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A set of suggestions; perhaps there will be something suitable for the HOTA team here.
The motivation is to slightly balance the overall "usefulness" of different schools of magic and increase the benefit of some secondary skills.
The ultimate goal is to increase the realistically achievable variety in battles, which will make the game more spectacular.
Compare (the most frequently used and most powerful spells are highlighted in bold):
- Bless, Cure, Teleport, Clone, Prayer, Summon Water Elementals.
- Bloodlust, Curse, Blind, Fire Wall, Armageddon, Frenzy, Berserk, Summon Fire Elementals.
- Haste, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Summon Air Elementals.
- Shield, Slow, Stone Skin, Anti-magic, Meteor Shower, Resurrection, Explosion, Summon Earth Elementals.
I would like to point out that, compared to the school of Earth, there are not as many spells in the schools of Fire, Water, and Air that you would
actually use in a serious battle. I don't remember streams where Slow or Explosion were not used in the final battle (except rarely, when they could not be found), and I have seen many battles where spells are used only from the school of Earth. I believe that the schools should contain approximately the same number of such powerful spells. There are no critically important spells in the schools of Fire and Water, or almost none. The increase in effectiveness when upgrading the element for spells of the Water and Fire schools is not as significant as for the Earth school. The situation is further aggravated by the control and viewing spells, which are often important to have at the expert level.
List of suggestions.
- Change the mechanics of the Blind spell. Lasts for SP turns. Does not disappear when a stack receives damage. With an expert skill, the Fire magic stack does not respond to attacks. As before, the stack does not get a turn while the spell is active.
- Change the mechanics of the Cure spell. At the basic level, it does not remove negative spells, but heals the stack's health completely. Advanced and expert levels remove negative spells.
- Change the mechanics of the Ice Bolt spell. The spell hits two adjacent cells, and the damage is applied independently to each hex, so a two-hex unit will receive double damage if both of its cells are hit. By pressing a key, you can change the relative position of the target pair of hexes, rotating them.
- Change the mechanics of the Land Mine spell. Allows you to choose the location of each mine. The opponent never sees the location of the mines. The mine deals damage equal to 150 + 25*SP.
The Dispel and Remove Obstacle spells remove all mines from the battlefield.
- Change the mechanics of the Quicksand spell. Allows you to choose the location of each quicksand. The opponent never sees the location of the quicksand.
The Dispel and Remove Obstacle spells remove all quicksand from the battlefield.
- Change the power of the Fireball spell. Deals damage of 15\30\60 + SP*20.
- Change the power of the Inferno spell. Deals damage of 20\40\80 + SP*35.
- Change the power of the Frost Ring spell. Deals damage of 15\30\60 + SP*20.
- Change the mechanics of the Magic Mirror spell. Guaranteed to reflect damage received from magic, but not in full, but in accordance with percentages. 30% at the basic level, 50% at the advanced level, 50% for all of its units at the expert level. A harmful spell, such as a curse, may or may not be reflected; the probability is determined by these same percentages.
- Change the power of the Hypnotize spell. Can be cast on a stack with no more than 10\20\50 + SP*40 health.
The Astral hero can cast Hypnotize on a stack with no more than 10\20\50 + SP*60 health.
- Change the mechanics of the Dispel spell. At the expert level, it can be used in three ways: remove spells only from your stacks, only from enemy stacks, or from all stacks. To do this, after selecting the spell in the book, click on your stack, or on the enemy stack, or on an empty cell of the battlefield, respectively.
- Change the power of the Bloodlust spell. Adds 6\9\9 attack to the stack(s). A specialist in the spell increases the effectiveness of the spell by 1 for each level that is a multiple of 5.
For example, the hero Inteus, level 20, with an expert skill in Fire magic, will increase the attack of units by 9 + 20*0.2 = 13 units.
- Change the power of the Stone Skin spell. Adds 6\9\9 defense to the stack(s). A specialist in the spell increases the effectiveness of the spell by 1 for each level that is a multiple of 5.
- Change the power of the Weakness spell. Removes 6\9\9 attack from the stack(s). A specialist in the spell increases the effectiveness of the spell by 1 for each level that is a multiple of 5.
- Change the mechanics of the Prayer spell. The spell works similarly to the Disrupting Ray spell, namely: it allows repeated application to a stack and is not removed by the Dispel spell. The attack, defense, and speed parameters cannot increase more than twice the initial values of the creatures. For example, an Angel creature has 20 attack, 20 defense, and 12 speed; these parameters cannot be increased to more than 40 attack, 40 defense, and 24 speed with Prayer. The stats of the hero, the effect of artifacts on speed, and other spells are calculated as if the angels under the effect of Prayer were changing their basic attack, defense, and speed.
- Change the mechanics of the Clone spell. At the basic and advanced levels, Clone can be cast on stacks of creatures of any level.
At the advanced level, the clone disappears only after receiving a second hit.
At the expert level, the clone disappears only after receiving a third hit. The number of creatures in the clone stack does not change when damage is received. The clone never responds to attacks.
- Change the mechanics of the First Aid skill.
At the basic level, it fully heals the selected stack during the tent's turn; the tent has 200 health and gives +15 to the health of units of levels 6 and 7.
At the advanced level, it fully heals all stacks during the tent's turn; the tent has 300 health and gives +5 to the health of units of levels 4 and 5, and +15 to the health of units of levels 6 and 7.
At the expert level: it fully heals all stacks; the tent has 400 health and gives +1 to the health of units of levels 1, 2, and 3, +5 to the health of units of levels 4 and 5, and +15 to the health of units of levels 6 and 7.
As a result of these changes, the Water school will have spells that can compete in usefulness with Berserk, Implosion, Chain Lightning, Slow, Haste, Resurrection, and Anti-magic.
The Earth school will still remain effective, possibly the most effective.
