Wish-List for Dominions 4

[ajr]

Loren said:
Magic item work list: You indicate what you want produced. Mages with a generic <forge> order produce things on the list.

What I'd really like to see is as a UI improvement is a new order for mages, <pool> or something along those lines. Mages set to pool will, if there's nothing else for them to do, research. Somewhere in the UI, there are ways to grab a mage from the pool both to forge magic items and cast ritual spells; mages would be chosen such that all work is fulfilled and research is maximized. If work can't be done, the attempt to add the work item will fail. Solving these constraints may require which mages are doing what to change as more work items are added.

I'll admit it can matter where a ritual spell is cast, but other than for summons and a few other spells it won't matter the vast majority of the time; I would expect the main use for this to be site-searching and attack spells (you'd never send, say, teleport through the pool).

This could almost be implemented entirely on the client, but a "pool" flag for each mage would be required to really make things work. It would also be helpful if newly recruited mages went into the pool...