Alternative Gem Sources
 

This might bring up some balance issues, but is just a thought, inspired by the unit description "spends her time gathering herbs..."

Why not? Why not an alternative method of "gathering" gems?
Nature mages would receive the action "gather herbs"; much like Blood Hunters when Hunting, they would scavenge for nature gems, only they wouldnt cause any uprising; their chances for success would be higher in forest provinces and lower in waste ones; higher nature skill = better chance of success and # of gems / attempt (like BH).
A similar routine could be done with Necromancers and corpses to harvest death gems -- I believe there is a spell whose name I forget involving Ravens which is ficitonalized to do just this.
A mage with both Nature and Death skills would not be able to do both in one turn; each harvesting option is a discrete action.
I suppose similar fictionalizations could be found to allow for searches for other types of essences.
Well just an idea.

Re: Alternative Gem Sources
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Raven Feast is actually an AIR spell that does this....but only returns death gems in good quantity if there's an absolutely massive number of unburied corpses in a province. This level of corpsage will only occur if you just pillaged a high-population province and slaughtered many people as a result.

Which DOES create a lot of unrest!

There are already several sources of alternative gems, though. Fever Fetishes grant +1 fire gem per month, the Earth Blood Rock thingy grants +1 earth gem per month, and the Clam grants +1 astral per month. Sea Kings produce +1 water gem per month, IIRC, and there are other units that similarly produce gems on a monthly basis.

[ March 15, 2004, 05:37: Message edited by: Norfleet ]

Re: Alternative Gem Sources
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Sure.
I didnt post this though because I miss gems or miss alternative gem sources; the motivation was purely "flavor" and a bit of variability.

Re: Alternative Gem Sources
 

That could be a special ability of some commanders instead of an ability all mages have. I would like to see few non-mage commanders that can do something useful when they are not warring...

Re: Alternative Gem Sources
 

I dunno . . . that sort of makes the other magic paths more like Blood. Doing so would take away the sole advantage Blood magic has over gem magic, aside from the ridiculous summons, of course. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Alternative Gem Sources
 

We prefer to keep micromanagement restricted to one type of magic.

Re: Alternative Gem Sources
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">OK, sounds fair. (Well it's your game anyhow.) I like it as it is too. Just thought it could make some things a bit more "colorful", a sort of "nice to have"-effect but not a "you need to do this"-thing, just to add some more variables if you get down on your luck when site searching. Well maybe for Dominions IV...