Allocating treasure

Discussions on game logic and rules used in MoM IME
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Implode
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Allocating treasure

Post by Implode »

The last few days I've been going over and over how the treasure reward process is described in the MoM official strategy guide, and on the MoM Wiki, see here - http://masterofmagic.wikia.com/wiki/Treasure

Both basically give the same information, though the MoM Wiki states that they aren't sure of how accurately it matches what actually happens in MoM 1.31. But the way it describes the original MoM working is awkward to implement, and in many situations doesn't make much sense to me. Especially that:
  • a) The intention of the design seems to be that each possible reward (e.g. items, spells, coins) is graded from a minimum to maximum reward, so e.g. you qualify for coins as long as you have 50 treasure points left to claim. But then the number of coins actually received depends on how much more than 50 treasure points you have left to claim. That sounds great, but then in many cases the actual rules don't adhere to that. The worst example are hero items, where the number of points charged has no relation to which item you get. I want to fix this, so the number of treasure points you get charged exactly matches the quality of the reward that you received.

    b) Following on from (1), the cap that hero items over 3,000 points aren't available seems unnecessary (though that seems just what the strategy guide says and not what was actually in MoM 1.31). It makes sense to me that if you capture a small lair, you get a small hero item; you capture a powerful node, you might get a powerful hero item, and get charged accordingly.

    c) Complications around spells. What if the only spell you don't have is a very rare. In theory, by the original treasure rules, you can get that spell from a lair with only 200 treasure points, by rolling "uncommon spell" 4 times and adding them together. So that means spells have to be in the list as a possible reward. But what if you don't get it 4 times? Say you get 1 "uncommon spell" and 3 gold or mana rewards. It certainly shouldn't grant a very rare spell just because you didn't have an uncommon spell that you could earn. i.e. you have to fully determine all treasure rewards before you can see if the awarded spell rank can actually be claimed or not, and if not then it just gets lost. I want to have a model where things get awarded as we go along, and never get "put back" or later determined that we can't claim them.

    d) Limits which make no sense why they're there - limit of 3 hero items; limit of 1 spell; limit of 2 specials; that gaining a special (pick) reward immediately loses all other rewards. If you capture a node worth 19,000 treasure points, why shouldn't you actually get 19,000 worth of reward just because of artificial limits?
So after much consideration, the rules I've decided to use for MoM IME are as follows:
  • 1) Same process where we keep going as long as we have 50 pts or more of treasure to reward.

    2) The chances of receiving each reward are the same, but any item that we cannot get doesn't get included in the list of possible rewards, so:
    • 2a) Hero items have 5 chances of being picked, but will only be included if there is at least one unallocated hero item that is within our remaining treasure budget that we meet the prerequisites for, e.g. if the item requires 4 life books to get.

      2b) Spells have 3 chances of being picked, but will only be included if there is a spell rank (uncommon, common, rare, very rare) within our remaining treasure budget AND where we have at least one spell of that rank that we could obtain (i.e. we don't know it yet, but meet minimum book requirements of 1 for uncommon/common, 2 for rare, 3 for very rare).

      2c) Gold (2 chances) and Mana (2 chances) are always in the list of possible rewards.

      2d) Specials/picks (2 chances) are included as a possible reward when the remaining treasure budget is 3,000 or more.

      2e) A prisoner (1 chance) is in the list of possible rewards as long as our wizard has at least one hero available (i.e. one we haven't had in our army before, whether or not they got subsequently killed; but heroes we wilfilly dismissed, or were dimissed because we couldn't feed/pay them may come back) and we have at least 1,000 points remaining of treasure reward budget.
    3) Roll random reward, and award/charge points for it as follows:
    • 3a) If we get a hero item, randomly pick one that i) we meet any preqrequisites for, e.g. if the item requires 4 life books to get it; and ii) is within our remaining treasure reward. There is no cap that items over 2,000 cost cannot be obtained. The amount deduced from our treasure budget is the cost of the item we received. There is no limit that only 3 items may be obtained. (That 2,000 is TBC and might need adjusting).

      3b) If a spell is awarded, choose a random obtaininable spell from that spell rank. Points are charged as per that spell rank. Ranks do not get combined together - you can't get a very rare spell cheap by rolling 2 uncommon spells and combining them. There is no limit of only 1 spell reward.

      3c) Random amount of gold or mana is awarded, in units of 10, from a minimum of 50 up to a maximum of 200, or the remaining treasure reward budget, whichever is lower. Whatever the amount of gold/mana is awarded, the same amount is deducted from the remaining treasure reward budget.

      3d) Each Special/pick reward chosen deducts 2,000 from the remaining treasure budget. Which actual special/pick is awarded is only worked out at the very end; this is necessary to award picks such as Warlord - we have to complete the whole treasure allocation process so we can see whether 2 picks got awarded and so this (and similar) retorts are available as possible rewards. So for now all we do is keep count of how many were awarded. There is no cap of 2 special/pick rewards. There is no rule that when you get a special/pick reward, all other treasure is discarded.

      3e) Heroes are picked randomly and deduct 1,000 from our treasure reward budget.
    4) Repeat back to step 1 until all treasure is allocated.

    5) The rule that Towers of Wizardry always pick a spell as their first reward, and at a 100 point discount, still applies as long as we have a suitable spell we can obtain.

    6) If any special/picks were rewarded:
    • 6a) If we have any possible books we may obtain, subject to the possible books that can be awarded from what was captured (e.g. Fallen Temples always award Life books, and Nodes always award books of their colour), then they have 75% chance of being awarded;

      6b) If we have any possible retorts we may obtain, then they have 25% chance of being awarded (the only limitations being that: Myrran can never be obtained, Divine Power requires 1 life book to obtain, and Infernal Power requires 1 death book to obtain);

      6c) If we may obtain only one or the other, then it is automatic;

      6d) If we may obtain neither, then one "artifact" is awarded, costing all remaining special/pick rewards. There is no cap on the cost of the awarded item, but we must still meet the prerequisites for it, e.g. if the item requires 4 life books to get.

      6e) Books cost 1 special/pick reward if we get one; retorts cost 1 or 2 depending on which retort was awarded.
    7) Repeat back to step 6 until all special/pick rewards are decided.
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