This is a list of changes to the game mechanics. Any mechanic not mentioned, is unchanged.
Ranged attacks :
Penalty is -1 to hit for each 4 squares of distance, not 3.
Large Shield adds +3 defense against ranged attacks.
Magical ranged attacks do not use MP, instead they use ammo even on units that do have MP.
Diplomacy
See : http://masterofmagic.wikia.com/wiki/Diplomacy
CoM's diplomacy system is identical to 1.50's, except for
-When the players casts Spell Blast, Disenchant, or Spell Binding against an AI wizard, it causes a Negative Diplomatic Reaction, with a power equal to the cost of the spell/10+3.
AI Aggression :
Earliest turn for Declaring War on the human player : 40 (starting from 2.0)
Earliest turn for Hostility : 37 (starting from 2.0)
Fleeing
If unit speed < Fastest Enemy speed -1 : Unit has a 100% chance to die.
If unit speed = Fastest Enemy speed -1 : Unit has a 50% chance to die.
If unit speed = Fastest Enemy speed : Unit has a 50% chance to die.
If unit speed > Fastest Enemy speed : Unit has a 1/(2+X) chance to die where X is the difference between the speed values.
Maximum number of combat turns : 25
Terrain :
-Mountains give +10% production.
-Arcanus nodes have 4-14 tiles
-Myrran nodes have 7-20 tiles
Ore Bonus :
Silver : +4 gold
Gold : +8 gold
Gems : +12 gold
Quork : +5 power
Crysx : +10 power
Iron : 10% cheaper units
Coal : 20% cheaper units.
Range penalties for casting :
Fortress – 1x
1-8 distance : 1x
9-13 distance : 1.2x
14-18 distance : 1.5x
19-24 distance : 2x
25+ distance or other plane : 3x
Removed Random Events :
-Mana Short
-Disjunction
Added Random Events :
AEther Flux : All spells cost 50% less to cast.
Stroke of Genius : The current spell being researched is done the next turn for everyone. If Spell of Mastery is being researched, instead it progresses by 10000 RP.
Modified Random Events :
Depletion, New Minerals : Fixed to now appear
Nature Conjunction : Fantastic units gain +2 DEF and RES.
Chaos Conjunction : Direct damage spells do 33% more damage.
Sorcery Conjunction : Casting Skill increases 4 times as fast from mana spent on it (not including spell effects)
Bad Moon : All units lose 2 resistance in combat.
Good Moon : Unit enchantments are 50% cheaper.
All of these are in addition to the original effect.
Treasure : see the patch files in 1.5 in the "M" category
Spellbooks
Maximum amount per realm : 10
Each book contains/allows :
C/U/R/VR , C Starting/ U Guaranteed/ U Guaranteed turn 1 research/ R Guaranteed, other effects
Book 01 : 3/1/0/0, 0/0/0/0, Find/Trade common
Book 02 : 3/2/1/0, 1/0/0/0, Find/Trade Uncommon
Book 03 : 4/3/2/1, 2/0/0/0, Find/Trade Rare
Book 04 : 5/4/3/3, 3/0/0/0, Find/Trade Very Rare
Book 05 : 6/5/4/4, 4/1/0/0,
Book 06 : 7/6/5/5, 5/1/0/1,
Book 07 : 10/7/6/6, 5/2/0/1,
Book 08 : 10/10/7/6, 5/0/2/1,
Book 09 : 10/10/10/7, 5/0/2/0, +8% research, -5% casting cost
Book 10 : 10/10/10/10, 5/0/2/0, +16% research, -10% casting cost
Books found in treasure contain the same type and amount of spells as if you picked the book at the beginning (not true for original game!)
Life and Death allowed together.
Fortress
The fortress produces 1.5 power for each book owned.
The fortress casts a lightning bolt on the enemy army every turn. The lightning bolt strength is 10+(Casting Skill)/8, but no more than 32.
Heroes in the fortress only contribute 1/6 of their casting skill instead of 1/2.
Military
-Each unit consumes 0.5 food instead of 1. However, if units would starve, only 1 unit is disbanded for each missing unit of food per turn.
-Ships have no gold and food upkeep. Catapults have no food upkeep.
-All units (including heroes and fantastic) reduce unrest by 1 per 2 units.
-Death units can heal naturally except raised undead, zombies and skeletons.
-Armorer's Guild and Fantastic Stables is available starting from 1406.
Economy
-Excess food now converts into gold at 1 for 1.
-New tax tables : Maximal tax is now 2.5 gold per turn for an unrest of 55%, minimal tax is 1 gold for 1% unrest.
-Buying costs 2x the required production.
-Excess production carries over to next project and also if you change the build order.
Combat
-Building destruction chance after combat is capped at 60%. Base chance is 20% on a successful attack regardless of the owner being neutral or not.
-Gold transferred after combat is total gold production of the city*2.
-Banishing a wizard no longer gives you half of their mana reserves.
-You can gain new units (zombies, undead, prisoners) after combat even if that would exceed 9 units. Excess units are going to be pushed to the nearest adjacent square (or desert if none are available).
Levels
For normal units :
Regular : + 1 melee, +1 ranged, +1 resist total.
Veteran : + 2 melee, +2 ranged, +1 defense, +1 resist total.
Elite : + 2 melee, +2 ranged, +2 defense, +2 resist, +1 health total.
U. Elite : + 3 melee, +3 ranged, +3 defense, +2 resist, +1 health total.
Champion : + 3 melee, +3 ranged, +3 defense, +2 resist, +2 health, +1 hit total.
For heroes :
+1 melee for each level.
+1 health for each level.
+1 resistance for each 2 levels.
+1 defense at level 4 and 8.
+1 to hit at level 5 and 9.
Exp tables :
Level 1 : 30
Level 2 : 80
Level 3 : 180
Level 4 : 300
Level 5 : 550
Level 6 : 900
Level 7 : 1400
Level 8 : 2500
Exp gained in combat : 1+floor(cost/32) for each dead enemy unit that stays dead. +7 for each unit raised as undead or zombie.
Razing : There is no fame loss, and the amount of gold gained is 33% of total buildings, not 10%.
Abilities :
Weapon Immunity now adds +8 DEF instead of raising to 10.
New ability : Quick Casting (only the Illusionist hero has this)
New hero abilities : see hero topic.
Immunites raise defense to 100 instead of 50.
Scouting : Displayed level now matches description meaning I gives +1 radius, raising it to 2. (Original game showed II for this effect)
Range Penalty
Fortress – 1x
1-8 distance : 1x
9-13 distance : 1.2x
14-18 distance : 1.5x
19-24 distance : 2x
25+ distance or other plane : 3x
Node dispelling power : 60 (uses a new formula, see Counter Magic in Sorcery)
Grand Vizier :
Can only build buildings.
Will not change orders if you are producing units.
Will use the priorities of a pragmatist AI wizard.
Picks, Retorts
You start the game with 12 picks. Default wizards use 12 picks.
AI wizards have 12 picks on Easy, Normal, Advanced, Expert, 13 for Master and 14 on Lunatic.
For retort changes, read the ingame help.
Scoring
Each defeated wizard : +100
Each wizard in the game : +40
Time : +800 if winning in 1420 or earlier. 0 if winning in 1440 or later, score decreases linearly between these two. Now rewarded if losing.
Combat Rating : +16 for each % of percentage.
Difficulty multiplier : 0.5* for Easy, 1 for Normal, 1.5* for Hard, 2 for Extreme and 2.5* for Impossible. Not used if losing.
Combat rating is a weighted average of the units lost relative to the enemy for each combat. At least twice as much enemy losses as own is worth 100%, losing units when the enemy has no losses is 0%, value increases linearly between these two.
Bugs fixed : over 200 of them, some influencing game mechanics significantly. I'm not going to list these, there are too many.
AI advantage multipliers (subject to change) :
(Easy/Normal/Hard/Extreme/Impossible)
removed outdated information...
Overland casting cost (new) : 100%/80%/66%/50%/40%
Maintenance : 100%/65%/40%/30%/20%
Outpost growth : hardcoded, 0/25%/50%/75%/100% chance to get an extra 1-3 houses at random per turn.
Roads : now cost 1 to move on them, 0.5 if enchanted.
Ranged attacks :
Penalty is -1 to hit for each 4 squares of distance, not 3.
Large Shield adds +3 defense against ranged attacks.
Magical ranged attacks do not use MP, instead they use ammo even on units that do have MP.
Diplomacy
See : http://masterofmagic.wikia.com/wiki/Diplomacy
CoM's diplomacy system is identical to 1.50's, except for
-When the players casts Spell Blast, Disenchant, or Spell Binding against an AI wizard, it causes a Negative Diplomatic Reaction, with a power equal to the cost of the spell/10+3.
AI Aggression :
Earliest turn for Declaring War on the human player : 40 (starting from 2.0)
Earliest turn for Hostility : 37 (starting from 2.0)
Fleeing
If unit speed < Fastest Enemy speed -1 : Unit has a 100% chance to die.
If unit speed = Fastest Enemy speed -1 : Unit has a 50% chance to die.
If unit speed = Fastest Enemy speed : Unit has a 50% chance to die.
If unit speed > Fastest Enemy speed : Unit has a 1/(2+X) chance to die where X is the difference between the speed values.
Maximum number of combat turns : 25
Terrain :
-Mountains give +10% production.
-Arcanus nodes have 4-14 tiles
-Myrran nodes have 7-20 tiles
Ore Bonus :
Silver : +4 gold
Gold : +8 gold
Gems : +12 gold
Quork : +5 power
Crysx : +10 power
Iron : 10% cheaper units
Coal : 20% cheaper units.
Range penalties for casting :
Fortress – 1x
1-8 distance : 1x
9-13 distance : 1.2x
14-18 distance : 1.5x
19-24 distance : 2x
25+ distance or other plane : 3x
Removed Random Events :
-Mana Short
-Disjunction
Added Random Events :
AEther Flux : All spells cost 50% less to cast.
Stroke of Genius : The current spell being researched is done the next turn for everyone. If Spell of Mastery is being researched, instead it progresses by 10000 RP.
Modified Random Events :
Depletion, New Minerals : Fixed to now appear
Nature Conjunction : Fantastic units gain +2 DEF and RES.
Chaos Conjunction : Direct damage spells do 33% more damage.
Sorcery Conjunction : Casting Skill increases 4 times as fast from mana spent on it (not including spell effects)
Bad Moon : All units lose 2 resistance in combat.
Good Moon : Unit enchantments are 50% cheaper.
All of these are in addition to the original effect.
Treasure : see the patch files in 1.5 in the "M" category
Spellbooks
Maximum amount per realm : 10
Each book contains/allows :
C/U/R/VR , C Starting/ U Guaranteed/ U Guaranteed turn 1 research/ R Guaranteed, other effects
Book 01 : 3/1/0/0, 0/0/0/0, Find/Trade common
Book 02 : 3/2/1/0, 1/0/0/0, Find/Trade Uncommon
Book 03 : 4/3/2/1, 2/0/0/0, Find/Trade Rare
Book 04 : 5/4/3/3, 3/0/0/0, Find/Trade Very Rare
Book 05 : 6/5/4/4, 4/1/0/0,
Book 06 : 7/6/5/5, 5/1/0/1,
Book 07 : 10/7/6/6, 5/2/0/1,
Book 08 : 10/10/7/6, 5/0/2/1,
Book 09 : 10/10/10/7, 5/0/2/0, +8% research, -5% casting cost
Book 10 : 10/10/10/10, 5/0/2/0, +16% research, -10% casting cost
Books found in treasure contain the same type and amount of spells as if you picked the book at the beginning (not true for original game!)
Life and Death allowed together.
Fortress
The fortress produces 1.5 power for each book owned.
The fortress casts a lightning bolt on the enemy army every turn. The lightning bolt strength is 10+(Casting Skill)/8, but no more than 32.
Heroes in the fortress only contribute 1/6 of their casting skill instead of 1/2.
Military
-Each unit consumes 0.5 food instead of 1. However, if units would starve, only 1 unit is disbanded for each missing unit of food per turn.
-Ships have no gold and food upkeep. Catapults have no food upkeep.
-All units (including heroes and fantastic) reduce unrest by 1 per 2 units.
-Death units can heal naturally except raised undead, zombies and skeletons.
-Armorer's Guild and Fantastic Stables is available starting from 1406.
Economy
-Excess food now converts into gold at 1 for 1.
-New tax tables : Maximal tax is now 2.5 gold per turn for an unrest of 55%, minimal tax is 1 gold for 1% unrest.
-Buying costs 2x the required production.
-Excess production carries over to next project and also if you change the build order.
Combat
-Building destruction chance after combat is capped at 60%. Base chance is 20% on a successful attack regardless of the owner being neutral or not.
-Gold transferred after combat is total gold production of the city*2.
-Banishing a wizard no longer gives you half of their mana reserves.
-You can gain new units (zombies, undead, prisoners) after combat even if that would exceed 9 units. Excess units are going to be pushed to the nearest adjacent square (or desert if none are available).
Levels
For normal units :
Regular : + 1 melee, +1 ranged, +1 resist total.
Veteran : + 2 melee, +2 ranged, +1 defense, +1 resist total.
Elite : + 2 melee, +2 ranged, +2 defense, +2 resist, +1 health total.
U. Elite : + 3 melee, +3 ranged, +3 defense, +2 resist, +1 health total.
Champion : + 3 melee, +3 ranged, +3 defense, +2 resist, +2 health, +1 hit total.
For heroes :
+1 melee for each level.
+1 health for each level.
+1 resistance for each 2 levels.
+1 defense at level 4 and 8.
+1 to hit at level 5 and 9.
Exp tables :
Level 1 : 30
Level 2 : 80
Level 3 : 180
Level 4 : 300
Level 5 : 550
Level 6 : 900
Level 7 : 1400
Level 8 : 2500
Exp gained in combat : 1+floor(cost/32) for each dead enemy unit that stays dead. +7 for each unit raised as undead or zombie.
Razing : There is no fame loss, and the amount of gold gained is 33% of total buildings, not 10%.
Abilities :
Weapon Immunity now adds +8 DEF instead of raising to 10.
New ability : Quick Casting (only the Illusionist hero has this)
New hero abilities : see hero topic.
Immunites raise defense to 100 instead of 50.
Scouting : Displayed level now matches description meaning I gives +1 radius, raising it to 2. (Original game showed II for this effect)
Range Penalty
Fortress – 1x
1-8 distance : 1x
9-13 distance : 1.2x
14-18 distance : 1.5x
19-24 distance : 2x
25+ distance or other plane : 3x
Node dispelling power : 60 (uses a new formula, see Counter Magic in Sorcery)
Grand Vizier :
Can only build buildings.
Will not change orders if you are producing units.
Will use the priorities of a pragmatist AI wizard.
Picks, Retorts
You start the game with 12 picks. Default wizards use 12 picks.
AI wizards have 12 picks on Easy, Normal, Advanced, Expert, 13 for Master and 14 on Lunatic.
For retort changes, read the ingame help.
Scoring
Each defeated wizard : +100
Each wizard in the game : +40
Time : +800 if winning in 1420 or earlier. 0 if winning in 1440 or later, score decreases linearly between these two. Now rewarded if losing.
Combat Rating : +16 for each % of percentage.
Difficulty multiplier : 0.5* for Easy, 1 for Normal, 1.5* for Hard, 2 for Extreme and 2.5* for Impossible. Not used if losing.
Combat rating is a weighted average of the units lost relative to the enemy for each combat. At least twice as much enemy losses as own is worth 100%, losing units when the enemy has no losses is 0%, value increases linearly between these two.
Bugs fixed : over 200 of them, some influencing game mechanics significantly. I'm not going to list these, there are too many.
AI advantage multipliers (subject to change) :
(Easy/Normal/Hard/Extreme/Impossible)
removed outdated information...
Overland casting cost (new) : 100%/80%/66%/50%/40%
Maintenance : 100%/65%/40%/30%/20%
Outpost growth : hardcoded, 0/25%/50%/75%/100% chance to get an extra 1-3 houses at random per turn.
Roads : now cost 1 to move on them, 0.5 if enchanted.
What do you think?