Master of Magic: Difference between revisions

This article discusses the PC game Master of Magic. For information on the 1986 Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum game of the same name, see Master of Magic (Mastertronic). For the children's UK ITV Sunday morning show, see Ministry of Mayhem.

Master of Magic (MoM) is a turn-based fantasy strategic computer game. Published by Microprose in 1994, it was developed by Steve Barcia (Simtex), who also wrote the better-known Master of Orion.

The game has many similarities with Civilization. However, it features a magic world, spells, heroes, two connected planes, different races, building block technique, and tactical battles.

Famous for its replay value as well as for its game-destroying bugs and broken AI upon release (the latter mostly fixed in a later patch, along with some of the worst bugs) the game is still loved today by its fans (despite there being well over 200 known bugs in the last version shipped, as documented in the FAQ), and acted as grandfather to a whole sub-genre of games. Rumors of a sequel never die out entirely.

MoM is only loosely related to the Master of Orion series. The ant-like Klackon race from MoO appears in MoM and the idea of heroic leaders was carried from MoM to MoO2.

The game runs in DOS and supports VGA graphics, Sound Blaster audio, MIDI music, and a mouse. Although it can run successfully at least under Windows NT as well, on modern computers the best way to run it is by emulation (DosBox).

The game begins by letting the player customize his/her wizard. The choices include specialization in knowledge of one or more of the five different magic paths (chaos, sorcery, nature, death, or life) as well as special skills (such as a decreased cost to summon monsters, or an increased mana production). The player allocates a starting number of "picks" among the choices available. The number of picks is high enough to allow a huge variety of starting options, yet low enough that the player has to forego some power or knowledge that is desperately missed later in the game. The player may control one of over a dozen starting races, each with different graphics, skills, troops, and needs.

The main game interface is a top-down map of the magic lands. The game world consists of continents of varying sizes separated by water. Randomly scattered across the land are temples, lairs, neutral and enemy cities, magic towers, rivers and mountains. The player can zoom into his/her starting city and micromanage to build city structures or troops. A better-developed city allows production of better troops. Later on, conquest of neutral and enemy cities as well as founding of outposts will expand one's empire. Conquest of heavily-defended magic nodes will gain Mana income.

Cities in Master of Magic are complex enough that no two cities are ever exactly the same. The types of buildings that can be built in a city (which determines what resources and army units it is able to produce) depends on the race of the inhabitants of the city as well as the surrounding terrain and resources. Also, the potential size and productivity of a city depends on the surrounding terrain and how close it is to other cities. Cities also change during the course of a game, as new buildings are built by the controlling wizard, and the city is affected by various spells and attacks.

Buildings that the player will find in newly-conquered cities, or construct as improvements, can include:

• Granaries and farmers markets to feed the population
• Shrines and temples to provide mana and control unrest
• Sawmills and miners guilds to improve productivity
• Shipyards to build fleets, from small boats to warships
• Libraries and sages guilds to perform spell research
• Alchemist guilds to enchant magic weapons for newly-built troops
• Armories, armorers guilds, and war colleges to train new troops

There are fourteen races, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, dark elf cities produce extra mana, dwarf cities pay double taxes, halfling farmers make extra food, lizardman troops can all cross water unaided, draconian troops all fly, and troll troops (almost) all regenerate damage taken during and after combat. Most races also have special types of troops that can only be produced by cities of that race. For example, only high men cities can produce magic-immune paladins, only high elves can tame and ride pegasi, only orcs ride poisonous flying wyverns, only barbarians produce strong axe-throwing berserkers, etc.

The races on Arcanus (the first world) are: High Man, High Elf, Halfling, Nomad, Barbarian, Gnoll, Lizardman, Klackon, Orc; the Myrran (the second world) races are: Dark Elf, Dwarf, Beastman, Draconian, and Troll.

Magic spells are divided into six realms:

• Chaos magic, to unleash destruction upon enemy troops and cities
• Nature magic, to enhance troop performance and affect the worlds
• Sorcery magic, to control and thwart the forces of magic itself
• Life magic, to aid and enhance the wizard's troops and cities
• Death magic, to curse and slaughter enemy troops and cities
• Arcane spells, which are available to every wizard for basic needs

Each realm of magic also includes a wide variety of spells to summon creatures associated with that realm, such as great drakes, behemoths, air elementals, archangels, and wraiths, each with their own powers, strengths, weaknesses, and costs. Summoned creatures range from hordes of cheap but weak and fragile skeletons to deadly and nearly-indestructible great wyrms, and everything in between.

Magic spells come in many types across the different realms:

• Summoning spells, as described above
• Unit spells to enhance the player's troops
• City spells to enhance the player's cities or damage an enemy's cities
• Combat spells, to aid in winning battles
• Specialized spells for special actions, such as enchanting items or converting deserts to grasslands.
• Enchantments, the most powerful type of spell, to set up a worldwide effect on all friendly or enemy troops and/or cities. For example, a wizard with enough chaos skill could cast Meteor Storm to rain fire on all exposed troop units all over both worlds every turn.

Armies are stacks of up to 9 units that can be moved in a turn-based manner around the magical lands. If an army lands on a map square containing an enemy army, a battle is fought. The player can control all of his/her units during the battle and can also cast magic spells.

Different troop types and summoned creatures have different abilities, both in and out of combat, including such powers as:

• Melee strength for hand-to-hand combat
• Thrown weapons or fire breath attacks
• Missile strength for long-range attack (bows, rocks, or magical)
• Magic resistance, defense, and hit points
• Stoning gaze or touch attacks
• Ability to cast specific spells in combat
• Different movement modes and speeds, including flight
• Magic immunity, invisibility, regeneration, etc.

In addition to abilities as a troop unit, heroes can have additional powers, including:

• ability to cast a wide range of magic spells during combat, saving your wizard's mana points
• exceptional melee strength, missile strength, defense, or hit points
• enhancement of other friendly units in combat
• ability to use artifacts to boost their powers far beyond ordinary units

It is not unknown for heroes with extremely powerful items to single-handedly kill eight great drakes without working up a sweat.

With the aid of researched spells, recruited or summoned troops, mercenaries, chance events, heroes, and diplomacy, the game can be won in two ways:

• world conquest by capturing or destroying all enemy cities
• researching and casting the spell of mastery

Of the two, total world domination can be achieved far faster, depending on the strategy used.

There have long been rumors about a sequel to Master of Magic, and the most recent hard news about these developments is that Stardock has made a poll to look for the public interest in a Master of Magic sequel. The results were positive, and they have since then pursued the game license by negotiations with Atari, which is the current license owner. However, Stardock has announced that any possible sequel will at earliest be developed after the release of their Master of Orion-style strategy game Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, as well as their free MMOG Society, with the latter having an expected release in 2007. [1]

• Warlords series
• Heroes of Might and Magic series
• Age of Wonders series
• Dominions2
• List of computer and video games by name

• Age of Magic Unfinished Remake of MoM (appears to have been abandoned)
• MoM++ Open Source MoM remake currently in alpha
• Leylines Finished remake (but heavily modified)
• Master of Magic Clone Another Remake of MoM in Progress
• Master of Magic Clone Russian Remake of MoM in Progress
• Magic Master Project OpenSource Remake of MoM
• Master of Magic - Implode's Multiplayer Edition Customizable multiplayer MoM remake

• Template:Hotu
• Master of Magic at MobyGames
• www20.brinkster.com/kadirclan MoM Fansite
• Master of Magic FAQ
• www.masterofmagic2.com/ Fansite to rally support for an official MoM2 to be made