I was going through the abilities list and noticed ability called "charmed".. Is this used in game somewhere, or would this be available for making "new" ability with methods described above? I think controlled, seduced, dominated and possessed are in use, but dont remember charmed..

Quoted from griffith:

Wouldn't want to lose steppe concealment, just because steppe doesn't show up much in RMG...

Ive seen items that gave charm status. I think it might be a blank ability, I think thats what I was told when I asked.

[This message has been edited by TruePurple (edited 12-08-2006 @ 02:18 AM).]

Quoted from Griffith:

Good find

I think this can definitely be used as a new ability! As far as I know, it is merely fanciful and doesn't do anything at all in the game.

I stumbled on Controlled . Since Dominate gives Dominated, and successful Trap gives Enslaved, I think this could be used too! Dwiggs Mod uses this on the 'Possessed' unit just to show that it will 'turn' into an incarnate at gold, so I'm pretty sure it doesn't do anything.

Let's keep hunting in the editor, maybe there's 1 or 2 more such as these abilities

@True Purple: Yes you are correct, it would be best to keep all current abilities, even those rarely used; I was just thinking about it if there was no unused abilities to transform; but now we already have 2 of them

EDIT: However, I do still think even outside RMG those abilities like steppe/ grass concealment are too situational, and AI can see concealed/ invisible units (and they could be replaced by Concealment - how can they hide without vegetation near anyway?); if there was a new ability idea good enough I think it would be worth it, especially if it is a 'Fearless' many different units could have. Course now it would take 3 ideas for that since 2 abilities are ready to be edited.

[This message has been edited by Merkraad (edited 12-13-2006 @ 03:09 PM).]

According to my tests, both Charmed and Controlled are Combat temporary abilities... they vanish from the Unit ability list after one battle.

Some other problems with using Morph and masking it:

Tested Spider Queens with Changeling masked by Steppe Concealment.

1. Used Morph to turn one SQ into a Halberdier, a unit without SC therefore with Changeling. Used it to kill a Spider Queen, it could then transform into a Changeling (Unit slot 349, Syron Unit) instead of the Spider Queen!

2. After killing a Unit with Changeling, EVEN if it was Masked - such as the Spider Queens I altered for testing - the corpse on the ground was not a Spider Queen, but a Changeling corpse… so possibly any Unit that has Morph and/or Changeling will leave a Changeling corpse even if they are Masked.

3. Crusader masking Drain Will works perfectly, and AI will NOT try to use Drain Will on such units, even if the attempt is still possible. Unwarned human players may still do though, but it will fail even if it 'succeeds'.

[This message has been edited by Merkraad (edited 12-13-2006 @ 03:53 PM).]

Are you absolutely sure the AI will never try? How much times did you test?

Quoted from RosenMcStern:

Further testing showed something different...

For example, Incarnates apparently will only melee if they actually have a chance to kill the unit; especially low level units, even if in greater numbers than them.

When confronted with Titans, they tried to Drain Will endlessly. Guess that's how AI works in TC.

Spider Queens also killed in mellee low level Units with Fire Halo (that masked Webbed) but they tried to Web Titans and Lords with Fire Halo... they even took attacks of opportunity to surround a Titan attempting in vain to web him.

So this might weaken the AI a great deal.

[This message has been edited by Merkraad (edited 12-14-2006 @ 07:44 AM).]

I suspected that. Tactical choices for the AI are hardcoded, or at least only take into account protections that are originated by standard means.

I think this "mask" stuff is only safe if it applies to passive effects of attacks, like Poisoned or Frozen.

Is this Possible:

Now we assign dragon growth to some unit. As far as i know, there are some slots alloted to this ability. Now if we replace some unit with these dragons like say we have assigned dragon growth to a peasent. replace the dragon with a hero say! so we can have something like a peasent hero.

@Rosen: Yes, masking Poisoned with Poison Protection, Frozen with Cold Protection etc. is a good idea that makes Protections more useful.

@sausud: Heroes can't occupy unit slots. We can make Peasant "grow" to a stronger unit, but not to a hero.

Quoted from PawelS:

Aside from personally thinking this makes protections too strong, this make the game highly unstable.

It was not once or twice, but MANY times I tested this I had the game crash, when a Unit with black bolts/ Poison darts/etc attacked a Unit with a protection that masked the adverse effect cursed/poisoned/etc.

[This message has been edited by Merkraad (edited 12-14-2006 @ 09:39 AM).]

Sigh! Thanks for testing, Merkraad. It appears this whole mask stuff cannot be turned into something useful, in the end.

I suggest others try too, but I guess that warning that when enabling custom resources might make game unstable is true...

Is this just the case with protections or do any masking of status ailments you mentioned cause crashing? If specific to protections, its curious why it would be different.

With protections though its easy to boost em, just make many attacks only one type (holy breath only holy, death breath only death, venom spit only poison etc)Thus it applies more, still not as great as immunities but it doesnt need to be.

[This message has been edited by TruePurple (edited 12-14-2006 @ 06:29 PM).]