Master of Magic. Multiplayer not included?

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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Uchmunduk
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Master of Magic. Multiplayer not included?

Post by Uchmunduk »

I've been looking forward to a remake of the old Master of Magic. And the news that the game will be released in 2022 is great. Fourteen playable factions are great. Building and exploring, founding cities and battles are great. But. Why isn't multiplayer being considered? Playing with AI is the absence of any challenge for a truly skillful player. Isn't there going to be direct online or email play included in the game? It will be very sad and sad. Seriously.
Arent
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Re: Master of Magic. Multiplayer not included?

Post by Arent »

Well, same for me. But first of all, the master of magic remake has to be successful at all. Afterwards, we could maybe nag for a DLC to add multiplayer.

But if it isn't successful, that will probably never happen.
Uchmunduk
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Re: Master of Magic. Multiplayer not included?

Post by Uchmunduk »

I do not really understand why the same PBEM mode could not be put into the game from the very beginning? A good example is the "Shadow Empire" . Alas, I do not believe in adequate AI.
Atherys
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Re: Master of Magic. Multiplayer not included?

Post by Atherys »

Uchmunduk wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 6:23 am I do not really understand why the same PBEM mode could not be put into the game from the very beginning? A good example is the "Shadow Empire" . Alas, I do not believe in adequate AI.
Building a PBEM system to a game like Master of Magic is not recommended at all because it has more detailed battle that requires two participants to take turns in a (most likely) more than 2 players game. Instead of having one single full turn to submit, like Shadow Empire, Civilizations series, and Dominions series, it has to handle both strategic and combat phase. The only way this game can work for PBEM is if all the battles are done automatically, which I'm pretty sure you will hate as well, seeing by your view in AI inadequacy. If the devs want to implement multiplayer into this game, it has to be fully synchronized and that takes a lot of resources and time. Unless you can give them all the resources required to do such task, it will most likely not implemented because there's just too little demand for the game right now to make a significant return of value.

Bringing multiplayer into the table also brings new problems, one of them is balance. Skillful players like you will most likely complain when a slight balance is off between schools of magic, traits, races, or units. Remember the invincible Paladin and the infamous boat army? Pretty sure you won't be able to have as much fun when those strategies will be the norm in multiplayer.
Uchmunduk
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Re: Master of Magic. Multiplayer not included?

Post by Uchmunduk »

I recommend you to get acquainted with the game Age of Wonders: Planetfall. It just implemented the game mode by e-mail with tactical battles. The game looks great. Regarding playing online: I don't need a perfect balance. I need interesting opponents. AI does not meet this criterion.
Atherys
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Re: Master of Magic. Multiplayer not included?

Post by Atherys »

Uchmunduk wrote: Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:28 pm I recommend you to get acquainted with the game Age of Wonders: Planetfall. It just implemented the game mode by e-mail with tactical battles. The game looks great. Regarding playing online: I don't need a perfect balance. I need interesting opponents. AI does not meet this criterion.
In that case, that's really interesting and I would like to try Planetfall. However, given the amount of combat that can occur in a single game, it makes me wonder how much time we need to finish one. A singular game in Civ 6 with 4 human players, fast speed, and 1 day per turn took me about 3-5 months to complete and that included delays. I can already imagine the tactical game taking twice or even thrice the time and some players won't see their turns for days or weeks.

Also, please quote me so that I can be notified by your message.
Uchmunduk
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Re: Master of Magic. Multiplayer not included?

Post by Uchmunduk »

Atherys wrote: Tue Feb 01, 2022 3:38 am
Uchmunduk wrote: Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:28 pm I recommend you to get acquainted with the game Age of Wonders: Planetfall. It just implemented the game mode by e-mail with tactical battles. The game looks great. Regarding playing online: I don't need a perfect balance. I need interesting opponents. AI does not meet this criterion.
In that case, that's really interesting and I would like to try Planetfall. However, given the amount of combat that can occur in a single game, it makes me wonder how much time we need to finish one. A singular game in Civ 6 with 4 human players, fast speed, and 1 day per turn took me about 3-5 months to complete and that included delays. I can already imagine the tactical game taking twice or even thrice the time and some players won't see their turns for days or weeks.

Also, please quote me so that I can be notified by your message.
Okay. I played by email Planetfall. For 4 and 6 people. Oddly enough, but the full batch took us three months. We did 1-2 moves a day. The timer was set to automatically transfer the progress after three days. There were several major battles between the players. A number of small skirmishes between scouts and secondary armies. The only remark. We played a couple of major battles online (Planetfall has a function to switch from playing via email to live online).
My longest game is a game of Dominions 4. The starting number of players is 22. Played for almost 2.5 years
Atherys
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Re: Master of Magic. Multiplayer not included?

Post by Atherys »

Uchmunduk wrote: Tue Feb 01, 2022 5:27 pm Okay. I played by email Planetfall. For 4 and 6 people. Oddly enough, but the full batch took us three months. We did 1-2 moves a day. The timer was set to automatically transfer the progress after three days. There were several major battles between the players. A number of small skirmishes between scouts and secondary armies. The only remark. We played a couple of major battles online (Planetfall has a function to switch from playing via email to live online).
My longest game is a game of Dominions 4. The starting number of players is 22. Played for almost 2.5 years
Oh, we can switch from PBEM to live? That's really useful and convenient! I'm surprised to see that you did the whole matches in just three months. Dominions is crazy man. Super good, but needs so much time investment, which I don't have. Not surprised that a game of Dominions can last years.

I actually also wish for this game (and every 4X out there) to have multiplayer, but understand if they can't or won't. I hope Master of Magic will be successful in release day to justify multiplayer, at least on par with MOO:CTS. I'm still disappointed that CTS doesn't have tactical combat in its multiplayer, but at least it has multiplayer.
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Re: Master of Magic. Multiplayer not included?

Post by eddieballgame »

Multiplayer would be great, even if it was, lets' say, 'hotseat' (like the old days).
That way, saved files could be swapped via email or some other method if one so desired.
Per battles, simply offer a 'quick battle' option, where the AI controls everything.
Like Dominions, maybe offer some scripting features.
Of course, short of all this; there is always the 'saved file' challenge...much like the Civ Game of the Month challenges.
One nice feature that I hope is offered is 'map/world seeding'.
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