Well, I meant something different. I understand what Chalid is saying about specializing a particular mage, but I was talking about faction-wide. It seems strange to me that I might be playing the Order, but employing casters who are making heavy use of Chaos and Death magic. It seems somewhat at odds with things that I should be encouraged and rewarded, from an efficacy stand point, for making every one of my mages specialize in a totally different sphere of magic. There is no advantage or discount to having mages of similar spheres (other then the implicit ramifications of node-granted spheres), while conversely, there is a huge carrying/stacking bonus for having one of a kind singleton mages to the extent that there are different spheres remaining to leverage. This is what I was attempting to refer to. The idea that faction wide, my nation has no real conception of knowledge of one sphere over another, and no religious or philosophical underpinnings for or against, no schools or traditions, no connectivity or sense of cause and effect. There are spheres, which exist disjoint and unrelated to one another, to the religions, and to my knowledge base. The only relation which exists between them is that each node can only be dedicated to one sphere, although, only one mana source per sphere is required for anything (you could create requirements for more), and many types of mana can be acquired through alternative sources, such as wonders or religious buildings (at least that's what it looked like, I only gained access to earth through Kilmorph).
Terrifying to think that watching tv, as opposed to sleep, might grant me some sort of clarity.
So, I guess I'm suggesting that there be some ramifications to your choices as to which spheres you have your mages acquire. I have been designing a fantasy mod myself, so there is naturally a lot of bleed over between my plans and the suggestions which come to my mind for things that might be interesting for FfH, but... Suppose some spell casters could cast rituals, requiring they be in a city, on your network with access to so many mana resources or particular types. Perhaps more then one caster could be required. Suppose you created a system where in your ability to research spheres beyond 1 required a certain number of casters to already have acquired that sphere at 1. So that you had a tech driven system for magic, or a pseudo tech driven system (since there is no reason why could couldn't create a parallel magical research line to the regular research tree). A system where a tech's availability and cost were dependent on the number of casters you already had who knew the precursor sphere, spheres or spells. Now, suppose you said that it's not just spheres that give access to these techs, but it could also be "items", represented by capturable units. Perhaps awarded for opening "huts", which might look like ruins, and these units might look like books or tomes. Perhaps a caster who gains enough xp might be gain the ability to create a school, like a GP, and from then on, casters built in that city would have some watered down set of his spheres and abilities, and for tech purposes, although you'd no longer have your high level caster unit, you would no longer have any risk of losing him, while retaining his benefits for tech purposes. Maybe he might even be worth more tech-wise, since his efforts were now focused on study, research, and to a lesser degree, teaching. I think you can go a long way with the features and representations (I'm reaching for a word, but I can't remember it) that already exist in Civ to model magic in an interesting and compelling way, that would add a whole new level of dynamicism to FfH, or, really, any fantasy mod.
Anyway, just a few thoughts for you. Sorry to interrupt your conversation
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On a side note, you should look at getting a custom mapscript set up. I think that, too, for very "cheap" would add a great deal to the ambience and enjoyability of FfH.
