Sure, there are always going to be exploits, just like there are always going to be bugs, glitches, and errors. But shouldn’t a developer attempt to close exploits, fix bugs, address glitches, and repair errors? Seems to me that’s a significant part of the job. :)
Simtex was making games during a very different time, for a very different audience, with very different kinds of expectations for a videogame. A lot of that doesn’t translate well to modern design principles. For instance, if you give someone a comparative advantage by inconveniencing them, you’re not doing it right. Either fix the advantage, or remove the inconvenience so everyone can do it.
The game isn’t giving an advantage, it’s letting the player take advantage (i.e. exploit) an unintended result of a game mechanic that is still doing what it is designed to do. Presumably the basic mechanic of rushing production at variable cost is part of the intended game balance, but combining it with switching production is not, so “removing the inconvenience” would disrupt the balance.
Closing the loophole in some way might be better, if it can be done without disrupting normal mechanics and balance (although I’m willing to bet some players will complain about their brilliant strategy no longer working), but is it really such a big deal when the only players affected by the exploit are those that intentionally use it?
Slitherine has stated somewhere that they are intentionally doing a straight remake of the original with this first release.
It seems like a damned if you do, damned if you don’t thing with these remakes. Either the dev gets slammed for making a straight copy, or they get slammed by folks because they change things up.
But my comments were more about how modern game design approaches micromanagement, which isn’t the same as how it was handled in the 1990s. And to be fair, I don’t know anything about the specific issue in the Master of Magic re-release beyond what’s been brought up here. But I am very familiar with the issues relating to another Simtex design from that time, and I feel it’s a relevant comparison. There were tons of gameplay loopholes in Master of Orion that were arguably part of the experience, but when they were closed in Remnants of the Precursors, it’s my opinion it made for a more consistent, accessible, and challenging iteration of the same design.
I would have hoped the re-make of Master of Magic would get a similar treatment, but given how this was handled, it sounds like that might not be a reasonable expectation. That’s certainly not a big deal by any metric for me personally, but as a longtime Simtex fan who still enjoys their games in various forms, it’s worth noting.
My understanding is that the developer is using the same game engine they used for their Thea games. If so, the game will be able to be modded a goodly amount right out of the gate. The Thea games even came with pretty nice mod tools. It’ll be really interesting to see what comes out of the community.
From what I can tell, the game price will be $40, which is just within parameters of a first day buy for me.
It’s interesting that there seems to be a number of folks on the Steam forums complaining about the remake’s graphics being dull and brown and not bright, colorful, with “pop” like the original. What I’ve seen from screenshots and vids so far looks fine to me. I guess this comes with the territory when you do a remake.
Yeah, there is a strange compulsion among gamers to rail against something that isn’t the same as what they remembered. The graphics look pretty good - I’m a huge fan of the 2D Character/Unit and other artwork in particular - though I will put this just under Age of Wonders 3 visually. It is, however, a clean and easy to read design, which I think is a net positive.
I’m surprised we don’t have reviews dropped yet - the embargo lifted like 5 hours ago, according to the email I got from their PR. I’m glad I held off on making a review video or showing any coverage, I’d have been the only one. Maybe I misunderstood the time zone shift, I had thought 9am UK time would be 3am CT?
Well they got the game into a few YTer hands, so they have it. I guess the game doesn’t draw big enough numbers to make them care about posting a review. Makes sense since this game is only going to excite people 40+.
I would have agreed save for YouTube - you get guys like DasTactic that has already covered this game quite a lot and no reviews from him. Presumably he got the same email last week I did, with the embargo being 9am UK Time today. I see he did have a stream scheduled for 12pm (about an hour ago) but I went to lunch so I haven’t watched it.
You have 8GB of RAM? That’s… pretty low, tbh. RAM is cheap, I’d consider getting yourself an upgrade. What kind of mother board are you running, do you know the make/model?
EDIT: I see a developer responded that he played the game on a 8GB laptop and it ran okay but some screens could take a few seconds to load - he wasn’t sure if that was due to being on a slower laptop though, not just low RAM but also a spinning disk HDD and old CPU. You could always just pick this up and if it runs like crap refund it!
You’ve been playing this, @Scotch_Lufkin? Any thoughts so far?
I’ve plinked away at it a bit with a couple of wizards trying the first 50 turns or so. It feels really bare bones, and it’s not tickling any nostalgia for me, so maybe I just don’t remember Master of Magic as well as I thought? Because the early stages are just playing like Generic Fantasy 4X #492, the combat is hard to parse, and the economy even harder. I’ll keep at it, since I’ve only scratced the surface at this point. But you’re really good at digging into early game details and processing systems, so but I’d be curious to hear about your time with it if you’ve been playing.
EDIT: All this was before I’d so much as glanced at the manual. Please refer to my more informed comments later in the thread.
