Necromancy revamping proposal

Poopsi · #1 March 15th, 2009, 01:44 AM

I dont know if this would fit better here (as a mechanic alteration proposal/pipedream) or in the modifications forum (as I think it's pretty moddable).
It goes as follows:

- Improve dead bodies-amethyst conversion system (as in the raven feast one. The problem is that Raven feast is extremedly inefficient and requires high paths for little gain). In fact, possibly make Raven feast an affordable death-path-only spell.

- Raise the gem cost of rituals in general (barring, perhaps, the most basic ones). High level rituals/summons should get the cost dramatically risen, and some of them be nerfed a bit as well

The idea is to make Death magic a different path from the others, just as blood magic is, but only to an extent; you can play relying on natural gem sources to fuel your spells, but sooner or later you´ll need to supply your gem intake by dead body conversion. But sooner or latter you´ll find yourself wanting for even more gems (IE: for tartarians), or both for gems and to generate huge soulless armies, and suddenly the idea of massacring your own provinces to get more corpses to fuel your spells will begin seem more and more tempting...

You've got to admit, it would be thematic for certain. It isn't like blood magic, which requires sacrifices by default to be fueled, but it nonetheless can turn wicked with ease....

Radio_Star · #2 March 15th, 2009, 02:12 AM

It seems too major for a general change, but a mod nation who has both powerful yet gem-inefficient national rituals and some method, either ritual or ability based if possible, of turning unburied dead into gems would be pretty awesome.

Poopsi · #3 March 15th, 2009, 02:28 AM

there's already a ritual that does that. I want it cheaper, and more general. I'd like to see this as a mod. I'm fairly sure it's doable without too much work (particularily if limited to adjusting paths and gem reqs)

Might even try to do it myself. In fact, it's the most likely modding I am to engage now, as I dont have a tga editor in this computer to churn out pretenders anymore :/

Radio_Star · #4 March 15th, 2009, 11:49 AM

I should have been more specific. A way of turning unburied corpses into gems that doesn't suck.

Illuminated One · #5 March 15th, 2009, 05:06 PM

I like the idea.
But you'd have a balancing problem.
People can only be sacrificed once while gem/blood income is constant.
If the conversion rate is to low a death nation would run out of people to sacrifice sooner or later, if it's too high someone who just kills everyone and converts them into gems might have a huge edge against no death nations.

llamabeast · #6 March 15th, 2009, 06:05 PM

I think you could make Raven Feast cheaper and/or a Death spell, but you can't change its gem output so far as I know. Even if it was free I'm not sure how good it would be.

JimMorrison · #7 March 15th, 2009, 07:31 PM

Make a free castable with D1..... Take Growth3, Tax and Patrol, and get a steady trickle of gems from all of your provinces while their pop slowly declines?

quantum_mechani · #8 March 15th, 2009, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by llamabeast

I think you could make Raven Feast cheaper and/or a Death spell, but you can't change its gem output so far as I know. Even if it was free I'm not sure how good it would be.

I cast it in CB, 1 air gems for 3 death is not a bad return if you have an air mage sitting around anyway.

thejeff · #9 March 15th, 2009, 08:11 PM

Even in vanilla, it's actually a nice way for an air nation to rack up a few death gems for site searching. Certainly cheaper than alchemy. It's a niche use, but still a use.

Poopsi · #10 March 15th, 2009, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Illuminated One

I like the idea.
But you'd have a balancing problem.
People can only be sacrificed once while gem/blood income is constant.
If the conversion rate is to low a death nation would run out of people to sacrifice sooner or later, if it's too high someone who just kills everyone and converts them into gems might have a huge edge against no death nations.

yes, I am aware that the idea would require fine-tuning to make it balanced.

I dont think it's exactly sacrificing, either, as it´s massacring the population in pillage to convert corpses afterwards. You could also limit yourself to after-battle conversions (or after-plague, I guess). It's less straightfoward

I was thinking on balancing it from the death dots required to cast (so that you cant just have any D1 wizard participating in the pop conversion), and make it so that the high level summons are way more expensive. Thus, making undead chaff armies using just necromancers (as opposed to mass reanimators for reanimation nations) would be more viable (I think that few of the death chaff spells -ie: longdead reanimation, revive king- are cost effective), whereas the better death summons (AKA: tartarians) would likely require massacring a good chunk of the population to drive them, thus requiring you to kill a lot of people beforehand, one way or the other.