Master of Myrror Fantasy Mod 2.0

[The Last Conformist]

Is my memory playing a trick on me, or was Mordja a demon in the Belgariad?

 

[Drift]

Originally posted by The Last Conformist
Is my memory playing a trick on me, or was Mordja a demon in the Belgariad?

Yep.

Man, it's been quite a few years since I read those series. I know they don't do it for me anymore, but they hold certain nostalgy value. I was thinking of a name for the mage "something death related... muerte... mor.... Mordja." I guess it was one of the more memorable parts of the series. (and the name's kinda cool)

 

[The Last Conformist]

I greatly enjoyed the Belgariad and the Malloreon at age thirteen or so. I read the entirety of both series twice within a year. But I'm afraid they don't do it for me either anymore, and I'm starting to get seriously rusty on names and the like.

I've read too little good fantasy lately. China Miélville's The Scar was heartily recommended to me, but I didn't find quite all it's been cracked up to be. Going for something lighter, I started on Mary Gentle's Grunts today - we'll see if the fantasy/comedy combo works well.

 

[mrtn]

Grunts is weird, as it changes direction a couple of times during the course of the story, it's highly mutagenic...

I can highly recommend Steven Brust's books about Vlad Taltos, about a human assassin/(male)witch working as a second class citizen in a world of elves... The first book is called Jhereg, named after Vlad's very sarcastic flying reptilian familiar. It's a very interesting and original fantasy world.

Drift, sorry for going on off topic, but The Last Conformist started.

 

[lord42]

Wow I've found other people who've read Grunts....
I love the way that it mocks hack and slash fantasy and sci fi.
It uses parodies all the idiotic cliches like the last battle and the always male dark lord. Great stuff if you can find it.

 

[The Last Conformist]

mrtn: Hey!, it's all Drift's fault for chosing the name Mordja!

 

[Drift]

Never heard of those books. All I'm waiting for is Martin's A Feast for Crows.


In other news...

Beta patch 8 (27MB)

Extract to Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\ after installing the mod. Overwrite existing files.

Changelist:
- Leaders have been reworked. 1 new fan made leader, 3 Firaxis leaders and some shuffling of old leaders
- Civ traits have been reworked
- Couple of new units like Wyvern Riders (chaos), Scouts (expansionist mages), Doom Drakes (wonder produced) and new, greatly improved graphics for a number of units.
- Balance changes.
- New wonder Drake Mastery
- Graphical improvements
- Resources have been reworked
- Some additions to mod's texts.
- And probably some other stuff I've missed.

Suffice to say that this patch is a big change for MoM. It's also going to be the base patch for the mod for some time. Unless some really crucial units are made, I'll release only small patches addressing balance issues. As summer draws nearer, I'm getting more busy so I don't have the time to work with the mod.

BTW. This patch includes the new terrain graphics released earlier. I'm sorry for making some of you download them again, but I wanted to lessen the amount of downloads for new players.

 

[lord42]

Feast of crows is what I'm waiting for too lol. Martin is very good, better then Tolkien in my opinion. Only writer that I've ever seen use sex in a constructive manner for the plot. And he kills major characters woohoo!

Also I was playing the version before this patch and the necromancy small wonder kept bombing it the turn after it was built..

 

[Drift]

Originally posted by lord42
Also I was playing the version before this patch and the necromancy small wonder kept bombing it the turn after it was built..

Beta 8 fixes this. The patch has been so long in the works that I've lost track of what I've fixed in which patch.

 

[michellembrodeu]

I think this is an error. I have the latest before you new patch.
Going to download the new one now.

The protector (fighter, sword and shield) upgrades to a scorceror.

Spelled that wrong I bet.

why does a fighter become a magic user in upgrade?

thanks and great game

 

[Drift]

Originally posted by michellembrodeu
why does a fighter become a magic user in upgrade?

Because the wizard uses his great powers to bless Protector with spellcasting abilitites.

Seriously. There are loads of this kind of upgrade chains that defy logic in MoM. The reason for example why Protector and Sorcerer are in the same upgrade chain is that
a) they are both mainly defensive units
b) I don't like units that don't upgrade

Just think of upgrading as transmutating units into new ones.

 

[Drift]

Just letting people know that I'm myself too busy at the moment to test the mod, so I'm relying on you people now as I would naturally like to get out of beta as soon as possible. I could've as well named Beta 8 MoM 1.0, but I wanted to make sure it's bug free. I believe we have rooted out at least 99% of the bugs, but I don't want a single one in the finished product. Also, I want the mod's features to be as balanced as possible.

Therefore, if you play the mod, please give some feedback in this thread. It will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Semulin]

I'm going to try this out over the weekend, can you give some "for dummies" instructions to instaling this mod? I've never used a mod and have no idea how to make it work but this looks too fun to pass up!

Thanks,
Sem

 

[Drift]

Originally posted by Semulin
I'm going to try this out over the weekend, can you give some "for dummies" instructions to instaling this mod? I've never used a mod and have no idea how to make it work but this looks too fun to pass up!

Thanks,
Sem

Certainly.

1. Download Master of Myrror beta base install (93.4MB) and extract it with for example WinRar to Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\ Correct program is important as some programs like WinAce may extract the files wrong.

2. Download Beta Patch 8 (27MB) and extract it also to Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\

3. Download Required Leaderheads (48.5MB) and extract it with for example WinRar to your Civ3 main folder. Main folder is the folder that contains civilization3.exe

Then you're ready to go. Launch Conquests, choose Civ-content from main menu and launch MoM.biq

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

 

[Semulin]

OK! THANKS!

One last question then

Will I loose my progress on any saved epic games? (Want to finish my first Monarch game) and will I loose progress on Conquests (have 4 finished so far). If so is there some way to duplicate civ on my disk?

As you can tell, i'm computer Ignorant, i appreciate your help and look forward to enjoying your creation. Thanks for all the hard work I can already tell has gone into it.

-Semulin Jones

 

[Drift]

Originally posted by Semulin
Will I loose my progress on any saved epic games and will I loose progress on Conquests?

No. Installing a mod doesn't affect anything.

By the way, when installing the beta patch 8, you will be asked whether you want to overwrite existing files. Answer "all". These files are among those you installed when you extracted the mod's base install - they are not Civ3 game files or anything like that.

 

[Phant]

I've been playing your mod for about a week now, and as i've already said, this is the best mod i've yet played, and the best of the fantasy mods i've played. Just a few things;

1) Are nature mages ment to start without 'Energy Beacons'?

2) Wouldn't it be better if Skeleton Spearmen didnt have a Death Node requierment, while the shadowman did? Also this would make the Death unit path, the same as the others.

3) Elite spies for Chaos??? Also no draft abillity for Chaos?

4) How did you deside what the corruption/waste lvls for Chaos and Death would be?

5) Shouldn't the Hawk upgrade to something

And 'cept for some incomplete civlopedia entrys that make it seem that none of the Life units are upgradable, and a few others incomplete entrys, i cant think of, nor have i come across any reason why you havent made this a 1.0 already

 

[Drift]

Originally posted by Phant
I've been playing your mod for about a week now, and as i've already said, this is the best mod i've yet played, and the best of the fantasy mods i've played.

Thank you.

1) Are nature mages ment to start without 'Energy Beacons'?

Yes. Do you feel it's unbalancing? They do get irrigation without fresh water from start and the ability to plant trees to compensate.

2) Wouldn't it be better if Skeleton Spearmen didnt have a Death Node requierment, while the shadowman did? Also this would make the Death unit path, the same as the others.

Shadowmen are without resource requirements so death mages have some kind of a decent offensive unit to capture a death node or a unit resource with in case they don't have one.

3) Elite spies for Chaos??? Also no draft abillity for Chaos?

Why is it so strange that Chaos spies would be elite? It's one of their perks, just like drafting is the unique perk of death mages. I do agree that it would fit the warmongering chaos well, but I think I'm going to keep it just for death mages for now.

4) How did you deside what the corruption/waste lvls for Chaos and Death would be?

Lower than Life & Nature but not low enough to cripple them. Do you feel there is a problem with them?

5) Shouldn't the Hawk upgrade to something

No, not at the moment. There is no logical upgrade as it doesn't have any attack/defense value and it's a somewhat useful unit throughout the game. I could consider making a more advanced version of it for late game.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll work on those entries at some point.


In the meanwhile,

Update 1 for Beta Patch 8 (0.05 MB)
- This update requires that you have installed Beta Patch 8
- Extract to Civ3\Conquests\Scenarios\

This small update fixes Tlaloc's advisor circle and expansionist mages not getting scouts apart from the one they start with.

 

[Klyden]

On the question of Energy Beacons. Is this researchable tech for the Nature mages or is it something that will be enabled for them later in the tech tree? (I looked for it and did not see a point where it kicks in).

 

[Drift]

Originally posted by Klyden
On the question of Energy Beacons. Is this researchable tech for the Nature mages or is it something that will be enabled for them later in the tech tree? (I looked for it and did not see a point where it kicks in).

Nature Mages have no way of getting the tech, therefore they can't build energy beacons (mines) at all.

I haven't received any real feedback about the feature. In my own small tests it has been ok as the irrigate without fresh water has made me focus on population growth. Also, there is the option of planting forests, but still, nature mages are at a disadvantage when it comes to production.

I would really love to get some feedback based on actual play experience about this and many other features. Can't improve/fix the mod if I don't know what's wrong with it.


I'm adding some stuff to next patch.
- Life mages will get a Monastery improvement that spawns maintenance free Warrior Monks (1.4.1). The catch is that the Warrior Monk is bound to his monastery and is unable to leave it = the unit is immobile. Graphics are the Warrior Monk from PTW medieval Japan extras.
- Death mages will get a Carrion Beast unit that is essentially a helicopter. Graphics are a palette edited Kinboat's Pterosaur.
- Some tweaking to terrain graphics. Ancient forests were too dark and the mountains next to them will get a new look based on Snoopy's jungle mountains.
- Probably something else too.