Is CoM beginner unfriendly?

[Anskiy]

So I introduced my friend to this game a fair while back. He bought it recently and played it today.

Within the span of two games, he quit in disgust.

He played on Normal difficulty, where he spent three armies to take an Earth Elemental node. He found himself constantly getting confused by the interface and controls, and was put off greatly by how weak his starting units were. And, were I not there helping him, I'm sure he'd have had a much worse time.

So I have to ask - is this game unapproachable to beginners? It's not like he didn't have any experience with the 4x genre or something like that, in fact he's an avowed fan of Age of Wonder 2, one of MoM's most popular clones, and yet he bounced off this. That seems indicative of deeper problems in the product to me, though perhaps he might have appreciated it more if he had familiarity with the original.

[Suppanut]

Play CoM blind is similar to play Elden Ring with up difficulty mod blind without prior experience of any game from Fromsoft. Yes, it is not newbie friendly, at least much less friendly than unmodded Master of Magic. Game also suffers from outdated game interface too. Units in Master of Magic is closer to tabletop RPG design than later generation strategy game that design is much more streamline. And game also not shy on thrown you in area with nearby mid-boss without warn new player anything about level of threat they are about to face.

Only other strategy game I know that thrown starting units in area with apex predator you could not beat are Master of Orion and Stellaris. What player need to learn is that it is not shame to retreat when you could not win, they could back to visit it much later to have their revenge.

[WingsofMemory]

I'd say it's mostly beginner unfriendly.

I grew up with Master of Orion in the 90s, but never knew of or played Master of Magic until the 2010s.

It mostly plays like a much harder and unforgiving Civ 1/2 until you get some strategies going. But also an infinitely better and more fun one.

Anyone that I've tried to get play Master of Magic had a really tough time with it, and rage-quits/hates it. Having to get them to try Caster of Magic after and they say it is easier then the base game, but still hard.

[Desertfox]

There are four ways to learn a game on your own: (1) read the manual (2) do an in-game tutorial (3) watch a YouTube tutorial video 4) have the game made so that the interface and tooltips tell you everything you need to know.
MoM was made in an era where only (1) was available. And I don't know of any CoM absolute beginner tutorial videos.
Nowadays, people just aren't used to reading a whole manual before starting to play.

[GMBarak]

If you are not familiar with the game mechanics, what counters what etc..., This game is absolutely brutal and will be very frustrating for absolute beginners.
I used to win in classic Master of Magic impossible difficulty with just making the best artifacts and sending out the heroes, but when I tried in in this game I got smashed even at mid level difficulties, this CoM made me actually learn every small mechanic and use combat simulator to be able to win the hardest difficulties.

[WhiteMage]

In my opinion, the music and the graphics are the biggest reasons nowadays why new people would not be able to accept this game. Other reasons are the high complexity, slow pace, and the many unexpected ways to lose a game.

[Desertfox]

I agree that the main MoM tune sucks. It is repetitive and annoying, constantly restarts, and it is even worse at 200% video speed, which I watch most let's play videos with. I've even stopped watching certain let's play videos just because the music was too loud to mentally block out.

[Seravy]

I'd say there is one thing you should explain to new players which we as veterans expect but might not be intuitive to anyone else :

Lairs, nodes and similar places are generated at the start of the game for the entire game, including endgame tier places the player has zero chance of beating for a very long time. It's strongly recommended to play the first few games with the option that estimates battle outcome until the player learns which monsters are which tier of difficulty. (this might even be a mandatory option on lower difficulty levels I\m not sure)
As far as I remember, locations like these in other games are all super easy and get cleared in the early game. MoM and CoM are unusal in that regard.

Mostly, it really isn't recommended to play "Normal" on a first time playthrough. That's what "Beginner" and "Easy" difficulties are for.

One thing that doesn't make the game beginner friendly is the extensive "lexical" knowledge required. Plenty of monster types, races, and spells in there and it's necessary to know a lot of this information to play well against enemies who utilize them. This is the main reason why "Normal" is not good for beginners, you're expected to already know a decent amount of this information to do well against the AI on an equal footing.

I think it can even be extrapolated to strategy gaming in general : The more complex a game is, the better it is for long term play and replayability but also less beginner friendly and takes more effort to pick it up.

However at the end of the day, CoM is a game that was primarily made for players who found MoM too easy which explains why "Normal" is definitely too difficulty for a new player. While it did fix quite a few "traps" that made original MoM beginner unfriendly (such as massively weaker or stronger races and spell realms), the overall difficulty also went up as the AI is a lot more competent at playing the game, and improved game balance means the player is less likely to run into a gamebreaking powerful strategy just as they're less likely to run into a critically underpowered setup.

[Desertfox]

MoM was made in an era when people were used to reading lengthy manuals before starting to play a game. Later, people got used to tutorials, in-game wikis, and right-click information menus in strategy games. While CoM does have some right-click information menus, their implementation is far from everywhere.