Caster of Magic Release thread : latest version 6.06!

[Seravy]

0.6 is available for download!

Highlights :
-New fleeing system based on relative movement speed of fleeing unit and fastest enemy
-Fixed some dispel bugs
-Center of city now has a +3 wall bonus again (only if you have the wall built!)
-Disenchant Area is overland only. To use this effect in combat you need Disenchant True (no 3x bonus in combat, only in overland) or you can use Dispel Magic if you want to remove unit spells.
-Dungeon monster placement problems fixed : the editor I used didn't save monster costs in magic.exe, only wizards.exe, now it's correctly applied.
-Minor balancing to some unit stats

0.6
-Undid the surveyor change as it prevented terrain specials from being displayed at all, instead of the intended effect. Unfortunately fixing the corruption disabling dungeon display isn't that simple as I thought.
-Ghouls now move 2.
-Fixed Aether Binding's casting cost not being 300.
-Fixed weakness still having -8 resistance penalty instead of -7
-Disenchant Area is now overland only. If you want to remove unit spells, use Dispel Magic. For global combat enchantments, you need Disenchant True.
-Disenchant True no longer has triple power in combat.
-The Golden One hero now has a staff/sword slot instead of only sword.
-Dungeon generation now uses the intended new values of monsters instead of the default. (I didn't realize the editor only updates this data in wizards.exe where it does nothing and ignores magic.exe, I actually had to make my own editor to do this.)
-As a side effect to the above, werewolves will appear now as normal. Having the same cost as Night Stalkers prevented them from being chosen.
-As a side effect to the above, extremely overpowered secondary monsters won't appear with weak primary ones anymore. (no more 6* ghouls, 1x death knights as secondary)
In general, Sky Drakes, Arch Angels, Death Knights and Demon Lords and other high end monsters are 50-100% more expensive so you'll find fewer of them with better treasure. Other changes worth noting are Demons (80->350), Phantom Warriors (20->60).
-Towers now have a random amount of monsters between 650-3050 instead of 650-1200. This should make games more varied, in some, contact with the other plane is easy, in others, much more difficult.
-New FLEEING system :
Your unit's speed <= fastest enemy unit's speed -2 : Your units dies.
Your unit's speed = fastest enemy unit's speed -1 : 50% chance to flee
Your unit's speed = fastest enemy unit's speed : 50% chance to flee
Your unit's speed = fastest enemy unit's speed +1 : 66% chance to flee
Your unit's speed = fastest enemy unit's speed +2 : 75% chance to flee
Your unit's speed = fastest enemy unit's speed +3 or more : chance to die is 1/(2+the difference).
This system will provide the deafult 75% fleeing chance to heroes against base movement normal units due to heroes having 4 movement, so they aren' treated as exceptions.
“speed” refers to the maximum (overland) movement the units has per turn.
-Middle town section now grants +3 defense again like insecticide if City Wall is present. However, ONLY if city wall is present, the other bug remains fixed.
-Reduced the movement speed of ships : Trireme 3, Galley 3, Warship 4. These new values should be more reasonable both for actual movement purposes and the new fleeing mechanics. Warships will still be able to 100% kill move 2 units carried by the enemy ships.
-Floating Islands now move 3 instead of 2 because they shouldn't be inferior even to the most basic ships.
-AI combat dispel magic priority : code completely rewritten. Priority is now 7*number of enchantments on the unit with the most enchantments. Unit curses count as priority 16 regardless of amount. True version has +21 priority over normal version. AI will now only count enchantments worth dispelling, and ignores some of the weak ro combat irrelevant stuff like Water Walking, Wind Walking, Holy Weapon etc.
Note that this is only used for deciding which spell to cast, not for selecting the actual target of the dispel.
-AI combat dispel magic targeting priority : Shatter is now worth 20 priority instead of 10
-AI combat dispel magic targeting priority : Unit combat value now has ¼ the weight of the original, so the actual types and amount of enchantments will be more relevant.
-AI combat dispel magic targeting priority : Iron Skin is now worth 40 priority instead of 20
-AI combat dispel magic targeting priority : Invisibility is now worth 50 priority instead of 10
-AI combat dispel magic targeting priority : Magic Immunity is now worth 50 priority instead of 25
-AI combat dispel magic targeting priority : Lionheart is now worth 40 priority instead of 30
-High Men Cavalry has 1 more resistance (3 instead of 2)
-High Men Pikemen has 2 more resistance (4 instead of 2)
-Nomad Pikemen has 1 more resistance (5 instead of 4)
-The procedure that applies stats and ability gains from effects now resets byte 18h,19h and 1Ah (Immunity, Abilities) to the unit's base values before adding any gains.
This fixes the bug : dispelling enchantments that grant abilities in those bytes has no effect (granted ability remains on unit without the enchantment)
This should fix dispelling the following enchantments :
Magic Immunity, True Sight, Guardian Wind, Immolation, Cloak of Fear.
Enchantments that grant attack properties (holy, eldritch weapon) are not fixed, dispelling those will still only remove the remaining parts of the effect, if there are any (Flame Blade).
As this fix entirely reapplies those abilities from the base values every time a unit's stats are evaluated, this might have unforseen side effects, although unlikely as it was supposed to do this, and worked this way for most other stats like attack, defense, resistance originally. I assume they forgot to include the immunities and abilities in the function. If any such side effect is discovered, please report, I haven't found any yet.

[Seravy]

I've noticed how the patch software turned "Flandre" into "ShareHuge" instead of the correct "Sharee". I have no idea why it does that because "Huge" was never in that location in the file, ever, not even when I created the patch file by comparing the two original versions.

This means :
-I can't guarantee that anything works in the normal version without installing the files that replace the wizards. The patch tool is clearly unreliable and overwrites random parts of the file. Install the custom wizards if you use the mod.
-Can anyone suggest me an actual WORKING patch tool that compares two binary files, saves the difference, then when reapplying, overwrites the exact same location with the saved data instead of something else at random, regardless of how the contents of those or other parts of the file changed?

so...the same stuff we have been looking for in text but now in binary...
btw I was using xdelta3, I thought that's a real proper patch tool...guess not...

or do I have to make one for myself...eh whatever, I'll make one for myself...at least that WILL work.
Edit : I made one. It's text based, too, so I can get rid of that unix thing, yay!
Now I have to make all the files again by editing in the original wizard data, ewww.

[Seravy]

0.61 is up!

Using the normal wizards option should be safe now.
On top of this,

0.61
-Arcanus nodes now have 4-14 tiles (maximum 4 higher than original, minimum 1 less).
-Myrror nodes have 7-20 tiles (maximum unchanged, minimum 3 lower than original).
Due to the above, while Myrror will still have more treasure, power and stronger monsters than Arcanus, there will be better variance. It'll be now possible to find pretty decent nodes with useful treasure on Arcanus for late game, and some easy ones for the early game on Myrror, but on average, Myrror will stil have ~50% advantage.
I wanted 7-24 for Myrror but it crashed the game, 20 is probably the limit it can generate.
-Description of myrran now mentions the better minerals and stronger nodes.
-Reduced the number of starting picks to 12. Some default wizards were unable to use up all 13 picks due to hard limits, and 13 picks felt one too many especially considering the 10 book limit.
-Adjusted default wizards to match the new pick amounts. Note that Patchouli still has Archmage without clearing the requirement of 4 identical books, but I'm going to leave this as an exception.

[Seravy]

0.62
-AI will now cancel Time Stop if having below 1424 mana left instead of waiting until they are out of mana. This is both to save their enchantments and summoned units, and to avoid leaving themselves too vulnerable.
-Fixed Bug : When AI cancels Time Stop, it remains in effect until they run out of mana anyway as the variable “TimeStopWizardID” is not cleared, only the enchantment itself is.
-AI now requires 5000 mana to consider casting Time Stop instead of 3000.
-AI will no longer disband any fantastic units during Time Stop.
-Fixed bug : units using spells (healing etc) have the spell reloaded every combat turn. Caused by “dispel not removing abilities” bugfix of previous version.
-Spell of Mastery cannot be traded or found from banishing.
-Fighter's Guild is no longer allowed for Gnolls because they have no unit that needs it, and it no longer has the “make unit regular” function.

[letsdance]

or do I have to make one for myself...eh whatever, I'll make one for myself...at least that WILL work.
Edit : I made one. It's text based, too, so I can get rid of that unix thing, yay!

would you share it?

[Seravy]

or do I have to make one for myself...eh whatever, I'll make one for myself...at least that WILL work.
Edit : I made one. It's text based, too, so I can get rid of that unix thing, yay!

would you share it?

Sure, why not. I'll upload it to the folder with Caster of Magic.

You use it this way :

Compare files :
FileCMP source destination text
Change files :
FileSET source text

although I haven't tested that yet, it should skip lines starting with a ";" so you can add comments to your patch files.
Each byte has 3 lines in the file, the address, the source and the destination value. It does overwrite bytes even if they do not match the source value, but it will show a warning message for each such byte.

http://seravy.x10.mx/CasterofMagic/FilePatch.zip

[Asfex]

I use program xcp.exe for file - byte manipulation ,that can be found in the achive with my mod.
usage : xcp flags target.exe text.dif
flags : p- make change, c - compare with source column and change (with "p") if match only, r - "revert" - swap source column and destination
v -"verbose" - show result in short form - only "verbose" comment - strng that start from "+", n -no flags
it print the sucessfull and unsucessfull changes on the screen, the digit before comment sign result of comparsion between comments, the last - the result for whole file.
Any sting must be start right way to be capable byte manipulation, the remarks admit after the header only. /* */ -remarks, must be in the separate lines.

The dif file (text file of changes) is generated by fc.exe or fcomp.exe that can be found in the dos package. the fortlight.dif was created this way ( dif file to make lighting bolt from fortress)

[letsdance]

thx =)

[Seravy]

0.63 is now up!

After playing a game with Sorcery High Men I have to admit Zitro was right, Mind Storm needs a small nerf, and Paladins were too weak for their cost.
Also weakened Dwarves further, that race was way over the top, with bonus to taxes, mining, production as well as unit health and resistance. Now the +2 extra health has been toned down to only +1.

0.63
-Draconian Engineers now require a Builder's Hall only.
-Mind Storm now reduces melee attack by 3 instead of 5. All other stats including ranged attack are still reduced by 5. Cost is restored to 35.
-Fixed bug : special attack types (gaze, touch, etc) are not performed if attack strength (hidden for gaze) is zero.
-Night Stalker, Gorgons and Basilisk no longer have a hidden ranged attack strength, as their gaze now works without that.
-AI combat spell targeting : Fireball will skip the “target the most wounded unit” modifier when targeting to better take advantage of the immolation property.
-AI combat spell targeting : Heroic Shout will skip the “target the most wounded unit” modifier when targeting to better take advantage of the immolation property.
-AI unit attack target selection : Priorities have been adjusted. Ranged attackers have greater priority. Keeping the same target has much lower. Hitting something this turn if able has lower but does not ignore units on the edge of the movement allowance. Other modifiers unchanged. This should make AI units much smarter. Original had a massive +25 boost for targets nearby, which was the rough equivalent to having 25 swords more than enemy shields, or going after a ranged unit that had 48 attack strength so...enough to overrule pretty much any other modifier. Now you can actually see the AI avoid hitting very strong units with weak ones, and going around them to hit something else instead, even if it takes an extra turn to reach.
-AI overland unit value calculation : Now uses [(Ranged rating+Melee rating)*Defense Rating]/512 instead of (Ranged rating+Melee rating+Defense Rating) and [(Ranged rating*2+Melee rating)*Defense Rating]/512 instead of (Ranged rating*2+Melee rating+Defense Rating)
-When a new unit is generated on a stack of 9 units, if the unit is owned by the player it will be the new unit that gets moved out of the stack (no change to previous version). However, in case of the AI, the unit with the lowest (gold, production or mana cost)/16+unit level will be moved. This helps the AI upgrade their garrisons with less outdated units instead of being stuck with 9x Hell Hounds at fortress for the entire game because those were summoned first.
-Restored Minotaur's cost to the default 200, they are too powerful to be cheaper than than. (probably didn't notice the default +2 to hit when setting the lower cost)
-Fixed a bug in the Chaos Surge fix (jmp address was off by one at the end of the effect)
-Reapplied : Immolation is no longer affecting ranged attacks.
-Reapplied : Black Sleep now removes all movement types from affected units.This should be the last two changes I lost when working on it at 5am and overwriting the good file with an old one somehow.
-Paladins have +2 attack to make up for the loss of Armor Piercing, and their cost is reduced to 240 because the current abilities no longer justify the cost of 300.
-AI is no longer unable to dispel if Holy Arms is in effect. However, Holy Weapon adds nothing to dispel priority so it won't trigger wasted dispels hopefully.
-Magic Immunity item power now costs 2500 and requires 8 Sorcery books. The power is significantly less common on predefined items.
-Aura on items are now the correct color for new item powers : Inner Fire (red), Teleportation (blue) and Divine Protection (white) in the game. Colors in the editor are unchanged, not worth the time.
-AI will no longer disband units under the effect of Stasis. This closes the way of abuse to cast Stasis on a city then attack it after all defenders are disbanded. The AI will disband units if he cannot pay their maintenance and low resistence units are usually more likely to have a low “value” to get disbanded before others.
-Stasis now costs only 100 mana.
-Fixed zombies and undead gained over 8 getting pushed away instead of over 9.
-AI Overland casting priority : Time Stop priority is raised to 150 from 25, as it no longer has harmful side effects on the AI.
-AI buying production : AI is now able to buy immediately after deciding what to build instead of the next time it runs the procedure and is still producing it. This should now stop the AI from amassing 30k unused gold on higher difficulties.
-AI buying production : AI will automatically buy only if having 25 times the required gold in reserve instead of 12 times. This should allow the AI to maintain a healthier gold reserve to buy artifacts and hire heroes and was raised to balance out the availability of immediate buying. This only applies if no other conditions for buying are met. Buying of priority buildings and over 10k gold are still automatic.
-Phantom Warriors now have 1 more figure. They were just a little bit too weak to be a better alternative than the psionic spells even when the enemy was near.
-The Beastmaster hero now has a ranged attack and a bow slot. The game didn't have enough heroes that could use a bow (only 4 out of 35, in fact).
-Fixed bug : AI is not casting spell blast anymore
-AI overland spellcasting : AI will not use Time Stop if it's already in effect.
-Byakuren now has Myrran instead of 1 Life book and Charismatic to increase the variety (and realms) of Myrran wizards picked by the AI. It was annoying to almost always have a Sorcery wizard on Myrror.
-AI is now allowed to enchant items or create artifacts after turn 120 instead of 180.
-AI will now use the amount calculated from remaning skill and mana when deciding how much slider to use for Counter Magic instead of the “ignore calculated value and use a random amount anyway” logic specified as an exception for this spell. New Counter Magic is pretty useless if low slider is used, and random will do that more often than not. Banish and Drain Life does the same but as those no longer have a slider it doesn't matter.
-AI combat spellcasting priority : Banish now has a +20 priority boost
-AI combat spellcasting priority : Word of Death now has a +20 priority boost
-Dwarven Hammerhands, Swordsmen, Halberdiers, and Engineers have 1 fewer health each. Having +2 health per figure on top of all the other racial bonuses was far too excessive.
-Dwarven population growth is now only +30 instead of +40.

[zitro1987]

More unit comments:

*It appears your dark elf spearmen's ranged attacks have 0-strength. Error?
*Orc cavalry do not have first strike. Error?
*Halberdiers look better now, but given fighter's guild cost, could use 1 more melee point (5 base). These units should overpower tier-1 (common) summoning units, especially with magic weapons.
*Horsebowmen could lose a few arrows. 8 added arrows for a 5mv unit instead of 'first strike' at same cost is too good of a bargain?
*Pikemen could lose 1-2 figures. The combination of very high health (esp. with the experience hp bonus) with extreme damage can be 'too good', especially if compared with the best racial halberdier units.
*Shamans are incredibly good for just 'shrine' with their excellent ranged damage, healing spell, and 'healer' - what an essential unit to an army!
*What if priests require cathedral? Other than a balancing perspective, I can't wrap my head around having a pagan-like 'temple' giving christian-like units. You could give them higher cost with added benefits like +1 mv, 'resist to all', and/or additional armor
*Javalineers still remain superior (and cheaper) to halberdiers. Increase cost to 70-75? or Lower melee by 1?
*Your pegasi are abnormally cheap for a flying ranged (8 shots) unit with good hand-to-hand capabilities. Given superiority associated with fantastic stables, shouldn't the cost be brought up to around 150-160?
*Hammerhands have pretty weak armor for 220 cost (just a note), but their melee is very high. Maybe it balances out in usefulness.
*Suggest Golems requiring 'armorer's guild' as well as mechanicians (or at least fighter's guild) - they are very good units now!
*Now Paladins are strong! Too strong? suggest dropping 1 armor or melee?