New patch soon?

[AreaOfEffect]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Personally I think there are too many summons.
Dont get me wrong. I LOVE playing with them. But it seems like 90% of the national spells are summons. Summons are probably easier and more fun to come up with but it seems as if some very thematic spells fitting each nation could be scattered into other areas of magic.

I would agree. It's spells like Inner Furnace, Dreams of Ry'leh, and Celestial Chastisement that I would would much rather see for other nations. Its better to have a nitch battle spell then a nitch summon in my opinion.

[Gandalf Parker]

They probably are harder to come up with. The summons fits in with Kristoffers day job and easily flows over. Plus summons appear to be easier to mod so Im guessing the same is true for writing them into the game.

Conjuration has most. Enchantment and Blood have their fair share. But wouldnt it be great for trading in-game if a Construction "spell" gave Ulm the ability to make special armor?
It seems that some nations might concentrate on researching Aleration (defense?) and another on Evocation (offense?). And I always thought of Arcos as being Thaumaturgy.

[SlipperyJim]

Originally Posted by Aezeal

I doubt adding summons will severly effect a nations power, better change the recruitables a bit since that is the problem usually.

*cough* Lanka! *cough*

Lanka's summons can completely replace their national troops, and you don't pay upkeep for most of them. Starting with Rakshasa Warriors at Blood-4 (!), Lanka doesn't need to recruit soldiers for anything except patrolling duty ever again....

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by BesucherXia

Well, actually I do not think they could be called "monsters". They are more like regular soldiers of the Sea Palace in Chinese tales, and are always beaten easily by heroes like flies though in great number. Their roles are so minor that I can hardly recall any detail description of them...
In Chinese speech, there is even a phase about "shrimp soldiers and crab generals" to imply soldiers of poor quality, just because they always mean nothing for the Chinese heroes in mythology.

This is valuable information! Thanks.

-Max

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Conjuration has most. Enchantment and Blood have their fair share. But wouldnt it be great for trading in-game if a Construction "spell" gave Ulm the ability to make special armor?
It seems that some nations might concentrate on researching Aleration (defense?) and another on Evocation (offense?). And I always thought of Arcos as being Thaumaturgy.

I know this would still be a summon, technically, but you could have a spell which allows a master smith to forge himself armor (magic suit of armor like the Green Knight, or whatever) by doing something like Banquet for the Dead: casting the spell kills the caster, but you get another unit in exchange. Maybe the new form has no hand slots but built in lifedrain weapons and Prot 20, or something.

-Max

[AreaOfEffect]

Modding new spells is actually a lot easier then modding new creatures. All of the graphics that you will ever use are already in the game and can be accessed by identifying it by number. The effects are also easy to manipulate once you've gotten hold of a detailed magic modding spreadsheet. Also, there are far fewer stats to adjust.

The spell concepts aren't that hard to come up with once you use a bit of imagination. Its also really easy to reuse existing effects without generating too much overlap. Spite the fact that there are three regular spells that grant quickness, Celestial Music, the Bandar Log national spell, does the same thing and yet is unlike all of them. Why? Because several of the parameters have been changed. It hits the entire battlefield, it only effects magic beings, it needs astral magic rather then water magic, and is researched under enchantment rather then alteration.

Besides, even the summoning spells could use some more variety. Most of them are the same. You cast the spell and a unit appears in the province where you cast the spell. More of the spells could be remote casting spells or assassination spells or battlefield summons in my opinion.

For example. The Simargl is a national summon for Bogarus. This nation has a huge amount of national summons. There is almost no reason for the shear number of the normal summons they have. The simargl, in my opinion, is a niche summon that mainly assists in patrolling provinces. It would have been reasonable in my opinion to make it an assassination spell and restrict it so that you can't target enemy provinces (in the way site searching spells can't target provinces you don't control). Then make the attacking unit just tough enough to take out a scout and not much else. Now you've changed the dynamic of Bogarus so it actually plays differently.

[Sombre]

Originally Posted by AreaOfEffect

Modding new spells is actually a lot easier then modding new creatures. All of the graphics that you will ever use are already in the game and can be accessed by identifying it by number. The effects are also easy to manipulate once you've gotten hold of a detailed magic modding spreadsheet. Also, there are far fewer stats to adjust.

So you've used fx numbers, 'flysprites' etc for spells and it's worked as anticipated?

I admit I haven't tried it in a while and it might have been fixed since, but the last time I did we didn't have the fx numbers - the modding manual pointed to flysprites used for weapons incorrectly and of course, those didn't work.

[AreaOfEffect]

I've played with the sprites before and they worked out fine for what I was doing. Though I admit that was a little while back. They may not be cataloged, but a little play testing will help you locate the ones you want easily. Just know that sprites are grouped together into similar effects with different coloring. Use a battle where you used the spell and just reload it after each adjustment as the sprites will change accordingly. Its not as bad as creating a unit graphic one pixel at a time in my opinion.

I would imagine that, for the developers, the creation of new battlefield spells would be easier then making new summons. Assuming they've documented their work in the slightest.

[Sombre]

So you just tried random numbers until you got something for the #flightspr? I believe even the range of allowable numbers was only revealed recently.

#Explspr has been semi-documented all along.

I couldn't remember the names for them and didn't have my mod manual at work.

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

I know this would still be a summon, technically, but you could have a spell which allows a master smith to forge himself armor (magic suit of armor like the Green Knight, or whatever) by doing something like Banquet for the Dead: casting the spell kills the caster, but you get another unit in exchange. Maybe the new form has no hand slots but built in lifedrain weapons and Prot 20, or something.

-Max

Wink.. besides.. rebirth still works = )