The glorious Evolution of Master of Mana - The Red Desert of Cruoris / First screenshot of standalone version / Feedback needed

[Sephi]

Here you can see my current lategame army. I play a merchant and focused on an economic victory condition. I probably neglected my army a bit too much. As a merchant I can peacefully take over cities via trade so I did not need an army that much for most of the game. I go for the follower victory condition where you need X Population. Currently I have 620k from 750k needed. The AI sieged one of my cities that has a population of 60k. Loosing that city would delay my victory a lot so I threw everything into defending the city. Hired all mercenaries available at the mercenary market. It took me three attempts to break the siege. Lost 300 archers, 200 caravan guards, lots of mercenaries and a little bit of everything else I have. Now it is time to rebuild the army. I might have to defend the city again before the game finishes. Currently at 82% of my victory condition and the biggest AI is at 79%.

 

[OzzyKP]

That all sounds excellent. When can we get our hands on it to help test?

 

[Sephi]

That all sounds excellent. When can we get our hands on it to help test?

That's a great question. I have made time estimates in the past but they all turned out to be way off. I wanted a demo out before the release of civ 7 but didn't work out so well .

To distribute any playtest/demo I want to use steam. To use steam I first need to set up a company. I also want to get in atleast 10 full games. I am currently close to finish my second full game. I also need to write a lot of help texts and tutorials. like a lot. So I guess I set up the company early next year and once the paperwork finishes launch the steam website.

 

[OzzyKP]

So you're publishing the game solo? Did you have any thoughts on reaching out to a larger publisher to see if they'd help promote/distribute the game? I don't know anything about that, but I know some guys at Mohawk Games, and of course Kael is at Amplitude. It looks like a fantastic game, it'd be a shame if you put all this time into it and no one ever hears about it.

 

[Sephi]

Yes, if the community loves the demo and it gets a lot of wishlists on steam I might reach out to publishers of strategy games but I want to keep full control over the creative side of the game. I kinda want to do the marketing myself though. Reaching out to streamers and cooperating with them sounds like fun. Maybe I get lucky and the hooded horses make me an offer I cannot refuse.

Steam will do the heavy lifting when it comes to marketing. They send some people to your page and if the people wishlist the game steam will send more people. Quality is king on steam these days so that is what I focus on currently. Civ7 had to learn it the hard way.

 

[Blake00]

That's a great question. I have made time estimates in the past but they all turned out to be way off. I wanted a demo out before the release of civ 7 but didn't work out so well .

To distribute any playtest/demo I want to use steam. To use steam I first need to set up a company. I also want to get in atleast 10 full games. I am currently close to finish my second full game. I also need to write a lot of help texts and tutorials. like a lot. So I guess I set up the company early next year and once the paperwork finishes launch the steam website.

This is good.. a steam page for wishlisting is easier for us to market through CivFanatics news and all the other Civ groups. Also I run the Master of Magic social media communities too (even if it wasn't an influence it surely indirectly was being the grandfather of this 4X Fantasy TBS genre) so you get double the bang for your buck with my help. Once you've got that steam page up with some sexy game screenshots (and maybe a teaser video even if it's still early days) we'll get busy.

 

[Sephi]

This is good.. a steam page for wishlisting is easier for us to market through CivFanatics news and all the other Civ groups. Also I run the Master of Magic social media communities too (even if it wasn't an influence it surely indirectly was being the grandfather of this 4X Fantasy TBS genre) so you get double the bang for your buck with my help. Once you've got that steam page up with some sexy game screenshots (and maybe a teaser video even if it's still early days) we'll get busy.

Blake my friend, I pray every day that you do not get kidnapped by kangaroos . I greatly appreciate any help to create awareness for the game once there is a demo on steam so people can play the game and see if they like it or not. I will make a gameplay trailer for the steam page, it seems very important these days.

Yes, Master of Magic is a huge influence. The original Master of Magic had two roots, the wargames of the 90s and the table top rpgs like dungeons and dragons. The way I see it most fantasy 4x games after MoM focused on the wargames root with their super complex tactical battles and 80% combat gameplay. I try to explore the storytelling and roleplaying aspects. The game I am making is a bit of a combination of civ and dungeons and dragons. You have the classic 4x game elements with a focus on building like it is typical for civ games: building cities, building diplomatic relationships, building armies. But you also roleplay as a leader. A lot of the diplomacy is done "in person" with dialogues and skill checks using the leader skills like you would in a table top rpg. The tech map looks like a giant skill tree from an rpg where you can fully customize your empire. This game description is all a bit technical and abstract which is why I think a demo will be very important for players to get a feel if they like this type of gameplay.

 

[Blake00]

Oh yes a demo would be even better for the shareathon! Very good idea.

 

[Sephi]

Working on a couple UI Improvements currently. I have now added estimated changes for effects. For example you can see how much gold a "+50% gold" law will give to your current empire. It's weird that every civ game since civ4 has a popular mod that adds these estimates to the UI but somehow many 4x developers refuse to add them to their games. Maybe they miss their math homework and want to do it manually?

Here you can see them in the law screen.

and here when you mouseover a building in the city screen.

 

[Sephi]

Mouseover 94 is "Terraforming Power". If you want to cast a terraforming spell the UI will show you the terraforming power. Now if you mouseover that number it lists where the number comes from.

In this case I want to create a lake using the Water Mastery skill of my leader. Every 100 points of terraforming power transforms one tile or in this case creates one lake. There are plenty ways in the game to gain terraforming power. Some technologies, an earth shrine building, a diplomatic treaty that you can only sign with wood elves, etc. The casting skill of the magic school the terraforming spell belongs to also grants a bonus, in this case water mastery. The most powerful bonuses however are tile dependent and come from the terrain. Most terraformings have synergies with a few terrains or features. Synergy means that when you cast the terraforming near that terrain it becomes stronger. For example Create Lake has synergy with ocean terain and lake features. As a rule of thumb, if you cast a spell on a tile where you have synergy with three neighbours you will transform an additional tile. If you cast an elemental terraforming near an elemental node of the same element you gain a massive bonus of 200 which means you will always transform atleast two more additional tiles.

All the number crunching aside if you want to transform a large desert to grasslands you do not transform tile by tile which would take a long time. Instead you look for an elemental node, transform it into a water node. Then you cast spring on the water node and transform a lot of tiles at once.

 

[OzzyKP]

The tooltip should have a total on it, and perhaps explain that 367 equals three lakes.

 

[Sephi]

The tooltip should have a total on it, and perhaps explain that 367 equals three lakes.

Makes perfect sense, I have added both.

 

[Milliopolis]

Hello Sephi, I am just a gamer who have played 4X, strategy, civ4, ffh2 and Master of Mana.
Recently, I re-find your game and other promising fantasy game Almanach. https://almanach.blog/welcome-to-almanach-of-empires-and-sorcery/
I introduce these mechanics focused strategy games in eXplorminate discord server.
Not only me looking forward to play your original game.

 

[Sephi]

Hello Sephi, I am just a gamer who have played 4X, strategy, civ4, ffh2 and Master of Mana.
Recently, I re-find your game and other promising fantasy game Almanach. https://almanach.blog/welcome-to-almanach-of-empires-and-sorcery/
I introduce these mechanics focused strategy games in eXplorminate discord server.
Not only me looking forward to play your original game.

Hi Milliopolis, your interest honors me. I hope the game I am working on will bring you many happy hours. The current plan is to have a demo ready by the start of next year.

The Almanach game seems quite ambitious, I wish the makers the best of luck.