lapin0u

Join Date 08/2010

[REL] More balanced schools of magic

Hello everyone,

I think I have done quite a good work tonight in order to balance spellbook during creation. They are not divided into elements anymore but by kind of spells. Let me explain the new schools.

Destruction (thank you morrowind for the name) cost : 10

Every direct damage spells.

HurlBoulder
Fireball
MeltingTouch
Infernal
MorrigansSpite
FlameDart
Icebolt
IceStorm
ChainLightning
LightningStrike

I greatly decreased cost of every spell (they now cost from 1 to 3 mana to be cast). Combat are more dynamic like this and I find it natural to have to wait from 1 to 3 turn in order to cast one direct damage spell.

Time Control (It was hard to find a name and I am not sure it's a good one but not so bad either) cost : 10

Whirlwind
TitansBreath
Reveal
Quicken
GreaterEndurance
Haste
StinkingMud

I also decreased costs to make more use of these spells, reveal now costs only 1 making this school perfect for exploration. And I buffed every spell a bit

Conjuration (invocation from previous elements) cost : 10

Now every invocation will last 30 turns and won't be permanent anymore (except familiar which is logical), it's quite a long period but prevent from having a main force of only invocation (I find it fair, maybe mistaking)

SummonStoneGiant
SummonEarthElemental
SummonIceLord
SummonWaterElemental
SummonAirElemental
SummonFireGiant
SummonFireElemental

Alteration (my favorite one) cost: 10

Every spell which have an effect on elements or on champions, sovereigns, ...
I also made spell costs cheap in order to cast more spells and have more fun

RaiseLand
LowerLand
MakeTundra
CreateDesert
FreezeSettlement
Volcano
GreaterRaiseLand
StoneSkin
FreezeEnemy
Deflect
BurningBlade
ShieldOfFire
RockSlide

Other schools changes

I changed a lot of duration, effects, and spells costs to make more use of spells and I find my tonight games especially fun. And you can really choose only one school and don't be afraid of the shards you will see in your game. Moreover choosing only one school make it possible to add more point in other part of creation.
Everything is almost completly tested and myself approved, I think I will give you all the modified .xml tomorrow.

Every spells I changed were modified according to my feelings and not really rationnaly but I think it's not bad balanced but I expect and want some optimizing people to give commentaries on my change.

ps : I made an Elric of Melniboné tonight with only alteration school and developing just adventure and a bit of magic and warfare tree. He had so much alteration and good equipment on him that I conquered two AI just with him. (just in case someone of stardock read this post, protect friend spell is not working and freezeEnemy works too much )

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Xiwi

The important question remains, how does the AI deal with the changes, if it does so at all?

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For an interesting name for Time Control, I suggest the usual term for it: Temporal

As for Nova's comment: I believe the AI doesn't research "books" but "spells". So if you just give the AI all the books, they will still research the spells properly. The mana change is a bit different, but I don't think it hurts the AI to lower the cost. It just makes it more abusable by the player with the current first strike mayhem.

Edit: no idea about summon durations though, I haven't messed with that at all.

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- Adding summon duration is working, summons just disappear after 30 turns (hope it won't entail bugs) , I was hesitating between that and an essence cost, I don't know which one idea is the best but my idea was with 1 mana/ turn regen, invocation can be seen as a 15 turn research if it costs 15 mana (almost every good invocation are around this value) so It allows something like 2 constant invocations by a sovereign at a time or one invocation and some tactical spells.

- Concerning the AI, opponents know how to abuse spells for sure

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I just created a git base for people who know how it is working.

I still have to change the death book, I will do it later but here is my mod so far (v0.1 but working well) : new_spellbooksv0.1

And here is the diff files for people who know a bit about it (to open with notepad++ or emacs ) : patch

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Quoting Kalin,

reply 2

It just makes it more abusable by the player with the current first strike mayhem.

After a little game with Gandalf (15 int / 15 wisdom / destruction / royalty / meditative) I think my destruction spells cost are too cheap.
Costs from 2 to 5 would be better I think.

In an other hand at the end of the game, his fragility and the more robust monsters and opponent's army made it well balanced with might equivalent heroes I had in my previous game : Elric (15 force / 15 const / alteration / assassin / hardy ) which was something like A: 30 D: 30 Health : 22 with first hit double strike (assassin).

ps : and what would you think of a constitution value at the creation going from 15 to 25 instead of 5 to 15

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This is pretty cool. I'm going to try it out.

The Conjuration book doesn't seem to have much variation to it though. All of the elementals have the same strength/weaknesses right, so there's no advantage to summoning a fire giant over a stone giant? It would be nice if elementals actually worked like rock/paper/scissors like Final Fantasy.

Also, where is Summon Familiar?

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Summon familiar is in the life and death spellbook corresponding to kingdom and empire book you always have when beginning a game.

Yes, you're right about the conjuration book but the game doesn't allow it by now. I was thinking of making Attack and defense relying on shards. I will try it out soon.

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It is another look on schools of magic that you usually see, but regarding the way Elemental let's you choose schools when creating a sovereign your schools are more interesting as you can choose to be only a combat mage or if you want to summon your army. The only thing I don't like about it, is the 30 turns after which the summons disappear. This literally means they will not level up above lvl 2 or 3 depending on how many battle you fought in the 30 turns. If it would be possible that new summons have the same level as the sovereign then it would make sense to me again.

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Maybe we can use the number of shards to determine the level of invocations corresponding on the element ?

But It's quite a good idea!

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