Master of Myrror Fantasy Mod 2.0

[Drift]

...thematically sound and well designed, which guarantees unique game experiences over and over again. It's hard to think of reasons for not playing it. - Pelit Magazine (145 000 readers)

News - August 17th: Master of Myrror II - The Fall of Arcanus officially bogged down. Current estimate is that it may be done before Christmas. Maybe.
News - May 10th: Master of Myrror II - The Fall of Arcanus officially announced. Read more here.
News - February 24th: Patch 2 released for Beta 3 of Master of Myrror 2.0.
News - February 22nd: The wait is over, Beta 3 of Master of Myrror 2.0 released!
News - January 27th: Clearbead has made an expansion to Master of Myrror called Sorcerors. Check it out here.



Downloads:

Master of Myrror requires Conquests add-on and it cannot be played with regular Civ3 or Play the World. Make sure you are running Conquests 1.22

Master of Myrror 1.0 (166MB)

• This is a self-extracting archive. Execute it, browse for Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\ and hit "install".
• After you've installed the mod, just choose "civ-content" from Conquest main menu and select Master of Myrror.biq

Master of Myrror 1.01 patch (0.4MB).

• Extract to Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\ and overwrite existing files.
• This patch requires that you have installed MoM 1.0 first

Master of Myrror 2.0 BETA Downloads:

Master of Myrror 2.0 Beta 3 (61MB)

• Before installing, make sure you have Master of Myrror 1.0 or 1.01 installed.
• This is a self-extracting archive. Execute it, browse for Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\ and hit "install". Overwrite existing files.
• IMPORTANT: After installing, also install the latest patch. Simply unzip to Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\
• After you've installed the mod, just choose "civ-content" from Conquest main menu and select Master of Myrror.biq
• Note: this is a beta version, not finished 2.0. There will be changes to it in the future and there may be some bugs or problems left.

Optional downloads:

Lighter Terrain Update Part 1 (2.1MB) and Part 2 (2.3MB)

• Before installing, consider backing up
  Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\MoM\Art\Terrain\
  Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\MoM\Art\Cities\
  Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\MoM\Art\resources.pcx
• Extract both packages to Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\ and overwrite existing files.
• Note: these graphics are included by default in the 2.0 beta.
• Preview:
  

MoM title screen

• Backup x_title.pcx in Civ3\Conquests\Art\ and replace it with the one in the package
• Preview:
  

Mod overview


Here's a great overview of the mod made by GIDustin.

Master of Myrror is based loosely on a classic computer game Master of Magic by SimTex. It’s by no means a remake or even a Master of Magic mod. They share a lot, but have even more differences. Don’t expect to relive Master of Magic. Expect an excellent fantasy mod for Civilizaton 3.

The mod isn’t in competition with Warhammer Fantasy Mod. The two of them both deal with fantasy but they are so different that you shouldn’t really consider making a choice between the two - get both of them!

Master of Myrror revolves around wars over resources that include the four types of magic and eight different race resources that each give you access to new unit lines. Each of these unit lines has its own strength. For example, you may want to step carefully around the mage with trolls. Or you probably shouldn’t start a naval war against the mage with men and their longships. The race resource system makes each game a new experience as you can never know what you are going to get as the resources are very rare - usually just one of each on the map.

The twelve mages are divided into four factions - chaos, death, life and nature. Each has their own units, strengths and weaknesses. You will have to adapt your playing style for different mages and you will find them to be very different opponents as well.

Mod uses ~130 custom units and I’ve maintained high requirements for their quality. 10 of the 12 leaderheads are fan made and just like with the units, I’ve accepted only the best graphics for them. Terrain graphics are done originally by Snoopy, but I’ve given them a new, twilight look that fits the magical dimension of Myrror spot on. Mod’s texts have been edited for large part, but there is always room for improvement in this matter. Rest assured, civilopedia contains all the information you need and some more, science advisor talks about the techs of the mod and so on.

The response the mod has caused during beta testing has been practically 100% positive. I’ve yet to receive any negative criticism about the mod in whole apart from not everyone liking the fantasy setting. I encourage you to step aboard. Even if you are already familiar with the mod from some of its early beta versions and wasn’t hooked back then, I strongly suggest you to try again. A lot has changed since then and I feel the mod has really grown to maturity during our beta testing.

Mages of Myrror:




Units of the mod:

Units available through different race resources:


Units of the life mages:


Units of the death mages:


Units of the chaos mages:


Units of the nature mages:

[Drift]

In-game screenshots:

[Drift]

Alright. Beta is posted and now I leave the stage to you people for a while. Play the mod and tell me what you think. I especially need information about how the mod actually plays, how's the balance and what kind of problems you encounter. I myself have got some serious studying to do this week so I'll be following this thread, but I don't have time for extensive developing. Besides, I want to give this current version some time before changing it too much.

I hope to hear from you all. Feel free to use this thread as a feedback and discussion forum. And don't hesitate to ask if you have a question. I'm happy to answer.

[Yoda Power]

I'll see if I can fit some time in between testing The Persian Empire scenario and the Warhammer mod, 'cause this looks awesome

[aaglo]

Damn!
I see sleep deprivation in my future....

[tjedge1]

Me too. I'll try and get to playtesting for you. It sure looks nice.

uhm, I was 78th in line so I backed out. A 20 minute wait? Wow you have a few testers I think.

[Drift]

The queue isn't just for my files. Unfortunately.

I'm a bit sorry about not getting the files on CFC file server. It's a new site policy - large mods (>100megs) go to 3D Downloads. But I really shouldn't complain. Someone who is willing to host over 170 megs for me deserves my eternal gratitude.

[Drift]

I just realized that I had posted wrong information about where the base install should be extracted. It should be extracted to Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\

I hope nobody extracted it to Civ3\Conquests\

Sorry about the trouble.

[Nibble]

Drift,
First off, let met say that all the hard work you put int this mod was well worth it.

The DL wait was rather long, but no problems were encountered. I did install the mod into ...Civilization III\Conquests\Scenarios.

I played about 50 turns with everything set to random on a huge map (Ijust like very large maps). No unit errors were encountered and game play brought me back (way back) to my days of playing the original Master Of Magic game. Your mod manages to pull that off rather nicely.

The only complaint I have is that the overall graphics pallet is way too dark. This is just my opinion but much of the map details are missed because of the dark pallet. The tile sets are fine, just too dark.

I will continue to play this mod and report any problems to this forum.

[Drift]

Nice to hear you like it.

The darkness is bit of a problem. I can make it lighter, but the terrain will lose some of the twilight theme that I'm quite fond of. I personally have grown used to it, but then again, I'm in Finland and it's winter. Problem is naturally heightened if it's bright outside.

I'll test brighter terrains. In the meantime, if it's too dark, all I can unfortunately suggest is cranking up monitor brightness.

[Gogf]

You finished (well, finished the beta)! Looks great Drift!

[Nibble]

Yes, even if you can lighten it up a tad, that would be great, especily for these 50 plus year old eyeballs!.

[Thorgrimm]

Drift as soon as i can dl it from 3d downloads i will most definitely playtest it. Just one question, from your preview pics, there are no high level life units, is that because you do not have the art for the angels and archangels, or are you not going to use them?

Oh BTW my mod was 185 mb's and CDG was more than happy to host it. Just fyi, as all my times at 3d dl's as been more than an hour, which from my experience would mean at least a 2 hour wait.


Cheers Thorgrimm

[Drift]

Life mages do have high level units that compare, it's just that I don't have as much units for them yet so they have less units overall. However, it could be true that they have slightly weaker units than other factions - on the other hand, their units are relatively cheap. If new fitting units are made, I'll probably rearrange the unit order a bit. I'm requesting at the moment angels and a unicorn. Pegasi cavalry wouldn't be bad also. I believe someone offered to do some pegasi for tjedge, don't know what came out of it.

CDG offered to host the mod. I said "maybe later" as I didn't think I would need my own forums and two download sites for betatesting. However, this 3D Downloads thing has changed matters a bit. I'll look into it.

[Thorgrimm]

As i am most assuredly looking forward to testing it, as i liked the game it was based on very much.


Cheers Thorgrim

[The Last Conformist]

When I try to DL the thing, I get ads pages from UGO?

[Drift]

@TLC

I'm not sure what you mean. The download is hosted by 3D Downloads that is UGO related if I've understood correctly. It's a download service Thunderfall has started using for large downloads.

There should be a download link in the lower right portion of the pages. During your queueing, there's also an ad-window open.

Hope this helps.

[The Last Conformist]

Ah, thanks.

Since the links say things like "...MoM.rar", I figured they went directly to the goodies, so I right-clicked and chose "save target", which just got me those ad-filled pages on my HD.

Currently #118 and #123 in the queues ...

[tjedge1]

Originally posted by Drift
Pegasi cavalry wouldn't be bad also. I believe someone offered to do some pegasi for tjedge, don't know what came out of it.

I'd like to know what came of that myself. The offering person had said they would try several things including rocs and leviathons also, but they haven't been around since December I think. The last I checked, I've just assumed he doesn't plan to do them now. That happens. I just hope my Gnolls don't fall through Those are my real babies.

Originally posted by Drift
CDG offered to host the mod. I said "maybe later" as I didn't think I would need my own forums and two download sites for betatesting. However, this 3D Downloads thing has changed matters a bit. I'll look into it.

CDG is a better place. That's where I think I will have my my mod downloadable from. They allow a great amount of space for large mods, like mine, which will be pretty intimidating to those with dial-up. And it is also free. I'm looking into their offers as well. I noticed War Hammer mod may be moved there as well.

[Drift]

Originally posted by tjedge1
CDG is a better place. That's where I think I will have my my mod downloadable from. They allow a great amount of space for large mods, like mine, which will be pretty intimidating to those with dial-up. And it is also free. I'm looking into their offers as well. I noticed War Hammer mod may be moved there as well.

I will always keep a version of my mod at Civfanatics. I love this place, but the 3D downloads thing is becoming something of a problem for large mods. I am naturally eternally grateful about my files being hosted, but the queues and download rates at 3DD are pretty bad. I can understand people being frustrated with them.