Foul Air

[ampoliros]

One last note: We can make the Armageddon spells optional (like so much else). A lot of people want them. Some people don't. They're easy to turn on and off.

As much as I'm not a fan of Armageddon spells I don't think they should have an on/off switch. The spells being in the game are a part of the balance between the spell circles, unless of course each Element Circle has exactly one Armageddon spell.

The most direct counter to Armageddon spells is obviously Disjunction. I think Armageddon spells should be one of the auto-notify things in the game so the player does not have to check the what-are-the-other-Sorcerer-Lords-doing screen every turn.

[Aaron]

I think it's hard to make an argument against on/off switches They just let you "play it your way".

And yes, when a Sorcerer Lord starts casting an Armageddon spell it should notify all the other Sorcerer Lords.

[Aaron]

Alright, this one has been retitled "Corrupt Atmosphere" and can be found here: Tentative Spells

Now, I think this should be a Tier 9 spell and, as such, only be in one circle. So, should it be Air or Destruction?

This spell also raises another good question: Should certain global spells only effect one plane? So, if you cast Corrupt Atmosphere should it effect every plane or just one? Do we need to make another category of spells that only effect one plane?

[Happerry]

I think it should be an Air spell.

As for the how many planes thing.. maybe you just pay extra for each additional plane you want to effect?

[Aaron]

Air is good. I think Destruction will be really easy to come up with spells for, lol.

I'm not sure about the planes thing. I think I'll kick of a discussion about it.

[Tiavals]

I think Happerry's idea for extra mana for each additional plane is both great and bad. If you can choose what to target, the caster himself will be completely safe(by not choosing his primary plane) while the other planes will be horribly damaged(the bad part, since it makes the spell far too good). If it always affects everyone, the caster will be effected as well(unless they have specific units immune to the effect), which will make the spell much less "obvious" to cast. At the same time, if it does affect everyone, it becomes extremely niche.

Perhaps the effect should be changed, so rather than dealing damage, it gives a "Nauseated" status effect on all troops on the chosen plane(fort save per turn if you wish). This way it's less of an apocalypse spell and much more utilitarian since it's not overpowered. It'd also make it reasonable to allow you to choose which planes to cast it on, as it doesn't slowly kill the(likely unable to truly counter it) opponents, but rather hinder them, meaning you would want to cast it at specific situations, rather than being a no-brainer which you always cast to kill every other plane off.

The debuff version should probably cause some fairly minor hindrance to cities as well(unrest, less pop growth, or such). If a city debuff is too big, it becomes too useful, again, but if there's no city debuff and only a unit debuff, it may be far too weak to ever warrant casting.(unless you want it to be an early, weak, global spell).

[Happerry]

Ack! Please space out your paragraphs so I can actually read that giant post!

[Lintking]

If it's meant to be an Armageddon spell, it needs to be powerful. "I, the mighty Gralthak, have at last completed my six-month long ritual and will make you *ALL* faintly queasy! MUAHAHA! The spicy foods industry is DOOOOMED!" ... I just think it's lacking something.

I think "Corrupt Atmosphere" is workable, but it lacks, well... atmosphere. It feels like a very flat name. "Foul Vapors"? "Universal Miasma"?

A mild poisoning seems workable to me - poison is inherently slow already, so this isn't going to kill anybody's units outright. Whatever healing effect you get in cities will probably strongly counter the impact of it, so it will - like MoM's Meteor Storm did - mostly make really long journeys a problem. Armies staggering into a siege gasping for breath and already missing a bunch of their individuals is a nice image.

And it has lots of potential counters; regeneration or other healing magics directly, and on a strategic level, things like traveling spells, or just using units that are immune to poison...or just tough enough to deal with it. (Which hopefully the Undead don't have a *complete* monopoly on... I mean, as a race, yes, but I'd hope for some conjurable creatures that would share that, or if any of the races have high-end units like Golems.) There definitely need to be ways to outfit yourself to make the spell viable besides just Being Undead, but I like it. Of the end-game Chaos spells in MoM, Meteor Storm is a rare choice for me because it *does* impact you too... but if, say, you're ready to cast the Spell of Mastery and just need to hole up while you finish, it's fantastic for keeping the other wizards off your back.

So I think spells like this have good uses even with the universal impact. If it's programmingly-possible, it might be good to give them a slightly-but-genuinely *lesser* impact on the caster? So that Armageddon Spells do indeed impact everyone and you need to think about that, but there *is* an advantage to being the one to push the button...