Caster of Magic Release thread : latest version 6.06!

[Nelphine]

The only save/reload I use is to avoid death books out of treasure nodes (I like heavy death, but I dislike a smattering of death), and particular very rares. Like I hate call to arms. I know why its there, and it makes sense, but I've hated paladins since before 1.31 (in this game.) Just like I hate high elves. On the other hand, I rarely ever use archangels (I really should, they're great), but I won't save/reload if I find that spell (which did happen this game).

I've lost about 60 troops to nodes that I underestimated this game. I lost my first two magic spirits (and just cause for about 10 turns) because I forgot to use alchemy at the right time. I've lost .. 6 or 7 cities by now. (I get them back.)

I used to save/reload for items, but I try to only use heroes for casting skill. Heroes a) are very strong but require a lot more brain power than hurling swarms of city troops, and b) they always tempt me to save/reload. So now I just don't bother, so the items don't matter.

[Tlaloc]

At home I try to connect to your site and get timeout errors no matter which computer or browser I use, so it is a different issue. Perhaps it is an issue with my ISP. If you could post 3.1 here I'd appreciate, unless you're planning on coming out with an update soon, in which case I can wait.

That sounds like a temporal issue...unless your router or ISP somehow uses the same blacklist as that antivirus.
I always plan to come out with a new version, don't think it ever took more than 2 weeks for one

Meanwhile, here, could you file one of these complaints to Sophos? https://secure2.sophos.com/en-us/support...pport.aspx
Since you're the one using the software I believe it's better if you do it. (click "submit a sample" and then "web address" and explain you're getting a false positive)

I'm please to report that Sophos is no longer blocking me from your site, so I guess my complaint to Sophos did the trick!

[Nelphine]

So, checking out neutrals:

The gnolls have 9 wolf riders. (This seems awfully low, but they are on an island at least 30 squares from the nearest AI, with a large continent between that island and the AI; and I control the continent.)

Dwarf has 2 hammerhands, 1 halberdier, 6 swordsmen. (Kind of shocked to see swordsmen and hammerhands. This one could be high strategic combat value, especially if they've levelled up a fair bit. Also on an island far from the troll wizard; but the dwarf wizard has a city 4 squares away. BUT there is a lair/node in between the ai city and the neutral city, and no route around them, so that might be seriously messing up the AI.)

Just found a second gnoll city, this one with 9 jackal riders. Again, if they're elite (seems unlikely), they're probably higher strategic strength than anything an arcanus wizard would build (orc seems most common, scattering of other cities - high men, nomad, barbarian), at least given that one is 9 sorcery and 3 nature (but no sorcery summons visible yet) and one is 4 life 5 chaos.

Another: Klackon with 9 stag beetles. This seems weak enough that someone could take it, and there are AI on the same continent, but it's a large continent - I'm not sure how close a true military center is.


Merlin (Troll Wizard) just declared war on me. I'm not entirely sure why. All four of them keep clamoring about how I'm too strong - so, I'm assuming there's a 'if human gets x stronger than AI, AI will declare war just in case it slows the human down' clause?


Lets see.. despite me being quite a bit stronger than everyone, the AI is keeping gold stores around 4000 to 6000g. I'm keeping gold stores around 500g. They're also keeping much higher mana, but I'm aware that I'm basically keeping my mana bone dry (around 1200) if I actually got into any wars, so I'm not worried about the mana. Not sure they need so much gold though.

[Seravy]

So, checking out neutrals:

The gnolls have 9 wolf riders. (This seems awfully low, but they are on an island at least 30 squares from the nearest AI, with a large continent between that island and the AI; and I control the continent.)

Dwarf has 2 hammerhands, 1 halberdier, 6 swordsmen. (Kind of shocked to see swordsmen and hammerhands.  This one could be high strategic combat value, especially if they've levelled up a fair bit. Also on an island far from the troll wizard; but the dwarf wizard has a city 4 squares away. BUT there is a lair/node in between the ai city and the neutral city, and no route around them, so that might be seriously messing up the AI.)

Unless there is a path from the AI stack to the city directly on land, only fully "intercontinental" meaning flying+swimming stacks can attack it. And those are not very likely to be stronger than those garrisons, especially because they tend to move on their own, rarely forming large stacks.
Of course if the AI lands a doomstack by ship, that works as long as the path is not blocked, but that requires the AI to pick that continent - if it's small and no enemy wizard has cities on it, the chance for it is not that high - especially if there are many continents to choose from. And if the first stack reaching is 8 units but not strong enough for the attack, the AI immediately marks the island as "no valid targets" and leaves, it won't wait around forever unit a stronger 8 stack somehow gets formed.

[Nelphine]

Ah, so since they have no races that naturally are intercontinental, and the chances of buffing a big stack all with flying/water walking is low.. they just have a hard time with neutrals not on their mainland.

Still doesn't explain the beastman on the troll continent. (Haven't checked it's strength recently though.)

The war is wrecking my mana. I always forget how expensive late wars are. And constant spell blasts on disjunctions, and disjunctions on that aether binding, and trying to buff up a second stack somewhere, and keep my cities buffed.. it adds up. Ah well. Might just stop worrying about casting skill. 300 is probably enough (especially with another dozen amp towers coming in soon.)

[Nelphine]

General question to everyone:

How do you deal with mana costs from a late game war (especially if that AI hasn't been at war in a long time, and so has a lot of random units all over that will do piecemeal attacks.)

Followup: when in a late game war (oh, my definition of late game is any time after, oh, 1412 or so, when the average casting skill is at least 150, and the highest wizard, whether you or not, might be 300 or more) how much mana do you spend per turn?


As a starter example, in this game (which I really have no chance of losing), I'm spending roughly 2000 mana per turn. Possibly closer to 2500. I afford this with alchemy (not the retort), a gold income of over 1500/turn, mana income over 1200/turn and infusions of mana from lairs, nodes, towers, and selling items stolen from enemy heroes. Its 1416, and I'm actively at war with 3 AI.

I'm also losing at least one battle every other turn because I don't have enough mana for it.


I'm trying to see if there's s standard definition if 'late game resource expenditure' and if it meets what our vision of the game should be.

[Seravy]

3.2 is up for download!

This version contains a major AI upgrade. There was no time to play games and balance the difficulty, so it might be harder to win than before - at least I hope it is, otherwise all this work is wasted :D

This version now has a proper AI for selecting when to buy for gold and what to build in cities. Previous versions did the majority of these things at random with some weights - better unit type having a higher chance, and more units if more military buildings are available were probably the only "smart" ones there.

Please report if you see the AI build consistently stupid buildings or units, or consistently does not build something it should be, or if you have an idea what the AI should consider when selecting stuff for production, if it's not done yet! (see detailed changes on stuff that's already added.)
Also if the AI generally builds too few/much of a certain category, for example not enough units or not enough buildings. I'm going to attach the source code of the AI procedure to this post, maybe someone is interested and can/wants to improve it.

3.2

-The hero level up dialog now shows the hero abilities when they improve, including the new abilities. (This feature was removed when the new abilities were introduced due to compatibility)

-The hero level up dialog now shows when the hero gains or not gains resistance, instead of displaying the placeholder “+0.5” for gaining 1 every 2nd level

-The hero level up dialog now shows the sum of all stats and abilities gained from multiple levels if the hero gained multiple levels, instead of only one of them.

-Fixed bug : When a volcano is raised at the corner of the map, some nearby ocean tiles turn into land.

-Towers have 1500-3900 points of monsters in them instead of 1200-3600. This amount is subject to possible further change, for now it's meant to counter the loss of additional monster points based on difficulty.

-AEther Binding has an improved casting picture.

-Fixed bug : Historian is still scrolled during Time Stop if the edge of the graph is reached.

-Fixed bug : Scouting range of Dark Elf units created at the start of the game is wrong

-The AI will cast Focus Magic more often if it has unbuffed Wraiths, Death Knights, Demons, Efreets, Djinn and Cockatrices.

-Fixed bug : AI prefers noncaster units with Focus magic instead of Caster units.

-Horsebowmen cost 45 instead of 40

-Fortress now generates double power for books after the first 8 to improve wizards with fewer retorts.

-New outpost growth modifiers for some races :

Dark Elf +20

High Elf +20

Orcs -10

Lizardmen +30

Beastmen -5

-Dark Elf basic units are now cheaper (unit costs now match High Elf)

-Nightmares are now cheaper (240->200)

-The AI cannot pick Gnolls or Barbarians as the starting race if they are playing a Lawful or Peaceful wizard.

-The AI cannot pick Halflings as the starting race if they are playing a non-Lawful, non-Peaceful, non-Charismatic wizard or one that is non-Peaceful Militarist or Expansionist.

-Cathedral now costs 400.

-Artificer now reduces the cost of all Arcane spells by 25% instead of Runemaster.

-Specialist and Runemaster dispel resistance no longer protects spells from being Countered. (Node auras, Counter Magic, Suppress Magic)

-Runemaster now grants +150% dispel resistance instead of 100%.

-Fixed 3.1 bug : Game is crashing during AI turns if the AI is researching Spell of Mastery and no one knows Spell Blast.

-The AI now prefers to BUY for gold more in cities that have Adamantium, Orihalcon or Mithril.

-The AI now prefers to BUY for gold more in cities that are in enemy territory, if it is producing a unit.

-The AI now prefers to BUY for gold more in cities that have insufficient number of defenders.

-The AI no longer prefers buying a Sage's Guild for gold more than other buildings.

;

;-Completely new "AI select production" procedure with major improvements! Priority system used is now similar to the combat spellcasting one - semi-random, semi-determined.

;

;-AI will not build Triremes in cities that has a Ship Yard

;-AI will not build Galleys in cities that have a Maritime Guild

;-AI will build units more often in cities that have a working Adamant, Mithril or Orihalcon

;-AI will build units more often in cities can build magicians and have Orihalcon

;-AI will build units more often in cities that have Iron or Coal

;-AI will build units more often in cities located on enemy continents

;-if enemy cities outnumber owned cities on the continent and the city has a Fighter's Guild, the AI will only build units there

;-AI will build Stables as the mandatory early military building in place of Fighter's Guild in Gnoll cities

;-AI has a lower priority to start buildings that take over 10 turns to complete, unless it's a building the AI prefers to rush-buy anyway

;-Only one settler production ongoing at a time, and preferred settler race restrictions are now limited to the same plane only

;-Normal and Easy difficulty had a larger random factor in building selection

;-Units with a higher figure count receive extra priority for each level expected for the unit (Barracks, War College, Altar of Battle, Crusade, Warlord)

;-Magical ranged units receive priority for available Orihalcon if Alchemist's Guild is present

;-Units with no Magical ranged attacks receive priority for higher figure count if Mithril or Adamantium with an alchemist's guild is present the same way as from levels

;-Flying and Swimming units gain additional priority if no enemy city is present on the continent

;-High Elves now recognize Forester's Guild as a Military building (Longbowmen)

;-Alchemist Guild gains priority if Adamantium, Orihalcon or Mithril is present

;-Alchemist Guild loses priority if wizard has Alchemy

;-Wizard's Guild counts as a Military building for races that can build Magicians

;-Military buildings gain priority if Adamantium, Orihalcon or Mithril is present

;-Military buildings gain priority if the continent is mainly controlled by enemies

;-Preferences of buildings for each objective :

;Pragmatist

;Food (minor)

;

;Theurgist

;Research (major), Power (very minor)

;

;Militarist

;Military, EXP, Economy (minor)

;

;Expansionist

;Military, Naval, Flying

;

;Perfectionist

;Production (extreme), Economy, EXP, Food

;

;-Military and Power buildings have a somewhat higher base priority than other types of buildings (unchanged)

;-Unrest buildings gain priority if unrest is higher

;-Production buildings gain priority for Dwarves or if Chaos Rift is present

;-Research buildings gain priority is Spell of Mastery is being researched

;-On impossible difficulty, Food buildings gain priority if Famine is present

;-Religious power producing buildings are priorized if Cult Leader or Dark Rituals

;-Research buildings are priorized if Sage Master

;-Alchemist Guild, Amplifying Tower and Wizard's Guild priorized if Uranus' Blessing

;-Experience buildings are not built if Altar of Battle is on the city

;-Neutrals now use the same base unit preferences as wizards, but ignore all additional logic. Chance of unit is 75%, building is 25% regardless of garrison size.

;-Library further priorized if Mithril, Orihalcon or Adamant to unlock Alchemist's Guild faster

;-Expansionist wizards prefer flying units and Fantastic Stables

;-Production buildings are preferred more on higher difficulties

;-Production buildings are preferred more if Mithril/Orihalcon/Adamant/Iron/Coal available

Note that Runemaster might still get changed in the future, though I see a good chance it won't.

Also, lol, forum, I can attach EXE files but ASM is a no-go?

[Catwalk]

I've tested some more, and I acknowledge that my previous judgement was in haste. I still think Sprites + Focus Magic can be overpowered, but it's highly luck dependent. In most games I got off to a good start, but not a game breaking one. I also find myself pondering a lot on which wizard works best for a troll strategy, I see many viable options.

I like playing trolls the most, and I still suspect that I can come up with a strategy for reliable wins on Impossible. Not having your forces whittled down over time is a huge advantage, and their units are the best in the game at a bargain 150% cost.

Rapid building at all times still feels way off to me, but it doesn't impair the playing experience significantly. The AI is also doing a great job at hampering me, I think I just got lucky in an earlier game where I didn't feel much pressure.

[Seravy]

I've tested some more, and I acknowledge that my previous judgement was in haste. I still think Sprites + Focus Magic can be overpowered, but it's highly luck dependent. In most games I got off to a good start, but not a game breaking one. I also find myself pondering a lot on which wizard works best for a troll strategy, I see many viable options.

I like playing trolls the most, and I still suspect that I can come up with a strategy for reliable wins on Impossible. Not having your forces whittled down over time is a huge advantage, and their units are the best in the game at a bargain 150% cost.

Rapid building at all times still feels way off to me, but it doesn't impair the playing experience significantly. The AI is also doing a great job at hampering me, I think I just got lucky in an earlier game where I didn't feel much pressure.

I should play Trolls some time myself, it's been a long while since I last played them, and even then I ended up doing a noncorporeal warship strategy.
There are too many races in the game to test everything in a reasonable amount of time and so far the primary focus was on spell realms and AI difficulty - playing 10 book specialist wizards is what I've been mostly doing in the past idk, half a year? It wasn't all the games, but like, half of them.

One of the things I would love to improve but probably can't is the heavy influence of the early game. Sprites aside (which are certainly very luck dependent with or without focus magic, especially with higher node strength), neutral cities, ores, noble heroes, heroes in general (hero ability+heroism can yield a massive early bonus to mana income, research or casting skill), and starting location - all of these have a major influence. Growth in this game is exponential, so having a slightly better start results in a massive difference in the mid or endgame. Before the 3.03 diplomacy changes, this was kept in check by AI wizards being hostile most often and holding the player back with constant wars - but that was working even worse because the number of wizards declaring war has an even larger impact than starting resources - fighting 4 people instead of 1 results in losing more units, but even worse is the need for significantly more forces to protect anything, and the disadvantage that enemies have a diverse set of spells and races they can use against the player.  I'd estimate the starting conditions are generally worth as much as +/- 1 difficulty level, in extreme cases possibly even more.

Aside from Trolls, I'll also need to test Lizardmen (might be still too powerful), Gnolls (who might be fine but some people tell me they're too weak), Dark Elves (who got a buff in this last update).
I played Nomads a lot, they're amazing but not omnipotent. I play Klackons and High Elves fairly often and High Men every once in a while and they're also fairly balanced. I haven't played Orcs in a while but they are very generic so I don't think there is any chance of being unbalanced. Barbarians are powerful but the price for it is huge - they have neither buildings nor defense or resistance so it's somewhat of a gamble. Halflings are not that good on their own but still amazing with buffs, and also go well with late game realms if you can survive the early game. I suspect the diplomacy changes help this race the most. I have much less experience with Myrran races, I played each of them several times but most of those games are ancient history now.

[Nelphine]

Would you be willing to make a variant where every wizard starts with everything they do now, plus 2 settlers? Having that much more resources at the start should drastically reduce the difference any of the other things you mentioned makes.

I wouldn't suggest it for the normal download, but rather give it to those people interested in testing it specifically for balance reasons.