Master of Magic: Development Diary 2 - August 2021

Take up the role of a great wizard, wield powerful spells, command fantasy races and challenge your rivals in this remake of a cult turn-based strategy classic. Do you have what it takes to become Master of Magic?
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Edmon
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Master of Magic: Development Diary 2 - August 2021

Post by Edmon »

Welcome to Development Diary #2, where this time we will be looking at some of the events and artwork being remade for this timeless classic.

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Events
There are several different types of events in Master of Magic, and they will all make a comeback in the remake:

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All events have the option of accepting the default state, or using the ‘choices’ button to see if there are alternative options available.

Map locations
The map of Master of Magic is filled with various locations that can be explored by the player. These include things like fallen temples, ruins or mysterious caves where both treasure and challenge may await. There are also three power nodes, Sorcery, Nature and Chaos, and the magic towers that serve as portals between Arcanus and Myrror. All of those locations have an event attached to them, so that the appropriate path will trigger - combat if there are defenders, or loot if it is abandoned. Those events are fairly straight forward and apart from some extra fluff here or there, they will remain unchanged.

Random events
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This is what a ‘module’ looks like inside the event editor - a tool that will be available for players as well.

All of the random events from the original MoM are returning, but they are slightly modified. In the remake, we want to give the wizard a chance to react to some of those events, instead of them being a simple notification of what occurred. You will always have the option to simply accept the default result, but in some cases, you will be able to either alter or even avoid the consequences. This will typically be achieved by offering a payment via mana/gold or other means that an event may respond to.

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In the classic ‘Benefactor’ event, you have the added option of giving up the gold to gain some fame instead.

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Some events will of course remain choice free, as they are pretty straight forward. But, the event editor allows for easy modifications if needs be.

These events have varied triggers, that include turn counter, specific prerequisite (like x amount of fame/gold/mana, etc) or simply chance. All of the events also have a cooldown counter, to ensure they do not pop up one after another.

We are also planning to add an event pack to the game, which will bring in additional and new content. But, as in the original, those events will be optional (using something like an on/off toggle).

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This work-in-progress event is from the new pack and has some additional options to change the outcome of an otherwise negative occurrence.

Traders and recruitment
The last category of events is the recruitment and/or item sales. These events are not yet implemented, but they too will return to Master of Magic. Based on your Fame, units, heroes, champions or items will be offered to you for sale/recruitment.


Art Show of the month - Wizards
Finally, we will end today's dev diary with a look at some Wizards and their evolution. As with the original, there are 14 Wizards to choose from. The Wizards will have their preset traits (formerly known as retorts) and magic books, but you will also be able to change this as you wish, thus creating your own, custom versions. The preset Wizards also have a short backstory or flavour text to show their character.

First, the ones that remained mostly unchanged:

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Rjak remains mysterious as ever. In their new reincarnation, you don’t even see the eyes, making them an even more unsettling character.

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Tlaloc is the master of rain and storm, some call him an Aztec priest, some believe him to be the rain god incarnate. He seems to be in a darker mood these days.

Some have grown older and wiser:

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Lo Pan is a Wushen master who specialises in Chaos and Sorcery magic. The years may have whitened his mane, but Lo Pan's wisdom remains steadfast.

And here are some that were reinterpreted:

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Sharee is an accomplished voodoo priestess and despite her deceptively young visage, she’s said to have cheated death many times over. She now wears more clothes...

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Sss’ra is a draconian warlock who specialises in both Chaos and Life magic. Sss’ra has clearly become more ferocious over the years...


For a discussion of the dev diary, please join us on our Discord channel here.

You can also wishlist Master of Magic on Steam.

You can find out more about Master of Magic on its product page.
Arent
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Re: Master of Magic: Development Diary 2 - August 2021

Post by Arent »

Oh, the wizards look nice. Sssra, though, looks a bit evil/even slightly like an undead now, I always got the 'honorable warrior' vibe from him with these white and red colors.
Arent
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Re: Master of Magic: Development Diary 2 - August 2021

Post by Arent »

I also want to point out the color coding present in the original pictures. Many of the original wizards wear clothes and items that already indicate their spellbooks.
Atherys
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Re: Master of Magic: Development Diary 2 - August 2021

Post by Atherys »

Can't wait to play the game!
Arent
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Re: Master of Magic: Development Diary 2 - August 2021

Post by Arent »

Atherys wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 6:38 am Can't wait to play the gamre!
Yepp, I just hope they add multiplayer.

You really have an opening here: A *lot* of people don't like Civilization 6 and Humankind because they try to 'educate' their players.

I'm quite sure that games like Witcher 3 and Skyrim have in part become so successful because they don't do that.
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Re: Master of Magic: Development Diary 2 - August 2021

Post by cicciopastic »

what do u mean by educate? personally i am little bit fed up by civilization (i need something fresher in 4x world), and haven't played humanking (even if i read some negative review).

i am interested in OLD world that seems to be something different compared to its competitors metioned above.

but first of all i am eager to have THIS game. I played it a lot back during university time!!!!!!! (this says much about my age!!! sigh!)
Atherys
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Re: Master of Magic: Development Diary 2 - August 2021

Post by Atherys »

Arent wrote: Sat Aug 28, 2021 10:55 am Yepp, I just hope they add multiplayer.

You really have an opening here: A *lot* of people don't like Civilization 6 and Humankind because they try to 'educate' their players.

I'm quite sure that games like Witcher 3 and Skyrim have in part become so successful because they don't do that.
Please elaborate more about trying to educate their players. Personally, I was grateful that Civ 6 has an options to enable in-game tips. It helped teaching me new stuffs just at a glance when I first starting out. If a lot of people don't like it like you said, it wouldn't have garnered more than 5 million sales. Open world RPGs like The Witcher 3 and Skyrim are usually less complex than 4X due to their main game process that almost every gamer understands: quest -> battle -> loot and most missions vary only slightly. That's also not what makes them popular. You might be speaking for yourself here.

Accessibility is a huge boon for everything. The clearer the game is and the more options it has, the less time players will strain their eyes and the better reach the game will get. Reading a manual, even to use an UI, is all fine and well for me, but I can sink much more into the game if I don't have to read it at all. Complex and unfamiliar rulesets and UI/UX have been a bane for so many 4X games. Everything that can ease both of them will always be welcome.

Also, the opening might have not been as wide as you think: the video announcement on YouTube has gotten only 12k views as of now. Slitherine needs to find a better way to market this game when it's close to release.
Arent
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Re: Master of Magic: Development Diary 2 - August 2021

Post by Arent »

Yes, the advertisement of Slitherine might not be good enough. I already noticed this with Fantasy General, which is a decent game which somehow didn't get enough attention.

Maybe, Slitherine is just not well known enough, maybe let's players are not picking up on the games or the story/multiplayer is not captivating enough.

By 'educating' usually attempts to tell players that a certain behavior is good (socially or politically) is meant. People want to have fun in their free time, they don't want to be constantly harassed by real world politics.

That does not mean that you can't discuss politics in games, but you have to be honest with yourself and avoid 'preaching'. One of the best political games in my humble opinion is Alpha Centauri - in which you can even freely choose your ideology.
Atherys
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Re: Master of Magic: Development Diary 2 - August 2021

Post by Atherys »

Arent wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 9:17 pm Yes, the advertisement of Slitherine might not be good enough. I already noticed this with Fantasy General, which is a decent game which somehow didn't get enough attention.

Maybe, Slitherine is just not well known enough, maybe let's players are not picking up on the games or the story/multiplayer is not captivating enough.

By 'educating' usually attempts to tell players that a certain behavior is good (socially or politically) is meant. People want to have fun in their free time, they don't want to be constantly harassed by real world politics.

That does not mean that you can't discuss politics in games, but you have to be honest with yourself and avoid 'preaching'. One of the best political games in my humble opinion is Alpha Centauri - in which you can even freely choose your ideology.
Oh, by educating you meant teaching politics. I agree that it's out of place for a 4X game to "teach" what kind of politics are better, as every type of politic has it's upside and downside. Nothing man-made is fool proof, after all, even mathematics. I don't see any teaching of sort in Civ 6, but maybe it's because I just don't notice that kind of thing in general.
Arent
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Re: Master of Magic: Development Diary 2 - August 2021

Post by Arent »

Atherys wrote: Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:57 pm Oh, by educating you meant teaching politics. I agree that it's out of place for a 4X game to "teach" what kind of politics are better, as every type of politic has it's upside and downside. Nothing man-made is fool proof, after all, even mathematics. I don't see any teaching of sort in Civ 6, but maybe it's because I just don't notice that kind of thing in general.
4X games are actually quite well suited for discussing ideologies, politics etc. I just don't like when they become preachy.

I want to give a positive and a negative example:

(1) Alpha Centauri, the positive example

In Alpha Centauri you have various ideological factions - the money grubbing Morgans, the dictatorial Hive, fundamentalists, survivalists, hippies etc.

You yourself can choose your faction. And all these ideologies are depicted with their actual pros and cons:

(a) No one wishes to live in the totalitarian Hive, but it is one of the best factions for waging war on higher difficulties.
(b) The Believers might be technologically backwards but they have the best spies and can't be bought
(c) The Morgans are decadent money grubbers but avoid gruesome wars by literally buying enemy cities
(d) The Gaians are 'peaceful', green hippies who feed their fellow human beings to mind worms
(e) The Spartans are survivalists and bellicists, but have elite troops

etc.


(2) Humankind, the negative example

Humankind is actually quite a good game, it only makes some errors in the builder part of the game which turns the later city development into a drag. However, there are some negative issues:

(a) If you create your character you do not select a sex, but a 'body type'. As a natural scientist I believe in genetics & theory of evolution.
(b) I can not create or even choose my own civilization, which is a huge letdown because I like to 'roleplay' a civ. Assigning traits to civilizations in civ has repeatedly been criticized in the civilization forums because it might potentially promote chauvinism.
(c) There is an ahistorical game mechanic where you choose various cultures that weirdly turn into each other. For example, you might start as Myceneans, then turn into Aztecs, the become Chinese and in the end Nubians. Its simply not very credible.
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Re: Master of Magic: Development Diary 2 - August 2021

Post by Vicarius »

Events were a strong point in Thea The Awakening and its good to see an expansion of events for Master of Magic. The art style looks GREAT!
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