So it seems that Dom II (at least as played by beta-testers) doesn't have such a reliance on scripting mages as Dom I - presumably because in Dom II mages aren't as foolish with their spell-casting options as Dom I mages.
My question is this: a prominent way to destroy armies in Dom I was to cast a ward spell, followed by the appropriate battlefield damage spell, e.g. Thunder Ward, followed by Wrathful Skies etc.
Is this as important a part of winning battles in Dom II as it was in Dom I? I can see one reason why it wouldn't be - wards do not give total protection against their element anymore.
I guess a related question would be whether the AI would ever do the above combination - ward then battlefield damage spell. If not, and if such combos are still a viable way to do lots of damage to your opponent, then it would seem that scripting is still a really important part of the game.
The way Dom I is, if you want your mages to do anything really useful you've got to script. It seems like with Dom II IW are moving away from script-intensive battles and more toward getting the mages with the right abilities and research level out into the battlefield and letting them do their thing. In fact it seems like scripting might be a liability at times, and it's maybe better to let the mage decide what's best.
Since I'm kinda lazy I don't mind the trend
, but on the other hand I think scripting is a key part of tactical combat in Dom I [perhaps the most key part]. I wonder if a well-scripted mage would beat one on autopilot, or vice versa - I guess that's what all this rambling is about
p.s. We all have ideas about what we'd like Dom II to look like - I myself have suggested several, and had several shot down by IW. But you can't really fault IW for taking their game in the direction they want. I think it's great that they have a presence in this forum, and actually interact with our suggestions & comments - but I don't think at all that they have a responsibility to do so - more like they're doing us a favour. That said, I do hope they implement some of the suggestions that have been made.