Modding gem/supply producing items

[Loren]

I've decided it's time to reduce some micro-management headaches for SP games at least.

I want to make a few modded magic items, upgraded versions of the food items & clams. The price would be upgraded correspondingly--I'm simply after not needing as many carriers for them.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

[rdonj]

I'm pretty sure you can't do that. Your best bet would be to create summons to replicate the effects. They wouldn't benefit from forge bonus and can only use gems of one path, so they could stand being a little cheaper, relatively speaking. If you wanted you could make the summons be in construction so they still take the same path requirements. And if you really want you can remove the slot that would be theoretically taken up by said item.

[Trumanator]

You mean its impossible to make forgable magic items? Damn,that just sucks.

[Loren]

Originally Posted by rdonj

I'm pretty sure you can't do that. Your best bet would be to create summons to replicate the effects. They wouldn't benefit from forge bonus and can only use gems of one path, so they could stand being a little cheaper, relatively speaking. If you wanted you could make the summons be in construction so they still take the same path requirements. And if you really want you can remove the slot that would be theoretically taken up by said item.

For clams that would work and would actually be even less micromanagement--you can repeat cast but you can't repeat forge.

However, the one that was bugging me the most was food. I was using a bunch of large monsters and I was having to send along a bunch of extra commanders to feed them.

What are you suggesting, a stealthy commander that does basically nothing but provide a large supply bonus? Can you make a supply bonus without nature magic?


Ok, how do I go about making my megaclam summon?

I'm thinking stealthy, amphibious, wimpy, flight 2 or 3, costs 60W and produces 5 pearls per turn. This would be about the water gem price of 5 pearls made with hammers. Since the supply of water gems has almost always been what limited me on clams I think it's reasonable to simply ignore the nature gems. Const 6, Water 3, Nature 1 to cast.

I don't think making it any more expensive (with a corresponding increase in pearls) would be a good idea unless there was some way to prevent wishing for it.

[rdonj]

Well, you can make a new item, but there's not much you can do with it. Item modding is mostly for changing the costs and requirements to make said items.

Edit: Let me work up a chassis for you real quick.

#newmonster anumberfrom 2200 to 2999
#name "Clam Master"
#copyspr monsternumber
#descr "A unit that produces clams."
#ap 10
#mapmove 3
#hp 10
#prot 0
#size 2
#str 10
#enc 3
#att 10
#def 12
#prec 10
#mr 14
#mor 12
#gcost 0
#rcost 1
#weapon "Useless Kick"
#armor "Robes"
#gemprod 4 5
#poorleader
#stealthy canhaveavalueforincreasedstealth
#amphibian or pooramphibian
#flying
#end

That's a relatively generic weak sort of chassis for you clam producing summon, a bit extra mr to make it slightly les vulnerable to kill spells and a little extra morale for no good reason. As far as the spell portion of your clam factory summon I can't really help you there, I haven't touched spell modding yet.

As for the food supply summon, you can do basically the same thing. Just replace the "#gemprod 4 5" line with "#supplybonus whatevernumberyoulike".

You can also remove all their item slots if you like with #itemslots 1, or give them no leadership with #noleader.

[SlipperyJim]

Originally Posted by rdonj

As far as the spell portion of your clam factory summon I can't really help you there, I haven't touched spell modding yet.

Summoning spells are actually rather easy. I'll take a shot at providing something....

#newspell
#name "Construct Clam Master"
#descr "The mage constructs a magical flying clam that produces Astral pearls."
#school 3
#researchlevel 6
#path 0 2
#pathlevel 0 3
#path 1 6
#pathlevel 1 1
#fatiguecost 6000
#effect 10001
#damage (unit number for the clam monster)
#spec 8388608
#nreff 1
#end

So if the Clam Master is unit #2947, then the damage should be 2947. By the way, the #spec is to allow the ritual to be cast underwater. If you're going to make the clams amphibious, then it makes sense that you should be able to construct them in an underwater lab.

For some reason, I'm imagining a giant clam with cartoon-style wings. "Look, kids! It's Clammy, the magical flying clam who brings chowder to all good little children!"

You know ... you could combine your requested features to make a flying clam monster that produced pearls and food!

[Loren]

Originally Posted by SlipperyJim

Summoning spells are actually rather easy. I'll take a shot at providing something....

#newspell
#name "Construct Clam Master"
#descr "The mage constructs a magical flying clam that produces Astral pearls."
#school 3
#researchlevel 6
#path 0 2
#pathlevel 0 3
#path 1 6
#pathlevel 1 1
#fatiguecost 6000
#effect 10001
#damage (unit number for the clam monster)
#spec 8388608
#nreff 1
#end

So if the Clam Master is unit #2947, then the damage should be 2947. By the way, the #spec is to allow the ritual to be cast underwater. If you're going to make the clams amphibious, then it makes sense that you should be able to construct them in an underwater lab.

For some reason, I'm imagining a giant clam with cartoon-style wings. "Look, kids! It's Clammy, the magical flying clam who brings chowder to all good little children!"

You know ... you could combine your requested features to make a flying clam monster that produced pearls and food!

But you don't normally take your clammers into battle.

[SlipperyJim]

If the Clam Master is stealthy, then it doesn't have to enter battle. It can just sneak along with your troops to provide food and pearls.