5.4 Beta

[Seravy]

As there are a lot of major changes this time, I'm posting it as a beta release.
Please report any problems, or balance issues, especially related to interacting with the other plane, the new Heroic Heart spell, the new Necromancy item power, and AI hostility reevaluations.
Download the file Caster54Beta.zip from the usual location.

5.4 Beta
-Removed spell : Move Fortress
-New/Returning spell : Plane Shift. Arcane Rare, has the same effect as old Life Uncommon.
-The AI will use Plane Shift more often on higher difficulty levels.
-Heroic Shout is now a Life Uncommon.
-Planar Travel is removed from the game.
-New Arcane spell : Heroic Heart. Costs 18 MP, 440 RP. Heals 3 damage on a hero.
This spell aims at making heroes more playable for non-Life wizards. It's strictly worse than Healing but everyone gets it.
-Heroic Heart shows up as a common, Disenchant Area as an Uncommon, Plane Shift as a Rare in research order.
-Heroic Heart shows up as a common in treasure. Disjunction shows up in treasure as a Rare.
-Plane Shift, Summon Champion, do not show up in treasure. (Create Artifact was already disabled)
-AI prioritizes targeting heroes with healing spells over other units more.
-Fixed bug : Hostility reevaluation timer was broken
-Fixed bug : Hostility reevaluation timer resetting to 0 when Spell of Mastery was broken for nonhuman wizards casting it
-Offering a tribute to a wizard will result in hostility reevaluation at the start of their next turn, if the wizard was hostile.
-Slightly moved up Blood Lust on the AI research order.
-The Plane Shift ability on units (Shadow Demons) can only be used if the other plane has been discovered by opening a tower or researching the Plane Shift spell.
-Removed item power : Planar Travel
-New item power : Necromancy. Cost 1000, required 5 Death books. At end of battle, dead nonhero friendly units raise as undead, up to 140 total cost per hero level. Note that already undead units cannot be raised again.
-Fixed Bug : Plane Shift allows movement onto a tile that contains an uncleared lair, node, or an ungarrisoned city.

[Seravy]

Uploaded the update to the Death realm spells.

-Evil Presence no longer disables power generated by religious buildings, instead it disables barracks, war college and alchemist's guild's ability to equip units with magic/mithril/adamantium/orihalcon equipment. Casting cost is raised to 180. RP cost lowered to 2500.
-Famine is renamed to Drought and now reduces maximum population by 6 and removes all production bonus effects instead of its old effect. Cities exceeding their maximum population this way lose 120 people per turn. Casting cost is raised to 150. RP cost lowered to 3000.
-Warp Node now halves power produced by the warped node, and the other half is transferred to the power income of the caster of Warp Node. Casting Cost is raised to 120. RP cost Raised to 4000.
-Cloud of Shadow RP cost lowered to 3500.
-The AI will now send spirits to meld warped nodes, and it's possible to meld warped nodes for the human player as well.
-Updated the AI research priorities for the 3 death curses that were changed.
-Updated AI overland spellcasting priorities for the 3 spells and Disenchant Area.
-The AI has a reduced chance to produce units in cities affected by Evil Presence.

[teelaurila]

I didn't quite keep up with the details in all the threads, so a couple questions please:

What happens if you try to warp a already warped node? (This would now make sense) Can you warp your own nodes to prevent them from being warped by someone else?

Does Necromancy not affect units with death immunity, or only not undead? Makes a big deal for death creatures, a much smaller deal for paladins. Also if you have regen and necromancy, presumably regen takes precedence?

[Seravy]

You can't warp an already warped node. Necromancy doesn't affect undead but does affect creatures with Death immunity. Regen takes precedence.

[teelaurila]

Thanks
So it seems you can protect your own node by warping it first, or is the other half lost in limbo if the merger of the node is the same as the warper? If the protection works, it seems to fit nicely to the "death counters death" theme.

[Seravy]

It works, although you might lose 1 on rounding down.

[Seravy]

Beta 3 is available for download!

-Bless no longer adds +5 defense against magical ranged attacks (but still applies against spells!)
-Rampaging monsters and raiders will not try to stall/hide/run if they are the attacker.
-Overland BGM chosen to be played no longer includes uncontacted wizards in the decision.
-The AI will not dispel their own Warp Node one their own node (Since it doesn't actually reduce power, they get both halves)
-Random generated items now use a weighted chance to pick the random item powers. It also adds a mechanism that guarantees high budget items alway get some useful abilities on them.
-The second and later copy of Divine Order now has halved effect.
-The AI will now be slightly more patient when assembling doomstacks and will keep going at it unless it has 7+ units with the last two being more than 12 tiles away. (Was 6 units and 8 tiles)
-When there are 3+1 wizards on planes, the plane having 1 wizard is not 20% smaller anymore, but the other is still 20% bigger. This might be subject to further change as necessary.
-Exorcise now costs 640 to research.
-New Life Uncommon spell : Sanctify. Unit enchantment for normal units. 960RP, Costs 70 MP. Enchanted unit has no gold maintenance and produces 3 power.
-The AI will prioritize targeting magical ranged units with Sanctify (magicans, shaman, etc)
-Heavenly Light now adds +1 to the unit's ranged/thrown/breath attack as well.
-Updated the unit tables in magic.exe so units should now have correct movement/scouting on turn 1.
-Updated hero MP levels and formulas.

[Bahgtru]

Beta 3 is available for download!

-Bless no longer adds +5 defense against magical ranged attacks (but still applies against spells!)

That's not to mean resistance only, right? It works with spells with shield defence?
It doesn't protect against stuff like shadow demons and ghouls anymore?

[Seravy]

Yes it works against spells (defende and resistance) but not against shadow demons. (I'm actually a bit worried about that part)

[Bahgtru]

I actually like it. It reduces correspondingly the strategic strength too I assume? That makes SS shenanigans harder. Also, swordsmen being impervious to a stack of shadow demons with heavenly light, endurance and bless was just too annoying.

-New Life Uncommon spell : Sanctify. Unit enchantment for normal units. 960RP, Costs 70 MP. Enchanted unit has no gold maintenance and produces 3 power.

Don't tell me that it works on heroes