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LurkerPrime · Apr 17, 2015

Triumph has outlined their plans for the next couple months:

Short Term (1-7 days) Were fixing any show stopping bugs, issues like a reported launcher incompatibility problem on certain Mac OSX installs.

Mid Term (1-2 weeks) Fix any obvious balance issues and the more obscure bugs

Long Term (4-8 weeks) Post launch balance update. After an influx of new users and more mileage on the expansion, were analyzing how the all the V1.5 and Eternal Lords gameflow plays out in both single and multiplayer, and will make changes accordingly.

Deified Data said:
If there's one thing about this game I still don't care for it's roaming independent mobs that spawn from nowhere. I don't mind the ones that spawn from dens because there's something you can do about them, but the ones that spawn from the edge of the map make it so I don't even bother capturing things anymore that I can't spare 3 or so units on for defense. I need to start reducing their occurance when I play random maps.

Eh, it's a mechanic similar to Civilization's barbarian stuff. I think it's meant to keep everyone from becoming complacent about their defenses; it makes garrisons and cities a commitment, which it should given how much benefit they provide. Not to mention, having everything defended will also prevent flying scouts (or equivalent) from back-capping half of your empire during a war. It's annoying, but a necessity, so long as the AI can manage it. (Though they didn't do so well in this regard during v1.0) That said, it would be nice if they did a randomly spawning barbarian camp-style thing to give more justification for the attacks.

From my observations so far, the only thing bumming me out right now is how out-of-the-way Race Governance the the other useful submenus are. There has to be a better way to present that information than some tiny spreadsheets buried three (or more) layers deep.

The other thing is that, despair stacking the way it does seems werd. Giving a unit -2400 morale makes me feel like a bad person, and the stacking spirit weakness is... huge. I actually thought it was a bug until I saw the ability Lost Souls have (which boosts damage or something based on the stacks of despair on a unit).

Lastly, having mostly skipped the Golden Realms stuff, I've gotta say that, once again, the overall presentation Age of Wonders 3 has is blowing my mind. There's so much variety and detail in everything - from units to the land itself - and it makes the maps feel like a real place, rather than an abstracted battlefield. The hexes are stitched together very beautifully, and the random map generator takes full advantage of this.

Deified Data · Apr 17, 2015

I suppose you're right - it's something I've been sort of half on, half off of with the time I've spent with the game. On one hand, it makes the world feel more alive and diverse, and it does make you think twice about moving your lines forward which adds an interesting strategic wrinkle. I just wish they all originated somewhere and you could actually do something about them. I like your idea of bandit camps that respawn so many turns after having been destroyed.

Speaking of random assholes swooping in and terrorizing your holdings, the Cosmic Events that allow powerful mobs to spawn right next to random cities can be kind of frustrating. When it's just Dire Penguins it's kind of cute, but when it's a stack of Tier 3-4 units that spawn next to cities well away from the front lines and overtake your skeleton crew of irregulars you can lose half of your holdings in one fell swoop. You have warning before they arrive, but you have no idea where they'll spawn.

Fitz · Apr 17, 2015

Does anyone know if the expansion is at all discounted anywhere at the moment? Quite eager to come back to this, but a bit strapped for cash right now.

LurkerPrime · Apr 18, 2015

PSA: I'd recommend against loading mid-mission vanilla campaign saves in v1.5 as it does something terrible to the scripting and balance. Poor Laryssa Mirabilis couldn't level up; a no-city ally managed to ally with & usurp an independant city (and then do nothing); and an enemy that was supposed to escape surrendered to me, giving me control of his faction as well as himself. (It was sort of awkward when a hero NPC joined me because she couldn't find him. "His base could be anywhere," or so she thought...)

Still beat the mission. It ended up giving me a great battle, with Laryssa Mirabilis, a mage, and four summoned units against two full parties of Archons, including three or four Titans. It was tough, but with the v1.5's balance high-level units are a true force to be reckoned with, giving even lower tier units a chance. Her Eldritch Horror was also useful.

Fitz said:
Does anyone know if the expansion is at all discounted anywhere at the moment? Quite eager to come back to this, but a bit strapped for cash right now.

It's highly unlikely. Eternal Lords just released, and because it's DLC there's no chance that grey market shenanigans can get you the game cheaper.

At best, there will be a slight discount in the next sale, whenever that is. Steam in particular is much more stingy with their discounts than they used to be.

Pooya · Apr 18, 2015

coming back to the game after a year sure a lot has changed, for one the game runs a lot better on the same laptop. Good stuff. Coming from CivBE, the interface being so much better here while the game having so much more depth is ridiculous.

Deified Data · Apr 18, 2015

LurkerPrime said:
PSA: I'd recommend against loading mid-mission vanilla campaign saves in v1.5 as it does something terrible to the scripting and balance. Poor Laryssa Mirabilis couldn't level up; a no-city ally managed to ally with & usurp an independant city (and then do nothing); and an enemy that was supposed to escape surrendered to me, giving me control of his faction as well as himself. (It was sort of awkward when a hero NPC joined me because she couldn't find him. "His base could be anywhere," or so she thought...)

Shit, I had saves before the crucial turning point in the Elven Court campaign. Guess I'll have to restart if I want to see the alternate ending.

LurkerPrime · Apr 18, 2015

Deified Data said:
Shit, I had saves before the crucial turning point in the Elven Court campaign. Guess I'll have to restart if I want to see the alternate ending.

It's worth a try, but there are no guarantees. Key scripting seemed to work well enough to progress through my mission to the next, and from what I've seen the mission afterwards is fine.

Deified Data · Apr 19, 2015

Finished my first map as a Frostling Necromancer after a couple non-starts where I misunderstood the Necro population system and pretty much doomed myself. Impressions...Frostlings are great. They have quite possibly my favorite tier II cavalry in the game in the form of the Mammoth Rider. White Witches are awesome support, and Royal Guards have great synergy with heroes. Necromancer heroes are powerful as all hell, probably the most powerful hero unit in the game with all that despair stacking and ghoul curse,and if you kill them they're back in 2 turns. Also Marked for Death, which they share with the Reaper. The other Necro units were kind of lackluster to me, except the Reanimator who was required to offset the lack of regeneration, and the Reapers who just plain rocked. The Bone Collector was one of my favorite designs in the game, but as a unit I didn't get much mileage out of him, same with the Deathbringers. Got a lot of use out of the Necro spells, but not many from the new Shadowborn spec. I might have to play a longer game with them sometime to get a feel for everything.

Next up...a Tigran Keeper of Peace! Not sure what class yet. Going to try to stay diplomatic and unite the land. Also going to endeavor to savescum less and play most of my battles manually. Near the end of maps I get sort of antsy and start auto battling everything that moves, so I'll just have to be more patient.

Anno · Apr 19, 2015

Feels like Necromancers can snowball something fierce. A couple good fights and you have a solid army of ghouls to throw at the enemy, and the Reaper dude can just wade through armies with a couple good rolls. Curious if they are going to be toned down some or I just need to find some better counters.

Deified Data · Apr 19, 2015

Tigrans are amazing.

Started the map with a random hero who had a legendary mount that knew Pounce. What an amazing skill, especially to have available on a warlord hero at the beginning of the game. Thanks to pounce Cheetahs feel like the most lethal irregular in the game.

After playing with the Necros I forgot what it felt like to have a decent early economy. Much more so with all the Keeper of the Peace bonuses. I'm absolutely rolling in gold and I only got my 3rd city at around turn 25.

LurkerPrime · Apr 22, 2015

This may surprise some of you, but I really like the balance the game has now, where low-tier units are common and high-tier units are epic. It's made for a lot of interesting battles, even if the AI still makes... weird... decisions, in both strategic and combat maps. Like, running through two attacks of opportunity to flank one dude, or (rarely) leaving cities entirely undefended. But I guess it's understandable, because they have to deal with the same logistical issues players do, which means cities are often... spartan in defense.

Also, I actually ran into a bug yesterday. During the final(?) Edward campaign (which is massive) my cities stopped displaying their build order - it was always locked to the first unit in the queue, with the rest empty. Although it built the proper units, it was still a bit of a bummer. Fortunately, restarting the game fixed it.

Jag · Apr 24, 2015

In the campaigns whenever I kill the last hero and the scenario ends all his loot is sitting on the ground unlootable and doesn't carry over to the next scenario. Anyone know if there is a way around this.

LurkerPrime · Apr 25, 2015

Jag said:
In the campaigns whenever I kill the last hero and the scenario ends all his loot is sitting on the ground unlootable and doesn't carry over to the next scenario. Anyone know if there is a way around this.

I can't recall if there's a "one more turn..." option after completing a mission - I don't think there is. If it's a non-leader hero, lure them out of the throne city and take 'em out. If it's a leader hero and you're taking the throne city, I don't think there's much you can do; killing them away from the throne will merely banish them away to the void for 3 turns (with their items intact).

Keep in mind that if an enemy hero is below level 3 they're unlikely to have much, if any, items aside from their ranged weapon. AI leaders only bother clearing treasure cites when they're in a comfortable lead from what I've seen. Also, if you've got a particularly high level hero and have done plenty of exploring in previous missions, there will be very little out there that's better than their current equipment.

Deified Data · Apr 26, 2015

So you guys who have tried a Keeper of the Peace, pure good, declare no war unless war is declared on you type of playthrough - how did you resolve it?

My Tigran Theocrat currently occupies 40% of a large map split between 6 players - my empire is ecstatic and showers me in gold and praise constantly. If I were playing an aggressive game I'd have the resources and manpower to steamroll the rest of the map in a few turns or less, but my "declare no war" stipulation is proving difficult and making my game stagnate. I've tried allying with the kingdoms I'm peaceful with to no avail, and they like me too much to ever declare on me in turn.

It's turn 100+ and there isn't really any territory left to jostle over unless I take it from another empire. How would you resolve this situation?

LurkerPrime · Apr 29, 2015

No one is crazy enough to try, Deified. In the Age of Wonders, there is only war, aggression, and magic. Though, really, I haven't messed with diplomacy much. In Sundren/Edward campaigns there's been no need to, and that's mostly what I've played. If it were Civ, I'd probably try allying with someone and bribing them to declare war on someone else, destabilizing things a tad. But I can't recall if that's even possible in AoW3.

Speaking of the campaigns, I've beaten the Edward campaign. I made the bad choice and things get real dark for poor Edward, not to mention the rest of Athla. The finale mission against

the Elven Court

was a massive, hours-long crusade against their forces. Things got tight once they started producing Tier 4 units, but in the end the might of the Commonwealth prevailed.

Onto the Halfling campaign.

Deified Data · Apr 29, 2015

I really need to finish Ed's campaign.

Yeeeah, I think I'm going to put my Tigran Theocrat map on the back burner for now. As I said I have the power to curbstomp the rest of the map but I don't quite have the heart to besmirch my Lord's good name. Incidentally you can coax allies into declaring war on other Lords now, but I think I'll just try again later with the new Unifier victory condition or maybe Seals.

Regarding peaceful playstyles, I actually found it quite rewarding. Tons of gold piling in means pretty much endless resources to build at your leisure. It's nice being able to focus more on clearing treasure sites and roaming independents than having city battles every other turn. I mean I love sieges but it's a nice change of pace.

That said being the nice guy for so long has made me bloodthirsty. Might need to enact a violent campaign of world domination shortly...

LurkerPrime · May 1, 2015

Having completed a mission in the Halfling campaign, I've gotta say Triumph's mission design has improved dramatically from the base campaign. There's a lot more variation and surprise scripted moments during the campaign, and the leader's spell selection plus the map's geography lead to a lot of very nice synergies. It also, thankfully, is more than just "kill all the enemies" for once, which is what a lot of the OG campaign's missions turned into.

I hope there's a similar quality jump in the Eternal Lords campaign, because it could end up as something really special.

Also, the Halflings' crazy units take some getting used to... and their luck mechanic is whack. They always find a way to throw a wrench in my battle plans, helping as often as they hurt.

Jag · May 1, 2015

LurkerPrime said:
I hope there's a similar quality jump in the Eternal Lords campaign, because it could end up as something really special.

I'm on what I think should be the final map of the EL campaign. It is absolutely massive. I like the fact that the choices you make directly affect how the game will play out. I wasn't thrilled with my choices, but I have put so much time into this last map, that I can't imagine starting over.

LurkerPrime · May 2, 2015

Just as I started to notice some bugs, and even had a battle lock up on me during the enemy's turn (because they wouldn't act or something), it turns out that Triumph released a patch yesterday. Huzzah!

Changelog spoilers: it's a big'un.

Deified Data · May 2, 2015

Another day, another game changing patch.

Interesting nerf to Sun Spear. It's shorter range, lower damage, and longer cooldown, but it no longer costs action points to use...

LurkerPrime · May 11, 2015

Holy cow, Tibbles from the AoW3 forums made a searchable Age of Wonders 3 database. In my excitement for the new patch I overlooked it in the news.

Lennart Sas said:
Forimite Tibbles has created the awesome AoW3DB, the online unit database. It contains all units in the game, along with full information on their abilities, ranks and race governance upgrades. This way you can plot your strategies without having to boot the game: at work, in the bus, on the toilet, wherever.

Here it is. Behold the power of Tumblr. As of this post it appears to be behind a version (v1.51), but its existence is still amazing.

Tibbles, where ever you are, I salute your efforts.

Deified Data · May 11, 2015

I like it! Very easy to use reference.

Dammit Lurker, stop trying to lure me back. I have to beat Pillars of Eternity before I allow myself any AoW time.

LurkerPrime · May 18, 2015

Huh. This is rather interesting.
So y'all probably know about Mr. Per Notchson in Age of Wonders 3 (a tribute to Minecraft's creator, Notch)

But what you probably didn't know is that town names are also easter eggs. Intrepid researchers over at the Age of Wonders 3 forums noted that there's a town named 'Sik Bockerston,' a clear reference to this fella (who I understand is a prominent forumite over there).

The More You Know

It makes me wonder how many others are in there; the thread sorta died after that, so I suspect the rest are a bit harder to uncover. Apparently Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic was filled with dev references via the heroes, so it follows that AoW3 is similarly referential.

Deified Data · May 18, 2015

What race lives in Sik Bockerston? I've never encountered it. Never encountered Notchson before either, as I've never played as humans.

LurkerPrime · May 19, 2015

Deified Data said:
What race lives in Sik Bockerston? I've never encountered it. Never encountered Notchson before either, as I've never played as humans.

Sik Bockerston is a human city. I can't recall seeing it either... though now that I think of it, the news sounds sorta familiar. I wonder if I posted it a while back or something. (The forum thread on it is from 2014.)

For Notchson, it's not a matter of using humans. The heroes are only race-restricted if you enforce it at worldgen. There's just a fair clip of heroes, so the chances of getting Notchson specifically are rather slim. For instance, I saw him a grand total of once.

Jag · Jun 5, 2015

AOW3 Deluxe and addons are all on sale at GOG. AOW3 is $11.29. If you clicked on this thread and don't own AOW3, what the hell are you waiting for???

KupoNut · Jun 11, 2015

Patch 1.6 is out on Steam/GOG adding a revamped underground, a tutorial level, several new accessibility options and small improvements, bugfixes and balance tweaks.

LurkerPrime · Jun 12, 2015

KupoNut said:
Patch 1.6 is out on Steam/GOG adding a revamped underground, a tutorial level, several new accessibility options and small improvements, bugfixes and balance tweaks.

Awesome. For some reason I thought they only released updates on Friday.

Unfortunately for me, GOG has overhauled their version numbers for GOG Galaxy, which I believe means my (pre-GOG Galaxy) AOW3 installation will need to be redone entirely... pah.

LurkerPrime · Jun 18, 2015

For the next ~48 hours, the Age of Wonders franchise is on sale now as a Steam daily deal, -75% off. If you've been waiting, now's the time to jump on it. For Age of Wonders 3 specifically, the AoW3 Collection will save you a bit of money on the base game + all DLC.

I'm pretty sure the older DLC's have been cheaper before, but, eh, Steam seems to be stingier on discounts all around this year.

Sharp · Jul 8, 2015

Wow... how did I miss this game? It's awesome. Everyone, get it, please.

Deified Data · Jul 8, 2015

Sharp said:
Wow... how did I miss this game? It's awesome. Everyone, get it, please.

Glad you like it!

Favorite race? Class?

aravuus · Jul 8, 2015

Yeah, it looks pretty awesome. I assume it's similar to Civilization in the sense that I should really prepare to spend a couple of hours with tutorials and learning the game the first time around? I should be getting to bed soon but I kinda want to give it a try

Muntu said:
Never got into the HoMM games but somehow this seems like it could hold my attention for a while.

Hah, looks like I was interested in it last year, too. No idea why I never gave it a try then but eh, better late than never

Deified Data · Jul 8, 2015

Muntu said:
Yeah, it looks pretty awesome. I assume it's similar to Civilization in the sense that I should really prepare to spend a couple of hours with tutorials and learning the game the first time around? I should be getting to bed soon but I kinda want to give it a try

Hah, looks like I was interested in it last year, too. No idea why I never gave it a try then but eh, better late than never

A little, but it's more combat focused than Civ with less macro focus.

Honestly the tutorial isn't terribly detailed (it's basically the first scenario of the Elven Court campaign). Best way is to just play on Knight difficulty or below and learn as you go - the game's pretty forgiving for the most part.

Jag · Jul 17, 2015

On sale at GOG again. Don't say we didn't tell you!

Taborcarn · Jul 31, 2015

It's on sale again this weekend on Steam for 75% off. I picked up the complete collection for $30.

I'm pretty sure I played AoW1 back in the day, but never touched 2. I also played HoMM 1 and 2 but none of the newer entries in the series. I remember I had fun playing HoMM 1 multiplayer by dialing directly in to a friend's house while he had his modem set to answer. Fun, but rarely lasted long before either getting disconnected or our parents yelling at us for tying up the phone lines.

But for some reason I fell away from the genre, but very recently have had an itch to try it again. And seeing the sale this seemed like the perfect opportunity to jump back in.

LurkerPrime · Aug 1, 2015

If you've fallen out of playing fantasy 4X games AoW3 is a good re-entry point. The combat alone is leagues more approachable than anything else I can think of, due to how it handles targetting in the tactical map. And, overall, one of AoW3's best features is that it really lays bare the mechanics so you can focus on your strategies and tactics, rather than wrestling with game engine quirks.

Now, as mentioned above, the Elven Court campaign doubles as a tutorial so if you want to jump right in that's where you ought to go-- either that or Edward's campaign. Though do note that the older campaigns disable the expansion stuff. It makes the game as a whole a bit easier to parse, though a little confusing when moving over to expansion-enabled content.

Taborcarn · Aug 2, 2015

The third mission in the Elven Court is a difficulty spike, a much bigger setting than the previous ones. It took me a few tries to figure out how to approach the enemy, mainly not expanding too fast and leaving myself vulnerable to the AI's already established armies.
But the optimal solution seemed to be just loading up 4 heroes with max units, and push the Enemy back until they just sit in their city and allow me to surround them at my leisure. It doesn't seem like this strat will transfer over to standard matches.

But I am definitely caught in the "one more turn" trap. This game is a real time eater, I lost track of how late it got last night while I was playing. Good thing I don't have work today, but the kid was still up bright and early. TBS seems like and older guy's genre, but I think I feel to old to play the game like it really wants to be played.

LurkerPrime · Aug 7, 2015

Elven Court Mission 3 is the Nomlik one, isn't it? That was tough when I slogged through it before all the tier balancing took place... especially once the enemy started to mass produce Shrines of Smiting. IIRC I only managed to beat it because of the choke point at their entrance, where I could battle their pre-placed armies in a controlled manner; had they escaped my cities would have been decimated (and they got close a few times).

Both Edward's and Sundren's campaigns have absolutely gruelling final missions, so prepare yourself for that. And be sure to have some back-up saves.

ZZMitch · Aug 22, 2015

Hey guys, just started playing this game after buying it and all the expansions in the last steam sale.

I played the first campaign mission (tutorial) a bit and was quickly bored. I am a big 4X/grand strategy player and mostly skip campaign/scenario stuff. Is the random map more compelling than campaign in this case too? I have never played any other AoW games so story stuff doesn't mean much to me at the moment.

I really want to sink my teeth into the random set up stuff but had some questions about settings. In other 4x games I usually enjoy relaxing slow paced long games (think marathon in Civ). I see those sorts of options in AoW3 too but wanted to make sure they were fun before I started one like that. I started a game with all normal settings and its cool but I feel like I would have more fun starting with a smaller army/city and that sort of thing. Like I enjoy the idea of starting from scratch so to speak.

Deified Data · Aug 22, 2015

Generally, yeah, I have more fun with skirmishes than the campaign - I'm not a huge fan of having to play the same race/class combo over several different scenarios, but to be fair they do mix it up every once in a while.

The various start options should provide you with what you need if you want to start small.

LurkerPrime · Sep 24, 2015

Patch 1.7 is out and the Age of Modding has officially begun! The patch notes are after the jump--they're extensive, as always. Seems to be lots of balance and bug fixes, but this caught my eye...

The 1.7 Features

[...]

Penguins are even more dire now.

Anyways, the mod tools for Age of Wonders 3 brings limitless possibilities. I really wonder what people will come up with in time as 4Xes have brought about really great mods. (Thinking mainly about Civ4's Fall From Heaven 2, which is just amazing, though there's far more than just that out there.)

[AoW3's] modding tools allow users to:

Modify existing units, as well as create entirely new ones with new art.

Change spells, skills, specializations .

Create new recruitable heroes

Create entire new races and classes

Change the overal gameplay rules

Use Mods in combination with new Campaigns and Multiplayer.

Create entire new worlds, basically create a new game

LurkerPrime · Apr 29, 2016

Been a while, but I just noticed that, back at the beginning of March, Age of Wonders 3 passed 500k sales (excluding the DLCs, which are also around 500k sales on their own). A triumph, indeed.

Triumph also mentions that they're working on a new game (prototype stage) and another AoW3 patch. Personally, I'm still holding out hope for that Shadow expansion. Believe it!

Snakethesniper · Oct 23, 2016

Does anyone experience stuttering/frame drops when panning the camera?

LurkerPrime · Nov 3, 2016

Age of Wonders 1.705 "CAESAR" patch has been released.

Multiplayer and PBEM

Fixed an issue in multiplayer with the Production Resource Pickup. Which allowed a player to select both city upgrades if the game was continued from a save game.

Fixed an PBEM Ironman exploit where replacing delete/replacing save games, would in some cases not trigger an Ironman Notification.

Increased the PBEM save game size limit.

Fixed ironman exploit where a player could exit TC without triggering an ironman notification

Fixed an issue where it was possible to reload a multiplayer game with different seal settings than it was created with

Fixed an issue with PBEM Ironmode warnings.

Balance

When a unit has been resurrected during tactical combat, it will no longer give XP or casting points (via Essence Harvest) for the rest of that battle.

Leaders affected by swallowed whole can now be rescued by killing the swallowing unit

The Magical Structures Skill no longer gives the unintended Arcane Study bonus.

Frostling Scoundrels now have Projectile Resistance on Bronze, like the other Scoundrels.

Nymphs should no longer show up in rewards from Spring of Life locations.

One of the classes had a double frost protection hero upgrade, which was removed.

Stability

Fixed a couple of rare crash when loading a save game.

Fixed various crashes caused by removing mods which add new banner colours and icons

Fixed crash when city was being razed while at the same time a player had a Independent Can Discuss: event

Fixed crash when clicking on empty specialization icon in diplomacy interface

Random Maps

Fixed a bug in RMG (online multiplayer) games where players would sometimes not start on the map layer that they had selected in the leader customization menu.

Fixed a bug in RMG where choosing Random advanced setting for Resource Sites (as well as other options with Random) would be a random value per player instead of the same random value for all players. Which meant that some players could start without any resource sites, while others start with many resource sites.

Choosing None roads in RMG does not remove bridges from lava hexes anymore, because it made the map too hard to taverse.

Modding and Tools

Added a new unit property that can be used to change the strength of resistance checks. See: AoW Unit Property: Resist Strength Modifier.

Modders can now add a requisite to units who stolen from other players using mind control. The requisite is applied to the unit when battle ends.

Added support for additional workshop tags to PackageManager

Modding: All of the AoW City Operation now correctly check their required properties

Map Editor now streams content cutting memory use considerably.

Mod Editor now only loads low-resolution textures, cutting memory use considerably.

Fixed rare bug in PackageManager where it would not correct detect previously publish workshop item.

Fixed an issue that prevented modders from editing XP pickups without causing instability

Fixed a crash caused by modders adding starting properties to city cores

Graphics and Glitches

Fixed a geometry gap in the city walls of arctic city battles.

Fixed a graphics glitch for one of the human male hairdos.

Linked the correct bird for the Halfling Eagle Rider.

Fixed the dragon animation so they correctly spawn particles when using the fire spit ability.

Text and Localization

Fixed a typo in the English Warp Domain description.

Updated to Poison Domain description to include which units are not valid targets for the spells effect.

Updated the Ancient Ruins description to correctly indicate the reward for clearing this structure.

The Polearm ability description now correctly states it give a +4 damage bonus. It used to say +5 which was incorrect.

Fixed French typo in Cannon description http://aow.triumph.net/forums/topic/typo-in-french-version/

Fixed German Dark Pact Ability & Spell description http://aow.triumph.net/forums/topic/sprachfehler-in-der-deutschen-version/page/3/#post-241004

Fixed and clarified English loading screen text

Removed duplicate entries from the tome of wonders for the Fire Cannon and Movement Upgrade abilities.

Miscellaneous

AI no longer tries to dispel meditate, so it has casting points and mana left for more usefull things.

Tweaked Audio settings for sound effects reported to be too loud

Fixed an issue that caused the camera to zoom in during combat while the user was moving the camera, was supposed to be when the user WASNT moving the camera

Fixed an issue where skills given by libraries didnt trigger the All Knowing empire quest. Library rewards will still not trigger the Sage empire quest.

Fixed an issue where Users could glitch the leader editor by selecting creation master, then changing to necromancer and back again.

Fixed issue where master specialization would not be correctly removed when removing adapt

Fixed an interface issues where properties would display Unknown Property Source! when it could not find the source of the property. Instead of displaying the propertys screen name.

Fixed an issue on certain Linux distributions where the checkboxes were not visible in the User Content tab of the Launcher.

Resolved an exploit in Diplomatic AI.

I'm still holding out for that Shadow expansion.

danthefan · Nov 19, 2016

Bit of a necro bump but could anyone recommend a decent lets play so I can learn the combat? Doing the beginner campaign and I'm enjoying it but I lose sooooooo many units in every fight. I feel like I'm giving the enemy free shots at me by just trying to get into range of them. I started by trying to let them come to me but if I sit still so do they it seems.

LurkerPrime · Nov 19, 2016

danthefan said:
Bit of a necro bump but could anyone recommend a decent lets play so I can learn the combat? Doing the beginner campaign and I'm enjoying it but I lose sooooooo many units in every fight. I feel like I'm giving the enemy free shots at me by just trying to get into range of them. I started by trying to let them come to me but if I sit still so do they it seems.

Dunno any LPs (and keep in mind that units have been rebalanced a lot over time, so an older LP won't be 100% representative of the game as it is now), but in general you'll want to use tankier units to cover the approach of more fragile ones, via obstruction cover. Once you hit the 'optimal range' for ranged attacks (iirc for most it's 20-60% of the max range) the damage will increase a lot--this is when you'll want to go in for the kill or disable the enemy to prevent them from ravaging you, either by buffing your unit or debuffing the enemy's.

If you're not aware of how obstruction works: it is based on the missle arc of the weapon. Direct shots, like crossbows, go straight to the target, so aiming at a target behind an obstruction like a unit or battlefield debris will reduce damage by a significant amount; arced shots, like regular bows, can go over obstructions, but not universally. Aiming at a unit shows the arc (and the optimal/max range). Also note that elevation will help avoid obstructions a lot, while shooting at elevationed targets all but ensures there will be an obstruction (via walls or floors).

Ranged units are prime targets for direct damage spells, artillery, and other ranged units--or melee units once they get up close. They're glass cannons, basically.

And re: unit loss, remember: if you have an army of low-tier units, you're destined to lose some in battle; they are the most expendable of all units in the game. Once you start getting a higher-tier army and access to more spells and hero abilities (in the campaign, heroes get suuuuper strong) you will begin to be able to avoid unit losses in battles. (The Theocrat is especially good at this.)

danthefan · Nov 20, 2016

Thanks a lot, very helpful. I didn't really know that's how it worked in terms of damage with bows/crossbows etc so that helps a lot.

I'm sure experience does but what carries over from one campaign mission to the next? Is it basically a clean slate with your leader carrying over their spells and abilities? I'm still only messing about with the first mission trying to learn the ropes. I've improved a bit but taking the enemy capital was a bit of a slaughter.

Edit - so I've finished the first mission but I didn't take all the cities etc. Is it worth fully exploring the map and killing all the enemies I can in order to gain experience for my leader?

One Foul Note · Nov 20, 2016

I wouldn't be too worried about losing units in the campaign. It's good at teaching the basics, but it can be rough and a little overwhelming (and it doesn't help that you are a Rogue which imo is one of the harder classes to play). I certainly remember crawling through the first mission with really only my most elite units surviving, and most on critical health.

LurkerPrime · Nov 20, 2016

danthefan said:
Thanks a lot, very helpful. I didn't really know that's how it worked in terms of damage with bows/crossbows etc so that helps a lot.

I'm sure experience does but what carries over from one campaign mission to the next? Is it basically a clean slate with your leader carrying over their spells and abilities? I'm still only messing about with the first mission trying to learn the ropes. I've improved a bit but taking the enemy capital was a bit of a slaughter.

Edit - so I've finished the first mission but I didn't take all the cities etc. Is it worth fully exploring the map and killing all the enemies I can in order to gain experience for my leader?

The hero's level and equipment carries over, and you'll probably hit max level before finishing the campaign IIRC. So don't worry about squeezing the XP out of every map. Just note that you command different heroes throughout it, and they will appear again, so it's worth using all of them rather than just the one that carried over.

That said, I'd recommend keeping back-up saves periodically during the campaign, the later missions can go pear-shaped pretty quickly. Having essentially a "checkpoint" will save you some time if something bad happens.

And while sidequests are worth it, 100% conquering every map isn't.

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