(February 3rd, 2017, 16:24)frutagode Wrote: The dark elves production screen shows that many units have "scouting II", but when you pruce them they show "scouting I", but actually they have no extended scouting range.
The production screen uses a different subroutine than the unit view so it has some inconsistencies. I haven't had the time to fix that, and probably quite a few of them cannot be fixed at all - especially the abilities that don't appear. If they see 2 tiles ahead, then they have the correct scouting effect. Other units without the ability see 1 tile ahead only.
Ok, I mean the dark elves have just normal view (1 tile) like other units, so there should be no "scouting I" in the unit description, right?
(February 3rd, 2017, 16:24)frutagode Wrote: The dark elves production screen shows that many units have "scouting II", but when you pruce them they show "scouting I", but actually they have no extended scouting range.
The production screen uses a different subroutine than the unit view so it has some inconsistencies. I haven't had the time to fix that, and probably quite a few of them cannot be fixed at all - especially the abilities that don't appear. If they see 2 tiles ahead, then they have the correct scouting effect. Other units without the ability see 1 tile ahead only.
Ok, I mean the dark elves have just normal view (1 tile) like other units, so there should be no "scouting I" in the unit description, right?
They do? Are you absolutely sure the units were produced by the mod and you didn't load a save game from a different Master of Magic version, or a very old version of the mod? Scouting is set at the time the unit is created, so if they were made by something other than the mod itself, the scouting will be wrong.
(also, I double checked, all Dark Elf units have their scouting value set to 2 in the unit definition. If they don't have that scouting range in the game, it means scouting as a whole is broken somehow.)
I admit I can't make those races reliably get a practically unstoppable advantage on extreme difficulty, before 1410. If you can, I'd like to hear how.
In the game I'm playing right now, both Myrran wizards started with Dark Elves. Both of these wizard have only half as much on the historian graph as the two Arcanus wizards who started with nothing special - Orcs and I'm guessing halflings, haven't found the capital yet so all I know is they spread that race on the map. Despite me also starting on Myrror, I was able to get a higher historian bar than them, even before I started conquering territory on Arcanus...and I started with Halflings. On extreme difficulty. And it's worth saying that all Dark Elf units have an extra ranged attack, so their unit power is roughly double the normal on graphs, plus they produce power per population so that should raise their bars considerably as well...yet they are still behind. (I do have about 6 cities on Myrror but all the rest of the plane is theirs, so that doesn't explain why they are only half as powerful as others.)
I don't think it can be any more obvious than this, Dark Elves are too weak/slow. Not only are their racial units bad for the AI (warlocks and nightblades are weak in strategic combat, nighmares are ok but not that strong and hard to unlock) but their growth is horrible and they are ultra-easy to counter (a single golem is plenty). I believe their growth rate needs major revisions. I wanted to keep them similar to High Elves but it doesn't work that way. High Elves actually have powerful units that work even for the AI (elven lords, pegasai and longbowmen) and their racial To Hit works in strategic combat, unlike Dark Elf Invisibility and Doom Bolt Spell.
A secondary observation, AI Myrran wizards are actually lacking in magic power. Myrran nodes are hard to clear and while the Arcanus wizards each own 4-5 nodes, the Myrran wizards don't - though this probably also due to dark elves and their lack of growth and military power to get any.
(terrain might also escalate the problem in this particular game, as Myrror is 9+ small continents, while Arcanus is 3-4 large ones, but still it shouldn't be this huge gap. I can barely find a city over 10 pop on Myrror, there are like 2 of them plus the non-dark-elf ones that started neutral. I haven't explored everything yet though, only about 70% of the world. )
Dark Elves - strategic combat boosts (though I don't understand too well how it works)
*pop growth +20 instead of +10 or base units having normal cost
*Warlocks - high melee (6-9) for strategic combat calculations (they will do poorly in melee anyways)
*Nightmares are ok - very versatile and good in groups
(February 3rd, 2017, 16:24)frutagode Wrote: The dark elves production screen shows that many units have "scouting II", but when you pruce them they show "scouting I", but actually they have no extended scouting range.
The production screen uses a different subroutine than the unit view so it has some inconsistencies. I haven't had the time to fix that, and probably quite a few of them cannot be fixed at all - especially the abilities that don't appear. If they see 2 tiles ahead, then they have the correct scouting effect. Other units without the ability see 1 tile ahead only.
Ok, I mean the dark elves have just normal view (1 tile) like other units, so there should be no "scouting I" in the unit description, right?
They do? Are you absolutely sure the units were produced by the mod and you didn't load a save game from a different Master of Magic version, or a very old version of the mod? Scouting is set at the time the unit is created, so if they were made by something other than the mod itself, the scouting will be wrong.
(also, I double checked, all Dark Elf units have their scouting value set to 2 in the unit definition. If they don't have that scouting range in the game, it means scouting as a whole is broken somehow.)
I installed a fresh version of Master of Magic (GOG version), then copied the caster 3.10 files on top. Started a new game. See the screenshots from the scouting area, unit description and production screen.
(February 3rd, 2017, 16:24)frutagode Wrote: The dark elves production screen shows that many units have "scouting II", but when you pruce them they show "scouting I", but actually they have no extended scouting range.
The production screen uses a different subroutine than the unit view so it has some inconsistencies. I haven't had the time to fix that, and probably quite a few of them cannot be fixed at all - especially the abilities that don't appear. If they see 2 tiles ahead, then they have the correct scouting effect. Other units without the ability see 1 tile ahead only.
Ok, I mean the dark elves have just normal view (1 tile) like other units, so there should be no "scouting I" in the unit description, right?
They do? Are you absolutely sure the units were produced by the mod and you didn't load a save game from a different Master of Magic version, or a very old version of the mod? Scouting is set at the time the unit is created, so if they were made by something other than the mod itself, the scouting will be wrong.
(also, I double checked, all Dark Elf units have their scouting value set to 2 in the unit definition. If they don't have that scouting range in the game, it means scouting as a whole is broken somehow.)
I installed a fresh version of Master of Magic (GOG version), then copied the caster 3.10 files on top. Started a new game. See the screenshots from the scouting area, unit description and production screen.
Oh I see what's the problem. You didn't produce those units, you started the game by already having them. So they don't have the increased scouting on them. I have to copy the unit tables from wizards.exe into magic.exe somehow to fix that.
As a note seravy, in my lizardman game where I'm ahead in 1408, the myrran wizards are trolls and dwarves, and there's.. 4 or 5 neutrals who are beastmen.
