Caster of Magic Release thread : latest version 6.06!

[Seravy]

Cockatrice nodes have high strategic strength.

[Seravy]

And we have our first bug in the new version :

5.41b
-Fixed 5.41 bug, spellweaver applies without picking the retort

[Bahgtru]

It's also fairly early (1407) and he is being beaten down by another player (you), so not really reasonable to expect him to fill all 3 or 4 remaning continents by himself.

I don't see a single settler that's his on the entire map. I have to assume that means they were produced on your continent and you have killed them. Dead settlers obviously can't build cities so...how would he build any?

The AI can't produce settlers near the intended building spot - it produces them somewhere (at the first "free to produce" city with their best race available) then uses ships or water walking to get them to the destination. So if you did kill their settlers, that's why. (If not and you let them go, then I have no idea how they disappeared. )

I haven't killed any. The war had just started at that point, the same turn or the turn before. I'd also just cracked the tower. The two arcanus wizards were allied if memory serves. Neither had settled that continent despite some very good spots. vOv

New bug report: heroic heart doesn't seem to work on any unit, incl. heroes. You can attack kali with the hero stack to check.

I tried and it healed Zaldron fine (after taking a Psionic Blast from Kali), multiple times.

just tried...

[Nelphine]

I've been seeing odd settler activity myself. 2 myrran opponents on expert, I went to war and defeated the first one (razing all his cities). The second is draconian, and in 1408 only has ~12 cities. I've conquered 4 neutral cities but I still have ~20 cities, and there's room for at least 10 more cities.

Seems very strange for an expert draconian AI to be settling slower than I am (and There are no dark elf cicitues on the map so he's not waiting for settlers from a tiny hamlet). Since he's peaceful it means I'm going to just grow faster than him and "beat" him without ever fighting.

[Seravy]

o_O
12 cities in 1408 is a lot. You do know the turbo AI settlers feature is only active on higher difficulty if the AI is alone on their plane?

The AI can have 2 settlers per continent (less important for draconians as they likely leave the continent in a few turns) or 4 globally at a given time. So let's say the average distance of destinations is 20. Production time is, idk, 4 turns? So every 24 turns they get to build 4 cities. First, idk, 20 turns they are not building a settler because they are first blocked by the 2 settlers they started with, then blocked by the capital producing the mandatory building (fighter's guild or whatever it is for the race). We can also assume another 10 blocked turns when the AI randomly rolls buildings in their capital and it's busy so can't build a settler immediately and needs to wait for the existing production to complete. So it has 66 turns, which is 11 settlers. That means 14 cities - 12 doesn't feel so far off especially with the chance of neutrals eating a few outposts.

(Note Draconians can be slower than other races - settlers move 1, boats move 3. Of course, there is no wait time to call a ship and board it, but if the target is far enough the ship is faster.)

Either way if you show me the save file I can look and guess from the distances what is realistic. (alternately you can just start or even this one from the turn 1 save, keep hitting next turn with RVL on and see how the AI spreads and when/why they aren't. If you notice anything irregular (not having any settlers despite the AI being free to produce them), let me know.)

(Do note 12 cities generally cover the entire map if there are 3 wizards doing that : you, and the two AIs. So it is fast enough UNLESS you raze and leave the territory empty early. And Myrror has specifically fewer players. But the AI can't specifically go "there is more space so now I use 6 settlers at a time", nor would it help since the time they take to reach is too much so the human would get 75% of the spots first if they cared to do that and used many settlers simultaneously.)

[Seravy]

It's also fairly early (1407) and he is being beaten down by another player (you), so not really reasonable to expect him to fill all 3 or 4 remaning continents by himself.

I don't see a single settler that's his on the entire map. I have to assume that means they were produced on your continent and you have killed them. Dead settlers obviously can't build cities so...how would he build any?

The AI can't produce settlers near the intended building spot - it produces them somewhere (at the first "free to produce" city with their best race available) then uses ships or water walking to get them to the destination. So if you did kill their settlers, that's why. (If not and you let them go, then I have no idea how they disappeared. )

I haven't killed any. The war had just started at that point, the same turn or the turn before. I'd also just cracked the tower. The two arcanus wizards were allied if memory serves. Neither had settled that continent despite some very good spots. vOv

New bug report: heroic heart doesn't seem to work on any unit, incl. heroes. You can attack kali with the hero stack to check.

I tried and it healed Zaldron fine (after taking a Psionic Blast from Kali), multiple times.

just tried...

Weird. Maybe you didn't overwrite wizards.exe and it's a mixed version? I can't really imagine anything else that would do that.

[Nelphine]

Odd. Your numbers make sense (although he got 2 or 3 neutrals, which makes it a bit slower). But I also have only been building settlers in my capital and one other city, which is why I didn't expect to be ahead (my capital also has every production building and a wizard's guild, so if hasn't been focusing super hard on settler building; and only 3 settlers were transported via ship, and I haven't built a pile to take the space of the defeated ai). I found 4 neutrals, the AI got 2 or maybe 3. I might try looking back over history. I figured I'd mention it because it seemed strange I could be going faster. Oh well.

[Nelphine]

Ugh. Pandora's box is terrible if you rely on raise dead to combat possession. Didn't even think about it, but auto summoning a unit means I would max out at 9 constantly. And the item has inner fire and wraith form on it in addition to pandora's box. Such a good item otherwise..

[Bahgtru]

You do know the turbo AI settlers feature is only active on higher difficulty if the AI is alone on their plane?

Ah. Why isn't it active on arcanus when the player chooses myrran?

Either way if you show me the save file

Click the quote:

There's a limit to uploads :P

Weird. Maybe you didn't overwrite wizards.exe and it's a mixed version? I can't really imagine anything else that would do that.

Possibly. I'll try installing the patch and see if that was it.

[Bahgtru]

Nope. I just installed 5.4.1 and tried again, same. Any ideas?

Edit: also re-installed both of them but no change.