Indy spell casting levels

[QXel]

Hello everybody,

I have a stupid and academic question: at which level the Indies spellcasters cast spells?

I explain a little better: for a player (either IA or human), his spellcasters can only cast known spells, depending on what research levels he has reach in each school of magic.

But what about the Indies spellcasters?

A good question, indeed ...

P.S.: I don't have searched in the forum, cause the search function is not very easy and clever in its working.
P.P.S.: the purpose of this question is for projects in modding maps, so maybe this good place will be in the modding forum? But I know that lots of really good Dom3 engineers lay around

Thanks in advance.

Q'Xel

[Edi]

Indies have a preset grimoire with certain spells. It never changes. It could actually use some finetuning to allow them to cast more effective spells in combat. Nothing like having F3 mages cast Fire Flies over and over and getting nothing done and Earth mages doing the same with Flying Shards...

Indy Nature and Air mages on the other hand are pretty damned brutal. Lightning bolt, Orb Lightning if they have more levels and enough range froom the Air mages, Charm from Nature. Nothing like losing three fully equipped super combatants to an indie Nature mage to ruin your day...

[NTJedi]

Edi said:
Indies have a preset grimoire with certain spells. It never changes. It could actually use some finetuning to allow them to cast more effective spells in combat. Nothing like having F3 mages cast Fire Flies over and over and getting nothing done and Earth mages doing the same with Flying Shards...

I completely agree... for example if someone is creating a map and places a LvL_7 earth mage it's very sad to see the mage only casting 'flying shards'.
A spell like 'petrify' and other spells with high casting cost should be made available to the Independents because the default game only drops mages of LvL_2. If other more powerful spells were made available then us map makers could place powerful indy mages on the map.

If a battlefield spell costs 4 or more levels then it should be made available to the independents which would really help us map makers.

[Wick]

I know Lairloch (with d13) on the Faerun map can cast Cloud of Death. That was sufficiently effective... ouch.

[QXel]

Thanks for your answer, Edi.

I also think that the grimoire needs some fix,like you, NTJedi. Especially in fire & earth, but probably also in water or blood. Perhaps it could improve with time in the game? Yes, as far as turns passe, there is less and less indies provinces, but it could be a great improvement for thematic or 'story telling / roleplay' maps.
And imagine an surprise attack by barbarians supported by mages casting nether darts or pillar of fire

But I am realistic and it is clear that it is not a priority.

I suppose that it is not moddable, as your answer suggested?

Q'Xel

[Edi]

No, it's not moddable. I wish it was...

[kasnavada]

In another Rpg game I played we where supposed to be controlling an empire. A few where decided by the GM to be "main opponents" and played every action every turns and got every income, other where decided neutrals. That means that played like every 3 turns and got only the income for this particular turn. They were supposed to be catering to internal problems during the other turns (to make micromanagement easier).

Transfered to Dominions, this would mean that every independant nation would be considered a player, but played only every few turns, and got their income only when they played (when they do not play, they get income 0). When they feel strong enough, they could go attack their neighbours. That would also means that every few turns independant would get bigger and bigger, and get better and better spells and research. Since they "play" we also could include a possibility to "buy" the "country" instead of conquering it by force (but only if they believe in you as a restriction ?) or giving funds to them (in case you want to have a indy as border with some of your neighbours.

It's probably too big a modification to be included in Dominions though...

This is a bit different from the subject but I'd like it if indy magicians got better and better as time went by.

[Edi]

In the beta test phase, the indies acted like a nation. Problem was, all independent provinces belonged to the same nation and it would move to attack players as soon as it could...

[QXel]

Making indies a Nation is clearly not a solution at all.

Well, I was not speaking about turning them into something like a nation, with income, recruitement ans so on, but just concentrate on spellcasting.

I've got my answer.

Hope that it could be ameliorate one day, or moddable.

It leads to the second question: is it a list of this grimoire? I think it could be very usefull for modders & map makers, to avoid useless work, as suggested by NTJedi.

[MaxWilson]

Edi said:
No, it's not moddable. I wish it was...

Couldn't you mod Fire Flies to be identical to Fireball, and mod Fireball to be identical to Fire Flies? I.e. pick spells which are known to be on the indy lists, and use those "slots" to give them better spells?

-Max