The Letum Frigus

[MaxAstro]

What does it do? For something that was so important in the first game, it seems to just be a static feature with nothing but nostalgia value in FfH2. Are there features for it planned but not implemented yet?

Just to avoid having a unique feature that does nothing, I changed it to act as a city for defense and to spawn Beastmen... quite fun, since you can't destroy it, and seems to fit with the backstory it has in the Civiopedia...

But I'm still curious if it is supposed to do anything. Also, several times now I've seen it spawn on desert tiles... Shouldn't it only spawn on tundra or snow tiles? I mean, it is the Letum Frigus, it doesn't belong in a desert...

 

[Ekolite]

Hmmm, Ive often wondered about it actually. I expect its waiting for a later version to get an effect.

 

[Mithrus]

Also, several times now I've seen it spawn on desert tiles... Shouldn't it only spawn on tundra or snow tiles? I mean, it is the Letum Frigus, it doesn't belong in a desert...

Ahh, but that was in the age of ice...so the terrain could have changed quite radically after the thaw...

 

[mdfairch]

It was a place of ice and snow before the great thaw. Who knows what it would be afterwards.

Think of California -- it used to be underneath a glacier. And now? Not so much.

Oi, you beat me to it.

 

[MaxAstro]

It was a place of ice and snow before the great thaw. Who knows what it would be afterwards.

Think of California -- it used to be underneath a glacier. And now? Not so much.

Oi, you beat me to it.

No, actually I meant "Shouldn't it only spawn on Tundra and Snow tiles, because in the code it has TerrainMakesValid lines for Tundra and Snow and nothing else".

Backstory aside, it looks like it's programmed to only spawn on tundra and snow, so I was wondering if unique features ignore TerrainMakesValid, or if that's a bug of some kind.

 

[merciary]

For right now It doesn't have a purpose. They'll probably use it in Ice for quest and such.

 

[mdfairch]

No, actually I meant "Shouldn't it only spawn on Tundra and Snow tiles, because in the code it has TerrainMakesValid lines for Tundra and Snow and nothing else".

Backstory aside, it looks like it's programmed to only spawn on tundra and snow, so I was wondering if unique features ignore TerrainMakesValid, or if that's a bug of some kind.

Ah, so this is what happens when someone who doesn't examine the code tries to answer the questions of someone who does. Not only too slow, but too uninformed as well.

I don't think unique features are supposed to ignore terrain. I can't think of the last time that I've seen the Mirror of Heaven appear anywhere other than desert... which I believe is how it's supposed to be. Yggdrasil always seems to appear somewhere forested.

 

[MaxAstro]

Yeah, that was my impression. And Letum Frigus does seem to always spawn on a hill. It just seemed odd seeing it in a desert...

Oh, and I've seen the Mirror of Heaven spawn on a Flood Plain, although I guess that's technically a desert. It makes a very, very nice tile, I must say. ^_^

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I imagine Letum Frigus functioning as both an Ice Mana Node and a Castle or even Citadel. It was basically Mulcarns palace in Erebus. It should also be important to at least one quest (as should all unique features should imho).


Did you have the End of Winter option selected? It may be that the unique feature was added to the map on a tile that was a tundra at the time, bu that this option made the tile later turn to desert.

 

[mdfairch]

I imagine Letum Frigus functioning as both an Ice Mana Node and a Castle or even Citadel. It was basically Mulcarns palace in Erebus. It should also be important to at least one quest (as should all unique features should imho).


Did you have the End of Winter option selected? It may be that the unique feature was added to the map on a tile that was a tundra at the time, bu that this option made the tile later turn to desert.

That sounds obscenely plausible. It does raise an interesting question though -- if the End of Winter option is on, do other terrain-specific features place themselves properly?

 

[MaxAstro]

It sounds really probable, but unfortunately isn't. Tundra tiles turn into Plains, not Deserts, and Snow tiles turn into Tundra tiles, so the Letum Frigus should really never be on a desert unless TerrainMakesValid isn't working for it.

Also, if I read my code right, End of Winter's world freezing effect is applied after unique features are placed. So you might see unique features on colder terrain than they should be (Mirror of Heaven might show up on a Plains that then warms up into a Desert), but you should never see them on warmer terrain.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Well, it's still possible that some AI used the sun 1 spell ("scorch"), right?

The End of Winter was just the first thing that came to mind, I hadn't actually bothered to chech the code.

 

[MaxAstro]

Not possible on turn 6, unfortunately. I'll see if I can reproduce this with any kind of frequency, and if I can I'll report it as a bug.

 

[Mewtarthio]

Yeah, that was my impression. And Letum Frigus does seem to always spawn on a hill. It just seemed odd seeing it in a desert...

I kind of like seeing it spawn outside of snowy reigons. I just want to climb on top of it and shout, "Behold, Mulcarn! Your mighty palace, the throne you forged during the reign of your winter, is now covered in the vines of your enemy, Sucellus! Where once you looked and saw nought but ice, now warmth has returned! What was once the home of snow and blizzards shall never see a single snowflake again!" Except I never play the Amurites, so it wouldn't be as meaningful, so I just sort of gaze in awe (towards Kylorin) mingled with smug, ironic satisfaction.

 

[Arqane]

It's an old bug (sort of) from vanilla. You can get otherwise illegal resources within the capitol city limits. It made for a few nice combinations in vanilla if you were really lucky. Incense/Deer/Fur could all show up on plains (instead of desert and tundra), but only if it was in the city radius.

 

[MaxAstro]

Hm, that might explain why I found Fur on a Flood Plain in my last game... (Speaking of nice tiles)

 

[Dora190]

Yeah, that was my impression. And Letum Frigus does seem to always spawn on a hill. It just seemed odd seeing it in a desert...

^_^

I'd point out that deserts are defined by the amount of precipitation they receive in a year (Which I think is 60mm per annum, but that I'd need to check), which by default makes the antarctic and I believe the arctic both deserts.

 

[Farmer Bobathan]

I'd point out that deserts are defined by the amount of precipitation they receive in a year (Which I think is 60mm per annum, but that I'd need to check), which by default makes the antarctic and I believe the arctic both deserts.

 

[Nor'easter]

I'd point out that deserts are defined by the amount of precipitation they receive in a year (Which I think is 60mm per annum, but that I'd need to check), which by default makes the antarctic and I believe the arctic both deserts.

It's 25cm per annum maximum. I read in The Economist a while back that there are areas of Antarctica that receive so little precipitation that technically they're desert, but I don't think it's the whole of Antarctica.

The Arctic is an ocean, not a continent, so it can't be a desert. Of course most of it's covered in ice, so it probably feels like a continent, I suppose -- I've never been, so I wouldn't know.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

well, all the ice is melting, so...