Giving away 8 copies of the game!

Does that get any attention? (Do note that it's not me doing the giveaway, but another member of the Beta. Also, not sure if it will help or hinder to directly say I sent you there, but it seems tacky )

This thread is about the soon to be released TBS game Age of Wonders 3.

So, I thought about using the old generic thread I made in 2011 for the previous game(from 2003), but... This is a new and almost released game, so new thread.

Anyway, I've been delaying[Read: forgetting] making a thread about this for who knows why, since I've known about it for most of the last year, but I have.

Either way, the game is set to release on March 31st, and is available for pre-order as of last weekend, I believe. Of course, one reason I didn't post about starting early last month was that I was one the very lucky few to get access to the closed beta in a phase starting in early January, and the NDA was only loosely lifted around a week to a week and a half ago. We are allowed to essentially clarify any of the currently revealed systems and functions of the game.

Anyway, I have clocked in at 139 hours so far(I think the highest is around 225), and have just loved what I've experienced so far. Although I have chosen to avoid the campaign, since I want to do that after release only.

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So, if anyone wants to ask me any questions here(as opposed to asking questions or reading the official forum), then go right ahead, and I'll see what I can reasonably answer.

 

I just looked at a gameplay video... it reminds me a bit of World of Warcraft III. Is that an accurate comparison? Highly differentiated species, cartoony fantasy artwork, very fast paced action that punishes big booming, RPG elements?

 

Whoa, how was this not on my radar? This looks amazing. I was literally just thinking like two weeks ago, I want to play a game like Civ 5 that adds in turn based combat like X-Com.

Almost guaranteed going to pick this up on release. Looks to be pretty much everything I wanted.

 

I'm going to presume that you are talking about Warcraft III, no "World". In that case, the only direct similarities I can think of are that you develop your infrastructure, you have non-hero units mostly, along with the heroes.


Really, though, it's a Turn-Based-Strategy, not RTS like Warcraft, and that alone is a significant differentiating factor. You produce units from your cities, specific dwellings if you control any, and from summons(relative to class and chosen specializations). Production takes time in turns, although cheerful cities can sometimes complete all remaining turns at once(and if what is next in queue has one turn build time, it will be made, too).

Cities have several tiers of building lines:
-Unit Production line, with several side buildings such that certain classes of units start with a rank(of which there are four).
-Growth and Happiness line, with a Hospital that heals garrisoned units.
-Mana generation and Support unit line.
-Production boost and Machine unit(like the builder, battering ram and trebuchet) line, with a Master's Guild that repairs garrisoned machines. Also, unlocks the Wooden and Stone Walls.
-Research boost line, which culminates in the Item Forge, which lets you make your own customized medium strength items, rather than just find them, or take them from other players.

It's not terribly often in a multi-player game that you can afford to do so, but if you get the third building each in the Mana, Growth, Production and the second in Research, you are able to build the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace increases the city's domain radius by one, and gives a stacking +10 boost to your casting points. It takes a fair while and a fair expense to get all of those buildings up, though. Of course, then you have a mostly developed(no military buildings) city with a huge domain and providing a nice income, when can then turn to military production, if you've lasted that long.
As an Arch Druid enthusiast, I do actually try to get these if I can, because getting as much CP as possible is in my best interest for more summoning, but it can be tricky. My absolute max I've pulled off was 260 total CP, when the default no palace maximum is 90 CP. It was a silly game, though

Combat is, unlike most TBS games, fought on a separate tactical battlefield, which has an appearance based upon the tile it is being fought on, and the surrounding tiles. The opponents take turns moving their entire forces, with the defender going first(but the attacker is in guard mode to start) and gets a chance to arrange his forces, and potentially attack with longer ranged abilities or spells.

While your research book has up to a dozen semi-random options, there is progression for several of them, but no actual 'tech tree'. The book refills the newly-blank spaces in the book until there are no remaining research choices to refill it with.

That's some portions of an overview. I'm positive I'm missing a bunch, and I am intentionally not going too deep into specifics as that would take forever without knowing what you actually want to know.

So, ask away, preferably a bit more directed question.

---------- Post automerged at 03:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:09 PM ----------

Oh, and an update, apparently the giveaway thread linked in my first post is up to giving away eight copies of the game. So if anyone is interested...

 

Looks like my kind of game, thanks for the heads up, Fen.

 

I hate to do this but.... *BUMP*

I would certainly love to gain more potential online opponents(or allies), if people are interested. I know I already have four to five of my, ah, 'usual crew', and a few besides that, who will be getting, or already have pre-ordered, the game.

The more the merrier, though! I can only imagine the herculean endeavor that an Extra Large map with eight players would entail. Most Multi-player matches that we have done amongst the Beta testers have been on Medium maps, with the occasional Large. Well, that's at least partially due to time constraints, but one can always save a multi-player game and load it up again later.

p.s. The giveaway in the thread in my first post is still ongoing it seems, with around 180 entrants so far. At eight copies, that's better than most Steam Gifts giveaways, heh.

 

Great news:

A copy for two people I know, what are the odds with over 200 entrants?
I'll tell Kaemrynn when I chat with him next on Skype, but I figure Mishie is more likely to see it here first. By the way, Mishie, BBB is looking for you. I directed him to your post which had the steam ID in it, since he apparently missed it, and he should have tried to add you by now, I presume.

 

The only problem I have with winning this is that I now have another game I have to play with Fen

 

You mean another game that I'll be better than you in, right?

(Psh, beta experience doesn't count, I swear!)

 

I might have to grab this and play with ya'll. DLP has some lucky people it seems!

 

Yeah, this looks really cool. I probably won't be able to pick it up until mid April, but when I do I'm good to throw down.

 

Let me get through my exams in April and then I'm good to give this a shot. Might have to go re-install my GOG copy of shadow magic to get a feel for the game again.

 

Mmm, Hero development and Main Leader usage is relatively closer to the Original game, but city development(in that there are multiple building sets and you can settle new cities) is closer to 2/SM. The combat system is pretty much just an evolutionary thing throughout the series.

Still, it might get you up to snuff. Certainly better than having never played, at least.

 

A~ND it's out. 13 people on my friend list playing at this moment, heh.

I apologize for not posting more here, but I didn't want to be saying "Ask me! Ask me!" constantly, when I was already constantly answering peoples' questions on the actual forum for the game.

That being said, it seems to be well received by the public, so that's excellent news. It's also high(#2 last I noticed the previous evening) on the Steam Top Sellers list.

So, if anyone wants to hit me up for a match, just give me a holler here or on Steam, eh? Always up to offer some tips if I can. I know a decent amount about all classes, but my primary is the Arch Druid.

(Profile in my signature)

 

Well, the next expansion, Eternal Lords(and really the first Major expansion) is coming out in roughly one month, but the monstrous 1.5 Patch has been released to open beta public testing today.

I'm really excited, since it's been great fun in the Closed Beta, and I am quite eager to play the new content(especially once the Expansion comes out) with my other friends that are not in said Beta.

 

I own this. And the small xpac they released not too long ago.

It's a decent time waster. The campaign is fun. But the multiplayer aspect fails to draw me in - mostly because low tier units rapidly become useless and it's way too easy to summon units (so fighting involves a lot of ninja city capturing). There are some also stupid spells, like chaos rift. Mind control is also ridiculous. And races w/o healing are super gimped.

If they balanced everything a little better it'd be 10/10 strategy game.

 

Mmm... To try to loosely address your concerns:
- Champion levels, the upcoming expansion's Racial Governance system, and even simply the fact that they are more cost efficient(especially in upkeep) compared to higher tier units, are all things that make lower units more useful than you give them credit. Oh, and retaliations and unit action consumption(Tireless ability aside).

- I'm... kind of surprised that you think Summoner's(or perhaps just summons?) are extra strong, although I certainly don't think they are weak either. Although I do love Archdruids, but I've liked their style, through buffs and nerfs, since the original Beta, while also not really having much interest at all in Sorcerers. That being said, there were several tweaks to the class balance, so... perhaps your opinion would change.
p.s. If you happen to be speaking of Wild Magic's Summon Lesser Elemental spell, then yeah, that got bumped up a research tier AND made unavailable as a starting skill. Still the same spell, but at a considerably greater opportunity cost to research, and it can't ever be in the starting pre-research skills.

- There was a broad mix of spell balancing. Specifically among them was Chaos Rift being changed to a 4-turn duration. It's still a powerful spell, certainly, but it doesn't have an unlimited duration.

- Mind Control is... a thing. There are measures to protect against it, if that's what you mean. If you mean that it can be exploitable for a Human player against AIs then... yeah? Taunt and Seduce were modified.

- "Races without active/passive healing enhancements"(paraphrasing mine) includes only the Elves, and I don't think you will see many people decrying them as being 'super gimped'. Well, Frostlings and Tigrans, too, I suppose. Anyway, the races without Healing generally have their own advantages.
Range and mobility for the Elves, with a dash of crowd control, work to help them take less damage in the first place.
For the Frostlings, four units with a potential crowd control ability can really let them avoid damage, and a rare damage channel and embarking/disembarking advantages can help them fight well and where they want, more easily than most.
For the Tigrans, raw combat mobility, plus several tricks, can help them potentially overwhelm an opponent before they have the chance to really take damage. Athletics in particular can have them sometimes engaging archers from outside their ranged engagement range quite handily.

If you only meant combat Healing, and thus were restricting yourself to Humans, Dwarves and Halflings then... I don't really know what to say aside from the fact that I firmly disagree.

I will agree that Goblins have their issues at times(they can work great at others), but everyone else definitely has their place, with only Orcs being particularly concerned against Elemental damage and status effects(and sometimes their strengths can make up for that). Elves and Draconians are definitely well accorded. Orcs have that Resistance concern, but are solid(especially now). Goblins have their Health value concern, but suit many particular strategies with their cost reduction and growth increase.
Also, -5 HP for Goblins is a lot less relevant on Tier 2+ units, and T1 archers of other races are pretty much as fragile when engaged as Darters anyway, while usually dealing less damage than a Darter(blight immunity aside).

- Balance is an ongoing effort, as always.