Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

I'm glad the independents spells have been improved. Perhaps the independents research level can be based on the number of turns which passed in the game. It allows the independents to grow as time passes.
A level_7 independent fire mage should have learned a few more spells after 10_years(82_turns).

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

Why do you say 82 turns? Surely 10 years is 120?

Yep, I was excited to see that one too (we're referring to the progress page, at http://ulm.illwinter.com/dom3/dom3progress.html ).

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

Sounds good. I personally am more excited about mictlan sky priests, new hydra's and of course: the new maenad sprite http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

Don't get your hopes to high. It's nothing fancy.

I've just added raise skeleton to all instances with a raise dead, since that didn't work out too good, and added a few spells at path lvl 1 and 3, like flare and slime, since lvl 1 water was without spells, and there was only fire bolt at lvl2 fire.

It is not intended to make indeps powerful, just to give them something to cast.

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

If you are working with raise dead/skeleton, can you make sure that our mages
do not insist on casting the raise dead spell when no corpses are available?
If that means that they will not cast it unscripted, so be it. It is much better
to get half the chaff five times instead of no chaff once.

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

It's already on Edi's short list, medium (purple) priority.

-Max

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

Yes that's fine.
Any chance a future patch can allow the independents research level to be based on the number of turns which passed in the game? Allowing the independents to grow as the game moves forward.
A level_7 independent fire mage should have learned a few more spells after 10_years.

OR

If #startspell gets fixed perhaps the independents can be specified as well allowing each map to add extra spells if desired.

Either of these would be wonderful. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

The grimoire works differently from dom2, and I think that is why #startspell doesn't work anymore. In dom2 your grimoire was given at start and whenever you learned new spells they were added. In dom3 the grimoire is rewritten every turn, and filled with those spells you have researched, but spells you do not know are wiped. This makes patches less problematic, since you can't get your spells whacky due to added or removed spells, but it also makes #startspell obsolete in its current form. I suspect the command would need to reread the mapfile every turn, and that is not done atm, since it would open cheat possibilities. So some kind of change is needed, not just a fix of something broken.

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

On the other hand, that might mean it's easier than it would have been in Dom2 to add a feature to restrict your mages from casting e.g. Touch of Madness, for those of us who hate that spell. Pretty please?

-Max

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

How do you figure?

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

Well, you're already keeping track of two concepts here:

1.) The spells you really have access to (defined by your research level), and

2.) the spells you can cast.

Right now #2 is just a cache of #1, regenerated every round, but if you allowed disabling spells by clicking on a toggle or something you just remove them from #2 (and put them on a list of "restricted" spells to remove every time you regenerate #2 from #1). The combat AI doesn't have to change at all, and since it's purely subtractive there's no worry about bugs that "enable" spells you haven't actually researched yet. I'm presuming that the Dom2 way would have necessitated adding *and* subtracting spells to/from the list as they were enabled/disabled.

Of course, maybe it's not as simple as that. For one thing, you have to also encode the "restricted" list as part of the .2h file for PBEM games.

-Max

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

Uhu, I have no idea. You might be right.

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

From the look of the game logs it appears that the list doesnt have any "no use" but it does use a weighted system with just a touch of random thrown in. It might be possible to examine a game log and make suggestions on changing the order that choices are made.

The problem would appear to be that there isnt any "if I am Ermor" or "if I am undead" type of thinking involved. So any suggestion would need to be balanced between its worth in removing it from a bad-use situation while also removing from all other nations use.

Just a small part of the thinking for one mage looks like this in the logs.....
com Aziakos cast spell (favspell Swarm) (mayusegems 1)
est. choices 66
best spell so far Flying Shards (score17)
best spell so far Call Ancestor (score18)
best spell so far Wrath of the Ancestors (score578)
best spell so far Stoneskin (score7197)
best spell so far Ironskin (score12730)
best spell so far Swarm (score100697)
castspell: cnr765 spl365 (Swarm) vis2 x18 y10 spldmg591
Get an order for 5543 Dragonfly, ord 0
Closest enemy (for unr 5543)

The AI code was all added into the game late. Its pretty linear and generic to all nations and conditions. Any suggestions would probably have to be also unless the AI code got a massive rewrite from scratch.

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

When you say "removing it from a bad-use situation while also removing it from all other nations' use," it seems like you're talking about a mod, which is as good as we can do at the moment, but I meant that the Dom3 change to spell lists was conducive to adding a new feature (probably tied into the GUI) for forbidding one's OWN mages from casting a particular spell. E.g. Touch of Madness, or Conjure Earth Elemental (waste of gems), or Phantasmal Warrior (if my PD Vanherses keep casting that instead of Orb lightning), or whatever spell is annoying me.

-Max

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

No I meant in the game itself. The AI player or our unscripted mages.

As far as tweaking your own scripted mages actions that usually takes hard consideration on why they did or didnt cast.

And Im fairly sure that a gui menu feature for excluding spells would be a sizeable project so I wouldnt expect that anytime soon.

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

I think there is more important stuff to do. Like fixing stuff instead of introducing more potential bugs and imbalances http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

Fixing stuff is partly made by me, but mostly by JK, since he is the programmer. JK is in India atm. I would gladly fix important stuff (whatever that is http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif) if I could. Since what I do, mainly concern adding stuff, I do that.

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

We're already getting quite a few fixes for minor (and some not so minor, from some nations' perspective) stuff in this patch, things that do not require pulling out big bits of code and doing complicated forensics on them.

A lot of polishing, making things shiny and better-looking, but a lot of stuff that has been in the list for a long time but which has been on the backburner, which allows them to be greenlighted out and leaves the bigger stuff left. I'm VERY impressed with the stuff that has appeared on the progress page since the start of July. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

Yes, you are definately on a roll Kristoffer.
I hope I didnt jinx it by saying that (knock on virtual wood) but Im smiling at seeing all of the touchups.

And I consider it very important to the game to get some of the balances worked on. And filling in some of the national specific items (castles, spells, bonuses). You are doing a great job.

Re: Indep grimoire slightly improved
 

I completely agree!! Kristoffer has been doing wonderful improvements/fixes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
Hopefully JK will be fully charged and ready to do his share of fixes upon returning from vacation.