[Rainbow]

Script command / combat action: Rest
Allow commanders to spend a combat turn resting to recover fatigue. This will allow mages to act more sensibly by resting before falling unconscious. Being unconscious is a pretty bad idea when the rest of the army routs.


Spell scripting:

Show which spells are being scripted (as originally suggested by RedRover)
Players need to be able to see what has been scripted without starting over.

Set gem usage for spell script.
Allow the player to set how many gems are used for casting each scripted spell.

Show the estimated fatigue for the spell script.
For each scripted spell, show the fatigue from casting this spell, and the sum of the fatigue from all spells cast at this point in the script. Automatically update this if encumberance changes (due to equipment changes, chest wounds, etc).

Review spell script.
Allow players to review the spell script details, including information about spells, gems and fatigue, without automatically clearing the script.

Warnings/information.
Notify the player of important things, like situations where scripted spells will never be cast (for example because the caster does not have enough gems to cast the spell without incurring 300 points of fatigue => suicide). A mage may have the required gems one turn, but not the following turn. Highligt mages in the army list, who are unable to perform their spell script (any number of reasons could cause this, including added encumberance (chest wounds, heavier armor), lack of gems, lost both eyes, feebleminded, etc.)


AI spell casting:

Fatigue management
Do not let the AI cast spells which render the caster unconcious, unless the AI have good reason to think it is a very good idea. Instead the AI should let the mage rest (see script command suggestion above).

Spell selection.
Give the AI the ability to intelligently choose spells. For example, only cast air shield if at least X enemies have ranged weapons AND they comprise Y% of the total size of the enemy army. Only cast fireball if no friendly units without fire resistance are adjacent to the intended target. Etc.


Spell casting in melee:

Never force mages to melee.
There are some excellent spells with “touch” range, which are very rarely used, since mages are often either slain before they can use them (when enemies come into range) or because the mage is forced to do melee. Mages should never be forced to do melee when they have touch range spells available. They should be allowed to choose between their touch range spells or melee, whichever they think is the better.

Move and cast touch range spells.

Mages with touch range spells should be allowed to move up to half their normal movement allowance, and deliver a touch range spell to an enemy. They should only ever do this if the enemy can be reached in one move (ie., move and spell cast in same action / turn). Mages should still NOT be allowed to move and cast non-touch range spells.


Gem handling.

Alchemy.
Since alchemy does not require any time, but merely the presence of a mage at any lab, the alchemy command should be moved from being a commander option, to be a lab option in the gem review panel (F7). Simply disable the command with the information text that no mage is present to perform the alchemy if this is the case.

Commanders and gems.
For each commander, replace the gem slot with a single icon of each gem followed by a number showing how many gems of that type the commander is currently carrying. To transfer gems, change the number for the desired type of gem (this can transfer both to and from the pool as the new number can be higher or lower than the original number carried). This will save up to 30 tedious mouse clicks and give a better overview of exactly how many gems the commander is carrying. Add a button to force all gems from this commander to the pool.

Gem pooling.
Have two commands for gem pooling. One command will force all gems from all commanders at labs to be pooled (as per Dom II). The other will only pool gems from commanders who are flagged to allow gem pooling. (ie., the first command overrides no-pool flags, where the second command does not).


Taxes and unrest.

Tax / unrest handling panel.

Create a panel for handling taxes and unrest for your nation. Allow the setting of a tax policy based on unrest levels. Allow individual provinced to use the nation’s tax policy or not by flagging. Include known sources of unrest (sites) in the tax / unrest province list, and specify exactly how much unrest is generated by these sites. Inlcude any relevant information on the dominions order / turmoil level.


Army setup.

Army panel (T)

The army panel shows the garrison as a jumble of troops. Many troops look very similar, since there are often small variations on national troops. Cleaning the garrison display up as suggested by Taqwus might be a good idea.

Army parade / display.

Allow players to review the army setup on an actual battlefield. This way the player can check that his units are positioned exactly as he wants, and admire his glorious army (before it is crushed utterly). It will allow players to check that those astral mages are adjacent to the units they want to cast body ethereal on (range = 1). It will allow players to see how that heap of 12 commanders plus 50 bodyguards that are all heaped on top of each other actually deploy on the field, and make adjustments if desired. It will probably be necessary to be able to flag commanders or squads to be part of the review or not (so units that are not supposed to go off with the army when it moves do not displace the units that make up the intended army).


Combat

Horse archers and other skirmishers

Add commands and AI to make these types of units viable. For example, allow a skrimish command where the unit will attempt to engage with ranged weapons, but will move away from the enemy at up to half speed, while staying within maximum range of their thrown or fired weapons and attacking. Javelin equipped light infantry, slingers, horse archers, etc. would become viable, especially for hit and run tactics. Only allow skirmishers to move away by moving towards the rear of their own side of the battlefield. This way we know that they will eventually be caught and pinned, and melee will ensue, even if the skirmishers are twice as fast as the enemy.


/Rainbow