Very initial feedback for 1.1 patch so far:

Perhaps desc.ini filename should be named spelldesc.ini to minimize confusion on the journey ahead.

Perhaps hero.ini filename should be named herogender.ini to minimize confusion on the journey ahead. Also, I didn't know Shalla the Amazon, and indeed apparently every single hero is male. Or maybe combine this into herodata.ini as a line for each hero?

ore.ini, herodata.ini and races.ini are a dream come true for screwing around with game balance. Thank you!
elevation.ini was also a great addition and has fixed the glob of useless mountain range problems on my maps, but was a previous version addition.

Documentation in modding.ini is excellent at first glance, but I'll need some time to really tear into it.

Wishlist still: damage and % success chance and spell resist modifier for spells accessible. Mostly because disabling Crack's Call is an inelegant solution. A solution option that I appreciate, but inelegant. Better than giving it a 100 casting cost, at least, since it doesn't eat up a research spot.

Alberto the (Steam) dev posted the 1.06 patch notes on Steam for the update today which is actually. 1.1

Thankfully you updated the changelog pinned post here. Thank you for that.

Please check on him to see if he's ok.

As you've probably noted there is a greens game starting up soon! Which means Realms need to step up and provide some ded lurkers. Currently we have 4 players who need a ded lurker. I will ded lurk 1 of them, so just need 3 of you kind good people to put your name in column N.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...sp=sharing

I got a staff with "necromancy", "raises fallen allies".
Does it raise them as undead, I assume?

Been playing a game (while waiting for 1.10 to become available, hope Slitherine gets better at this), and unfortunately I have been crushed by the enemy just because two AI players I am at war with both have cracks call, and of course by year 1507 they can cast it 8-10 times per battle, essentially guaranteeing that I lose 2-3 valuable units EACH battle. WTF. It's not fun. There is no counter to this. I don't have flying units, I don't have counter magic... What else could I do?

I think it would be really fair if units killed by cracks call could be "raise dead", at least.

Here is my first attempt to try to create new units in CoM2. These two units are Cataphracts (heavy version of horsebowmen) and Steam Tank (higher mobility and better melee version of Steam Cannon with some firepower trade-off). But now as I add more and more units and sprites, it nolonger just cataphracts and steam tanks.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/y4di3odwa...0.zip/file

Here are some unit stats change as attempt to test my own idea but in-game test still not yet done (I am terrible balancer of gameplay.)

Change in version 1.2.0
- New sprites with shield for Minotaurs and Gladiators
- New sprites for Gorgons
- New unit: Coatl (feathered serpent) replacing Water elemental as uncommon summon for sorcery which could fly, lightning breath, poison, and casting 15 mp in combat
- Water Elemental move from sorcery uncommon summon to nature combat summon replacing catapult in its role
- Water Elemental range attack reduce to 8, to-hit reduces 40%, cost of combat summon become 40
- Fire elemental to-hit increase to 40% and combat summon cost increase to 25 (as now it has fire breath, non-corperal, and immolation on its own)
- Magicians's missile immunity replacing by large shield.
- Rangers' resistance reduce to 7 and to-hit increase to 40% to switch stats from nomad to high elf
- Sea Hags's poison reduce to 2
- Catapult has been moved to new slot as now it nolonger summonable by nature spell
- Mystic Surge become rare tier spell with casting cost reduce to 20 but research cost increase to 2800
- Blazing March become uncommon tier spell with casting cost reduce to 45 and research cost reduce to 2400 (blazing march more useful when overall units are at weak beginning, if it is rare then window of usefulness would be short)

Change in version 1.1.0
- Add unit "Antlions", semi-cavalry units for Klackons (recruit with Stable)
- Add unit "Maiden Queens", unique non-range support flyer caster/healer for Klackon (recruit with Wizard's Guilds + Animist's Guilds)
- Add unit "Halfling Scout", light cavalry with minimal attack but very high movement, wide scout range, and has innate stealth for Halflings (recruit with Stable)
- Add unit "Sea Hags". unique melee/caster for Lizardmen (recruit from Wizard's Guilds in coastal city)
- Dwarves now could no longer able to build stable (due to no unit to give them from this building yet)
- Settlers now show race of origin
- All Spearmen now get +1 figures
- All Engineers now have 2 movement points
- Centaurs gain first strike
- Dark Elf Apprentices now recruit from Sage's Guilds, caster skill changes to 20 and has stats comparable to shaman
- Stag Beetle defense increase to 8
- Fire Elemental gain fire breath 4, non-corperal and immolation
- Water Elemental gain non-corperal
- Killer wasps lose non-corperal (so now vulnerable to web), to hit reduce to 30%, poison reduce to 1, defense increase to 7, and figure increase to 9

Change in version 1.0.10
- Help description on Races update to make sure they fit into scroll space and easier to read
- I compare Hoplites reduce figures to 6 but increase defend to 5 and retain large shield (historical hoplite's shield, Aspis, is very large one)
- Legionaries's thrown reduce to 1, resist reduce to 6, cost increase to 100, upkeep increase to 2, it does not have healing spell, it has healer trait instead
- Steam Cannon cost increase to 120
- Wyvern with thrown is intentional as I and Anskiy think original one is not good enough. But as you point out, I will reduce poison damage to 4 instead.
- Slingers cost increase to 70
- I give all priest resistance for all +1, as theme of High Men is that unit has special bonus, so I give them +2 as they used to have +1
- Kardakes cost increase to 85
- Mythical-wise, hydra suppose to be the most poisonous creature in greek mythology, so that is how I set insane amount of poison in the first place (intentionally higher than Great Wyrm) but I don't know that poison apply per figure so I think will reduce it to 11 instead (still higher than everything individually except Great Wyrm)
- Wasp poison will reduce to 2, I will avoid reduce number of figure than this (currently 7) due to strength of swarm is always by number and at figure 6 it look too orderly in battle.
- Behemoth lose its caster status but as you point out that it buffed too massively (I have Godzilla in mind when create this), I will increase cost to 500 instead
- Cloud Giant stat is already lower than original storm giant, but if you point out that it still too strong, I will reduce attack to 11, ranged to 13, defense to 5
- Cataphract attack reduce to 6 (it charge slower than knight but shoot/thrown before charge and higher momentum which represent by armor piercing, for it to have much higher raw attack than Elven Lord is oversight for me), thrown reduce to 3, ranged reduce to 5, defense reduce to 7 (it intent to be highest defend cavalry due to that is what historical cataphract is), cost change to 210
- Steam tank range reduce to 10, movement reduce to 2 cost reduce to 200
- Witchdoctor poison would reduce to 2 and lose regeneration 0
- Troll Chieftains (old magicians) get armor buff due to it lost missile immunity and now they are Armorer's Guild+Magic Market unit instead (troll nolonger able to access to wizard's guild in this submod), I reduce ranged to 6 as you point out.

Change in version 1.0.9
- Race's buildings and unrest reorganized along with descriptions
- Hoplites (originally Horde) now replacing Orc Halberdiers and requires only Fighter's Guilds
- Add new unit: Legionaries replace role as armorer's guild units for Orcs
- Add new unit: Witchdoctors for Gnolls which play role as offensive priests
- Sprites is replacing by Killer Wasps
- Troll lost access to wizard's guild and has troll Chieftains replacing its magicians
- All magicians movement reduce to 2
- War Mammoth movement increase to 3

Change in version 1.0.4
- Catch up to update version 1.01.0
- Change Storm Giant to Cloud Giant with reduced Attack to 13 and range attack to 15, loss missile immunity but gain flying, illusion, and illusion immunity, and lucky

Change in version 1.0.2
- New unit: Cataphracts, which is heavy horsebowmen for nomads replace ranger as armourer guild unit
- New unit: Steam Tank, higher mobility Steam Cannon with ability to attack melee (by flame thrower), more armour, and moving fire at cost of some range firepower.
- Nomad's Pikemen gain range attack 3 and unit rename to "Kardakes" (classical term for eastern heavy infantry)
- Rangers move from Nomads to High Elves and gain new sprites.
- All priests now gain Resistance for All +1, High Men version get +2
- Saint now gain Holy Bonus +1
- Horde renames to Hoplites
- Hammerhands gain Wall Crusher
- Steam Cannon to hit rate change from 30% to 50% (same value as catapult in CoM2)
- Golem now has 4 movement point and serve as cavalry replacement for Dwarves
- Jackal Riders get additional +2 defense, +1 resistance, +1 HP, pathfinding, and thrown 3, cost increase to 160
- Slingers movement increase to 3 to serve as skirmish infantry
- Javelineers movement increase to 3, and gain Thrown 4, and cost increase to 90
- Horsebowmen lose 2 (becomes 2) attack but gain +1 movement (becomes 5) and thrown 3
- Wyvern Riders gain Thrown 3 (imagine it fight by throw javelins like in Warcraft 3)
- Hydra change to have characteristic like in origianl greek myth (very poisonous water creature) by gain waterwalking and poison 28 and poison immunity
- Great Drake gain Causes Fear, Immolation, and Lightning Resist
- Great Lizard now gain characteristic of Komodo Dragon (poison) and water monitor lizards (waterwalking)
- Gorgons become caster and lair cost increase to represent this
- Behemoth lost caster ability but gain +5 attack, Stone Gaze -4, Armor Piercing, Large Shield, Wall Crusher, Immolation, and Causes Fear
- Colossus gain Lightning Resist (big lightning rod?)

@Seravy, you could take my unit sprites to CoM2 if you want to.
           
Include in submod version 1.0.9
               
Include in submod version 1.1.0
           

Observations from a Nature warlord high men game. Primarily about spells and races.

Advanced difficulty, small map, 6 players.

Summary: Nature warlord high men is among the most powerful setups I've ever played. Many nature spells were excellent support to High Men's economic and military might and helped cover its weaknesses. It has a strong early game for the needed gold to rush War College and Fighter's Guild, leading to elite crusaders, knights, and pikemen. Giant Spiders, ice bolt, survival instinct, and petrify were probably the most influential spells to my game

High Men Race: B+

Economy: B+ – The increase in unrest was not a major barrier to getting gold. The mid-tier military units had fairly low upkeep and it was easier to get economy buildings built faster. More importantly, buying buildings was also cheaper.

Military: B – Early units are of course a disappointment. However, the goal is to get knights and crusaders, some of the best mid-tier arcanus units. Crusaders I consider the best unit you can get in all arcanus races – with just 60 cost and low upkeep, you have a sturdy albeit slow unit that has a healing spell and deals good damage with experience or buffs. Magicians deal excellent damage and when elite, 25 caster allows spells such as lightning bolt or petrify. Paladins are expensive but very tactical and quite good at dealing damage later in game – however, the cheaper units were often the priority.

Nature Magic experiences:

Resist Elements: B+ (helped conquer sprite nodes, fight magician garrisons, great to include for all summons and higher-level military units like crusaders)
Fairy Dust: B (surprisingly powerful, not much inferior to fireball)
Wild Boars: B+ (Reliable way to suffer fewer losses, good as garrison, stays relevant with survival instinct)
Earth Lore: B (You can explore in other ways, but this is simply convenient and improved over the earlier versions)
Water Walking: B (Convenient way to attack surprise galleys – cast water walking to a fast moving unit like spiders and go for the kill. Helped me more than I expected in this very specific way. Not very useful for me otherwise)
War Bears: A (easily my favorite common summon in game – there isn't anything this cost-effective and 'advanced' other than maybe ghouls)
Sprites: B- (very niche role but when it works, it works very well. I don't understand why AI uses them as garrison – they are not that dangerous)
Nature's Eye: C (I like being able to see a bit farther, and the research bonus pays for itself eventually, but seemed hardly essential to my game)
Earth to Mud: B (didn't use it that much except when using stacks of high men magicians. In the right circumstances, it can save you)
Web: A- (tactical and it helps that magicians can cast it – extremely useful when using races with little ways to hurt fliers. Some uncommon spells partially replace it)

Ice Bolt: B (excellent for elite magicians and good substitute to web in some circumstances)
Giant Spiders: A+ (probably the best summon in Caster of Magic: available early, mostly obsoletes 'web', high resistance, mobile, very low cost for what it offers, useful through entire game)
Great Lizard: B (not by current experience but seems unchanged from earlier – useful with certain strategies otherwise not worth the research and casting cost – you need to wait for survival instinct or have resist magic – it is hard to get a stack of 9 but once you do they are good)
Nature's Cures: A- (extremely useful spell to speed up your conquests and lair hunting. Also excellent to defend the city you just conquered or to protect a city against multiple attacks)
Construct Catapult: D- (kind of terrible for 30 cost and high research cost – vulnerable and hard to deal as much damage as 2 war boars. I modified it to 25 cost and it is maybe barely adequate that way)
Crack's Call: B- (too luck-driven to be useful for me, but good for elite magicians mass-casting it, landing a few hits)
Change Terrain: B (An average spell that improved a few towns pretty well (desert, swamp) and I revisited it when I had gaia's blessing on. Hardly essential, but nice to have)
Transmute: B+ (Very niche, but if you happen to have 'gold' it is worth the high research cost to cast it just once)
Cockatrices: A- (another very powerful unit that helped me in difficult battles (lairs, nodes, and especially opposing wizards. Fairly durable given the sheer amount of damage it does. There's also that focus magic + resist magic + resist element combo )
Land Linking: B (Not that essential, but nice to be able to have access to pathfinder and a cheap buff to mass-cast)

Elemental Armor: B+ (ranks high because AI loves to put magicians, sprites, water elementals and other ranged magical units in cities)
Stone Giant: B- (probably, didn't use – I remember it being a solid, well-rounded but unspectacular unit)
Gorgons: B (has the potential of being massively game-changing with the right combination of buffs and survival instinct, but without such strategies, it dies to curses)
Survival Instinct: A- (Needed for gorgons, great lizards, and quite helpful to anything else. Very good for doom mastery)
Blizzard: C (probably, didn't use – just a way to weaken a stack a few hit points, not generally that useful )
Earthquake: C+ (it technically brought me the 'win' button but I was already winning. Somewhat useful if it can hit the right buildings)
Earth Elemental: B (Good for battles of attrition and to save a poorly defended city)
Petrify: A (novice magicians can mass-cast this rather powerful spell – so the best rare nature spell)
Gaia's Blessing: B- → B (with upcoming updates it is a good way to use up your casting skill when not in danger to improve city production and other benefits)
Iron Skin: B (it was nice to have on paladins and gorgons)
Abundance: C → B- (with upcoming updates it is a good way to use up your casting skill when not in danger. Benefit was very limited before upcoming 1.10 version update)
Call of the Wild: B- (Was a bit useful at getting some of the best treasure, but rather expensive spell)

Earth Gate: A- (probably, didn't use but it is spectacular)
Planetary Mastery: B (the downside is that it hurts your diplomatic efforts when not in war against anyone. Otherwise, if earthquake is your plan, you're getting a free 150cost spell every other turn)
Fairy Ring: B (gave me fairly poor units despite having 200+ skill, but free units is like having a good amount of extra skill)
Entangle: B+ (probably, didn't use but have good memories of it)
Call Lightning: B- (probably, didn't use but it wasn't a bad spell – not very damaging but if you can prolong the battle, the damage accumulates fairly well)
Regeneration: C+ (good for heroes and top summons, but seems like it comes pretty late)
Herb Mastery: B+ (freeing you up from 'nature's cures' with some battle benefits on the side makes this a very good global enchantment)
Colossus: B+ (probably, didn't use but it is a good well-rounded unit that performs much better than stone giants)
Great Wyrm: B+ (not well-rounded, but great when attacking cities)
Behemoth: B+ (I think it performs better than colossus, a small stack of them plus entangle is probably hard to stop)
Clairvoyance: B+ (it was nice to have some more power income and low research cost)
Roots of Genesis: B (it was nice to have some more power income)

According to the Official Strategy Guide, I have a 2% chance per captured factory to steal a tech, but I think there's another factor involved. In the very late game, the "one tech per 50 factories" rule of thumb seems to fall apart. For example, in my current game I invaded Meklon and captured >500 factories, but only picked up one tech (six techs are still showing up as white on the report screen; there may be more that aren't visible in the limited windows). I've seen similar behavior in the past when the total number of techs is very large.

Note: I'm playing 1oom instead of the original game, but my understanding is that the code is very similar or identical.

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Part of the appeal of classic MoM/CoM is that I can run it on Android using magicdosbox and be able to play the game pretty much anywhere.

I understand that the current classic version will continue to be supported, but I am also aware it won't have all the new features and improvements of the new version.

How difficult would it be to have an Android version ?

Some of you might remember that I was in the process of evaluating the races by their military performance in the CoM 1 forum: https://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/show...?tid=10193 . In the wake of CoM 2 releasing, I decided to test how all the races worked militarily, using multiple warlord builds. For now, I will post a short summary of how a few races fared under a pure Life warlord:

Barbarians:

Still very good. They don't get many production buildings, and missing libraries hurts them quite a bit, but Berserkers and Gladiators are both amazing enough to make up for it, and Spellserkers are fairly sturdy spellcasters. Their high population growth and the presence of animists' guilds in their building line up also means that they actually get quite a bit of production. They do often run into resistance problems, since Berserkers' resistance is awful, Gladiators' resistance is merely acceptable, and only Spellserkers come close to having reasonable base resistance. But pathfinding, +10% to hit, and Thrown are all pretty good. Oh, and they also get Warships, allowing them to dominate the oceans, or better, play with flying Warships if the player wizard has the needed tools. Do watch out for enemies with weapon immunity though, they can't build alchemist's guilds, so their troops run into weapon immunity more often than usual.

Gnolls:

Unfortunately, Gnolls have not been improved much throughout CoM's development, and this shows. + 2 Attack and + 1 Movement simply isn't very impressive when their troops still die easily. The biggest crippling factor is that they can't build any Magic Markets, making them quite unfit for a wizard planning to do a ton of spellcasting. Their unit selection is also horribly limited. Not being able to hit flyers at all is a huge downside. The one saving grace of this race is the Wolf Riders, who can travel great distances and fight many early game armies, provided they get enough buffs. Jackal Riders have high potential, but it's not worth building Armorer's Guilds for them since they tend to die easily and those buffs are better invested into other high tier units.

Klackons:

Still the best economy race in the game, barring Dwarves on Rich minerals. Klackons get a shitton of production and very low unrest with themselves, allowing them to generate tons of cash. To compensate however, their unit lineup is thoroughly mediocre. + 2 defense is a minor bonus that doesn't really affect much, and ultimately, the way Klackons win battles is either through summons powered by quickly constructed wizard's guilds or by hurling tons of their armies. Atleast they get a decently fast unit that can hit the air with the Stag Beetle.