Mod: Magic Site Mod version 1.00

[WingedDog]

May I offer my idea about a magic site?

Name: The Keep of the Annals
Path: Astral 2.
Type: Rare or Unique
“Enter site” command enable for any commander with magic, or, if impossible, for astral mages.

Description: A sage enters the Keep to search through the historical records for the information about location of the unique magic sites. The location of the site comes in a message like: “Einstain has studied the annals and found out the Throne of the World is located in Mount Olympus.” The site does not appear in province and still requires proper searching to be found. If player doesn’t have the province and has no scout in it – he has no idea where the Mount of Olympus is, since uncaptured and unscouted provinces have no names, only numbers.

I have 2 proposals about searching mechanics, both depending on the research skill of the commander:

1) Like usual research: finding the first magic site costs some research point, say 40, the second is 60, third 100 and so on (160, 260, 420…). Since only 1 mage can enter the site – searching multiple sites could be difficult, so the cost could be rebalanced. If there are no more unique sites in the world – you get the corresponding message in the end of research.
Example: There is a mystic named Popandopulos with research skill 8, possessing Scull Mentor (9RP) and Lightless Lantern(6RP). The scales in the province are Magic 3 (2RP) so his total research ability is 25. He enters the Keep, in order to reveal the first magic site he needs to accumulate 40 points, so in two turns he discovers the High Temple of the Magii, and has 10 points over. In order to discover the next site he needs 60-10=50 points, so in next two turns he finds location of Halls of Imprisoned Sunlight. To locate the next site he needs to gain 100 point, so he spends 4 more months studying the scrolls, but there are no more unique sites in the world and in the end of his research player gets the message: “The mystic Popandopulos has stadied all the annals and came to conclusion there are no more unique magic sites in the world.”

2) The mage enters the site, and the percent chance of discovering a unique magic site equals research skill divided by 2 with approximation in favor of higher number. My English isn’t that good – I mean should 13 be divided by 2 the result is approximated to 7, not to 6. Perhaps Luck\Unluck should increase\decrease the chance to 1% per each point as well.
Example: The same mystic Popandopulos with 25 research skill enters the site. The scales are Unluck 2. His chance of discovering a site is 25/2 – 2 = 13 – 2 = 11%. When there are no more sites in the world - the same message as in 1st proposal comes.

[Endoperez]

While that is an interesting suggestion, it's way more complicated than what can be done. Basically, we can only do stuff that's similar to what is already there. The Keep of the Annals can allow recruitment on units/commanders, produce X gems/gold/resources, affect scales etc. The features are also limited to four: the Keep could allow recruitment of sages, knights, produce 3 astral gems and increase magic scale, but not have a fifth feature.

There is a property for scrying distant provinces (EA Agartha's starting site has this), but it can't be added to custom sites.

[Endoperez]

Changed/removed sites from the new ones (HoneyBadger's):
Deep of Sanji - not added, has Yokai unit
Sea of Sanji - level 4 -> 3, since kappa aren't that good
Kusasthali - appeared twice, as Kusasthali and Ruins of Kusasthali. Both were unique, level 8 holy sites that allow recruitment of same units.

[Endoperez]

Dominions could only handle 119 sites! According to the log.txt, Dom3 was going through the sites, and then... and moved on, mid-way?

Loading magic sites sitemod.dm
#name site 998
...
...
#name site 875
#name site 874
#name site 873
Loading nations sitemod.dm
Loading general sitemod.dm

There were sites all the way to 857.

After that, the sites show up as nameless fire sites without any features.

[Endoperez]

After thorough testing, I realized that I had saved the file with a different name at one point, and only the sites I had done up to that point were visible... So no bug after all.

[Endoperez]

First playable version, version 0.80, attached to first post!

There are two versions in the .zip, a commanderless one (lite) which works better for the current version of Dominions, and a version that has commanders but adds them in as recruitable units.

From some sites, I removed the commanders (Shambler Chief from site that allows recruitment of shamblers, war shamblers and gives 2 fire gems), but I was forced to remove several sites from the commanderless version (most of Miagi's sites, Shining Star Inn, Seamstresses' Guild etc) because I thought their whole point was to give access to commanders. Circle of Dripping Skull that gives a nature and a death gems isn't bad, but it's pretty meh. CoDS that allows recruitment of Gygja is awesome.

In my quick test games, I already saw few of the new sites.

[HoneyBadger]

It's supposed to be the Ruins of Kusasthali. Also, Sea of Sanji should be Water 4 because it's hard to find It's the seventh sea, after all. It's also a pretty decent site, with a good gold bonus, and access to all the kappas, including kappa mage.

If you really want to, raise the gold bonus to 150. That'd be fine with me.

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

It's supposed to be the Ruins of Kusasthali. Also, Sea of Sanji should be Water 4 because it's hard to find It's the seventh sea, after all. It's also a pretty decent site, with a good gold bonus, and access to all the kappas, including kappa mage.

If you really want to, raise the gold bonus to 150. That'd be fine with me.

Kappa mage is W1, and I priced him at 75 gp.
Still, if it's a reference to something I guess I could change it back. It's still rare, unique underwater site, so I'd expect that it's rare to even get it in the map, much less get to the water to try and find it.

[Johan K]

Nice mod. Fun with some sites I haven't seen before. The #com command is fixed in the next patch.

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by Johan K

Nice mod. Fun with some sites I haven't seen before. The #com command is fixed in the next patch.

There's only space for 100 more sites, though, and this mod will probably conflict with most nation mods even now. I wouldn't mind having space for some more sites, like up to 9999 or something.


Oh, and I'm already in love with the new site-searching feature, thanks a lot for that!