Feature Request: Better Control Over Spell Changes?

[Thacobell]

Heya! Big fan of SCS, but I was always a little perturned by how much mages are buffed to the detriment of other classes. Arcane classes are already the strongest ones in the games, and nerfing all non-arcane counters to them feels kinda bad. A big part of that is spell changes that are automatic when the mod is installed. Things like nerfing the insect spells, changes to breach (though this one is a straight buff). I find it strange that the only good counters to a mage under scs are...another mage. One of Druid's big niches is anti mage spells, but the changes makes their biggest counter completely blocked by the most common defense spells. I find that it really hurts arcane/non-arcane interaction. So I guess what I'm asking is:
Can spell changes be a separate and optional component?
I don't even know if this is feasible, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

[mickabouille]

I think most (if not all) of the spell changes are gated behind options inside stratagems.ini?

I must admit never checked those actually worked.

For example

[spell system changes]

(...)
insect_plague=1

 

[Thacobell]

Well shoot dang, that's incredibly convienant if so.

[DavidW]

Yes, all the spell tweaks can be turned off and on individually in stratagems.ini (though I don't vouch for how the AI will handle it if you disable any of the tweaks in the 'core stratagems' group). I think this is documented in the 'customize' section of the readme, though I'm not certain. So this feature request is preemptively granted!

As a general design point, SCS assumes a balanced party. I think it's largely right that you can't counter mages without other mages - just as you can't really counter artillery without artillery. What I don't want are 'hard counters', i.e. spells that just shut certain classes down with no way to block them. Unmodified insect plague is a hard counter in that sense- there's nothing even a high-level mage can really do about it, and it more or less shuts them down completely.

[Thacobell]

The problem is that a properly prepared mage will hard counter literally everything else in the series. So having a few options that also hard coutners them is only fair. They're already at the top of the power curve before SCS. SCS takes away options to the gain of...nothing else.

[DavidW]

I don't think an SCS enemy mage will 'hard counter literally everything else in the series'. 

But ultimately, if SCS's design choices don't work for you, don't use them. I'd never want to claim that there aren't defensible alternatives.