AI spell casting priorities

[Kristoffer O]

Hi,

Seems like some spells might be too popular.

I've heard about:
Astral Shield
Arrow Fend (recently heard of this, so I'm not sure how bad it is)

Any others since last patch?

[sector24]

Bone Grinding (typically over Undead Mastery)

[Zeldor]

Kristoffer:

Black list! We want the ability to set a list of spells that our mages are forbidden to cast!

[Jazzepi]

Zeldor said:
Kristoffer:

Black list! We want the ability to set a list of spells that our mages are forbidden to cast!

Seriously. This would fix most of the problems.

Jazzepi

[ano]

+1 vote for blacklist.
If you really want to fix the problem, it will be definitely the best fix

[Amhazair]

Okey, people. I suspect KO has already heard about the blacklist idea, and that it won't be very easy to implement.

While a blacklist might fix some issues, that's not the point here. KO is asking specifically for spells that have too high spellcasting priority, probably with the intention of fixing that. Wether or not at one point in the future there might possibly be thought of maybe adding a blacklist feature, it won't be today, nor tomorrow. In the meantime having the priority of the ridiculously popular spells lowered would be wonderful, so the least we can do is help the guy out when he asks for input instead of throwing requests for a new feature in his face.

Having said all that, I can't think of one not already mentioned right now, but I'll definitely keep my eyes open.

Edit: Oh, and thanks, KO, for caring.

[cleveland]

Marble Warriors seems to take priority over Army of Gold, strangely.

Edit: This is not necessarily true, as I was using Army of Gold improperly.

[Wrana]

Is it possible to lower priority for gem-using spells in general? This is the reason I need to park gems in some scout/fighter commander & transfer tham to mage each turn - or else hust not use gems... I don't think that this amount of micromanagement is much fun...

[Tuidjy]

I hate Touch of Madness. With a passion. It should never be cast unscripted.
I never leave a mage unscripted, but I know that if the AI decides that a nature
spell is not worth the gems, it will default to Touch of Madness, and send
archers or mages into the fray. At the end of the battle, the number of
casulties precisely matches the number of targeted units.

And not a single gem should be used against a retreating enemy, ever. What
really sucks, and I have seen it happen at least once, is when the AI decides
that it does not need Arrow Fend when I am storming a castle, but once the
enemy has routed, summoning some Air Elementals is a damn good idea. Arrow
Fend, by the way, is one of the spells I'd love to see as "scripted only".
If you can't be bothered to script it, you should not benefit from it.

[Sombre]

If you can't be bothered to script it you shouldn't benefit? That's a weird thing to say. For one thing, who would ever benefit from arrow fend being cast unscripted? Only the AI would have air mages of sufficient skill kicking about with handfuls of gems and no script and most of the time it would still be a bad choice of spell.

Also, why the hostility towards people who don't script? I can't be arsed with the micro hassle of it most of the time. I script when I want certain powerful spells cast or have a definite battlemage script assigned to a number, but that's about it.


I personally think all spells which require gems (other than blood spells) should be 'script only'. The only problem there is the AI nations obviously wouldn't cast any combat spells requiring gems, which is a pretty big problem I admit.

It would definitely be good if any spells which are likely to either be a waste of gems/time or harmful to your own side (like berserk causing spells) were either really low priority or script only. Niche spells like ones only useful to thugs (shields, breath of winter etc), ones which summon neutral creatures (lammashtas, horrors etc) and so on should all be low priority or script only. That way unscripted mages would be more likely to cast something generally useful.