As I’m slowly getting back into the modding side of things, I have been thinking of mechanics I want to try out.
One of them is combat summons. As it stands, and correct me if I’m wrong, are limited to:
-The TIII and TIV Archdruid spells are the only ones in the game. And while decently cheap in mana cost, quite powerful.
-The next comparable things are combat unit creation spells, mainly the Necromancer ones. Raise dead being TIV and Scourge of the Undead being TVI.
All these a pretty random in nature.
My goal would be to have non-random, balanced summons, starting out at low tiers. How to do this without unbalancing the Archdruid and Necromancer spells will be the greatest challenge.
Whatever the implementation mechanic, there will have to be ample ways to banish and nullify these summons in both abilities and spells. The vanilla Banish and Arcane Binding effects, and some new ones, would apply.
For the implementation of Elder Scrolls conjuration, which in the most part deals with short duration binding and summoning, combat summons would be the way to go. But I am not really sure of how to go about it, so would like to discuss opinions here.
For my purposes, and for general balance restraint, I think it would be best to limit the summoning to one or two units per summoner.
Two ways I see right now:
-Combat Summon spells
Summons a unit for the duration of combat. It is restrictive since it limits you to spell casters and so for only one per turn as CP/Mana allows. The drawbacks are that I’d like the summons to start at far lower tiers, and that the amount of summon spells I’m thinking of would not limit a caster to summon a new unit every turn. A passive effect could be applied to the caster when having summoned a unit, but this could lead to many problems.
-Combat Abilities
Once-per-combat abilities that would either be gained through reward or leveling, which gives a good grasp on who could summon what. Again, having a hard time limiting the summoner from not summoning a new unit every turn, if they had collected the right skills/abilities to do so.
The major drawback to this is, for me, is that it would not cost anything. Where the other combat summons cost CP and Mana, the Raise Dead ability being the exception, making it a tactical decision to spend resources.
I’m thinking that it could be possible to somehow mimic this by getting a ‘mana damage’ effect from somewhere, but I don’t know how yet.
So, what do you think would be the best approach and do you see solutions to the problems? Any new ideas of other ways to implement?
Let me know!
One of them is combat summons. As it stands, and correct me if I’m wrong, are limited to:
-The TIII and TIV Archdruid spells are the only ones in the game. And while decently cheap in mana cost, quite powerful.
-The next comparable things are combat unit creation spells, mainly the Necromancer ones. Raise dead being TIV and Scourge of the Undead being TVI.
All these a pretty random in nature.
My goal would be to have non-random, balanced summons, starting out at low tiers. How to do this without unbalancing the Archdruid and Necromancer spells will be the greatest challenge.
Whatever the implementation mechanic, there will have to be ample ways to banish and nullify these summons in both abilities and spells. The vanilla Banish and Arcane Binding effects, and some new ones, would apply.
For the implementation of Elder Scrolls conjuration, which in the most part deals with short duration binding and summoning, combat summons would be the way to go. But I am not really sure of how to go about it, so would like to discuss opinions here.
For my purposes, and for general balance restraint, I think it would be best to limit the summoning to one or two units per summoner.
Two ways I see right now:
-Combat Summon spells
Summons a unit for the duration of combat. It is restrictive since it limits you to spell casters and so for only one per turn as CP/Mana allows. The drawbacks are that I’d like the summons to start at far lower tiers, and that the amount of summon spells I’m thinking of would not limit a caster to summon a new unit every turn. A passive effect could be applied to the caster when having summoned a unit, but this could lead to many problems.
-Combat Abilities
Once-per-combat abilities that would either be gained through reward or leveling, which gives a good grasp on who could summon what. Again, having a hard time limiting the summoner from not summoning a new unit every turn, if they had collected the right skills/abilities to do so.
The major drawback to this is, for me, is that it would not cost anything. Where the other combat summons cost CP and Mana, the Raise Dead ability being the exception, making it a tactical decision to spend resources.
I’m thinking that it could be possible to somehow mimic this by getting a ‘mana damage’ effect from somewhere, but I don’t know how yet.
So, what do you think would be the best approach and do you see solutions to the problems? Any new ideas of other ways to implement?
Let me know!