Crystal Shield

Edi · #1 July 14th, 2007, 11:27 AM

Well, in that case you need to experiment more and shows my prediction to be somewhat wrong. It hingeson the order of effects, does communion come first, or Power of the Spheres?

thejeff · #2 July 15th, 2007, 04:56 PM

I ran some tests with this (and a few other communion things)

Spells cast by slaves do not affect the whole communion, so having a communicant carry the Shield does not work.

Assuming the use of Crystal Matrix and Slave Matrices.
The Crystal Shield does boost the path of Slaves, at least those who act before the master.
I'm not sure what Ich saw, but I definitely saw the boost. Maybe his master acted before the slaves?

And in reference to a suggestion in another communion thread, slaves paths may be boosted for fatigue purposes, but not for spells they cast themselves.

So does any of this qualify as a bug? I like slaves being able to act if no Masters are casting, but being able to cast if they act first seems abusive. It certainly isn't the intended behavior.

lch · #3 July 15th, 2007, 05:52 PM

Quote:

thejeff said:
Assuming the use of Crystal Matrix and Slave Matrices.
The Crystal Shield does boost the path of Slaves, at least those who act before the master.
I'm not sure what Ich saw, but I definitely saw the boost. Maybe his master acted before the slaves?

Then that does not depends on battlefield placement like in actual combat, I tried out every relevant combination. Maybe it depends on the unit ID's, the one with the lowest unit ID (i.e. the sooner the unit was created) acts first?

Edi · #4 July 15th, 2007, 05:56 PM

It's probably tied to the unit ID. A lot of things are.

thejeff · #5 July 15th, 2007, 06:29 PM

Wait a second. Are you saying actual battlefield placement? Where on the map you put the mage?
It's certainly not dependent on that. As far as I know nothing is.
Order of action on the battlefield seems to correlate to the order they're listed elsewhere (F1 screen, Army setup, province display). This is also the order ritual spells are cast.
It may be unit number, but it's not strictly the oldest units first. Are unit numbers reused? That might be it.

Edi · #6 July 16th, 2007, 07:20 AM

Unit ID determines the order they are listed in off the battlefield in commander or troop screens, and they act in combat in that same order.

Unit ID numbers are reused after they run out, not before. The limit is somewhere around 150k or 200k.

thejeff · #7 July 16th, 2007, 09:01 AM

Interesting because even in the early game, new commanders do not always appear at the end of the list.

Obvious example: in the game I was testing this in, my awake pretender appeared down in the lower half of the list.
I'm not sure what order I recruited the others, but the researchers with a star of experience are not all at the top.