Question about school bonus sites

[Tuidjy]

I know that there is a problem with school bonus sites (for example: Gateway)
not computing bonus gems for globals correctly. I have heard it both ways -
that you miss out on the 20% bonus for the site, or that the global is cast
as if no bonus gems are used.

So my question is, should I _avoid_ casting a global from a province with such
a site? I'm OK with not getting a benefit, but would I suffer an actual
penalty casting the Well of Misery from a province containing the Gateway?

[Starshine_Monarch]

Hm, I definitely can't say for sure, but since globals can be dispelled based on the number of gems put in . . . I wonder if when you get that 20% discount on casting it, that it would make the global that much easier to dispel?

[Agrajag]

IIRC, the global's strength is calculated based on the amount of gems you spent on it, regardless of any bonus. So if you cast Well of Misery in such a province, and put in extra gems until the total cost is 80 (the original price), it would be as if you cast the spell without adding any gems.
I'm not sure if casting with less than the required amount confers any penalty.

[Randvek]

From everything I've heard, Agrajag is correct. Whether you cast from a bonus site or not does not make any difference whatsoever, only the final gem count. Casting at a base of 30 from a bonus site with 10 added to the casting is the exact same as if you were casting from a non-bonus site with a base of 40.

But please, correct me if I am mistaken.

[Starshine_Monarch]

Maybe this is a bug? I mean if I was gonna cast a global, I may as well do it in the closest lab. If I had to pay the same amount anyway just to keep my spell safe then theres no incentive to do it there.

[Renojustin]

I thought that the only thing that made a difference in dispelling was the bonus gems added.

For instance: Gift of Health (50 gems?) with 30 extra nature gems empowering it would have an even chance of being dispelled against an equally powerful Astral mage using 30 extra gems on Dispel.

[thejeff]

I'd say it's a bug.

It still can be worth it though. Particularly early game when people aren't likely to dispel it right away. Or if you can convince people that you overcast it so they put a ton of gems into taking it down.

With the gem producers, it's a trade off on how long it takes to pay back. That gets worse if you throw more gems in to protect it and better if you cast it at a discount.

And in some games you could cast Arcane Nexus at 80% base cost and make more than that the turn it goes up, then recast it next turn.

[mindlar]

From what I recall reading the manual the dispel chance is a random die plus extra gems plus five times the caster's skill over the minimum. The same formula is used for both the global and the dispel/new global spell.

From what I've gathered from the boards, casting at a site causes the extra gems between the bonus and the actual casting cost to be wasted.

For Gift of Health at a 20% off site:
40-50 gems are the equivalent of 0 extra
51+ are (gems-50)

[NTJedi]

If what Agrajag says is correct then I would definitely say it's a bug.

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Bug.gif[/img]