Master of Magic unofficial patch (latest version)

[kyrub]

Thanks, Robsoie, interesting observation.
In fact I did not check Subversion for fonctionnality, if I remember.


-- What was your difficulty level in that game?

[Robsoie]

Hello,

Due to how amazingly more powerfull than 1.31 your AI update is, after getting defeated without mercy i went back to the "easy" setting since some games and still it gives me a big challenge (while 1.31 AI was a real pushover in the easiest setting) as to get a victory i really need to work hard.

In fact to be honest i am really surprised in how much it is pushing me (especially when they decide to join their forces against mine nearly everytime i grow in power) in "easy".
I'm far from a MoM expert player as in 1.31 i usually could win more than i lost at normal setting and it happened sometime i could get a victory in hard.

But since the update, it's impressing how very willing to actually fight and invade my lands the AI is, and how high level his units in all developped town can be in "easy".

It was at this setting that i observed the Subversion odd behaviour . I have not tried it again but will do soon after a recent victory using Merlin against 4 AI (and what a hard battle it was in the midgame).

Thanks again for the patch, i'm enjoying MoM again tremendously.

[kyrub]

Great, with easy setting it is more obvious, because it really should work. On Impossible, the AIs are too friendly in general.
Note taken, I will look at it.


(Basically, Diplomacy in MoM is still limping. All I did was simmulate 1.31 behavior without the most horrible bugs. It would need a rehaul, modification of the diplomatic rules to make it intruiging. See our discussions with Whitemage et al. in Catnip threads...)

[Tiltowait]

Thanks for all the hard work! Glad to see things are still being fixed.

- [bug] instable data preventing early mercenary offers to the human player

- [bug] arcane spells clutter the research options for player and AIs, due to incorrect choice mechanics.

- [bug] AI will now always attack aggressively

Could you explain these bugs a bit more, and how they were (wrongly) affecting the game?

[zitro1987]

Hi Kyrub, I have overhauled my original 'balance and speed' after learning so much when working with you, plus used Aureus' fixed naga/wind mastery and your new insecticide. I'll post the new 'balance and speed and insecticide' version 0.95 soon.

I am trying a new game in your 'extreme' difficulty and it's incredibly hard (when implementing my own ideas)! Sneak attacks of nagas (up to 9) early in the game, better city defenses ... I feel like I actually need to protect my cities now.

[kyrub]

Could you explain these bugs a bit more, and how they were (wrongly) affecting the game?

- [bug] instable data preventing early mercenary offers to the human player
The routine was working with a non-set variable, quite a dangerous thing. This variable was being compared to turn_number. Basically, if that memory address was set to a high number when the routine started, you'd never get a mercennary offer. With increasing turn number, this fault was (probably) less likely. -- It's hard to say how much this actually influenced the 1.31 game, but it was really dangerous at the very least. It would be nice if anybody compared a game with Charismatic Famous wizard, with large treasue, and see how it pans out.


- [bug] arcane spells clutter the research options for player and AIs, due to incorrect choice mechanics.
This is incredibly nasty and somewhat hard to explain. There is a routine that fills the research book with research options. It works +- like this:
a) choose all coloured spell(s) from the lowest rarity brackets and throw them in a poll
b) choose all arcane spells from the lowest rarity bracket and add them to that poll
c) choose randomly 1 spell and add it to the book
d) check if the book is full? if not go to a)

There seems nothing wrong with this, doesn't it? Now, let's take a 10 white book wizard. He owns 9 common white spells at the start, let's say he misses Bless spell. ROUTINE: a) adds Bless to the poll. b) adds 2 arcane common spells. c) has 66% chance to get you arcane; let's say it gets you one. Round 2: a) adds Bless, b) adds the other arcane c) has 50% chance to get you arcane, let's say it does. Round 3: a) adds Bless, b) adds 4 uncommon arcane spells, c) has 80% chance to get you arcane !!! etc.
Bottom line: There is about 1/8 chance that you start your game with a research book FILLED with 8 arcane spells. The other bad side: you get very quickly to things like Summon Champion in this setup.

What did I do against it? I put a cap of maximum 3 arcane spells in a research book. 3 or 4 is the number of arcane spells in a rarity bracket, so it fits the game design. No more Rare arcane spells combined with a Comon coloured spell in a book... -- It works miracles for the game, and it helps the AI opponents since they often start with 9-10 books in a colour.

- [bug] AI will now always attack aggressively
This is a strange case. There is an AI combat mechanics, I'd call it "cautious attack", that was burried under unfonctional "AI assessment" code. It never triggered (exception? Phantom beasts with Phantom warriors seemed to have this behaviour in 1.31). I solved the bugs, which freed up the fonctionnality. Sadly, the AI mechanics proved to be extremely poor to the point where many players asked me to revert the mechanics. Which I did later. End of story.

[Dirk]

Hi All,

I'm new here, got the game from Gog and patched it with insecticide. I notice that in the Game settings the option "End of turn wait" has gone. Is there any reason for that? It's not terribly important but an option like this can be handy at the beginning of the game.

[FrancoK]

Hi All,

I'm new here, got the game from Gog and patched it with insecticide. I notice that in the Game settings the option "End of turn wait" has gone. Is there any reason for that? It's not terribly important but an option like this can be handy at the beginning of the game.

Welcome here, I was the latest newbie before you.

The option for the end of turn was changed for another related to Rampaging monster, since it resulted not used by almost any player.

[DelMar]

*while he listens to a cantonese old hag giving out cooking lessons*

Death magic is broken, I cant tell you where and why because Im playing drunk most of the time but one idea remains the next day, it is broken and through many spells.

Something tells me that this is so because its terribly powerful and so it must be terribly broken. You think you are elite because of paladins, but you havent seen black channeled ultra elite paladins, or any other creature under the same spell. Or simply raising units from the dead, free units and with no reason other than having a certain number of death magic books. Black channeled all powerful heroes. Yeah, liches out of all of them. Wall of darkness with Darkness precasted and zombies rising everywhere out of every won combat. Nightstalkers with 1 mana upkeep or those werewolves with the same upkeep. Even better, all zombies rise those killed by them as undead.

I think a few spells are not working, ranging from the lowest to globals in both combat and terrain maps.

And! I can make better versions of the pixel art in the game if one of the two people that mentioned it will do whatever they are talking about making dosbox go to those images instead, I was drunk again but I got that far in the state. Though I wouldnt go to upscale with it, because I like pixels and it might take a while.

[Asfex]

Incecticide is a way to fix bugs only. There are other mods which focused on death spells. but this is a mod,not a patch.
Just look around.