Caster of Magic II Bug Reports!

[Seravy]

I'm actually kinda surprised the game didn't end after an error by default.
I can remove the stopping instruction from the error dialog but I don't really know what will happen if you keep playing after an error, probably just the same error being raised again.
I'm getting no error with that save file.

Anyway, reuploaded the one which doesn't stop after the error.

[jhsidi]

Ugh, sorry. I think I gave you the wrong file link. I downloaded the new version and the endturn error still happens: https://ufile.io/e2sdhscu

With your change, though, the game continues on after showing the error message once. It's probable that some errors will result in an endless loop while some will only happen once, so if you want to improve on the popup, you could offer two buttons: Continue / Close Game.

Thanks for all the quick fixes today.

[Seravy]

Interesting, the error only happens if I load the same in the upload folder's version.
Oh, it was caused by the "Enemy moves" option and I had it turned off.
The usual thing, neutrals were not special cased before checking the treaty status.
Fixed and reuploaded.

[jhsidi]

I've forgotten to mention it several times now but it seems the overland map movement animations have been turned off. So instead of sliding, the stacks just blink into their new location. There's another problem; a lot of times, if you're moving a unit with multiple moves just 1 tile at a time, it'll switch focus to another unit after the first move. I think that started a couple days back.

Also, I believe that the road textures are not being shown in some cases. Check out this battle, there's a road on the overland and the swordsmen are moving 3 tiles in battle but no road texture in battle. https://ufile.io/sfpuqg6l

Question about battles like this: when I find a small settlement with only a smithy, it seems the chance of the smithy being destroyed is 100%. I got curious and tried save-scumming it and yup, the smithy is destroyed every single time. Is that intentional? It's quite annoying, because the smithy is inexplicably expensive and takes a long time to build, even if you pay to instantly build a sawmill first.

[Seravy]

Question about battles like this: when I find a small settlement with only a smithy, it seems the chance of the smithy being destroyed is 100%. I got curious and tried save-scumming it and yup, the smithy is destroyed every single time. Is that intentional? It's quite annoying, because the smithy is inexplicably expensive and takes a long time to build, even if you pay to instantly build a sawmill first.

Smithy has double the normal chance to be destroyed.
I don't remember for sure but I think neutrals towns have an above normal base building destruction chance so if it's at least 50% that will always destroy the smithy.
This is a game mechanic intended to reduce snowballing from early conquest - you get a smithy for free otherwise but if you conquer, you either have to rebuild it for a high price or your city has 2 less base production which is only really relevant in the early turns, or if you want to buy units in the newly conquered town instantly which will likely need it.

Roads, yes, it seems when I moved road rendering to its own function, I forgot to add a call to the function...

I've forgotten to mention it several times now but it seems the overland map movement animations have been turned off. So instead of sliding, the stacks just blink into their new location.

That would be the same thing that caused the crashes, the check for "enemy moves" and treaty status.

These will be fixed in the next update.

There's another problem; a lot of times, if you're moving a unit with multiple moves just 1 tile at a time, it'll switch focus to another unit after the first move. I think that started a couple days back.

Couldn't reproduce so this must need some special condition.

[jhsidi]

Bugs:
- Units are teleporting to new parts of the map when fleeing battles. Only replicates if the unit traveled more than 1 tile in a single move to reach the battle. Take the highlighted hell hound and click on the gargoyle layer southwest of it at 53x25. Flee immediately. The hellhound will appear on an island to the south. (This is probably related to the other movement bugs you're fixing anyway.) https://ufile.io/zh02iq6u
- Crash on offering Jafar a Wizard's Pact: https://ufile.io/6rxvi1af
- An exception occurs when trying to cast Wall of Fire in a non-city combat.

Note: I clicked Caster.exe to open the application. After a while it hadn't opened, so I thought I'd misclicked and tried opening it again. The initial version was still opening, it turned out, and I got a bunch of errors. I could still play, afterward, but my window.ini file had changed the vertical resolution to 590 and the game no longer makes auto-saves. Just thought you might be interested that various weird things can happen. Later on, it might be worth it to add a little loading screen so the user knows the app is responding, or set it so two copies can't be run simultaneously.

[jhsidi]

I think I'm getting too many spells for a low number of books. With 2 Nature books, I've got 5 uncommon Nature spells: 4 are in my spellbook and 1 more is in my research list. https://ufile.io/hv418hqb

The two I had in my spellbook were Cockatrices and Transmute. I think Giant Spiders, Great Lizard and Land Linking are all from treasure. Isn't there a spellbook-based cap on how many spells you can get even from treasure?

[Seravy]

I think I'm getting too many spells for a low number of books. With 2 Nature books, I've got 5 uncommon Nature spells: 4 are in my spellbook and 1 more is in my research list. https://ufile.io/hv418hqb

The two I had in my spellbook were Cockatrices and Transmute. I think Giant Spiders, Great Lizard and Land Linking are all from treasure. Isn't there a spellbook-based cap on how many spells you can get even from treasure?

No, there isn't. In fact treasure prioritizes giving you new spells if possible.

The only limitation is, the spell's tier you find can't be higher than the books allow, in this case Uncommon. So if the treasure is a Rare spell, you don't get that one but uncommons, you can have as many as you want.

So treasure pretty much works like trading.

[jhsidi]

Ah, I never realized. I actually did another ruin and now have 6 uncommon Nature spells. Which seems a bit... excessively generous, and tilted toward playing with 2 books in several schools. I don't recall that happening in CoM1, although maybe the problem here is just that the enemy wizards in this game are failing to do dungeons, for whatever reason.

[Seravy]

enemy wizards in this game are failing to do dungeons, for whatever reason.

Probably because flying now matters and the AI stacks aren't specialized to deal with it, but of course the possibility of bugs also exist.