Question about abilities

Hi,

As some of you may know, I am project leader for new town Oasis for VCMI. As we are approaching alfa version I would like to ask if ability planned for one unit is possible to implement in current version.

So basically Lamassu was designed to be support 7lvl unit which would cast spells for ally army during fight at the beginning of the turn.
I know that it is possible to give it enchanter ability to cast spells at the beginning of the turn.
While this idea is ok, I think that it may be too powerful for regular unit, so I would like to ask whether:

  1. Is it possible to cast random spell on** random unit** in army instead on enchanting full army?
    Other option would be:
  2. Master Genie-like ability to cast random spell on selected allied stack, but** without loosing turn**

Both options are not implemented. First is easier to implement.

As Wiki says,

So if you want to cast Slow, which is mass spell on expert level, you must set val to 0 (no level), 1 or 2 (basic or advanced)

"abilitySlow":{
"type":"ENCHANTER",
"subtype":"spell.slow",
"addInfo":3, //for example)
"val":2
}

May work (didnā€™t checked it recently)

Enchanter ability will work on all targets even with non-expert spell level.
Otherwise it wouldnā€™t know which target to choose.

Sorry, just checked, Slow got to all enemy unitsā€¦
Then only OPENING_BATTLE_SPELL

Thanks for quick reply. It is too bad then, I hope it will be implemented until town is finishedā€¦ but I will think about other abilitiy just in case.

Please add this on bug tracker with ā€œfeatureā€ severity.
Of course itā€™s must be two separate issues for each behaviour.

Iā€™ve added it on a bug tracker with severity: ā€œfeatureā€, as you suggested, SXX. I hope that Iā€™ve explained and placed it correctly.

Enchanter and Random Spell Caster

Thanks! Love your art so if nobody else going to implement those Iā€™ll eventually jump on it.

Oh, thanks :slight_smile: I would be extremely grateful for this option if you would find time for that in future.

I will post then other ideas just in case somebody would like to help to realize some of them

  1. Snakeman

I had this little idea to make it first 1/2 shooter, literally. For now I am using concept of limited shots to emphasize it role as half-shooter, but it would be great if

  1. there will be an option for limited range of shot. By this I mean that it could shoot only from 3-5 (?) hex distance. I guess it is technically rather complicated idea as movement is treated as an action which is finishing creature turn, in other words snakeman would have first to move some distance to attack from distance.

If this is not surreal enough idea should I add it as well on bug tracker?

  1. Sand ghost

There is this whole concept about town fighting style. Mainly it is designed to focus on crowd control, and sand ghost which is casting ā€œquicksandsā€ is important part of it.

While OPENING_BATTLE_SPELL allow this CC tactic to work in short battles, I think that recasting it after effect wore of would be crucial in longer battles.

  1. Lamp of Genie

Currently it is not possible to summon any creature during battle, and this artifact is all about it. I have not decided yet whether it would give opening battle spell effect, or rather would be realized as additional spell in book

Both options would be nice thing to have.

  1. Sun mask

This one is just my guess. While scouting is working fine, I think that it uses just numbers extending view like 1,2,3. Is it possible to improve this property by adding it a percent value?

For example this mask would extend view for 35%. It would require to calculate something in between based on current heroes skill.

If hero have scouting on advanced level vision would be 2,7 (2 + (35%x2)/100%) or 4,05 (3 + (35%x3)/100%) for master.

==

Btw. I donā€™t want to scare anyone, and also for You to think that if you give your finger, I will take the whole hand. If anyone of You will find some time to realize any of those propositions I would be very happy :slight_smile:

This should be possible, but base SIGHT_RADIUS value is 0. So it will only work is hero already has scouting value of 3 or more.

Damn 0 number, so perhaps it should add plain number of vision like 1, and % number should be lowered to like 15%

Cool ideasā€¦

If anything I would also probably use this if it was implemented. It might be complicated though depending on the existing code for shooters.

Another way to do it however might be to further increase penalty of shot. In h4 for example orcs did 1/4 damege at full distance instead of 1/2. Heck it might be even 1/8 . Maybe range penalty could be a stat that would be user defined in percantages :).

Iā€™m having some problems understanding creature abilities. Does anyone know what does ā€˜dragon natureā€™ do?

It do nothing by itself, but allows other effects f.e. artefact bonuses, hero specialities affect only dragons.

Or instead of having a fixed distance at which 1/2 damage penalty applies, it could become a creature property. So if set to 3, you only deal full damage from a distance of 3 or less.