Mists of deception make my 8 Marble Oracle dead?

[Twan]

I now have a fix true to the spirit of the spell : it summons 3 kinds of phantom creatures, with reasonable number of effects per round (without the bug, MoD was really a weak spell), and has a limited duration of 9 rounds instead of the perpetual effect (file in mod forum).

[Aezeal]

No offence but to "keep true to the spirit of the spell" wouldn't it be best to just let it be the same (maybe weak but there are more weak spells) and just let it end after say 40 turns.. that gives 10 turns before the retreat etc

[Twan]

The maximum number of rounds for a spell duration is 9.

#effect mod command
x = battle spell
100x to 900x = "cloud" of spell x with one to nine rounds duration
1000x = ritual version of spell x

Then the number of effects of vanilla MoD is the number of rounds x mage level (with unlimited number of rounds, but usually opponent is routed at some point)

My number of effect for 9 rounds is 9 x ((3 x mage level) + 2) = 27 x mage level + 18.

So number of effects of my version is about the same as a 30 rounds long old MoD spell, it's just concentrated in a shorter duration.

A 30 or 40 rounds MoD, even with just one effect / round, would anyway be far more powerful because the bugged way this kind of spell works make its duration = minimum battle duration if the caster retreats (and in a 40 rounds long fight some spells like Wrathfull Skies or fatigue BE can be devastating).

I find 9 rounds a good medium (between making MoD an instant or keeping it as it was), allowing to use MoD to make battles longer but not too much, so even the combo with other BE can be allowed.

[Micah]

Thanks Twan, that sounds awesome.

[Zeldor]

9 turns seems to be completely enough for that. Battles either end quite fast [+ some turns to finish that fight] or are really dragged and turn limit comes.

[Edi]

I have suggested in the beta forum that a change like this be taken into consideration for the next patch, at least for the interim. We shall see what Johan and Kristoffer say to this. Having a MoD that lasts 9, 12 or 15 rounds or something like that should be effectively the same as the original intention with the bonus of not being exploitable.

[MaxWilson]

Well, Twan's mod at least may be exploitable in a different way, in that it still lasts for 9 rounds even if the casting mage dies. A defender could do Mists of Deception and Wrathful Skies and Flame Storm all on round 1, and the attacker can't stop it even if he does Rain of Stones x50 on his own round 1--no matter what, the attacker is going to take 9 (or 12 or 15) rounds of painful BEs.

(I may be misunderstanding Twan's mod--I haven't run it--but it believe it creates clouds on the battlefield, each of which produces warriors each round. As I understand it, these clouds will keep producing warriors even if everybody else is dead, so the battle won't end. It's a fine mod and less exploitable than the original, but there are still limitations.)

-Max