Spellbooks - MA, CBM 1.92, differentiated late game magic - Canceled

[Valerius]

Time for another experimental game. One the things about the Dominions late game is that eventually everyone is working with the same set of tools and fielding similar SCs, casting the same battlefield buffs, etc.

The game itself does have national summons and spells and these are great fun as they make each nation distinct in character. CBM has increasingly added to this with additional nation-specific content. In this game I thought I would try to give the commonly available spells (which is of course the vast majority of the spells in the game) a similar treatment in the late game.

The idea is pretty simple: you will only be able to cast spells from levels 7-9 if they are in your spellbook (note that this applies to globals as well).

So, how do you determine the spells in your nation's spellbook?

Casting requirement <= (max mage path level x 2) + 1

Note that you can include those 10% randoms in your calculations. For spells that require two paths you must meet both criteria.

I have two exceptions to these rules:

1) Any national spells will automatically be available to you, regardless of whether or not you can meet the path requirements. The idea is to make nations more distinct in their available magic - not remove national spells that are doing exactly that.

2) MA Ulm has very low levels of magic on their mages. You can balance this and CBM has made considerable changes to help them out. However, it really is a problem for them with these settings. So, Ulm will use a slightly better formula:

Casting requirement =< (max path level x 2) + 2

This isn't actually as good as having another base/random path would be but it does open up some nice things like Ember Lords, Will of the Fates, Mass Flight and Vortex of Returning for them.

Let's look at a couple of examples.

First, MA T'ien Ch'i. TC has access to 6 paths. Imperial Alchemists can get up level 3 in 5 different paths. That means all spells up to a level 7 path requirement will be in their spellbook. Furthermore, they will qualify for every crosspath spell that I can think of that uses those paths. Then we also have to consider Celestial Masters. They can get up to S3, which means astral spells up to a level 7 casting requirement will be in your spellbook. This also opens up astral crosspath spells. Late game TC will be able to cast every army buff out there and summon a wide variety of SCs. They do have some limitations, though. Their S isn't quite strong enough to include the highest level S spells in their spellbook and they have no acccess to D or B, meaning those paths will be limited to up to level 6 spells. So TC won't be casting Arcane Nexus, Master Enslave or summoning tarts.

Another example would be MA Abysia. Aby only has access to 4 paths but they can reach high levels in all four. Abysian Warlocks have two 10% randoms and you get to incude both of these in your calculations. Theoretically a warlock could get E3, which qualifies you for E spells up to a level 7 path requirement (so, every E spell in the game). There's also a chance you could get up to an S5 warlock, which easily qualifies you to include every S spell in the game in your spellbook. It goes without saying that your blood access is excellent as well. In terms of crosspath spells, golems and FotA are both within your spellbook. Note though that vampire/vampire lords are not in your book since you lack D magic. You also won't have access to some of the useful battlefield wide buffs that TC has.

Hopefully all that is clear. The basic idea is that the SCs you summon and the late game spells you have available will reflect the character of your nation.

Of course there are some possible problems here. First off is balance. I would be shocked if this was balanced - but I'm not certain in what way it's unbalanced. Will Ermor completely dominate with tarts, arcane nexus and wish? Maybe, have to play the game and see what happens.

There's also an issue with gem distribution. Oftentimes you end up with a strong gem income in a path your nation doesn't have. This concerns me more than the balance issue and I did consider playing this game with lowered magic site frequency and giving each nation some gem generating summons so I could skew gem income towards that nation's paths but decided to keep it simple for now. If you end up with a strong gem income in a non-national path you'll have to make do with the lesser summons in that path (or trade with another nation). However, if people would like to go this route and open to doing so.

So, anyone interested?


Settings

Era: MA
Banned nations: All water nations
Number of players: 6-8
Map: TBD (12-15 prov/player avg)
Mods: modified version of CBM 1.92 (will post mod after nations are chosen)
Hosting: 24 hours until turn 20, 48 hours until turn 40, 72 hours thereafter
HoF: 15
Other settings default


Roster

Abysia - Hrum
Arco - odeoderok
Caelum - Cowbird
Eriu - Valerius
Man - Hurmio
Mictlan - TigerBlood
Pythium - Uldin
Shinuyama - Ossa
Vanheim - lucheng