AI spell casting priorities

[Tyrant]

I have to disagree, I think the non-gem spam spells are good defaults.

The ones that bug me are the Holy spells. It seems like one skelly anywhere on the battlefield will trigger banishment no matter how silly that is.

[Sombre]

Scripted to spend gems? How does that work Loren?

[Endoperez]

Sombre said:
Scripted to spend gems? How does that work Loren?

I think he meant "scripted to use spells that consume gems".

There's at least one major problem with this: Blood magic. Everything worthwhile needs gems. All other paths can do something pretty good even without gems, but Blood must flow if it's to be of any use.

[Saulot]

This one of those things that always bothered me, blood magic shouldn't just be about sacrificing slaves, though that's certainly an important part. Another good method would be sacrificing of self, as in cutting open bleeding wounds of various sizes on one's own body. This actually does fit historically with what we know of the Maya and Aztecs.

When I first tried the dom series, I was somewhat surprised there was no 'hitpoint cost' spells. I suppose it might be difficult to balance with healing spells and regeneration, though in that sense, the spells/effects shouldn't work on a blood mage.

[Endoperez]

There are Leech, Leeching Touch and Hellfire... Not much, granted, but at least Hellfire's description mentions that it's possible, but the amounts of blood required are too big for single person to handle without passing out.

[Kristoffer O]

Initially (long before dom-ppp was released) magic gem use was optional and only a way of reducing fatigue. At this time sacrifice of slaves was optional and most blood spells were exhaustive enough to make sacrifice almost obligational.

I agree that self sacrifice (and HP loss) is thematic and sadly missing from the game. Not sure how viable it is atm. Most mechanics available in the game would probably be a bit ad hoc.

[Zeldor]

That's why you should really start writing new code from scratch for Dom4!