I am in the camp that supports casting times as well. I think this one game mechanic would do a lot to balance magic in combat. Hell, even Arcane Doom on a Vigiliant Minion would not have been so OP if there was a 2 or 3 turn cast time associated with it.
Huh? Isn't this the same as what is already stated, that INT will be a prequiste to deciding what spells can be cast.
A somewhat crazy idea is that each imbued champion can cast a fixed number of spells.. So for example
Fireball - At least 10 INT , cost to learn 5 INT
Iron skin - At least 12 INT, cost to learn 10 INT
Dancing Sword - At least 10 INT, cost to learn 5 INT
So say if your imbued champion had 15 INT, he could pick 2 spells to cast Fireball & Iron skin, but he couldn't cast any other spell... even though he met the prequisite for all 3 spells. Maybe bring in Level of champion into it, such that each level gain you can choose another INT worth of spells to learn.
The sovereign of course would not need to pick and can cast any and all spells as long as his INT is high enough.
PRO : creates a RPG feel, each imbued champion feels different... One could specialise in direct attack spells, another support etc..
CON : depends on number of champions it gets tiresome to micromanage.. e.g when do they pick spells etc... Can they "swap out" spells etc
I hope that SD will change alot of the perks, specifically adding ones that would be game impacting to the magic you caste. Personally I think the starting perks +1 tec, 1+ arcane and 2 food are probably some of the most feeble starting perks starting perks ever. Honestly, there value doesn't go beyond the first period of the early game.Magic perks that would actually be useful...-Boost magic attacks-Boost Summons-Boost enchantments-Boost magical dispels-Enhanced magic defense-Sov genarates X amount of mana that is added to the poll each turn
Agreed +1 etc , type effects on the sovereign alone, do not scale and are insignificant in the long run, so don't really matter.
+1 for *every unit* (think MOM's Warlord) or *per transaction* (think MOM's alchemy) are the way to go. Percentage bonuses or discounts are all a good idea rather than just +x where x is 1,2,3 etc
Nonsense, in MOM you couldn't predict what nodes you would be able to get, it still worked fine.
I used to believe games should give you perfect flexibility but now i realize part of the fun is to have some options taken away from you. Again MOM did it best.. the number of spell books you had would determine which spells you would get.
And i agree it was more flexible, not "all for nothing" but granular.. 4 nature, 3 Sorcery etc.
But even if you chose to go all for one.. say 11 book strategy it was fine.
There were also soft options to slightly change directions like trading spells (which made AIs wizards useful) and you could sometimes find spell books in very difficult encounters...
Create an expensive spell to alter a shard? Maybe a skill where your Sovereign has to camp at it for 5 turns to reattune it to another element?
It's a highly solvable problem without having to either give out all books, or make which book you pick not matter.
Casting Time isn't in 1.1, but it is speced to be included. The problem is that Casting Time is big change with art, UI and AI implications and it interacts with future systems (meaning that if we implemented now we would need to reimplement later anyway). So it isn't in 1.1, but I want Casting Time too.
Thanks for confirming that Derek! Even if it's not part of 1.1, it's still excellent news
Quoting Derek Paxton: "Essence is gone"Derek, could you please give your reasoning for removing essence as a game mechanic? Essence never worked right and was diminished throughout the dev process. With your creative influence you can probably come up with a workable system that honors the original intentions of the essence mechanic.BTW, I am really optimistic with the overall direction you are taking the game. I look forward to 1.1 and beyond with great excitement.
This thread just gets better and better.
Really looking forward to this.
The Master of Magic mod team has been on standby waiting for the big changes in 1.1.
That's a solid example of why I think the Elemental project's biggest mistake was not making 'integrated metaphysics' an equal partner, or even superior, to 'integrated physics.' Those early design choices were driven by technical considerations and the assumption that later on 'content' would be easy to create at a satisfying level of quality. I remain convinced that content creation now would be far easier if a small set of serious, the-world-works-this-way decisions had been made. To mix metaphors, the game lacks magical constitution.
Yeah, but we are where we are. Hopefully we will get to somewhere good from here.
Best regards,Steven.
Yep, i think 1.1 should be delayed until it is really complete. Releasing 1.1 without an initiative based combat system and without casting times is a mistake, because these are huge gameplay changes and an expansion that includes these changes will look like a new game.
I could not disagree more. In someways it feels like they have delayed 1.1 too long as is. While I am all for supporting the devs as they try to make good steps forward, waiting too much time will have an significant effects on the community, both in terms of loss of members and more importantly the loss of hardworking community members willing to put effort into expanding the game. Most mod makers I converse with have either moved on to different games or put their mods on hold pending the new release. While these players may eventually return to play a more interesting version in six months, most of the former modders will more than likely have lost any desire to expand the medium.
Personally speaking, I think that initiative based combat and casting times are nice features, but are far from necessities. As long as there are AI and combat changes to make the game more challenging, the rest will flow in nicely. In my opinion, I think that initiative and casting times are far less important than some aspects which the devs have said they have no current plays to address. For Example, I have been told the devs are not even addressing the OP nature of towns taken from an opposite faction. While something like casting times would be a nicety, these towns are so OP that you can make them have negative unit build times, though the system will set the unit build time to 1 at this point.
Agreed. But i think this aspect where all spellbooks are researched is definitely in and the developers definitely not going to change this. The rest of the changes look promising to push towards a MOM-like game, except the beginning options don't matter...
Oh well, I'll wait for EWOM II in 2014 then...
And releasing nothing until June isn't a mistake? Will anybody be left around here by then?
For that matter, why is it not okay for an expansion to look like a new game, while it IS okay for a patch to look like a new game? That doesn't make sense.
Good to hear it!
I would play a Stardock rpg, then again, I would play GalCiv 3 too. I think in the end, whatever game SD puts out next will be amazing after all the things that they have learned from their last few games.
I agree with this. It seems that the difference between sovereigns and wizards is ill defined, and something needs to be decided here. So far, I haven't seen a compelling need for this difference for any gameplay reason, and fictionally it creates difficulties. First of all, the sovereigns have been termed 'immortal', but if that were true, there would be no need for a dynasty system. Second, we also know that the units on the map most likely to die are in fact the sovereigns. So really, they are far from immortal, which then gives us back the reason for dynastic succession, but then if the sovereign dies, the faction dies with him, again leaving the concept of dynasties flapping in the wind. The role of the sovereign is still a dreadfully confused muddle.
The value of dynasties is that of smooth political transition. If everything depends on the original sovereign, then you don't need dynasties. Since we have them, and they do make for some interesting gameplay developments, why not use them and allow succession? Just because a sovereign doesn't age, doesn't mean he can't die, as we have seen n - 1 times in every complete game.
in a word: yes
Hey Derek,
I think you mentioned the pacing of the first 30 turns is bad and you are right. Is anything being done about that in 1.1?
I personally would like change wisdom to agility and then:
-Agility gives us the base movements/attacks and the dodge chance
-dexterity gives the chance to hit our target (both melee and ranged).
-Strength adds bonus to damage in melee and also gives acces to heavy armor, heavy weapons. I.e. if you want to wear plate mail you need at least 15 str etc... Horses add some to strenght and movement.
-Constitution adds hps and some resistance to diseases spells
-Intelligence is the base for spell damage and could also raise whole abilities (optional)
Bows damage would be a mix of str and dex
And i would like a critical chance. Weapons could have a base critical. Could be 2 ways.
First way: i.e. axe has 10% of critical base. And our warrior has a 67% chance to hit a target. We could do 6.7% chance for a critical and 60.3% for a normal strike. Critical hits need a critical dodge to avoid them. So if our target has a 21% of dodge then it has 2.1% chance to avoid the critical hit.
Second way: Axe has 10% of critical chance. Our warrior has 67% chance to hit his target. If it hits then we woll again to see if it is acritical. 10% chance. Dodge chances same as first way.
But I guess we all have our own system, so do it as you wish
Keep on with the good work!
This stuff sounds great. Thank you for addressing champions. I'm looking forward to playing Elemental again after 1.1 (and hopefully won't regret not taking the 75% refund).
Just want to give you guys a tip to watch out for High str champions with High speed weapons. It's an unintuitive combo, but it could very well make it so a super strong champion can use his linear attack bonus * higher attack speed for the exponential growth you guys were looking to avoid in the first place. Maybe some weapons need to have a cap on how much strength can be used?
Also, dexterity is very boring as a defense-only stat. Maybe add some sort of critical hit option in the future? If you choose to go this route, you could easily tie critical hit damage bonuses into bows, making dex the go to stat for archers.
so.. how does imbuing work in 1.1? (without digging through a few hundred pages that is...)
i mean currently, the sov sacrifice max mp to give someone else some max mp...
with shared mp, does it cost anything?
1 mana/turn to maintain it.
1 mp per turn per caster?
children are auto imbued?
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
