Magic sites questions

[Stormbinder]

Originally posted by Zen:

quote:

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Originally posted by Stormbinder:
P.S. Just to clariy - you feel that because Forest lands are better for Nature, Barrens (meaning Waste?) better for for Fire and Water/Death for Swamp, those land-types should be first one to be seached for these elements, even if there are Mountains (which gives you the best _general_ modifier) available, correct?

Depends on what nation you are and what abilities you have availiable along with gem usage. But assuming you have everything availiable except a Acashic Record, I'd probably do it based on need. If I needed or wanted to search a particular province for a specific type. I'd search for whatever was my priority based on Terrain type. So if I was looking for Nature gems, I'd use Haruspex first on Forests, then on other provinces. Same with Augury and Dark Knowledge. Death, Astral and a few others don't seem to have a huge pattern (Plains/Forests are good to find Air Sites, anything freshwater is good for Water Sites, etc). Mountains I generally search first with Earth but not alot of nations have the versitility to search with such diversity.

And what about sea province? Are they the same as Plains in both magic site frequency (0 modifier) and no preferable element type? (the obvious pereferable element for the sea provinces would be water of course, but I don't seem to be fiding that many water sites in the ocean in my games.)

I believe they are right around there, they have alot of variance as far as I've seen. If you take a look at the Magic Site List you'll notice a pattern of paths, I'll break it down for you and anyone else who ever searches for this particular topic.

Acadamy Underneath (W)
Clam Field (W)
Coral Reef (W)
Coral Statue (W)
Isle of Ice (W)
Isle of the Sea Fathers (W)
The Water Solstice (W)

Isle of Death (D)
Dying Ground of the Whales (D)
Sunken Galley (D)
The Wasted Sea (D)
Ghoul Fish Cave (D)

Coral Garden (N)
Kelp Forest (N)
Kelp Fortress (N)
Kelp Grove (N)
Sea Oak (N)

Basalt Halls (S)
The Crater (S)
Tower of Pearls (S)

Basalt Pillar (E)
Moving Sand Banks (E)
Underwater Cliff (E)

Gorge of Glowing Fish (F)
Fire Rift (F)

Underwater Cave (A)
Pocket of Air (A)

Ancient Temple of the Deeps (H)

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Imteresting, thank you.I've noticed that there are no Blood and Unholy sites in this list. That means seaching for those resourses would be a waste of time and /or bloodlsaves.

I though that any land type _could_ potentially contain any element types, including level 4 sites in each elements, although the probablility would be differnt for differnt lands of course and for diferent elements. But in case with sea provinces, based upon this list, it doesn't seem to be the case.

I wonder if same situation may exist for some other land types?(other than sea) Meaning that certain magic types do not exist is some specific land types, or if they do exist there than only up to some lower than four level. If it is so for some land-type(s)than it would be usefull to know, especially in MP games, since it would allow you to narrow down your search patterns, saving you time and/or gems.

[Kristoffer O]

Not sure of the exact numbers. I guess it works like this:

Magic: (site freq) + 30
Waste: (site freq) + 20
Swamp: (site freq) + 20
Mountain: (site freq) + 10
Forest: (site freq) + 10
Farm: (site freq) - 20

Only the most beneficial counts.

If site: Check what site. Random.
If site not possible: Reroll.
If site unique and already in the game: Reroll.
If site possible and rare: Reroll once.

Many nature sites are common but restricted to forests etc.

Unique sites are also rare or common. Inkpot end is unique and common. Crown of Darkness is rare.

No blood under water IIRC. Not sure about unholy.

[Stormbinder]

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
Not sure of the exact numbers. I guess it works like this:

Magic: (site freq) + 30
Waste: (site freq) + 20
Swamp: (site freq) + 20
Mountain: (site freq) + 10
Forest: (site freq) + 10
Farm: (site freq) - 20

Only the most beneficial counts.

If site: Check what site. Random.
If site not possible: Reroll.
If site unique and already in the game: Reroll.
If site possible and rare: Reroll once.

Many nature sites are common but restricted to forests etc.

Unique sites are also rare or common. Inkpot end is unique and common. Crown of Darkness is rare.

No blood under water IIRC. Not sure about unholy.

Great, thank you Kristoffer - that's exactly inforamtion that I was looking for!

So Mountains and Forests are actually less beneficial than Swamps and Wastes? Interesting, it is contrary to common belief that Mountains are the best land for magic sites. It is very good to know, and it also changes my entire sitesearching strategy, since I always tried to search Mountains first.


I take it that "Magic" is some very rare and highly magical terrain type that exist on some maps? Haven't seen it yet, have been playing mostly on Aran/Orania/Karan/Inland maps so far.

[Endoperez]

It is possible to make some terrins have magic sites more often, and I think that is what Kristoffer is referring to. I think it can't be seen in-game if the mapmaker hasn't made it visible somehow, but luckily Jason Lutes added both some stars and little decorations (henges, towers) to these provinces.

[Kristoffer O]

I'm not sure of the specifics. Waste might be 30, swamp and mountain 20. It was just a guess.

[Firebreath]

I believe that list is incomplete Zen.

Sunray has produced a nice list with all the effects:

http://www.bl23c.com/arryn/downloads/dom2sites.xls

check it out. It's too complicated for me, but maybe you guys will understand it

[Gandalf Parker]

Magic is a terrain switch. Changes have been made to the game which didnt get to the documentation. Or if you are like me you might have gotten an error when it tried to update the docs, and the patch skipped that.

The #terrain command is a number created by adding together the numerics for everything that can be said to apply to that province. And as Kristoffer mentioned, apparently these are not cumulative as to the random roll. The best one is whats used in deciding what plus to add to a sites roll. As far as I know this is the latest up-to-date list of terrain switches.....

nothing (defaults to plains) 0
small 1
large 2
sea 4
fresh water 8
mountain 16
swamp 32
waste 64
forest 128
farm 256
nostart 512 - for islands and special provinces
manysites 1024 - increased site frequency

So if province 9 is a plains, small, no-start then the map has it a "#Terrain 9 513" (0+1+512) and it you wanted to add a higher chance of magic sites then you would add 1024 to that and make it "#terrain 9 1537"

[ April 03, 2004, 14:25: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]