Caster of Magic II Brainstorming Megathread

[Anskiy]

Is it possible to add instant razes back as an option? That's a glaring omission from this game, and serves to make several playthroughs a slog, as players are forced to hold onto worthless settlements even if they don't want to. Either that, or let us mod how quick the current razing system is.

[Fringe]

Is it possible to add instant razes back as an option? That's a glaring omission from this game, and serves to make several playthroughs a slog, as players are forced to hold onto worthless settlements even if they don't want to. Either that, or let us mod how quick the current razing system is.

I am not a fan of the slow razings. I do like the idea of slowing down a doom stack but I'd like it to go quicker. Maybe 5 or 10 population points a turn?

[WhiteMage]

1. Does Bless give +5 resistance vs Stoning -4 of Chaos Spawn? Not clear if that counts as Chaos or Nature.

2. Stag Beetle is to attack Night Stalker. What happens first? Death Gaze or Fire Breath?

3. Mystic Surge made the unit Undead and Animated. Text shows “belong to Death Realm”. At the same time Mystic Surge text shows “not belonging to any realm”. Which one is true in this case and which is false? Even more interesting is if the unit is Chaos Channeled. Then which of the 3 realms apply?

[lono175]

Stellaris has an option called "number of advanced AI".
The advanced AI has more starting "cities" and troops. 
It allows the AI to begin eliminating other AIs and become regional super power in a very short period. 

Caster of Magic is too peaceful. The diplomacy in Stellaris is more dynamic. The player and AIs will get a bonus if they declare another one as a sworn enemy, up to 3. The ideology of neighbors in Stellaris determines the life or death of the player. In Stellaris, there are always wars going on. There are always some regional super powers. The player needs to ally with some super power in order to survive. 

It allows more strategies for players. If the player wants to keep exchanging the spells with another wizard, the player has to ensure the wizard is not going to be eliminated by the regional super power. If the player wants to please the neighboring wizard (who is a regional super power), the player needs to join the war against another super power.

Besides, the current diplomacy of CoM is too confusing. I see two wizards declaring wars on each other. If I reload the save, the same two wizard may form an alliance instead. In Stellaris, I always know who hates who.

[Shteebo]

Would really love a new race of undead, but make it accessible only by turning settlers in to an undead unit :D

Would be great to be a death magician and turn enemy settlers into undead to access a whole new race!

Could make the city produce all the death units like skeletons, zombies, ghouls etc, or eventually brand new creatures.  Could have new buildings like a withered tree instead of animists guild etc

[Shteebo]

Is it possible to add instant razes back as an option? That's a glaring omission from this game, and serves to make several playthroughs a slog, as players are forced to hold onto worthless settlements even if they don't want to. Either that, or let us mod how quick the current razing system is.

Also like this idea heaps, at least as an option to toggle.  Let us chop those enemy cities to the ground hahaha

[Seravy]

1. Does Bless give +5 resistance vs Stoning -4 of Chaos Spawn? Not clear if that counts as Chaos or Nature.

Nature.

2. Stag Beetle is to attack Night Stalker. What happens first? Death Gaze or Fire Breath?

My guess is the defender's gaze goes first, then the attacker's gaze and finally the attacker's breath or thrown. But check the wiki, that's what it is for. The order is the same as the base game.

Mystic Surge made the unit Undead and Animated. Text shows “belong to Death Realm”. At the same time Mystic Surge text shows “not belonging to any realm”. Which one is true in this case and which is false? Even more interesting is if the unit is Chaos Channeled. Then which of the 3 realms apply?

This depends on the order these effects are coded in the unit recalculation function. (last one wins)
It looks like it's
1. Chaos Channel Breath
2. Destiny
3. Chaos Channel Flight
4. Chaos Channel Armor
5. Blood Lust
6. Chosen One turned to Life in combat
7. Animate Dead
8. Undead
9. Mystic Surge or Raise Dead "no healing flag" turning the unit to "no realm"

However as far as I remember there is one exception, we've made most spells count Chaos Channelled Undead as both Chaos and Death creatures to improve the synergy between these two realms. But strictly looking at the unit data, they'd be Death units.

Caster of Magic is too peaceful.

I'm glad to hear that, I'm somewhat used to people complaining about the opposite, being too hard to maintain peace.

Besides, the current diplomacy of CoM is too confusing. I see two wizards declaring wars on each other. If I reload the save, the same two wizard may form an alliance instead. In Stellaris, I always know who hates who.

If you don't like that, disable Chaotic wizards through score modifiers, they're the only one allowed to disregard the relation scores and do completely random things. Every other personality type is quite predictable even if there is no way of telling exactly when they'll start an attack or treaty, but from their spellbooks it's usually predictable which one happens unless their relation score is close to neutral.

Diplomacy bonuses for killing the armies of a wizard who is at war with another already exist in the game and banishing them earns even larger bonuses. However simply declaring war and doing nothing does have zero effect, you have to actively participate and kill significant enemy armies to get the bonus. If the bonus quantity feels insufficient, let me know.

In this game, the starting advantage that makes some AIs stronger than others is generally being on the Myrran plane. However the peace system also favors AIs pushing their wars as far as they can and only agreeing to peace when they stopped gaining territory in general. We even have an elimination system that makes the stronger AI declare war on the weakest.

Would really love a new race of undead, but make it accessible only by turning settlers in to an undead unit :D

This should already be possible by modding I think, if the unit script detects the Undead status on Settler units and transforms them into a unit that is of that new undead race while also removing the "Undead" debuff at the same time.
Gameplaywise the settler would not count as a Death or Undead unit but it's consumed when building a city anyway, it's not a combat unit, so it makes minimal difference.

[tehemperorer]

I feel like Skeletons underperform quite often in practice. They are supposed to be the summoned version of spearmen and swordsmen, low tier disposable troops that can be used either for garrison duty, or for chipping at lairs and stacks with combat casts. In practice, them requiring casting skill makes them exceptionally unappealing in that role, as casting skill is usually an exceptionally limited resource and summoning them often blocks casting more useful spells. I think they would work a lot better if the spell allowed your cities to directly create them, thus letting them function in their intended roles without suffocating your casting skill.

I use them to counter Nagas in the early game or grab an all-longbowmen Elven neutral city early. You can also insta-summon a bunch so that the AI chooses not to attack a city

[jhsidi]

As a Death enjoyer I feel like skeletons have a remarkably high utility, especially if you've got specialist + conjurer to make them dirt cheap. Yes, they suck at doing damage, but they're very good for strategic purposes.

Early game, summoning a few skeletons lets you bump up tax rates to the max and avoid unwanted wars. Anskiy's points on nagas and bow attackers are also very true.

Mid and late game, they're quite useful for blocking off map sections or access routes, chipping away at enemy doom stacks that are about to attack my cities, or adding a bit of garrison to newly captured cities. Long after I've summoned my last ghouls, I'm still summoning skeletons. Unless it's one of those games where half the wizards have Divine Order running, anyway.

[Lagi]

User Interface
can we have in Key.ini sections added following option to bind keys? :

Spellbook:
Ok =
(i like to be able to open and close spell book, by pressing the same key. F.ex. i can set up A for ok, in Armies, and this allows me to glimpse on army panel open and close it with double pressing A key).

Heroes:
Ok =

when i do Rally in town:
ok
cancel (this should be Esc?)

in overland:
scroll map Up/Down/Left/Right =
(i like scrolling with WSAD)

can we allow map scrolling when unit is selected (overland map)?

can we use mouse scroll/mid mouse button./ 4th and 5th mouse button in key.ini? if yes then what this keys are called?
(mouse scroll is Up and Down arrow key, and its quite handy as such)

Could we have option to save building production queue? this would be super handy with Auto-buy marking on R-mouse click.

In city panel: can we have tick box which cities should be auto govern by Grand Vizier?

Can we have access to Alchemy from Overland (by key shortcut).

Would be nice to be able to customise Advisors F1-F12
I would like to put tax collector somewhere closer to left side.

are Cities panel the same as F10 Governor? When i press F10 there is slight "hiccup" , i need to press some key to release coursor.