Just how similar to MoM

The intention is to create a 'spiritual successor' to MOM.  It is NOT a sequel, but it is heavily inspired by it.  It does have heroes, character creation and unit creation.  The spell system is yet to be fully revealed, but I doubt it will be exactly the same as MOM's.

If you've played Galactic Civilizations 2, its a similar sort of thing with that and Master of Orion.

It will be similar in the general sense of fantasy games being like one another, and many mechainics will appear in some permutation. However, the "assets" like techs, spells, units, mana types, and enemies will be COMPLETELY different.

Master of Magic is still one of my favourite games from why back on my old 486DX2 66MHz, from what i have read about the beta if they can get the playabiliy with out a nice shiney GFX engine, i will hope it have the feel of MoM. Thankyou for the responces.

It's waaay too early IMO to say anything definitive.  Seeing that there are a slew of diehard MoM fans here now in the Beta it should hopefully shape up nicely.  Currently as some expected there are a good amount of crashes and bugs cropping up that I am sure we be dealt with.  Wouldn't expect gameplay to fine tune for a while yet.

R,

Nacho

PS.  One difference I not out the gate is that you run around with your "Sovereign" quite a bit in the beginning (where in MoM you Sovereign was quite vulnerable).  I have yet to be in a game long enough to get a hero (had about 6-7 cities and was trying to ramp up the prestige to attract one).  I have killed a couple of other sovereigns so far.

I have some high hopes for this game. And I really think that (from all I've heard) this game will final be the game that finally puts MoM to rest. As despite being a great game MoM is ancient and needs a replacement.

The spell system hasn't been revealed yet, but there is a very neat tech system with infinite research. And the unit desinger will probably be one of the best parts of this game.

@ NachoAdept, I don't think heroes are implemented yet.

Very true that MoM needs to be put to rest, there has been verious contenters but none have lived up to the playability that MoM has. Need to wait to see how the magic system works before i pass judgement as i found MoM had just the right balance, or spells, counter spells and spell that just made it possible to ignor the effects.

I remember a review of GC2 TotA which said, referring to MOO (1 and 2, not 3) saying 'The king is dead, long live the king!'  So if SD keep up their record MoM will finally get a true successor, if only after a couple of expansions.  Of course the legiions of beta testers are here to make sure we don't have to wait for expansions before having an uber mega game.

MoM is still the best, followed by AoW 2. - SM

There is 1 problem with MoM however...the AI sucked badly.

Agreed Tormy-. MoM will never "Die". It will always be recognized by us old schoolers as a Classic and Legend in it's time. It's very true that AoW2 was a good successor, just as Elemental will be a even greater successor to both Mom and AoW2. I do believe Elemental will be the new King of this genre, but people will never forget the classic that started it all.

Absolutely...the game is in the right hands. Stardock actually cares about it's games. Just take a look at Galciv 2. for example. Combine this + the excellent modding capabilities of Elemental = The game will have a long and successful life, I am pretty sure about it.

I'm sure someone will eventually mod in the MoM races, units, spells, etc. (or maybe that's wishful thinking!).

Oh I'm quite sure as well....Quite Sure.

Yeah, all I really want is MoM with really good AI, all known bugs fixed - and there were MANY of them (see section 10.5) and multiplayer.

One of the reasons why I think subsequent games have failed to capture what it is that makes MoM so amazing is because their developers did not truly understand it.

Not to set expectations for Elemental too high or anything.

That being said, a game released in the state that MoM was in (Even after patches) today would be completely destroyed by reviewers and other gamers.  Bugs like MoM still has destroy playability,

Its true.  MoM  is  still very buggy   (though in its defense, its hard to say what is caused by it or  by emulation means such as DOS box, which does have some strange speed issues with MoM)

I think its almost to a point where MoM isn't even the target successor anymore.  Just that this is supposed to be in  the same super-sub-genre.  Its just that MoM is one of the examples of a really jaw-dropping experience here, where most of the games that have come after have only been  average at best (there are exceptions of course, but these are often also listed with MoM when comparing this game to other affiliates)

MoM had some bugs, but I just don't remember them being that debilitating.  I played it on a DOS machine back when windows was 3.1.  It was just such a great game.  I think the hardest thing back then was understanding and executing that extended memory management system to run the game. 

MoM just sucked you in and before you knew it the clock was way past midnight :)  !!!

R,

Nacho

A great many (perhaps a majority) of MoM's bugs would simply not happen today due to modern programming techniques, tools and compilers (static analyzers, modern debuggers, etc).

DOSbox's speed issues have been fixed recently with the release of the dynamic core.

Build a stack of 9 hightly enchanted halberdiers, attack a tower, win the battle, and then vanish into nothing because the enemy somehow had a second stack there.  That is debilitating!

I am not a hardcore-veteran-ultra-skilled MoM player, but I have to say there are quite a few similarities:

• Turn based
• Unit described as simple stats like: attack, defense, move, unkeep (and a couple of special stats)
• Fantasy setting
• 4X
• Develop magic
• Cast spells
• Control a wizard
• Choose among several factions/races
• Explore ruins, siphon shards, fight against monsters etc.
• Upgrade your cities, train units, rise buildings
• Diplomacy

However, there are a lot of differences:

• You can/have to develop non-magical technologies
• Your wizard is a unit
• Units' unkeep is only described in gold (no food)
• Better sounds, music and graphics - who could have guessed it
• Ability to create your own units
• Family tree (I don't like this idea, but it's in)
• Your wizard is the only unit able to build cities (# of cities is limited)
• Simultenously to raising buildings you can train units

I would say this game is really similar to MoM, and if the game is as 'moddable' as Frogboy promisses, making a MoM v. 2.0 shouldn't be a problem at all.

I don't think Heros are in this stage of Beta.

yeah...at this beta stage,  you'd have to be in the game a VERY long time to get a hero.   I'd say forever unless Stardock creates a patching system that updates the game as you play it.   (more than just hotfixes, which I think they already have)

I did play MOM as much as MOO 2, I would say that in a lot of ways it's similar to MOM, but I think from what I've seen so far in beta, It looks nicely improved upon, I actually have fun just playing the "not-fun-version" just because what Ive seen is cool and unique.

Far as I know, they're not. I'm not sure what beta release those are scheduled for, but I haven't seen a post saying anybody has gotten one yet.

The current beta phase is mostly "does the game run on peoples systems?" We're tenatively scheduled to get another beta version today that may have some new stuff.

They aren't called out by name in Brad's Beta Schedule post, but it seems like they'd have to be in by 1G at the latest, unless they want us to test the questing mechanics with just our sovereigns and regular troops. I'm hoping they're in a bit earlier, perhaps along with the dynasty functions that will come online for 1E.

Most of the main gameplay stuff (ie: heroes, dynasties, diplomacy) will be in by December.