Re: bugs. I'm not really one for uploading detailed bug reports like the others, but if I run into anything gamebreaking again, I'm probably just going to continue posting it here like usual. I'm sorry, I like this game, but I'm not going to paper over the cracks because of disparaging strangers who've already made up their mind about it.
The problem with posting here is that it's really hard to follow. It's just a stream of unsegregated reports.
I just finished my second game. Thank you for making this game. This game obviously needs a few bug fixes, but nothing game breaking. This will be my favorite iOS game for a while. After the disappointment of Sid Meier's Starships, I thought the iOS would never get a good 4X.
Another day, another spell list. Death spells this time, with Death Mastery, Enchanter and Channeler. Strategic spells- T1: Bone Aura. D/Protection, 23 mana, 1 mana upkeep. Grants single friendly unit +15 piercing resistance. Raise Skeletons. D/Summoning, 24 mana, 1 mana upkeep. Summons a skeleton. Unholy Weapon. D/Augmentation, 29 mana, 2 mana upkeep. Unit does bonus 1d4 negative energy damage. T2: Black Ice. D/Destruction, 24 mana. Transforms one tile of plains/swamp/forest into Tundra. Corrupt. D/Biomancy, 20 mana. Target tile is corrupted. Dark Rituals. D/Augmentation, 17 mana, 0 mana upkeep. (yes, zero) Raises the effectiveness (power production and unrest reduction) of religious buildings by 100% in target city, but raises unrest by 10% and reduces population growth by -25%. Life Ward. D/Protection, 35 mana, 2 mana upkeep. Single friendly unit gains +15 positive energy resistance, +1 to fortitude, reflex and will saves, and +1 AC. T3: Cloak of Fear. D/Protection, 44 mana, 3 mana upkeep. Single friendly unit gains Fear - all enemies must pass a will save before they attack it. Ghost Touch. D/Augmentation, 44 mana, 2 mana upkeep. Single friendly unit gains Ghost Touch - all melee attacks ignore enemy's armor bonus. Raise Mummies. D/Summoning, 120 mana, 2 mana upkeep. Summons a mummy. T4: Dawn of the Dead. D/Summoning, 120 mana. Summons 2d6 zombies. These are a roaming neutral zombie pack, not zombies under your control, so you can't use this for an emergency garrison. Evil Presence. D/Mentalism, 60 mana, 3 mana upkeep. Religious buildings in target enemy city lose their effects. T5: Dementia. D/Mentalism, 160 mana. Target enemy sorcerer lord loses 100-500 research progress on current spell being researched. Famine. D/Biomancy, 80 mana, 4 mana upkeep. Target enemy city has food income reduced by -50%. Lycanthropy. D/Augmentation, 200 mana. Single friendly unit is transformed into a werewolf permanently. Can be any friendly unit, even a summon. Note that werewolves are living units. They gain no bonuses from undead-only buffs and take damage from negative energy as usual, though they are resistant to it. Raise Banshees. D/Summoning, 360 mana, 9 mana upkeep. Summons a Banshee. Wraith Form. D/Protection, 160 mana, 5 mana upkeep. Single friendly unit gains +10 mundane resistance, Ghost Touch and Levitation - ignores movement penalties for rough terrain. T6: Cruel Unminding. D/Mentalism, 200 mana. Target enemy sorcerer lord loses 1-10% spellcraft. Malediction. D/Protection, 440 mana, 8 mana upkeep. All enemy sorcerer lords have rewards gained from owning/conquering features reduced by -25%, and their chance of positive events reduced by -25%. Raise Wights. D/Summoning, 480 mana, 2 mana upkeep. Summons a wight. Vampirism. D/Augmentation, 107 mana, 5 mana upkeep. Single friendly unit gains Vampirism - heals 50% of damage done to living opponents. Warp Node. D/Destruction, 120 mana, 3 mana upkeep. Target power node gives -5 power and becomes unaffected by any other modifiers. T7: Call the Void. D/Destruction, 400 mana. Kills 50% of population in target enemy city and does 10d10 negative energy damage to units stationed there. Eye of Entropy. D/Augmentation, 134 mana, 7 mana upkeep. Single friendly unit gains Gaze - any unit attacked by it in melee is instantly killed if it fails a will save and is not instadeath immune. Pestilence. D/Biomancy, 720 mana, 10 mana upkeep. All enemy cities have population growth reduced by -50. Raise Wraiths. D/Summoning, 640 mana, 14 mana upkeep. Summons a wraith. Shroud of Darkness. D/Protection, 479 mana, 10 mana upkeep. If a friendly city is attacked, Darkness is cast for free at the start of the battle, and Life magic is blocked from being cast. Affects all friendly cities. T8: Black Magic. D/Biomancy, 880 mana, 18 mana upkeep. Corrupts 2d6 tiles on target plane every turn. Evil Omens. D/Protection, 800 mana, 10 mana upkeep. Life spells cast by any caster cost 50% more to cast. Perpetual Darkness. D/Augmentation, 509 mana, 15 mana upkeep. Darkness is cast for free at the start of any battle on chosen plane. Raise Dracolich. D/Summoning, 720 mana, 20 mana upkeep. Summons a Dracolich. Tendrils of Despair. D/Mentalism, 760 mana, 10 mana upkeep. All caster's cities have population growth reduced by -30, all enemy cities have production reduced by -50%. T9: Death Wish. Pure Death, 560 mana. Kills all units on target plane. Instadeath-immune units are unaffected, can be saved against (but requires very high saving throw.) In-battle next.
I tried a new super hero game, got the cleric-ish hero from start - should be a great combo with melee+life magic (regeneration/heal). Tried 7 planes, 7 opponents, normal size - started ok, but by turn 30 had all but one of them declare war on me, and was quickly overrun by 16-stacks taking my cities (which just had 4-6 archers each+garrison). On wizard diff - really tough! My hero cpuld defend a city - but couldnt be everywhere.. Anyway, good challenge is fun, I'll try again later today!
Incidentally, list of Mentalism spells at bottom of last page for anyone who missed it. Anyway, here's the list of in-battle death spells. Running Death Mastery, Channeler and Enchanter. T1: Bloodletting. D/Destruction, 4 mana. Target unit starts bleeding, losing 6 hp every turn for three turns. If cast on another unit the next turn, wears off on previous unit cast. Also, timer appears to decrease by -1 every time you cast it, but will always work for at least one turn. Very mysterious spell. Bone Aura. D/Protection, 4 mana. Grants single friendly unit +15 piercing resistance. Mind Wrack. D/Mentalism, 4 mana. Target enemy unit has will saving throw reduced by -5. Cannot be saved against. Unholy Weapon. D/Augmentation, 5 mana. Single friendly unit gains bonus +1d4 negative energy damage. Weakness. D/Biomancy, 6 mana. Target enemy unit has damage and hit chance reduced by -2. T2: Hold Undead. D/Mentalism, 9 mana. If target enemy undead fails to save, they can no longer move/attack/counterattack/cast spells for the rest of the battle. Life Ward. D/Protection, 7 mana. Single friendly unit gains +15 positive energy resistance, +1 to fortitude, reflex and will saves, and +1 AC. Raise Zombies. D/Summoning, 13 mana. Summons a zombie. T3: Cloak of Fear. D/Protection, 8 mana. Single friendly unit gains Fear - all enemy units have to pass a will save before they attack it, and are unable to attack if they fail. False life. D/Biomancy, 8 mana. Single friendly unit gains +20 hp, but takes 2d6 negative energy damage every turn. Cannot be cast on undead. Ghost Touch. D/Augmentation, 12 mana. Single friendly unit gainst Ghost Touch - all melee attacks ignore enemy's armor bonus. Spit of Bile. D/Destruction, 8 mana. Does 8d8 negative energy damage to single enemy unit. Torpor. D/Mentalism, 12 mana. Target enemy unit cannot move, attack or cast spells until attacked. T4: Black Prayer. D/Protection, 28 mana. All enemy units have hit chance, penalty, AC, and all saving throws reduced by -1. Dark Energies. D/Biomancy, 9 mana. Does 4d8 negative energy damage to friendly unit. Darkness. D/Augmentation, 20 mana. All undead on battlefield gain +2 to AC, hit chance and all saving throws. All living units have a -2 penalty to all those. Wrack. D/Destruction, 28 mana. All living units take 2d4 negative energy damage every turn. Has to be saved against every turn. T5: Flay. D/Destruction, 16 mana. Target enemy unit takes 12d6 slashing damage. If this kills them, they turn into a friendly Skeleton. T6: Drain Life. D/Biomancy, 20 mana. Does 10d6 negative energy damage to single enemy unit, all friendly undead healed by 50% of damage enemy takes. Eye of Entropy. D/Augmentation, 23 mana. Single friendly unit gains Gaze - enemy units attacked in melee will instantly die if they fail a will save and are not instadeath immune. Vampirism. D/Augmentation, 20 mana. Single friendly unit gains Drain Life - will heal for 50% of the damage done to living units for 5 turns. T7: Terror. D/Mentalism, 56 mana. All enemy units cannot move, attack or cast spells until they pass a will save. T8: Death Spell. D/Destruction, 48 mana. All living units on battlefield are instantly killed unless they save. No T9 in-battle death spells.
I had a lot of time today, so I did a quick Life research run. Completed it, but damn, this was probably the buggiest run I've ever had. Heroism seems to be pretty consistently broken: casting it on a unit, then saving and loading will result in the unit reverting to it's original level - but it's still listed as having Heroism cast on it, despite Heroism not showing up in the enchantment list, rendering you unable to even recast it. The other strategic Life enchantments would disappear at random whenever I reloaded - which I had to do often, because this was a very crashy game. Near the end Invulnerability would fail to save against bonus damage from units, and then fail to work entirely. A city of mine got taken over by neutrals, but somehow I still retained control of the army inside it - leaving me unable to actually retake it. This was the first run that I've had since the patch with really gamebreaking bugs apparent, and it's somewhat depressing. Can anyone check if the Heroism bug, at least, also applies to them? It's a T3 spell, so Life 9 and Mastery allows you to start with it. Check if the other Life enchantments also disappear at random, too. I'll post the Life spell list on the next page, maybe, so this page isn't just a wall of text by one guy. E: Incidentally, just sent the buggy run save. Had to search a few pages back for sending procedure, it sadly isn't very intuitive.
@Jenman: Ouch, that sounds pretty bad. I tried the Heroism bug, and can confirm it. Happened just like you describe: Once you reload, the effect is gone; and you cannot cancel or recast it. I don't think I ever had town enchantments disappear at random yet, and I use a lot of those and reload frequently too. But I didn't play a game so far that went past turn 250 or so - and my average is a lot lower, mostly 150-200. Do you recall around which turn this started happening? Same goes for Invuln: I used it excessively in the last 3 games, maybe 350 turns in total, but again none past turn 150 or so. Never failed, but I did notice that sometimes it wrongly displays "1 damage dealt". I had similar bug to yours with the town and active army inside it, only that it happened with one I took over still having a single enemy unit in it. But that was a one-off. Sending Saves: Have an Internet connection. Save a game, and name it "sendSaves". That's all, it'll send all your saves to Wastelands.
Finally catching up a bit. Just added a link compilation to Jenman's fantastic spell lists to the Guide Thread. Thanks again, my good sir, for putting in all that work!
Thanks. Speaking of which, just finished all my research runs. Rather than cluttering up this thread with endless walls of texts, here's a list of links: Life Spell List: http://pastebin.com/XYRfR7Hu Protection Spell List: http://pastebin.com/gM1Jt1z6 Destruction Spell List: http://pastebin.com/vres07en Augmentation Spell List: http://pastebin.com/Pj7X289u Summoning Spell List: http://pastebin.com/YDUxCpTC To do when I'm not so tired: write up my thoughts and basic guide for each spell school, add list of starting spells, maybe brief summon overview?
1.2.3 now available on iTunes. Have been playing on android for my last few games (1.2.3 has been out for the past week or so), biggest improvement (non-bug fix) is the combat log. While not perfect, it is serviceable to get surprisingly detailed information on the battle (down to the dice rolls); can takeaway insight on what spells/units/strategies work in a given situation. Scrolling still scrolls the background behind it, but the box is bigger, toggle button doesn't intrude. @devs are you posting somewhere revision improvements? The last one was just a quick blurb on here (which is great!), didn't know if you are planning on posting info in a central location? I'll also try to itemize bugs/typos/etc.. I've found in the past, and try to make individual postings in your forum. (it would also be great if someone from your side could at least acknowledge or respond to each bug/found typo/improvement request post over in the forum. I'm thinking it would encourage people to be more active in the forums)
I expanded my original analysis of Jenman's Superhero Strategy(TM) into a full guide post. You can find it here: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=3820138&postcount=13 As always, I welcome and appreciate any feedback. And downloaded v1.2.3, thanks Wastelands!
We are planning to post those info on our forum. It still needs some time to be handled and sorted out. We have got a nice volunteer who is willing to give us a hand in sorting things out and to give you more cleaner view what is going on.
Great writeup, thanks. I'd like to add that full Augmentation also works for a superhero, especially if you take Protection 2 for a few early Protection spells (particularly CoP). If you run with max Protection, branching out a little into Augmentation also works - 2 levels in Augmentation gets you all the elemental weapon buffs, 3 gets you Pathfinding, and 4 gets you One with Earth, essentially allowing you to teleport. (Also Magic Affinity). That spell solves a lot of problems with walls and mages - teleporting into melee range generally causes them to melee you instead of casting spells.
@Jenman: Thanks a lot for the extra info, I'll add it next week. Of course I hit the 10k character limit again , so I have lots of some room in the followup post. I'm still wrapping up my Orc Protection Mastery game, wanted to see it through. Didn't start experimenting at all yet. From my game so far, all you need for a basic build is Protection Circle, Earth Embrace, Invuln. Those turn any unit into Super Tankman As for branching out: I usually get so many extra Spell School points from dungeons, by endgame research time is the limiting factor. It annoys me more and more that even for a 10 RP spell I have to waste a whole turn and 300 RP. What do you folks think about the following: Make Research like Casting. You can use your full contingent each turn, no waste. So if you have 100RP, you can research one 100 point spell, two 50 points, ten 10pt, etc. If that's too much: Either add it to the Sage trait; introduce it as "Improved Sage" trait; or make it a new trait altogether.
@nullzone. Thank you thank you. After a really long week of work, looking forward to playing some games this weekend. Will be using this to explore. Will post any interesting findings as well.
That's great news, glad that you have a plan to be active in the forums. I'll definitely be a supporter and frequent contributor to help out as well. With a little effort on all our parts, I'm sure that it will be a very active forum.
Does this version of the game have a setting where the AI does not cheat, unlike Worlds of Magic where even on the lowest setting I could not win because of blatant and absurd cheating by the AI? If there is no setting that allows you to play on an equal level with the AI without cheating I will have to pass on this.
