Gem usage and performing ritual spells

[msew]

So the ritual spell order is random. This is all fine and dandy.

What doesn't seem to be random is that the gems for the ritual spells being cast are used up before the spell is cast.

e.g.

-I cast a ritual spell that I put 100 gems into.
-opponent casts distant province attack spell costing 15 gems (fires from afar)


Order comes up that fires from afar goes off first. It kills the mage casting the ritual spell with 100 gems.

Those 100 gems are used up with no result as the mage is dead.

This sort of bites big.

Make it even worse.

3 or 4 mages all casting ritual spells each at around 50 gems a piece. (so ~200 gems get used up)

Enemy casts 3 fires from afar (for 45 gems).

Now the ordering algorithm orders the spells. And the guy spending 45 has a a good chance of getting at least one of his spells in front and nuking the mages giving him a very nice return on his 45 gems. The mages are killed, spells are ruined, and the gems used up.


Certainly you can try to counter act this with domes and rings that protect your from said spells and such.

But the question is: is this intended to be the case or an oversight of the ordering of gem usage. Because the gem usage seems to occur when you first choose to attempt cast the spell vs completion of the spell.

i.e. the client says: for this turn I am going to do these things. Here is the cost. N gold, N resources, N holy, N gems of each type. The server checks to see if those are valid and then deducts them from the player.

Then the turn is processed.


I think the best solution would be to have the cost of the gems used up over the course of the abstracted time period more than likely by just determining (randomly) how far along the mage and refunding the correct number of gems.

e.g. So during the time period it was determined that the mage was killed off halfway through casting his spell. Okie give 50% of the gems back.