AI spell casting priorities

[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.

[ologm]

Having played MA ulm in single player recently, I can confirm that flying shards gets cast too much.

Summon earth power has too low a priority as my smiths would almost never cast it without scripting. While it is quite useful.

Another thing is that the smiths really prefer casting legions of steel and weapons of sharpness on my independent archers instead of my heavy infantry marching toward the enemy.

[Endoperez]

Comments, please. Would this rule work like I think it would?

Gems won't be spent after round 5.

Scripted mages will follow their script, and not spend games after their script ends. Non-scripted mages and mages of AI nations can use their gems to cast gem-expensive spells.


About buff spells:

Banned buffs:

Only when scripted (because these are personal buffs more suitable for thug/sc units):

Astral Shield
Fire Shield
Personal Quickness
Blink
Flight (caster-only)
Breath of Winter
Water Shield
Charge Body
Soul Vortex
Barkskin (for poor Abysia)
Stoneskin (there are units with chill aura and Earth)
Invulnerability (Ironskin should be enough for mages, and there might be earth mages with poison aura)

Preferred buffs:
Buffs mages SHOULD cast, if they can:

Summon Water Power
Summon Storm Power
Phoenix Power
Summon Earthpower
Strength of Gaia
Air Shield
Personal Luck
Ironskin
Mistform

Spells I'm not sure about:
Mirror Image
Resist Magic
Iron Will
Personal Regeneration



Combat spells
Preferably, any buff spells/gem-expensive spells would have higher priority in the beginning, and would drop below direct damage spells of the same priority level in few turns. Thus, mages start by casting Luck/Body Ethereal, then quickly change into mind burn/paralyze or better spells.

Astral:
never unless scripted: Blink, Returning, Vortex of Returning, Solar Brilliance, Astral Healing, Soul Drain, Unraveling,

Priority classes, from lowest to highest. The spells in the same priority should be cast over spells of lower priority, but should be pretty much interchangeable against different armies.

Star Fires, Healing Light, Horror Mark
< Mind Burn, Body Ethereal, Luck, Nether Bolt, Arcane Bolt,
< Paralyze, Solar Rays, Stellar Cascades, Battle Fortune,
Astral Geyser
< Soul Slay, Enslave Mind, Light of the Northern Star, Nether Darts, Astral Fires, Control, Opposition

AI nations should give these high priority, otherwise low priority/never cast. If my suggestion in the beginning would happen to be integrated, these would have fairly high priority.
Doom, Battle Fortune, Will of the Fates, Antimagic, Arcane Domination, Master Enslave, Astral Tempest.



I did this list by going through the manual's list of Astral spells. I'm not that experienced in competitive multiplayer, so please correct me if I'm wrong. If someone would like to help in making similar lists for the rest of the paths, I'd be very grateful.

[Jazzepi]

If you're going to include barkskin, you might as well include Protection, Wooden Warriors, and Mass Protection.

Jazzepi

[Endoperez]

Jazzepi said:
If you're going to include barkskin, you might as well include Protection, Wooden Warriors, and Mass Protection.

Jazzepi

I didn't go through Nature spells yet. Protection could be included, perhaps, but Abysia shouldn't have enough nature to cast Wooden Warriors or Mass Protection any way. Also, if Protection has lower priority than other spells the mage might cast (if it's just N1 random on an abysian mage), it probably won't be cast any way.

[Twan]

Gems won't be spent after round 5.

Hum there should perhaps be exceptions for some evocation spells (namely shadow blast, fire storm, niefel flames, shimmering fields). A player may want to have someone (probably a communion master or high level pretender) chain casting large area evocations as long he has gems, even after 5 rounds. As well there should be an exception for astral healing.

Banned buffs:


Only when scripted (because these are personal buffs more suitable for thug/sc units):

Astral Shield
Fire Shield
Personal Quickness
Flight (caster-only)
Water Shield

I disagree. They should be very low priority but not blacklisted. As they can't harm you they are something a mage should cast if nothing else -nothing not worse for your troops- can be done. And flight, giving more survavibility to a mage if his army is routed, should rather be in the "usefull buffs" list.

Blink
Breath of Winter
Charge Body
Soul Vortex
Barkskin (for poor Abysia)
Stoneskin (there are units with chill aura and Earth)
Ironskin (reduce lightning resistance)
Invulnerability (Ironskin should be enough for mages, and there might be earth mages with poison aura)
Personal Regeneration

These ones may be harmful for the mage or your troops and should be blacklisted. All protection spells give weakness against one element, so I include ironskin (especially bad in endgame, when the ennemy expect you to use army of lead/gold and so use shock dammage as much he can) only the player should decide to use one of them.

Preferred buffs:
Buffs mages SHOULD cast, if they can:

Summon Water Power
Summon Storm Power
Phoenix Power
Summon Earthpower
Strength of Gaia
Air Shield
Personal Luck
Mistform
Twist fate
Mirror Image
Iron Will/Resist Magic
Eagle Eyes
Flight (personnal)

Mistform should be higher priority than anything else (and airshield in land battles). Resist magic is usable only if the army isn't protected by antimagic, so should be high priority too as it may save the mage. In + magic buffs, summon earthpower should be 1st priority as it gives reinvigoration. Flight should get a good value when the mage's army as suffered a lot of losses.

Combat spells
Preferably, any buff spells/gem-expensive spells would have higher priority in the beginning, and would drop below direct damage spells of the same priority level in few turns. Thus, mages start by casting Luck/Body Ethereal, then quickly change into mind burn/paralyze or better spells.

Astral:
never unless scripted: Blink, Returning, Vortex of Returning, Solar Brilliance, Astral Healing, Soul Drain, Unraveling,

Astral Healing is one of the rare gems spell someone may hope to see used after round 6, except that agree.

Doom, Battle Fortune, Will of the Fates, Antimagic, Arcane Domination, Master Enslave, Astral Tempest.

I would include Doom and Astral Tempest in the black list. Doom is a waste if you destroy the ennemies, astral tempest kill your own guys.

Will of the Fates should be highest priority if a mage can cast it, and Antimagic as well. Mass enslave spells aren't that good if the ennemy has used antimagic and the caster has no penetration item, and casting one probably mean a powerful mage will be uncounscious, so they should not be valued as much as a defensive BE.

[Jazzepi]

KO, would it help if you had a bundled, sorted collection of the turn files, map files, and the fatherland files for the individual battles in question where the spell casting goes awry?

I know I've kept most of my turns for sloth, and I can provide you with multiple instances of arrow fend being cast for no reason. Also, there was a huge battle where R'yleh had undead mastery ready to cast in a big communion with over 5k+ undead in the battle, but instead cast bone grinding

Maybe it would be helpful if you could modify the values for the decision making process, and then "rehost" the turn to run it through a real life example to see how it would change the outcome.

Jazzepi