Wishlist Why magic paths are like mod Nations. - Page 5

llamabeast · #41 December 8th, 2008, 07:07 AM

Although you can't add paths Honey, you already have the ability to replace the existing ones, since it is possible to remove spells. Just clear all the current spells (that's quite trivial, I could do a mod for you if you wanted), and start afresh. You could claim the brown gems were animism gems rather than earth gems, or whatever you wanted.

HoneyBadger · #42 December 8th, 2008, 04:54 PM

Well, I do think the spells themselves are important, and that there's room for several more paths, but the primary focus for me, as far as new paths are concerned, is going to be on new bless options. I like sacred units. I like bless strategies. That's fun for me, both to mod in, and to play around with. But our choices there are currently *severely* limited. Does anyone strongly disagree with that statement?

Are there more than 2-3 vanilla Nations that are regularly played with an Air bless, or a more than circumstantial Blood bless? How many human Nations regularly and competitively take a high (more than 4) Nature bless? Earth, Fire, and Death are also somewhat niche, and Astral and Death are considered by many to be some of the weakest blesses (admittedly, they see a lot of use).

At the very least, I'm hoping that Johan and Kristoffer will take a look at this thread and consider it. Even if we don't get the option to mod in new paths (and I hope we do, I'd like to design a few), maybe we'll atleast get some more options. A new Illwinter-made path or 2 is a lot nicer than no new paths and no new blesses.

llamabeast · #43 December 8th, 2008, 07:21 PM

I don't really agree with your bless analysis, but ho hum. Well, there's nothing to be done about it, I think the chances of moddable extra paths are close to zero. If you can't see why that is from a coding perspective, maybe just believe those of us who say we can make some guess at what'd be involved, and it isn't going to happen.

HoneyBadger · #44 December 8th, 2008, 07:45 PM

Well, I disagree, and will continue to disagree, especially since there's yet to be presented any particularly convincing evidence. I've been playing Dom3 as long as anyone who isn't from Sweden, and I can make educated guesses of my own about what will throw off balance, and what's simply reactionary. Maybe not as well as some of the top MP players, but well enough to keep my own council.

And honestly, I've been on these boards longer than you have, Llamabeast, so there's no need to put on a patronizing tone.

lch · #45 December 8th, 2008, 10:20 PM

We discussed this on IRC over the weekend. Settled for penetration +5, reinvigoration +3 and maybe quickness as sex magic bless effects. Got into an argument with Alneyan what the gems are supposed to look like, I pleaded for dildos, while Alneyan demanded Ben Wa balls. Custom flysprites would be needed for some spells as well. I'm off to look up some more research material...

Poopsi · #46 December 9th, 2008, 01:11 AM

... you know, I would appretiate some sort of path modding commands.

One idea that occured to me a while ago is that death magic should work somewhat akin to blood magic. Since modding it so that it uses corpses instead of gems straight off is impossible, I was thinking that if I could make some spell akin to raven feast (albeit very cheap and working on same province) avaiable early on, and force necromancers to go around with moving mages to cast that spell in every province with corpses to get a few gems. (Or, alternatively, pillage a province of your choosing to get the corpses and the subseçuent gems more çuickly)

Goes without saying that death magic gem sites rate would need to go down...

MaxWilson · #47 December 9th, 2008, 01:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

And honestly, I've been on these boards longer than you have, Llamabeast, so there's no need to put on a patronizing tone.

I believe Llamabeast was speaking from a programming-experience perspective, not a length-of-time-on-the-boards perspective.

I'm impressed that dominions is as moddable as it is, but remember where mod commands come from: KO comes up with cool ideas (like your Shadow Magic), JK codes them up, and if we're lucky JK adds in some extra code to attach a mode command and make the new abilities moddable so we can (re-)use them in new units. Even KO can't create new spells without code changes.

-Max

JimMorrison · #48 December 9th, 2008, 02:08 AM

Penetration +5 is way overpowered.

HoneyBadger · #49 December 9th, 2008, 03:43 AM

I'm impressed with how moddable it is too, MaxWilson, but that doesn't mean it can't be better. AI and the magic system are two areas where we lack important modding tools.

I can say a lot about where, exactly, I think Llamabeast was speaking from--but I won't, because that wouldn't be politic. As far as Llamabeast's "programming experience", Llamabeast isn't JK, so there's the end of that argument.

Ich, however silly it might seem, it remains that sex magic is something that people believed in for thousands and thousands of years, and continue to believe in. Feel free to giggle about it all you want, but it really is a serious, and major, part of the magical tradition.

MaxWilson · #50 December 9th, 2008, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

I'm impressed with how moddable it is too, MaxWilson, but that doesn't mean it can't be better. AI and the magic system are two areas where we lack important modding tools.

You missed the point. Even KO lacks modding tools for the magic system. Such things must be (and are) hard-coded.

-Max