Scrying Magic Sites from afar

[Unwise]

As with everything else in a well-balanced game, it's a trade-off.

If you've got a fire-2 mage (with no other paths) then it is almost certainly worth it to use Augury: he will only search one site every two turns (at best) if you do it manually, and he will never find the best fire sites. As Agrajag noted, as soon as you've found two sites with Augery (for example), then the operation is self-sustaining.

However, if you have a high-powered mage (say F2A1N3), then it is probably a waste to have them cast Augery because you have a decent chance of finding more sites manually than only fire sites through the spell.

[Theonlystd]

Only takes 1,2 sites for the mage to start paying for himself from finds..


I rarly haev mages out and about searching

[Corwin]

When I have a choice, I rarely search with mages, unless I have mage with 3/4 in at least two scools of magic, whom I don't need for forging/summoning. Anthing less misses the best sites, or takes too long, or both. IMHO time is more precious resource than few gems early on.

[Graeme Dice]

Personally, I only search with mages if I haven't yet researched the site searching spells, or if the mage has a magical path where my nation cannot use the site searching spell without empowerment. I'll send my fire 1 Arch Theurgs running around the countryside as Pythium for example, before sending them into battle once they get diseased.

[Warhammer]

For me it depends on the setup. If I have a small area, and a couple of good mages, I'll have them scout it out. But, if I have a huge empire, I just automate it with the spells. That way I don't miss any areas and I make sure to get the best search possible. Plus, getting to Thau 2 when you are generating over 60 RPs a turn isn't a problem.

[Uh-Nu-Buh]

Several people have hinted that scrying spells can be set up in an automated fashion. How is that done?

[Nerfix]

Uh-Nu-Buh said:
Several people have hinted that scrying spells can be set up in an automated fashion. How is that done?

Select a mage, press shift+m, then pick the site-searching spell. BTW, this can be used to make summoning rituals monthly, too.

[thejeff]

Same as casting any ritual monthy. 'M', select the spell.

It's flawed, but still useful. It doesn't take into account other search spells cast in the same turn, so if you try to have more than one mage casting it monthly, they'll choose the same province.

It's generally safe to have one mage casting each search spell.
There are a couple of threads here complaining about various other flaws with the automated site search. Hopefully an early patch will address them.