[eMod Questions] Some spell making questions and issues.

from Elemental Forums

Folks,

I've been sitting on doing any mods waiting for SD to stabilize the game and possibly up the mod support, but I have some questions about how/if to do a few things. I'll say from the start I'm not a big fan of the spell nerfing on costs and I'd really like to see the game have dozens if not a few hundred cool and varied spells to use. It is a War of Magic or so the title goes. Right now being a caster has the following problems:

  1. A slow rate of growth on the global mana pool. Basically taking "years" of game time to get some points.
    1. Hence a teleport at 40 points is about a once every ten years kind of thing. Not feeling overly awesome as a mage with that.
  2. I can only cast one spell per combat turn.
    1. But yet I can swing my warspear 4 time for 4 times the damage of a costly fireball. Again not feeling too Merlin like.
  3. Very limited number of spells and levels.
  4. Spells all appear to be hitting for full value again. What happened to random value and defendable damage?
  5. Why do all spells auto hit? I would think directed attack spells should have accuracies based on the intelligence of the caster.

Things I need help figuring out to make things better.

  1. Is there a way to set a useful casting time? I want to be able to cast more then one spell in a combat turn.
  2. Is there a way to get the random damage back? Do we need SD to fix this again?
  3. Is there a way to make certain spells "roll" to hit like weapons?
  4. Is there a way to make items (armour, weapons, mounts) granted via spell, have a cost per turn and then dispell when the enchantment is canceled? I have a spell now that grants an item, costs initial mana, has a cost per turn, but does not remove the item once the spell is terminated. I have also tried duration to no avail as well. This is close to a summon, but the object can be equipped by a Sov or NPC.

Things I can do.

  1. I can recost spells and up the mana generation rate to support more casting.
  2. I can comb the listing of close to 1000 spells from an RPG I was part of designing for useable material.
  3. I can wait for SD to make adjustment to the code to allow for better effects and range of spells.
    1. Like being able to target squares in Tac combat (1 to x number for effect).
    2. Target more then one individual in the strat map.
    3. Create a separate pool of hit points for a target to act as a sheild.
    4. Have effects that are persistant and move with a target if tagged (like a shield effect on a caster).

I'm sure there are other things as well that will come to mind. This game has so much potential to really be a fun and replayable. The mods already done by folks here really shows how far the engine can be pushed. I just hope we get some more support from the Devs in the near future to really open this thing up.

Thanks.

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top
  1. Is there a way to set a useful casting time? I want to be able to cast more then one spell in a combat turn.
  2. Is there a way to get the random damage back? Do we need SD to fix this again?
  3. Is there a way to make certain spells "roll" to hit like weapons?
  4. Is there a way to make items (armour, weapons, mounts) granted via spell, have a cost per turn and then dispell when the enchantment is canceled? I have a spell now that grants an item, costs initial mana, has a cost per turn, but does not remove the item once the spell is terminated. I have also tried duration to no avail as well. This is close to a summon, but the object can be equipped by a Sov or NPC.

Ok, so to edit after reading your whole post...

1. Not right now. Since there are non-working tags in the xml for this, I'm guessing that it's in the works.
2. Yep. You need to set minimum and maximum values in the xml. I'll post an example in a bit, if you'd like. Check out the Storm (or whatever it's called) spell in the meantime.
3. I don't think so.
4. I don't think so, but I might be wrong.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

1 Like being able to target squares in Tac combat (1 to x number for effect).
2 Target more then one individual in the strat map.
3 Create a separate pool of hit points for a target to act as a sheild.
4 Have effects that are persistant and move with a target if tagged (like a shield effect on a caster).
End of quote

1) Have you tried the Any target type? This allows you to target any tile whether it contains a enemy unit or not.

2) This is possible to a very limited extent. You can use AdjustArmyStat as the attribute for a unit mod type to effect the stats of an entire army. The only down side here is that the unit is bearer of the modifier and takes it will him when he leaves.

3) You can actually something similar by having a spell that adjusts the base HP of a unit so that they have more HP to burn in general.

4) I am not exactly sure what you mean here. All modifiers are applied directly to the target unit and are kept on them until either dispelled or the unit is killed. A good start point for more army based spells would be again the adjustarmystat attribute.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

@Light: Thanks. I hope we can get SD to help "fix" some of those issues.

@Kenata: For 1) I'd like to target say 3 enemies somewhere on the map. So the spell would need mechanics to allow me to pick 3 target squares.

For 2) the same as 1) except I want to select say three members of an army for a spell effect.

For 3) Thats a good idea. The extra points would be hit first.

For 4) I should have said special FX. Glowing shimmer as the spell runs type of thing.

Thanks for the inputs guys. 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

NP. Good luck, I know that I've enjoyed messing around with the game's code. Plus the community is really very helpful. I agree about the coding changes... hopefully Schafer is hard at work on some of this.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Capn, reply 3
@Light: Thanks. I hope we can get SD to help "fix" some of those issues.

@Kenata: For 1) I'd like to target say 3 enemies somewhere on the map. So the spell would need mechanics to allow me to pick 3 target squares.

For 2) the same as 1) except I want to select say three members of an army for a spell effect.

For 3) Thats a good idea. The extra points would be hit first.

For 4) I should have said special FX. Glowing shimmer as the spell runs type of thing.

Thanks for the inputs guys. 
End of Capn's quote

 

1)Can't do that as far as I'm aware.

2)Nope.

3)Kenata's got it.

4)Not 100% sure on this, but using a looping effect and setting <SnapToTerrain> to 0 should do it.  If not, try setting <PlayOnAllTargets> to 1.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

4)Not 100% sure on this, but using a looping effect and setting to 0 should do it. If not, try setting to 1.
End of quote

There are a couple of things he could do if he wanted to the unit to remain stationary, but pretty much nothing if he wants the particle emitter to follow his units.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

I was noticing the single static effect issue with the paralyze ability of one of the ACP NPCs. A single lingering effect in one square. I guess it would be nice if the game applied the special effects to all affected unints and allowed for motion and duration. Just one more item for the wish list.

If cast time gets hooked up and working targeting multiple targets may just be a matter of a spell that can be cast at .25/.5/etc actions. I'd like to see a caster rip off a stream of darts/ice shards/blades/etc. Cooler if you just click more then one target and the items fly, but I'll live with casting it multiple times if I have to.