World of Wesnoth (MMORPG add-on project)

[Dugi]

To the fact that they arent used in wesnoth: Neither are demons, preserved lichs etc etc (in mainline) so tha argument that wesnoth doesnt have them isnt an argument..

Demons were mentioned quite significantly in Under the Burning Suns, that is a mainline campaign, with events taken as cannon by many UMC campaigns. Preserved liches are just an unusual kind of undead, not a real race, and I didn't really intend to introduce them, it was meant to be rather a joke, or an overly wind suggestion (as many other suggestions on that line).
Still I am not telling that vampires should not be there, but I don't want them to be too important (but I am sure there is enough emos that would play them no matter what). So I would like the vampiric race to be some kind of disease (the player gets the vampire race if he becomes a vampire, and gets his old one when he gets cured). And it might be contracted from vampires, according to mainstream gaming rules. Easily curable, maybe by any potion or healing spell, but if uncured and died or uncured for too long, the unit might become a real vampire and would have to complete a quest to get cured (something like in Morrowind, asking some superior force that created vampires for a favour of curing him).

Luck only affects drop rate.

I don't want anything to affect drop rate. It was pretty bad in Diablo II, everybody simply killed the stuff with sorceresses (or let them finish the bosses) because they could get a lot of items increasing their chance to get stuff without crippling themselves. I had a barbarian who was getting even more items, but he was killing too slowly. Just to avoid being mainstream, I made a necromancer with 85% of the drop chance of sorceresses, but I could kill even faster, everything choked on my poison so fast, good old times
If the humans had an extra chance to get items, all parties would have humans in parties just especially to finish bosses and other well-dropping stuff.
Good that you agreed that +1 extra mana regeneration would be good as well.

That Ai is favored to humans: silly comparison in my opinion as that is NOT luck but simply balancing issues

Humans are an unlucky race compared to AI. This is the most famous wesnothian myth, you cannot doubt that. It was rather a joke.

Elves were from the beginning on good mages in all stories but not in wesnoth so saying that in this/that book they are this and that is not a reason..
It has just to sound logical, nothing more.

It sounds logical, but read the F1 help files in wesnoth about races: Elves are naturally imbued with magic to a small degree. Though most are unable to channel it directly, its latent presence gives them their keen senses and long life. And: Although they are not imbued with magic like other creatures, humans can learn to wield it and able to learn more types than most others.

I would think something similar to the how werewolfs are in skyrim. Most consider it as curse or plague but some consider it as blessing. They have they own society aswell. If seen in werewolf form by normal people they attack werewolfs. Also becoming werewolf is players own choice.

Werewolves were the most useless thing I have seen in Skyrim. They were fast, but you became weaker when you transformed into the beast for if your level was more than 5 or so. The unability to transform back, unability to heal yourself without killing and prolonging the transformation was making it even worse. Maybe if you were playing it on an easy mode, like the default difficulty, you could transform just for the coolness' sake, but otherwise, it was a pain.
And as we explained more times, you will not be able to perform any crime against humans, you simply need them for important quests and trade. It might be like in Diablo II, where werewolf transformation was a skill that was making you physically more powerful, but making you unable to cast spells. Or it might be added later as a special class, that a Hunter can become, and it will have some advancements related with transforming into the wolf form.

I would prefer if all abnormal races and things like vampires, werewolves, medusas, yokai, rusalkas, demons, angels, gnomes, dark elves, shadow people, desert elves, efreeti, cyclops, leviathans, leprechauns, valkyries, myrmidons, minotaurs and other stuff were just possibilities for later development, as it would badly delay the moment when we finish it.

[alex23]

ok i sugested it (werewolves) as an idea for later gameplay. (I even said: People can DECIDE THEMSELVES when they want to becaome a werewolf, they CANT cast spells, but are more powerful, the strenght of their attacks does depend only very few on atrributes, more on level) SO metioning all points you both sugested (more or less at least).
But you are right about delaying, but please making the game "open" for later changes like that (Idk how to code, but if you often you need to recode much if you dont consider every possible changes later you might make later on from the beginning)

[Dugi]

they CANT cast spells, but are more powerful

There is a little problem with that. Mages would not use it, and pure fighters would use it a lot. It would have to be a skill (that would cause issues with skill loss from removal, but as I said that if it was some kind of class), or balanced with serious inconveniences, like being weaker in the human form, while you are unable to be in the beast form at day.

More about the idea of making the werewolf a class (to be added later) - it would be either available when advancing to hunters, or to characters recently bitten by a werewolf (that might be like beast wandering the dangerous wilderness). It would have 6-7 available skills, one of them would be an enchantment of transformation into a werewolf (getting all bonuses from weapons and stuff (where the clothes of the one who becomes a beast comes? It becomes a part of his new body, what else is possible.)), others would be some skills accessible for those in the form of a werewolf.
Same might be with vampires.

But you are right about delaying, but please making the game "open" for later changes like that (Idk how to code, but if you often you need to recode much if you dont consider every possible changes later you might make later on from the beginning)

Yes, it is important to take all possible future changes into account, that is one of the reasons why I haven't done too many things yet. I have rewritten significant parts of LotI three times until I have reached a level when there was really nothing to improve (though that does not mean that other parts cannot be improved). Most unexpected changes would just mean some addenda into various parts of the structure, but the code would become greatly ineffective if the chosen architecture was not good for the purpose.

For now, three races, seven classes. I will work more on the skills (especially for wizard, necromancer and cleric).

[Heindal]

I finished the first multiplayer scenario scribble: The Village. It contains different design overlays for furniture, we might reuse for other maps. I used Wesband as a pattern for the scenario structure, as this multiplayer campaign features different scenarios, so we might add several different campaigns.

Shall I upload it here as an archive for you to review the map? The size isn't that big yet.

[Dugi]

Okay, do it. And can you please express your opinion about things discussed in the last 3 pages?

[alluton]

Werewolves were the most useless thing I have seen in Skyrim. They were fast, but you became weaker when you transformed into the beast for if your level was more than 5 or so. The unability to transform back, unability to heal yourself without killing and prolonging the transformation was making it even worse. Maybe if you were playing it on an easy mode, like the default difficulty, you could transform just for the coolness' sake, but otherwise, it was a pain.
And as we explained more times, you will not be able to perform any crime against humans, you simply need them for important quests and trade. It might be like in Diablo II, where werewolf transformation was a skill that was making you physically more powerful, but making you unable to cast spells. Or it might be added later as a special class, that a Hunter can become, and it will have some advancements related with transforming into the wolf form.

I hardly see how werewolfs balancing in Skyrim is relevant in anyway. I was more suggesting: Able to take werewolf form which would give strenght and speed and possibly to gain healt points when killing enemyes.

[Xudo]

Able to take werewolf form which would give strenght and speed and possibly to gain healt points when killing enemyes.

Actually, your suggestion is "create special type of spell stance, which can influence combat efficiency and a character look". We haven't discussed latter effect yet.
I think your description of werewolf form suit "stance" concept more, than spell.
More than that. If werewolf will get special attacks instead of normal sword/[whatever] blows, then my idea "stance determines attacks" works here.
In this case, if we really want to allow (barbarian) to use any attack (default/concentration/fury/...), then we just can define them all for each barbarian's stance.

[alex23]

Hmm i know that might sound stubborn but I dont like the idea of stances, the word "stance" is simply wrong for a transformation

Mages would not use it,

WHy not? The attack power is not determined by attributes, but by level and other things, so that mages would be as strong as warriors (nearly) in werewolf form, and that would be very useful.

Another points is: Is it possible to programm stances that for changing/having one you loose mana?

[Xudo]

Hmm i know that might sound stubborn but I dont like the idea of stances, the word "stance" is simply wrong for a transformation

"stance" here is technical word. Players might see something else.

Another points is: Is it possible to programm stances that for changing/having one you loose mana?

I think it is.

[Heindal]

Hi guys,

please find in the attachment the first scribble for the first multiplayer scenario. Its just a first scribble so we still might change if you don't like it.
Please tell me honestly what you think. I placed the missions layout within the TheVillage.cfg before the Missionteleport macro.

About the ideas and the discussion:

Stance in a way of fast attack, normal attack and heavy attack would be nice, but seem to be a complicate things a bit. If its easy to code it would be a nice feature, but I'm personally against them. I personally would just use heavy attacks as a barbarian and not change it anymore. Its an unnecessary feature as you already have different ways of attack and different skills.

Well races, we (dugi and I) had that topic already in our discussion before this thread. We should create stereotypes such as the elven ranger, the human fencer and the orcish necromancer, but not creating an entire new system allowing races and classes. Its getting to complicated and especially to hard to code and we would need to make 3x7 sprites for all the characters (fully animated and with different weapons?). If you are willing to do the job - do it. But this is one of the things that might lead to an end of this project. We should try to reduce the work in coding and drawing to a minimum, without giving up our ideas.

Its a dungeon crawl and we should keep things simple. A necromancer, a melee warrior, a mage, a bowman, a nimble warrior and a healer and whatever, but thats it (thats one of the drawbacks of Wesband - too much complexity)! We are getting way to detailed before we get started - I like to get things done and than see how they are like and how people react. Thats proably not the best attitude in teamwork as we have do things together not seperately do our work. But its my opinion. We might destroy this project by letting our fantasy go and overcomplicate things. I would never wanted dugi to implent a "Jester" which I personally think is a cool idea for a class, but thats my personal opinion. This has nothing to do with this project and the idea would disable the idea of a dungeon crawl.


Resumee:

Stance - just yes if its easy to realize, but irrelevant in my opinion

Races - stereotype heroes instead of races, its a dungeon crawl not neverwinter nights which is a hardcore rpg! I'm willing to accept it if its easy to realize - but if than more than three races - if you implent them than just 3 races are not enough, it feels like a bad compromise and seems like halfdone work.
Werewolves and other ideas: - nice to have but not in this state of development, we just first try to get an import and export done as well as the character amla and skill defintion - a werewolf ability would be just a spell or ability, so we should discuss about that now, but should keep it in mind to add it somewhere in a future version.

Please note that these are just my opinions. I did not ment to hurt your feelings, I just wanted to give you a honest feedback and say my opinion. We should be careful not to overcomplicate the system. This might scare off potential players.


Have a nice weekend all of you!

Heindal

[alex23]

@Heindal
About the artwork of all units:
Dugi said that the best would be to draw all parts seperately and then combining them by coding (Idk how exactly). However, races will be not very different, a little difference in skin colorand different heads.
3 races are not much but adding a few more isnt difficult if the main build is good, so starting with 3 races and then adding more after testing shouldnt be a too big problem (but thats up to dugi).

ABout the campaign:
Questions:
Can you play it with less than 5 ppl or do it have to exactly 5? (

"Fortunately 5 heroes have"

)
what does that mean? (I have never seen that in a campaign...)

Code: Select all

        
[ai]
            villages_per_scout=8
        [/ai]

The id is funny^^ (nothing serious just for notice haha)

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			type=Ghast
			name=Woodcutter
			id=skel4

# Tunnelteleports that have a mission requirement - this way we might allow to enter a special location just if the group has done a special mission.
# the first mission would be to survive and to kill the attackers within the taverns (this should be mainly easy targets such as walking corpses)
# unfortunately the undeads have damaged the barricades of the tavern and so the heroes are send out to gather more wood from the woodcutter and see if he is still alive
# after that you will find out that the supplies seems to be poisoned and cause everyone who eats it to turn into a zombie - so you will be sent to the farm gathering food that is not contaminated
# than you will try to find survivors in the slums
# after that you will try to gather armors and weapons in the blacksmith for the villagers
# unfortunately it seems like a powerful barricade is blocking the entrance to the graveyard where the leader of the undeads is hiding which is located in the ruins of an old tower to the north
# so the party is send out to find the only person that could possibly break this barricade - the local priest
# after that you can enter the final destination and kill the boss
# the idea is that after you free the village you will be sent to the worldmap to fight the evil
# tell me if you like this scenario thus far?
# greetings Heindal

Good ideas, interesting storyline, woodcutter is dead as I assume. But I dont understand how you got from

to gather more wood from the woodcutter

to

you will find out that the supplies seems to be poisoned

?
I mean the supplies have nothing todo with the woodcutter am i right?

Ah and how exactly do the teleports work? Assuming from utils.cfg u need to have more missions finished than the value "{Mission}" but how will one know if he finished the right quests? Maybe each quest should have an own variable:

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[variable]
name=questname_finished
value_no
 [/variable]

that after finishing the quest becomes "yes". And each teleporter checks if you have the needed quests finished to use it? (only an Idea because I dont understand how your code works)

MAP:
It looks good, you made a great work. However i have a few questions
The horses are only for decoration am i right?
The middle right map looks pretty strange as I cant guess (yet) what it is good for... Maybe you should not name all teleports "Leave" and "Enter" but make own descriptions where they lead

I think that you already considered many of those points I mentioned but I decided to mention everything that I noticed

EDIT: One last thing, the 75gold are only for testing or not?

[Heindal]

Missions: dugi and I have already (shortly) talked about the mission a while ago.

We will take one variable "mission", which is increased when a mission is done.

mission=0 - Tavern Defence
mission=1 - Woodcutter and Woodcollect
mission=2 - Return to the Tavern
mission=3 - Farm
and so on

This way you can use one variable to define all mission stats. There will be just one active mission and all players on the map have the same mission status. So if one player is solving a mission alone, its solved for the group - but its recommended that you stick together to beat enemies such as the woodcutter. If we would do the quest as you suggested we would need to add a variable for each quest, that not necessary and on the other hand you can always use mission>than, which allows you for example to change dialogues. Used the same concept in trapped already.

Spoiler:

The idea is that the mainbase is the tavern where a lot of citizen have barricaded against the undeads. You are doing missions and than return to the main base and talk to the tavern keeper, I wish you had put my mission suggestion into a spoiler - after all some people might be interested in finding out the missions themselves. So the first mission would be to survive and as you need wood for the barricades the heroes are send out to gather wood and save the woodcutter who is living south of the village, which crafting skill and tools would be valuable for the survivors. After returning with the wood and the tools the situation seems stable, but suddenly one of the other guests turns into a zombie after eating crops from the storage. So you are send to the farm to gather 'clean' food. I was thinking about some scarecrow enemies there. You will also be able to find survivors alltogether with the mission. These might give the player who finds them some extra experience.

As I wrote in the description of the attachment you can do the map all alone, but it has fixed placed monsters, so it might be a hard fight. This very base was made for you just to review the map and to have a look on the mission ideas, so just open it local. You can always deactivate the other players and play alone, like in any other localy played multiplayer game.

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[ai]
            villages_per_scout=8
        [/ai]

is irrelevant, we can delete it lateron.

I've been just lazy with that id - after all the id of the three enemies in the tavern are skel1-3.

[Xudo]

My summary of the project.

There is two parts of project:
* Era - informaton, which is used in every scenario (for example items, classes, spells)
* Scenarios - contains information, specific for each scenario (for example mercenaries, missions)

Player can control:

• one character - NU, with extended properties, including:
  • classes - set of unique constant properties - skills.
    info:

    To train skill, player needs free skill point (acquired by levelling). Total amount of skill points is limited.
    Skill might require: specific amount of attributes, specific amount of skill points, spend in this class.
    Player can spend several skill points in each skill - skill levels. Each level of skill have its own requirements.
    Skills can alter characters properties in following ways:

    • Allow to use spell
    • Allow to use stance
    • Add property, which effect depeds from specific attribute
    • Allow to use new kind of native attack
    • Allow to attack several times per turn
    • Increase damage
  • attributes - variables, which affect properties using some mathematical function
    info:

    There are four attributes:

    • Strength - affects melee damage of character. It is required to equip weapons and armor.
    • Endurance - affects hitpoints.
    • Dexterity - affects ranged damage of character and defense.
    • Intelligence - affects amount of mana.
  • inventory - set of unique properties, which can be changed easily
• multiple summons
  Maximum number of summons depends from its type. Number of most summons is limited by 1, while necromancers summons are limited by 5. Total number of summons is not limited.
  They are created by spell and last for infinite time.
• multiple mercenaries.
  Any number of each kind are allowed.
  They are used as optional extra help for tight situations.
  To get mercenary, player should "hire" it in special shop.

Possible players actions:

• movement
• native attack
  info:

  character can do NA several times per turn. Exact number depends from trained skills.
• cast a spell
  info:

  To apply spell, character must have enough mana.
  There are several types of spells:

  • Direct damage/healing
  • Application of special effect: healing, buff, debuff. Each type of effect can be applied to several targets. They last until caster runs out of mana or until caster cancels it
  • Application of DoT. It lasts as native poison - until character healed by special ability or in village
  • Summoning
• change stance
  info:

  Stance affects properties of native unit. Player can change stance only once per turn.
  Act of stance changing might require mana.
• inventory transactions

Special places:

• Mercenaries base
  info:

  Player can hire mercenaries here.
  List of possible mercenaries defined in "scenario-part".
  To access mercenaries base interface, player should move character to its hex and use context menu item.
• Shop
  info:

  Player can sell here unused/old gear, buy potions.
  Assortment depends from scenario, but every item should be defined in "era-part".
  To access shop interface, player should move character to its hex and use context menu item.
• Traps
  info:

  When any entity steps on the trap, some effect happens.
  Trap can be placed by spell, or by script.
  All traps are defined in "era-part".

Comments:

• I think that there is no need in specific interface for mercenaries base. We can use native recruit interface.
• I don't like rule of DoT expiration. I propose to generalize it as buff. i.e. it last until caster runs out of mana or caster cancel it.
• How buffs and debuffs work? Whether they affect attributes or properties of native unit or both?
• I want to introduce spells, which will require health instead of mana. What do you think about it?

[Dugi]

I think that your stances would overcomplicate the game. Werewolf was nothing but a mere speculation for further edits, and all I wanted was to make the system support it, and it was meant to be rather like some kind of polymorph spell, not a stance.
The problem with stances is that limiting the attacks for each stance would make it annoying. Each of the combat skills could be technically a stance (Thrash, Fury, Doom for Barbarian, Thrash and Fury are rather offensive, Doom is rather defensive). Each attack in your turn can be done in the selected way, so this is basically like attacking enemies with selected stances, just no need for right-click menus to select them. Attacks that are not much like stances (Concentrate, Mayhem, Cleave for Barbarian) would be used in one stance anyway, Concentrate and Cleave would be useful only in offensive stance, Mayhem only in defensive. If it was about party play, all fighters would play their role of tanks and stay in the defensive all the time. Mages would use the defensive stance all the time, as they need their melee damage only a little (not sure if you played some kind of mage in late versions of Neverwinter Nights 1, you had there a combat mode, something similar to stance, named Improved Expertise, that decreased your attack by 10, therefore your chance to hit by 50%, but increased your defence by 10, and therefore decreased your chance to get hit by 50%, and because more characters had a chance to get hit like 30% with proper gear, 30%-50%=-20%, rounded up to 5%, so anyone who sacrificed that much attack was almost impossible to hit, and mages got it for no penalty). Stances would make it only more annoying.
You are the only one who wants this, Xudo.

About the races, as alex23 said and I said before, it could be done without too much extra drawing through the code (we would have to make some elvish heads, human heads, orcish heads, etc, though), would give it more wesnoth-like feeling, and have some little effect on the game, without making orcish Wizards and elvish Barbarians impossible. This is why we might do more than just stereotype heroes (that would also make the initial decision of newbies often fatal, as somebody pointed out before).

Reply to Xudo's coomments in spoiler:

I think that there is no need in specific interface for mercenaries base. We can use native recruit interface.

Yeah. I agree, I wanted it to be like that.

I don't like rule of DoT expiration. I propose to generalize it as buff. i.e. it last until caster runs out of mana or caster cancel it.

Bummer. If you poison a group of units, it would drain your mana in spot. The basic problem here is that you need to cast this on much more enemies than the usual buffs. If this was realisable, I would agree.

How buffs and debuffs work? Whether they affect attributes or properties of native unit or both?

Buffs can be used on anything, although it would be a waste of mana for a necromancer to buff his skeletons. They are not supposed to affect attributes directly, only some indirect things, like resistances, weapon specials, or some other ability-like things.

I want to introduce spells, which will require health instead of mana. What do you think about it?

Blood sacrifice spells? I guess it would not be used much, and if its damage was extreme, it would be exploited, I think.
In Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir, there was a class named Hellfire Warlock that could deal incredible damages, but these blows drained his constitution (=endurance). When they worked in pairs with healers like Clerics, who could heal them periodically after several blasts, they rocked. Alone, they sucked like hell.
If you find a way to get around this, write.

Although some details of Xudo's description were wrong or not discussed enough and disagreeing with my visions, but generally, the main thing that was not okay was the era thing. No era is needed. All things you assigned to it would basically be a resourcepack-like thing, that would inject the numerous events through a unit (because eras and modifications don't work in single player).

About skills, I have slightly reworked the existing ones to fit the changed attributes thing, and added all the remaining ones. I wanna see your opinions.

Here they are:

Barbarian (important attributes - strength, endurance; abilities - can use shields):
Combat attacks:
Thrash - more damage, lowers his own resistances for the time of the attack (higher levels dealing really considerable damage, but require some endurance and level)
Bash - slightly more damage, knockback (higher skills also knock back enemies adjacent to the target, knock the main target further, do a bit more damage, but require high strength)
Fury (requires Thrash, Aggression, 13 strength, 13 endurance and level 4) - hits again after each successful hit, with a 50% chance, lowers slightly own defence (higher levels dealing a really considerable damage, but require some endurance and level)
Concentrate (Requires Bash, 15 strength and level 6) - a part of the damage of all attacks done in a single blow, high chance to hit, the enemy cannot retaliate (more skills increase damage, require some level, and some intelligence)
Mayhem (requires Fury, Concentrate, level 8 and 19 strength) - few attacks, decreases enemy damage temporarily, stacks with itself (more skills increase damage, but require strength)
Doom (requires Mayhem, level 11 and 22 strength) - enemy retaliates less damage, deals more damage, works also in defence (more skills add damage, but require a bit of strength and level)
Shockwave (requires Doom, Fury, 25 strength and level 13) - low damage, but deals additional impact damage (based on weapon damage) to the main target and also adjacent enemies of the target (more skills add slighty damage and considerably to the impact damage, require high strength)
Cleave (requires Doom, 30 strength, 15 dexterity and level 15) - deals more damage, also a half of it to the two targets adjacent both to the barbarian and the target (higher levels add damage, and require strength)

Passive:
Aggression - passively slightly increases damage, but has a minor impact on defence (higher skills increase this effect, requiring some endurance)
Toughness - improves physical resistances (higher skill levels improve this effect, requiring some endurance)
Resilience (requires Toughness, 13 endurance and level 3) - additional bonus to magical resistances based on endurance (skill level is the factor, requires endurance)
Bloodthirst (requires Aggression, 16 strength, 25 endurance and level 7) - gets more movement points after attacking (higher skills give more movement points, but require high level and tons of strength and endurance)
Regrowth (requires Resilience, 23 endurance and level 9) - regeneration based on endurance, skill level is a factor (higher levels require more endurance)
Bloodlust (requires Bloodthirst and level 12) - heals after each kill (higher skills heal more, require higher levels)

Magic:
Spiritual Strike (requires level 2) - magical arcane ranged attack, quite low damage (skills increase damage, require level)
Spiritual Recovery (requires level 5 and 9 intelligence) - spell, heals self, a fixed amount of % of maximum hp (higher levels require intelligence and heal more)
Ancestor Guardian (requires Spiritual Recovery, 12 intelligence and level 10) - summons a spirit warrior (additional points make it more powerful, require level)
Incarnation of Odin (requires Ancestor Guardian, 16 intelligence and level 14) - enchantment (cost 1) more damage and resistances (higher skills improve this effect require level)

Fencer (important attributes - dexterity; abilities - can use shields, can dual-wield):
Combat attacks:
Confusing Attack - enemy will retaliate one attack less (additional skills add damage, require dexterity)
Bleeding Strike (requires level 2) - enemy will start taking some damage per turn (more skills add initial damage, require level)
Desintegration (requires 14 dexterity, Confusing Attack, and level 4) - low damage, few attacks, but lowers enemy resistances temporarily (more skills add damage, require dexterity)
Fence (requires 21 dexterity and level 7) - very low chance to get hit, lower chance to hit, works also defensively (higher skills increase damage and chance to hit, require high dexterity)
Parry (requires Fence, 24 dexterity and level 10) - less attacks, but when the defender misses, has a 50% chance to attack him again (more skills increase the chance to retaliate and attack count, require level and dexterity)
Swordmerang (requires Desintegration, Sword Mastery, 26 dexterity and level 13) - significantly fewer attacks, but is a ranged attack (higher skill levels increase attacks, require high dexterity)
Whirlwind (requires Parry, Desintegration, 28 dexterity and level 15) - fewer attacks, cannot be retaliated, fixed chance to hit, hits all adjacent targets to the attacker for the same damage (more skills increase chance to hit and damage slightly, require dexterity)

Passive:
Elusion - function of dexteriy added to magical resistance (number of skill points spent is a factor, require high dexterity)
Heavy Defence (requires level 3) - chance to get hit decreased by a function of strength (number of skill points spent is a factor, require level)
Sword Mastery (requires level 5) - slightly increases damage with long swords (number of skill points determine the damage increase, they require strength)
Rapier Mastery (requires level 8) - slightly increases damage with rapiers (number of skill points determine the damage increase, they require dexterity)
Dextrous Combat (requires Elusion and level 11) - dexteriy increases melee damage as well, but only with daggers, shortswords, longswords and rapiers (skill points spent are a factor, require dexterity)

Magic:
Flaming Sword - enchantment (cost 1), deals fire damage (higher skills increase damage, require intelligence)
Fireball (requires Flaming Sword, 9 intelligence level 6) - offensive spell, deals damage, also to more enemies (higher skills increase damage, require intelligence)
Magical Recovery (requires 12 intelligence and level 9) - heals a fixed amount of hitpoints (amount healed depending on skill level, that requires intelligence)
Doppelganger (requires Fireball, 13 intelligence and level 12) - summons a weaker duplicate of self, whose properties depend on the skill level spent (that require intelligence and level)
Shroud of Flame (requires Fireball, 16 intelligence and level 14) - enchantment (cost 1) - deals fire damage to all enemies that attack him, increases fire resistance (damage and resistance depends on skill level, that requires intelligence)

Hunter (important attributes - strength, dexterity; abilities - can use bows):
Combat attacks (ranged):
Long Range Shot - a bow attack that can hit enemies up to 3 hexes from self, deals a part of the damage multiplied by attacks' number (additional points increase maximal distance, require dexterity)
Penetrating Shot (requires level 4 and 13 strength) - a bow shot that will hit also the enemy behind the target (additional skill points let it penetrate even further, with less damage penalty, requiring strength)
Rapid Shot (requires Long Range Shot, 16 dexterity and level 6) - a ranged attack that deals a part of the damage multiplied by attacks number to the target in a single blow (additional skill points increase damage, require level)
Stunning Shot (requires Rapid Shot, 21 dexterity and level 11) - a ranged attack that once once that hits, the opponent cannot hit (more skill points increase the chance to hit, require dexterity)
Devastating Strafe (requires Stunning Shot, Penetrating Shot, 23 dexterity, 22 strength and level 15) - a ranged attack hitting also the targets adjacent both to the attacker and the defender, and also to all enemies behind them, with various damage penalties (skill levels decrease the damage penalties and require strength and dexterity)

Combat skills (melee):
Struggle - melee attack, more damage, lower chance to hit (additional points increase damage, require strength)
Cautious Attack (requires level 8 and 15 dexterity) - low chance to hit, low chance to get hit, works also defensively (additional points lower the chance to get hit and increase damage, require dexterity)
Anger (requires Struggle, 13 endurance and level 13) - much more damage, slightly lower chance to hit, slightly higher chance to get hit, slightly more retaliation damage taken (more skills increase damage, requiring endurance)

Passive skills:
Speed (requires level 2) - lowers movement costs on bad terrains, increase movement, more skill points specifically improve this effect (requiring level)
Stalk (requires Speed and level 7) - allows to move undetected on summer deciduous forest (additional skill points increase the number of terrains where it can be used, requiring dexterity)
Caution (requires Cautious Attack and level 12) - slightly decreases damage, decreases chance to get hit (higher skill points require level)

Spells:
Animal Follower (requires level 3) - summons a Wolf to fight on his side (higher skills replace him with a Great Wolf, Direwolf, Tiger and Spirit of the Forest, requiring a few intelligence)
Animal Choice (requires level 5) - improves summoned animal followers (skill level is the factor, requiring level)
Synthesis (requires 11 intelligence and level 9) - heals a fixed amount of hitpoints (increasing with level, requiring some intelligence)
Plant Growth (requires Synthesis, 14 intelligence and level 10) - spell, all enemies within range lose their ZoC (range increases with skill level, requiring intelligence)
Earthquake (requires 16 intelligence and level 14) - spell, deals impact damage to all enemies within a huge range (damage increases with skill level, requiring intelligence)

Rogue (important attributes - dexterity, intelligence; abilities - can dual-wield):
Combat attacks:
Poisonous Blow - poisons the target (more skill points increase its damage over time, requiring level)
Backstab - adds backstab to other weapons than daggers, improves daggers' backstab damage (more skill points increase backstab efficiency, requiring level)
Crippling Strike (require Backstab, 12 intelligence and level 3) - a single attack, higher damage, lowers enemy attack count, cannot reach lower values than a half of the original, stacks with itself, temporary effect (more skill points increase damage, requiring dexterity and intelligence)
Targeted Thurst (requires 13 dexterity, Bleeding Strike and level 5) - high damage, lower chance to hit (higher skills increase damage, requiring dexterity)
Utterdark Corrosion (requires 16 intelligence, Poisonous Blow and level 8) - few attacks, poisons the enemy, making it become undead after death, becoming unlimited unloyal weak summons, works also defensively (higher skill levels have more attacks, requiring dexterity)
Feint (requires 19 dexterity and level 12) - defend only, once the attacker misses, all attacks against him has a 100% chance to hit (higher skill adds damage, requires dexterity and level)
Poison Dance (requires 23 dexterity, Utterdark Corruption, Targeted Thurst and level 15) - a single attack, same damage, deals damage and poisons all adjacent enemies (more skill points increase damage and poison's damage over time, requiring intelligence and dexterity)

Passive skills:
Planning (requires level 2) - adds intelligence to damage (skill level is the factor, requires level)
Foresight (requires level 7) - lowers chance to get hit, intelligence and skill level being the factor (skill level requires level)
Nightstalk (requires 25 dexterity and level 13) - becomes invisible in some good terrains an night (more skill points hides him on more terrains, requiring level)

Magic:
Summon Shadow - summons a shadow (grows stronger with skill points spent, requiring level)
Toxic Cloud (requires 14 intelligence and level 4) - ranged spell (cooldown 2 turns), poisoning more enemies (more skill points increase the range of the poisonous explosion)
Shadow Blast (requires Summon Shadow, 16 intelligence and level 6) - draining spell (higher skills add damage, that causes it to drain more hitpoints, require intelligence)
Invisibility (requires Summon Shadow, 30 intelligence and level 10) - enchantment (cost 10), becomes capable to hide on all terrains and skirmisher (additional skill points decrease mana drain, to 8,7,6,5, and then increases it to 8 and allows him to stay invisible after attacking, require level)
Fleeing (requires level 11) - restores 4 movement points (more skills lower mana cost and restore more, require intelligence)
Shadow Explosion (requires Summon Blast, 24 intelligence and level 14) - ranged spell (cooldown 2 turns), deals arcane damage to groups of enemies, those who died give the hitpoints they lost to rogue (higher skill levels increase damage, require intelligence)

Cleric (important attributes - intelligence, strength; abilities - can use shields, heals adjacent units):
Combat attacks:
Divine Wrath (requires level 4 and 14 strength) - slightly less damage, more attacks (higher skills increase the number of attacks, require strength)
Smite (requires level 11 and 20 strength): deals more damage, takes less damage in retaliation (higher skills require strength, add damage)

Passive skills:
Improved Healing - increases the amount of hitpoints the cleric heals to adjacent units (higher skills require intelligence, and heal more)
Prayer (requires Improved Healing and level 3) - slightly increases the resistances of adjacent units (higher skills require intelligence and improve this factor)
Divine Retribution (requires level 13) - all units that attack the cleric will take some fire damage (higher skills require level, add damage)

Spells (supportive):
Divine Might - enchantment, cost 2, increases damage (higher skills increase the damage, require level)
Heal (requires level 2 and 12 intelligence) - heals a fixed amount of hitpoints (higher skills improve it, require intelligence)
Holy Armour (requires level 5 and 14 intelligence) - enchantment, cost 1, increases physical resistances, like armour (higher skills require intelligence and add more resistances)
Magical Mirror (requires Holy Armour, level 7, 19 intelligence) - enchantment, cost 1, increases magical resistances, returns a part of magical damage to attackers (higher skills require intelligence, increases magical resistances and the percentage of the damage returned)
Blessing (requires Heal, level 9 and 22 intelligence) - enchantment, cost 2, heals a percentage of maximum hitpoints per turn (higher skills increase this percentage, require intelligence)
Summon Messenger (requires level 10 and 23 intelligence) - summons a creature of Light (higher skills makes it stronger, require level)
Restoration (requires Heal, level 14 and 25 intelligence) - heals a percentage of maximum hitpoints (higher skill level heal more percents, require intelligence)

Spells (offensive):
Lightbeam - offensive spell, single target, arcane damage (higher skills increase damage, require intelligence)
Divine Blast (requires Lightbeam, level 6 and 15 intelligence) - offensive spell, range 1 hex, arcane damage (higher skills increase range, require intelligence)
Searing Light (requires Lightbeam, level 8 and 18 intelligence) - offensive spell, range 1 hex, fire damage (higher skills increase damage, require intelligence)
Divine Wrath (requires level 12 and 22 intelligence) - offensive spell, range 2 hexes, fire, cold and arcane damage (higher skills increase damage, require intelligence)
Armageddon (requires level 14 and 27 intelligence) - offensive spell, cooldown 2 turns, deals impact and fire damage to everything in the range of 3 hexes from the caster (higher skills increase range and damage, require level)

Wizard (important attributes: intelligence; abilities - +1 mana regeneration):
Passive skills:
Manipulation of Magic (requires level 3) - adds intelligence to magical resistance (skill level requiring intelligence is the factor)
Debilitating Aura (requires Manipulation of Magic, 20 intelligence and level 8) - the resistances of all adjacent enemies drop (higher skill levels make this stronger, requiring intelligence)
Counterspell (requires intelligence 23 and level 12) - attackers that hit the wizard with a spell will take some cold damage (higher skill levels require level and increase its damage)
Fire Mastery (requires Meteor Storm, inteligence 30 and level 15) - increases all fire damage by a percentage amount, also improves incineration (skill level is the factor, requires intelligence)
Cold Mastery (requires Grimcold Blast, intelligence 27 and level 14) - increases all cold damage by a percetage amount (skill level is the factor, requires intelligence)

Spells (supportive):
Steel Skin - enchantment, mana cost 2, increases physical resistances by a certain absolute percentage (higher skills improve this, requiring some level)
Shield of Pain (requires intelligence 20 and level 8) - enchantment, mana cost 1, the heals after each hit (higher skill levels make it heal more, and require intelligence)
Freezing Armour (requires Steel Skin, intelligence 25 and level 13) - enchantment, mana cost 1, all enemy units next to the unit with this enchantment are slowed and take some damage at the beginning of their turn (higher skills deal more damage, require some intelligence)

Spells (summoning):
Create Golem (requires intelligence 14 and level 5) - summons a golem made of soil (higher skills improve this to rock golem with better resistances, bone golem that heals after each hit, fire golem whose aura harms all adjacent enemies, and frost golem, that slows all adjacent enemies at the beginning of their turn, require intelligence)
Golem Mastery (requires Create Golem, intelligence 21 and level 10) - makes the golem stronger (higher skill levels make him even stronger, require intelligence)

Spells (offensive, fire):
Fireball - offensive spell, range 1, deals fire damage (higher skill levels require intelligence and add damage)
Inferno (requires Fireball and level 2) - offensive spell, single target, fire damage, also poisons (higher skill levels require intelligence, increase damage)
Fire Blast (requires Inferno, intelligence 16 and level 7) - offensive fire spell, close range-only, hits the target and many targets behind him, also those in the rows next to them, incinerating them (higher skill levels increase damage and require intelligence)
Meteor Storm (requires Fire Blast, intelliegence 23 and level 11) - offensive fire spell, cooldown 2 turns, range 3 (higher skill level require level and increase damage)

Spells (offensive, cold):
Freezing Bolt - offensive spell, deals cold damage and slows (higher skills increase damage and require intelligence)
Ice Nova (requires Freezing Bolt and level 4) - offensive spell, hits all enemies adjacent to the wizard, slowing them (higher skill levels add damage and require intelligence)
Grimcold Blast (requires Freezing Bolt, intelligence 16 and level 6) - offensive spell, range 1, deals cold and arcane damage, half of the arcane damage is added to wizard's hitpoints (skill level increases damage and thus also the leech, require intelligence)
Chilling Beam (requires Grimcold Blast, intelligence 18 and level 9) - offensive spell, weaker cold damage, single target, freezes the enemy solid for one turn, stronger enemies are less likely to be affected by this and be only slowed (cold damage significantly increases with skill level requiring intelligence)

Necromancer (important attributes: intelligence, endurance; abilities - unlife, skeletal resistances)
Passive skills:
Steel Bones - increases resistances to cold, pierce and slightly to blade (skill level is the factor, requires level and endurance)
Tough Joints (requires Steel Bones, endurance 15 and level 7) - increases melee damage based on endurance (skill level is the factor, requiring endurance)
Toxicity (requires Rabid Fumes, 26 intelligence and level 15) - improves the damage of all poisons (skill level is the factor, requires intelligence)

Spells (supportive):
Foul Cloak (requires level 2) - enchantment, mana cost 1, increases all resistances slightly, adds poison damage to all weapon attacks (skill level is the factor of adding resistances, requiring intelligence)
Hunger (requires intelligence 17 and level 9) - enchantment, mana cost 1, each hit dealt heals a fixed amount of hitpoints, unless unless the damage is lower than this amount (skill level increases this amount, requires intelligence)

Spells (summoning):
Summon Skeleton - summons a skeleton, without continual mana cost, just for an initial mana cost (skill level determines their number, requiring intelligence)
Summon Skeletal Archer (requires level 4) summons a skeleton archer, without continual mana cost, poisonous arrows (skill level determines their number, requiring intelligence)
Skeleton Mastery (requires Summon Skeleton, Summon Skeletal Archer, intelligence 14, level 6) - makes summoned skeletons stronger (skill level is the factor, requires intelligence)
Summon Skeletal Mage (requires Skeleton Mastery, intelligence 17 and level 11) - Summons a skeletal mage, that is quite fragile, but uses quite potent shadow waves (skill level determines their number, requires intelligence)
Summon Ghost (requires intelligence 20 and level 14) - summons a ghost, cooldown 2 turns, stronger than skeletons, but weaker than than skeletons with maximal Skeleton Mastery (skill level determines their number, multiple ghosts are all summoned at once, higher skill levels require intelligence)

Spells (offensive):
Dark Blast - single target arcane spell that drains (higher skill levels increase range, require level)
Freezing Wave (requires intelligence 12 and level 3) - offensive cold spell, range 1, slows (higher skill levels require intelligence and add damage)
Shades of the Fallen (requires Dark Blast, intelligence 14 and level 4) - offensive arcane spell, range 2, does considerable damage, poisons (higher skill levels require intelligence and increase damage)
Storm of Niflheim (requires Freezing Wave, intelligence 19 and level 8) - offensive cold spell, cooldown 3 turns, makes the location where it was cast deal cold damage that slows, range 2 (higher skill levels increase slightly both damage and duration, require intelligence)
Rabid Fumes (requires Spirits of the Fallen, intelligence 22 and level 12) - offensive arcane spell, range 5 around the caster, not great damage, poisons (higher skill levels increase damage, require intelligence)

Spells (curses):
Ill luck (requires intelligence 21 and level 10) - spell, range 2, all enemies in range lose some percentage of damage and physical resistances, does not stack with itself (higher skill levels improve this effect, make it last longer, require intelligence)
Misfortune (requires Ill luck, 23 intelligence and level 13) - spell, range 3, decreases enemies' resistance to magical damage (skill level is the factor, requires level)

One new important thing, in order to decrease the size of save files (that would cause bloody lag and lengthen loading times), I have decided to 'simplify' it by adding a few custom tags, that would handle everything in events. This has several advantages and several disadvantages:
Advantages:
Less macro usage, everything just with custom WML tags
Avoids insane lag
I would probably write it faster, because lua code is shorter than WML
Disadvantages:
Forces me to learn lua (though it should not take much time regarding to the narrow variety of functions needed and total length)
Would be incomprehensible to too many people
Question
Data files, like lists of skills, graphic descriptions, item lists and so on would have to be written in lua as well in order to quicken it, and it would be quite comprehensible, but significantly different from WML. It might be done in WML as well and then read by lua, but this would still cause a noticeable lag. What should be chosen?

And I think that most things are decided already, I will start writing its core soon (probably tomorrow).

[Xudo]

Question
Data files, like lists of skills, graphic descriptions, item lists and so on would have to be written in lua as well in order to quicken it, and it would be quite comprehensible, but significantly different from WML. It might be done in WML as well and then read by lua, but this would still cause a noticeable lag. What should be chosen?

I think that all database should be written in lua.