There's new Dev Blog at MuHa Games and this time it's going to be more interesting, as you finally see something from the mechanic and planned things. You can read full Dev Blog here.
..customising your playthrough is a feature we hope to greatly improve from the original. So apart from the usual difficulty settings, we’d like to include as many on/off options as we can, especially when it comes to things that stray from the original, but not exclusively so.
As an example, in addition to the option of turning the game’s events on/off, we already have a second pack of events that will also be optional. Another plan is to have customisable AI difficulty. While these are only a few examples, our intention is to build up this list, especially once the game is playable and thus open to more precise feedback.
Another feature that already received a makeover, are the events. There will be two event packs at launch, one, the original 18 events, and another, with brand new ones. You will of course be able to switch both/either on and off. While the original events are copied from the old game directly, they have been updated and given alternate routes. So, when you encounter an earthquake for example, in the original, it was simply a notification, in the new version, you may have an option to mitigate the effects. The new event pack will follow the same rule, events that occur will have multiple ways of resolution, instead of them being simple notice.
The plan is for Master of Magic to remain as a single player game. .. This may change in the future of course..
As for the other moddable features, driven by xml-based databases, players may modify a large number of the game’s functionality via easy to use text editors. Some examples of things you will be able to mod:
Apart from the database, players with more technical skills may look into exposed c# scripts that the game uses to make decisions in many areas. For example, “BattleAIScripts“ allow modders to change the way the AI makes decisions during battle, how it handles spell casting, unit movement and decides when to shoot, when to attack and when to run.
- Units and heroes by adding/removal of skills and attributes, or by creation of new units. Give them the ability to add XP (not all units do), the ability to regenerate or change their upkeep costs.
- Spells, skills and enchantments – our system allows the modification of a large number of basic parameters, while some scripts driving their exact functionality and the way AI interprets their value are in a separate file, written in c# and also open for modification.
Other script files handle spell, skill or enchantment functionalities, including those that estimate their value for the AI and the scripts that are used when an effect is applied or removed in the game
Will diplomacy be improved?
Yes. Diplomacy in the original game was complex, but it was mostly suffering from a very large number of issues and bugs. We aim to recreate the system, but of course also fix it.
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