Spell suggestions

[l'Ancien]

admin said:

lancien said:

This change sounds good. I'll download it and try it out.

Hmm. Going out on a limb here, but what if the fizzle was a "miniature inferno" with a radius of 1 or 2, the way spark works, but targeting friendlies in that range as well as enemies? That means that the mage will always take the normal expected damage (reduced by resistence, of course), although it might get any unit that is actually in melee combat against the mage as well, plus any escort still nearby. Also, with the chance of fizzle (especially if the fizzle still inflicts self-damage), would it be more balanced to reduce the casting time of the spell somewhat? I noticed that the original casting time of 6 has been increased to 30 or something. Maybe 15 would be a happy medium, although I'd rather see something around 10. Perhaps the casting time could actually equal the level of the caster. That way a small inferno by a low-level mage would go more quickly, but a full-power inferno would still take a fair warm-up time. The faster casting time reflects greater carelessness, and greater chance of (partial) failure also. A relatively long recovery makes perfect sense, perhaps equal to the potential damage inflicted (twice the level). I think that makes the fizzle much more exciting, instead of just "oops, failed to fire." It would also make it more likely to be cast only when enemies are actually closing (because then you'll still get someone, even if it fails), but that only makes sense if the casting time is reduced significantly, otherwise they'll be all over you.

This might even take it back closer to the spell legend, that it was invented by a Sorceress being overrun, casting a fast thoughtless spell, which turned out surprisingly effective.

I don't think I'll do what you have stated, but I am considering that perhaps on a failed cast, inferno only procs for 1X damage with resistance factored in 100%, and on a success remain 2X damage with resistance factored at 50%. Or maybe the 1X damage proc ignoring resistance. I don't know.

Inferno is a deadly spell, much more so than Tremor is. I think that the casting time and recovery time increase was good, as well as the additional chance for failure.

I feel like I am done with Inferno. I'm going to focus more attention on my latest achievement.

I like those ideas too, and they look much simpler to implement than mine. My preference would be 1X with resistance at 100%, just because a weaker spell wouldn't damage anyone as much. I like that idea better than the "no effect" and lose the mana idea. It still keeps you off-guard.

By the way, the synergy idea is cool. I haven't really thought of any ideas to add on those, though.

I'm starting to get ideas on how to implement my spell idea, but I haven't gotten the proof of concept yet.

[l'Ancien]

Playing as Air, I killed the Orc Warlord of Chaos, and as plunder I got an Axe of the Orcs. I thought it would be cool to have a unit to give it to, so I went down to the Order-Air village, and built a Wizard's Tower. After some time, I researched Mind Control. I sent out a level 9 Wizard with a bodyguard, and attacked a moderately low-level Orc encounter. Spotting my quarry, a level 4 Orc Warrior, I attempted to brainwash him to supporting my cause. All I got was suds. The spell bounced. Since I was carting around a Dark Blade or something (Death Warrior artifact) I next tried this same routine on a level 4 Death Warrior in a nearby encounter. I thought it was rather humorous, casting Righteous Cause on him as he slaughtered his erstwhile companions, but once his soul had been cleansed (as it were), I presented him with his new sword, and sent him off on a quest to right the wrongs his kind had caused.

Anyway, I know why the spell didn't work on the Orc Warrior. That was to prevent me from doing something similar to the Chaos Orc Warlord (I understand that they are the same unit, differing only in allegiance). But I found that somewhat annoying. Is there any way to check and see if a unit is a marauder/encounter, and if so, to permit the spell to function, even if they are a special unit? Alternatively, is there any way to check if the unit is actually serving as a Lord or an Heir, and block only those units from being mind-controlled?

[Boaster]

You'd have to play around with the following piece of code:

army_id ARMY_OWNER getarmydata getplayeraistatus 0 ne

or

army_id ARMY_OWNER getarmydata getplayeraistatus 0 eq

I've only worked with this once before in some minor tests, but I have not tested this thoroughly enough. I'm not sure which will give you the result you want.

That code should check to see if the Faith is alive or dead.

However, you should be aware that if you're going to use Mind Control the units you brainwash may still yet try to move by themselves at the begining of your turn.