Anyone have the v1.52 patch?

[Araanor]

Greetings.

Is there any info concerning the future of MoM patching? Will there ever be patch 1.53?

[drake178]

Yes, there will.

[Araanor]

Yes, there will.

Good news, thank you. I doubted it much TBH seeing Seravy completely drowned in his dubious CoM/CoM2 affairs. 

As far as I can guess, 1.52 brings no changes in balance, content and such, just fixes and AI improvements, right? Is there a complete changelist somewhere?

[drake178]

As far as I can guess, 1.52 brings no changes in balance, content and such, just fixes and AI improvements, right?

That's not quite 100% true and I'm not certain it ever can be, but it is part of the goal regardless. Most of the patch notes are, or linked from here, although there's a period going backwards that's missing (in the 1.51 RC era).

[Araanor]

That's not quite 100% true and I'm not certain it ever can be, but it is part of the goal regardless.

Well, I meant I think Community Patch makes no such changes separately and intentionally, and not like consequences of its fixes. 

As for the main topic, I can't run Slitherine GOG MoM pack too (I'm an old fogey who runs WinXP desktop for playing good old games, MoM including). It would be great if owners of GOG MoM release (as myself and others) could get patch 1.52 as a separate download in their GOG libraries to run it with Classic MoM 1.31 installer that is still present in these libraries and runs under WinXP fine.

[drake178]

Well, I meant I think Community Patch makes no such changes separately and intentionally, and not like consequences of its fixes.

Unfortunately, I can't vouch for that either. While many of the changes I contested have been reversed and/or made optional, there are still a few around from before my time.

A standalone version updater is on my bucket list, but while it's climbing steadily, I'm afraid it's still nowhere near the top. As for the rest of your post though, some clarifications would be welcome.

1. I have it on fairly good authority that the GoG MoM version installs with minimal hiccups on Windows XP. I also have the same experience with the Slitherine webstore version. I can install it on my WinXP laptop without any issues. True, the launcher won't run, but you don't need that to play the game. So, what exactly is your problem with the Slitherine GoG MoM pack?

2. MoM v1.31 can run native in Windows XP (i.e. no DOSBox required). v1.50+ can not. The expansion of the unit table uses main memory, and there just isn't enough of that when running under WinXP. It's difficult to get it to work even under genuine DOS. But then, the "Classic MoM 1.31 installer" doesn't use DOSBox. Which raises the question, when you write that it runs just fine for you, are you installing through- or outside of DOSBox? What about playing?

[Araanor]

Well, if user-made changes bring new content then it should be called mod, and not patch IMO.

As for GOG MoM releases the situation is like that. GOG released 'classic' MoM 1.31 long ago, don't remember correctly when exactly but I purchased it there in January 2013. That version installs and runs on WinXP fine and via DOSBox. I never tried to run it native though.

A year ago, in February 2020 GOG released Slitherine version of MoM along with optional CoM DLC and I purchased them both don't know why Maybe just because I admire Seravy's efforts in making MoM better and as bugless as possible without access to the game code. Note that this admiration doesn't mean I accept all the changes Seravy did in CoM though, to tell the truth I don't like CoM pretty much

Anyway, I used to play Classic MoM 1.31 with Insecticide first and then with UPatch 1.50 and 1.51. Then came Slitherine, bought both MoM and Seravy, wrapped it in their usual horrendous launcher and the most important thing - they changed DOSBox settings, apparently to adapt to newer systems but now in WinXP Slitherine release runs just awfully (being started from game folder of course, not from Launcher that doesn't run on WinXP because of using NET Framework 4.3.7 or something like that). The world generation lasts forever, there are graphical glitches everywhere and so on.

I'm not a connoisseur of DOSBox and I don't want to rummage in its settings just to play the game I paid for twice and that I used to play comfortably for so many years before Slitherine came and spoiled the show. So I think it would be fair on behalf of owners of 'old' Classic version of MoM on GOG to make Community Patch available as a separate download in their GOG libraries. I don't think it would be such a colossal task technically.

[drake178]

Well, if user-made changes bring new content then it should be called mod, and not patch IMO.

I would say that depends on the content. I don't think adding options qualifies for that by default. Changing things would. But this is not the place for that argument.

If you can install and run the old release, then in theory all you should need to do is find its folder, and copy the files from the Community Patch folder of the Slitherine version over to there, excluding the dosboxMOM... files and probably the gog... files. That's essentially the same as extracting the 1.50 and 1.51RC zip files used to be. Or have you tried that already?

[Araanor]

If you can install and run the old release, then in theory all you should need to do is find its folder, and copy the files from the Community Patch folder of the Slitherine version over to there, excluding the dosboxMOM... files and probably the gog... files. That's essentially the same as extracting the 1.50 and 1.51RC zip files used to be. Or have you tried that already?

This is what I dreamt of when bought this game twice :P 

Yes, that's exactly what I did. I compared the content of 1.51 folder that I got when it was still free and Community Patch folder content of Slitherine-GOG release. And it was not the easiest task, I had to use Total Commander for it. There are many unneeded (unmodded by CP) files that are not DOSBox files or GOG files in CP folder, you know. Having all these files deleted I got 1.52 folder to extract into Classic MoM folder, yes. 

But forgive me if I am wrong but again - I won't call it the convenient way to play a game I paid for twice and used to play with no pain in the *ss for almost 10 years already (and I'm talking about GOG release only, not mentioning the various MoM versions of various degrees of legality I had and played since MoM release in 1994).

[drake178]

There are many unneeded (unmodded by CP) files that are not DOSBox files or GOG files in CP folder, you know.

Pardon me for the silly question, but are you really that low on disk space? Because I can't think of any other legitimate reason to have to remove those files. Overwriting them should have no practical impact on the outcome.

In any case, there is unlikely to ever be a .ZIP distribution again as long as there's someone around ready and willing to exercise copy rights. If I ever get around to writing a patcher, it will be a 16-bit executable that runs in DOSBox. That's the only way I can ensure that it runs on everything that the game itself runs on.