kyrub Wrote:Hm. Probably. But it remains broken for big creatures, which is the bad point, no? It should be a rare spell, definitely.
This is my personal gripe. I dislike all spells which have a
chance of instantly killing a whole stack. So I also dislike Petrify, Word of Death. Possession is interesting, because the effect is different. Great Unsummoning is okay, because on the big scale it has reliable results, it's like Wrack in this regard. The reason I probably won't just remove Petrify and WoD as well as direct damage spells is because I can't code something in exchange. I would like to keep roughly the same number of spells in all realms.
Speaking of Great Unsummoning, I would like it more if it just dealt 10 irresistible damage to each fantastic creature controlled by a wizard. Preferably it would also stop them from healing for one turn (regeneration). That way, it would have no chance of killing a Demon Lord unless it was already at low health. And to really benefit from the spell, you'd have to launch coordinated attacks in several places to fight fantastic creatures before they heal.
luddite Wrote:I like your overall idea of trying to make the magic colors more distinct, and reduce overlap. To that end, I think it's Ok to simply take out some of the spells in the game. For example, do Nature and sorcery really need a direct damage spell?
I completely agree with this, and direct damage spells in particular I find especially tiresome. I've played too many games where you can be quite creative with manipulative magic, or just use a fireball and get the same result easier. After a while it makes you stop developing mentally. The second time I played through the entire Trine I artificially forced myself to stop using Thief. Thief is the character which can navigate obstacles very easily and actually deadlier than warrior. But playing as 98% Wizard has forced me to think creatively in places where I previously wouldn't.
Many games have degenerated to the point where they just have different flavors of direct damage magic. They differ only in
tags - that is, they deal more damage to X and less to Y. The recent fantasy 4X wannabe that's not worth advertising indirectly is a good example. So are, in my opinion, recent Blizzard games, which iterate over "direct damage, damage over time, area of effect" and are stuck using permutations of that stuff.
If you want to see how would Diablo look if it was made by people with imagination, play Nox. The biggest failure of that game (aside from being published by EA) was that it was confused with Diablo 2 that came a month or two later. Especially the multiplayer part is(was, the infrastructure is down) vastly different. While Diablo is a collectible game with arcade aspects, Nox was much closer to Quake. Everyone started at the same experience level, and there were modes like Capture The Flag, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Domination. Spells and abilities are balanced in such way that they have pros and cons. And in single player resistances are almost absent except for player equipment.
Quote:Also, I always thought that part of the reason white magic was so powerful was that it was almost 2 flavors in one.
I disagree. I have a long rant in my head about harmful vs beneficial enchantments. It has more fundamental problems. I'll need an entire thread for that. For now consider this: stack several buffs on one unit. What's the worst that can happen ? You'll kill the entire enemy army, but you'll use more mana than necessary. Now several weakening spells on one unit. The unit may become so weak that
it - and only it - will die form 1 hit or be unable to harm you. You may waste some mana, but more importantly you won't have enough for other enemy units ! Best case scenario is you use too much mana, worst - you lose the battle.
Why ?
Quote: Not only does it get all the spells for life boosting like healing, resurrection, endurance and so on- it ALSO gets all the holy spells like Holy Weapon and Angel. Why should it get both? If anything, Nature should get all the life magic- living things are part of nature, not the divine realm, right?
When I mentioned spells like life's Rebuild, my intention was for it to
replace some of life magic buff spells ! Rebuild would make player pay a significant price for the benefit. Several Life enchantments are so good upkeep is not an issue.
Another vision I have (unfortunately would require too many changes, unless spell editor can copy&modify spells):
Life magic would be mostly about relatively weak buffs which affect lots of units. So to really benefit you'd have to use lots of (even weak) units in combat. In M:tg, white does well with lots of weak units. Meanwhile Nature would have buffs which provide stronger benefit to single units. So it would result in different
playstyle. Of course, in many areas MoM promotes small number of STRONG units. You pay extra for every unit you use Word on Recall on. More units always means more food. (Cavalry and big ones could consume more). Except for Pathfinding and Wind Walking, you need to enchant units separately. Can the editor make a spell which affects stacked units like Pathfinding, but works like Metal Fires in combat ?
Quote:And nature get's a really short stick because chaos steals its fire spells, and sorcery steals the water spells. All nature really has is earth and ice magic, which doesn't really leave much.
To be fair Nature is good if you know what you're looking for. Wolf Riders with Pathfinding gives you strong units that move at 6 squares/turn, in the early game. There is no late game for your opponents, even if you start next to halflings. In fact, slingers only become deadly with experience, so you need to attack early to prevent that. Wall of Stone is amazing (because city walls are amazing). I'm more concerned about stinkers like Giant Strength and Stoneskin, whose only saving grace is working on fantastic creatures (unlike Holy Armor and Holy Weapon). There are so many uses for Web beyond taking care of flyers. I use it against ranged units, to block narrow passages, to deal with first strike like abilities, to create obstacles for other units...
You do realize why there are oddities like Wind Mastery in Sorcery instead of Nature ? Legacy of Magic: The Gathering. They just renamed the colors, without, changing function to match the new names (in some cases). White in M:tg is not as simplistic, "let's love each other". It can be seen as oppressive, fanatical, intolerant. And it certainly doesn't have strongest buffs. Lycantropy spell fits more to Chaos (change) than Death - but flavor-wise it's okay in Death. One bit of M:tg I like very much: Red, associated with fire, has many effects which do something at additional cost (for example you sacrifice some item or unit, or take damage).
This is totally like fire. Fire consumes stuff. In Dominions 3, magic skills have minor effects on mages. Fire makes a mage live 5 years fewer for each level. It burns them out.
I explain Catnip to people just fine :P
You named your mod after a drug (albeit a cat one), right?