AI spell casting priorities

[Sombre]

Astral shield seems rather high priority too.

[Hadrian_II]

Blink should also not get too much priority or at best not be autocasted by the AI at all. It is just not that funny when your yogis (or any other S1 mage i suppose) blinks in the path of retreating enemy archers and gets slain.

[Edratman2]

I'm going to say fire flies and fire darts. They are pretty useless spells in MA and LA.

I don't think sermon of courage is a problem. It seems to be always cast by an indy priest and that is all he can cast and doesn't have the range for melee troops.

Blink should be removed from the AI list. I do not see it often, only rarely, but I never have seen it used well. That is a spell for a thug or SC, not some 10 HP unequipped mage.

AI does skelly spam and other undead well. Elemental summoning is almost always done poorly.

I do not pay attention to buffs that the AI casts so I do not know how applicable they are.

I do not think I see enough long range damage spells other than smite and a very occasional paralyze.

[Amhazair]

High level astral mages cast paralyze (at SC's)too often, when soul slay (or enslave mind) would usually be a much better choise.

This is in another ballpark as arrow fend and bone grinding and the like of course. I've never yet seen paralyze overwrite a scripted spell.

[Aezeal]

I think it would be nice if after the scripted spells (assuming it did cast those) it will use those spells for the rest of the battle too.
(when my volva (+ light of northern star) are spamming soulslay for 5 turns... I don't want them to cast other spells after that.. there is a REASON I've scripted it 5 times.

[capnq]

Aezeal said: I think it would be nice if after the scripted spells (assuming it did cast those) it will use those spells for the rest of the battle too.
(when my volva (+ light of northern star) are spamming soulslay for 5 turns... I don't want them to cast other spells after that.. there is a REASON I've scripted it 5 times.

The problem with that is when you run into something you weren't expecting, and your scripted orders aren't as useful as other spells would be.

I've got one solo game where the script I'd used was fine against the indy provinces I was attacking, but the two battles that occurred when Ernor attacked the same provinces, on the same turn that I did, needed much different scripts. If my priests hadn't started banishing after their script ran out, I would have lost both battles. (I didn't even know Ernor was my closest neighbor until we blundered into each other the first time.)

[Saulot]

Just as useful as a blacklist in my opinion, would be a 'cast this only' spell, for skellespamming, soulslay spamming, frozen heart, etc. just like how you can set fire, or attack.

Anyway, to answer KO's question, the one's I've noticed a lot are spells others have mentioned, namely; Astral Shield, Fire Shield.

Fire Flies could probably be lowered some, if a mage can cast fire darts, it pretty much always should over fire flies.

Phoenix Power, Earthpower, and Eagle Eyes could use a raise in their value, to help the AI.

[Loren]

On the idea of not using gems on retreating enemies: There is a case where they are still useful: spells that will transfer units to your side.

[Edi]

One of the spells that sends my blood pressure to the roof is Flying Shards (Fire flies is another, for the same reason). Often gets priority over magma bolts and blade wind after scripts end, even over more useful spells like Strength of Giants, Legions of Steel and other things that could be cast.

Fireball and Acid Bolt seem to get much lower priority than they should from mages who can cast them, while Flare gets a much greater one (and is far worse for fatigue).

At the same time, it would be nice if the indie AI grimoire was improved some. It needs to have Fire Darts, Fireball and Magma Bolts added to it for the evocations so that mages other than Air can actually do something other than stand around watching grass grow (which is what flying shards and fire flies amount to most of the time).

Basically any spell that is in the shortlist with a mention of priority should perhaps be looked at. I know Arrow Fend is there and fire and astral shield are already listed as fixed on the progress page, so they're greenified.

[Cipher]

black list: Touch of Madness..