Unit Modifications In Master of Magic K. M. Dale 9/22/99 These are the changes I have made in my copy of the game, and are presented here as ideas to try. I would like to hear about other players' ideas too. This document covers normal units and heroes only; summoned units are listed in the spell modifications document. All changes described in this document are to the WIZARDS.EXE file. Notation: "aaaaa xx > yy" means change the byte at aaaaa from the old value xx to the new value yy. "aaaaa ii > jj, kk > ll, mm > nn, ..." means change bytes aaaaa, aaaaa+1, aaaaa+2 and so on. "aaaaa, bbbbb, ccccc xx > yy" means make the same change at several addresses. A. Normal units 1. Add magic immunity to all shamans, priests, magicians and warlocks. The background rationale for this is that shamans and priests are protected by the gods just as paladins are, and that magicians and warlocks have personal protective spells that they learned in the Wizards Guild. The game reason is to add balance by providing most races with units that are immune to magic but weak in melee. I have been very pleased with the results of this change in the games I have played. Changes: 29c62, 29d5e, 29eea, 2a02e, 2a346, 2a586, 2a7c6, 2a89e, 2aa4e, 2ab6e 00 > 20; 29d82, 29f56, 2a052, 2a442, 2a5aa, 2a8c2, 2aa72 04 > 24. 2. Change paladins to knights by removing magic immunity and holy bonus, changing the string constant "Paladins" to "Knights" plus a zero byte, reducing the build cost from 200 to 150 (which also reduces the upkeep cost from 4 to 3) and requiring stable instead of cathedral (keeping armorers guild). The background rationale is that most soldiers are not sufficiently pure in spirit to be paladins, so the majority are knights while a few such as Roland do become paladins. The game reason is that having such a powerful unit be magic immune is IMO a major unbalancing factor. Having knights makes it advantageous to use combined arms armies instead of only paladins. Changes: 2a62a c8 > 96; 2a62e 19 > 09; 2a637 01 > 00; 2a63a 20 > 00; 2a63c 80 > 00; 2b8d6 50 > 48, 61 > 6e, 6c > 69, 61 > 67, 64 > 68, 69 > 74, 6e > 73, 73 > 00. 3. Reduce the cost of all settler units by 5/6. The background rationale is that the emigrants need no training and provide their own equipment so the unit should be really cheap. The game reason is to make settlement more attractive relative to conquest, and to make it more practical to evacuate cities rather than raze them. Changes: 29c76 3c > 0a; 29dba 78 > 14; 29efe, 2a08a, 2a1ce 96 > 19; 2a282 3c > 0a; 2a35a, 2a456 5a > 0f; 2a5e2 3c > 0a; 2a6de, 2a7da 78 > 14; 2a8d6, 2aaaa 3c > 0a; 2ab82 b4 > 1e. 4. Add armor piercing to all halberdiers. The background rationale is that historically halberds and other two handed melee weapons were very effective against heavy armor (which was the main reason for using them). The game reason is to improve halberdier units which IMO are weaker than they should be for their cost. Changes: 29d1c, 29ea8, 29fec, 2a130, 2a250, 2a400, 2a6ac, 2a784, 2a9e8, 2ab50 00 > 01. 5. Reduce cost of lizardman, orc and troll shamans by 1/6. This is mainly to reduce the upkeep cost which seems a bit high compared to other units. Changes: 2a7b6, 2aa3e 3c > 32; 2ab5e b4 > 96. 6. Increase galley missile attack to 6, and reduce cargo capacity to 4. A missile attack of 2 with 1 figure is pretty much useless. Changes: 29b4f 02 > 06; 29b60 05 > 04. 7. Increase catapult melee strength to 1. This allows recruit level catapults to have a chance of cutting their way out of a web. Change: 29b72 00 > 01. 8. Decrease warship shots from 99 to 10, increase cargo capacity to 6 and add wall crusher. Warships are apparently armed with deck mounted catapults (which BTW was rarely done historically) so should have the same attributes. Reducing the shots also decreases the effectiveness of the flying warships strategy. Changes: 29b99 63 >0a; 29ba8 03 > 06; 29bb2 00 > 08. 9. Reduce cost of barbarian spearmen, swordsmen and cavalry to 125% of normal rather than 150%. This is mainly to reduce the upkeep cost of the cavalry. Changes: 29bc2 0f > 0d; 29be6 1e > 19; 29c2e 3c > 32. 10. Increase centaurs melee strength to 4 and missile strength to 3. They seem wimpy compared to horsebowmen. Changes: 29dd6 03 > 04, 02 > 03. 11. Increase manticores melee attack to 7, and give them a 4 strength arrow attack with 4 shots. Ancient Greeks described the manticore as being able to shoot darts from its tail. The manticores unit in the game is relatively weak and IMO needs a boost. The manticores poison attribute applies to their arrow attacks as well as to their melee attacks. Changes: 29dfa 05 > 07, 00 > 04, ff > 14, 00 > 04. 12. Decrease minotaurs plus to hit to 0 and hit points to 6, and increase their number of figures to 4. This is the change I used as an example in the data locations document. Changes: 29e22 02 > 00; 29e2e 0c > 06; 29e31 02 > 04. 13. Restore draconian engineers to the game. They were available in MOM 1.2 but were disabled in MOM 1.3 and 1.3.1 by setting one of their required buildings to Mechanicians Guild which draconians cannot build. Changes: 2a06a 0a > 20, 21 > 00. 14. Add long range to air ships. I tried restoring their transport capability as well, but the game code does not work correctly for them. Air ships, like warships, have deck mounted catapults so should have long range. Change: 2a0e7 00 > 01. 15. Increase steam cannon melee strength to 1, and add wall crusher and long range. These expensive rock throwers should IMO have features similar to catapults. Changes: 2a17e 00 > 01; 2a19a 00 > 08, 00 > 01. 16. Increase golem melee attack to 16. There doesn't seem to be much of a reason to build golems when you can build hammerhands more cheaply, so this unit could use a boost. Change: 2a1a2 0c > 10. 17. Increase hit points per figure of gnoll spearmen, swordsmen, halberdiers and bowmen to 2. In the MOM FAQ 2.3 one player says that gnolls should have 2 hits for game balance, but two others say that they have been successful with gnolls with 1 hit. I've put in the two hits for now but may remove it later. Changes: 2a1fa, 2a21e, 2a242, 2a266 01 > 02. 18. Halfling bowmen: I have not actually made any change, but I would like to make these pointless units good for something. I am considering reducing their figures to 4, giving them pathfinding and calling them halfling rangers, but the halflings don't really need yet another advantage. 19. Add stable to elven lords required buildings, and reduce cost to 150. It seems logical that this heavy cavalry unit should need a stable. The cost reduction is mainly to reduce the upkeep cost. Changes: 2a49e a0 > 96; 2a4a3 00 > 09. 20. Increase pegasi missile attack to 4 and change spelling of name from "pegasai" to "pegasi". "Pegasus" was originally a name, but modern fantasy gamers use it as a noun. If it is supposed to be a Latin second declension word, then the plural should be "pegasi". Whatever you call them, the ones in MOM may need a bit more power. Changes: 2a4bb 03 > 04; 2b8cb 61 > 69, 69 > 00. 21. Reduce build cost of Klackon spearmen, swordsmen, halberdiers and engineers by 1/2 (i.e., back to normal cost), and increase engineers construction capacity to 2 (like dwarven engineers). The Klackons in MOM have many disadvantages and could use a bit of help. They are very productive beings so giving them superior engineers seems reasonable. Changes: 2a64e 14 >0a; 2a672 28 > 14; 2a696, 2a6ba 50 > 28; 2a6c6 01 > 02. 22. Restore nomad magicians to the game. They were available in MOM 1.2, but in MOM 1.3 and 1.3.1 nomads cannot build a Wizards Guild. Allowing Wizards Guild is a big advantage, so I removed Cathedral to compensate. Change: 2b334 15 > 19. 23. Increase orc bowmen figures to 8, and add first strike to orc cavalry. Orcs are another race that needs some help. I don't know whether the designers' removing first strike from orc cavalry was intentional or accidental, but in either case I don't agree with it. Changes: 2aa01 06 > 08, 2aa30 00 > 02. 24. Increase wyvern riders melee attack to 12, defense to 6 and hit points to 12. This unit is incredibly wimpy for an end stage unit that requires a fantastic stable to build. The main problem is the attack value - making it 12 may seem drastic but is comparable overall to griffins. Changes: 2aac6 05 > 0c; 2aacb 05 > 06; 2aad6 0a > 0c. 25. Increase war mammoths melee attack and hit points to 14. This is another pointless unit - why build an expensive unit that requires extra buildings and doesn't regenerate, when you can build war trolls instead? I made war mammoths more powerful but I doubt that I will use them. Changes: 2abc2 0a > 0e, 2abd2 0c > 0e. B. Heroes 1. Add magic immunity, reduce defense to 3, and reduce hit points to 4 for all mage heroes (those that have wand/ring/ring for their artifact slots). These heroes are assumed to have magical protection conferred by the gods or by their own abilities to compensate for their lack of armor and physical training. Changes: 2969e, 297be 00 > 20; 2982a, 29872, 298de, 29992, 299da 04 > 24; 29a22 00 > 20; 29ad6 04 > 24; 2968b 04 > 03; 297ab, 29817, 2985f, 298cb, 2997f 05 > 03; 299c7 04 > 03; 29a0f, 29ac3 05 > 03; 29696, 297b6, 29822, 2986a, 298d6, 2998a, 299d2, 29a1a, 29ace 05 > 04. 2. Move Zaldron up to the 5-fame heroes, and move Reywind down to the 0-fame heroes. Zaldron is clearly the most valuable of the 0-fame heroes, and really should be in the next level. Reywind is probably the weakest of the 5-fame heroes. Changes: 2968e 64 > 96; 297f6 96 > 64. 3. Move Malleus up to the 20-fame heroes, move Aureus down to the 5-fame heroes, and move Spyder down to the 10-fame heroes. Every MOM player knows how powerful Malleus is - it's surprising that the designers left him at the 5-fame level. Spyder and Aureus seem to be the weakest in their levels, so I moved them down to make room for Malleus. Changes: 2981a 96 > 2c, 00 > 01; 298f2 c8 > 96; 2993a 2c > c8, 01 > 00. 4. Change weapon slot for Serena and Aureus to wand/sword combination. These are the only heroes that have a magic ranged attack but cannot use a wand or staff. Changes: 29747, 298f7 00 > 02. 5. Increase Brax's melee attack to 6, and add construction 2 and wall crusher. In his long career he could have been an engineer at some time, and having the abilities gives him some character as well as making him useful if your starting race can't build engineers. Changes: 2963e 05 > 06; 29652 00 > 02; 2965a 00 > 08. 6. Increase Rakir's melee attack to 6, and add mountain walk which will combine with his forest walk to make pathfinding. His animal allies should easily be able to find the quickest paths through the wilderness, combining with scouting 3 to make him the best explorer in the game. Changes: 296ce 05 > 06; 296e4 21 > 61. 7. Increase Theria's movement rate to 3, and add illusion immunity. She would have a fast horse and expert riding skills to make quick getaways, and could have inherited "the Sight" which would help her detect and remove traps. The illusion immunity could make her valuable to a wizard who does not have Life or Death magic, as well as protecting her from Psionic Blast. Changes: 29789 04 > 06; 2979a 00 > 08. 8. Add death touch to Morgana. In MOM 1.2 she had the Death spells Mana Leak, Darkness, Possession and Black Prayer in her spellbook; in 1.3 and 1.3.1 she has no spells at all. To compensate and to give her some Death character I gave her death touch which works for her ranged attack as well as her melee attack. Change: 298e5 00 > 02. 9. Reduce Roland's melee attack to 6, add +1 holy bonus and remove healer ability. I changed his attributes to make him like the paladins unit. Changes: 29a2e 09 > 06; 29a43 00 > 01; 29a48 00 > 80; 29a4a 10 > 00. 10. Add first strike and armor piercing to Sir Harold. He had these attributes in MOM 1.2 but they were removed in 1.3 and 1.3.1. Since he is a knight I feel he should have them back. Change: 29ab8 00 > 03. 11. Reduce Torin's melee attack to 9, defense to 5, resistance to 6 and hit points to 8, and remove missile immunity. These changes are simply to make him less powerful as a matter of game balance. Removing missile immunity also makes sense in the game background since missile immunity is associated with "wizardly" power rather than "religious" power. Changes: 29b06 0c > 09; 29b0b 08 > 05, 0c > 06; 29b16 0c > 08; 29b1e 24 > 20.