The semi-empirical macroscopic-microscopic mass formula is further improved by considering some residual corrections. The rms deviation from 2149 known nuclear masses is significantly reduced to 336 keV, even lower than that achieved with the best of the Duflo-Zuker models. The alpha-decay energies of super-heavy nuclei, the Garvey-Kelson relations and the isobaric multiplet mass equation (IMME) can be reproduced remarkably well with the model, and the predictive power of the mass model is good. With a systematic study of 17 global nuclear mass models, we find that the quadratic form of the IMME is closely related to the accuracy of nuclear mass calculations when the Garvey-Kelson relations are reproduced reasonably well. Fulfilling both the IMME and the Garvey-Kelson relations seems to be two necessary conditions to improve the quality of the model prediction. Furthermore, the alpha-decay energies of super-heavy nuclei should be used as an additional constraint on the global nuclear mass models.Comment: 10 figures, 2 tables; version to appear in Phys. Rev.