Warlock Master of the Arcane - Fantasy Civ5 clone from Paradox

[SCO]

yeah i forgot that debug builds incur a small cost. I think it makes sense to keep them though.

I only wish this stuff was standardized somehow.

 

[Marobug]

Actually, releasing debug builds is illegal in most cases. By releasing a debug build you are releasing something that contains code from another party (Microsoft if you use visual c++, etc), specifically the debug module.

 

[Zeus]

I wonder how much business Paradox lost because over this $1.99 "Powerful Lords" DLC .

Turns out it's just the pre-order bonus, made available after release. Something I normally get behind, because the thought of exclusive pre-order content really bugs me.

Problem is, it's day-one DLC, and it's only $2. Which makes Warlock look like one of those horrible quasi-shareware games with 50 little DLC packs that quickly double the original price. Since turn-based strategy appeals to older gamers -- who are less willing to pay $2 (10% of the original cost) for two units -- I can totally see potential customers giving up on Warlock or just waiting for some sort of complete pack.

 

[Raghar]

How do game companies feel about crash reporters?

I consider them useless. I do stuff in a way it will not crash, it would try to recover from any error internally. Thus they are mostly useless in my case. I would need to create few internal testing stuff, which would write reasonable information about what internally happened, stack dump is mostly useless. In fact a lot of stuff where stack dump might be of some value should be caught in QA, thus companies that are doing QA don't need these reporters.

They seem extremely useful for QA and continued support. I really don't understand why this technology hasn't spread like a STD.

There is an additional problem of user data and privacy laws. A working crash reporter need info about user's computer, which is of course a major problem.

They might be useful for a normal company, however game developers shouldn't use standard methodologies.

Actually, releasing debug builds is illegal in most cases.

That's news for me. Can you point to a MS article where it discus illegality of debug build?

Debug build merely adds debug symbols, readable stack traces, and prevents ANY optimization whatever. (Which funnily can create cases when slow debug build works, release don't. Thus forces developer to release debug build if he want or not.)

 

[Malakal]

I played this game for a bit. Seems fine to me, havent encountered any bugs or issues.

Game is very large, there are dozens maybe hundreds different buildings and units, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. CiV doesnt really compare to this. True, there isnt much research but instead you get fancy new spells and buildings upgrade in chains. Overall there is WAY more to do than in CiV.

AI isnt very competent. Played on the challenging difficulty, wasnt challenged even once. I think Ill have to restart on impossible. But AI misses obvious opportunities, doesnt expand nearly enough, is passive in diplomacy. Competent in warfare, at least somewhat.

This game has a lot of potential, I hope it gets the love it needs. Could be a real Civ fantasy.

 

[Angthoron]

Last night's update has made Unity spell useable by the player (among other things) as a victory condition.

 

[Mortmal]

I finally acquired it , and while its fun , theres not much challenge, in fact neutral encounters are more challenging than the other mages , by far. Its missing victories conditions , a straw...Really they could have spent a few more months to finish their game.
Any points into clearing the extra worlds ? I noticed if you can tackle the horde of powerful critters inside one of those , you may as well crush all your mages opponents with extreme ease. It could turn out really great, theres really lot of choices of units and builds , but i bet with all the dlc required to add extra races you will be way over the regular price, way over what master of magic cost was. A shame its released in that state.

 

[kris]

I tried it and at least it doesn't crash for me. most of the time I got a feeling it did have potential with much improved combat compared to Civ5, but sadly that is about it all for the game. What is good about the combat is how units interact against each other and counter each other. Even some weak first line units can be really useful against stronger units, in particular the archers. Crushing vampires with skeletons is hilarious too.

Sadly there isn't that much else to the game and the winning tactic is by far to build/aquire as many cities as possible.

issues:
- There is a clear lack of research. Brings down the things to do.
- It is not clear how buildings lead to other buildings.
- Upgrading units is strange. Basically you can upgrade all units anywhere if you got money and the building needed for it in one city somewhere.
- You can also upgrade your armies with several different armours at the same time.
- Ai hardly venture out of their cities.
- Other worlds is really just a battle for more money of for space to put more cities there. AI ignore them. Net gain of going there will be cities.
- it is mostly to easy.

I feel like I just clean up the map. Even if I lose both armies and sometimes a city I am always growing and the battles get tiring after a while. Since I came from playing Civ4 mods the worlds feel small and the game seems to lack options of differing gameplay.

 

[asper]

So, after 17 years, Master of Magic still remains champion of its genre...?

Next....

But seriously, how on earth could MoM have gotten everything so right: balance, gameplay, variety in spells, units, buildings.. These guys had no other archetypes to learn from. Nowadays it seems even impossible just to create such a game..

 

[Malakal]

Age of Wonders was very good. Other than that no real good sequels. But some are being made right now and seem at least promising.

 

[Malakal]

Apparently AI just kind of locks out after soe playing and needs to be reset in order to truly play the game. Seems like this will need some patching.

On a positive note people reported that functional (ie not locked down) AI can be very competent, expanding and spamming hordes of units.

 

[BvG]

MoM is not a good game, i played it recently on dosbox, and it's hard to use (GUI), weirdly random in when you win and lose, and has a weird power curve where you crush everyone as soon as you've got a few cities.

Funnily, that describes all 4x-type games, ever.

As for Warlock, it's a fun little game (never crashed for me), well worth 20 bucks, and you can play it 3 times, because there's 3 races

 

[Marsal]

MoM is not a good game...

 

[Malakal]

MoM isnt a good game in the sense that its not balanced or fair, not made for MP and random factor is very strong in it. But its a FUN game like most oldschoool games.

Good old times when no one bothered with things like accessibility or balance...

 

[SCO]

There's a binary patch in this very forum that improves things a bit

Look at kyrub sig and despair:
MoM Insecticide patch | MoO 1 unofficial patch | SMAC 444 | Enemy Unknown AI patch | TFTD extender

 

[Running Fox]

MoM is not a good game...

MoM became good with time. Like quality wine.
At release it was a bug-ridden, broken experiment but with time and fangirl dementia setting in while they sit on their rose tinted dildos, the quality only goes up.
Single malt, 200 years. Mmmmmmh.

 

[hoverdog]

MoM isnt a good game in the sense that its not balanced or fair, not made for MP and random factor is very strong in it. But its a FUN game like most oldschoool games.

Good old times when no one bothered with things like accessibility or balance...

Yet it's still the best fantasy 4X (or strategy game at all). None have come even close.

 

[JarlFrank]

MoM isnt a good game in the sense that its not balanced or fair, not made for MP and random factor is very strong in it. But its a FUN game like most oldschoool games.

Good old times when no one bothered with things like accessibility or balance...

Yet it's still the best fantasy 4X (or strategy game at all). None have come even close.

Same with MoO2 and space 4x, and it's not balanced either.
While the Stardock games (Elemental and GalCiv) which are trying to be super balanced lack soul and just aren't much fun to play.

Fuck balance. It's not fun when every nation/race/faction plays the same. It's fun when each plays differently and has different challenges to overcome, and if one is overpowered and another underpowered, who cares as long as they're fun to play. Fuck balance, creative design is a LOT more important for gameplay than balance.

 

[Zeus]

MoM is not a good game

 

[Kane]

MoM isnt a good game

 

[gromit]

I do stuff in a way it will not crash, it would try to recover from any error internally.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? I'm with you 100% that good code is aware of, and directly addresses, most of its own issues - be that by on-the-spot validation / adjustment, or silently giving up and proceeding. It's a dying art which, like other "you either can do this or can't" aspects of software development, is severely downplayed in education... usually in favor of syntax, algorithm nicknames, and in the worst cases, 2nd-grade math homework that happens to be in binary.

By releasing a debug build you are releasing something that contains code from another party (Microsoft if you use visual c++, etc), specifically the debug module.

All Visual Studio projects require ultra-privatized Microsoft intellectual property, whether they use formal debugging or not... but that's why they've always bundled it into those neat little redistributables and encouraged you to include them with your installer. MS's developer policies and licensing have always been loose as beer-shits.

 

[Dim]

Won demo. Interface could use improvement, spamming cities and units wins the game and turned into a horrible micromanagement right about the time i sieged the rat king. If multiplayer is ever put in it must be in the demo cause sp and mp may be completely different.

 

[Renegen]

While the Stardock games (Elemental and GalCiv) which are trying to be super balanced lack soul and just aren't much fun to play.

Oh look, another person taking a dump on GalCiv, how difficult. Maybe you already knew there is only 1 race to choose in Galciv? Kinda hard to say imbalance is fun when you only play as 1 race. You play as humans and that's what the game is, it's not attempting to be MOO4 or make you feel like a kid in a candy shop, it's GalCiv. Oh and the enemy races actually do act very differently, each has a very different personality and once they become a blob all pose challenges in different ways. GalCiv1 is one of the best 4x I ever played, you just have to accept it for what it is.

 

[Marsal]

Oh look, another person taking a dump on GalCiv, how difficult. Maybe you already knew there is only 1 race to choose in Galciv? Kinda hard to say imbalance is fun when you only play as 1 race. You play as humans and that's what the game is, it's not attempting to be MOO4 or make you feel like a kid in a candy shop, it's GalCiv. Oh and the enemy races actually do act very differently, each has a very different personality and once they become a blob all pose challenges in different ways. GalCiv1 is one of the best 4x I ever played, you just have to accept it for what it is.

Bro, "what it is" is shit. Look into your soul and accept that GalCiv is soulless shit, play MoO and be at peace once again.

 

[Kane]