As a continuation from last week’s community led Q&A, I will talk a little about community feedback and how we try to balance it as we develop the remake. We’ll also share a few pictures of our own improvements and try to explain the process behind it all.
So, the general rule here at MuHa is that we do our best to read the feedback and keep up to date with community discussions. We then take note of any points that we either find particularly interesting, or pressing, and we try our best to get them into the game.
It is also important to note here, that we have read and continue to read the community forums and wiki as we build our design doc. As such, a lot of our base design choices were already built on your feedback and hard work.
We’ve asked our community on Discord to put forward some burning questions and we’ve attempted to answer them all the best we can at this point in development. Please note I may have paraphrased some of the questions, especially when there were several that asked the same thing.
Q: What are the main changes/improvements? What are the differences with the original Master of Magic? So far, we know about the graphics and hexagons on the world map, but any other outstanding features?
That is a question I intend to tackle fully another time, as we are pushing closer and closer to a feature complete build, I want to wait and collect all the big ones in one go, because we will inevitably make changes once we play our game and find things that may or may not work for our version. But, not wanting to leave this entirely unanswered, customising your playthrough is a feature we hope to greatly improve from the original. So apart from the usual difficulty settings, we’d like to include as many on/off options as we can, especially when it comes to things that stray from the original, but not exclusively so.
As an example, in addition to the option of turning the game’s events on/off, we already have a second pack of events that will also be optional. Another plan is to have customisable AI difficulty. While these are only a few examples, our intention is to build up this list, especially once the game is playable and thus open to more precise feedback.
Another feature that already received a makeover, are the events. There will be two event packs at launch, one, the original 18 events, and another, with brand new ones. You will of course be able to switch both/either on and off. While the original events are copied from the old game directly, they have been updated and given alternate routes. So, when you encounter an earthquake for example, in the original, it was simply a notification, in the new version, you may have an option to mitigate the effects. The new event pack will follow the same rule, events that occur will have multiple ways of resolution, instead of them being simple notice.
While the contest for the elusive Master of Magic is fought with great spells and ultimate wizard power, it is still all built on the sweat of the little folk down below, or so they tell you. You may be an ever powerful mage, but you need your cannon fodder… great men, women and creatures who will be manipulated into working and fighting for you, many that will die in blazing glory.
In our previous diaries we mentioned that all fourteen races are returning to Master of Magic, and here we describe and show some more of them, especially for players who may not know the original so well.
Your Wizard will choose a race they will lead at the start of the game, but as you grow in power and reach, you may conquer or otherwise gain new cities and thus rule over a diverse cast of people by the end of your playthrough.
Every race in Master of Magic is different. Not only visually, but also in terms of game mechanics. Some may have access to different sets of buildings, different numbers and types of units, or have special racial abilities, such as troll regeneration or draconian flying ability. Choosing the right people to rule over may dictate your tactics, especially at the start of the game.
Lizardmen
A selection of Lizardmen units.
Lizardmen are bipedal, aquatic reptilians. Physically, the lizardmen are small, resilient, and agile and can move on water with ease. What they may lack in stature, they make up in numbers. There are some theories that suggest common ancestry with the draconians, but neither race finds them convincing. Lizardmen form mostly tribal societies, and they tend to build settlements using simple technologies. They also prefer wetlands as their settling grounds and so, they tend not to be expansive, unless convinced otherwise by a strong Wizard.
Lizardmen are one of the Arcanus races and as such, they can be chosen as the starting race by any Wizard that does not start on Myrror.
In this month’s spotlight, we’ll talk about the brave mercenaries who may decide to join our cause, the heroes and champions of Master of Magic. So first things first, all 35 are coming back and as with everything else, we are attempting to recreate all their skills and special abilities faithfully.
Types of mercenaries:
There are two types of mercenaries in Master of Magic, Heroes and Champions. Heroes are the more common hired hands, while Champions are the more unique characters. Every mercenary in Master of Magic has their own, short backstory and fun flavour to explore. In terms of mechanics then, the Champions tend to have more abilities and higher stats than heroes, as well as higher prerequisites needed for them to be interested in serving you.
Some of the extra, non-canon events we’ve added may have specific mercenaries join the wizard as a reward, or some events may have a special path unlocked when a particular type of mercenary is present.
Brax the Dwarf, also known by the name of Brax the Berserker. A dwarven warrior with an insatiable lust for combat. Continue reading
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.
Welcome to the first of our Dev Diaries for Master of Magic. Seeing as this one is the first in the ‘series’ we will offer a quick recap of the development info so far, but perhaps offering a few more details.
Who is MuHa Games?
An artistic render of the MuHa team.
We’re an indie studio based in Poland. Our previous two games are called Thea: The Awakening, and Thea 2: The Shattering, and they are best described as a: gritty, dark fantasy, survival games set within a post apocalyptic world, inhabited by a combination of classical fantasy critters and an abundance of mythical and folkloric influences. So, while MoM is a very different game in its core, we certainly have experience with the 4x/strategy genre. As such, when we were approached by Slitherine about remaking such a beloved classic of the genre, we were very excited to say yes. Our design ideology is simple, we try to make games that we’d want to play ourselves and we do our best to communicate with our fans and thus make the best product we can.
The old and the new.
Our design philosophy is to attempt to recreate the mechanics and gameplay of MoM as faithfully as we can, while also making an awesome game for new fans. So, with that in mind, here are a few things we already have that you may recognise from the original. Now, these things may return with some changes, all the features that are visual will of course have new graphics, and some mechanics may be altered if we were unable to recreate them.
Updating our website was never our strong suit, but here’s a post to let our fans know that we’re alive and well. With our work on Thea 2: The Shattering complete, we are quietly working on a new game. At this point, we can only say that that this will be a turn-based strategy, but not in the Thea universe. A proper announcement will be issued at a later date. And here’s a cat to make this entry less boring 😉
As we come close the end of the development cycle for Thea 2: The Shattering, we’re happy to announce the latest DLC: Wrath of the Sea. The DLC offers new content and while it is focused on the water biome, it also brings many new goodies and improvements to all the lands of Thea.
For the first time in the history of all Thea, we will have a seasonal event. From 28.10.2019 till 4.11.2019 you will have the chance to experience the All Souls Night celebrations and the odd coming of the foreign celebrations of the so called Hallows Eve. How will the small community of Bear Village handle the clash of the old and new, will you embrace the pumpkin madness or fight for tradition?
The event includes some seasonal content, a pack of Halloween/Zaduszki themed events, special enemies and new pets. You will have only two weeks to explore the event. After that time, all new games will no longer have the content available to them.*
*unless you’re a modder, than you can cheat your way out of it 😉
