Worlds of Magic is a turn based 4X strategy game set in a fantasy universe. Like all 4X games it is set on the foundation of: Explore, Expand, Exploit and Exterminate. Worlds of Magic contains all the elements you would expect. City founding and management, unit construction and army management as well as turn based battles. The Worlds of Magic universe is procedurally generated and no two games have to be the same. The universe itself is composes of a number of different “planes” that can all be explored and conquered. In additional to the basic 4X elements Worlds of Magic also includes a deep magic system including spells, summoned creatures and magical artifacts, hero units with specialized talents, capable of wielding magical items and combat mechanics based on the popular D20 system. Players attempt to conquer the universe using a combination of magical, military, economic and even political power. Worlds of Magic is meant to be a true spiritual successor to the PC classic Master of Magic.
Features
* D20 System
Units, Spells and Heroes will all draw from the D20 rule set during the battles.
* 4X deep playability
Explore, exploit, expand and exterminate in a world of magic, diplomacy, and war.
* Hero Units
Recruit heroes to lead your forces into battle.
* Twelve Spell Circles
Focus on depth in a single school, or gain the ability to cast incredibly diverse spells.
* Unique Races
Each race offers the ability to create exclusive units, with peculiarities, weaknesses and strenghts, but also balanced.
* Settle Powerful Cities
Control production, research and even magical power, in order to create powerful armies.
* Multiple victory conditions
War is not the only way to conquer the world; make treaties, establish trade routes or use peace as a tool for domination.
I know just what you mean and we are going to try to avoid that. I've been playing with the idea of "city influence" where a city can claim more and more tiles. Even potentially "starving" an enemy city out. I want to see what other ideas people come up with, but I certainly don't like city spam. The fact that the AI in MoM would build a city ANYWHERE it could annoys me even now. My point is that we're aware of it and are going to try to come up with a solution everyone likes.
World generation
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The “worlds” in WoM are actually different planes of existence. There may be one or more “Prime Material Plane”. These can be considered “planets” and they are pretty much your standard fantasy worlds. The other planes are going to be based on one of the elements: Life (positive-energy paradise), Death (negative-energy shadow plane) , Earth, Fire, Water, Wind. Now, these will be physical planes touched by the element in question rather than actual energy planes. I won't explain that here, it's a little conceptually complex. Play D20 with a GM (game master) that's obsessed with the planes and you'll get the idea in a few hours, lol.
Anyway, the point is that in every game there are going to be a number of planes to discover and conquer. There will probably also be “micro-planes” that are very small and contain something particularly interesting. (Like a dark temple containing a super powerful artifact guarded by a ridiculously powerful demon.) The micro-planes may be sections of the abyss that have collected together or part of a shattered world floating in space. You might find them anywhere (Just inside a police call-box, perhaps. Some of them are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside.) and they might connect to almost anywhere else.
There will be several ways to travel between the planes. First, during world generation a number of "portals" between the planes will be created. If you can find one (and defeat it's guardian) your units can travel between the plane they are one and the one to which that portal connects. Second, you will be able to use spells to move units from one plane to another. Third, (eventually) you will be able to build permanent gateways between planes. The exact mechanics are obviously going to depend somewhat on play testing, but that's the basic idea.
First, there are going to be two classes of hero in WoM (much like in MoM). Heroes (duh..) and Champions. They will differ in a number ways. In fact we may divide them into more than two classes to create more basic levels of “hero” (demigods anyone?).
The first major difference between heroes and champions is the number of “points” spent on their initial stats. That's right! It's pulled directly from the D20 system. (Do NOT make a drinking game out of “Aaron said D20! Take a drink!” Someone will die of alcohol poisoning.) For those of you who don't already understand I'll give you a very brief explanation. In D20 all characters have a set of six basic stats (Strength, Wisdom, etc.) There are several methods used to select these stats. The most balanced (that is to say, least random) is the points system. You spend a certain number of points to increase the character's stats. The more points you start with the higher the character's initial stats will be. Heroes are going to start with less points than champions. As a result, they will be less powerful than champions out of the box.
The second difference between the two is going to their starting level and max level. The specific numbers aren't firm yet (some play testing is going to have to be done), but heroes will start at a lower level and have a lower max level than champions.
Heroes are all going to be base class characters (in this context “class” means job, fighter, thief, etc.), whereas champions may have prestige classes.
This is a fairly major difference as prestige classes offer a number of interesting abilities and powers.
That's enough about the differences, now on with the similarities. All heroes (including champions) can be equipped with a number of magic items. Some of them will be able to cast spells. They will cast from their own spell list and consume their own magical power. If they die in battle you may be able to resurrect them even after a battle is over. (Depending on what spells you know, how they died and what your enemy may have done to their souls...)
I wanted to give you guys a bit of information on how we're going to go about selecting the units we offer to each race. I think it's important to understand the theory so that the choices make sense. Without a structured philosophy things like this can quickly devolve into selecting units that will “look cool” on the battlefield.
So, what qualities are we looking to offer with our choice of units?
Balance – It is of the utmost importance that the races are equal from a “power” point of view. In many games (including MoM, as much as we may love it) the races are not balanced. There are several great races and some that are mediocre at best. This can go so far as to have a best and worst race. That is something we want to completely avoid in Worlds of Magic. Each race has to be an equal choice at the start of the game. In MoM I feel that the race selection could add or lesson the challenge of the game, but that's not how we want to add challenge in WoM. The challenge is going to come from different levels of AI (or opponent) skill.
Flavor – We want each race to feel genuinely unique. It's not going to be enough to have “swordsmen” for every faction with a different 3D model to represent each one. The units really need to reflect the race's particular strengths and weaknesses. We want the player to feel a connection between the race they selected and the units they can build. (Of course, conquering a city of another race will allow you to build those units as well.)
The decision to use the D20 system for the base combat mechanics greatly lessons the challenge of offering units that are very different, but perfectly balanced. Those of you familiar with the D20 system understand “Challenge Ratings” and how they can be used to represent a unit's power numerically. (As we have many, many years of D20 experience this is a system we are very familiar with). Using this system we will be able to form a rough idea of different units' comparable power levels and create vastly different, but very balanced units. (Play testing will help us level out any minor balance issues.)
Now, at first the problem may seem as simple as selecting 8 to 10 units that step up the challenge rating one by one. A CR1, then a CR2, a CR3, etc. The problem with this is that it is BORING. Some of the most flavorful units may fall right on the same CR line for the same race.
So, what do we do about it? Well, first we can nudge the CR one way or the other with things like weapons and armor or even the number of characters in a unit. (Six skeletons are more powerful than four, etc.) However, a different (and sometimes better) solution is to tweak the build and maintenance cost of the units. This will allow us to give races cheap, almost disposable units, and high cost extremely powerful ones. Some races may have two or even three CR 1 units (swordsmen and bowmen might be CR1) and two CR10 units with the remainder falling somewhere in between.
How are we going to come up with the building and maintenance costs? A lot of hard work and play testing. The CR ratings themselves should get us close, but it's going to take actual play testing to make sure that skeletons aren't the ultimate unit in the universe simply because of their low cost.
Now, you may wonder why I'm telling you all this. Well, we want unit suggestions. What would you like to see in game? (I know we haven't announced the races yet, but I may do that in a few minutes.) Either way, you should understand the theory. Let us know what you think of it.
We want players to be able to create everything from rings of protection +1 to a (non-copyright infringing) Sword of Kas. In order to do this we're going to include a complete magical item creation system heavily influenced by the D20 system. (Yes, I know I keep saying D20 and I'm going to keep on saying throughout my posts.)
In MoM item creation was handled by one of two spells. We want to avoid this in WoM for a few reasons. One of them being the fact that we want players to be able to begin item creation as soon as they start the game. (Not that you couldn't do that in MoM, we're just making it easier.) Another reason is that we want more magical items in game. Even more types of item. For instance, we're considering adding potions that could be created in an alchemists shop and used by any unit. We want this to be a system that is simple enough for the casual artificer, but in depth enough to satisfy players who want to base their entire strategy on magical equipment.
We are working on developing a rather new and in-depth magic system for Worlds of Magic. I've decided to explain spells in this post so we can get feedback from the fans about the system. (There will have to be another post about magical items and artifacts.)
At character creation you'll be allowed to spend “points” on learning schools of magic. (Those of you who remember MoM will, no doubt, remember the spell books. This is much the same idea.)
All spells are sorted into different “circles” and the circles themselves are divided into two groups. One group sorts spells according to element (or color, or whatever) the other group sorts spells according to effect.
Elemantal Circles:
Life
Death
Earth
Fire
Water
Wind
Each of the circles is divided into nine tiers. The more points you spend in a circle the more powerful the spells you can cast from that circle.
So far I hope you're all with me, because here it may get a little confusing.
The circles “stack”. That is to say that if you have skill in fire and destruction the skill levels are added together for casting fire based destruction spells.
Fireball is a tier three fire and destruction spell. If you have one rank in fire and two in destruction you can research it. If you one one in destruction and two in fire you can research it. If you have three in fire or destruction you can research it.
This will allow a player to carefully select circles to open up just the spells they want.
Also, some spells are natively cross-circle. For instance all lightning based spells are fire and wind. So you have to have one fire and one wind to unlock one lightning.
Certain spells also unlock combo-spells that combine the separate spells effects. For instance, if you unlock the earth spell Grease and the fire spell Produce Flame you can unlock Flaming Grease which combines the slippery effect of Grease with a Fire DOT.
“To get the beta version of Worlds of Magic into the hands of thousands of gamers. The fact that you've already paid for the game gives you a stake in it. As as result you're going to be very likely to provide quality feedback on the state of the game and detailed reports on any bugs you find. This is also going to allow us to raise funds for polishing to make sure the game will be everything we all want it be by release.”
How long will this game be in Early Access?
“We feel five to six months is the most likely time frame which means the game should be completely ready in February 2015.”
How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“Other than the obvious increase in polish, the main change is in additional content. You'll have most of the game mechanics at your fingertips from the moment you buy the game. However, at final release there will be more playable races (double the current amount in fact), more spells, more military units, more planes of existence (themed strategic maps), etc, etc, etc. The main difference between here and full release is going to be the amount of content and a whole lot of polish and balance.”
What is the current state of the Early Access version?
“The game is completely playable. Almost all the major features are in place. However, there is a good bit of missing content. At the moment you can play with four different races (of eight), two hundred spells (of over four hundred), six Sorcerer Lords (of thirteen), three planes of existence (of seven), etc. As we draw nearer release more and more content will be added. So, you'll constantly have something new to play with between here and release.”
Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“No. Early Access is going to give you the chance to play immediately and take part in shaping the game. We're going to work hard to make sure you get your money's worth, even at full price.”
How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“In a big way! Community involvement has been a huge part of our creative process since just after Worlds of Magic began. The game has undergone major fan-driven evolution during its development. We hope to get the same kind of involvement from you. Obviously, you can help us find bugs, but you also do a lot more than that. You can also help us refine our interface (making it more and more intuitive) just by telling us what was easy to understand and what was confusing. We want your feedback on pacing and balance. And even though our current features are now frozen (we don't intend to add new mechanics between now and release) we would really appreciate your feedback on tweaking features. We already have a solid and dedicated community. We're hoping you'll join us and bring your opinions to the table.”
The time has finally come to share with the world the release date of Worlds of Magic. The 4X turn-based strategy game, being the spiritual successor of a classic Master of Magic, will be released on March 19th this year on PC, Mac and Linux. To celebrate the announcement Wastelands Interactive has just launched a Steam promotion for the Early Access version of the game. You can buy it 25% off and in addition get a beautiful, 80 pages artbook for free!
“The new generation of Unity 3D gives us more control over the creation of out game. With the new, just released Unity 5.0 we will be able to greatly increase the stability and overall performance of Worlds of Magic. The new audio mixer will make the game sound better. We will also be able to illuminate the objects in many more ways and make all the materials look more realistic, which will lead to the whole game looking way better visually. Thus new Unity 5.0 is not only a much better tool for developers, making our jobs more efficient, but what is most important, this will give players a much more stable, smoother running, better looking and sounding games. We are very happy that such a large project as Worlds of Magic will be released in just two weeks after making Unity 5.0 available for developers.”
This game is not nearly ready for release. Could have been a great game if given time, will fall flat with this release I reckon and fly through obscurity.
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