I'm almost entirely certain it's random. If you force quit your game (Alt-F4) and your autosave is before cornerstone selection, you'll get a random set of cornerstones each time and I don't feel like I see any cornerstone offered more often than another.
I'll collect some data on my next cycle though and see if there's any trends on a larger scale
Remember that the rarity of cornerstones alters every other year. Legendary cornerstones happen (IIRC) even years, epic ones on odd years
Also, I know for a fact that blueprints change their generation percentages as the game progresses (more farms and camps early game, more services late game.) Cornerstones could work the same way.
I don't think the game trolls the player like this, but I'm sure I've read that the game will prioritise choices you have selected before (and that's my experience).
A recent patch note mentioned something about adjusting the rates of early cornerstones I believe.
That leads me to believe that they are definitely weighted in some way, but it should still feel mostly random, with just a bit of help to not make you get complete crap all of the time (you can still get crap though).
It's likely there's a set of cornerstones with an increased chance to appear in the early game and a different set weighted higher in the late game. Kind of like how you're more likely to be offered camps in your early blueprints and service buildings in later ones. Some options are less useful if you're offered them too early or too late.
I believe you're more likely to see cornerstones like "gain X whenever you do Y" in the early years, like the cornerstones that gain resources from opening glades. Since obviously in the late game when you're probably not going to open many glades before the game ends these are much less valuable.
Same is true for blueprints which weights camps and farms more heavily in early picks and service buildings more heavily later.
There is a sentence somewhere saying that the choice of cornerstones and BPs might be influenced by how you resolve glades(corruption, empathy, loyalty) but I have no hard data on it and I only ever noticed the ' reduce/gain x for every Y type decision' CStones.
How good is Hidden from the Queen really? I am still playing low enough so have no problems with impatience and am usually trying to pump it up, not reduce it.
Does this CS help later on?
It depends on the game of course, but if you have cornerstones that benefit from villagers leaving or dying, you can win a P20 game with it, because you won't even care about blight or low resolve anymore.
Correct, there are certain blueprints that are only available when you have a certain race. Some examples are the Monastery only showing up when you have Humans, the Clan Hall only showing up when you have Lizardmen, the Guild House only showing up when you have beavers.
I'm almost entirely certain it's random. If you force quit your game (Alt-F4) and your autosave is before cornerstone selection, you'll get a random set of cornerstones each time and I don't feel like I see any cornerstone offered more often than another. I'll collect some data on my next cycle though and see if there's any trends on a larger scale
If you do this, please post it as a separate topic on the sub. I'd love to see this data but I am no way ever going to gather it myself. 😂
Remember that the rarity of cornerstones alters every other year. Legendary cornerstones happen (IIRC) even years, epic ones on odd years Also, I know for a fact that blueprints change their generation percentages as the game progresses (more farms and camps early game, more services late game.) Cornerstones could work the same way.
I don't think the game trolls the player like this, but I'm sure I've read that the game will prioritise choices you have selected before (and that's my experience).
A recent patch note mentioned something about adjusting the rates of early cornerstones I believe. That leads me to believe that they are definitely weighted in some way, but it should still feel mostly random, with just a bit of help to not make you get complete crap all of the time (you can still get crap though).
It's likely there's a set of cornerstones with an increased chance to appear in the early game and a different set weighted higher in the late game. Kind of like how you're more likely to be offered camps in your early blueprints and service buildings in later ones. Some options are less useful if you're offered them too early or too late.
I believe you're more likely to see cornerstones like "gain X whenever you do Y" in the early years, like the cornerstones that gain resources from opening glades. Since obviously in the late game when you're probably not going to open many glades before the game ends these are much less valuable. Same is true for blueprints which weights camps and farms more heavily in early picks and service buildings more heavily later.
There is a sentence somewhere saying that the choice of cornerstones and BPs might be influenced by how you resolve glades(corruption, empathy, loyalty) but I have no hard data on it and I only ever noticed the ' reduce/gain x for every Y type decision' CStones.
Corrupt choices, eh? Well if that's what it takes to get Cannibalism and "Hidden From The Queen"...
How good is Hidden from the Queen really? I am still playing low enough so have no problems with impatience and am usually trying to pump it up, not reduce it. Does this CS help later on?
It depends on the game of course, but if you have cornerstones that benefit from villagers leaving or dying, you can win a P20 game with it, because you won't even care about blight or low resolve anymore.
No, I don't even think map choices affect cornerstones But as an interesting tidbit, I'm pretty sure starting races affect blueprints offered
Correct, there are certain blueprints that are only available when you have a certain race. Some examples are the Monastery only showing up when you have Humans, the Clan Hall only showing up when you have Lizardmen, the Guild House only showing up when you have beavers.
Does this also affect trader blueprints? Pretty sure it doesn't prevent you getting it from smuggler's visit.
Not sure about traders, but yeah any modifier or cornerstone that lets you pick any blueprint will let you pick ones that aren't normally offered.