Teach me how to use mages!

[UninspiredName]

Heh, I've had situations where my priests actually ignore the script I set for them, and cast bless despite the fact there are no holies on the battlefield.

[Endoperez]

Besides themselves, of course. Generally mages only ignore their script if they CAN'T cast the scripted spells, most often because there are no legitimate units in range.

[Twan]

Your priest are holy themselves, it's probably a self bless (and as morale spells are now not cumulative, they ignore sermon or fanaticism scripts when all units have the morale boost). They just act like mages who love to cast fireshield or astral weapon just in case... when the closest ennemy is at 40m.

[UninspiredName]

The ignored spell was Smite, and I know foes were in range.

[Meglobob]

I scripted 5 blood/other mages to cast 4 spells (they were all self enhancement spells or troop buffs), then Reinvigoration, cast spells. Give each 1 a single blood slave, checked the fatigue paths of all spells involved to make sure they were ok. Idea being they could do my script, then do there own thing with 0 fatigue.

What happened?

They all cast summon imps using the 1 blood slave as there 1st spell...arrrrgh...why? Summon imps was no where on the script, all 5 did the exact same thing. Of course because they ignored my carefully crafted battle plan, I lost a very tight, important battle. After summoning imps they did nothing because they were too fatigued...

It's very frustrating when the computer does it's own thing ignoring yr orders...

[dirtywick]

Meglobob said:
I scripted 5 blood/other mages to cast 4 spells (they were all self enhancement spells or troop buffs), then Reinvigoration, cast spells. Give each 1 a single blood slave, checked the fatigue paths of all spells involved to make sure they were ok. Idea being they could do my script, then do there own thing with 0 fatigue.

What happened?

They all cast summon imps using the 1 blood slave as there 1st spell...arrrrgh...why? Summon imps was no where on the script, all 5 did the exact same thing. Of course because they ignored my carefully crafted battle plan, I lost a very tight, important battle. After summoning imps they did nothing because they were too fatigued...

It's very frustrating when the computer does it's own thing ignoring yr orders...

Did you check the range on that? It seems like they cast other spells when there's no available target, and Summon Imp happens to be the one they cast every time if they have a slave.

I'd prefer that the AI wouldn't use gem spells unless you script them to do so, it's especially annoying when they go through a bunch of gems summoning elementals or boosting to cast Fireball.

[Peter Ebbesen]

I'd prefer that the AI wouldn't use gem spells unless you script them to do so, it's especially annoying when they go through a bunch of gems summoning elementals or boosting to cast Fireball.

And then there are the other times, you know, when you give your Wraith Lord full equipment of path boosters, 20-30 death gems, script him to 5xShadow Blast, look deep into his fiery eyes and tell him that you rely on him - and you can actually pretty much count on him continuing to devastate the enemy with shadow blasts even after round 5 instead of going into skellyspamming mode (so long as your army contains enough chaff that he doesn't feel personally threatened - and, even if he does, he'll likely just blast those who threaten him).

Sometimes gem use by the AI is vexing - sometimes it is truly great. Personally, I'd love one or both of these options when giving commander orders to be available: a) "Repeat this spell for the rest of the battle" as a terminating order, and/or b) "Allow this commander to freely use gems yes/no" radiobutton - but I'd hate having the current system with commanders absolutely prohibited from using gems on their own initiative.