Once the engine is about right...

from Elemental Forums

Will you be putting more "meat" in this game before you launch an expansion, or will that be the source of any expansions?

 

I ask because the variety of monster and the number of spells are both a bit thin.  One of the first things I did after my first game was to redo the spellbook, and after a few hours of work, I had almost double the spells, without touching particle forge.  I can summon more than one of the minor things, without summoning an army, and that's just cutting and pasting(although "Summon Demon 1" does lack some pizazz).

 

In other words, it doesn't look like it'd be all that tough.

 

Also, let me ask this:  Are you going to introduce anything to make the race choice more important?  Wraiths should be more different than Men than their appearance, you know?

 

Finally, you have Ogres and Trolls as monsters, why not the other "normal" fantasy races?  Elves, dwarves, and orcs have all been the most basic(from what I have seen) fantasy races used in fantastic settings.  If you were to include them, there's nothing stopping you from including your own created races as well, you know?

elemental
8,863 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

The spellbook is seeing a complete overhaul for v1.1. 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Yes, but does that mean more spells, or just spells in different books?

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Forget orcs and elves. We want Kenders :D

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

That is sweet.  I'm looking forward to trying it.  I would like to give you some numbers though:

 

Master of Magic-Over 150 spells (I counted 211, but wasn't sure how many were both combat and non-combat, besides disenchant.

 

Bard's Tale series: Well, 1 had 7 levels in 4 books, average of 2 spells per level, that's 56 spells.  3 had 7 levels across 7 books with an average of alittle less than 2 per level, which whould be98 spells, or slightly less.

 

So I guess with 75 spells, you're shooting for a game total rivalling... Bard's Tale 2?  It might be enough.  Maybe the "levels" being kind of sparse made it seem worse than it is.  Just remember, If fireblast is just shooting 9 fireballs at once for twice the price of one fireball, well, that's fine with me!

 

:)

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Master of Magic-Over 150 spells (I counted 211, but wasn't sure how many were both combat and non-combat, besides disenchant.

End of quote

Having a lot of spells is meaningless if you never use them. I used a handful of spells in MOM and never even thought about the others. All you really needed was Confusion and Counter Magic anyways. ;)) Ones I can remember are enchant weapons, Flying, summon ghouls, summon lycanthropes, summon sky drakes, phantom warriors, shadow warriors, floating islands, as mentioned confusion, counter magic (most powerful spell in game actually if used right), black sleep and once in awhile if I played around Shadow Demons. That's it that was my magic spell book pretty much. Rarely I'd use a dispell magic or those silly global spells. Once you got to those invisible little guys, lycanthrope army and sky drakes it was pretty much over anyways.

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting misterhamtastic, reply 5
So I guess with 75 spells, you're shooting for a game total rivalling... Bard's Tale 2?  It might be enough.  Maybe the "levels" being kind of sparse made it seem worse than it is.
End of misterhamtastic's quote

Also remember that some spells have a global mana maintenance cost. You have to decide now if the cost is worth it.

 

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

I dunno, Zombie Mastery and Ghouls were fun, if you could afford them.  Zombie Mastery and Wrack was nasty too.  There were combinations of tac and strat spells all over the place, and game winning strategies available in every color.

 

I guess that's one thing I'd like to see, Strategic spells with tactical effect are always pretty cool in my book, just expensive.

 

I just want more, you know?  Give me a mithril mine or two, some adamantium, enchanted long swords for my Imperial Guardsmen, stuff like that.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

I dunno, Zombie Mastery and Ghouls were fun, if you could afford them.
End of quote

Afford them? Man didn't you ever use the Alchemy trait? Made gold into mana 1 for 1. I always had a ton of gold and with it I could upkeep just about anything.

Lycanthrope armies were cheap too. Only needed a spearman to make each wolf. I loved my werewolf armies.

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

I was always fond of Cracks Call, I loved that it could eliminate magic immune paladins as the magic was taking place below them}:)

A great little touch, and one that could be overcome by casting Flying on them.  Also, invisible flying galleons loaded with a stack of doom.  Sigh... Good times.

Looking forward to tonight and all of the upcoming improvements.

 

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Black Prayer, Wrack, Terror... and then you just stand there and watch.

Two heros with Earth/Air elemental X4 on their wands... all you need to kill anything.

Flame Strike... and then mop up with lame archers.

High Prayer coupled with some nice hero bonusses...

Unfortunately, there was no real balance. Wraithformed Paladins... --> win. Chaoschanneled Berserkers --> win. And in version 1.0, death channeled adamantium Warlocks --> win. All those spells caused some really bad balance issues. Not to mention death channeled (And then cancelled) engineers... upkeep cost: nada.

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

i see some interesting choices in here.  Way cool....

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting misterhamtastic, reply 5
That is sweet.  I'm looking forward to trying it.  I would like to give you some numbers though:

 

Master of Magic-Over 150 spells (I counted 211, but wasn't sure how many were both combat and non-combat, besides disenchant.

 

Bard's Tale series: Well, 1 had 7 levels in 4 books, average of 2 spells per level, that's 56 spells.  3 had 7 levels across 7 books with an average of alittle less than 2 per level, which whould be98 spells, or slightly less.

 

So I guess with 75 spells, you're shooting for a game total rivalling... Bard's Tale 2?  It might be enough.  Maybe the "levels" being kind of sparse made it seem worse than it is.  Just remember, If fireblast is just shooting 9 fireballs at once for twice the price of one fireball, well, that's fine with me!

 

End of misterhamtastic's quote

If this was the end of the effort, then yeah. But the expansions have other changes planned, which will hopefully bring new and improved mechanics so we can have spells that affect them too. Like right now you can't have a spell to weaken the walls in tactical combat, because there's no walls. There's no flight. etc.

 

75 spell isn't a final count. It's the 1.1 count. You can expect that number to go up again in the expansions.