Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

As there are more and more players here who don't have any experience with DOM1 and little with DOM2, as they just got the game, I though I could shed some light on some of the more obscure aspects of DOM, which aren't found in other games in a similar fashion -

TRANSFORMATION this time ..

This spell (alteration-7, nature-3, 8 gems) transform the caster into a random monster.

Tried with Turmoil-3/Luck-3 Pangaea and Gift of Health up. Results wheren't particularly impressive. Looks like you either get a "medium" monster with only misc. and at best a head slot, or a foul spawn and feeblemindedness (most foul spawn have full slots available, though. Maybe some of them have even more, but I haven't seen such). I'm not even shure if spawn has zero upkeep.

First volunteer was the Jade Amazone Gy, which I ordered to transform to get rid of the upkeep costs - she tried several times, but ... A Chimera is nice fighting commander, but nearly useless as a mage, so on to the 2nd try .. Boar
.. being a boar was way to dangerous, so Black Hawk was the next .. Ice Drake wasn't sufficient too, so foul spawn and feeblemindedness ended her career for the time being. Mind the fact, though, that there was no special message, she just transformed into a foul spawn and "went out" ...


Umbra, another Jade Amazone, obviously did something wrong, and ended up as feebleminded spawn on the very first try.

Other victims of their gods curiosity where the Dryad Cybele, now a Black Hawk and the Jade Amazone who turned into a Griffon. A freshly hired Druid turned into an Ice Drake - nobody bothered to ask for his name before, and afterwards it didn't matter http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

So all in all there doesn't seem to be much variety, and most of the funs seems to come from the nerve-wrecking tension, if your mage blew himself totally or if he's still at least somewhat useful. A heavy investment of gems to get some commander to nature-3 and have him transform into a fearsome fighting machine wouldn't pay off most times, though.

Sorry all pics gone - had remove them from the server

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

Whats wrong with a Chimeara?

Flying, can take more punishment than any of your recruitable mages and can defend itself if attacked.

I have always wanted to be a chimeara, or a moose of course http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

One is almost surprised that the Chimeara boasts a ram's head, when one could have just as easily replaced it with that of a moose...

( http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif )

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

I loved that spell. I fed alot of Jade Amazons to it. Nothing fantastic came of it that I can remember but alot of them were useful. Especially if they became armored enough to be up in the front-line. It gave it a whole new use casting spells that had short range.

Flying was useful also. Prophet it and you have a fast moving searcher.

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

Yeah that's usually the fate of all nature mages in the end game. Atleast its a good way to get rid of that gem stockpile.

Seems you can transform into all animals (though never a giant spider for some reason), crossbreeds as well as drakes, griffon and wyvern. Anyone manage to transform a unit into something else? Always felt it was a bit underpowered for its level. Best use I had of it so far was to turn caster heroes with battle theme abilities into something more melee oriented.

[ February 23, 2004, 22:16: Message edited by: Wauthan ]

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

Arralen,

Thanks so much for this (and presumably follow on) thread(s). I've stared at this spell many times, as recently as the vanilla C'tis game I'm playing. (I wanted to try out the Tartarian Gate spell after reading up on it here.)

Having gotten to the point where I am relatively secure in my borders (after driving a stake in Ermor ... yesh) I was thinking of trying this on to see what you get.

(For those who care, current game is vanilla C'tis on the World map [not the scenario] against all 16 nations on normal AI.)

I had thought that it might be a way around having an immobile pretender. Cast transformation and ... voila! Seeing your results has made me somewhat less enthusiastic about the possiblity.

Looking at the results, I'm unsure about something. Where your volunteers still have magic, is that what they started with (or some fraction thereof)? Or new magic native to the creature? (I expect it's remainder magic, but wanted to be sure.)


Ciao,
V'ger gone

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

It's the magic they started with Vger. Good idea to use this spell as a workaround for immobile pretenders. Why didn't I think of this myself?

It's no big risk using the spell since you can recast it until you get something interesting as well as curing Feeblemind using Gift of Health or the artifact.

[ February 23, 2004, 22:32: Message edited by: Wauthan ]

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

Lifeless immobiles might be immune to the spell. I cannot swear they are, but it seems logical.

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You could raise the nature level of a mage to 3 by items. After casting the spell, if he can't use it, the items go back to the lab in Dom 2 (not in Dom 1).

8 gems to turn a druid into an Fire Drake who can cast "Personal Regeneration" and "Elemental Fortitude". I'd call that a bargain.

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

i think pretenders in general are immune or rather not effected by this spell.

Oh and a tip when playing man: Get a few crones, they usually have nature 3 and are VERY weak. Not just transform them, you usually (at least in my game) get Chims, all kinds of drakes or even Wyvern. The good thing about this is the increased protection AND the movement, i really like to have my strong mage cranes fly around at 3 provines per turn. it comes very handy indeed !

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I tested Oracle and Golem.

Apparently, inanimate or lifeless is not affected. The computer will happy spend you gems and tell you the turn afterwards that it's ineffective.

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<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It's even nicer to use them on Bard with items http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

One additional note on my previous post. The item will be in the lab if the new body of the commander can't use them. BUT they'll be gone if he/she dies in the process - not sure whether it is a bug or intentional.

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

Actually I thought this spell had a larger selection of possibilities. Seems like the transformation spell has a fixed amount of 20 or 25 different types. Looks like the best you can get is a chimera. I was hoping to see people reporting more unit types.

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, Oracle isn't exactly treated as you'd expect by the rest of the code anyway - they can be poisoned and diseased, they can get limps and chest wounds .....

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Do Prophets have some bonus in searching for magic sites (other than the Holy-3)?

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

No. Paths are only found if you are skilled enough and if you are you can't fail to find a site.

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What about when using strands of Arcane Power?

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Strands just searches each province in your dominion/territory with a level of each magic type that is determined semi-randomly.

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<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That's the Chimeroose...

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<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Is there a chance of death with this spell? Or do you mean death by losing your water skill while casting it underwater?

PvK

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

Transformation does seem to carry a small but positive risk of Instant Death (TM) due to something going badly wrong (e.g. not just drowning risk... which is probably close to 100% without water magic anyway since except for certain Foul Spawn most of what you can change into is not amphibious IIRC).

Strands of Arcane Power, testing with obscenely powerful mages (think 'magic power' wishes but not followed by incredibly expensive empowerment), does not appear to search above level 3.

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">This is consistent with my own testing. The level of searching seems to be something like 0-level in given path /3 ... ( and it rolls every turn ). But to be honest I'm not positive. But it looked something like that. Maybe /2. And I have no idea which way the rounding works.

It is, IMO, the best way of searching on a big map though! Talk about removing painful micro from the game!

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

I believe it would be nice if Transformation allows you to become something that is "transformation only" and that you can't get in any other way.

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Yes. Is there another way to get a Chimera? I haven't had one since Archon II... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

PvK

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

Cross Breeding!
Here how to get a Chimera!

Re: Fun with ... TRANSFORMATION
 

Ah, ok, thanks! Best I've gotten so far is the big guy with four arms. Cross-breeding is fun!

PvK