Warlock Master of the Arcane - Fantasy Civ5 clone from Paradox

[Multi-headed Cow]

It's also a requirement to use the trading forums now.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat! That's a bummer. Not really an issue for me since I don't really use the Steam trading forum after I got rid of my hats, but still.

That guy is the CEO of Paradox Interactive.

Oh. Well then!

 

[Metro]

Played it for another hour and I think it's a definite buy on a sale (not really desperate to play it). It probably isn't as deep as some people might hope for but there's definitely a little bit more going on than just a Civ 5 clone.

 

[Malakal]

I would consider buying this but I really dislike the setting, its so generic... Well, maybe playing it will change my mind. I itch for a good fantasy strategy game.

 

[belated]

So no tactical battles? Much less interesting then.

Might try the demo though.

 

[Burning Bridges]

For your information, another turn-based fantasy strategy fantasy game is in development. It's described as "Risk meets Master of Magic".

http://www.thelordzgamesstudio.com/site/games/sovereignty-crown-of-kings/

Still in early development, but made by the Lordz Game Studio, so I expect that it will be better than the Paradox garbage. Planned release date is Q4 2012 - Q1 2013.

I also opened a preliminary discussion thread in tcancer news:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/sovereignty-crown-of-kings.71642/

 

[Raghar]

That looks like a mod for CIV V. Why is Paradox selling a derived work of CIV V?

 

[Malakal]

That looks like a mod for CIV V. Why is Paradox selling a derived work of CIV V?

More accurately its a successor of the panzer general, just like Civ V. This game has nothing to do with Civ V, fortunately.

 

[Raghar]

Did you watch the video? That person who forced his face into recording was dumb as brick, thus even that non aggressive AI was able to put some fight.
But it had CIV V icons, the city handling was exactly the same, cities shot at enemies in ranged combat, and you could put one unit into the city. CIV V interface, CIV V menus. Colors similar to CIV V. I guess they simply went with fast uninspired money grab.

Eador was better.

 

[Malakal]

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?591801-Err..-civilization-5-!

There you have it. An entire thread about this issue where devs state that it doesnt have anything in common with civ V engine. They have no reason to deny it if it was true, civ V was a huge commercial success...

 

[Raghar]

Actually CIV V system was a clear room implementation, it wasn't dependent on previous game, it was a pure research with its own consequenes.
They wanted to switch to hexes to have something new and they wanted to have one unit on a grid cell to have more tactical combat (and to avoid a recurring problem of a stack of ...) They probably also though one unit/grid cell would work better on hexes.
Obviously to have one unit per hex needed more space for maneuvering and to force the combat to be properly tactical. Thus they expanded number of grid cells and, correctly, increased movement of units.
The correct enlargenment would be about 1.5+ thus they expanded city control from 2 grid to 3 grid, also correctly.
(Of course this enlargenment also requires larger line of sight...)
Then they added few restrictions to prevent unnecessary number of units... And that was the problem. The expected number of units was poorly chosen and doesn't work with the system.

And so on. Basically CIV V has nothing to do with the game you mentioned, CIV V is a grand strategy.

 

[Metro]

Just to add there are no 'tech trees' and the research is replaced by learning various magic spells but... again there is no order. I believe the Paradox guy said it would be random for each game which just sort of seems like a lazy way of implementing things. Wish they put more effort into that.

 

[sser]

Game's graphics went apeshit when I ended a turn in the portal-world. Otherwise, it seems interesting. I feel like the interface can be a bit clutttered around units at times, though, and sometimes what you can do with a unit just doesn't seem very definitive if that makes any sense. Really, it's too bad they didn't try something a little more ambitious with this title. I might still end up buying it because $20 seems nice for what you get, but I think it could have been so much more.

 

[Metro]

Apparently they plan to do DLC for it. As someone -- maybe MHC -- mentioned earlier, Paradox's strategy is basically to focus on reasonably priced download titles as they make far more money that way. Perhaps the DLC will flesh out more of the 'leaner' aspects of game play but, again, I can be pretty forgiving for a$20 game that can most likely be had for $5 on an eventual sale. Hell they might even have a 'Majesty' bundle including this, their crappy tower defense game, Majesty 1 and Majesty 2 complete for a good price during one of the major Steam sales.

 

[20 Eyes]

I tried out the demo, and I'm definitely going to hold off on this one. First, the game gives me a solid black screen for several minutes whenever I tried to run it. I'm on a machine with a decent i5 processor so I don't know why it's taking so long to load. The mouse doesn't scroll the gameworld when the cursor reaches the screen border, I have to use the arrow keys. The build menu tells me to select a tile to build on, but no matter where I click nothing happens. Small gripes, maybe. But it's 2012 and they want 20 bucks for this. I only played for a minute or two because this game seems really rushed and not ready for a release.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Yes DLC seems to be the new trend, I think it's because many people are torrenting such mediocre games, and it makes using torrents much harder.

 

[Jaedar]

I played the demo. Impressions follow.
Feels very much like a CiV mod. Demo was kind of brief so I'm not sure I like it. Seems like it could be a good game, but there were some very questionable stuff. Like my capitol spawning 5 hexes away from a neutral town. Or one of the AI's declaring war upon me the turn right after it met me for no reason. Also can't make my own character or choose a race other than humans.
It's way nicer than CiV though, because it doesn't take 20 turns to build stuff. The cityspamming is a bit much though, since cities cost nothing and don't really need any good terrain be to decent. Not to mention that settlers are really cheap as well.

There's also quests, but they are far too frequent and give for too much gold. It seems like the devs wanted the start of the game to be more exciting, but they took it way overboard. I managed to make like 500 gold in 10 turns with an income of +2. That does not seem right when troops and settlers cost like 50 gold. High level cities also have waaaaaay too much health.

Like I said tho, there's probably a good game hiding in there, just hope they polish it way more before release. (They won't, cause release is next week or so)

 

[Norfleet]

It's a Paradox game. When has a Paradox game NOT been a buggy, badly tested pile of bilge on release? You're always looking at a year or more before it stops sucking.

 

[Raghar]

I played the demo. Impressions follow.
Feels very much like a CiV mod.

What did I told ya, CIV V mod.

It's a Paradox game. When has a Paradox game NOT been a buggy, badly tested pile of bilge on release? You're always looking at a year or more before it stops sucking.

When they only published games of other developers, that were able to release bug free product. In house was a mess because they were incompetent at game design and other important stuff that can't be taught in schools.

 

[Jaedar]

It's a Paradox game. When has a Paradox game NOT been a buggy, badly tested pile of bilge on release? You're always looking at a year or more before it stops sucking.

It's not bugs I had problems with, it's some awkward design decisions that would be easy to tweak. Like Hostile neutral castles spawning right next to mine. Or the infinte gold from quests(assuming you don't get unlucky and receive a shitty quest like "build harbor" when you're landlocked). Or the AI being a complete warmonger douche. The diplomacy interface in general seems very lacklustre. You can ask for non-aggression treaty, declare war, or gift mana/gold. That's it.

 

[Metro]

Not like the Civ diplomacy window featured a lot more -- at least as of Civ 4.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Seems like it could be a good game, but there were some very questionable stuff. Like my capitol spawning 5 hexes away from a neutral town. Or one of the AI's declaring war upon me the turn right after it met me for no reason.

My problem right here. Five hexes? Lucky, I spawned right next to to a Goblin town and got rushed. Ended up with a half dead rogue as my only surviving unit. Then I met King Rrat, and sure enough he declared war on me.


I think the only thing that saved me is Rrat ran into the other mage on the map (some kind of Lich) and got distracted.

 

[Malakal]

Whats that, too hard for you? Random is random, deal with it.

But its nowhere near a MoM clone, topic is way misleading.

 

[Jaedar]

Random is random, but letting towns spawn that close to each other is stupid. Not to mention that demo actually isn't random but a preset map. The fact that you can see the other town from your starting location is just :derp:. Means that every game you play(having a town spawn close to you seems to be a feature, looking at the LP going in the official forums) will start with a rush. This is a big mistake imo.

 

[Berekän]

Game's out tomorrow so all doubts should be cleared. I'm looking forward to it because I enjoyed the little I played of the demo

 

[Malakal]

Random is random, but letting towns spawn that close to each other is stupid. Not to mention that demo actually isn't random but a preset map. The fact that you can see the other town from your starting location is just :derp:. Means that every game you play(having a town spawn close to you seems to be a feature, looking at the LP going in the official forums) will start with a rush. This is a big mistake imo.

Yes but on the other hand this forces you to actually do something early other than spamming settlers. Since, as I read, currently city spam is the way to victory.