OT: Master of Magic unofficial patch v1.40f

[WraithLord]

I was just kindly tipped that war bears are a bad (as in not cost effective) summons.

Well yeah, but how do you build a starting army when all you get is nature picks + nature master (Freya) and a race with weak starting units (High elves)

[NooBliss]

Hehe. Please post here if you find something that works.

I am still trying new strategies time after time as well. So far, just four victories. Problem is, impossible AI simply cheats, so in order to beat him you've got to find something broken (as in imbalanced) and cheat him back.
For that reason, I'm very happy with this patch as it FINALLY fixes cloak of fear. That's one more decent pick in starting death spells. The more good stuff to work with, the more chances to find some new strategy.
Heroism is still way better, tho.

Too bad they didnt fix the way area dispel works. I was very disappointed to find out that Archmage + Nature mastery does not prevent mass dispel from ruining all your hard-woven unit enchantments, though in theory it should've made them 3x times as hard to dispel.

[WraithLord]

Originally Posted by NooBliss

Hehe. Please post here if you find something that works.

I am still trying new strategies time after time as well. So far, just four victories. Problem is, impossible AI simply cheats, so in order to beat him you've got to find something broken (as in imbalanced) and cheat him back.

Yes. I think I already found a way to cheat - the AI will stupidly trade spells when you first encounter an enemy wizard. So, make sure to grab some juicy spells.

I think I'm on to a good opening now. Steps are roughly:
- summon 4 bears and add to starting units
- take closest indep. town
- Churn out swordman & summon more bears.
- move a stack of 9 units and hit enemy wizards towns
So far working well.

Originally Posted by NooBliss

For that reason, I'm very happy with this patch as it FINALLY fixes cloak of fear. That's one more decent pick in starting death spells. The more good stuff to work with, the more chances to find some new strategy.
Heroism is still way better, tho.

Too bad they didnt fix the way area dispel works. I was very disappointed to find out that Archmage + Nature mastery does not prevent mass dispel from ruining all your hard-woven unit enchantments, though in theory it should've made them 3x times as hard to dispel.

Too bad they don't release the source code

[NooBliss]

If you manage to get both invisibility AND warships on Impossible, then yes, you have a good chance to win. Problem is, AI will find you much earlier and it's only so long before it gets agressive.

Gnolls, yes. I've read your original post and tried these wolf riders - impressive given how early you can get these. I have yet to see if they are good enough to rush impossible AIs, for its a race against the clock; it gets stuff like storm giants and chaos spawn surprisingly fast.
Not to mention that it builds huge hordes of low-lvl units.. for starters. AI cities grow much faster than player's.

Originally Posted by WraithLord

I was just kindly tipped that war bears are a bad (as in not cost effective) summons.

Well yeah, but how do you build a starting army when all you get is nature picks + nature master (Freya) and a race with weak starting units (High elves)

Nah, bears are actually good. They allow you to beat an indie city or two early. And... thats more or less about it.
High elves have these longbowmen. Quite a good unit, not as strong as in version 1.0, but still good enough. Then they also get the Elven lords, but good luck surviving that long and getting them in sufficient numbers... hehe.

Btw, about the rush with barbarian swordsmen - you may rush one impossible AI, yes. I find that quite hard, too, but it may be possible. Next AI is gonna cast a wall of fire on his capitol, for example, and you're toast (I play with 5 AIs). Soon, AI will have these doom bats, fireballs and chaos spawns. (replace it with something just as nasty for other paths).
For me, it didnt work.

[Foodstamp]

Yeah, I think it only affects the .exe file. It is not really "balanced" though. MOM is an SP game, so I prefer for it to not be balanced, just interesting.

I will attach it here. Just be sure to remember I am not 100% certain it will work with your installation, and be sure to back up your old magic.exe just in case it does not work.

[NTJedi]

Originally Posted by Foodstamp

Yeah, I think it only affects the .exe file. It is not really "balanced" though. MOM is an SP game, so I prefer for it to not be balanced, just interesting.

I will attach it here. Just be sure to remember I am not 100% certain it will work with your installation, and be sure to back up your old magic.exe just in case it does not work.

Great stuff Foodstamp... does this work with the multiplayer shell as well?

[Daynarr]

I'd really like if someone would make a remake of MoM. You know, the kind so many other old games have. Open source project that keeps same gameplay, improves graphics a bit and adds some modability to the game.Eventually expanding and adding new features, etc.

[B0rsuk]

Originally Posted by Daynarr

I'd really like if someone would make a remake of MoM. You know, the kind so many other old games have. Open source project that keeps same gameplay, improves graphics a bit and adds some modability to the game.Eventually expanding and adding new features, etc.

I would totally contribute to that as well as playtest it (check my new signature !). The problem with many open-source game projects is they're like Wesnoth or Freeciv - they believe things like "Keep It Simple, Stupid". As a result they don't do anything new, only safe, proven ideas. Plain chicken with rice excites no one. I would love to have a MOM-like project which is more like Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Foodstamp:

I don't think there have been many open-source Master of Magic projects. Of course closed-source, hobby Master Of Magic projects die. They try in vain to reinvent the wheel. They don't share their work. So if one person loses motivation others can't benefit from earlier achievements.

[Foodstamp]

You are absolutely right! I missed the open source tag there . I feel the same way you do. I don't get into Wesnoth, and FreeCiv is not my cup of tea either.

[Foodstamp]

There have been many projects like that over the years, but they end up failing. I think Elemental will eventually (A Year or 2) be flexible enough to do a total conversion to Master of Magic.