You know, until I started playing Sins, I would have said "Amen" to the No RTS admonition that you made.

I think, if you did it in the same sedate style that Sins has for Real Time, you could make a sequel to MOM and do it in Real Time.

I wouldn't want it in the same sort of frentic pace as, say, Rise of Legends, but I could deal with a RTS which was more like Sins.

TBS is the only way to go. Sins is a fairly run of the mill Supreme Commander/Homeworld hybrid and doesn't represent a revolution in much of anything, I think Jvstin likes RTS's a lot more than he thinks he does. Regardless, any MoM follow up needs to be turn based (or at most real time in the vein of an EU2, but really what would be the point of that?)

Agreed. You definitely can't play RTS in a train.

Yes it's true, game play has gone out of the window, graphics is all that matters. RTS games may not automatically represent a logical step forward, look at the state of PC gaming as we speak, in a time when Real Time Strategy is dominant. Oh there are many other factors at play, but PC gaming has declined so badly, new titles are either converted from consoles, or cloned from other semi-successful titles. There are a few exceptions, like faint lights in the Dark Ages of PC gaming.

MoM was in a crude sense "Fantasy Civilization", but the game play truly sucked you in, and that's what you can call the real magic of that title.


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To TheRealWarpstorm. I looked up Dwarf Fortress after reading your post, and have to say that it's absolutely brilliant. I used most of the night learning the basics, and it was a blast. Thank you.

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I've played Sins quite a bit now, I just won my first gigantic game against the AI with 4 opponents, 5 stars, and a hundred planets. That was intense. Anyway, I like Sins, but I like the way a game runs at *my* pace when it's turn based. I really don't understand why game makers are so in love with RTS.

I understand why game makers are in love with making RTS games. Generally RTS games sell a lot more copies than TBS games do. Most game makers enjoy making money, and especially publishers!

I agree with that. I personally got bored of RTS games after Red Alert. Most RTS games seem to follow such a standard formula that there's not a lot to differentiate between them, and too often they come down to a click fest.

I guess the problem with TBS games is they appeal to an older generation of gamer, and it's just not sustainable for the big publishers to make games that don't appeal to a large market. They generally don't have flashy graphics or the instant gratification that can be found in RTS games, and require a lot of patience, which I guess is lacking in many people, particularly those brought up with console games. It's just fortunate that there are enough gamers out there who still appreciate this style of game, so that well made games such as Galciv2 still have a decent following.

SOASE is very tempting though, I plan to try the demo when it's released and will probably get it. Overall I really like the games that Stardock make/publish. Will probably get PM2008 as well even though I'm not American, just looks like such a unique and fun game that I'd love to try it out.

Yea, the game is very RTS, but for me, there's a lot to like about it. For one, it takes place in space. I'm into all things science and science fiction so that appeals to me right out of the gate. I'm a single player and the game has pretty good AI. On the downside, the game tends to play the same every time so that's going to be a source of boredom eventually. However, the play is interesting. It has scerene periods of doing this and that interrupted by periods of excitement. Even the music sets a pleasant tone. It has a really good map editor and I've recently started playing custom maps. That provides an extra avenue of interest. If they can evolve the game to incorporate multiple styles of play, it has the potential to be as replayable as GC2. They have a lot planned for it so we'll see what happens in future updates.

Well, it's good enough for me. I'm sure I'd get my behind handed to me in a multi-player game.

Also MoM, formally called Master of Magic, and arguably a better successor to Sid Meir's Civilization than Master of Orion was. If you want details, see the
MoM Wikipedia page.

Yea, MOM is still awesome.
Age of wonders 2 is better (but not shadow magic, that one is no fun )

"Why don't they make games people want to play?" - ha, that is a good question. Same one asked by many people, including the guys at stardock.

Really, it beats me, some companies think that making the most boring and pretty game will appeal to the "extreme gamer". Some imaginary personality construct in their mind that likes things different then anyone else. Specifically, they don't enjoy fun, but they care only how things look like.

I will get *truly* worried if Dave Langford's mind-killing BLITs are displayed using that technology.