Fatigue, hows it work ?

[spirokeat]

I understand the basics of it. You start with zero, movement, spells and attacks all have a 'cost' that increases it. Once at 100 you are considered unconcious and by degrees prior to that you lose statistics such as defence and armour value.

How does encumbrance affect it ?

Does armour/encumbrance affect spell casting other than reducing the available fatigue pool ?

what kind of fatigue return happens per action turn ? is there a base recovery per turn that is affected by encumbrance ?

In spell casting skills and gems offer a method of offsetting fatigue, how does that work ?

I have a lvl 3 fire commander who I'm scripting to cast Flame arrows, lvl 3 fire spell, at a cost of 100 fatigue, he has a fire gem in his inventory which is the cost. He wont seem to cast it. Is this a function of the calculations of Fatigue as in a commander cannot force himself unconcious ?

Anyone able to spend the time to pen an explain I would be most grateful to.

Spirokeat.

[Taqwus]

Originally posted by spirokeat:
I understand the basics of it. You start with zero, movement, spells and attacks all have a 'cost' that increases it. Once at 100 you are considered unconcious and by degrees prior to that you lose statistics such as defence and armour value.

Walking does not incur fatigue normally. Neither for that matter do ranged attacks.

How does encumbrance affect it ?

Does armour/encumbrance affect spell casting other than reducing the available fatigue pool ?

Encumberance adds its value to the fatigue cost of melee attacks.

Basic encumberance and TWICE the armor encumberance is added to the fatigue cost of spellcasting; this additional cost is not reduced by such things as greater proficiency in the appropriate path.

what kind of fatigue return happens per action turn ? is there a base recovery per turn that is affected by encumbrance ?

In general, there is no fatigue recovery at all except for units at 100 or greater, which recover exactly five points per turn.

Units that have reinvigoration effects (from items, from spells, or from the heroic ability) will benefit from that effect(s) every turn unless fatigue is at 0. In reverse, there's a unit called the Clockwork Horror which automatically suffers a large amount of fatigue every turn regardless of what it's doing, and there's a flaming helmet which has a negative reinvigoration effect too.

There are also spell effects that let you drain life from foes and recover hp and fatigue in the process, and the spell 'Relief' is great for mass fatigue reduction.

In spell casting skills and gems offer a method of offsetting fatigue, how does that work ?

I have a lvl 3 fire commander who I'm scripting to cast Flame arrows, lvl 3 fire spell, at a cost of 100 fatigue, he has a fire gem in his inventory which is the cost. He wont seem to cast it. Is this a function of the calculations of Fatigue as in a commander cannot force himself unconcious ?

Magic skill higher than necessary in the dominant path affects the fatigue cost of casting the spell, but not the fatigue from encumberance
.
They will cast themselves unconscious, but not above 200 points of fatigue. In your situation, it's possible that this isn't a factor and instead the tactical AI believes it's not worth a gem.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by spirokeat:
How does encumbrance affect it ?

High encumberance (ENC for short) makes your units accumulate fatigue faster. Each unit type has a base ENC. Add to this the extra ENC from armor and you get the unit's melee ENC rating - ie, the amount of fatigue this unit will get each times it performs a normal attack. Similarly, ENC(base) + 2 * ENC(armor) = ENC(spellcasting), ie the extra amount of fatigue this unit will suffer from spellcasting - which is added to the spell fatigue cost. ENC may be increased further because of extreme climatic conditions your unit is not resistant to, or because it's cold-blooded in temperate or cold climate. Moving usually don't cause any fatigue.

Does armour/encumbrance affect spell casting other than reducing the available fatigue pool ?

No.

what kind of fatigue return happens per action turn ?

Below 100 fatigue, nothing bar reinvigoration - be it the effect of an item (eg, Boots of the Messenger), a spell (eg, Summon Earthpower), a blessing (Earth 4+) or an heroic ability.

An unit beyond 100 fatigue gets 5 points back each battle rond (+reinvigoration if any), as long as it remains unconscious.

is there a base recovery per turn that is affected by encumbrance ?

No.

In spell casting skills and gems offer a method of offsetting fatigue, how does that work ?

Magic levels beyond the spell requirements (this applies only to the spell's main path, eg astral for Astral Fires) reduce the spell's fatigue cost. The real fatigue cost of a spell is:

listed_fatigue / (mage_level - spell_level + 1) * (1 + magic_scale_adjustment) + mage_spellcasting_enc

where magic_scale_adjustment varies from -0.3 (magic+3 scale) to +0.3 (drain+3).

(All that is from memory, but I think I got it right).

I have a lvl 3 fire commander who I'm scripting to cast Flame arrows, lvl 3 fire spell, at a cost of 100 fatigue, he has a fire gem in his inventory which is the cost. He wont seem to cast it. Is this a function of the calculations of Fatigue as in a commander cannot force himself unconcious ?

Nope, for some strange reason mages sometimes choose to not cast what they're scripted for, luckily that doesn't happen too often.

[spirokeat]

Excellent replies all, thanks.

One thing I forgot about....Some spells cost well in excess of 100 fatigue....Am i correct in assuming they are supposed to be cast by a mage who is then not to be performing anything else ?

and does the communion/sabbath have a share effect for fatigue ?

Spiro.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by spirokeat:
Some spells cost well in excess of 100 fatigue....Am i correct in assuming they are supposed to be cast by a mage who is then not to be performing anything else ?

Not necessarily. A level X mage can spend up to X extra gems beyond the spell requirement (or up to 7, whichever is lower - at least in special cases).

The first extra gem is used to raise the mage's level by 1 - and as as side effect, it will reduce his fatigue. The remainder is also used to reduce fatigue, just as if the mage was 1 level higher per extra gem spent in the spell, except extra levels beyond the first only count wrt fatigue reduction (not spell # of effects, range, magic penetration, etc.). So don't expect a level 4 mage to cast a spell as efficiently as a level 6 one thru extra gems only.

Example - a level 4 mage wants to cast a level 5 spell that costs 5 gems and 500 fatigue. He can use up to 4 extra gems, one to raise his level to 5, the remainder to reduce his fatigue to 500 * 1 / (8 - 5 + 1) = 125. That's not factoring in the province's magic scale modifier and the mage's spellcasting encumberance.

That's the theory. In practice spellcasters tend to be somewhat conservative with their gems, and may not use more than 1 or 2 extra, as long as they start with less than 70 fatigue and end with less than 200.

and does the communion/sabbath have a share effect for fatigue ?

Yes. There was a detailed thread on this topic a week ago, you should give it a look.

[Vynd]

There's a discussion of mages not casting spells that will knock them out in this thread.

When mages don't cast...

Basically, if what folks say here is correct, a mage will not cast a spell that will knock him out if there is another spell he can cast that will leave him conscious.

So to get your Fire 3 mage to cast Flame Arrows, give him 2 (or more) fire gems. One for the cost of the spell, the rest to raise his level/reduce his fatigue. This has always worked for me.

[ June 16, 2004, 01:05: Message edited by: Vynd ]