Caster of Magic Release thread : latest version 6.06!

[Seravy]

“Unfixable, it is caused by terrain changing spells not updating the movement costs.”
Maybe you can fix it by making change terrain always creating a road too. And increase the cost of Change Terrain Spell to compensate for this.

That's not really fixing the problem and adds an unwanted feature.
Raise Volcano or Gaia's Blessing would still not change the tile costs.

What is the significance of shiny Enchanted roads in Myrror? Pure graphics?

They cost 0.5 to move on while normal roads cost 1. It will be pure graphics in CoM II though.

Do the trees, hills, etc. give any defense or attack bonus in battle?

No.

[WhiteMage]

Bug: I had 2 undead trolls who were killed by melee. They Regenerate after defensive draw to full health. This is fine. But in next battle they were killed same way in melee and I raised 3 Undead from the enemy into my stack. Those used up the my Trolls' slots in the stack and the Trolls stayed dead after the battle.

How does autosave work? I noticed that is saves every turn then it stops saving for 25 turns then it starts to save every turn then it stops again.

Raise dead spell gives the unit the benefit of Survival Instinct but they are not Undead. They live. Right? Are they vulnerable to Exorcise and Holy Word spells?

AI units and especially Earth Elemental are sometimes scared to go into the Mud in battle. They rather walk around or just stand outside.

Something is wrong with Overland mana display for casting. I had Wizard skill 173, hero in Fortress increased it to 178. I started to cast spell with cost 27, but only 26 was available. Next turn it finished. But book displayed only 173 available in Blue. With Hero added it should display 177.

Hero’s item had Pandora Box. It summoned 2 units in Turn 1 and the hero moved too. Seems like 3 actions in 1 turn. Intended? Also first it summoned Gorgons in turn 1 and they moved, then it summoned Sprites in Turn 1, but they did not move in Turn 1. Why?

Do those units that stand inside city wall but not next to the wall get the +3 armor?

[Seravy]

But in next battle they were killed same way in melee and I raised 3 Undead from the enemy into my stack. Those used up the my Trolls' slots in the stack and the Trolls stayed dead after the battle.

That isn't possible. Regeneration happens before undead creation. Maybe the trolls took too much irrecoverable or undead damage which prevented the regeneration. What killed them?

How does autosave work? I noticed that is saves every turn then it stops saving for 25 turns then it starts to save every turn then it stops again.

It saves every turn to save9.game, and save1xxx.gam where xxx is the turn count.

Raise dead spell gives the unit the benefit of Survival Instinct but they are not Undead. They live. Right? Are they vulnerable to Exorcise and Holy Word spells?

Yes, they are considered realmless fantastic creatures until the end of battle.

Something is wrong with Overland mana display for casting. I had Wizard skill 173, hero in Fortress increased it to 178. I started to cast spell with cost 27, but only 26 was available. Next turn it finished. But book displayed only 173 available in Blue. With Hero added it should display 177.

Heroes cast spells for you at the end of turn. If the spell is finished at that time, then any leftover hero skill remained unused that turn.

Hero’s item had Pandora Box. It summoned 2 units in Turn 1 and the hero moved too. Seems like 3 actions in 1 turn. Intended? Also first it summoned Gorgons in turn 1 and they moved, then it summoned Sprites in Turn 1, but they did not move in Turn 1. Why?

Pandora's Box summons between each player's turn. The unit summoned before the AI's turn could move, the unit summoned after theirs but before yours could not.

Do those units that stand inside city wall but not next to the wall get the +3 armor?

Yes.

[WhiteMage]

“That isn't possible. Regeneration happens before undead creation. Maybe the trolls took too much irrecoverable or undead damage which prevented the regeneration. What killed them?”
In 1st battle my troll unit had 4 figures. 2 figures died by Exorcism. Then the 2 other figures were killed by War Mammoths. Troll regenerated after battle.
In 2nd battle my troll unit had 3 figures that died by Holy Word. Then the 1 other figure was killed by War Mammoths. It stayed dead after battle. 
The other troll unit had exact same history in both battles.
1. So you mean if >50% dies by exorcism or Holy Word then they stay dead? Otherwise Regenerate?
2. If all figures are killed by Exorcism or Holy Word, except 1 figure survives the battle, then it Regenerates to full health?

“It saves every turn to save9.game, and save1xxx.gam where xxx is the turn count.”
OK, but this does not explain my gaps in save1xxx.gam save files. I have saves save1001.gam to save1040.gam. Then a gap. Then I have saves save1065.gam to save1095.gam then a gap. Then I have sav1103.gam, etc.
In my other games, similar performance, but at different breaking points. I wonder that maybe I caused out of synch by loading my last save game instead of Continue.

“Yes, they are considered realmless fantastic creatures until the end of battle.” And after battle they still live apparently as I look at AI units. Do they fall back to their original normal unit after battle?

“Heroes cast spells for you at the end of turn. If the spell is finished at that time, then any leftover hero skill remained unused that turn.” OK. If hard to fix it for CoM, I hope you will fix this for CoM 2, since this is surprising and invites micromanagement.

Does Pandora’s box summon any unit with equal probability? Any rules or constraints? Limits how many it can summon in a battle? Does it fail if player has 9 units in battle? Does it crash if player has 15 units in the battle?

How does destroyed wall impact the units inside, but not next to wall? Which piece of destroyed wall matter?

[Seravy]

1. So you mean if >50% dies by exorcism or Holy Word then they stay dead? Otherwise Regenerate?

That's how it works, yes. (might be>= though but there is overkill damage so = rarely happens)

2. If all figures are killed by Exorcism or Holy Word, except 1 figure survives the battle, then it Regenerates to full health?

Yes.

In my other games, similar performance, but at different breaking points. I wonder that maybe I caused out of synch by loading my last save game instead of Continue.

The saves are created only when the "backup saves" option is enabled in settings.

And after battle they still live apparently as I look at AI units. Do they fall back to their original normal unit after battle?

Yes.

OK. If hard to fix it for CoM, I hope you will fix this for CoM 2, since this is surprising and invites micromanagement.

It might be better to get rid of "hero skill" as a separate type entirely and simply add to the player's overland casting skill if the hero was in the fortress at the beginning of their turn. If it does work like normal casting skill then it's pointless to consider it a different type. I'd like to hear more opinions on this though.

Does Pandora’s box summon any unit with equal probability? Any rules or constraints? Limits how many it can summon in a battle? Does it fail if player has 9 units in battle? Does it crash if player has 15 units in the battle?

Yes. There is a total budget, determined by the hero level. Each time a unit is summoned, its cost+50 is subtracted from the budget. It has no effect while the player has 9 units, and will summon them later when a unit died.

How does destroyed wall impact the units inside, but not next to wall? Which piece of destroyed wall matter?

Units on tiles with no wall are always getting the +3 bonus as the tile cannot possibly have a destroyed wall. Adjacent tiles don't matter. However these tiles are unreachable from the outside with melee attacks, so this bonus only helps vs ranged.

[WhiteMage]

“The saves are created only when the "backup saves" option is enabled in settings.”
I have it enabled all the time.

“It might be better to get rid of "hero skill" as a separate type entirely and simply add to the player's overland casting skill if the hero was in the fortress at the beginning of their turn. If it does work like normal casting skill then it's pointless to consider it a different type. I'd like to hear more opinions on this though.”
I agree with you on this. Hero’s skill should be like another Amplifying Tower adding to Wizard Skill. 

“There is a total budget, determined by the hero level.” What is the hero level budget formula?

“its cost+50” Cost means Unit’s Default Production cost = Default Summoning Mana cost?

[Seravy]

I have it enabled all the time.

I don't know then. Maybe the operating system doesn't allow creating files for some reason.

What is the hero level budget formula?

It's a predefined array, not a formula. This is the CoM II version, the numbers are the same :

Code:

PandoraBudget : array[1..Maxlevel] of integer =
(100,130,170,210,280,360,440,550,660);

Cost means Unit’s Default Production cost = Default Summoning Mana cost?

Yes and no. It's the unit's default production cost which is not the spell's mana cost but a different number. In general, the player doesn't see or use the production cost of summoned units or even know that exists, but it's used in various AI decisions and it's what determines how much experience is given for killing the unit. The numbers were posted somewhere, probably in monster experience or AI doomstack building discussions.

[WhiteMage]

Does the Fortress’s Lightning Bolt always hit with 30% chance? Is there a way to change that during a game? Maybe Blur or Invisibility?
Are Resist Elements and Bless effective against it? (should be)

Invulnerability was ineffective vs. Doom attack. Intended?

Having Doom on a Mace may lower the delivered damage if the attacking unit has +6 to Hit. Correct?

Heavenly Light: “granting them magical +1 to hit weapons if they don't already have one.” AI had this spell on, but graphics did not display magic melee weapons. So they are still magic melee, but not displayed in graphics, right?

Great Wyrm with several spells on it and various other modifiers defending under AI Fortress has +8 to Hit, which is 110% chance. Their theoretical max seems to be +10 to Hit (130%). Right?

[Seravy]

Does the Fortress’s Lightning Bolt always hit with 30% chance? Is there a way to change that during a game? Maybe Blur or Invisibility?
Are Resist Elements and Bless effective against it? (should be)

Yes. No. No. Yes.

Invulnerability was ineffective vs. Doom attack. Intended?

Yes.

Having Doom on a Mace may lower the delivered damage if the attacking unit has +6 to Hit. Correct?

Yes.

Heavenly Light: “granting them magical +1 to hit weapons if they don't already have one.” AI had this spell on, but graphics did not display magic melee weapons. So they are still magic melee, but not displayed in graphics, right?

Yes.

Great Wyrm with several spells on it and various other modifiers defending under AI Fortress has +8 to Hit, which is 110% chance. Their theoretical max seems to be +10 to Hit (130%). Right?

Yes but more than 100% chance doesn't affect the damage.

[WhiteMage]

Invisibility text: “20% chance for each hit to miss the target”. So this does not apply to spell damage in general? But applies to all melee and all ranged attacks including arrow, rock, and magic ranged attacks and illusion attacks?

Fortress text says: “strength of the bolts can’t be higher than 60”. Apparently the AI Fortress shoots lightning bolts stronger than 60. I had invisible hero with 16 Armor and 17 Hits. Lightning killed my hero 20 out of 20 times with 1 shot. You say invisibility does not help at all, but still 30% to Hit chance and 30% to Defend chance and after armor piercing is still 8 Armor. That would give 40% chance for a single lightning bolt to kill it. The probability that a strength 60 lightning bolt kills it 20 out of 20 times is: 1 out of 100million.