Whoah theres a lot of micro management in this game

[Knai]

Originally Posted by shatner

Also, casters won't spend gems casting spells if they are fighting an enemy that is considered too weak. This is to keep giant armies from spending dozens of gems blasting 1PD into smithereens, but sometimes you will have cases where it causes results that are less than satisfactory.

Odd. I've found the opposite, gems will be burnt on stuff too minor to warrant them, and everything that actually does warrant them will see gem use. The AI being what it is, that tends to mean copious gem use even if the mages are outfitted to deal with something much more dangerous than whatever it is they're fighting.

[Gandalf Parker]

Impressions can be misleading. Keeping specific counts tends toward the AI going off script for good reasons more than not. Of course, anytime we disagree with it that tends to stick in our memory for a long time.

However, you will find that many of the advanced players will take scouts along with any walking army that has mages. The scouts can stay hidden out of combat and hold things. Gems, blood slaves, equipment for breaking castles, etc etc. Its abit more micromangment but it is a way to handle the situation. Instead of having mages haul enough gems for a long war, only give them enough for the next fight. Even better if you have stealth flyers who can quickly replenish

[Knai]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Impressions can be misleading. Keeping specific counts tends toward the AI going off script for good reasons more than not. Of course, anytime we disagree with it that tends to stick in our memory for a long time.

However, you will find that many of the advanced players will take scouts along with any walking army that has mages. The scouts can stay hidden out of combat and hold things. Gems, blood slaves, equipment for breaking castles, etc etc. Its abit more micromangment but it is a way to handle the situation. Instead of having mages haul enough gems for a long war, only give them enough for the next fight. Even better if you have stealth flyers who can quickly replenish

The vast majority of deviation from script is caused by an inability to perform the actions required. There are, however, a few odd cases where the mage just does something wrong.

I'm well aware of this technique. It doesn't help when the next fight is something other than what you think it will be, and your mages decide to blow the gems they have on a relatively small advance force that arrived magically, and then they lack the gems for the major fight. Gem use AI is a hair too trigger happy, though its better that than the opposite.

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Notice that the AI tends to put archers to the flanks. Not straight behind his main army so they have to fire over their heads at enemy they cant see.

Gandalf, how long have you been playing this game?

Units DO NOT block line of sight. Archers DO NOT check line of sight. Nothing in this game deals with line of sight. At all. This is wholly irrelevant, and YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER.

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by Knai

Odd. I've found the opposite, gems will be burnt on stuff too minor to warrant them, and everything that actually does warrant them will see gem use. The AI being what it is, that tends to mean copious gem use even if the mages are outfitted to deal with something much more dangerous than whatever it is they're fighting.

There's a relative army strength threshhold which the AI uses to determine if it will spend *any gems* whatsoever. Its a yes/no condition. If no, absolutely no gems will be spent.

If yes, it will waste gems in teh most gratuitous and bizarre manners possible. Ok, its not quite that bad, but it will freely burn gems no matter how minor the actual threat so long as there's enough enemy army strength for it to spend any gems at all. Since the relevant strength is quite a ways below equal, carrying too many gems can and often does equate to gratuitous gem wasting.

How the AI actually measures relative army strength is of course flawed, and there are times when any sane player would have wanted to spend gems that it simply doesn't.

[Question]

Is there any way to stop mages from eating gems? I want them to only use the gems they carry for casting scripted spells.

Actually im kind of surprise there hasnt been any AI improvement mods yet, given how poor the AI is and how important a role it plays. Also surprised at the lack of UI mods.

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by Question

Is there any way to stop mages from eating gems? I want them to only use the gems they carry for casting scripted spells.

Only give them enough gems to cast scripted spells, plus any likely 'buff' gems they'd burn if you need multiple gem-eating spells from the same school. (If and when a mage will burn extra gems is somewhat predictable, but i don't have a formalized equation you could plug numbers into).

Actually im kind of surprise there hasnt been any AI improvement mods yet, given how poor the AI is and how important a role it plays. Also surprised at the lack of UI mods.

UI: Not easily modded. If its possible at all, it would require hacking the game process as its running and injecting stuff directly into the process. I know this has worked for some Diablo modding, but there's maybe one person in the dom3 community who i'm sure would be capable of such a thing, and he's not an active modder.

AI improvement: there was one attempt made. Again, outside of tweaking some spell mechanics which influence AI decisions (which is what the one attempt does), you'd need to hack the process as it ran.

Basically, the game doesn't have convenient hooks for modding most of this stuff, and since hacking the game is an extraordinary measure for something like a UI hack, no one has tried it.

[Question]

Well that kind of sucks. Hopefully the sequel will be a lot more moddable with less micro management, wasnt this game released 5 years ago though?

About generating maps...how do you generate a map with entirely no water at all?

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by Question

Well that kind of sucks. Hopefully the sequel will be a lot more moddable with less micro management, wasnt this game released 5 years ago though?

About generating maps...how do you generate a map with entirely no water at all?

Draw a map. Define no provinces to be water.

Its actually not *that* hard. But you'll want to check out the modding documentation for map making.

Now, if you want a *random* map with no water, i can't help you there.

[Question]

I meant use the generate map option to generate a map with no water...apparently you cant select any parameters for generating a random map...