Age of Wonders 3 - Autumn 2013

[JWIV]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BHdojrcu61E


There damn well better be hexes and stomp stacks.

http://www.ageofwonders.com/aow3live/

Key features include:

Explore, expand and exploit a living fantasy world. Discover wondrous locations and gather legendary heroes.
Develop your domain, with many classes having the ability to change terrain and climates to suit your needs.
All new 3D graphics that provide a crisper and more detailed overview of the world and battle maps.
New styles of play are possible with the introduction of RPG style leader classes like warlord, theocrat, rogue and sorcerer, along with a wide selection of specializations.
Command a variety of races. Pick your starting race and shape your people’s destiny using your leader’s unique skills.
A brand-new tactical battle system renders each battlefield and siege in great detail; new rules include flanking and a massive set of special unit abilities.
An epic story campaign with two playable factions; Choose the mighty Commonwealth Empire or join the Court of the High Elves, founded after the reunion of the Dark Elves and Wood Elves.
Compete online in extensive multiplayer modes and scenarios.
High replay value through random maps, difficulty modes and tools allowing user created content.[/li][/list]

[Sir T]

I am so there. Never played AOW, But age of wonders 2 was and is fantastic. Its only weakness is a weak AI.

[Sky]

It's too bad they felt the need to use 3d graphics. Would've been awesome to have a nice high detail sprite game again.

[Merusk]

It's too bad they felt the need to use 3d graphics. Would've been awesome to have a nice high detail sprite game again.

Sprites are dead, takes too much overhead to produce them vs a low-poly 3d model these days.  Or so I recall hearing from folks when discussing D2's transition.

[Lantyssa]

AoW 2 and Shadow Magic were good games.  Definitely one I'll keep an eye on.

[Lightstalker]

Liked 1 and 2, will buy 3.  Unless they do something dumb with DRM/network connections (but it is coming to/through Steam so things should be OK) or emulate Elemental/Fallen Enchantress in execution.

I find their notion of a Holy Goblin Empire intriging, but would just prefer a triumphant return of the Azracs.

[Speedy Cerviche]

Out at end of week. Kind of a contest between it and Warlock 2. AoW3 looks so much better plus I've been playing warlock 1 recently so I preordered this.

[Lantyssa]

I did not need to know about these...

Think I'll go with AoW3 to start, as penance for how I acquired the first games, then grab Warlock 2 on Steam sale.

[Speedy Cerviche]

Played this a couple of hours last night, pretty smooth, does not disappoint.

[Maledict]

to be honest, was very dissapointed with both games despite looking forward to them both.

Warlock 2 feels more like an expansion pack. The AI remains utterly uselessly broken, the new "exiled mode" goes on for too long, and the units and heroes are the same from the original game. It also still feels like there isn't enough depth to the city building mechanics and choice, and their attempts to prevent city spam have resulted in a whole host of other issues.

Age of Wonders 2 is simply buggy and slow. If you run in a high resolution you get black, blank interface boxes and text so fuzzy it's not really legible. the game itself is an absolute hog even on my silly specced machine, and has a definite "clunky" feel to the controls and movement. From what I've played so far as well it also has quite shallow tech trees - you will race through them and upgrading your cities very fast.

Overall, neither really lives up to what I was hoping for. Age of Wonders 3 is probably the more fixable, but neither is something I'd recommend right now. Next up - tropico 5 I guess!

[Speedy Cerviche]

Wow really? I am playing on a 5 year old mid-range machine and it runs really smooth on medium. Maybe it's a problem with just high end graphics, or your gfx card.

[Xilren's Twin]

Wow really? I am playing on a 5 year old mid-range machine and it runs really smooth on medium. Maybe it's a problem with just high end graphics, or your gfx card.

Yeah, it works fine on my less than cutting edge machine.  Still getting used to the interface and combat differences but so far i like.

[Modern Angel]

There's an issue with the shadow renderer I think. I had to turn my graphics down to medium in order to get rid of that muddy feel and I'm on a less than one year old rig.

I really like it. I also like it less than AoW2, which is one of my all time favorite games. It's a weird feeling to both really enjoy a game and to be slightly let down by it.

[Megrim]

Picked this up a day or so ago. Not bad, and fairly in-theme with what I remember of Master of Magic. Not as extensive, but not a bad facsimile.

[Threash]

Is the combat on the overland map like in warlock? can you stack units into armies?

[Speedy Cerviche]

Armies stack up to 6 units, fights are on battle maps. Adjacent hex armies overland map join in so you can get fairly large battles of 18 x 18, especially for sieges.

[Merusk]

Picked this up a day or so ago. Not bad, and fairly in-theme with what I remember of Master of Magic. Not as extensive, but not a bad facsimile.

I disagree. The Might & Magic aspects of it always turned me off of AoW.  Fixed cities, fixed player types, no spell research.  Warlock was the closest modern game, IMO, but still fell way short on a lot of it. 

[Sophismata]

Picked this up a day or so ago. Not bad, and fairly in-theme with what I remember of Master of Magic. Not as extensive, but not a bad facsimile.

I disagree. The Might & Magic aspects of it always turned me off of AoW.  Fixed cities, fixed player types, no spell research.  Warlock was the closest modern game, IMO, but still fell way short on a lot of it.  

That sounds more like HoMM than AoW.

AoW had spell research and did not have fixed cities. Also, your player avatar was completely customisable.

I really like it. I also like it less than AoW2, which is one of my all time favourite games. It's a weird feeling to both really enjoy a game and to be slightly let down by it.

Can you explain what you prefer from AoW2? I always preferred AoW1 to AoW2, so I had the feeling you've cited above back when AoW2 came out

[Megrim]

Picked this up a day or so ago. Not bad, and fairly in-theme with what I remember of Master of Magic. Not as extensive, but not a bad facsimile.

I disagree. The Might & Magic aspects of it always turned me off of AoW.  Fixed cities, fixed player types, no spell research.  Warlock was the closest modern game, IMO, but still fell way short on a lot of it. 

Er... I'm not sure I follow. Are you talking about Might & Magic, or Master of Magic?

[Modern Angel]

Can you explain what you prefer from AoW2? I always preferred AoW1 to AoW2, so I had the feeling you've cited above back when AoW2 came out

Robust multiplayer, more races, loved the temples of individual gods being tied to questing. I really, really miss sprite art. More than I expected.

[Lemming]

Huge Patch(v1.1) is now out.  Here is the changelog: http://ageofwonders.com/huge-v1-1-patch-unleashed/

They slowed down the game a bit and made it harder to rush and mass produce T4 units. There are a ton of other balance, UI, & bug fixes, as well as new features added.  Overall I like what they did here, but then I like those longer "just one more turn" games.

Some highlights of the patch:

[Draegan]

Bump.
Is this game any good? I have a 4X itch and won't buy Beyond Earth until a few patches from now.

[WayAbvPar]

LOL I saw this bump and was like oh did this come out finally? Apparently I missed it by a year or so.

[Speedy Cerviche]

I got it on release, played it a bit then got bored with it. I think I was on a Europa Universalis 4 kick at the time which overall is a more interesting game.

It's an ok 4x fantasy game, didn't have any glaring flaws, was a bit bland. Haven't really tried it since then, I see they have come out with a few Jesus patches and DLC. If you like 4x fantasy could be worth it, maybe wait for a sale.

[Maledict]

My problem with this game remains that graphically it's a dog (particularly the underground layer), and that the top level strategy stuff is extremely thin on the ground. Cities only exist to pump out armies to conquer the qorld, and it lacks any depth in terms of empire building and city building. As a fantasy battle simulator its okay, but it needs much greater strategic depth to deliver on what it promised.

Also, it makes the same mistake a number of fantasy strategy games do, and movement speed is *ridiculous*. Its completely possible for a hero to appear out of no-where, zoom across your empire and conquer a city in one turn. Armies are way too fast.