DaveV

MoM2: please lose the angels and demons in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I think some people will refuse to buy the game if you leave them in, and it may affect the game's rating. I know I, personally, am uncomfortable with letting my kids play a game that includes demon summoning. Just what do demons have to do with necromancy, anyway? It seems to me that the game could be just as fun to play if these units were replaced by some other good (Ki-Rin, gold dragon) and undead (vampire, liche, ghost) units. Look at Age of Wonders for a MoM-style game without the demo

Reply to TBS Games and Multiplayer in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I played multiplayer Civ II for several years, and I have to say that nothing beats the adrenaline rush of having a real person running the other team(s). That said, multiplayer TBS has more drawbacks than advantages to me. The advantage is having an opponent smarter than any AI, and experiencing real depth of strategy. The drawbacks: 1) Scheduling. TBS games take a *long* time to play; you have to find a mutually agreeable time to play, and be able to have all players show up at th

Reply to MOM 2: How would you improve combat? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Strategic map AI will be tough, but it seems to me that the tactical map AI could use the same techniques as a chess program (static evaluator, alpha-beta pruning). It's a little more complicated, of course, because the interactions of the pieces in MoM are based on dice rolls instead of being strictly deterministic in chess. And there's the issue of when and how (and whether) to spend your magic reserve. But it would be awfully cool if people hit the "auto" button because the computer could

Reply to MOM 2: How would you improve combat? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

It scares me when people keep asking for lots of new features and prettier graphics. To me, nothing is as important as good AI. If Stardock were able to produce an MoM2 that had the same graphics as the original, with no new features, but with the bugs fixed and a competent AI, I'd be overjoyed. MoM has great depth in its combat system; it's just not very evident because the AI won't venture out of the shallow end. 2nd most important: all unit, building, spell, and race data built in

Reply to re poll: Would you pre-order on-line a Master of Magic 2? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Another suggestion for MoM2: limit spells the heroes can learn. I just played a game with 10 life books, and had Marcus the Ranger show up. He's mainly a bowman who happens to know a couple low-level nature spells. It just didn't seem right for him to be casting Prayer, Lionheart, and Healing just because he had been hired by a Life wizard. Instead, I think the heroes should be limited to one or two colors of magic, and probably have a limit on the level of spells they can learn (Com

Reply to re poll: Would you pre-order on-line a Master of Magic 2? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Much as I love slingers, they can't do anything against missile immunity, which gives *50* shields against missile (and bullet) attacks. At 30% per shield, the chances are less than 1% that those shields will block less than 6 hits. I've never done any damage with slingers' ranged attack against skeletons or demons, for example.

Reply to re poll: Would you pre-order on-line a Master of Magic 2? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]That raises another question that I haven't seen answered on any MoM website (probably because it's in the original documentation, which I don't have). Does your city have to be built directly on top of a mithril or adamantium deposit to get the weapon benefit, or does it just need to be within 3 squares of it? [/quote] Your city can use any mithril, adamantium, gold, iron, nightshade, etc., that falls with your city borders, which you can see in the upper right-hand corner

Reply to re poll: Would you pre-order on-line a Master of Magic 2? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Roads between cities increase gold; see the FAQ for the gory details. In a nutshell, cities of other races generate 2x the revenue; bigger city = bigger bonus. My advice for success at the higher levels: attack as early as you can. Build troops and go out and take over neutral cities ASAP (there will be lots of them if you play with large landmass). Halflings are my favorite, because slingers are available very early and they inspire the least unrest in subject races. My experience w

Reply to re poll: Would you pre-order on-line a Master of Magic 2? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

One more request for a minor change: two uncommon spells and one rare is *way* too big a bonus for picking 11 books in one color. You already get an extra 10% discount and one additional common spell, compared to 10 books. I'd argue that this is enough to make 11 books attractive, and that the higher-level spells should be acquired the hard way, by researching them (at the aforementioned 40% discount).

Reply to re poll: Would you pre-order on-line a Master of Magic 2? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]#190 by Avatar Frogboy - 8/17/2004 4:04:15 PM ...it's oaky to talk here about what you'd like in there.[/quote] *raises hand* 1. An iron-man mode, to discourage all the strategies centered around "reload saves until you get xxxx". 2. Some way to discourage a flying ranged attacker (e.g. sprites, draconian bowmen) from beating a node/lair/city over multiple turns by killing one defender then hitting "done" 50 times. I suggest that you lose 1.5x the fame you'd gain by win

Reply to MOM 2: How would you improve combat? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]but would the point of an identical game be?[/quote] Better AI, reduced micromanagement, more options on world size, number of opponents, landmass size, number of neutral cities. An editor that would allow modpacks (someone would be sure to come up with a Lord of the Rings modpack). And did I mention better AI? And maybe even multiplayer, although I don't think the game is well-suited for it, and would prefer that Stardock spent their energies on other facets of the gam

Reply to re poll: Would you pre-order on-line a Master of Magic 2? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Imagine what we could do on a fantasy game if we had nearly twice the art resources? Or more to the point, which would generate more sales? The licensed name or the additional features/content that would come with having a larger development staff?[/quote] The advantage with going with MoM is that you could save a lot of man-hours on design and playtesting. You have a game design that's widely acknowledged to be in the "greatest ever" category, and is extremely well-documente

Reply to MOM 2: How would you improve combat? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

Two words: better AI. I love the way the combat works, but a lot of the subtlety is lost because the AI is so inept. This could also make the "auto" button a lot more appealing.

Reply to re poll: Would you pre-order on-line a Master of Magic 2? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Huh? Towns don't do research.[/quote] I meant that leftover research should roll over to the next project, the same as I'm advocating for leftover production. Again, this would remove the need either to fiddle with the sliders if you don't have a convenient number of research scrolls, or to waste some when you make your discovery.

Reply to re poll: Would you pre-order on-line a Master of Magic 2? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

My vote for "most annoying thing" about MoM: micromanagement. It would make life a lot easier if extra hammers left over after a unit was built were carried over to the next project; that would remove the temptation to revisit all my cities every turn and switch workers to farmers and vice versa so I don't waste any production. Ditto for research. Although the concept of each unit eating food is a great part of MoM, it also causes some micromangement headaches. I try to run with a mi

Reply to re poll: Would you pre-order on-line a Master of Magic 2? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote]Huh? Brax had pathfinding? I thought he only had like one weak special ability.[/quote] That would be Constitution, but he also had Mountaineering (as did Bahgtru, another otherwise uninspiring hero). Forestry + Mountaineering = Pathfinding. Also very handy when you play the dwarves, and Rakir or a War Bear could give pathfinding when stacked with a dwarven unit. It was this kind of depth that made MoM so cool. People who played the game for years can hear about some ne

Reply to IF they were going to do a MOM update, should the races be balanced or no? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I come down heavily on the "unbalanced is good" side. Each race has its strengths (pretty minor in some cases) and drawbacks (pretty major in some cases :)). Taking a weaker race is a good way to give yourself a handicap if the game (or the MP opponent) becomes too easy.

Reply to Master of Magic FAQ link in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

[quote] I've been trying to find a complete spell list[/quote] Try this link: http://apolyton.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=149 I know I posted a spell list there, but it's been a while...

Reply to re poll: Would you pre-order on-line a Master of Magic 2? in Galactic Civilizations I Stardock Forums

I joined these forums just so I could vote "absolutely" on the poll. I'd love it if you guys released a bug-free MoM with decent AI. Beware of all the vocal MP people; I think newsgroups tend to be severely overweighted with MP players. If you do an MP version of MoM, your forums would degenerate into arguments about which units/spells/tactics were overpowered. See the Age of Wonders forums for an example of countless "xxx is overpowered and needs to be nerfed" or "yyy is underpowered and ne