Question about giving spells to heroes using Triggers.. help please~

When I give a hero a new spell they dont already have, it just gives it level 1 of the ability and no options to upgrade it through leveling.

I'm not too great at trigger based spells but i'm assuming the only way to increase the power of the spells is to assign an integer like other maps are doing(duh). Is there no other way? It seems not only more painless but less user friendly for the player to me.

If that's the only way to increase spell levels, what would you say are the best way of doing it?

I've thought of making it so the spells in question automatically level up one at a time in a certain order but taking choices away from the player isn't something i look favorably on.

Anyone have any suggestions?

So you're trying to have more than 5 hero spells? If so, you've described the situation pretty well.

If you want to make a sixth, one route would be to make separate unit skills for each "level" and switching out the old skill for the new each time the hero triggers something.

For example, you could use your 6th spot as a dummy unit spell that you only add when your hero gains a level. Call it "gain a level in <whatever>". When that dummy spell fires, add another level in the ability and take away the dummy spell and the old level.

With custom upgrades it's pretty easy to make spells that level up based on usage (kinda like in Dungeon siege, if you've played that). Say you have a heal spell (like priest) that increases in amount healed the more it's used, you just make the heal spell a multi level hero spell and make a custom upgrade with ability level bonus for the heal spell.

Then every time the heal spell is cast, add one to a variable. When the variable reaches a certain value increase the level of the upgrade by one and reset the variable to 0 (or a negative amount based on current level of the spell so it takes longer to get each level than the last)

Only problem is custom upgrades are really finicky when it comes to abilities added after the upgrade has been "researched".

edit: Oh and I'm not saying you SHOULD do this, but usage-based levelling is something to consider, it's a bit more interesting than the ability simply increasing in level with hero level or something...

Good suggestions.

Btw, no i'm just going to be doing the standard 4 spells, If i pull my plans off they're going to be some pretty complicated as is, let alone use more than 4 spells.