Keep responding while  I am typing; thanks the gods for year end server cleaning and the loads of time it gives for things like forums.  Multiple folders a la Expanded sounds like a perfect solution to me.  I reserve the right to keep thinking up "Chapter" names.

You asked for it; I will try and see if I can get anything to happen for art, probably start with some tiles and particle effects.  Not going to go for paintings, realistically won't produce anything "not shat" in the time I have available.

Enjoy the vacation with the wife, hopefully the new year will bring us a way to encourage the AI tactically.  With cattle prods if needed...

Cheers and hope you can have some s.

Okay, version 0.18 is up.   And Focus is gone for now... if someone has a brilliant idea on how to make it balanced for a spell, let me know, otherwise I will concentrate on new spells.

Also, I have changed the directory structure so now you should be able to manage more easily which spells you want from the mod.  The first "chapter" is Cantrips or level 0 spells, you should see it show up in your mod folder next to the base Murteas Grimoire directory.   If you want to get rid of the beginning (level 0) spells and keep the rest of the mod (which is nothing at the moment), you can just delete the Cantrips directory.   

From now on, each new spell will belong to a certain chapter, which I will try to keep within a certain theme.    If someone is dying to have a mix of themes and wants to remove just one spell, I am sure I can help with that as well, just let me know.

Okay, I've gotta go for now.   More spells tomorrow.  Hopefully focusing on battlefield strategy.  

  - Great to hear the AI is using the missile at least a little bit.     

As I am looking at the spells you suggested, the problem I am running into, is that I can't shape them like you suggested (1x3, 2x3, etc).   I can easily do one tile, and make it unpassable (see RockSlide level 3 earth spell), but I am not sure I can "summon" a unit (rock) during tactical battle, and have it go away.  I'm going to play with this a little more, but if you have any other ideas, let me know.    

Also I had an idea for a Cantrip Enchanment spell while on the way for milk this morning.  Sorry about the complexity of this one:

Enchantment > Level 0 > Blessed Wheel of Fortune The sovereign called out at the height of the feast "Behold what the gods give us today!"

Cost 20: Duration 10 turns. This enchantment causes a great Wheel of Fortune to appear in the center of the city, blessing the city with a random gift from the gods once a season.   List and chances of each gift:

+3 Gold 30%

+2 Materials 25%

+1 Metal 20%

+1 Crystal 15%

+1 Population 10%

This would need to be play tested for balance, but I like the random nature.  This should be the weakest spell in Enchantment after all, and the possibility of getting a population when your housing is full does introduce some risk.

I think that creating the goodie hut is a great idea!  Maybe change the cost to 5 to reflect that you are only going to get the bonus 1 time?  Use a 30 turn cool down to stop the spamming?  I think play testing would sort out what would be the right balance of the rewards, as some of those seem a little small if not done in a stream.

Maybe change the flavour text: "Makes an offering of mana to the gods of chance, causing them to send their emissary the Blessed Wheel of Fortune"

I will add a "Wheel of Fortune" to my to try and do tile set.  Right now I am planning on taking a crack at Wheel of Fortune, a tile on fire, and a tile covered in slippery looking ice.  I won't get a chance to work on these before Sunday, so if anyone else wants to have a shot please speak up.

John_Hughes, based on your past tiles, I am at you.

v0.20 uploaded.   Added the Gift of Fortune spell, which creates a goodie hut with a random "gift" from the gods.  

Please let me know what you think about balance and if the spell fits.   You can currently cast it anywhere in your territory and the goodiehut will show up after you move (engine limitation - it doesn't show up immediately).  Don't cast it on your city, as this tends to cause problems (like it won't show up).   

Enjoy!

Just wanted to get the ideas out of my head for the last Level 2 Battlefield spells:

Earth > Level 2 > Grasping Hands "The sovereign plunged his hands into the earth as if it was water; an instant later one of the enemy guards let out a yelp of surprise as a fist of stone rose up and grabbed his ankle"

Cost 30: Range 4 tiles from caster.  Causes stone hands to rise out of the ground and seize a unit preventing it from moving that turn.  During subsequent turns the hands attack (5) the unit; if they resist the damage they are free to move, if not they are stuck for another turn. (full action points, just can't move)  Units subsequently moving through the tile while the spell is in effect are attacked; if successful they are then stuck.   Duration 2 turns.  Plus 1 turn duration per 10 Intelligence.  Plus 1 attack per earth shard.

Air > Level 2 > Head Wind "The sovereign let out a booming exhale and it seemed like something made of mist in the air  started dancing in front of their archers!"

Cost 30: Range Infinite.  Causes a spirit of the wind to dance in front of the enemy, spoiling their ranged attack.  This is a unit enchantment; all troops gets -35% Accuracy and  -2 Attack. Duration 3 turns.  Plus 1 turn duration per 10 Intelligence.  Minus 1 attack per air shard.

Okay, version 0.21 is up.  Included the new graphics for the Fortune Altar from M. Agrippa.  They look really good in game.  Great job.   I adjusted the values a bit for the resources that come up so you should get a little more diverse set of things from the altar.  Let me know if you like the balance or if we need to adjust it.

Thank you to everyone who is using this mod, I know it isn't the fastest moving mod, but I am excited to add more spells, and keep them in line/balance with the main game and fill the voids that we currently see in the vanilla game.

The Tome of Master Agrippa (i.e. Battlefield spells) are up next!  Stay Tuned!  

No worries John, I noticed that you were kind of busy creating awesome buildings for Living Stone.  Well do I understand the limited nature of time to mod, was more if you were interested / inclined.  Gave me a kick to start playing with the tile creator in any case.  Do you have any tips on zoom performance, I think it looks really good in game until you zoom in to the closest settings, where it looks short if a character is standing next to it.

What would be cool is if you could help us with tiles for some of the spell effects described for the upcoming Battlefield chapter.  The spells are all outlined in the above thread, we are working on doing things that affect one tile in a tactile battle.  I currently have a version of the Ice tile I am working on, just not happy with it yet (should have it polished off this weekend).  There are also the Air and Fire tiles, so please just post if you want to reserve any of those.

The most difficult tile would be the Earth one "Grasping Hands", would you want to have a crack at that?  If you are not stoned out from EF stuff, I would really like to see your take on that one. 

Conjured... Sent files so you can see them on a Map. Note the unique decal I created. It is included. I added the Civilian simply for scale. He is base size. Let me know what you's think.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8370296/Grasping_Hands.rar

I tried something similar recently, to apply effects to tiles in tactical combat. No success. PlaceTerrain, PlaceEnvironment doesn't work. Tried copying the modifier found in the strategic spell Inferno. Didn't work.

To respond:


@ John That is freaking fantastic! I really like the decal; were you going for the effect where you matched the cracks to the fingers?  What were you thinking for multi-model units?  Scaling them up would make perfect sense to me, but is it even possible to detect the number of models and choose a tile appropriately?

@bout Annoying Engine Limitation: Well, that is a pain and I hope you triumph while I am typing.  We can also change the spells a little to fit the restraints.  Consider the goals of the spells; have elemental ways to affect tiles in the battles to make them more strategic. If we get something functional and get art packs going, we can always refine the rules after testing.

Earth> Grasping hands: we could change to be a rooting effect where they cannot move and suffer a muti-turn damage effect off of the initial attack.  How about: Duration 2 + 1 earth node; damage 2 + 1 per 10 INT.

>> It is more powerful against a single unit, but still has the effect of making someone stand and fight while being hurt.

Water > Freezing Rain: make it a rooting effect as well, keep the penalties to accuracy and dodge, and increase the range to 8 to make it more powerful.

Would be nice for shutting down ranged units, slowing units up during initial charge, and a debuff in the middle of a tough fight.

Range and different effects would allow them to play differently.  I would say a cool down of 10 on each; these should be a big trick to pull out of the bag.  Let me think about how we could change the others; any thoughts about this approach?

Any idea how they get the Rock Slide Spell to function as it does? It places Tile data, and even has a removal Turn timer applied. I have no idea on the code side but that same affect should be usable????? (please forgive my making such blatant and unfounded assumptions)