Rate of expansion of climate with xx (e.g. Arctic) Empire spells

[Hiliadan]

Arctic Empire, Blight Empire, etc. cover the map with their climate, originating from the center of cities and Fortresses of the caster.

The current rate of growth or expansion from the center seems pretty slow to me.
I checked the mod tools and there are two parameters for the effect:
- Max Spread Distance = 15 (the climate won't expand further than 15 hexes from the city or Fortress center)
- Proportion of Ring to Fill = 0.33 (proportion of adjacent hex to fill)

That matches empiric observations that it takes about 3-4 turns / hex of radius from the center. Here is a screenshot showing the progress of the ice turn after turn:

It means if you want to push the boundaries of the Arctic climate 10 hexes from your city, you would need to wait 30-40 turns... Most games are finished by that time (since you cast the spell only around turn 40). And 15 hexes from the center is quite limited: it means the climate will never reach your opponents' cities which are usually much further away.

So here are some suggestions:
- What about doubling the rate of expansion to 0.66: it should translate into expanding to a new hex of radius every 1.5 turns.
- And what about at least doubling the range to 30 hexes?

 

[Hiliadan]

I did a test with rate of expansion = 0.66 and max range = 30. After 30 turns, the climate had expanded to 25 hexes away from the city center. The expansion was quite homogeneous. I think 0.66 is probably too big. 0.5 might be a better idea.
With 0.5, it should be possible to transform climate to what you want up to 30 hexes away in between 30 turns and 60 turns. That seems reasonable to me.

 

[Rodmar18]

Arctic Empire, Blight Empire, etc. cover the map with their climate, originating from the center of cities and Fortresses of the caster.

It means if you want to push the boundaries of the Arctic climate 10 hexes from your city, you would need to wait 30-40 turns... Most games are finished by that time (since you cast the spell only around turn 40). And 15 hexes from the center is quite limited: it means the climate will never reach your opponents' cities which are usually much further away.

Then, that sounds good news for those who build fortresses, does it?

 

[Hiliadan]

Not sure what you mean.
The climate expands both from the cities and from the Fortresses. I didn't repeat Fortress in the 2nd sentence because it was an example with a city.

 

[Rodmar18]

And if you buid a fortress next to an enemy city's domain, the spell will eventually reach it (except if a sorcerer?).
But you're right, I wasn't clear because your issue is now that in core territories, cities are likely to be next to each other, and you can only capture existing fortresses, not build new ones.

It appears that, as compared to AoW2, the devs decided to nerf those climate-changing global spells; I can only infer that they wanted them to be more defensive than offensive.

 

[gladis]

Similar opinion than Rodmar. It shouldn't get that far in range. 15 hexes seems alright. Maybe raising the factor to 0,4.
I once had an ally casting Arctic Empire. And all my Halfling cities at the boarder of his Realm suffered badly. Defensive-wise, 15 hexes are sufficient. Dwellings are affected also.