Some Fire Magic Questions

[atul]

Chazar said:
BTW, does anyone recall whether the order of spells casted in the same round is predictable like the order of casting in combat is?

I think the order is actually semi-random. The line of mages is ordered the same way that in combat (of course, all nations are included in this line), and then the line is gone through from first to last or last to first. The order is determined seemingly randomly.

So, if you have a full line-up of ritual casting mages like [1 2 3 4 5] one round's spells are done either [1 2 3 4 5] or [5 4 3 2 1], but you can't know in advance which way.

...or, at least, I strongly suspect it's done that way.

[The_Tauren13]

The developers have specifically stated it is explicitly random. That would be really easy to test. Just run a few turns with guys doing monthly rituals and see the order the message screen lists them. It is supposedly randomized each time, and I have no reason to believe it doesnt.

[The_Tauren13]

Just tested it, and atul is right. Whether or not its backwards does seem to be random, though. So the order is not entirely deterministic.

[Taqwus]

If fatigue is an issue, try communion -- just make sure that the communicants are also fire-immune, of course.

Hm, does wounding from rituals and globals also count for the purposes of Foul Air? If so, then the remote blasters and Wrath of God might be very useful even against hardy but non-recuperating units.

[atul]

The_Tauren13 said:
Just tested it, and atul is right.

Thanks. I did run tests similar to ones you suggested a couple months ago when I first time posted my observation, but peer review never hurts. Especially when going against established truths.

Next in to-do list, spells that domes won't stop. Site scrying spells (or at least some of them) and Astral Window are apparently passing domes, don't know about others.

Whether or not its backwards does seem to be random, though. So the order is not entirely deterministic.

I haven't yet figured out how to (ab)use the knowledge of ordering rules, but still think there might be some special cases, like summoning uniques or forging artifacts, where that might be possible...

[Saber Cherry]

Taqwus said:
If fatigue is an issue, try communion -- just make sure that the communicants are also fire-immune, of course.

Cast "Communion Master" and then "Resist Fire," for example... any spell the master casts on himself is automatically cast on all communicants.

[Boron]

As Wendigo said . You need basically only 1 Arcane Dome per Province .
But with all other Domes there is a Problem : They are cost-ineffective . You can spam Mind hunt , costs only 2 astral pearls .

So even to destroy the Air Dome and Astral Dome Combo 10% of your Mind hunts get through the astral + air dome and thus destroy the air dome . So you can destroy the Domes cheaper then the costs the dome users have to pay . If the user can't make astral domes it is even worse cause then at average you only need 10 astral gems to destroy a 20 air gem costing air dome .

[The_Tauren13]

atul said:
I haven't yet figured out how to (ab)use the knowledge of ordering rules

Well, for dome busting, you could try (if you know the order of your mages) mage 1 casting FFTS, mages 2-9 casting FFA, and then mage 10 casting FFTS.