Master of Magic HD Multiplayer Remake (by Implode)

[Blake00]

Hi guys,
 
Plenty of you probably already know about it (as I found some super old threads HERE and HERE ) but for those who don’t know or haven’t seen it in years I thought I’d spread the word on an awesome fan project that’s still going and has utterly blown me away.
 
Master of Magic – Implode’s Multiplayer Edition is a brilliant opensource Java MoM engine rebuild that is far more closer to completion then any other MoM fan remake I've seen! It supports larger maps, up to 14 players (either Human or AI), and any modern windows resolution like HD 4K etc. The author Implode intends to expand on the original MoM experience but with minimal changes to the core gameplay and graphics that we all love.
 
Implode the creator of MoM-IME has been working on this project for over 12yrs now and isn’t getting much support these days so if you’re a huge Master of Magic fan and you’ve dreamed of playing against 13 other wizards in massive slaughterfest over 2 giant worlds in high resolution then get yours butts over to the sourceforge page and try out the latest demo and offer your support!
 

 
I love the improved battle graphics eg how he’s done a LOTR-Weta workshop trick of grabbing a few guys and replicating them into larger groups. Makes you feel like your commanding large armies instead of little squads and big monsters who are upscaled and not replicated look much scarier now as they tower over the little armies! Also like the Civ style territory borders and how the game supports simultaneous turns like AoW which would be great for multiplayer games.
 
For anyone interested here’s a video I recorded of his game in 1080P (FYI it doesn’t go full screen until the map loads)...

Part 1 covers me exploring the starting an empire (fast forwarding through slow bits):

 

Part 2 covers me attacking some neighbours and starting a new game in the Myrran dark world:
https://youtu.be/gepiu3CfWOA?list=PLZqna...bIkFqjRBxQ

NOTE: This video was made with the 2015 WIP 0.9.6.3 release. There have been multiple releases since adding things such as treasure rewards and hero items. In late 2016 Implode started work on the much anticipated enemy wizard global AI (AI build cities & armies, casts spells etc) so I can’t wait for that! Battle AI is functional however so you can still have a fun monster/treasure hunting RPG style game in the current build.
 
Download latest demo build from:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/momime/

Old MoM-IME forum:
http://mom.pjj.cc/forum/index.php
 
If anyone's interested I also run a Master of Magic facebook group here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MasterOfMagicGame/
 
For more information on this and many other MoM related games & mods check out my MoM Legacy Games page here:
http://blakessanctum.x10.mx/Games/MoM/

[Seravy]

First time I hear about it, I thought all such projects are dead...looks at forum...huh, it's not very active.

" 2) You must have a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 8 or higher."
Okay, that means I can't even try it. Another game I'm playing and will continue so for a long term specifically requires java 7 or earlier. Too bad.
Did someone manage to make it work? Is it playable? Near complete? Or not at all? I wonder....I have a feeling if this was playable we'd have heard about it by now. It looks really weird in the video, all that tiny stuff on such a huge screen...

[Blake00]

First time I hear about it, I thought all such projects are dead...looks at forum...huh, it's not very active.

" 2) You must have a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 8 or higher."
Okay, that means I can't even try it. Another game I'm playing and will continue so for a long term specifically requires java 7 or earlier. Too bad.
Did someone manage to make it work? Is it playable? Near complete? Or not at all? I wonder....I have a feeling if this was playable we'd have heard about it by now. It looks really weird in the video, all that tiny stuff on such a huge screen...

Wow, I figured you'd know about it Seravy. Glad I posted this then as I half expected all the regulars here to say "tell us something we don't know" lol. There are some old threads in this forum from yeeears ago talking about it but they just seemed to be passing comments.

Yeah like I said Implode is not getting much support these days which really sucks. His forum was really active 5 or so yrs ago but it just died off despite him still continuing to work on the project and regularly releasing new versions.

Well obviously I made it work otherwise I wouldn't have been able to film the video haha, but admittedly that was an older version than the current one. I haven't tested that yet. But you can see in the video its very playable, I was able to build an empire and fight lots of battles. All races and wizards were fully available, most of the spells I belive are done too. Heroes and items are apparently all done now. Only thing really missing is Global AI. The AI will fight you in battles but does nothing on the map. You'll see in the forums that Implode posted only a few months ago that he's begun serious work on the AI now so hopefully in 2017 we'll get some releases with an AI that fights back!

That sucks that you won't be able to test his latest build due to the java issue. I'm sure Implode would greatly benefit from your skills, experience and feedback Seravy!

You'll notice that when the game starts I put the map to full screen and then hit a zoom key until everything was the size I wanted it to be. I have a 36" screen though so people on smaller screens would probably want to zoom in a bit more. Point is you can zoom to the exact range you want as we probably all have our own preferences.

[spottedshroom]

First time I hear about it, I thought all such projects are dead...looks at forum...huh, it's not very active.

" 2) You must have a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 8 or higher."
Okay, that means I can't even try it. Another game I'm playing and will continue so for a long term specifically requires java 7 or earlier. Too bad.
Did someone manage to make it work? Is it playable? Near complete? Or not at all? I wonder....I have a feeling if this was playable we'd have heard about it by now. It looks really weird in the video, all that tiny stuff on such a huge screen...

I'd expect someone who writes binary diffs for 20-year-old DOS binaries to be able to deal with multiple Java installs

[Nelphine]

Without looking, how customizable is implodes work? I absolutely love seravy's caster of magic, and while I firmly believe it holds to the spirit of the original there are obviously a huge number of AI, spell, and racial tweaks that are done, which I would rather import than use the original, or even something based on insecticide.

[Blake00]

Without looking, how customizable is implodes work? I absolutely love seravy's caster of magic, and while I firmly believe it holds to the spirit of the original there are obviously a huge number of AI, spell, and racial tweaks that are done, which I would rather import than use the original, or even something based on insecticide.

Well it's a custom rebuild of MoM in java so it's not like someone can just apply Seravy's patch to it lol. But if @Seravy and Implode got together and had a chat who knows what those 2 could achieve together.

---

Well I'm sorry to say that sadly not long after I posted this thread in 2016 Implode/Nigel went AWOL and stopped working on the project or posting in his forums (which have sadly stopped working too). Such a shame as after 12 years of work his project was looking far closer to completion then any other MoM fan remake. He had the 2 worlds, the battle AI, the races, the wizards, the buildings, the skills, the spells, the artifacts pretty much all working with only a few bugs and gaps here and there. Really the only big hurdle left before final bug testing and polishing was creating the global AI. A huge challenge yes but the last big challenge as all the other main aspects of this huge game were made. However I'm guessing due to the lack of help and support combined with all the usual real life stuff he finally had enough and walked away from it. Such a friggin shame..

There is still hope though as Implode has appeared in the activity log of the MoM-IME sourceforge page a couple of times in the 2.5 years since he vanished so he has obviously never truly forgotten or left it, however I've been unable to reach him over email or DMs. On the bright side his project is opensource and publicly available meaning anyone with a love for MoM and some Java skills could grab a copy and have a play with it. But of course that requires people to actually know about the project which sadly it appears most MoM fans still don't. So I've decided to make one more video touring his game as part of a Civilization & spinoffs (Col, MoM, CtP, AlphaC etc) how to play in HD video series I'm making at the moment. People can check out my new video talking about Implodes MoM project one last time here:



.

[Blake00]

WOAH!!! After years Implode has returned from his self imposed exile (think kungfu movie where the bad guy bests the good guy so the good guy climbs up a mountain and learns better kungfu with some old guy with a grey beard who never speaks and then the good guy comes back and kicks the bad guys ass lol) and released a new version of his HD Multiplayer remake of Master of Magic with for the first time FUNCTIONING AI!! This is the moment so many have been waiting for.. lets try it and give him some feedback!

Announcement: https://mom.pjj.cc/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9815

Download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/momime/files/

[Jtm]

WOAH!!! After years Implode has returned from his self imposed exile (think kungfu movie where the bad guy bests the good guy so the good guy climbs up a mountain and learns better kungfu with some old guy with a grey beard who never speaks and then the good guy comes back and kicks the bad guys ass lol) and released a new version of his HD Multiplayer remake of Master of Magic with for the first time FUNCTIONING AI!! This is the moment so many have been waiting for.. lets try it and give him some feedback!

Announcement: https://mom.pjj.cc/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9815

Download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/momime/files/

Thank you for the update! I tested it and it is quite impressive piece of work! I found it rather difficult to get Java 11 Runtime Environment (JRE 11) installed to my PC until I accidently found very good website offering OpenJDK installers (either JRE or JDK)! Go to https://adoptopenjdk.net and the JRE or JDK installers for Java 11 (or newer) to the most common platforms! JRE only installers are found here. Upon its installation, I think it is needed to tick checkbox for "Set JAVA_HOME variable" (and probably "JavaSoft (Oracle) registry keys" as well). (I did so just in case and Command Prompt's "java -version" test works now.)

[Blake00]

Thank you for the update! I tested it and it is quite impressive piece of work! I found it rather difficult to get Java 11 Runtime Environment (JRE 11) installed to my PC until I accidently found very good website offering OpenJDK installers (either JRE or JDK)! Go to https://adoptopenjdk.net and the JRE or JDK installers for Java 11 (or newer) to the most common platforms! JRE only installers are found here. Upon its installation, I think it is needed to tick checkbox for "Set JAVA_HOME variable" (and probably "JavaSoft (Oracle) registry keys" as well). (I did so just in case and Command Prompt's "java -version" test works now.)

And thanks to JTM's help Implode's latest releases come with Java included removing all the nasty setup problems people have been having!
https://sourceforge.net/projects/momime/files/

Implode's also been busy teaching his AI to build roads plus he's implemented player deaths and spell of returns. He kindly joined the MoM discord and has been giving us updates there which is nice!

[Blake00]

Wow! Many of us weren't sure if this day would come but Implode has just released the big version 1.0 of his Master of Magic IME HD Multiplayer rebuild which means pretty much all MoM features are replicated! From here onwards its just bug fixing and fine tuning/improving things! This is a great day for MoM fans!!! Visit the MoM-IME Sourceforge page to give it a try!
https://sourceforge.net/p/momime/

As a reminder here's an old tour video (I need to make a nice new one ASAP lol!)
https://youtu.be/7ook3GqkmL8?list=PLZqna...vYzg9tRBPY