Newbie questions, sitesearching + lots more Qs

[binarysolo]

Random side question, and I'm not sure if this is an appropriate question to ask on the forums, given that it pertains to the one MP game I'm playing.

As a complete MP noob with only a few SP games under my belt, I feel that I'm slightly disadvantaged compared to some of the other players around, so hopefully this justifies utilizing the wisdom of the Dom3 crowd.

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/7255/unknownsite.jpg <-- what the heck could this site be?

Given that the enemy pretender is camped there along with a massive entourage for a few turns already, and given that he has both Nature and Death, I'm assuming it's a bonus site for either magic school.

...Any suggestions? If people don't want to just hand me the answer, I would be more than willing to learn how I can edit map files in SP to insert all the different magic bonus sites onto a province and see what matches. Just point me in the right direction for that, too.

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by binarysolo

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/7255/unknownsite.jpg <-- what the heck could this site be?

Given that the enemy pretender is camped there along with a massive entourage for a few turns already, and given that he has both Nature and Death, I'm assuming it's a bonus site for either magic school.

First of all, it's not clear what you mean by bonus sites in this context. There are sites that allow a mage of "X" magic type to summon "Y" unit type. Then there are sites that allow casting spells or forging for cheaper (percentage off the cost.) The latter type do not have a school of magic associated (except as far as discovery goes), e.g. if it's a nature site giving a 30% enchantment bonus, death spells will also cost 305 less. There's also sites that allow mage of x school to scry...

For the first type, it's not likely worth a pretender's time to sit and summon single unit, even for free. For the 2nd type, bonuses to allow cheaper casting of an important ritual or item forge, yah, definitely worth it to park the pretender there. No way is it worth it just for scrying.

That said, you're unlikely to be able to ascertain the exact site. You can tell it's an earth site from the icon, and you know the terrain is mountains or border mountain (you should be able to tell which from hovering over the icon in game, but it's the same icon so we can't tell from the screenshot.) From there, you could see what earth sites are allowed in mountains...but I think it's a longshot to assume it's a school bonus site just because a pretender sat there two or three turns in a row. Not sure if anyone's compiled a resource to be able to cross-reference those, though. Edi's database has columns for terrain types, but it's not yet filled in.