Idle mage time

[Loren]

I had a thought on this: How about a new spell "Forge Gem". Everyone gets it from the start, it only requires 1 level in the path to cast it. There is a version for each gem type. The spell creates one magical gem of the specified type.

In effect this trades one turn of mage time for one gem, something that seems ok to me. If it's too powerful make it a probability based on the paths the mage has.

[Micah]

So a newt, which costs 90 gold, and is sacred, and thus has 3 upkeep, can make a F gem each month, which alchemizes for 15g? Keeping in mind, of course, that alchemy is generally considered one of the WORST things you can do with gems.

[licker]

Sounds overpowered honestly.

Maybe make it cost 10 gems to make 11, but even there is still is ultimately overpowered.

Now if you sacrificed the mage for a gem or two it might be balanced.

[Gregstrom]

I suspect that by the time you might want to do the gem forging, you'd probably still rather have the gem than the gold.

OTOH, I guess you could set up a serious alchemy farm with fire nations if this was implemented.

OTOOH, doing that in the early game would leave you a long way behind on research.

OTOOOH, the ramp-up could be scary by mid-game.

Maybe if the spells were a high research level... and maybe if they cost 10 gems to make 11... (edit: ninja'd!)


I think it's potentially overpowered in the early game (and if it wasn't overpowered, you'd just research instead), and in fact in the late game - imagine if all of Pythium's or BL's S1 researchers could magically turn into clams at the player's whim!

[Psykmoe]

I don't know. Seems like you'd be turning every crappy indy mage you can find into a clam of pearls/fever fetish/blood stone for whatever path they have, with the initial investment of a lab in any province that has indy mages. Sure there is gold upkeep but it still seems like it'd not be much of a good idea for balance?

[Dragar]

I really don’t see the need for it at all - I dislike clams//bloodstones as it is, I think gem scarcity is a good thing; it keeps more focus on troops/mages.

Why would you ever have an idle mage until you've completed all research paths? The only time a mage is ever idle is if in an army and not moving for a turn, with no point in site searching. I don't think that's a situation that requires a mechanic to remove.

[Poopsi]

If you arranged this you might as well remove magic sites from the game altogether.

[JimMorrison]

Why not have it, but have it require 3 in the specific path?

I had always wondered, I mean your events say something like "The summer heat has been distilled into rubies by a young mage", things like this in the always made me feel there ought to be some way to make gems.

If the path requirements are higher, then the opportunity cost to make the gems ramps up immensely, and most indies would be incapable (mostly only a nation's best mages could do it). I see it more as a way to augment your income when you are very unlucky with sites, or to get into a path that you have no national income (and just need to generate some to start searching with).

[Lingchih]

No, I think it would totally screw up the game. The game is not meant for it to be easy to forge one's own gems.

[Adept]

You guys know Dominions is largely inspired by Ars Magica right? The one thing not included is vis (magic gem) creation.

If it worked like it does in Ars Magica, a magician could create magical gems just by spending time at it, and distilling magic into physical objects. Something like 1 gem / magician level in the strongest path.

As things are it would probably mess up the balance of the game totally.