Tip: Looking for advice on site searching

[Psycho]

Is it worthwhile searching with mages that have less than four levels in a path? What percentage of magic sites belong to what level?

Am I wasting my time searching with a level two mage, when I'm going to cast a site-searching spell on the province later? Or would I be wasting that spell as there is only a small percentage of level 3 or 4 sites? I'm looking for an experienced answer. How do you people do it - do you prefer the manual search or the spells?

[Kristoffer O]

I'm not sure, but I'd probably search with lvl 2 mages, until I got site searching spells going. There are very few lvl4 sites. A handful in total and there are several hundred sites. Some paths don't even have one IIRC.

[OmikronWarrior]

Kristoffer O said:
There are very few lvl4 sites. A handful in total and there are several hundred sites. Some paths don't even have one IIRC.

But when you do find one, oh baby! [unreal tournament voice]GAME CHANGING![/unreal tournament voice]

Anyways, I've heard that 95% of sites are level 1,2, or 3. So, manually site searching with a level 3 mage will pretty comfortably get you most of the sites. However, having a mage manually site search takes them away from other product uses like researching and takes two turns to search one province, to say nothing of the inevitable back tracking to make sure you get all the sites. So, once you have established a solid gem income, then switch over to site searching spells.

Also, target certain provinces types first. Nature sites seem more likely to be found in forests, while air sites seem more common in mountains and wastelands. Fields are always awful for sites. I've never heard an exact odds breakdown, though.

[Kristoffer O]

I don't think it is possible to do a meaningful odds breakdown.

There are more forest restricted sites of nature., more waste restricted sites of fire and death. Earth and to some extent air sites tend to be more common in mountains.

Wastelands are generally your friend. Mountains, forest and swamps a bit so, while farms have decreased chance of sites.

I would guess that about 75% of all sites are lvl 0-2, 24% 3 and 1% lvl4. But of the lvl3 sites many are rare and thus less likely to be in tha game. Perhaps 80%-90% are sites findable by a lvl 2 mage. On the other hand, it is as Omikron says, the rarest ones you really want to find

Some sites are unique and there can only be one on each map. Some of these are more common, meaning it is not unlikely that it exists on the map, while other uniques are very rare as well. Sites linked to terrains are more common in the sense that if there was forests all over the place they would be common, but since they are restricted they will not be that common. Since most maps have few swamps you could say that the swamp sites are rarer (many of them are water or nature).

There might be a list of sites somewhere in the modding threads. I don't think it presents rarity, but might display path requirements.

[Lingchih]

Any idea on which type of site Astral is most common? Or is there one for Astral? I'm having a hard time finding any in a game I am playing.

[OmikronWarrior]

Another thing, there are ways to maximize odds when site searching. Depending on your initial site frequency set when the game was set up, each province is likely to have roughly 2 or fewer sites. Having 0 or 4 sites is statistically unlikely. Hence, if you've already searched a province for one magic path and did not find any sites, then its likelier for other path searches to reveal some sites. However, if a province already has two or three sites found in it, then the odds of any additional searches being successful go down. At 4 sites, the odds are zero.

Does anyone know the exact mechanic for assigning sites?

Edit: Astral Sites don't seem to have any preference for province type. However, I have had some luck generating additional astral income by using priests to site search. Most holy sites generate astral income. If nothing else, it gives your priests something to do when not needed to call back a Pretender or preach.

[moderation]

Hrm, where is it documented that 4 sites is the maximum per province? I am wondering if this is the case in the CB mod too. Anyway, this is useful information. It seems like 4 is a magic number regarding magic sites.

[Lingchih]

Yes, 4 is the maximum number of sites that any province can have.

[Renojustin]

Omikron just gave some terrific advice. If you find yourself lagging behind on the astral gem income, Holy searching is definitely the way to go.

Bonus: Holy-only units are less useful than mages in most cases so you're not losing research, ritual magic, or item crafting by searching with them.

You will notice that your Astral gem income from holy site searching is very significant.

[Dedas]

Take a look at this:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...338&Forum=f187