I think that a buzz would be guaranteed from what I have heard about MoM. But advertising anywhere where strategy reigns king would get you pre-orders.

I'll sponsor 4 pre-orders myself, and I'll enlist everybody I can get my hands on

Well, to get the rabble rousing off the ground, I've tried letting these people know.

http://www.masterofmagic2.com/

Sadly, I'm not sure Stardock is going to get the interest they want. People are so damn cynical. Just commit to preordering the game you fools! Like they're going to do it wrong after all the amazing effort they put into patching and adding to Gal Civ as problems and exploits presented themselves. We finally get a shot at a new MoM and you all want to speculate as to whether Star Dock could do a good job remaking a 10 year old game that will be awesome even if they don't change a damn thing but the graphics?

If anybody could make an awesome sequel to Master of Magic, who do you think that would be?

Personally I've never heard of Master of Magic! Still, I have a drengin subscription so I dont count anyway.
I only posted cos I was feeling left out.


Move along....nothing to see.

If anyone wants to let others know about this poll please feel free. 

For Stardock, the risk is too big to acquire the rights (Stardock would own the rights to a Master of Magic 2 so we would have creative control) if there isn't enough demand. 

I am not certain that there is enough demand for a MOM 2 at this point to justify the expense.

We'll be deciding whether to pursue this or not in the next week or two.

Release date would be Fall 2006.

Hey, I just tried out the original MOM, and now I'm hooked. Because of this I will most definitly pre-order it. I had said Maybe before.

I've been trying to spread the word but everyone's so damn cynical about it. I think this is mostly because these people aren't familiar with the rep you guys have. Maybe if you elaborated a little bit on your design intentions, you get could more interest. I'm still willing to play forum PR spokesman just to try and get more interest though.

It sounds what you have in mind is a basic graphics update with a few tweaks and some more features. Seems like a smart move to me and it seems to be what everyone wants, but I think MOO 3 may have turned people a bit rotten to the idea of committing to a game before its even in development. You got my full confidence and vote, however.

Precisely. Stardock has a generally great rep among those who have tried their products, but does not have the market penetration of the big boys. So most people never heard of them.

To convince one of my friends, I had to buy him a copy of Galciv because he was like "Stardock? Who are these guys? Two bit small time operators tend to make crappy games and can't compete with the big boys." Now the same guy is still a bit skeptical (the gist of a recent conversation: "They expect to get 5,000 pre-orders for MOM 2 only online? Are they nuts? They won't get it."), but not in the abilities of Stardock to make a good MOM 2. He now believes that Stardock can make a worthy sequel to MOM based upon his Galciv experience, but not that Stardock has the network or the resources to market the product adequately enough.

I guess if we want this thing bad enough, we got to get out there and spread the word more.

Is there a Gal Civ demo anywhere? Also a list of all the changes and bug fixes Stardock made to Gal Civ since after it debuted would be awesome ammo for convincing people that Stardock is definitely the last best chance at a MoM game that doesn't go the way of X-Com or Fallout; falling into the hands of a bunch of morons who don't understand that all the fans want is a freakin' sequel, not X-Com on Ice, Fallout the racing game, or Master of Magic: Storybook Adventures.

If by the rare chance you guys do go ahead with a MoM game, I'd recommend an update first with a few obvious tweaks (like Gnolls not sucking), and then a full blown sequel if that flies. I think it will what with a fresh new batch of gamers out there who never saw MoM. It's really just the superior precursor to a lot of other popular turn based fantasy games out there.

I think what I'd like to do is put together a review of Master of Magic and start posting it all over the place so people get the gist of what made this game so cool.

Frogboy, any way you guys can maybe pospone that decision for just another week, so we can see if we can rabblerouse sufficiently to get enough interest up?

I would certainly renew my Drengin subscription for a MoM2.

~SDC~

Damn, must I choose between StarCon or MoM? They're my favourite games of all time, only matched by PlanetScape: Torment. I would prefer MoM, though, unless the original writers are planning to work on StarCon. I can guarantee 2 pre-orders for both MoM2 and StarCon, since I still play MoM at least once a week

ps I think that people are skeptical of re-ordering because most of us have not heard of Stardock, or know of its reputation. But still, as long this is advertised, I'm quite sure that people will pre-order.

If you haven't tried Age of Wonders II, it is very like MOM.

~SDC~

Yes, but it is a 1.03 version.

Sorry I was slow on the uptake, Pherdnut, I've posted the news to http://www.masterofmagic2.com/ www.masterofmagic2.com now.

For those who haven't played the original Master of Magic in a long while, and don't have your disks (I have mine so nyah) you can download it from Underdogs at:

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=687 www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=687

Use DOSBox to run the game under anything later than Windows98, but be warned that DOSBox requires a beefy machine if you want to 'overclock' the emulator so the game plays fast:

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/information.php dosbox.sourceforge.net/information.php

For the fellow who suggested that there be more than two planes in MoM2, you may be humored by this:

"Master of Magic II

The isometric view of battlefields in Magic I will now become the standard world view in MicroProse's Magic II. Many enhancements are in the works. Instead of 5 types of magic there will be 13, and you will be able to design your own spells and monsters. Six planes of existence will replace Magic I's pair of planes, each with its own peculiarities. And while you could win Magic I only by destroying all other player wizards, Magic II will offer at least four ways to win.

The random world generator will still be at the heart of Magic II, but it will also include a variety of scenarios. Expect this game in spring 1998."

Spring '97 on CNET's Gamecenter

-prosper
www.masterofmagic2.com
[Message Edited]

Age of Mythology II was close but no cigar. I thought it was decent but the spells just weren't as much fun and didn't really complement the units that well. The units were kind of dull too. That and having nothing but scripted campaigns really shot the replay value.

But cool to seem some more people gettin' interested. I think that ridiculous review I put up actually convinced 2 or 3 people.

Every review I've read for the last 10 years, for any game that was even REMOTELY like a fantasy based 4X game, has stated that a sequel to MoM is long overdue. It then goes on to say that game ___ is no MoM.

I still play MOM. It was actually getting re-addicted to MOM that broke my GalCiv addiction last fall Its gameplay still holds up. I posted this like 8 months ago: you guys are the only company I'll trust now to do it right. I'll go round up 5,000 people on my own if I have to.

Fantasy-themed games are going to see increased interest for the next several years, coming off of the LotR trilogy and increasing D&D v3.5 popularity. 4X games remain a solid performer, and a fantasy-themed 4X is a niche that is NOT filled (I wouldn't compare AoW or HoMM to Civ or MoO, so I don't know why we keep comparing them to MoM - similar in concept maybe, but very different in execution). There is a rabid fan-base out there, and the gaming media coverage on a MoM sequel would be huge. I mean, the mere fact that you would be doing one would get front page stories for a few months; all the gaming writers are guys in our age bracket who worship MoM just like we do.

This should be a no-brainer. Business is all about calculated risks, right? As risks go, this one is pretty darn safe...

Gyb (the little red devil on your left shoulder)

Oh man after reading this thread I want to go back and change my vote from "maybe" to "absolutely"! I am not active on really any forums, but after reading these posts, I had to post.

My very limited experience with Stardock is that I bought GalCiv online and downloaded it. I did this after making the mistake of buying MoO3 on it's release date. After my first game of GalCiv I was hooked. I think it is a great game!

I trust Stardock because you seem like an open, honest company. Just the fact that you have posted the poll and been very open with the idea proves this point. And I know already that Stardock has what it takes to make a great game!

I'm very excited about even the possibility of this happening. I think that the franchise name and the deservedly good reputation that Stardock has will lead to a massive number of pre-orders.

Same experience as Tiny Rhino, bought MOO3 and despised it, then decided to try GalCiv from the flyer that was in the MOO3 box. And I was hooked!

If Stardock has full creative control over MOM2, I would definately pre-order. If not, then I would wait til a feature list of the game came along before deciding.


[Message Edited]

Yeah, I think MOO 3 sold a LOT of Gal Civ copies and a good thing too. I like the way these guys operate. The whole industry is turning into a bottom line operation and no one seems to understand that screwing your fanbase will in turn screw your brand. Hopefully Interplay's demise and Sierra's near scuttling will get some people to wake up.

I joined these forums just so I could vote "absolutely" on the poll. I'd love it if you guys released a bug-free MoM with decent AI. Beware of all the vocal MP people; I think newsgroups tend to be severely overweighted with MP players. If you do an MP version of MoM, your forums would degenerate into arguments about which units/spells/tactics were overpowered. See the Age of Wonders forums for an example of countless "xxx is overpowered and needs to be nerfed" or "yyy is underpowered and needs to be boosted" threads. One of the charming things about the original MoM was that the races *were* unbalanced. I admire Stardock's decision to release GalCiv as SP only, and I hope you go in the same direction with MoM.

Pherdnut's absolutely right. If you screw your fans, they WILL turn on you. On the other hand, there's still a lot of indiscriminate customers out there. But what I think we'll see happen in the next 5-10 years is, as the gaming population gets older and expands, it'll become increasingly more difficult to capture market dollars. Why? Well, as we get older, we'll have less time to devote to games, and will likely only want to buy the ones we REALLY like from the companies we REALLY like. Personally, StarDock has made my list of companies that get my stamp of approval. It's not JUST about gameplay and game design, although that's a huge part. A lot of it is about the company's attitude and relationship with the gamers. EA is fine and produces decent games here and there, but their customer relations sucks.

Ultimately, while the big names will still do fine, I think the "microbreweries" will really start to come into their own in the next few years.

If the project goes ahead, it would be a good idea to read the various MoM2 websites for ideas.

I think an expanded game would be good (more spells, more heroes, more planes, multiplayer etc). Not everyone will agree with me, however. A lot of people like the original game just as it is and won't think much of new features except the multiplayer. If it was possible to configure the game so that all the new features were optional, you would get a MoM2 that plays like MoM, and that would make many MoM fans happy.

Now time to get back to my current MoM game. I have a shortcut on my win98 desktop that runs the game almost perfectly - the only problem is a minor sound problem with a few MIDI voices not playing.

Change my maybe to yes. No other game has filled the nitch in my mind - AoW just didn't do it for me.

Answered absolutely. MoM always has been a favourite of mine. If it was not for the bugs and lack of multiplayer, It might have claimed Civ's place as the strategy game I've played the most. While multiplayer would be nice, I no longer find that so important, lacking the time for such commitments serving as an excuse.

Otoh, Star Control 2 is my easiest/most common choice for the best computer game of all time, so I would be even more interested in seeing a proper sequel. Yet I too would want to see Paul and Fred returning and people would probably expect more from the graphics and sounds. So it's probably even more challenging a project.

Hmm... That actually seems like a pretty strong response given how many people typically post here.