Caster of Magic II Bug Reports!

[ksasaki]

I can't open my game anymore, I keep getting "range check error" when I try to start a new game.  I will maybe try the download link again and try another test game.

[Seravy]

I noticed some variables weren't zeroed within the new game function, which was never a problem before, but now that it's possible to get back to the main menu using the lose/win button, it causes crashes during map generation. It'll be fixed in the next upload, until then please avoid using the button and simply close and restart the application.

(PS : every time the game data structure changes by adding new content like buildings, units, or even a permanent AI variable, loading the previous saves will stop working unfortunately. This will probably happen very often for a while.)

[MrBiscuits]

Don't, repositioning every single element displayed everywhere would take like weeks even if the background image was available.
I do wish I had more screen size for the wizards screen but that's about the only one where it's useful.

I could probably do that too when I've got time. Seeing such a small amount of the map makes me lose my bearings all the time in the game, seeing more would make things much better for me.

I noticed some variables weren't zeroed within the new game function, which was never a problem before, but now that it's possible to get back to the main menu using the lose/win button, it causes crashes during map generation. It'll be fixed in the next upload, until then please avoid using the button and simply close and restart the application.

The crash happened as soon as I clicked "new game" for me.

More things:

When creating your wizard you can't go back to the previous screen if you changed your mind
My starting gnoll swordsmen can go through forest with no movement penalty
Shift-O works to show the map, but you can't hide it again
I can't find the information screen anymore, I couldn't set the tax rate, so was stuck on negative gold 
My regular wolf riders have 12 attack before bonuses, I think they should have 8? Maybe the flame blade and mithril bonuses are being applied twice

   

Another wolf rider has an extra shield from somewhere

   

The draw order doesn't look right in the battle screen

   

Roads are more squiggly than in the original

   

My starting city wasn't next to coast like in the original, so I couldn't build ships from the start.
It is hard to see units that are greyed out in the combat view
The trees everywhere make combat view confusing
Maybe add map generation seed viewable somewhere for debug

[Seravy]

Shift-O works to show the map, but you can't hide it again

This isn't a bug, this basically scouts the map for you. If you turn the feature off, you won't see when enemy unit locations anymore but the tiles have been already been scouted by it.
Same thing as if you had Seismic Mastery dispelled.

I can't find the information screen anymore, I couldn't set the tax rate, so was stuck on negative gold

My mistake, I thought the magic screen already has an Info button but it only has "Ok" and "Alchemy".

While putting the Info button on the Magic screen would be trivial, I'm not sure that's the best place for it.
Maybe we should replace the "Cities" button with Info and put the "Cities" screen into the Info menu, as an advisor. "Statistician" or something. Ultimately, the Cities screen does nothing but provide information.

My regular wolf riders have 12 attack before bonuses, I think they should have 8? Maybe the flame blade and mithril bonuses are being applied twice

Looks like the bonus amount is shown as both normal and gold icons. I think the actual stats on the units are probably fine (you can see that in the window that shows up when the unit is selected in combat.

The draw order doesn't look right in the battle screen

That's actually a feature, if a unit is inside a forest tile where you'd hardly see it behind all the trees, it is turned transparent and displayed like that. Maybe a different solution would be better?

My starting city wasn't next to coast like in the original, so I couldn't build ships from the start.

That happens in the original too. There is no rule saying the starting city has to be on a shore.

[MrBiscuits]

Maybe we should replace the "Cities" button with Info and put the "Cities" screen into the Info menu, as an advisor. "Statistician" or something. Ultimately, the Cities screen does nothing but provide information.

Good idea.

That's actually a feature, if a unit is inside a forest tile where you'd hardly see it behind all the trees, it is turned transparent and displayed like that. Maybe a different solution would be better?

The forests need to be small like in the original so you can see the units on that tile. Also currently the unit selected is drawn in front of other units that are closer to the camera and it looks confusing.

[Seravy]

The forests need to be small like in the original so you can see the units on that tile.

So, like, fewer trees? But then we're back to the "I have no idea if that's a forest tile or a grass tile with 2 random trees on it" problem. I wanted to make it obvious which tiles are forests.
The trees themselves are the same as the original.

[MrBiscuits]

Are they the same? They look much bigger.

I think you could keep the original number of trees and colour the tile they are standing on a darker shade of green. Maybe give it a more "forest" style texture.

Also are there more tiles that have forest on them? It seems like 90% of tiles are forest tiles in that screenshot.

[Seravy]

Also are there more tiles that have forest on them? It seems like 90% of tiles are forest tiles in that screenshot.

In the original game, "forest" overland tiles weren't much different from grasslands. They didn't feel like an actual forest at all.

However now, Forest tiles have 80% forest on them and only 20% grass and those 80% tiles actually have more than 0-2 trees each like it was in the orignal. Hills have like 20% and tundra has like 50, I don't remember exactly.

So Forest overland tiles are actually the hardest to move on during combat now. Second hardest actually, as Swamp is still worse.

(In the original the array to store the combat objects to draw was of a limited size so more trees were not possible.)

[MrBiscuits]

That will make ranged units much more powerful now, unless you add in some sort of defensive bonus against ranged for forest tiles. It makes sense as it is hard to shoot magic or arrows long distances over or through trees.

Either way it's very hard to see units and which tiles don't have forest in at the moment.

[htester]

Does the new random Wizard's generator actually work?
I am getting no 3 colour wizards, always only one retort and the books are the same as default wizards. Unless the new random wizard function has changed its puporse to randomize only the initial selection of spells there's something wrong here. The old generate wizards from dosbox used to offer more randomness...