Will there be epic empire-wide spells a la Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic?

from Elemental Forums

This is my biggest question right now regarding FE, will there be spells (endgame high cost spells) that have 'cool' empire-wide effects?
I'll use my fav fantasy strategy game as an example, Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic.

Such as, a spell costing upkeep (or just lasting a few turns) that grants vision or denies enemies from seeing far into your lands (a sort of "Dark shadow terrain" spell).
Or something like, if you're playing as as human race you could cast a spell that "pretty-grassifies" a part of the enemy territory, reducing their productivity there until it dissapates. In turn they could use a territory-wide magic shield spell to protect against such silliness.
Or other world-level spells like spawning a storm or marsh or whatever over an enemy army, denying them movement for a turn?

9,965 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

The spell xml allows for faction wide attacks I am fairly certain. You could theoretically do many of those things. I know there is a Water spell to freeze a city, making it unable to train units or build anything. 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

There already are spells like that in the game

Earthquake devastates cities, Tornado can scatter entire armies, Pillar of Fire can burn units in your domain, there are Life magic spells to instantly train units or grant your units an xp bonus, and Death magic spells to cripple and drain your opponents.

 

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I think he's talking more about global enchantments. AOW:SM had the same type of spells that you're listing: city killers, army killers, disease spreaders, etc. Very powerful spells. 

But it also had empire wide global enchantments that had huge sweeping effects across the entire map. 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top


Yeah. Especially very border/territory-specific spells. Some of the most interesting ones gradually changed the terrain in your territory to whatever your units were most proficent at fighting in (desert, grasslands, tundra etc). But i suppose as Elemental already does that automatically it matters less :)

It would be interesting to see a more terrain-heavy implementation though. Perhaps making the terrain change gradual when taking over or building a new city, and having your units be slightly less effective in "hostile" terrain types. Forcing a bit of slowdown after capturing or founding a city to prevent endless rampage.