Caster of Magic for Windows - v1.05.00 - Update available now

[SamSlitherine]

Hi Everyone,

The latest patch is available to download on all platforms.

You can download our store version from the 'Check for Update' button on the launcher, the product page download area found here: https://www.slitherine.com/game/master- ... windows/pc as well as via the direct public download area here: https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/Castero ... .05.00.zip

Bug fixes, gameplay, general
-Fixed 1.4.7 bug : The No Healing ability had no effect on undead.
-Fixed bug : MaxEnchantAura was not read properly from UnitAura.ini.
-When a combat spell is countered, the game will show the "Spell Countered" window instead of a generic red message window.
-In the combat spellbook, when a spell is unavailable or too expensive, it will appear grey.
-Fixed 1.4.7 bug : Game crashes when a unit enchantment on a neutral unit is targeted by Dispel Magic.
-In Automatic Combat mode, when the army total stats are calculated, the stats will be weighted towards the stronger unit in the army based on the square root of the unit's power rating instead of the entire power rating. This should make results more realistic for armies with vastly uneven strength units such as one demigod hero and 8 spearmen.
-Fixed bug : Heroes lose their custom names when Resurrected.
-Fixed bug : Abundance failed to add the intended 7 maximal population for cities between 12 and 17 max population.
-Fixed bug : Web, Crack's Call failed to ignore Magic Immunity.
-Fixed bug : The NonMagic parameter in spells.ini had no effect.
-Fixed bug : Militarist treaty break message was missing the treaty name.
-Fixed bug : The item powers Egoism, Stealth, Amplify, Dark Force, Recharge had no effect on the item aura color
-The AI has a significantly reduced priority to chase after teleporting or merging targets with melee attackers that can't reach them within the turn.
-Experience gained in combat is now displayed on the combat result report.
-Pressing Ctrl+ 1-9 keys on the production screen will save the entire production queue into Queues.INI. Pressing Shift+the same key will clear and load the queue from the file. It does check for requirements and racial restrictions when loading, and only adds the valid items.
-Clicking on a hero portrait on the hero equipment screen allows renaming the hero.
-Wizard's Pact violations are no longer checked while Time Stop is active.
-Added click sound effects to some UI buttons
-Fixed bug : AI secondary retort preference had no effect on dual realm wizards.
-Lowered AI primary retort preference chance to 50% from 60% on lower difficulty games. Expert and above was lowered to 65% from 75% chance.
-While a player is casting Spell of Mastery, AI priority to cast and target disjunction at their enchantments is increased.
-Fixed bug : when a unit changed planes, its previous move destination coordinates were not cleared. In rare circumstances this resulted in a crash.
-Power Link no longer counters Spell Blast and Drain Power
-Power Link can now store a maximal amount of 7500 power.
-Power Link now adds one third of the stored power as income each turn, the other 2/3 power carrying over to the stored amount next turn. This should make the income graph smoother.
-Added support for loading and unloading mods directly from the game's main menu. To develop mods, look at Mods\Readme.txt for more information. To use this feature, copy the mod files to the Mods subfolder then click the "Load Mod" button and type the mod name and press enter. This will install the mod and close the game. You have to restart the game after loading/unloading the mod files.
-Updated the effect of the 5 "conjunction" type random events to provide more strategic depth and become more uniform.
NATURE CONJUNCTION
The rising triad of green stars come together, reducing the cost of Nature and Summoning spells by 33%. All Fanatastic creatures gain +2 Attack, Defense and Resistance. Mana generated from power is doubled.
SORCERY CONJUNCTION
The rising triad of blue stars come together, reducing the cost of Sorcery and Enchantment spells by 33%. All spells have double the normal resistance to being dispelled. SP generated from power is doubled.
CHAOS CONJUNCTION
The rising triad of red stars come together, reducing the cost of Chaos, Combat and Special spells by 33%. All single target combat attack spells are 33% more powerful. Research generated from power is doubled.
GOOD MOON
The power of light is peaking! Life and Unit Enchantment spells cost 33% less to cast. Citizens are overwhelmed by generosity, increasing city gold revenues by 50%. All normal units gain +1 Attack, Defense and Movement.
BAD MOON
The power of darkness is peaking! Death and City Enchantment spells cost 33% less to cast. Citizens are pushed to the limit by greed, increasing city production by 50%. All normal units lose 3 resistance in combat.
-The AI has increased probability to cast overland summoning spells during Nature conjunctions.
-The AI has reduced probability to cast Dispel Magic, Disillusionise, Disjunction or Dispelling Wave during Sorcery conjunctions.
-The AI has increased probability to cast City Buff spells during Bad Moon.
-The AI has increased probability to cast Unit Buff spells during Good Moon.
-The AI has increased probability to cast Global Enchantment spells during Sorcery Conjunction.
-The AI has increased priority to produce MP, RP, or SP during the appropriate conjunction.
-Spell Binding now has a uniform cooldown of 12 turns between each use instead of 12 turns on first use and 36 turns afterwards.
-Reduced the casting cost of Destiny from 400 to 360.
-To request a declaration of war from an AI wizard, it is now required to have contact with the war declaration target for the human player as well as the AI instead of only the AI.
-Fixed bug : Staffdown2 setting did not work in Keys.INI
-Changed combat grid graphic to a dotted line
-Updated the cities screen background (thanks, Lagi!)
-Added new unit graphics for Apprentice (Lagi), old files are available in the OptionalArt folder
-Added new unit graphics for Gladiator (Lagi), old files are available in the OptionalArt folder
-Added new unit graphics for Spellzerker (Lagi), old files are available in the OptionalArt folder
-Added new unit graphics for Jackal Riders (Lagi), old files are available in the OptionalArt folder
-Fixed bug : When monsters in a lair raise undead, a maximum of 10 units were stored in the lair, causing the game to crash by exceeding the limit of 9.
-Fixed bug : A confused or immobilized unit can cause losing units while fleeing even when the game difficulty should not allow the loss of units while fleeing (except the immobilized unit itself)
-Added new unit graphics for Carrack (Lagi), old files are available in the OptionalArt folder
-Fixed bug : It was possible to request a war declaration or alliance break from an AI during war, the menu item was not disabled properly.
-The AI no longer receives bonus priority to target heroes with most spells and attacks below Fair difficulty.
-Fixed bug : The flag color of settlers in the producton view was black.
-Fixed bug : Life Drain had a spell save modifier of -4 instead of -5.
-Fixed bug : When a neutral monster stack failed to generate due to low budget, the message notifying the player about the monsters was shown anyway.

Modding
-Fixed bug : tile gold bonus was including the corner tiles of a city area.
-Added EarlyTresholdUncommon and EarlyTresholdRare parameters to Spells.INI
-Added parameter in Spells.INI to determine which tier of spells gives starting spells and which gives guaranteed spells.
-Large Shield can now be accessed by SetStat/GetStat.
-Added Item Aura colors and order to UnitAura.INI
-Fixed bug : Spell target variables in OLSpell.CAS AND CoSpell.CAS did not work.
-Fixed bug : Transmute and Nature's Cures had no effect when changed to be a different realm from Nature.
-Added AIRetort.INI which contains the preferred primary and secondary retort for each realm or realm pair.
-AIRetort.INI also contains AI primary and secondary retort pick probability in percentage. (Base amount, without difficulty modifier)
-Added RaiseVolcanoDestroyOres and RaiseVolcanoCreateOres to modding.ini.
-Added HeroNoRangePenalty and MagicNoRangePenalty to modding.ini.
-Added ScoutingRange parameter to buildings.ini
-Buildings declared as IsWall=1 in buildings.ini will display the city wall preview image.
-Added SETBUILDINGSTATE script command
-Added GAINEXP script command
-HP Bonus and HP Buff stats are now available for GetStat and Setstat
-Added SettlerMercenaries option to modding.ini
-Added TreeOfKnowledgeTurn to modding.ini
-Added scripts for Dispel and Disjunction roll formulas.
-The maximal amount of power stored by Power Link is in modding.ini
-The rate of gaining power from Power Link per turn is in modding.ini
-It can be changed what happens to the stored power when Power Link is dispelled in modding.ini
-Added Fortress and Outpost parameters to Buildings.INI to allow assigning different starting buildings than the default.
-Added script function TerrainInRange() which returns how many tiles are a specific type of terrain in a city area.
-Added Nightshade and Wild Game probability to Ore.INI
-Added new unit stats "EoTHeal" and "EoTHealPerc". Set this value to non-zero in UnitCalc.CAS using SetStat to increase or decrease the amount of overland end of turn healing the unit receives. This can be a negative value to suppress or reduce natural healing, but the total amount healed will never go below 0.
-Added SETGLOBAL and SETCOMBATGLOBAL script commands
-Added COMBATHEAL and OVERLANDHEAL script commands
-Production cost modifiers for buildings and units is now in ProdCost.CAS instead of being hardcoded.
-Added SpellBindingMaxUses to modding.INI
-Game fonts are now loaded from data/fontx_xx.bmp files instead of the compressed LBX file. (use color $000013 for transparent pixels and $000000 to $000007 for visible pixels.)
-Added NodeOnTile script function
-Added GetNodeData script command
-Added PrimaryRealm script function
-Added DISInfo.CAS script to display combat info data (enchantments etc)
-Fixed bug : Attempting to use string variables in scripts caused the game to crash
-Added support for custom spell animations. Define animation data (images to load, etc) in anim.ini. Supported spell types : Combat Damage spell, Combat save or die spell, Combat unit curse.
-Custom projectile types and loading images for them is now supported in RangedType.INI
-Fixed bug : AI created items failed to obey mutual exclusivity assigned to item powers.
-Added NonHero flag to Spells.INI. When true for a unit targeting spell, heroes are invalid targets.
-Spells Lycanthropy, Destiny, Discipline, Possession now use the NonHero flag instead of having this property hardcoded.
-The difficulty level for "AI no longer receives bonus priority to target heroes with most spells and attacks at <x> difficulty level" is in Modding.INI
-Added RangedAttackFrame setting to Modding.INI. When enabled, using ranged attacks will display the attack animation frame on the unit, otherwise it keeps playing the standing animation like in the original.

Other
-Added CasApi.DLL (see the Casapi folder). This is a DLL file which contains all gameplay functions of Caster of Magic for Windows. This might help creating tools for the game, such as save game editors. The DLL file was compiled from the same source code as the game and should be 100% identical and compatible, but is currently untested. Use it at your own risk.

[neuroc5]

This update causes crashes when you try to build settlers

[Melkior11]

Experiencing several crash events, including ocassionaly when starting a new game and clicking "create world".

I can upload the save file from a game that was going before the update. Crashed 3 or 4 turns after the update.

I would be happy to help zero in on the crash, find ways to repro, and share info if there is any need for help.

[SamSlitherine]

Hi All, we've released the latest update which should fix these issues