Bay 12 Games Forum

Whether or not it deserves its own thread is questionable, but... MuHa's Master of Magic remake snuck out into full release w/o me noticing it last December, and recently released its first (free) expansion (which added a few new wizards, a couple of hero/unit abilities, and Myrran Goblins as a playable race).

Overall, it's, uh... fine? It's a pretty faithful remake (hexes notwithstanding), which is both good and bad. The UI is a bit smoother & friendlier, but it's also indistinct and bland. I feel like it would benefit from higher contrast; the elements are almost all mid-range earthtones and greens. By and large, gameplay remains what it was in the original... which now feels very dated, especially since the UI makes things look modern. There's definitely an art style, which really stands out and feels a bit odd... but that's mostly b/c the pixelated art in the original was so vague. It's quite playable, but it's not compelling.

Content-wise, it's... fine.  There are some minor new features that don't really disrupt gameplay or dramatically change things: new events, events where you have choices, dungeons where you can choose to push deeper or give up, different types of Towers... but nothing that feels new or game-changing. There are built-in event modding tools, and plans apparently include adding full-spectrum modding with Steam Workshop support.

It is a Unity game, which both contributes to the genericness of it and means it's a bit of a resource hog. It more time to load up on booting than I'd expect, but once it's up and running it seems to run well with quick responsiveness, to include reloading saved games.

So, yeah. I mostly just don't have strong feelings about it.  To be fair, I didn't ever achieve my old levels of fascination & enthusiasm when I played the re-release of classic MoM a few years back, so that may just be an artifact of the underlying  dated gameplay. I had a similar "you can't go back" moment when I picked up the modern-OS-compatible re-release of EFS. Alas, I am not the same gamer I was 25y ago...

...probably not? This is a very turn-based game as far as turn-based games go. It also has a steep learning curve. That said, it's a good game. You could be very pleasantly surprised by it... but if you're mostly an RTS fan, I do suspect it would be a surprise. If you're still curious, I'd recommend watching DasTactic's Youtube videos and trying to feel out if the sort of slow, methodical play this tends towards could interest you.

They don't have to be brown, though. That just happened to be what this one ended up as - that's been one of the color palate options since release. I've done more than a few blue Articas as well. The "water" is just whatever it is, regardless of color.

If you mean all the white on the map, that's the permanent, traversable ice shelf.

Here's a (kinda-sorta-not-necessarily-representative) example of each of the above planet classes. Just generating these examples really reinforced how overly narrow the ocean percentage ranges I estimated above were.

Not the aquatic ones, but the "amphibic" & "semi-amphibic" ones do. Aquatic ones mostly just float around being vaguely menacing and if you don't have good recon, making you wonder if they're actually amphibians. That may change at a later date to make them interfere with shipping or suchlike.

The Oceania DLC released today, and if anyone was thinking about getting the base game, it's on sale for -45% for the next week as well. The DLC release also saw a fair number of iterative base-game improvements all over the place.

The official DLC feature list is as follows:

• Gaia Planet Class now available
• Thalassa Planet Class now available
• Proteus Planet Class now available
• Fontus Planet Class now available
• Maritime Trade House (MTH) mechanics
• MTH Stock-trading, Policy Meetings, Dividends & Auctions
• MTH Transport, Explore and Makeshift Port Contracts
• MTH Naval warfare for sea supremacy
• Naval logistical points allow amphibious invasions and transfers
• Note that the player does not control any naval units and all maritime action is simulated through the MTHs

Left unmentioned in the formal press release are:

• Artica Planet Class now available
• Tethys Planet Class now available
• Hydroid Planet Class now available
• Minor & Indy pirates and marauders
• SEA CRITTERS

To break down those new planet types:

Gaia Planet: Earth-like in terms of geography and atmosphere/biosphere. Pangaea-type situations aren't uncommon, but the results can be varied. 55-75% ocean, maybe?
Thalassa Planet: SO much water. Archipelagos and small islands abound. Few proper continents. 80%+ ocean.
Proteus Planet: Fairly dry and frankly weird planets. Super-continents abound, and there's little rain despite the oceans. 30-50% ocean.
Fontus Planet: Something b/tw Thalassa and Proteus. Wet with lots of rain and almost always has life. 50-75% ocean, maybe?
Artica Planet: Gaia, but COLD. There's almost certainly going to be ice caps which will probably span the globe, so land bridges are more-or-less assured.
Tethys Planet: Warm with fragmented tectonics. These are a mess. Land and water are balanced, but landmasses will be small.
Hydroid Planet(oid): So you wanted a planetoid, but with atmosphere and life? Here ya go. These will be 3by or younger.

Unclassified Planets: These can use DLC features. They may or may not have proper oceans, though, and if they don't, you'll not see much. They may also start w/o MTHs.

MTHs are, as Il Palazzo guessed when the DLC was announced, very Dune-Navigator's-Guild-esque, albeit without a monopoly (although if they're aggressive enough, they may try to change that). The individual personality and capability of MTHs vary a bit; they can change a bit if their leadership changes, but there's also things that'll remain the same. They're all greedy and mercantile, though. Commercial profiles are easier to maintain in the DLC than normal, and MTHs help keep material supplies in the market more stable than they otherwise might be.

Sea critters and marauders will be the bane of your REMFs' existence. The only preemptive measure you can take is getting on the good side of the MTH who rules your coastal ocean; otherwise, you just need to keep some troops back along your coasts to discourage critters and/or repel invaders. This goes double if you're at war with majors.

Anyway, while I could go on, that's probably enough rambling. I was in the closed beta, so I'm already fairly familiar with the features and can answer any specific questions people might have... 

I suppose 90% off isn't bad for it, but Epic is giving it away for free ATM if you do Epic at all. The DLCs are all kinda mostly just fluff. If there's an army you like, you can get that, but none of them change the mechanics per se.