MOM Hint II - Page 2

Ecthy · April 25, 2001, 05:40

have your wizards ever been attacked in melee? if so, you'd have a bit more respectof Mithril or Adamantium... I used to play with stacks of Paladins and Wizards, so I really don't see why Mithril or Adamantium should be totally useless, as you claim it...

pchang · April 25, 2001, 15:29

Paladins do not have a magic attack. They benefit greatly from Mithril and Adamantium. With a mixed stack of Wizards and Paladins, the goal is to use the Paladins to shield the Wizards so the Wizards never have to face a melee attack. My argument is that when you have limited resources, it is better to reserve your towns with Mithril and Adamantium to build units like Paladins or slingers and use the rest to build things like Wizards. If I had enough towns with Mithril and Admantium, sure I would build everything with them.

Ecthy · April 25, 2001, 18:34

When I send out an army to explore a part of Myrror, including ruins etc., I'm using exactly that stack... well, in some ruins they're attacked by quick units just like unicorns, so the paladins don't really have a chance for shielding them...

Theben · April 26, 2001, 04:48

One of the nice things about adamantium/mithiril is that the MT/hill it's on can be used by a second city, doubling your army building cities.

And while dark elves are nice and all, spending 3 picks getting them seems a bit high. Especially since on Arcanus the High Elves will get you 1/2 as much mana, and cost a lot less...

And don't discount Elven Lords. Paladins are great, but only heroes get the +4 "to hit" bonus that ultra-elite Elf Lords do.

pchang · April 26, 2001, 09:49

Do magic attacks suffer from range to hit penalties too?

Father Beast · May 13, 2001, 20:23

Hey guys, I just had the darndest thing happen to me.

I got some guys over to Myrror, and we took over a draconian city. after a while of scouting around, I sent a settler to found a new city in what looked like a promising site. it seemed like I was waiting a long time for it to grow from an outpost to a colony, and finally it disappeared with the message "your colony at "" has failed"!!

MY COLONY FAILED?!?!

how does this happen? did they all starve to death? no maurauders or invaders or anthing like that. it just up and quit on me.

Rex Little · May 14, 2001, 13:03

That happens a lot, FB; I've lost count of how many times I've seen it. I don't know exactly how the game figures the growth rate (positive or negative) of an outpost, but it seems to be related to the amount of food available. I'm pretty sure all my failed outposts were on low-food sites.

Speaking of outposts, I should mention a bug I ran into once. I had banished an enemy wizard, and taken all his cities, and all he had left was an outpost. When I walked into that outpost, the game crashed. I learned that in that situation, you need to let the outpost grow into a hamlet, then take it over. The enemy wizard will be defeated and the game will continue.

pchang · May 14, 2001, 18:34

Since I always use the F1 surveyor to pick high food sites for my outposts, I have never seen an outpost has failed message.

Rex Little · May 14, 2001, 20:03

I try to pick high food sites too, but sometimes--especially on Myrror--there's a cluster of specials that you just can't get in combination with high food. Sometimes the temptation is too great, and I build there anyway and hope for the best. Sometimes I get lucky and survive, sometimes I don't.

Father Beast · May 15, 2001, 11:07

OK, it didn't really have a high max pop in the surveyor, but it had adamatium and nightshade, and I thought it would be a good spot.

is there anyway to guard against this?, can you send another settler to join with it? it seems lousy that I can have a huge thriving empire, and I still have to wait umpteen turns for a liitle outpost to grow up, just as if it was in the middle of nowhere.

Rex Little · May 15, 2001, 11:18

I don't think it has anything to do with how the rest of your empire is doing; I believe the characteristics of the site itself, plus whatever random factors the game throws in, determine the growth or decay of an outpost. Adding another settler is something I never thought of, and I don't know if the game allows it. I'll have to try next time I play.

I can see why adamantium made the site attractive to you, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get nightshade. In my experience the computer player doesn't use anti-city spells that much, and when he does you can dispel them. And if he does want to cast one on you, he'll just find another city that doesn't have nightshade.

Shadowstrike · May 15, 2001, 19:14

Hmm... is there a way to win on the harder levels without using some trick which makes the game ridiclously easy with free Sky Drakes? The game is good, but when you can get Sky Drakes for ziltch, there's something wrong..... And the AI is horrible, horrible, horrible..... Allies sit on their spellbooks, and more likely then not, they all gang up on teh human player for no good reason.

Rex Little · May 16, 2001, 16:04

Yeah, if you use a pregenerated player the spell picks are made for you. I don't know if they're random or if the same wizard will always pick the same spells. You don't find out what they were until the game starts and you check to see what spells you can cast.

Rex Little · May 17, 2001, 00:46

I don't play on the very hardest level ("Impossible" - and it damn near is!), but I beat the next-hardest level around 75% of the time using one of the pre-generated wizards from the game (I play a different one each game, for variety). My usual method is to start a handful of cities early, then concentrate on building at least one of them up to where it produces the most powerful unit for its race (griffons, paladins, stag beetles, etc.). Once I'm cranking those out, I can take over most neutral or enemy cities or nodes, and I proceed to do so. Generally, the game hinges on whether I can start building those top units before all the enemy wizards gang up on me.

I've never gotten sky drakes, or any other powerful summoned creature, for free. The closest I came was when I got enough Nature books to get a Great Wyrm for 100. By that time it didn't matter; the game was all over but the mopping up. The wyrm I summoned literally never saw action.

The AI is indeed horrible. If someone came out with an MOM2 which did nothing but clear up its worst idiocies, I'd be satisfied. But - "Allies sit on their spellbooks"? You had allies? I can't remember the last time one of the computer players agreed to a Wizard Pact with me, much less an alliance.

Father Beast · May 17, 2001, 00:55

about those pre generated players...
I reread the manual, and it said that for certain amounts of spellbooks, I get to choose a certain number of spells to be available for research. I picked Horus, who has 5 sorcery, 5 life, and I should be able to pick 2 common and 2 uncommon spells guaranteed for research.

I never have seen the pick screen. does Horus automatically make the picks for me, or what? If so, how do I know what the picks are?

pchang · May 18, 2001, 18:53

When I first got the game, I played it on a Pentium 100. Now I play it on Pentium III 750. If anything, I think I am a better player, but the games seem harder. I can't prove it, but it seems like a better CPU results in a slightly better AI.

pchang · May 22, 2001, 16:43

I finally played a game where I got a message that my outpost had been deserted. I had built it on a site that said it would grow to a max pop of 11. I have never had this happen before. It must have been some major run of bad luck with the random number generator. I sent another settler to the same spot and it seems to be doing OK.

Father Beast · May 23, 2001, 12:46

Thanks, Pchang.
I hadn't thought of sending another settler there. I had thought it would die, too. And my settlers wre just too expensive for me at that point in the game.
I don't know what governs this. I'm going to get back in and see if it can fail once it grows into a hamlet. food shoratges usually mean lost units instead of lost pop. I don't hink I have ever lost pop, even when that one wizard kept casting corruption on one of my cities

pchang · May 23, 2001, 15:58

I just realized that I need to amend my last post. My original settler which died was a dwarf. The settler which turned into a Hamlet successfully was a halfling. I think this may have made a big difference. I did not do this on purpose. I just used the first available settler. As for Hamlets failing, I have never seen it. I have never seen a fully functional hamlet or above lose population due to starvation. I have lost population due to a lot of other reasons, but never to starvation.

Rex Little · May 23, 2001, 18:28

Hamlets never fail or lose population due to starvation. The only way they can disappear is being destroyed by an attacker. Only outposts can die spontaneously; we're all assuming it's from starvation, but the game never makes this explicit.

Ecthy · May 27, 2001, 15:27

Yeah, I often noticed I had lost an outpost due to starvation... never got a message about it, though....

BTW, has anyone else noticed the Arcane spell of Disenchant Area causes the game to crash? I'm forced to use sorcery magic in order to get the Disenchant True spell, since the arcane one doesn't work... tough luck

Ecthy · May 27, 2001, 15:30

Quote:

Originally posted by Shadowstrike
Hmm... is there a way to win on the harder levels without using some trick which makes the game ridiclously easy with free Sky Drakes? The game is good, but when you can get Sky Drakes for ziltch, there's something wrong..... And the AI is horrible, horrible, horrible..... Allies sit on their spellbooks, and more likely then not, they all gang up on teh human player for no good reason.

I have to admit, I sued to have problems with AI / diplomacy for a long time... but exchanging spells and giving tribute is just the way to keep peace

pchang · May 29, 2001, 10:43

Disenchant Area does not cause a crash in my version. Is there a German language version? Maybe you can reload a clean copy and patch.

You can win without exploiting loopholes and stuff on hard and impossible. However, you have to be really aggressive and get a little lucky at the beginning.

Ecthy · May 29, 2001, 13:24

I use the same English 1.31 no-CD version most of us use

pchang · May 29, 2001, 20:58

In that case, I don't know what to say. The game does not crash when I use disenchant area and it never has.

Ecthy · May 31, 2001, 14:50

no more hints or questions about MOM then?

anyone ever hunted an enemy settler for longer than 5 turns?

Rex Little · May 31, 2001, 15:51

Why hunt an enemy settler at all? I wait until he's built his outpost and it's grown to a hamlet, then I walk in and take it over.

Ecthy · May 31, 2001, 16:14

1. I need my military units elsewhere

2. they mosty play as klackons or lizardmen

pchang · May 31, 2001, 16:48

I often spend many turns chasing enemy settlers. I also spend a lot of time chasing after enemy units in general, especially when the stack contains a hero. Whenever the computer retreats, it seems like he survives 90% of the time. Whenever I retreat, I only survive about 50% of the time. I think the computer cheats in this regard.

Rex Little · May 31, 2001, 17:04

Yeah, I've noticed that about computer retreats. But since he never retreats unless there's a hero in his stack, and since he does incredibly stupid things in combat which let you win (or at least survive) with inferior forces, I don't begrudge him that small cheat.