Researching vs Site Searching

[TwoBits]

I was just wondering what most people's priorities are in this regard, and why?

Does every mage you buy, barring an immediate war calling them to duty, go straight to research, or do once you pop Thaumaturgy 2/Evocation 2/Construction 3 (or 4 if you've got underwater access for Tiamat), you have every available and capable mage looking for magic sites (especially since the 3.08 patch has made that easier)?

I mean, if you rely on your mages heavily for battle assistance in all phases of the game, I guess research with your non combatant mages is a no-brainer.

But if you think you can get by in the early to mid game without them in the field, what's more useful? Race up to Conjuration/Construction 8 for the uniques, or find every last gem producing site in your empire right away, and get that gem income rolling in ASAP, even if you lag in the research department?

I'm interested to hear your opinions. Thanks!

[TwoBits]

Oops, I should have prefaced that - I'm mostly interested in how people would play this out in MP. Thanks.

[thejeff]

I tend to make site search spells a high priority, but I'm fairly new to MP. It may be an error.

It's a tradeoff. If your mages/strategy is more evocation, battlefield damage based, you may want to push the combat spells first. If you want early SCs/thugs, you're going to need the gems to get them.

If you've got access to the research booster items, finding the gems to start producing them early may actually speed up the research by the midgame.

[Evilhomer]

Generally speaking in mp you want those gem sites ASAP. So researching site searching spells and starting to gem search is a high priority. However there are of course exceptions, you might want to go with alternation/construction to give your awake pretender buff spells/items, or to go with defence in the form of evocation/conjuration if you expect to be rushed early.

[Edi]

Depends on what nation you play, but getting Thaumaturgy 2, Evo 2 and Conjuration 2 are always pretty high priorities for me, especially Thaumaturgy and Evo.

[Micah]

I still like manual searching, but I think I'm the only person that does.