Master of Magic - Implode's Multiplayer Edition

Hello ^_^

Within the spell number 087, the short description says magic strength 4, but within the detail, it says strength 5

What's the reality ?

c u
agg.

wall of fire? not sure if it's 4 or 5, but I know it's weak. Even normal soldier units rarely have problems saving against it, it doesn't make a big difference. not very impressive considering it's supposed to be a WALL of fricking FIRE. You'd think that would be quite a deterrent for would be intruders - but no, it's rather lame.

Yeah I agree, its very lame. Immolation is no better, being a strength 4 fire attack. That's going on my list of things to change when I make a 2nd server XML file containing recommended changes.

I tend to play with entirely ranged units anyway, so the only thing I really hate to see is Wall of Darkness.

Implode.

Indeed. It's crud like this that contributes to why chaos sucks.

Wall of fire is just too cool to be as useless as it is. I would think that upping the strength a touch and having it nullify wooden (non-magical) missiles would be great, the catch being that the defender cannot fire out either.

Or maybe keep the attack-strength but give units negative saving-throws against it just so that it is guaranteed attrition if nothing else.

Knowing how bad it is, I just can't help but to cast it because, for a chaos wizard, it just feels right.

Don't know how feasible such changes would be but theres my two cents...

Wall of fire can be great. especially when combined with city walls. It can save your life when you are attacked by a stack of phantom warriors or zombies. It doesn't help much vs dragons, but I think that's ok :)

I think the problem is the same as the one with immolation - the 4 attack is applied per-unit and not per-figure. If it was per-figure it would accomplish the intended goal of frying 1-hit scrubs that try to go through - a little, anyway (like a default strength fireball spell). It would still be worthless against heavier units, but hey its only 2 upkeep. Its just pretty graphix at this point however.

Chaos doesnt suck!!! lol
Its just tricky to play, and you have to micromanage a ton of hell hounds, and then micromanage a ton of chaos channelled units - its very tactically complicated (you can never hit auto - you have to carefully position all those breath attack units each turn in every fight). But for the price of a magic spirit you can summon a 2 move beast that is roughly equal to a veteran pikeman in dps terms (3 can take 9 swordsmen)....and can hit fliers....

What sucks is nature only + retorts. Without the 11-book critter at start, you can really feel the gimpness of the green.....

Kev wrote:I think the problem is the same as the one with immolation - the 4 attack is applied per-unit and not per-figure. If it was per-figure it would accomplish the intended goal of frying 1-hit scrubs that try to go through - a little, anyway (like a default strength fireball spell). It would still be worthless against heavier units, but hey its only 2 upkeep. Its just pretty graphix at this point however.

I agree with this suggestion. I mean seriously, it's a WALL of FIRE. At most, it can only kill four figures in a spearman unit, and on average it will kill none.

There are countless spells that are contradictory or don't do what they say they do, and a bunch are in the chaos branch. Which stinks for those of us that play chaos.

Anyway, wall of fire only has a use when combined with a normal wall to deter flying units from just waltzing into your city. In general the ai seems to avoid the wall even if it can fly, unless they have fire immunity or are sky drakes.
A serious improvement to the spell would be to make it fireball instead of fire bolt (as previously mentioned) but also to allow you to cast it on any map instead of just on city defense. Imagine if you could put it down to defend your chaos nodes or to protect your engineers; would give the spell a larger lease on life.