Technically not bugs...

[b0rsuk]

Things that may not be bugs but adversely affect the fun or strategic potential.

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1. Mana maintenance discounts

I think the game uses integer division for calculating mana maintenance discounts. For many spells or creatures the cost is so low that the discount doesn't do much, or nothing at all. Case in point: Conjurer perk and War Bears or Sprites. Conjurer reduces mana maintenance of fantastic creatures by 1/4. Too bad 3/4 (Sprites) and 2/3 (War Bears) both evaluate to 0.

How about summing all creature maintenance costs first, and then substracting 1/4 from it ? 3 war bears cost 6 to maintain, 6/4 is 1 in integer division. At least something. For 3 sprites, it would be 9/4, so 2 points of discount. Better than nothing. The same method could be used for the noncreature maintenance discount you get from Channeler.

The only flaw of this idea is that it sacrifices some simplicity. Currently you can just examine a creature or city and see that it costs ***** mana to maintain. Or & ** mana.

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2. Fixing Planar Seal loopholes

Prevents all travel between Arcanus and Myrror by sealing off all portals between these planes.

The bold part is in italics in the spellbook. They really wanted it to prevent all travel between the planes. And they tried - it stops towers of wizardry, Plane Shift, Planar Travel, Astral Gate. The Plight description of the spell doesn't mention if Earth Gate would work around this limitation or not.

I know Recall Hero and Word of Recall still allow to transport units between planes. This could be disabled the following way:

- if the source unit and the Summoning Circle are on different planes, then Recall Hero and Word of Recall fails.
- otherwise, it works. There, Planar Seal still works and the spells are still useful !

The Planar Seal/Earth Gate combo should be investigated. However, Planar Seal is an uncommon Life spell (I almost never play Life) and Earth Gate is a very rare Nature spell. The combination is hard to get so I can't test it easily. If Earth gate ignores the Planar Seal limitation, it too could be stopped by requiring the two cities to be on the same plane.

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3. Node aura works (invisible) before a spirit is melded into the node.

It is not entirely clear to me if this is a bug, or not. Let's see the quotes from the manual:

After a magic spirit or guardian spirit takes over a node, the map squares surrounding the node develop a colored aura that matches their controlling wizard’s banner. The number of map squares that display this aura represents the size and strength of the magic node. The larger the area, the stronger the node (i.e., the more magic power it generates).

This seems to suggest that the aura should only appear once a node is taken over. So invisible auras could be a bug to be fixed.

In addition to being a valuable source of magic power, nodes can affect creatures within their spheres of influence. Creatures from the same magic realm as a node have enhanced attack strengths and defenses when in combat on squares from which the node draws its power (the same squares that are covered by a visible aura after a spirit
melds with a node). See Magic Nodes for more details.

This fragment is more neutral, it says the aura becomes visible after a spirit melds with a node. And let's not forget node guardians and even invaders get the bonus before a spirit takes over.

So, is the invisible aura a bug to be fixed, or should it be turned into a proper feature that would allow interesting strategic planning and defensive bonus for cities ? If a bug, then it's simple to fix. If a feature, then there are a few ways to improve it:

- Surveyor could reveal invisible auras (especially if you've found the node)
- Fantastic creatures of the matching color could get a visible bonus on map screen if they are in a square with aura. That way you'd use fantastic creatures as probes and Nagas would become more valuable.
- Perks like Node Mastery, Sorcery/Nature/Chaos Mastery could be the ones that allow to see auras before nodes are conquered.
- Magic and guardian spirits could detect invisible auras if they're close.

Wait a second. This fragment is a bit self-contradictory, but it acknowledges the existence of invisible auras ! It's a feature, not a bug.

Magic nodes can affect combat in one of two ways. They may increase
(by one) the attack strengths (swords and ranged weapons), defenses
(shields) and resistance (crosses) of all creatures from the same magic
realm as the node (i.e., a nature node would exert this positive effect on
all creatures of nature such as sprites and basilisks) when these creatures
are fighting in any area controlled by the node. An area controlled by a
node is the area over which the aura extends when a magic spirit or
guardian spirit melds with the node (see Magic Power and Nodes). Note
that this beneficial effect exists whether a spirit has melded with the node
yet or not (i.e., unmelded nodes have “invisible” auras).

[Catwalk]

I agree with all 3, although I consider the last one to be minor. Does Plight properly document nodes?

[I like Serena]

1. Mana maintenance discounts
I thought magic was just that: magic and not science.
Spell descriptions are not to be believed completely.
In practice spells will always have quircks - it's just the nature of magic.

2. Fixing Planar Seal loopholes
As I said: magic is not science.
All regular travel is blocked.
But magic, being what it is, allows us to pluck creatures from one face of the earth into the Astral Plane (did you know that existed?) and pull them back into a totally different part of the world. In this case there's never any travel between the planes!
And since the "science" of magic doesn't cover everything, there are still spells that do allow travel between the planes, such as Earth Gate. There is a reason it is a rare nature spell!
Btw, I like these quircks! It gives creative players something fun to do with their time. Do you know of more of these so called "loopholes"?

3. Node aura works (invisible) before a spirit is melded into the node.
I like your ideas for extending the game play concerning the nodes!
Perhaps I'll try to implement some of them, when I get a better understanding of the program.

[kyrub]

1. Mana maintenance discounts
Yes, that is infuriating. Must be corrected.
I remember someone mentioning some Mine-Guild problems and gems with a very similar mechanics. I looked at it but it looked really hard to do.

2. Fixing Planar Seal loopholes
This looks minor and I have an impression you want to cut out the overpowered WoR more than correct Planar Seal? I could simply check for planar seal... without restricting WoR.

3. Node aura
The help files say invisible... which mean they are not visible... so Insecticide probably does not include this.

[b0rsuk]

ad. 2:

I don't think Word of Recall is that overpowered. Enchanted roads are the most efficient way of transport, and more versatile. They can be used against you, but I don't think it's a big problem.

Planar Seal stops even the very rare Astral Gate but can't stop
1) a common Sorcery spell
2) an arcane, guaranteed, available to all spell.

That's a spell that according to the official Spellbook should stop all forms of travel.

WoR is one of best ways to transport single strong units and admittedly MoM favors such units. But it's crap for hordes.

[kyrub]

I wanted to say:
- OK for confining WoR to one plane WHEN the Planar seal is in effect
- I somehow got the impression you wanted a WoR confining regardless of Planar seal - hence my previous comment on the matter.

(I am not saying WoR is not overpowered, I just don't want any of these 'solutions' near Insecticide).
Oh, and I must differ on the horde thing, the hordes in MoM are over-effective. If you played Life more often, you'd certainly knew.

[b0rsuk]

Hordes are totally killable. It's spells like Invulnerability or Lionheart which make single units, not hordes unkillable. In my game where I used enchanted roads and klackon infantry I had no problem killing even paladins as long as there was no Invulnerability in play. Part of the story may be the bug that makes Eldritch Weapon/Flame Blade not damage units with immunity, but that's not my problem.


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Oh, and

Mountaineer + Foestry makes units go 8x faster in swamps.

This sucks.

[kyrub]

Part of the story may be the bug that makes Eldritch Weapon/Flame Blade not damage units with immunity

Which one?

[Catwalk]

Mountaineer + Foestry makes units go 8x faster in swamps.

This sucks.

No it doesn't Pathfinding (which can be formed from mountaineer + forester, an intended feature) gives you movement of ½ MP in all terrain, including swamps. If you have 1 MP, you'll move 2 squares in swamps not 8.

[b0rsuk]

It depends. I admit I copied the value without checking.

If you have 3 MP, you can move 1 square in Swamp. If you have 2 + Pathfinding, you can move 6 squares. So it's up to 6x faster.

With 1 MP, it's still 1 square but 2 with pathfinding (2x faster). However, my perfect movement system would have some way to carry over movement points. Then there would be no need for tricks like "you can enter a square even if you have less points than its cost".

The difference (6x) is still huge. HOMM3 has 75% penalty for swamp, and 50% for sand and snow.