Annoying death magic

[Aikamun]

Ok. Thanks for pointing that out, Arryn. I was not aware Illwinter had stated they were dissatisfied by the spell AI.

Aikamun

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Arryn:
[QB]A mage spamming Body Ethereal 6 times in a row, while within range of other spells, *is* a bug. As is a mage casting Air Shield when it is already protected with Air Blessing 10, or when there are no enemies on the field that are capable of launching missiles.

I have never seen a mage cast Body Ethereal on the same square more than once. Yes they will cast it six times in a row, but that's because it has a range of 1 and an area of effect of 1. 6 casts will protect most units that surround the mage. That's hardly a bug when the spell as a useful effect. It might not be what you consider to be the most useful effect, but I'm quite happy to have starspawn mages etherealize all the Illithid's surrounding them without me having to tell them to.

There are a few bugs with spell targeting, but most of them are not that serious.

EDIT: oh, and if a mage is too far for any useful spells, then the AI should simply DO NOTHING (and avoid spell fatigue) rather than cast useless spells.

You'd have to define exactly what a "useful" spell is in numerical terms then. Raise skeletons/dead is certainly never useless, it's one of the most powerful summoning spells with no gem cost in the game. Decay is certainly not useless if it hits a unit, and it's fairly precise for such a low level spell. A mage should never do nothing with their turn, as they will never regain fatigue unless unconscious, and doing nothing would lead to even more complaints from people who do not understand what is going on.

[Arryn]

There's another, related, problem with "Cast spells" orders. If the AI would refrain from casting spells at all if no *useful* spells were within range (useful being defined as harming the enemy or helping friendlies that have not already been helped by an earlier casting of the spell under consideration), then that's one solution. Another solution, which the devs have deliberately not coded is to have mages get closer to the enemy so they are in range of something. IW said they didn't do this to avoid complaints of mages "rushing into battle" where they might become exposed to melee. Alas, that takes the choice out of player's hands.

They could create two variations:

1. Cast Spells in place.
2. Close and cast spells.

The first order makes sure the mage never moves. The second order permits some freedom of motion to move forward to cast, as needed.

Another useful option would be "Cast spells and retreat", which would have mages flee if an enemy got near them.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
I have never seen a mage cast Body Ethereal on the same square more than once.

I have. Only mage on my side, and no troops within even range 25. The mage *could* have cast Incinerate ...

EDIT: the mage could also cast Paralyze and Soul Slay, but didn't.

[ March 02, 2004, 02:20: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Arryn:
There's another, related, problem with "Cast spells" orders. If the AI would refrain from casting spells at all if no *useful* spells were within range (useful being defined as harming the enemy or helping friendlies that have not already been helped by an earlier casting of the spell under consideration), then that's one solution.

The AI already does this. Put some level two priests on the battlefield with blessing, blessing, cast spells, and no other undead or sacred units. You'll find that they cast blessing on themselves once, then tend to switch to stay behind troops, since they have no other useful spells. All the other paths of magic have at least a spell such as flying shards, so those mages will use it.

I have never seen the AI cast a spell on friendlies that already had the spell cast on them, other than the previously mentioned air shield on a level 10 air blessing.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
I have never seen the AI cast a spell on friendlies that already had the spell cast on them

Then you have been living in a Dom 2 paradise, which I envy, for I'm not the only person to see the AI repeat castings on the caster, or upon others.

[Argitoth]

If the AI was setup so that a mage would not cast anything if it wasn't in range, my strategy would be ruined. I depend on that.

I've noticed if you script a mage to cast the same spell over aand over, it will usually continue to do that (with the exception of smarter spells here and there). The AI isn't as bad as you think...

..But I am always with the people who want AI improvement.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Arryn:
I have. Only mage on my side, and no troops within even range 25. The mage *could* have cast Incinerate ...

If there were no troops within range 25, then it couldn't cast incinerate. That's its range.

EDIT: the mage could also cast Paralyze and Soul Slay, but didn't.

Which patch were you using when you saw this behaviour?

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Argitoth:
If the AI was setup so that a mage would not cast anything if it wasn't in range, my strategy would be ruined. I depend on that.

If your "strategy" is to count on the AI fatiguing itself, or other such stupid behaviors, you're only cheating yourself by using what is basically an exploit. Against a human you'll be waxed and polished.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

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Originally posted by Arryn:
I have. Only mage on my side, and no troops within even range 25. The mage *could* have cast Incinerate ...

If there were no troops within range 25, then it couldn't cast incinerate. That's its range.

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None of *my* troops. It was a SC pretender, solo. There were plenty of enemies in range.

quote:

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EDIT: the mage could also cast Paralyze and Soul Slay, but didn't.

Which patch were you using when you saw this behaviour?

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2.06