[.95] [bug] presence of magic-immune ophidian prevents offensive spells cast on that army?

from Elemental Forums

Oh noes!  Karavox is invading my lands!

No problemo, I'll just rain down death/destruction/delay/etc. from above, using my mighty spells!

ruh roh...

What's all this then?  Can't cast offensive spells on him, in my territory -- even spells castable in my territory?!?!

His army contains an ophidian, which are magic-immune.  Could this be the reason?  No other explanation comes to mind (and I consulted great minds in the LH forum).

Should the presence of a magic-immune unit preclude offensive spells being cast against an entire army, or should only the magic-immune unit be protected while the non-magic-immune units are affected normally?

I vote the latter, as the former seems abusable and not-working-as-I-think-the-devs-intend.

If correct, please to fix (ie currently it appears there's a 'magic-immune' check at the army level which if the check is '+' then it negates the entire spell attack on all units, instead of the 'magic-immune' check at the unit level and so affecting only that unit).  If working-as-devs-intend then please to rethink :)

7,001 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Seconded, needs fixing.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Been this way for a long time.  I personally viewed it as a perk for going with diverse units, having an Ophidian along helped to protect everyone else.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm trying to recall if any other creature in the game auto-lends its immunities to the rest of its team mates. If not, this would seem to be a bug.

 

Not saying it isn't a bug in any case, but still.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I like it. No reason to ever have an Ophidian aside from this little gimmick which wasn't even remotely relevant before the AI started to cast stuff.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

An ophidian in the one stack not only protects that stack from offensive magic (except for tremor spell, that still worked) but if you target a non-ophidian army with a multi-square AoE spell such as starfall, and the starfall AoE would include the ophidian-containing army, the starfall spell can't be cast on the non-ophidian army.  So it's not just the same army being protected.

The non-ophidian armies are subject to single-square AoE spells of course.

I can see how some argue it's a feature, while others argue it's a bug.

In tactical combat, will an ophidian prevent all offensive spells being cast on its fellow units?  Memory (which is not always reliable) tells me 'no'.

I'll argue that it should be the same in tactical and strategic combat -- if an ophidian protects all its fellow units from offensive spells in one it should also in the other.

If this is a feature, then it makes the ophidian arguably the most powerful unit in the game (if you rely on magic anyhoo, and this is the 'War of Magic' game series...).

If this remains a feature I foresee a suicide mounted melee strike force to kill off the ophidian unit, then retreat to deal with the remaining forces 'normally'.