AI spell list and priority for each path

[thejeff]

I suspect they are not, but I haven't actually checked. Or, more accurately that they are ruled exactly the same way ours are. In other words the AI "scripts" them. Easily enough checked in the debug scripts. Have you ever seen "favspell" in the debug log for an AI mage?

[Soyweiser]

No research in alteration? Not really something you can do with a lot of nations. You need a lot of these spells. Alteration also has some of the rush stoppers.

Most of the time casting some of the buffs is irritating, but not that big of a problem.

The main problem is when your mage casts ironskin when bombarded with lightning, after you already cast stoneskin.

Or casting stoneskin when you have a chill effect.

[Finalgenesis]

Agree, I find an E component on a mage to be the worst when it comes to AI post-script action, as it not only waste turn/fatigue but actively harm you sometimes.

The flip side of the coin is if you know you're fighting a nation with national E mage (or E path thug/SC) you can keep tabs on their research progress and know what to use. For 1E mage expect stone skin -> iron skin later on, 3E mage expect invulnerability later on, all outside the opposing human's control, they will most likely (always?) cast it after their human script runs out. Though lighting and it's BE version isn't easy to come by without a real A nation, and poison will need to be applied via the slow working BE, otherwise poison cloud and dragon barf might not specifically target them... So its good that it isn't super easy to exploit this.

[Kobal2]

I'm much less worried about mages self-buffing than chain-summoning crap - after all, it might just stop a stray arrow.

Re: death mages taking a break from skellyspam to disintegrate/wither bones, it's possible the AI switches to nukes when the result of that nuke would destroy more HP than a summon would create ? I have no clue, but it's an avenue of research.

[Bananadine]

Always surprises me when I come out of turn after turn of agonizing over how to convince enough of my mages to JUST. MAKE. SKELETONS. to see people saying defensive spells and weak summoning spells are what they want to avoid. I generally don't mind the defensive spells, myself, because they sometimes help and they tend to run out of targets before long. And I seem to spend most of my time in big, long battles where there's time for that.

Maybe the discrepancy is that I've been playing in a late game setting where everybody is rich and every player is human? I find that in that situation, unscripted offensive spells usually aren't effective. It's too easy to block almost all of them by casting every kind of battlefield-wide defensive spell, and by putting expensive clothes on every important commander. But a wall of skeletons can still hold off or pin down almost anything, as long as the skeletons rise frequently enough. It might not help on offense, but on defense I'd much rather see an ever-changing crowd of skeletons clogging the fortress gate than one failed attack spell after another.

But of course it is a big game and there are many many settings. I think there was a time when I was mad about somebody casting Body Ethereal on all his friends instead of attacking... the other problem with late-game large-map no-CBM play is that it lasts forever and you forget how the other parts of the game go.

I would also love to see path booster spells considered. I don't think I've ever seen an unscripted Summon Earthpower and that should be a very high priority.

As iRFNA says, Summon Earthpower is definitely in there, and sometimes it even comes up fairly early. But it can also be easily put off forever in favor of stupid Flying Shards and endless (but potentially non-stupid!) Earth Grips.

I wonder about the others, though. I don't think I've ever seen the water, fire, or air ones used without a script.

[Bananadine]

Okay well I always have to test this stuff after I start to wonder about it. I just sent an E2 mage into battle against an F2 mage, with nobody else around and with the two at maximal distance from each other. Both sides knew every spell. The earth mage summoned earthpower in the third round, after two defensive spells. The fire mage used two defensive spells, attacked twice with the startlingly long-ranged Pillar of Fire, and then used Phoenix Power, in the fifth round. Good job, extremely-far-apart mages!

[Bananadine]

Just tried an A1 mage in a storm, extremely far from his opponent. He summoned storm power immediately!

I also ran an underwater, extreme-corners battle between a W1 mage and a W2 mage. Both summoned water power on the second round.

I guess these spells are pretty popular, as long as there's nothing in their way!

[thejeff]

I'll stand corrected on the booster spells. And keep an eye out for them.

I suspect you don't see the Air and Water ones unscripted often just because of the circumstances.

Wall of skeletons is great when you're planning on it and have critical mass. When you only have a couple of death mages and they're spamming it instead of casting Dust to Dust on the Banelord...
The other spammable summoning spells are pretty worthless.

[iRFNA]

Well, what if you got like.. 500 spire horn seraphs spamming phantasmal warrior??

[thejeff]

Then they'd do better spamming something else. Or researching while something more cost-effective killed things.