http://www.slitherine.com/news/2907/Slitherine.acquires.the.Master.of.Magic.franchise
:D
Cool...it will be interesting to see what they do with it.
Well, Deity Empires has already raised that bar. Matrix has their work cut out for them.
Quote from: solops on August 05, 2019, 10:59:29 AM
Well, Deity Empires has already raised that bar. Matrix has their work cut out for them.
Well put...DE was an unexpected breath of fresh air in the fantasy 4X genre.
In other news, MoM has a "franchise" apparently. :o ???
Quote from: JasonPratt on August 05, 2019, 12:43:07 PM
In other news, MoM has a "franchise" apparently. :o ???
Update the graphics, and re-release. The gameplay was perfection....IS perfection, as I still play it.
Quote from: DennisS on August 05, 2019, 12:48:35 PM
Quote from: JasonPratt on August 05, 2019, 12:43:07 PM
In other news, MoM has a "franchise" apparently. :o ???
Update the graphics, and re-release. The gameplay was perfection....IS perfection, as I still play it.
:o So...would it be bad now to say I've never played the original?
The original is $6 on GOG: https://www.gog.com/game/master_of_magic
Pretty dated but still very fun and replayable to this day!
As much as I played MoM to death once upon a time...? I could probably play it again, and enjoy it, but I don't know why I would bother. (Which hasn't stopped me from owning it of course. ;) )
Once upon a time MoM-successors suffered from buggy low quality. There was literally nothing else that worked, and even what didn't work tended to suffer from lack of features (although aesthetics were usually improved).
Then, arguably at the time of Age of Wonders 1, a few had much higher quality but missed significant gameplay elements of the original, while the others were still buggy and/or low-quality messes.
Then, by the time of Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, a solid handful had practically everything from the original and even more features (like AoW:SM), or took the genre in new gameplay directions (like Dominions 3 which by then had a random map generator like MoM and AoW:SM).
Now we still have those, but upgraded a little more (Dom 5) or a lot more again (AoW:3 plus 2 dlc, which also finally reintroduces multiple figures in a unit for combat effects), plus things from the previous generation which still have their own extras (like AoW:SM's mods and the vanilla ability for three map layers instead of only 2 as in AoW3). And then lapping around we have retro entries like Deity Empires; not even counting slowly improving MoM successors like the Fallen Enchantress series and Eador and Masters of a Broken World Warlock, as well as quirky successors like Thea: The Awakening etc., or conceptual ports like WH40K:Gladius. [Edited to add: I was thinking of Warlock: Masters of the Arcane and its sequel; the first Eador was Masters of a Broken World, and I got the names confused.]
The solid gameplay will always be solid. But I don't really need MoM anymore. And I have a little trouble wondering what Matrixlitherine will even be able to bring to the table to upgrade it, to stand it out among its successors.
I started looking at the Preview version of Fantasy General, and so far it looks quite pretty. Combat mechanics have some interesting aspects, like wounds and kills, charge bonuses etc. It played quite nicely, until I got to the end of the first scenario when it crashed into a locked screen stasis.
Still, it remains under development and I expect any crash issues will be sorted long before release.
Anyway, a couple of pics I took before the game crashed...
I should add that I since reloaded from an auto save, and so far the game has been stable.
I like what I've seen so far. There is a story driven element to it that can have a longer term impact on decisions. Gameplay mechanics is otherwise very similar to Panzer Gerneral, Order of Battle etc, and easy to get into.
^Looks really slick, thanks for posting. Will definitely be getting this. I have played a couple of campaigns of Warhammer TW and for me it is too 'out there.' I like it, but don't love it.
I get the impression that I could get into Fantasy General 2 more. I love the look so of the unit cards too.
I also have not played the original Master of Magic...
Master of Magic is definitely one of my three favorite all-time titles. But, for me at least, it needs more than just modernized graphics to make a splash.
Eador really raised the bar with the New Horizons mod to Eador: Genesis, which is still under development. That mod blows away the prettier but buggy Eador: Masters of the Broken World title, featuring better unit development, an improved and expanded magic system, far more types of monsters (and a better combination of battles against a mix of missile & infantry troops), more artifacts, numerous additional quests and events, and an improved AI. New Horizons also didn't come out in English until about 3 years after it came out in Russian, which seriously hamstrung sales of the original game to an English-language audience.
If anybody's interested in the Lost Horizons English language mod, I can dig it up without too much exploration.
Stardock's efforts absorbed a lot of my time, but I just never ended up buying into the flavor of their worlds. They felt very generic to me. Age of Wonders 3 consumed a lot more playing time for me, but also ended up feeling the same way. Both offered some nice wrinkles and feature upgrades to the original, but neither captivated me like the original MoM.
Deity Empires has been a great addition to the genre. Certainly the best since Eador: New Horizons. It is deep, intricate, and offers a ton of nuanced game play features. Content is still being released for that sleeper title, and they still have some work to do on the "flavor" front to flesh out different styles of game play for different schools of magic. But I LOVE what I have seen so far!
What about Eador: Imperium? I haven't played it yet, but does it incorporate the New Horizons material? It's supposed to be an upgrade from MoaBW.