1. How do I end/speedup the replay of a battle?
Other than changing the graphic quality there is no way to change the speed of the battles. Its on the players wish list
2. How do I get spells to hit targets? My megaearth Cyclopian pretender can't hit squat....do where the sprites land not matter?
Some spells have splash effects. But the battle is already all figured out so its not so much what you are seeing as it is how the numbers change. Right clicking a unit will being up its information so you can check what really happened after that spell hit.
2.5 Do mages/pretenders naturally gain magic levels, or is empowerment the only way to improve?
Yeah thats its, or with magic items that boost magic. But many different types of mages can be made in other provinces. Sometimes they are obvious right away such as the amazons and druid provinces. Others can be discovered by finding magic sites.
Generally I do it like this. When I build a pretender I seriously consider giving it 2 or 3 in any magic that my nations mages dont already have. Thats enough to make many of the items that will boost it up another step. It also gives me search ability in magics my mages wont have. Later in the game I might notice that I have alot of gems of a certain type so to make better use of that gem income I will use some of those to boost that type of magic. That makes the final direction of my game kindof random but thats the way I like to play
3. how high a magic proficiency do I need for a comprehensive site search? Is 5 enough, or does it go all the way to 9+?
With Dom2 we dont know yet but I think it was 4 in Dom1. Generally thats considered a waste though. Taking alot of a type of magic is only for trying to rush toward a particular spell. Its a tactical strategy. 2 or 3 is considered better for searching. It finds most stuff. Use the searching spells instead of using a high level mage.
4. Is there a random map generator? The 2 demo maps are haunting my dreams as is...
There was a player made one for dom1. And alot of manually created maps done by players. So we had the best of both. We will probably get there with Dom2 also.
5. Is there anywhere to buy the full game retail, or is mail-order likely to be faster?
I think mail order is your best bet
6. Is there any way to lock move orders so that I don't accidently change them while province scanning. I guess just become f1 obsessive, eh?
Not lock. But there is a way to record them. Pressing Ctrl and a number will remember that set of orders. hitting the number will give them to a commander. (I think I remember that right, havnt used it yet). This was mostly to make it easy to assign commands to new commanders but it should help you also.
7. are domain effects detailed anywhere?
Did you read the thread near the top of the page for newbies?
Basic Questions
Linear Mode
