As I posted elsewhere I have a VERY lucky save game with a min-maxed caster sovereign (15 int, 15 essence and all spellbooks to start) and have managed to get to 4 fire shards only to see them do diddly squat in tactical.  Time to do some auto resolves combats and see how it stacks up.

I personally think that you should implement a separate "spell resistance" (maybe based on int or wis) stat which would defend against spells where defense defends against normal attacks.  It doesn't make any sense that dexterity (which modifies defense) should help you defend against magic...

I didn't do a lot of testing on that, but it seemed to me that with two air shards, chain lightning was doing no extra damage as well. And anyway, if UnitStat_NumFireShards was 1 when you had 1 shard, shouldn't it be zero when you have no shards, thus resulting in 0 damage? It simply looks like UnitStat_NumFireShards is not a working variable, but I'm sure the developers have a handle on it now that they are looking into it

Though I don't like the "one defense for all" way things are now, I still can't say "it doesn't make any sense" because I could imagine someone with very high dex physically dodging an incoming spell.   Think of of it that way, maybe it'll help a bit until things either change or get modded or whatever.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I'll be sure to do a lot of testing vs. high DEF mobs. If the miss rates are unacceptable, then maybe your damage roll vs. DEF would be a better option.  I agree with you that without a magic resistance stat of some sort, it's a little odd to be rolling against defense for magic damage, but it's all we have at the moment without a major stats overhaul.  I'd also like to see more magic items with +INT or +WISDOM or Clarity1-5 on them to help out you guys that love playing caster sovereigns.

int vs defense is horrible, theres no items that boost Inteligence for one and its means there no real reason to sepcialize in different magic schools, chainlighting is like fireball whichi s like ice bolt.

I would like to knwo that cold spells on fire based creatures did more damage and that fire cretures were immune to fire spells

The way shards were supposed to work (and presumably do work in auto combat) as I understand it is that one shard doubles damage, two triples and so on. That's pretty dang powerfull I'd say.

No, keep the shards powerful, maybe 100% increase is a bit overpowered, but at least keep it a percentage instead of a set number. And a pretty high & at that, no miserly 5, make it at least 20%. That way shards would still matter.

As for the stacking of stats, I have a different idea. Why not make them have several attacks instead. And I don't mean combat-speed increase, I mean several rolls. So if you have a squad of 4 units using broadswords, they would get 4x10 in attack. Still good, but not ridiculous.

As for defense, only one roll should be made. As someone pointed out, it's logical to get more attack, it's not at all logical to get more defense.

Keep the HP stacking though, that's working fine as it is.

This will still make the biggest squad the best choice, but takes their power down several notches.

Tomas

Any ETA on when this will be fixed?  This is a major flaw for me and I'm still holding off on buying the game until all major flaws (such as this one) are fixed.

We're still left with the problem that casters have no options vs squads.  This isn't a complaint against your formula, but against the issue.(It's not like fighters don't have similar problems.)

Let's take your formula, give it to a wizard with about 15-20 INT, and put it up against a moderate force; enemy equipped with Leather Helm, Leather Armlet, Leather Cuirass, Leather Greaves, and Wood Shield-Defence is 6.  It seems extreme, but it's these situations you're gonna encounter, and also what the enemy has to contend with.  Wizard's got a few levels on him(Hence 15-20), but arcane research has been only moderate, so he's only got level 1 or 2 damage spells, so we'd be at the low end-5/7 damage base.

5+the 50% bonus is 7.5; just call it 7, I guess.  20 is 10.  It beats it, sure, but the damage per turn is poor.  As you're spending 2-4 mana per shot, that's no good at all; though the wizard can win a few fights, this is untenable.

Now there's a first rank of squad showing up, three guys for the Empire, 4 for the Kingdom.  Uh-oh.  6 becomes 18/24.  And instantly our Wizard has serious issues.  It's not just the defence(He'll barely hit), he's got to carve through 3/4x the HP.  It'll only get worse as the squad size increases and equipment gets better.  Shards are a hellish expense to claim, and aren't guaranteed to be around or on type.  And please remember that there's not a damage spell every spell level for every school.

There needs to be more than Shards to increase the strength of spells.

Why can't spells be an int-int calc, instead of int-def?  def seems more like a physical charateristic. I wouldn't expect dex or armor to help much against mind power type things (magic), but it would make sense to me that magic would hurt stupid creatures more than it would other sharp (high int) wizards.

Its even worse when a squad of soldiers is down to 1 hp and still has the off/def as if it was at max HP. they should have the squad's off/def drop as each member is killed off.

Late game I've seen my own squads with over 400 defense easily.   Heck just equipment alone on a lone guy can result in 110 defense on heroes pretty easily.  (Due to elementium shortages, I never made a squad with that same gear, but that could be 1600 defense in a full company).

All of you guys talking about a shortage of shards need to do more research, with 5 cities, after research in adventure to spawn more shards and extensive magic research I had over 15 shards in my ZoC.  I don't quite follow why shards would randomly spawn, if it was game age, magic reasearch etc.  but they kept popping up as I researched magic techs (was only level 40 magic or so research, and the adventure techs state they spawn resources).