Astral Travel sucks

[hannibal]

This spell costs lots of Gems, is high up there in research tree and then,

I was surprised it causes Insanity. WTF. I thought it was a cool target but now I think it is a ♥♥♥♥ spell.

I think they need to fix it and make it at least temporary insanity

[OOTN]

The ability to instantly travel with an army in the magic phase (meaning you can intercept enemies before they can move) up to five provinces without requiring a lab in the target province is an incredibly powerful and potentially game-ending ability. It's not a ♥♥♥♥ spell by any stretch. You can catch an enemy army with it when they're totally unprepared, unscripted, and without gems.

[ÆtherNomad]

I never saw or heard before that Astral Travel causes insanity, I think what might have caused it in your case was something else.

[hannibal]

Originally posted by ÆtherNomad:

I never saw or heard before that Astral Travel causes insanity, I think what might have caused it in your case was something else.

Nah there are other posts here that confirm it.
I did it only once on my pretender and it caused insanity right away,.
It started at Insanity (7) and each turn increased by one.
It isn't worth it and makes one of the coolest things about Astral bad.

Most nations don't have disposable S5 mages lying around. I guess it can be useful if you are mainly an Astral Nation with high level astral mages that can be produced at will.

[Mormacil]

Originally posted by hannibal:

Originally posted by ÆtherNomad:

I never saw or heard before that Astral Travel causes insanity, I think what might have caused it in your case was something else.

Nah there are other posts here that confirm it.
I did it only once on my pretender and it caused insanity right away,.
It started at Insanity (7) and each turn increased by one.
It isn't worth it and makes one of the coolest things about Astral bad.

Most nations don't have disposable S5 mages lying around. I guess it can be useful if you are mainly an Astral Nation with high level astral mages that can be produced at will.

Where is here because that's simply incorrect. I don't think there any triggers in the code to give insanity when you cast Astral Gate. Are you by any chance carrying an Astral booster (Dimensional Rod e.g.) that causes insanity?

[Bumc]

Dimensional rod seems like a likely culprit, it does slowly stack insanity on a user

[freek_o_nature]

I'm also really interested in how this shapes up: I've used Astral Travel hundreds of times and never once acquired Insanity for doing so. I, too, went looking for threads about this, and while I did find one, I'd hardly call that enough to "confirm" that Astral Travel has a chance to inflict Insanity on its caster. There's one post in that thread I'm especially curious about:

Originally posted by Mormacil:

It can make you lost in the void which causes insanity. Can't be healed.

Again, I've cast Astral Travel hundreds of times—with both Rituals and the artifact—throughout dozens of games and no one has ever been lost in the Void, but maybe I'm just lucky. :p

[Mormacil]

There should be a tiny chance to get lost in the void. Happened to an Elder Druid of mine at least once. But neither the spell or the item causes insanity. Getting lost in the void itself can cause insanity down the line. But the void always does that regardless of how you end up there.

[freek_o_nature]

Originally posted by Mormacil:

There should be a tiny chance to get lost in the void. Happened to an Elder Druid of mine at least once. But neither the spell or the item causes insanity. Getting lost in the void itself can cause insanity down the line. But the void always does that regardless of how you end up there.

Makes sense. Related question then: would all Astral spells relating to travel (Teleport, Gateway, etc.) have this tiny chance to end up in the Void? I've never seen it happen with any other spell, either, but admittedly, I use the others a lot less than Astral Travel (and outside of Astral, travel spells like Stygian Paths and Faery Trod have pretty obvious and significant chances of things going wrong).

EDIT: The Illwiki has a page on the Void[illwiki.com], but it says the only Astral travel-related spells that can dump you there by mistake are Returning and Vortex of Returning; these spells, however, mention in their flavour text that there's a chance of things going wrong, just like Stygian Paths/Faery Trod, whereas Teleport/Gateway/Astral Travel don't mention any possibility of error. Any idea what that chance of being lost in the Void is? It must be almost infinitesimal for the event to be so rare among so many people...

[ÆtherNomad]

Yea, I think it's only Returning and Vortex of Returning, never saw Astral Travel doing that either.

[Mormacil]

I could be wrong in 2017. Either way the gateway spell doesn't cause insanity in the slightest.

[ÆtherNomad]

Originally posted by Bumc:

Dimensional rod seems like a likely culprit, it does slowly stack insanity on a user

And yes, that's exactly what I was suspecting, though it's not the only possibility.

[freek_o_nature]

Originally posted by Mormacil:

I could be wrong in 2017. Either way the gateway spell doesn't cause insanity in the slightest.

The association is interesting to me, though; like, nobody's asking why Teleport or Gateway are causing Insanity, because as you say, they don't, yet while Astral Travel shouldn't, either, there have been multiple reports (intermittent reports, but still) about that specific spell causing Insanity. I wonder if maybe it's common for people to have the Dimensional Rod equipped while they're using Astral Travel? Because Kurgi's Oath Rod or a simple Starfire Staff are both much safer options (the latter also being far more accessible and inexpensive), though not as powerful outright.

[joeball123]

Originally posted by freek_o_nature:

I wonder if maybe it's common for people to have the Dimensional Rod equipped while they're using Astral Travel? Because Kurgi's Oath Rod or a simple Starfire Staff are both much safer options (the latter also being far more accessible and inexpensive), though not as powerful outright.

I am somewhat doubtful that the primary reason to provide an Astral Travel caster with the Dimensional Rod is for the ritual range bonus - ritual range 5 is pretty good already, and most S casters aren't natively S5+ so they probably need at least one S booster to cast Astral Travel. The Dimensional Rod is both the second-cheapest S booster in the game by total gem cost and one of only two S boosters which requires neither crosspaths nor more S than it takes to cast Astral Travel to forge; that it is also an S ritual range extender is probably more of a nice bonus than a primary consideration.

There may also be slot utilization considerations - important casters can be worth giving defensive items, and the hand slot that a Dimensional Rod occupies is probably less valuable there than the head slot that a Starshine Skullcap or the misc slot that a Crystal Coin / Tome of High Power / Forbidden Light / Atlas of Creation / Ring of Sorcery / Ring of Wizardry uses.

[hannibal]

Originally posted by Bumc:

Dimensional rod seems like a likely culprit, it does slowly stack insanity on a user

Bingo, I think you really got it, that must have been it.
Well I was mislead by this post

https://steamcommunity.com/app/722060/discussions/0/1618346571419101258/

Sorry for the confusion. Sorry guys, I am new to this game, sorry for wasting your time.

[freek_o_nature]

Originally posted by joeball123:

I am somewhat doubtful that the primary reason to provide an Astral Travel caster with the Dimensional Rod is for the ritual range bonus

So am I, because that's not what I said: I didn't say Astral Travel was the primary reason to make and equip the Dimensional Rod, only that it was a reason—one of many, no doubt—and that it may be a more common reason than it seems at first glance for literally all the reasons you listed: it comes with a +1 S boost, +1 S Ritual range, requires no crosspaths to make, and is inexpensive in terms of gems. The fact that the poster below me is fairly certain that they'd used the Rod to cast improved Travel once before seems to more or less confirm that the spell is, indeed, a reason to equip the Rod. :P