Utility: Spell Modding Returns

[DrPraetorious]

This includes a new, up-to-date (I think!) version of the spell list, with absolutely all the info including secondary effects and special abilities in hopefully-human-readable format.

!Undead = not vs Undead.
oUndead = only vs Undead.

Other than that, the text should be self-explanatory. Oh - it doesn't yet parse negative numbers properly. This is kinda a pain to fix, but if anyone wants to fix that or otherwise prettify the excel spreadsheet, this would be much nice.

Anyway, here it is. Enjoy. The included .txt document probably needs to be wikified or indexed or something. If anyone wants to collaborate on that, would be much easier for me . There's some disparate info that needs to be verified (such as mod-specified domes and site-searches not working) which is mentioned in other threads and then, if still true, needs to be recorded in the document.

P.S. - could whomever maintains stickies, links to toolsets or whatever make sure that spell modding points to this thread?

EDIT - I fixed a few obvious things in the spreadsheet.

[Valerius]

Thanks, DrP! This is very useful info. I just came across your previous spell guide yesterday when I was trying to find out how to make a spell cause double damage to undead. I didn't see a #spec option for that but my test of having the spell not cause damage to undead and then using #nextspell to call a version that only effects undead worked fine.

[DrPraetorious]

x2 to Undead would work as you describe, more or less (would behave funny in terms of armor-piercing etc. if you care about that).

If you use effect #24, you'll get dt_holy rather than dt_normal, which would be x3 to both demons and undead. I'm not sure if there's a x2 damage vs. undead in there. Probably there is (since there are attacks which deal that damage type) but I'm not sure how you'd guess what it is.

[Valerius]

That could also work. Basically, I'd like to create a version of Rain of Stones that does minimal damage to lightly armored troops, is still a threat to unarmored mages (though not as much as before), and does the same damage as previously to undead (probably demons as well).

My first thought was to reduce the damage to 7 and then have the chained version have the normal damage of 14 to undead. But perhaps reducing the damage to 5 and then using dt_holy would be better.

[DrPraetorious]

Run some tests - to be honest, I haven't played with holy damage much, but I believe 5 pts. of dt_holy will do (5-Armour+rolls)x3 to undead, rather than (15-Armour+rolls). So you might be better off chaining the spells.

[Professor_Dyar]

Wow, thanks!

[DrPraetorious]

Slightly updated it with a few more fields explained.

[DrPraetorious]

Also, if anyone wishes to be a saint, the following bitmasks could use checking. Possibly they could be things like:
dt_undead (although this is more likely to be an unused effect #, see below), !sacred, oInanimates, !mcBeing, !demon, oAmphibious etc.

16384 - this is used by *lots* of spells. No idea what it does.
2, 4 - I'm guessing that these are dom1 or dom2 versions of commonly used flags (only undead?) which have been grandfathered in? Pure speculation on why these low values are never used.
256, 1024 - given what the nearby bitmasks do, I'm guessing these change damage types somehow. Are there any damage types that appear on weapons but never on spells?
134217728 - the adjacent bitmasks are oUndead, and some flag used to target spells into remote provinces (site searching, mind hunt etc.)

Also there are some conspicuously missing effect #s. I'm guessing that one of these is dt_antiundead, but other than that I have no idea:
5,6,9 - these are probably all damage types.
12 - reserved for a second set of affliction bitmasks? Just a guess.
14,16,18 - I'm guessing these are more out-dated effect codes replaced by new ones. I should really get a copy of dominions 1 and code-dive the corresponding table .

And after that, half or more of the codes are missing, and I wouldn't bet that the missing codes do anything at all.

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by DrPraetorious

16384 - this is used by *lots* of spells. No idea what it does.

I have reported this to you, twice! Once in the former spell DB thread and once in IrC!

I have tested it, and it is the tag for "always hit if hits square with troops, ignore shields", like the lightning spells.

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by DrPraetorious

Run some tests - to be honest, I haven't played with holy damage much, but I believe 5 pts. of dt_holy will do (5-Armour+rolls)x3 to undead, rather than (15-Armour+rolls). So you might be better off chaining the spells.

Ran a test on this and I'm almost certain it's the latter formula. A single casting of RoS with dt_holy eliminated an entire squad of wights (prot 20, hp 20) with one casting. Average damage per wight was 25 - exactly what you'd expect. This also matches my experience with Herald Lances. Thanks for the suggestion.