Might and Magic: Is it back?

[leshpar]

some guy in his mid 20s walks into office max

"hey, I need some graph paper, can you tell me where it is?"

the employee responds, "sure its down aisle 7, going to college I take it?"

"no, just got might and magic 2 and I need mapping materials"




I swear these old school games taught us more about math and real world applications than any college class ever did.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Yeah. Just try and get them to find you hex paper.

[sirdilznik]

Details about the combat system

HEY EVERYONE,

Some time ago on the Ubisoft MMX forum, MagixJonsn asked whether there "will be static idiot enemies in the game?". Although we cannot reveal too much today about the intellectual status of monsters in MMX, we can say for sure they're not static. Want to know more about the fighting mechanics in MMX? Brace yourselves and read on!


FIGHTING IN MMX - THE BASICS

In MMX, combat is turn-based, which means your party and their opponents take turns fighting. While you make your move, they can only react (e.g. block an attack) and vice versa. The turn is split into several phases. The first one is the turn of the party, the second one is the monster's turn. The last phase is used by the environment for triggers, spawning, et cetera.


http://static14.cdn.ubi.com/udev/prod/i ... 01_WIP.jpg


MOVEMENT & COMBAT ENGAGEMENT

Monsters come in three sizes; small, medium and large. The size of a monster depends on its 3D mesh, that is, on how big it actually looks in the game. The aggro range of monsters varies, so some monsters will attack while your party is further away, while others will attack only if your party gets closer to them.

In MMX, there are two stages of combat: being aggroed and being engaged.

Aggro:

you and the AI start taking alternate turns
character actions that do not end the character’s turn do so while having aggro
resting is not possible anymore


Engaged:

Monsters

don’t move
are facing the direction of the party
don’t perform range attacks

The Party

can’t perform any party action
can’t launch range attacks
can’t interact with interactive objects
characters can not unequip items

In order to be engaged, the party and the monsters have to be on adjacent tiles:




MONSTER MOVEMENT & COMBAT DECISIONS

All monster movements and attacks are calculated one after the other. The monsters move simultaneously first, and then all monster attacks are animated one after another in the order the attacks have been calculated. During their turn, monsters can either move or attack. Not both!


MONSTER GROUPS

Monsters can form groups, and they will use that ability against your party. However, there are no special rules for group behaviour; each monster in a group decides for itself when and where to move. The ways monsters move is determined by a path finding algorithm. However, one tile can hold several monsters at once - up to three small ones, one small and one medium monster, up to two medium monsters or one big monster - as you can see here:




COMBAT

When it's your party's turn, each character can do one of the following:

execute a ranged attack
execute a melee attack
cast a spell
execute a warfare ability
prepare to defend attacks

However, ranged attacks can only be launched against monsters that are not adjacent to the tile the party stands on and has no blockers in the direct line between party and distance monster.


TARGETING

When the party is engaged in combat with a group of monsters, one of the monsters in front of the party is selected by default as target for melee attacks or spells. You are free to switch selection to any other monster in front of the party without restrictions and as often as you like. If the selected monster is not in front of the party anymore (for example because it got killed or the party has turned by 90°), another monster gets selected automatically to be the next target.


http://static14.cdn.ubi.com/udev/prod/i ... 02_WIP.jpg


ATTACK PROCEDURES

Hit Chance
Party characters and monsters have an attack value for melee and/or range attacks. Characters get their attack value from skills, monsters have a fix value. The attack value and the defender’s evade value determine the hit chance for a strike (strikes are part of attacks).

Armor Value
Each armor has a certain armor value that reduces the incoming melee and range damage by a certain extent.

Resistance Value
A character's resistance towards the different schools of magic determines how big the chance is that the respective character avoids a spell/magic effect of that school. Also, the incoming magic damage of that school is decreased by a certain extent.

Defend Action
If characters use the defend action, their turn ends and their evade value is increased until the start of the party’s next turn.

Strikes
Both melee and range attacks consist of strikes. A strike is the confrontation of an attacker and a defender. Some skills may add additional strikes with a certain weapon (this only applies when the attacker has two melee weapons equipped) to a certain target during the attack.
A default range attack consists of one strike with the character's range weapon, while a default melee attack consists of one strike with each equipped weapon. Strikes for the main-hand are always executed before strikes with the off-hand.
Both monsters and characters have a certain amount of block attempts at each enemy's turn.


EXPERIENCE AND LOOT

Every single enemy has information on the nature and quantity of the resources and or items it will drop once defeated. Each time you start a new game, the loot of every monster in the game will be randomly determined.

Whenever your party defeats a monster, this is what happens with regard to loot and experience:

the items will be automatically put into the party inventory
the resources (gold, gems) are added to the resource pools of the party
the experience points are evenly distributed amongst all characters; the slayer of the monster receives some extra XP
the loot and experience distribution gets printed to the combat log
if one or more items can't be added to the party inventory automatically (because all slots are full), an interactive loot object will be placed on the grid the party is currently standing on. It will remain there for the rest of the game unless someone empties it completely.


So that's it for today. Thanks for your attention! If you're feeling creative, you could check out our dungeon layout contest. Have fun!

Your MMX-Team

I posted a couple of the pictures as links because they'd stretch the bejesus out of the page otherwise. Nothing surprising, but I like what I see.

[Randomizer]

Yeah. Just try and get them to find you hex paper.

I missed this earlier, but it reminded me that I had to go to copier to duplicate a hex paper page from a table top game book whenever I needed some. It used to be easier back in the late 1970s.

[sirdilznik]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have trailer. I repeat, we have trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT_S9J0fYYU

[sirdilznik]

So, it's out early access style, meaning you can basically play the alpha right now (only 1 act right now, bugs, not everything is finalized, etc.) and get the full game when it comes out. Being a Might & Magic fan, I couldn't help myself and pulled the trigger. Here are my thoughts (keep in mind that I've only played a bit over 2 hours so far):

Cons:

* Uplay - You need it to run the game, but at least you only need to go online once to activate the game, after that you can play in offline mode

* Bugs - To be expected of an alpha

* Day/Night cycle is hyper accelerated - I understand it has to go by fast to make resting abilities and supplies valuable, but it's kind of crazy right now

Pros:

* It feels and plays like honest to goodness old school Might & Magic

* Quality voice acting (there isn't much) and decent writing

* Surprising amount of tactics at your disposal even at low levels when you have few abilities, like using the terrain to lure ranged enemies into a melee fight without getting pelted with arrows while advancing, using spells to push enemies back or entangle them, pulling aggro, etc.

* Old school looking interface yet quite user friendly and quick to navigate

* Nice graphics, a bit better than Grimrock, though nowhere near AAA-level, but with charm

* Old school style changing portraits to reflect status effects

* Did I mention that it really feels like old school Might & Magic?

So yeah, I like it so far. I can't comment on the game's scope yet, or rather the scope of the first act, and I need to play a lot more to pass anything resembling definitive judgement, but the game looks quite promising so far.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Anyone who knows me knows how much M&M influenced me in the 80s/90s. I am really looking forward to this, but I will wait until Book III is done.

[Painted Lady]

Anyone who knows me knows how much M&M influenced me in the 80s/90s. I am really looking forward to this, but I will wait until Book III is done.

Whew! Glad to hear you are going to resist the urge to enjoy yourself and instead are going to keep working away on Book III.

[sirdilznik]

It's out! Today! Right now! I'm still stuck at work for a couple more hours, but once I get home I'm all over this little slice of goodness. I enjoyed what I played during Early Access, and now the full game is here. This is so surreal. I'm going to be playing an honest to goodness Might & Magic game, not a Heroes of Might & Magic, or Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, or Whatever Else of Might & Magic, but a game in the core series, and a turn-based one at that! A brand new Might & Magic game. In 2014!

[SpottedShroom]

Aww, it's in Unity but there's no Linux version? Boo...

[sirdilznik]

Aww, it's in Unity but there's no Linux version? Boo...

Yeah, that is a bit disappointing. Maybe if enough people clamor for it they will make it happen, though this is Ubisoft we're talking about here, it's a miracle they funded this game at all. Also, they'd have to make a linux client for UPlay, I'm guessing. If SteamOS takes off then the possibility of such things happening will rise exponentially.

[tykinruoka]

Cons:
* Uplay

Would have bought the game if it hadn't been uplay enabled.

[Leezar]

* Did I mention that it really feels like old school Might & Magic?

Is the gameplay smooth? Because the original was convuluted! To much... of everything!

If you compare the difference between Exile and Geneforge, it is that Geneforge is smooth.

What was innovative with BG is that it was smooth.

And Eschalon is like the posterchild for streamlining.

[sirdilznik]

* Did I mention that it really feels like old school Might & Magic?

Is the gameplay smooth? Because the original was convuluted! To much... of everything!

I never really felt the old school M&M games were convoluted, then again that was a long time ago when I was much younger, so who knows. Anyway, if feels smooth and definitely doesn't feel convoluted. The game play is actually pretty doggone simplistic, but in a good way, not in a shallow way, if that makes any sense.

If you compare the difference between Exile and Geneforge, it is that Geneforge is smooth.

That comparison doesn't do anything for me. I know it's heresy to write this here, but I could never get into Vogel's games. I've tried, I recognize they're good, but I can't enjoy them. I get bored super duper fast.

Anyway, I played the game for several hours yesterday (and will play a lot more today and over the weekend). This time I started up a game on Warrior (Hard) difficulty. During Early Access I played on Adventurer (Normal) difficulty. I can definitely attest to the fact that Warrior difficulty is significantly more challenging. I got killed by the boss in the starter tutorial dungeon on my first try. Early Access lulled me into a false sense of security as I steamrolled the boss so I didn't give the battle much thought and mostly tried to brute force the boss. Mistake. Playing on Warrior difficulty, and with the changes they've made to the game since Early Access, I got my ass handed to me. Second time I came better prepared (more antidote potions) and thought things through and defeated the beast. Good times.

I spent well over an hour designing my party during creation. I'm the type that will spend 15 minutes just thinking up a name. I finally settled on a party of Hunter, Defender, Shaman, and Freemage. Hunter for my main warrior damage dealer because they're almost as good with ranged weapons as melee and because when they upgrade to Marauder they can harpoon distant enemies and pull them into melee range (should be great for fighting archers and mages). Defender as my tank to draw aggro and absorb damage. Shaman because they're significantly more hearty than most other caster classes, are decent in melee (they're really more a hybrid class) and because they can grandmaster in arcane discipline which boosts magic resistances. Freemage because they're the most "pure" caster class, can cover all the schools of magic my Shaman can't cast, and because they can time stop when they upgrade to Archmage. On paper the party chemistry seems logical to me (bonus: no elves!), but only time will tell. So far so good.

[noname]

It's out! Today! Right now! I'm still stuck at work for a couple more hours, but once I get home I'm all over this little slice of goodness. I enjoyed what I played during Early Access, and now the full game is here. This is so surreal. I'm going to be playing an honest to goodness Might & Magic game, not a Heroes of Might & Magic, or Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, or Whatever Else of Might & Magic, but a game in the core series, and a turn-based one at that! A brand new Might & Magic game. In 2014!

Just tuned in: where did you get it? I want it too. What is the complete title of game?