Homeless mod ideas (wishful thinking)

[b0rsuk]

Actually, one of worst things a fleeing army can have is mud. So Earth to Mud, rivers, swampy terrain would work. Retreat mechanics of Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic are great. Attacker - and only attacker - can retreat by moving his units into a designated retreat zone on the edge of the map. Realistic, fun, clear and fair. This allows sieges to last several battles in AoW: SM (bring several catapults and retreat each time you run out of ammo).

There's even a funny multiplayer anecdote. Rocs are mythical birds so huge they can lift an elephant and bring it to their nest to feed their young. In AoW:SM Rocs have Grasp ability. It allows to lift an enemy unit and transport it somewhere in combat. So one player had his wizard in a city with a domain-expanding Tower. In the game wizards have physical bodies. His opponent launched a sneak attack on his capitol, using stealthy units and a Roc. He... grasped the wizard and flew to the retreat zone ! The battle ended with the wizard thrown out of his fortress and desperately calling for nearby troops to recapture it.

inspired by the "Fierce" spell:

Blood Bath
Chaos
Combat enchantment
40 mana
Rare
All melee damage is doubled.


and an older idea I somehow forgot to post:

Devil's Whispers
Death
Uncommon - replaces Possession
Combat

You control the target creature for one turn. No chance to resist.

(A less severe version of Possession that hopefully can get away without a saving throw. Yes, it would be devastating when cast on Minotaurs, but the effect is conditional. It depends on opponent having a strong melee unit adjacent to something else, and it doesn't automatically kill the affected unit if it works))

[Catwalk]

I know this is just brainstorming, but is it realistic to do spell changes on this scale? How much effort would it require in general (including teaching the AI how to use them)?

[kyrub]

Retreating - pia desideria. AI cannot handle this.


Blood bath - great one, really.

Devil's whisper is simply too strong and I don't like it beating all other Death alternatives. You need to make it dependent on resistance, or at least the level of creatures. And ot should be Rare.

[b0rsuk]

Okay, Devil's Whispers could work on creatures which are at Regular experience level or below. But yes, the spell would be hard to balance.

Speaking of AI, I think it should rather easy at least for some of the spells. For example Magic Rot (the Psionic Blast replacement whose strength is proportional to number of enchantments). You'd just check if there are any creatures with many enchantments on them. And Corrupt Soul (the Death enchantment which makes the unit raise as undead after combat if it died while being enchanted by the spell) shouldn't be too hard, too. The spell is basically a handicap with long-term benefits, so you'd have to teach AI to cast it only in battles it considers very easy. I don't know how does the AI calculate risks - does it use a simulation like Strategic Combat ?

[kyrub]

I liked this thread because there were no mentions of realism. Wishing n' dreaming, I say.

All these things are "not impossible", with stress on both words. AI can be taught just about to cast it on non-immune target and the spell can be put into one typical AI situation (desperate, easy winning, 50-50 etc.) where spell weighs are different.


EDIT: An example of things that are out of reach - Lycantrophy (modified), Guardian spirit (modified). And yes, Rot is probably somehow possible, Corrupt Soul, maybe. And the things I suggested are generally in the "somehow probably possible". "Blood bath" should not be intesively hard, it has a simple and general effect.

[b0rsuk]

Too bad Blood Bath is a spell I don't particularly need. The two ideas I would like to see implemented the most are
1. Psionic Blast replacement (Magic Rot fits the bill)
2. Life Drain replacement (Corrupt Soul fits)

These would have the biggest impact. Both are annoying, repetitive, and heavily promote high-end units with lots of HP. In addition Life Drain is awfully ineffective against troops with decent resistance and AI focuses on the spell so much that it wastes tons of mana. Ice Bolt doesn't really fit into nature, but at least its an Uncommon spell. Chaos can keep its direct damage spells.

Edit:
If I'm annoyed enough, I'll just make Psionic Blast and Life Drain have 1 research cost and 666 casting cost. That's an ugly hack, but should work. But it would piss off the people who get it as a reward from a node.
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Klackons
Klackons, being bugs controlled by a central hive mind, could be more crowd-tolerant. They could be allowed to build cities within 2 (instead of 3) squares of each other. On the other hand, their cities would draw resources only from 9 squares instead of the usual 21. After a while, Klackons would transform the map into one huge anthill.

[kyrub]

2. Life Drain replacement

I would find it nice, if LD could "heal" your units (of choice or even random). I really don't get it why the designers disallowed this and put in the weirdest idea of "sucking skill points". Would it be too exploit-able, to help your undeads?

[b0rsuk]

I would find it nice, if LD could "heal" your units (of choice or even random). I really don't get it why the designers disallowed this and put in the weirdest idea of "sucking skill points". Would it be too exploit-able, to help your undeads?

Maybe they would no longer work as undead ? The point of Death creatures, as stated in the manual, is that they don't heal. The only practical effect would be no interaction with natural healers and Healing spell. And I hate with passion grinding tricks like attacking an enemy just to cast Healing or Recall Hero. Attacking just to cast "Heal Undead" would become a common exploit because it would be the only way to heal undead. The cure's worse than the disease.
I'm expanding the theme in my mod, but for now it's a secret :P.

[b0rsuk]

Charmed

Currently almost useless. It would be interesting if
a) it worked like a permanent Spell Lock on the unit
and/or
b) substracted 3 mana from enchantment maintenance (Stone Skin, Giant Strength, Endurance on 1 unit and maintenance is 0).

[fwoop]

Ignite Blood
Chaos Spell
Rare ?
Combat

The target unit's blood and flesh are consumed to ignite a firey explosion, halving the creature's current hitpoints (not maximum hitpoints). The damage dealt to the target is then dealt again as fire damage to every unit in an immediately adjacent square (regardless of which team they are on). Does not work if initial target is undead or construct. Not resistable. Cannot actually kill the target unit directly - damage is rounded down.

Acts as a counter to beefy units, halving their beefiness and dealing collateral damage. Can also target friendly units, to turn them into kamikazes (using regeneration as well would be very cheeky).