The fatal flaws of scripting mages...

[thejeff]

And what does it mean to follow the script exactly. Should the mage cast attack spells with nothing in range? Blessings when everyone is already blessed (or no sacred units present)? Mind duel with no enemy astral mages? Etc, etc.

Better (though more developer work) would be to improve the "Is this enemy force worth wasting gems on?" logic. That seems to be where most of the problems lie.

[Sombre]

I don't think people have a problem with the casting AI deviating if the scripted stuff isn't possible (they might, but it's certainly a lesser problem). It's more that the AI has spells scripted that are possible and entirely sensible, but decides to do its own thing anyway and gets killed.

[thejeff]

The only cases of the AI deviating that I know of come down to either not possible or gem use.
Not possible is usually not in range.

The gem use is a real problem, but I still think the better solution is to improve the "enemy strength" algorithm.

I don't like the AI scripting on/off idea.
In the original example, you could just teleport in a cheap mage with hold/hold/retreat to burn his gems if he has scripting off, followed by the Mind Lord who will slaughter them because they have no gems left. If he leaves scripting on, they don't follow the script for the cheap mage or the Aboleth and die anyway.

It just means you have to work a little hard to exploit the problem. It doesn't fix it.

[Sombre]

The AI appears to deviate even if the spell is possible and you have the gems to power it if it decides the spell isn't a good idea. I don't have an example of this to hand, but numerous people have reported it.

[Gandalf Parker]

Hmm I use hellbind heart quite abit against one unit and havent had a problem. Maybe the mage was set too far back on the battlefield? (I dont remember the range settings on that)

[Baalz]

Both mages were set all the way forward, enemy mage was scripted to hold X5 (it was an agreed up trade).

[Nick_K]

Of course, thematically it makes sense that sometimes mages would make a mistake. They don't know that a lone enemy is actually loaded with magic items or whatever. When they have heavy weight of numbers on their side, it makes sense that sometimes the mages would make the wrong decision

[Baalz]

Yeah, another example I ran afoul of in another game was the AI deciding not to "waste" blood slaves casting hell bind heart as I had scripted...after all it's just one guy they were fighting! >:/

What's especially messed up in the fight Bob's talking about is after disregarding his orders to cast friendly currents, the AI decided to go ahead and spend the gems summoning sharks. Talk about adding insult to injury. Well, at least there was a funny stalemate where the Mage of the Deep kept my frost immune (from breath of winter) aboleth permanently encased in ice while the breath of winter caused him to be surrounded by passed out militia and the only damage being dealt was "holy avenger" being triggered on the (passed out) mother of the deep by breath of winter.