Hermetic Order Unleashed
The Hermetic Order is my favorite secret society. However, its vanilla powers feel inconsistent. Ley Line adjacency bonuses are useful for getting more 4+ bonus districts, but the bonuses from great people arrive in the Industrial Era, which generally feels too late to make a sizeable difference in the outcome of the game. The Atomic Era benefit is also underwhelming, given that it requires you to divert your production to a city project. Thus, I’ve made some serious adjustments to make them more viable, and at least a bit more consistent, while keeping intact their original identity.
I developed a map script to ensure that at least one Ley Line exists within a given radius of each tile, with the radius depending on your game’s Resource setting. Sparse gives a radius of 6, Standard gives a radius of 5, and Abundant gives a radius of 4. You should no longer have any problem getting some Ley Lines in all of your cities, and I may adjust the radii based on my testing if this generally seems to be too many Ley Lines. Otherwise, you’re welcome to adjust them on your own in HOU_MapGen.lua.
I’ve also allowed Ley Lines to be improved with mines, farms, or unique improvements, since I always love finding improved Ley Lines in other empires I conquer. They also spawn on the coast now, and can be improved by fishing boats. Ley Lines can also be harvested (for Science, Culture, Production, and Gold) so that you can clear them out of the way for districts.
I’ve also borrowed an idea from Javyz’s Hermetic Order Rework: that the Hermetic Order should have some appeal-related bonuses because of their tie to natural wonders. Neophyte now grants +1 culture, and science on breathtaking tiles with or adjacent to Ley Lines.
I’ve moved the Ley Line great people yields so that they’re available immediately, and I’ve removed the Occult Research project altogether.
This left me with a tricky question: what would occult alchemists do in the industrial and atomic eras? The answer I came to was, "They would go absolutely nuts with electricity, and they would make a utopia where nobody else could."
The reworked Hermetic Order tiers are as follows:
Neophyte:
Unlocked by discovering a Natural Wonder. Reveals the Ley Line resource on the map. Ley Lines give a major adjacency bonus (+2) to all specialty districts, and cities with an improved Ley Line gain +1 appeal on all tiles in their territory. For every Great Person earned Ley Lines receive +1 yield equal to that Great Person’s district type. Great Admirals and Great Generals earn +1 Science. Breathtaking tiles with Ley Lines or ajacent to Ley Lines provide +1 Science and Culture.
Adept:
Allows you to construct the Alchemical Society, a powerful replacement of the University. (Unchanged)
Magus:
Ley Lines grant +1 power. Breathtaking tiles adjacent to Ley Lines in your territory grant +1 power if the tile has an improvement, district, or city on it.
Aiwass:
Snow tiles gain +4 Food, +2 Production, +2 Science, +2 Culture, and +2 Gold.
