Spell Targeting

Aleph · #1 February 14th, 2007, 02:07 PM

Can anyone tell me what the criterion are that the computer uses to determine the targets for powerful spells? In a recent game as LA Ctis I've been throwing Banefire around like candy and still not chosen to target the enemy pretender, even when he was in range, and even though I'd have loved to hit him with either the damage or decay.

I'm starting my first inquiries into battlefield blood magic, and I'd hate to unleash the devastating power of Claws of Cocytus onto a militiaman. "Go to hell, militiaman, go to HELL!" I'd scream.

Nick_K · #2 February 14th, 2007, 02:33 PM

AFAIK area-of-effect spells are pretty random where targetting is concerned. They usually hit neaby troops though, and usually are fairly good about avoiding friendly fire.

Single target 'always hits' type spells such as paralyse seem to go for the 'biggest' target. I think this is done by HP, but I'm not sure. I imagine that Claws of Cocytus falls into this category and would target the pretender, while banefire is an AoE spell.

KissBlade · #3 February 14th, 2007, 04:08 PM

I actually don't have too much complaints about spell targeting. Mages aren't too dumb with firing AoE into big crowds while targeting big targets with single target spells. Banefire didn't get shot at the pretender probably because there was a bigger cluster of targets that it could vaporize instead. if you want to target the pretender, pick Disintegrate instead =).

reverend · #4 February 14th, 2007, 04:17 PM

Mages and Wizards are arrogant beings that know better how to target their spells than you lowly normal creatures. Stop second guessing their decisions.

Aleph · #5 February 14th, 2007, 04:49 PM

Oh, really, Mr Smarty Wizard? Then why didn't you cast Wind of Death when we were facing off against an opposing Crone pretender and her cadre of elderly support wizards, like I specifically scripted you to? You were like, "Nah, I'm going to skelliespam and burn through a dozen death gems instead so I can increase the logjam at the entrance to the fortress even more" such that she was able to get away and give me crap another time, instead of putting her in a really bad place where even if they were able to call God she'd still come back dead.

It's choices like that that have made me lose my trust in you.

danm · #6 February 14th, 2007, 05:47 PM

I just wish my mages would loose their obsession with Legions of Steel...

god i hate that spell. I'm sure some nations find it quite handy, but for Agartha, I would MUCH rather kill a bunch of annoying little chaff units with a bladewind or two than add a few lousy points of protection to my already plenty durable Ancients.

Nothing rages me in this game like watching my mage knock himself out casting Legions of Steel over and over while a horde of barbarians charges into melee range unscathed. (yeah, i can usually keep them off the LoS until round 6, which helps the battle situation, but not my rage, because they invariably insist on wasting rounds 6-8 making darn sure EVERY unit on the screen is good and LoS'd)

At this point I have an utterly irrational loathing of that spell, to the point where I have considered modding it out of existance for my SP games. grr! rargh!!! hiss.

I really really want a "the following spells are an abomination before god, and shall not be cast by any mage in his service" list where people could "blacklist" spells that they disliked for either thematic or strategic reasons, without blocking their availability to other nations/players.

Sorry about the somewhat off topic rant here, but it seemed kinda-sorta related, and, well, I also wanted to vent at Mr Smarty Wizard a bit...

KissBlade · #7 February 14th, 2007, 07:06 PM

Quote:

danm said:
I just wish my mages would loose their obsession with Legions of Steel...

god i hate that spell. I'm sure some nations find it quite handy, but for Agartha, I would MUCH rather kill a bunch of annoying little chaff units with a bladewind or two than add a few lousy points of protection to my already plenty durable Ancients.

Nothing rages me in this game like watching my mage knock himself out casting Legions of Steel over and over while a horde of barbarians charges into melee range unscathed. (yeah, i can usually keep them off the LoS until round 6, which helps the battle situation, but not my rage, because they invariably insist on wasting rounds 6-8 making darn sure EVERY unit on the screen is good and LoS'd)

At this point I have an utterly irrational loathing of that spell, to the point where I have considered modding it out of existance for my SP games. grr! rargh!!! hiss.

I really really want a "the following spells are an abomination before god, and shall not be cast by any mage in his service" list where people could "blacklist" spells that they disliked for either thematic or strategic reasons, without blocking their availability to other nations/players.

Sorry about the somewhat off topic rant here, but it seemed kinda-sorta related, and, well, I also wanted to vent at Mr Smarty Wizard a bit...

If you scripted Blade Wind, they should cast it unless you're out of range.

Aleph · #8 February 14th, 2007, 08:13 PM

His scripting isn't the problem, it is the actions of his mages post scripting.

Quote:

danm said:
(yeah, i can usually keep them off the LoS until round 6, which helps the battle situation, but not my rage, because they invariably insist on wasting rounds 6-8 making darn sure EVERY unit on the screen is good and LoS'd)

Whereas mine was just ignored.

Maybe instead of blacklisting spells, we just need some caster attitude adjusters. Like "1. Do what I frikken told you, even if it seems insane to you. 2. Cast offensive spells. 3. Cast defensive spells. 4. Summon minions 5. Cast whatever seems best to you."

Theonlystd · #9 February 14th, 2007, 08:38 PM

They do cast the LoS a crapload

And well personally alot of mages i dont care as much about there well being as killing the other guys. But they insist on self buffing themselfs to hell.

Maybe we need an option to give the mages general guidelines after the script. Anti Sc cast single powerfull spells,Anti Chaff bladewinds and such ,Self Buff,Army Buff ect.

danm · #10 February 15th, 2007, 02:50 PM

Any of those suggestions would help. heck, even if they made LoS cover the whole field (so it would only get cast once) or cost less fatigue (so my mages could do something afterwards), i could probably deal with it.

Going crazy with the self-buffing I can at least rationalize from a roleplaying perspective (screw those guys... I'm going etherial!)

ohohoh, while i've got the thread hijacked, would't it be cool to have seperate "army setups" for offense and defence? I use a totally different squad config when I know I'm going to be attacked than when I'm attacking, but I find it really obnoxios to switch back and forth all the time. Theres nothing like seeing your poor lil equipped-up mages standing all by their lonesome 10 squares in FRONT of your huge swarm of expendable Provice Defence...

('cept maybe last night where I managed to assign all the troops to the wrong leader, and sent my fancy-pants arty mage out to play SC all by his lonesome... d'oh!)