Caster of Magic Release thread : latest version 6.06!

[zitro1987]

Can you explain why you don't feel like 1 to 10 is enough room for nonrandom growth for outposts? Why can't outposts start at 1, and then gain 1 house per turn for most races, and 2 houses per turn for "fast" races? (lizardmen, klackons, gnolls, barbarians)

That seems way too fast

[Seravy]

Can you explain why you don't feel like 1 to 10 is enough room for nonrandom growth for outposts? Why can't outposts start at 1, and then gain 1 house per turn for most races, and 2 houses per turn for "fast" races? (lizardmen, klackons, gnolls, barbarians)

Because terrain. Which goes from 1 to 25...and above actually. And there are more than 2 types of races.

Lizardmen are +30.
Orcs, Halflings and Barbarians are +25.
High Men are +20.
Beastmen, Draconian, Gnoll, Klackon and Nomad are +15.
High Elves, Dark Elves, Trolls are +10.
Dwarfs are +8.

Then there is Stream of Life. Gaia's Blessing. Famine. etc.

btw if it is a linear gain per turn....then we lose the feature of the outpost randomly shrinking (if the roll for growth is failed but the roll for shrinking is made) or disappearing (if it shrinks too many times). I do believe building on crappy terrain with races that are bad at expanding should have that risk.
Ofc we can set up numbers so that if it's a max pop 5 tile then races with a growth of +10 or worse shrink, but then it's 100% the city will never be built. it would make low pop tiles literally uninhabitable for certain races. Usually those races you'd want them there because, what's the point of having an additional pop 5 barbarian city? It's not like it'll have buildings to produce you anything...or people to pay taxes.
...or we can have linear growth with random shrinking, but then the overall result is, still random time till completion.

[GermanJoey]

Can you explain why you don't feel like 1 to 10 is enough room for nonrandom growth for outposts? Why can't outposts start at 1, and then gain 1 house per turn for most races, and 2 houses per turn for "fast" races? (lizardmen, klackons, gnolls, barbarians)

Because terrain. Which goes from 1 to 25...and above actually. And there are more than 2 types of races. 

Lizardmen are +30.
Orcs, Halflings and Barbarians are +25.
High Men are +20.
Beastmen, Draconian, Gnoll, Klackon and Nomad are +15.
High Elves, Dark Elves, Trolls are +10.
Dwarfs are +8.

Then there is Stream of Life. Gaia's Blessing. Famine. etc.

btw if it is a linear gain per turn....then we lose the feature of the outpost randomly shrinking (if the roll for growth is failed but the roll for shrinking is made) or disappearing (if it shrinks too many times). I do believe building on crappy terrain with races that are bad at expanding should have that risk.
Ofc we can set up numbers so that if it's a max pop 5 tile then races with a growth of +10 or worse shrink, but then it's 100% the city will never be built. it would make low pop tiles literally uninhabitable for certain races. Usually those races you'd want them there because, what's the point of having an additional pop 5 barbarian city? It's not like it'll have buildings to produce you anything...or people to pay taxes.
...or we can have linear growth with random shrinking, but then the overall result is, still random time till completion.

I definitely want to lose the feature of the outpost randomly shrinking, as its the one thing left in the game that outright makes me angry. I HATE HATE HATE this feature! I thought you had said in the past that you had too... the only thing it adds to the game is frustration.

As far as races go - well, perhaps they could be grouped into 4 rates, like so:

+2 houses per turn - lizardmen, orcs, halflings, barbarians (5 turns as an outpost total)
+1 houses per turn - high men, beastmen, draconian, klackon, gnoll, nomad (9 turns as an outpost total)
+1 house on even turns only - high elves, dark elves, trolls, dwarves (19-20 turns as an outpost total)
+1 house on divisible by 4 turns only - nobody by default, but possible with famine (37-40 turns as an outpost total)

As far as losing terrain effects on outpost growth rate - I honestly don't see how anything interesting would be lost. An outpost placed on bad terrain will still grow slowly once it becomes a hamlet and still not amount to anything worthwhile even after it has grown a long time. Why is there a need to punish these spots further? If it's absolutely necessary to keep some terrain effects, then one idea is to sum up the terrain score and if it is below a certain value, then the above racial table gets lowered by one rung.

Spells - Stream of Life and Gaia's blessing add +1 house per turn, Famine lowers the growth by one rung, Pestilence sets a fixed rate of -1 house per turn. It's a waste of mana and skill to cast this stuff on an outpost anyways.

[Nelphine]

I like casting the city buffs on a super city spot to get it up and running faster. *pout*

I like random growth. I'm OK with the range of randomness reducing, as especially if its your first city you settle, the random shrinking that eventually leads to abandoning can certainly lose the game for you.

I'm certainly not as vehement as germanjoey though.

[occasionalplayer]

Shouldn't cannons then be an unsuitable target for Flame Blade in the first place?

As for outposts, how about improving growth through multiple settlers?
IE: "Build" on an existing outpost adds another 3 housing symbols. That way, you could force settlements, albeit at a high cost. That would also be thematic (strengthening settlements through population relocation).

[Nelphine]

if it's doable code wise, i actually like using settlers to add to an existing outpost - very reminiscent of sending transports to colonies in moo

[sayke]

I quite like the current/original semi-random settlement growth.

[Seravy]

3.04 is up for download!

3.04
-AI combat spell Flight priority : +20 is added if all own units are unable to attack flying units, and all enemy units fly.
-AI combat spell Supreme Light priority : fixed bug- units with attack type 30 (storm giant) and units with over 127 MP are not counted.
-AI combat spell Supreme Light priority : Increased priority granted by the presence of high MP units.
-AI combat spell Supreme Light priority : Increased priority if the AI is expecting to win the combat. (regeneration prevents loss of units)
-AI combat spell Invisibility priority : Now capped at 80.
-AI combat spell Guardian Wind priority : Now capped at 66.
- AI combat spell Prayer, High Prayer priority : Now adds +8/units instead of +7.
-Fixed a bug triggered by the player getting banished.
-AI wizards now have 12 picks on hard, 13 on extreme, 14 on impossible.
-The AI is now allowed to move units before attacking on Normal difficulty.
-AI city growth bonus on Normal and Hard reduced. (110->100, 130->120)
-Conjure Roads research cost is now 200.
-Units killed and raised as undead or zombies are worth 3 DP penalty instead of 7.
-The diplomacy event “thanks for killing enemy units” now triggers at 12% chance on a stack worth a total of 22 DP or more. This should allow it to trigger slightly more and on big but not 9 size stacks as well. (was 25% on 29 or more prior to this chance)
-Warp Creature : “Halved Attack” now applies to all attack types the unit has (ranged, thrown etc)
-Warp Creature : “Halved Defense” is now 1/3 defense instead.
-”Threaten” now has a new outcome : The AI is scared but does not pay money. This result will happen if the roll is between 80 and 110. 110+ offers gold, below 80 ignores the threat as usual. This result will also be generated if the AI wanted to offer gold but does not have any.
-”Threaten” if successful now disables Hostility immediately in addition to forming a Peace Treaty.
-”Threaten” peace treaty duration is now 12-26 turns if a spell was given, 12-18 turns if nothing was given or gold was given.
-”Threaten” peace treaty is now correctly set on both sides instead of only one side.
-Dispelling Focus Magic now restores the ranged attack type of the unit to the original instead of leaving it with Magical Ranged without the +3 bonus.
-Increased the chance of Ruthless wizards turning to Jihad hostility from 10 to 15%.
-Experimental : The personality modifier of Ruthless increased to +10, Aggressive to +20, Peaceful reduced to +65.
-Chaotic wizards now have a personality modifier of 1-50 selected randomly each turn and when the game is loaded.
-Experimental : Maybe fixed the crash that happens if the player clicks too quickly when an AI casts a global enchantment.

[Seravy]

I'm going to play more games to test the difficulty level settings, so I wonder, which difficulty should I play first? Which is the most used by players?
So far I played hard twice, using the exact same wizard. One felt a bit too easy, the other way too hard. Not a very good start.

[zitro1987]

I'm going to play more games to test the difficulty level settings, so I wonder, which difficulty should I play first? Which is the most used by players?
So far I played hard twice, using the exact same wizard. One felt a bit too easy, the other way too hard. Not a very good start.

I assume about 2/3 of the players would play 'normal' and 'hard', with a few of the expert hardcore fans playing 'extreme'