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Age of Wonders III |OT| Follow The Leader

N

Newt

Member
LurkerPrime said:
I don't know that Archons and Undead are the same sort of thing.

In a lot of ways, Undead make sense to me as an addition to the game. Mechanically, they would be one of the only races that likes Blighted(?) terrain, which would also make them one of the few aided by a Blight domain. This would create more interesting scenarios for domain powers and devout units, and would synergize well with a Necromancer class and the Death spell category, which I consider to be likely additions down the road.

In the future, if they have a Shadow expansion (I hope they do, the Shadow folk are so neat) the Undead would, I believe, also be one of the few races not crippled in the Shadow realm.

The Undead might actually end up being Archons though, because that would reconcile their need for summoners (Necromancers) and open them up to play as any class.


The other sensible addition to the game would be the Frostlings and the Ice spell category (or does Air cover that, I'm not certain). Like the Undead, they would take advantage of a neglected type of terrain, but in this case it would be snow/ice.
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Oh, this makes sense, you must have not played AoW2. Archons are actually a force of good. They just happen to all be undead in AoW3 :p. Archons were pretty cool, they had units like chariot archers and Pegasus riders.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
Jag said:
New beta patch 1.102 out on Steam. Massive number of changes, too much to list here.
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I see that the #4Dire crusade continues. They're more common now and they're stronger! I look forward to further improvements.

Anyways, it looks like another great patch. Triumph releases Patches of Yore, where they're epic in scope and filled with grand changes. This patch means that I find myself once again looking forward to playing AoW3 (and since I'm nearly through my second run of Dark Souls 2, I might actually play it this time!)

I'm particularly glad that they're gimmicking-up the racial units and making "Evolve" units a bit more common. Those are some of my favourite things! I WANNA BE THE VERY BEST, LIKE NO ONE EVER WAS...


A shame that they cancelled the Hello Hound, though. Perhaps they can squeeze it into the next patch.

Edit

If you have any interest at all in the previous Age of Wonders games, I just noticed that Age of Wonders 1, 2, and Shadow Magic are on sale in a Humble Weekly Bundle. It also includes some Divinity games; it's a great deal.

Remember, these sales are pay what you want. Be fair. :)

EditEdit

Also Age of Wonders 3 is, um... two dollars off on the Humble Store.

The Humble Store is your Age of Wonders destination for this week.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
Heads up, AoW3GAF: Version 1.2 of Age of Wonders 3 has been officially released!

The changelog is gigantic as per usual, so I'll just quote the blurb from their site:

Lennert Sas of Triumph Studios said:
With this week’s massive update we make race choices matter more, with racial traits impacting more class units. Water combat is more tactically rewarding, and we’ve added new game speed settings that allow you to adjust empire development speed for quick multiplayer games or marathon XL maps. See the list below for much more updates! Thanks to all of you providing feedback! This game just keeps getting better and better :)

This official update will be applied automatically via the Steam client (you might have to restart) and GoG users can down load an installer.
Click to expand...

The rest of the changelog can be viewed here.

Edit: Gawdammut, I somehow deleted one of my custom leaders when I made a new one. I can't even remember their name, but they were a goblin so it's a wash. You will be missed, nameless leader...

Scratch that, after restarting the game that leader reappeared. Must be a bug!
 
Jag

Jag

Member
Patch is an improvement but the strategic AI is still brain dead. Tactical AI is challenging and fun at least.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
So what classes does everyone like the most?

I've tried all but the Sorceress and Warlord extensively, and find I prefer the Archdruid the most. Evolving units and giant armies of monsters suits me well. I also like summoning in units rather than building them, since they can be summoned into the front lines immediately.

Jag said:
Patch is an improvement but the strategic AI is still brain dead. Tactical AI is challenging and fun at least.
Click to expand...

Yeah the strategic AI makes some odd decisions.

I think they have trouble fighting multi-front wars, because two of the AIs I've encountered in my current game (out of three) have not invaded my territory at all, even after I've razed some of their cities. They have sent weak invasion forces to reclaim their cities, but never more than that. I have to assume they focus 100% of their aggressiveness on the third AI, because I have spent most of my time conquering and expanding in unclaimed territory.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
I just noticed the Steam community announcement about Triumph's development plans, and it contains some exciting news about the future of the game.

Steam Community Announcement by Arnout said:
Hi guys, just a quick post that we’re making great progress on lots of new Age of Wonders goodies for you. The upcoming update should include Steam Workshop support and Cloud Saves. This should make it easier for you to exchange user made scenarios and manage save games across multiple computers.

The tech team is working hard on porting the game to Mac (and likely: Linux). Already did most of the graphical side of things; the release will likely coincide with an expansion.

Then we’ve got lots new features and content in the works. The first new race (one with –ling in the name) is nearly complete with others in development. New races are a lot of work: core units, class unit variants, leader and hero assets, City and TC graphics, new abilities, balance, etc). We also have an exotic new dwelling, new monsters, music, classes and a new campaign in the works. We’re also testing some exciting new mechanics that include new victory conditions and a new type of quest.

Stay tuned, as the Development Journals will return in the near future!

http://ageofwonders.com/development-update-and-return-of-development-journals/
Click to expand...

Frostlings? Get hyped.

#4Dire continues.


Edit: Also, might as well mention that the Steam Summer Sale starts later today. If you're interested in Age of Wonders 3 and somehow don't already own it (you crazy person!), there's a very real chance that it will be on sale. If you want to buy it, then wait until it is a daily, community vote, or flash sale - that will ensure you get the best deal possible.
 
O

owlbeak

Member
Anyone have a Sundren card they'd be willing to give/trade me? :) Still trying to craft my Level 2 badge. Steam name is Horsebite.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
There's a chance that Age of Wonders 3 will be 50% off (USD$20) in the Steam Summer Sale, all you need to do is vote for the, ahem, Co-op - Tactical grouping. In eight hours the winner will be chosen, and if the Co-op Tactical grouping won then that's your chance to swoop on AoW3 for a great price!

It is grouped in the illustrious company of Takedown: Red Saber (a dead-community FPS) Left 4 Dead 2, and Interstellar Marines... Valve, you're trippin' bawls.

Even if it doesn't win, Age of Wonders 3 is currently 25% off (USD$29.99) and will likely remain at that discount for the duration of Steam's Summer Sale.
 
F

FallingEdge

Member
So is every game the same or is it more like Civ where every new playthough is different? Game seems pretty intriguing and I been trying to watch gameplay vids to get a better feel of what it is like.
 
T

TheTux

Member
It's been a long since I've played this game last time, do players still have to watch every manual battle in multiplayer or have they fixed that? That ruined the game for me.

FallingEdge said:
So is every game the same or is it more like Civ where every new playthough is different? Game seems pretty intriguing and I been trying to watch gameplay vids to get a better feel of what it is like.
Click to expand...
It's probably a bit faster than Civ V but in my opinion AoW's lategame is really bad compared to Civilization's.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
Triumph (the developer) is still actively working on Age of Wonders 3, so some of what I'm saying may be subject to change. In particular, the late-game of AoW3 has changed extensively since release, and it is now less about "T4 unit wars with infinite mana" and more about clever use of your armies and resources at hand.

Dakota47 said:
And so I did. Any tips for a newcomer to the series?
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Some quick tips or things that may not be immediately apparent:

In the strategy layer, don't be afraid to cast spells, and be careful about overextending. Found cities where there's lots of resources, and build roads to connect them so that your units can respond to unexpected threats in relative haste.

In the combat layer, there are a few things that might take a bit of getting used to:
  1. The number of attacks a unit can make rely on how many action points they have - units can make up to three attacks in a given round. The UI makes note of how many attacks they'll have by using the colours green, yellow, or red.
  2. Ranged attacks are sorta complicated.. they cannot miss. Instead, they have attack arcs (which determines what obstacles affect them) as well as damage that is reduced not only by the regular resistances of their target but also the number of obstacles and obstructions on their path. They also have an "optimal range" which determines what range they deal full damage - note that for most ranged attacks this is not the same value as their maximum attack range.
  3. Flanking is an effective way for weaker melee units to take down a stronger unit (attacking directly from behind your target will reduce the number of counter-attacks they can make by 1). A unit performing counterattacks (or turning to face their attacker?) loses one attack worth of action points, so it is possible to exhaust their counter-attacks entirely.
  4. You can resposition the facing of your units by holding the right mouse button down while hovering on the unit's hex and dragging it to an adjacent hex - use this to minimize flanking that can occur.
  5. Units defending a fort or city have an increased attack range, both maximum and optimal, which makes it difficult to assault these areas. Always be ready to sacrifice when you're taking these sorts of locations.
  6. You can look up pretty much everything about the game at any time using (I think) the F1 key? It should open an encyclopedia about the game. There is a button on the UI somewhere for it, as well.

FallingEdge said:
So is every game the same or is it more like Civ where every new playthough is different? Game seems pretty intriguing and I been trying to watch gameplay vids to get a better feel of what it is like.
Click to expand...

It's very much about combat, war, and domination through various means. There are randomized maps and lots of different leader/class/race combinations available.

I'd say there's several different strategies to march towards victory, but you're marching all the same.
 
P

PoweredBySoy

Banned
LurkerPrime said:
I'd say there's several different strategies to march towards victory, but you're marching all the same.
Click to expand...

Came to ask about this. As a Civ player this is a little difficult to get used to. For the most part, it seems like every city I build is more or less a unit factory.

Also, can Independent "barbarians" appear in the fog of war? I had an enclosed area (by mountains) between two cities - but outside my borders - where a small band of independents just sort of appeared. I then put a watch tower down but it seemed like another group appeared after that as well (I wasn't paying too much attention). There is no underground entrance there either. Can they go over mountains??
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
PoweredBySoy said:
Came to ask about this. As a Civ player this is a little difficult to get used to. For the most part, it seems like every city I build is more or less a unit factory.

Also, can Independent "barbarians" appear in the fog of war? I had an enclosed area (by mountains) between two cities - but outside my borders - where a small band of independents just sort of appeared. I then put a watch tower down but it seemed like another group appeared after that as well (I wasn't paying too much attention). There is no underground entrance there either. Can they go over mountains??
Click to expand...
On Impassable Terrain
(I should have mentioned the mountains thing in my previous post.) Only impassable mountains cannot be traversed, regular mountains are merely slow to traverse. It takes a full turn or two to pass through mountains since the movement cost is 14 - though a few units (e.g. Dwarves) can move over them a bit faster. Aerial units will of course bypass the slow movement through mountains, but cannot pass through impassable mountains.

Water is impassable until you can build boats, and then units will automatically embark onto ships, which will take all of their remaining movement points. Floating and flying units never embark. Embarked units won't fare well against actual ships, nor will they do particularly well against sea monsters - so beware.

On Independant Spawns
Independant units do not spawn randomy in the fog of war a la Civilization - there is always a cause. There are some map features which periodically spawn a roving band from time to time, such as Thieves nests or boneyards. Thieves nests can be troublesome because they're often in a forest or something off of a road, so it isn't always obvious where they're coming from. Boneyards spawn undead of some power. even undead dragons (Tier 4 units!) I haven't seen any other unit-spawners, but there might be more out there. To end their threat, simply explore the hex. Clearing the location will remove the threat permanently.

There are also certain spells that can spawn independant units in your territory; rogues definitely have a spell like that. Since rogues can also summon a flying scout-type unit, they could potentially penetrate your territory largely unnoticed and then cause havoc on a poorly-defended city. So watch out for things like that.

On Cities
For cities, they are largely just war factories. Expanding your domain can be a strategic benefit, since strategic map summoned units must spawn in your domain, and it can also deprive the enemy of whatever is on the tile. But a city's primary purpose is to add cogs to the gears of war. More cities means more income, and more income means larger armies, more spells, and faster research. Aside from logistics, there is no downside to having a bunch of cities.
 
P

PoweredBySoy

Banned
Good info. And yeah, I went back to that save and watched that area more closely. The independents were coming through the mountains - slowly.

So what are the determining factors for diplomacy? Alignment? Seems like most AI just go to war with me where I don't feel I'm provoking them in any way. It would be nice to make a friend or two.

Really fun game though. I love all the items, classes and units in the game. Tons of variety and flavor.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea what governs diplomacy. Your alignment and actions definitely play a role, but the A.I. behaviour seems highly erratic. I'm sure Triumph is working on it, but for now always be on your guard when dealing with A.I. because they are all but guaranteed to declare war on you at some point.
 
P

PoweredBySoy

Banned
Is there any penalty for owning/settling another city??? After 2000 hours of Civilization where there are certain penalties for owning more cities, it's hard to shake that feeling. But so far I don't see any downside to spamming or capturing additional cities.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
ElyrionX said:
Just got this off Steam. Looking forward to spendibg more time over the weekend. Is campaign worth playing?
Click to expand...

Both campaigns serve as good introductions to the basics of Age of Wonders 3 - the Elven court campaign in particular will ease you into a variety of gameplay situations. The story in both is light, but gives hints as to the future of the Age of Wonders setting. It's a good chance to hear British accents.

I'd recommend playing them both, if you're so inclined. All of the campaigns feature very different scenarios, and it's rather fun to play with a host of heroes that have persistent progress between missions.

PoweredBySoy said:
Is there any penalty for owning/settling another city??? After 2000 hours of Civilization where there are certain penalties for owning more cities, it's hard to shake that feeling. But so far I don't see any downside to spamming or capturing additional cities.
Click to expand...

There's no direct penalty for building a city as there is no city upkeep cost, research penalty, or anything like that - more cities only strength your empire. The only potential drawback is the logistical or monetary cost of actually defending this expanded empire and, in the end, it may prove to be a bad tactic. There is always the possibility an enemy can take advantage of a large, overexpanded empire by decisively conquering it and either razing the cities for great profit or expanding their own production power through city conquest. (A Khan's quest, for sure.)

There's also the issue of strategic resources (like gold mines and such), as they massively improve the capabilities of the city whose domain they reside in. Splitting resources between multiple cities can severely weaken their capability - for example, a production bonus could be the difference between producing an archer in 1 or 2 turns. Just the same, it is also (generally) a bad idea to found cities without any strategic resources in its domain; there are often spots on the map very clearly intended for cities.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that, while infinite city sprawl can occur that doesn't mean it should occur.

And you're right, Civilization really trains people to avoid that tendancy of overexpansion, fun as it can be!

Dire Penguin Edit: Oh, one thing that might play a role in controlling overexpansion is empire morale. I can't recall off-hand if the number of cities in your empire affects it or not, but it is something to watch out for. (Keep in mind that the morale tooltip will always explain what is influencing the unit, party, city or empire's morale.)
 
G

Gaz_RB

Member
After finishing Banner Saga and Banished (my definition of finished with that game anyway) over the past few days, Age of Wonders 3 was next on my PC backlog, and HOLY SHIT.

I can't believe this OT is only 5 pages. This game completely flew under my radar, and I'm glad I managed to get to play it because this game is so amazing. I thought it was just Civilization with Orcs and Elves, but this game is sooo much more. Great for me, bad for the next few games on my backlog. This is a drug.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
Looks like Age of Wonders 3 is once again 50% off on Steam. (USD$19.99 for the standard edition)

Last chance to buy it! You know you want to.

Kalnos said:
thisisneogaf.gif
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Lol. Well, that's OK so long as Triumph is making enough money to continue working on the game.

After all, gotta get that first expansion funded because there's only one two possibilities as to what it could contain! And both of them are great.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
Shengar said:
Well, could you sell me on it?
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It's a turn-based strategy game with high production values and a good UI, released in the year of the lord 2014, by a developer dedicated to improving the game.

If that doesn't sell you, then I dunno what to say... - Oh, I know! The game has Dire Penguins.

Consider yourself sold.

#4Dire
 
S

SRG01

Member
I just have to say that Druids are a tad overpowered... I haven't played some of the other classes, but is the Druid the only class that gets summons at every tier?
 
S

Shengar

Member
LurkerPrime said:
LMAO. Well played!


Though Uncharted and its inevitable go-kart spinoff ("Unkarted") has forever ruined that term for me.
Click to expand...
Does Uncharted have enough characters to do a kart game spin off lol
Durante said:
It's like a penguin, but dire.
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x6qDTFw.jpg
Click to expand...
Those eyes are indeed shows how dire they are
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
SRG01 said:
I just have to say that Druids are a tad overpowered... I haven't played some of the other classes, but is the Druid the only class that gets summons at every tier?
Click to expand...

Sorcerers get some summons, but I'm not sure on how many.

One thing to note is that while an archdruid's summons are powerful, they can only cast so many spells at once. Other classes have no such restrictions when producing their tier 4 units.

With that said, I only used Archdruids before the mana rebalance, so maybe it's very different now.

Shengar said:
Does Uncharted have enough characters to do a kart game spin off lol
Click to expand...

Sonic had enough characters for a go-kart game, and they still decided to draw from other franchises... so, who knows!
 
K

Kalnos

Banned
This is the first game I have played in this series and... it's really awesome. It gives me the old HoMM3 vibe but the combat and city management is much deeper.

Also, wtf at Shrine of Smiting.
KuGsj.gif
 
N

Nohar

Member
I played it when it was released, but, sadly, I just don't feel like playing it anymore. There are a couple things which disappointed me greatly, and overall the pace of the game is a little too slow for me. Still, it seems they are working on improving it, so I guess I'll give it a try again when the next update shows up.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
Effect said:
Is the story in this any good?
Click to expand...

Well, there isn't much story unless you're playing the campaigns. As far as campaign narratives go, it drove me to complete the campaign so I would say that, yes, it is good. The story is definitely relevant and important to the game and its future.

It certainly isn't badly written, if that's your concern.

PoweredBySoy said:
Goblins fo' life!

I still really like this game, but I'm starting to get a little bored of it. I just wish there was a little bit more depth to city management and diplomacy.
Click to expand...

You made the right choice - Goblins are the best! (I don't need to cut you, thank goodness!)

The end-game of matches becomes a battle of logistics more than anything, and I definitely agree that it drags. But then again, I've been distracted by other games since before the end-game balance patches hit, so I guess I can't really judge it anymore.

I am confident that Triumph is still tweaking the game for the better - I think the expansion that they're thinking about should add some very interesting new stuff to the game. I'm going to guess that said expansion will bring death magic, necromancers, and playable undead - and it should change up or add some interesting mechanics to the game. So I'm really looking forward to this game's future - 'tis bright, indeed.

Once Divinity: Original Sin lets go of my body, mind, and spirit, I'll have to dive back into AoW3 again. Though I think I said something similar about Dark Souls 2, and then I only made it half-way through a game before being distracted again, so.. :/
 
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