RTS Majesty

[Absinthe]

I got Majesty a short while ago, so let's talk about it. For those of you who don't know it, Majesty is a macro management RTS where you cannot directly control any of your units. All you can do is build buildings, set taxes (this is your income), post bounties for specific tasks (ie. "attack" or "explore" really), use spells (but not your own units' spells), use the perks of specific buildings, upgrade a lot, and that's about it. Your armed forces all revolve around recruiting heroes and making them do stuff for you, and you get to deal a lot with monsters or enemy players. It's fairly fun, but I'm new and some of the mechanics are annoyingly opaque. I've noticed there's not a whole lot of in-depth information about the game. Manuals, FAQs, websites, etc. are all woefully inadequate when it comes to figuring out unit behaviors or the exact effect your spells have.

So far I've noticed that the Steam edition of the game comes with a modkit if you use the beta track. It was supposed to be brought to GOG once the mod version exits beta, but the dev seems to have vanished lately leaving us GOG customers without it. This kind of second-class GOG shit seems to happen quite a bit, and I wish GOG would fucking do something about it. So, if anyone has Majesty on Steam, please upload the modkit for the rest of us so we can pick apart the game mechanics and hopefully run mods.

EDIT: Mods are now supported on GOG edition.

I figure I'm going to use the first few posts to basically detail game mechanics as our knowledge of the game improves.

 

[Absinthe]

Hotkeys:
Esc_________Open Options Menu
F1__________Select Palace
F9__________Toggle unit names on/off
F10_________Toggle hitpoint bars on/off
F11_________Toggle main map zoom level
F12_________Toggle minimap terrain on/off
SPACE_______Toggle attack flag on/off in main map
BACKSPACE___Center map on hero who spoke last
`___________Dismiss selected message scroll
TAB_________Back to previous screen or page (where applicable)
DEL_________Cancel current action
<___________Decrease current game speed
>___________Increase current game speed

CTRL+F2-F8__Binds the respective F button to the selected unit or location.
F2-F8_______Selects the respective unit or location
SHIFT+F2-F8_Selects the respective unit or location and centers the main screen on them.
ALT+F2-F8___Selects the respective unit or location and centers the tracking window on them.

CTRL+0-9____Binds the respective number to the selected sovereign spell.
0-9_________Selects the respective sovereign spell.

 

[Absinthe]

Buildings

Costs after the first entry are the upgrade costs. Health after the first entry represents building hp at higher levels.

Palace
Cost: n/a, 3000, 3750 Multiplier: n/a Prerequisites: n/a Health: 550, 750, 1000
Effects:

• Level 1: 2 Peasants, 1 Tax Collector
• Level 2: 4 Peasants, 2 Tax Collectors, 1 Palace Guard
• Level 3: 6 Peasants, 3 Tax Collectors, 2 Palace Guards

Abilities: Lets you build shit and serves as a tax destination.
Other info: You lose if it dies, unless you have outposts.

Blacksmith
Cost: 500, 600, 800 Multiplier: 1x (none) Prerequisites: None Health: 250, 300, 400
Effects:

• Level 1: Research Lv2 weapons and armors (200G)
• Level 2: Research Lv3 weapons and armors (300G)
• Level 3: Research Lv4 weapons and armors (400G)

Abilities: Makes building and upgrade costs 5% cheaper.
Other info: Every 25th trip to any blacksmith by your heroes results in a minotaur spawning to attack your palace.

Library
Cost: 600, 800 Multiplier: 1x (none) Prerequisites: Wizard's Guild Health: 100, 200
Effects:

• Level 1: Reduces research costs by 5%. You can research Fire Blast (Wizard hero only), Train Intelligence (Wizard hero only), and Train Magic Resistance (any hero).
• Level 2: Reduces research costs by 10%. You can research Meteor Storm (Wizard hero only), Power Shock (any hero), and Flame Shield (any hero).

Abilities: All heroes you recruit after building a library will gain +1 int. This bonus is cumulative but the amount of libraries you have to build doubles for each additional +1. First 1 library, then 2, then 4, then 8, and so on, with no upper limit. So if you want to give your heroes +3 starting int, you need to build 1+2+4=7 libraries. Building 3 libraries for +2 int is probably a solid call.
Other info: Researching at a library costs 300 gold for Power Shock, Flame Shield, and Magic Resistance. Wizards pay 250 gold to Train Intelligence, but nothing for researching their spells. Magic resistance cannot be trained above 50 with the library. Also, going to the library is usually at the bottom of a hero's priority list, so for many heroes it helps to have no inns to increase the odds of people visiting the library. Higher int also increases the odds of a hero going to research a spell: The chance is (int - 10)/30 (so with 10 int and below, 0% chance). And if the library is too far away (beyond 4x their sight radius), the hero won't go at all. At the same time, whenever a hero is rolling odds of visiting a library, the odds of doing so (both the odds of wanting to visit a library and then the int-based chance of actually going to learn spells) are rolled anew for each library in sight (so having 3 fully upgraded libraries drastically improves the odds of a hero learning spells at the library compared to having 1).

I'll probably end up expanding this list over time.

 

[Absinthe]

Reserved.

 

[Absinthe]

Reserved.

 

[Absinthe]

Reserved.

 

[Farewell into the night]

I remember this game. Was cool.

Reserved.

 

[Life of the Party]

Reserved.

 

[Bibbimbop]

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

So far I've noticed that the Steam edition of the game comes with a modkit if you use the beta track.

How do I do that?

I have it on Steam (both Majesty Gold and Gold HD) but I don't know how to access the modding tools. There are mods on the Steam Workshop page, though.

 

[Absinthe]

There should be a SDK subfolder in your Majesty game folder. If not, I reckon the Steam multiplayer support beta should install the modding tools.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Absinthe]

Here's some unusual shit I've worked out so far. Temple of Lunord can be really good for boosting your income depending on your number of inns, marketplaces, and trading outposts. The key is to spam Winged Feet on your tax collectors and caravans. Temples of Krolm, despite being the barbarian god, actually work reasonably well with Wizards if you have the cash. Basically Rage of Krolm gives your heroes a ton of speed, better combat abilities, including defenses, and +10 health. Seeing as the level 1 Wizard has only 4 health and bad speed, that makes him a lot less likely to die. Unfortunately, Rage of Krolm does not empower your regular workers and tax collectors. It does boost gnomes/dwarves/elves though. I've heard that Monks of Dauros are pretty good once they learn the Power Shock and Flame Shield spells from the library, but I have no idea how likely they are to study in a library. It's one of those AI mechanics I have no clue about.

Also, despite what the manual says, the CTRL+F2-F8 keybinds don't seem to be working for me. The spell keybinds do, though.

 

[J_C]

Majesty is one of my favourite games of all time, I played it more times than I could count. But you are right, many of the mechanics are not well documented. But I think it is fun to experiment with all the different combinations.

As your last question, I remember Dauros monks learning those spells pretty fast if they are available in the library, and the monks are at a certain level.

Regarding the steam version of Majesty, for some reason it has a lot of stuttering on my PC, so I stick to the GOG version which works flawlessly.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[baud]

I played it two years ago, but I sucked too much at this game to help, I only finished half of the missions I think.

There's a guide on gamefaq for this game: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/250542-majesty-the-fantasy-kingdom-sim/faqs/54780

 

[baud]

There should be a SDK subfolder in your Majesty game folder. If not, I reckon the Steam multiplayer support beta should install the modding tools.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qcWopGRVtbXnY5aorB_ZqbuOk6I_kjtI/view?usp=sharing

I've zipped the content of the SDK folder.

For modding there's also a basic guide on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=758391467

 

[Absinthe]

From what I can tell there is a lot more in-depth mechanics code inside the mod sdk. It's one of the big reasons why I want to get my hands on it. Also, may as well ask you guys since you've played it longer than I have. What are the perks of Elves over Rangers? As far as I can tell, they're both archers. I know you can destroy the elven whorehouses and casinos by posting bounties and inciting your greedy disloyal rogues to blow them up, or alternatively you can just spam lightning bolts on them (make sure you removed them from repair route when you try to destroy them, btw), but I'm not sure what elves themselves are good for. Do they learn spells at the library at least?

mages squishiness can be very disappointing. Death priestesses were my favorite when it came to magical hero

High level mages are stupidly powerful though, which means you either babysit them, Krolm Rage them, give them undead minions with Krypta temple's Animate Bones, or start training them with magical fairgrounds to level them up. Death priestesses are fairly nice and they usually end up learning Power Shock and Flame Shield. They're better once they start converting vampires to your side.

Lunord is great not only because you can haste your people to get the hell out of dodge, but also the whirlwind spell is excellent to gain a few moments to save a building or a hero from imminent destruction. Generally, I use Lunord if I go for Paladins or Helia if I go for Priestesses. On the other hand, Paladins+Solarii is a very potent fighting force.

Lunord also seems to help out with Warriors of Discord and Dwarves. Also works with Elves if you're just going to spam markets with high speed tax collectors. Not much synergy with Gnomes though. Rage of Krolm gets the most out of gnomes.

Mages are extremely powerful once they hit the higher levels and learn stuff like the fire blast spell or meteor. They are not supposed to be spammed, but rather have 1 or 2, and take extra care of them, preferably casting invisibility on them whenever they get into heavy shit at lower levels.

Or just wait for Palace 3, build Fairgrounds, and let all your wizards level up there.

 

[Absinthe]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qcWopGRVtbXnY5aorB_ZqbuOk6I_kjtI/view?usp=sharing

I've zipped the content of the SDK folder.

Thanks man. Already found the AI routines. And by the way, they really do refer to the elven lounges as brothels in the development code. In a few days I'll probably end up posting up some in-depth stuff. For now, here's some party info: Rangers have a 90% chance of following barbarians. Wizards have a 30% chance of following barbarians and then a 20% chance of following monks. Healers have a 75% chance of following warriors, a 35% chance of following wizards, and a 50% chance of following tax collectors, in order of highest priority to lowest priority. There are no other party AI subroutines, and these chances only occur if they aren't doing something higher priority first on their AI loop. Also you can only have 3 units following another unit, and only 1 healer following a unit. Monk/Wizard/Healer crew can go over the size of 4 because the healers aren't following the monks but the individual wizards who are in turn following the monks.

Also, safe to say AI doesn't give a shit about intelligence score, except in the following circumstances: buying healing potions, buying rings of protection, buying teleportation amulets, buying magic bazaar potions, enchanting gear, participating in magic tournaments (other tournaments don't care about int), and buying spells spells from the library (the wizard's spells are free and he doesn't need to roll). Purchases and enchants roll 1-30 and if it rolls above your unit's int, your hero won't do it. Fairgrounds magic tournament rolls 1-70, and if it rolls above twice your unit's int, your hero won't do it. Buying spells at the library rolls 1-30, and if it rolls above your hero's int minus 10, your hero won't do it. But that's only once they're considering going to study spells, and that's a random chance based on the hero that's typically very low on their decision priorities. Healers and Paladins are also special in that they will never even consider learning spells at the library.

I find dwarves and gnomes circumstantially useful. Otherwise, I always go for elves. More gold is more gold. At least that is what elves are supposed to do which is make your marketplaces generate more money.

I like gnomes because they get your base off the ground early on, and you get a ton of them for cheap, which works well with Rage of Krolm if you go down that road. Dwarves are mostly good when you want ballista towers really.

Very expensive proposition. You need 12 heroes, 6000+ gold to upgrade the palace, the cost of the fairgrounds and the time it takes the wizard's to train which means they are not killing shit for you. Casting invisibility a few times on a wizard so he can get to at least level 3 and grab the fireball spell is generally cheaper. After level 3, wizards need less babysitting but they always remain slow as shit and vulnerable. I tend to build the wizard guild just so I can get access to the spells - and lightning storm is almost a must for some missions.

Or you can just use Krolm rage. Also Wizards are most likely to group with Barbarians and Rangers are most likely to follow them as well, which creates a fairly safe party.

 

[ortucis]

Having played both Majesty 1 and 2.

First one is better. Have spent way more time in it. Also, liked the per-rendered visuals more.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Sacred82]

thx for the heads up, both are -75% off on Steam right now.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Played Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim a lot at a friends house back when it came out. Loved it, it's such an interesting take on the RTS formula.

I'm surprised nobody ever tried Majesty's formula for console RTS given commanding units seems to be people's biggest problem there, and Majesty in large part removes that element from the equation.

Oh yeah:

 

[Life of the Party]

I remember playing a long time ago a game very similar to Majesty, with the main difference being that you actually have to buy items for your heroes instead of just having the Blacksmith research them. I almost wanna say that even the name is similar but unfortunately can't remember.

 

[laclongquan]

I remember going for the rich route, build lots of inns and markets, save lots of money and get lots of heroes that way. Wizard babysitting was very annoying to me.