Modding tips and tricks

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by Stavis_L

Cool idea w/the poly - does it revert after battle tho? I thought polymorph was permanent (never cast it.)

In my testing I managed to turn two runesmiths into slingers in the battle and they showed up as Runesmits on the strat map. In hindsight, there might be some cobblestones where this trick might fall flat. I'll report more once I get back home and manage to do some more testing on sunday evening.

[Burnsaber]

Okay, I did some more testing. The thing worked like a charm, but the Polymorph effect is permament, the commander will not revert back after the battle. However, You can counteract this by giving the form they will transform into #firstshape. To make it a lot simpler, here is how the trick works:

You have commander A that you want to transform into unit B for battle. Create a custom #onebattlespell for unit A that transform it into unit B. Give unit B firstshape back to A, so that it will revert back into A after the battle. The dwarf mod is going to use this trick on two commanders to make them lose caster levels in combat.

Unfortunately it seems that the " Form of the Dragon" spell I advertised couple of posts ago is not possible though, since my trick is only going to work if you know what mage is going to cast the spell.

Anyways, below is the bare bones code for the spell. By casting the custom "Summon Earthpower", the caster is going to transform into a slinger (unit nmbr 50) and then transform into a battle vestal (unit nmbr 51) after the battle (because I edited the slinger unit to have battle vestal as first shape).

#selectmonster 50
#firstshape 51
#end

#newspell
#name "Testing"
#descr "..testing.."
#school 4
#researchlevel 0
#effect 54
#aoe 1
#explspr 10030
#damage 50
#path 0 3
#pathlevel 0 1
#fatiguecost 0
#spec 64
#end

#newspell
#copyspell "Summon Earthpower"
#nextspell "Testing"
#school 4
#researchlevel 0
#path 0 3
#pathlevel 0 1
#end

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by Burnsaber

Okay, I did some more testing. The thing worked like a charm, but the Polymorph effect is permament, the commander will not revert back after the battle. However, You can counteract this by giving the form they will transform into #firstshape. To make it a lot simpler, here is how the trick works:

You have commander A that you want to transform into unit B for battle. Create a custom #onebattlespell for unit A that transform it into unit B. Give unit B firstshape back to A, so that it will revert back into A after the battle. The dwarf mod is going to use this trick on two commanders to make them lose caster levels in combat.

Um...the only thing I'll point out is that this could have some...interesting...unintended side effects in a communion.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by Stavis_L

Um...the only thing I'll point out is that this could have some...interesting...unintended side effects in a communion.

Heh. True. I'm tempted to do a spell for Byzantine Pythium that turns the communion into Angels of the Host.

But yeah, with all those limitations it has to work with, I think that trick would be best as a way to give a commander #battleform, since the communion trick does not work if it is a #onebattlespell.

[Sombre]

This is very cool. Gets around the problems with using damage + secondshape.

I'll have to employ it in some of my mods I think. It could be excellent for any chaos themed mod also, for chaos spawn transformations. Imagine a version of bless that turns your sacreds into chaos spawn instead of blessing them. Fun right?

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by Sombre

This is very cool. Gets around the problems with using damage + secondshape.

I'll have to employ it in some of my mods I think. It could be excellent for any chaos themed mod also, for chaos spawn transformations. Imagine a version of bless that turns your sacreds into chaos spawn instead of blessing them. Fun right?

As long as the "destination" form is not overly powerful (like the dwarf units I believe Burnsaber was referring to.) You'd also be restricted to a single "destination" unit type, so no way (that I can see) to e.g. get a crossbreeding-type random assortment of mutated weirdos from your warping. *That* would be cool though :-)

Considering your bless caster is sacred too, don't forget the possibility of self-mutating (probably not a thematic concern for Chaos...)

[rdonj]

Originally Posted by Stavis_L

As long as the "destination" form is not overly powerful (like the dwarf units I believe Burnsaber was referring to.) You'd also be restricted to a single "destination" unit type, so no way (that I can see) to e.g. get a crossbreeding-type random assortment of mutated weirdos from your warping. *That* would be cool though :-)

Considering your bless caster is sacred too, don't forget the possibility of self-mutating (probably not a thematic concern for Chaos...)

I don't know, couldn't you do that with #nextspells? Have the bless #nextspell a basic chaos spawn form, and then do a few mr-negates, then maybe one that's mr-negates easily. That should give you a bit of a crossbreeding type effect.

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by Burnsaber

I just figured out something frigging awesome and need to share it now. I've modded this game for almost 3 years and still I'm learning new stuff, God I love this game!

The spell effect "polymorph" (number 54) allows for different #damage values for different shapes. How you can use this? Just attach it to some buffing spell as #nextspell and you can have spell that grants the caster the form of a dragon for the battle or something just as cool.

Also, kennydicke noticed that the Ritual of Rebirth can also be modded by changing the #damage value to revive the hero in another shape than the basic mummy. I'm not sure if it works with giant monsters, but I'll test that shortly.

I used the RoR effect to create a Reincarnate spell for the pan. It was a blood ritual, which seemed to fit with the ancient druid theme).

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by rdonj

I don't know, couldn't you do that with #nextspells? Have the bless #nextspell a basic chaos spawn form, and then do a few mr-negates, then maybe one that's mr-negates easily. That should give you a bit of a crossbreeding type effect.

This would be VERY cool for skaven, for bogarus with its emphasis on mythical units. I like this idea a LOT

HEY I wonder if the Bogarus Zmir would work if you had a screen of fire snakes.

[chrispedersen]

I used this for my arco changes; Arco had a spell dark rituals (actually several versions of it). Essentially what it did was add a blood random to an arco mystic - at the cost of an initiation ritual.

Dark Rituals I, II, III... each added effects.

I didn't say what the effects were.. and the unit had no discernable difference until it was damaged in combat... I dont think anyone ever figured it out...