Age of Wonders 3

[FuelBlooded]

I love the art direction you're going for!

 

[KoolNoodles]

Not a huge fan of the unit look, though the map looks fine(because it looks like Civ5/Warlock which looks fine), but then again, AoW had some cheeseball elements and not all the art really did it for me either(Shadow Demons mostly). As long as the game retains much of what makes AoW great, the art will be fine and probably grow on me.

 

[Tomipapa]

New Dev Journal: Adventure Sets:

http://www.ageofwonders.com/dev-journal-adventure-sets/

 

[Space Satan]

Yeah, posting.
Time for another development journal! This one will focus on Adventure Sets. Adventure Sets are used to regulate the type of ‘adventure’ the different kinds of structures offer. In this journal we’ll go into the technical framework behind the systems and show a little of how they function. Modders take note: you can create adventure sets in the level editor and link them to structures to make them function in new and exciting ways. As always these journals are about the current state of the development process, not the finished project. So expect things to change and to be rougher around the edges than they will be in the finished game. – Godewijn, Designer
Adventure Set Scope

In Age of Wonders 3 you’ll explore a world map filled with all manner of interesting objects.
Structures are a big part of this. Among the different kinds of structures that exist in the world we have treasure sites (explore these for items and other rewards), gold mines and similar sites (provide resources every turn) and sites like brigand camps (they spawn Brigands).

Brigand camp with a stack of newly spawned brigands.
Adventure sets give these structures their flavor in a number of different ways.
Guard Units: Very important for any structure are their units. Do they stand on top of the site or hide within? Units that stand on top we call Defenders: they’re visible and can be attacked by as many stacks as can surround them. They’re pretty vulnerable and guard structures like Watch Towers and Mana Nodes.
Units that do not we call Inhabitants: they’re not visible and can only ever be attacked by the one stack that ‘enters’ the structure. They guard structures like Tombs and Dungeons.
You can set what unit set they should be from (only Goblins for example), and what their strength should be (weak, normal, strong, random, disabled). You can even scale up or down what weak, normal etc. means and whether the units should be chosen randomly or if the most expensive unit that can be included with those settings should be included.

The guard unit settings of an adventure set.
Combat Properties: These set the structure’s magical flavor (if any). Global tactical combat enchantments can be an integral part of the structure in question. They can be disjuncted by strong enough Heroes or Leaders during the combat, if so desired. Think of enchantments like Suffocating Fumes and Wind Ward. The latter can be found on Air Nodes for example.

Rewards Link: Links to a different set that regulates the rewards of the structure. Basically what you find when a structure is captured for the first time. They can be units, items, gold, mana, knowledge and more. Expect even common Gold Mines to have a few gold pieces worth of nuggets lying around.
Spawn Units: It is possible for structures to spawn units and you can set those here.
Of course you can link the set of units that will be spawned (only animals for example, or only undead, or only bandits) and when the units should be spawned, but that’s not all.
Spawned units spawn with a behavior attached to them and you can set that here: Do they behave like animals? Do they raid everything they come across and attack mindlessly? Are they brigands who like to prey on the weak and occupy your gold mines?
This last option really brings the world to life!

The spawn settings of an adventure set
Adventure sets also link to the actual tactical map(s) that will be fought on.
In the Level Editor

In our level editor you can see all existing adventure sets and duplicate them to modify them or create new ones from scratch. Similarly you can create reward sets and link those in the adventure set. The adventure set will then need to be linked in the structure you’ve placed on the map and you’re done: a customized structures that does what you want it to!
As will hopefully be clear, using these adventure sets it is possible to make a lot of different flavors for structures. This is something we enjoy and hope you will also like. We also look forward to see the ones you create yourselves!
In other Dev Journals we’ll explore the different kinds of structures we’ve created so far, and how they work and look.
I’ll leave you with the complete list of settings as I think some of you will appreciate that:

A structure’s complete adventure set.

 

[Tomipapa]

Note that this picture is outdated(devs said on the official forum) because it should have something like "-8 ranged attack strength" not -8 to-hit(In AoW 3 units always hit only special abilities/spells have to hit chance)

 

[catfood]

In AoW 3 units always hit

First they nerfed flying units and now this? More popamolifcation in the vein of HoMMo, that's what this is.

 

[Tomipapa]

First they nerfed flying units and now this? More popamolifcation in the vein of HoMMo, that's what this is.

First i hated it also( actually its 4-5 month old news) but now im not so sure. Its a strategy game in the first place not an rpg. And in a strategy game it is quite irritating when your opponent win because of the lucky rolls. Also balance wise its better because low lvl units now dont miss 90% of the time against a dragon so they are more useful.
But here is what the devs said about this back in february:

Lennart Sas : The attack system has been changed to avoid the - in dev team’s opinion – abundant misses for regular attacks in the previous games. It also makes more sense with entire regiments clashing now, its not an old school D&D game where a guy takes a single swing. Added benefit is that it makes lower level units more useful, but there’s still a healthy damage fall off curve. Of course we still have damage protections and immunities. For special attacks we have added the option to add effects on a target’s successful saving rolls. E.g. a failed dominate could still stun or damage the target unit.

 

[Malakal]

In AoW 3 units always hit

First they nerfed flying units and now this? More popamolifcation in the vein of HoMMo, that's what this is.

Yes because having battles between 10 low level units on each side in AoW2 didnt consist of them missing 90% of the time while you were bored to death. Perhaps averages average out after 1000000 of hits but I prefer less randomness more strategy in my strategy games. And its not as boring.

 

[catfood]

Yeah, but ultimately it's just a thing of tweaking numbers. It is true that units in AOW2+ missed a lot but I remember that it was not as bad in AOW. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that units in the first game had their attributes capped at 10, compared to 20 in the sequels, so there was less of a difference between the attack and defence of two opponents.

 

[flushfire]

Yes because having battles between 10 low level units on each side in AoW2 didnt consist of them missing 90% of the time while you were bored to death. Perhaps averages average out after 1000000 of hits but I prefer less randomness more strategy in my strategy games. And its not as boring.

Never had a problem with it though? Less accurate ranged units were given multiple attacks for balance right. Some of the animations were slow and annoying but that's about it. It's not like the game was RT. Don't mind either way but always hitting takes some factors away like elevation, range, cover. I guess they can make up with modified damage but still.

 

[Suicidal]

I agree that the to-hit chances in AoW 2 (and AoW 1 as well, actually) were complete bullshit. I remember beating entire hordes of units with a lone hero just because he had 20 defense and lifesteal, meaning that 9 out of 10 attacks against him missed, and those that actually came through he'd just heal off with lifesteal. However, they could have kept the miss/hit chances but made them less stupid, like making the to-hit chance never go down below 50% or something, instead of removing them completely, but still, for me, it is a welcome change.

 

[Tomipapa]

I guess they can make up with modified damage

Yeah, probably this will happen. Instead of to hit penalty range and cover gives damage penalty.

 

[Malakal]

Besides how does an entire squad of troops miss another squad of troops? Dodging is never a huge thing IRL its all about blocking and armor.

 

[Raghar]

Besides how does an entire squad of troops miss another squad of troops? Dodging is never a huge thing IRL its all about blocking and armor.

Play Risen, it had very realistic combat. Footwork is really important and majority of people rather dodged bardishe than let it connect at full speed. It also placed the bardishe user into disadvantage.

 

[Space Satan]

Melee low-level units always were an outsiders in AoW. They missed everyone, could not endure enough damage. Damn, I still remember how 1 Spectre with Enchant weapon buff slaughtered entire armies alone. Noone used them even for garrisons.

 

[Malakal]

Besides how does an entire squad of troops miss another squad of troops? Dodging is never a huge thing IRL its all about blocking and armor.

Play Risen, it had very realistic combat. Footwork is really important and majority of people rather dodged bardishe than let it connect at full speed. It also placed the bardishe user into disadvantage.

We talking 20 vs 20 situations or 1 vs 1? Because frankly someone who brings a bardiche/pike to a solo fight is retarded. My point is strategy games are not designed for handling 1 vs 1 situations but whole armies. Can you realistically see an entire squad of 20 people dodge attacks from another squad of 20 people?

 

[Tomipapa]

Sadly no new Dev Journal, just this:

"The yearly Gamescom expo in Cologne (Germany) is in just 13 more days and here at Triumph Studios we are very hard at work creating a brand new Age of Wonders III demonstration. We will be showing more of some of the previously announced classes in a brand new scenario. And even though we won’t be doing a public demo at the Gamescom showfloor, we are planning to release plenty of screenshots, info and new video footage on this website."

So expect a huge amount of update

 

[Tomipapa]

Some nice pictures, according to the guy(Oskar Kuijken) he did an intership at Triumph between February and July.

http://www.oskarkuijken.com/?page=projAoW3#AoW3b0

 

[Space Satan]

Today we introduce Gustav. Gustav is a fearsome dreadnought dwarf, obsessed by technology and brute firepower. He is also the leading character of Triumph Studios’ upcoming press demonstration of Age of Wonders III at Gamescom next week. The class of Dreadnought is one of six classes that can be played in the game and although it was introduced in the announcement trailer, this will be the first time you can see what this destructive class will be like in-game.

Don’t worry if you’re not a member of the press, because we will simultaneously release a new trailer with a whopping 10+ minutes of gameplay. Make sure you also subscribe to us on Youtube and keep an eye on this website!

 

[laclongquan]

You know what's wrong with your artwork and shits?

No tits and asses.

I cant stress enough this feature among the in-development games. You release shitton of monsters and maybe your diehard fans will pay attention. Release one good female characters, preferably with lots of skins and T&A, and suddenly the rest sit up and take notice.

What's wrong with graphic artists?

 

[catfood]

Fuck Gustav, where's Bormac?

 

[Tomipapa]

11 min Dreadnought gameplay!!!

 

[catfood]

Now I understand why they removed the to-hit chance. 120 hp units omg.

Looks decent to be honest, even with the HoMMoification of flying units. I like the fact that now world map tiles yield resources like in MOM and CIV. Hopefully the expansion mechanic is going to focus more on building new cities rather than capturing already built ones.

The interface looks like complete ass though. Why the hell do they insist on making it look like CIV5? It's bad enough that Warlock uses the exact same style, now AOW3 does too. Why can't they come up with something original? Don't tell me it's a marketing/psychological design choice based on some harebrained study which shows that players are more likely to buy stuff that looks similar to stuff they're already familiar with because I don't buy it.

 

[Space Satan]

I like what I am seeing

 

[CarnivalBizarre]

I like what I am seeing

Yeah, me too. The AI looks stupid, but that what difficulty level are for