The random maps are definitely getting better and better. I’d almost have guessed this was made by a person with the inland quasi-island and such.
Here’s another:
I am obviously a big MOM fan but...
Do you know anyone who has ever lost a game of Master of Magic? On any setting? MOM is a classic game but I don't think I've ever heard MOM, AI, and smart used together before. The AI didn't actually play the game in the sense I think you're thinking.
I can write a script that will make units go onto boats and go somewhere in an hour. That's easy. Having it do it as part of a larger strategy is another thing entirely.
Are we going to get units going onto boats though in some form or fashion?
I don't think it's a deal-breaker. One of my favorite RTS's of all time didn't have naval stuff, but navies are important, and something does feel missing when they're left out, even if they're a massive AI pain.
Will the AI try to go through other ZOC's, or evaluate whether it should try to? Will the AI punish another player or lower relations with someone who lets other units go through their lands to attack them? Is ZOC passage a simple open borders treaty or a case-by-case basis?
Lots of questions on this one from what's been said.
Age of Wonders had useless boat AI as well. It built plenty of boats but almost never loaded and transported any units with them.
Can't we just have auto boats like in the older HoMM games? If you enter a water tile you turn into a boat and lose movement for one turn. Better than nothing imo.
I would hope to see boats in the next expansion. It could even be the theme of the expansion. But right now they are probably not thinking of adding anything new unless something is broken and needs to fixed. Else we would be waiting till next Christmas for the beta.
I really don't like the idea some ppl have for Civ5 like autoboats for this game. It works well in Civ after they implemented One Unit per Tile, but in a game with armies (many units collectet in one tile doing their own tactical battles) I would not like it. If Frog can make the AI understand how to enter and use transports, why do it in another manner?
It was his idea to do it that way.
Umm, actually, I have... lol. On Impossible setting of course!
The fact is that from an AI point of view it would be much easier to program the autoboat thing because you just basically have to tell a unit to move from point A to B, just like over land. With dedicated transports you have to have them build a harbor, build a boat, send the right amount of boats over to your army, load the boat, move the boat to the right spot, unload the boat, and probably send the boat back. This also has to be done in a way that doesn't cause armies to stand around for 100 turns waiting for a boat that isn't built yet, which means the AI has to plan ahead. Not easy to program I would imagine and full of possible glitches. Why would loading a dedicated transport with an entire army be any different then loading an autoboat with an entire army? Why would it be bad? How would you do combat/quests on water if every boat could only hold 1 unit? If your worried about navy being to easy you could always require them to have a harbor before they can use transports.
Here is a thread where boats and stuff were recently discussed.
With the unofficial 'insecticide' patch the AI is actually halfway decent so long as you play on a high difficulty level. Kyrub really is going to town with the patching, he's even added a new difficulty level and map size amongst many other things.
Of course that isn't the standard MoM as released so your point mostly stands!
Actually, I've never WON a game in Master of Magic
The first time I played it (like 6 months ago or so) I choosed Impossible with 11 Death books and got destroyed by big A.I armies....
Tried two or three more times and got killed in the same way again....
Lowered to Hard, choosed High Elves and survived for 50 turns or so. The lifemagic chick makes peace with me so as to prevent me to take her cities. After 20 turns or so she "doesn't see much point in the peace between us" and takes my cities and capital with two normal units and a Paladin! Was absolutely chanceless against that powerhouse of a unit....
Some day I'll return to Master of Magic on Hard and will win. It just feels incredibly old & outdated....
On topic
The maps look great. I love the chokepoints. That will make things really interesting. I like that design.
The map upwards with the spot in the middle with only two entrances is also really good.
