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[another_guest]

Thanks to both of you for your in-depth posts

I used to play MoM quite a lot, but I've learned a few things from your posts... If I ever get to play it again, that knowledge will come in really handy.

To take out drakes with heroes, I usually sent in two ranged heroes. They should of course be beefed up as much as possible (high attack, chance of hits,...) and preferably have a walking range of 6. It's still not easy to avoid 4 drakes at once, but it's possible, even if half of the turns consist of running without a chance of shooting. It should also be noted that ranged units with arrows and such have a quite limited amount of ammunition, whereas units with magical attack and a decent "mana pool" (or whatever those were called, the MP figure) can easily attack 20 times or more in the same combat. So I preferred sending in heroes with a ranged magical attack.

[MoM_Junkie_Vebose]

Originally posted by FreeFreddy@Apr 8 2005, 05:00 AM
Okey, some things to correct here, as I noticed that during playing the game (and I used to play it maaany times ).

Life-Leeching
1. First of all, if a unit or a hero has a life-leeching ability (artifact, skill), the increased chance to hit REDUCES the chance to leech the life (thus also reducing the chance of killing an enemy completely with life-leech). Therefore are the Deathknights and heroes not so good to have this ability - little use of it then, as they have good chance to hit. And the better the chance to hit is, the less the possibility to leech life.
2. Second, the ranged attacks DON'T leech life. No, they don't. I tested that many times, especially on Ravashak when he still was weak and had little chances to hit. Didn't work. Also doesn't work with the Demonlord. (This is a bug)
3. Third, ANY unit can be raised from dead through life-leeching. I was able to have a colossus killed with the wraiths once, and I had him after as an undead unit. But, a summoned unit turned to undead state costs additionally 0.5% of mana to their normal mana cost. Thus useless on summoned units, they're better as non-undead then. Also it works on heroes. Oh yes. Got to love this unique Lifepriestess hero when she passed away with help of the wraiths early in the game.
But the during the combat summoned units can't be raised from death after the combat ends. No way. Tried that with Air Elementals and Earth Elementals. Enemy can have them, but players not (this is a bug).

I agree that Ravashacks life draining ability is not as effective as his to-hit ability gets higher. However I know for a FACT that Ravashack the necromancer can AND does life drain using a magic ranged attack. (master of magic patched to version 1.31). A simple example is to take mr. low level ravashack into a wimpy neutral town after ravashack has been damaged. In combat you can actually watch his health go up during combat (no, no healing artifacts. no regeneration. no smoke and mirrors). And have a neutral normal unit animated (raised) and join your army after combat. (just ravashack in your force, no ghouls, no wraiths, no boogie men). I don't doubt that you have played master of magic MANY times (it is a FUN game!), but I can assure you that this is the case. Is life drain bugged? Yes. Can it work at a range? Yes. (if you like I could somehow pass along a saved game file that might better demonstrate this).

Also I agree that many summoned units can be raised through life drain (although as you pointed out it is usually not worth it because of the fact that they can't heal, AND cost 50% more than a normal summoned unit). If I seemed to indicate that this was not the case in my earlier posts it was not my intent. Undead and heroes can be killed by life drain spell, but neither can be raised (become undead in your service) because of dying from life drain. I am not clear if you indicated that your wraiths raised an enemy hero that joined your side. If this is somehow the case this is certainly news to me. As for animating earth elementals or air elementals or fire elementals, phantom warriors, or phantom beasts (or even a demon) save your mana. There is a FAR FAR FAR FAR FAR easier way to have these troops join your armies (and not have them become undead either). Most would call it a bug. Some call it an intended feature:

What you'll need:
1. A unit that can safely avoid combat (an invisible unit that the enemies can't see, a flying unit that the enemies can't reach, or even a really fast unit that the enemies can't reach)
2. The "word of recall" sorcery spell. (common; meaning you could start with this spell if you had 2 sorcery spell books)
3. Any combat summoning spell that you want the creature of.
(Chaos: fire elemental)
(Death: demon lord (which will summon a demon in combat))
(Sorcery: phantom warriors, phantom beast, air elemental)
(Nature: earth elemental)
4. Enough mana and casting skill to both summon the unit and cast word of recall on the summoned unit.

Enter combat with the unit mentioned in #1. Summon the unit. Cast word of recall on it. Don't win combat. (just hit 'D' for done until combat is over. Or move the unit around until combat is over).
After combat you will have your new summoned troops wherever your summoning circle is. The units won't be free (in fact some are expensive) but the casting cost is quite low (just what they cost in combat). Air elementals are the fastest (natural) creatures in the game flying invisibly at a 5 movement points per turn. (great scouts if you can afford to maintain them)

BTW word of recall is one of my favorite spells as it is VERY useful as a troop transport. (as fast as having a magic road connecting any two points). I am a big fan of having a high casting skill. Whenever I conquer a neutral town I deem worthy of keeping, rather than leaving behind any of my combat force, I'll simply cast summoning circle in the new town, and "word of recall" newly created troops from my troop production town(s). This keeps my experienced fighting force intact, and I don't have to create low level unenchanted normal units in the new town, I bring in highly trained and well equipped (mithril or adamantite) troops.

Also word of recall (and recall hero, but recall hero can only be cast on heroes in combat) can transport troops from one plane to another. This is great if you or someone else has the planar seal spell in effect.

[MoM_Junkie_Vebose]

Originally posted by FreeFreddy@Apr 8 2005, 05:00 AM
With that said, there are many more bugs in the game, like the game crash on casting the Chaos Channels Lycantropy spells sometimes. Or also that the volcanoes converted to mountains and further by the Change Terrain or that very rare Nature global spell spell stop to produce mana. A pity there was no additional patch for that, but this is how the game will remain now seemingly forever...

On raise volcano spell, I will say that I REALLY REALLY wish that it had a 2% (or whatever the help says it is supposed to have) of leaving behind a new mineral vein. Alas, it doesn't. And as far as them ceasing to produce their mana... they are supposed to naturally convert into mountainous terrain (like 1% chance each turn or some such). In fact raise volcano combined with change terrain is an effective (but expensive) way to make those useless tundra areas into more productive and fertile towns.

I was going to reply with all of the bugs that I know of... but instead throw this link out. (it is probably shorter than my post would have been anyway)

http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/fil...er_of_magic.txt

One of the more entertaining bugs mentioned in this faq is plane shifting (uncommon life spell) a magic spirit (or guardian spirit) onto a node on the other plane. (earth lore spell is a good way to find them early in the game). The node creatures will still be there, but your spirit can meld with the node.

There are absolutely some mistakes in that FAQ too. (Just as there are probably mistakes in all of my ramblings) If in doubt, ask. I'll be sure to respond with my 8 cents.

Oh, I think they also warn about cloak of fear spell in there. (It reminds me very much of the "to hit" wrapping you were talking about earlier. Put cloak of fear on a normally powerful unit and watch how pathetic they become. (no it isn't supposed to work like that).

[MoM_Junkie_Vebose]

Originally posted by another_guest@Apr 8 2005, 09:04 AM
I used to play MoM quite a lot, but I've learned a few things from your posts... If I ever get to play it again, that knowledge will come in really handy.

If you ever play again... some people might find this editor useful for quickly trying out different tactics/spells/combos. I used an earlier version of it a decade ago without problems. You can do some neat things like have both life and death magic (not that this is more powerful than some of the other combos, but it is different, plus you can get all of the champion heroes (the ones requiring life spell books and death spell books)). You can also do cool things like make your opponents very powerful. And change heroes to your particular favorite (instead of reloading for the 10th time to summon "just the one you want")

http://www.inigo.com/momedit/

Please read the readme for it (its short). The interface is simple and clean.

The only thing that may look goofy at first is the casting skills under the wizard info section. Basically if you want a high skill you need to make the number really big. (my first guess would be that this value is the effective amount of power base that has been applied to casting skill in the game. And my understanding of that is that if you have a casting skill of 20 you need to put 20 points into casting skill in order to raise it to 21 (and then 21 to raise to 22, etc). This smacks of a long forgotten math lesson on sequences and simple formulas for converting the casting skill into the total amount trained and vice versa... But the short answer is to play with it.

The entry above that (casting remaining) is a useful number to drop to zero if you notice an opposing wizard casting some spell a little out of their league (like summon champion early in the game). I should say that this is how much mana/casting skill need to be applied to the spell for it to finish (cast). By setting it to zero, it basically casts instantly (the next turn).

Have fun. :xmas:

Been playin this game many years now and its fun to see all the insight on this great game.

My "cheap" unit that I have found nothing to beat is dwarven hammerhands. Just keep starting over till you get placed by some "purple crystals" (dunno the name, been callin em purple crystals forever, adatimate or somethin like that ) Well the attack bonus on these puppies and hammerhands make these units crush anything in their way, untouchable when they gain more levels, and if you are a warlord and they can gain that extra level... watch out.

Master of Magic is my most favourite game.

Btw... death magic is also very powerfull... try to choose all death books... and choose wraith spell. The fastest you can, get 300 mana and cast wraiths. You can have them after 30-40 turns. In this state of game... almost nothing can stop them. ;-)
They can fly, are fast, immune to normal weapon, life draining... with a little logic, you can win game very easily.

... and they also raise army of undead in their wake.

[another_guest]

I usually prefer casting shadow demons first (at least I think that's how they're called: the purple red-eyed ranged units costing about 250 mana) because of their ranged attack that's quite powerful early in the game.

I have beaten this game on Impossible mode with everything but nature. The most imbalanced thing I would say is, Torin the Chosen. That guy is a robust unkillable nightmare, give him some cheesy items and watch him own. As far as units go, my friend played a pretty mean hafling/death combo that he could almost beat impossible with. Haflings slingers are the muck. Sorcery rocks, if you ever get Time Stop off, you can wreak some havoc, sky drakes are decent, the phantoms at the front own, flight is good. Confuse is the best spell for them though, it rocks the house. I beat Impossible very easy with Sorcery, considering I had to pump up Torin to win with Life, though I did that on my first or second try, took me more tries with Sorcery. I was never great with Nature, as far as races go, I'd have to say the dragon race, high men, dark elf, or haflings are the best. All the other races seemed lacking. Chaos magic is fun, you had some many spells that just wasted all of the opponents bases etc, if you got ahead of someone it was easy to win with Chaos, but you have to get spells like Chaos rift etc etc going before its very good, then have a million volcanoes set up to upkeep you spells.
Anyone else have a problem with some of the death spells? Like eternal darkness or something just crashed my game after a few turns of casting it, so was that ever fixed? as fast as heroes I liked to have, any one with noble/sage. I always booted Valana the bard, that bitch crashed my game. Mystic X was a pretty awesome random bit, the necro was good, the drake was decent, the chaos guy was decent, auron was decent, when it came down to hit giving them a platemail of X amount of power was all they needed. ;p I generally always did full books and alchemy for my caster, if I chose Myrran i went with Dark Elf then conquered some Drake cities and used the combination to own some things. Shadow Demons rock at the front, great for pestering opponents weaker cities.

This game rocks the house, hopefully the second one does to.

[another_guest]

As far as I know those errors crashing the game were never fixed, unfortunately...

Valana the bard never gave me trouble, so those errors seem to differ from user to user, to make things even worse :blink:

I usually preferred playing with Nature, though I don't think I've ever tried Impossible, as the level below it was already tediously time-consuming as it was. Nature's got some awesome summoning spells.