Master of Magic 1.5, temporal codename "Raid" development

[Seravy]

New files :
259 - Allied enchantments don't add to "disjunction needed" priority for AI
260 - Allied enchantments are not targeted by disjunction for the AI
261 - Invulnerability can be dispelled
262 - Unit moves randomly when confused effect not ignored by AI
263 - AI, units move randomly if no valid melee target (anti-invisibility tactic)
264 - Possible to find prisoners with a full stack, hero will get pushed to nearest free square
265 - AI ship carry capacity fix
266 - AI ship carry capacity fix 2

Also, I found a problem with AI ship handling, sometimes they just get stuck and not move at all. From what I observed, this seems to happen if there is a loaded ship trying to move to where an empty ship is which wants to go to pick up units at the location where the loaded ship is. They block each other's movement so neither can move until someone kills one of them.
I tried to find ways to fix this but couldn't, not even sure which is the problem (probably all of these)
-nearest "unload location" is selected even if it is already occupied
-stacks don't start moving if destination has units which would put the total over 9 even if there are cells in between where they could start moving to.
-units mark nearest ocean cell as "ship needed" point even if that cell is already in use or full

Additionally I observed situations when the unloaded stack boarded the ship again, for an unknown reason (probably no valid target to move to on the continent, movement was blocked by a lair), which again blocked all other ships trying to go there...

I don't think I can fix this mess, but it significantly hurts AI effectiveness whenever sea is involved, unless someone is nice enough to kill the ships that block the way.

[FrancoK]

If you can, take a look at the volcano bug, already fixed by Asfex in his mod.
http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/showthrea...#pid365927

[FrancoK]

A quick look at MXXXFIX.

M005FIX
How did you managed to cope with events (like good/bad moon) or spells helping White/Black and hindering the opposite?

M009FIX
Not a bug, but it could help AI. Surely helps me a lot.

M012FIX
Not a bug, you can keep it as a feature.

M018FIX
I prefer to be sure to find a spell in the tower.

M021
Finding an hero in the treasure, should not cost points, IIRC.

M022
Not a bug, if are so lucky to get a spell twice, since the event is very rare, the spell is very rare, too.

M023
Not a bug.

M031
Not a bug, you can keep it as a feature.

[Seravy]

If you can, take a look at the volcano bug, already fixed by Asfex in his mod.

Could you test his mod for me?
I looked at his code a few months ago but found no changes where the volcanoes revert. I think he made the spell create ores at the time the volcano is created instead, or idk, I didn't find this change.
I gave up on this because the feature was never existing to begin with, at least I found nothing in the code about it.

M005FIX
How did you managed to cope with events (like good/bad moon) or spells helping White/Black and hindering the opposite?

Events : you get both the positive and the negative effect at the same time, if I remember well that means you get -50% and +100% power, so your total is +50%. You benefit from both but half as much as you normally would. Didn't change this.
Infernal/Divine Power : They weren't cumulative, so having one or both makes no difference. You actually could get both if you found the other in a lair because it didn't check for books.
Darkness/True Light : The AI only looks at positive effects on own units and negative on enemy units I think. So benefits to enemy units and bad effect on own units are ignored.
Global enchantments : The AI cancels these if playing a realm that would get hurt by them by default. They might cast them and waste mana though.

Overall it's probably better to play CoM if you want a death+life game without the AI having a hard time, the global enchantments are changed there and have a different, (mostly) realm independent effect.

M012FIX
Not a bug, you can keep it as a feature.

You sure? I can hardly imagine it being intentional, I mean placing nodes on land was coded, just checked on the wrong plane.

M018FIX
I prefer to be sure to find a spell in the tower.

True, but finding a Great Drake spell for killing 3 Hell Hounds is a little...oh well, it's not like this is the greatest problem with game balance in the game I guess

M022
Not a bug, if are so lucky to get a spell twice, since the event is very rare, the spell is very rare, too.

Unfortunately this was pretty common. While rolling a spell isn't that frequent, a single lair usually rolls multiple times, in some cases many many times until all points are used up.
Nor is the default treasure cost of spells in general, I think it was 800 for a very rare..researching one costs about 3000 and requires getting a bunch of other spells first!

I might gather all treasure related files and keep it optional in one file, not sure. Treasure mechanics were extremely poorly done by default.

[FrancoK]

If you can, take a look at the volcano bug, already fixed by Asfex in his mod.

Could you test his mod for me?
I looked at his code a few months ago but found no changes where the volcanoes revert. I think he made the spell create ores at the time the volcano is created instead, or idk, I didn't find this change.
I gave up on this because the feature was never existing to begin with, at least I found nothing in the code about it.

Already done, more than 1 year ago.
For the first time in a MoM game I saw special tiles (Iron, Gold, etc.) appearing when a volcano turns in a mountain.
No, wait; I can't remember if it happened the turn when the volcano becomes mountain or the turn after the volcano was created. I'll check again, please allow some time, since it is a randomic event.
If this can help the chance should be 5%, IIRC (the manual says "Newly raised volcanoes also have an
enhanced chance of containing special mineral deposits.").
Asfex said "I did not change the percent rate, just allowed volcanoes to do that, like manual says." so I suppose the code is already present, somewhere.

M005FIX
How did you managed to cope with events (like good/bad moon) or spells helping White/Black and hindering the opposite?

Events : you get both the positive and the negative effect at the same time, if I remember well that means you get -50% and +100% power, so your total is +50%. You benefit from both but half as much as you normally would. Didn't change this.
Infernal/Divine Power : They weren't cumulative, so having one or both makes no difference. You actually could get both if you found the other in a lair because it didn't check for books.
Darkness/True Light : The AI only looks at positive effects on own units and negative on enemy units I think. So benefits to enemy units and bad effect on own units are ignored.
Global enchantments : The AI cancels these if playing a realm that would get hurt by them by default. They might cast them and waste mana though.

Overall it's probably better to play CoM if you want a death+life game without the AI having a hard time, the global enchantments are changed there and have a different, (mostly) realm independent effect.

When I played with a B&W wizards, the good/bad moon event started creating glitches, until the game crashed.
With Darkness/True Light an Angel and a Wraith will be affected one positively, the other negatively, if you did not change it.
For Global enchantments I've seen green/red wizards cast Nature's Wrath then Doom Mastery, destroying their cities...
Not so often, but it happened.

I'll play CoM for sure, hopefully this Cristmas holidays.

M012FIX
Not a bug, you can keep it as a feature.

You sure? I can hardly imagine it being intentional, I mean placing nodes on land was coded, just checked on the wrong plane.

Not sure, but the manual mentioned nodes on small isles, so they knew it could happen.
I've lot of saved games, I'll check let's say 10 to see if all nodes in Myrror have land in Arcanus (unfortunately I always play with the biggest land available...), ok?

M018FIX
I prefer to be sure to find a spell in the tower.

True, but finding a Great Drake spell for killing 3 Hell Hounds is a little...oh well, it's not like this is the greatest problem with game balance in the game I guess

Thank you, you can keep it as an additional feature (FEAT label, see below).

M022
Not a bug, if are so lucky to get a spell twice, since the event is very rare, the spell is very rare, too.

Unfortunately this was pretty common. While rolling a spell isn't that frequent, a single lair usually rolls multiple times, in some cases many many times until all points are used up.
Nor is the default treasure cost of spells in general, I think it was 800 for a very rare..researching one costs about 3000 and requires getting a bunch of other spells first!

I might gather all treasure related files and keep it optional in one file, not sure. Treasure mechanics were extremely poorly done by default.

I agree the treasure generation is a lot crippled, but maybe is for those unusual mechanics the game is still so popular, who knows?

You're doing a great job and labeling (or tagging ) a patch for FIX, AI, DIPL, FEAT is very good, adding the label TREA is even better.


Again, I'm trying to recall, about this and previous point, you cannot have very rare spell unless you have 3 books of that realm, also if you have only common spells, the treasure doesn't give you very rare spells.
Not from code or manual, only my experience, so I can be wrong.

[Seravy]

Not sure, but the manual mentioned nodes on small isles, so they knew it could happen.
I've lot of saved games, I'll check let's say 10 to see if all nodes in Myrror have land in Arcanus (unfortunately I always play with the biggest land available...), ok? smile

No need to, the code was definitely doing that, I checked (afterall, I needed to know to fix it )
There is an exception, both on myrror and arcanus. The chance was, I think, 1/15 on Myrror and 1/25 on Arcanus or something around that to bypass the land check. So that would mean they intended to make it happen a bit more often on Myrror and probably never noticed the bug pushed that "bit more often" into "almost always". This would explain why the guide mentions that. Or they thought on smaller land they would have to end up in sea due to lack of available land space.

No, wait; I can't remember if it happened the turn when the volcano becomes mountain or the turn after the volcano was created. I'll check again, please allow some time, since it is a randomic event.

Please check.

Again, I'm trying to recall, about this and previous point, you cannot have very rare spell unless you have 3 books of that realm, also if you have only common spells, the treasure doesn't give you very rare spells.
Not from code or manual, only my experience, so I can be wrong.

This is true but treasure is not bound to realms. You usually have 3 books of at least one realm. If you only have commons researched, but have 5 books of that realm, you can find a very rare of that realm, and you can also trade for one (although you probably need to stack all the possible trade modifiers to achieve this one).


For now I keep the "FEAT" label for treasure changes, if we do decide to keep it optional, it'll all go into one file (these changes work best if all are used together, as they modify different rolls in the process but they all affect each other.)

[FrancoK]

Not sure, but the manual mentioned nodes on small isles, so they knew it could happen.
I've lot of saved games, I'll check let's say 10 to see if all nodes in Myrror have land in Arcanus (unfortunately I always play with the biggest land available...), ok? smile

No need to, the code was definitely doing that, I checked (afterall, I needed to know to fix it )
There is an exception, both on myrror and arcanus. The chance was, I think, 1/15 on Myrror and 1/25 on Arcanus or something around that to bypass the land check. So that would mean they intended to make it happen a bit more often on Myrror and probably never noticed the bug pushed that "bit more often" into "almost always". This would explain why the guide mentions that.

Ok, FIX label then.
I suppose you're going to leave the small chance to have it in a island, as it was designed, right?

No, wait; I can't remember if it happened the turn when the volcano becomes mountain or the turn after the volcano was created. I'll check again, please allow some time, since it is a randomic event.

Please check.

On it.

Again, I'm trying to recall, about this and previous point, you cannot have very rare spell unless you have 3 books of that realm, also if you have only common spells, the treasure doesn't give you very rare spells.
Not from code or manual, only my experience, so I can be wrong.

This is true but treasure is not bound to realms. You usually have 3 books of at least one realm. [/quote]
That's right. I usually have 5 to 7 books of one realm and 1 or 2 books of other realms.
If the lair allows it (enough points) I can get a very rare spell in the strongest realm, but when I'm able to clean that lair, I usually have all the spells with only few very rare spells missing.
Sometimes I get an unwanted very rare spell, so I reload and try again, sometimes I get it, sometimes another realm spell; however I never got a very rare spell of a weaker realm unless I had at least 3 books and a rare spell.

If you only have commons researched, but have 5 books of that realm, you can find a very rare of that realm, and you can also trade for one (although you probably need to stack all the possible trade modifiers to achieve this one).

Absolutely, trade is my preferred research method.

For now I keep the "FEAT" label for treasure changes, if we do decide to keep it optional, it'll all go into one file (these changes work best if all are used together, as they modify different rolls in the process but they all affect each other.)

Agreed.

[Seravy]

I suppose you're going to leave the small chance to have it in a island, as it was designed, right? jive

Yes I did.

[FrancoK]

No, wait; I can't remember if it happened the turn when the volcano becomes mountain or the turn after the volcano was created. I'll check again, please allow some time, since it is a randomic event.

Please check.

I've checked again, the new vein appears when the volcano is created.
After one year my memory failed me.

[Anthony]

Okay, maybe. But what about this: Ariel attacked a city of mine defended by two paladins with two griffins. They didn't advance, but just waited for the clock to run out. The next turn they did it again. And again. Finally after Ariel dropped Lionheart on both of them, they decided the battle was worth fighting and advanced, only to quit fighting as soon as they'd taken some damage.

The 'right' think to do in that situation is either not attacking in the first place, or flying into the city and parking there until time out, as that will destroy half the buildings and population of the city (if there are walls, this tactic is somewhat intelligent in general, since it bypasses the defense from walls). Under some conditions flying up and attacking while using heal spells to stay at 2 figures would be worthwhile, it depends on what the defender has (does healing work on magic immune units?).