Help

[4eyes]

Hello!

First thing: Greetings to you mr. Implode and to the community as a whole.

Second thing: HELP! I can't get this thing to work!
I'm a long time fan of Master of Magic, but I haven't played it in the last 6 years. I recently reinstalled the game but I have WinXP and I can only play It in Dosbox and even so it runs horribly slow, so I started looking for a windows compatible version and I found this site. I downloaded Implode's version and unpacked it. I decided to start a single player game to get some training, since I've comletely forgotten how to play the game. I opened MoMIME server and started a game with 1 human and 1 AI player. Then I started the client application and joined my own game. First, I couldn't get the game started, because it was "waiting for other players to join" (remember, I set the nr. of human players to 1 and I had allrady joined in the game). I was about to give up when the game suddenly started (I don't remember how and why). But then, I could't really play the game because the mouse pointer was flickering on screen and I couldn't click anywhere with it. After some time, this problem was allso misteriously solved, but the game was running even slower than the original in dosbox, and I still couldn't do some things (like moving my armies!!) I allso couldn't see any "End Turn" button. So I finally gave up and quit the game. Is this supposed to happen like that? What do you think went wrong?
Allso, another strange thing: I know this program is supposed to be used in conjunciton with the original MoM, but I couldn't figure out how to do that. So far, I have installed Implode's version in a separate directory and it seems to be working (I can't actually play, but I can start the game, I can see the map, units, cities and stuff...,) which shouldn't be happening if the game needs the original graphics files.
What do you think?

P.S. I just realiyed I should have posted this in the "bugs" section. Sorry!

[Lupinedreams]

If MoM is running slow in dosbox, you should probably increase the CPU cycles and/or memory allocated to it. You know, a good step would be to read the documentation for dosbox before asking for help. Same goes for your questions about IME....it sounds like you're leaping to failure before even attempting to solve your problem.

As for IME - it's not completely finished yet. If you had even read the front page of implode's site, or development log, you'd already know this.....

[Implode]

Re: Playing the original MoM in DosBox, I have CPU cycles set to 10,000 and find this works nicely. It slows down a little in combat but its well playable.

I was about to give up when the game suddenly started (I don't remember how and why).

If you watch the server window, once all players have joined it starts doing things like rolling hero skills and adding cities to the map. That's what the long pause is before the client starts. It should say "starting game, please wait" and not "waiting for players to join", which I'll change at some point.

But then, I could't really play the game because the mouse pointer was flickering on screen and I couldn't click anywhere with it.

Not heard of that before - playing in a window, or did you hit alt-enter to switch to full screen?

After some time, this problem was allso misteriously solved, but the game was running even slower than the original in dosbox, and I still couldn't do some things (like moving my armies!!)

What spec is your PC? MoM IME is quite hungry in terms of CPU requirements, it runs fine on my 3GHz PC but I won't say it runs wonderfully fast and smoothly.

I allso couldn't see any "End Turn" button.

Same as the original, the end turn only shows up once you've moved all your units (or put them on "Patrol").

Allso, another strange thing: I know this program is supposed to be used in conjunciton with the original MoM, but I couldn't figure out how to do that.

If you ran it and it worked, you must have set it up right. They are completely separate games and should be installed in separate locations - the only "in conjunction" part is that MoM IME needs many of the original LBX files, so you have to run the "Set location of original LBX files" menu option and tell it where they are located. But you must have done this or the client would have just crashed immediately - you'd have never got a game started.

Hope you get it all sorted,

Implode.

[4eyes]

OK, thanks for replying to my quite confused first post.
To Lupinedreams: Thanks for the tip. I don't know much about Dosbox so I didn't think about the CPU cycles thing.

To Implode:
I reinstalled your game and tryed again, and some very interesting things happened:
First, I "set the location of the original LBX files". I suppose you meant that I have to run the MoMIME Original.BXR.exe application foud in the Common folder. I found out that I have to open every single LBX file separately. Is there no other way to do it faster?
Anyway, I managed to get a game started. This time it worked fine, allmost.
The first thing I noticed is that the game still runs EXTREMELY slow, allmost to the point of making it unplayable. It takes at least 2-3 seconds for a command to be executed. I have an 1,7 GHz CPU. I don't understand wy it runs so slow? I mean, I used to play the original on a >100 MHz CPU and it worked just fine.
Second, I can't use the "Game", "Towns" and "Armies" buttons of the menu bar.
In combat, I can't do anything except set my units to "automate".
Soeaking about combat: I understad that you can't capture cities in single player, but I was hugely amazed when I found out that I could move my armies right on top of an enemy city (with enemy troops in it) and nothing happened!! Is this supposed to be like this?

BTW, I found out the cause why the mouse cursor was flickering. I happens when I play the game in full screen and switch to another application using Alt+TAB. The solution is to switch the game to windowed mode and then back to full screen and the problem dissappears.

I hope my report helps you improve the game. And plese, do include a single player version.

[Implode]

I found out that I have to open every single LBX file separately.

No you don't, it only needs to know which FOLDER they're in. As long as you browse to the correct folder, it doesn't matter which LBX file you pick. Just pick any ONE of them.

The first thing I noticed is that the game still runs EXTREMELY slow, allmost to the point of making it unplayable. It takes at least 2-3 seconds for a command to be executed. I have an 1,7 GHz CPU. I don't understand wy it runs so slow? I mean, I used to play the original on a >100 MHz CPU and it worked just fine.

You can't even compare them. There's 3 huge differences:
1) The original ran in DOS and could therefore directly access graphics memory. It ran in 320x200x256 colours; MoM IME runs in 640x480x24 bit colours, so it has 12x the graphics memory to update and has to go through DirectX, graphics drivers and a ton of other layers.
2) All the data in the original MoM was statically defined - you couldn't add new units, skills, spells, you could hardly edit the game at all. MoM IME is an engine more than an actual game - all the game rules, graphics, stats, everything is defined in XML files so you can completely customize it. One of the most commonly moaned about points in the original MoM was that you couldn't customize it, but making it customizable comes at a price - it has a hell of a lot more data to parse to calculate unit stats and graphics. Sure, I could make it run 10x faster by hard coding all the unit stats into the EXE and simple file structures like the original, but the customization is not something I'm willing to give up on.
3) Its multiplayer. That means it HAS to be multithreaded, and the amount of time the game spends locking and unlocking objects to make sure its threadsafe probably slows it down at least 2x-3x.

Second, I can't use the "Game", "Towns" and "Armies" buttons of the menu bar.

Since you mentioned fullscreen and alt-tabbing, this is probably the reason. There's an oddity where if you run it full screen and switch between MoM IME and other apps in certain ways (usually alt-tab is fine, but if e.g. another app pops up a dialog box and automatically switches you to it) then the mouse coordinates the game reads get screwed up and it thinks you're clicking about 15-20 pixels away from where you are clicking... which means its hard to click any of the buttons. Solution: Don't use fullscreen. Or if you use fullscreen, just leave it up, don't switch between it and other apps.

In combat, I can't do anything except set my units to "automate".

Why, you can't click on the buttons? You can't right click on units to get their info screens up? The red and blue boxes don't move around the combat map when you move the mouse? Exactly what happens?

Soeaking about combat: I understad that you can't capture cities in single player, but I was hugely amazed when I found out that I could move my armies right on top of an enemy city (with enemy troops in it) and nothing happened!! Is this supposed to be like this?

Yes, until 0.9.0. Mostly because of what I'm trying to do with simultaneous turns, detecting when you initiate an attack on the overland map is one of the most complicated things in the game to write - I suspect it'll actually be more complicated than writing the AI. Yes, attacking cities is a bit simpler (the cities won't move!) but from when you click to move there, the city could be taken by another opponent, they could move units in the way to block you, any number of situations. You can attack node/lairs/towers because they can't move. Even with that, there's situations that don't work - try having two players attack a tower in the same turn.

And plese, do include a single player version.

There already is? Set AI players to 1 or more, and human players to 1.

Implode.

[4eyes]

Hello again! Sorry for the very late reply but I'm quite busy at the moment. (BTW, this is the reason why I insisted on singleplaying, because I don't want to bother other people with my awkward schedule).

Thanks for explaining why the game was running so slowly. Now I would be curious to know what are the minimal system requirements for playing it, and wether it is playable on my computer at all. Meanwhile I managed to run the original on dosbox thanks to the tips I got here.
Some of the problems were caused by fulscreen and alt-tabbing, but not all of them.
I combat, I can right-click on units, I can move the cursor, but I can't order my units around, they only move when set to "auto".
Allso, all this happened while I was trying to simulate a single-player game (1 human player=me and 1 computer opponent), and using the original mom rules, no simultaneous turns. And I still could not attack cities, only nodes. Why are cities treated differently from nodes?
That's all I can think of right now. I'll try to play the game some more and see if I notice anything else worth mentioning.