AM is definately overpowered.  Like it or not, most factions are stuck with Pioneers, and they seem to do ok (heck, it isn't that hard to cover the land in outposts, pop cost or no.. just take them from a fort or other city that isn't likely to upgrade anytime soon :P)

AM should really have a 10-turnish cooldown, a higher mana cost, a research req, a limit on how many can be active at one time, or a smaller ZoC than a real outpost - or some combination of all of those.  Don't exaggerate the mana cost - especially with Scrying Pools, a couple cities with Meditation can let you spam them quite early

I wouldn't pay two points for AM with all those limitations, or even with some of them.

A higher up front mana cost is probably the only change that doesn't create an unnecessary difference between AMs and outposts or cripple AM utility,

I am not sure how early you mean. A couple of cities set up as you describe would probably mean enough mana to create one AM every 5-6 turns, which I guess might only be spammy if compared to the rate other civs can turn out outposts, but it's not really outrageous to have a two point advantage give you an advantage in the relevant area.

Arcane monoliths are fine by me as is. The only change I would make is to have each monolith have a one mana maintenance cost (as suggested above). Re: settlers for outposts.  Yes, I feel a separate 'create outpost only' unit be created that only uses 10 pop.  But also allow the current 30 pop pioneer unit to create either an outpost, or a settlement, at owners discretion at time of 'settling.'

First sentence you're telling that spamming outpost with pionneers is a no brainer.

Next line you tell us that doing the same at a hefty 50 mana cost, plus faction point is just overpowered.

I see a bit of contradiction here...

Yves

Then you're looking too hard.  50 mana is hardly "hefty", for one thing, and for the other, the AI can't use AM effectively.  I bet you would have a much bigger problem with it if Pariden was constantly pushing you out of your territory and blocking off resources with it, like I do when I play with it.

Arcane Monolith is overpowered, but that's not my only problem with it.  It's also boring as hell.  Did you really expect a spell named Arcane Monolith to just plonk down the same boring outposts you get everywhere else when you first tried it out?   I know I didn't.  It doesn't feel arcane at all, and that's why I think it should be redesigned/differentiated.

We're not playing the same game I guess. For the first 25% of the game, I have a hard time making more than 25/turn. 50 is thus at least a 2 turn mana income. That is not going to be used to ensure a victory and clear an area (say fireball or such), but to put something that may well go puff in the next few turns when a monster rampages over it.

The next 25% of the turns, the 50 mana is a full turn production (well, that's still the optimistic view.) ; a good city is producing a pionneer at a rate of 1/two turns, and I should have at least 4 to 6 cities by that time. Pionneers come thus much cheaper... Actually, so much that even when playing Pariden, I sometimes end up using pionneers for outposts.

After that, you usually are already winning, and anyway, most of the map is already under control of somebody. This is the time where monolith really shines : you can afford to pop monoliths, and to do so far from your home. But this is a late game advantage, and as such it should be more powerful than advantages that come into play immediately. In addition, at this stage, you are very likely to go to war, and your far away monoliths cannot be defended. Poping them is thus a double edged advantage.

Still, there is one thing where you are right, and this happens because of another change against which I am fighting: Hero XP splitting. This makes heroes useless spectators (at best) in the fights they are involved in. As a consequence of heroes being now irrelevant, the use of magic is also much less pressing than before and mana that used to be in short supply is now accumulating.

So yes, if XP splitting stays, then monolith is a bit too powerful ; but not that much because by the time you really have enough mana to spend to spread monoliths, the game is already won. If XP splitting is removed, then monolith is ok because your heroes should put a big pressure on your mana pool to force you to make choices.

Yves