Test games played

[Seravy]

Spell Wards never had an info icon in the original game, i can't do much about that. There is no room to add code there either.

Also, Suppress Magic prevents casting Summoning Circle doesn't it? Can we hardcode that as an exception to Suppress Magic that always works so that the AI isn't completely screwed?

Considering Suppress Magic is generally a not-so-useful spell for a human player, I'm not sure that's a problem. The AI is supposed to have their very rare spells first and have at least some summoned garrisons by that time anyway, assuming a high enough difficulty.

Still seeing the random 'magic spirit stand around and do nothing when there are plenty of nodes on the plane, usually including one in the same square or within 1 or 2 squares' on occassion.

Spirits are send by spirit, not by node. So if Spirit 1 has node 1 as the closest thing and already heads towards it, spirit 2 won't care even if it's closer. If we swapped it around to be done by node, then Node 1 would draw spirit 2, but would do it even if Node 2 is even closer to it than node 1.
If we want better, we need some sort of a better algorithm that optimizes all pairings simultaneously which would be a lot more work and would only really be a small gain (AI would reach node a few turns earlier in some corner cases.) and we'd need to be able to prove the algorithm produces a consistent output (meaning after each spirit takes a step towards their destination, the exact same spirits will always be picked again.)

[Nelphine]

Spell ward: so don't show an icon. Still super important to display the name. If you have to have an icon use the icon from literally any other spell. Also, you should display each spell ward differently. If your opponent has 9 different city enchantments on, it's easy to forget which spell ward(s) he has on that particular city.
Spirits: no, I'm talking about, there are 4 nodes unblocked and unmelded by the AI. There are 3 spirits on the plane. 2 of them are moving to nodes 1 and 2 (easy to tell in this particular case due to positioning - nodes 1 and 2 are almost due south of those spirits while nodes 3 and 4 are both east and a little north.)

The third spirit is 1 tile from node 4 and about 15 tiles from node 3. It does literally nothing. Doesn't move toward any of the nodes.
Next turn it moves to node 4. Following turn it melds node 4.

I'm aware there are issues with spirits not being as effecient as they can. Im not talking about that. I'm talking about turns they literally don't move (the worst being when they are literally on the node and do nothing for 1-3 turns before melding it.)

Suppress magic: the problem is if you keep suppress magic up for years (easy with spell blast), the AI always summons units to the same city. Which can be off in the middle of absolutely nowhere. And it makes that city better defended than their fortress.

Summon demon: I'm assuming you have no art which is why there is no overland notice. You did an amazing job with water elemental, so here's hoping someone can help with Summon Demon.

[Seravy]

so don't show an icon.

Okay, so I looked at the code since I wasn't convincing enough. Space will be an issue but assuming I manage to squeeze it in somehow, the other question is, what about the data structures?

What I see here is, this uses an array of 14 elements. And this is what can appear at most together :
-Node Aura
-Node Dispel
-Cloud of Shadow
-Heavenly Light
-Chaos Surge
-Eternal Night
These go into the slots that would be displayed at the top as "global effects not owned by anyone".
-Crusade x2
-Charm of Life x2
-Holy Arms x2
-Zombie Mastery x2
These go into slots separate for each player.

Which is exactly 14 of them.

Spell Ward would not only add up to 5 to the total which is in no way possible, BUT also would do so on the slot type that only has 4 of per player.

Then there is the display which most likely knows there are exactly 14 elements in the array and which slot goes where in the window. It likely doesn't work with more. Finally there is the fact that the window has a limited size, it might not be able to physically fit more stuff.

This array is fixed size and not allocated, but directly stored in the data segment. So we can't make it larger (unless we investigate and find whatever is directly after it is an unused, large variable which is extremely unlikely.)

So no, it can't be done unless we rewrite the whole thing and drop several existing icons.

(btw Herb Mastery also doesn't have an icon even though it does have an effect in combat now.)

The third spirit is 1 tile from node 4 and about 15 tiles from node 3. It does literally nothing. Doesn't move toward any of the nodes.
Next turn it moves to node 4. Following turn it melds node 4.

There are times when a unit cannot be moved. For example if it's part of a stack which is splitting up. However, looking at the code, spirits do not use the stack system anymore. So while them getting a move order does prevent everything else on that tile from moving that turn, the spirit should move. The only reason why they would stop is if the node has a unit standing on it that turn (or is warped).
If you have a save for one of these turns, I can try to investigate.

Summon demon: I'm assuming you have no art which is why there is no overland notice.

There is one and you should be seeing it, unless you unchecked "enemy spells" in the settings and don't see any summons. Do note the "official" art for Demon looks quite similar to a skeleton so it's easy to ignore, but the BGM should be of a very rare summon, not a common.

[Nelphine]

Spell ward: boooooo but ok

Summon demon: definitely isn't showing as an overland, and I'm getting a lot of them

[Seravy]

Weird. Code says the animation is displayed if
1. The caster is human
2. "Enemy Spells" is on, Detect Magic is on, and the summoner is contacted by the human.

Floating Island is the only exception.
However the animation is shorter if "Spell Animations" is off.

Do note Summon Demon is a low cost spell - if Suppress Magic is out, 4 out of 5 will be countered.

Spell Ward - while displaying it inside the system is impossible, an ugly hack that puts the icon on the screen without text outside the window.... nevermind, the graphics data for the spell ward icons is most definitely not in the memory during combat, or, like, ever, outside of the city view screen. You can't display something from an external LBX file, you have to load it first, and the game only keeps stuff actually needed in the memory.

It's not that bad when attacking - you should look at the city anyway and know it. It's quite inconvenient on defensive battles though, especially if you use wards against realms you can use yourself.

[Nelphine]

No like I said 1 turn, 3 demons in the city. No demons within 5 squares. Next turn, 5 demons, no warning even though I saw the other 3 things he summoned (gorgons,shadow demons which were stopped by suppress magic, great lizard).

[Seravy]

That's not possible unless... those Demons came from a Fairy Ring?
...I'd hate to get Demons as my very rares from that.

[Nelphine]

Oh I forgot fairy ring. Yes he has fairy ring but I didn't count how many Summons he had, nor did I count how many of my spells would trigger fairy ring. Considering I never ever saw him cast summon demon this almost sounds like theres something in fairy ring that's getting summon demon disproportionately to any other summon. But yeah could certainly be that.

Also, fairy ring and suppress magic and seismic mastery are all reasons to have overland summon demon summon 3 demons at once (and therefore cost more)! ... I don't think that's feasible coding wise but I can wish.

[zitro1987]

My game with over 1000 power now, armaggedon (opponent has it too but benefits more due to difficulty modifier). The opponent is mass-casting call the void on me, rendering some of my best cities useless, though I just attack its capitol city with a 7 efreet/2 doom bat and easily banished him. I have another stack of 9 efreet on his main continent.

I'm first place (and now have apocalypse/disintegrate), but this is really tough!

[zitro1987]

My game, 1421 year, with over 2200+ power thanks to armaggedon (fair land size). With two doomstacks of efreets+doom bats and spells like flame strike/apocalypse/call the void, I defeated my main opponent within a 6-10 turn period. It was glorious (of course, I had some major losses, but I really beat him easily as he didn't have great armies in the end, relying on elite units and chimeras).

After summoning some great drakes and moving the leftover doomstack of efreets (mixed with a couple of great drakes) next to the remaining weak opponent capital, he forfeited and I won the game. This was fun. Chaos is tremendously fun!