Caster of Magic II Bug Reports!

[Seravy]

Another, more intuitive idea for handling Raise/Animate on possessed units would be to force the "control changed units die irrecoverably" rule at the time the unit died instead of only at the end of combat.
That would make these units invalid to target, eliminating the problem.

[drake178]

Any relation loss that would be caused by killing units is converted to half that much loss in Peace Interest during war.

Wouldn't it make more sense for units lost during a failed offensive (i.e. the AI was the attacker and lost the battle) during war to increase Peace Interest instead of decreasing it? Just a thought.

This only applies when they player is the attacker though.
The AI's own attacks don't cause a relation loss.

That doesn't mean they couldn't increase Peace Interest if they fail, using the same mechanic. Or would that make it too easy to make peace? I assume it would have no effect on AI-AI diplomacy since the attacker is destined to win there.

[Seravy]

Any relation loss that would be caused by killing units is converted to half that much loss in Peace Interest during war.

Wouldn't it make more sense for units lost during a failed offensive (i.e. the AI was the attacker and lost the battle) during war to increase Peace Interest instead of decreasing it? Just a thought.

This only applies when they player is the attacker though.
The AI's own attacks don't cause a relation loss.

That doesn't mean they couldn't increase Peace Interest if they fail, using the same mechanic. Or would that make it too easy to make peace? I assume it would have no effect on AI-AI diplomacy since the attacker is destined to win there.

Well, it could, but then it would be an entirely new game mechanic that doesn't even go through the diplomacy reaction system since it makes a sub-variable change from something that wouldn't have a relation changing effect at all.

But it goes against how the AI is designed to work. The AI has a large amount of units and generally tries to overwhelm the player with them. If they were forced to offer peace after losing like 5 stacks out of their 120, that is like the game design shooting itself into its foot. This sort of peace mechanic only makes sense in games where each player has very few armies and losing even 2-3 battles leaves them so crippled they can't continue attacking.

[MrBiscuits]

Animate ammo works against units with magic immunity. Is that intended?

[Slingers]

In case it was overlooked: There is a reproducible little bug. When creating a custom wizard, the spell help text does not update when you go back one page from the very rares. Watch @39:15

[Seravy]

Animate ammo works against units with magic immunity. Is that intended?

Yes, intended. It targets the ammo, not the unit itself.

[Suppanut]

I think current Uranus's Blessing is completely useless of some race (different from its separate part philosopher's stone which still have some use even if economic bonus not working). I think perhaps Uranus's Blessing should have additional pre-casted Blur in battle too.

[Mqz]

Suppanut> Dwarf is the only race that have no effect at all from Uranus' Blessing, I brought that up in number 204. I don't belive there is any changes planed at the moment. But I also think it is a pretty powerfull spell already and don't really need any changes, most empires will have towns from different races, so will prolly have some effect of the spell as minimum. 22 mana/turn (-5 upkeep). Dark ritual is 24 mana/turn. (0 upkeep). Both rare spells. Both require high level buildings. Uranus' also gives highly valued overland casting. And dark ritual gives unrest. But Uranus' is a bit more expensive instead, 180 mana vs 150 mana.

231) (again)
Eternal night. Darkness spell is active in all fights, yes. Working as intended, but i'm only talking about the -1 resistance here, that specifically only works on other wizards units.
"All non-death units controlled by other wizards lose 1 resistance." But neutrals and lair monsters lose 1 res too..
Example: Neutral sky dragon in a tower has 14 res, I cast overland eternal night and this sky dragon has 13 res. Pretty sure it dosn't belong to any of the other wizards..

239) (again)
Animate dead. Well, the Ingame text says "one dead unit". And manual says "Raises a dead unit"
The spell targets was changed in a major way. Death creatures was never a valid target for this spell, it is now. And the spell dosn't mention anywhere that the hero thing was still in effect, so I think it was fair to belive that heros also was a valid target now
Maybe change it to: "one dead non-hero unit"?

I do love when something is "Technically correct", but I think anyone would have a hard time actually winning an argument here..
"Raise Dead brings the unit back without enchantments", nope, they still keep their enchantments. The possession enchantment is there, handing the control back to the AI.
Raise dead should only be able to target your own units, so should prolly not be able to raise enemy units at all?
"Control changed units die irrecoverably" / making sure it is only your own units you can cast the spell on, is prolly a good solution.

Animate dead can raise a demon lord or great drake like a joke. But can't control a normal unit with possession on it. Eh..
And technically the possession spell says "Attempts to change the allegiance of a normal enemy unit to that of the casting wizard". No reason to belive that the enemy should take control of the unit if you own it. It's specifying casting wizard (you) as owner, not whoever is (opponent) of the units owner.
I think dispelling control changing effects when raising units would make the spell work as intended.. (Overpowered, yes, but as intended.)
"Control changed units die irrecoverably" would make it alot less interresting to try and control enemy units if I can't raise them arfterwards..

Reminder: Version 1.0.5: "-Fixed bug : Necromancy can raise enemy units you controlled at the time they died (for example by Possession). Now you have to own and control the dead unit at the time it died to raise it, as intended."

249) (again)
Item enchantment prices. Was only if you had a list somewhere of what you thought the prices should be. My only interest was to see if the ingame prices was what you actually thought they were..

250)
Dispel magic.. Let's talk some more about Dispel magic..

The AI was casting dispel magic on my hero.. Alot.. But failed.. Alot.. One time I counted 42 failed dispel magics in a row, interspersed with other spells.. My hero have only immolation cast on him, immolation cost infight 12 mana, overland 60 mana.
Postulate: My immolation buff is 4x too hard to dispel.
Almost all global spells are active. No runemaster. No Specialist.

I had the AI try to dispel my immolation spell on my hero. "f" is when the AI's dispel fails "S" is when the AI succeds.
fffffffSff ffffSffffS fffffffSSf fffffSffff ffffffffff Sfffffffff ffffffffff ffffffffff ffffffffff fffSffffff ffffSfffff fffS
114 cast to dispel immolation 10 times

From the log I can see that in this fight (This is from the defence of a 17 inhabitants city). The AI always cast it with a x2 multiplier except for 4 times with a 0 multiplier and 2 times with a 1 multiplier because of low casting skill.

This is what it should look like:
(base casting cost + aditionel multiplier) / (total casting cost of dispel + casting cost of spell trying to dispel)
(10+20) / (60+10+20)
30/90 = 33%
Should be 33% but the attemps I just made, looks more like 9% chance for a dispel? That seems way off..

I tried having no spells on my hero, and waited to cast the immolation spell till I was in a fight.
ffSfSSffff ffSSfffffS fffSffSfSf fffS
34 cast to dispel 10 times
That looks pretty close to 33% chance.. Casting the spell in a fight seems to work correctly..

Hmm.. I have Ruler of heaven active "The casting wizard's global enchantments are 100% harder to dispel" could it be that it is treating overland unit buffs like overland global spells?
That would make it 30/150 = 20% Hmm.. That is still pretty much off from 9%..
I tried testing without Ruler of heaven.
fffffffSff fffSfSSffS ffffffffff SffSffffff SfSfffffff ffffS
55 cast to dispel 10 times
That seems to be inline with a 100% difference that would be expected from Ruler of heaven if it worked on unit spell (100% difference between 18% and 9%).

But we still need another 100% bonus to reach 30/270 = 11% That would be much more in line with what I am seeing here.

Archmage used to have some spell protection? This is not mentioned anywhere i windows-COM2?
Astrologers old version (Chaos- nature- and sorcery mastery) used to have some spell protection?
Maybe AEther Binding is giving dispel defence instead of offence?
If I am assuming that Ruler of heaven is giving a 100% bonus Evil Omens could be the one making weird things too..
Evil Omens are active for both of us, if the AI think it is using 30 mana but only is using 20 mana because of the 50% extra cost (20/((60x2+30)) = 13%, that could get somewhat close too..
Evil Omens: Or if my 50% extra casting cost of the spell is counted too (30/((60x1.5x2)+30)) = 14%, that could get somewhat close too..
Even though if all changes to cost was applied it would prolly end up like this; because of Divine Order (25% reduction) and casting cost reduction from 10 books (10% reduction): (30/((60x2x1.5x0.75x0.9)+30)) = 20%

I have archmage and astrologer in this game.
Even though it isn't mentioned in the game or in the manual, did Archmage manage to sneak its 100% dispel defence bonus in there by any chance? I think it did.. Or maybe my datasets are just too small..
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mxcb3who8gfb5b...n.mp4?dl=0 (Pretty standard fight testing infight cast immolation)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zpxugi5jb780mi...n.sav?dl=0

251)
Another thought; Evil Omens makes the base cost of dispel magic/disjunction cost 50% more, does this extra cost actually work in the spell or are it wasted? If it works then the previous calculations should be
(15+30)/(60+15+30) = 45/105 = 43% making everything even more off..
Also does Evil Omens add 50% extra cost to the slider multiplier of the AI?

252)
From many different fights the AI was targeting Torin the Chosens immolation buff with dispels with slider multiplier x 2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,0,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1,2,2,2,2,2
I think a death wizard with Wave of despair should target immolation with dispels pretty hard if possible, so that it can use its scary Wave of despair. That spell kill most heroes in 1-2 casts. But then again, I can just recast a 12 mana immolation spell infight and drain his mana.
Casting immolation infight is a 12 mana spell, it gives me an effect like I just cast a 60 mana buff, to have a decent chance of dispelling that it would cost the opponent 2 full strenght dispels with 50 mana cost just to get a 80% chance of dispelling it. Dunno, hard to balance..
I guess that is why Reaper Slash was added, think my death AI is missing that spell, prolly why he is so powerless vs immolation.

253)
Wraith Form spell specifically mention that it protects against mass targeting spells. But it dosn't protect against Wave of despair that is a mass targeting spell.
This protective effect is only mentioned in the ingame spell book text, is prolly not intentionel, would be very powerfull. Would also be weird if only the spell and not the overland enchantment (Ruler of Underworld), the natural skill (Shadow Demon) or the item gave the same effect (hmm.. item power actually mentions it too..)

254)
Life drain (-5 resistance) and black prayer (-2 resistance) on a 25 resist Torin the Chosen.. Uhmm.. okay.. He have 13 base resist + 6 from items and +6 from overland spells.. The AI cast this spell 1-3 times in most fights, with poor results. Easy to replicate in savegame from number 250 and can also be seen in video from number 250.

255)
CASTERWIN.html - Arcane: Dispel Magic, in the manual the formula gives the chance to resist the dispel. Ingame the formula gives the chance to not resist the dispel spell.. Bit inconsistent..

256)
Create artifact: Bless, wraithform and immolations help text is just referring directly to the spell book text.
But the other spells like True sight, Resist Elements, Elemental armor, resist magic and haste have their own help text with spell icons and that is different from the spell book text.

257)
Phoenix, Angel and vampire are the only summons who don't have a "Target: n/a" in the ingame spell book descriptions.

[Slingers]

239) (again)
...
"Raise Dead brings the unit back without enchantments", nope, they still keep their enchantments. The possession enchantment is there, handing the control back to the AI.
Raise dead should only be able to target your own units, so should prolly not be able to raise enemy units at all?
"Control changed units die irrecoverably" / making sure it is only your own units you can cast the spell on, is prolly a good solution.

Animate dead can raise a demon lord or great drake like a joke. But can't control a normal unit with possession on it. Eh..
And technically the possession spell says "Attempts to change the allegiance of a normal enemy unit to that of the casting wizard". No reason to belive that the enemy should take control of the unit if you own it. It's specifying casting wizard (you) as owner, not whoever is (opponent) of the units owner.
I think dispelling control changing effects when raising units would make the spell work as intended.. (Overpowered, yes, but as intended.)
"Control changed units die irrecoverably" would make it alot less interresting to try and control enemy units if I can't raise them arfterwards..

Reminder: Version 1.0.5: "-Fixed bug : Necromancy can raise enemy units you controlled at the time they died (for example by Possession). Now you have to own and control the dead unit at the time it died to raise it, as intended."

Possession is not a Unit enchantment but a Unit curse according to the complicated MOM Wiki terminology. But the spell is now different from Possession Vanilla. For example, you could dispel it there, but that did´nt change anything as the unit aready switched sides. I am wondering if the opponent could keep it if they won the battle and if you could possess it by yourself one more time then and dispel again to get it back? Also vanilla: "The only exception occurs if a unit with Regeneration is possessed by the enemy. In this case, if the unit is killed off, and the battle is won, it will come back as normal."

[Seravy]

231. I guess "other players" would be a better wording as it does apply to the "neutral player", although the term "player" and "wizard" is pretty much equivalent in the game except for this corner case. And even if I changed that people could still say there is no such thing as a "neutral player".

239.
if we do "Control changed units die irrecoverably" for Raise Dead, it automatically applies to Animate Dead as well. If the unit already died irrecoverably, it can't be raised by any spell.

250.
I've added debug logging of dispel strengths and resistances, that should help narrow down bugs with that in the next version.

Ruler of Heaven seems to apply to all spells. This seems to match how it has a combat icon as well as if it protected unit spells.
I'm wondering if it was intended to do this or not. The spell thread has no mention of this change at all and only has "your global enchantments are 100% harder to dispel" vs "your global enchantments cannot be dispelled".

While the spell was planned to be on the weak side, a dispel resistance bonus to globals vs making them undispellable is super weak. Sorcery wizards with AEther Binding will still dispel your globals most of the time and will dispel your buffs and city enchantments easily as well.
If the goal was to make it a spell that provides some fighting chance against Sorcery while still being weak to dispelling, I think it does do way too little and protecting every spell type might be necessary. Even with that, stacking multiple buffs raises the chance of losing spells so while double resistance allows you to get away with having 2-3 spells per unit or city, it still doesn't make it viable to use all your buffs and still keeps you weak vs Sorcery.

I'm leaning towards either letting it protect all spells with a 75 or 100% bonus, or going back to the original idea of "your global enchantments cannot be dispelled" while it doesn't protect other spells.
It might make it too good against non-Sorcery Dispel Magic though but in the endgame that is kinda obsolete either way - spamming single target dispels won't save you from a Life doomstack and while it does make conquest more costly, for the most part these spells are not even needed in the endgame, as you have your Archangel, Incarnation, High Prayer, or global spells buffing your armies. Any and all of those do more in terms of "undispellable buffing" than this spell would.

251.
Evil Omens does not add to the base cost, it adds to the Effective Cost. It's the same as a Sorcery Specialist paying less for Dispelling Wave, it should not affect the strength of the resulting dispel effect.

253.
Help text bug. A leftover from the time when we treated an original MoM bug as if it was an intentional feature :D

254.
Unfortunately I can't load save games easily at this time due to save format changes in the current update. What does the log say about the priority of available combat spells when the AI picks that?
I'm going to add expected damage calculated and targeting priority to the log in the next update to make this easier to fix.

256. Fixed for Wraithform and Bless. In case of Immolation the spell does contain granting Cold Immunity but the unit ability doesn't so the spell is more appropriate.

257. I'm more surprised the other summons do when it's common sense this spell type doesn't target at all. If anything, it should say "target : Summoning Circle".