Ban on using spells in the instant battle

[oleg-derevenetz]

Hi all and @idshibanov

What do you think about the ban on the use of spells by the player's hero in the instant battle (on the world map) when instant battle is enabled in the settings? Similar behavior exists in HoMM3 HotA. The idea is that instant battle is intended to save your time, and the loss of mana is undesirable. However, if you press "auto" button during the battle, use of spells may be allowed.

[Branikolog]

Hello, @oleg-derevenetz!
Nice idea!
On one hand, this solution prevents mana from being drained by numerous battles in late game.
But on the other hand - in battles with poor armies this can affect on a chance of winning, because in battles with such circumstances first round can be determinative...
Can we just adjust the chance of using spells in a first round according to the enemy army's threat? (in a case enemy is weak, do not use spell the first round)

[ihhub]

A replay of instant battle shouldn't be auto. The button in #2896 is designed to replay the battle in a manual way. We mustn't allow users to infinitely replay the same battle to get the best result. Please correct me here.

I don't really understand the meaning of first battle: is it first try of instant battle? If yes then how many attempts do we allow to have?

[LeHerosInconnu]

The player will replay the combat if the result of the automatic combat (adventure map) does not suit him.
At the end of the replayed combat, he will not be able to replay the combat again.

However, during the replay, the player should be able to activate the automatic combat mode as desired (combat screen).
For example, he can start some actions manually, then switch to automatic mode for a few turns and then switch back to manual mode to finish the combat.
This is how I see it, anyway.

[oleg-derevenetz]

@ihhub The idea is to ban spell usage by player's hero AI on instant battle (like in HotA) to avoid unnecessary mana drain on trivial battles, but allow usage of spells if player press CANCEL button in battle results dialog and then press AUTO button in the bottom left corner of battle screen.

[Branikolog]

We have a slight mess with "auto" and "instant" battles here.)

[Branikolog]

Oh, actually, I thought, that @oleg-derevenetz proposed to ban spells in the first round of battle in instant mode. So AI would use spells only for second round.... o_O My fault... But Idea is interesting anyway! )

[idshibanov]

Hi everyone!

I'm not sure why need this logic because we already have an option to disable spell casting in auto combat. Also I don't like "hidden" behaviors and "first auto combat" is very vague. Is it a first one during the gaming session? First one when you enable the setting? Why only first? Intent should be clear - if you want to save mana just tell it instead of flipping settings back and forth.

In addition AI has a check internally to conserve hero's mana if battle can be easily won, so it shouldn't spam spells if you meet 1 goblin.

[LeHerosInconnu]

Yes, it should be simple and clear to the player.
And there is also a setting for casting spells for the automatic combat (combat screen).

In fheroes2:

[oleg-derevenetz]

Hi @idshibanov

I probably didn't put it quite correctly. By "first auto battle" I mean instant battle. That setting, if I understand correctly, disables spells during any auto battle, including both instant battles and auto battle when player press AUTO button in the bottom left corner of the battle screen. The problem is that currently player didn't know for sure was the mana spent during the instant battle or not.

[idshibanov]

Alright, now I understand. Never thought of such a use case myself because if I would press "Cancel" I will do everything manually. Yes, right now auto spell casting controls both because logically "instant" and "auto" is the same thing. It fully plays out your battle in the background just won't load the interface.

Regarding mana: it's always challenging to add something new to an old interface because pixel space is very limited. Outputting the number is easy but making it look good will take some brainstorming. Even such trivial task as adding "Cancel" button took some time because existing "Okay" button was already drawn on top of dialog background which we had to overwrite.

[oleg-derevenetz]

@idshibanov I'm aware of troubles with adjusting original UI, that's why I suggest to disable spells in instant battle entirely. But this, of course, is debatable.

[LeHerosInconnu]

A simple line indicating the number of spell points spent and the number of spell points remaining in relation to the hero's total spell points would allow the player to make an informed decision:

[oleg-derevenetz]

Paraphrased header & initial message to avoid confusion between auto battle and instant battle.