Predefined items

[Seravy]

Is there a spell you'd like to see appear in a weapon?
Is there a combination of abilities or stats you'd love to see but none of the predefined items have it?
Are there too many items of a particular type or ability?

Feel free to make suggestions regarding the predefined items here.

Keep in mind that the goal is not to fill the database with overpowered max stat items, but items that make the game interesting without screaming "hey I'm the ultimate weapon, you are going to win now". There are a few of those ultimate items for each type, and I think we don't need more.

Abilities that should be used it moderation, since they are really powerful and make the game too easy if too many items have them :
Regeneration
Haste
Wraith Form

Abilities that should not appear unless in exceptional cases :
Magic Immunity
Any resistance or spell save or bonus that exceeds the normal limits for that item type.
Items should in general not cost more than ~5k mana since the cap on treasure is 6k but that high value is very rare meaning such items appear extremely rarely.

[Tiltowait]

I think there should be a lot more items that just do one thing. Many items are of the "plus attack, plus defense, plus resistance, and maybe a special ability". I'd like to see "amulet of flight" that just grants flight and that's all. Likewise magic items for mages that grant spells, not an end-all, be-all staff with +20 spell skill, +5 attack, +4 defense, +6 resistance, and a bunch of spell charges. Staves that have spells like Healing x1, Dispel Magic x1, Black Sleep x1, Warp Wood x1, or even Flame Strike x1. Wand of lightning bolts that has Lightning Bolt x3. I always wanted an item that could cast Magical Vortex. Helm of Cracks Call x1. You get the idea. Moreover most of these items wouldn't be that expensive which would greatly increase the value of low level items and reduce boring duplicates. I once tried to come up with my own list of items, but got drowned in details.

[Seravy]

even Flame Strike x1

This one actually exists, it's the Inferno Stick, has nothing else just that one spell

Healing staves exist but all have good stats on them I think.
Black Sleep there isn't one of those yet, good idea. There is a staff with 4x confusion though, don't remember the stats but probably expensive.
Dispel Magic is impossible since slider spells no longer go into items (to avoid the exploit of charging for free which is unfixable)

I'll take a look at the items. Note that only weapons can have spell charges in them.

We have
Fire Elemental x1 with weak stats on sword.
Phantom Beast x2 with Divine Protection and nothing else on staff
Blazing March x1 on sword with medicore stats
Warp Reality x1 on mace with good-ish but not top stats (4 attack 3 defense 3 resistance)
Magic Vortex x2 on Lightning Rod (+3 attack and Lightning)
Reaper Slash x1 on Axe of the Reaper
High Prayer x1 on a staff with max defensive stats but no attack
Holy Word x1 on a pretty amazing bow (+3 hit 5 attack)
Fairy Dust x2 on a weak bow (Elemental armor and 2 attack), this is kinda bad and probably could use replacing.
Healingx4 Staff with good but not perfect stats
Mana Leak x1 staff with awful stats
Call Chaos x3 Staff with Teleportation but nothing else
Ice Bolt x3 Wand with pretty good stats
the Inferno Stick
Haste spell x1 Sword with top tier stats and abilities (including Haste ability itself)
Crack's Call x4 Sword with great stats
Mind Storm x2 Sword with good stats but not perfect
Phantom Warriors x3 Wand with haste and movement
Bow with Heroic Shout x1 and +2 hit 1 attack
Psionic Blastx2, Haste, max movement, skill staff (designed this for the illusionist hero)
Warp Lightning x3 expensive brutal endgame staff of max attack
Creature Binding x3 staff with not that good stats but includes -2 spell save
Shatter x4, 1 attack sword
Crack's Call x1 weak staff
Disintegrate x4 endgame staff (seen it appear like once total, it costs way too much for treasure, might be good to replace though it is the best staff in the game...)
Disintegrate x2 low stats wand
Call To Arms x1 mace with low stats
Possession x1 mace with Shadow and 2 attack
Annihilate x1 -4 spell save pretty good staff (no attack though)
Wrack x3 staff with invisibility and -4 spell save, amazing if the enemy has no outs against invisibility but probably should have only 1 Wrack (3 just makes it appear less often...though I admit this is far too good so seeing it often might be worse)
Unicorn Horn, Healing Charge x1 staff that has teleportation, 4 resistance and 20 casting skill (but no attack or defense or hit)
Supreme Light x1 staff with max defense and resist
Earth Elemental x1 staff with only Elemental Armor
Air Elemental x1 staff with low stats
Psionic Blast x2 staff with low stats
Vertigo x4 staff only grants 10 skill
Call Chaos x4 sword of doom and max attack (costs 8k so it almost never appears...)
Webx1 mace with medium stats
Confusion x4 staff with -2 save and destruction
Mind Storm x4 staff with phantasmal, true sight and 20 skill
Petrify x4 wand with 5 defense and stoning
Exorcisex3 wand with good nonattack stats
Mass Healingx2 staff, not good stats

the following are possible to have in items but don't exist yet :
Earth to Mud
Call Centaurs
Construct Catapult
Iron Skin
Regeneration (the item power is more than enough I think)
Entangle
Call Lightning (this spell might just be to good to have it in items)
AEther Sparks
Blur
Invisibility (item power appears often enough)
Banish (weird I thought I had a staff with this one)
Mass Invisibility
Warp Wood
Disrupt
Fire Bolt
Eldritch Weapon
Warp Creature
Lightning Bolt
Flame Blade
Immolation (but item power exists)
Doom Bolt (odd I always thought there are items with this)
Star Fires
Holy Weapon
Holy Armor
Heroism
Raise Dead
Lionheart
Invulnerability
Weakness
Summon Zombie
Cloak of Fear (but there is an item power)
Black Sleep
Life Drain
Wraith Form (but there is an item power)
Darkness
Black Prayer
Syphon Life
Berserk
Terror
Summon Demon
Massacre
Animate Dead

let's see...I think Fairy Dust is not needed especially not in a bow. The Wrack x3 staff might be better with Wrack x1. Call Chaos x4 sword, idk probably excessive, might be better with x3 or x2 or even x1. I think the rest of the existing spell charge items are fine.
Spells that I feel should appear in items but do not : Black Sleep, Syphon Life and or Drain Life, Berserk, Terror, Summon Demon, Animate Dead, Raise Dead, Doom Bolt, maybe star fires, Warp Creature, Lightning and/or Fire bolt, Disrupt, Banish, Earth to Mud.
Not sure about Entangle and Call Lightning, think those are too powerful and easy to take advantage of to appear in items.

[Seravy]

I've made a tool to count each spell and ability that appears on items and the number of each as well as types, average costs, stats, etc.
Results in the attached file.

  ITEMS.TXT (Size: 19.46 KB / Downloads: 6)

[Seravy]

Updated the list with new items I made today.

[Nelphine]

I think I'd like abilities that are crucial for hero strategies (wraith form, flight, invis) to be ultra rare - or be the only power the item has. That way, if you want to actually play a hero strat instead of just having them as support, you have to actually pick books based on the item creation spells, and make the items yourself.

would tone down heroes power a lot.

[Seravy]

I think I'd like abilities that are crucial for hero strategies (wraith form, flight, invis) to be ultra rare - or be the only power the item has. That way, if you want to actually play a hero strat instead of just having them as support, you have to actually pick books based on the item creation spells, and make the items yourself.

would tone down heroes power a lot.

True but it would also eliminate the chance the AI ends up with a powerful hero completely.
I do want to keep them rare but not that rare. I'm mostly concerned about regeneration, wraithform and haste though. Flight is very easy to obtain from spells, and invisibility the AI now knows to counter if they have the appropriate spells. I was also careful not to have too good stats on invisibility items, with a few notable exceptions, invisibility items generally only have mobility related stats or enchantments on them and only minimal armor or defense.

Also I realized yesterday that I forgot to include the new itemdata.lbx in the download so...it'll be in 2.72.

[Nelphine]

I don't mind regeneration - it's nor very pivotal for a human player, as you tend to choose battles you'll win (and not lose your hero) anyway.

Good for AI though so that's fine.

Conversely, AI isn't going to use wraith form effectively as protection from cracks call, so if nothing else is on the item then (assuming they will replace it with higher cost items) it won't hurt the AI for wraith form to be only on weak items.

[namad]

Personally items are one of the main reasons I find MoM fun. I suggest no restrictions that invalidate and remove items that already existed. If you think something is too powerful then design a dozen new items that don't use it. Make it less likely to find, but don't remove it. Even if an artifact sometimes ruins balance I think it's a very fun part of the game. On harder settings players rarely get to cast create artifact so I think it's important for them to be able to find cool artifacts, even if it does damage balance. IMO.

[Seravy]

It's not possible to change the number of predefined items. There are 250 of them. I've already replaced 99% of them (mainly because the originals had horrible design like doom on an illusion weapon and also because I added new abilities, removed some old ones and changed how much of each stats an item can have, some for higher some for lower), most of those are reaplaced with better items, not worse ones. It's just that the first time I did it I went overboard and items became far too good. Like, over half the items ware +6 attack +6 defense invulnerability haste good. So I was slowly making changes to have a balanced set that has interesting items for both strong and weaker ones.

In short the problem is not -for example- having wraith form items. The problem is, in a typical game I got enough to have one on all 6 of my heroes because there was so many out of those 250. All the while there was no item that could cast Black Sleep or Fire Bolt.