MoM 2 Suggestions

[DracoOmega]

This thread is for suggestions for a MoM 2 game.
I'm not commiting to the project yet but I want to see if people are interested in it.
Also, if anyone is also interested in working on the project post here as well.

Here are some of my preliminary ideas for improvement;
Just the basic stuff.

I think the settings for starting a game should be more
customizable. You should be able to select the map size and the ammount of neutral cities.
Maybe even the ammount of starting pick (within a small range. Maybe 8-12)

There should be a map editor for making premade worlds,
maybe even support for scenarios.

I'll definitly add multiplayer. At least hotseat (I've never tried programming for modems )

Also there should be a breakdown of where all the mana you're paying for unit spell upkeep is going. There is no way to find that out in MoM without checking all your units.

This next one is just minor quibling, but I think you should be able to view your income without having to end all your units turns and view the spell you are casting without going into a seperate screen.

During combat, there should be a damage breakdown for attacks so you can see how much damage each part of your attack is doing (poison, flame breath, meele, ect.)

Also, when a unit with a range attack is in meele range there should be a choice as to weather it uses its meele or range attacks. This wouldn't be used too much but sometimes I've had hero's whos meele attack was much more then their range attack but I couldn't use it unless I used up all their shots.

And of course, improved graphics. (Although I won't be able to do this as I can't draw worth beens)

Well that's all I've thought of at the moment.

Please, post if you have any suggestions, comments, or wish to work on the project.

[Andz83]

how do you want do code it? C++? Turbo Pascal ?

shouldn't we let a game company do that work? that Hasbro ***** shall search the studios for doing all the programming stuff. we make the ideas, they do all the work. that's life!

[DracoOmega]

I don't mean an actual sequal. Just an unofficial remake made by fans. Besides, there hasn't even been an announcement that there will be a MoM 2.

Why would it hurt to make something anyway?

[Andz83]

because it would mean WORK!!!

I'm lazy, I don't want to work! I just want to play that game, not make it... uh... work...

[John D Ward]

My suggestions so far would be:

Include a Race Relations model as in Age of Wonders. It's the only original idea in that game, but it is a great improvement on the Civ/MoM system where captured cities immediately become as loyal and hardworking as any other citizens of your empire.

Better tactical combat. This is the other area where AoW is an improvement over MoM, particularly in the AI, and the inclusion of units from adjacent hexes.

Arising from the above, should we have the map in hexes rather than squares?

A map editor is essential, but keep a random map generator as well. That was something AoW should have had but didn't.

Better graphics of course.

I'm in two minds about this, but would it unbalance the game too much to include Wonders of the World? I note that they were an idea from Civ I which never made it into the original MoM.



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[Shadowstrike]

I'd be interested in joining. Andy, you don't really have to be a programmer, we would need people to churn out the ideas.

I would like to see new spells, improved graphics, and more races. I can help with the ideas. Should we make a forum somewhere where we could discuss ideas over, or just bug Mark and Dan to make a new forum here?

[DracoOmega]

John D Ward: I'm not familier with Age of Wonders so maybe you could explain the race relation model to me.

Shadowstrike: I though about the extra races idea but can you think of any major races which aren't already in there?

[Shadowstrike]

There are a few, you could for example have Frostlings, Gnomes (I forgot if they're in or not), a sort of "Avian" race, Merfolk, etc.

And of course entirely new races....

[DracoOmega]

Just bumping this post up a bit to see if I can generate some more interest.

[Andz83]

yawn...

what? interest?

[ravagon]

I was under the impression that microprose had negotiated a deal with another company to produce a commercial version of Mom2?
Don't remember where I saw this though.

Personally I would love a new version of Mom, whoever created it. I just hope that other projects (sprite editor?) wouldn't suffer too much

[Shadowstrike]

If you guys are willing to wait a week or two, I'd be willing to add a forum for this MoM2 project in my next site update.

[Urban Ranger]

I am willing to knock out ideas for the game. I am an idea man

[Frogman]

I have been into Age of Wonders for several months. There are a couple good things in it. First race relations. Basicly the 12 races are 1 pure good, 3 good, 4 neutral, 3 evil, 1 pure evil. Thus there are 5 divisions. Your relations get worse the more divisions there are between the races. Same division is friendly, 1 apart is polite, 2 neutral, 3 wary, 4 hostile

Cities of hostile or wary races will revolt if sufficient forces aren't in the city. Cities can be migrated but it takes a few turns depending on how close you have a city of the race your migrating to. Armies with wary or hostile units can desert as well if sufficient loyal troops are not in the stack.

The second interesting development in the game is the adjacent hex rule. They use hexes not squares. When your stack attacks a stack, all units in hexes adjacent to the hex being attacked are drawn into the battle, which is tactical on a separate screen, or auto in the case of pbem. So even though there is a limit of 8 to a stack, you could have 7 hexes involved in a battle or 56 units.

Another feature I like is signs and text bubbles. You can add signs posts to the map giving directions, warnings, names of towns etc. Also there are invisible text bubbles so when a unit enters a hex with an associated text bubble a message will pop up. This is great for story driven scenarios.

The AoW group have lots of MoM 2 dreams as well. AoW is the best game to come out for TBS in a fantasy environment since MoM and has many similarities, but many would like to see a MoM 2. AoW has the heroes like MoM but better graphics and playability. The user created maps are way better than the ones that came with the game. Of course the lack of user maps was a big drawback to MoM.

I loved MoM but it was buggy and never really fixed. I am not sure how much can be done to the game but I wished it had the adjacent square rule like Civ II that restricted movement past enemy squares. Also I like the AoW feature where only heroes can cast spells, not some omnipresent wizard like MoM. Of course the biggest drawback to MoM was the terrible AI. If the AI can't be improved the only options are to enhance the computer cheats or add an editor so scenarios can be made to compensate.

[Frogman]

Oops, forgot to add that AoW has modifiers to race relations, so even a race in the same division can be hostile if you have razed cities or migrated from that race etc. The other game that had good race diplomacy was MOO.