Hype machine: Apocalypse Spell Package 3.0 incoming

[EnaiSiaion]

Update!

 

Appropriately, it looks like Apocalypse 3.0 is on track for a release on Dec 21.

 

The jumble of spells in the previous versions will be streamlined and "colour coded" by theme, as in the regular game. Each spell type has a full set of matching visuals, sounds, inventory and hand animations, etc.

 

 

Alteration

The School With No Spells in the regular game has a ton of curses and crowd control in Apocalypse as well as strange utility ("Floating Bridge"). This school required little improvement in 3.0 beyond a handful of new spells ("Acceleration Rune"), but many spells received a nice visual update. There is now a complete identity for telekinesis and water spells and a few low level curses.

 

One thing I'm still working out is how to prevent people from using Teleport to cheat (High Hrotgar wind wall, etc).

 

 

Destruction

The problem with this school in the regular game is that the elements are the same. The other problem is that Lightning Storm is the only useful master spell. Apocalypse improved on this, but the elephant in the room were the annoying contingencies (autocasting spells when conditions are met) which were both hilarious and irritating to recast. The contingencies will now be mutually exclusive, meaning you only need to keep up one, but they are a lot more powerful.

 

Also, the Apocalypse spells with understated visuals or lacking "punch" have been enhanced so now everything looks and feels powerful. (On the subject of powerful, yes, I did nerf Volcano)

 

Also the Hidden Scorpion concept is being expanded on (sneaky spells that deal tons of damage against enemies not in combat) and works more consistently.

 

And the little things: you can no longer level up by casting Call Lightning on corpses, etc.

 

 

Illusion

This tree is all sorts of messed up in the regular game, providing the same 4 effects over and over and nothing else. In previous Apocalypse versions the new illusion spells were a bit scattered and inconsistent though, so the Apocalypse illusion spells are getting a large scale overhaul.

 

Aside from targetting humanoids as usual, the school also hoses spellcasters and automatons. The anti-automaton spells are more accessible and there are more viable options for dealing with spellcasters, including the new Iron Maiden which damages enemies for casting spells and Cloak of Mimicry which makes you automatically copy any spell that is cast near you. The unreliable Evil Twin style spells are now much more consistent and no longer require careful application to prevent the shadows from attacking each other or you. Their graphics are much better too.

 

Some of the teleportation spells are on their way out though. As much as shadowwalking fits the theme of the school, it does not fit what the school actually does. In their place are a number of new assassin-oriented spells: Blur reduces damage based on Illusion skill, while Ghostwalk grants rapid movement and stealth while out of combat.

 

Spells now have a consistent visual identity. This was done for every school, but illusion desperately needed it. The Apocalypse spells that can't be fit into the regular red/green colour coding now have one of six themes: antimagic, astral travel, antirobot, curses, shadows and buffs.

 

 

Restoration

This school does exactly two things in the regular game. Apocalypse improved it with a lot of necromantic spells, but school identity may have suffered.

 

Version 3.0 adds a new necromancy visual theme and reworks the necromantic spells to match, making them stand out from the "nice" restoration spells. There are some new necromantic spells like Death Rune which kills low health enemies, and the plagues have received major bugfixes so they jump consistently and no longer CTD. The Skill Tap line of skill-draining spells is now its own theme as well and now includes a way to kill enemies by draining their skills away.

 

There are now also a few "nature" and "moon" spells, just enough to enable specialised variant builds.

 

 

Conjuration

In the regular game, a fairly nice tree that is eclipsed by the Dremora Lord (I did the math and its power level is about twice as high as anyone else). Apocalypse added the spirit and draugr lines of summoning spells, but visually the school was an enormous mess.

 

About half of the new 3.0 visuals are about conjuration. Also, balance was a bit suspect so I got cracking with Excel and rebalanced most newly added minions. Keyword consistency is better, corpse explosion is a thing, and there are several new themed summoning spells like the shock orb casting ghost of Radac and the highly damaging but fragile Golden Saint. Meanwhile a couple of old and useless Apocalypse spells got the axe so the school actually has fewer spells than before, but they should be much more useful.

 

And of course you still get to send people to Oblivion.

 

 

Literature

Thanks to the new and much more compatible scripts, the old lore-unfriendly skill tome vendors are removed and replaced with a single vendor in a corner "just in case". This also means the skill tomes will now actually drop and spawn in the world. Every spell has a scroll now, and there are a bunch of scroll-only spells.

 

 

Lore

After the unexpected early feedback about Thunderbolt, I'm spending some effort providing lore about the new spells.

 

 

--

 

Because this is the video generation, screenshots will be coming soon.

Edited December 13, 2012 by EnaiSiaion

[Sairven]

Can't wait for the Restoration changes/additions/fixes so I can get my Restoration RPing fix. :dance: :laugh: :dance:

 

Oh, and the other stuff is cool too. Hehehehe.

[TheJYSK]

Amazing work :woot: :dance: but now I have a lot of work, because I will translate it for the russian community, modgames.net :geek: :laugh:

[EnaiSiaion]

Today's 3.0 spells:

 

Death Proof (Restoration, 100)

Admit it, the only reason you studied restoration was so you could live forever. Here is something to help you with that. Wear the phylactery proud and have 33% chance to come back from the dead mostly unscathed and with a giant trollface expression albeit one phylactery lighter.

 

Detonate Dead (Conjuration, 50)

Their life might not be worth much, but their corpse sure is. At 200 damage a pop for the Greater version, it gives conjuration a nice offensive option that isn't actually a destruction spell in disguise. Also works on Dead Thralls! Unlike every explosion ever it does not blast the dead away, by the way, keeping all corpses in a nice pile under the feet of those who survived it.

 

Blur (Illusion, 25)

Illusion is a nice school but a bit hard to get off the ground. This reduces damage taken by a flat amount equal to 30% of your illusion skill level, giving the fledgeling illusionist some defensive power.

 

Breath of Arkay (Restoration, 100)

The restoration school doesn't actually have a viable high end heal. You get Grand Healing and that's it because as usual the master spells are junk. This is a simple heal that returns 150 points of health, plus a (non-scaling) 300 if you cast it towards the sun. It also has fancy Arkay-coloured animations. A little roleplaying and a little restoration improvement in one.

 

 

And because everyone likes Glacial Spike, it now does 140 backstab damage, up from 110. :devil: Casting Sanity's Eclipse twice no longer causes all of the clones to attack you, by the way. Oops.

 

Oh, and I removed a bunch of spells that do not contribute to gameplay and only provide free power, notably the stupid conjuration buffs. Sorry 'bout Stormstrike, though you can sort of emulate the effect by putting on your death growl and singing along with Hammerfall as loud as you can.

[Sairven]

I'm gonna have to stop checking this topic. All these restoration changes are giving me massive nerdgasms. XD

 

 

Also: For some reason Detonate Dead keeps reminding me of the Detonate Dead skill in Path of Exile.............. You wouldn't happen to play that by chance, eh? Regardless, I'm preferring your version so far from what I've read about it. :)

Edited December 16, 2012 by Sairven

[EnaiSiaion]

Today's 3.0 spells:

 

I'm spending some effort to make illusion feel more "illusory" instead of "shadowpriest facemelter". Of course you can still kill things with it, but you can also do things like this:

 

Darkweave (illusion, 75):

Toggle - Surrounds you in emo electronic music a cloak of shadows that increases spellpower when you are in darkness, but slightly reduces spellpower in bright light.

 

Geas Rune (illusion, 100):

Get your very own slave now! At least if they walk over this rune.

 

Outcast (illusion, 75):

This curse creates a Someone Else's Problem Field that makes it so when you commit a crime against the target, everyone watches you rob or beat up the guy and no one gives a hoot (as you see, it's a very realistic spell). Does not last very long, though.

 

Forked Tongue (illusion, 25):

Anyone out of combat you cast this on will get an epiphany of capitalism and will buy and sell stuff. Mostly useful for getting rid of vendor loot or to acquire items you don't want to risk pickpocketing for (at the cost of your hard earned cash, of course) but the Serpent Tongue upgrade at 75 lets you do it to hostile targets, too. And with Master of the Mind you can totally sell all those useless plates and cups you picked up in a dungeon to the wolves at the exit.

 

--

 

On a somewhat negative note, I'm stuck on Sanity's Eclipse. It is bugged and apparently unfixable: casting it again will cause the clones to attack you (or each other). Evil Twin doesn't do this. It seems simply hitting them with the AoE (even if it doesn't affect them) will aggro them. This would normally be a good reason to throw out the skill, but it looks too awesome to just remove it. :(

 

--

 

Getting to like the conjuration changes. Balance aside, there is a new look for the Necrolyte (who now looks like she crawled out of a television somewhere) and her skeleton, and you get to summon Radac Stungnthumz (wb!) who dual casts Shock Orb.

:devil:

[xesyto]

Today's 3.0 spells:

 

Blur (Illusion, 25)

Illusion is a nice school but a bit hard to get off the ground. This reduces damage taken by a flat amount equal to 30% of your illusion skill level, giving the fledgeling illusionist some defensive power.

 

Yes, finally something that will let me level illusion without spamming spells i don't care about or are literally useless ( befuddle noncasters ).

[ilikecheese1337]

Sounds amazing. Very much looking forward to 3.0.

[EnaiSiaion]

3.00 is out!

 

With some luck there are not too many big bugs. It is a major patch though so let's hope for the best...

[Sairven]

Oh my, that came way faster than I was expecting. XD

 

Currently in the literal middle of a playthrough (only doing stormcloak sided civil war and main quest) so maybe I'll get to play around with it at a later date.

 

Also.. that darn Steam sale. :O

 

My poor wallet.... and free time.