NATURE Realm

[Seravy]

Uhh, I made a mistake in calculation. I used >=2 for rares instead of =2.
Also I didn't look at how it scales up with more skill, it should grow or at least stay equal to 100%.

Human,
Skill/very rare/rare/total/percent
400/13.39/24.48/390.15/ ~100%
600/32.31/28.52/698.55 / ~116%

AI
Skill/very rare/rare/total/percent
210/21.28/27.45/350/~83%
300/29.46/28.52/437/~72%
400/38.00/28.08/520/~65%

So while the goal is met for the human, in case of AI the efficiency actually drops as skill rises and even starts too low.

No wonder - The generated advantage is a ^ shaped line - the closer we are to "all very rares" the slower the amount can grow in absolute value, which means even less in relative. Basically, the AI already starts above their "peak efficiency" while the human does not, mainly because they have the skill modifier (their 200 skill is worth 400 in reality).

So maybe the skill should still incorporate the difficulty multiplier? Assuming we remove the flat "+X" for difficulty, that would make their tables literally identical to the human, except the positioning :

200/13.39/24.48/390.15/ ~100%
300/32.31/28.52/698.55 / ~116%
...

Yeah I think this is what we should do.

...wait, no. For the AI we assumed only two triggers instead of 3 so...
200/13.39/24.48/253.43/ ~63%
300/32.31/28.52/465.7 / ~77%

That's not good. Let's try adding the a flat +5.
200/26.62/28.35/407.95/ ~102%
300/46.29/26.59/595.85/ ~99%


Not much growth there, in fact it's already shrinking but not significantly. I think that's acceptable, as we used fairly conservative assumptions for the AI (there'll be a lot more than 2 triggers if there are more than one other AI remaining in the game)
also the number of triggers increases with skill because higher own skill usually means higher skill on the other players as well, which raises effectiveness in an way not included in the calculations. If everyone is at twice the skill, the actual effectiveness is double because there will be 2x as many triggers - we just didn't care about this case as the main intended use is strong wizard vs weaker wizard. Where maintaining around 100% is fine - it's 100% of our own skill so at higher skill it is a higher absolute advantage.

So I believe the final formula should be
(Skill including AI modifier/30)+5 if AI.

(we might want to also scale the "5" on difficulty? Not sure if needed.)

[Nelphine]

Earthquake priority when seismic mastery is cast should not be removed if the casting AI knows no summons costing over 300 mana.

[Seravy]

While not much they can still trigger it from Summon champion, Create Artifact, and most global enchantments even if they don't have a very rare summon. Added it to my list of things to consider, will think about it after 5.0 is out.

[Nelphine]

My concern is more for things like 'the AI learns earthquake and is maniacal. The AI does not yet know any rare spells let alone very rare. The AI starts using earthquake semi regularly on the human. The human.. Gives the AI seismic mastery, AI casts it, and suddenly stops using earthquakes.' However, this could also happen if the AI found the spell in treasure. Not quite as abusive as the first example, but same result.

[Seravy]

Giving a spell that reveals the whole map to a maniacal wizard doesn't sound like a good idea to me but yes, that can happen.

yeah I think we should do this but not a priority. And while at "not a priority" things, the AI also shouldn't target regenerating things with Blizzard/Fire Storm. Seen my Shadow Demons stack hit by Fire Storm a few times in the current game.

[Nelphine]

Yeah, or fire storm when the opponent has herb mastery cast. (Sadly, that's the very rare I got - no chance to test seismic mastery or fairy ring yet.)

Although technically, wouldn't a firestorm hurt regenerating units for the AIs turn? (They don't heal until the end of their turn? Or do they heal immediately on overland always?) Although the AI isn't smart enough to attack the same stack as the firestorm hits anyway.

[Seravy]

No, regenerating creatures on the overland map don't heal. They never take damage to begin with. (at least from Call the Void, but probably all spells are the same)

[Nelphine]

If you don't know very rare creatures, how does fairy ring decide the percentage of rare vs uncommon? (I'm going to get one very rare nature in this game, so here's crossing my fingers I can test out fairy ring. No luck. Regeneration.)

[Seravy]

Exactly the same way but instead of very rares, you get the next highest you can summon.

[Nelphine]

OK. What if you have uncommons and very rares, but know no rare summons, and roll a rare? (Even more unlikely - what if you had rares and very rares but no uncommons? I assume uncommons would default to rare in that case?)