Caster of Magic - new retort?

[Seravy]

I've been thinking...Infernal and Divine power are redundant, they do the exact same thing.

What if we renamed one to something like "Cult Leader" or whatever that sounds realm neutral, make it unlock for both life or death books, and use the other to make a completely new retort with a completely new effect? We could even completely drop the book requirements considering it has nothing to do with books, just boosts religious buildings.

I don't have any good idea for a new retort at the moment, though.
Maybe a retort to produce more food or gold?

My preference would be something for 2 picks.

How about "Guardian : Units defending this wizard's cities get an additional +1 to defend, hit and 2 resistance." ?

Edit : successfully added Guardian with +1 to hit, +1 to defend, +1 resistance granted. I'm worried about adding too much resistance as it directly hurts the usefulness of half the combat spells in the game.
Not sure if the ability is worth the 2 picks, though, but it most likely does, you are effectively getting a free, cumulative prayer for every home battle.

[Tiltowait]

-1/2 unrest in every city
some spectacular effect but +1/2 unrest
allows you to 'mine' for mithril and adamantium somehow, even on Arcanus. this will make the appropriate resource appear on the map at the desired location.
+1 vision distance for all units and cities
enables a start with a Myrran race on Arcanus
can freely move fortress around to any city
ability to choose the next random event and who it happens to
ability to choose your next hero when one is offered, instead of just getting a random hero (subject to fame of course)
same but with mercenaries
all your heroes arrive with super versions of their abilities, if they do not already have super abilities
all your heroes have Legendary and Leadership ability
all normal units able to planeshift freely
all normal units have 'create undead' ability but aren't undead themselves
all normal units gain +2 XP per turn instead of +1
research more than 1 spell at a time but with the same research points going to both spells
add 50-100% to the value of every ruin you loot for purposes of treasure generation
100% chance of fleeing safely from any battle
double casting skill in every battle
your enemies have corruption cast on a random city square every 10 turns

Just eliminate infernal & divine power, they're boring. They just have economic effects on your empire, but I want to see things crackle and explode. I wouldn't worry about eliminating the elemental masteries to make room for more retorts, either. 15% advantage? Meh. Pure number-crunching, let's make retorts FUN.

Eliminate alchemy and break its abilities into two separate retorts. +1 to hit magic weapons AND free mana/gold exchange is just too good.

Warlord is 3 picks. Or even 4. It is just too good, it is like cheat mode.

A retort that only works during defense? We want to encourage offense!

As a matter of fact, 100% safe fleeing chance sounds fun, might make that part of the mod. I always hated the 50% casualties when fleeing, it made it never worthwhile to actually flee, I always reload (which is pretty much the same thing as 100% safe chance).

[Seravy]

Well, already did Guardian but might as well consider other options for the future if it doesn't work out.

-1/2 unrest in every city

The "power" skill does something similar, plus this would make halflings even less playable, low unrest is their best advantage. They are already bottom tier in the mod I think.

+1 vision distance for all units and cities

Not sure if worth 1 pick, 2 even less so. There are plenty of units with improved scouting range.

allows you to 'mine' for mithril and adamantium somehow, even on Arcanus. this will make the appropriate resource appear on the map at the desired location.

That's what the modded Transmute is for. You do need some ore to transform but other than gems, anything can be changed to either adamantium or mithril.

enables a start with a Myrran race on Arcanus

That actually would be cool but confusing to the players and would make Myrran a bit redundant.

can freely move fortress around to any city

I guess I could make it grant the Move Fortress spell and make it cost no mana but...why would you want to spend a pick for this I don't really know.

ability to choose the next random event and who it happens to

Lack of interface to implement anything this advanced.

ability to choose your next hero when one is offered, instead of just getting a random hero (subject to fame of course)

Same. Although, there is a spell that pops up a list of heroes, Resurrection, so this might even be doable.

all your heroes arrive with super versions of their abilities, if they do not already have super abilities

This is a nice idea, I like it.

all your heroes have Legendary and Leadership ability

Would make heroes that have those way too bad..and there are plenty.

all normal units able to planeshift freely

Don't think there is any process that grants new abilities to units on overland, save for items equipped to heroes.
Plus this would reduce the value of Myrran far too much.

all normal units have 'create undead' ability but aren't undead themselves

Insanely overpowered I think.

all normal units gain +2 XP per turn instead of +1

Warlord does this better.

research more than 1 spell at a time but with the same research points going to both spells

Doubt I can do that.

add 50-100% to the value of every ruin you loot for purposes of treasure generation

Thought about this but treasure is generated at start of the game, not when defeating the lairs. At best it could change the amount of gold/mana/item value, but it wouldn't give you different types of stuff.

100% chance of fleeing safely from any battle

Too overpowered, I shot once with all my archers then retreat before anything can reach them.
The mod has a fleeing system that grants 100% chance to die while fleeing if the unit is too slow, this retort would directly contradict that feature. Whichever takes priority would make the other one less useful.

double casting skill in every battle

Hmm this one sounds fun. Almost must have to also take Chaneller, though and that's already 4 picks total. Range cost penalties are harsh even if you need to fuel 1x the skill with mana.

your enemies have corruption cast on a random city square every 10 turns

annoying and somewhat pointless considering shamans will clear it up in a few turns.

Just eliminate infernal & divine power, they're boring. They just have economic effects on your empire, but I want to see things crackle and explode. I wouldn't worry about eliminating the elemental masteries to make room for more retorts, either. 15% advantage? Meh. Pure number-crunching, let's make retorts FUN.

To be honest those numbers actually win you the game, although by a boring way that's sure.
The "power" skills are the only way to reduce unrest and gain more power (not counting nodes) through retorts so they are unique enough to stay...only one of them, that is.

Eliminate alchemy and break its abilities into two separate retorts. +1 to hit AND free mana/gold exchange is just too good.

Not sure about that. If it was +1 to hit then sure but...it isn't cumulative with magical weapons.
It's more like "I don't need to spend 150 production or 300 gold on the alchemist guild per town".
Unless you play barbarians or gnolls who cannot build one, those definitely benefit more.
Free mana exchange is great, though.
I was considering to make this cost 2 instead of famous, but ended up choosing Runemaster for that and dropping the crazy book requirements of it in exchange. Runemaster is a fun retort and it's even stronger than the original but taking 2 each of 3 types of books is way too much of a restriction.

A retort that only works during defense? We want to encourage offense!

Not really, the guy who helps me testing the game is always rushing and finishes every freaking game before we could see a rare spell in action. I mean he even does that when playing Sorcery High Elves, not just with barbarians or other rush races...

Other problem with offense is the AI sucks at it.
I already consider it a big problem that it can pick races like Barbarian when it isn't capable to go on offense in the first half of the game (unless the player causes it to), I'm not entirely sure but I think it cannot declare war until turn 80 or something like that.

[MrBiscuits]

Not sure about Guadian, defensive bonuses are pretty boring really.

A few ideas:

Industrious +25% production

Financial +35% gold

Archaeologist - get better rewards from lairs, towers etc.

Protective - all units get +2 shields

[Seravy]

Not sure about Guadian, defensive bonuses are pretty boring really.

A few ideas:

Industrious +25% production

Financial +35% gold

Archaeologist - get better rewards from lairs, towers etc.

Protective - all units get +2 shields

Archeologist would have been my top choice if treasure wasn't locked in at the time of map generation.
Although I guess adding stuff that wasn't even there is doable. Like "if treasure value>3000 and node ID divisible by 3, get a book if you otherwise wouldn't" or something. Coding space can be a problem there, though.

I wish there was 2 more space for retorts, I like this and the improved hero ability one too but...I also want Guardian. It's actually a retort I expect to be pretty valuable at high difficulty where you are under attack a lot.

Gold and production I considered these as well as food but they would be even more boring. You will get gold, food, and production in every game so it doesn't feel all that special, you will always benefit from it no matter what the strategy. Most other retorts actually require you to do something/focus on one feature or resource to take full advantage of it.

Protective is an option, I could even add in on Guardian as an extra bonus if not in cities. Might be too powerful though, shields are really strong in this game as they can reduce most sources of damage to zero if you have enough shields.

What if we dropped Sorcery, Chaos and Nature Mastery and instead added "Magic Mastery" : Casting and research is 15% faster for all realms the wizard owns at least 5 books of. Spells of those realms are 50% harder to dispel. This ability costs 2 picks?

Not sure if these are worth all that work, though, and they might open a new can of balance issues. Better treasure and heroes sound risky.

[zitro1987]

I may be in the minority but I like Guardian a lot. It would be a retort to fear when enemies have it, and it's worthwhile in tough difficulties when combined with city walls.

Merchant - Wizard Fortress with gold bonus and gold income buildings +50% more effective
Survivalist - Buildings and/or units with half gold upkeep cost
Beastmaster - summoning units earn experience points up to elite
Enchanter - Global, City, and Unit enchantments cost 25-33% less to cast, research, and upkeep.
Constructor - Sawmill, Miner's Guild, Mechanician's Guild are 50% more effective
Expansionist - Start with 1 or two settlers
Militarist - Start with 2-4 more swordsmen of your race at the beginning of the game (strong early start, you can conquer neutrals with ease)
Omniscience - You can see the entire map at the start of your game (as if you casted earth lore everywhere). That means you cannot see enemy units or contact enemy wizards just because of this.

[Seravy]

I may be in the minority but I like Guardian a lot. It would be a retort to fear when enemies have it, and it's worthwhile in tough difficulties when combined with city walls.

Merchant - Wizard Fortress with gold bonus
Survivalist - Buildings and/or units with half gold upkeep cost
Beastmaster - summoning units earn experience points up to elite
Enchanter - Global, City, and Unit enchantments cost 25-33% less to cast, research, and upkeep.
Constructor - Sawmill, Miner's Guild, Mechanician's Guild are 50% more effective
Expansionist - Start with 1 or two settlers
Militarist - Start with 2-4 more swordsmen of your race
Omniscience - You can see the entire map at the start of your game (as if you casted earth lore everywhere). That means you cannot see enemy units or contact enemy wizards just because of this.

Merchant - chance of getting an early noble hero or starting gold/gems mine makes this potentially disappointing.
Survivalist - the ability is nice but hard to explain why it does what it does. I mean how are building and unit maintenance related to your wizard's abilities? It's not like a building will require less funds to operate just because you are better at...what exactly?
Enchanter - I like this one. Impossible to do though, sadly all the space in the casting cost procedure is already used up. "Impossible" does not mean 100% impossible, I can try freeing up space in other procedures within the same segment and jump there if there are any, but that's a bit messy so rather not.
Constructor - God save me from ever having to code that. It took days just to get the base amounts display right, making all the lines do 50% more on a condition...just no. Would be overpowered anyway.
Militarist - Feels like a total waste of a retort slot. I rather get mana focusing and summon 4 more hell hounds or skeletons or bears or whatever within the first 15 from that mana.
Omniscience - I considered that but wouldn't be very fun to play without exploring. Would be somewhat of an autowin for rush races, too, not to mention having no effect for the AI or if found in treasure.
Expansionist - This effectively does "start with 300 more gold" except you don't need to hit the buy button, so I would rather make it gold. It's fine but does nothing if found later in treasure.

Edit : One more idea of my own, although there still isn't room to add anything.

Eagle Eyes : The wizard's direct damage spells have +2 to hit.
Problem is it's pretty useless if not getting those spells and I don't think encouraging direct damage is a very good idea.

[Anthony]

One I've wanted for theme reason: something like "Unifier: all racial unrest penalties are halved".

[Asfex]

One I've wanted for theme reason: something like "Unifier: all racial unrest penalties are halved".

or negated. really good idea.
also: Spellkeeper - all overland and unit enchantment upkeep halves. may be overland cost is halved too.

[zitro1987]

What if we dropped Sorcery, Chaos and Nature Mastery and instead added "Magic Mastery" : Casting and research is 15% faster for all realms the wizard owns at least 5 books of. Spells of those realms are 50% harder to dispel. This ability costs 2 picks?

Given the lack of node bonuses, I do not think it's worth 2 picks. The '5 book' limitation seems unnecessary - it'd be nice to get discounts with a few books.


Is there a way to have a bonus speed up overland skill level?