(11-01-2014, 01:05 AM)Ry Vor Wrote: Which spells and associated power levels and which artifacts would you revise and how. Is there a spell or artifact we need to add or subtract?
Oh, the post I've been waiting for
Ok, here it goes. We definitely need more combat spells for the higher level wizards. Earthquake even if cast by a pwr-8 only does 8,800 damage vs a group that is typically over 100,000 strong. So we need something like the following:
Ice Torrent (6th level): 1600 damage/level
Acid Rain (7th level): 2000 damage/level
Prismatic Rays (8th level): 2500 damage/level plus 10% morale loss from daze
Disintegrate (9th level): 3000 damage/level plus 20% morale loss from demoralizing effect
Detonate (9th level): massive damage against opposing troops that also kills the wizard
So if a group had a pwr-8 wizard that cast disintegrate, it would result in 24,000 magic damage (without presence) and lowers surviving troop morale by 20% (which helps vs big groups). Even though there are not that many pwr-8's in games, when they exist, they should do more damage than just a lousy earthquake against others late in the game.
To protect that valuable Warlord from dying at a measly village, how about a low level protection spell for leaders to be immune to combat damage.
For pre-battle spells, how about Cry of the Banshee (9th level) that is similar to the kill leader/wizard spell that the protect spell doesn't counter.
Need a more powerful version of Wraithform like Lichform that is a permanent pwr-7 wizard. Also, I would change the group section of the printout for undead leaders/wizards to no longer display an asterisk next to their name but rather actually state their undead status.
Something like this:
Instead of: * Ry Vor (Power-5)
Show: Ry Vor (Power-5 Wraith) or Ry Vor (Power-7 Lich)
It looks better on the report and newer players won't ask what an asterisk means.
As for summoning undead troops, we need one for the desert and possibly water terrains. How about Summon Mummies (7th level) for deserts and Summon Sea Hags (8th level) for water.
For regional spells, how about a Summon Kraken (6th level) that destroys fleets.
Better balancing of certain spells against certain kingdoms like if dragons are immune to Earthquake/Wall of Fire then counter-balance that with dragons receiving more damage from Tornado.
I also would like to see a new spell to create artifacts by high level wizards. Create Artifact (8th level) will allow a wizard to create a new and customized artifact in the game based upon the selected options chosen with the order (similar to the ESO award order). The more options chosen for the new artifact, the more deadly the spell becomes for the wizard which may die from the stress of the magical energies involved in constructing the artifact. I don't think other PBeM games allow players to create a customized magic item like this so Alamaze could be the first!!
About improving artifacts in general, I would have weapon artifacts inflict a percentage of damage rather than a fixed amount. This allows weapon artifacts to scale better based upon the size of the opposing group and be more effective in battles (and something to fear). If you go this route then also place the restriction that a group may only have one weapon artifact attached to it otherwise stacking them would become too powerful.
Horn of the Intrepid needs to be increased to +25,000 defense for a pc.
I would like to see more artifacts that mimic other spells. Like how Rod of Fire is a level 2 firestrike, how about Thor's Hammer that is a level 5 earthquake or Poseidon's Trident is a level 4 lightning attack.
I also wouldn't allow certain artifacts like Rings of Protection or Palantirs to be placed in neutral pop centers when the game starts. It's just unfair to the other players to automatically pick up a free artifact when they gain a pc early in the game. Especially, when those rings seem to pop up in region 2 more than anywhere else...
Finally, I would also make encounters much more difficult. Magic items should be rare and challenging to achieve. I've been in games now where even a leaderless group can succeed in attaining an artifact on turn 2 which doesn't seem right. So how about revamping the algorithm so encounters are more difficult to overcome which makes attaining artifacts that much more valuable and worthwhile in the game.
[As a side note not related to this thread]
For 4th Cycle (or earlier), I would like to see randomized city locations rather than their fixed placement on the map. I've played in an experimental game of mine where each region had 0-3 cities and it was definitely more exciting to play than the current exploratory version. Something like this isn't difficult to code and the players may like it better.
Buddy/Ignore List
