Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim

Ardania has seen many great kings that fought unspeakable evil and managed to bring real peace. Sadly, this also meant for the last king that he didn't have anything to fight and would never be able to be remembered as a hero. To prevent that from happening, he summoned all the great wizards in the country to search in hell for a worthy adversary - and boy did he get one. The most powerful demon the land has ever seen emerges from the portal, kills the king and takes over the throne himself. So much for creating a legacy. Now it's up to the player to finish the job and bring peace to Ardania once more.

Heroes and Rewards

As its predecessor Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim, the game is a real-time strategy game set in a fantasy world but with a twist: the player cannot control units (heroes) directly. The player can however, assign flags with a reward, in hopes that heroes will be interested enough to fulfill the task. So if the player wants to take out an enemy castle, the player needs to plant an attack flag on the target with bounty (e.g. 100 gold). Heroes are acquired by hiring them from their designated guilds. Hero classes consist of (by order of appearance): rangers, clerics, warriors, rogues, dwarves, and elves. Heroes will gain experience and level up by killing enemies. The higher the level of the hero, the better equipment, skills, and spells, the hero can attain. Experienced heroes however, also require more expensive bounties for them to be interested.

Buildings and Economy

The player creates buildings by placing a desired building on a free plot of land. Peasants will then attempt to reach the building and complete its construction (unless they die while doing so). Peasant houses are constructed automatically and are placed randomly within the boundaries of the player's keep. As more buildings are placed by the player, more peasant houses will emerge, as well as sewers which will continuously generate rats and ratmen that attack the player's units and buildings. A graveyard will emerge when a hero dies.

Gold acquired by heroes, either from defeating and looting monsters, or completing tasks, will be used to purchase or upgrade their equipment (weapons, armor, potions, etc.) at designated buildings built by the player. Heroes must also contribute a portion of their wealth (income tax) to their designated guilds. These profits will be collected by a taxpayer and delivered to the player's keep or the nearest guard tower (assuming he makes it there safely). Taxes are also collected from peasant houses, which serves as the primary income at the start of a new scenario.

Each building may also be upgraded to enable the player to access unique abilities of that structure. Guilds allow the player research and increase new skills for heroes, as well as spells which may also be used by the player (e.g. healing spell). Other upgrades allow the player to research new equipment, items, and access to additional buildings.

New Features

Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim offers new additional features than that of its predecessor, among others:

• Lords

After successfully completing each scenario, the player may opt to bring one of the heroes along permanently in other scenarios. This hero is promoted into a lord and retains experience levels, spells, skills, and all equipment previously obtain. To recruit lords, the player must first build the House of Lords and may recruit up to three lords per scenario. Experienced lords however, are also expensive to recruit.

• Trading Outposts

Trading outposts when built at specified locations, after a time will send out caravans to the marketplace. The longer the distance, the higher the gold sent per caravan.

• Resurrections

Graveyards, other than spawning the undead, may now be used to resurrect dead heroes for a price equivalent to the heroes' experience level. The player must however, wait for a few minutes after a heroes' death before the resurrection may be purchased.

• Parties

In later scenarios, the player may opt to build and upgrade inns. Here, when researched, heroes will gather when the player wants to create a party. A party may consist of up to four heroes travelling in a group. The parties' AI however remain to that of the selected leader.

• Temples and Class Promotions

Also in later scenarios, the player may build specific temples on holy sites. Temples allow access to two different branches of the basic hero class (cleric, ranger, warrior). Promoting a hero to a specialized class will cost gold and the hero will lose all previous equipment, exchanged with gold to buy new equipment. Other hero classes (rogue, wizard, elf, dwarf) do not provide upgrades to specialized classes.

• Kingdom Artifacts

Some scenarios when completed, award the player with powerful artifacts. These artifacts may later used in scenarios for a desired effect in a limited time frame, each of which may only be used once per scenario.