Elvish Illusionist - replacement for the Rebel mage

[PingPangQui]

I think the idea of having mages in both factions is pretty fine.

In my understanding mages are some lonely guys - studing the arts of the universe (not only magic) and becoming wise people (somewhen), thinking wider than other individuals. Thus they are somewhat independend and give their aid to those who they thinks its best for the world, i.e. classically elves and loyelists (As I undstood it in HttT - they have even they own island).

Although there are many wise people belong them not all are right from the start and some never will be, thus it may happen that mages face mages in battle.

Further more, it might happen that young intellegent minds become addictad to the dark arts and thus will be band from Anduin (i think that was the islands name) and have to find they own way. Erlier or later those find a Necromancer as a new master who will teach them the dark arts in more depth. Those are called Dark Adepts.

I would also say that mages can be either races (human and elvish). I know that statement may not go conform with the present comon idea of the wesnothian world but it would make explainations esier.

Some elvish magical talented females of very young age, however, get the chance to study the acient and secret knowledge of their ancestors. However, before they get access to that knowledge they have to proof themselfs by living in loneliness for several years while meditating and studing nature. When being ready (which is decided by themselfs) their nowledge and personality will be tested in a very long and exhausting ritual. By passing they become a Shamane, failing, however, means death.

This has always caused confilcts between the elvish and the human race, due to envy and mistrust. Very often humans, even some mages, accused the elves of teaching their shamans the dark arts. This rumor comes up from time to time since those magical arts are taught in secret and are not available for the human comunity. Especially human females tend to become eager to claim knowledge of elvish magic by themselfs which however usually leads to an addiction towards the dark arts*.

* Note: this is no refernce to real live and I'm not at all conform with Judaism, Christianity, Islam or any other patriarchic religion.

[PingPangQui]

The explaination above would lead to the following statements:

- everything can be left as it is
- pics for elvish mages could be added (same stats for both races)
- anotherkind of mage could be added to the elvish race with slightly different stats (e.g.: more hits, less damage per hit) - would be interesting to get randomly two differnt kind of mages when recruiting.

every thing is possible!

[Na'enthos]

I'd guess that even if this unit were not includied in 'standard' it might be included in another era or at least in some campaigns.

[irrevenant]

I'd guess that even if this unit were not includied in 'standard' it might be included in another era or at least in some campaigns.

This thread has pretty much hit the point where the idea goes the way of the dodo unless someone actually implements it in some way.

This isn't a formal soft-lock for the thread, but there seems little point discussing it further without some attempt at implementation...

[robotic christmass elf]

just curious, what was the other replacement suggestion made by jb & others?

[Mythological]

just curious, what was the other replacement suggestion made by jb & others?

The unit jb & me (unsucessfully) tried to push into the mainline is called "fire fairy". Story wise, its a regular fairy from the legends and kids' tales : fragile, but fast,nimble and it powefull magic. They were planned to be all female, good for fighting and moving in forest, where they get 70% def, but unlike elves they cant be dextrous ( the playtesting showed that the dextrous trait was too desirable/powerful on that unit ) and they move well in caves too ( to make up for the rebels been painfully slow in caves now ) . The unit was designed to replace the mage while fitting the rebel faction personality. I still dont think that the mage is a unit which belongs to the rebel faction, mostly because it has a very different movetype . The fairy has a single advancement path with only fire attack cause there is no need to make a replacement for the white mage - rebels have healing already ( druid ) and the holy attack is not realy needed - rebels have better units to fight undead than the loyalists have. The stats:
name=Fire Fairy
allignment=neutral
movement=5
experience required to level=70 (very high)
heitpoints=20
movetype=woodlandfloat (very good movetype with some modifications making the unit fast in caves, but slow over water)
cost=21
ressistances :
cold=-10%
fire=+10%
impact=-20%
holy=+20% ( or 40% )
attacks:
melee=fire aura 2-3 fire ( there is a good reason for the 2-3 attack )
ranged=fairie fire 5-4 fire
the higher levels were pretty straightforward
level 2 = 6-5 fire, 31 HP
level 3 = 7-6 fire, 43 HP

There is a test era made for that unit . Its basicly the default era with the fire fairy line replacing the mage line for the rebels, but it was never published and only few people who helped in the creation of the unit and in the testing have the era. I think that it was well balanced, but since the art was not dont for the higher levels and some people wanted us to be secretive about the entire thing, I never uploaded it to the campaign server. And since the devs who deside about the new units geting accepted rejected it, we gave up on the entire thing.

[jb]

curious players can see the sample-recolored art in my profile pic.

for the record, Mythological put in hours of good work and is a very good friend to have on your side.

[Haibane]

Hmm, pity, I really like your fire fairy and even your arguments, fe. you are right about white mage ...

On the other hand, just for record, I don't like illusionist, anything with so many attacks (and low dmg) is awful in multiplayer

[Assasin]

anyone is free to do anything they want. Want a new unit, make it yourself. Don't like the way Wesnoth is, customize it. That's the beauty of free-ware. Just remember that many people have put a lot of there time and effort into this for free. Don't come back and say, "ZOMG I JUST MADE THE MOST AWESOMEST WESNOTH IN THE WORLD!!" it would be very rude.