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YourInnerCancer: I bought MoM here because everyone hails it like it's the Holy Grail of strategy. That couldn't be further from the truth... the game is terribly boring.

1: The game needs better pacing - I can't even tell you how bored I get clicking "next turn" so often. It's sickening. This is without a doubt the #1 problem with the game.

2: Magic powers?? - again I didn't play for long but I certainly didn't find what I was expecting. I imagined myself cursing enemy settlements with disease and using augury to see things far beyond the borders of my lands. During gameplay I experienced nothing fun or remarkable of this variety.
I felt weak... not like the archmage I wanted to be so badly playing this game. I think I speak for everyone who likes cool, unstoppable powers more than a "balanced" (boring) match against mobs.

3: A more grand design of strategy Where are the spy units that move three times faster than soldiers? Where are the emissaries or agents you can send to enemy settlements to create support for your cause or sabotage their assets? Again, the ability to cast game altering spells outside of battle would be really nice.

4: Better mechanics - everything from the menus to battles. Since I'm not really a big fan of turn based I'll just be bold and say this game deserves real time battles.

Please don't take this the wrong way either, I really want to love MoM... I do. We need a sequel that blows the original out of the water.
Ok now I am not sure but from what I see in your post it seems like the only Turn Based Strategy game that you seem to have played is perhaps Civilization, not sure which one but sounds like Civ 2. You also seem to be a RTS fan and I think most objections I have with your post are mainly with you trying to turn one of my favorite TBS into a RTS. If you were actually trying to make it a better TBS I would take your comments better but you don't really seem to even like the genre, if I am wrong please please leave examples of game that you DO like in the TBS genre and perhaps specifically what you liked about them.

Also I would like to give you a brief calendar of games so maybe you can put them in order better for any comments you may have on the tech. Remember we like this game because it set a lot of the standards for any decent TBS that came after.

1991 - Civilization 1
Sep 1993 - Master of Orion
Sep 1994 - MASTER OF MAGIC
Nov 1994 - WarCraft 1
Jan 1996 - WarCraft 2
Oct 1996 - MASTER OF ORION 2
Feb 1996 - Civ 2
Oct 1996 - Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Feb 1999 - HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC III


Now I myself have not played MoO 1 (but do own it) or Civ 1 at all but all the others on this list I have tried although I don't really like RTS so I did not play WC's for long.

In answer to your point 4 I would like to ask what your picks were in the game you played, because as JMich has pointed out you need to specialize usually to get access the higher spells or to get more than 1 or 2 even.

Here's a little tip just so you can at least see the names of the spells and a description of what they do. Use ALL 11 picks you get to get all of 1 kind of magic and then you will be shown a list of all the Uncomman and Rare spells (it lets you choose 2 uncommon and 1 rare if you start with 11 books PLUS you start with all the common spells of that school). Keep in mind that this is NOT even all the spells in that school as there are VERY RARE spells as well, that you will only get access to ounce you have researched more AND have enough spell books to get them. For instance to even be allowed to eventually research a RARE spell like Sky Drake you need to have 2 books from that school.

Please just remember that in any game you never start with the Nukes but have to build upto them. Also you will not be able to kill every monster without understanding it's abilities and using "strategy" to plan how to beat it. For instance Sky Drakes are one of if not the toughest Monsters in the game. They are immune to Magic, they fly and have some of the best stats not to mention they have a Lightning Breath attack that hits first when they initiate the attack. However they can be beaten as long as you make sure to have something that can hit fliers and that they are beffed up enough to beat them. Prime example is Halfling Slingers with Adamantium weapons (gives each little guy +2 atk/def).

I agree it can be really hard to give a game that xtra time when you don't get immediate gratification, nightmares of Master of Orion 3 plague me, but sometimes it's very worth it.
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YourInnerCancer: 2: Magic powers?? - again I didn't play for long but I certainly didn't find what I was expecting. I imagined myself cursing enemy settlements with disease and using augury to see things far beyond the borders of my lands.

3: Where are the spy units that move three times faster than soldiers? Where are the emissaries or agents you can send to enemy settlements to create support for your cause or sabotage their assets?
You do get both of those things, but you need to build up to them - just like you do in other games.

Your 'irrigation mining, and roads' tribe in Civilization can't produce stealth bombers right out the starting gate either.
My biggest complaint is that the game's pacing is kind of off. The hardest battles of the game are nodes with drakes, wyrms, etc. The difficulty of the fights with your actual opponents pale in comparison to powerful nodes. Since there are no defender's bonuses to speak of, if you have a stack that's capable of taking down a high-level node, then that stack could also steamroll every enemy city. So there's always that awkward phase where you could easily win the game, but you'd rather scour the globe for tough nodes so you pick up extra retorts and spellbooks that you don't really need to win.

I would suggest some sort of significant bonus for defending cities, so that steamrolling a dozen enemy cities with a single stack isn't so easy. There are no defensive city enchantments that are worthwhile, and city walls are a joke; some legitimate bonuses there would be a good start. You could add some sort of "city in resistance" mechanic like Civ has so that you have to spend a little time between capturing successive cities, instead of just stomping one after the other. And possibly, make the "range penalty" take additional points out of your skill, not just your mana pool (which becomes virtually bottomless way too easily, through alchemy). That way, the defending wizard can significantly out-cast the invader.