Heal Spell.

taekwondokid42 · May 16, 2008, 10:32:43 PM

I have a question here:

How often do any of you use the heal spell?

I'm going to assume that it is very rarely, mainly because of the 1 mil + loyalty it usually takes.

The heal spell is great, and strategic, but the high loyalty costs are a big turn off.

Second question:

Do you think that you would use it more if it cost less loyalty (but still enough to prevent you from using it every 3 or 4 attacks)?

Holby · May 16, 2008, 10:51:46 PM

Yeah, right now it doesn't have a place unless absolutely super desperate. Maybe if it was 5 times more expensive than feast and loot? Given that it only saves 8 turns, I'd say that's a fair trade off.

Alazar is Back · May 16, 2008, 10:54:53 PM

I think that it should be reduced a bit to like 600mil or so, cause that is way to costly.

taekwondokid42 · May 17, 2008, 09:54:27 AM

I vote that we cut the current cost be a third. Even after we do that, it will still be the most expensive spell.

Or, rather than cut the cost, we could always increase its effectivity to something like 25% (although I'd vote for the cost cut.)

Shadow · May 17, 2008, 11:16:18 AM

If you make it too cheap you promote easy kills. See, the heal spell is different from other spells in that it has a base cost of 500,000 loyalty on top of the other variables that go into it. An indier who knows what he's doing can keep costs under 600k and easily commit a solo kill run on less than full turns. If you make it cheaper, killing will be a joke and leader fighters will get a massive offensive edge over other players. I think it is well balanced right now.

CobyCopper · May 17, 2008, 11:47:31 AM

It's balanced. It saves turns--most leader-strat people... we usually have a few million loyalty in reserve. Even if it costs 1.1+m loyalty a cast, it'd be made up in using fewer turns to scrape and be able to run more turns earning loyalty or similar. As it is, I don't build until I've roughly tripled my acres at first. The simple fact of the matter is that constantly building, while it revives your health, is a waste of turns. Consider that at low land, 100 buildings a turn? If you hold off until you hit 50k or so... it's over 1k buildings a turn. Depending on who has land, you can do 21 attacks and then build everything when you have plenty of land.

Firetooth · May 17, 2008, 11:58:36 AM

On just about every full kill run I ever did I can't recall actually using heal...though I haven't made a full kill for several months.

Sharptooh · May 17, 2008, 12:48:30 PM

I think it's fairly balanced but I wouldn't mind it coming down in cost a bit

taekwondokid42 · May 18, 2008, 04:26:16 PM

*grabs peace, asks for input*

Gen. Volkov · May 18, 2008, 10:01:19 PM

Because of the way I am currently running my stoat, (Horribly inefficiently) I have a huge buildup of loyalty that I'm not using on much. So, I use the heal spell frequently. I still end up in the positives for loyalty, and I don't have to use as many turns to get back to 100% health.

Alazar is Back · May 18, 2008, 11:00:29 PM

Quote from: Gen. Volkov on May 18, 2008, 10:01:19 PM
Because of the way I am currently running my stoat, (Horribly inefficiently) I have a huge buildup of loyalty that I'm not using on much. So, I use the heal spell frequently. I still end up in the positives for loyalty, and I don't have to use as many turns to get back to 100% health.

Wanna sell any of that?

taekwondokid42 · May 25, 2008, 04:48:56 PM

I have though things over and now have a proposal:

Increase the amount of health increased from 10% to 25%.

At the same time, double the base cost.

This increases the effect-cost ratio of the spell, but at the same time, makes the spell harder to use.

Comments?

CobyCopper · May 25, 2008, 05:17:52 PM

How about 10% healed and half the base cost? I know leadering it becomes a VERY expensive spell--and yes oftentimes it's better just to spend the loyalty raising shields 25x or earning loyalty for less-expensive missions. I've used it basically when I need to make the most out of everything I have--usually holding off building to when I'm 20% health or so is enough--for conserving turns. After all, health above 20% has no effect on self-help missions, so all you need is 20 health and you can use the general's hut as much as you darned well please.

taekwondokid42 · May 25, 2008, 07:02:15 PM

If we were to leave it at 10%, I would not only drop the base cost by half, but also take the NW cost down from 100.00 to 75.00. The NW bonus alone would keep the spell as the most expensive (the next most expensive is 55.00), and the extra 250k loyalty would only add to the punch.

Peace Alliance · May 30, 2008, 04:08:24 PM

Heal spell is very useful as it is, if you've been saving up loyalty, even as an indier, it can make a very successful run. It's the perfect "save it for a rainy day" type of spell, which is what we want in the game, because it makes those tougher times easier.

Also, you have to keep in mind that you can't make changes just because it would make something easier to use, the perspective you have to use when you think of game changes, is what the game needs, and what methods you can go about feeding those needs. So if you notice that there isn't enough land flow in the game, that issue could be solved by making heal easier... However we're actually the opposite, and it's really easy on turbo to go from having the lowest land in the game, to 10 times the second highest all in one run.