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Age of Wonders 3

  • Thread starter Multi-headed Cow
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Vatnik
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Insert Title Here Strap Yourselves In
Hmmm. If it's Planetfall then I can't comment as I haven't been following it super close (just don't have the time these days). If it was AoW 3 then that was a reference to a specific exploit in SM which is actually the reason why they made fliers land at the end of their turn in 3. In SM, you could park a flier above the structure (on the tactical map) and it would simply be unkillable. I can't remember if it was untargetable or if it could be targeted but everything would always miss, but either way it was impossible to deal with.
I doubt it, since why would 3, with a brand new engine, have the same bug of certain tiles making flying units invincible? Also, the MPE mod fixed that issue; I think they fixed it by giving all flying units floating as well, or by altering the combat maps. Is Aow3 the one where holding a city automatically gathers the income from surrounding structures? I think that's what they were referencing - their limiting of raiding.
 

octavius

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Regarding unit buffing spells, the Wizards&Heroes mod for SM upped the cost of the spells signficantly, so you could only cast them on a few select troops. Before that some of my favourite units were fully buffed Dark Elf Bladedancers.
 

Absinthe

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Yep. Short answer is that AoW 3 has best combat, and at its core AoW is all about the combat. I think I spoke too soon as I'd still consider 1 my favourite, but it goes back and forth a lot. 1 has the best atmosphere. Not just of the series, but of any TBS I've ever played (and I've played just about every major one). Gameplay-wise it leaves a fair bit to be desired, but the mood and setting easily make up for that.
You've never played Alpha Centauri? When it comes to atmosphere it's a true classic, unless you're playing the expansion.

I remember before AoW 3 was released (or right when it came out, I forget which) and it was confirmed that all attacks connect, fliers would land at the end of their turn, and unit enchantments would be combat only, I was real disappointed. The first one ended up being IMHO the best change they've ever made. The second was lame but mostly forgettable and didn't make nearly as big a difference as I expected. Still salty about the last one but you can't have everything.
Eh #1 had bad knock-on effects, like the fact that you can apply on-hit debuffs from ludicrous distances. Sorcerers for instance can have their supports Inflict Stun from maximum distance across walls without issue. #2 is just a really shit form of balance and way to homogenize unit interactions further by letting everything hit everything and this kind of stunt generally reduces strategic depth. #3 annoys me a lot (and the new alignment specs are an annoyingly one-size-fits-all attempt to compensate). But you also missed out on #4, the lack of overland area spells. For instance the mind-games you can pull off with Mist Cloak are just gone. Instead the Rogue just has a city enchantment version of it (for friendly cities only) called Night Wish, which is nowhere as fun.

In 1 you could totally attack an overbloated AI and start razing shit left and right. Do it enough and almost the entire enemy army will desert. In the end, what remains of its army would be pretty much cheat-sustained, and having to fight off roving independents. I don't remember if that works in 2/Shadow Magic. Can't do that in 3
Economic warfare is fucked in a lot of respects now. At least you can fuck with city happiness. If you play a Rogue and use Incite Revolt with Rally of the Populace (Keeper of the Peace adept) you can actually inflict extreme happiness penalties (-1100 total) to enemy cities. Useless against Necros, but good against everyone else. Another way to ruin enemy cities and plague them with negative happiness is to use Earth mastery's City Quake.

This is currently free on Humble Bundle, they're giving out Steam keys.
I suspect they're only handing out the base game, but not either of the expansions that you'll want (or the Deluxe shit). Still, a freebie's a freebie, if you're okay with the godawful shit that goes on inside Steam and its subscriber agreement.
 
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sser

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I think the 'wizard' leader had most of the overland spells but it's been awhile since I played. Even then it was mostly just improving nodes.
 

Absinthe

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Nah, the node improvement spell comes from having Fire/Water/Wind/Earth/Creation/Destruction master. The Sorcerer (and Theocrat and Archdruid) just have a nuking spell to blast a stack and inflict a bunch of population loss if a city is targeted with it. Sorcs can also TP a stack of their own to their throne city, and they have a bunch of summons.
 

Raghar

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Sorecer has chaos vortex and storm. And global that allows to double casting points per turn.
 

MilesBeyond

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You've never played Alpha Centauri? When it comes to atmosphere it's a true classic, unless you're playing the expansion.

I love SMAC, and I think that objectively speaking it's probably better for atmosphere than AoW 1, but I find that for me it's something I have to be in the mood for - that is to say, either I get totally sucked in by the atmosphere or I don't. And when I do get sucked in, it's to a way bigger extent than AoW, but AoW is more consistent - it puts me in the mood to be immersed in the atmosphere whether I am or not.

Eh #1 had bad knock-on effects, like the fact that you can apply on-hit debuffs from ludicrous distances. Sorcerers for instance can have their supports Inflict Stun from maximum distance across walls without issue. #2 is just a really shit form of balance and way to homogenize unit interactions further by letting everything hit everything and this kind of stunt generally reduces strategic depth. #3 annoys me a lot (and the new alignment specs are an annoyingly one-size-fits-all attempt to compensate). But you also missed out on #4, the lack of overland area spells. For instance the mind-games you can pull off with Mist Cloak are just gone. Instead the Rogue just has a city enchantment version of it (for friendly cities only) called Night Wish, which is nowhere as fun.

The lack of overland spells doesn't really bother me all that much, for two reasons. First because it's not really a lack, AoW 3 has got more overland spells than any other game in the series. Rather it's the disappearance of some of the more fun ones - Mist Cloak/Cloud of Ashes, for example, or the higher level overland nukes - that hurts. But I've found that AoW 3 has its own fun things that compensate for the loss somewhat, albeit mostly on the Rogue. But the bigger reason is simply that when I'm mostly interested in throwing around fun overland spells, I don't boot up AoW 3 or SM. I boot up Master of Magic. Also when nothing in SM came even close to comparing to the fun of AoW 1's Flood spell, I guess that expectation was kind of just eliminated for me.
 

MilesBeyond

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Also when nothing in SM came even close to comparing to the fun of AoW 1's Flood spell, I guess that expectation was kind of just eliminated for me.
Is aow2's Wetlands spell different from AoW1's Flood spell?

Yeah, it's much less dramatic. First it only impacts your own domain, unlike Flood which was global. Second, under Wetlands only swamps can turn to water. Now, it's possible for everything to become swamps and then everything to become water - it's just a process that could take dozens of turns. And even so, this is still only in your domain. Granted, it's much less map-dependent than Flood, but also less fun.
 

Absinthe

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In Age of Wonders 3 the most dramatic thing you can do with domain spells is probably merge Domain of Corruption (target friendly city and all friendly units in its domain like blight terrain) with Blight Empire (your empire's domain becomes blight terrain), but it still sucks because Blight Empire will expand beyond your borders and Domain of Corruption only applies to units inside your city's borders, after which they hate blight terrain again. It's a really easy fix to make your empire neutral to a terrain when you discover a city terrain happiness spell for it, but Triumph didn't do that so that just requires mods. It also sucks against Arch Druids (-50% terrain morale penalty, +50% terrain morale bonus), Dreadnoughts (ignore all terrain morale penalties), and Necromancers (undead ignore nearly all morale penalties and bonuses). So it's typically only done if you're Goblin race or Dreadnought class really, as Goblins are the only race that does not have a problem with blighted terrain. You can do it as Necromancer too, but undead do not benefit from Domain of Corruption so the combo's not as good.

Water adept also has the ability to freeze water tiles for a few turns, which is usually used to blitz enemies.
 
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index.php

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It's currently free on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/games/226840/announcements/detail/1606013667721315334

To celebrate the upcoming release of Planetfall, we're giving Age of Wonders 3 away for free on Steam! As an added bonus, anyone who downloads Age of Wonders 3 for free during this time will get a 10% discount on Age of Wonders: Planetfall Premium Edition. The offer is valid from 11-15th of July, so get it while you can!

Get it here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/age-of-wonders/
4488f6d64d4eec897e1cc0c8df995db6b757e3be.jpg
 

Cadmus

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Guys I got this on the free thing.
I don't know if I like it or not. I remember playing AoW2 and that being fukin difficult sometimes and nice graphics.

I played one random map and hm everything seems so samey... I reached the max everything I could find, wipe out the enemies (well that was difficult) and it just seems like there aint a whole lot to do in this game.
The campaign I suppose I fucked up. The 2nd mission where you start near the watchtower I can't seem to be able to win.
- tried turtling and making armies but then I attack the blue player and he totally fucks me up with millions of the shadow ghosts with 61 Hp and physical protection
- even managed to kill his underworld city and the first 2 overworld cities but as soon as my armies are a bit far he just storms me with more fucking ghosts and then he fucking razed all my cities once I conquered them back!! is this some quick raze skill? It's all frustrating as fuck..how should I play this mission?

Should I get the expansions? They seem quite expensive...
What'S a good way to develop the leader? I usually take some army-wide skills and HP + DEF
I crafted even a ring of regeneration and on the campaign map I think I took regeneration skill but that doesnt seem to do anything at all? my guys should renew 6 HP per turn?

aaah
It's not horrible but I really dislike the fucking 3D shit with tiny ant units and everything ugly as shit, AoW2 looked better.
 

Cadmus

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I suppose I'm not good at these games.
I like the doomstack thing and hate having to move 50 armies around to capture everything and move as quickly as possible, then I don't get to see my cool units and spells!
In general I dislike feeling like I have to rush things.
 

Absinthe

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Guys I got this on the free thing.
I don't know if I like it or not. I remember playing AoW2 and that being fukin difficult sometimes and nice graphics.

I played one random map and hm everything seems so samey... I reached the max everything I could find, wipe out the enemies (well that was difficult) and it just seems like there aint a whole lot to do in this game.
Yeah, base game is a bore. Used to be even worse before the patches. Most of the attempted fixes to vary up races, specializations, and add events and structures are included in the expansions. It's one of those games where the initial release sucked but instead of just patching it into something decent, they made you pay for expansions.

The campaign I suppose I fucked up. The 2nd mission where you start near the watchtower I can't seem to be able to win.
- tried turtling and making armies but then I attack the blue player and he totally fucks me up with millions of the shadow ghosts with 61 Hp and physical protection
Never turtle in single-player. The AI cheats so if you turtle he will just out-build you then steamroll you. It's a major flaw of AoW 3.

- even managed to kill his underworld city and the first 2 overworld cities but as soon as my armies are a bit far he just storms me with more fucking ghosts and then he fucking razed all my cities once I conquered them back!! is this some quick raze skill? It's all frustrating as fuck..how should I play this mission?
Destruction Adept. Scorched Earth strategic spell. No idea why this stunt is classified as magic, but hey.

Should I get the expansions? They seem quite expensive...
I suspected that the free game was a stunt to make you shell out full price for expansions. Game isn't much good without them.

What'S a good way to develop the leader? I usually take some army-wide skills and HP + DEF
Depends on the hero, your race, and the class. In general, your picks seem solid. A bit of res wouldn't go amiss either.

I crafted even a ring of regeneration and on the campaign map I think I took regeneration skill but that doesnt seem to do anything at all? my guys should renew 6 HP per turn?
Regeneration only applies to hero and makes him full heal every turn on the strategic map.

It's not horrible but I really dislike the fucking 3D shit with tiny ant units and everything ugly as shit, AoW2 looked better.
3D doesn't really do anything for me either. You just get used to it, I guess.
 

Zboj Lamignat

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I thought it's a very cpt obvious info by now, but vanilla aow3 is meh. The good news is, expansions improve it a lot, making it a very enjoyable experience.

If campaigns are your kind of thing, then I found the expansion ones fun and I'm someone who typically doesn't care much for campaigns in these games. At the very least they're objectively waaay better than vanilla ones.

If you're not doing good and want a comfortable learning curve, then start playing rmg with a class that has good summons and ranged options (sorcerer or druid). Pick basic air magic for seeker enchantment as well.
 

Johannes

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The campaign I suppose I fucked up. The 2nd mission where you start near the watchtower I can't seem to be able to win.
- tried turtling and making armies but then I attack the blue player and he totally fucks me up with millions of the shadow ghosts with 61 Hp and physical protection
Never turtle in single-player. The AI cheats so if you turtle he will just out-build you then steamroll you. It's a major flaw of AoW 3.
I never played the campaigns, but in skirmish against teamed-up max level AIs defensive play suited me best.

Are the campaigns harder than skirmish? Or just different? Never tried them, I usually prefer single maps in games like this.
 

Cadmus

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I haven't been following the game at all so I didn't know the base was boring.
It really seems dull and the heroes die real fast, I think they used to be more resillient in AoW2.

What expansions should I get? Fuck they are full-priced...Can I obtain a high sea expansion and connect it with the steam base game or that won't work?

I'm starting to think I should fuck it and try Spellforce 3 instead. Or what's a good alternative? played all the Hommams to death, disciples too, is there a game I'm missing?
 

Carceri

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It really seems dull and the heroes die real fast, I think they used to be more resillient in AoW2.

They get significantly stronger with a few levels under their belt and some artifacts, but not like the immortal gods from AOE1/2, that could level the entire map just by themselves.
 

Citizen

Guest
It's alrite, I really enjoyed the combat system. Its just the fact that most of previous games' charm came from the looks, and this one is ugly

Or what's a good alternative? played all the Hommams to death, disciples too, is there a game I'm missing?

Master of magic obv, but you probably played it. FFH2 is nice if you want a high fantasy 4x roflstomp, but it lacks in RPG elements (no items and limited stat increase for heroes and units)
 

Lagi

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It's alrite, I really enjoyed the combat system. Its just the fact that most of previous games' charm came from the looks, and this one is ugly



Master of magic obv, ...

MoM with Caster of Magic. Seravy is updating it almost daily. Main difference is the game is faster rolling out (faster unit / res / build time). Sorry for not the best comparison to vanilla - I play it casually only, excuse my lack of autism here.
 

Absinthe

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I haven't been following the game at all so I didn't know the base was boring. It really seems dull and the heroes die real fast, I think they used to be more resillient in AoW2.
Heroes are plenty resilient if you give them high defense and res. If you build armors they can become nigh indestructible. If you're having them melee Life Steal is a good addition on their weapon.

What expansions should I get? Fuck they are full-priced...Can I obtain a high sea expansion and connect it with the steam base game or that won't work?
Both, but you may have to wait for a sale. Right now the latest stunt by Paradox seems to be to release the base game for free and wait for people to burn money on full-price expansions though, instead of doing sales. Odds are it's making them more money too.

I'm starting to think I should fuck it and try Spellforce 3 instead. Or what's a good alternative? played all the Hommams to death, disciples too, is there a game I'm missing?
Eador: Genesis and Master of Magic. Eador: Genesis has a fan expansion called New Horizons that is well received. Eador: Genesis is developed and modded by diehard Russian HoMM3 fans, but it isn't an idle HoMM-clone. It's a proper fantasy TBS in its own right. There's a 3D remake of Eador: Genesis called Eador: Masters of the Broken world but it's uglier and buggier and basically not worth playing. It does have an exclusive expansion that Genesis does not, but the New Horizons mod is agreed to be superior anyway. Master of Magic is pretty much the game that launched the fantasy TBS genre, and in a number of aspects it is still unsurpassed. No multiplayer though, sadly. There's also the Civ 4 mods Fall From Heaven and Fall From Heaven 2.

Also, forgot to mention this but you can remove Scorched Earth with Disjunction.
 
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vota DC

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Archdruid heroes are very resilient: they have regrowth.....also regrowth stacks if you are very lucky and get it from other sources. Problem is that while older titles elemental attack of enemy armies checked your defense before the resistance this time you really need to have both defense and resistance if you don't want to suffer damage.
 

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