Yes, this is a new mod to Master of Magic. The goal of this mod is to have the game feel similar to the original, but without all the inconveniences and annoying "features" that hindered the enjoyment of the game.
You can find the download on my website, although it wasn't about MoM up till today, now it also contains the download to this mod!
http://seravy.x10.mx/Wordpress/
A quick overview - for more, download the mod and see the documentation inside!
-This is built upon insecticide 1.4n and I fixed a lot of additional bugs that weren't fixed there.
-Units move more. Population growth is faster. Buildings are cheaper. Yes I know several other mods also do these changes. They really improve the game.
-Building tree is completely redesigned. The player has a lot more choices, and races are generally less restricted in what they can build. Several builds had their numbers adjusted, some even their function.
-AI is significantly improved
-AI is capable of doing things it wasn't able to before
-AI diplomatic actions like offering treaties now actually happen instead of getting lost in the myriad of self-contradicting checks and conditions.
-AI personality and objective now has a much higher impact on diplomacy and declaration of wars.
-Alliances now provide better benefits to the player
-Any wizard has an equal chance of starting on Myrror instead of Myrror default wizards showing up all the time.
-Diplomatic consequences of several actions changed significantly to be more reasonable, for example banishing a wizard will only make you hated by that wizard's friends, but liked by their enemies.
-Restrictions on books and picks are generally less severe. You can take life and death at the same time. Myrran costs only 2. You have 12 picks to spend.
-Broken bonuses provided by many books of the same type have been toned down. Research and casting reduction is a mere 3% and 2% per book, but for each book after the 4th. You cannot take a 11th book to start with rare spells and obliterate everyone with a single, powerful spell.
-The mod puts emphasis on the ability to maintain larger armies. Food upkeep is halved. Roads, Pathfinding and a few other features that allowed excessive movement have been toner down a bit.
-Heroes start with better stats, but gain fewer from levels. This makes them a viable unit in the early game, that does make a difference. Early use of heroes is further promoted by an arcane direct damage spell that requires a hero in battle to be used, which replaced Recall Hero. Heroes also contribute only 1/6th of their skill when staying in the fortress, so you better use them for battles instead, that's what they are for.
-Tax system is redesigned, the options below 1 gold and above 2.5 are out.
-Pathfinding now only allows movement for 1 points instead of 0.5. Roads allow movement for 1, enchanted roads for 0.5.
-Weak, useless spells have been either buffed or replaced by a completely new spell. New spells include Call Centaurs, Construct Catapult, Call to Arms, AEther Binding, Tranquility (same name different effect), Life Force, Eternal Night, Fairy Dust, Syphon Life, Summon Zombie, Conjure Roads, Healing Charge, Divine Order and Summon Demon. Buffed spells are plenty, the most noteworthy are Archangels, Efreets and Demon Lords. The ultimate goal is to make all spells worth casting when following the appropriate strategy.
-Sliders have been eliminated from most spells, but there are exceptions. Direct damage spells generally do a fixed strength attack for a fixed cost, but are more cost effective than the originals.
-Disjunction is now using a linear formula that allows reaching 100% success rate on weaker enchantments, the True version on everything, but doing that will cost you.
-Maintenance costs of magic is reduced in general.
-Low tier normal units generally have less resistance, and many spells, especially those having a weaker effect, use higher penalties.
-Normal units have been rebalanced.
-Convenience changes, like better Grand Vizier or allowing to produce units in a full town.
-Treasure from encounters completely rebalanced and many flaws in the system fixed.
-Ore bonuses are higher. Transmute allows changing more ores.
-Buying now always costs the same amount regardless of completion percentage at a rate of 2x. Your gold is now useful!
-Spellcasting range penalties are generally a bit less harsh. Fortress battles use 1x penalty to avoid the bug that prevents casting when at 16k+ mana.
-Your fortress is protected by the lightning bolts you might have seen in other mods. Strength is 10+(skill/8) capped at 32.
-Ranged magic attacks now have their own ammo and don't use mana.
-Some events are replaced or had their effects enhanced.
-New item powers are added and merging is functional.
-There is a new fleeing system. You can now have a 100% chance to kill fleeing units if yours are significantly faster. There is no 100% chance to flee, but you can reach more than 75% if your unit is fast enough.
-1 new retort has been added.
-And finally, an optional feature : By adding the files in a separate subfolder, you can replace all the default wizards and heroes with Touhou and anime characters of my choice. Probably not for everyone, but seeing the same faces for 20 years got a bit boring for me.
As I already said, more details in the documentation.
Have fun, and feedback is always welcome.
Additionally, if you like the mod and can help achieving anything in the "future goals" section of the documentation, please do so.
The next great step would be improving the AI.
i don't know when i'll get around to playing it but i plan on covering it with a Let's Play on my youtube channel. i look forward to seeing the changes!
