Mod: Magic Site Mod version 1.00

[vfb]

In that case, does anyone else besides me think that the Shadow Priests (U3092) are just a tad OP?

Can we at least get rid of their #onebattlespell "Darkness"?

About the "Deep Sea" thing: all "Deep Sea" on maps has both the "Sea" and "Deep Sea" bits set. So any site that can appear in a Sea can also appear in a Deep Sea.

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by vfb

In that case, does anyone else besides me think that the Shadow Priests (U3092) are just a tad OP?

Can we at least get rid of their #onebattlespell "Darkness"?

If I take on maintaining the mod, I will certainly look into this. I hadn't gotten around to looking at all the possible recruitable commanders yet...

About the "Deep Sea" thing: all "Deep Sea" on maps has both the "Sea" and "Deep Sea" bits set. So any site that can appear in a Sea can also appear in a Deep Sea.

Really? So you can't have sites that are sea only? Because some of them (eg, collapsed lighthouse) are certainly appropriate as sea only...

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

If I take on maintaining the mod, I will certainly look into this. I hadn't gotten around to looking at all the possible recruitable commanders yet...

Squirreloid - I was in the process of editing your changes in (where they didn't conflict with the original input) however, I really don't want to create a fork. I'll cease if you're really intending to take this on.

[vfb]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

If I take on maintaining the mod, I will certainly look into this. I hadn't gotten around to looking at all the possible recruitable commanders yet...

Really? So you can't have sites that are sea only? Because some of them (eg, collapsed lighthouse) are certainly appropriate as sea only...

If you use the game's map editor, setting a province to Deep Sea also makes it a Sea. If you manually set the terrain type to "Deep Sea only" in the map file by giving it a 2048 terrain type, it will be a Deep Sea without also being Sea, but only land-based units will be able to enter it: it won't be a water province as far as the game's concerned.

So there's no way to keep your collapsed lighthouse out of a Deep Sea province.

[Squirrelloid]

Stavis - I'm certainly thinking about it. Probably want to see what other goodies I find or problems I notice since i'm currently in two games using the mod before i make any serious changes.

[Stavis_L]

Well, I had already added most of the fixes you noted anyway, so I went ahead and finished, in case you'd like to use that as a starting point, or if anyone else wants in the meantime.

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

In addition to the issues Stavis L pointed out (which still exist as of December when I DLed the mod), I found the following errors, likely errors, and seemingly non-sensical locmasks:

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Errors
-Garden of Crystal Fruit (#914) has rarity 17119! (Clearly 17119 is a locmask, but site has a valid locmask)

* Fixed per original description

-Ruins of Kusasthali (#872) has a rarity of 256. (same issue)

* Fixed (made rare)

-There are two Laccadive sites (#871 and #869), recommend renaming.

* Renamed one

-Dylath-leen has gem income listed as 8 1. There is no holy gem, so... presumably 4 1 (1 astral).

* Per HB's description, was supposed to be blood slave. Fixed.

-sites 891 and 888 need scale commands fixed (see Stavis L's post above)

* Fixed

-sites 927 and 933-936 have the locmask 16654. This means (unique) in forest, mountains, waste, and deep sea. This is clearly in error. Likely supposed to be 17119 (any land) or 16607 (any non-cave land), although 16388 (mountain) would make sense for #935.

* Fixed

-Deviant Laboratory (#894) has level 5, which is not in the permitted range (0-4).

* Changed to original input of 2.

-One of the Laccadives (#871) is listed as a blood site with a sea location mask. Given you can't use blood magic underwater, this is inappropriate.

* Perhaps, but I think this was intentional. Left in.

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Likely Errors:
-Nameless Rock (#853) has 1 fire income and 25 gold income, but its clearly an astral site related to otherworldly creatures. Listed gem and gold income makes no sense.

* It's implemented per HB's original description. Probably a Lovecraftian reference somewhere...

-Decayed Palace (#940) has 1 air income. Presumably this should be 1 death?

* Per original description, was supposed to have none. Removed. Also was supposed to increase unrest; added turmoil.

-The ridiculous proliferation of H underwater sites is just silly.

* Part of the point was to make H searches more important

-There are an awful lot of X4 sites, which mostly means that said sites will often not be found, even if they do occur. The existence of uncommon X4 sites is especially silly. Recommend re-assessing level for X4 sites, especially as similar sites are often available at X2 in the regular game.

* Part of the point was to make higher level searches more important

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Inappropriate site-masks:
-Rainbow Cove (#888) not forced to be coastal. Given a cove is a coastal feature...

* changed to coast

-Equinoctial Dial (#944) and Sundial (#943) have site mask 735 (any land). Should be 223 (any non-cave land) because you can only use them *outside*.

* changed

-Similarly, Persistent Aurora (#950) and Wailing Aurora (#929) have site mask 735. As the Aurora is a sky phenomena, these should also be site mask 223.

* changed

-A number of tree sites (#987, #983, #982, #977) are listed as site mask 735. Again, access to the sky is kind of important here, and these should be mask 223.

* changed

-Field of Blackened Stones (#991) has mask 512 (cave). Since a cave would certainly not contain anything describable as a field, this is almost certainly wrong. Presumably should be 223.

* changed to mountains, plains, waste per original input

-Tears of the Moon (#963) has mask 735 and given the moon is an astronomical phenomena, its tears should probably be found in non-cave lands (mask 223).

* changed

-Isle of the Sarandib (#874) is listed as deep sea, which is really strange considering its an island. Recommend it be made 16672 (any ocean). Similarly, Barren Island (#860).

* this is per original input, but I agree and changed anyway :-P

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Over-specific or otherwise strange site-masks:
-Ancient Glacier (#962) currently has mask 12 (waste, mountain). Waste is a really weird spot for a glacier - recommend mask 4 (mountain).

* this is per intent, think cold desert, e.g. Antarctica

-Garden of Crystal Apples (#986) is listed as mask 512 (cave). Should probably be either 223 or 735. Note that the separate and similar Garden of Crystal Fruit is listed as 735.

* changed

-Highland Refuge (#931) is listed as 735 (any land), should probably be 223 (non-cave land) or even more specific. (No highlands in caves).

* changed to 4 (mountain)

-Academy of Dark Fire (#913) is listed as mask 8 (waste), but there's really no reason it shouldn't be 735.

* supposed to be Abysia lite :-P

Similarly, Deviant lab (#894) is listed as 223 (any land), but there's no reason it couldn't occur in a cave (and thus be 735).

* left alone, the site lets you recruit dark angel types (who like to fly - no caves)

-A couple of tree sites (#981, #979) are restricted to forest, which is a weird contrast with the other tree sites whose masks were too general. Recommend making them mask 223 to match the other trees.

* not done - the intent was for these to represent "the oldest tree in the forest" sort of thing, I think

Similarly, some other sites (#930, #851) are restricted to forests for no apparent reason. Recommend 223 for these as well.

* changed 930; believe the white river was a specific reference, so left alone

-Many ocean sites are inappropriately restricted to sea instead of being permitted to both sea and deep sea. Ones that I noticed: sulfur vent, temple of the fish, dead zone, The Source of All Waters, Quicksilver Pond (arguably this one should be any terrain, land or sea), and fars deep.

* changed as above, except Source of All Waters made deep sea

-Forest in the Clouds (#920) has a really strange mask (23, mountain + forest + farm + plains). Not sure why it has that site mask other than to be weird.

* basically excluding water, coasts, swamps, and wastes. This was intentional.

[vfb]

Having a blood site underwater is unthematic.

Also, having a blood site possible in the water is broken, since LA Mictlan is pretty much the only nation that will ever find it (while looking for H). It screws with the real UW nations because they aren't supposed to be able to blood hunt UW, so if the site appears, it's replacing a site that could be found and eating up a site slot.

[Tollund]

A similar complaint can be made about holy sites. Without any way to remote search for them short of acashic record they aren't likely to ever be found

[vfb]

No, it's not similar at all.

You can manually search for holy sites with a priest. Every nation gets priests, and every nation has at least one H3. UW nations do not get blood on their mages at all, because there is not supposed to be any blood magic or blood hunting underwater.

And there's nothing unthematic about underwater holy sites.

[Tollund]

Except that manual searching is incredibly micro intensive of course.