Is there documentation somewhere about this mod? The in-game Wikipedia entries aren't terribly detailed.... and they're missing entirely for many individual items. (e.g. most units I encountered don't have an entry.)
I admit there is a learnign curve, but it seems to me there is plenty of documentation in game--over 16,000 lines of text at this point. I'd much rather spend time working on the mod itself rather than produce a manual.
* The races and their effects. I gather that each race type opens up a branch of upgrades, but the race types seemed to have very different & non-standardized effects on different base unit types.
Check the pedia under Promotions like "Human Trait" or "Orc Trait" to see racial attributes.
* A description of how the religion system works.
Follow the pedia link provided in the start up screen.
* I assume this mod has some sort of Faerun-specific implementation of the ideologies, right? If so... how are they activated & how do they work?
Called alignments, with beliefs fueled by Divine Favor. Again, follow the pedia link provided in the start up screen.
* If you select all random civs, does the game naturally give you roughly equal numbers of good, neutral, and evil civs?
Most civs have a choice of alignment (done by random roll), but yes it's possible given the game setup that all civs will choose the same alignment.
* If I'm playing a good civ, are both neutral & evil civs naturally hostile to me?
Yes. Though good/evil have increased diplo hits.
You'll just have to play the game to see all the units and what abilities they have, though again refer to the pedia promotions for details.
The Victory Progress menu gives me a vague idea what's involved, but I was wondering if they're explicitly spelled out somewhere.
The victory menu is actually very specific. As to the Mystra victory condition, you'll just have to play to see what's involved!
* Is the population of your largest city (presumably your capital) the way you "tech' in Faerun?
Yes.
* "Druids" are mentioned in a couple places. What are they? How do I get them?
A melee spellcaster hero. Requires adopting a belief in the Neutral alignment.
* How can I get my troops the embarkation ability?
Reach level II in your capital. Build the Sailor's Union to allow ocean embarkation.
1. Some units don't show up in the game world as sprites. Just the round unit icon. EDIT: Chessentan Flame Rider is one such unit.
That's because I haven't uploaded v.5 of the Art Assets yet. I'm waiting until I get all the necessary art together required for both the base mod and Sword Coast adventure. Shouldn't be much longer. Note that future versions will include a few new city graphics for a few race specific civs (elves, dwarves, orcs).
2. I recieved hero quests requiring me to cross continents, cross borders with a civ with no open borders, and to access ocean tiles, effectively rendering these quests impossible to finish, which is just irritating.
I did fix the issue with ocean go to plots, but as to the others, I just don't think its possible to figure out if a player will be able to reach a certain plot within the alloted time, particularly as hostile civs can buy tiles or settle cities that will get in your way.
3. Spies are not well incorporated: there are no techs to steal, so they can't level up. Their only use seems to be to rig elections, which means only evil civs can enhance their use. Numerous refrences to techs and research still exists in the game (external trade routs mentions this).
Placing spies in enemy cities also has a chance to begin a plague in that city and grants extended vision on that city. Rigging elections is actually very useful.
4. Extremely distant civs "covet my lands" even though there are vast open areas in between.
I dunno what I can do about that....
5. Health seems to be poorly implemented. I noticed no benefit of having positive health. Also, there are many more ways of lovering the health of cities, meaning it is almost hopeless trying to fight health issues. Maybe make positive health buildings more potent?
See the pedia help sections on Health for details. Simply, positive health adds to city food stores, negative health reduces city food stores. It's a growth mechanism. And there are many ways of increasing health, mostly by choosing a good settle site with health resources, by upgrading the health buildings, and by choosing the Neutral alignment. I am generally able to run positive health for my cities, especially in late game.
6. Randomly spawning boss monsters are WAY too tough.
Really only in the first 100 turns; after than they become increasingly easy to take down, to the point where you will like having them spawn near you. The Ogre is slow and doesn't generally attack cities, only units and improvements.
7. How can I get information about what the icons of enemies mean?
I think you mean the promotions? You can check out the details in the pedia. There will be a notification when a spellcaster casts a spell in your vision.
8. The pedia is not very clear on some things. I wanted to know, for example, which buildings affects the Apple resource.
I think the best place to see this is in the Building Upgrades screen. I recommend looking over that closely before beginning a game.
Having a bit of trouble with 'spell costs again'
Just tested this with Drow and Halruaa and didn't see any change in the spell or belief costs upon loading from a saved game. I'll keep an eye on it.
