Quote:
Originally Posted by Torgon
Then we come to summons with magical diversity. Which I'll argue is just as important as the other dimensions I've listed above. Not so that everyone can just beeline for the best of the best, but for key forgings, a few key spells, etc. If you want to use a summons to diversity magically you only have death. Its not that death does it better than the other paths, its not that death does it more efficiently, or that death does it differently in some way. Its that death is the only path that has the option. Giving a little magic diversity to other paths isn't going to turn Caelum into a fire nation, or Tir into an astral nation. It would simply give them the option for a little diversity without having to conjure up mages from beyond the grave.
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Going in the opposite direction had occurred to me at one point. Currently 3 of 7 tarts have fixed paths, with the lightning cyclops getting the prize for the excellent AE combo. What about limiting the randoms on the other four? Maybe they would have access to all paths, maybe they wouldn't. But they wouldn't have access to all combination of crosspaths as they do now. I'm not really suggesting this be done but I do think a variety of summons, each with their own limited sets of magic, is more interesting than giving units a chance at any path/path combination.
In any case, it seems to me your concern is with the thematic side of things. You don't want to have to use death to get access to S magic (though in all fairness, golems wouldn't be in contradiction to TNN's theme - of course you'd have to have your pretender be able to summon them). I can understand wanting to play within a nation's theme but it's a difficult thing to do.
For instance, TNN has two national heroes with D magic (one with D3, the other with D4 and immortal to boot). Will you use them to site search if you get them? If you do and you turn out to have a surprisingly strong D income will you use it? Even if you don't site search for D sites, if you conquer a nation that has will you make use of those D gems?
If gem income were tied to a nation's paths it would be one thing but that isn't the case (aside from the fact that you'll have some starting income from your cap and this will give you a jump on getting a gem generating global) so in each game you have to make do with what you get, even though it may not be thematic.
An idea that had occurred to me was to try a game where magic site frequency was set very low and compensate for that by a series of gem generating national summons such that your gem income would largely match your national paths. Such settings would emphasize playing within a nation's theme without putting you at a disadvantage by doing so.