Unfortunately, there is no good way to effect 2 groups of people with one spell.  It either has to effect enemies or friendlies, can't do both until they change the way things work.   Sorry.  I have some great spells to suggest once we get that type of spell working.     New version going up in a minute.  Same link as before.   

Wall of Flame will not!!!! push people back.  I don't know why, I am using the same code as another spell.   I'll have to figure it out, but try these out.   

  That was Murteas idea. 

I just bumped up the pain on the (balance / fun) pass we discussed that is due to roll out with the next major mod release.

But there is chance of Crystal, Housing and Elementium in it as well.  Fortune is a feisty mistress.

Good Ideas and testing them now. Would be nice to have some early game spells like what you are talking about.

@John: Snort. no worries, if you think that is negative try feedback on user acceptance testing from data analysts.  I will joyously try and use anything you can throw my way.  Hell take a crack at it.  Worst thing that happens is we end up with multiple ice effects to use for different spells?  As the engine matures, spells that do multi-tile effects that visualize randomized and different tiles instead of the old paint the same? In short

&    good sir.

I like the Vines a lot; maybe we can sub that in for the effect at this spell level and come up with another spell / idea for the hands?  I say;

1. Put the cool "Hands" tile on the back burner till we get something more on what is coming up to control movement.

2. Expand the "vines" out to fill more of the tile, a fat cross + shape rather than the current =

3. Add something in a subtle green lighting effect to the vines.  Something swamp gas like?

4. Put that in for the Earth Level 2 effect.  Let me think about Lore...

@ Murteas: I really like the sovereign traits as you implemented them, it allows for element specialized wizards from the get go.  I think you should add the Sovereign traits as a chapter to the Grimoire.  The numbers feel good, and I like the icons.  Felt like a natural part of the game first time I made a sovereign.  Betcha 5 karma something almost equivalent to these game effects is in the first expansion.  Maybe write it up and post for a balance round?

Chapter Title Suggestion:"Birthstar Blessings"

I was also going to offer some code; how about I write a hack mod for testing that keeps the spells cheap and available to do art, effects, game play testing stuff with (plus hunt bears mercilessly).  Murteas that way you just need to update the main mod and worry about overall balance; drop in the brace if you want to fire up an animation test, delete to sit back and play a game. I will try and keep the brace good for all the spells that have arty components people might want to work with. 

Thoughts?

New beta posted with the new tiles from John.    I am currently working on getting the fire spell to push people back.  Once I get that working, I think I'll set the spells in the right spellbook, and add any graphics you might have ready, and we'll release it to the public and let them try it out.    

Make sure you download again to get the latest stuff:  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12727985/MG_Beta.zip

John & Agrippa - I really appreciate your work on this.  You guys are awesome!    

@ John - Graphics for medalliions and the book would be great! 

@Agrippa - Yeah, if you want to write something to help us test this that would be great.  I currently use svn to manage my code/mods so that I can revert if I have to, but it is a pain to have to change the values constantly.    

The sovereign talents have been added to the mod as a separate folder (meaning they can be easily deleted if someone doesn't like them).   

You can place a decal in the mod\gfx folder, but it won't show up in the editor. It will still show up when the tile is used.

Yeah, cool. Don't forget to include the resources somewhere, if the player isn't running ACP.

So you guys want freezing rain to be against all enemies, instead of just a single enemy (how it is right now)?  Or I could do it in an area of effect, if that works better.

Okay, so after fighting with the push back effect of the fire spell, I thought I would try the spell I was basing the effect off of to make sure it works, guess what the actuall spell (Titan's breath) doesn't work either, it in fact does nothing!!!   So I don't know how to push people back right now, we may just have to cause them to lose a turn.   

Ideas?  thoughts?   Has anyone every used Titan's breath successfully? (in the vanilla game). 

Got a hint from Heavenfall and I got the push back effect to work!  

Linque is going to start working on some particle effects for us (arcane missile, altar of fortune, etc.)   

I'll get these spells ready for public consumption.   Let me know what you guys think about the new effects, and if you still want to tweak them before the next release.

edit:  new beta available with fix for flame burst spell (changed from wall of flame).   This is a release candidate (with the exception of moving the spells to the correct spell book and level).   Let me know if you like the changes to the spell range/area of effect/duration/damage/etc.    Mana costs are currently 20 but that may need to change.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12727985/MG_Beta.zip

BTW - There is an exploit with the guardian spells.   They aren't dismissed when you cancel the spell.   Don't know if I can work around it.   We may have to make them a one time cast and limit it to the sovereign.

Gentleman, let me be the first to say we are now a Pinned Mod.    Congrats Murteas, nice to be ranked among the kids.

I will be testing the Battlefield spells after work today; I wanted to get a couple thoughts I have had about the Cantrips out for discussion.

Arcane Missile: John, you had mentioned that you think this is a bit overpowered at 5 mana,  and I can see that line of thinking due to its power scale rising in step with Arcane arrow.  I have not had a chance to do a lot of late game testing to play around with this, but I wondered if putting it on a different power scale increase could keep the beginning game fun while making it not so obvious a spam choice later.  Say:

Damage = 4 + 1 per 10 INT

This still makes it strong early game, but the power curve is now much shallower. 

Summoned Weapons & Upgraded Weapons: Playing with this mod & Kenata's Upgraded Weapons makes the Blade & Shillelagh feel a little underpowered versus the normal set of weapons (played with vanilla game they are great where they are).  I am going to do a sub-mod a la my Elf Upgraded Weapons for these, was considering adding the following abilities:

Shillelagh of Life= +1 Move; Rest

Blade of Death= Double Strike

Summoned Weapons & Art: I think that both of these should get a graphic makeover to reflect their magical nature and differentiate characters equipped with them in tactical combat.  My inspiration is Artifact and its colored / graphically enhanced models; updates to the icon would be cool as well.  Ideally these should NOT duplicate the appearance of anything used in Artifact to keep the two mods playing well together.  I am throwing this one wide open for submissions in the hopes of attracting a better artist than me.

As always eager to hear Thoughts?

Just had an idea. Since you can have a strategic spell that effects a tile to do damage to units in the tile. Do you think it would be possible to make a tile grant effects/abilities/attributes etc when entering the Strategic tile. It may even be possible to make it so the abilities only unlock if your attributes exceed a certain amount.

Whoa! I just noticed I was listed in the credits as inspiration. I have no idea what that even means

@ John: Grasping vines spell effect has reached the point of badass. (v3 worked for me last night and just now)  Hat tip, sir. 

My only feedback is related to unit visibility;  some of the spiders (and I am assuming future short fellows) get totally eaten by the current level of ground coverage.  My suggestion: Could you shrink the height of and maybe move the ground cover foliage only around a little to make it easier to see these?  Also consider shrinking the size of the tile centered light effect (leave the others the same).  Another ugly space map to illustrate where it would be nice to have units more visible (to see where in tile they are):

X= shrink foliage, 0 = leave the same

OOXOO

OOOOO

XOXOX

OOOOO

OOXOO

I say Earth > Level 2 > Battlefield spell name is officially changed to Grasping Vines.  "Hands" and its tile we save for future inspiration.