Master of Magic 1.5, temporal codename "Raid" development

[zitro1987]

I am assuming that the 'fileset' mechanic only works with insecticide files, correct?

I've been trying to run these on my mod, and while no errors were shown, no changes were made. It's not a major concern as I can manually make the changes myself using a hex editor.

[Seravy]

I am assuming that the 'fileset' mechanic only works with insecticide files, correct?

I've been trying to run these on my mod, and while no errors were shown, no changes were made. It's not a major concern as I can manually make the changes myself using a hex editor.

Wrong, fileset works on any file. If there is no message it means all bytes were matching the source and the patch is very likely to work without problems. Maybe you were changing a different file than the one you were looking at, that happens often when there are 3-4 MoM folders already on the computer.

[Seravy]

Files updated!

I've finally completed the work, the download now contains all 252 patch files!

[spottedshroom]

I figured out my dumb problem from before.

I have tested the following patches and they seem to work correctly: 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 26, 31, 32, 33, 40, 43, 46, 47, 109

The following patches don't apply cleanly for me. I also had to trim excess newlines from the ends of several files to get them to apply.

M021FIX.TXT
Warning, source file different at $: this fixes both to be 400.
Warning, source file different at $90
Warning, source file different at $01
--
M025FEAT.TXT
Warning, source file different at $: Special : 2->1
--
W147FEAT.TXT
Warning, source file different at $95A33
Warning, source file different at $95A34
--
W162FEAT.TXT
Warning, source file different at $9D31B
--
W181AI.TXT
Warning, source file different at $BB8A1

I don't think the following patches are suitable to include in a general release:

7 - Let people use exploits if they want to
11, 39, 137 - Only necessary for mods
26 - I'm fine with the default number of towns
34 - Too big a change for what purports to be a fix, not a mod
49 - This may be a bug, but really big scouting range changes the game a lot
87 - Agreed with your reasoning
209 - Debugging only

I've applied all the rest of the patches and am about to start playing some games. I'll let you know how they go.

[Seravy]

21 : Yea it's a ":" instead of a ";" fixed.
25 : same thing
147 : somehow the contents were from another file, fixed
162 : first entry is duplicate from previous file, fixed
181 : the source byte was wrong, fixed

49 : this should only change the DISPLAYED amount of scouting, not how much the units actually have.

So Scouting II units will show up as Scouting I, and Scouting III will show up as Scouting II. Higher values don't exist without modding on any unit.

[spottedshroom]

The "flying units avoid combat" change seems a little bit wonky. I just had some rampaging monsters attack one of my cities, and while the hell hounds and fire elemental charged in, the gargoyles just stood back. I ended up just waiting the combat out.

Also, magic ranged attack heroes have a "shots x0" power left over from CoM, although their actual mechanics work fine.

[Seravy]

The "flying units avoid combat" change seems a little bit wonky. I just had some rampaging monsters attack one of my cities, and while the hell hounds and fire elemental charged in, the gargoyles just stood back. I ended up just waiting the combat out.

Also, magic ranged attack heroes have a "shots x0" power left over from CoM, although their actual mechanics work fine.

Didn't think of that, yea if you can cast from MP you will see the 0 shots because you still have a ranged attack and it's without ammo. Maybe it's better to leave that display option out then, and just keep the one that shows it in the small unit status window.

The gargoyles saw they are outnumbered and decided not to waste their lives, that makes sense I believe.

[spottedshroom]

The gargoyles saw they are outnumbered and decided not to waste their lives, that makes sense I believe.

Okay, maybe. But what about this: Ariel attacked a city of mine defended by two paladins with two griffins. They didn't advance, but just waited for the clock to run out. The next turn they did it again. And again. Finally after Ariel dropped Lionheart on both of them, they decided the battle was worth fighting and advanced, only to quit fighting as soon as they'd taken some damage.

[Seravy]

The gargoyles saw they are outnumbered and decided not to waste their lives, that makes sense I believe.

Okay, maybe. But what about this: Ariel attacked a city of mine defended by two paladins with two griffins. They didn't advance, but just waited for the clock to run out. Seems buggy to me.

Well, Paladins are at least 2x as strong as Griffons, double figures, same abilities, roughly identical stats, and as far as I remember, I made Magic Immunity rate quite high because it's such a gamebreaking ability. Unfortunately I can't add something as detailed as considering the attacks available when rating immunities, and Magic Immunity does make the unit invincible to a whole lot of attack types, as well as spells. If it was Doom Drakes not Griffons their Fire Breath would have no effect for example.

Normally the AI would just nuke your units in this situation or summon more of their own, but Paladins are immune and Ariel plays Life so has neither. In any other case, this would have helped the AI a lot, unless you nuke the Griffins yourself, spells can freely kill your defenders and you can't do a thing. Like all AI tactics, this isn't foolproof either, but it did not do her any harm, did it?

In fact, if they took more damage even when buffed and had to stop attacking because the power balance shifted in favor of the Paladins, it shows that without buffs, the battle would have been hopeless, the Griffons would have gotten slaughtered. If only she had the skill to cast two lionhearts to keep fighting, or a healing on the injured griffons, she could have kept fighting.

Unfortunately the overland and the combat unit ratings are not identical, what seems ok to attack in overland, might not in combat, as a lot of effects don't apply overland (including the Holy Bonus of paladins), or aren't the part of the calculation there (like Magic Immunity). I can't do much about this, unless I recode the entire overland calculation to create a battle unit, apply effects, and then call the battle calculation procedure...if that would even work.

Removing the fine details from the combat unit ratings would reduce the chance of a battle being in favor of the AI in the overland view but against them in actual combat, but that would really dumb down the combat AI.

Magic Immunity might be overrated, though, let me see...+100% to the value of the unit. Okay that might be a bit too much for something that's only relevant in half the battles.

I'll update file 208 to rate Magic Immunity a bit lower.
...updated!

[Seravy]

Added new file : W253FIX.TXT : fixes Evil Presence effect not being shown on cathedrals.