[1.0] A RimWorld of Magic

[Torann]

@Roolo
I tried re-creating this bug, with weapons, without weapons, with a melee weapon, w/wo run and gun activated, every spell I have etc.  Even tried changing around the mod load order (with about 100 other mods) and I'm not having any issues.  So, I'm very happy to say it doesn't look to be a problem anymore.

Thanks for the follow up, can't wait to test out run&gun now. =)

@Questops
Yeah, this just means you won't see the cast radius/range.  You shouldn't get the message unless you're running dev mode, and it should only generate the warning on the first instance.

[Roolo]

I tried re-creating this bug, with weapons, without weapons, with a melee weapon, w/wo run and gun activated, every spell I have etc.  Even tried changing around the mod load order (with about 100 other mods) and I'm not having any issues.  So, I'm very happy to say it doesn't look to be a problem anymore.

Thanks for the follow up, can't wait to test out run&gun now. =)

Thanks for looking into it!

[Torann]

Updated with the "magic is useful" update, adds some combat utility spells, colony utility spells, and master spells.

New spells are:
Dry ground - turns muddy, marshy, or shallow water into usable soil
Moisturize ground - turns sand into usable soil
Charge battery - charges a battery with magical energy
Smoke Cloud - like a smokepop belt, but can be cast anywhere it's needed
EMP - disables mechanoids for a short period
Extinguish - puts out fires in a small area
Dispel heat - small dimensional window into the plane of ice that helps cool rooms for several days
Draw heat -  another dimensional window, except this one is to the plane of fire and can be used to heat rooms and cremate corpses

Many thanks to henk, most of these spells were his idea!

In addition to the utility spells are two master spells: Blizzard (ice mage) and Firestorm (fire mage)

[Umbreon117]

Here's an idea: Sub-classes for each element.

Basically combining two elements to create another thing, although you could go further a d have two elements interact in a certain way. For example: Fire and Ice to make Water, and then Lightning to do extra zapping damage to anyone that is soaked with water, or have a bigger AOE with lightning if enemies are standing on Ice.

[Weyrling]

I suggest including links to the mod prerequisites in your post for completeness.

[blizzardwolf420]

this is one of my new fave mods for rimworld , and the potential it has is practically endless. I cant wait till you update your moddb to the new update you mentioned a few posts up, i assume you just forgot to update your download.

[Canute]

Dry ground - turns muddy, marshy, or shallow water into usable soil
Moisturize ground - turns sand into usable soil

What do you think to change this into
Terraform up/down.
Terraform up, change the current tile into one higher step toward soil. Shallow water to muddy/marshy.
While terraform down, change the current tile one step toward deep water.

Moisturize ground should change gravel into soil too, and maybe soil into rich soil.

[Torann]

@blizzardwolf420
You're right, I did forget.  I uploaded to steam workshop but didn't get it on moddb.  It's updated now with v1.2.0

@Canute
Yeah, that's not a bad idea tbh.  With acquiring the spell a step above and beyond normal spells, (and the fact it only terraforms 1 square at a time), I think it's reasonable to expand on the functionality as you suggested.  The only exception/reservation I have is that It will probably stop at shallow water due to the fact that deep water becomes impassable.

[blizzardwolf420]

a few neat ideas i just had, how bout an ice wall or magic wall for ice mage and arcane mage, like spawning a temp wall or embrasure thats like 1x5 or something.a spell to help plants grow faster and/or make grass and natural things  spawn more to make up for deforestation, a spell to help tame animals  and/or deter them from attacking, Being able to infuse the pawns current weapon temporarily with its magic.
new element classes such as wind and earth , with wind being able to manipulate the weather conditions and wind speed , and earth being able to make rock walls  affect plant life and encase other pawns in stone to stop them temporarily .
a necromancer who can revive dead bodies for a time to fight for you , use dark magic to suck the life from your foes and give it to pawns close to the necromancer, and a weaker version of the revive that make dead bodies grapple onto foes slowing them down.

thats about it so far stay tuned for more good ideas, ill probly be posting alot of ideas.

[Torann]

..earth being able to make rock walls  affect plant life and encase other pawns in stone to stop them temporarily .

I really like this idea of being able to encase enemies for a short period, I'll have to figure out a way to include that.

I haven't had much success yet of being able to modify weapons (ie enchantments) as I'd like, so I'm not sure how that'd work.  I guess I could despawn (store) the current weapon and then create and equip another weapon that had "magical" properties.  Dunno, will have to test some things.

[henk]

You could give health effects to the pawn which increase combat stats. Or possibly give the pawn a natural weapon - if that's possible.

As for encasing, is it possible to create walls with the tags "deteriorating" and "cannot be repaired"? Otherwise, stunning might work just fine.

[blizzardwolf420]

I haven't had much success yet of being able to modify weapons (ie enchantments) as I'd like, so I'm not sure how that'd work.  I guess I could despawn (store) the current weapon and then create and equip another weapon that had "magical" properties.  Dunno, will have to test some things.

id say the best way may be to just have a new workbench that you can use existing weps as the ingredient, or maby just add new materials and new weps altogether, I wouldnt mind seeing staves that could act as a gun replacement or even swords that could send a ranged slash as its attack.

[henk]

I've finally managed to get a colony with several casters by making all starting pawns magically gifted... It's a pretty rare trait, so you're unlikely to see it, even if you use the "More Traits slots" mod, but especially if you use any other mod that adds traits. A few things I've noticed :

Once you have one caster, you get the Arcane Stash event way too often. I just finished one and got two more I'm not even going to do.
Arcane stashes have way too much loot, typically 3 scripts worth several thousands each, in addition to all the regular loot. Even with all the enemies to defeat, that's way too much loot for one event.
Arcane stashes are made somewhat to extremely easier by the fact the enemies will fight each others. If you can find a corner to hide, you can hope the drop podders will weaken the defenders enough for you to finish them.
Arcane stashes have no power conduits, so turrets and lights aren't powered. Even if they did though, they have no power source and the batteries start nearly empty.
My fire mage worked fine at first, but recently lost the capacity to cast spells at range. Spells work only at melee range. I don't know if any of my other mods might interfere.
The game keeps telling me my pawns gain deeper understanding of magic, but it doesn't say what that does.
Some of the high tier spells should definitely cost more mana.
You can cast spells on cooldown if you draft the pawn, order them to move while paused, then chain cast the spell.
Lightning cloud is pretty darn fun.
There needs to be better feedback explaining why spells failed, or even that they failed at all.
Magic missile needs a pew pew sound, not a bang bang sound. That's important.


And some ideas for future versions :
I would like it if arcane scripts were much cheaper, but only came with a single spell. If gaining a deeper understanding of magic is supposed to be leveling up, then new spells could be gained from that.
The mod should come with a custom-made scenario for mages, giving 100% of starting pawns the Magically Gifted trait, a few random scripts (random scripts at startup need to be a thing) and limited resources.
If ever there was a way to remove researches from the base game, I would love if any advanced technology was removed, and leaving the planet was done through some advanced magical portal.
A dedicated healer class would be great, especially if it adds the "incapable of violence" trait.
Maybe class-specific crafting? Flaming swords, healing water, power armor, not-overpowered things.

All in all, pretty amazing mods and updates. Keep us addicted!

[Torann]

Really appreciate the feedback, particularly on the event.  The overall commonality and frequency of things can be hard to judge, especially when you start throwing in other mods.  I'll look at increasing the frequency of the magically gifted trait, In my playthrough I'm at ~4hrs in and only seen 1 pawn with it, and that one was abysmal in every other aspect so basically useless even with the trait.  It's supposed to be rare, probably not this rare.
As for the event, in the same playthrough, I've gotten it only once.  I tried to complete the event, but since I'm also using the star wars mods, it's guarded by 4 at-at's plus a slew of other speeders etc and I got wiped every time.  They were also separated from the village by a mountain range, so there was no avoiding fighting for me. That was fairly early, and I haven't gone back to try again yet.  I'll tweak the frequency (down) for this event and probably lower the amount of loot.  I like the mayhem, but maybe I'll make all the random reinforcements not so random.  I'll look into the defenses.

My fire mage worked fine at first, but recently lost the capacity to cast spells at range. Spells work only at melee range. I don't know if any of my other mods might interfere.

I've never seen the issue with the fire mage (or any mage) losing their range... did he/she go blind? 

The game keeps telling me my pawns gain deeper understanding of magic, but it doesn't say what that does.

The "deeper understanding" message just means you leveled up and have a skillpoint to train for that mage, though I suppose there's no reason not to add in something that says that explicitly.

There needs to be better feedback explaining why spells failed, or even that they failed at all.

Yeah, spells will fail if you try to cast them out of range or out of line of sight, and in both cases take your mana to boot.  I'll add this one the list of functions that need to be improved.

Magic missile needs a pew pew sound, not a bang bang sound. That's important.

Hah.  You might be out of luck though, I'll try to find a generic sound that fits better, but it's probably going to be outside the scope to add custom sounds to the mod.

I would like it if arcane scripts were much cheaper, but only came with a single spell. If gaining a deeper understanding of magic is supposed to be leveling up, then new spells could be gained from that.

Quite a few people have suggested to change to this behavior.  This would be a fairly minor adjustment to make happen I think, so certainly in the realm of the possible.  However, I'm personally opposed to further restricting access to abilities.  With the skill points, the difference between un-skilled abilities and skilled abilities is pretty big (as you eluded to).  So when starting with all the skills, it gives players the ability to see what each spell does (without any additional investment) and rank the ones that work best for them.  Additionally, it gives players options, which is what the mod is all about.  So while you might have invested in blink with your arcane mage, there might be a scenario where you really just need summon, even if it's not nearly as efficient, but because of the situation (like when you forget it's a full moon and now you have a werewolf in your quarry with 5 other hapless pawns and blink does nothing for you).
The counter argument is that it would only a handful of points anyways.
I'm certainly open to discussion, but I'd like to hear the "why" behind the desire to start with no spells, a single spell, etc.

Jecrell does his mods in this fashion, but I find that either I never even get to see what some abilities do, or I always go for the same abilities first since they're overall more effective.  He also allows leveling of abilities through general work (ie doing research levels up your jedi?)  I fail to see why that would occur, so in this mod you have to use magic (or be overflowing with mana).  So which spell would you start with?  Would it be random?  Would it become a grind to cast fireballs into a mountain so you could level up to get past initial skills?

The priest class is in the design with cure disease/infection, heal scar, heal health, and healing ring (think orbital strike, but good for you!) with resurrect as the master spell.  I actually really like the idea of imposing the "incapable of violence" though!

My favorite spell is a tie between Valiant Charge and Blizzard. 

Anyways, long post, but thanks for the feedback and ideas.  I'll keep working to fix the bugs and make the mod better and this kind of stuff definitely helps move in the right direction.

[henk]

As for the [Arcane Stash] event, in the same playthrough, I've gotten it only once.

I didn't get it once early on, it came quite often after getting a pawn with magic skills. It might just be Randy being Randy, though.

I tried to complete the event, but since I'm also using the star wars mods, it's guarded by 4 at-at's plus a slew of other speeders etc and I got wiped every time.  They were also separated from the village by a mountain range, so there was no avoiding fighting for me. That was fairly early, and I haven't gone back to try again yet.  I'll tweak the frequency (down) for this event and probably lower the amount of loot.  I like the mayhem, but maybe I'll make all the random reinforcements not so random.  I'll look into the defenses.

The arcane stash event is really challenging and can't be completed without being hugely overpowered, but it's still quite random. Too much randomness isn't doing the event any good.

I've never seen the issue with the fire mage (or any mage) losing their range... did he/she go blind? 

My fire mage is at full health, currently using a melee weapon and... a shield belt.
Spells fail when using a shield belt, event non-combat ones like Ray of Hope. Perhaps they should just be disabled when using a shield belt, to avoid confusion?

I'm certainly open to discussion, but I'd like to hear the "why" behind the desire to start with no spells, a single spell, etc.

I want scripts to be cheaper. 10,000 silver is not a price most colonies can afford, and it also means they won't likely appear in loot or rewards. Making them weaker by reducing the number of starting spells would be balance for reducing their price.

I could see an event which gives a Magically gifted pawn (or one with a free trait slot?) with extremely high mood a random arcane affinity, or a ritual which does the same, so you don't have to rely on random loot or traders to get your first spells.

So which spell would you start with?  Would it be random?  Would it become a grind to cast fireballs into a mountain so you could level up to get past initial skills?

I initially thought you would start with only one spell; or one combat and one non-combat spell. Maybe if non-script ways to gaining affinities were implemented, different methods of gaining affinities would come with different initial loadouts? Or maybe there could be a class like D&D sorcerers which only gains spells randomly.

Anyways, long post, but thanks for the feedback and ideas.  I'll keep working to fix the bugs and make the mod better and this kind of stuff definitely helps move in the right direction.

Keep on being awesome!