Re: buggy blade wind?
 

I too think that many of the lesser spells lack something like 2 points in precision. Its so weird do see all these fireballs, bladewinds, and flares hit every empty square possible, *around* the intended target, as if there was a deflector raised before the intended unit.

I know that they are not supposed to be that powerful, but as of now its a waste of mage to script most of these spells. With the lowering of gold income in dom2, a mage is even more valuable than before. As the battlefield in dom2 has been enlarged, I think it would be ok to raise a bit the precision, to compensate the loss in power of the spells.

A mod can change that, but most of the players play with standard dominions rules.

Re: buggy blade wind?
 

I am still not sure what the precision on my mages means, either.

For example, if my mage has a precision of 30, and casts fireball, which I think is precision 4, is this a prec 34 fireball? I dont think so, but I dont understand why not. Well, I do, sorta, for game balance, but, I mean, is prec for bows only? Dunno.

Re: buggy blade wind?
 

I think I've mentioned the following idea before and it was well-received. I tend to think the scatter should be greatly reduced, but then the chance to avoid getting hurt when it lands in the right place should probably be increased to compensate somewhat and not make ranged attacks too sure of success. The result would be:

1) It would look a lot less silly.
2) Friendly fire would be less common.*
3) If tweaked properly, even inaccurate ranged attacks would have a fair chance of having an effect, especially against dense Groups.
4) If tweaked properly, even accurate spells, and fire into a dense group, wouldn't have too certain a chance of hitting someone without a shield.

(* Friendly fire would still be bad, though - again, my only real complaint with the game is units killing their friends by firing at targets near their friends.)

PvK

Re: buggy blade wind?
 

As a newcomer who never played Dom1, I have to say that a lot of these spread spells seem worse than useless -- they waste an action and fatigue for the mage, and rarely if ever hit anything (and if they do, rarely if ever damage/kill it). If I could say "never cast these spells" to the AI, I would.

Re: buggy blade wind?
 

I don't mind the apparent lack of precision with some spells. Because that makes spells like aim and items like eye of aiming particularly useful. Try casting that blade wind spell again after giving the caster an eye of aiming and look at the results.

Magic is quite powerful, especially area effect spells. There may be rebalance issues throughout entire national themes if precision is increased.

Re: buggy blade wind?
 

Its hard to tell sometimes, but in my experience, more of the blades are actually hitting than the animation makes it appear. I learned this when I grumbled something like "damn blades never hit" after a watching a battle, only to check the hall of fame afterwards, and discover that the mage I thought hadn't hit anything at all actually racked up quite a few kills...

When it comes to battle replays, don't believe everything you see http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: buggy blade wind?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Do you think that Abysia or Ulm are meant to be played with Eye-enhanced mages ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif
I think, like others, that those low prec spells are between useless and dangerous (due to friendly fire risks), and that has an unwanted effect : good players concentrate on either prec-100 spells or large area/battlefield spells.
This really limits the variety of usable magic strategies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: buggy blade wind?
 

PDF: in that image of yours blade wind was cast in storm. No wonder it didn't hit anything. With no boosts that is like prec-5 total... In dom2, never bring storm if you are going to cast ANY precision-dependent spells. Or bring wind guide too, they pretty much negate each other as much as magic is concerned.

Range also seems to have a huge effect on hitting. Blade wind is useful, but it must be casted *from the front* not from the behind of your troops. This of cource brings up survivalibity problems, but you can't have all you know http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: buggy blade wind?
 

PDF,

Yes...I do think Ulm and Abyssia are meant to be played with eye-enhanced mages. That's how I always play them. Try that if you haven't and vive la difference!

Re: buggy blade wind?
 

Here's an example : the battlefield is relatively full of troops (200 on each side), and the blades get *out* of it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif !
In this battle there was maybe 5 casts of BW, everytime it gets spread everywhere with nearly no hits.
IMHO the spell is broken : in Dom1 it was very powerful, now it's as useless as Flying Shards http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif ...

http://pascal.difolco.free.fr/BW_Example.jpg