AI spell casting priorities

[Kristoffer O]

Thanks Amhazair

I'm just looking for particular spells atm, since I think I might be able to fix that. It should be quite simple to change factors on priority, but I don't think I can manage major changes. Thus I want only to know spells that seem to be overly popular.

[quantum_mechani]

Fire flies seems to get prioritized an unfortunate amount. At the very least fire darts should almost always trump it. As mentioned, fire and astral shield are probably too high.

Also, it doesn't matter much to most players, but it would probably help new players and the AI if all the summon ____power spells were very highly favored.

[Evil Dave]

I have to agree w/ summoning, especially after the enemy has routed. If possible, I'd like gem-cost summoning only if scripted.

And while I'm wishing, I really would like a blacklist. I've studied the debugging output... and maybe, hypothetically, some things not entirely in compliance with the game's licence... and it doesn't look too hard. The real question I think is whether it's worth the Devs' time vs. the long list of bugs and other feature requests.

To get back on topic, is there any way of reducing the priority of Wooden Warriors/Mass protection when my army is facing an army with a lot of heat/fire effects, Abysia especially? I can certainly see that adding checks for this one may be too hard.

[Sombre]

Astral shield seems rather high priority too.

[Hadrian_II]

Blink should also not get too much priority or at best not be autocasted by the AI at all. It is just not that funny when your yogis (or any other S1 mage i suppose) blinks in the path of retreating enemy archers and gets slain.

[Edratman2]

I'm going to say fire flies and fire darts. They are pretty useless spells in MA and LA.

I don't think sermon of courage is a problem. It seems to be always cast by an indy priest and that is all he can cast and doesn't have the range for melee troops.

Blink should be removed from the AI list. I do not see it often, only rarely, but I never have seen it used well. That is a spell for a thug or SC, not some 10 HP unequipped mage.

AI does skelly spam and other undead well. Elemental summoning is almost always done poorly.

I do not pay attention to buffs that the AI casts so I do not know how applicable they are.

I do not think I see enough long range damage spells other than smite and a very occasional paralyze.

[Amhazair]

High level astral mages cast paralyze (at SC's)too often, when soul slay (or enslave mind) would usually be a much better choise.

This is in another ballpark as arrow fend and bone grinding and the like of course. I've never yet seen paralyze overwrite a scripted spell.

[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.