Missing Wishes

[Xietor]

With all of the insane things you can wish for, these should be included:

1. Wings-This would give the unit the fly ability and a map move of 3. This would also allow immobile pretenders to move.

2. Immortality

3. Recuperation

4. Heroic Ability(random).

[Edi]

The first three of those would be very difficult, if not impossible to do, since said abilities are properties of the monster type (ID numbers in the DB) rather than the individual unit (unique identifiers that are not visible). The fourth one could work, since it works like magic paths, which are specific to the individual unit and which is why e.g. mages with randoms retain the random picks from turn to turn.

[NTJedi]

I think you can already do the 4th one by wishing for experience... which I believe gives you 1000 experience. And this much experience will provide a heroic ability 99.9% of even long lasting SP games.

[Xietor]

'The first three of those would be very difficult, if not impossible to do....'


If we can put a man on the moon, then........

[Edi]

If you're willing to provide the money and resources, why not? But with the current resources, it just won't work. You would need several forms for each unit (basic, with the three abilities separately and also in combinations) and that's not going to happen.

[Sombre]

If you wish for power it boosts your stats right?

So you can alter some things which are set to the monster ID type.

[Edi]

Sombre said:
If you wish for power it boosts your stats right?

So you can alter some things which are set to the monster ID type.


Yes, it does, but those stats, once the monster is recruited, are tied to the individual unique id that we can't see.

Things tied to monster type ID
Base stats
special abilities of the monster type
base values of variable special abilities that are affected by external factors (e.g. fear is affected by Death magic)
base magic paths
random path selection
sprites
possible special, hardcoded scripted behavior (e.g. lammashta)


Things tied to unique ID
individual unit stats after recruitment, including modifications due to external factors
experience
afflictions and their effects
magic paths after recruitment, including realized randoms
heroic abilities (including any monster special abilities such as fear, awe, standard or reinvigoration that are gained from such)
abilities modified by existing other attributes (e.g. fear and Death magic, leadership and magic etc)
abilities created by other existing attributes (e.g. supply bonus from Nature magic)
The only mechanisms I know of adding fixed special abilities to units is via heroic abilities or items. As far as I know, no such mechanics exist that it could be done via spell effect, though DrPraetorious is probably better equipped to confirm that. If there is a spell effect that can replicate a specific heroic ability such as battle bellow, legendary cruelty, awe or otehr such, that could theoretically be used if the relevant condition forks are added to wish code.

When dealing with wishes and unit boosts, you need to keep a clear distinction between what affects a specific unit and what affects the entire type and how the existing mechanics are tied to that.

[NTJedi]

Edi said:
The only mechanisms I know of adding fixed special abilities to units is via heroic abilities or items.



Perhaps Dominions_4 will have hidden item slots for units where a ritual spell will place a hidden item into one of the slots and provide the unit with the special ability/trait. Ideally Dominions_4 will have modding of items and hidden items for greater diversity in the game. Unfortunately we'll have to wait for Dominions_4 which is 4 years away in the best case scenario.

[Zeldor]

You can always pay them to rewrite whole database system so it can include many more things http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[NTJedi]

Zeldor said:
You can always pay them to rewrite whole database system so it can include many more things http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif



Unfortunately Illwinter has been quoted as saying they wouldn't know what to do with money. I provided a response with a great list of suggestions so hopefully after reading the suggestions they're more interested in money.

[HoneyBadger]

A solution is to create artifacts in the game that cannot be forged normally, but can be summoned via a Wish, and tieing various abilities to such artifacts.

[NTJedi]

HoneyBadger said:
A solution is to create artifacts in the game that cannot be forged normally, but can be summoned via a Wish, and tieing various abilities to such artifacts.



That's what I said, hidden item slot so the wings or stealth or whatever could not be passed around. It shouldn't be limited to 'Wish' because that would favor astral gems and require lots of research.

[DrPraetorious]

Well, I actually *would* be willing to add stuff to the codebase, even and in spite of the fact that KO has evidently written all the comments in Finnish and writes like he were still trying to run in < 640K. I've taught ANSI C to 19 year olds, I've seen worse.

OTOH, adding more stuff to wish for would hardly be my frist priority if I had a crack at the code. In general, while this stuff would be cool to wish for, it would be in-no-sense competitive vs. wishing for >100 gems, which you can already do. "Become (unit name)" might be interesting - and would allow you to sidestep Edi's concerns about special abilities and unit #s - but would I really want to spend 100 gems to change the unit ID# on someone that I'd already boossted to Astral 9? If they were maintaining the arcane nexus it *MIGHT* be worth the pearls to help protect them by turning them into something bad *** like a seraph, but otherwise, no thank you.

[Xietor]

100 gems is the consensus best wish among the hardcore mp crowd. That said, I have never used Wish for 100 gems. While I love to win, and I am extremely competitive, in those rare games(i never got anyone above s3 in Alpaca, and my highest s mage with items in the Big game is 5), I like "fun" wishes.

In the Epic Heroes Heroes Game I finally got someone empowered to s9, and I have made 2 wishes. One to get my chalice back that someone stole(my primary motivation to get someone to s9 btw), but my second wish was a fun one. It was for an SC that i have never had before-yet wanted to play with.

So while Immortality or a flying Sphinx may not be the game winner-it sure as heck could be a lot fun!

[Lord_Bob]

Your list is by no means complete.

It ignores items.

Since items can grant flying, complex, but by no means "new" coding could very well grant flying.

That said, the developers are probably burned out from carrying a huge project on only two sets of shoulders.

That said, there are swarms of computer competent people here who would fight in the Arena to work on Dom3 code.

[HoneyBadger]

What's really needed are several high level spells that allow the caster to transform into other units. It's a visible gap in the available spells, since the most you can hope for is to transform yourself into an undead.

How many myths and legends concern powerful magic users changing themselves and others into demons, monsters, dragons, etc? It's used everywhere from Conan to King Arthur to Ulysses to Harry Potter.

[Chris_Byler]

Actually, there *is* a transformation spell; it's called Transformation. Alt 7, N3.

Wishes I'd like to see (although I might not ever use them):

Youth - sets your age to 1/2 your maxage or so.

Health - remove disease and all afflictions.

[konming]

Life anew - no more afflicitions, curses and horror marks.

That's what I like to see.

After all, you can wish for chalice which in time, will get rid of all disease and afflictions.

[Potatoman]

There is a transformation spell, but the forms you can get by using it are all fairly weak. It would be good if the forms provided by the spell were strong enough that it was worth the gems to cast (let alone the risk!)

[NTJedi]

Potatoman said:
There is a transformation spell, but the forms you can get by using it are all fairly weak. It would be good if the forms provided by the spell were strong enough that it was worth the gems to cast (let alone the risk!)



Back during the days of dominions_2... I suggested the spell be improved and provided at an earlier research level. Unfortunately the spell didn't change much and thus remains rarely used.