Worlds of Magic 1.0 released

[Greybriar]

It's now listed on GOG as "coming soon".  The devs wanted to avoid a repeat of the horrible Steam launch, so they were waiting for it to be much more stable before releasing on GOG.  It looks like it's imminent.

It's been listed on GOG as "Coming Soon" for quite awhile. I can understand the devs wanting to avoid a repeat of the awful Steam launch but the Kickstarter backers were promised a DRM-Free version which hasn't happened yet. While I can understand Wasteland's side, I think it is in particularly poor form for them to completely disregard their DRM-Free Kickstarter backers and release a Steam version when Steam wasn't even mentioned in the Kickstarter. When it was suggested that they give Steam keys to backers until the DRM-Free version was released, Wasteland refused to do so.

I have been patient, but it's been over two years since the first Worlds of Magic Kickstarter ended and over four months since it was released on Steam. I am beginning to feel as exasperated as  Asmodai over at the Wasteland forums.

[Rayfer]

It's now listed on GOG as "coming soon".  The devs wanted to avoid a repeat of the horrible Steam launch, so they were waiting for it to be much more stable before releasing on GOG.  It looks like it's imminent.

It's been listed on GOG as "Coming Soon" for quite awhile. I can understand the devs wanting to avoid a repeat of the awful Steam launch but the Kickstarter backers were promised a DRM-Free version which hasn't happened yet. While I can understand Wasteland's side, I think it is in particularly poor form for them to completely disregard their DRM-Free Kickstarter backers and release a Steam version when Steam wasn't even mentioned in the Kickstarter. When it was suggested that they give Steam keys to backers until the DRM-Free version was released, Wasteland refused to do so.

I have been patient, but it's been over two years since the first Worlds of Magic Kickstarter ended and over four months since it was released on Steam. I am beginning to feel as exasperated as  Asmodai over at the Wasteland forums.

And therein lies the reason I made the personal decision never to back any Kickstarter game. It's a gamble I don't care to make. I'm not anti-Kickstarter, many a good game has come out of it and I hope it continues to thrive. I just choose not to participate.

[Huw the Poo]

My thoughts exactly, Rayfer, I couldn't have said it better.

[Grim.Reaper]

That's the good thing about Kick Starter, nobody forced to do it, but available for those who wish to participate.  I have only backed one game and that was Twilight Struggle...still waiting for that to release but seems like they are making progress:)  But I have no issue with purchasing early access games as long as I reasonably believe in the developer and I really want the game early.  Love all these choices:)

[JasonPratt]

I respect the publishers choosing to put critical reviews in their marketing on the Steam page -- that shows a lot of good faith transparency.

I dearly loved MoM, and have wanted a 'proper' update since those days, and while I'm not entirely unhappy with the flood of spiritual successors in recent years, some of which are good, and one of which (Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic) I've played nearly to death, neither do I feel like I have modern MoM yet. I'd pay their asking price for that. Heck, I'd even pay some extra occasionally for DLC to fill in the remaining gaps like the Gnolls and the Trolls and the Halflings!

However, I don't feel like shelling out forty dollars for a game that still needs patching for bugs every week. I appreciate the devs' hard work, but I choose to pay for a finished product that I can feel confident about being able to play without it breaking or being broken by a patch that fixed something else breaking for other players. I AM NOT BEING HYPOCRITICAL ABOUT HAVING BOUGHT MORDHEIM AND ARC SHUT UP!  ::) :P


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...ahem. I have already spent more than my budget, really, on early access games that, while functional, still need a lot of work.  O0

[tgb]

I don't know why you guys are so surprised at the current state of affairs, or even continue to have faith that this will end well.  Wasteland's track record is not the best.  They continue to either a) release the same game over and over with a new name and only minor cosmetic changes (Time of Fury, Time of Wrath, Fall Weiss, Storm Over the Pacific), or abandon games before all the bugs have been ironed out (Strategic War in Europe is still completely broken, afaik), not to mention they had the cajones to start a second Kickstarter campaign after burning through the money from the first.

The only thing keeping me from really slamming you guys is that I was stupid enough to buy this myself when it was still in Early Access because I a)was curious, b)was bored, and c)had more money than sense.  But at least I don't fool myself into believing it will ever be a game I want to play.

[Huw the Poo]

Who said they were surprised?  And I'd prefer to believe that the only thing keeping you from slamming us is not being a dick rather than not wanting to be called a hypocrite; we're all entitled to spend our money on whatever we want.

Anyway.  Personally I didn't know anything about their track record, but so far WoM has been patched regularly and the improvements have been significant.

[-budd-]

I've never done kickstarter, but have bought into several early access games with great results. The track record is why i didn't go EA on WOM, so i'll wait and see.

[tgb]

Who said they were surprised?  And I'd prefer to believe that the only thing keeping you from slamming us is not being a dick rather than not wanting to be called a hypocrite; we're all entitled to spend our money on whatever we want.

Lighten up, Francis.  You have stock in the company or something?

Anyway.  Personally I didn't know anything about their track record, but so far WoM has been patched regularly and the improvements have been significant.

Ignorance, as they say,is bliss.

[Greybriar]

I don't know why you guys are so surprised at the current state of affairs, or even continue to have faith that this will end well.  Wasteland's track record is not the best.  They continue to either a) release the same game over and over with a new name and only minor cosmetic changes (Time of Fury, Time of Wrath, Fall Weiss, Storm Over the Pacific), or abandon games before all the bugs have been ironed out (Strategic War in Europe is still completely broken, afaik), not to mention they had the cajones to start a second Kickstarter campaign after burning through the money from the first.

The only thing keeping me from really slamming you guys is that I was stupid enough to buy this myself when it was still in Early Access because I a)was curious, b)was bored, and c)had more money than sense.  But at least I don't fool myself into believing it will ever be a game I want to play.

Hope springs eternal, doesn't it? Despite Wastelands Interactive's track record, I was willing to back them on Kickstarter despite the odds because I liked Master of Magic so much. I would say "Never again!" but someday another developer will come along claiming his game is the true successor to Master of Magic and I'll fall for it again.

[Huw the Poo]

I was willing to back them on Kickstarter despite the odds because I liked Master of Magic so much.

Somewhat ironically, a few days ago I was on the brink of requesting a refund for this game and, never having played the original Master of Magic, I bought it on impulse on GOG to see what all the fuss is about.  Then suddenly Worlds of Magic works just fine so I'm playing it instead, heh.

I should buy stock in the company and disagree with everyone who doesn't like the game!

[Huw the Poo]

I've put in a bit of time with Worlds of Magic over the weekend and it's finally starting to come together.

At this point my main concern is that it's very slow to start.  Unit movement is so slow that there's actually a setup option to double their speed.  City growth is absolutely glacial.  You're constantly working with very slim margins for food and gold so growing your cities and building armies is a nightmare.  You can rely on summons to a certain extent in the early game, but this will be at the cost of research and developing your spellcraft (how much mana you can expend in a turn).

So you have to spam cities to try and get that food and gold production ramped up, but to make matters even worse there are roving bands of neutrals who (in my experience) usually turn hostile before too long, so expanding your territory can be very hazardous.

None of this makes Worlds of Magic a bad game, of course, but it does make the early game very difficult and occasionally frustrating, even at low difficulty levels.

Your trump card is, of course, magic.  If you choose your starting spells wisely and use your magic carefully you can make up for deficiencies in other areas.  Battles you "should" lose are instead won.  Garrisons are bolstered by summoned units.  Cities can temporarily grow more food with the right enchantment placed on them.  It works well and turns an otherwise impossible situation into a winnable one, which I guess is the whole point of the game.

It's still rough around the edges.  Lots of little glitches.  For example, when you're selecting a spell to cast you have to make sure the "cast" button is highlighted when you click it; sometimes you have to move the cursor around on it before this happens.  Sometimes units who have move orders will need to be told where to move again, even though the path is already drawn.  Occasionally some text box isn't large enough to contain its text.  Stuff like that.  Absolutely nothing major at all and certainly nothing game-breaking, but polished it isn't.  Personally I'm extremely forgiving of this kind of thing so it doesn't really bother me at all; I'm far too distracted by the wealth of options available.

I'll post more later.  At this point I'm finally ready to say that Worlds of Magic is worth buying as long as you are expecting a challenge and aren't expecting AAA-level polish.

[JasonPratt]

Good to hear, Huw! -- though I'd rather wait for the UI polish.  O0

[Huw the Poo]

Yeah, the UI issues will get on some people's tits, for sure.  Do you already have the game Jason?  If so, aren't you even tempted to have a little sneaky peeky?

[JasonPratt]

No, haven't bought the game yet -- joked upthread that I'd rather wait than buy what's effectively an early access that still needs a lot of polishing, and then poked fun at myself for having bought Mordheim and ARK: Survival Evolved.

It's definitely wishlisted. I may give it another month of polish and buy it then.