(Added known bug for melding with unconquered/occupied nodes.) Tags: Visual edit apiedit |
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:[[Node]]s on the plane of [[Myrror]] are often defended by much-stronger creatures than those found in [[Arcanus]]. However, the benefit from controlling a [[Node]] on Myrror is equally powerful. |
:[[Node]]s on the plane of [[Myrror]] are often defended by much-stronger creatures than those found in [[Arcanus]]. However, the benefit from controlling a [[Node]] on Myrror is equally powerful. |
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| − | :While each [[Node]] tile around a [[Myrror|Myrran]] [[Node]] still produces the same amount of power as one in [[Arcanus]], Myrran [[Node]]s |
+ | :While each [[Node]] tile around a [[Myrror|Myrran]] [[Node]] still produces the same amount of power as one in [[Arcanus]], Myrran [[Node]]s have ''twice'' as many such tiles as those on Arcanus on average - Arcanus nodes having 5 to 10 tiles selected at random, while the maximum number of tiles within a Myrran [[Node]]'s area-of-influence is 20 - for a total Power output of {{Power|20}} in a "Normal" magic world (see above), and the minimum happens to be 10, which is the maximum on the Arcanus plane. |
:As a result, wizards that are powerful enough to clear out and take control of [[Node]]s on the plane of [[Myrror]] will gain terrific amounts of power from them - and thus boost their own strength by a significant margin. This is even more true for wizards possessing the correct [[Retort]]s (see above). |
:As a result, wizards that are powerful enough to clear out and take control of [[Node]]s on the plane of [[Myrror]] will gain terrific amounts of power from them - and thus boost their own strength by a significant margin. This is even more true for wizards possessing the correct [[Retort]]s (see above). |
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Revision as of 19:19, 25 May 2016
A Node is a type of Terrain Special, which doubles as both a potential 
Power source and a high-level Encounter zone.
There are three types of Nodes in the game:
Each type corresponds to one Realm of magic, and behaves differently as a result.
Initially, all Nodes are guarded by a contingent of Fantastic Units belonging to the Node's realm. Once these creatures have been removed, any wizard may send a Magic Spirit or Guardian Spirit to meld with the Node, thus acquiring a constant input of Power based on the Node's coverage area.
A random number of Nodes is placed in random locations on the world map at the start of each game. These Nodes cannot be removed or altered, and no new Nodes will be added during the course of the campaign. Nodes found on the plane of Myrror produce much more Power than those found on Arcanus - but are also better defended.
A Node itself causes oddities in the magical field. During combat at a Node, this magical field interferes with casting any spells that are not from the Node's own magical Realm. Also, the output of magical energy from the Node boosts the abilities of all Fantastic Units belonging to the Node's realm during any battle within the Node's zone of influence.
Power output from a Node is subjected to influence from Conjunction events. Each type of Node reacts differently to each type of conjunction. Nodes can also be subverted using the Warp Node spell.
Description
A Node is a location where the barrier between one of the magical realms (
Nature, 
Chaos and 
Sorcery) and the primal planes (Arcanus and Myrror) is weak, allowing Power to seep through in great quantities.
There are three types of Nodes in the game. Each corresponds to one of the magical Realms, and behaves differently from the others as a result:
The Nature Node leads to the Nature Realm. It is defended by Nature creatures, and interferes with non-Nature spells. It appears as a forest of glowing green trees. The tile containing this Node is always a Forest tile.
The Chaos Node leads to the Chaos Realm. It is defended by Chaos creatures, and interferes with non-Chaos spells. It appears as a volcano with a wide, glowing red caldera. The tile containing this Node is always a Volcano tile.
The Sorcery Node leads to the Sorcery Realm. It is defended by Sorcery creatures, and interfered with non-Sorcery spells. It appears as a lake with bright-blue waters. The tile containing this Node is always a Grassland tile.
If a Node is Melded with by a Magic Spirit or Guardian Spirit, the Node tile and any tile within its zone of influence will glow with magical 
sparkles of the same color as the empire that send that spirit.
Distribution and Terrain
When creating the world for a new campaign, the game randomly places a number of Nodes at various locations on both Planes. The number of Nodes created may vary between games. More importantly, the types of Nodes created is different, and there is no guarantee that any type of Node will appear on either of the Planes.
The Terrain underneath a Node always corresponds to the Node's type. Nature Nodes are always placed on Forests, Chaos Nodes are always placed on Volcanoes, and Sorcery Nodes are always placed on Grasslands. It is possible that the game alters the tile's Terrain when placing a Node on top of it, rather than looking for an appropriate tile to place the Node in. In any case, it is not possible to change the Terrain of any tile containing a Node, in any way. The Nature spell Gaia's Blessing may alter the appearance and some benefits to a Town by turning the Volcano tile into a Hill tile while leaving the properties of the Chaos Node unchanged.
The Node's tile is an invalid location for constructing new Settlements. It is possible to construct a Settlement next to a Node, but the Node provides no actual bonuses to this town (except during battle, see more on this below). It is also possible to build Roads or Enchanted Roads on a Node tile.
Encounter Zone
A Node is initially an Encounter zone. It may contain up to 9 different Fantastic Units, belonging to the same Realm as the Node itself. The types of creatures defending the Node are chosen semi-randomly, from all possible units belonging to the Node's realm.
- Main article: Encounter Zone
Placeholder Node scouting dialogue.
When initially created, every Node designates an Encounter Zone. That is, a randomly generated group of neutral creatures defending some sort of Treasure. The value of this Treasure is inexorably tied to the strength of its guardians, i.e. the stronger the monsters, the better their Treasure (on average at least, considering that it is ultimately random). The following sections explain how the game chooses these creatures and the rewards for defeating them.
Defenders
Each Encounter Zone can contain up to 9 defending units. These are always Fantastic Creatures, and any single Node can feature up to two different types of them. However, they will always be of the same magical Realm.
The exact types and amounts of the guardians are determined through several steps, the first of which is setting out an "encounter budget", which defines the total possible value of the defending units. For a Node, this is determined randomly using the formulae listed below. The budget ranges are different based on the game version being used, as the unofficial patches gradually increase it:
This base budget is then adjusted for the campaign's Difficulty Setting, in +/- 25% increments (using "Hard" as the baseline), depending on the game version. The "Intro" Setting is only available in the official game, and is replaced by an "Extreme" Setting (which is in a different location on the Difficulty scale) in Insecticide and later.
| Version | Intro | Easy | Average | Hard | Extreme | Impossible |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.31 | -75% | -50% | -25% | +0% | - | +25% |
| v1.40 | - | -75% | -50% | -25% | +0% | +25% |
| v1.50 | - | -50% | -25% | +0% | +25% | +50% |
At the same time, the game also needs to choose the magical Realm from which defenders will come, which is determined by another random roll. In the official game, Nodes always feature Nature creatures (due to a bug in the game code), but in v1.40+ there's a 50 - 50% chance of encountering either Nature or Chaos monsters here. The cost of each individual creature is listed in the following table, with changes introduced by the Unofficial Patch 1.50 (if any) highlighted under the originals (which also still apply in Insecticide):
| Realm | Possible Defenders | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33%
|
Unit | 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Cost | 70 | 100 | 160 | 200 | 275 | 325 | 450 | 599 | 700 | 800 | 1000 | |
| 300 | 150 | 225 | 600 | |||||||||
| 33%
|
Unit | 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Cost | 40 | 100 | 150 | 200 | 300 | 350 | 400 | 550 | 650 | 900 | ||
| 33%
|
Unit | 
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
| Cost | 20 | 120 | 170 | 225 | 500 | 650 | 1000 | |||||
| 50 | 325 | 200 | ||||||||||
If the encounter budget is insufficient for any creature in the chosen Realm, the Node has no defenders and the encounter is defeated the first time any unit attempts to enter the square. Otherwise, the game divides the final budget by a random integer in the range of 1 - 4 (or 1 - 6 in patches v1.50 and later), and selects the most expensive unit in the chosen Realm which costs less than this value. This will be the "primary" creature featured at the Node. If no monsters qualify, a new random number will be chosen, repeating the process up to 200 times to ensure that if the budget is high enough to afford any creatures, there will be some.
Once the primary creature type is chosen, the game divides the budget by the cost of this unit, rounding down, to determine how many of these monsters will actually be in the Node. However, this will never be more than 8 (or 6 in the v1.50+ patches), and if it is more than 1, there is a 50% chance that it will be reduced by 1. These limitations significantly increase the likelyhood of encounters featuring more than one type of monster.
The type of the primary creature(s) guarding the Node can be revealed by any scouts that move onto its square. This information will then subsequently be available through the Surveyor (F1) tool. Insecticide also vaguely denotes the amount of these creatures by adding the word "many" to the dialogue if there are 4 or more. The Unofficial Patch 1.50 takes this a step further, using "few" for 3 or 4 units, and "many" for 5 and 6 (the maximum amount in this patch) instead. Neither patch carries these quantities over into the Surveyor (F1) however, which is thus limited to showing the creature type in all game versions.
Secondary Creatures
Finally, the game calculates the remaining budget by subtracting (number of primary monster) × (cost of primary monster) from the initial budget. If this is sufficient for any creature other than the primary monster from the same Realm, it will then proceed to add "secondary" defenders to the Node. These units won't show up in the scouting dialogue, but if a battle is initiated at the site, their type will be displayed by the Surveyor (F1) afterwards (provided that any of them survives).
Similar to the primary guardians, secondary monsters are also chosen using a divisor roll which, just like for primary defenders, can be rerolled up to 200 times to ensure that as long as the budget is high enough for them, secondary creatures will also be present. However, the range for this random number is not pre-set, as it is for the primary guardians. Instead, the game subtracts the amount of primary monsters already added to the Node from 10 (or 9 in v1.40 and later), and uses this value as the maximum range of the random function. For example, if the Node already has 3 primary creatures, the secondary divisor will be in the range of 1 to 7 (or 1 to 6 in v1.40+).
Again, the most expensive unit (other than the primary monster), which costs less than the remaining budget divided by the random number, will be selected. The rest of the encounter is then populated with this creature, up to the maximum of 9 total units (including the primary monsters), or until the remaining budget is exhausted. That is, the amount of secondary monsters will be the lower of either (9 - amount of primary monsters), or (remaining budget) / (cost of secondary monster).
Multiple Battles
If, during an assault on a Node, the invading army manages to kill a defending unit, but then loses the battle or retreats, that unit will not be restored unless it has the 
Regeneration ability. This means that it is possible to "whittle down" the Node's defenders with several subsequent battles, instead of trying to kill all of them at the same time.
However, any guardians that are not destroyed completely are fully healed at the end of each battle, and will have all 
figures restored to life appropriately. Thus, it is not possible to kill one unit by injuring it repeatedly in each battle - it must be killed completely to ensure that it does not reappear in the next battle.
Treasure
- Main article: Treasure
The rewards for conquering a Node depend largely on its defenders: the stronger the creatures guarding it, the better the Treasure. Supreme rewards, such as new Spellbooks, or Retorts, are only found behind the strongest monsters. The game decides the types of Treasure that will eventually be awarded immediately after setting out the monsters, meaning that conquering the Node in multiple battles will not reduce the Treasure found inside. On the other hand, because Treasure specifics are only chosen at the time of the victory, saving before the (final) battle can be useful for rerolling them.
Treasure Budget
- To determine the base value of the Treasure, the game first tallies up the guardians. The full cost of the primary monsters is converted into Treasure "points", while secondary creatures only contribute half of their cost. Thus, the formula is (cost of primary monster) × (amount of primary monster) + (cost of secondary monster) × (amount of secondary monster) / 2. In v1.50 or later, the cost of the secondaries is no longer halved, and the full creature cost is used as the base Treasure "budget" instead.
- In v1.31 and v1.40 (but not in v1.50), this base "budget" is then put through what is essentially a reverse function of the Difficulty adjustment used to scale the creature budget (see above), so that Treasure value is more or less unaffected by the Difficulty Setting (as in the original game Difficulty is only supposed to scale down monster strength). That is, unless the game is played on the "Impossible" Setting, for which the Treasure is not adjusted downward, meaning that the higher creature budgets here result in more valuable Treasure than on any other Setting.
- Finally, the budget receives a percentage adjustment. In the official game and Insecticide, this modifier is random depending on the Plane where the Node is located: on Arcanus, the final budget will be 50% - 125% of the previously obtained value, while Myrran sites will have between 76% to 175% of that. v1.50 uses flat values instead of the random percentages: Arcanian Nodes in this patch will have exactly their total monster value to spend on Treasure, while those on Myrror receive 125% of this. However, as this patch also deals with Encounter Zones that have no guardians differently than the original game, the final budget is further increased by 30 in v1.50, and by 75 in v1.51+ (note that the v1.50 value can occasionally result in no Treasure being found).
- In the official game (and also in Insecticide), if the Node contains no creatures, or if their total cost is below 50, the Node's Treasure budget will be set to exactly 50, which allows for a single Treasure roll (see below). This can yield either
10 - 50, 10 - 50, or a single spell with a default Spell Rarity of Common. Unfortunately, spells can no longer be found in empty sites starting with v1.50.
Treasure Types
- Once the budget is calculated, the computer starts rolling imaginary 15-sided dice to select the basic types of loot found in the Node's hoard. For each roll, if the remaining treasure budget is less than the "Qualify" value (or the "Cost" in v1.50+); or the maximum number of that treasure has already been created; the die is rerolled. Otherwise, the "Spend" value (or, again, the "Cost") of the Treasure is subtracted from the budget, and the selected Treasure type is added to the pile. As long as there are at least 50 points left, the die is cast again to try and add more Treasure.
v1.31 / v1.40 Treasure v1.50+ "Qualify" "Spend" Distribution Type Max Distribution "Cost" 10 (1) 200 2 in 15 Gold Coins
- 3 in 15 50 - 1000 10 (1) 200 2 in 15 Mana Crystals
- 3 in 15 40 (1) - 800 300 400 (2) - 3,000 5 in 15 Magical Item 3 3 in 15 200 (3) - 5,100 400 1,000 1 in 15 Prisoner Hero 1 1 in 15 400 3 in 15 Spell 1 (4) 4 in 15 50 50 Common Spell 150 200 200 Uncommon Spell 600 450 450 Rare Spell 1,350 800 800 Very Rare Spell 2,400 1,000 all
remaining2 in 15 Special
(Spellbook / Retort)1 (4) (5) 1 (6) in 15 800 (1) : The 50-point minimum to generate any kind of Treasure still applies. (2) : If the remaining budget is lower than 400, the amount spent can be reduced below this. (3) : Magical Items still require 300 points remaining to be added to a hoard even in v1.50. (4) : Spell and Specials are mutually exclusive. (5) : Specials may only be added once, but the amount of picks added (up to 2) depends on the remaining budget. (6) : There is a further 45% chance that this Treasure type is rerolled regardless of remaining budget.
- As noted in the table, Special Treasure can only be added once to a hoard (removing any Spell in the process). When this type comes up on the roll, if the budget is sufficient, the game checks whether it is also enough for 2 "picks". This requires 2,000 points in the original game, and respectively 1,600 in v1.50+. Should this be the case, both "picks" are added, otherwise only one. In the official game and Insecticide, adding a Special also means that all other Treasure is ultimately discarded from the pile.
- For Treasure types that have a value range, these are tied to the budget and will be determined at the same time. While this means exact amounts for Gold and Mana, for Magical Items it is a maximum value instead (which, in v1.50+ will actually be 120% of the Treasure points spent).
- In the case of Spell rewards, another random roll is made to determine a default Spell Rarity between 1 and 4 (Common through Very Rare). "Qualify" and "Spend" values are used according to this rarity. However, versions 1.31 and 1.40 will actually add up multiple "Qualifying" rolls of this type, up to the maximum spell rarity of 4 (Very Rare Spell), at which point any further Spell type results of the d15 are immediately rerolled instead. v1.50 removes this behaviour altogether, and can not overwrite an already set rarity with another. Neither version will try to award a lower default rarity if the original roll does not "Qualify".
Treasure Specifics
- Gold and/or Mana Crystal piles can appear multiple times in the Node's Treasure, and their amounts are determined at the start of the game (added together).
- The quality of a Magical Item reward is supposed to scale with remaining treasure points, but in version 1.31, the program only manages to constrain the item's quality in the case of a "Failed Special". Typically, then, the wizard only needs the Spellbook ranks that an item demands, for it to be eligible to (randomly) appear in a Node. Full lists of pre-fab items and their arbitrary rank requirements can be found here, in the article on Treasure. The articles on Magical Items and Encounter Zones also examine in detail how the items are actually chosen.
- A Prisoner, a most uncommon find, might also be held at the Node. This individual will be one of the 25 non-champion Heroes in the game, drawn at random from those who are not already in the Wizard's service or defeated. The captive V.I.P. will offer to join for no initial cost, out of gratitude for being rescued (however, their upkeep won't be free unless they bear the Noble trait). Before v1.50 however, if the victorious army stack is 9 units deep, or the Wizard already controls 6 Heroes, "Absolutely Nothing" will appear in the Prisoner's place.
- For Spell rewards, the game will first enumerate the Realms available to the Wizard based on their Spellbooks, and choose one randomly out of these. The Arcane Realm was supposed to always be valid for this for any Wizard, however a bug in the program (before v1.50) only allows these spells to be found if the player possesses either of the (completely unrelated) Alchemy or Warlord Retorts. A random spell is then chosen from the selected Realm matching the default Spell Rarity set out at game creation (see the Spell section of the Encounter Zone article for exceptions). If this spell is already known, the game will sequentially try to award all other spells of the same Realm and rarity. If that also fails, it increases the rarity (wrapping around from Very Rare to Common), and checks each spell in succession until it finds one that is not yet known. Only if all spells of the chosen Realm are known will MoM pick another color to try. There is no replacement reward for Wizards who already know all of the spells available to them based on their books.
- When a Special is generated, there is a 74% chance that it will be a Spellbook, and a 26% chance that it is a Retort. Retorts that cost 2 picks can only appear at a site with 2 Specials, and will cost both Specials. The Myrran Retort cannot appear in Treasure, and the prerequisites for all other Retorts are ignored. Spellbooks found in a Node will always be same as the Node. Because a Wizard cannot possess more than 13 Spellbooks and 6 Retorts in a single campaign, any Special reward above these will instead be replaced by a Magical Item with a maximum value of 1,200 (or 2,000 per "pick" lost in v1.50+).
Rampaging Monsters
- Main article: Rampaging Monster
Any Node that has not yet been cleared of defenders is a possible source for Rampaging Monsters.
| Difficulty | Budget | Frequency |
| Intro | Turn x 0.4 | ~1/50 turns |
| Easy | Turn x 0.4-0.8 | ~1/30 turns |
| Average | Turn x 0.4-1.2 | ~1/20 turns |
| Hard | Turn x 0.4-1.6 | ~1/14 turns |
| Impossible | Turn x 0.4-2.0 | ~1/10 turns |
Starting from turn 50, there is a chance for Rampaging Monsters to be generated from a random still-populated non
life Encounter Zone; although only Nodes that are on the same continent as a Town controlled by any player are valid for this procedure. Both the frequency of this event, and the strength of the monster group created, are random, with limits controlled by the game's Difficulty Setting. The frequency is also increased if the only remaining Neutral Cities are not on the same continent as any Wizard's Towns (resulting in the failure of creating Raiders).
The Realm of the Rampaging Monsters will always match that of the source Encounter Zone, and the process uses a creature "budget" similar to that of generating site guardians. This budget is determined by the turn number and Difficulty and, in the original game, is halved if the Rampaging Monsters are spawned on the same continent as an AI wizard's Fortress (provided that the human player's capital is not also on that continent). The Insecticide patch increases the budgets by 25% in general, and provides a new option to further double them ("Monsters Gone Wild").
Unlike site guardians, the process used for generating Rampaging Monsters does not use divisors, and is not limited to 2 types of monsters. The game will simply select random monsters one by one from the matching Realm until it uses up the allocated budget.
Combat in a Node
A Nature Node as it appears during combat, and a few defending creatures.
Whenever combat occurs within the same tile as a Node, or even within its vicinity, special rules are in effect that may alter the outcome significantly. Generally-speaking, wizards who often use spells from the same Realm as the Node will have a relatively easier time doing battle within its area, whereas other wizards may have problems doing so. As a result, the Node can also be a strategic asset, or a dangerous area that must be avoided.
During battle inside the Node's own tile, the Node is capable of dispelling any combat spells that do not belong to its Realm, while they are still being cast.
During combat inside the Node or any of the tiles within its area of influence, all Fantastic Units from the Node's Realm receive powerful bonuses to their combat stats.
Both effects are visible when clicking the "Info" button during battle. This is a good way of telling whether you are within a Node's area-of-influence.
Node Dispelling Aura
The massive output of magical energy from the Node interferes with the casting of combat spells.
During combat that takes place in the same tile as the Node itself, any attempt to cast a combat spell of any kind that is not from the Node's own Realm must face an immediate dispelling attempt by the Node.
The dispelling attempt occurs immediately upon selecting the spell for casting - before any target has been selected. The strength of this dispelling attempt is equal to 
50. The formula for calculating its success is as follows:
Chance = 50 / (50 + TSCC) * 100
Where "TSCC" is the total Casting Cost of the spell which the Node is targeting.
For example, if attempting to cast a Fire Bolt spell with a total of 12 invested while fighting in a Nature Node, the chance of it being dispelled is as follows:
Chance = 50 / (50 + 12) * 100 = 50 / 62 * 100 = 0.80 * 100 = an 80% chance to dispel this spell as it's being cast.
Spells from the Node's own Realm will bypass this effect entirely. They will never be dispelled by the Node regardless of their type or casting cost. For example, a Chaos Node will attempt to dispel all non-Chaos spells. It will completely ignore any Chaos spell, allowing Chaos-wielding wizards to cast with impunity.
Note that the Node Mastery retort allows a wizard to cast spells from any realm inside any Node without being subjected to its dispelling effects. Such wizards have a clear advantage in Node combat.
Node Unit Bonus Aura
During combat inside the Node's tile or on any tile that is inside the Node's area of influence (see below), all Fantastic Units from the Node's realm receive a set of very important bonuses.
The bonuses are:
- +2 Melee Attack Strength
- +2 Ranged Attack Strength
- +2 Defense
- +2 Resistance
Note that the bonus to Melee Attack and Ranged Attack applies only if the unit possesses the appropriate attacks by default. Also note that the Ranged Attack bonus applies to all types of Ranged Attack.
All Fantastic Units from the Node's realm are affected, regardless of their owner. All other units are unaffected in any way. For example, a Sorcery Node will give these bonuses to any Sorcery creature fighting within its area-of-influence. If two armies containing such creatures fight one another within the Node's vicinity, they both receive these bonuses. Note that units summoned into the battle do not receive the bonus the turn they are summoned, but will receive the bonus in subsequent turns.
These bonuses are extremely potent, and have several strategic implications. For starters, it means that the original creatures guarding a Node (which are all from the Node's own realm by definition) are much harder to defeat than similar creatures encountered, say, in a Tower of Wizardry.
Furthermore, the fact that this effect also applies in the vicinity of the Node means that the entire area is a great place for some wizards to mount a defense or an attack. The area around a Nature Node, for example, confers great benefits to any army comprised mostly or entirely of Nature creatures. Similarly, assaulting an enemy army comprised of such creatures while it is in the vicinity of a Nature Node is a bad idea.
Finally, this means that any wizard with access to Nature, Chaos or Sorcery magic is encouraged to build towns within the area-of-influence of the corresponding Nodes, and protect that town with creatures from the Node's realm. This will make the town much harder to conquer.
Controlling Nodes
The primary purpose of all Nodes is to provide Power. In order to do so, a Node must first be cleared of all its original defenders. Then, a Magic Spirit or Guardian Spirit must be sent to Meld with the Node, claiming its power for the spirit's owner.
Once a Node is claimed, it will glow with magical sparkles. The color of these sparkles indicates which wizard is currently drawing power from the Node. Several tiles immediately adjacent to the Node will also glow. These indicate the Node's area-of-influence, and also how much Power this Node produces.
A Node may change ownership any number of times during a campaign. It can lose its owner if said owner is ever defeated. A rival wizard can also attempt to send his own Magic Spirit or Guardian Spirit to try and Meld with the Node, grabbing ownership of it. This is why Nodes are often garrisoned with strong forces to prevent such an eventuality.
Finally, the Power output of a Node may change during the course of the game as a result of various effects, including the Conjunction events and the use of the Warp Node spell.
Melding with a Node
In order to tap the magical energies of a Node, it is necessary to send either a Magic Spirit or Guardian Spirit to Meld with it.
These spirits are Fantastic Units. Magic Spirits are available to any wizard, as they are summoned with an 
Arcane Magic spell that is extremely cheap to Research. Guardian Spirits are a little more expensive, and available only to Life-wielding wizards (and probably not all of them either) - but have several important benefits.
To perform a Melding, it is first necessary to clear out all enemy units in the Node tile. This means clearing out the Node's original defenders, but can also mean destroying an enemy army that is guarding the Node tile.
Once the tile is clear, the spirit unit must move into that tile. Press the "Meld" button in the unit's command menu to execute the Melding process.
Melding will always destroy the spirit itself. If the process is successful, the Node becomes yours, and will begin to glow with magical sparkles of your empire's color. If another wizard performs this, the Node will glow with that wizard's color to indicate that he controls it.
Melding is not always successful. This is where Guardian Spirits have an important advantage: When a Guardian Spirit Melds successfully with a Node, any further attempts to Meld with this Node made by other wizards have only a 25% chance of success. An unsuccessful melding attempt causes no change in the Node's ownership - and the spirit that attempted it is simply destroyed. This means that Life-wielding wizards with access to the Guardian Spirit spell are encouraged to only use Guardian Spirits to Meld with Nodes, if possible, thus reducing the chance of losing any of their Nodes to the enemy.
Because it is necessary to clear the Node's tile of enemy units before Melding with it, most wizards (including the AI) will endeavour to place a strong army stack on top of the Node. Any enemy who wishes to acquire this Node will need to defeat the guarding stack first. For protecting Nodes, it is often best to use Fantastic Creatures from that particular Node's realm, as these get powerful bonuses from the Node's aura (see above).
Basic Power Output
Once a Node has been Melded with, the Node tile itself as well as additional tiles in the immediate vicinity will begin to glow with magical sparkles; the total number of tiles will be 5-10 on Arcanus, 10-20 on Myrror.
For each tile that is sparkling, the Node's owner receives a certain amount of Power. This increase of power is permanent so long as the wizard retains control of the Node.
The Power output of each glowing tile depends on two factors: The selected Magic Intensity setting of this campaign, and the controlling wizard's Retorts.
Additional effects may also change the Power output of a Node during the campaign (see more on this below).
As with Power gathered from any other source, Power from Nodes can be distributed into the generation of Mana reserves, into Research of new spells, into improving the wizard's Spell Skill, or any combination of these.
Magic Intensity
- When starting a new game, one of your available options is to select the Magic Intensity in the game world. This has one and only one effect: determining the amount of Power produced by each tile in each Node's area-of-effect.
- With the "Normal" setting selected, each glowing tile including the Node tile itself provides exactly +1.
- With the "Weak" setting selected, each glowing tile provides 0.5. Fractions remaining after this is tallied up with all other Power sources are ignored.
- With the "Powerful" setting selected, each glowing tile provides 1.5. Fractions remaining after this is tallied up with all other Power sources are ignored.
- With the "Normal" setting selected, each glowing tile including the Node tile itself provides exactly
- As a result, games played in a "Powerful" magic world will often see wizards gaining terrific magical abilities as they acquire more and more Nodes under their control. In such worlds, battles over Nodes are significantly bloodier and more common, since control of a single Node can boost a wizard's power by a very large amount - and reduce another wizard's options similarly.
- Along the same lines, games played in a "Weak" magic world tend to revolve less around the control of Nodes, which may change hands very often and with little overall effect. Still, Nodes do produce a good amount of Power, and should not be ignored.
Retorts
- There are several Retorts available that will boost the amount of Power acquired from each of a Node's glowing tiles.
- First and foremost, the Node Mastery Retort will double a wizard's Power income from any and all Node he/she controls, regardless of these Nodes' types.
- Furthermore, the Nature Mastery, Sorcery Mastery and Chaos Mastery retorts will double the Power income from the corresponding types of Nodes. For example, a wizard with Chaos Mastery will get twice as much Power from any Chaos Nodes he/she controls.
- The effect from these retorts is cumulative. Therefore, a wizard possessing both Nature Mastery and Node Mastery will get 4 times as much Power from each Nature Node! This can amount to a massive boost of Power, and would encourage such a wizard to gain control of as many Nature Nodes as he can.
Arcanian and Myrran Nodes
- Nodes on the plane of Myrror are often defended by much-stronger creatures than those found in Arcanus. However, the benefit from controlling a Node on Myrror is equally powerful.
- While each Node tile around a Myrran Node still produces the same amount of power as one in Arcanus, Myrran Nodes have twice as many such tiles as those on Arcanus on average - Arcanus nodes having 5 to 10 tiles selected at random, while the maximum number of tiles within a Myrran Node's area-of-influence is 20 - for a total Power output of 20 in a "Normal" magic world (see above), and the minimum happens to be 10, which is the maximum on the Arcanus plane.
- As a result, wizards that are powerful enough to clear out and take control of Nodes on the plane of Myrror will gain terrific amounts of power from them - and thus boost their own strength by a significant margin. This is even more true for wizards possessing the correct Retorts (see above).
Random Effects on Node Output
Nodes essentially produce the same amount of Power throughout the entire game. There is no way to reduce or increase a Node's Power output permanently.
However, there are things that can change a Node's output temporarily. The most common one is a Conjunction of magic, a random Event which affects the power output of all Nodes simultaneously, for a short period of time. Furthermore, wizards can use the Warp Node spell to subvert a Node and cause it to draw power from its owner rather than give Power. Finally, it is possible to acquire Retorts during the game which can increase Power income from one or more types of Nodes.
Conjunction
The random event of Conjunction is one of the most common Events in the game. There is a chance that such an event will occur on the start of any given turn. A Conjunction will last until the game randomly decides to end it (a 5% chance at the start of each turn while the Conjunction is in effect).
There are three types of Conjunctions, and each Node responds to each type of Conjunction in a different way.
- During a Nature Conjunction, all Nature Nodes produce twice as much Power as normal - but all Chaos Nodes and Sorcery Nodes produce half.
- During a Chaos Conjunction, all Chaos Nodes produce twice as much Power as normal - but all Nature Nodes and Sorcery Nodes produce half.
- During a Sorcery Conjunction, all Sorcery Nodes produce twice as much Power as normal - but all Nature Nodes and Chaos Nodes produce half.
Therefore, if a wizard owns many Nodes from one specific type, a Conjunction of the same type is extremely beneficial, while a Conjunction of the other types can be disastrous. Unfortunately, there is no way to expedite the end of the Conjunction - you can only wait until it passes.
Warping Nodes
Warp Node is an overland Instant Spell from the 
Death Realm. It may only be cast on a Node that is currently controlled by an enemy wizard.
Once Warp Node is cast on a Node, that Node's tile will begin to shimmer, indicating the warping effect. Immediately, that Node's Power output is shut down completely. Instead of providing power to its controller, the Node will now reduce its controller's Power base by -5.
Warp Node can be removed by casting a Disenchant Area spell on the affected Node tile. This spell is available to any wizard since it belongs to the Arcane Realm, but is somewhat expensive to cast. Disenchant Area may or may not succeed in dispelling the Warp Node spell - it requires a successful dispelling roll (more on this in the Disenchant Area article).
Sorcery-wielding wizards may instead cast Disenchant True - a more powerful version of the basic Disenchant Area spell. This too is expensive, but has a much higher chance of removing the Warp Node spell.
While a Node is warped, it cannot be Melded with by any Magic Spirit or Guardian Spirit belonging to any wizard. Its current controller is "stuck" with it, unless he/she can successfully dispel the Warp Node spell.
Acquiring New Retorts
As explained earlier, a wizard's Retorts may boost the amount of Power that wizard acquires from some or all Nodes under his control.
It is possible to acquire such Retorts as rewards from difficult Encounter battles during the game. Therefore, a wizard who did not start with the Node Mastery Retort, for example, may still acquire this Retort during play.
All Nodes' Power output will react automatically when such Retorts are acquired.
Spawning Rampaging Monsters
- Main article: Rampaging Monster
While a Node still contains one or more of its original garrison (see above), it may occasionally spawn a group of Rampaging Monsters.
There's a small chance each turn that one Encounter zone anywhere on the map will create a new Rampaging Monster stack. The game randomly selects which Encounter zone does so, and may occasionally choose a Node as the source of such a stack.
The Rampaging Monster army created from a Node is comprised of one or more units, selected at random from the various Fantastic Creatures of that Node's Realm. Such groups are often small, and their composition is often more varied than that of the creatures guarding the Node itself. Note that Rampaging Monster stacks may and often do contain creatures that are not normally found outside of combat, such as Phantom Warriors, Earth Elementals, or even Werewolves.
The new stack will immediately set a course towards a nearby Town. On higher difficulty settings, there is a very high chance for these stacks to set a course straight for the player's own Fortress town - even if it is very far away. They also seem to be drawn towards any towns that are currently undefended.
A Node can generate many such stacks over the course of the game. However, the strength of the units selected for this stack starts low, and increases as the game progresses. For example, during the early game a Sorcery Node may generate a stack of a few Phantom Warriors, while later on (hundreds of turns later) it may actually create an army led by a Sky Drake. It is unknown if there is a maximum strength cap on such armies.
The only way to stop a Node from creating new Rampaging Monster stacks is to clear that Node's original garrison. Once the garrison is cleared, the Node will never produce Rampaging Monsters again.
This mechanism presents a serious danger to any empire. If a Node within your empire is left uncleared, it may repeatedly send creatures to cause massive damage to your towns. The Fantastic Units sent out from these Nodes - especially later on in the game - are much more dangerous than the Raiders sent out by Neutral towns. Leaving an uncaptured Node in the heart of your empire can be disastrous. Try to clear such Nodes as early as possible.
Known Bugs
Melding with Occupied Nodes
It is possible to Meld with a Node using either a Magic Spirit or Guardian Spirit without conquering it in battle first. To do so, position the spirit in tile adjacent to the occupied Node with at least 
0.5 remaining. Change view to the other plane and, using keyboard movement, direct the unit into the tile containing the node.
This can be done with any unit or stack of units that does not possess Planar Travel, consumes all remaining movement points, and reveals terrain as if the unit had moved into the coordinates on the alternate plane matching the Node tile.
This bug has been tested in v1.31 at this time. Additional testing may be necessary for other versions.