I attach a save file of a game I recently started. I didn't have a "good feeling" about the map, so I was about to start over. I hit ALT-RVL and lo and behold there are no neutral cities on either map! Wow. It's a small sized world, admittedly. However, in all my playing, I've never seen a small size world without neutrals. Look at Myrror, it's empty. The official strategy guide says that 15 neutral city sites are selected at the beginning of the game.
I always play small these days. Why? Because when I play on medium or large, I spend most of my time managing a huge empire of cities. Ugh. The worst of DOS game micromanagement hell! You MUST put cities everywhere, or your economy will be crushed by the computer who DOES put cities everywhere. I didn't want to play MoM because of this.
I would begin the game and quit as soon as I commenced my first city development. I just didn't want to see that city management screen!
I started playing on small worlds, and it was nice. Just build my core of 4-5 cities and I'm done for the game. The accepted wisdom is that the computer doesn't deal well with small worlds, but it manages to get off its islands well enough. I like to concentrate on the part of the game that I enjoy, building stacks, map strategy, getting this game's selection of heroes, and in general having fun with the random number generator. With medium or large maps, there is just too much dealing with cities and not nearly enough combat.
I also play on hard level. Impossible is just impossible. I know if I put enough effort into the game, I could win on impossible - but I don't want to do that. That's WORK. Ugh! I like where I'm at right now. I wish there were a level between hard and 2x impossible, that would make me happier. I suppose with ancient games like this, everyone who still plays it is an utter expert by now. However, the game still manages to surprise me from time to time with something I've never seen. Some rare spell, or an uncommon hero, or a strange artifact. I haven't explored the entire thing, and again that's where I like to be.
I suppose all of the development occurs in a direction tailored for the super-expert players, which would seem to be expected. I mean, it's amazing that anyone is still working on this game AT ALL. I'm very thankful for the insecticide mod, it has taken the correct philosophy of "fixing what's broken" instead of "change the game away from MoM and into some other game that uses the same interface". It makes the game better, and it stays MoM. I can't really complain that the squeaky wheels get the grease.
[SIZE="2"]PS - forum adminstrator please add .gam to the list of approved file attachments[/SIZE]
I always play small these days. Why? Because when I play on medium or large, I spend most of my time managing a huge empire of cities. Ugh. The worst of DOS game micromanagement hell! You MUST put cities everywhere, or your economy will be crushed by the computer who DOES put cities everywhere. I didn't want to play MoM because of this.
I would begin the game and quit as soon as I commenced my first city development. I just didn't want to see that city management screen! I started playing on small worlds, and it was nice. Just build my core of 4-5 cities and I'm done for the game. The accepted wisdom is that the computer doesn't deal well with small worlds, but it manages to get off its islands well enough. I like to concentrate on the part of the game that I enjoy, building stacks, map strategy, getting this game's selection of heroes, and in general having fun with the random number generator. With medium or large maps, there is just too much dealing with cities and not nearly enough combat.
I also play on hard level. Impossible is just impossible. I know if I put enough effort into the game, I could win on impossible - but I don't want to do that. That's WORK. Ugh! I like where I'm at right now. I wish there were a level between hard and 2x impossible, that would make me happier. I suppose with ancient games like this, everyone who still plays it is an utter expert by now. However, the game still manages to surprise me from time to time with something I've never seen. Some rare spell, or an uncommon hero, or a strange artifact. I haven't explored the entire thing, and again that's where I like to be.
I suppose all of the development occurs in a direction tailored for the super-expert players, which would seem to be expected. I mean, it's amazing that anyone is still working on this game AT ALL. I'm very thankful for the insecticide mod, it has taken the correct philosophy of "fixing what's broken" instead of "change the game away from MoM and into some other game that uses the same interface". It makes the game better, and it stays MoM. I can't really complain that the squeaky wheels get the grease.
[SIZE="2"]PS - forum adminstrator please add .gam to the list of approved file attachments[/SIZE]
