New year, New Master of Magic! v1.5 fan patch

[Seravy]

Try this one.

No crash for the next 3 turns of playing.
If this is one of those CPU specific bugs like the one at the 8 item slots feature then we have a problem, as I won't be able to ever find which version update caused it, nor confirm if a change fixes it or not.

[spottedshroom]

No crash for the next 3 turns of playing.
If this is one of those CPU specific bugs like the one at the 8 item slots feature then we have a problem, as I won't be able to ever find which version update caused it, nor confirm if a change fixes it or not.

If you're both running DOSBox, CPU differences shouldn't be an issue, since it's emulating an x86 CPU. I think previously the difference we saw was because I'm running DOSEMU, which (by default) runs on the native host CPU.

[Seravy]

No crash for the next 3 turns of playing.
If this is one of those CPU specific bugs like the one at the 8 item slots feature then we have a problem, as I won't be able to ever find which version update caused it, nor confirm if a change fixes it or not.

If you're both running DOSBox, CPU differences shouldn't be an issue, since it's emulating an x86 CPU. I think previously the difference we saw was because I'm running DOSEMU, which (by default) runs on the native host CPU.

Then it has to be a difference in settings, or I don't know.

[Tiltowait]

Here's my complete MoM installation with the dosbox.conf included. It crashes reliably every time I click 'next turn'. In fact, now that I've packaged it up, it doesn't crash like before, it just turns the cursor into an hourglass and never finishes processing the turn.

https://filesend.co/mom-1.5.zip

[Seravy]

Here's my complete MoM installation with the dosbox.conf included. It crashes reliably every time I click 'next turn'. In fact, now that I've packaged it up, it doesn't crash like before, it just turns the cursor into an hourglass and never finishes processing the turn.

https://filesend.co/mom-1.5.zip

I press next turn, and
-red units move
-Ariel greets me
-A cape gets summoned
next turn starts

no crash.
Other save, no crash either.

I wasn't able to run the game through your dosbox.conf file, it immediately quits on startup, even after I turn sound off, edit directories and screen resolution. Not even sure if it's dosbox or the game itself quitting.
I had to run dosbox on its own and type in magic.exe manually.

[Tiltowait]

The dosbox error was likely due to the fact that I mounted my desktop directory in dosbox, which obviously are different on your machine, delete the last 3 lines and try it again.

I renamed my existing dosbox.conf to something else, and ran dosbox again and let it create a fresh configuration file. Clicking next turn worked this time. So, definitely a dosbox issue. And it was just the one turn, too. After I got to the next turn, I saved and reloaded with my old config file, and the game ran fine.

Hydras disappeared while my units were fighting them, and then reappeared. The hydra icon disappears while the combat is going on. This didn't happen in 1.4.

I got a report that a hydra was in a ruin, entered, and found it was accompanied by a great drake! This should be the other way around, it should report a great drake accompanied by a hydra.

I followed the career of two troll halberdier raiders on Myrror. They wandered all over an island, reaching their target (CP) city which was guarded by 3 dwarf swordsmen, decided against it, and then ran off to attack a defenseless outpost. They then went back to the first city, which by now had built an additional swordsman, and attacked. No swordsmen were lost in the attack. I don't like how raiders and rampaging monsters wander around, I'd like them to just pick a city and crash against it.

Freya was down to 1 city and thus critical food level. Instead of building land troops, she kept her stacks of triremes and galleys left over from her grand imperial days and had little to defend with.

[Seravy]

Freya was down to 1 city and thus critical food level. Instead of building land troops, she kept her stacks of triremes and galleys left over from her grand imperial days and had little to defend with.

The AI is not allowed to disband any units over sea for the obvious reason of randomly drowning valuable units transported. Not my change, it's how it works in the original too, it's just that now that they actually produce ships, this is the result. When they were still limited to 4 ships per game, it wasn't causing a problem.
I fixed this in Caster of Magic by removing the maintenance of ships entirely, but such modlike changes aren't going to be part of 1.50. This is another of those things where 1.50 will be inferior unfortunately.

I got a report that a hydra was in a ruin, entered, and found it was accompanied by a great drake! This should be the other way around, it should report a great drake accompanied by a hydra.

That's possible with the original algorithm, although rare.

This is the algorithm :
1. Select a random number (1-6), original game it is 1-4. This is the planned amount of primary monsters.
2. Select the most expensive monster where the planned amount is possible from the points we have.
3. Put as many as possible of the selected monster into the lair, or 1 fewer, at a 50-50 chance, but no more than 6.
4. Select a random number, 1 to the number of remaining slots. This is the planned amount of secondary monsters.
5. Select the most expensive monster where the planned amount is possible from the points we have and isn't the same as the primary monster
6. Put as many as possible of the selected secondary monster into the lair, but no more than 9 total monsters in the lair

This means that if the game rolls, let's say, 3 and has 2300 points, Hydras cost 600 each so it'll be 2 or 3 Hydras, let's assume we got the 2 as the result. This leaves 1100 points remaining, so if we now roll 1 for the monster amount, it'll be a great drake.

I think that step 3 is at fault here, for providing an 50% chance of not spending points on one monster, which means it's possible to have up to 199.99999% of the primary monster's cost for the secondary, if and only if, 1 is rolled for amount.
The chance for this to happen is very rare, you first need to pass a 1/2 roll, then an 1/x where x is the remaning slots, and finally the points divided by the primary monster cost needs to have a sufficiently large remainder to reach the cost of the more expensive monster.

Should I take this chance of leaving extra points for secondary monsters out? Or I could force it to always have at least 2 secondary monsters, too. I honestly think an 1/10 chance to end up with 1 of a more expensive monster is acceptable though, it's a nice surprise factor. (send scouts!)

Hydras disappeared while my units were fighting them, and then reappeared. The hydra icon disappears while the combat is going on. This didn't happen in 1.4.

Hydras always have and are still missing a frame in their attack animation if you mean that. Since tweaker does not work for replacing animations, I don't think I can do anything with that.

[spottedshroom]

Should I take this chance of leaving extra points for secondary monsters out? Or I could force it to always have at least 2 secondary monsters, too. I honestly think an 1/10 chance to end up with 1 of a more expensive monster is acceptable though, it's a nice surprise factor. (send scouts!)

I always liked this "bug." Your (non-combat) scouts aren't perfect. Sometimes they miss something if there's only one of it.

[spottedshroom]

Here's another repeatable crash. I've just dispelled my Planar Seal spell and invaded Arcanus, razing Jafar's fortress city. Another possible complication is that the city data structure is full - I received the "no more outposts may be founded" message, then razed Jafar and built a new outpost immediately.

Crashes repeatably in 1.5RC8 and higher. Works fine in 1.5RC7 and lower. Just press "Next turn." Ariel will summon her Archangel and (probably) move her high men magicians, then the game will crash.

[Seravy]

Here's another repeatable crash. I've just dispelled my Planar Seal spell and invaded Arcanus, razing Jafar's fortress city. Another possible complication is that the city data structure is full - I received the "no more outposts may be founded" message, then razed Jafar and built a new outpost immediately.

Crashes repeatably in 1.5RC8 and higher. Works fine in 1.5RC7 and lower. Just press "Next turn." Ariel will summon her Archangel and (probably) move her high men magicians, then the game will crash.

No crash here.
Ariel summons Arch Angel
Jafar moves magicians
Jafar attacks the stack of heroes with a large stack, I win the combat
other players move units
I finish casting Planar Seal
buildings complete and next turn starts.

Maybe it's the same problem Tiltowait has?
Try running it with a fresh dosbox configuration file?
It's weird it's only 8 and higher though.

I tried playing 1 more turn and it's still working. I also tried it in Caster of Magic and it also works there. The turns take a while to complete though because that dosbox is set to auto cycles.