Effect

Effects are objects in the levels that are either part of the scenery or linked to a Stone Head, for example a volcano effect, or a shockwave effect. Effects can be neutral or belong to tribes. When not linked to a trigger, effects occur as soon as the game starts. On the other hand, they can be linked to a timed trigger, or to a trigger that requires worshipping or people to get close. Effects can also be triggered by scripts, when conditions meet.

Two effects used on Populous world editor

The outcome: firestorm smoke and swamp effects

List of Effects

• Simple Blast - Creates a bigger impact than the "much simpler" blast effect, doubling its damage. When neutral, creates an impact on units (same as allied direct blast), but doesn't lower their HP; no impact on buildings. When used on an opponent (as not neutral), twice as much damage than the "much simpler blast" effect, and only a tiny bit less than of a firewarrior's fireball against units. 4 of this effects happening instantly will damage and destroy 1 layer of a building
• Circles - creates a white circle that shrinks until it fades, in about half a second
• Smoke - creates a tiny smoke effect that lasts less than half a second
• Lightning Elem - no visual effect
• Burn Cell Obstacles - burns the tree on the square where the effect is used
• Flatten Land - lowers 1 square of land to a certain amount
• Sphere Explode 1 - creates a tiny explosion on the square, which does not affect any unit or object
• Fireball - creates a small and harmless fireball lasting around half a second
• Firecloud - creates a harmless fire cloud on a location, lasting around 2 seconds before vanishing
• Ghost army - creates the spell ghost army
• Invisibility - creates the spell invisibility
• Volcano - creates the spell volcano
• Hypnotism - creates the spell Hypnotise
• Lightning Bolt - creates a harmless lightning bolt visual effect that travels form position 0,0 to the effect location, creating a small cloud. Also somehow burns the units at 0,0 point as it happens, damaging and/or killing them
• Swamp - creates the spell swamp
• Angel of Death - creates the spell angel of death
• Tornado - creates the spell tornado
• Swarm - creates the spell swarm
• Firestorm - creates the spell firestorm
• Erosion - creates the spell erosion
• Land Bridge - creates a bridge of land between two points
• Earthquake - creates the spell earthquake
• Fly Thingummy - creates 1 black pixel dot that remains forever on the location
• Sphere Explode and Fire - causes an explosion and fire that damages close buildings and units. The effect also happens as the game starts, even if it is linked to a timed trigger (meaning it will happen twice in this case)
• Big Fire - creates a big fire (like one of a guard post) that burns for about
• Lightning - creates a harmless lightning visual effect that travels form position 0,0 to the effect location, not creating a cloud. Also somehow burns the units at 0,0 point as it happens, damaging and/or killing them
• Flatten - creates the spell flatten as if it was used in the middle of the square (see PopEdit grid)
• Lava Flow - generates a big chunk of lava that will flow
• Purify Land - elevates the land a tiny bit, and possibly changes the damaged land (by lava or destruction) color to look like it is fertile again, while in fact, it is not
• Explosion 1 - lightens up a ~4x4 area for about half a second. Can also hear a sound effect, same as when a firewarrior shoots a building
• Explosion 2 - lightens up a ~4x4 area for about half a second. Can also hear a sound effect, same as when a firewarrior shoots a building
• Lava Square - creates lava on 1 grid square (can be visually problematic) that lasts half a second
• Tornado Element - causes permanent harmless dust to settle on the square the effect was used. Can be used on water
• Tornado Dust - creates some dust visual effect that lasts for half a second
• Hill - creates a hill, like in forge world
• Valley - creates a valley, like in forge world
• Place Tree - creates 3 trees on adjacent squares, like the spell trees in forge world
• Rise - raises the land, like the spell raise, in forge world
• Dip - lowers the land, like the spell lower, in forge world
• Rein Rock Debris
• Place Shaman - ???
• Place Wild - spawns 5 wildies on that location
• Bldg Smoke - ???
• Much Simpler Blast - Creates a smaller impact than the "normal" blast (simple blast effect). When neutral, creates a small impact on units, but doesn't lower their HP; no impact on buildings. When used on an opponent (as not neutral), deals half the damage of the "simple blast" effect, and 1/3 of a firewarrior's fireball against units, but does not affect buildings
• Trumbling Branch - creates a permanent moving tree branch on the location, as the ones seen in the Tornado spells sometimes
• Sparkle - creates a average sized white sparkle on the location that sparkles 3 times
• Small Sparkle - creates a small white sparkle on the location that sparkles once
• Explosion 3 - creates a harmless explosion visual effect that fades really fast
• Rock Explosion - very similar to the "explosion 3" effect, creates a harmless explosion of fire rocks that happens quickly
• Lava Gloop - also similar to the "explosion 3" and "rock explosion" effects, creates a harmless explosion of fire and lava that lasts half a second
• Splash - creates a visual water splash on the location, that lasts about 1 second. Also works on land
• Smoke Cloud - creates a white smoke cloud visual effect that sparkles 3 times in 1 second
• Smoke Cloud Constant - creates a green smoke cloud visual effect that sparkles 3 times in 1 second
• Fireball 2 - creates a harmless fireball visual effect that rotates on itself, lasting 1 second
• Ground Shockwave - creates a 5x5 harmless ground shockwave, just like when a shaman lands after casting teleport
• Orbiter - creates a visual effect of a sparkle doing an orbiter until it disappears, lasting about 1.5 seconds
• Big Sparkle - creates an average sized white sparkle on the location that sparkles once
• Meteor - causes a harmless meteor to fall on the location, also creating a "ground shockwave" effect
• Convert - creates a spell convert on the location
• Bldg Smoke 2 Full - creates a white permanent smoke. Also works on water
• Bldg Smoke 2 Partial - creates a permanent flashing white smoke. Also works on water
• Bldg Damaged Smoke - create black smoke (like the smoke from damaged buildings), lasting random time, usually between 8 and 12 seconds
• Delete rs Pillars - Only affects blue tribe's reincarnation site's pillars. When used, makes the RS pillars sink into the ground. If used as the game starts, or before the shaman completes the rising of all pillars (at start of the game), it will make between 1 and all pillars to sink afterwards. Pillars will not raise back, even after reincarnation
• Spell Blast - creates the spell blast. If neutral, makes units fly, but deals no damage to them or to buildings
• Firestorm Smoke - creates a permanent firestorm smoke effect. Works on water
• Reveal Fog Area - reveals an area about 6 squares in every direction from the place where the effect was placed
• Magical Shield - creates the spell magical shield.
• Boat Hut Repair - ???
• Reedy Grass - spawns a plant, like the ones seen inside swamps. It is permanent and unsinkable, and can be used in water
• Swamp Mist - spawns a mist, like the core material of a swamp. It is permanent, harmless, and unsinkable, which means it can also be used on water
• Armageddon - creates a spell armageddon. If the effect is set to neutral, the game crashes
• Bloodlust - creates the spell Bloodlust
• Teleport - creates the spell Teleport. If shaman is dead, or neutral is used, it only creates the shockwave effect
• Atlantis Set - sets the land, objects, etc that will rise from the depths, when atlantis invoked is used. The effect works as the middle of the risen base, and that land/objects will start invisible as the game starts, until atlantis is invoked.
• Atlantis Invoke - invokes the land/objects around the atlantis set effect to rise from the depths, on the location of the atlantis invoke effect
• Statue to AoD - If used by itself, creates an untouchable and still angel of death (that won't move or attack, but makes sound); it disappears after minutes. When used the right way (with a gargoyle + Shaman AoD trigger), the stone gargoyle will turn into an angel of death (after worshipping the gargoyle), that will split into 4 more, hunting the enemy. One of them will look for an enemy shaman, kill her, making the victorious the team who worshipped the gargoyle (just like level 5 Death_From_Above)
• Fill one Shots - grants all shots of all available spells to a tribe