Get the first details on this grand strategy game from lead designer Carlos Gustavo.
Magna Mundi will be a new grand strategy game developed by some of the most dedicated hobbyist fans of Europa Universalis--specifically, the creators of the Magna Mundi modification for Europa Universalis III. But this new game won't be a mod. It'll be a fully stand-alone game that will model nearly four full centuries of history and let you lead one of 400-plus different nations as you struggle to emerge from medieval times to become a 19th-century world power. While Europa Universalis III was already a huge grand strategy game, the developers of Magna Mundi intend to make something even huger. Lead designer Carlos Gustavo explains.
GameSpot: Give us an overview of Magna Mundi. The game sounds absolutely enormous.
Carlos Gustavo: Yes, as the name implies, it is a real-time grand strategy game where the scope is the entire world. We definitely don't lack ambition.
What we have to offer that was never offered before is a narrative over the strategy layer of the game that makes each game different, yet plausible.
This is achieved by coding what we call "dynamic historical processes," where the final results are a consequence of the actions of players and of the artificial intelligence. This is experienced through a dynamic narrative that is built by the choices the player and the AI make, always conditioned by the ever-changing situation of the world.
In the end, players will be immersed in a reality that they can influence but never control. And the results of the story that unfolds will make sense when looking at the big picture of what happened in the world.
GS: We understand that the game will let you play just about any ancient nation and put the country through its historical paces, so to speak. How will major historical events affect each nation in the game? How will players be able to participate in, or affect the outcome of, the Thirty Years' War or the Protestant Reformation, for instance?
CG: First and foremost, major historical events will not be forced into the game. This is part of the dynamic historical processes system.
For instance, with the Reformation, we do know that ecclesiastical Europe by the end of the 15th century faced charges of corruption and general malpractices. But in the game, we don't know how the situation will evolve from there. A revolt will probably start somewhere, and obviously it will start in a place where free thinking and individual rights are encouraged. So, we may end up with a Reformation that starts earlier and ends in Stockholm, for instance. Or you may end up with a much later Reformation, since societies in Europe didn't immediately adopt those ideas for some reason, or because the Papal States tried to curb the corruption, or because destiny simply made it last longer until the brewing discontent produced some shattering results. The same goes for the Thirty Years' War. We have it all covered in the mechanics; we just can't promise it will live up to its name. It can be 30 years or 20 or 40…or it might not even happen. One thing I can assure you: If it does happen, the reasons why will be plausible.
This brings us to how the players can participate in these events. For example, with Reformation, the first thing players need to consider is whether changing their state religion is a good idea or not. This is because provinces can switch sides one by one, and ruling a country with a certain state religion while all its provinces subscribe to another is not the best course of action. However, there is more at stake here, because changing religion may require players to forfeit all the political and diplomatic structures to which they belong. Alliances and papal relations might be finished. Royal marriages may become worthless.
I'll give you a small example at the onset of this historical process: Suppose we are in the late 15th century and you receive a notice that Renaissance ideals are spreading to one of your provinces. You can elect to allow it or fight it. Overall, it's a good thing to have in a province. However, it will also increase the chance of this province to harbor free thinkers who wish to reform the church. Even worse (or better, as the case may be), Renaissance ideals may start to spread to other provinces in your realm, increasing such discontent. This means that you may end up with provinces that later will cause trouble and switch sides automatically. Of course, you may think, "What's the problem? With enough provinces switched, I'll just switch my state religion again." Unfortunately for you, but fortunately for the sake of gameplay, this process isn't so easy, because again, changing your empire's state religion will destroy the diplomatic status quo of your country. In addition, you must consider how such a move could cause a very significant period of instability in the country. And finally, if you decide to switch your state religion but your powerful neighbors subscribe to a different religion, they might very well take it upon themselves as a "war aim" to either convert your nation back to your previous religion or at least snatch away a few of your provinces that still worship in the old ways.
In the end, what starts as a seemingly innocent event may lead to significant and dramatic dilemmas later on. No path picked is the correct or incorrect one. Like in life, you must accept the cards destiny places in your hands, and then your responsibility is to make the best out of them. This is what Magna Mundi is all about.
GS: We understand that naval combat will be a big part of the game. Tell us how the team intends for naval warfare to work. How will it change over the course of Magna Mundi's 300-year-plus time span?
CG: Naval warfare will be based on two concepts: infrastructure and naval assets. Both are used to bring the concept of "power projection" to the game.
In terms of infrastructure, you must have naval bases to support the size of your fleets. Otherwise, you'll be at a very significant disadvantage. This limit leads to very interesting strategies where, for instance, in order to project power in a far-away land, you must have bases close to that spot or at least have a valuable diplomatic arrangement with a nearby nation to use that country's ports.
In terms of naval assets, there will be four classes of ships that suit different play styles, geographic conditions, and different outlooks for each country. These four classes have different ship types (ranging from uscieres to ironclads) that a country can build depending on its level of naval knowledge.
The meat of naval warfare will be determined by our naval system, which focuses on four key factors: movement, detection, combat, and conclusion. Within these four phases, elements such as strategic initiative (which side spots the other first), wind gauge (which navy has a better position in relation to the wind), admiral statistics (which include seniority, ratings, and personal traits), and luck all play a role. As examples, a battle may never begin because both sides missed each other (which happens a lot with smaller fleets on both sides--and you won't know it happened since you won't be warned of the presence of the enemy fleet in such a situation), or it can be relatively tidy because the commanding admiral of one side who has a personal trait of "coward" may run early in the battle. Then again, it may be a costly battle if two "courageous" admirals fight with each other until the bitter end.
In terms of how naval combat evolves with the timeline, you could say that in later years of in-game history, the number of cannons on each vessel becomes more important. Naval combat will eventually be less about ramming and boarding and more about firepower. As you increase your naval knowledge, you will become a more-competent war admiral with better ships, more discipline, and more morale.
GS: Aside from fighting wars, we understand that the game will have other things to offer, such as a deep economic layer. Tell us about the economic game and how it will (if at all) be influenced by real-world events like the naval trade dominance of Spain and Portugal. Also, how will economics change as time passes in the game?
CG: Indeed, warfare is just one of many paths to power in Magna Mundi. At the beginning of the game, your nation's economy will be primarily based on taxes levied from the population. Trade, colonial tariffs, and production will become the main source of your income as time passes and new technology appears. The dominance of Portugal and Spain over trade during the first part of the game is probable but not assured. So, again, we are not going to force "real-world events" on the game flow. They happen if the right conditions are in place--which, in the case of Spain and Portugal's naval dominance, is not a certainty by 1453 (the year the game starts).
In order to make your economy flourish, you need to invest in your provincial infrastructure. You need to carefully plan where to establish your merchant houses, how to distribute the money that flows through your economy to please your nation's factions, and whether adding surplus to your treasury is a good idea. You also have access to all sorts of shortcuts, like corruption, where you can trade short-term gains for longer-term penalties.
GS: Religion is an important part of world history but can seem like a very difficult feature to implement in a game. Tell us about Magna Mundi's religion system.
CG: With so many different religions, you can bet the system is all-encompassing and detailed. I'll just provide a glimpse over what is already implemented:
You have a state religion, but your provinces may subscribe to other religions. There can be minorities of other religions in a province due to economic, political, or social factors that can change over time. Of course, you can also play a role in this change. You can try to convert people to your state religion, which means actively using missionaries in your provinces. Or, you can try to win them over slowly by pursuing high-tolerance policies, or you can pursue a callous policy of expelling and pursuing religious minorities. If your country has a high enough "religious fervor" rating, you can set as a war aim to convert another country or just to conquer some provinces from your neighbor that happen to share your religion…there's a lot you can do. Just be prepared for the consequences of your acts, knowing that no path is perfect. In Magna Mundi, you can only pick the less imperfect path for a given situation.
GS: Give us an overview of the game's "national ethos" system. Is it a system of bonuses and penalties that would, for instance, grant advantages to a nation acting in accordance with its ethos and create problems for nations acting outside their ethos?
CG: The national ethos system is what defines the basic values of a country. A country with a particular ethos set will have many different capabilities than another one with a different set.
Most countries start with three national ethos selections that reflect their core ideals at the time of the game's start. Now, if you pick a trade-related ethos later on, you can try to monopolize trade someplace, something not possible without at least one trade-related national ethos. However, if you bypass it, but pick an army-related ethos, you can now enjoy bigger corps for your army, thus enabling a general with the same strategic rating to field more men under his command. Then, there's the concept of specialization. This means that if you get to a third trade-related ethos, you can corner a bigger share of the market than with just the first trade-related ethos. The same goes with army-related selections, where picking a third ethos will let you get even bigger corps. Keep in mind that each national ethos gives very particular bonuses related to its subject. For instance, you can expect the "commerce raiders" ethos to give bonuses to piracy and asymmetrical naval warfare.
Of course, there are limits on making national ethos selections for your nation, but they will be major decision points for players to plan their grand strategy over the decades (or centuries). All in all, your national ethos selections will be the defining elements of your empire.
GS: We understand you've put a lot of effort into creating a realistic map of the world. Please explain why this is an important part of the game.
CG: We had the opportunity to make a very accurate map since we have team members with technical knowledge of satellite data and its treatment at several levels.
This gave us the chance to better immerse players into the reality of the world in the 15th century. We are here to create a living, breathing world where players feel like they're involved with history in the making, one day at a time--history they can influence but never control. Also, since this is a strategy game where you spend a lot of time looking at the map, this approach seemed like the sensible thing to do.
GS: Finally, is there anything else you'd like to add about the game?
CG: Absolutely. This interview so far seems to have focused on Europe, but in Magna Mundi, you have the whole world to play--nations across the globe with different cultures, religions, strategic situations, and contextual gameplay. Let me give you some examples.
If you pick the Golden Horde, your challenges will be measured by whom you will raid next, if you want to continue to live a nomadic life (or if you decide to settle), the loyalty of the local provincial chieftains to you, and so on.
This is not possible if you play Portugal, for example. With Portugal, your challenges lie in claiming the geographic ticket to the colonial lottery fate placed at your doorstep and then managing your overseas operations and trying to find the manpower to claim as much of the New World as you can without overextending yourself.
If you pick a country in North Africa, you'll be faced with the necessity of modernizing to keep up in the technological race with your northern European neighbors, but you will be tempted by the safety of clinging to the old ways, as modernization is a radical process that is very costly on many levels. And yes, like everything else, modernization may be the wrong option, if picked at the wrong time.
Finally, suppose you pick the Aztecs…well, with the Aztecs you are going to be playing against the clock, since you know that sooner or later, someone will be knocking at your door. And in this case, hoping for the best isn't an option. It's only about preparing for the worst.
GS: Thank you.
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