Quote:-I was thinking about the new races... Just how much art does a new race needs? Besides all the units plus workers, farmers and rebels art, does it need anything more?
No, I think that's everything unless we want new housing types for it.
Quote:-About the art. My dosbox game with some ajustments looks better than CoM II. Is there some way to make CoM II look at least as good as CoM I?
"with some adjustments"
I assume you mean filtering? It's not implemented yet, but it probably shouldn't be hard to add if
-Someone tells me which one they want
-And posts the formulas/whatever other information needed to code it.
It will, however, slow the game down most likely.
Or do you mean something else?
Quote:I'm not sure if it's just because it's what I'm used to, but I prefer the old minimalistic combat tiles even if they're less clear about movement costs. The new tiles feel a little too busy.
I also prefer the old overland tileset because it feels cleaner/more crisp even though the new tileset is more seamless.
Neither is a deal breaker, but maybe an option for the old tilesets could be added for those that prefer it, not sure if that works programming wise or not. Also, maybe an option for combat shadows.
The problem with the old tileset for the overland map is that it's restrictive. Some terrain configurations don't have a matching tile in the tileset so that's why in the original game sometimes rivers are missing their river mouth for example. I wanted to get rid of that problem before having to spend days trying to figure out which configurations of land/sea/river/etc are invalid.
(also, the tileset isn't stored in images the tweaker can export, and adding it would be a lot of work so idk.)
The combat tiles probably doesn't have this problem but it might be simpler to add an option to the settings that simply makes the game generate less stuff on the tiles. (fewer rocks, trees, etc, if you mean that by being "busy".)
The new system has one advantage, or disadvantage depending on how you look at it : the tiles are random generated so they don't all look the same. Maybe an option to force each tile type to use only one (or 2-3) specific random seeds to make the terrain less varied could help with that but I'm not sure if that's worth adding, it's a lot of work, especially on the tile types that use previously generated and stored random seeds on a per-pixel basis.
An option to disable shadows is probably a good idea.
Yeah I mean filtering. I use "ddraw" option and ... (I send a file with settings). I will see if I can find some filtering suggestions that could be used in CoM II.
A reminder, we still have these undecided stuff left :
Quote:2. Name for the "make forests" Nature spell.
3. Name for Dispelling City spell.
4. Should "Dispelling City" work in combat, or overland only?
5. How do we improve Wind Walking?
6. Do we want to reduce Magic Vortex damage?
7. Fire Mastery. We need to design exactly how much and what kind of buffs it gives to fire attacks, and/or fire monsters, and need a casting cost, etc.
8. Arch Angel, keep the Wind Walking or remove? (we are planning to buff the ability. Also the Phoenix will not have it and it makes no sense that only one of the two support creatures have the ability.)
9. Destiny, do we want it do be possible to dispel, or not? I'm leaning towards "not".
10. Divine Favor - base normal unit or current? In other words, can this buff the Paladins summoned by Call To Arms? If yes, that might be way too powerful by giving Life too much ability to create an army from thin air - having a good combat summon is already a lot.
I'll start adding the new spell system immediately then. This will likely take more than one day.
(August 2nd, 2020, 16:49)htester Wrote: Yeah I mean filtering. I use "ddraw" option and ... (I send a file with settings). I will see if I can find some filtering suggestions that could be used in CoM II.
This filter is also what I use when playing in DOS - maybe a little less intense. It has a watercolor-like effect that even helps me see the roads better.
So it's the hq3x filter. Now all I need to know is what it actually does.
Looked at my own conf file, I used normalx3 which I assume is the "don't change anything except the size = 3x" filter. So I guess I was already used to not having a filter and that explains why I didn't feel the need for one.
Sai looks better but it doesn't have a 3x version.
Oh, btw we need a filter algorhitm that works with ANY window size and aspect ratio so anything that is specific to "2x" or "3x" are no good.
I recommend opening a new thread for that if you have any suggestions.
Started working on the spells.
As the game won't compile or run with gaps in the spell table and stuff like that, there won't be a new alpha version until all spells are in.
I'll post any details about the spells here for discussion.
First, I finished splitting Gaia's and Uranus' Blessing.
Quote:-Split Gaia's Blessing. New spell : Abundance, +50% maximal population. Gaia's Blessing keeps all other effects.
Cost split : GB is 110, Abundance is 140. Maintenance is 2 for each.
-Split Uranus's Blessing.
New Spell : Philosopher's Stone : All units gain magical weapons as if an Alchemist Guild was present. All battles start with a strength 70 Counter Magic.
-new effect in addition - All Monuments and Linking Towers are 50% more effective.
Uranus's Blessing effects unchanged (+11 power from MM, WG, +4 Skill from AT.)
PS costs 100 to cast, 2 to maintain. UB costs 180 to cast, 5 to maintain.
Research costs are part of the global system and will be set when all spells are added. Same for AI research and trade priorities. I'll post those for discussion as well when we're there.
Uranus's Blessing might be a bit on the weak side now. Maybe we want more than +4 Skill on the Amplifying Tower? Maybe the cost is too high at 180? I do remember it used to be +7 skill which was too powerful, but I don't remember if that was due to the added combat skill, or the added overland skill.
2. Possible Names: Force of Nature, Earth Mother, Unparalleled Growth, Roots of Genesis.
3. Possible Names: Fall of Atlantis, Fool's Oasis, Disenchant City.
4. Overland only. If we use the countering existing spells as models (spell blast and counter magic), we currently use more mana/ casting skill to counter other wizard spells. So it seems unfair to counter a 150-200 city enchament using less than a half of mana used to cast those spells. It could work as counter to wall of darkness casted in battle but I wouldn't cast Dispel city to counter that or wall of fire...
5. The complains is that is worse than flying ships and not worth casting on units without lots of movement points. What if a new flying creature with wind walking hability was designed? Whatever buffs wind walking receive it won't be better than mass flight or that much greater than flying ships. Unless it receives an unrelated effect or small buff it won't be worth using. Even if that happens I can't see this spell going in a direction to keep its original puporse: improving movement on overland map.
6. No.
7. Fire Breath and maybe a X damage bonus to all fire spells casted by the wizard or a X% to cast twice uncommon tier and below fire spells.
8. Remove.
9. Make it impossible to dispel. Either that or sorcery is uncounterable for life even at very rare tier.
10. I think it's ok to make base normal unit to enable the use of the buff on Chaos Channeled units. As both Divine Favor and Paladins are very rare tier spells, it's ok for this combo to exist.
2. Roots of Genesis sounds good.
3. Fall of Atlantis maybe? It sounds too specific though. "Fall of ...something".
Fall of Guardians?
Meanwhile, progress :
Quote:-Split Eternal Night into itself and Darkest Hour
Death Very Rare - Global Enchantment
Target: n/a
Casting Cost: 800 mana
Upkeep: 15 mana/turn
Covers the world in a blanket of darkness. All combats are assumed to be covered by the spell of Darkness, and the effect of Darkness is doubled.
All non-death units controlled by those wizards lose 1 resistance.
DARKEST HOUR
Death Very Rare - Global Enchantment
Target: n/a
Casting Cost: 1200 mana
Upkeep: 40 mana/turn
Religious buildings controlled by all other wizards produce halved power.
Research buildings controlled by all other wizards produce halved research.
Should the doubled darkness only double the buff effect or also the debuff on Life creatures? Considering Death is pretty bad against Life at very rare, might be better if it doubled both?
"research buildings" does not currently include the RP from wizard's guild as it's a power building. It doesn't matter much either way as it only adds +3. This spell might hurt races that have no Wizard's Guilds and Magic Market the most but at very rare, they are expected to conquer and spread other races anyway or more like, they're expected to (almost) win the game before then - both Dwarves and Gnolls are militarist races that dominate early or midgame.
Isn't getting an extra resistance from the doubled Darkness on Death creatures too powerful? Most of them very designed around the idea of not being able to receive extra resistance from in-realm sources.
