AI spell casting priorities

[Endoperez]

Sombre said:
Scripted to spend gems? How does that work Loren?

I think he meant "scripted to use spells that consume gems".

There's at least one major problem with this: Blood magic. Everything worthwhile needs gems. All other paths can do something pretty good even without gems, but Blood must flow if it's to be of any use.

[Saulot]

This one of those things that always bothered me, blood magic shouldn't just be about sacrificing slaves, though that's certainly an important part. Another good method would be sacrificing of self, as in cutting open bleeding wounds of various sizes on one's own body. This actually does fit historically with what we know of the Maya and Aztecs.

When I first tried the dom series, I was somewhat surprised there was no 'hitpoint cost' spells. I suppose it might be difficult to balance with healing spells and regeneration, though in that sense, the spells/effects shouldn't work on a blood mage.

[Endoperez]

There are Leech, Leeching Touch and Hellfire... Not much, granted, but at least Hellfire's description mentions that it's possible, but the amounts of blood required are too big for single person to handle without passing out.

[Kristoffer O]

Initially (long before dom-ppp was released) magic gem use was optional and only a way of reducing fatigue. At this time sacrifice of slaves was optional and most blood spells were exhaustive enough to make sacrifice almost obligational.

I agree that self sacrifice (and HP loss) is thematic and sadly missing from the game. Not sure how viable it is atm. Most mechanics available in the game would probably be a bit ad hoc.

[Zeldor]

That's why you should really start writing new code from scratch for Dom4!

[Kristoffer O]

Utterly boring

[cleveland]

cleveland said:
Marble Warriors seems to take priority over Army of Gold, strangely.

So I wanted to get to the bottom of this, which just cost me, albeit only marginally, in a current game: I outfitted an E1 mage with Earth Boots (now E2), who casted Summon Earth Power (now E3) in round 1 (Exhibit A), and who had 4E gems in stock, scripted to cast Army of Gold next.

[Exhibit A]


As mentioned, the guy cast Marble Warriors instead, which offers less protection to far fewer troops.

I did the Dom3 -ddd switch, the relevant debug code is below:

Celarim cast spell (favspell Army of Gold) (mayusegems 1)
...
comp_castspell: eval Army of Gold result -1
...
castspell: cnr1007 spl394 (Marble Warriors) vis3 x8 y13 spldmg65536

So the game didn't even think my guy could cast it, which is extremely odd to me. It's a E4 spell, requiring 3E gems, so 4E should be enough to boost him to cast it, or to at least evaluate it. The previous turn I was able to get an E2 mage with Earth Boots (now E3) to cast Summon Earthpower (now E4) in round 1, followed by Army of Lead in round 2, with the same 4E gems in stock; hypothetically this is an identical scenario.

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Bug.gif[/img]?
Edit: Not a [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Bug.gif[/img]! Can't use more gems than your current path level!

[johan osterman]

You can never spend more gems in a turn than you have in the path. So to cast a spell that have the same path requirement as gem cost you must have that same path value before the gem boost

[cleveland]

johan osterman said:
You can never spend more gems in a turn than you have in the path. So to cast a spell that have the same path requirement as gem cost you must have that same path value before the gem boost

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... It all makes perfect sense now. Thank you for the very prompt & thoughtful reply.

Manual: A mage can only use as many gems as his current skill level in that path.

For whatever reason, I interpreted this to mean "After spending one gem to temporarily boost me to level X+1, I can spend an additional X+1 gems to cast this spell." But the current, more aesthetically pleasing paradigm is that Boosting & Casting are fundamentally inseparable. Very cool.

I'm editing my posts above to reflect my newfound wisdom.

Edit: New question...Since path bonuses received from being a communion master don't actually increase your base magic path totals, communion masters do not see increased max gem expenditure, correct? For example, had I made an E2 mage the master of a 2 slave communion, he could NOT cast an E3 spell requiring 3E gems, right?

[DonCorazon]

In addition to the limit on not using more gems than your current path level, would the AI use one of your gems on the Summon Earthpower to reduce fatigue of casting the spell, thus leaving you only 3 gems - not enought to both boost and case the Army of Gold? In your case, you would clearly not want the AI to use a gem to reduce the fatigue of casting the Summon EP spell.

btw - would anyone be so kind as to point me to an FAQ or something that explains how to use this "-ddd switch" if one exists. Many thanks.