Exploring

[Warrior Poet]

I have the Vinga Pathfinder blessing active but my hero/party are lost every time I explore. It's been four in a row now, with two lost in my own Tula. Is there a bug with the blessing? I was doing alright before activating it - I assumed I needed it to explore further afield.

[Curiousfellow]

Exploring outside of your tula is indeed harder than exploring inside your tula. This may be contributing to why you're losing explorers. There might also be some other stuff at play. How many people are you sending with your explorer? Are you telling your explorer to move fast? What kind of godtalker are you sending out exploring? Did you get an event where your maps changed?

[Warrior Poet]

Originally posted by Curiousfellow:

Exploring outside of your tula is indeed harder than exploring inside your tula. This may be contributing to why you're losing explorers. There might also be some other stuff at play. How many people are you sending with your explorer? Are you telling your explorer to move fast? What kind of godtalker are you sending out exploring? Did you get an event where your maps changed?

Outside the Tula, I was sending a Vinga/Odalya godtalker, with 10 - 20 weaponthanes and 15 - 30 footmen at normal speed. Those inside my Tula, I didn't actually check their alignment but still sent 10 or so weaponthanes and 15 - 30 footmen. Weirdly, I came across the "trick" of sending out lone heroes you want to replace and the 3 I sent survived and uncovered far flung parts of the map lol I think I'll just embrace the random nature of the game.

[Curiousfellow]

Wow, maybe something's just backwards with your game somehow. 10 weaponthanes and 15 footmen is more than enough.

I should note, though, odylla, vinga (and issaries) worshippers make for better explorers, but exploration is also affected by their combat and bargaining skills. But that's not really helpful if your stuff somehow got reversed.

One more shot in the dark, you weren't sending out these explorers during dark season, were you?

[Warrior Poet]

Originally posted by Curiousfellow:

Wow, maybe something's just backwards with your game somehow. 10 weaponthanes and 15 footmen is more than enough.

I should note, though, odylla, vinga (and issaries) worshippers make for better explorers, but exploration is also affected by their combat and bargaining skills. But that's not really helpful if your stuff somehow got reversed.

One more shot in the dark, you weren't sending out these explorers during dark season, were you?

Earth and Fire season for the most part. I was following starting tips that suggested hero quests, feasts etc. during Storm and Dark. Everything seems to be working fine now, on a new game. Maybe it was a curse or something along those lines, or a glitch with that particular game file. Thanks for the help though - expected to wait a few days for any reply.

[Curiousfellow]

No problem, I just tend to procastinate by checking the boards of games I'm familiar with.

[Myll]

Originally posted by Warrior Poet:

I have the Vinga Pathfinder blessing active but my hero/party are lost every time I explore. It's been four in a row now, with two lost in my own Tula. Is there a bug with the blessing? I was doing alright before activating it - I assumed I needed it to explore further afield.

How powerful is your Hero leading the party? In general, the exploration leader should be the 2nd best fighter to your Chief, no matter how big the party is. And 2nd best in itself isn't "good enough" if the 2nd best is a weak fighter. Random rolls/NPCs can force you to not take certain actions, if you simply don't have someone "good enough" to handle the task at hand.

[Curiousfellow]

Originally posted by Myll:

How powerful is your Hero leading the party? In general, the exploration leader should be the 2nd best fighter to your Chief, no matter how big the party is. And 2nd best in itself isn't "good enough" if the 2nd best is a weak fighter. Random rolls/NPCs can force you to not take certain actions, if you simply don't have someone "good enough" to handle the task at hand.

Exploration actually depends on bargaining as well as combat, and certain types of godtalkers get a bonus. Your chief doesn't have to be your fighting expert either, any member of your clan ring can be your warleader. The only things that matter for the clan leader role are leadership and the type of godtalker.

I'd also argue that maybe you don't want to send a godtalker exploring that you want to send on heroquests or are planning to make into a tribe leader, even if they're your best choice for explorer.