Caster of Magic Release thread : latest version 6.06!

[kjara]

With a magical attack of the same stats, we get 15*0.6=9 damage. If we have Focus Magic on the same hero, it's 18*0.6=10.8 damage. So we get more damage with 1 buff than with 2 in the other case, and it's also a lot better if not buffed.

not true. I'm pretty sure you included a +1tohit in this example which you don't have with focus magic.

I assume he's counting the fact that magic ranged attacks cap at -1 to hit at any range, while normal ranged attacks get -1 per every 3? range the enemy is away. Thus usually normal ranged attacks are at least -1 compared to magic ranged.

[zhantul]

While playing 1.41 as a myrran with death magic, I noticed a weakness in the new AI. It seems more concerned with building ships than defending its own towns.

I had cast Death Wish, destroying most of my opponents armies and leaving some towns nearly undefended. The first units the opponent fielded in the next 5 turns were triremes. The sorcery opponent also created multiple floating islands. This while all three enemy wizards were on the same island and I had only towns in Mirror.

The second thing I noticed, is that I frequently get items with multiple powers. A staff of destruction, death and stoning is quite op. As is a ring of merging, invulnerability, guardian wind and true sight.

As for the Aether master complaints. When playing death, a single caster hero using life drain and syphon life increases casting skill just as much. Not to mention life drain cast by magicians. The drain power spell gives large boosts as well. Perhaps these should be tweaked a bit as well.

[Drax]

As for the Aether master complaints. When playing death, a single caster hero using life drain and syphon life increases casting skill just as much. Not to mention life drain cast by magicians. The drain power spell gives large boosts as well. Perhaps these should be tweaked a bit as well.

You're probably mistaken. I don't think heroes casting life drain contribute to skill. If you as a wizard cast it that contributes. Heroes(and other spell casters) just steal health.

However now that you mention it I'd like to know more about it's mechanics since I've cast it on units with 5 resistance total and it often did 5-6 damage. I though it should suck them dry. So far with my experience with syphon life is that the spell has been weaker than I thought it should be. I expected that it would be about 2-2.5 times stronger than drain life on say 6-7res units and it's been just a little bit stronger. Also tried it with spell saves and it underperformed there too. So my guess is I don't understand something in how it works.

description says: "Deals as much damage as the amount the target fails the resistance roll by, at a -10 penalty."
So if the roll is say 6 and the target has resistance of 5-10=-5 does that mean damage=6-(-5)=11?
or there is a roll with every point of damage until it fails? Like poison?

[Seravy]

With a magical attack of the same stats, we get 15*0.6=9 damage. If we have Focus Magic on the same hero, it's 18*0.6=10.8 damage. So we get more damage with 1 buff than with 2 in the other case, and it's also a lot better if not buffed.

not true. I'm pretty sure you included a +1tohit in this example which you don't have with focus magic.

No, I subtracted -1 to hit for the range penalty on arrows. I believe that's a reasonable assumption (although the penalty can be 0 or -2 or even worse if really far, considering what you fight against, it will almost always be -1 (go any closer and the dragons and such kill your archer.))

You lose 1 To Hit for each 4 cells of distance rounded down.

[Anthony]

You lose 1 To Hit for each 4 cells of distance rounded down.

You adjusted range penalties in your mod?

[Seravy]

You lose 1 To Hit for each 4 cells of distance rounded down.

You adjusted range penalties in your mod?

Yes.

[zhantul]

A small suggestion. Could you give the wizard fortresses true sight? I've done a sorcery/chaos run and won by sending a single invisible cavalry unit into the enemy's main city and casting magic vortex. The lightning bolts don't shoot at invisible targets.

It would also protect against early invisible stalkers/air elementals as roaming monsters.

[Seravy]

A small suggestion. Could you give the wizard fortresses true sight? I've done a sorcery/chaos run and won by sending a single invisible cavalry unit into the enemy's main city and casting magic vortex. The lightning bolts don't shoot at invisible targets.

It would also protect against early invisible stalkers/air elementals as roaming monsters.

That's weird. I'm quite sure it works on invisible units. Maybe it was also immune to magic?
Lightnings avoid units that have Magic Immunity (they would not take damage), but they hit everything else, even invisible ones.

Normally enemy units should come out and attack if a Magic Vortex is cast, but they can't do that if they see no enemies to fight.
The "randomly move to search for enemies" thing is disabled in cities because it would leave city squares undefended (bad idea against anything except Vortex) AND the units would get obstructed by each other and city walls so they would not be able to search efficiently anyway.

Unfortunately True Sight is a unit ability so only units can have it, buildings cannot. I don't want to make Invisibility too weak either, it's a fun spell.

Magic Vortex always has been a quite overpowered spell, being the only one that deals recurring, unblockable damage every turn. In exchange for that, they are annoyingly random and you pretty much require magic immunity to safely rely on using it. On the other hand, you could have easily gotten the same result over multiple turns with any direct damage spell, so it's hardly overpowered in that sense.

I think the solution here would be to make the AI cast True Sight or Summon Zombie at a high priority if no enemies are visible.

[Seravy]

Enabled the AI to use Magic Vortex, which made me realize the amount of damage it does is just insane.
It's set to do a base strength Lightning Bolt which used to be 5 in the vanilla game, but in the mod it's currently 35. That's a huge, unintended difference.

[Tiltowait]

Yeah, if you found a way to break the game and win, just put a W on your record and go on to the next game. Good move! Pretty much the entire game of MoM (ahem CoM) is finding entertaining new ways to win.

How did the lightning immunity give a decisive advantage? You can keep the magical vortex away from your own cavalry pretty easy with its 1 controllable movement plus your cavalry's 2. The rest is just mindless tedium waiting for the vortex to strike down the last units in the city walls. How did you do that in one run? It seems like it would take more than 50 (ahem 25) turns to do this, and it would be really boring. Did you have to attack multiple times?

Good deal the CP now casts magical vortex! I hope that patch can be rolled into v1.5! I love when the CP gives the player a taste of his own medicine. It's like watching the first time Hadriex had the "flying unit block the city gate" used against him in v1.4. His reaction was priceless..."that's not fair! Only I should be able to do that!" :D