To harken back to Master of Magic, I'd like to see either LH or a rebuilt WoM with an option to create magic items. I'd also like an expanded tech tree, maybe breaking some of the grouped advances broken out into their own branches. The research in LH ends up being blah because it dries up long before the game ends -- for me, anyway. I enjoy the exploration aspect, so I don't enjoy making the game as short as possible by going for the quick win.

With MoM, magic item creation tended to drastically overpower the heroes, but I'm sure a properly scaled AI could still provide a challenge.

I didn't say it wasn't broken. In fact, I did. I also didn't say it wasn't impossible to implement it well. All good features start out as "cool" ideas. Some fail, some succeed -- mostly because of improper implementation.

Why not release "War of Magic" as a DLC for Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes? It would be a fun way to introduce players to the original lore of the Elemental world.

I'll definitely add my 2 cents for what it's worth. My answer is a resounding "Yes it should be further developed/brought back"

I played and loved it. It had it's problems, no one can deny that. But the dynasty system was positively awesome, for one. Seeing children that were literally a mixture of the two married parents was always satisfying and fun as heck. It really did give a sense of continuity to the story that was your kingdom/empire. The systems in that game were different and superb.

But, more than just the dynasty system of course, that game, while obviously similar to FE and the starting point from which FE was derived, had a very different feel. Somehow you really got more of the sense that you were restoring the land of a broken world. FE's wildlands go a long way to contributing to this feeling, but there was just something about WoM that made it feel even more front and center. To be honest, it's been a while since I've played it and unfortunately that means I'll have to be somewhat vague on this point. But it did feel different in that way. I'd love to see FE's wildlands implemented in WoM:Remastered (or whatever it ends up being, of course). Jack Higgins made an excellent point above about that. About how, while we all want to get to the strategic kingdom vs. kingdom aspect of the game, the exploration and discovering the land (and restoring/healing it), has a huge appeal, and is like a game in and of itself that you get to play before you have to pay all your attention, nearly anyways, to the kingdom against kingdom game. Sometimes it feels like you lose the exploration/restoration portion of the game too early in FE to me. Even in WoM too, but I'm trying not to turn this into a "my suggestions for the next game!" post.

At any rate, while I have very much enjoyed its successor, Fallen Enchantress, I thought War of Magic may have been, in the end, a somewhat deeper game, in terms of some of the mechanics, and perhaps in the storyline. Maybe because FE has TOO much emphasis on the strategic battle aspect of the entire situation that you're in (which is the primary point of the game of course, but I'd love to see more emphasis added to the broken land being restored as you go along). At any rate, even just having War of Magic updated to the sort of visuals and functionalities that are found in Fallen Enchantress and FE:LH would be a massive win in my book. I would quite happily buy that game. So there's my opinion, for what it's worth

(EDIT: Once last thing that may bear mentioning is that diplomacy should be a big thing too. I know it's about the strategic battle generally speaking; that's what makes it a turn based strategy game at its very base. But you know, there's a TON to be said for being able to make friends and allies that last the entire game. I know there can be major gameplay balance questions that come in to play, but when I play a game like this, I have to admit, I'm also looking for an RPG experience that has been injected into a turn based strategy game, as well as the TBS game experience. If that makes sense, at least. I thought War of Magic, as broken as it may have been, had more appeal there than FE does, though I admit I haven't played a WoM game in a while, as I said previously.)

Thatd be cool too. Although I dont know how you'd work the dynasty system if even the long games are only 150 years or so (short period of fantasy uber powered rulers)

WoM maybe had the potential but it was broken by bad gameplay.

Last time I played War of Magic, ( just before FA beta release ) It was so riddled with annoyances that I found it near unplayable by my own standards. Or just too annoying to be enjoyed.

I think fixing annoyances should be a top priority, especially severe ones. It can totally break the experience for many people.

I bought WoM on release day and played it less than 7 hours total.

Bringing back WoM should start by removing all the annoyances ( imho ). I cannot make you a list as its been too long since I played.

Straight to the point:

Once it was decided that WoM would not be MoM 2.0, the decision of a not a 4X turn based fantasy strategy game is what hocked me in.

While lots of people seem to be talking a lot about dynasties that was by no means what I expected to make WoM unique. In fact I was feed up from dynasties from paradox crusar kings....

The deadland setting and the ever hard choice to spend essence to revive it or share it with champions or hoard it fom your sov was the core of the game. It would prevent land grabbing and make every game play very different depending on the essence distribution. The moment th at mechanic was droped was the moment the original WoM died and became a generic 4x game.

I remember quite well the original tests involving essence and it being dropped. The idea was sound and great, just a little hard to balance and many people really wanted a 4x game more like MoM, instead of the original game that was conceived. 

Brad's exemple of the lord of the rings opening scene Sauron vs  Heroes and armies and he saying you could be playing either, it all depends on how you choose to use essence is what I expected.

That being said I would love to sees the non 4x idea back along with the essence mechanic, everything done right this time. BUT to actually make me spend any $ (I really would not pre-order anything this time, given the past dissapointment) the grand game that was promissed would have to come to light, not simple mod essence in the existing game.

As I am writing I remembered what was hinted/promised and that I missed the most when game was released:

-not a 4x

-essence mechanic back, balanced and working

-dead, dangerous and devastated world setting. the environment is your first and ever present enemy

-Facing dozens, even hundreds of very capable AI players (that was a huge one for me, instead of the few large empires that we have in MoM/Civ/etc, we would have many small ones, each one unique because of the way it was shaped by the spending of the AI). It was so long ago that I remember discussions if the game should be 32bits or 64bits (before even low end systens shipping with 64bits OS) to allow really huge maps and that many players. Even remember brad saying that he expected modders to provide variety, with an spore (it was a thing at the time) system like sharing  the best/approved designs so we would no be facing the same factions over and over again.

-challenging AI players (the galciv way)

-dungeons (while I never cared for the first person version, or even expect that It would work with a strategy game), dungeons as a source of "goodies" requiring in game effort was another not a 4X great featur since it prevent "goodies hut"driven exploration

-in dept character building, not the min/max way, but with relevant choices. The idea was that you could have a administrator sov and still be competitive/powerful in his own way

-lots of magic making the difference (not necessarily raw destructive power) in gameplay (event what we have today in FE/LH is way less than a magic based game should have, if we cut to the ones that are useful we came really short on the magic front)

-terrain and environment control/alterations (again the hard choice on essence expenditure make one/few heavenly cities, grab as much land as toy can, or simple settle with whatever the random make gave you and use essence for other ends)

-huge army battles more galciv than MoM. I really don't remember when it was dropped in favor of traditional limited unit based tactical combat (I even don't remember if was among those crying for more unit control, but seeing the result, even in FE/LH it was a mistake)

-neutral cities/faction. the where supposed to do everything the players could, but without the magical aid of the sov. I remember that they where not supposed to be speed bumps or free cities but a relevant factor on gameplay when they where tested it was just a market/crappy city for conquering.

-Dynasties with gameplay influence. Obviously no sovereign will give away his empire just because you married his/her daughter, but I remember that the idea was that marring would give you claims to neutrals, bring them to your empire, influence enemy cities etc. It was supposed another way to victory, or at least a tool. And choosing to mix yourself would have a price also, like offspring rebelling, cities defecting, having to spend essence on several occasions, etc...

Unfortunately as the system was rolled out it was just a (weird) way to produce champions and/or boost diplomatic relations. Truth is a dynasty system doesn't play well in a world where the sovs/leaders/champions never die.... It could work with things like expiring/mortal champions (at least the non imbued ones), neutrals leaders passing away opening succession opportunities, and a lot of other ideas that are not the object of this thread and post.

I really don't know how much of the above ever got past the brainstorming phase (i've been lurking in the forums since the very beginning) and was intendend to be in WoM, but those are many of the features that I expect and that should be in for a true "directors cut" WoM. Else it will just be some stupid DCL (witch can be expected form other companies, but not stardock) and another major disappointment.

I'd actually like a game like Legendary Heroes that's more like Total War, I personally would prefer realtime battles like Total War because it works better for armies of that size.... but I would be fine with turn based as long as it works well.

The dynasty system was pretty cool, from memory (I'm not 100% as I haven't played war of magic in ages) your sovereign could die, but your children would take over. I also believe you could marry your children off to other factions children too...

I'd love to see a return of that system.

I loved the marriage and heritage parts of WOM.

Take a little time off, then come back to it.

I'd love a fixed up WoM, complete with Dynasty System and all the stuff that went missing from later expansions.

Well I never played the original War of Magic but my time in FE:LH make me think Stardock can succeed at making what they originally wanted from war of magic. I'm racking up the hours faster on FE:LH than on Civ5.

I see that you have Dynasty system but immortal sovereigns?

There could be a compromise, Immortal sovereigns can be made mortal with their children being like what 5 levels lower than the original sovereign? So with enough work, you can eventually reach that end of talent tree thingie.

FE:LH was a blind buy, I went in without knowing anything except for knowing what the cities would look like partially and wasn't disappointed.

I'd rather they just add dynasties to LH, amd leave WoM dead.  They've replaced it with better games.