Patch Improvements

[Twan]

Monthly cast of site searching spells need many improvements. As it is, your mages will even cast these spells on your capital province (as well of course as conquered capitals), or on a province another mage is exploring with the same spell.

How it should work IMO :
1/ all capitals (provinces with a capital only site) should be excluded
2/ all provinces with a search level 4 in the concerned paths should be excluded
3/ provinces with a search level 1-3 should be concerned only after provinces without a previous search and provinces with a less powerful one
4/ when several provinces may be concerned (no search or equal search level) the spells should be cast on provinces with the best magic sites chances first (wastes and mountains before plains etc...)
5/ once the AI has chosen a search target for a mage, this province should be excluded for mages casting the same spell

As it is not micromanaging site searching is a big waste of gems.

[Nerfix]

Aye, agreed.

[thejeff]

There are a couple of other weirdnesses with Monthly Site searches.
Mostly tracing to the target being chosen as soon as the mage casts his spell. Provinces searched later in the casting sequence can be chosen. Provinces taken that turn cannot be chosen. Provinces lost that turn can be targetted (The search works too)
And the standard problem with monthly rituals, that gems are allocated to them before gems are collected from sites, so you need to have enough gems left at the end of the turn for next turns monthly rituals.

I'm not sure about the Akashic. It should at least prioritize based on the number of paths already searched.

[Frostmourne27]

While we're talking about Acashic record, remember there's a similar water spell - voice of Tiamat - that reveals all elemental sites in an underwater province. I haven't tried casting it yet, but I assume that it would be just as bad as the record.

[Archonsod]

It would be nice to have gem income displayed alongside the gem types in the upper right of the screen, rather than needing to go into the lab to see your income

It would also be nice if the grey out of troops that can't be recruited immediately due to resources was also applied to Holy.

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

Archonsod said:
It would be nice to have gem income displayed alongside the gem types in the upper right of the screen, rather than needing to go into the lab to see your income.

Mouse-hover over the gem type, details will pop-up at the bottom of the screen.

Improvements to battles

Flee definitly needs to e improved. Make units stay in a province if they fled but the battle was won anyway. If they flee for a few months, there should be way enough time for the commander to send someone after them.
This DEFINITLY should apply to units who were scripted to flee. This command could make archers a bit more useful (or rather a bit less risky) but as it is now it is completely useless since fleeing units are scattered worse than sakura petals an a samurai movie.
Also, let them flee as intact squads. I'd often rather lose a whole army than go through the micromanagement hell of collecting all my troops from 4+ provinces. Ok, when there's a BIG army with a lot of squads this would stay the same even if they fled as squads, but in that case there should be enough commanders around to make regrouping take less than half a dozen rounds. (since my favorite nation is Soulgate Ermor this is really annoying)

Now as for things i'd like to see but don't deem that necessary:

If possible get a list of spells for commanders where it can be marked which spells they're allowed to cast and which not. I don't know how much data would need to be stored to have this list for every commander seperately, but it can't be that much, can it? I mean, with modern internet transfer rates an MB or two isn't that much. If that's not possible at all, how about making it a single list? Like a checkbox besides each spell in the magic menu so spells can be disallowed for all casters at once. I sure know a few i'd like to turn off.

If even that is impossible, how about at least a new order for casters "repeat specific spell"? It makes me cringe when i see my agarthan casters slam a bladewind into the meelee that hurts my troglodytes much more than the enemy, while they could have used that round to caste a 100 accuracy smite instead.

Similarly, how about a command for troops that tells them not to use any ranged weapons in battle? That would be very useful for archers, especially if it's not possible to change flee so that they stay in a province despite fleeing orders. Not to mention many of the javelin-wielding ground troops. Those javelins are quite nice for the first strike when the enemy is literally a throw away. In the next round of battle there's usually a few casualties by friendly fire because the rear decides to throw into the meelee.


All in all, you guys did a terrific job improving the strategic game. Now if the tactical combat could be improved a bit more i'd call this game perfect. d-(o.o)-b

[Ballbarian]

Like a checkbox besides each spell in the magic menu so spells can be disallowed for all casters at once. I sure know a few i'd like to turn off.

I have suggested this before and would greatly appreciate it's implementation.

If even that is impossible, how about at least a new order for casters "repeat specific spell"? It makes me cringe when i see my agarthan casters slam a bladewind into the meelee that hurts my troglodytes much more than the enemy, while they could have used that round to caste a 100 accuracy smite instead.

On this one, I would rather it remain a little out of control. Sometimes the combat ai surprises me with the perfect spell for the occassion that I would have never scripted otherwise. But I do feel your pain.