I'm reading the threat.

I have to do AI work on v1.3 because for FE I'm planning to handle the AI design for the tactical battles directly and it's better to "learn" the tactical battle AI code in WOM than FE.

I just got back from Disney World with the family and we recently got a puppy (http://draginol.joeuser.com/article/408349/The_life_of_Bailey_8_weeks). I normally only get to do fun stuff like AI work in my off hours (until I can recruit more developers I can train to do AI directly anyway) so I'm trying to find time to do the AI work on weekends so far.

Anyway, it'll get done. the AI problems in tactical are pretty blatantly obvious. And the game mechanic changes in the main game should make it harder to easily exploit the AI.

Congrats on taking the time off!

Let me know the next time you go to Disney, I can help you out.

I do Disney travel on the side and am a certified Disney Specialist.

Hope you enjoyed the time off from your other "family" (you know, the ones that like to bitch on the message boards!)

Welcome back. NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

I heard Disney World is really really large but has roughly the same number of attractions as Disney Land (where I've been a few times) - is this true?

Honestly, I love AI, and if it weren't for the fact that my C++ is so rusty I'd offer / apply to help out with it.

Maybe we could get some tips from tetleytea? <grin>

Best regards,
Steven.

I would like to see some personality shown in the tactical: Autoresolve Battle

Perhaps, this would be managed by the skill of the highest rated hero in the army?

Example: Warrior 1 favors offensive tactics, and is more aggressive
Example: Scholar 3 favors defensive battle, waiting for the opponent to close instead of rushing into battle

If Warrior 1 and Scholar 3 are in the same army, the army will follow the tactics of the higher level Scholar 3 hero.

Perhaps, this skill increases based on the level of the commanding hero?

Level 1: 50% Bull Rush AI, 30% Offensive AI, 20% Defensive AI, 0% Withdraw AI strategy
Level 5: 0% Bull Rush, 50% Offensive, 50% Defensive

or to take it further;

Level 1 with 200% Advantage - 100% Bull Rush
Level 1 with 0% Advantage - 40% Bull Rush, 40% Offensive, 20% Defensive

Level 5 with 200% Advantage - 50% Bull Rush, 50% Offensive
Level 5 with 0% Advantage - 0% Bull Rush AI, 50% Offensive AI, 50% Defensive AI
Level 5 at 50% Disadvantage - 50% Retreat AI strategy

Note how the more experienced level 5 hero is more likely to undertake a more optimal tactical strategy than less experienced heros.

Perhaps, each Hero would have a favored battle tactic that he favors and this would be shown on their card.

Perhaps, you could choose the commander of each army (to determine the battle tactics most likely to be used). If you don't choose the commander is automatically the highest level hero.

i think elemental is much like how dwarf fortress has been never really done.

I think you need to stop depending on so many numbers because when a city levels up it should ask for an ability or a feature, trait, perk etc of some sort rather then a % or X to add to. i love numbers but to many makes it rather doll... need a place to be unique... Factions need to also be more unique rather then just numbers you need to give better flaws/strengths such as only needing to eat rocks to live.

Well, considering there are 4 theme parks and 2 water parks at Walt Disney World and only two parks at Disneyland, I would say that the number of attractions is greater at WDW. They are just not as densely packed as the ones at DLR.

UI Change

In 1.3 I would like to see the ability to change the order of qued buildings and units up and down like in GC2 instead of del them all and redoing it in the order that I want them in.

An eg would be I am building soldiers but I want to build a pioneer 1st I would have to del all the build queue and start with the pioneer then requeue the soldiers that I want.

Dynasty Change

It would be nice if I could marry my kids off to NPC's when no other choice is available. There could be a NPC that has this as ability. I have notice that the AI does not seem to protect there children. When I filially meet an AI in the game that I can marry off to there kids are all killed off. There have been some games where I had no one to marry my kids to. I always keep my kids very close to home so they don't get killed. I would also like to see that relations can not marry each other ie. Niece + Nephew. This would force a player to marry different kids to different factions.

What I mean is if you have 4 kids and you marry 2 to faction A and 2 to faction B the kids from faction A can marry kids from faction B but kids from faction A can not marry other kids from faction A. They would have to be married to another faction B C D or NPC.

Magic

I find that I use magic very little in game play. I use the teleport allot and when I get it I use enchanted hammers to build up new or captchure cities up quicker. I would like to be 'forced' to use the magic more in the game.

Can we get the camera snap back for EWOM 1.3 please? It was great in GalCiv2 and i heard EFE is going to have that so...? Please.

well, when does 1.3 will be released?

I'd rather see a return to the original essence mechanics, provided it can be balanced correctly.  I just don't think the AI as its written now can handle combat magic and strategic magic sharing the mana pool.

Essence won't get into v1.3 but if there's a v1.4 that's where I'd like to bring it back.

I want the essence mechanic along with champions to be a much more structured thing.  You'll see some of that in v1.3. 

Sounds great. I had a quick question about the beta. Are you going to try to implement all of the features before a public beta or splice them in as you go?

Stroustrup is with you....always

Run log, run!

Any chance of getting the OP updated on the what's implemented and what's still ToDo?

Hi Brad!

Do you plan to release v1.29[b] series, like v1.19[b]  ?

I cant wait v1.3 and  wish to play multiplay with my friends !

I liked the tactical combat better in the first version of Elemental. In 1.0 AI attacked with summoned creatures and cast spells at your forces. In the updates, magic magic has been nurfed so much that it is rarely used in combat by the player or the AI and summoned creatures; other than the imp, rarely make an appearance. Its just a clash of armies with minimal tactics and no magic.

For V1.3 I would like the designers to consider a wider range of tactical spells and for the AI to use them properly.

Spells such as;

1. Air Spells
1. Invisibility (Air) - a unit is invisible until it engages in combat
2. Move Clouds (Air) - dispells Downpour (Water)
3. Mass invisibility (Air) - several units are invisible until they engage in combat
2. Fire Spells
1. Forest Fire (Fire) -  All forest tiles on the map erupt in flames, units entering or in those tiles suffer damage
2. Heat Armor (Fire) - Target unit loses benefit of metal armor it is wearing for the duration of the battle.
3. Sword Fire (Fire) - Heats large metal weapons (swords, axes) so they receive a +2 damage bonus for 1 round.
4. Summon Battle Elemental (Fire) - Casting requires a source of fire such as Forest Fire Spell
5. Wall of Fire (i.e. Bring it back )
3. Water Spells
1. Fog (Water) - visibility and attack range for all units is reduced to 6 tiles.
2. Downpour (Water) - visibility and attack range for all units is reduced to 2 tiles and dispels Forest Fire (Fire)
3. Flood Land (Water) - 25% of unoccupied tiles on the tactical map are covered by water and are impassible to units equipped with metal armor
4. Create Lake (Water) - a 4x4 square of terrain is covered with water and rendered impassible. Effect expands from the center tile by 1 tile per turn (Turn 1 - 1 tile, Turn 2 - 4 tiles, Turn 3 - 9 tiles, Turn 4 - 16 tiles). Units in lake terrain automatically move to nearest non-flooded tile (randomly selected)
5. Summon Battle Elemental (Water) - Casting requires a source of water such as a tile covered by water from Flood Land or Create Lake. Elemental lasts for 1 turn per level of caster.
4. Summoning Spells
1. Summon Spiders (Summoning) - summoned creatures stay for 1 tactical combat turn per caster level (uses existing creature)
2. Summon Wolves (Summoning) - summoned creatures stay for 1 tactical combat turn per caster level (uses existing creature)
3. Summon Bears (Summoning) - summoned creatures stay for 1 tactical combat turn per caster level (uses existing creature)
4. Summon Worgs (Summoning) - summoned creatures stay for 1 tactical combat turn per caster level (uses existing creature)
5. Control Monster (Enchantment) - summoned creature changes sides if successful
6. Dispel Summons (Summoning) - Chance to dispel a summoned creature
7. Circle of Protection - Unit receives +4 AC bonus vs summoned creatures
8. Mass Circle of Protection - All friendly units receive +4 AC bonus verus summoned creatures (Level 4)
5. Darkness Spells
1. Darkness - Visibility and attack range of all units; enemy and friendly, is reduced to 1 tile until dispelled or canceled
2. Life Drain - Drains life from target
3. Curse Land - The land drains the life from those standing upon it. Units in a 4x4 tile lose life as long as they remain or enter those cursed tiles. Lasts for 1 turn per caster level.
4. Summon Zombies - animates fallen soldiers as slow moving zombies, may be cast number of times equal to number of units killed on battlefield. (new creature)
6. Light Spells
1. Light - Dispells Darkness
2. Dust Undead - Dispells undead (zombie) units
7. Panic Mounts - Mounted (Cavalry) units in a 4x4 tile do not move for 1 turn, they can attack and defend but can't move
8. Enchantment Spells
1. Charm (Enchantment) - Charmed unit will not attack caster unless attacked by caster. Lasts for 1 tactical combat turn per caster level.
2. Rage (Enchantment) - Target unit receives +4 to attack, -2 to defense for 1 turn per level of caster
3. Break Summons (Enchantment) - Summoned creature breaks free from the control of its summoner and attacks unit closest to it.
4. Rally (Enchantment) - Rallys unit from Panic (i.e. Dispels Fear) and gives them a +2 attack bonus for 1 turn.
5. Fear (Enchantment) - Triggers a moral check, peasants units are most likely to panic while Expert units will rarely fail their morale check. Paniced units do not move or attack until rallied or the spell expires. Affects only humans, not creature
9. Earth Spells
1. Raise Rocks (Earth) - all rock tiles on the tactical map are raised and units on this raised land cannot be attecked with melee weapons nor move off it until the spell expires.
2. Moat (Earth) - Creates an impassible barrier 6 tiles in length going from Top to Bottom in a straight line. Ranged attacks can pass over the barrier. Used to shield archers from attack and channel attackers to move around the ends of the barrier. (Cast one per battle)
3. Stone Wall (Earth) - Raises a stone wall 6 tiles in length that blocks view of units on the other side. Units cannot move through this wall nor can archers fire over it.
4. Flatten Land (Earth - Dispels Moat (Earth), Raise Rocks (Earth)  and Stone Wall (Earth) Spells
5. Drain Land (Earth) - Cracks open in the earth and drain the water from the land, dispels Flood Land (Water) spell

Example: A 4th level sovereign casts Summons Spiders. These spiders will vanish after 4 combat turns. The opposing 5th level sovereign successfully casts Control Monster on the summoned spiders and takes control of the summoned spiders. The 4th level sovereign casts Circle of Protection on the firendly unit closest to the summoned spiders.

Great spell ideas Edwin!  SD, get on it!

Hi Frogboy,

The list is looking good.  Have you given any thought to making the factions more different?  I know we've talked about it a lot in this forum, but I can't remember seeing your thoughts on it.  Do you think the factions are distinct enough already or do you have some plans to make them more unique in 1.3?

The list as of May 17, 2011.

War of Magic v1.3: Changes Implemented

• Base HP lowered from 10 to 2 for trained units.
• Minimum trained unit group size changed from 1 to 4.
• Base map movement speed increased.
• World Difficulty will set the default difficulty of the AI players

War of Magic v1.3: To-Do

• New Setup option: Notable Location frequency
• New Setup option: Random Events [enabled][disabled]
• Minor Factions are going to go bye-bye until they can be loved more by us
• Notable locations will no longer require a tech level
• Quests will no longer require a tech level (though that doesn’t mean high end quests will be showing up early)
• World Generation will now place exotic things far away from starting points.
• Random Events
• A lot more missile weapons
• Death of a sovereign will cause the rest of the faction to go over to the faction with the best dynasty connections
• Tactical battles: AI re-design
• Magic tech: Clairvoyance (allows remote channeler to cast spells into a battle)
• Tactical battles: Casting time on spells. 
• Tactical battles: Morale reintroduced
• Tactical battles: Auto-Resolve has both sides fought by AI
• Instant battle: Does auto-resolve code but really fast (off screen)
• Missile weapons won't require a special building
• No special building requirements to train special unit types

I completely disagree with this request.  I realize the current day implications of letting cousins marry - and I find that it should hold no sway over the limits of the game engine.  If you feel it shouldn't be done, then don't marry your children or grandchildren to their cousins.  I find its a good way to get grand daughters back that I would otherwise need to slaughter when an AI declares war on me for not having 1000 war staff wielding peasants running around the countryside.  The moral implications of killing my own grandchildren bother me much more than making them marry each other.

Historically many cousins married each other (especially the Hapsburgs) and in a lot of modern fantasy books you'll see closer than that.

However, I do fully support marrying kids off to any (same faction) NPC I want.  It shouldn't have to be a child of a neighboring faction - I should have an ability to click on any 'single' npc and choose 'Arrange Marriage'.  The arrange marriage program would then find a list of all unwed children in my family tree (just like the Dynasty screens now do), and then select which one I want them to marry.  Since the NPC is not part of any other family tree - they become an 'In-law' with no connections to any other dynasty.

The benefits of this being - I get to see grandkids all fall under my faction - and not have a chance of them defecting to another faction (which I view as Casus Belli (cause for war).  Therefore I don't have to worry about some dude getting my daughters killed off fighting a pack of spiders, and I don't have to kill them or any grandkids they might have.  (Historically that kept a lot of kingdoms at peace with each other - however, historically they didnt 'die' when the faction vanished either).  I realize this last bit might be resolved in 1.3 anyway.

I'd like to add another request on the line of Dynasties.  Make them actual Dynasties.  Its just a way of breeding super champions at this point (which I like) - but I would like it more than after x turns, the old man dies and child #1 becomes the new faction leader.  It would make the game feel a lot more 'dynamic' as I would feel that a long time has passed since the founding of the empire.  Long games become that much rewarding if you can finish them before the dynastic head dies off - or if a bitter war lasts 3-4 generations.  This was a huge improvement over Master of Magic - the old dude just hiding out in a tower flinging spells.  He's real, he's vulnerable, he's worth throwing troops away to protect.

BTW 1.2 was a huge improvement over previous versions.  There is still work to be done, but 1.2 was a giant leap in the right direction.

I know there is a lot of hero worship of Kael in some circles - I played Fall from Heaven 2 - and greatly preferred vanilla CiV4 over that.  I'm also looking at some of the changes in store for FE - and I'm not liking them at all.  I know he does good work and that FE will be a good product - but WoM is also a good product.  The basics are there - its potential for a modding sandbox is huge - and thats its strength.  Continue to work out the bugs and the modding community will stick with it.  I'll play FE - but it seems like a step in a completely restricted and locked down game, rather than one where the players get to decided how much and little they need to mod it to make it a game they will love.

THIS.  I get so sick of building individual soldiers... the only units that should be on their own are either monsters or heroes/Soverign.  This will make the game so much more interesting to start with and give a better feeling of large scale.

Request: Please consider making one or two races more unique in 1.3

For this I nominate the Trogs and Wraiths.

Give the Trogs access to a weapon technology that the other races don't have access to (nets and tridents anyone?), a unique building or two, and give them some unique dialogs so that when you are engaged in diplomacy with them its really different. A different style of a grand hall, a different attitude, etc. Have the trogs respond differently to a sovereign that is physically weak as opposed to one that has a high strength rating (Trogs respect physical strength).

OR give Trog Units unique access to heavier weapons that only they can handle due to their higher physical strength.

Torg Net - Target unit cannot counter attack for 1 turn or movement is reduced.

Tridents - Polearm - 25% to strike first against shorter weapons.

Example - A trog battle tactic is to immobilize the attacker with a thrown net and then strike at it before it has untangled itself.

Trog Net Catapult - Immobizes target unit for 1 turn if successful hit - unit cannot move or attack as it is tangled up in one huge net.

Give the Wraiths the option to attack at night when attacking a unit (or city) that has not moved the previous turn. A night battle has the line of sight for all units reduced to four or five tiles and lessens the effectiveness of ranged units. Give Wraiths access to a unique magic book - Dark Magic with unique spells and unique summoning creatures a(skeletons, zombies). Give wraiths access to slave army units if they capture an enemy city. Slave army units are cheap to build and can slow up an enemies advance in battle. Allow wraiths to recruit ghoul units (unit unique to wraiths).

Just wanted to see how everything is going Frogboy. Best of luck on 1.3

Apparently we're the only ones who thinks that's a good idea.

As a huge fan of this game I have just one request, Please bring back the listing that shows the number of available tile in a city.  I found that insanely useful and I miss it.