Confusion bug

[FrancoK]

By pure chance I get attacked and I could "experiment" with Confusion and Creature Binding.

Situation:
My city (no wall) with Nightblades and another unit is attacked by some Rangers. Both me and the AI are proficient in Blue magic.

Strategy:
I decided to keep the Nightblades away and cast Guardian Wind on the other unit, so the Rangers will move closer and fall prey of my Phantom Beast(s).

What happened:

AI casted Creature Binding and possessed my unit.
I waited until AI exhausted the casting capacity then cast Disenchant True removing all area enchantment, my Guardian Wind, but not Creature Binding.
So I used Confusion (with the help of Mind Storm) waited for my unit to align again with me and dispelled Creature Binding (along Mind Storm as well).
It worked.
A second shot finally dispelled Confusion (of course when the unit was under my control).
After winning the battle, the unit was still with me.


What can we conclude?
1. Dispel (and variants) cast on units (even temporary) aligned to enemy try to destroy beneficial spells and leave unharmed negative spells, strictly from the point of view of the unit, not the wizard casting dispel, neither the wizard that casted the enchantment on the unit.
2. Creature Binding and Possession are considered negative spells on enemy unit, so they are almost undispellable, maybe we could open a new tread about it.



P.S. ILS there is a way to replenish mana/skill in combat so I can cast 100 disenchant or so? :D
Do you think is possible to save (like a bookmark) the memory + combat.tmp so we can go back to the saved point and replay the combat from that point on, of course before it ends?

[I like Serena]

P.S. ILS there is a way to replenish mana/skill in combat so I can cast 100 disenchant or so?

Yep.
In your wizard there's a field named "Skill Left in combat".
Actually, it's a fairly recent addition.

Do you think is possible to save (like a bookmark) the memory + combat.tmp so we can go back to the saved point and replay the combat from that point on, of course before it ends?

I'm still puzzling on how to do that.
Someday... #25

[FrancoK]

I'm still puzzling on how to do that.

I'm thinking about an Action Replay like feature:
1. Create a copy of all the combat data in memory in an external file
2. Create a copy of combat.tmp in another file

to create the bookmark

When restoring the previous situation, you should do the opposite.

Of course it easy to say, not so easy to implement.

[I like Serena]

I'm thinking about an Action Replay like feature:
1. Create a copy of all the combat data in memory in an external file
2. Create a copy of combat.tmp in another file

to create the bookmark

When restoring the previous situation, you should do the opposite.

The problem is that it is not safe to restore all combat data.
Memory pointers and ems memory handles can't be safely restored.
That will crash the game.


What I could do is save the battle-unit data, the spells-cast-in-battle, the wall-broken-data, the wizard's mana/skill-left, and the battle-turn-nr.
(Am I forgetting anything?)

That should work to jump back (or forward) to a bookmark while within battle.
But it's not enough to make a full restore.

It should also work if you restore a save game just before battle, enter combat, and then restore the bookmark.


As a possible follow-up, we could create a new mechanism using Asfex's ovr x:y interface, which could force a call to any function in mom (if he comes around to creating it).
It could command mom to restore a savegame, then command mom to enter battle, and then restore the bookmark.
That way, mom takes care of its memory pointers and ems handles, and we just fill the raw data.

[FrancoK]

The problem is that it is not safe to restore all combat data.
Memory pointers and ems memory handles can't be safely restored.
That will crash the game.

Do they change during a combat?

What I could do is save the battle-unit data, the spells-cast-in-battle, the wall-broken-data, the wizard's mana/skill-left, and the battle-turn-nr.
(Am I forgetting anything?)

Heroes skill?

That should work to jump back (or forward) to a bookmark while within battle.
But it's not enough to make a full restore.

What's missing? Unknown data?

It should also work if you restore a save game just before battle, enter combat, and then restore the bookmark.

I'm lost.
You mean a procedure to save a game, move the unit(s) and enter combat?
It's better than nothing, but you can't handle all the battles where you are attacked.

As a possible follow-up, we could create a new mechanism using Asfex's ovr x:y interface, which could force a to call any function in mom (if he comes around to creating it).
It could command mom to restore a savegame, then command mom to enter battle, and then restore the bookmark.
That way, mom takes care of its memory pointers and ems handles, and we just fill the raw data.

Ok, now I'm really lost.
I'm sure Asfex will understand what are you talking about.

[I like Serena]

Do they change during a combat?

I don't think so.

Heroes skill?

The hero's mana and number of item charges is part of his battle unit data, so that should be okay.

What's missing? Unknown data?

What I know that I have left out (for now) is:

• Distribution of trees and rocks and their associated impact on movement.
  
• Presence of wall of fire, wall of darkness, city walls. But those don't change, so you won't notice.
  
• Road distribution, but I suspect that is regenerated to be the same.
  

I'm wondering if there are other things that I've missed that would be noticeable.
I think we've mapped mom far enough that lack of knowledge about data should not be a problem anymore.

I'm lost.
You mean a procedure to save a game, move the unit(s) and enter combat?
It's better than nothing, but you can't handle all the battles where you are attacked.

Ok, now I'm really lost.
I'm sure Asfex will understand what are you talking about.

To clarify, restoring a moment in battle from scratch has to be a 3 step process IMO.

1. Restore a save game to the point just before entering battle.
   
2. Make the move to enter combat.
   
3. Restore the battle data with an external program.
   

I should be able to create a regular save game while in battle, using the information that is in combat.tmp.
I could append the information needed to restore the bookmark in battle.

To restore it, the 3 steps still need to be taken.
Asfex might be able to automate them.

[I like Serena]

I've just implemented save/restore bookmark buttons for battle in the tweaker.
They appear to work.

[FrancoK]

Cool! Fast and to the point!:D