Scripting Issue - Specifically Retreat Command

[Jazzepi]

Retreat should be absolutely ignored during an assassination attempt. I just lost two well kited queen of elemental airs, wearing well over 100 gems in equipment between the two of them and I'm probably just going to set myself AI now, as I lost about a dozen turn's worth of summoning, forging, and planning.

Both queens were set to cloud trapeze in together, and one cast shimmering fields, then retreat, while the other would sit around and double shield tank the enemy army.

Instead, a random disease demon cast on the province they were teleporting from happened to target the queen setup to retreat, and she in turn cast shimmering fields, and then retreated as per her script. How stupid is that? She auto-killed herself.

Please fix this oversight.

Jazzepi

[vfb]

I once sent a Disease Demon against a Prince of Death, who happened to be scripted to cast Darkness. Fatigue got cranked up to 200 or something on the PoD, Darkness didn't bother the Disease Demon any, and he promptly slew the stunned PoD.

Maybe assassination defenders should just ignore their scripts. It's not like anyone plans on getting assassinated.

[thejeff]

Except when you script the commanders who are (summoning/researching/forging/patrolling/etc) because you know there are assassins around.

[Evil Dave]

The right answer is to have two sets of scripts, one for normal battles and one for assassination attempts. Maybe the devs will add this to Dom4, if they write it.

[WraithLord]

While I fully sympathize with your situation I'm not sure I would like to see this fixed by way of completely ignoring retreat on assassination attempt.
It may happen that for equipped mages I'll prefer to sea them die while retreating rather than risk the assassin get their items. I think the retreat command should be more specific, always retreat and retreat except when defending life (vs. an assassination attempt )

[Endoperez]

Assassins that stay after battle are quite weak ATM. I thought scripted retreating was already disabled from assassination battles, and IMHO it should be so.

I wouldn't mind assassins stealing items from mages, because recruitable assassins are currently very weak. Summons, like Earth Attack or such, will die after battle and they won't return the items to the caster, while the few assassination-causing globals would be pretty nifty if the Furies or the members of the Wild Hunt stole items from those they killed. Being killed should remove the items from them, of course.

[NTJedi]

I don't like how retreating means instant death during an assassination attempt... it just doesn't make sense. I'm sure there's been plenty of times in history when assassination plots did not succeed because the target ran away.

Suggested Improvement:
What would be a nice change is if your commander/mage ends up retreating during the assassination battle then it would have to run past the assassin and escape the battlefield. If successfully getting past the assassin then the commander/mage retreats into a neighboring friendly province.
My suggestion is not perfect, yet it's definitely an improvement. Perhaps we'll see a change in DOM_4.

[Tuidjy]

I dislike many things about assassination, and instant death on retreat is
probably the main one. I can see it for the assassin, but I certainly cannot
understand why it would be the case for the victim. I think that it comes from
the fact that many, significantly different events are lumped as 'assassinations'.

There should be no retreating from a nightmare, or a horror/elemental attack.
But retreating from a mundane assassination should just mean that the target
flees the province. I would also allow the assassin to flee, if there is a
friendly province nearby. Of course, he would have to fight the enemy army
during the magic phase before he does that. Yes, it would mean three battles
per turn for some assassins. The more, the merrier.

Oh, by the way, the one thing that really pisses me losing really powerful
mages because their five bodyguards were killed. Although I have to
admit that the assassin had huge fear, and maybe it spread just the right way,
and the mage flew because of that.

[Saulot]

NTJedi said:
What would be a nice change is if your commander/mage ends up retreating during the assassination battle then it would have to run past the assassin and escape the battlefield.

This would make Caelum unassassinatable (is that even a word? heh, probably not), and so would be way too unbalancing, not just for them, but air nations in general. Not to mention the various other flying SC's and thugs that are in need of a good trip to a wetworks facility.

[Tuidjy]

Hmm? You think that SCs are prone to being assassinated, right now? And who
scripts SCs to retreat, anyway?