Caster of Magic II Bug Reports!

[Mqz]

Test version 1.02.00

272)
Keybindings not working, can't press G for [Game] S for [Spell] M for [Magic] P for [Plane] N for [Next Turn] etc.
This is pretty painfull, any way to fix this?

CASTERWIN.html - typo: "Pressing Space will center the selected unit. If no units are selected, it canters your fortress city."

[Seravy]

272 That's weird. It works fine on my side. Did you change your keys.ini?

...ok I think I know the problem. I didn't include that file in the upload. Copy it from your 1.1.2.

[WhiteMage]

COM II v1.01.02, 2021-07-25

Bug:
I casted heroism on Sage hero. It did not gain the stated +2 range, nor the +2 resistance for getting into level 4. Only gained +1 of each.

Question:
Neutral Monsters disappeared from map after I “won” (draw) battle by running around and not fighting. Intended feature? In that case I recommend a message. Better if they rarely disappear after a draw battle they should have won.

Suggestions:

First 3 Temples and Stonehenge I cleared all gave 100 gold. Too uniform and predictable, hence boring. Make them a bit different & random. Earn mana, find cheap item, make unit (not just hero) join you, earn fame, etc.

Lionheart: Add example text for 3 figures. 3HP, 3HP, 2HP. Do not round down like in COM. Remove example text on 4 figures.

Change difficulty names to: Novice, Easy, Fair, Normal, Hard, Expert, Master, Impossible

Add: Random to Difficulty and Opponents game options at start. Random flag too.
Random selection of starting spells. I always play random, except difficulty.

City wall text should be more detailed with numbers.

Change City Wall maintenance to 0. Having City Walls is almost never a good strategy, in my games in my perception. If I even have to pay to maintain it I always sell it.
OR
Change City Wall’s Gate to be on the opposite side on the back, so I can sneak out without having to cast Disrupt on my own wall while being sieged. OR even better, make it random which of the 4 sides has the gate to make siege diverse.

In Magic Tab on top, the Heavenly Light produced power should be displayed as Spell produced power and not City produced. More accurate.

In city screen it would be better to display Granary causing +25 growth. Not natural.

Flee success chance should be better if equal speed compared to -1 speed. Currently they are the same chance.

Terrain tile in battle should give defensive bonus (Forest +1, Hill +2) and penalty (swamp -1). This would make the battles more tactical giving more choices what to do, and where to fight. More depth, more interesting.

Make keyboard’s arrows scroll the overland map 1 tile at a time. This would help to measure distance. Currently it is hard to count distance, especially on ocean.

Make same mouse button scroll the mini map on the top right as the main overland map. Not intuitive that they are different. Every time I fear my unit will move if I click left mouse button. I need to be conscious which mouse button to click depending on which map I use – waste of time and sometimes I miss it. Right click by default should scroll both maps.

When I build swordsmen in a city and right click on it the color changes to red. I assumed it would repeat build it. It should, IMO. It should be intuitive and clear what red color means. Not clear what it is now.

Phantom Warriors are displayed to have 1 mana upkeep. Remove it, since they are not applied anyway.

Message came up: Monsters have been spotted near my capital. But it was 4 tiles from it while it was 1 tile from another town. It would be better to list the closest town.

In MOM and COM individual farmer and worker allocation resulted in huge differences due to complex, practically unpredictable rounding. Actual example: worker #5 in city X produces 2 hammers, worker #6 produces 4, worker #7 produces 1, etc. My suggestion is allowing fractional food and hammer production. 1 or 2 decimal digits. Say, each farmer in City X produces 3.3 food and 0.5 hammer, while each worker produces 2.6 hammers (after bonuses). This stays uniform in a city until a new building that modifies it is completed. All fractions carry over to next turn. Never lost.

Empire excess food also carries over to next turn as food. Much less fiddling with farmers and workers every turn to squeeze out most food and most hammers, which is my heuristic for MOM (and COM) since 1994. In building constructions, this is a strong strategy. In units? Not so much.

Moving 200+ units each turn is tedious too. In late game that becomes even worse than city micro. I have several suggestions for that as well:
1. Make unit moves cost gold. Say, every army (up to 9 units is an army on 1 tile) moving 1 tile costs 1 gold, which is immediately updated in empire gold graphics. Breaking up the army into 9 units and moving them the exact 1 tile separately would cost 9 gold. Moving large army is cheaper. This motivates less micromanagement, since you are not only wasting your own play time managing moves, but also your game money. (For example, moving army costs money in real life).

2. Units that did not move last turn earn +1 attack and +1 defense. 2 Turns: +2, +2 . 3 turns: +3, +3, which is the max. This can be displayed in color and graphics of fortifying. This again, motivates less move, less micromanagement. And it can be tuned later for balance. (Civ has similar rules for example)

3. Units that do not move heal faster.  (Battle for Wesnoth has this rule for example).

4. Units that did not move for 1 turn (patrol) increase their scouting radius. 1 turn full rest: +1 scouting radius. 2 turns: +2 scouting radius, 3 turns: +3 scouting radius, which is the max. So no need to pick up my fast units each turn to move a little just to scout. (This feature existed in the original MOM, but it was +1 max.)

With such new rules, I may not move my 100+ magic spirits and spearmen each turn just to plug in the borders around the enemy and to swap who is healing in a city, etc.

We need to make it motivating for players to not move units for no brainer, boring, repetitive, "mandatory" reasons. Move your unit or not? It is now a hard choice and not a requirement for optimal game play.

Later, these cost formulas can be tuned to balance better. Need to feel them out through testing.

Etc. I have many more ideas if this is not enough. Implement these as opinions. I think expert players would appreciate it, but casual players would not.

[drake178]

Question:
Neutral Monsters disappeared from map after I “won” (draw) battle by running around and not fighting. Intended feature? In that case I recommend a message. Better if they rarely disappear after a draw battle they should have won.

Draw counts as victory for the defender. Neutrals disappear after battle if they are not victorious. It's always been like that. Unless you mean they disappeared after a defensive draw (i.e you were the attacker).

Terrain tile in battle should give defensive bonus (Forest +1, Hill +2) and penalty (swamp -1). This would make the battles more tactical giving more choices what to do, and where to fight. More depth, more interesting.

This is similar to other suggestions made multiple times over the years. They have been rejected every time because the AI can't exploit the bonus. By the same token, none of these:

Moving 200+ units each turn is tedious too. In late game that becomes even worse than city micro. I have several suggestions for that as well:
1. Make unit moves cost gold. Say, every army (up to 9 units is an army on 1 tile) moving 1 tile costs 1 gold, which is immediately updated in empire gold graphics. Breaking up the army into 9 units and moving them the exact 1 tile separately would cost 9 gold. Moving large army is cheaper. This motivates less micromanagement, since you are not only wasting your own play time managing moves, but also your game money. (For example, moving army costs money in real life).

2. Units that did not move last turn earn +1 attack and +1 defense. 2 Turns: +2, +2 . 3 turns: +3, +3, which is the max. This can be displayed in color and graphics of fortifying. This again, motivates less move, less micromanagement. And it can be tuned later for balance. (Civ has similar rules for example)

3. Units that do not move heal faster.  (Battle for Wesnoth has this rule for example).

4. Units that did not move for 1 turn (patrol) increase their scouting radius. 1 turn full rest: +1 scouting radius. 2 turns: +2 scouting radius, 3 turns: +3 scouting radius, which is the max. So no need to pick up my fast units each turn to move a little just to scout. (This feature existed in the original MOM, but it was +1 max.)

seem viable either.

In MOM and COM individual farmer and worker allocation resulted in huge differences due to complex, practically unpredictable rounding. Actual example: worker #5 in city X produces 2 hammers, worker #6 produces 4, worker #7 produces 1, etc.

Any chance to see that example in practice?

Empire excess food also carries over to next turn as food. Much less fiddling with farmers and workers every turn to squeeze out most food and most hammers, which is my heuristic for MOM (and COM) since 1994. In building constructions, this is a strong strategy. In units? Not so much.

You mean food should become a resource that can be stockpiled? Or am I reading this wrong? I mean, what happens on the turn after the next?

[Seravy]

Hero ranged, resistance : Heroes start from level 1, not 0. Going to level 4 is +3 levels. That's only +1 of each stat, as it is rounded down. Not bug.

Monsters retreating : Yes, I believe that was an intended feature. I'm not 100% sure though, we've changed that quite a few times. We can discuss this later when there is nothing more important left.

The beginning lairs are set to have 50-150 budget. However, the minimal treasure allowed is 100 so any place that rolls 50-100 will have monsters in that range but gold (or mana) is raised to 100.
This would require removing or changing the minimal treasure allowed.

Lionheart. Units only have one "HP per figure" stat. It's not possible for a unit to have figures that have different amounts of max HP.

Random number of opponents is a good idea. I'll add that in a later update. I don't think random difficulty would be particularly useful.

City Wall works fine. I built them all the time and they are very useful.

Heavenly Light adds power production to the city and is affected by anything that modifies power produced by cities. Same as buildings.

I don't intend to change fleeing game mechanics.
Combat terrain adding a bonus is not AI friendly. I generally avoid game mechanics the AI cannot take advantage of.

Keyboard scrolling is already on my todo list at low priority. It will eventually happen.

Right click on minimap opens the help entry for the minimap. This is consistent with how the game operates. We can make it use right click to moving the window but that comes at the cost of not having a help entry for the minimap at all. Is that acceptable?

Pink color means autobuy. To repeat the production, click the Housing/Trade/Repeat selection button. You can't repeat the production of something that isn't the last item in the queue as it would make the rest of the queue unreachable.

Combat summons do have upkeep and it should be applied if you manage to get a permanent version of the unit. In case of Phantom Warriors, that is possible by the Fairy Ring spell only but for corporeal units, raising as undead from a lair also works.

The nearest city will be displayed for monsters starting from the next upload of 1.2

[Mqz]

270) (again)
Auto rebuild also not working in version 1.2. Tested with volcano too.

273)
The new Shift+H is very much appreciated, but the text is hiding behind lairs, towers and units, so can be pretty hard to see sometimes.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gxqy46vj66jsys...H.png?dl=0

274)
Population growth is not calculated/updated (selling granary, changing to/and from housing) in the city untill you click on the growth or change workers/farmers around or click on resources. Even leaving town, end turn and entering dosn't recalculate. But the growth amount added is correct.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zhzj68cfvix0od...h.mp4?dl=0

275)
Autobuying a unit and clicking 2.repeat only autobuys one unit, guess this is just a question about preference really. Can just click x amount of units and autobuy them all if you want to buy many units.

276)
CASTERWIN.html: "Fortress Lightning applies for the first 3+(Skill/20) combat turns." Maybe add: "Modified by difficulty."?

277)
From log.txt
File C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Master of Magic\ComWin120\\data\Farmer14.png is missing!
File C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Master of Magic\ComWin120\\data\Worker14.png is missing!
File C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Master of Magic\ComWin120\\data\Rebel14.png is missing!
Seems to be missing Farmer, worker and rebel from 14-21. In total 24 lines of missing *.png files.
In the dictionary there are a also a farmer, worker and rebel number 0 and 22, for a total of 15 races, there is only 14 races.

278)
Rjak START TURN PROCESS FOR TURN 3
AI Overland spellcasting category priorities
Summoning : 134
Unit Buff : 50
Water Movement : 33
Buff category was chosen!
Rjak starts casting Wraith Form
Rjak START TURN PROCESS FOR TURN 4
Spell target :Lizardmen Settlers

279)
AI Overland spellcasting category priorities
Summoning : 94
Unit Buff : 50
Water Movement : 33
Rjak starts casting Wraith Form
Dosn't mention what category it have selected as usual, normally it says "Summoning category was chosen" or "Buff category", so it have prolly seleted "water movement", just dosn't mention that. This is turn 21 and he is lizardmen..
But he cast it on a raised fire elemental, so not a complete lose I guess.

280)
If you press [Auto] in a battle. All attack spell calculations is dublicated in the log, and if the spell is selected to be cast it is logged 3 times.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qhoyemhdswze0w...g.txt?dl=0

281)
There is also minor result differences in the calculations each time they are calculated, why?
See log from number 280

282)
I can't quite get the fire bolt calculations to work out.
My two Klackon veteran swordsmen should take 1,8 damage but in the log they are calculated to take 1,5-1,6 damage. They have 6 armor and large shield (+3). The other swordsmen are just regulars with 5 armor and +3 shield also seems to take too little damage?
Fire bolt vs 9 armor = 24x0,3 = 7,2 damage -2,7(armor) -1 hp -2,7(armor) -0,8 hp = Total of 1,8 damage
See log from number 280

283)
Klackon have a +50% production bonus from its workers that give "Klackon Workers" base production, this is not multiplied by Terrain or Miner's guild. (So not base production anymore). Prolly same problem with dwarfs again. Same as back in number 114.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n9ymclukf6h6i6...s.png?dl=0

[Seravy]

270. I've just fixed it, won't reupload the files until I fix at least a few more things.
273. Yes, that has been bothering me too. Text will be moved to top for the next upload.
274. Fixed for the next upload. Several things didn't set the "recalculation needed" flags that should have, like swapping to/from housing or moving units into/out of a city.
277. Not a bug. Those are the race codes for fantastic creatures. You can't build cities of them so city related graphics don't exist. The extra files are the ones I used to test the feature. They are a duplicate of Barbarians. I thought it might be useful to leave them there as a hint of what needs to be added for new races.
278. In theory, weapon immunity is not entirely useless on the settler. Assuming they didn't have a more valuable target...
279. Casting the water move category might seem bad for Lizardmen but it still enables their summoned creatures and hired heroes/mercenaries to participate in a water moving stack so I don't think we should disable it. Maybe a reduction in priority? I'm not sure. As all their other units already move on water, letting the last few, stronger units join is actually worth more than usual I think.
280. That's normal. The AI calculates the target twice - first when checking if the spell is valid to be cast which happens on all spells, and for direct damage, it does so again to get the expected damage value which adjusts the casting priority which other spell types don't need to. It's because the expected damage is also calculated through the target selection function.
The minor difference comes from these being simulations -the AI rolls the dice to calculate the damage. It uses the average result from 20 rolls but even that doesn't guarantee it's always the exact same value.
282. It's because the average also includes the cases where you rolled more than 2 damage and the third figure gets to also use armor. 1.8 is too close to 2 so the percentage of cases where you lose damage by doing more than 2 will be much higher than the cases where it dips below 1 and only one figure gets to roll defense instead of two.
283. You are right. It'll be fixed in the next upload, or you can manually fix it right now by adding the two missing lines to the production script :
BASEPROD=BASEPROD+WORKERS;
In EcoProd.CAS, line 14 and 18 should be these.

[Intaka]

Question: Is city population now supposed to never decrease, even if land conditions change so that the city location has a smaller maximal pop? Corruption attacks sent one of my cities max pop to 15... city pop stayed at 18 unchanging. Seemed odd.

[Intaka]

Also... Just throwing it out there one more time. Maybe start a new thread for just "bug reports"? "Alpha Testing" seems a strange place to communicate things about a game that is released and mature.

[Intaka]

For tracking purposes... Planetary Mastery in my most recent game 1.1.2 let me left click as much as I wanted until all units and buildings were gone (you could see some die each click) until I finally hit cancel to move on with life. After that I just cancelled each time, since it seemed pretty brokenly overpowered.