Magic Scale Not Affecting Research?

[Cainehill]

Peter Ebbesen said:

[The manual] states that positive scales from non-friendly dominion are not counted for: Order, Productivity, Fortune, Magic. That is, for all except growth and temperature.

Now, whether it should ideally be is a good question. I like it the way it is now, as it does not allow you to capitalise on somebody else's good scales, while forcing you to deal with their bad ones if you have low dominion. It is one of the many things encouraging you to have a strong dominion.

Well, except for strategies like Gandalf's low dominion, horrible scales stealth plan - taking Drain-3 for instance, and building an isolated sage-center in someone else's dominion.

Also, things like Magic affect everyone in battles (lower/higher magic resistance and spell casting fatigue), so it doesn't seem to make sense that Magic wouldn't have a blanket effect.

It makes sense that you wouldn't get the benefit of someone else's Order or Productivity or Luck scales - the people's loyalty and diligence is pre-disposed to that Pretender, and luck for them isn't luck for you. (Note however that you _can_ actually reap major benefits from someone else's Order scale in your territory, as I never would have gotten a fortified city from my Chaos-3 scales, but got one from Abysia's Order-Aura when taking them over.)

But either Magic is strong in an area, or it isn't - it affects both sides the same in combat, and it should likewise have an affect on research and whatnot regardless as well. (In the case that made me ask, it's _my_ magic scale anyway, it's just that someone else's dominion has pushed dominion to neutral in the province. Guess I have to exterminate them. )

[Arryn]

Cainehill said:
But either Magic is strong in an area, or it isn't - it affects both sides the same in combat, and it should likewise have an affect on research and whatnot regardless as well.

Unless the concept is that magic is yet another expression of the power of divinity. IOW, it flows from divinity, rather than being independent of it. In such a case, magic should be tied to dominion. However, the flaw in this particular reasoning is that someone else's magic should affect you as a drain scale, yet we don't see that in the game. In short, the present system is inconsistent no matter from what viewpoint you look at it.

[PDF]

I don't care much for "consistence" when we are talking about gods dominion and where does magic come from !
I rather like the way it works from a gameplay and strategy point of view

[Arryn]

PDF said:
I rather like the way it works from a gameplay and strategy point of view

I didn't say it was bad, only inconsistent. I don't think there's a need for a change. It works fine as is.