as the vampire spell casting seems to make it redundant. You can use regeration to heal and can use skeletons for disposable bodies.

 

[Tasunke]

In Magister's modmod ANY living unit can be used to Feed a Vampire, and it gives them an extra attack + extra movement + healing.

 

[ushram]

I thought the extra attack was based on whether or not the vamp had any movement left, i could be wrong though

 

[Tholal]

I thought the extra attack was based on whether or not the vamp had any movement left, i could be wrong though

That is correct. The spell doesn't grant movement points, so if you can't move, you can't. But since Vampires get Haste, extra movement shouldn't be a problem if you plan it right.

The spell is definitely very situational. It's useful when attacking a city/stack and needing just a couple of extra strong attackers to finish it off after the main battle. Or for catching that heavily wounded hero before they can get away.

But considering how strong the Calabim are overall, any sort of buff to the Feed spell would likely put them over the top.

 

[Bluebags]

Are you sure? Even if my Vamps have had Haste cast on them or given Mobility I, all Feed seems to do is giving it a few extra health points at the expense of some potential cannon fodder and the option of using other abilities.

@Doug: Oh, I typed "feast" deliberately... yes... I was... uh... just trying to get responses from people who would say "What is the point of feasting? What is the point of feasting?!?!? Who is this idiot!?!?!" Errr... yeah... (Mixed em up because I only have the net at work and FFH at home, sorry )

 

[Tholal]

I just tested it and it looks like you are correct. Even with extra movement, Feed isn't allowing me to do two attacks a turn.

 

[Tasunke]

I'm aware that it currently doesn't

and imho it should

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Feed used to be a very useful ability back before the move to BtS. Using the old python spellcasting interface, it let you choose which of your living units in your stack to sacrifice, and restored the vampires moves, ability to attack, and casting ability if the sacrificed unit was a bloodpet. Kael did not carry this interface over to BtS FfH, because it was resource intensive, impossible to get the AI to understand, and often crashed. As such, no targeted spells remained. He may have also consciously chosen to make this particular ability weaker based on reading so many reviews that the Calabim were overpowered. I believe the mouseover and/or pedia entry for the ability have not been updated since this considerable nerf. I don't think I've ever been in a situation where the normal BtS FfH Feed spell would be useful.


My modmod I attempted to restore the original functionality of Feed. I did not try to create such a targeting interface, but instead shifted the ability to be something cast by the unit being fed upon rather than the feeder. (The ability is not available to just any living unit; you cannot feed animals, spell units, units with limited duration, or other vampires to a vampire.) While I was at it, I also decided to let the vampire keep a portion of a Bloodpet victim's xp. I think I meant to make the ability to attack again one of those perks only gained from feeding on a Bloodpet, but had made it available for any victim during testing and forgot to change it back.

 

[Bluebags]

Makes sense, if it had been kept I'm sure vampires could have been neutered some other way. But if you can't make an ability work then there's no point in keeping it obviously.

Anyone know how to edit the civilopedia? I had a good look through the mod folders and couldn't find anything apparent. Can it be edited like the ones in Civ3? Or is it hidden in a coding language I wont know how to use?

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Pedia and mouseover texts are all found in ...\Fall from Heaven 2\Assets\XML\Text\CIV4GameText_FFH2.xml

The references that tie each entry to its object and the code which makes them display properly are found in different xml and python files, but if you just want to change what they say you only need to edit the text of those files.