AI

[Seravy]

Keep it as a combat spell. By the time the computer gets it, there will be swarms of settlers everywhere.

It's the 2nd on the AI's preference list, so any wizard with 3 death books starts with it. I don't see how that would be late. In fact it's the exact same slot as Water Walking in Nature.
Though I'm still leaning towards targeting military units. It's way too important to have on heroes to risk wasting it on a settler when it isn't needed.
Still, this means the AI might get stuck on an island until they make their first ship, unless they find a town to take over and attack with those wraith formed units.

[Tiltowait]

I thought it was a rare spell...? A 3 book wizard only gets 2 rare spells. This one is guaranteed? It also costs 880 to research, which is going to take a long time.

[Seravy]

I thought it was a rare spell...? A 3 book wizard only gets 2 rare spells. This one is guaranteed? It also costs 880 to research, which is going to take a long time.

Not in Caster of Magic. It's a common with 200 research. You can have it on turn 1.
It was swapped with Terror about...4-5 months ago I think.

[Nelphine]

I don't know if its possible/done already, but for the unit buff category, does the AI try to buff stacks that are being sent to attack? And does the AI understand the difference between a tactical combat buff vs a strategic combat buff?

(For instance, if the AI is sending a stack towards a node, does that stack have a higher priority of being buffed than usual? And if so, is it possible for the AI to recognize the stack is going after a node, therefore strategic combat, therefore don't buff with non direct enchantments, such as guardian wind?)

[Seravy]

I don't know if its possible/done already, but for the unit buff category, does the AI try to buff stacks that are being sent to attack? And does the AI understand the difference between a tactical combat buff vs a strategic combat buff?

No. The AI casts spells first, moves units afterwards. It has no way of knowing in advance which unit will or will not attack.
However, when gathering units for a new stack, it selects the strongest units available first. If the buffs add stats, the buffed unit is more likely to go attacking.
As a general rule, the AI prefers to target units that are
-the strongest themselves
-are part of the strongest overall stack
-are heroes
-or are at the fortress
-and whichever extra conditions that specific spell has, like no Regeneration if the unit already regenerates.

(For instance, if the AI is sending a stack towards a node, does that stack have a higher priority of being buffed than usual? And if so, is it possible for the AI to recognize the stack is going after a node, therefore strategic combat, therefore don't buff with non direct enchantments, such as guardian wind?)

This would require https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial...telligence which doesn't exist. Spells would need to be timed, units would need to wait for the spell to complete, the priority of various stacks and attack plans would need to exist, remembered and considered, the need for other spells (like new summons) have to be considered too, the exact amount of buffs worth waiting for would need to be known, stuff even a human player has a hard time to decide (and is a major part of where people lose their games, waiting too long with an attack...or going in too early), and of course the entire thing would need to adapt every turn to the new situation.

[Nelphine]

I was thinking more when choosing the targets for the buff, to increase the priority of stacks that already have enemy destinations.

I wouldn't add anything about having stacks wait to be buffed or anything else more complicated.

I don't really mind If nothing is included about strategic combat, I was just curious if it existed.

If you did do an increase to priority for buffing units already en route to an enemy, it wouldn't need to be max priority, as defending fortress would be more important sometimes.

[Seravy]

I was thinking more when choosing the targets for the buff, to increase the priority of stacks that already have enemy destinations.

One of the most important changes in AI was that it cancels all destinations and rethinks what to do every turn.
I guess the chance of moving towards the same target is reasonably high anyway but there is no guarantee. The order of operations would be in the way too, the AI cancels orders first, casts next, then assigns the new orders for the turn last. So when casting, every unit is always idle except settlers and engineers.
More importantly, I think this would be a bad AI strategy. 1-2 buffs/stack at best before it reaches the target and either gets annihilated or wins - former more likely if the target was the human player, and about 50-50 otherwise.
The current system allows AI stacks to end up with a large number of buffs (sometimes even 3-4 on most units, in the capital even 9-10 buffs on everything), while using up units after buffing them would...not work so well. Buffs are not very effective unless you have a lot of them in a stack and targeting something that's about to enter combat works against that.

[Nelphine]

That's fair enough.

[Nelphine]

OK, I'm not precisely sure what's going on. Its late 1408, maybe 1409, and I have the strongest army again (coal + dwarf = hammerhand forever!), so the impossible ai's are suing for peace. That's all fine, that's kind of the point of playing dwarves in a mineral rich environment.

What is bothering me is that its this late, and I've seen no change in my main opponent compared to 1404 when he first declared war on me. Shouldn't he have upgraded from swarms of Naga and sprites, with the occasional war bear stack being transported by warships?

And yes its a small land size, but does he really need dozens of triremes and floating islands, along with a hefty number of warships? They aren't even accumulating into dangerous fleets - the most I've seen is 2 triremes and 1 warship stacked together.

But he's got them absolutely everywhere on the ocean (I have to guard spirits, and any naval force I send out has to include heroes, because its attacked multiple times en route to wherever its going.)

It just feels like he's pouring all of his resources into 6 units - triremes, warships, floating islands, nagas, sprites, and warbears. Even the one island I took away from him only had engineers and settlers in addition to the above. (Maybe s handful of swordsmen.)

Am I just expecting too much, or does this seem like odd behavior?

[Seravy]

OK, I'm not precisely sure what's going on. Its late 1408, maybe 1409, and I have the strongest army again (coal + dwarf = hammerhand forever!), so the impossible ai's are suing for peace. That's all fine, that's kind of the point of playing dwarves in a mineral rich environment.

What is bothering me is that its this late, and I've seen no change in my main opponent compared to 1404 when he first declared war on me. Shouldn't he have upgraded from swarms of Naga and sprites, with the occasional war bear stack being transported by warships?

And yes its a small land size, but does he really need dozens of triremes and floating islands, along with a hefty number of warships? They aren't even accumulating into dangerous fleets - the most I've seen is 2 triremes and 1 warship stacked together.

But he's got them absolutely everywhere on the ocean (I have to guard spirits, and any naval force I send out has to include heroes, because its attacked multiple times en route to wherever its going.)

It just feels like he's pouring all of his resources into 6 units - triremes, warships, floating islands, nagas, sprites, and warbears. Even the one island I took away from him only had engineers and settlers in addition to the above. (Maybe s handful of swordsmen.)

Am I just expecting too much, or does this seem like odd behavior?

Ships are normal, the player who dominates the sea is the one who can attack others, while everyone else is locked up on their own island(s).
The rest depends on personality, race, books, etc. I can't tell without knowing.
Maybe they didn't get an uncommon summoning spell. Maybe they are perfectionists and built all the economic buildings instead of military. Maybe they don't control enough cities to reseach good spells, or play barbarians so have no research buildings. Maybe they are busy sending their good units into towers and are at war on Arcanus.