disappoint
 

My ghost king pretender decided (unscripted) to cast stoneskin in battle.
He lost some of his cold resistance.
He was surrounded by his ghastly bodyguard.
He died of hypothermia.



Maybe some units should have resistance over 100%?
For example, an Abysian, made of lava, shouldn't become so easily vulnerable to that which he is made of, no (actually, that isn't the best example because the only spell I can think of that reduces fire resistance is barkskin, and i think it's safe to say that bark on lava is a terrible,terrible idea)?

Or is there some surefire means of preventing your commander from casting stupid spells (I believe he was SUPPOSED to start with nether bolt or that other death bolt).
thx

I still have the turn, if anyone wants to verify

Re: disappoint
 

Best thing to do is script ironskin so he will not cast stoneskin.

Re: disappoint
 

No need to verify, it's not uncommon. As you suggest with Abysians, never send a Nature mage into battle with Abysians. He will find a way to cast Protection on them.

You can give units more than 100% resistance. Put a Frost Ring on your Ghost King, for example. (Or give him a Frost Brand)

There's no surefire way to keep mages from casting stupid things, but you can minimize it. If he was scripted for an attack spell and didn't cast it, it was almost certainly because there wasn't a valid target within range. You can minimize that by starting him farther forward or by scripting other buffs to give the enemy time to close. If you script Ironskin first, he shouldn't cast the weaker Stoneskin after.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to modify the casting AI to not cast the buffs that also lower resistance, if the target is within that kind of aura. Much like the AI for BoW was changed to prevent it from being cast when non-cold immune friendlies were nearby. But I wouldn't really expect it at this stage.



Edit: Ninja'd. But I wrote more.

Re: disappoint
 

It's generally a good practice once in a while to list your battlemages on one side, list all the spells you have researched and they can cast on the other (note: if you gave them gems, the list is longer ! not only can they now cast spells one level higher, but all the spells that cost gems open up) and ponder "how are they going to cock this up ?".

What I do is figure the *worst* thing they could cast from that list, assume they will and try to minimize the damage from there, either through placement or gear or troop selection. Worst case scenario, I can always script 5 spells, then retreat.

They still royally bungle things once in a while, but that's because I'm bad at this :).

Re: disappoint
 

Hmm. Seems like a lot of management. I think I'll try just scripting him with the longest ranged spells, or harmless buffs. Thanks guys.

But don't you find it the least bit dubious that a ghost, or any living dead for that matter, can die of hypothermia?
I don't know how big dom3 players are on suspension of disbelief, but for me that just seems silly. Especially since the ghost king gives out an aura of cold.

Re: disappoint
 

Don't forget, we're playing a game with fantastical creatures, gods, etc. I left my suspended my disbelief at the door.

Haven't you seen movies where the hero has a power he can only use once because it kills him in the process, same thing here.

Re: disappoint
 

So you aren't into role-playing or immersion, then. Pity. And I don't think stoneskin is that power.

Re: disappoint
 

it has nothing to do with role-playing. dominions is not an RPG game, and while you certainly can role-play to a certain degree, this game doesn't revolve around it. so don't expect any role-playing aspect to be of any priority.

so, if you like role-playing and you like dominions, great. quite a few people here like both and tend to role-play while playing dominions, nothing wrong with that. just realize that this game is not based around role-playing so instead of expecting it to be, learn its limitations and the ways to work around them. it will be much more productive and allow you to enjoy this game a lot more, instead of whine that the game doesn't fit your expectations(which were unjustified to begin with, at least in this instance).

Re: disappoint
 

I'm sorry my whining caused you so much grief. I didn't think my thoughts were so outlandish.

Re: disappoint
 

You've got an ethereal ghost who is turning himself into rock. He's intentionally changing his substance into something that's more resistant to damage. It's only because of that he's vulnerable to cold.

Of course, that's pretty stupid of him...

Re: disappoint
 

Violently disagree! Dominions is chock full of things that are only there for flavour and theme. I find it hard to think of a more theme-based game.

Your ghost has foolishly turned himself into rock, and is cracking and breaking apart in his frosty aura. It may be unthematic that he's so stupid, but I think his fate makes a lot of sense!

Re: disappoint
 

yes, that makes much more sense.
I guess I didn't consider the effect of cold on stone.

Now that I think of it, my grandfather mentioned something about kriogenesis (distinct from cryogenics), a theory to explain irregularities in sediment layers. apparently the cold trips things up quite a bit.

Still, should the king of elemental fire become so vulnerable to himself so easily? a spell away from death by your own nature?

Re: disappoint
 

I think you misunderstood me...

I look at the GK saying, "I must win this battle, to do so, I must cast stoneskin, even if it might kill me..."

After the battle, the GK comes back and has this conversation with his advisor, let's call him Baldrick...

GK: We need to learn a new spell. Rather than hard as a rock, I shall be as hard as a metal.

Baldrick: A splendid idea my lord!

GK: I shall call this spell IRONVEGETABLE!

Baldrick: My lord, wouldn't Ironskin be better?

GK: I have it! I shall call it Ironskin!

Re: disappoint
 

I'm afraid I don't understand.

Re: disappoint
 

He's channelling Black Adder :)

(and if you've never watched it, lucky man, you're in for a treat !)

Re: disappoint
 

If there was a spell that made someone violently allergic to blood, I think it would do the some thing to humans...

Re: disappoint
 

I agree. They really needed to allow the player to create of a list of "banned magic". Just because I researched it doesn't mean I want you using it.

Re: disappoint
 

Equally, doesn't mean you can put the genie back into the bottle! I don't get what the complaint is about: if you have researched the spell, and there's an excited mage who fancies using it, why should you be able to stop him?

Re: disappoint
 

because he'll kill himself. I think that's a good reason.

Re: disappoint
 

For better or for worse, in the Dominions world, such a simple solution as putting on a ring of frost or scripting Ironskin counts as being pretty user-friendly. And there are worse effects of this type. Touch of Madness, for instance, which nature mages can use to send crowds of their fellow mages into melee. A terrible spell, when cast spontaneously! But mods can easily fix that one. :)

Re: disappoint
 

One option for preventing this issue is using modding thus the ghost king, regular ghosts, ice elementals, fire elementals, etc., etc., can have 200% resistance to whatever related element. Awhile back I requested the modding ability so we could create/modify units with resistances above 100% because a royal fire elemental with barkskin should only become stronger.

Re: disappoint
 

Because he'd be extra on fire?

Would there be a way to make these changes en masse?