Master of Magic News

The inhabitants of Arcanus and Myrror

While the contest for the elusive Master of Magic is fought with great spells and ultimate wizard power, it is still all built on the sweat of the little folk down below, or so they tell you. You may be an ever powerful mage, but you need your cannon fodder... great men, women and creatures who will be manipulated into working and fighting for you, many that will die in blazing glory.

In our previous diaries we mentioned that all fourteen races are returning to Master of Magic, and here we describe and show some more of them, especially for players who may not know the original so well.

Your Wizard will choose a race they will lead at the start of the game, but as you grow in power and reach, you may conquer or otherwise gain new cities and thus rule over a diverse cast of people by the end of your playthrough.

Every race in Master of Magic is different. Not only visually, but also in terms of game mechanics. Some may have access to different sets of buildings, different numbers and types of units, or have special racial abilities, such as troll regeneration or draconian flying ability. Choosing the right people to rule over may dictate your tactics, especially at the start of the game.


Lizardmen

Lizardmen are bipedal, aquatic reptilians. Physically, the lizardmen are small, resilient, and agile and can move on water with ease. What they may lack in stature, they make up in numbers. There are some theories that suggest common ancestry with the draconians, but neither race finds them convincing. Lizardmen form mostly tribal societies, and they tend to build settlements using simple technologies. They also prefer wetlands as their settling grounds and so, they tend not to be expansive, unless convinced otherwise by a strong Wizard.

Lizardmen are one of the Arcanus races and as such, they can be chosen as the starting race by any Wizard that does not start on Myrror.


Orcs

Orcs are classed as demi-humans, and despite visual differences, they are often seen as close relatives to humans in terms of social structures, behaviours and cultures. Some say that the orcs are an exaggeration of all the bad that is seen in mankind. Despite their aggressive visage and very bad reputation, the orcs have actually become a very moderate society. They do not excel at anything in particular, but equally they are not bad at anything. Their workforce can be very efficient and under the right Wizard, the orcs can become a steadfast force.

Orcs are one of the Arcanus races and as such, they can be chosen as the starting race by any Wizard that does not start on Myrror.


High Men

High men are considered the most structured and civilised faction of humans. This society is strongly religious, with members of the priesthood being highly respected and valued and the Church standing as the bedrock of the society. High men have strong military if needed, with paladins leading the troops, but they prefer diplomacy to conflict, whenever possible. If led by a worthy Wizard, high men will prove to be steadfast and loyal soldiers.

High Men are one of the Arcanus races and as such, they can be chosen as the starting race by any Wizard that does not start on Myrror.


High Elves

High elves are humanoid creatures, possessing great beauty and longevity. They are a highly civilised and ancient faction that is said to be one of the first that appeared on Arcanus. They see themselves as a benign force of wisdom, and they do favour diplomacy over warfare. As a result of their self-image, the elves can also suffer from a strong superiority complex, thus under the rule of a formidable Wizard, they can become a deadly force of dominance.
High Elves are one of the Arcanus races and as such, they can be chosen as the starting race by any Wizard that does not start on Myrror.


Beastmen

Beastmen are a motley collaboration of demi-human creatures that can loosely be defined as possession beasts, for their animal-like features. Those features are not as unified as those of the gnolls, nevertheless, many humans consider the two races kin. Beastmen do not have any recorded history or origin as a group – instead, there are whispers of such ‘beasts’ throughout folk tales. They are aggressive and highly adaptable, so a Wizard will have no trouble organising them into a strong army.

Beastmen are one of the Myrran races, as such, they can only be picked at the start by a Wizard possessing the Myrran Trait.


Dwarves

Dwarves are short, but sturdy demi-humans, heavily bearded, even amongst the female folk. Bloodlines and monarchy are the building blocks of a dwarven society and their traditions are set in stone. They value mineral wealth and the power of strong craftsmanship. Unlike other Myrran societies, dwarves practise the rule of law and do not care for evil pursuits, seeing them as unnecessarily emotional. They also do not care much for anything or anyone who is not a dwarf, making them both tough allies and even tougher rulers.

Dwarves are one of the Myrran races, as such, they can only be picked at the start by a Wizard possessing the Myrran Trait.


Dark elves

Dark elves are an immortal, ancient race, who share origins with their high elven cousins. They are said to have migrated from Arcanus to Myrror in the ages past. Be it willingly or by chance, their nature grew darker and more twisted with every decade spent in their new home. Like their high elven cousins, the dark elves are naturally gifted with the aptitude towards magic and the occult. But unlike their fair kin, the Myrror elves use their gifts for dark purposes, revelling in pain, hedonism, and the pursuit of cruelty.

Dark elves are one of the Myrran races, as such, they can only be picked at the start by a Wizard possessing the Myrran Trait.


Trolls

Trolls are creatures born of the whimsy and cruelty of Nature itself. They possess little in the way of intellect, but they make up for it in brute force and an instinct of survival. In their natural habitat, trolls tend to be lazy and uninterested in expansion, but a strong Wizard is able to awaken the creatures’ natural instincts and push them to action. Troll blood is a sought-after commodity, as it possesses regenerative powers, as such, it is wise to disintegrate a troll enemy, otherwise it is likely to rise and walk away from the battlefield.

Trolls are one of the Myrran races, as such, they can only be picked at the start by a Wizard possessing the Myrran Trait.


In other news
We’ve finally put together the screen for the custom Wizard, here are a couple of work in progress screenshots where you can see what sort of choices you will be able to make.

Work in progress portrait selection and name change screen. You can choose the portrait you like and give your custom Wizard a name.

Work in progress Trait and Book selection screen. As you can see, you can choose to spend your points (the amount of points will also be customisable) on traits and magic books.

Work in progress spell selection screen.

Depending on how many spell books you chose for any given domain, you will have access to some of the spells and you can choose which ones you start with. The more books you have in a domain the more powerful spells are available to you.


In Conclusion

Lastly, here is a preview of two more of the re-imagined Wizards:


Tauron has given in to his demonic side and is no longer hiding in human skin. Oh, and he decided to grow his beard back...

Kali, the powerful and mysterious mistress of the dark arts.


That’s all for now, see you next month. Don’t forget to join us on Discord for community discussion.

Dev Diary #3 September 2021




Mercenaries

In this month’s spotlight, we’ll talk about the brave mercenaries who may decide to join our cause, the heroes and champions of Master of Magic. So first things first, all 35 are coming back and as with everything else, we are attempting to recreate all their skills and special abilities faithfully.

Here are some of the mercenaries returning to Master of Magic.


Types of mercenaries:

There are two types of mercenaries in Master of Magic, Heroes and Champions. Heroes are the more common hired hands, while Champions are the more unique characters. Every mercenary in Master of Magic has their own, short backstory and fun flavour to explore. In terms of mechanics then, the Champions tend to have more abilities and higher stats than heroes, as well as higher prerequisites needed for them to be interested in serving you.

Some of the extra, non-canon events we’ve added may have specific mercenaries join the wizard as a reward, or some events may have a special path unlocked when a particular type of mercenary is present.

Brax the Dwarf, also known by the name of Brax the Berserker. A dwarven warrior with an insatiable lust for combat.

Some say Deth Stryke was a lord once, or even a prince, but he lost to some epic duel and his eye patch now remains as the only proof of such a past.


Recruitment:

Mercenaries are attracted to wizards with high Fame. Some champions also require a specific alignment (Mortu for example, requires 40 Fame and at least 1 Death spellbook).

When you have the right Fame you have a certain chance that a recruitment event will be triggered and you will then be able to hire the mercenary that happens to be interested in joining you.

You can also find and rescue Heroes from random locations on the map (note that you cannot find Champion this way, they are too good to be caught by some random bandits!)
There is also one Champion, Torin, who can only be summoned by the Incarnation spell, from the Life book.

Recruitment also comes at a cost. Mercenaries will often require an initial payment (unless you have rescued them) and then upkeep in gold. If you lack the gold to pay your mercenary, they will leave you.

Gunther the Barbarian is a warrior of great renown. He boasts the ability to single-handedly turn a huge grain wheel if needed.

Fang the Draconian is a formidable warrior of imposing stature. Descended from dragons, Fang is an intimidating foe.

B’Shan is a dervish monk, devoted to his duty and service. His Noble intentions mean you get his service free of upkeep!


Abilities and stats:

Mercenaries tend to have some preset abilities, ones that support their flavour, plus some have additional, random abilities, so that even the same mercenary can play a little differently each time you recruit them.

Example abilities:

The Noble ability is great, as a noble mercenary does not charge you any upkeep for their service
Caster ability allows the hero/champion to cast their own spells in battle, independent of the wizard
Legendary champions give their wizard additional Fame, because they are so cool
Mercenaries, like all units in Master of Magic, can have melee, ranged or magic attacks, and some heroes and champions will have a combination of those.

Stats can also be improved by Artifacts.


Artifacts:

A look at the WIP artifact screen, where you can assign equipment to your mercenaries.

Artifacts are powerful objects that you can either find or conjure up. They give bonuses to your mercenaries. We’ve recreated all of the equipment from the original (there are 250 artifacts ready to go), and as of now, only the ‘invisibility’ skill is still work in progress.

Each character will have three slots that can be equipped and depending on the type of mercenary they are, they may have slots for melee, ranged or magical weapons, armour, shields and jewelry.

There are no restrictions for building artifacts, although we may implement one where you cannot apply a spell/skill that is not from your magic school. And so, in our remake, the items from the ‘forbidden item list’ that can be found on the original wiki, are no longer a stuff of mere dreams.

Fun fact - there was a skill for artifacts in Master of Magic - Power Drain, that reportedly did not always work as it should have, but we made it work (alright, it isn’t so much fun, but we’re excited about it...)

Aerie the Illusionist a trickster, specialising in mind magic and deception. She appears as a mere child, and often wears masks and costumes.


Losing mercenaries:

Most of your mercenaries will simply die like any other unit, but you can research spells that allow you to resurrect the fallen. If you recruit a mercenary that previously died in your service, they cannot remember what they achieved before, or perhaps the trauma of death set them back, but either way, they begin at the starting level again.

You can also dismiss a mercenary at any given time.

Grayfairer the Druid cultivates the age-old traditions of nature warship. He is devoted to his study of the mystical ways of nature.



That is all for now, but we will leave you with a look at a couple more new wizard portraits. Don’t forget to join us on Discord for a discussion of this month’s dev diary.

Raven, the master of both nature and sorcery magic and powerful shaman on a journey of spiritual discovery - and ultimate power, of course...

Horus remains the young, seemingly carefree lad he once was, although I think he does have better hair now...

Welcome to Development Diary #2, where this time we will be looking at some of the events and artwork being remade for this timeless classic.



Events
There are several different types of events in Master of Magic, and they will all make a comeback in the remake:

All events have the option of accepting the default state, or using the ‘choices’ button to see if there are alternative options available.

Map locations
The map of Master of Magic is filled with various locations that can be explored by the player. These include things like fallen temples, ruins or mysterious caves where both treasure and challenge may await. There are also three power nodes, Sorcery, Nature and Chaos, and the magic towers that serve as portals between Arcanus and Myrror. All of those locations have an event attached to them, so that the appropriate path will trigger - combat if there are defenders, or loot if it is abandoned. Those events are fairly straight forward and apart from some extra fluff here or there, they will remain unchanged.

Random events This is what a ‘module’ looks like inside the event editor - a tool that will be available for players as well.

All of the random events from the original MoM are returning, but they are slightly modified. In the remake, we want to give the wizard a chance to react to some of those events, instead of them being a simple notification of what occurred. You will always have the option to simply accept the default result, but in some cases, you will be able to either alter or even avoid the consequences. This will typically be achieved by offering a payment via mana/gold or other means that an event may respond to.

In the classic ‘Benefactor’ event, you have the added option of giving up the gold to gain some fame instead.

Some events will of course remain choice free, as they are pretty straight forward. But, the event editor allows for easy modifications if needs be.

These events have varied triggers, that include turn counter, specific prerequisite (like x amount of fame/gold/mana, etc) or simply chance. All of the events also have a cooldown counter, to ensure they do not pop up one after another.

We are also planning to add an event pack to the game, which will bring in additional and new content. But, as in the original, those events will be optional (using something like an on/off toggle).

This work-in-progress event is from the new pack and has some additional options to change the outcome of an otherwise negative occurrence.

Traders and recruitment
The last category of events is the recruitment and/or item sales. These events are not yet implemented, but they too will return to Master of Magic. Based on your Fame, units, heroes, champions or items will be offered to you for sale/recruitment.


Art Show of the month - Wizards
Finally, we will end today's dev diary with a look at some Wizards and their evolution. As with the original, there are 14 Wizards to choose from. The Wizards will have their preset traits (formerly known as retorts) and magic books, but you will also be able to change this as you wish, thus creating your own, custom versions. The preset Wizards also have a short backstory or flavour text to show their character.

First, the ones that remained mostly unchanged:

Rjak remains mysterious as ever. In their new reincarnation, you don’t even see the eyes, making them an even more unsettling character.

Tlaloc is the master of rain and storm, some call him an Aztec priest, some believe him to be the rain god incarnate. He seems to be in a darker mood these days.

Some have grown older and wiser:

Lo Pan is a Wushen master who specialises in Chaos and Sorcery magic. The years may have whitened his mane, but Lo Pan's wisdom remains steadfast.

And here are some that were reinterpreted:

Sharee is an accomplished voodoo priestess and despite her deceptively young visage, she’s said to have cheated death many times over. She now wears more clothes...

Sss’ra is a draconian warlock who specialises in both Chaos and Life magic. Sss’ra has clearly become more ferocious over the years...


For a discussion of the dev diary, please join us on our Discord channel here.

You can also wishlist Master of Magic on Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1623070/Master_of_Magic/

Master of Magic: Development Diary 1 - June 2021



Welcome to the first of our Development Diaries for Master of Magic. Seeing as this one is the first in our new series of Dev Diaries, we decided it would be best to cover everything that has been shown previously. We’ll also be adding some new details for those who have been following along.

Who is MuHa?



We’re an indie studio based in Poland. Our previous two games are called Thea: The Awakening, and Thea 2: The Shattering and they are best described as: gritty, dark, fantasy survival games set within a post-apocalyptic world. They are inhabited by a combination of classical fantasy critters and humans with an abundance of mythical and folklore influences.

So while Master of Magic is a very different game at its core, we certainly have experience with the 4x and strategy genres. Our design ideology is simple: we try to make games that we’d want to play ourselves and we do our best to communicate with our fans and thus make the best games we can.



The old and the new



Our design philosophy is to attempt to recreate the mechanics and gameplay of MoM as faithfully as we can, while also making an awesome game that will attract new fans.

So, with that in mind, here is a list of things we already have that you may recognise from the original:

• All of the wizards from the original MoM, with a modern makeover from our talented artist. We hope you will recognise all of your favourites after 30 years.
• All of the champions and heroes from the original return, with a makeover similar to but perhaps less dramatic than the wizards, with new 2D and 3D models, as well as a new or improved backstory.
• All of the races and their units painstakingly recreated with their original statistics and all their original features. This will be our baseline and we hope to minimize balance changes unless they are really necessary.
• All of the spells and skills from the original. Similarly to races and units, this will be our baseline for balance.
• All of the original traits that were formerly known as “retorts”.
• All of MoM’s basic events and possibly some new additional ones. We’re even including the option to turn them off as it was in the original.
• Arcanus and Myrror as playable planes.
• All building types will be included.
• The Mana management system makes a return, with a modern look but the original mechanics.
• Battles will take place on a tactical map and not the strategic map, like in the original.
• Familiars - they’re back, and we have an extra one for those who choose mixed magic books.

This list is also not an exhaustive list of features, but it should give you an idea of where we’re going with it. Classic gameplay, with a modern look, beautiful new art and surgical balance changes with player feedback at the heart of the process.



Arcanus and Myrror races: each race has its own flavour and gives different bonuses that can influence your playthrough.


Lizardmen spearmen and Orc swordsmen, with new 2D graphics and 3D models but faithful stats.


Sprites

Areas so far that warranted some changes

• We felt Hexes offered superior tactical and strategic gameplay and we also have a lot more experience with them over old-school squares.
• New A.I. with difficulty settings. The original A.I. was best described as primitive, which makes sense for its time, we have much better tools to create A.I. now.
• Quality of Life improvements: Production queues, more MP to start, modern pathfinding that doesn't split your group unless you specifically split it and many more QoL improvements have been made.
• Auto-combat function that will show you a range of possible outcomes and gives you the option to either auto-resolve, retreat or fight manually.
• Extensive modding tools will be included.
• Modern tooltips which explain various mechanics and units were added.
• Fog of war has been added, as is typical with more modern games.
  

The construction manager now includes a production queue.


Auto-resolve battles.


Coming in our Dev Diary next month...



The wizards! Who stayed unchanged and who got a makeover? If that’s a question that’s been on your mind, we’ll answer it in the next dev diary.

New Discord Channel

If you’d like to discuss this dev diary or anything else about the game, please join us on our new official Master of Magic Discord server here.

You can also wishlist Master of Magic on Steam here.

Slitherine, the world’s leading publisher of digital wargames and strategy games, and MuHa Games, a studio from Poland and the United Kingdom (Thea: The Awakening and Thea 2: The Shattering) partner up to bring back a classic of the strategy genre: Master of Magic.

The original Master of Magic was published in 1994 and set the rules for the 4X genre. It is still considered - and played! - as one of the timeless masterpieces of strategy.

The new and upgraded version of the game has been unveiled during Home Of Wargames Live+, Slitherine’s main event of 2021. Mila Undro, Writer and Lead Quest Designer from MuHa Games, and Marco Minoli - Slitherine’s Marketing Director - talked about the challenges in developing this remake of the original turn-based strategy cult.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Together, they explored this classic gameplay formula and how it has been adapted to modern technology. During the interview, Mila and Marco discussed the changes and implementations applied to the game, sharing features such as races, playable wizards, and spells for the first time.

“The acquisition of the Master of Magic license was a key milestone in the development of our long-term vision to mix owned IPs with popular licenses in our catalogue. We are extremely proud of our partnership with MuHa Games, because we share many values when it comes to game development, and we couldn’t place this IP in more capable hands”, said Iain McNeil CEO of Slitherine.

Master of Magic is an extremely faithful reboot of the original game, with identical gameplay mechanics and the same, overwhelming amount of content, which allowed for endless replayability.

Master of Magic is currently in alpha. It will enter beta testing in the second half of 2021, and will be released on PC in 2022.

More information on Master of Magic can be found here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1623070/Master_of_Magic