The fatal flaws of scripting mages...

[Sombre]

The AI appears to deviate even if the spell is possible and you have the gems to power it if it decides the spell isn't a good idea. I don't have an example of this to hand, but numerous people have reported it.

[Gandalf Parker]

Hmm I use hellbind heart quite abit against one unit and havent had a problem. Maybe the mage was set too far back on the battlefield? (I dont remember the range settings on that)

[Baalz]

Both mages were set all the way forward, enemy mage was scripted to hold X5 (it was an agreed up trade).

[Nick_K]

Of course, thematically it makes sense that sometimes mages would make a mistake. They don't know that a lone enemy is actually loaded with magic items or whatever. When they have heavy weight of numbers on their side, it makes sense that sometimes the mages would make the wrong decision

[Micah]

This is probably going to sound weird, but how about if the game processed the combats multiple times? The first time through the combat would be run using gems and executing retreat orders. If the battle is easily won (less than 10% casualties and no commander deaths) the battle would be rerun without the use of gems or the execution of retreat orders. If the gem-comservation run results in a large swing in the outcome (more than the 10% casualty threshold or commander death) the results would be discarded, otherwise they would be used.

By only rerunning battles that are lopsided to begin with this method wouldn't be giving any "second chances" to land/avoid a lucky blow. The results of a battle will never be changed using this method, only the resources that go into winning it.

This gets rid of the need for the AI to have to perfectly assess the strength of the opposition with a complex formula that will inevitably have holes in it and lets it see what actually happens. It's a bit unthematic that mages can never be surpried by a small force with big guns, but eliminating the frustration of dealing with the AI's flaws seems like a very worthwhile tradeoff to me. I'm sick of seeing my mages flee in terror from a scout that my PD caught when I have an uncastled lab, or the mage I have around to buff an SC and split flee from a pack of overgrown birds, leaving his SC buddy around to die when the real army gets there later in the turn.

Single-target charm-type spells should always be cast as scripted though, since getting a unit is even better than not losing one, and since they single-target there is no chance of overkill.

It might up the turn processing time a bit, but since only lopsided battles will be rerun (which generally process fairly quickly, with the exception of SCs taking down armies) I don't think it would be a major resource-hog.

[Sir_Dr_D]

I have had the opposite problem before.

I was Atalntis and was prepared for a big attack against vanheim. Vanheim teleports in 2 SC's. (one might have beena golem.) The mages waste all their gems on those two opponents. In the same turn vanhim atatcks with his big army. Of course since my mages have no gems, i get slaughtered.

[alexti]

Gandalf Parker said:
It sounds like a good idea but I dont know if Kristoffer would go for it.

"Your god tells you to do xxxx, xxxxx, xxxxx, xxxxx, xxxxx but in battle you decide to do it abit differently"
makes more sense thematically than
"Your god tells you to do absolutely nothing in combat"

You could make a stronger case for
"Your god tells you to do xxxx, xxxxx, xxxxx, xxxxx, xxxxx and even though it seems stupid during the battle you do it anyway because you are more afraid of angering your god than the idea of dying".

Maybe it should be tied to the dominion? So for example, if Dominion is 1 the mage would think "Ok, maybe the god exists, but what he knows about the combat? I'm not spending gems on that Rain of Stones he has divined to cast - our Tartarian army should take care of that lone hawk". With dominion 10 it would be different story: "That lone hawk doesn't seem to be too dangerous to us, but what do I, mere mortal, know - God must have his divine plans - Rain of Stones it is!"

[alexti]

Nick_K said:
The other side of the coin here, is that if you selected 'AI scripting off' for a big army, the enemy could drop 'call of the winds' on you and your mages would waste tons of gems. Then if the army is attacked in the same turn, it might be left vulnerable - I believe that's what used to happen in Doms2.

Dom3 behaviour is rather sensible (in most cases). But strangely, I think now that I liked Dom2 system more. In Dom2, finding a good script was a real challenge. When you knew that when you storm the fortress you have to fend off magic attack first, then attempt to break the siege and only after you would be storming, it was an interesting task of managing to get the critical spells cast in the final battle and it led to many very interesting methods of gem preservation

[Meglobob]

Scripting is driving me mad at the moment, I scripted attack one turn, this was to get in range of the incoming Aboleths/Mind Lords. So my mage casts fire shield...surely it should obey the attack one turn order without question?

Btw the mage died as a result of disobeying my script...ahh that will teach him!

[FAJ]

The AI seems to love fire shield. More often than not it throws out my scripts and chooses that.