AI spell casting priorities

[Endoperez]

Comments, please. Would this rule work like I think it would?

Gems won't be spent after round 5.

Scripted mages will follow their script, and not spend games after their script ends. Non-scripted mages and mages of AI nations can use their gems to cast gem-expensive spells.


About buff spells:

Banned buffs:

Only when scripted (because these are personal buffs more suitable for thug/sc units):

Astral Shield
Fire Shield
Personal Quickness
Blink
Flight (caster-only)
Breath of Winter
Water Shield
Charge Body
Soul Vortex
Barkskin (for poor Abysia)
Stoneskin (there are units with chill aura and Earth)
Invulnerability (Ironskin should be enough for mages, and there might be earth mages with poison aura)

Preferred buffs:
Buffs mages SHOULD cast, if they can:

Summon Water Power
Summon Storm Power
Phoenix Power
Summon Earthpower
Strength of Gaia
Air Shield
Personal Luck
Ironskin
Mistform

Spells I'm not sure about:
Mirror Image
Resist Magic
Iron Will
Personal Regeneration



Combat spells
Preferably, any buff spells/gem-expensive spells would have higher priority in the beginning, and would drop below direct damage spells of the same priority level in few turns. Thus, mages start by casting Luck/Body Ethereal, then quickly change into mind burn/paralyze or better spells.

Astral:
never unless scripted: Blink, Returning, Vortex of Returning, Solar Brilliance, Astral Healing, Soul Drain, Unraveling,

Priority classes, from lowest to highest. The spells in the same priority should be cast over spells of lower priority, but should be pretty much interchangeable against different armies.

Star Fires, Healing Light, Horror Mark
< Mind Burn, Body Ethereal, Luck, Nether Bolt, Arcane Bolt,
< Paralyze, Solar Rays, Stellar Cascades, Battle Fortune,
Astral Geyser
< Soul Slay, Enslave Mind, Light of the Northern Star, Nether Darts, Astral Fires, Control, Opposition

AI nations should give these high priority, otherwise low priority/never cast. If my suggestion in the beginning would happen to be integrated, these would have fairly high priority.
Doom, Battle Fortune, Will of the Fates, Antimagic, Arcane Domination, Master Enslave, Astral Tempest.



I did this list by going through the manual's list of Astral spells. I'm not that experienced in competitive multiplayer, so please correct me if I'm wrong. If someone would like to help in making similar lists for the rest of the paths, I'd be very grateful.

[Jazzepi]

If you're going to include barkskin, you might as well include Protection, Wooden Warriors, and Mass Protection.

Jazzepi

[Endoperez]

Jazzepi said:
If you're going to include barkskin, you might as well include Protection, Wooden Warriors, and Mass Protection.

Jazzepi

I didn't go through Nature spells yet. Protection could be included, perhaps, but Abysia shouldn't have enough nature to cast Wooden Warriors or Mass Protection any way. Also, if Protection has lower priority than other spells the mage might cast (if it's just N1 random on an abysian mage), it probably won't be cast any way.

[Aezeal]

for astral you have light of the northern star quite high.. it cost a gem right? and it's not like that gem will be worth it most of the time (if it only gives +1 astral magic). IMHO light of the northern star should be one of the never cast unless scripted for powerfull casters that benefit from it in multiple paths)

[Endoperez]

Aezeal said:
for astral you have light of the northern star quite high.. it cost a gem right? and it's not like that gem will be worth it most of the time (if it only gives +1 astral magic). IMHO light of the northern star should be one of the never cast unless scripted for powerfull casters that benefit from it in multiple paths)

Power of the Spheres and Light of the Northern Star are different. I think I didn't have PotS at all. Light of the Northern Star gives +1 Astral to everyone on the battlefield, and because it's battlefield enchantment it can only be cast once per battle, so even in the worst case a lone S3 mage wastes 1 gem to become an S4 mage.

[Jazzepi]

Endoperez said:

I didn't go through Nature spells yet. Protection could be included, perhaps, but Abysia shouldn't have enough nature to cast Wooden Warriors or Mass Protection any way. Also, if Protection has lower priority than other spells the mage might cast (if it's just N1 random on an abysian mage), it probably won't be cast any way.

Ahhaahahhahaa

Try telling that to sandman. His random nature mage there to cast relief for his abysian army cast mass protection out of nowhere. I don't think I should have to tell you what happened afterwards. Most of his mages had also cast the fire spell that makes them explode when they die, and he lost like 23 mages in one round of combat.

Jazzepi

[Zeldor]

That Barkskin is mostly the case when fighting against Abysia, especially with Fire Storm up.

[Dedas]

Just for that particular reason I never include ANY nature mages in my Abysian armies. So if anything should get fixed it is this.

Oh, also ironskin casting Eagle Kings...

[Twan]

Gems won't be spent after round 5.

Hum there should perhaps be exceptions for some evocation spells (namely shadow blast, fire storm, niefel flames, shimmering fields). A player may want to have someone (probably a communion master or high level pretender) chain casting large area evocations as long he has gems, even after 5 rounds. As well there should be an exception for astral healing.

Banned buffs:


Only when scripted (because these are personal buffs more suitable for thug/sc units):

Astral Shield
Fire Shield
Personal Quickness
Flight (caster-only)
Water Shield

I disagree. They should be very low priority but not blacklisted. As they can't harm you they are something a mage should cast if nothing else -nothing not worse for your troops- can be done. And flight, giving more survavibility to a mage if his army is routed, should rather be in the "usefull buffs" list.

Blink
Breath of Winter
Charge Body
Soul Vortex
Barkskin (for poor Abysia)
Stoneskin (there are units with chill aura and Earth)
Ironskin (reduce lightning resistance)
Invulnerability (Ironskin should be enough for mages, and there might be earth mages with poison aura)
Personal Regeneration

These ones may be harmful for the mage or your troops and should be blacklisted. All protection spells give weakness against one element, so I include ironskin (especially bad in endgame, when the ennemy expect you to use army of lead/gold and so use shock dammage as much he can) only the player should decide to use one of them.

Preferred buffs:
Buffs mages SHOULD cast, if they can:

Summon Water Power
Summon Storm Power
Phoenix Power
Summon Earthpower
Strength of Gaia
Air Shield
Personal Luck
Mistform
Twist fate
Mirror Image
Iron Will/Resist Magic
Eagle Eyes
Flight (personnal)

Mistform should be higher priority than anything else (and airshield in land battles). Resist magic is usable only if the army isn't protected by antimagic, so should be high priority too as it may save the mage. In + magic buffs, summon earthpower should be 1st priority as it gives reinvigoration. Flight should get a good value when the mage's army as suffered a lot of losses.

Combat spells
Preferably, any buff spells/gem-expensive spells would have higher priority in the beginning, and would drop below direct damage spells of the same priority level in few turns. Thus, mages start by casting Luck/Body Ethereal, then quickly change into mind burn/paralyze or better spells.

Astral:
never unless scripted: Blink, Returning, Vortex of Returning, Solar Brilliance, Astral Healing, Soul Drain, Unraveling,

Astral Healing is one of the rare gems spell someone may hope to see used after round 6, except that agree.

Doom, Battle Fortune, Will of the Fates, Antimagic, Arcane Domination, Master Enslave, Astral Tempest.

I would include Doom and Astral Tempest in the black list. Doom is a waste if you destroy the ennemies, astral tempest kill your own guys.

Will of the Fates should be highest priority if a mage can cast it, and Antimagic as well. Mass enslave spells aren't that good if the ennemy has used antimagic and the caster has no penetration item, and casting one probably mean a powerful mage will be uncounscious, so they should not be valued as much as a defensive BE.

[Jazzepi]

KO, would it help if you had a bundled, sorted collection of the turn files, map files, and the fatherland files for the individual battles in question where the spell casting goes awry?

I know I've kept most of my turns for sloth, and I can provide you with multiple instances of arrow fend being cast for no reason. Also, there was a huge battle where R'yleh had undead mastery ready to cast in a big communion with over 5k+ undead in the battle, but instead cast bone grinding

Maybe it would be helpful if you could modify the values for the decision making process, and then "rehost" the turn to run it through a real life example to see how it would change the outcome.

Jazzepi