[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Darryl:
I don't like Water 2 mages casting Breath of Winter killing friendly troops if they aren't immune, but it's there because...???

It's there because the spellcasting AI is stupid. If the spellcasting AI were not stupid, we wouldn't need even 5 spell orders, because the AI would always cast the correct spells. However, the AI is incredibly stupid, and this is why you are given 5 spells worth of handholding. Admittedly, the spellcasting AI is better than that of other games, but the fundamenetal problem here is that computers are stupid. They do dumb things quickly, but humans are generally smarter than computers. Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

I don't like Magic Duel basically making Astral 1 and 2 mages useless in combat, but it's there because...???

Magic Duel is not has enormously harmful as you make it sound: It's actually the other way around: Those Astral-1 and Astral-2 mages are a big threat to anyone who has a small to moderate amount of Astral on the pretender, because you can communion them together and have a goodly chance of killing it that way.

On the reverse side, I doubt anyone is going to commit an Astral 7 or 8 mage just to magic duel your little astral mages, who are probably expendable anyway. If they send a less than astral 7 mage against an astral 1 mage, they will probably die from magic duelling you. They may kill a fair number of your mages, but it's easier to replace a stock astral-1 or 2 mage than it is to replace something which may be astral 5, and certainly required empowerment or items to get there. Besides, Astral is just too awesome to pass up, even with the threat of magic duels. Some people, however, feel that this makes astral too dangerous....and that's their loss, IMO.

[ March 18, 2004, 22:16: Message edited by: Norfleet ]