Master of Magic

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:39 pm

GOG releases it tomorrow for $6. It will be interesting to see if it holds up. For me, it's not the money but a matter of having the time to play it.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:53 pm

tgb wrote:GOG releases it tomorrow for $6. It will be interesting to see if it holds up. For me, it's not the money but a matter of having the time to play it.

If it works, it's still alright. The computer AI will suck as bad as it ever did. The graphics are horrid but horrid graphics don't bother me in the least. Give it another five years and they may even give you a retro warmth feel.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 4:06 pm

Oh, I'm definitely going to have to pick this up. Yeah the graphics will be dated and the AI can't keep up, but it's still such a fun game.

There was also a couple pretty broken builds - if you took all life books and picked "Avatar" as your starting rare spell, or took all death books and picked "Wraiths" as your starting rare spell, the AI really couldn't to anything to stop you. You just built up your mana and as soon as you could summon the Avatar or a Wraith unit none of the AI units at that point could compete.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 4:38 pm

I'd get it, but I already own a copy, and have this magical thing called "DosBox".

But thanks for reminding me. That game was tons of fun - sure, the AI blew chunks, but it had that mix of grand strategy and tactical battles that I'm a huge fan of.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 4:41 pm

There was also one hero, a female archer, who could be souped up with speed-related stuff that allowed her to outrun the node nasties and take them all out single-handedly.

I really have no desire to play the old game ever again. I would love to see a refined, rebalanced version with a Civ 4-quality AI, though.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 9:48 pm

While I already have it, I'll be getting this to vote my $6 toward getting more sweet stuff like this in the future.

Greybriar · Post by **Greybriar** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 10:33 pm

I've been playing Master of Magic on my Vista machine using DOSBox, which is what GoG will be selling tomorrow AFAIK. If I didn't already own it or if I couldn't get it to run I would definitely pay $6 for it even if it is dated. MoM is a classic and has features that put many of the games being released today to shame. I feel that anyone who has never played MoM should give it a try. And that's my 2¢ worth.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:07 pm

Six bucks for my favorite game ever?

Sold!

Avenger · Post by **Avenger** » Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:15 pm

I played MOM and MOO2 for years. They were really that good.

EDIT: I went to see if I still had these. When I was spending every morning reading Gone Gold, I was still playing Moo2. Sadly I no longer have these games. I guess they got thrown out in the move.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:09 am

It's up there RIGHT NOW!

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:42 pm

Quick, somebody buy it and verify it works with Win7.

EDIT: Downloading now.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:51 pm

Playing now in a teeny tiny window.

EDIT: and I just lost my capital.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:18 pm

Exodor wrote:Playing now in a teeny tiny window.

EDIT: and I just lost my capital.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:06 pm

What the hell. For $6 I bought it, and started a game. It's still ugly as sin, but the gameplay is as great as I remember.

Doomboy · Post by **Doomboy** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:06 pm

I had forgotten just how unforgiving this game could be. I better dig out my manuals and try to figure out how to play again. Jeez.

Finalgenesis · Post by **Finalgenesis** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:43 pm

Definitely one of my all time favorite, I was really sorry to see Microprose go seeing how they made some of my all time favorites (MOO 2, MoM, Civilization!).
Truly unfortune how MOO series was destroyed by *shall not be named* through MOO3 ...

I believe there was a fan patch that ups the AI a little (not enough...) and fixed some bugs for MoM, it should still be floating around somewhere...

Cheat: Paladins!

What starting perks / race do you usually pick?

Bakhtosh · Post by **Bakhtosh** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:48 pm

I liked the node mastery perk - you got a lot of mana and the node fights were much easier, so you could claim them earlier. Your life & death spells sucked tho...

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:13 am

It depends. As I mentioned before the most "broken" builds versus the AI was just to take 11 life or death books, and then either take Avatar or Wraiths as your starting spell. Just save up your mana until you can cast it, and then you basically win. Starting units just can't take either the avatar or wraiths. But that's not all that fun (except that it's fun to run around with huge armies of undead halflings created by the Wraiths).

Out of my serious builds, I preferred to take the perk where you start in the alternate universe (can't remember what it's called); at that point I usually took the draganoid race, though the dark elves were pretty cool as well. There's some very cool stuff in the alternate world, and the starting races are generally more powerful. Plus the AIs usually didn't start there, so you could expand and then invade the main universe at your leasure.

Finalgenesis · Post by **Finalgenesis** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:17 am

Myrran I think? I always want to take that but 3 perk cost always deter me >.<

I'm a fan of the Warlord perk, even though I rarely take it.

Soulsbayne · Post by **Soulsbayne** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:58 am

Myrran > Dark Elves > Nightmares FTW

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 11:15 am

Soulsbayne wrote:Myrran > Dark Elves > Nightmares FTW

Yeah, the Dark Elves definitely rocked (and it didn't hurt that all of their units got a ranged magic attack, too).

The reason I usually went with the dragonoids was: (1) early on you get their dragon-mount cavalry, which are pretty good; and (2) all of their units fly, including their settlers, which makes expansion easy.

And Myrran was definitely worth the 3 perks. Though it would be more interesting in a multiplayer game where more than 1 person might take Myrran (if everyone but 1 person took Myrran, for example, that could be a big edge for the person in the main world.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:03 pm

The best part about the dark elves was that they generate mana in addition to gold. So if you're big on spellcasting, then dark elves were the way to go.

The other great part about starting in Myrror was the magic roads which didn't cost anything to move on, so if you invested in engineers, you could move armies between cities extremely quickly.

Finalgenesis · Post by **Finalgenesis** » Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:32 pm

Dark Elves are definitely nice, their abilities are many and very thematic, big thumbs up on that.

A complain I have in general is that a lot of races are gimped as their build tech and they just can't compete. I mean I'd love to play gimped races like troll, klackons or lizardmen more for variety sake, but they play like an incomplete race. It's like, you tech up to the mud hut and your maxed out on the building tree. Engineers, mech towers, war college, merchant guild and so on is just so damn powerful, races that can only build up to mud huts plays like stone age savages in contrast.

Add to the fact that top tier buildable units for the races just seem so imbalanced, Klackons get.... a stag beetle (or was that lizardmen?) as their top tier unique unit, the dark elves gets nightmare, invisible blade whose name I can't remember, doom bolt warlocks (EVIL) and all magic troops. You know something is wrong when stag beetles goes down to a paladin or elven lord without taking out a single figure ...

I just end up using elves, humans the most and sometimes going for dwarfs, dark elves, and maybe nomads and halfings for variety sake.

I love the game and I wish it was easily moddable

Seppe · Post by **Seppe** » Thu Apr 29, 2010 11:30 pm

dwarf hammerhands are good. A couple buffs and they take down most things. Take alchemy so you can freely trade gold for mana.

Of course the halfling slingers can destroy things. plus they get a food bonus.

That is part of the fun of the game, that the races are not balanced. You want a challenge play klackon.

The trolls arent too bad with their regenerating. The war trolls are good, but their calvary - they had calvary right? - wasnt worth it.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Apr 30, 2010 8:52 am

I was a fan of the trolls and the baby dragon races.

Regeneration could be huge early game.

It's crazy that you guys remember all those bonuses after all these years.

Lagom Lite · Post by **Lagom Lite** » Fri Apr 30, 2010 9:29 am

Thanks for the tip! Replaying now.

Klackons? They're great! They get 3 hammers per worker instead of 2. Why build sissy stuff like universities when you can recruit throngs of weak infantry (and then raise them from the dead)?

Greybriar · Post by **Greybriar** » Fri Apr 30, 2010 12:21 pm

Here's a little tip that I thought I would share with everyone: Always leave one slot open in your army when you attack a ruin. Sometimes you'll free a hero and s/he will offer to join your army. But if you don't have room for the hero, the event won't fire. And it's a random hero. If you reload the game and attack the ruin again, you may find a different hero if you win the fight.

Finalgenesis · Post by **Finalgenesis** » Fri Apr 30, 2010 1:06 pm

Klackon's build bonus is nice early game, but in the long run other teams that get mech guild / merchant guild / wizard tower / war college just blows it all away. Mech guild alone counters out the production bonus from klackon (or close to it).

I agree with the challenge bit though, I use weaker race like halfings or nomads when I want a little more challenge (though with the AI as it is, you could win with any race easily). Though i wish there is just abit more for the Stone Age races, no wizard (and maybe priest), no engineer and no viable top tier unit really turns me off sometimes.

weaker teams like nomad or halfings at least have berserkers / slingers that is actually decent, whereas teams like klackon and lizardmen is just meh. Maybe thats just my preference for variety and elite forces over homogeneous swarm (which fits the klackon theme well i suppose)

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Fri Apr 30, 2010 10:39 pm

I just picked this up. I totally forgot about the starting clip!

"Old man, you seek the spell of mastery!"

"You are already too late..."

Definitely before the days of Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man, that's for sure.

Hrnac · Post by **Hrnac** » Sat May 01, 2010 12:15 am

After reading about MoM, I promptly caved and snagged it tonight. It is nice to have an old favorite back again.

-Hrnac

Natus · Post by **Natus** » Sat May 01, 2010 11:23 pm

Greetings! If we are giving tips, are there also any guides online anyone could suggest? After hearing all the praise I bought a copy, but I have really no idea what I am doing. I can spend many I'm sure pleasant hours finding out, but time is in short supply and I could use a hand.

Thanks!

Avenger · Post by **Avenger** » Sat May 01, 2010 11:25 pm

you can get a pdf of the original 478 page Alan Emrich Prima strategy guide here:

http://www.machinations.org/mom/downloads.php" target="_blank

I don't know about the legality of hosting such a file but the site seems legit enough. That being said I will delete the above link if required.

Baroquen · Post by **Baroquen** » Sun May 02, 2010 12:08 am

And GameFaqs has a strat guide up too.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin ... 64960/2059

Natus · Post by **Natus** » Mon May 03, 2010 9:20 am

Thanks, both!!

JonathanStrange · Post by **JonathanStrange** » Mon May 03, 2010 4:20 pm

Ahh, if we had world enough and time...

Mr. Fed · Post by **Mr. Fed** » Mon May 24, 2010 8:28 pm

Bought it from GoG. Love this game so much.

Finalgenesis · Post by **Finalgenesis** » Mon May 24, 2010 11:02 pm

If only it was easily moddable ...

Hrnac · Post by **Hrnac** » Tue May 25, 2010 3:12 pm

Finalgenesis wrote:If only it was easily moddable ...

There is MoM work being done these days. Check out this site:

http://www.dragonsword.com/

-Hrnac

Finalgenesis · Post by **Finalgenesis** » Tue May 25, 2010 9:51 pm

Good stuff thanks! Damn I might actually have to play it again after some editing...

humorguy · Post by **humorguy** » Sat Oct 09, 2010 12:23 pm

GOG always reminds me to play my original games and tells me about mods, and the threads help me with strategy! It's like a free service for a game if you already have it, and I have over 350 PC games from pre 2005!