Err.. civilization 5?!

[Nikolai]

Seeing how similar to Civ5 this game is, and how PI has themselves said that Civ5 was a great inspiration, I thought this was a cooperative effort between PI and Firaxis?

[Buladelu]

Seeing how similar to Civ5 this game is, and how PI has themselves said that Civ5 was a great inspiration, I thought this was a cooperative effort between PI and Firaxis?

What.

That's just impossible.

[Nikolai]

I see it's not so from the comments here, but that's what I thought. And it certainly is not outside the realm of possibility.

[Alexey Kozyrev]

Hi All, I'm the Development Team Leader of Warlock: Master of the Arcane
It seems to me, that there were no 4x grand strategies except Civ for so long time, that people begin to associate the whole genre with this one game. So now when Warlock is going to be out - it is the easiest way to talk about it as about Fantasy Civ.
I need to say that there should be some similarities in our games since we are solving the same problems and working in the same 4x genre. So we are working with the same world/unit scale and sometimes choosing same technical decisions ( For example, when you are drawing so many trees - player shouldn't be allowed to rotate camera. But I think that our game is better looking and faster working, thanks to our engineers and artists.)

And I want to be clear:

• We have no art from Civ,
• We have no code from it,
• Nobody in our team has ever worked in or with Firaxis
• and we are working on the same engine that was used previously for Fantasy Wars and Elven Legacy ( that had hexes, cities, 1unit per hex system and animated battles all before Civ. Really we saw many similarities in Civ5 derived from our game.)
• Warlock has different game mechanics
• Warlock has different game world
• Warlock has different building system
• even "Zone of control" not only looks different but works differently
• Warlock is something between Elven Lagacy and MoM, that we are still playing from time to time.
• Our game is about Exploration, Magic Battles, Bulding an Empire and Buffing and Upgrading units.
• Yes it is 4x grand scale strategy and I hope there will be more.

Now I'll post some screens from my current game to show you (Sorry, screens are not in high res and best quality)


Edit: Do you really think we need to change something?

[Romtos]

Edit: Do you really think we need to change something?

The font and button gradients.

Thanks for sharing the screenshots. I'm very looking forward to this.

[ywhtptgtfo]

Edit: Do you really think we need to change something?

Yes, please do include good documentations on game mechanics because frankly, EU3 and CK2 practically had none and it was all guess work.

And by the way, Civ5 is a pretty boring game that is widely considered to be a great disappointment. My stomach turned just by looking at that nearly identical mini-map on your screenshots because of those very boring Civ5 games I endured in the past. Let's hope your game would outgrow the sub-conscious stigma brought on by the inevitable reminders of Civ5.

[Buladelu]

Yes, please do include good documentations on game mechanics because frankly, EU3 and CK2 practically had none and it was all guess work.

And by the way, Civ5 is a pretty boring game that is widely considered to be a great disappointment. My stomach turned just by looking at that nearly identical mini-map on your screenshots because of those very boring Civ5 games I endured in the past. Let's hope your game would outgrow the sub-conscious stigma brought on by the inevitable reminders of Civ5.

I know that feel. Civilopedia is a very nice feature were you can read much about gameplay and world. Although can't be as interesting in fantasy game.

I've got bored of Civ5 very fast, and then tried Civ4 again. It's just great. Even with interesting features like city/state, small army wars or Diablo-style culture development Civ5 is bo-o-oring.

[Buladelu]

Edit: Do you really think we need to change something?

1) Can we have a table (or at list aligned values) in resistances?
2) You have both icon for production and word production in tooltip on 1st screen. WHY.
3) I think tooltip background is too transparent.
4) Right click to show info could be smaller/bleaker/italic font.
5) Icons for spell types look like spells themselves. Could be slightly misguided.

[PawelS]

But I think that our game is better looking and faster working, thanks to our engineers and artists.

Good to hear it. I hope the AI is better too

But I like Civ5, and I'm working on a fantasy mod for it. With the DLL release coming, it will be possible to create really interesting mods, including ones that make the AI better.

How moddable will Warlock be?

Edit: "Build this type exist in your town" doesn't seem like correct English to me, it should be changed to something like "Building of this type exists in your town".

[Alexey Kozyrev]

How moddable will Warlock be?

Edit: "Build this type exist in your town" doesn't seem like correct English to me, it should be changed to something like "Building of this type exists in your town".

We will discuss modability with Paradox, by now I think that you will be able to modify lots of stuff, if you know how to do it and with our support.
About the quote - you are right, it is temporary message, placeholder just added to hint, that will be written in correct English, saying that your empire already has this type of structure, but since the version is internal - placeholder stuff has got to screenshots, sorry for that.

[BandC]

I'll admit that when I first saw the screenshots for Warlock, I too thought Warlock must have licensed the Civ 5 engine. I had never played Fantasy Wars. When I saw it mentioned here I looked it up, I still think Warlock looks more like Civ5 than Fantasy Wars (which is OK).

The "misfortune" (if you can call it that) of Warlock is: once a mainstream game like Civilization that's become a household name adopts a certain style (looks, UI, game system, etc.) everybody will compare other games to it even though other lesser known games might have come up with those styles before the mainstream game.

Anyway, the screenshots look great. I wouldn't change much (maybe fonts a little). Good luck on the release.

[SamBC]

I can see where people are coming rom talking about there being similarities - the main game screen has the same overall structure, and some elements are very similar, like the top bar. Of course there's learning from other's successes, and there is convergent evolution - but the similarities are enough that people must be forgiven for seeing them and wondering about them.

[Luckz]

I've always wanted to play MoM - I hope with your game I finally will

[aceymi]

You can play MOM. It can be downloaded from gog.com for $5.99. I have downloaded many of the old classics from them and they have all been playable on my fairly current laptop...

[Luckz]

I don't buy from GoG for moral reasons.
Does anybody else sell it?

[Nikolai]

Moral reasons?? What do you mean?

[Gandhialf]

I don't buy from GoG for moral reasons.
Does anybody else sell it?

I also think that supporting original developers of classic masterpieces (like Age of Wonders series) is immoral

(It's not true about every game bought on GOG. As far as I know original developers don't get a dime from GOG's selling those games.)

[Luckz]

Just their disgusting "we don't exist anymore" publicity stunt from a few years ago.

[Gandhialf]

Just their disgusting "we don't exist anymore" publicity stunt from a few years ago.

You don't trust them anymore? OK, I get it. (It worked btw.) But talking about "moral reasons" is overreacting. They did something stupid and they lied. But they didn't do much harm, did they?

[PawelS]

I think a lie itself is a good justification for "moral reasons", even if it doesn't do much harm. But I don't agree with this approach, most companies use lies or half-truths in their marketing...