Caster of Magic Release thread : latest version 6.06!

[zitro1987]

Hi Seravy,

The discussions on 'strategic combat' made me think of something else:
*Can we add an option that allows auto-combat to use your spells at the same way as AI does?

Sometimes I like to speed up the game when there are so many battles, but abstaining from using your own spells to save mana make it a horrible choice in many cases. If spells can be allowed, it would speed up the game, take advantage of improved battle AI in your side, and still enjoy seeing my troops fight.

[Seravy]

Hi Seravy,

The discussions on 'strategic combat' made me think of something else:
*Can we add an option that allows auto-combat to use your spells at the same way as AI does?

I implemented that for AI testing purposes but I don't want to enable it for two reasons :

1. It would play better than average players, which is a problem. If players turn it off, they'll lose more so they'll want it always on - but then they'll not learn how to play better.
2. In some battles you want to cast spells, in others you don't, and there is no way to turn the option on/off during battle. It will waste massive amounts of mana on killing a single enemy spearmen when there is no need to. On long term this can easily affect the outcome of the game by making you run out of mana crystals.

[vicwaberub]

Good work!

There is a new german LP on Youtube, produced by a beginner in CoM. Sometimes he is a little bit confused. 

F.E. the hitchance for Guardian Spirit and others in the unit info screen: The text "+3 To Hit" is a little bit confusing. Better would be "+30% to hit" or the complete hitchance: 
"60% to hit 
 30% to def".

A lot of players seems to have a problem with the multi-figure units and their attack. It would be nice to have a number of figures as multiplier in the battle info screen like 6x3 |swordsymbol| for a High Men Bowmen.

An information about range attack disadvantages in battles would be nice too. F.E. like in Jagged Alliance as a %-value on mouse over enemy unit.

A hero at game start would be nice. If a player want a hero, the game should give him one at the start and don't let him wait for 30+x turns. So he can play a hero based strategy and allow a more personal gaming style.
Alternative: This can be an idea for the retort Charismatic/Famous or he get a better hero then. 

Is there a possibility to upgrade a unit with magical/mithril/... weapons in a town with that ressource and building? F.E. as a production selection "Upgrade Unit"?

Btw: Guardian Spirit has swimming as movement?

[Seravy]

Yea, watched that video yesterday, too bad I don't understand German very well.
If someone is too lazy to rightclick the sword icons to read what they and hit chance represent, too bad, but this isn't one of those new games where you have to go through a 30 minute tutorial where they explain every single detail.

Guardian Spirit is noncorporeal. Noncorporeal movement = swimming plus pathfinding (single unit only) movement. It doesn't have its own icon so swimming appears in places where you have to display a single icon (and both where the game can display two).
I've already rejected the hero at start idea at least twice, not to mention we recently make an upgrade to prevent heroes before turn 30 for balance reasons.

Upgrading weapons is impossible and undesired.

Ranged penalties are also mentioned in the help text for ranged attack.

[zitro1987]

Caster of Magic's 'help.lbx' is extremely well done, better than the original version.

However, I sometimes wonder if a team-based little manual (the basics) and brief strategy guide (to at least survive 'normal'), might help make this project more popular. I also speak of experience with a family member that regularly played hard/impossible, and really struggling with just 'normal'. I gave lots of tips to that person, who got more comfortable.

A mini-intro manual would work best if:
*it doesn't distract Seravy from modding, meaning it being a responsibility of a few volunteers who often play here.
*it is completely separate from the 'Caster of Magic' document that explains MoM to CoM changes
*It does not have any lists. No unit list. No spell list. No building list, none.
*It covers only the most important and less intuitive mechanics (such as 'to hit', resistance, etc) so that a player can discover strategies based on this basic knowledge of game mechanics. It's super rewarding when you find something that works and understand why it works.
*Maybe a very basic strategy description of races and magic realms
*Maybe a very basic strategy guide for early stages of game.

[Nelphine]

Um. I'd actually be willing to look at writing something like that, but, I'm not entirely sure what people would want in it. As long as its a document, not a video. That way we (if Seravy approves) can add it into the download.

Explaining something like multi figure units I can do. Explaining the different kinds of movement, pathfinding, and how its a problem during wizard pacts. Explaining resistance, to hit, to defend.

As for actual strategy suggestions, I would have two problems with that. A) I'm not really sure any more what basic play would look like (especially since play style right now literally changes based on difficulty, as per my notes about impossible), and b) we're still making constant changes, so some early things will literally disappear.

So, if I can get some feedback, I'd be happy to start this

[vicwaberub]

So, if I can get some feedback, I'd be happy to start this

Its all ok. I saw some problems for beginners to understand the unit info, without reading the good ingame help they are confused. F.E. they know about the 30%-Rule, but "+1 to hit" is not intuitive: 31%?! It would be better if a player can see the resulting hitchance as a %-value in the unit info. But its ok if it doesn't work.

[Nelphine]

I think the problem is slightly more in depth than that. Let's say you're a newish player and the tooltip tells you that a 6 attack unit has a 30% chance to hit. Then you attack a 4 defense unit, and you do 2 damage.

What made you do 2 damage? I think it might be natural to accidentally confuse the new player into thinking 'oh, 30% of 6 is 1.8, so that's why I did 2 damage.'

But of course, we know the reality is its much more complicated than that.

Similarly, let's say your unit attacks something with 10 defense. And you do 0 damage. A new player could easily think 'oh, I had a 30% chance of doing 6 damage. Since I failed to do any, I missed.'

But that's incorrect too.

By not having any percentages anywhere, it means that the new player either ignores the whole thing and just goes 'ah ha, this 10 attack unit is better than that 6 attack unit; and whoa, this 10 attack unit has +1 to hit! I have no idea what that means but it must be better than that other 10 attack unit!'

And that's good enough for a fairly long time. And then, if they really do want to understand, its obvious that the tooltips don't fully explain it, and they'll go looking for the full explanation of how the different stats interact.

[Seravy]

its obvious that the tooltips don't fully explain it

They do though. I don't think it can be explained any better than this. If someone fails to comprehend this and makes the mistakes in your examples, they can't read or understand English.

           

[Nelphine]

You know, I've never actually seen those 3 screens. *goes and checks* yup, there they are. I've just never realized you could right click on those. Neat! I think that's a fine place for the info to be, but, as per my own lack of experience, I can easily see many new players not finding those. Which is fine. That's part of the 'look for more detailed information' that I was talking about.

I would much rather leave it exactly as it is.