Stardock Teases Not-MoM @ IGN

Dhruin

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Remember Master of Magic? If you've followed Stardock, you might know CEO Brad Wardell has hinted at a fantasy turn-based title heavily inspired by MoM. If not, dteowner writes in to point out a little teaser at IGN:
Stardock is "developing a new fantasy strategy game franchise," Brad Wardell confirmed through a company customer report. Tentatively titled "Strategy Game 2010: The fantasy strategy game," it is being described as a "Not-MOM" (as in, Not Master of Magic) game. Master of Magic was a fantasy turn-based strategy game published by MicroProse in 1995; it is considered a classic of the genre.

While little was revealed about the project, Wardell did confirm that it was a turn-based strategy game that will feature "random map generation, integrated modding, city building, unit design, tactical combat, multiplayer, incredibly powerful magical spells, and much more."
More information.
 
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Nice.

Age of Wonders did that quite nicely a while ago - seeing as this effort is apparently in classical 2D, one wonders what Stardock will do to top that, though (aside from random maps - I don't think AoW had those...).

Of course, if "published by Microprose in 1995" represents IGN's diligence in double-checking their sources, we may take this with a grain of salt...
 
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Age of Wonders just didn't do it for me. I expect part of the problem was that my rig at the time was a bit behind the curve, which made waiting for the AI to move flat-out painful. It just didn't capture the magic of MOM.
 
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Depends on which of AOW you played.

Because the first game is quite different from the second ones ...

And the second AOW games are actually the only ones I know I can say for sure (because one of the devs mentioned it) that they are written in Delphi.

There might be others, too, but I can say it for sure only for these 2.
 
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A serious fantasy game exactly like Alpha Centauri with updated graphics, would be my most favoritist game ever...

Over the years AC seems to be creeping up to the top of my 'Most Hours Played' list... anything from Stardock involving a MoM-reference... awesome.
 
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Age of Wonders just didn't do it for me. I expect part of the problem was that my rig at the time was a bit behind the curve, which made waiting for the AI to move flat-out painful. It just didn't capture the magic of MOM.

Seconded, Master of Magic was fantastic and age of wonders, for all the shiny graphics and technical ticking of lots of the master of magic boxes, just didn't have the same feel to it.

I wouldn't mind a campaign mode as well as the random map generation though, so long as it involved a mix of heroes and terrains and races and so on. MOM was one of the few games that I really found worth playing again and again because different combinations did have such different gameplay.
 
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I loved Age of Wonders! The music, setting, heroes, combat.. everything about it - not as good as HoMM at its best, but not far behind in my opinion. I certainly wouldn't mind more games of such quality. :)
 
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I wouldn't mind a campaign mode as well as the random map generation though, so long as it involved a mix of heroes and terrains and races and so on. MOM was one of the few games that I really found worth playing again and again because different combinations did have such different gameplay.
I found my MOM box a few years ago and tried to install it on the rig I had back then. I couldn't figure out a way to convince the game my 128MB RAM was enough to cover 590K of base RAM.

Like many games that I really like, MOM was a simple game with a ton of depth. I burned a lot of hours chugging away. Hopefully, Stardock can capture that essence.
 
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Somehow missed Master of Magic--this sounds very interesting. I enjoyed a similar sounding game from Sierra/Impressions called Lords of Magic which was simple as dte says, yet difficult, with a nice individuated fantasy feel to it.

I also would love something like Alpha Centauri translated to the fantasy genre--one of my favorites and also one of the most fleshed out, atmospheric of strategy games.

AFA HoMM, it still rules supreme--I'm replaying some campaigns from the Shadow of Death expansion atm, and it's every bit as addictive as it was (almost) ten years ago. :)
 
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@dteowner: Sometimes too much RAM is too much, the German version of ROA for example just wanted 16 MB maximum, I think.

Or the problem was lying in the 640k area of RAM, maybe you didn't have enough free there.

In DOSBOX, it runs fine, I think.
 
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Yep, MOM wanted about 590k available out of the 640k "lower RAM". It didn't care about "extended RAM" above that (I remember paying a small fortune for a board that took the Zenith rig I had WAY back in ~1992 from the 640k "limit" to an extravagant 1MEG!!!). I remember having to write a special autoexec.bat and config.sys to clear out a driver or two just to get MOM to run. I tinkered with DOSBOX when I rediscovered the MOM discs, but it wasn't as friendly as it is now and I couldn't make it work.
 
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Hm, I managed it, somehow, but that was last year ... However, MOM also requires a *lot* of CPU "speed" ... That was the point where *I* had problems ... Until I found out how to increase the cycles from within DOSBOX.
 
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I tried and tried to get MoM to run on an XP system last year and finally gave up. I dusted off an old '98 machine it it worked fine. Ugly as h*ll but it worked. Yay! I spent months playing MoM to death way back when.

In some ways I wish I had let it sit, though. I remember it from when it was shiny and new and now it looked just, well, crude and the interface was horrible. I played a bit and lost interest. Oh well.
 
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