What you like and don't like about the new master of magic release (2022) ?

[unicurse]

I heard on the grapevine that MuHa are not at all happy with how things have gone. I think it's a shame: it took some getting used to but I actually really like what they've done, at least with the aesthetics.

This was a losing game for them to play because it wasn't really clear who this game was being made for. The original fans are going to complain about any minor change from the old broken version they played back in the day, and a lot of people are complaining that it's not Caster or something in-between (I was closer to this second group).

I don't really play these games for graphics, and the UI in the original isn't a problem for me (some selection issues aside, I actually think it's a decent UI). MuHa's game is lacking in several areas, but I don't think they've done a bad job. They just had the impossible task of pleasing everybody and sounds like Slitherine didn't really give them much room for creativity.

Caster is the better game IMO, although playing the remake has given me an appreciation for why it is some people prefer v1.41 and that worthwhile in a educational way.

[WhiteMage]

I waited a year before giving this game an honest try. I went in with a neutral attitude, attention to detail, and a perfectionist, but realist mind set.

What I like:
1.       Hex based movement everywhere
2.       Trading formula with mana, items, and spells are being weighed by the AI and a single “fair” trade can be made with many items offered by both sides. Clear, elegant, interesting.
3.       Developers tried to stay true to the original MoM and not deviate too much.
4.       In game bug reporting feature that they receive and standardize. Although the probability that anyone will ever work on these is <5% in my estimation.
 
What I dislike. These are the actual bug and other reports I already submitted to them through their game’s built in bug reporting feature. I can easily find hundreds of more problems with that game.
1.       New Game setup Population growth  order: In New Game setup, it is not intuitive that Population growth  enemy town are not displayed in increasing order. It should be 1, 1.25, 1.5.No music during Wizard setup before the game lowers immersion and excitement.
2.       Add random choice in New game: Add random Wizard setup and random options in game setup, race, spells, colors, etc.
3.       Too few options in New game: Make new game more customizable. Caster of Magic for Windows has many ideas implemented.
4.       Spell descriptions are incomplete and unclear, such as Dispel Magic and Counter Magic exact formulas should be stated.
5.       In the View Army the special features, such as Large Shield are only displayed in graphics and not in text. This is not user friendly.
6.       Hex grid should be visible in the unexplored area: Without that Casting Earth Lore is inaccurate and annoying.
7.       Scrolling map should be allowed 6 directions: Scrolling map should be allowed 6 directions, not 4. And each individual press on the scroll button should move view by exactly 1 hex. That would allow calculating distances, planning moves, placing Earth Lore, etc.
8.       Land unit pathfinding find path through unexplored: This gives away the map and kills the idea and fun of exploration. This should not happen.
9.       Display unit production cost directly on the units. This includes existing units.
10.   It is wrong to display walking for Magic Spirit. They are noncorporeal. They don’t walk. Terrain does not apply to them. Use new icon.
11.   Surveyor should show town’s max pop, production, and gold income if hovered over. Currently it shows “"Road"” and “"Unsuitable town site"”.
12.   Casting earth Lore crashed game. Windows message came up: 'Application is not responding'.” It may be related to me using Alt+Tab to take the bug reports on the same computer in MS Word so it is saved on my computer locally.
13.   Display neutral defenders of explored nodes: Display neutral defenders of explored nodes and lairs by mouse hover over. Currently it requires individual click on each.
14.   Housing formula should be written on the Housing choice in Town view. Explain City Wall how it works. How much harder to hit? Etc.
15.   Display all unit features in queue: Display all unit features when being offered in construction queue: When a town selects a unit to build, it does not display all its features, such as Build Outpost for Settlers. These should be clearly display without clicking all around to search.
16.   In Surveyor mode text for Keep: In Surveyor mode, remove text, such as '“tile is occupied by another location' for Keep and other similar structures. Those can be cleared and are important to plan new towns there. Instead, display the prospected town income in food, prod, gold.
17.   Town view shield icon: In town view it is not clear what the little shield followed by 2 means after food and unrest on the left pane under the city’s name.
18.   Experience projections: Experience projections for what happens if a unit makes level should be displayed in detail on each unit.
19.   Extensive problems with English text: Too numerous to mention one by one.
20.   Breakdown of production: In town view the breakdown of production and gold income is not displayed. So I don’t know why I have the given total amount of gold or production income. It does not seem to add up. This is critical info.
21.   Spells not learned can be added to item: Why can so many spells the wizard does not know are available to be added to items in Create Artifact? I think only known spells should be available.
22.   Gold did not immediately update: When I bought settlers, the gold did not immediately update on top left. I had to make other move first to refresh graphics.
23.   Ladder buying should not be allowed. I bought settlers at 2x price, then I can buy City Wall at 2x price. But without this it would be 3x price. After buying something, lock it in and don’t allow change. Even better to impose penalty to change production anytime. That would be a strategy game. Now it is just hammer collection.
24.   Minimum distance 4 tiles is actually 5 tiles. Original mom minimum distance was 4 times, which is 1 less than in this game's so called 4 tiles. Fix text.
25.   Stag Beetle prerequisite display: When offering Stables to build in a city, it displays that it makes Stag Beetle available. But this is misleading, since it also requires Armory. Make display clear on this.
26.   Change 'tile is occupied by another location’ to ‘tile is occupied by another settlement’.
27.   Unclear battle video example: The video that shows how battle works during battle is not helpful. I watched it many times and I cannot understand the example. Its UI, view area, speed, etc. are all problematic. A text based step by step example would be far better. I know exactly how it worked in the original Master of Magic.
28.   Incomplete battle log: Battle log should state if my Confusion spell was successful or not. It shows 0 hearts that does not make sense.
29.   50 turns for a battle is too long. With the frequent stalling strategy of running in circles for a draw is very boring. I recommend lowering it 30 turns.
30.   Add free melee strike on units moving away: Add a free melee attack strike to a unit every time an enemy unit moves away from it. This would lower the stalling strategy of running in circles for the whole battle.
31.   I moved Magic spirit to North. It may be off map: A critical issue has been encountered. Further saves have been turned off to ensure previous, valid saves are not overwritten. Try using F8 to send us a bug report if you like. Please restart the application before continuing (older saves will not work properly if you do not restart). --- My guess: I moved my Magic spirit to the North. It may be off the edge.
32.   Farmers Market cannot be added to queue. But I am just about to complete Marketplace and I already have Granary. This is not user friendly.
33.   Remove ‘Melee Attack special feature and tex. Apparently all units have this. So far I saw over 40 different units including Melee attack=0 Settlers. It carries no meaningful information.
34.   AI personalities cannot be seen how the work. Add them.
35.   New hamnlet with -50 pop growth: My first Outpost grew to hamlet. It started with -50 pop growth. I had to manually change workers to Farmers. Default should be farmers. Required farmers to keep hamlet alive should not be allowed to be changed to workers. Reproduce by increasing tax to rebel then lower it.
36.   Cartographer terrain colors. Forest and grassland should have very different colors so user can see them clearly. All terrains should have very different colors. Currently very difficult to tell them apart.
37.   Arrow to select next unit to move should center on it: 37. When I finished moving Magic Spirit on world map I clicked the arrow to advance to the next unit. It advanced to select it but it did not change the view. It stayed on the previous magic spirit.
38.   Housing wastes production progress: Production progress is lost if Housing is put on the top of production queue and all other building and unit productions are removed from the queue. This should not happen. Not user friendly. Either give warning message or keep the production and lose it only after End Turn it pushed.
39.   AI Neutral sprites melee: Neutral sprites should not initiate melee against stronger melee only unit.
40.   Ripple of Magic icon: Random event Ripple of Magic is projected to last 5 turns. But I don’t see its icon displayed on the world map. It should be there.
41.   Road does not work in my Fortress city: Surveyor shows road for my own Fortress, but it takes 2 full moves to get into the town. Road does not work.
42.   No item from killed buffed hero?: Beastmaster with move 7, +5 Mana, Death, and Stoning was probably using an item. I killed it but did not get item. Is this a bug?
43.   Missing Fortress damage display: Fortress bolts did damage but the log did not display it.
44.   Spellbook navigation buttons don’t work well in battle. If I click some, then I cannot bring back the battle spells. I have to close the book to bring them back.
45.   Write formula on Fortress bolts icons: Write formula on Fortress bolts icons and everything.
46.   Guard command should not be cycled: Army that received Guard command should not be cycled through with the arrow in the list of armies. There should be a second button to find them specifically.
47.   Go to Unit button does not work properly: When a unit levels up there is a button: Go to Unit. But it does not go to the unit. Instead it goes to an army that has many similar units. So I don’t see which unit leveled up and the button does not do what it says.
48.   Army size displayed incorrectly: When I have 5 units in a stack and unselect one, then the number should change to 4. Currently the display does not change.
49.   No chance to cast spell if my only unit is webbed? If my only unit in combat is webbed my Wizard should still get a chance to cast spell every turn.
50.   Unit level icon displayed on Undead unit made by Ghoul. Remove it.
51.   Lucky text: Lucky text should state +10% to Hit, +10% to Defend instead or current text.
52.   Show base cost of all items in Create Artifact: I recommend displaying the base cost of all items during casting of Create Artifact: not only for Shield, Chainmail, and Platemail. Even if they do not offer benefit, they still have a cost. It took me a long time to figure out their base costs. It would help the users understand this spell.
53.   Update casting skill in worldmap if I hire casting hero: When I hired Beastmaster, half of its Casting skill was added to Wizard’s overland casting skill. But the graphics on the world map on the top center was not immediately updated.
54.   Display mana spent so far on spell: Exact mana already spent on spell so far over the past turns should be displayed. I can’t find it. Also display how many more mana needs to be spent.
55.   Wrong Enchant Item graphics: Enchant Item graphics is also showing the same number of turns and progress as the Create Artifact spell that I currently cast. This is wrong. These are different spells and Enchant Item should not make progress being cast in such case.
56.   Keep rounding errors under 1: Smooth out the cumulative production rounding errors. As I turn farmers to workers the increase in production is 6, 10, 8, 6. This is not user friendly. These increases should always be the same or at most off by 1. Currently, the user is motivated to flip them every turn to take advantage of these errors, which is boring and time consuming. Playing optimally should not require such actions.
57.   Wrong overland mana income predication: On the top of the screen. It ignores the multiturn Create Artefact spell which makes it negative instead of the projected positive.
58.   Hero in capital give skill casting of other battle: Hero’s spellbook cannot be navigated: All and battle spell buttons do not work when not in battle.
59.   Hero in capital contribute to skill casting of other battle? Is this intended? Hero in capital contribute to skill casting of other battle? Is this intended? If yes, then add this to 'Casting (5 Mana)' feature description of heroes.
60.   Ghoul unit needs more feature icon: No Heal: 60. Currently it is not stated and is surprising that it does not heal.
61.   Animation of Hell Hounds: On overland map on top of hills only shows their backs. They are displayed inside the hills.
62.   Battle melee is too chaotic during AI’s turn. Impossible to follow. It is too fast, the graphics hides most of the action due to being 3D, I can’t tell the units apart and who is striking who, the log is confusing and incomplete. In the original MOM the battle was clear.
63.   Hell Hounds were destroyed but not crossed: In battle, 3 AI units of Hell Hounds were destroyed but only 2 of those had the their images on the left crossed out. The third remained there showing 0% Health. To reproduce, in Turn 91 attack the 6 units AI army with my 8 units: Thief, Stag Bettle, 2 Ghouls, 4 Swordsmen.
64.   Skeletons on Chaos node cannot be seen by user: Red AI has 1 Skeletons on its Chaos Node. It is not visible on the overland map.
65.   Slow animation. During AI’s turn, the number 9 jumps first, then the 9 units army moves there slowly. Synch it.
66.   Display prospective battle icon on world map: If a selected army is next to an enemy and mouse hovers over it, then change the graphics to sword to indicate prospective battle.
67.   Some AI army does not have the number 9 over them. See next to my Magic Spirit. Why this inconsistency?
67a. More data on 67: I clicked The Surveyor Mode and hovered over the AI units without red number over them. This made the red numbers visible.
68.   Remove dead bodies: The dead bodies in battle look cool, but it makes it hard to see what units are still available to move. Add option to remove them.
69.   Add Wizard skill graph too. Important to know.
70.   Inconsistent display in battle - hover over unit: If I click a unit and hover over another it displays the second one on the left. But if I click on my unit that moved that turn then it does not work.
71.   It takes 2 clicks for army to accept move order: Sometimes
72.   Where are the racial tensions written? This should be available in the game by clicking on the race. This is critical to determine rebels.
73.   Mark known enemy capitals on the Cartographer map: Put an x inside those hexes and make them flash.
74.   How to calculate the number of rebels in town? I can’t find the formula.
75.   Add hotkeys to cycle through all cities. Default should be arrow key left and right.
76.   Hero making level and contributing to Wizard’s casting: It should only happen a turn later. Not in current turn, because this way the predication is wrong and surprising results happen. Also encourages micromanagement.
77.   Battle prediction by Familiar is way off: Against Chaos Node defending neutrals (1 Gargoyles, 2 Fire Elementals, 2 Hell Hounds) it gave 100% Win Negligible losses without spells on. With spells on it is only 70%. How can my spells possible make the outcome worse? The enemy cannot cast spell.
78.   How to end my turn? I can’t find it. It forces me to cycle through my units first and I already moved them all.
79.   Remove unit flags in battle: In battle the colored flag on an individual unit reach into the hex above largely hiding that hex and makes the battlefield hard to view/understand. Change the flag to stay in its corresponding hex it applies to. Do not go outside of its boundaries. Even better, remove the flags and make the unit ownerships clear by simple sharp color contrast. At least as an option.
80.   Make world map on bottom right respond to clicking: Make world map on bottom right respond to clicking to help navigate the map faster.
81.   Make the main world map respond to clicking: Make the main world map respond to clicking to help navigate the map faster.
82.   Display all hexes selected unit can reach in battle. Selected unit’s area of reach should show all hexes that it can reach including those that are occupied by friendly or enemy units. Selected unit’s area of reach should show all hexes that it can reach including those that are occupied by friendly or enemy units. Currently I need to count the steps and look at the terrains if they can reach it or not.
83.   Bad quest: Defeat clan: I received quest: I received quest: “Defeat rival nomad clan to prove my leadership to my Nomad citizens”. But it did not clarify what this means. How much time I have to do this? What army I have to defeat? With exactly what army? Where? Etc. This quest also came at a very bad time exactly after my huge fight losing most of my army and the rest being at 1-2HP. I also need to see first where the enemy units are if I can afford to lose some units. This quest is presented to the user is very poorly.
84.   Wrong decreased unrest display after beating clan: After I defeated clan for quest, it showed that I will have decreased unrest percentage in 2 out of 3 of my Nomad cities. But it only decreased it in 1.
84a. More data on 84. Saving the game, quitting and loading fixed the Wrong decreased unrest display after beating clan.
85.   Double my mana by casting Create Artefact and smashing. Smash artefact gives 925 mana. But I made it for only 462 as Artificer and Runemaster. So I double my mana every time I cast this spell?
86.   Overpowered heroes and artefacts. A level 4 hero with 1 artefact alone defeats scores of Berserkers, War Bears, etc. without getting scratched.
87.   Slow performance. It often takes over 5 seconds to respond to my move order. Other clicks are also slow.
88.   Mana spent on world map is wrong. The displayed numbers do not add up. With the Skills added by heroes, not the correct amount is subtracted.
89.   Unwanted units must enter battle. When I attack out from a city I selected the units I want to attack with, but it forces my to use all my units to into battle.
90.   Don’t auto merge units on world map. When 2 units meet on world map, don’t automatically merge them, don't stop the movement of the unit that moved last, and don’t take it out of the Move queue.
91.   Unit didn't go to target hex as ordered on straightline. I gave magic spirit order to move to Chaos Node 2 hexes down. But instead it moved 1 hex down then sideways. My other magic spirit was between them. That prevented the pathfinder from finding the straight line.
92.   Sometimes left, sometimes right click to give order. Stay consistent. Confusing now.
93.   Unit does not move. After I gave move order to a unit on the world map, the unit placed the target flag where to walk then it refused to walk there. Game is not hanging or frozen. Other units move fine. See Spearman on North East. Now it cannot be clicked.
93a. More data on 93. Next turn that unit moved to the previous turn’s target then it moved further exceeding its movement point limit. This indicates probably graphics problem.
94.   Empty hexes on Keep are blocked: In attacking a keep, there were several clear hexes near the keep but I was not allowed to step on them.
95.   Add gold income when selecting settler & Surveyor mode: It was there in the original MoM and it would be useful.
96.   New unit built should be cycled to move: It should not be guarding by default. Too easy to forget about them.
97.   AI weakness: Master AI’s Fire Bolt spell should be on hero not swordsmen
98.   AI weakness: Single hill hex can be exploited in battle. Fire Elemental walks around it never reaching my Klackon Swordsmen. Make AI step on hill.
99.   AI exploit: Move Magic Spirit on and off the edge of islands to lure large AI stacks and waste their resources.
100.                       AI exploit: Drain AI mana by repeat attacks on its unit over node.
101.                       Master AI pumping waves of spearmen against my hero and Stag Beetle army.
102.                       9 AI Triremes, but no opposition to them. Wasteful. Meanwhile loses 2 wars on land and lost 4 out of its 10 cities in <30 turns just pumping Spearmen, Triremes and Hell Hounds.
103.                       AI with 2 Triremes and 7 ground units is just moving back and forth on my coast without landing for many turns. AI not willing to unload any land unit on my island even though it could take my city.
104.                       AI casts long list of useless spells. Resist Elements, Bless, etc. on a few Spearmen when they face multiple Stag Beetles.

[COM23]

This is a fascinating review given the beta build already fixs a lot of the stuff mentioned eg #1, #2 #20 etc.

They also sitting on a big AI improvement patch.

Seriously this should be released during its one year anniversary a few days ago

[COM23]

On a larger scale, looking at these reviews I am happy.

Pretty much everything mentioned are minor details or nitpicks that can be easily fixed some even by Moddershall.Heck a lot are already fixed in the beta!

If these are the best objections to the game by diehard CoM fans , the remake has succeeded fundamentally with further improvements

[COM23]

 and Halflings being able to crush the other races so easily is really immersion breaking for me somehow.

I thought Halflings were OP in the original anyway? How did they change Halflings in the remake to make them more OP?

It wasn't. In fact while the remake is mostly following 1.31 they nerfed lucky like 1.5.

They also gave all normal ranged units +1 ranged except Slingers like CoM

[COM23]

Maybe the MoM2022 team will connect with Seravy and talk about balance and modding and someone will take them aside and whisper in their ear that Myrror isn't supposed to be so dark you can't see where the fog of war ends and in the end they willl get married and have a 2034 MoM baby with it all.

Sadly that's never going to happen. 

BTW there's a setting now to make the planes less dark

[COM23]

Any bugs in the new release will probably be fixed with time. I'm not surprised or disturbed by some being present, as I think the team had either a set date or budget they had to work within. And as Seravy has shown over the years, polishing the balance and difficulty is something that takes a lot more time to accomplish.

What I like about the game is that it looks like it has a more solid foundation than the endless line of attempted copies that came out over the years. Stuff like Warlock - Master of the Arcane or the various Stardock disasters that were obviously unsalvageable from day one. I wouldn't say that about the new MoM, it definitely has potential, in large part because they planned for modders.

I think a year on, this is on the spot on right take.

My worry was given all the criticism as much as from its own issues as from CoM and other 4x fantasy franchise fans eg AOW who realistically would never give the game a chance on its own merits,  they might just abandon the game.

1 year down the road we know this did not happen, numerous massive patches to improve quality of life,  free DLC and content plus 2 paid DLCs, and they still working on it.

CoM diehards will never prefer it over MoM remake but that was always expected

[WhiteMage]

On a larger scale, looking at these reviews I am happy.

Pretty much everything mentioned are minor details or nitpicks that can be easily fixed some even by Moddershall.Heck a lot are already fixed in the beta!

If these are the best objections to the game by diehard CoM fans , the remake has succeeded fundamentally with further improvements

To me these are not nitpicks. These are major flaws that make their tested version unplayable for me.

Also, these are not my biggest problems with the game. These are just the first 104 problems after my first 92 hours of game play. The game reached a point that I no longer see reason to waste my time on that version.

I agree that while almost all other 4X TBS games are unfixable, this is a rare 4X TBS game that appears to be fixable, although only theoretically. In reality most likely it will not be fixed by anyone it in the next 30 years to a barely playable level.

I am not happy with what they have done so far. As it stands it is a major failure with a very low probability to bring it up even to the level of MOM 1.31, let alone to the current COM II level.

Also, they brought additional shame and disappointment for both MOM and for 4X TBS. Both new and seasoned players are not likely to benefit from this version.

[COM23]

On a larger scale, looking at these reviews I am happy.

Pretty much everything mentioned are minor details or nitpicks that can be easily fixed some even by Moddershall.Heck a lot are already fixed in the beta!

If these are the best objections to the game by diehard CoM fans , the remake has succeeded fundamentally with further improvements

To me these are not nitpicks. These are major flaws that make their tested version unplayable for me.

Also, these are not my biggest problems with the game. These are just the first 104 problems after my first 92 hours of game play. The game reached a point that I no longer see reason to waste my time on that version.

I agree that while almost all other 4X TBS games are unfixable, this is a rare 4X TBS game that appears to be fixable, although only theoretically. In reality most likely it will not be fixed by anyone it in the next 30 years to a barely playable level.

I am not happy with what they have done so far. As it stands it is a major failure with a very low probability to bring it up even to the level of MOM 1.31, let alone to the current COM II level.

Also, they brought additional shame and disappointment for both MOM and for 4X TBS. Both new and seasoned players are not likely to benefit from this version.

Please do not think you speak for everyone. CoM diehards are a small minority vocal camp. You guys are mostly bitter the remake isn't using CoM as a base and despite that this is the best you can say against it? Lol

The remake is doing very well and Sitherine even announced the sales of the base game and last DLC topped a past steam sale by revenue AND units. 

If you go outside your echo chamber and see what people are saying you will realise the Remake is catching on despite attempts by people like you to damage the IP

[WhiteMage]

On a larger scale, looking at these reviews I am happy.

Pretty much everything mentioned are minor details or nitpicks that can be easily fixed some even by Moddershall.Heck a lot are already fixed in the beta!

If these are the best objections to the game by diehard CoM fans , the remake has succeeded fundamentally with further improvements

To me these are not nitpicks. These are major flaws that make their tested version unplayable for me.

Also, these are not my biggest problems with the game. These are just the first 104 problems after my first 92 hours of game play. The game reached a point that I no longer see reason to waste my time on that version.

I agree that while almost all other 4X TBS games are unfixable, this is a rare 4X TBS game that appears to be fixable, although only theoretically. In reality most likely it will not be fixed by anyone it in the next 30 years to a barely playable level.

I am not happy with what they have done so far. As it stands it is a major failure with a very low probability to bring it up even to the level of MOM 1.31, let alone to the current COM II level.

Also, they brought additional shame and disappointment for both MOM and for 4X TBS. Both new and seasoned players are not likely to benefit from this version.

Please do not think you speak for everyone. CoM diehards are a small minority vocal camp. You guys are mostly bitter the remake isn't using CoM as a base and despite that this is the best you can say against it? Lol

The remake is doing very well and Sitherine even announced the sales of the base game and last DLC topped a past steam sale by revenue AND units. 

If you go outside your echo chamber and see what people are saying you will realise the Remake is catching on despite attempts by people like you to damage the IP

I never said or thought that I speak for everyone. Quite the opposite. Also, I stated about 5% of my opinion so far on this topic. 
I did not compare the new MOM to COM II. I evaluated it on its own merits.

I just spent a large part of my life playing, evaluating, developing, and publishing games; also on scientific materials like research, peer reviews, publishing, books, grant proposals, journal articles, etc. 

What I see is a mixture of good and bad everywhere. As a scientist, I believe in free speech, data-based opinions, an open mind, probabilities, quantum thinking, constructive criticism, perfection, and dedication to the truth even if I am alone against everyone else, which comes up quite often. 

I am not bitter. I am just both unhappy and happy in the same time based on the large amount of data I processed. The truth and science are not a democracy. I refuse to be intimidated into submission. Just because the majority has an opinion, I am not required to agree with it. I am not required to keep silent.

On a side note, I am not  die hard for COM II. COM II has numerous problems and is far from my desires, far from perfection. But overall, I perceive it as the best game ever made up to now.

Also, I was not speaking against the new MOM. I just stated my review, the same way as I do for journal reviews, book reviews, grant proposal reviews, and in promotion reviews of other professors when I need to write their evaluations. Good and bad are all there then I pass it up for someone else to aggregate my review with other reviews.

Among other things one of my missions in my life is to create the best game possible or die trying.

Also, please don't wrap me together with other so called COM diehards.  I am very different from the others here in many aspects including my opinions.

To me a game's value is not based on how much money they make with it. Greed is exactly the main reason why we have never seen any excellent game developed, at least in the 4X TBS genre. Excellent game would take knowledge, passion, stamina, domain expertise, coding expertise, and more than a just a 1 person effort. Not the capitalist view they push down on our throat over and over how to make the most money with the least effort and how to destroy the source code when the company goes bankrupt, and how to resell the same thing over and over again with different packaging, that we have seen so many times before.

Also, I have no echo chamber. No one echoed me and I echo no one, unless in rare cases it is scientifically justified and even then I provide data to back up my stated opinions.

Maybe I should ask my $40 back for this new MOM, since it does not even worth $1. But I decided not to do that, since I am very well aware about the huge challenges and difficulties it takes to develop an excellent 4X TBS game. For their effort, I respect the Polish team that developed this new MOM. And I am happy to support them financially. If I would see more than just effort, I may even offer them a few hundred thousand dollars like I offered before to other similar game developers...