Souls-Stream

Join Date 05/2010

More Kick*** Spells !

Boosting the spellbook a little?

Hi all,

I just aquired this amazing game, though I was a bit disapointed by the spellbook.... The artwork of spells are amazing and when the time to cast spells comes... It's all a big disapointment

Where all those amazing powerful spells you see in the intro cinematic ? Those that rip the earth appart ? Will the spells be better looking in Fallen Enchantress? Like the rain of fire or desintgration spell (could be a big pillar of fire on one or more units.

Also, I think spells like wall of earth (to block or slow the ennemi on the battlefield or on the main land) and wall of fire (on the battlefield it would be great to defend yourself) are cruelly missing and what about a spells that puts a permanent wall of fire around the city like in master of magic?

There could be some spells like earth spikes, impalling your ennemi from bellow or earth prison, to block one unit in a prison of earth spike.

What about a spell of water to flood the land? Or a Tsunami wave on the battlefield?

Earthquake to make the battle field shake or fissure to open a fissure and let the unit fall to a fiery pit of fire, or it could act as an obstacle (battlefield and/or map)

All those spells might seem very powerful but that's what's lacking in the game, don't you think?

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mqpiffle

Join Date 10/2010

+44

These are all great ideas but a lot of them can not or are very difficult to implement the way the code is currently set up(some like earthquake are already there, I believe.) Check out the mods forum for some additional spell mods currently in development. We as modders are hoping for some love in this department as well, and be assured there will be content of this sort as soon as the resources to create it are available.

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That's a sad news and a great news at the same time!

Ya, earthquake is already there but it's just not kick *** enough, you know?

I'll continue to check the mods in case something great arise I'm thinking also a lot about Master of Magic.

Age of wonders was good too but it lacked of something too in spells I just cannot point really what Master of Magic had and that age of wonders and Elemental lack even if they are amazingly great games.

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mqpiffle

Join Date 10/2010

+44

Well, I for one am working on it so keep an eye out for updates to the Additional Spell Books mod.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

I still couldn't care less about the graphics for any spells; it's what the spells can do that matters most, and so far, they don't do much that you can't also do with mundane weapons. The lack of kick-assedness is in the lack of a coherent set of rules that lead to an interesting variety of strategies for spell research and use, and especially in the lack of strategic spells that do more than just tweak stats for units or settlements.

Modding is swell and all that, but the base game needs to stand solidly on its own. WoM might get there, and hopefully FE will start out solid in this regard, but the FE buzz so far still seems to nearly ignore the idea that the sovereigns were once envisioned as deeply magical beings who could eventually become strong enough to wreck the world again if enough of them got into a long enough fight.

A map covered with volcanos seems more like coming home after vacation to find that your neighbor never walked the dogs for you, just fed them enough to be good turd producers and stepped carefully on the way in and out of the house. Where are options to do things like send the world into drought, drive all the spiders from forests to towns, or double the mana cost of your enemy's attempt to use a particular school of magic (shard type)? And why the frak are there still no spells to dispel enemy spells?

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True, a dispel spell would be good.

The visual effect of spells I think are important because it's what will make you feel powerful as a wizard. A small fireball hitting a unit without much further effect will make you regret you ever casted that spell but if it has a nice explosion effect with some screen shaking then you'll have a different view on the spell even if the damage delt were the same! Add an effect that the unit catch fire and you'll love the spell. But visual effect/effect should be proportioned of course.

Lower/Raise land and volcanos are at my deepest regret the only spells doing really anything to spice the game but they quickly gets boring and a map full of volcanoes/mountains is just not great as you stated. Spells to raise/decrease stats are good and important in my opinion but damage dealers are awesome... Even more awesome are spells that can modify the terrain remove/add stuff. It seems the engine is powerful enough to do that (I'm talking about raise/lower land spells as well as the one changing it to another type). And add a wall of fire on the map to strategically make your opponent take another way or risk it and take a bunch of damage.

So why not a rain of fire/rock on the battlefield or on a city on the map or on some units? Or a wall of dirt instead of creating mountains everywhere to block the ennemi? As you said, spells that would allow more strategies, more global enchantments that would affect the environment, increase your defense strategy or put your ennemi in trouble. Age of wonders/Master of Magic were successfull there and had great strategy with those spells.

But I want to thank all modders for all their hardwork about the game and spells, I'll definitely follow up

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Quoting Souls-Stream,

reply 5

True, a dispel spell would be good.

The visual effect of spells I think are important because it's what will make you feel powerful as a wizard. A small fireball hitting a unit without much further effect will make you regret you ever casted that spell but if it has a nice explosion effect with some screen shaking then you'll have a different view on the spell even if the damage delt were the same! Add an effect that the unit catch fire and you'll love the spell. But visual effect/effect should be proportioned of course.

I disagree with this entirely. I care only for the mechanics of the spell. I was incredibly disappointed with the elemental spell books. All but fire are fairly useless. Many of the spells are restricted to a single mana per turn or a single casting per turn regardless of it's power level, and mana is only acquired via new shards, which means you could either pool up for combat or non-combat spells, since maintenance slowed your per turn gain. Honestly I think I prefered when you could only maintain so many spells, and I really dislike that no matter what spell you are casting it uses the same number of strategic turns to cast (zero) or combat speed (all).

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I care a lot about the mechanic of the spell but don't tell me that you don't care about the visual of the spell too! They're just as much important. The fireball spell has the most disapointing effect I ever saw in a game! Even if it does pretty decent damage, I don't like to use it because I feel like a weakling ! The unit doesn't even take after spell effect like burning... I mean, the burning okay, I can do without it but the spell effect please ! And you say all but fire spells are useless? Fire seems pretty useless to me too when I see the damage it does! Even if the fireball spell would do a 100 damage, I would find it ridiculous with the visuals it has right now.

Also the Pseudo wall of earth that last 3 turns and cover only one case.... How are we supposed to use that? Every units go around it so easily... What's even the purpose of it? It blocks arrows maybe but on one case! Bowmen can walk fast too... 3 turns is not enough, one case is not enough.

But I'm glad all agrees the spells are useless ! Except the invocation spells which are pretty powerful.

I just make a pure barbarian and develop armies instead of magic and there the game becomes way better but it's sad to let magic apart in a game that bears the title of "War of Magic"

I keep hope that the devs will create something way better in Fallen Enchantress... If not, I hope the modders will succeed to do some pretty awesome stuff like there's already plenty around Modders totally rocks and are awesome for sharing their creation ! I still think Elemental is a fantastic game, I just want to see the magic system revamped to make it perfect

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

Quoting Souls-Stream,

reply 7

I care a lot about the mechanic of the spell but don't tell me that you don't care about the visual of the spell too! They're just as much important. ...

It's likely that many, perhaps most, players agree with you. But there are some of us out there who look on all the 3D stuff as a resource drag that makes newer hardware more important than it should be and consumes dev resources that would be better spent on game mechanics and text content.

The only way I can imagine spending much time zoomed in from the cloth map is if FE has a radically new approach to settlements, preferably One Faction, One City. I prefer the largest maps my PC can handle, and in WoM so far, that means city spam. 3D graphics are a waste from my POV because the resources they consume could have been spent on better info display on the cloth map and a management UI that's not ashamed to acknowledge that there's a database behind the game. Instead, we have all this focus on flash and dazzle, to the point where the game at launch looked as if it had been designed for the deck market, not PC players.

The last thing I want to see increased magic system funding go to is more 3D fizziness. It matters not one whit to me whether a fireball spell looks awesome in the tac battle UI if the magic system as a whole lacks the basic structure that makes strong supporting art possible. So, yes, more kick-ass spells indeed. Just keep in mind that kick-assedness is a form of beauty, and hence an eye of the beholder thing. (And yes, this game really should have a Beholder easter egg in it somewhere.)

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You don't need extra crazy effect with 3d and stuff to make something good, but look at Master of Magic, the spell effects where really great while not being the most technical 3d effects. I'm a role player (PNP not computer), and when I incarn a mage at Ars Magika, when I cast a spell, especially with the spell description, I imagine something more than what War of Magic is like. That's the way mage compensate from fighters in great awesome armor and giant swords who have a bunch of life. A mage is someone is rather weak, one hit of a sword and he's dead in 90% of the case, he cannot wear any armor except robes but he compensate by being a huge damage dealer and by being more strategic to survice. That's how it should be in War of Magic and I don't think I'm asking too much when I ask for the spells to look a little bit sexier without making a huge 3d effect sparkling and dazling and colourful and... Don't you think? Some spells already look good, they're just useless. I guess I was too motivated by the introduction cinematic where the artworks were showing amazing spells with all powerful wizards which after looking a few times and reading all info about the game, decided me to finally buy it... Was I wrong?

I don't really use the cloth map that much actually, I am used to the minimap which is arleady great, but I like the cloth map to quickly find a unit and zoom back in on it, though I would not play from there.

I don't like city spam either but I feel like War of Magic is forcing us to create a thousand cities everywhere and in the end, I believe I create more settlers than any war units. Anyway, concentrating on summoning for magic while playing like a fighter and building specialized cities everywhere is the best way to win from what I could I see from the few games I won. And rushing towards shards is totally useless since it will give you those precious crystals to cast useless spells even against weak units.

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