Age of Wonders 3

[Malakal]

Looks graphically inferior to AoW1.

Fixed

Yes, sure, 100% accurate assessment. It can be said it looks generic - it does but at least its less pixelated than AoW1.

 

[octavius]

Gameplay video:



I dunno...the 3D reminds me too much about HoMM V. It was a good game, but 3D didn't really add anything worthwhile IMO.
But then I didn't like the look of AoW:SM the first time either, so it may take some adjusting to like.
I hope there will be a proper grid on the battlefield, and that height and line of sight is still a factor.

 

[Borelli]

Units being in a group
Bonus when flanking
Turning around makes you lose retaliate
Exactly the same sound effects as before

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

What annoys me about these graphics is that it's another CiV lookalike. It seems that TB strategy developers didn't get the memo, but CiV looks like shit, move on please.

 

[J_C]

What annoys me about these graphics is that it's another CiV lookalike. It seems that TB strategy developers didn't get the memo, but CiV looks like shit, move on please.

Civ5 doesn't look like shit and this game is not a Civ 5 lookalike. Try harder.

 

[hoverdog]

looks MIGHTY AWESOME.

 

[JarlFrank]

The graphics are adequate, the battle system is fucking awesome so who cares anyway.

 

[catfood]

Ok, it mostly looks good, even though I still don't like the 6 unit limit per stack.


But just what the fuck is up with the dragon conveniently landing on his ass waiting for melee units to attack him? What the fuck is this shit, HoMMo? Part of the reason why flying units were so dangerous in the previous installments was that they played by their own rules. You just couldn't tackle them like you normally would with any other unit. Low gravity, entangle, web, frost spells, shock spells or range units was what you needed. I bet they won't even be able to fly over terrain on the campaign map either.

EDIT: also, none of the units ever missed. There's still an attack rating, right? Right???

 

[Monkeyfinger]

But just what the fuck is up with the dragon conveniently landing on his ass waiting for melee units to attack him? What the fuck is this shit, HoMMo? Part of the reason why flying units were so dangerous in the previous installments was that they played by their own rules. You just couldn't tackle them like you normally would with any other unit. Low gravity, entangle, web, frost spells, shock spells or range units was what you needed. I bet they won't even be able to fly over terrain on the campaign map either.

EDIT: also, none of the units ever missed. There's still an attack rating, right? Right???

Flying units still have strategic map flight, but they land in combat to prevent an exploit where people would defend a city or choke with a cheap hawk and pass turns until the battle timed out.

Defense stat now reduces incoming damage instead of acting as an evasion stat.

 

[Turisas]

The graphics are adequate, the battle system is fucking awesome so who cares anyway.

More than adequate I'd say, not a huge fan of the UI style or the fonts used, but the graphics themselves are p. cool.

 

[Borelli]

Flying units still have strategic map flight, but they land in combat to prevent an exploit where people would defend a city or choke with a cheap hawk and pass turns until the battle timed out.

Laaaaaaaameeeeee. They could have conjured up something else to prevent exploits instead of axing flying.
Hope dwarfs still get their mountaineering.

 

[Malakal]

Flying units still have strategic map flight, but they land in combat to prevent an exploit where people would defend a city or choke with a cheap hawk and pass turns until the battle timed out.

Laaaaaaaameeeeee. They could have conjured up something else to prevent exploits instead of axing flying.
Hope dwarfs still get their mountaineering.

Flying units should not be capable of infinite sustained flight in one spot so it makes some sense from the logical point of view. Unless they are mechanical.

I didnt use this exploit but can indeed see how that was a problem. On the other hand it makes flying units less awesome... mixed feelings there.

 

[EruDaan]

For me it looks that they adapted the Master of Magic unit size system. And Dragons were auto-win in AoW 1 for the very fact that they could fly. In AoW2 their relativ strength was toned down because of some spells that might(!) work or not and force the dragon down. Now they ist there and wait for being killed.... not. As you can see (or not) the attackers were relativly powerful units and buffed up by spells. And their took losses just from the dragons breath. With some support I can imagine even non flying dragons to stop whole armies.

 

[Raghar]

Flying units still have strategic map flight, but they land in combat to prevent an exploit where people would defend a city or choke with a cheap hawk and pass turns until the battle timed out.

Well, they could do it realistically. An air unit that doesn't attack will not prevent enemy to enter the city/fortress and finish theirs goals. See? It's simple, efficient, realistic, and it works with rules AoW uses.

 

[Kem0sabe]

More than adequate I'd say, not a huge fan of the UI style or the fonts used, but the graphics themselves are p. cool.

For me the first image will always look better... that being said, the 3D in the second imagine is pretty spiffy, it has a clean look to it that appeals to me.

Spoiler

 

[Dickie]

I found it kinda hard to tell exactly who was adjacent to what without a grid. I really hope you can turn that on.

 

[visions]

http://www.incgamers.com/2013/03/age-of-wonders-3-interview-with-triumph-studios-lenart-sas/

New interview.

Choice quotes:

Implementing Artificial Intelligence is always the hardest part in a game like this. For every gameplay rule, spell or unit ability we need to determine if the AI would be able to use it effectively. We went back looking at mechanics from the previous games and indentified some bottlenecks like sea combat and flight, which have been changed to help AI, as a consequence it should also be more fair and balance for human players.

Your alignment is also affected by what races you absorb in your empire. So if you’re a nice guy and absorb a tribe or nasty orcs, you have to consider that there’s going to be some unrest and your alignment goes down, at least for a while. The bigger the relations difference, the longer it takes for to absorb the people of a conquered town.

The concept of sieges is the same, it’s all about breaking through the wall and getting to the defender. We have changed the layout of siege maps, with the clashing armies standing opposite of each other and the wall in-between. The advantage is less longwinded treks around walls for multi-army attack and more realistic looking towns.

AoW3 will ship with six player races, six player classes and at least six specialization “spheres”, which include magic. The initial races will be High Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Draconians Goblins and Orcs. It doesn’t mean the other races have all gone extinct and we hope to release them at some later stage!

 

[DeepOcean]

I liked the lack of counter-attack when flanking, it will probrably make position and formations more useful and making swarm tactics with low level units more useful, but it can be exploitable especially if the AI isn't good enough.

 

[Malakal]

AI was using it too if you watched the battle closely. And move = less attacks seems to be in too. Heroes are a bit strong tho.

 

[Raghar]

Heroes are a bit strong tho.

C'mon, it's not like a mage in Eador couldn't summon phoenix and win even when he was killed.

 

[Malakal]

Heroes are a bit strong tho.

C'mon, it's not like a mage in Eador couldn't summon phoenix and win even when he was killed.

Look closer, this hero in the battle vs dragon that took what, 5 hits and 2 breaths? is level one. LEVEL ONE. VS a dragon. Heroes were too OP in previous games, now its even more ridiculous.

 

[Raghar]

I have more problems with what they did to elves. The hero went from 80 to 33 HP, and he had dragon slayer trait.

 

[Malakal]

Level one dragon slayer, at level five hell be god slayer and at level 10 plane killer. On level twenty one his hit will end the universe.

88hp on level one, balance is way off the whack here.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

shadow world is confirmed out, even for dlc

 

[Borelli]

The mixing and matching of races is still there! However alignment is now variable, determined by our actions, like razing and looting, or being a super nice guy to everyone. Your alignment is also affected by what races you absorb in your empire. So if you’re a nice guy and absorb a tribe or nasty orcs, you have to consider that there’s going to be some unrest and your alignment goes down, at least for a while. The bigger the relations difference, the longer it takes for to absorb the people of a conquered town.

Getting an Eador vibe off this. But in Eador you are a blank state so your actions build your character, in AoW if i pick Yaka the fire mage and take orcs you know damn well i won't be playing mr. nice guy. On the other hand

Your alignment is also affected by what races you absorb in your empire.

This also exists in AoW so i think the final result will be that instead of seeing this on your character screen:
+you have majority of good races
-anarchist
we will also be seeing this
+you don't raze and loot
Won't be that big of a deal

The concept of sieges is the same, it’s all about breaking through the wall and getting to the defender. We have changed the layout of siege maps, with the clashing armies standing opposite of each other and the wall in-between. The advantage is less longwinded treks around walls for multi-army attack and more realistic looking towns

AoW3 has more depth and challenge than the previous games

Mhmmhm i see how much "more" depth it has.