what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

I just watched a battle and painstakingly transcribed every spell cast by my mages, and what their fatigue was after each turn. I have several questions:

1. Why did the Communion Slaves not cast any spells?
2. Why did the Communion Master go out of script on turn 5?
3. Why did a couple of the slaves change their minds and cast a couple of spells at the end of the battle (turn 18).
4. Why does the fatigue get distributed unevenly?
5. Why does the fatigue get distributed differently when the Communion Master casts a spell on one turn than when he casts the same spell on the next turn (turns 6 & 7, turns 9 & 10 & 11, turns 14 & 15, turns 16 & 17)?
6. Why does the Communion Master cast worse spells like Banishment or Solar Rays instead of better spells like Holy Pyre?
7. Why do my mages sometimes recover as much as 8 fatigue per turn? (4 is due to Summon Earthpower)

Here was the script:

Enforca: Communion Master, Power of the Spheres, Summon Earthpower, Phoenix Power, Immolation, spells
Metase: Communion Slave, Body Ethereal, Luck, Rage, Blink, spells
Clarbune: Communion Slave, Luck, Body Ethereal, Curse of the Stones, Blink, spells
Bphlah: Communion Slave, Body Ethereal, Luck, Rage, Blink, spells

Actual behavior: Enforca cast 1. Communion Master, 2. Power of the Spheres, 3. Summon Earthpower, 4. Phoenix Power, 5. Summon Fire Elemental, 6. Banishment, 7. Banishment, 8. Luck, 9. Banishment, 10. Banishment, 11. Banishment, 12. Iron Will, 13. Holy Pyre, 14. Solar Rays, 15. Solar Rays, 16. Body Ethereal, 17. Body Ethereal, 18. none, 19. Luck

The other mages cast Communion Slave, then did nothing until turn 18 (the same turn that Enforca did nothing) when Metase cast Body Ethereal and Bplhah cast Mind Burn.

Here are the fatigue levels of each mage after each turn. The fatigue caused by my opponent's Rigor Mortis is included in parenthesis, when applicable.

<pre>
turn
| mage ->
v Enforce Metase Clarbune Bphlah
1 19 19 19 3
2 31 41 52 9
3 37 (37) 69 (77) 58 (70) 33 (29) ???
4 41 (50) 79 (75) 74 (70) 31 (41)
5 69 (70) 84 (80) 89 (85) 50 (54)
6 72 82 87 62
7 68 78 83 58
8 72 82 87 60
9 80 89 107 64
10 78 87 100 68
11 86 100 104 72
12 86 112 99 84
13 85 104 98 84
14 85 99 98 79
15 86 99 109 77
16 87 102 119 75
17 88 103 115 73
18 ? 118 ? 72
19 98 113 101 70
</pre>

One theory as to why Enforca didn't cast Immolation is that he didn't want to hurt the three White Knight bodyguards. Another is that he thought casting Immolation would hurt the Communion Slaves, not realizing that they had fire immunity fro.... Oh. I see that they only had 50% resistance from Phoenix Power. Maybe next time I'll do Phoenix Power, Fire Resistance, Immolation. So I guess the explanation to question #2 is Enforca was smarter than I was and knew not to cast Immolation.

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

Well, I can answer these. Communion slaves are not supposed to cast spells, period. But they do in rare cases and no one is sure why http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif . The final spell on the script might have been skiped if it was out of range. As for the AI mixing in weaker spells, the AI uses a random factor, so you can count on it trying almost everything in a long battle.

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

I see a very simple pattern in the comminion slave castings: on turn 18, Enforfe fatiues out, thus not casting anything, and freeing the slaves for a turn as there is no free master.

Also, the extra fatigue removal is probably just the 5 you get for free for being above fatigue 100.

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

&gt; Well, I can answer the these. Communion slaves are not supposed to cast spells, period.

Oh. Darn. Well, that kind of takes some of the fun out of it ...

Thanks for the answers! I gained 8 fatigue back when I was less than 100, but maybe I just mis-transcribed the numbers or something...

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

Immolation is a 0-range spell (it affects a small area around the caster). So a better theory would probably be there were no valid targets within range (?).

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

Oh, I'm confused. I thought that Immolation was a "self-enchantment" that would give the caster a 7-area aura of firey death for the remainder of the battle. Where did I get that idea? Oh well.

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

Nice job pulling all of that information together Zooko. Most of us (myself included) would have just asked "Hey, why did this happen?" rather than gathering together so much data to look at.

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

Thanks!

Oh wait -- no mage ever gained more than 4 fatigue back unless they were over 100. The most any gained back while &lt; 100 was 4. The most gained back while &gt;= 100 was 8.

So it sounds like you can get a bonus of up to 4 fatigue back when you are over 100.

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

Probably got that idea from Master of Magic. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I seem to remember casting Immolation on those killer knights.

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

I dont want to be nitpicky, but on page 15 of the dom2 manual, section 6.2.8, reads: "At 100 points, a unit falls unconcious. Unconcious units recover..."
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

To my knowledge, helping master to cast spell requires slave's attention in that round, so if you want your communion slaves to be active, script the master to cast some spells and then attack (or do anything else but casting). I still couldn't make communion slaves to advance though.

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

Because slaves just stand around stoned unless an enemy unit moves into close attack range of them.

Because there were no valid targets for immolation near him?

Because some enemy unit moved into attack range of the slaves triggering them? The slaves who began acting ought to be those closest to this hypothetical enemy unit.

I wish I knew. I guess it is randomly determined for each spell cast how to divide it amongst the slaves. (Apart from their own spell encumbrance, which is always added in full)

Because Banishment is a low fatigue spell with a very strong effect for high holy levels, and communion had boosted his holy skill? Against lots of troops, high level banishment is better than high level holy pyre. Against a few troops, holy pyre is better. And then again, perhaps it was just to be contrary.

Because you regain 5 fatigue each round your fatigue is &gt;=100

Hmm. Wish I knew the answers to 4) and 5) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

Not always. With enough communicants, everyone involved only gets 1 fatigue apiece per spell.

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

Err, what are the other options? "Stay behind troops"? I always figured if I told him to stay behind troops then he would cast spells anyway (as long as he was behind troops). Oh, does that mean *immediately* behind troops? As in -- follow troops around? That would be interesting..

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

The obvious one is retreat. Another sort of option is to get killed, that in the case when you're bringing disposable weakling mage just to cast buffs. Stay behind troops will not work I think; the mage will still try to cast spells.

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

More communion questions:

I have six mages. (I hope my enemies from the Argitoth MP game aren't reading this thread.)

I could make one be Communion Master and five Communion Slaves. This wouldn't give the master any more magic path boost than four Slaves, but it would spread the fatigue out a bit more.

Or I could make one be Master, four Slaves, and one neither.

Or I could make two Masters and four Slaves. Now if I did that, would each Master get a +1 boost and spread the fatigue among two Slaves each, or would each one get a +2 boost, and spread the fatigue among all four slaves?

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

the latter. however, in any battle not excessively short, the slaves will have a good chance of being killed off due to fatigue. it helps if you have a nature 3 mage casting relief.

even more fatigue questions
 

General fatigue question:

Why did my Magus go from fatigue 0 to fatigue 45 after casting Body Ethereal. I double-checked and there were no extra fatigue effects such as "excessive heat". His encumbrance was listed as "6", and his spellcasting encumbrance was listed as "6". Body Ethereal is listed as costing "20-" fatigue. It is an A1 spell and my Magus has A1.

This is kind of irritating. If there is some reason why he gets extra fatigue then the game should tell me what it is!

P.S. I'm irritated because I scripts my Magi to do Body Ethereal, Luck, Body Ethereal, Communion Slave. However because the spells inexplicably cost twice as much fatigue as expected, they tired out and didn't cast Communion Slave, thus screwing up my tactic.

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

Well my Communion Masters can cast Summon Earthpower. I think that will help a lot!

Question: does the +1 Earth that Summon Earthpower gives to the Slaves have any effect on their fatigue? That is, in general, do the magic path levels of the slaves have any effect on Communion?

Re: even more fatigue questions
 

He has a spellcasting encumbrance of 6 and is likely sitting in a drain dominion. That's assuming that there are no fatigue causing effects in play.

Re: even more fatigue questions
 

Drain dominion! That's the answer. Thanks!

Re: levels of slaves
 

The magical power of the slaves is completely irrelevant.

Re: levels of slaves
 

Then why does it say it can be dangerous if the caster is more powerful than the slaves? Oh -- because if the caster is more powerful then the added fatigue *he* gets is reduced, which means he can go on casting and casting instead of getting tired out before he overloads the slaves.

What are the rules for dying of fatigue?

Re: levels of slaves
 

after 200 you take damage, gain afflictions, and soon die

Re: levels of slaves
 

AFAIK, every point of fatigue beyond 200 goes directly to the HP's and is likely to produce an additional affliction...

Re: what the heck are my Communion Slaves doing?
 

All this time I thought that "A communion with two communion slaves will grant all masters one extra level in all their paths" meant in all the slaves' paths, but now I'm beginning to realize that it means all the masters' paths. So a 1-Astral mage is just as good as a 1-Fire, 1-Water, 1-Air, 1-Earth, 1-Death, 1-Nature, 1-Blood, 1-Astral mage when serving as a communion slave ?