Arcane Realm

NOTE: Comments from the developer of Caster of Magic are included below in italics.

''This realm obviously servers the purpose of having those spells that are necessary for smooth gameplay and every player has to be able to obtain them. As there are much fewer spells here, it doesn't have so well defined tiers as other realms, nonetheless, they are each treated as a specific tier for various purposes such as order of research or appearance in treasure.''

1. Magic Spirit
Cost: 30 MP, 1 MP/turn

Research Cost: None

Summons a Magic Spirit: 4 melee, 5 defense, 5 resistance, 2 movement, 10 health, 1 figure, Non-Corporeal, Poison Immunity

2. Dispel Magic
Cost: 10-50 MP

Research Cost: 640 RP

All spells on the target unit have a Cost/(Dispel Cost+Cost) chance to resist, otherwise they are dispelled.

3. Summoning Circle
Cost: 0 MP

Research Cost: 160 RP

Moves your Summoning Circle to the chosen city.

4. Disenchant Area
Cost: 50-250 MP

Research Cost: 1280 RP

Dispel overland curses on the target map tile.

5. Heroic Heart (new)
Cost: 18 MP

Research Cost: 440 RP

Target hero unit is healed 3 HP in combat.

''Realms other than Life have a very hard time keeping heroes alive, and this simple spell can fix that problem. Heroes are for everyone, even if Life is best at using them!''

6. Detect Magic
Cost: 200 MP Research Cost: 320 RP

See the spells being cast by other players while this enchantment is in effect.

While it looks like a waste of resources, the information gained though this can be a lifesaver, as it allows the player to adapt to enemy wizards obtaining new spells faster.

''It's also essential to use Spell Blast properly. The AI will only cast Spell Blast intentionally against specific spells when they have already cast Detect Magic, and having Spell Blast is the only case when they'll bother to cast Detect Magic. This can also let the player know when the enemy is casting an expensive during which they won't have the opportunity to use their Spell Blast.''

7. Enchant Item
Cost: Variable MP

Research Cost: 320 RP

Enables creating Item tier magical items.

''Obviously necessary to be available for every player. Item tier means only powers that cost 400 or less can be used.''

8. Summon Hero
Cost: 240 MP

Research Cost: 1280 RP

Summons a random hero, ignoring Fame requirements.

''Sometimes luck isn't on your side and you don't get the hero(es) you want as fast as you want. In that case, this helps. I was hesitating a lot about the casting cost, but ended up with a medium amount. It really shouldn't be too expensive as the summoned hero might not be the type you really needed, but it can't be too cheap either as that allows summoning almost every hero and makes it too trivial to fill all your 6 slots with the perfect heroes for your strategy quickly.''

9. Disjunction
Cost: 375-1875 MP

Research Cost: 6000 RP

Disjunction Cost/(1.5*Cost) chance to dispel target global enchantment.

''Unlike regular dispelling effects, Disjunction costs a large amount of irreplaceable overland casting skill, so random chance on this is not acceptable, especially the targets tend to be powerful effects that will need to be removed as soon as possible, if removed at all. It costs more than the target, and the AI typically has higher casting skill, so it's rarely economic to use and in most cases the player should attempt to instead deal with the enchantment either by eliminating the wizard, or accepting the effects and working around them.''

''Nonetheless, a few spells are meant to be dispelled, and the AI will have a reduced chance to recast these to ensure the dispelling is meaningful. Likewise, the AI's chance to use Disjunction against the player's enchantments is heavily regulated to ensure the intended gaming experience, each enchantment having different chances to get targeted during various diplomatic situations.''

''As a general rule the AI will prioritize removing military enchantments during war, economic ones during peaceful relations and leave enchantments cast by allied players alone completely. However priority is also scaled by the severity of the enchantment and its impact on the AI's playstyle, so expect Meteor Storm to get dispelled a lot, while AEther Binding will be mostly overlooked.''

''I'd like to specifically mention that the AI holding back is a type of design I almost always avoid, but in this case it's inevitable. Disjunction directly puts the player's resources against the AI's, which the AI typically has a lot more of, as well as the AI being up to 4 other players so if the AI was serious about removing enchantments, they'd be unusable which is the opposite of the intended goal of all spells being powerful tools, especially the endgame global enchantments.''

''In fact, aggressive disjunction would also result in AI players removing each other's enchantments, resulting in those having no relevance even when cast by the AI. Disjunction in general is somewhat undesirable in the game but the 1.5x cost will discourage the human player from using it too much and keeps it a strategic spell that can sometimes turn the tables but more often it's detrimental to cast.''

''It's definitely worth keeping as part of the game, especially as it's essential for Runemaster's relevance. The high research cost ensures obtaining this can't be taken lightly and players only go for it when it's really worth using.The AI will postpone researching this until after they researched most other rare spells, so rare and below global enchantments will typically not have to worry about getting dispelled at all for a while.''

10. Create Artifact
Cost: Variable MP

Research Cost: 4000 RP

Create an “Artifact” tier magical item.

See more details at the Artificer retort and the item chapter.

11. Summon Champion
Cost: 600 MP

Research Cost: 4000 RP

Summon a Champion hero.

''Similar role as Summon Hero except this has a very steep cost so carelessly using it when the player's strategy does not demand heroes can be very detrimental. Nonetheless, Champion heroes are very powerful and when they are indeed a valuable addition to your strategy, the spell is well worth the high cost.''

12. Plane Shift
Cost: 120 MP

Research Cost: 8000 RP

Targeted stack is instantly transported to the other plane.

''After a very long discussion on the forums about the intended role of planes and planar travel spells, the conclusion was that planar travel shouldn't really exist until the very late game to ensure the planes remain separate, unless the player opens up towers themselves. Plane Shift was chosen from the various methods of planar movement (Planar Travel, Astral Gate and Plane Shift) even though it was originally removed from the mod, because it's by far the most playable for the AI which can use it to target their best stack of units and send the whole thing across without risking to split up important stacks as some units change planes and others do not.''

We have also discussed whether we like the strategy of blocking all towers in the game or not, and my final decision was that it should be a good, but imperfect solution that can contain enemy invasions somewhat but should not completely deny the possibility of receiving enemy attacks which would basically allow the human player to not employ any garrisons at all, resulting in tremendous savings on resources.

''Plane Shift solves this by enabling the AI to send troops through the blockade in regulated quantities to provide the perfect playing experience matching the game difficulty. Thus the AI will typically research this very late, around the time they go for their first very rare spell, so in most cases, around the time they'd open up towers naturally, +/- a few years. Nonetheless, if the human player researches this spell early to attempt to conduct a one sided invasion where the AI can't reach their plane, all the AI players will start prioritize the research of this spell to participate in that strategy.''

''Towers by the way will not be broken by AI players unless the human player opened on themselves or the game reached the appropriate turn count to ensure unexpected “guests” from the other plane won't show up during mid-game, bulldozing the entire world with their superior Myrran units no one can stop that early, in best case Kill Stealing the human player's intended targets, in worst, stomping the human player into the ground. Both of these are actually experiences I had during playtesting that can absolutely ruin the 10-12 hours invested into devising the proper strategy to overcome the players on my own plane and progressing the game to where it starts to turn fruitful.''

''Of course, the option to start an interplanar war early still exists, but the “switch” is in the hand of the human player. If they don't want to unleash the “final boss” enemy on the world at the time everyone is still busy dealing with things on their own plane, they don't have to. Nonetheless, opening the towers early and successfully subduing the enemy on that plane (or just stealing a portion of the plane for yourself) is a massive advantage so while it's high risk, it's also high reward. Also note this wasn't really a point of interest in the original Master of Magic as the AI there was too incompetent to send their units through the towers properly, often getting stuck in the process, or even know which plane their enemy is on.''

13. Spell of Mastery
Cost: 15000 MP

Research Cost: 440000 RP

Win the Game. Your combat spells can't be countered if you researched this.

''While the effect has been left unchanged, the Spell of Mastery has received a super large research cost boost to ensure sufficient time exists between getting very rare spells and the game ending to properly enjoy them. The AI has learned in which cases it is beneficial to accelerate their research production and attempt this type of victory, and when is it better to ignore it and dedicate their magic power towards winning through their other spells like vast armies of very rare creatures.''

''As Sorcery dominates endgame strategies by design, Sorcery wizards are able to stop others from casting this thanks to Spell Blast, or can cast it themselves in a way others can't interfere through Time Stop. Nonetheless, a second effect has been added to make this valuable against Sorcery wizards who otherwise are extremely difficult to attack during the endgame due to the Spell Ward city enchantment - while outright victory is not possible, it still at least opens up the possibility to subdue the Sorcery wizard through conventional militaristic methods.''

''As the highest number possible for research costs is unfortunately 65535, this spell utilizes a trick, the actual cost is set lower, but the research production while it's being researched is cut down to 1/8 of the normal amount, resulting in the same net effect. The displayed number of remaining turns takes this adjustment into account. the original game mechanic of the cost getting reduced by every spell researched by the player was kept to ensure the total time it takes to reach is the same for all players.''

''Casting cost was also drastically increased to ensure the AI does have the time to reach the player's fortress in time to put up a final desperate attempt of resistance... which might actually be successful if the player underestimates it. The AI was improved in many areas of overland troop movement process and diplomacy to ensure this “Final War” does not get stalled and as many troops reach the player's fortress as possible.''

''Of course the AI won't be nearly as effective as a human player in this invasion, but it still is good enough to sometimes overwhelm and banish the player if the AI had the upper hand in very rare creatures and stocked mana crystals. Either way, I spent a massive amount of time and effort on ensuring the AI does everything it can to prevent a Spell of Mastery victory. I will no longer do silly things like respect peace treaties or wait a dozen turns before declaring war.''

''The player is given a grace period of typically 1-3 turns to cancel their spell though, in which can they can get away with merely receiving a massive diplomacy penalty for attempting the spell - however as soon as they've spent 1500 or more mana crystals into it (10% completion) the war starts immediately, ignoring everything else. In fact, a mostly unimplemented fourth AI hostility state was salvaged and properly implemented to ensure this works properly.''

''Research costs have been standardized between realms and tiers: each tier gets4 spells with a medium research cost, and 3 each with gradually higher and lower costs. In the uncommon tier this scaling is especially significant to enable a few specific uncommon spells to take advantage of the guaranteed turn 1 research availability better while the more powerful spells get available for use through that strategy later.''