Magna Mundi: Standalone Game

[Cecil XIX]

Ubik and co. are developing their next version of Magna Mundi, a stand alone game that runs independent of EU3.

This could be the perfect game for me.

[TinCow]

I've seen this coming for a while... Ubik's not good at subtlety. I'm curious to see what the game looks like, since in order to make any money off the thing they'd have to make a lot of changes above and beyond MMP2. No one will pay for a game that's the same as a free mod.

[seireikhaan]

Eh. Magna Mundi has its plusses, but I think its got as many negatives. In too many cases, gameplay is too restricted. I appreciate a sense of historical accuracy, which certainly doesn't have enough attention in vanilla, but in some occasions, I like not being bent into a corner of where I'm supposed to go. Bit less re-play value, to be honest.

The forums aren't terribly nice either.

[Crazed Rabbit]

I haven't tried it, but from what I've heard in the mod it's almost oppressively hard to change the course of your nation, with some things designed just to punish you for trying to change things. Is that correct?

After all, the reason I play EU3 is to change history. Though clearly MM has a lot of enthusiastic supporters.

CR

[TinCow]

I haven't tried it, but from what I've heard in the mod it's almost oppressively hard to change the course of your nation, with some things designed just to punish you for trying to change things. Is that correct?

Yes and no. Generally, the point of Magna Mundi is to make the in-game alternate history plausible. The less realistic a goal was historically, the harder it will be to accomplish in MM. You'll never be able to conquer the world or convert all of Europe to Islam. However, you can unite Italy, create a powerful, hereditary Holy Roman Emperor, restore the Byzantine Empire, turn Sweden into a major colonial power, etc. If your goal is something that was historically plausible if different choices had been made and different events occurred at various points throughout history, you can probably achieve it in MM. If your goal is total fantasy without any basis in reality, it will probably be impossible in MM.

[ubik]

Greetings all.

I am glad to anwer all questions you have about Magna Mundi, the game here.

Just to dismiss two misconceptions:

- Magna Mundi is *not* oppresively hard. It is only hard if you play the game like you were playing vanilla. It is not vanilla anymore and the player, while wielding much more power in his hands, will be hold responsible for poor decision making and overt greed.

- Magna Mundi does not make it unbelievably dificult to change the course of a nation. If one takes his time to read *any* Magna Mundi AAR, he can reach this conclusion immediately.

[CountArach]

I haven't tried it, but from what I've heard in the mod it's almost oppressively hard to change the course of your nation, with some things designed just to punish you for trying to change things. Is that correct?

It is all a matter of timing. If your nation's conditions are ripe for change then your country can change without much damage being done. Trying to radically alter the very fabric of your nation (such as the National Ideas) is always going to hurt, simply because people won't stand for it. However, if you have a very strong King/President and a high stability, it hsould be possible without annoying too many people. The entire game, in my mind, is about setting up for changes that you want to make in the future and thinking about where you want to be 50 years from now.

Oh, and thanks for joining us Ubik! Congrats on the game and I will be pre-ordering as soon as I can.

[Meneldil]

Nice to see Ubik here.

(though I agree that the game is unnecessarily hard and stacked against the player. Must be because I suck at the game :()

[Crazed Rabbit]

Greetings all.

I am glad to anwer all questions you have about Magna Mundi, the game here.

Just to dismiss two misconceptions:

- Magna Mundi is *not* oppresively hard. It is only hard if you play the game like you were playing vanilla. It is not vanilla anymore and the player, while wielding much more power in his hands, will be hold responsible for poor decision making and overt greed.

- Magna Mundi does not make it unbelievably dificult to change the course of a nation. If one takes his time to read *any* Magna Mundi AAR, he can reach this conclusion immediately.

Thanks for coming over here and addressing some of my concerns. Certainly it couldn't hurt to try the mod.

Best of luck with the game!

CR

[ubik]

Thanks for the kind words, all.

[ubik]

Two interviews about the game:

Interview 1

Interview 2

[ubik]

Hi!

Just to tell everybody the development of Magna Mundi is going pretty well, and we have now a webpage online.

In fact, tomorrow Johan and Susana will visit Lisbon to plan with me all preparations for the next stage of development and marketing of the game. I am very happy to report this will be one of Paradox MAJOR RELEASES for 2011.


You can check the webpage here:


http://www.magnamundi.com



.

[ubik]

The first Developer's Diary is up and running on Paradox Forums.

You may check it here: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...ting-the-Stage


We are also on Facebook. Please, LIKE us to follow the latest news and help spread the word.

You can check us on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/MagnaMundi?v=wall


Finally, we are also on Twitter. I promise to tell one tidbit of info everyday through twitter, unavailable anywhere else.

You can follow us on twitter by searching @magnamundi



Again, thank you very much and I'll be willing to answer any question you might want to ask.

[Skullheadhq]

MM runs poorly on my computer.

[ubik]

MM runs poorly on my computer.

I have good news for you. We rewrote part of the engine and it now improves the performance very significantly. Magna Mundi is FASTER than EU3 HttT.

[Skullheadhq]

I have good news for you. We rewrote part of the engine and it now improves the performance very significantly. Magna Mundi is FASTER than EU3 HttT.

That's interesting, that was the only reason I never got into playing MM.

[ubik]

Here are the three dev diaries written so far about Magna Mundi:

Design Aproach
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...ting-the-Stage

The Map
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...Five-Centuries

Administrative Efficiency
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...ND-ITS-STRAINS



Enjoy!

.

[ubik]

Magna Mundi Q&A on GAMESPOT

[ubik]

Below you can find the new Dev Diary that lifts the veil about the all important concept called Factions... and some more!

Magna Mundi Dev Diary #9

Enjoy!



.

[seireikhaan]

Below you can find the new Dev Diary that lifts the veil about the all important concept called Factions... and some more!

Magna Mundi Dev Diary #9

Enjoy!
.

Good stuff. Thanks for the updates, Ubik.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

You guys both managed to butcher that link. :P

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...OF-THE-COUNTRY

So will all nations have different factions like that? Will any of them be extra fleshed out based on historical factions?

[ubik]

Yes Alexander, they are extra fleshed out by provinding them different faction setups.

[ubik]

Check out the new Developer Diary about Corruption below:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...-13-Corruption




.

[Sarmatian]

It seems it's not for me. Too complicated and going into too much detail for a grand strategy game. If playing some bigger country, like France, Ming or God forbid fully formed Russia, I guess I'll be spending 99,9% of the time micromanaging to keep my country from falling apart.

It will probably make playing minors more interesting but I'm not into that. The only reason I play a minor is to transform it to a major :D.

[ubik]

No, you are wrong, unless you are comparing it to extremely good tactical games with a simplistic strategic layer like the Total War Series. I don't like micromanagement at all and Magna Mundi is not about micromanagement. In due time you'll have a demo to judge for yourself. I have no fear to show the players beforehand what they can expect.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I've been following the dev diaries, looks like a lot of good stuff. Two questions - what is the intended price for MM, and how does MM deal with the EU3 mid/late game getting kind of boring? Like by the time I've finished most of a nation's starter missions I'm untouchable (and I'm hardly a warmonger - I hate taking non-core provinces).

[ubik]

I've been following the dev diaries, looks like a lot of good stuff. Two questions - what is the intended price for MM, and how does MM deal with the EU3 mid/late game getting kind of boring? Like by the time I've finished most of a nation's starter missions I'm untouchable (and I'm hardly a warmonger - I hate taking non-core provinces).

You'll have lots in terms of internal management to keep things interesting. There will be times, depending on the actual game dynamics, when simply keeping your empire together will be a challenge. Also, new objectives are always appearing. Magna Mundi is not about expanding in the least amount of time and painting the map one color. It's about expanding in several ways, while having in place strategies to support such expansion and keeping in check how other might expand in several ways that hurt you.

[Skullheadhq]

One important question: Will the Magna Mundi game be released as a boxed version as well?

[ubik]

One important question: Will the Magna Mundi game be released as a boxed version as well?

Yes.

[Skullheadhq]

Yes.

Oh great! Where will I be able to buy it when it is released? Will a Dutch shop have it (or anywhere where I can pay with iDeal, since I don't have a creditcard)? What's the start date going to be (since I love the Byzantine Empire)? And is there an FAQ so I don't have to ask so many questions at the same time?

Anyway, keep up the good work! If I can buy it I'll most certainly buy it on day 1.