Many of you are already be aware but Slitherine obtained the rights for Master of Magic last summer. You might already know that they're including the -previously unofficial- patch in the official release, but I haven't talked about Caster of Magic.
So Caster of Magic will be available for sale on Steam, GoG, and Slitherine's website starting today!
While that means you can't download it for free anymore, I hoping this money will ensure I'll be able to continue developing Caster of Magic in the future no matter what happens, and ideally, produce proper source code for it as a next step in development. As you already know, Caster of Magic was developed entirely by hacking the executable files as no one has the source code for the game anymore. While I was able to get very far using the current approach, at this time the really important missing features - enabling more than 4 enemy wizards in the game for example, or adding new content without having to remove the same amount of existing stuff - will require source code. That said, this is a plan for the future, and as long as possible I will keep patching the current Caster of Magic.
Obviously, the optional anime portraits won't be included, those remain available for download from my website separately, and of course, you need to own the game first to use it.
The Master of Magic patch is now version number 1.52 and will be part of the official release of the game, which is also available on Steam and Slitherine's website starting today, in addition to the existing GoG version. The contents are similar to the 1.51 patch but any included change originating from me or Kyrub's Insecticide that changed gameplay is removed and now available as optional patches, so you don't have to worry about that anymore. Lots of thanks to Drake158 for his help in making that possible!
https://www.gog.com/game/master_of_magic...r_of_magic
WARNING!
Different versions are not compatible. If you own the game on GOG, you have to buy the DLC on GoG as well. Same applies to Steam and Slitherine own website. This is especially important as it was reported it is possible to buy the DLC without the base game there but it's not possible to install it that way anyway.
Nonetheless, the usual changelog for the new version :
So Caster of Magic will be available for sale on Steam, GoG, and Slitherine's website starting today!
While that means you can't download it for free anymore, I hoping this money will ensure I'll be able to continue developing Caster of Magic in the future no matter what happens, and ideally, produce proper source code for it as a next step in development. As you already know, Caster of Magic was developed entirely by hacking the executable files as no one has the source code for the game anymore. While I was able to get very far using the current approach, at this time the really important missing features - enabling more than 4 enemy wizards in the game for example, or adding new content without having to remove the same amount of existing stuff - will require source code. That said, this is a plan for the future, and as long as possible I will keep patching the current Caster of Magic.
Obviously, the optional anime portraits won't be included, those remain available for download from my website separately, and of course, you need to own the game first to use it.
The Master of Magic patch is now version number 1.52 and will be part of the official release of the game, which is also available on Steam and Slitherine's website starting today, in addition to the existing GoG version. The contents are similar to the 1.51 patch but any included change originating from me or Kyrub's Insecticide that changed gameplay is removed and now available as optional patches, so you don't have to worry about that anymore. Lots of thanks to Drake158 for his help in making that possible!
https://www.gog.com/game/master_of_magic...r_of_magic
WARNING!
Different versions are not compatible. If you own the game on GOG, you have to buy the DLC on GoG as well. Same applies to Steam and Slitherine own website. This is especially important as it was reported it is possible to buy the DLC without the base game there but it's not possible to install it that way anyway.
Nonetheless, the usual changelog for the new version :
Quote:6.0
-Fixed bug : when fleeing from a combat with only combat summoned units remaining, the “while fleeing you lost” message contains invalid text.
-Earliest turn for rampaging monsters is now turn 32 instead of 25
-Changed rampaging monster total stack strength formula : (Turn+2*Difficulty-16)*(2+Difficulty) became (Turn+Difficulty-16)*(2+Difficulty)
-Changed strongest rampaging monster allowed formula : Turn*(Difficulty+2)+90 became Turn*(Difficulty+2)+60
-The AI will not research Plane Shift before turn 160. (Note, it isn't usually possible but on the highest levels of difficulty, a Sage Master/Theurgist AI can get it a lot earlier than this, especially if they have low book counts)
-Expert difficulty AI population and gold bonus decreases by 10%.
-Master difficulty AI population, production and gold bonus decreases by 10%, magic power increases by 10%.
-Lunatic difficulty AI population bonus decreases by 10%, Gold and Production by 25%.
-Added “Difficulty” section with the full difficulty effect table into the document between AI and Known Bugs
-Fixed bug : AI ship to land attacks fail to recognize empty cities as valid targets, as they see it as a tile that's occupied but has no enemies ->must be friendly.
-Fixed bug : Engineers sometimes move for 0.5 to the next tile while building a road instead of 1.
-Fixed bug : Tactician increases chance of AI wizards picking Lawful as their objective.
-Cult Leader now increases the chance of AI wizards being Lawful.
-Astrologer now increases the chance of AI wizards being Lawful.
-Conjurer now increases the chance of AI wizards being Aggressive.
-Fixed bug : Exorcise item and unit ability ignores Spell Lock.
-Mystic Surge's “enemy To Def reduced by 1” effect now applies to all attack types instead of being limited to melee, thrown and missile.
-Default second guaranteed uncommon sorcery spell pick for human players changed to Water Elemental from AEther Binding. (having the only uncommon create spell, now that the realm has one, is a more useful and interesting option for new players than a raw advantage of more casting skill.)
-Default first guaranteed uncommon chaos spell pick for human players changed to Chaos Channels from Fire Storm.
-Fixed bug : on the magic screen, the displayed remaining turns for researching Spell of Mastery is wrong.
-Immolation will now deal 4 damage per turn to Web, making it disappear faster.
-Fixed bug : wizard customization can't be reset after spell selection if there was nothing to choose. (by Drake178)
-Fixes bug: small islands are often smaller than intended (By Drake178)
-Fixed bug : Nature and Sorcery nodes were considered as an incorrect amount of food when placing capitals (unfortunately, rivers are still not considered as they are generated several steps after cities are.)
-Fixed bug : when saving and reloading while a unit is being transported, it might sometimes become unable to continue moving.
-Floating Island now costs 45 mana but cannot move the turn it was summoned.
-Fixed bug : AI casts Floating Island on a tile that has enemy units
-Fixed bug : AI casts Floating Island on a tile that has 9 units already
-The AI will now cast Floating Island at these targets in this order of priority :
1. The first “Ship necessary” place on the plane opposite of their fortress that existed the previous turn.
2. The same thing on their own plane
3. The closest valid sea tile to their fortress on their home plane.
This completely replaces old targeting which was random adjacent tile next to random town the wizard owns. This makes the AI able to summon Floating Islands on planes where they have no cities yet, allowing their units stuck on small tower islands to leave, and in genereal, reduces the time they waste by not summoning it where it was needed.
-The AI will have additional chance to cast Floating Island if “1.” on the previous list exists, even if it wouldn't cast it at all otherwise as it has enough ships on their home plane. (target validity is not checked here though so it might end up being cast elsewhere if the tile was taken between the turns.)
-Fixed bug : Outpost growth calculation used (maxpop+10)*2 as the maxpop value resulting in much higher growth and less shrinking than intended.
-Increased Guardian Spirit rampaging monster value (40->55) to make them appear in smaller groups on low difficulties.
-Invisibility now costs 6 to maintain instead of 4.
-The AI is now required to cast at least 70 other spells before attempting to cast Spell of Mastery again after a failed attempt.
-When banishing wizards, spells will be found only the first time that wizard is being banished by that player. Banishing the wizard any further times will not yield spells. (If you want to get more spells out of a player, use the intended channels to do so, trade or threaten the wizard. This change should allow players to concentrate fully on their strategy instead of having to take the number of times they banish each opponsnt into considersation.)
-Carrack now looks slightly different from a Galley to make it easier to recognize.
-Fixed bug : AI sometimes sends stacks from/to the wrong plane with Plane Shift
-Orc Hordes gain 1 defense and 1 resistance.
-Minotaurs gain 1 defense.
6.01
-Fixed bug : predefined items with Invisibility or Invulnerability can't be generated even beyond the intended turn of 100. (note, this did not affect random generated items, those could have had these item powers on them.)
-On Normal and Easy difficulty, the AI will engage enemies in melee with ranged units that run out of ammo, even if their attack strength is low.
-On Fair difficulty, Neutral enemies will not try to use any of the stalling tactics.
-Fixed bug : Attempting to cast Holy Weapon when Holy Arms is in effect fails to display the correct warning message and might cause the game to crash.
-Fixed bug : Moving units with the keyboard bypasses the planar check.
-Map generation continent size is now more accurate and continent generation is faster. (thanks, Drake178!)
-Fixed 5.7 bug : game sometimes crashes or corrupts memory when AI is trying to flee.
-The AI will no longer flee from battles where all their remaining units are Confused and switched sides for the turn.
-On Easy difficulty, enemy wizards are now forbidden from being Chaotic personality in addition to the previous restrictions.
-Overland spells now have a Counter-resistance vs Nightshade equal to their base cost. Cost modifiers (such as Evil Omens or Specialist) will not alter the success rate.
-Overhauled the “base cost” vs “effective cost” handling for overland spells. This fixes the bug of incorrect Spell Blast costs during Evil Omens. Spells that use the spell slider : Disenchant Area, Disjunction and Dispelling Wave are excluded from this fix : Their slider cost still affects the dispelling power and the other cost modifiers still do not. Yes, this means Spell Blast might still counter these for a negative cost during Evil Omens, that can't be helped.
-Added a FAQ section to the document.
-Fixed bug : Towers are sometimes generated too close to the X edges of the map, especially on smaller maps.
-The frequency of generated rampaging monsters is now scaled down if player count is lower than 4 to compensate for having fewer players the monsters can attack.
-Overexpansion warnings will never trigger below 5 cities even if it's the early game on smaller landmass sizes.
-Fixed bug : The AI casts Dispelling Wave against Wall of Shadows when they are defending instead of when they are attacking.
![[Image: BGx3xEC.gif]](http://i.imgur.com/BGx3xEC.gif)
