Void Gate efficiency
 

Does anyone know what factors affect Void Gate summoning? I know summoning skill changes the type of summons you get, but does it change your chance of going mad/being attacked? I read somewhere that magic/drain changes things somehow but I'm not sure about luck/turmoil.

Sometimes I get a load of cool monsters, and sometimes I lose a starspawn almost every turn...

Ooh, the magic slot machine.
 

Lots of unknowns. Don't think the devs have given much detail at all on this.

At least in Dom 2, it was recommended that you stick with the holy starspawn, at least. In Dom 3, holy starspawn or the Void Spectre make sense. Also, the Stargazer hero is supposed to have a lower chance of going mad.

Re: Ooh, the magic slot machine.
 

Note that when your summoning skill gets too high, you stop getting vastnesses. apparently this has something to do with balance. Stupid. (It's a good idea, but I happen to like vastnesses) I assume that a higher skill means bad things are less likely to happen. Even so, an item or two, and a bodyguard of ilithids can stop most of the attacks, though they do nothing about the feeblemind.

Re: Ooh, the magic slot machine.
 

I would like to add possible creatures for the void gate. Does anyone know if a modding command exists for adding creatures which can be summoned from the void gate??

Re: Ooh, the magic slot machine.
 

Just an idea for the Void Gate: I'd love it if the Void Gate were bottomless, as in new creatures kept being added, preferrably without us publicly knowing what all was in there. If it could be balanced as far as stats go by a small group of moderators-who themselves would each only know a portion of the critters the void gate could summon up-then you'd never really know *what* you were going to get. This would also be a fine place to stick "easter eggs" if the Devs got involved http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif You could even have void artifacts-occasionally the voidgate could spit out a magic item or even a spell that noone's ever heard of before. Ofcourse, airbourne astral diseases that turn your citizens and troops into headless bloodfreaks as per crossbreeding are also possible...

P.S. I'm going to try to mod voidgate into early age, quite possibly a handful of voidgate sites, and then have some independent starspawn types, kind of to represent an alien landing (Thinking Chariots of the Gods here). Any suggestions for implementation would be welcome

Re: Ooh, the magic slot machine.
 

I've found ilithid bodyguards are hopeless. Too much time trying to mindblast mindless Otherness'. Then they get squished. I find the best approach is to fight fire with fire. A couple of blessed Formless Spawns mixed in with the bodyguards can deal with almost anything.

Still, it would be nice to know if I should go for an Order-3 or a Luck-3 strategy with Ryleh.

Re: Ooh, the magic slot machine.
 

I think Luck (the scale) affects it.

Land of Freaky Things
 

One could have a map with a province that had:

- Strange House in the Mist (is this the other Void Summon site?)
- The Forgotten City (IIRC, this is the enter-for-treasure site)
- Vale of Infinite Horror (unrest, horror marking...)

:p

Re: Land of Freaky Things
 

I'm thinking maybe 3 void-gates or 2 and a Strange House in the Mist (if it works) "crash-sites" guarded by indep nations of illithids (this is early game, so they're the only ones) led by a Void Lord or three. The void-gates would be matched with Vale just to make them extra-dangerous. If it works, I'd pair the House with a site that produced insanity, and guard it with a nation of independent voidspawn formless and Late Era Atlantians led by a Dagor (Dagoth, Dagwood, whatever the name of the Atlantian giant fish-frog pretender is). Then there would be maybe two other sites that would produce star-spawn, "landing-sites" also heavily guarded, this time by illithids, troll slaves, and heavy-duty voidspawn led by rogue Aboleth Mind Lords and the void shroom pretender. I'd also put a handful of other sites which would look more or less identical to the set-ups I mentioned, just so you'd never be positive you'd located a component. In all cases, they'd be either A: an island surrounded by water, B: a lake surrounded by land, or C: land surrounded by mountains (of madness?), just to keep holding such a position a little more precarious.

Ofcourse you wouldn't have to, but you could seek out such sites, and-at great risk and trouble-set up a functional void-gate, which may or may not be a good idea http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Land of Freaky Things
 

I could also see the Forgotten City being guarded by tough voidspawn and other creepy-crawlies. If I put it in the game, it would definitely be in the far, far south.

Since this thread is very Lovecraft-centric, I thought I'd mention that I'm thinking of doing a write-up proposing a nation of Elder Things (ala Lovecraft: At The Mountains of Madness) for Early Era, in which case, their starting site would have Forgotten City and Shuggoth Breeding Vats. I'm not sure about the details for them yet, except that they would be very good blood-mages, specifically at cross-breeding.

A late-era race I'd also like to put in the game would be the Great Race of Yith. It would consist of extra-terrestrial spirits that would inhabit the bodies of beetles, and use their considerable astral magic to summon beings from out of the depths of past and future time, such as: The Great Headed, a wrinkled brown ogre with an enormous head and a whole lot of eyes, has all except head slot, good at combat and patrolling and his gaze causes confusion. Summoned from the distant past. Star Lotus, an extra-terrestrial, immobile carnivorous plant that comes from an extremely hot world. Attacks with tentacles and is surrounded by fire. The Lotus Master-human astral and fire mage who's able to transform into a somewhat tougher version of the Star Lotus. Deep Plastid: An extremely tough, immobile (move 2/0) extra-terrestrial amoeba summoned from the far future interior of a rogue planet (a planet that was slingshotted out of it's orbit and now floats in deep space). It is immune to fire, cold, heat, lightning, poison, it regenerates, has 1 pseudopoid attack per round, very strong, decent damage, soso att, and relatively low MR (like 5). Blind. Good for soaking up lots and lots of damage and defending the Yithian's Library Citadels. Yithian Construct: sacred undead version of original Yithian form, summoned ofcourse from the distant past. 3 astral, 2 death, 1 nature, 100% chance to have +1 in any of these, 25% chance to have +1 in any of the elementals, 25% chance to have +1 in any magic path except for blood, 10% chance to have +1 in any magic path except for blood. Immobile, undead, 5 hp, 20MR (intentionally extremely high, with bless allowing up to 24) 5att, 0 def, 5 prot, 0 enc/fat, susceptible to fire (100%), only 50% resistant to poison, despite being undead, 100% darkvision. Research ability is +2, high leadership, 1 misc slot, high level conjuration, expensive to summon, only sacred national except for insectoid philosopher priests (see below). Buyable units would consist of swarms of carnivorous beetles, the same beetles only now undead and life-draining, 4 armed leaders you can buy, giant acidfire-breathing warbeetles, ala Starship Troopers, winged stinkbombers, and a race of insectoid philosophers who serve the Yithians as mages and priests.