Scripting problems/issues - mage went melee!

[DireAussie]

In a multiplayer game I scripted my magically powerful pretender to cast flame eruption spell. Enemy troops closed in; he got 1 flame eruption off before the enemy got to melee. When this happened, instead of casting this spell my pretender decided to go melee! Thus he was promptly killed off.

I realise that when mages fight battles considered "weak" that they won't use gems or cast spells that use gems. However in this case the spell did not require gems. I see no reason why my pretender went melee considering I had scripted him to do 5 flame eruptions and then cast spells (this was only the 3rd battle round when he went melee). The enemy was in range so he should have cast the spell instead of going melee.

Also, this battle was a special case, "magic nightmare" where you fight soulless. But I dont see why my scripting should not have worked even in this special battle.

I see this as a bug. What is the use of Flame Eruption (range 5) if my mage just goes melee when enemy units are adjacent to him? IMO flame eruption was made for this close combat situation...

[Taqwus]

It's difficult to cast spells when somebody's swinging a sword at your head.

Close-combat spells are mostly desperation measures, although a commander that's a competent melee chassis make some use of 'em.

[lch]

With enemy units in melee range, mages have a 50% chance to engage in melee and 50% chance to follow their script. In case they were scripted to cast a specific spell, they will still follow the script at the next possible chance.

[djtool]

i too have found frustration in my current game when my lich (Air3, AS3, D3 - evoc 6 researched) has chosen to engage in melee (with 20 - 40 fatigue) instead of using shockwave or some other close combat spell.