OT: Master of Magic 2 - now looking quite likely

[Thilock_Dominus]

I've already registred to give my vote

City-building and diplomacy, both features of games like the Civ-series, are the only things I can recall that MoM had that Dom 2 doesn't. Plus there are tons of MoM-like games already on the market (Dom2, AoW, Warlords, etc.). It's too bad Stardock already has their own 4X space game GalCiv, because if they wanted to do the gaming community a real big favor, they should buy the MOO license from Atari, instead of the MoM license, and fix all the bugs in MOO3 (or better yet, scrap it and make a MOO4).

Another thing that MOM had that dom2 havn't is you move with your units like the civ games and had underground world too (which also can be found in the AOW series).
I didn't like galciv so I agree that the should have bought he rights to MOO instead of building Galciv, but I'm looking forward to see what Star Dock got in mind with MOM2, perhaps they surprise us all?


best regards
Thilock

[Gandalf Parker]

Actually there have been, and still are, many efforts to create a MoM2. I think SourceForge has 2 or 3 open source MoM projects on it. I check that rallypoint site often to see how things are going. The problem with most of them is that they try to "improve" it. One of the most common things is adding multiplayer to it. Thats not easy. And its not just the coding headaches. Its that too much of what made MoM so popular is tied into the randoms which multiplayers hate. Equal races, equal starting positions, equalized maps, are good for MP but not for SP. Everytime they try to MP it they end up with Age of Wonders.

StarDock (the makers of GalCiv) are now interested in doing MoM2. That wouldnt be bad. They excell in AI's, and have said they will hold true to MoM only improving the graphics and AI. IF they keep to that then I think they might make it, and I would probably buy it.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Blitz:
I didn't like GalCiv, but it seems like I was one of the only TBS nuts who didn't so they must have gotten something right.

I didn't like it either, although not because of the gameplay: I disliked it because of the intermittent crashing bugs combined with the fact that trying to even download a bloody patch was like trying to perform root canal in the field with a butter knife.

Take pity on my BELOVED Jagged Alliance series. First, Sirtech goes tits up, then the franchise is purchaced by infamous garbage-spewer Strategy First, who oh by the way just layed off everyone and fired the whole JA legacy team. Then they hand the whole kit and kaboodle over to an unknown russian developer, who don't seem to have anyone on staff who speaks english. Actually to call them unknown would be generous, as they are best-known for a horrible piece of trash cyberpunk game whose name escapes me. To make things worse? TWO DAYS after the 2-year development program is announced, they RELEASE SCREENSHOTS.

OH, TROGDOR! I PINE FOR YOU!

[Stormbinder]

Excellent news! GalCiv was very good, although a little bit too "dry" for my taste to prevent it being absolutely perfect IMO. But it was a great game nevertheless, and it had one of the best AI I ever encountered in the strategic game, and I have played a lot.

If they will take MoM1, add nice graphic and great AI, and perhaps add few interesting features into it, it'll be THE GAME in my book.


We will have to wait and see how it'll go, but these news are certanly sound very promising.

[Jasper]

Originally posted by Thilock_Dominus:
Another thing that MOM had that dom2 havn't is you move with your units like the civ games and had underground world too (which also can be found in the AOW series).

Eh? The only major difference between Civ and Dom2 movement is that the number of neighbors of any given "cell" is variable, as opposed to always being 8.

And you _can_ have an underground world (or the mirror world that MoM2 had) in Dom2. Some of the user made maps by Andrew Osborne do things like this, as did the "Hollow World" map from Dom1.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Jasper:
Eh? The only major difference between Civ and Dom2 movement is that the number of neighbors of any given "cell" is variable, as opposed to always being 8.

That, and the concept of significance. In Dom2, every cell bears innate significance, but in Civ-style games, no cell bears any real significance unless another player has chosen to populate and develop it. As such, Civ-style has a lot of "whitespace" in which units move about in, whereas Dom2 features a mighty battle at every cell.

[Pirateiam]

Take pity on my BELOVED Jagged Alliance series. First, Sirtech goes tits up, then the franchise is purchaced by infamous garbage-spewer Strategy First, who oh by the way just layed off everyone and fired the whole JA legacy team. Then they hand the whole kit and kaboodle over to an unknown russian developer, who don't seem to have anyone on staff who speaks english. Actually to call them unknown would be generous, as they are best-known for a horrible piece of trash cyberpunk game whose name escapes me. To make things worse? TWO DAYS after the 2-year development program is announced, they RELEASE SCREENSHOTS. Yes in two days, they managed to get a working alpha going and post screens on the webpage. Seems they are using the "engine" of another TBS to kick start their process. I've never heard of a TBS using an engine from an existing game before. This ought to be interesting.

That is very troubling news. I followed Sirtech's demise with sadness. I probably played JA2 more than any other game so far. I think I finished 4 times now from start to finish. Just the personalities of the Mercs were entertaining and what came out there mouths were hilarious and sick. To this day the funiest line in any game I played is when I the hot babe Merc was killed (her name escapes me) and one of the Phycho Mercs from AIM wanted put her on ice for later use!