Orb Lightning, Chain Lightning and other chain shock effects

[dfnskjl]

Before I say anything, and before YOU think anything, understand this:
CHAIN LIGHTNING EFFECTS CAN HIT OBJECTS SUCH AS BUSHES, ROCKS AND MUSHROOMS ON THE BATTLEFIELD.
and
THIS WAS NOT THE CASE IN DOMINIONS 5.

About spells:
Orb Lightning and Chain Lightning have been buffed since Dominions 5. If these buffs were done BECAUSE of the fact that chaining now hits random objects, then that's fine. However if these spells were buffed simply because they were seen as too weak or as part of the whole more better mid-tier evocations thing (in the case of Orb Lightning), then maybe they should receive some buffs with that in mind. However spells are not the thing I am worried about. Especially not Orb Lightning as that spell could be spammed by a bunch or Air 2 mages and so hitting terrain is not much of an issue, and the terrain wil be destroyed after a few volleys anyway. Chain Lightning is Evocation 8 and requires Air 3, so it should probably feel devastating when used. But again, spells are not really what I'm worried about.

Magical Items:
The Thunder Whip has been nerfed since Dominions 5, it now requires more research. Also magical items are not as easy to deploy as spells, especially spells that do not require gems, in this case the Thunder Whip costs 5 air gems and a mage turn. It is then very disapointing to see your amazing magical weapon hit the guy that you hit (wonderful, great, superb) and then bounce to the nearest bushes and do nothing after the first hit. This is quite likely to happen as the lightning from the Thunder Whip only bounces 3 times and the bushes do not tend to move, so if it happened once it will likely keep happening until the bush/rock/whatever is destroyed. Also the lightning from the weapon effect does not mention that it will hit both mount and rider, wheras the spells do (likely a bug with the effect or the displayed text). All these things likely apply in part or entirely for any other magic items/weapons that use this effect.

Hopefully these items are buffed. Because keep in mind: you are paying gems for these items, therefore you are likely not deploying 20 guys with them, and unlike the spells this effect is not usable at range (though it could be if you put it on a ranged weapon with mods).

Modding:
When it comes to weapon modding, the #dt_bouncekill command does not accept a value for the amount of bounces, you always get 5. Meaning that it is difficult/impossible to get the amount of lightning bounces that you want. Technically you can copy one of the weapons that already exist (secondary effect on Thunder Whip and whatever the thunder sword artifact is called) to get values of 3 or 8, respectively. But it would be nice to just be able to set it. Spells do not have this problem.

[Scrapulous]

In my current game I get to drop Bone Grinding a lot, and so I wind up giving the rocks and the bushes all around the battlefield Limp and Crippled afflictions. Good times.

[dfnskjl]

Originally posted by Scrapulous:

In my current game I get to drop Bone Grinding a lot, and so I wind up giving the rocks and the bushes all around the battlefield Limp and Crippled afflictions. Good times.

Help! My bush is profusely bleeding!

[Emphyrio]

This is a problem with most items, with the construction nerf, and commanders price increased, and mage turns more valuable, and the opportunity cost of gems increasing with the summon buffs.