Proof of stupid AI spellcasting

[Wendigo]

George,
I do not think the AI rates the spells as castable/non castable, I think it rather hands out a value number to different spell+target comboes, and selects the spell with the highest number from a sample of alternatives. Thus useless spells will be cast even if their value is low, because there's no other option of higher value.

I do not want my mages & priests charging into melee if they have no usable spells, I do not think you want yours to do it either. If I tell'em to cast, I want them to cast.

On the matter of the AI targetting rules, I am pretty sure hps, big clusters of units & distance are taken into account, both in the spell choice & the target choice. SCs are a curse magnet, clusters of troops attract area spells/multiple effect spells, and mages often switch targets to hit whatever just showed up next square (not the 1st time I fly a SC towards a bunch of theurgs and get them to drop whatever crap they were casting & hit with multiple Star fires). You will not always agree with the choices made, but I see the AI often making better choices than many human opponents, so it's not like any fight that goes past the 5 scripted spells is doomed to spell missusing.

I gave an example of the AI doing better than me here:
thread

I only consider the breath of winter/soul drain complaint valid (and to a lesser extent the related friendly fire one), and maybe the AI should be better also at identifying elemental/poison damage & acting accordingly in order to raise protections..but apart from that I think it's extremely good.

Besides, did you notice that Dom's II AI is far less prone to fall to gem draining tactics? I find myself saving a lot of gems when I catch scouts around.

[ February 22, 2004, 20:51: Message edited by: Wendigo ]

[PDF]

Originally posted by Wendigo:
Then you should rename the thread PDF, because your example proves nothing.

This was a mistake of the strategic AI sending to the arena a mage that knew no combat spells (ie, had a little thau research, but no evo or alt research). Mages default to cast, if the mage just knows crap he will cast crap regardless of how good or bad the spell AI be.

Despite the nay-sayers, the spell AI is one of the best parts of the game. You want some proof? get the same mage, research evo1 & thau1 and send him to the arena...he will cast star fires instead of com master/slave. But you cannot plant melons & expect apples to grow.

Maybe the AI Marignon nation had few spells, but it was on turn 12-15 IIRC, he should have had some..
And anyway the guy should rather run, or attack with fists than casting CM+CS when he's alone !! That he only knows totally useless spells (in these conditions) isn't a reason to cast them...

[Arryn]

Originally posted by PDF:
And anyway the guy should rather run

IIRC, you cannot run when in the arena, which is where the pic was from.

[PDF]

Originally posted by Arryn:

quote:

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Originally posted by PDF:
And anyway the guy should rather run

IIRC, you cannot run when in the arena, which is where the pic was from.

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He should try to run in circles, to exhaust his opponent ! ... I recall Chaplin doing that on a boxing ring, against a big badass , in a movie (don't recall which ..)

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by PDF:
Maybe the AI Marignon nation had few spells, but it was on turn 12-15 IIRC, he should have had some..

It had researched at least conjuration 3 and thaumaturgy 1. I imagine it was going for conjuration 4 for summer lions, which is what Marignon tends to do as an AI.

And anyway the guy should rather run, or attack with fists than casting CM+CS when he's alone !! That he only knows totally useless spells (in these conditions) isn't a reason to cast them...

Do you really want your mages to run into a melee on the battlefield when they decide that they don't have a useful spell to cast?

[Taqwus]

Graeme --
In this case, the choice was between casting useless spells or melee, because in the arena it's victory or death (unless, perhaps, you can Return out. Hm, if it's a one-round tournament, can you summon Lammashastas and return out, and still win? Hmmm.) If he has no useful spells, the choice became melee or die.
Casting useless spells also drives up fatigue, which could be bad if there's an opportunity to cast an especially draining spell later, or if melee is a risk, or if communion is an issue -- useless spellcasting is good for butchering one's own communicants, for instance.

[johan osterman]

The AI never closes voluntarily for melee unless specifically told so, and I think most players would be very unhappy if this were to change, and expecting the AI to take into account the few times when he is alone in combat and then act differently in this very rare and special situation is to, in my mind, put to unreasonable demands on it.