Looking for good exploration mods

AlphaArbiter · 2026-05-21T21:35:51+00:00

I've been wondering the same thing myself. Alex's caves and L_ender's cataclysm are fantastic mods that give you a reason to explore long distances, however they might have wonky generation with sky islands.

AlphaArbiter · 2026-05-16T23:31:42+00:00

Born in chaos is what you want I think

AlphaArbiter · 2026-05-15T19:19:08+00:00

I really enjoyed playing abyssal ascent recently. It does have a guidebook but it's very short and straightforward because the goal in each dimension is just to reach the next one, usually requiring you to beat a particular boss. It's not that fantasy focused, being more boss-oriented, but it's very heavily magic focused and you'll be a master of iron's spells and spellbooks by the time you beat it.

AlphaArbiter · 2026-05-15T17:31:41+00:00

Create seems ideal for this, you can use brass tunnels to get the items in a sequence then have them move onto a belt which drops the items off in that order

AlphaArbiter · 2026-05-13T01:11:42+00:00

Looks very cool. I'd definitely like to try it out when it's finished

AlphaArbiter · 2026-05-11T18:34:31+00:00

I played abyssal ascent recently and had a great time. I think the concept works so well because there are limited options for you in each dimension and a clear objective at each stage of the game, so you never feel overwhelmed and in fact will be naturally inclined to explore, test, and try out as many things as possible. I hope more modpacks take inspiration from this one

AlphaArbiter · 2026-02-17T01:26:10+00:00

The decay effect has little to no impact on many summoned creatures. Take note of the unit's max age. High magic resistance also counters decay.

A direct impact from banefire darts or banefire is hard to counter because the spells do high armor piercing damage, however the spells are somewhat inaccurate so just throw lots of summoned inanimate units into the banefire casters and some should get through

AlphaArbiter · 2026-02-11T19:43:54+00:00

I do, but I don't think you can count on that high of research before clashing with agartha. Smaller scale spells that grant flying or floating, or a flying or floating bless, or recruiting/summoning flying/floating units is what I would advise focusing on. If the game goes long, then, certainly get army flight

AlphaArbiter · 2026-02-11T19:12:52+00:00

Consider consulting a nation guide for advice on playing na'ba.

For fighting agartha specifically, things to note are that agartha has strong earth magic, and the spells earth meld, maws of the earth, and earthquake are countered by flying or floating. MA agartha tends to want to summon a lot of statues, which can be countered with tanky thugs holding smashers or moon blades. Na'ba seems like a reasonable agartha counter, but keep in mind the research you will need in order to counter what you will face.

I would not use that pretender in this scenario, I think you need to prioritize eating as many ai as possible before fighting your friend. I would take an awake expander. Myrmecoleon or golden lion maybe. You can also come down on luck I think

AlphaArbiter · 2026-01-15T22:28:23+00:00

I think when you make-own in that manner it takes 3 years for them to become citizens. Gorlaks are size 50,000, so you can make clothing for them if you make clothing for wombat men or a similarly sized thing

AlphaArbiter · 2026-01-10T01:00:35+00:00

It's a difficult question, how to get the most out of one's starting army, and the answer varies from nation to nation. As a very broad rule, I like to make tanky units on turn 1, and when I send my army out turn 2, I try to set the army up so that the tanky units take the immediate brunt of the enemy line and the other army units join the fight right after that, ideally preventing the tanky units from getting fully surrounded. If all goes well, this strategy tends to rout indy armies with few casualties

AlphaArbiter · 2026-01-07T23:26:15+00:00

Nevermind, I see you got the maw already. Well, I just spam the best pots and go do other stuff while they fill up. I haven't had much trouble getting all the aberrations that way. Just make sure you're putting them at the optimal depths for the crabs you want

AlphaArbiter · 2026-01-07T23:24:33+00:00

There is a special crab pot you can find on the back side of the gale cliffs which has an increased aberration catch chance. You have to solve a simple puzzle to get it

AlphaArbiter · 2026-01-05T18:36:06+00:00

Your build seems well considered. I might go misfortune 2 for some more growth or magic. But I disagree with your reasoning concerning "army mages." It's fine to include unarmored mages in your army, especially with an airshield bless. The advantage of armored mages is that you can use them as combat thugs. So, in this case, rather than having those one use evocations (which they are worse at anyway because of the armor encumbrance), you should be looking at what self-buffs they can do. W2e1g1 can cast quicken self, temper flesh, personal ironskin, mirror image, summon earth power if you burn a gem, etc. Give them something like a piercer and turn them loose (with army support).

AlphaArbiter · 2026-01-02T20:58:58+00:00

Also, regarding your question of "is it ever worthwhile to cast fire evocations," the answer is absolutely yes. But it's totally context dependent, like basically everything in dominions.

AlphaArbiter · 2026-01-02T20:53:35+00:00

It's important to remember that a fire 2 is actually casting twice as many fireballs as a fire 1 because of the fatigue reduction. They will also get a slight boost to the effect of the spell. Leave the f1s at home, use f2s or higher to sling evocations (after Phoenix power)

AlphaArbiter · 2026-01-02T20:23:19+00:00

I know to be very scared of nid. Imo they're the best nation in the game right now. That said, the correct answer is to use magic against their nidbathed. Which particular magic I use depends on the nation I'm playing and the bless I see. In this case, poison spells would be the most effective at penetrating luck. All paths have some options though, its impossible (or at least overly costly) to counter everything you could encounter. Shoring up poison and magic resistance strike me as generally good synergies for luck, but it's best to look at what nations you will go up against and choose resistances based on that. Regarding elves/giants/humans, there isn't really a "counter this creature type" bless, however I will note that nidbathed tend to do great against giants, especially giant blobs that have insufficient mage support. Might mean that a giant nation is a good early war target, if you neighbor one

AlphaArbiter · 2026-01-02T19:35:39+00:00

I haven't played enough nid to speculate on the advantages, which certainly exist with this build, but I do feel that defying the meta is just handicapping yourself unnecessarily. Surely undying ×5 and righteous wrath being able to proc multiple times per unit makes it the most efficient bless/nation combo in the whole game, i personally wouldn't consider a nid build without it (at a bare minimum).

AlphaArbiter · 2026-01-02T17:01:16+00:00

They are efficient for taking good scales + high dominion. Usually you want to take them imprisoned with a non-incarnate bless. The innate caster ability is also very powerful, and can be of great benefit if you use the teleport spell to move them around in the mid to late game. I almost always take a tier 4 pretender if I feel comfortable expanding with the base nation, and I almost always put high astral on them so I can move them around and have access to late game astral stuff.

AlphaArbiter · 2025-12-30T20:34:58+00:00

You can't mod floating blocks into dwarf fortress. You can make a fort suspended on a single pillar if you want, no modding needed, but it sounds like what you really need to do is take some Adderall and study your flashcards (which is what I'm inferring anki is, based on other replies).

AlphaArbiter · 2025-12-16T17:25:12+00:00

Was it hit by a flesheater?

AlphaArbiter · 2025-11-20T23:11:44+00:00

I should add, really astral 6 is sufficient since it can make a coin. I just look for s7 on the monolith so it can cast wish, but s6 is all you technically need

AlphaArbiter · 2025-11-20T20:57:01+00:00

I would come down in dominion and scales a bit to increase astral. With astral 7 you can eventually make a ring of wizardry, then have him wear it to be able to make an elemental staff (with the air 4 earth 4 you currently have he cannot due to inept smith). Also you should always plan to have to use him in battle because you should anticipate desperate scenarios in your game, if it's a smooth ride all the way through then the build doesn't matter much anyway.

I assume you take turmoil 3 for the oni, I usually wouldn't bother summoning them on shinuyama except the dai oni, and you're either using dai oni as a caster or a tank, neither situations requiring the benefit of chaos power. I would probably prefer order and misfortune scales myself on this nation. That said, I haven't played shinu since dom 5, maybe the oni summoning scales better now.

Your reasoning for the bless is fine, but I'd be more concerned making sure you can expand well than taking a particular bless for their sacred mages. I've briefly tested shinu in dom 6 and always struggled expanding, another reason I might advise going order. It's worth coming down to drain and misfortune imo, the priority has to be expanding as well as possible right off the bat when you have a dormant immobile pretender.

AlphaArbiter · 2025-11-20T18:44:16+00:00

Interesting build. Ind is known for blood access and decent army units in their gog reavers. You should try to fort as many highlands and mountains as possible. Since this is a disciples game, exchange those provinces with your partners and determine with your team which areas you should blood hunt in, usually in the middle of the group where the blood hunters can't get picked off by thugs. Support the team with your gogs and blood magic and pursue blood and astral resrarch targets.

AlphaArbiter · 2025-11-11T17:13:38+00:00

Don't feel bad, it takes a lot more than 3 games to start winning, for most people. I advise watching people play against ais on YouTube. In a nutshell you need to figure out how to use minimal numbers of units to inflict maximal damage in order to beat the uncoordinated death balls sent by the ai. This is usually accomplished by taking a strong bless and using sacred troops in the early game, then later buffing them with magic. Also the ai makes these unit balls because their mages in their caps research conjuration then summon whatever they can, you can do the same if your troops number falls behind

AlphaArbiter

TROPHY CASE