Can someone check their GOG version number? Thanks.

I'm using the unofficial patch so I can't verify but it's pretty safe to assume it's patched to latest official version (as all GOG games are with maybe one or two exceptions.) what ever that is. Why?

The Readme.txt says version 1.31.

Mine is 1.40f :D
But the official is 1.31

Whew, I was worried it was bundled with an unofficial fan patch.

I'll stick with MoM 1.31.

May I wonder why? Kyrubb's patch is superior almost in every way possible :).

I just prefer the original Master of Magic experience.

If an unofficial patch is purely about bugfixes, sometimes I'm interested, even though we all know the definition of an update patch is to eliminate old bugs and introduce new ones. When it's a "rebalancing" mod, with sweeping changes made to suit the tastes of a single modder... well, that's not my thing.

But either way, fan-patches should always be optional. Unofficial patches should be made available as downloads (like soundtracks), not already applied to the game with no un-touched .exe available.

I think you'd be positively surprised. kyrub's patch both fixes an abnormal amount of bugs while introducing few (if any, he's been squashing those too with updates). And there are major improvements to the AI, all while keeping the original MoM experience.

Now, you'll probably hate my mod project to pieces :) Even though it's created jointly with other players to gain broad appeal, there are definitely sweeping changes intended to rebalance the game. It'll be compatible with kyrub's patch, but kyrub's patch will remain available without any of my mod tainting it as well for the purists out there :)

Drop by Realms Beyond (http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=56) and say hi ;)

I guess it's all subjective.
I keep copies of Mom with mods and also the original, the balancing misses the point,the fact that races and magic isn't balanced is one of its strongest points.
It is a single player game and having weak and strong races just makes it so you have many more options.Same with magic
Some of the races shouldn't have a strong stack
Want a good challenge? Play a weak race with weak magic on impossible.There is a good chance some slingers,or wolf riders will be along before you get past spear and swordsman.And later while they are throwing firestrike and call of death and call of void at you or whayever, you need to figure out a way.
Want to be uber powerful?Play a strong one or play any race and have strong torts and magic and be powerful anyway if you wish.
The modders seem to be edging toward other generic games, things like tank, range shooter yadda yadda the very type of thing the keeps me coming back to mom, or make every node only give the same treasure level (You know what you are getting) no surprises.
Nothing I like more than being in a hole and wondering how I'm going to win and I luck into a Flicka or Doom bow and it gives me a chance again.
With the mods I knows its going to be a 2hit 2 attack bow or whatever without a doubt or similar, so no anticipation, that's what it's going to be.
The mods just aren't master of magic.They are similar.
I enjoy playing them about like I enjoy playing Age of Wonders, some good fun, but only mom scratches the itch.
I just played a game,solid white, high men and you just use the same strategy, works fine it's just harder,but not good harder, just more slogging.
I have been playing mom since it was released on floppy disk, and i really have always been hoping someone would fix the bugs that crash the game or like the man with 100 plus stats,and keep tweaking the AI itself so it doesn't do things like cast spell lock when there are no buffs on the stack Or shooting arrows at the one mob with.
in between.
Master of Magic is a masterpiece,it has many flaws, but klackons or any other race are perfect the way they are in the context of the game,they just use a different method than say Nomads with their flying creatures etc.
to play. I mean trolls need more power? War trolls come early, have regeneration and two moves.Beetles? Throw guardian wind on them and they will mow through halflings or elves like water.

I couldn't agree more.

Someone on the Three Moves Ahead podcast (Tom Chick, if memory serves) compared Master of Magic to a Roleplaying Game, saying that much more than most strategy games, it's about assembling a huge party, roaming the land, clearing out caverns and leveling up. To hear him describe it, the enemy AI's behavior isn't "stupid", it just makes them good targets, big dumb lugs you can thump on in your quest to cast the spell of mastery, or rid the world of evil.

Obviously, Master of Magic *is* a strategy game, but he definitely had a point.

In Master of Magic, everything is imbalanced, and that's half the fun. Yes, Spell X is extremely overpowered, but that's fine, because you have to content with Spell Y, which is just as overpowered, being thrown in your face as retaliation. :D

Do you really think they made the AI intentionally stupid? I never heard such a statement. Now, that's some believe in the almighty designer.

Yep, I agree. That's genious in MoM. No balance, an epic RPG-ish journey to victory instead.

Hehe. Do you really think they made the AI intentionally stupid? I never heard such a statement. Now, that's some believe in the almighty designer.
.........
They didn't make the AI stupid on purpose, but on the other hand for a lot of people it was a difficult curve to learn how to win it anyway because of all of the various options.

I was around at the time though and I remember them answering some balance questions and complaints by changing just a few things to race and heroes and commenting other than that, races and magic spells were working as intended.
Ninety percent of what I would like if there was a MoM2, is having the AI respond with the correct defense to say longbowmen or slingers. There is plenty of means to defend against them.For instance wizards or casting any of several spells,which sometimes it will.
I can't think of much for spells or races that doesn't have an answer to stop them,if only the AI would use the right ones even just a bit more consistently.

If I play a game though I like a small chance to get say something extra powerful from a node,it should be a small chance like once in 20,or maybe the number is 100, but it is in the spirit of MoM.And that's what I really wish won't be changed in MoM2 if there ever is one.(the way you can be super powerful or wimpy weak).
When it happens once in a blue moon it's great fun

I have noticed that a lot of games acclaimed to have great AI, really just pigeon hole the player to a linear way of doing something for that say race or type of win other, and then it is easy to get the AI to respond to those limited options the player has.

By the way I play Kyrub's mod and it is by far amazing, nothing like it has been ever been done,It stands alone as my favorite game and I just have very strong feelings and thoughts about what I have enjoyed about the game for the last almost 20 years.

That's because multiplayer. It's the main reason why single player in strategy games nowadays ain't that fun and why choosing what/who to play don't matter much anymore. Now all we have is games standard difficulty bar to play with. Not even random maps that can put you in a great or horrible position.

I don't think they made the AI intentionally stupid, I just think they crafted a game with so many whacked out variables, that unlike a simpler game (Chess, etc.), there's no way an AI could wrap its mind around all the intricacies. Which is good for the gamer who just wants to have some fun.

Maybe that's one of the reasons MoM has such an undying following, it's the perfect strategy game to pick up and play for a few hours and just goof around. It's a total power fantasy, another reason it reminds me of an RPG.

Not many people realize, but Master of Orion (MoM's predecessor) was one of the first strategy games to push the idea of racial imbalance. Up till then, a lot of games had more or less mirrored forces, with each empire having nominal pros and cons over the others. Then along came Master of Orion, and the way a Klaxxon game played out was completely different than, say, the Psilons. It wasn't a case of, oh, these guys get +0.20% food, it was, oh, these guys don't eat food, so, try and come up with a fun strategy for that. *grins*

SimTex was really ahead of their time when it came to this sort of fun imbalance. Working with fantasy and scifi probably helped (they didn't have to "make up" attributes for historic armies, or anything).

And yeah, I agree, the lack of multiplayer is probably to thank for a lot of the imbalanced charm. One can only imagine how nerfed a modern (likely RTS) incarnation of MOO would be, with all the rough edges sanded down, and nerf bullets replacing laser guns so no one gets unfairly stomped in an online match.

Yeah. The game has so many variables with so many consequences in the long run that no current AI can get close to a human player.

Yep. It's fun playing MoM as a god game. :)

I'm not sure MOO was the first 4X game that was imbalanced. What I do remember is strategy games from that era that was very imbalanced to create a challenge but they was not 4X. Might have to do with that MOO was one of the first 4X games. ;)

You're one of few persons I've found online that actually agree with me that multiplayer killed single player strategy games "flavour". Give me imbalanced races/factions and truly random maps anyday! Turnbased also please. :)