Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

That's great!

I'm writing a version that will use #com commands first (that can be used once the bug is fixed), and make a version without the commanders after that. Testing is slow, but necessary, since there are so many things that can go wrong.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

I'm glad you like it!

Well, I was actually quite pleased that the khans were available to add to this one, since it's fitting, save for the description ofcourse. The Cossacks historically worked for the Khans, as border-patrollers, so that comes out nicely. I'd rather there was a slightly better (more Russian, or atleast more Christian Orthodox) unit than the High Priest (but with similar stats), but I do want this to be a holy site, to vaguely represent early Russian orthodoxy, and the Cossacks themselves being early patrons of the church, so having a respectable priest unit is necessary to continue that theme.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

This was fun, so I made a few more:

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/attac...1&d=1227767868 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/attac...1&d=1227767868

(Unit name: Moon Beast. Cost 25 gold, 5 resources. Hit Points 16, Size 3, Protection 0 (0 Natural), Morale 9, Magic Resistance 12, Encumbrance 2, Fatigue 0, Strength 16, Attack Skill 9, Defense Skill 9, Precision 6, Move 2/9, Leadership 20). Weapons: Moon Trident (As per normal trident, but magical, and does x2 damage to magical creatures). Armour: None. Blind, True Amphibian, Magic Being. Strength in Darkness (1). This unit should be copied over from one of the new Atlantean units that are immune to R'lyeh insanity.)

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/attac...1&d=1227767942 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/attac...1&d=1227767942

(Unit name: Man of Leng. Cost 25 gold, 5 resources. Hit Points 10, Size 2, Protection 4 (0 Natural), Morale 12, Magic Resistance 12, Encumbrance 2, Fatigue 0, Strength 10, Attack Skill 11, Defense Skill 9, Precision 10, Move 2/12, Leadership 20). Weapons: Dagger, Dagger. Armour: None. Awe (0) Ambidextrous (4) Stealth (0). This unit should be copied over from one of the new Atlantean units that are immune to R'lyeh insanity.)

Name: Dylath-Leen
Path: Astral 4
Terrain: Coast
Freq: 2 (rare) Unique
Recruitables: Pirate
Recruitable Commanders: Navigator, Captain.
Gems: 1 Blood Slave
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)

Name: Nameless Rock
Path: Astral 4
Terrain: Coast
Freq: 2 (rare)
Recruitables: Moon Beast
Recruitable Commanders: Moon Mage
Gems: 1 Fire Gem
Gold/resource Bonus: 25
Scales: (none)

Name: Ygiroth
Path: Astral 4
Terrain: Mountains
Freq: 2 (rare) Unique
Recruitables: Man of Leng
Recruitable Commanders: Mystic, Crystal Mage
Gems: 3 Astral
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)

Name: The Ruins of Ib
Path: Astral 4
Terrain: Sea
Freq: 2 (rare) Unique
Recruitables: Moon Beast
Recruitable Commanders: Aboleth
Gems: 1 Astral
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Misfortune

Name: Plateau of Leng
Path: Astral 4
Terrain: Mountains
Freq: 2 (Rare)
Recruitables: Man of Leng
Recruitable Commanders: Mystic
Gems: 1 Astral
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Cold

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

That's lost of unique level 4 astral sites! Could some of them be changed to Water, and/or uncommon (instead of rare)? Dylath-Leen could be Water site, at least.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Well, they're sites from-or drawing from-Lovecraft's "Dreamlands" cycle, so they're meant to be accessible specifically through high-end astral magic. They don't so much exist apart from one another, as they are a group of inter-connected sites, existing as a set.

They're almost meant to be a sort of "Easter Egg"...remnants, ruins, and traces of a lost and shattered dimension.

Think of them as 1 site, in 5 parts :)

I might even add a few more "parts" in the future-quite possibly with handmade units-as there's a huge source for site material originating from the 'Dreamlands'. They'll all be hard to access rare or unique sites, though.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Astral doesn't have to be the only way to access the Dreamlands. Dylath-Leen could be a Water site quite easily.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

It might be, you're absolutely right, but it isn't. It just doesn't work that way, for no particularly good reason, other than that's the way I envision it to be :)

The Nameless Rock could just as easily be a water site, it's a tiny island in the middle of the ocean, the peak of a volcanic mountain, rich in gold and rubies, poking it's way just above the waterline. It could therefore be an earth site, or even a fire site.

It just happens that it's an astral site. That's how things fall out.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

See the Eparch (unit 1961) of Bogarus. Of course, it's H3 vs. H2...

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

See, that's what I want, something like the Eparch, but only Holy 2.

H3 is too much, in my opinion, to ever get in a found site--or atleast one that's not just all about getting an H3. It goes against the whole idea of found sites, and takes away from the Nations, themselves.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

I have some magic sites with units from a mod I never quite finished, I think it would be cool to be able to get them from a magic site. I have the .dm files and unit sprites and will post them here soon.

Name: Shadow Gate
Path: Astral 3
Terrain: Any
Freq: 2, Unique
Recruitable Unit: Shadow
Recruitable Commanders: Shadow Priest
Gems: 2 Astral
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)

Name: Shadowgrounds
Path: Astral 2
Terrain: Any
Freq: 1, Unique
Recruitable Commanders: Hultan
Gems: 1 Astral, 1 Air
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)

Name: Sarmizegetusa
Path: Blood 2
Terrain: Mountains
Freq: 1, Unique
Recruitable Commanders: Vrykolaka
Gems: 1 Blood Slave
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: incr. turmoil

Name: Snowy Crags
Path: Earth 3
Terrain: Mountains
Freq: 1
Recruitable Units: Varcolac
Recruitable Commanders: Varcolac Brute
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: increases cold

Name: Pile o' Bones
Path: Death 1
Terrain: (Any except water)
Freq: 0, common
Gems: 1 Death
Recruitable Units: Bones
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)

Name: Deviant Laboratory
Path: Death 2
Terrain: (Any except water)
Freq: 2
Recruitable Commanders: Archon
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Gems: 1 Death, 1 Fire, 1 Air
Scales: (none)

Name: Darkest Forest
Path: Nature 4
Terrain: Forest
Freq: 2, Unique
Recruitable Commanders: Dark Crow
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Those look good, meister_miagi.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Ugh, more work for me. :p

I'll compile more suggestions this weekend, test them, and see if I can get a preliminary version without commander-sites released. If I can, I'll try to spare some time for reading on Finnish shamanism and finishing that other mod I've been badgered about.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Bogarus has both H2 and H3 priests. H2 are Exarchs, H3 Eparchs.

HoneyBadger, Meister Miagi, I will add your sites to the mod once you post the relevant files (.dm and sprites). Please use the following values for your sites to make it less work for me to incorporate them: White River 901, the Leng sites 900-896, Shadow Gate to 895 to Darkest Forest 895-889.
I'll leave site nr 902 for my own custom-unit site Castle Wyvern, released in a mini-mod year or two ago. We had just gotten #homecom and #homemon commands, and I thought it wouldn't take long before we'd get #mon and #com as well. :D

First version is DONE!
Sites 998 to 903 are used. I'll attach the first preliminary version on the first post. I'll edit the post and the attachment later. This first version is only meant for testing purposes!
EDIT: The mod has been attached!
If you want to help testing the mod, you can:
1) Tell me if you notice a mod nation's starting sites being replaced
2) Manually add the sites to a map, and then see if everything looks fine. If e.g. Tree of Life is a death site generating death gems, tell me.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

List of changes I made to the sites (I hope I didn't miss anything important):

Not added

• Slave Market: two suggestions with same name combined into one with recruitable Mictlan slave and resource bonus
• Abandoned Village: near-duplicate of Haunted Village, so I didn't add it
• Unleashed Death: no event to release it
• Forest of Devouring Darkness: Are you really going to give recruitable Mandahas (600gp per size 6 flying, 65-hp Darkness-casting air 3 death 3 holy 3 mage) for anyone lucky enough to find the site? IMO, it's too powerful.
• Mohenjo-daro: not added (how do I price undead creatures?)
• Pays Cathare: not added. Forester is a commander, not 25-gp infantry archer... Did you mean LA Ulm Ranger? I couldn't find Perfecti at all.

Various changes/alterations

• Shrine of Sombre: Bog Beasts are 35 gp.
• Ancient Glacier: generates 1 Water gem instead of 3
• Mass Grave: 2 D gems instead of 3
• Garden of Crystal Fruits: only four features max, so 1E1F1S and 50 gp gold bonus, left out 1A1W. Changed to Earth since there are so many Astral 4 sites.
• Hydraulis of Ctesibuis: generates 1 Air gem
• Endless Depthless Bottomless: kepts as the Kraken version, since Kraken Pit only has "water mage may enter to summon" Krakens.
• Infernal Brothel: I didn't know how to price Succubi, and then I thought of Pratchett, and then I just had to do a Guild of Seamstresses. Imperial Consorts (spies), Hinnom Lilot (unit 2071, 101g seducer) and and Fortune Tellers, +25 gold.
• Throne of Wild Magic: Fire 4 site that grants 2 Fire, 1 Air, 1 Water, 1 Earth gem, instead of a site that adds 1 of each gem type and random ritual bonuses.

Insignificant changes and name changes:

• Green Glass Tower -> Tower of Green Glass
• Burned Library -> Scorched Library (I'm not sure which sounds better)
• Decayed Palace: Barbarian Chief -> Barbarian Lord (10 gp more, better ldrship, usually only seen in events)
• Mushroom Village: in both forests and caves
• Pool of Flames -> Pool of Liquid Fire
• Inn of Adjective Substantive-> Adjective Substantive Inn

EDIT:
In its current form, the mod adds 16 level 4 sites:
2 F, 5! A, 2 W, 2 E sites for elementals,
one for each sorcery path (SDNB), and one for Holy.

Question: Should Holy sites be limited to Holy 3, max? That way, all nations would have equal chance of finding them, instead of restricting the best Holy sites to nations casting Acashic Record.

Question 2: Should both "good" and "evil" sites be Holy (= no affiliation with magic), or should "good" sites be Holy and "evil" sites Blood?

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

I finally finished editing the .dm file and attached it as a text file along witht the unit sprites. I added one more site as number 888. I don't know how the #inscale command works so I just wrote it like: "#inscale(turmoil)".

Here is a preview of the unit sprites:
http://www.pic-upload.de/03.12.08/6bhpx3.jpg

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Those look fantastic, meister_miagi. Absolutely first-class.

Endoperez: I'm sorry, but would it be a lot of trouble for you to use the Monster Fish as the recruitable for the "Endless, Depthless, Bottomless" site? I'll come up with something else for krakens. I hate to be a pain, but I think the Monster Fish works better for that site--that's why I changed it.

If you want to change "burned library" to "scorched library", I'm ok with that--I don't know which one sounds better, either :)

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Here's my replacement kraken site, again with my appologies:

Name: Charncoral Deep
Path: Water 4
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 2 (rare) Unique
Recruitables: Kraken
Recruitable Commanders: Kraken King
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Death, Cold

And a couple more:

Name: Fars Deep
Path: Water 2
Terrain: Any Sea
Freq: 2 (rare)
Recruitables: (none)
Recruitable Commanders: (none)
Gems: 2 Astral, 1 Death
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Growth, Turmoil

Name: Ra’s al-Jumha
Path: Water 2
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 1 (Uncommon) Unique
Recruitables: SharkKnight
Recruitable Commanders: (none)
Gems: Astral 2, Death 2
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Turmoil

Name: Deep of Sanji
Path: Death 2
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 2 (rare)
Recruitables: Funayūrei (see my Yokai units page)
Recruitable Commanders: (none)
Gems: Death 2
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Death, Misfortune

Name: Sea of Salahit
Path: Water 3
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 2 (rare)
Recruitables: (none)
Recruitable Commanders: (none)
Gems: 1 Earth, 1 Air, 1 Fire
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Magic

Name: Sea of Kalah
Path: Water 2
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 1 (Uncommon)
Recruitables: (none)
Recruitable Commanders: (none)
Gems: 1 Water, 1 Air
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)

Name: Forest of Kalah
Path: Nature 2
Terrain: Coast
Freq: 2 (rare)
Recruitables: (none)
Recruitable Commanders: (none)
Gems: Nature 2
Gold/resource Bonus: 20 Resource
Scales: Heat, Growth

Name: Kalah Deep
Path: Water 4
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 2 (rare) Unique
Recruitables: Sea Serpent
Recruitable Commanders: (none)
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Death, Misfortune, Turmoil

Name: Sea of Kardanj
Path: Water 4
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 2 (rare)
Recruitables: (none)
Recruitable Commanders: (none)
Gems: Water 3, Nature 1
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Heat, Sloth

Name: Sea of Sanji
Path: Water 4
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 2 (rare)
Recruitables: Kappa
Recruitable Commanders: Kappa Chief, Kappa Mage
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: 100 gold
Scales: (none)

Name: Isle of Sarandib
Path: Water 4
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 2 (rare) Unique
Recruitables: (none)
Recruitable Commanders: (none)
Gems: Fire 4
Gold/resource Bonus: 60 gold
Scales: Luck, Magic

Name: Dvaraka
Path: Holy 3
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 2 (rare)
Recruitables: Amber Clan Guard
Recruitable Commanders: Amber Clan Priest, Amber Clan Mage
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Magic

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

And one more

Name: Kusasthali
Path: Holy 4
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 2 (rare) Unique
Recruitables: Mermidon
Recruitable Commanders: Amber Clan Priest, Sea King
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Magic<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Could a kindly admin please edit the above post to the following? And delete this one? Thank you!

........................

And a few more:

Name: Laccadive
Path: Holy 1
Terrain: Any Sea
Freq: 1 (Uncommon)
Recruitables: Shambler
Recruitable Commanders: Shambler Chief
Gems: 1 Water, 1 Nature
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

Name: Maldive
Path: Holy 1
Terrain: Any Sea
Freq: 2 (Rare)
Recruitables: Amber Clan Triton
Recruitable Commanders: Amber Clan Priest
Gems: 1 Air, 1 Water
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)

Name: Kumari Kandam
Path: Holy 3
Terrain: Any Sea
Freq: 1 (Uncommon)
Recruitables: TritonDreamer
Recruitable Commanders: (none)
Gems: 1 Water, 1 Astral
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Magic

Name: Mergui Atol
Path: Holy 1
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 1 (Uncommon)
Recruitables: Sea Dog, TritonTrooper
Recruitable Commanders: Amber Clan Priest
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Luck

Name: Gulf of Kutch
Path: Holy 1
Terrain: Any Sea
Freq: 1 (Uncommon) Unique
Recruitables: Sea Stag, TritonTrooper
Recruitable Commanders: Amber Clan Priest
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Order

Name: Gulf of Cambay
Path: Holy 2
Terrain: Any Sea
Freq: 1 (Uncommon) Unique
Recruitables: Sea Lion, TritonTrooper
Recruitable Commanders: Amber Clan Priest
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Turmoil<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
Name: Gulf of Mannar
Path: Holy 3
Terrain: Any Sea
Freq: 1 (Uncommon) Unique
Recruitables: Shark Knight
Recruitable Commanders: Amber Clan Priest
Gems: 1 Nature
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Growth

Name: Bay of Malacca
Path: Holy 1
Terrain: Coast
Freq: 2 (Rare)
Recruitables: Pirate, Toad Tribe Warrior
Recruitable Commanders: Toad Tribe Shaman, Coral Priest
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)

Name: Strait of Malacca
Path: Holy 2
Terrain: Any Sea
Freq: 2 (Rare) Unique
Recruitables: Reef Dweller, Reef Warrior
Recruitable Commanders: Coral Priest
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Luck

Name: Adang
Path: Holy 1
Terrain: Coast
Freq: 1 (uncommon)
Recruitables: Pirate, Shambler
Recruitable Commanders: Shambler Chief, Coral Priest
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)

Name: Barren Island
Path: Water 1
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 2 (Rare) Unique
Recruitables: Shambler, War Shambler
Recruitable Commanders: Shambler Chief
Gems: 2 Fire
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)

Barbar Temple
Path: Holy 2
Terrain: Coast
Freq: 1 (Uncommon)
Recruitables: Pirate
Recruitable Commanders: (none)
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Luck, Turmoil

Dey Court
Path: Water 1
Terrain: Coast
Freq: 1 (Uncommon)
Recruitables: Pirate, Shambler
Recruitable Commanders: Shambler Chief
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Turmoil

Name: Amber Shrine
Path: Holy 1
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 1 (Uncommon)
Recruitables: TritonTrooper
Recruitable Commanders: Amber Clan Priest
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: (none)

Name: Ruins of Kusasthali
Path: Holy 4
Terrain: Ocean
Freq: 2 (rare) Unique
Recruitables: Mermidon
Recruitable Commanders: Amber Clan Priest, Sea King
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Magic

Name: Palace of the Dey
Path: Water 3
Terrain: Coast
Freq: 2 (rare) Unique
Recruitables: Pirate, Sea Dog
Recruitable Commanders: Coral Commander
Gems: (none)
Gold/resource Bonus: (none)
Scales: Turmoil

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

That's a lot of sites! Thanks to you both. Meister Miagi, those sprites look excellent.

HoneyBdager:

There are two different sea terrains: all seas are "sea", and some are "deep sea" in addition. A site with "sea" may appear in normal and deep seas, and a site with "deep sea" may only appear in deep seas. I'll put "Fars Deep" and similar into deep sea, and others to sea, unless you want to go through them again.
Do you have suggested gold costs for Sea Dogs/Sea Lions/any other non-recruitables you're adding? I don't know what gold costs I should assign to them.
Changing the 'Endless Depthless Bottomless' won't be hard at all.


I'll try to compile a version with all the new sites this weekend and then take out the commanders and then post a playable version. Although if you keep adding sites, the version which has all the commander-recruitment sites might run out of magic site slots.


EDIT: Amount of sites of various paths, not including the sites that add new monsters and the last batch of new sites.
Fire: 10
Air: 14 (5 are level 4s...)
Water: 9 (but lots more after I add the new sites)
Earth: 14
Astral: 8 (but lots more after I add the new sites)
Death: 7
Nature: 16
Blood: 10
Holy: 11

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Thanks, Endoperez!

Ocean = "deep sea". Any sea = "sea". I hope that helps.

Also, I was thinking, if we do run out of space on this one, it might not be a bad idea to do a couple different site mods. That way, people could add different site mods to the same map? Mix it up a little.

Maybe we could ask Gandalf nicely if he'd please create a random site-assigner? Seems like it might be his kind of thing?
A program that added a random batch of sites to a given map, from a big pool of vanilla and mod sites, would be really useful, and really cool, especially if it worked with the random map maker.

How many free site slots do we have available to us, anyway? Also, do we have any information on the breakdown of sites in the vanilla game? In terms of paths and levels?

Would you mind posting a format for how you'd like the sites to read in a .dm file? I don't have access to .dm's right now, so I don't know exactly how they should look, but I'd just as soon post new sites as they would appear in a .dm. That would save everyone a lot of work and trouble, and they'd be immediately useful, rather than rewriting every one in a language the computer can handle. If someone will do that, I'll rewrite all my sites and put them into a post that can just be copy&pasted directly into the game itself.

I can't upload any of my working files before Saturday. If you look at the file attached to the first post, you'll see how I've done stuff. Unit numbers start at 3100 IIRC, sites started from 998 and are going down.

It's really simple, I just copy-paste an empty site form and add stuff in the order of the suggestion in this thread.


There are just 200 or so magic sites ID numbers, total, available for modding. It's 750-999 I think.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

I can't do it, I'm afraid...I can't download anything, so I can't look.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Ah, yes, you had that weird security stuff. Do you have access to Dom3's modding pdf? I guess not.

New units:

#newmonster 3110
#copystats 459
#copyspr 459
#name "Foul Spawn"
#gcost 9
#end

New sites:

#newsite 906
#name "Circle of the Dripping Skull"
#path 7
#level 4
#loc 2
#rarity 2 (0 - common, 1 - uncommon, 2 - rare)
#com 785 -- gygja
#gems 5 1
#gems 6 1
#end

#newsite 903
#name "Throne of Wild Magic"
#path 0
#level 4
#loc 17119
#rarity 1
#gems 0 2
#gems 1 1
#gems 2 1
#gems 3 1
#end


0-7 Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Astral, Death, Nature, Blood
8 Holy
#gold, #res, #mon, #com

#incscale increases NEGATIVE scales: 0 Turmoil, 1 Sloth, 2 Cold, 3 Death, 4 Misfortune, 5 Drain
#decscale decreasis negative -> increases POSITIVE scales: 0 order, 1 production, 2 heat, 3 growth, 4 Luck, 5 Magic

You need a list of locmasks before you can do the terrains, but I'm afraid I can't give them right now. They would be easy to add afterwards if you just list the terrains you'd like the sites to appear in.

#loc [value], 1=plains, 2=forest... and so on for mountain, waste, sea, cave, coastal, farm, deep sea, and unique, probably not in that order.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Ive already done so. My biggest headache was that unlike monsters and pretenders and poptypes and forts, magic sites dont seem to select by number. Only by full name. So a program has to have a list of all the site names. But I did finally iron it out.

I havent seen a breakdown in a long time. Edi's database gives all the info in a way that is easy to look thru. I would also like to see a breakdown so we can fill some gaps. How many require certain magic and levels to find, how many provide gems of each type, how many affect which scales. If it was a database done in a database program then Id have a chance to do that but its actually a database in a spreadsheet(grr, minor peeve). Edi or some other spreadsheeter might be able to whip it off for us.

I know you have limited access right now but the latest patch put an updated doc file in your dominions3/doc directory. The section on magic sites is easy to get to and nicely explained. But like many people I do better by seeing an example so I will try to dig one out and paste it.
EDIT: Oops. Endoperez beat me to it. :)

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

@Honeybadger
I forgot to agree with the SemiRand thing.
Actually I have a number of ideas where expanding SemiRand to do mods might be alot of fun. SemiRandom new monsters, SemiRandom new magic sites, SemiRandom new pretenders, SemiRandom new nations
HEY BALLBARIAN! Lookee lookee :wave:

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Thanks, everybody!

Gandalf, I only have access to the original, preordered version of Dom3. I might someday be able to update everything, but I'm basically running things on an abacus, aside from my work computer.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Gandalf, not to run off into a semi-random tangent, but I don't suppose there's a way to make a program that would semi-randomly send forged items to AI Nations while playing SP?

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Hmmm... Im afraid thats impossible.
Of course "impossible" is a technical term meaning "of course its possible because its a computer but its more trouble than its worth". In other words I cant think of a way doing it with just the standard map or mod commands.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

I think you'd need to set up an AI that would forge everything, and then another program that told you which item to send where. The user might actually have to do the sending, though, which is less than ideal.

Ofcourse, that could be done with just a numbered list of forgeable items and a set of percentage dice.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

May I offer my idea about a magic site?

Name: The Keep of the Annals
Path: Astral 2.
Type: Rare or Unique
“Enter site” command enable for any commander with magic, or, if impossible, for astral mages.

Description: A sage enters the Keep to search through the historical records for the information about location of the unique magic sites. The location of the site comes in a message like: “Einstain has studied the annals and found out the Throne of the World is located in Mount Olympus.” The site does not appear in province and still requires proper searching to be found. If player doesn’t have the province and has no scout in it – he has no idea where the Mount of Olympus is, since uncaptured and unscouted provinces have no names, only numbers.

I have 2 proposals about searching mechanics, both depending on the research skill of the commander:

1) Like usual research: finding the first magic site costs some research point, say 40, the second is 60, third 100 and so on (160, 260, 420…). Since only 1 mage can enter the site – searching multiple sites could be difficult, so the cost could be rebalanced. If there are no more unique sites in the world – you get the corresponding message in the end of research.
Example: There is a mystic named Popandopulos with research skill 8, possessing Scull Mentor (9RP) and Lightless Lantern(6RP). The scales in the province are Magic 3 (2RP) so his total research ability is 25. He enters the Keep, in order to reveal the first magic site he needs to accumulate 40 points, so in two turns he discovers the High Temple of the Magii, and has 10 points over. In order to discover the next site he needs 60-10=50 points, so in next two turns he finds location of Halls of Imprisoned Sunlight. To locate the next site he needs to gain 100 point, so he spends 4 more months studying the scrolls, but there are no more unique sites in the world and in the end of his research player gets the message: “The mystic Popandopulos has stadied all the annals and came to conclusion there are no more unique magic sites in the world.”

2) The mage enters the site, and the percent chance of discovering a unique magic site equals research skill divided by 2 with approximation in favor of higher number. My English isn’t that good – I mean should 13 be divided by 2 the result is approximated to 7, not to 6. Perhaps Luck\Unluck should increase\decrease the chance to 1% per each point as well.
Example: The same mystic Popandopulos with 25 research skill enters the site. The scales are Unluck 2. His chance of discovering a site is 25/2 – 2 = 13 – 2 = 11%. When there are no more sites in the world - the same message as in 1st proposal comes.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

While that is an interesting suggestion, it's way more complicated than what can be done. Basically, we can only do stuff that's similar to what is already there. The Keep of the Annals can allow recruitment on units/commanders, produce X gems/gold/resources, affect scales etc. The features are also limited to four: the Keep could allow recruitment of sages, knights, produce 3 astral gems and increase magic scale, but not have a fifth feature.

There is a property for scrying distant provinces (EA Agartha's starting site has this), but it can't be added to custom sites.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Changed/removed sites from the new ones (HoneyBadger's):
Deep of Sanji - not added, has Yokai unit
Sea of Sanji - level 4 -> 3, since kappa aren't that good
Kusasthali - appeared twice, as Kusasthali and Ruins of Kusasthali. Both were unique, level 8 holy sites that allow recruitment of same units.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Dominions could only handle 119 sites! :o According to the log.txt, Dom3 was going through the sites, and then... and moved on, mid-way?

Loading magic sites sitemod.dm
#name site 998
...
...
#name site 875
#name site 874
#name site 873
Loading nations sitemod.dm
Loading general sitemod.dm

There were sites all the way to 857.

After that, the sites show up as nameless fire sites without any features.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

After thorough testing, I realized that I had saved the file with a different name at one point, and only the sites I had done up to that point were visible... :o So no bug after all.

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

First playable version, version 0.80, attached to first post!

There are two versions in the .zip, a commanderless one (lite) which works better for the current version of Dominions, and a version that has commanders but adds them in as recruitable units.

From some sites, I removed the commanders (Shambler Chief from site that allows recruitment of shamblers, war shamblers and gives 2 fire gems), but I was forced to remove several sites from the commanderless version (most of Miagi's sites, Shining Star Inn, Seamstresses' Guild etc) because I thought their whole point was to give access to commanders. Circle of Dripping Skull that gives a nature and a death gems isn't bad, but it's pretty meh. CoDS that allows recruitment of Gygja is awesome.

In my quick test games, I already saw few of the new sites.

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

It's supposed to be the Ruins of Kusasthali. Also, Sea of Sanji should be Water 4 because it's hard to find :) It's the seventh sea, after all. It's also a pretty decent site, with a good gold bonus, and access to all the kappas, including kappa mage.

If you really want to, raise the gold bonus to 150. That'd be fine with me.

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

Kappa mage is W1, and I priced him at 75 gp.
Still, if it's a reference to something I guess I could change it back. It's still rare, unique underwater site, so I'd expect that it's rare to even get it in the map, much less get to the water to try and find it.

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

Nice mod. Fun with some sites I haven't seen before. The #com command is fixed in the next patch.

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

There's only space for 100 more sites, though, and this mod will probably conflict with most nation mods even now. I wouldn't mind having space for some more sites, like up to 9999 or something. :re::angel


Oh, and I'm already in love with the new site-searching feature, thanks a lot for that!

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

Well we could always shift to a randomizing program. :)
Yeah I know. My love for chaos is showing. But you could write a program where the features of each site could be selected randomly within fairly reasonable limits. Let it rewrite the mod for each game you play.

Im already working on one to rewrite a mod and have it create new nations to play against each time. I was going to have it randomly select sites for the start sites but I might take a stab at having it write its own just to see how that works out.

Gandalf Parker
--
All Hail Eris the Goddess of Chaos

Re: Magic Site Idea Thread
 

Endoperez,
Thanks for all of your work on this. I finally have a chance to consider starting a new game of Dominions (the first in some time!) and had been sporadically following your progress over the past three months. Looking forward to including this in my game.

It took two months, but I finally saw your post. :p
I may try to incorporate some support for magic site & monster mods into SemiRandom. I have not given it much thought yet, but I do think that it would be nice to be able to assign custom sites & critters to a custom province. That combined with the new map commands that JK has in line for the next patch will add a lot of flexibility to province design. I will not go into any detail here as I do not want to derail Endo's thread.

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

Endo,
Unless I fouled something up with my download, you don't seem to have a banner yet. I created a quick one for my own use, but here it is if you have need of it:

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

Thanks for that! I'll update the first post whenever the next patch comes out. I'll incorporate the banner at least then, and perhaps sooner.

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

Ooh, ooh! The new patch is in, hurray! Can we have the banner now?

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

I'll update this very soon. I want to add a couple more holy magic sites, and then add the banner. I might do two versions, first with the new holy sites and units in that uses existing sprites, then an update that only changes sprites. As long as I don't change anything else, it won't cause any compatibility errors even if everyone doesn't update.

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

Would these two mods work correctly regardless of load order?

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

Good point llama.

Why are you separating them anyway? To benefit people who have lots of mods on and are close to the sprite limit? That's just pyg isn't it?

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

Hmm, I don't understand either, I'd think it might be simplest to just have a single version.

Re: Magic Site Mod version 0.80
 

One version had no #com sites, because they were units and hurt AI on the old version (armies of 200 Sorceresses?) One reason for the update is to remove the now-unnecessary version.