A few new ability ideas...

[RequiemOfReason]

I'm just here to suggest some abilities- nothing much. Anyone who wants to pitch in would be appreciated.
Attack Abilities:
Withdraw- Only goes on close range attacks. Each unit attacks once, then begin using ranged attacks.
Advance- Only goes on ranged attacks. Each unit attacks once, then begin using melee attacks.
Cripple- The enemy's damage on the attack they're using drops by 1 for each hit
Penetrate- Ignores 25% of the damage resisistance.

Normal abilities:
Darken- Simply the opposite of illumiate, Day becomes Dusk, Dusk and Dawn become night.
Tenacity- Cannot be reduced below 1 hitpoint unless at 1. (Ie: Unit at 3hp. Takes 4 damage. Is now at 1, and any damage will kill it.)
Dance- Every time this unit attacks or gets attacked, it swaps positions with the unit it's fighting.

[martenzo]

What happens if illuminate crosses with darken? The cycle is normal? Oh yeah, tenacity is greatly overpowered

[Assasin]

I like them all except Darken. It implies that there has to be an opposite of everything.

[Bander]

These are all pretty cool Ideas, sepecally advance and withdraw. They could be good for a virety of units, though they are most likely hard to code.

[Elvish_Pillager]

Oh yeah, tenacity is greatly overpowered

No, it isn't.

I like some of those ideas. Dance can be implemented in WML.

[SyKnEt]

All of the ideas are good for me

[Belwar]

who would you give darken to? i dont think that there is a unit called the Mage of Darkness or anything. just because something has light that doesnt mean that you have to have darkness. samething with dark magic, just becasue there is holy that desn't mean that there has to be unholy.

[Attila]

Withdraw- Only goes on close range attacks. Each unit attacks once, then begin using ranged attacks.
Advance- Only goes on ranged attacks. Each unit attacks once, then begin using melee attacks.

It's nice in theory, but would probably just complicate things for the player.

Cripple- The enemy's damage on the attack they're using drops by 1 for each hit

I like the idea of decreasing damage each time (I think it would beuseful to have a level two or three unit use it and once the enemy is weak, have a lvl 1 unit take it out)

Penetrate- Ignores 25% of the damage resisistance.

It's kind of over powered, and not needed that much.

Darken- Simply the opposite of illumiate, Day becomes Dusk, Dusk and Dawn become night.

No matter how many times this is suggested it's put down. I personally really like this idea and think it would add a needed dimension to playing with the undead.

Tenacity- Cannot be reduced below 1 hitpoint unless at 1. (Ie: Unit at 3hp. Takes 4 damage. Is now at 1, and any damage will kill it.)

This would just make unit more vulnerable to me killed, to have a unit with one hp out near combat would just be asking for it to be picked off by the closest lvl 1 looking to get some experience.

Dance- Every time this unit attacks or gets attacked, it swaps positions with the unit it's fighting.

I don't really know why anyone would want this ability on their unit. Attacking with it has a good chance of putting it into a position surrounded by enemies.

All in all, they aren't that bad for ideas.

[Elvish_Pillager]

Penetrate- Ignores 25% of the damage resisistance.

It's kind of over powered, and not needed that much.

It is *not* overpowered. Abilities are never overpowered on their own, except when they're so powerful that even a Walking Corpse with that ability for 20 gold would be overpowered. This ability (if I interpret it correctly) would be nice, but 25% should really be 50% -- more even, and really, you want to be able to do more than 10% more damage with an ability.

As I see it, it would do this: Divide the resistance or weakness of the enemy by 2. I think it would be a somewhat tactically interesting ability.

I don't really know why anyone would want this ability on their unit. Attacking with it has a good chance of putting it into a position surrounded by enemies.

On the contrary, Dance would be very powerful. The ability to move enemy units around is unprecedented and definitely effective. Two Dancers could pull a mage-type unit from a tight formation out into the open.

They'd be like Skirmishers, except that it would be other units doing the skirmishing, and those other units are not balanced as skirmishers. A Dancing Corpse would be overpowered at 20 gold.

[Hearold]

I say they're pretty darn good ideas for a new person. I've been here for a while and I still haven't come up with anything good.

I'm only against the Darken ability. For one thing, like that one guy said, it would imply that there has to be an opposite to everything. For another, how do you create darkness? It's the absence of light, so you can't really create it like you can create light...

[aelius]

I'm only against the Darken ability. For one thing, like that one guy said, it would imply that there has to be an opposite to everything.

Well, we've already got the light/dark dichotomy in the game, then, with the day/night cycle, haven't we.

I think that an ability like gloom or umbra which makes the surrounding squares more dark would be an interesting addition to the new branch of the Dark Adept line. You can either take the more powerful Lich or the Dark Sorceror who has this darkening ability. I'd give him some purpose other than just keeping his resistances.

- b.

[Assasin]

I thought of one: Dual-strike. You get two attacks, then he gets one, then you two, and so on....

[Attila]

I'm only against the Darken ability. For one thing, like that one guy said, it would imply that there has to be an opposite to everything.

Well, we've already got the light/dark dichotomy in the game, then, with the day/night cycle, haven't we.

I think that an ability like gloom or umbra which makes the surrounding squares more dark would be an interesting addition to the new branch of the Dark Adept line. You can either take the more powerful Lich or the Dark Sorceror who has this darkening ability. I'd give him some purpose other than just keeping his resistances.

- b.

Or geet rid of the dark sorceror and add a second path to the dark adept line that could darken the surounding squares.

[turin]

You're right, we're getting rid of the dark sorceror unit. In fact, it never existed. It has always been the dark sorcerER.

Really, though, it will NOT get another purpose but keeping its resistances. I don't want to add a specialty to it. Its only purpose will be to give undead a third level unit not useless against holy.

[aelius]

Really, though, it will NOT get another purpose but keeping its resistances. I don't want to add a specialty to it. Its only purpose will be to give undead a third level unit not useless against holy.

I'm sort of curious as to why. As far as I know, there are only three units in the game (Mage of Light, White Mage, and Paladin) with Holy attacks. All of them belong to the Loyalist faction (though the rebels can recruit mages). That means that taking the Dark Sorcerer (always good to learn to spell things) is never better than the Lich unless you are facing those particular opponents.

Giving them the proposed umbra ability would make them at least a plausible tactical choice against other opponents.

- b.