Spell and Action cue questions

[Anglachel]

If I script five spells to be cast in a row do I also have to specify what the mage should do with these spells? For instance, do I have to specify that the mage should "Stay behind Troops" in addition to the cast cue. I had a situation where I put a pretender scripted to cast Hellfire five times in a row for a battle, loaded him up with enough slaves to do the job and the computer ignored all that and didn't cast Hellfire even once during the battle. Hellfire has a range of 25+ and my pretender was about mid field on the tactical placing. If this is a case of the AI countering my commands then it would be nice to have this addressed in some future time as this is really annoying. Anyways, thanks for answering me in advance.

[ April 06, 2004, 14:06: Message edited by: Anglachel ]

[Gateway103]

It sounds like a case of AI overriding you command.

Most likely it is that the AI had determined that it does not use the slaves to kill the opposition, so it saved them for later use.

This gem saving feature is arguably beneficial, as without it, even a small scout party attack can drain you of your precious slaves/gems, before important battles.

-Gateway103

[Anglachel]

Originally posted by Gateway103:


This gem saving feature is arguably beneficial, as without it, even a small scout party attack can drain you of your precious slaves/gems, before important battles.

-Gateway103

Yeah I can see the benefit in that but given that I understand that, it would be nice if the computer would not over-ride scripted commands. For computer controlled casting that is fine but if I order my mage to do something specific it would be nice for it to do that and not be abitrarily governed by the AI. Otherwise I would not even let a computer controlled caster even have gems for it to be a worry. The only exception I can think of would be a blood hunting mage that gets attacked before handing them off and the computer doesn't seem to balk at throwing wave after wave of imp summons at the enemy and burning blood slaves I would rather it not. Oh well, I'll cross my fingers and hope this is something that will be addressed in the future.

[ April 06, 2004, 16:07: Message edited by: Anglachel ]

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Anglachel:
Yeah I can see the benefit in that but given that I understand that, it would be nice if the computer would not over-ride scripted commands.

I much prefer it when the AI makes the decision as it does now. I've had battles where I've scripted my mages to cast large numbers of gem using spells, when all they ended up facing was a few militia. They would have wasted a couple dozen gems if the AI hadn't made that choice.

In Dominions I, before this behaviour was added, it was possible to have a single scout attack an army with a dozen mages, and have them waste all their gems on scripted spells.

[Taqwus]

...and since ritual-caused battles are resolved earlier, one could otherwise even launch a Call of the Winds, Call of the Wild, Arouse Hunger et al on the -same- turn as an intended major battle and thus deplete the other side's gems. That would be a vicious bit of cheese.

[Anglachel]

Originally posted by Taqwus:
...and since ritual-caused battles are resolved earlier, one could otherwise even launch a Call of the Winds, Call of the Wild, Arouse Hunger et al on the -same- turn as an intended major battle and thus deplete the other side's gems. That would be a vicious bit of cheese.

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

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Originally posted by Anglachel:
Yeah I can see the benefit in that but given that I understand that, it would be nice if the computer would not over-ride scripted commands.

I much prefer it when the AI makes the decision as it does now. I've had battles where I've scripted my mages to cast large numbers of gem using spells, when all they ended up facing was a few militia. They would have wasted a couple dozen gems if the AI hadn't made that choice.

In Dominions I, before this behaviour was added, it was possible to have a single scout attack an army with a dozen mages, and have them waste all their gems on scripted spells.

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Hrrrm, interesting tidbits there. Thanks for the information. Didn't know that was a common strategy back in Dominions I. That helps me out a lot but I think it would be cool to know what parameters the computer thinks would allow for expenditure of gems. Do any of you guys know? It would be cool to have an option in the cue that allows for you to set parameters on when you can over-ride the computers judgement like (Cast Hellfire if force>30 units) or something like that and you can change the parameters with an Up/Down arrow key.

The scout thing seems like a viable tactic for probing enemy forces since scouts don't really give you information on a neighboring provice that you don't already know. It's just more accurate is all. Having a scout attack and deplete gems doesn't seem that bad because it also helps you probe not only troop size and composition but also spellsets likely used plus, since normal combat all takes place at the same time it wouldn't deplete your gems in conjunction right before a major assualt like the timing of rituals such as Call of the Winds would. Yeah I know it would suck if someone did the scout thing to you while you were deep in enemy territory and don't have some gem supply line set up but it would seem realistic because of home territorial advantage and the need for supply lines to be kept up(i.e. gem ferrying). The timing of ritual summons in distant provinces though would make probing gem depletion strategies overpowered though and I can see why IW put a reign on gem usage by the computer. I guess it just rankles to have my decisions made for me in a tactical situation.

Oh well, thanks for all the info and especially to Taqwus. I didn't know the timing of those rituals was before actual combat. That opens up whole new strategic fronts for me now that I can safely cast send horror ahead of my army to soften them up. Thanks Graeme and Taqwus!

[ April 06, 2004, 18:11: Message edited by: Anglachel ]

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Anglachel:
[qb]Yeah I know it would suck if someone did the scout thing to you while you were deep in enemy territory and don't have some gem supply line set up but it would seem realistic because of home territorial advantage and the need for supply lines to be kept up(i.e. gem ferrying).[?QB]

It's actually far worse when you think. Take, for example, the case where someone is sieging a fortress. You've broken down the walls, and are planning to storm it this turn. You've scripted your mages to cast thunder ward so that the enemies air mages won't be able to decimate your troops with a wrathful skies. However
the defender happened to have a single scout break the siege. That scout causes your mages to use up all their gems on him, then when they storm the castle you have no gems left. I'd much rather have intelligent mages than ones that stupidly waste resources.

[ April 06, 2004, 18:32: Message edited by: Graeme Dice ]

[Anglachel]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

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Originally posted by Anglachel:
[qb]Yeah I know it would suck if someone did the scout thing to you while you were deep in enemy territory and don't have some gem supply line set up but it would seem realistic because of home territorial advantage and the need for supply lines to be kept up(i.e. gem ferrying).[?QB]

It's actually far worse when you think. Take, for example, the case where someone is sieging a fortress. You've broken down the walls, and are planning to storm it this turn. You've scripted your mages to cast thunder ward so that the enemies air mages won't be able to decimate your troops with a wrathful skies. However
the defender happened to have a single scout break the siege. That scout causes your mages to use up all their gems on him, then when they storm the castle you have no gems left. I'd much rather have intelligent mages than ones that stupidly waste resources.

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Ah, knew there was probably some kind of work around. Thanks for pointing that out. Very useful to know as it helps me understand how things are the way they are. ::tips hat::

[Norfleet]

What's more annoying is when you actually DO storm the castle, and your mages decide to cast Air Shield instead of using their gems to cast Arrow Fend, and a dozen troops are massacred by the stupid arrow towers because the actual defenders consisted of a single commander and a handful of militia.