Spoilers should not be on the changelog... hence the ***wink***

umm....does that mean that all the existing creatures are getting an overhaul if Slam is to be warrented?

or does that mean that only the few new creatures added to the game in 1.4 will have Slam?

EDIT: nevermind. reading is tech.

Though, the earth elementals were quite strong in there own right. Giving them further improvement seems....odd.

How's that Pyre of Man improvement coming along. nudge nudge...

In addition, if you are overhauling some creatures, I did post a quasi-review on the Binding elementals. Can be viewed here in reply #21:

https://forums.elementalgame.com/445085/page/1/#3397331

Slam doesn't seem too overpowering, but it will be a nice add to the utility of these creatures when summoned.  After all, Earth Elementals are still incredibly slow.

Yes, something to improve Pyre of Man would be great.

Also, like others, I note that the AI also casts spells like Tremor and Freeze on Caravans, but hopefully the fix to Wither catches that. 

A slam seems to be a bash without the hammer

slam causes victim to lose turn.  bash is the attacker losing a turn.

yer thinking of crushing blow dude.

Haha... you're right, been a little while since I've played.

We just need a thwak and a kapow and we've got ourselves a batman comic.

I read it like Bash is an active ability (the mob/user uses it and activates a cooldown).  Slam is a passive effect.  25% chance on every hit to (essentially) Bash an opponent.  

Two balance items:

The Summoned Wisp:

I think the wisp is quite powerful. Imo, the flavor and feel of a wisp should be frail, mystical, elusive... and well, a bit of a trickster. Currently, the existing wisp is pretty tanky and can even dish out quite the punishment in the form of attack damage. With the healing spell it also has, this creature seems to be too much for it's current location in the trait tree. I recommend the following: 

• Reducing the wisp's hp a little. Currently starts at 12 hp and increases 2 hp/lvl. Recommend 10 hp + 1 hp/lvl
• Also recommend changing the onhit effect the Chaos spell instead of dealing damage. It is a creature of magic...a random effect would be very flavorful. 
• Lastly, on the main map...you can see a black silhouette of a man flying around. Not sure if that can be fixed so that you only see the 'wisp' part...

The Summoned Lightbringer:

This summon seems fairly tough for the AI and monsters to deal with at the early stage at which you are able to summon him. Recommend the following:

• Reduce the Lightbringers defense from 16 to 10. (Consider that the Ice Elemental can be summoned about the same time, and it has a defense of 0)

Another option to help deal with the early power level of the Wisp and Lightbringer is to move them down the trait tree just a little. Perhaps make a the Ice Elemental Summoning trait the prerequisite instead? 

Thanks

I can't tell who's joking in this thread about Vatula's Dragonslayer. The spell does one thing, it says "No Effect!" above a dragon's head.

Sooo... for those that really want to know, I didn't want to say anything to spoil the game so here it is...

Vatula's Dragonslayer spell is a useless spell, it costs you mana and does nothing to the dragon. But you get to keep this spell book in your spell throughout the rest of the game. Not many people like to see a useless spell in their spellbook and thus it would be better served if the dragon spell is a mana drain scroll with no effect on the dragon. Thus, you get the same cost, but you don't have to keep the spell throughout the rest of the game. Just something nice for the players. I hope that clears up my intention of not revealing the spell to the general public, and still keep the mystery for those that haven't tried the spell out.

Ah, I didn't even think about it being a spoiler. Added tags. That said I feel the spell is like a souvenir and I kind of like that I get to keep it. The spellbook is already pretty cluttered and cramped so I don't think that one spell makes a difference.

Re: Balance, is anything going to be done to make the Fire branch of Summoning worth taking? Especially if Earth elementals etc. are being buffed. The big one would be to make Summon the Pyre of Man less ridiculously expensive in terms of mana cost. And last more than two microseconds.

Re: AI, I had the AI use its fire staffs on my Burning Wraith last night. I believe this was fixed for spells, is it possible to fix it for staff troops not to attack units which are immune?

It would be nice if the AI was not allowed to cast strategic spells on units which it has already cast them on. This would be a: fair (because the player can't) and b: more fun. Sitting twiddling your thumbs because your attacking stack is permanently immobilized is not fun. You should have at least one turn to do something, which seems to be true for the AI but not for the player.

Thanks for the continuous improvement, it is impressive how the game keeps evolving.

Thanks for the notes and the continuous improvements.  Think there needs to be a bit more AI work added to this patch before I'll be dragged back into playing this though.

Remove my ability to see what enemy cities are building....PLEASE!

Still no fix for the color of the highlighted squares on the tactical map I see.

Never-mind, I guess it's never going to happen, just one of those things that never get's fixed.

You also are confusing Bash with Crushing Blow.  Bash is a passive effect given to blunt weapons.  So here's the difference:  Bash knocks the victim prone (lose 1 turn) based on percentage equal to damage done.  Slam makes victim lose 1 turn at a constant 25%.  So basically bash is for blunt weapons and slam is for blunt arms/hands of elementals.  They have the same effect, but trigger at slightly different rates. 

I won't hold my breath, but I would like the following fixed in this release: 

• erroneous movement point counts
• pathing algorithm takes you around an opponent's territory.  it should go through an opponent's territory if that is the shortest path.
• AI can end up on the same tile during tactical battles

yeah that is really strange.  I've seen this mostly (only?) with archers

I've seen that error where AI can do this as well.

N/A

...and there was much rejoicing. Thank you Stardock.

I'm with XWerewolfX, and I wouldn't mind it if there was an ability that would allow one to peek at what the enemy is building then (some stealth action type thing)

Me too.  Two AI archers ended up in the same tile last night when I was playing.  Awkward.

I'll be honest. I have no idea what this one means. What does this one mean?

Also, small item:

The Fiery Wraith seems to have quite the loud sound effect when you select it. Recommed reducing it's volume a smidge.

Another small item:

It appears that the Imprison graphic from the Obsidion Golem seems to be missing details...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ilpzaiq10mksh0/Imprison%20Grapic%20Seems%20to%20be%20Wrong.jpg

EDIT: Turns out that after the unit takes an action, the rest of the prison graphic shows up. Maybe not so crucial afterall.

Another item:

When a faction with the Binding trait takes over an outpost/city of a faction that does not have the Binding trait, the harvested shards revert back to their natural state. I understand that there are different improvements that equate Binding and Non Binding mining of the shards, but isn't there some way of transferring the information over so that a Binding faction can conquer a Non-Binding Shard and still have said structure on it??? (vice versa as well I would guess)

 Another item:

Gaining experience against AI is quite dismal. Could some additional reward be given out if the AI has a hero in the field? Perhaps 2xXP if at least 1 hero is fielded. Perhaps 3xXP if the sovereign is fielded? Fighting AI in this game is just very unrewarding as is...