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In the same vein of my first Odds and Ends post, this is where I touch on semi-random things that have accumulated while horsing around with Dark Wizard.
To start with I decided to assemble the Terrain and Mobility screens into one easy-to-read image apiece. Normally in game the player would only see a few columns at a time and have to horizontally scroll.
This is a (mostly) pixel-accurate composite of the terrain effects table. On the left we have the four movement types Ground, Desert, Air, and Water. In each column is an icon indicating how compatible the movement type is to that terrain. Unfortunately the game is about as clear as mud as to what the terrain effect actually IS. Initially I thought it had to be how the game penalizes movement over incompatible terrain but the Air values definitely don't support that. It could be related to attack/defense or using the rest command.
The terrains are: Castle, Shrine, Town, Ruins, Bridge, Plains, Forest, Desert, Wastelands, Mountains, Volcano, Sea, River, Shoals, and Wetlands.
Fortunately the mobility effects table is clearer. It might not be entirely accurate as to every penalty programmed but this is what the game displays in the table. Again on the left are the various movement types. By cross-referencing them with terrain types it is possible to see where and how each movement type excels. The numbers in the cells say how many movement points it takes a unit to cross one hex of that terrain. My only beef is that I'd prefer that water units get the same 1:1 rate on roads that all other units do. (At least in Dark Wizard naval units are never completely useless since there are plenty of maps with at least some water and if not they make great garrisons.)
In less serious news I was working out some finer details for the unit stats post and just had to try to a certain combination. Meet the mighty Goat Lord, the goat who thinks it is a warlord! Well actually it is a warlord, sort of. This is the result of adding the warlord commander class to a hire list but choosing the second option under alignment. In this case that would be neutral. The way the game is programmed, however, it retains the original name but pulls all the stats for whatever the next entry in the table happens to be. Since 'goat' happens to be after the warlord commander this results in Goat Lord. Unfortunately since Goat Lord has all the same limitations as a warlord commander it cannot learn magic, use items, or gain any experience.
Finally here's a screenshot of a warlord commander defending Sulus castle from Armer's cowardly horde. I was doing a quick bit of advance-retreat actions to see how many castles the AI could take from me at once (it capped at 4, but I wasn't trying very hard to set up ways it could take castles en masse). I happened to advance to Sulus and saw this warlord wasn't centered properly on the castle. This is super nit-picky but zie should be one cell to the upper right.
Also of note is that the AI doesn't automatically take cities when castles are lost. Armer is down to 4 castles but he still has 42 cities under his control. Lazy demon army is lazy! Secondly the A under Income isn't a glitch. It's because Armer's total gold has exceeded 655k. Other screens display higher totals properly so I am mystified why this particular one, the very screen players are likely to spend the most time looking at, can't handle such high values.
To start with I decided to assemble the Terrain and Mobility screens into one easy-to-read image apiece. Normally in game the player would only see a few columns at a time and have to horizontally scroll.
This is a (mostly) pixel-accurate composite of the terrain effects table. On the left we have the four movement types Ground, Desert, Air, and Water. In each column is an icon indicating how compatible the movement type is to that terrain. Unfortunately the game is about as clear as mud as to what the terrain effect actually IS. Initially I thought it had to be how the game penalizes movement over incompatible terrain but the Air values definitely don't support that. It could be related to attack/defense or using the rest command.
The terrains are: Castle, Shrine, Town, Ruins, Bridge, Plains, Forest, Desert, Wastelands, Mountains, Volcano, Sea, River, Shoals, and Wetlands.
Fortunately the mobility effects table is clearer. It might not be entirely accurate as to every penalty programmed but this is what the game displays in the table. Again on the left are the various movement types. By cross-referencing them with terrain types it is possible to see where and how each movement type excels. The numbers in the cells say how many movement points it takes a unit to cross one hex of that terrain. My only beef is that I'd prefer that water units get the same 1:1 rate on roads that all other units do. (At least in Dark Wizard naval units are never completely useless since there are plenty of maps with at least some water and if not they make great garrisons.)
In less serious news I was working out some finer details for the unit stats post and just had to try to a certain combination. Meet the mighty Goat Lord, the goat who thinks it is a warlord! Well actually it is a warlord, sort of. This is the result of adding the warlord commander class to a hire list but choosing the second option under alignment. In this case that would be neutral. The way the game is programmed, however, it retains the original name but pulls all the stats for whatever the next entry in the table happens to be. Since 'goat' happens to be after the warlord commander this results in Goat Lord. Unfortunately since Goat Lord has all the same limitations as a warlord commander it cannot learn magic, use items, or gain any experience.
Finally here's a screenshot of a warlord commander defending Sulus castle from Armer's cowardly horde. I was doing a quick bit of advance-retreat actions to see how many castles the AI could take from me at once (it capped at 4, but I wasn't trying very hard to set up ways it could take castles en masse). I happened to advance to Sulus and saw this warlord wasn't centered properly on the castle. This is super nit-picky but zie should be one cell to the upper right.
Also of note is that the AI doesn't automatically take cities when castles are lost. Armer is down to 4 castles but he still has 42 cities under his control. Lazy demon army is lazy! Secondly the A under Income isn't a glitch. It's because Armer's total gold has exceeded 655k. Other screens display higher totals properly so I am mystified why this particular one, the very screen players are likely to spend the most time looking at, can't handle such high values.
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