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 Warlock: Master of The Arcane What the hell? Warlock: Master of the Arcane is a pretty simple fantasy 4X game that seems to have already overpowered 2 LPrs. Strange, since basically it's Baby's First 4X Game: Return of the Difficulty Spike. Build cities, train armies, wage war, fire spells, drat the AI. Usual 4X fare. They told me games have plot... In the tradition of modern 4X games, Warlock lacks a campaign, has some interesting (well, funny) lore. It's set in the universe of Majesty 2 - Ayn Rand's Fantasy Simulator - with unclear relation to that game's timeline. Most probably some time afterwards. I'll make poo poo up as I go because I'm not going to just spell out unit movements and, after a few turns, I'll leave the informative side altogether. So what's new? Well, usually 4X games rely heavily on research to build better units than the rest of the world and trample the AI spearmen under the threads of Future Murder Tanks. Not so here. Units are build and upgraded if you have the required buildings, which is more about city development (easy) and city positioning (easier). Research is done to get spells that your wizard rear end can cast from his tower. Unfortunately, the game has failed to produced a clearly visible spell tree, but that's only a minor impetus. Most of the time your overtrained and overgeared units can do well. Also, you have a bad case of Notmovingitus, which means that your capital never moves and you lose the game if it's destroyed. Be vary of enemy deep infiltration missions (that never happen on normal). To keep the things interesting, monster spawners appear worldwide at random intervals. This is annoying, especially in cases of small, undeveloped cities. Aside from the main world, there are pocket dimentions that can only be accessed by gates. This is a whole new level of "fun". So, what's the world gonna be like?  I'm going to play normal difficulty and without the "50% Holy Grounds" option. I doubt the enemy AI will be smart enough to do the other things and I have no idea what's an avatar.  I'm thinking about making a world somewhere between normal and huge. It will be mostly continents, so I'd be separated from other mages at the beginning, but still have place to develop. Also, sea travel and seas in general suck. I'll take 6 opponents because... why not? 8 would be too much, especially in prolonging the endgame and interrupting my Teleport/Resurrect spells. The number of planes is set to highest because I want to show them off - well, show their terrain texture off. I also like the idea of pocket dimensions. Cylindrical map means that we can go south (or west) till we reach the place where we left off. Hurray for realism?  This is your prebaked mage selection. Note the lore! Mages give a name and a face to your nation, as well as perks. These can vary from immediate resource bonuses (hello, wasted points), to unit enhancements and spells researched. Again, pretty much run of the mill stuff. Some of the mages are pretty cooky.  Channel your inner furry!  This means I have the elf DLC! Create a magical idiot  Here's the wizard/nation creation screen. You have points, and perks and spells cost points. Simple. You can also change name, portrait, color and race. Notice how lame all of the banners are. Here's a sample character I created for the test post play.  Twik the Goatrapist is a Koatl pervert who became a great wizard through the power of goat love. He commands a Monster nation, because nobody else would accept him and making love to undead goats is just obscene. Twik, having spent most of his time in farm and barns, knows something about Farming (Food income bonus). Also, while tending to his band of lovers and organizing their defense from wolves and their rightful owners, he became A Glorious Tactician (10% to unit attack). It's still a mystery how he learned magic (Fireball and Healing). Audience input You get to vote for which race I play!  Humans: Your run of the mill inhabitants of Every Fantasy Game Ever. Generic to the core, easy to play, not that badly voiced. Masters of Gold production, which is really important when you want to upgrade your units with best gear. Have the biggest variety of Holy Grounds units.  Monsters: Organized and civilized Goblins, Werewolves, Rat Pirates, oh my! Max out food production AND have beastly bonuses. Also come with voice acting and lines so bad, that it should be classed as a war crime.  Undead: Skeletons - well, you know the drill (no fat chicks?). Take less damage from arrows and black magic. Take mana upkeep which might be inconvenient for a spell slinging player. Have the most awesome unit in the (DLC-less) game: Galleus of the Sky.  Arethi Elves: The DLC race! Basically the Space Marines of the setting: all male (women hosed off to the woods - seriously), more expensive and thus better units than everyone else. Speak in Elvish, so at least we're spared horrible lines. Are actually armored and pro-order, unlike the usual Dark Elf BDSM fare. Like the Undead, have a flying ship. Unlike with the Undead, this one wasn't made by replacing a dragon model with a ship. Much like the Undead, these pose a challenge when making any sort of narrative. Another big point  The Armageddon DLC gives you a whole new game mode: defeat an an alien invasion from one of the pocket dimension! Some game designer probably took offense at allegations that randomly appearing monster spawners are annoying and decided to teach us a lesson. You know, like in hentai, where they rape a girl till she likes it, here you get really, really powerful spawners and monsters. Playing Armageddon could mean losing, since I've no experience with. Victory conditions are replaced by victory against the alien invaders. Have your say and I'll take this into consideration! I'll try updating this once a week because I actually have obligations to play other games. UPDATES Chapter 1: Landing on Goblin Rock Chapter 1.5: A Growing Backwater Empire Chapter 2: Taming the Wilds Chapter 3: The Invasion Chapter 4.1: Lycanthrope Oblige Chapter 4.2: From the War to the Wilds Chapter 4.3: Damned Wilderness Chapter 4.4: The Amazing Adventures In Thread Lock Dodging Chapter 5.1: Even the Smallest of News Chapter 5.2: Hateful Universe Chapter 5.3: Worse Tidings Chapter 6: Anchored To The End of The World Chapter 7: Anchor Crisis Chapter 8: A Slipping World Chapter 9.1: Taking Care of Business Chapter 9.2: Help Chapter 10: Direst of Portents Chapter 11: Wild Fronts and Frontiers Chapter 12: Invading Demiplanes Chapter 13: Beyond Death's Door Chapter 14: Forward Onto Glory Chapter 15: Who Mourns for Dremargor? Epilogue JcDent fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Jul 30, 2014 |
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Jun 20, 2013 15:22
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| # ? May 3, 2024 11:39 |
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Monsters Purely for the voice acting! (I bough this game on sale last christmas, only got around to playing it after Civ V so it was pretty underwhelming.)
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Jun 20, 2013 15:42
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Geokinesis posted:Monsters This. You can't accuse them of war crimes and expect anything less.
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Jun 20, 2013 17:08
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JcDent posted:You know, like in hentai, where they rape a girl till she likes it 
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Jun 20, 2013 17:20
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Lotish posted:This. You can't accuse them of war crimes and expect anything less. I promise to include a short video of Monster unit sounds (the main offenders are Goblin Archers and Spearmen). I'll get them anyway since it is nigh impossible NOT to get cities of other races during your conquest. Yep, this game is very CnC about it.
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Jun 20, 2013 17:33
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Armageddon. It will allow for the most complete playthrough.
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Jun 20, 2013 17:34
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Monsters are the most interesting race and Armageddon the most interesting condition. Good luck to you, you'll need it!
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Jun 20, 2013 17:46
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Elves and Armageddon because I want you to suffer.
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Jun 20, 2013 18:30
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You'll want to edit that last bit about hentai out before it causes a shitstorm and ruins your thread. Go Undead with King Lich V, also please show his biography so that people will read it and agree with me.
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Jun 20, 2013 19:18
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Armageddon is literally the only way to play this game. Don't wuss out.
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Jun 20, 2013 19:23
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Monsters or Undead and Armageddon mode. Armageddon is actually challenging, whereas normal mode the AI just abuses summoning mechanics and drowns you in ghost wolves.
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Jun 20, 2013 19:33
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Monsters because terrible voice acting is the best voice acting. And Armageddon.
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Jun 20, 2013 19:45
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Monsters! Everyone loves rat-men and goblins. Except for humans, elves and...Well, quite a few people do, but who cares about those assholes? Armageddon! An alien invasion sounds pretty drat interesting. Come to think of it, it'd be a pretty nice twist in a fantasy setting for one of the 'monstrous' races to save the world from the all-consuming evil for a change.
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Jun 20, 2013 21:02
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The fantasy in this game, and the Monsters especially, are fairly Terry Pratchett in writing. poo poo is goofy as hell so don't expect this game to take itself super serious, cuz it doesn't.
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Jun 20, 2013 21:27
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JcDent posted:Channel your inner furry! Every time someone calls Anubis a furry I feel bad for the Egyptian pantheon.
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Jun 20, 2013 22:23
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Captain Oblivious posted:The fantasy in this game, and the Monsters especially, are fairly Terry Pratchett in writing. poo poo is goofy as hell so don't expect this game to take itself super serious, cuz it doesn't. Don't use rape jokes when talking about this game (or ever) either; holy poo poo.
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Jun 20, 2013 22:24
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Geokinesis posted:Monsters I got it when looking for other Civ-like 4Xs, and yeah... it comes off pretty poorly in the comparison, mainly because it is literally just build units and battle for the most part. No building, no diplomacy really, no real depth to tech level and the like. Just build doodz and hope your doodz are better than the AI's.
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Jun 20, 2013 23:01
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Is this like a civ5 mod? Why does it look exactly like a civ5 mod?
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Jun 21, 2013 00:10
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It does look like one but it's really more of a tactics game with a light 4x overlay. It's pretty fun though, as long as you don't expect a Civilization-scale game.
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Jun 21, 2013 00:55
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Human whatever the hell else.
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Jun 21, 2013 00:57
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Oh man, Warlock. I spent so much time playing this with a fraction of my attention while watching TV. On launch there were no terraforming spells, no Lords, no artifacts, no variable income from terrain types, less terrain types, no random events, less diplomacy... it was all just make wampires, point wampires at enemy, repeat. So as much as it is Baby's First 4X - and it is - it used to be even more so. Which is kind of a terrifying thought.
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Jun 21, 2013 01:56
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My first time running into vampires playing as humans in this game was illuminating. Also painful. Also, you should go out of your way to summon an avatar. It'll be fun.
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Jun 21, 2013 02:21
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Yeah you can be pretty screwed before you understand what sort of units you need to be prepared for and what your race has to counter them. Often by the time you actually see the unit in question it's too late if you haven't prepared.
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Jun 21, 2013 02:30
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Baronjutter posted:Is this like a civ5 mod? Why does it look exactly like a civ5 mod? Eh sort of. It's a game using the engine, but different mechanics and theme. So yes and no.
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Jun 21, 2013 04:39
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Vander posted:Eh sort of. It's a game using the engine, but different mechanics and theme. So yes and no. No, Warlock uses a completely different engine than 5. As I recall, it uses the Elven Legacy engine. They mostly look similar since there's only so many ways you can make a hex based 3d strategy map look. The gameplay is fairly different from Civ5.
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Jun 21, 2013 04:45
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Pittsburgh Lambic posted:Don't use rape jokes when talking about this game (or ever) either; holy poo poo. Why are you quoting me for this?  But agreed, that part came across as trying way too hard to be funny.
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Jun 21, 2013 04:52
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Avatars are basically the 'religious' victory. They show up once you get your rating with a god high enough; this pisses off their rival, who manifests in person to kick your heathen rear end, at which point you throw your overleveled army in their face and laugh. Still, it's less of an anticlimax than conquest victories tend to be.
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Jun 21, 2013 05:20
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All of Ardania must make way for the Homo Superior (Humans).
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Jun 21, 2013 05:22
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Looks like this game is on a Daily Deal on Steam right now, 75% off. I'm hoping the demo works on my PC, because this looks very similar to one of my favourite games ever - Master of Magic. Let's go with Monsters as a race, but save Araggeddon for later. Start by beating up your neighbours before we set our sights on killing Cthulhu.
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Jun 22, 2013 21:02
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Your humor needs work so monsters so you'll suffer.
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Jun 22, 2013 21:14
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inflatablefish posted:Looks like this game is on a Daily Deal on Steam right now, 75% off. I'm hoping the demo works on my PC, because this looks very similar to one of my favourite games ever - Master of Magic. It's Civ 5 plus Masters of Magic. Not as much in the way of a tech tree as Civilization, but the spell system is neat, especially if you have the DLC so you can go create artifacts for your raging murdersticks to fight off Armageddon. Anyways, this game is based on Ardania, the setting of the Majesty series. Majesty 1 starts with you as a minor king, and you get involved in the basic system of generating gold through taxes and the like so you can hire heroes to go kill things for you, who then take that money and shop at your stores to buy items so they can kill bigger things for you. As king, you solve various problems in various maps to unite Ardania, then roll forward into the northern regions during the Northern Expansion in order to fully unite the continent. Things are pretty cool for a while, though there is some sort of divine throwdown where Lunord (god of the moon) goes crazy or something and gets whacked by his fellow gods, leading to some various shake-ups in the ranks of divine champions. Centuries pass, and Majesty 2 starts with one of the descendents on the line on the throne who's kind of a disappointment because there have been no great crises for quite some time and the kingdom basically runs itself. In order to make a name for himself, he has his wizards summon a demon lord so he can defeat it and be recognized as a great king. Naturally, this backfires terribly and the demon winds up taking over the kingdom, murdering most of the royal line except for you (the player). So you must start from nothing and work your way across the land, undoing the destruction that has plagued the kingdom and eventually gathering enough forces to defeat the demon lord and cement your place as a great ruler. Unfortunately, after that begins the first expansion, Kingmaker, where you have to deal with the goblins rallying under the banner of Grum-Gog, god of pestilence. After battling your way through them and defeating the avatar of Grum-Gog, the Battles of Ardania expansion occurs when a mage werewolf begins making trouble and seeks to draw on the power of dragons in order to become pretty much a god. Also, Lunord shows up again. After rallying your troops and defeating the mage, things settle down until the Conclave of various religions decide to depose you and put an immortal ancestral spirit of kings on the throne. In order to regain your throne, you must make alliances with the various monster races and Grum-Gog himself in Monster Kingdoms, eventually defeating the spirit of kings and forming a new unified Ardania. Sometime after that, you and many of your best forces head up to the northern regions and are never seen again. The kingdom deteriorates, centuries pass and Warlock: Master of the Arcane begins with various wizards squabbling over what's left of Ardania. Edit: Defenders of Ardania and Impire also take place somewhere on the tail end of this timeline, but I haven't played either of them. LightWarden fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Jun 22, 2013 |
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Jun 22, 2013 21:57
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Monsters and Armageddon. Seems like a nice concept, crossing Civilization and Master of Magic.
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Jun 22, 2013 23:22
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Monsters and Armageddon seems like the most intuitively fun option; although I can see a lot of comedy option in the Elves if played right.
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Jun 23, 2013 01:43
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The elves are weird in that they are the worst at making any of the three primary resources but at the same time all their units require all three said resources. They're basically the hardest race to play Armageddon as and that's why I voted for them.
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Jun 23, 2013 04:03
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Mzbundifund posted:The elves are weird in that they are the worst at making any of the three primary resources but at the same time all their units require all three said resources. They're basically the hardest race to play Armageddon as and that's why I voted for them. They make up for it by having incredibly strong units pretty early in. And the Spirit of Life 
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Jun 23, 2013 04:20
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Mzbundifund posted:The elves are weird in that they are the worst at making any of the three primary resources but at the same time all their units require all three said resources. They're basically the hardest race to play Armageddon as and that's why I voted for them. 'Worst' only in the sense that they lack the ultimate production buildings in each area that the other races have.(Humans=Gold, Monsters=Food, Undead=Mana.) Their production for most of it is relatively balanced, as I recall. They have, if I'm recalling correctly, a lot of research buildings compared to most.
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Jun 23, 2013 04:42
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So I noticed this game was 75% off on Steam and thought it looked interesting for a bit of entertainment. Been messing around (literally because I have no clue what I'm doing) as Undead for awhile and then this happens; You weren't kidding about the game not being very serious JcDent 
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Jun 23, 2013 06:28
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The series, whilst always having humour, has been getting less serious as time went on. Or possibly more 'obvious' about it.
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Jun 23, 2013 08:05
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There's humour and then there's the ability to recruit the rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail as a champion to lead your armies 
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Jun 23, 2013 10:57
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| # ? May 3, 2024 11:39 |
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The wizards death soundbite was 'I'm melting.'
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Jun 23, 2013 10:59
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