Fleshing out an idea: Geomancers

[xienwolf]

Good point. And it'd be too much of a penalty to make such a drawback be globally applied to all of your cities.

 

[RogueThunder]

nice idea although cant see the AI using it effectively...

Since when does the AI use magic, in any way, particularly mana nodes effectively?

Okay, excepting perma-buffs for civs who start with its mana on their palace, and its a 1st level spell.

 

[Niveras]

If you are dead set on having meta magic create new nodes, perhaps additionally require that it be the highest tier of geomancer (e.g. archmage equivalent) and consume the unit. Lore-wise, one could argue, the amount of energy required to crystallize all that mana into a new node simply burns the person out. Perhaps also limit it by level, even if the geomancer unit type follows the same upgrade restrictions as other spellcaster units.

It's still pretty spammable, but even so giving up a level 6 or even level 8 or 10 unit is arguably a fair cost.

 

[Willgar]

Since when does the AI use magic, in any way, particularly mana nodes effectively?

Okay, excepting perma-buffs for civs who start with its mana on their palace, and its a 1st level spell.

that's the point - putting in a game mechanic that human players can exploit but the AI never uses seems a bit wastefull. There are lots of mods that add more "stuff" but as most people play single player, does it actually enhance the gameplay?

Remeber vanilla FfH2 - Kael actually started removing and simplyfying the game and the AI finally started to use spells, FF went a bit further and the AI improved. Adding more game mechanics just for the sake of cool does not actually make the overall game better especislly if you have a rival AI race that cant take advantage of its special trait or feature....