Exploit question

[TwoBits]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

I won't PM because others may be interested. The method is really simple: while watching a battle replay, type Shift+U (uppercase U) and type in a unit name or number, and it will add as many of that type of unit as you ask for to the battle in the place where your cursor was, as independent units. Type Shift+K to kill the units in the square your cursor is over.

If you do this, it obviously changes the battle from the "official" outcome that gets listed in the after-action report (X units killed, etc.) and it doesn't affect the actual game, but it makes testing certain things easy. For instance, you can test whether your killer army that just stomped all over somebody's PD would have done quite so well if the enemy had had 8 Wraith Lords there instead of PD, or if your mage had died before casting Fire Storm.

-Max

OK, ran a few test replays (thanks for that Shift-U/K tip, by the way!). Interestingly, in none of the tests did the Dryads shoot at the Amazon Sorceress (or the other two PD-commanders, as far as I could see) again. Not sure what to make of that result, except to say that I must have gotten very lucky in the 'real' turn

But I can see how Dryads (or some other cheap A or N mage) armed with Pierces (or some such) and Bogus' friends' scripts, that could be really, really nasty...

[Illuminated One]

When Shift-U-ing things into a real battle you will also see that the enemy mages will use different spells. So you can practically get to know almost the whole research of your enemy if you shift-u a lot of different stuff into a battle and note down the spells your enemy casts. This is an exploit imo, but I suppose many people know it already, so it's probably better if everyone does.

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by Illuminated One

When Shift-U-ing things into a real battle you will also see that the enemy mages will use different spells. So you can practically get to know almost the whole research of your enemy if you shift-u a lot of different stuff into a battle and note down the spells your enemy casts. This is an exploit imo, but I suppose many people know it already, so it's probably better if everyone does.

Theorycrafting:

You could also make a guess at figuring out what his scripting orders are. Did that D4 mage cast Raise Skeletons because he was scripted to do so, or was he scripted to Disintegrate and there just wasn't anybody in range because I set my guys toward the back? Let's add somebody within 25 squares of him, Manhattan distance, and see if he tries to Disintegrate them instead. Are those cavalry set to Attack Nearest or Attack Archers? Let's add some archers.

I have never tried this in practice but I conjecture that you could gain useful information. In particular, you could attack with a scout and insert a bunch of units. Normally a scout attack would not trigger any gem-using spells, but with a bunch of added units the mages should act normally.

-Max

[Seve82]

Originally Posted by Illuminated One

When Shift-U-ing things into a real battle you will also see that the enemy mages will use different spells. So you can practically get to know almost the whole research of your enemy if you shift-u a lot of different stuff into a battle and note down the spells your enemy casts. This is an exploit imo, but I suppose many people know it already, so it's probably better if everyone does.

Didn't know that one. Off to sift-u/k -> On other thought turns take long allready would take much longer to do that too.