Spellbook Powers:
I don't like the idea of lots of different teams having the same powers; seems lazy and untought out on EA's behalf. So here's some ideas to spice things up!
Evil Men
Drums in the Deep 15pp
I'm not sure where goblins have gone (they were my favourite faction) but if they've become evil men, then as a 15pp spell maybe have Drums In The Deep. Summons: two gobin swordsman hordes, two archer horde and a nice custom cave troll unit thats actually good! What would be really neat is if it was chained to a goblin with a fair bit of health, and if you kill that goblin the troll will be released and damage anything and everything. Or it could be a negative leadership spell, opposite to darkness; demoralize enemies, they all lose 30% damage 30% experience and 30% armour.
Mordor
Fires of Mount Doom 25pp (Update 24/09/07)
Imho, gorgoroth spire is a little cheap - not a lot different from the mordor base spell; I prefer some variation. I remember in the old elvenstar mod on bfme1, the 25pp spells would summon a unit that you couldn't see, that would in turn have a powerful spell. That's what I suggest. Using the spell gives you control of mount doom (On the hero selection board). In turn mount doom has a spell called Rain of Fire, which shotes three of those magma balls over an area. Make the spellbook CD 7 mins, make Mount Doom last for 3.5mins and make the fireball CD 1 min. The AoE for the fireballs needs to be quite large, with 1/3 of the damage that gorgoroth spire would do (since you will get three shots in). I really liked the design of the goblin were-worm, who shot that fireball that broke into smaller bits; would be nice to replicate that on a larged scale. If each fireball spell attack had the AoE of sunflare, 1/3 of the damage of the current gorgoroth (thats total damage) and some nice knockback, the spell could really rock! If you wanted to you could even add another spell to mount doom; for example have a spell thats on a 2 min CD (effectively meaning you can only use it once), called Smog of Mordor; it could be a mini darkness in that AoE (like the better version of tanited land). In the book's it says that Mount Doom spurted out the thick black smog to allow the orcs to assualt Minas Tirith out of sunlight. As for whether if would be an anti building spell or anti army, I'd say anti army. Make it so it effects the fort but only very slightly, and of course it can damage buildings just not that great. In turn to balance, I highly employ you to increase the Balrog damage v fort, as Gorogoroth used to be the anti building spell. Any other spells would be cool too... but make sure balance is kept .
Elves
Whirlpool 15pp
I mentioned this in the other thread, but wanted to include it and go into more detail here . There's an elvenship that one death creates a whirlpool. If you could take the animation from that, then make a 15pp spell which summons a whirlpool, which could do one of two things:
1) Basic Idea; just make the whirlpool damage units, and make sure for it to slowly pull enemies near it, unless they move quickly away - so it sux enemies in then shoots them out.
2) Advanced Idea; make it so you effectively summon two whirlpools, anywhere on the map. Any unit, on your team or the enemies, that moved into the first part of the whirlpool would shoot out the other (not taking damage). This could be a highly strategic spell - it could be used to move enemies away from you if summons underneath, but equally you could use it for suprise attacks on your enemies!
Men
Grace of the Valar 25pp
25pp spell to replace earthquake (which can stay for dwarfs). For twenty seconds make all units on the map only take 10% damage. Simple, not too complicated and would make more men's final spell more unique instead of the typical "Base Killer and Army Killer" spells
Dwarfes (Update 24/09/07)
I'll try to take advantage of the fact the spell tree hasn't been re-designed yet!
Watch The Skies 15pp
Could replace 'undermine' which I find thoroughly useless. Infact the only time I've seen anyone use that, was when I teamed up with a guy who when I asked "Why don't you attack with some units instead of keeping them bottled behind walls?" replied "Shut up noob, these men has families too" But anyway...
I was trying to figure out a spell that was to do with Dwarfes main fear; the dragons. You could have 50% build speed increase for 45 seconds, with a 2min30s CD. The reason is they work harder for fear of dragons. Actually got the idea off reign of fire, when the guy says to the kids "What do we do when we see them?" and the kids reply "Dig deep, dig hard, and never look back ".
Dragon Bait 10pp or 15pp
Why did the dragons attack the dwarfes? For their treasure. In this spell you could choose a large AoE in which to summon three or four chests of gold at the vert centre of the AoE that add +0 when picked up. Any beast unit (or even more refined, any Dragon unit) must run straight for the treasure when they enter that AoE, ignoring all else. This could be used very strategly for defence; if the treasure lasts 1 min with a 3min20s CD. Once the creature picks up the treasure chest, he can go on to do whatever he wants; if you wanted to be really clever, if there was more than one beast going for it they could fight each other. I'm not sure if this PP would be possible but would be cool
Other (Update 25/09/07)
I have an idea for a new War of the East background; at the moment I don't like the splash screen but I love the background in-game. Why not move the current in-game background to the splash screen and as the new background have filmed footage of action sequences from the mod; like the Elvenstar Mod team did. If no one has any idea how to this, I can send an e-mail to them to enquire further, but it really was a good technique.
-Thats all I've got time for tonight, after school tommorow I'll continue if my ideas are welcome
Edited by Sheephoof, 25 September 2007 - 08:58 PM.