Age of Wonders 4

[Blutwurstritter]

Does someone know what evil alignment does besides diplomacy? The wiki says it "will make negative outcomes for random events more likely", but what exactly are random events?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Does someone know what evil alignment does besides diplomacy? The wiki says it "will make negative outcomes for random events more likely", but what exactly are random events?

It's a paradox game now, so your gameplay gets interrupted when the game feels like it and you are greeted with a box of text and some choices, some of which are based on resources, others your affinity and so on. Alignment probably gets included in that as well.

Alignment was cool gameplay-wise in 3 once shadowborn, keepers and grey guard were introduced, but I don't think this game has anything like that.

 

[Lord of Riva]

Does someone know what evil alignment does besides diplomacy? The wiki says it "will make negative outcomes for random events more likely", but what exactly are random events?

"negative " events are those with more "evil" decisions from what I can gather. All in all evil has some disadvantages, most likely seen as balanced through easier access to aggressive behavior in a war game but otherwise it's not much of an impact*.

One dev stated that evil alignment decays, while good alignment does not.

*High culture have alignment agenda and get's bonuses for very good, very evil and true neutral alignments also there is the scions of evil and the whatever it's called for good traits.

 

[whocares]

I will not eat the bugs. I will not live in a pod. I will not use 2FA.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Just give me a good campaign, some fantasy bullshit story, and handcrafted missions and I'll be all over it. I can't find it in me to care about randomly generated maps and single scenarios. Who even plays those unless they've already beaten the campaign 7 times, as one does?

I'm the exact opposite. I generally hate strategy campaigns because they limit your builds and what you have access to for some sort of lame story that no one gives a shit about. Just toss up a number of competitors and fuck off with all that imo.

I can't believe anyone actually likes strategy game stories, tbh. Why?

 

[whocares]

I will not eat the bugs. I will not live in a pod. I will not use 2FA.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I can't believe the opposite.

Because campaign gives you a clear and interesting goal and something to progress towards. An empty box that just says "WIN" on it gets boring within minutes. Playing a mission with some basic units to learn the ropes, then advancing to using some new units, then facing greater challenges keeps things fresh throughout the whole 20-40-whatever hours of the campaign. And then when your memory banks are purged of it, you can replay it in a year or two and find it just as fun.

A scenario where everything is unlocked right away and nothing to look forward to is fun for an hour tops and remains exactly the same even if you rearrange the map a bit.

And the pointless story adds some flavor and makes things more fun. Even if it's just serviceable.

Yeah, you can do that by playing different factions and trying a small map to get the hang of things before going into a bigger map with more people, probably on a higher difficulty.

Anyway, I'm not sure why you're complaining. Storyfags are serviced everywhere and many games have the training wheels you're looking for.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

An empty box that just says "WIN" on it gets boring within minutes.

But that's all a campaign is, shorn of all the excess.

 

[whocares]

I will not eat the bugs. I will not live in a pod. I will not use 2FA.

 

[Sranchammer]

Combatfags deserve the firing line

 

[Blutwurstritter]

I can't believe the opposite.

Because campaign gives you a clear and interesting goal and something to progress towards. An empty box that just says "WIN" on it gets boring within minutes. Playing a mission with some basic units to learn the ropes, then advancing to using some new units, then facing greater challenges keeps things fresh throughout the whole 20-40-whatever hours of the campaign. And then when your memory banks are purged of it, you can replay it in a year or two and find it just as fun.

A scenario where everything is unlocked right away and nothing to look forward to is fun for an hour tops and remains exactly the same even if you rearrange the map a bit.

And the pointless story adds some flavor and makes things more fun. Even if it's just serviceable.

Yeah, you can do that by playing different factions and trying a small map to get the hang of things before going into a bigger map with more people, probably on a higher difficulty.

Anyway, I'm not sure why you're complaining. Storyfags are serviced everywhere and many games have the training wheels you're looking for.

I don't think its mainly about the story. It is about properly designed missions. At least that's what I like most about campaigns and hand crafted scenarios. Ideally the game provides both, a decent rng/skirmish and a campaign/scenarios. The way Planetfall handled it was shit. They basically removed/skipped everything that is required to make a good campaign, which is hand crafted content. A campaign like that is indeed a superfluous piece of shit. But proper challenges with a small background story are nice. It also adds to the world building. Simple things like having good guys and bad guys, fractions with motifs, some lore, etc. A good campaign provides this and combines it with well made maps. I'm not fond of this "create your own shit approach" and "emergent story telling hoax", most of the time it doesn't work out, or you have to spent way too much time on it for something interesting to happen. A proper campaign can provide directly quality content, without the need to rely on the rng to create something interesting by pure chance.
I haven't played enough of AoW4 for a final judgement call, but I would have liked a "normal" campaign, that's for sure.

 

[anvi]

Can someone explain why starting with 3 they decided to ditch their formula of HoMM with 4X elements and Dire Penguins, and turned it into an actual 4X game, only more simplistic. Because that's what people looking for a 4X game want. Simplicity.

Just give me a good campaign, some fantasy bullshit story, and handcrafted missions and I'll be all over it. I can't find it in me to care about randomly generated maps and single scenarios. Who even plays those unless they've already beaten the campaign 7 times, as one does?

But seriously, when I saw what they were going for with 3, I just noped out of it and stopped caring. Was there a big uproar about them changing things so drastically, or am I the one out of touch and their audience actually wanted that shit?

Age of Wonders 3 was so boring for me I thought I was done with the entire series forever. But I tried Shadow Magic again and it's a lot of fun, much better game. And most of it is pretty obvious to see why now that I can compare the two.

 

[Beowulf]

fractions with motifs

Half of the fractions in video games have a motif of being rather negative.

 

[Lacrymas]

Different campaign missions allow you to appreciate the various aspects of the game by being focused on a variety of its mechanics. When you have everything at your disposal, you tend to do the same things because they work. It requires mental labor to limit yourself the way a properly-designed campaign map does.

Anyway, first impressions is that the split between building and unit queues lead to more armies faster. A friend of mine is currently staying with me for a while for my birthday and I was watching him play it. He had like 6 full armies by turn 25ish and the army micromanagement was starting to frustrate him.

 

[smaug]

Different campaign missions allow you to appreciate the various aspects of the game by being focused on a variety of its mechanics. When you have everything at your disposal, you tend to do the same things because they work. It requires mental labor to limit yourself the way a properly-designed campaign map does.

Anyway, first impressions is that the split between building and unit queues lead to more armies faster. A friend of mine is currently staying with me for a while for my birthday and I was watching him play it. He had like 6 full armies by turn 25ish and the army micromanagement was starting to frustrate him.

Tell your boyfriend I say hi.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I'm the exact opposite. I generally hate strategy campaigns because they limit your builds and what you have access to for some sort of lame story that no one gives a shit about. Just toss up a number of competitors and fuck off with all that imo.

I can't believe anyone actually likes strategy game stories, tbh. Why?

I didn't even imagine people cared that much until I've seen some comments in this thread.

Scripted campaigns in most 4X were usually the equivalent of an overbearing extended tutorial. Age of Wonders was no exception.
And moving on to sandbox mode played in a large map was "When you were finally playing the game for real".

Anyway, I just finished my first run with the tiny introductory map.
I played with this handsome fella, mostly sticking to chaotic and nature magic in equal measure (mostly for the sake of sticking to the archetype I imagine at first, even when it looked like there were better min-maxing options for Magic Tomes to learn).

The game is solid.
- I like the province-claiming system over having just your city projecting an increasingly large range.
- I like the tweaks to the diplomacy system, especially when it comes to the "grievances" system.
- I like how much impact you can have on the way your entire race develops, with mutations and shit.
- Sustained buffs getting automatically applied to all units of a certain type rather than on a case-by-case basis is... An acquired taste. I wouldn't really say it's either objectively better or worse that how it was done in the past, but at first impression I'd be incline to say it didn't bother me a single big.
- The combat is MOSTLY well paced (it's bogged down a bit in the late game when "doomstacks vs doomstacks" becomes more common, but in general when the number of units is kept at bay things progress smoothly. It's not "Pace: watching glaciers drift" as it used to to be in AOW1, 2 and SM.
- Cosmetically the improvements over AOW 3 are massive. Which is admittedly setting the bar low, since that game had some of the worst 3D models I've ever seen. Scenario, units, [some] heroes and the UI are now all surprisingly good looking.
- I don't think the computer AI is going to win big contests for "coder of the year", but it's for the most part surprisingly competent and usually it makes an appropriate use of abilities, spells and choices of targets.
- Related to the previous point, the "auto-resolve" option is not an instant "sacrifice most of what you got for no reason". It actually takes few seconds to run a quick simulation and then comes off with an estimation of "how did it go" that seems to make sense. Also, you are still offered the option AFTER using it to answer "Nah, fuck it" and make your own attempt at micromanaging everything better.
- The game seems to be fairly meaty as it is. Even before more DLCs, seasons passes and other shit. Unlike Spellforce: Conquest of Eo early this year, it doesn't give that impression of being just a demo of what could be done with more money.

On the downsides:
- I didn't spend much time playing "naval/marine battles, but the little I did was an absolutely miserable experience that I will now actively try to avoid.
- I was fairly disappointed with the "Heroes who want to join me" that I was constantly offered across my mini-campaign. Maybe it's just the combination of faction/map I choose to play, but they REALLY didn't seem to come in large variety (I'm talking specifically in terms of skills and talents here, but the same is somewhat true for their cosmetic variety).
- Magic was... a bit of a mixed bag. Some cool stuff, but a lot of incredibly situational spells that I often really didn't know how to make (meaningful) use of. Also, very little options for (impactful) direct damage offered, too. I probably need to test some other magic branches before being sure this applies to everything, but let's say the first impression didn't left me in awe.

 

[Lacrymas]

Different campaign missions allow you to appreciate the various aspects of the game by being focused on a variety of its mechanics. When you have everything at your disposal, you tend to do the same things because they work. It requires mental labor to limit yourself the way a properly-designed campaign map does.

Anyway, first impressions is that the split between building and unit queues lead to more armies faster. A friend of mine is currently staying with me for a while for my birthday and I was watching him play it. He had like 6 full armies by turn 25ish and the army micromanagement was starting to frustrate him.

Tell your boyfriend I say hi.

He's not my boyfriend, I currently don't have a partner ;d He just lives in a different town and we visit each other for a week when we can.

 

[Lord of Riva]

I can't believe the opposite.

Because campaign gives you a clear and interesting goal and something to progress towards. An empty box that just says "WIN" on it gets boring within minutes. Playing a mission with some basic units to learn the ropes, then advancing to using some new units, then facing greater challenges keeps things fresh throughout the whole 20-40-whatever hours of the campaign. And then when your memory banks are purged of it, you can replay it in a year or two and find it just as fun.

A scenario where everything is unlocked right away and nothing to look forward to is fun for an hour tops and remains exactly the same even if you rearrange the map a bit.

And the pointless story adds some flavor and makes things more fun. Even if it's just serviceable.

Yeah, you can do that by playing different factions and trying a small map to get the hang of things before going into a bigger map with more people, probably on a higher difficulty.

Anyway, I'm not sure why you're complaining. Storyfags are serviced everywhere and many games have the training wheels you're looking for.

I'm complaining because I had a series that gave me what I liked, but now it doesn't give me what I like anymore.

And I'm also gloating a bit because by the looks of it the people who were supposed to like it, don't like it that much either. The sweet taste of atodaso.

But that's all a campaign is, shorn of all the excess.

But that fluff is what makes it not boring.

I play these games in Multiplayer, the RMG is where it's at. I played through the campaign once and then be done with it.

 

[Skorpion]

I can't believe the opposite.

Because campaign gives you a clear and interesting goal and something to progress towards. An empty box that just says "WIN" on it gets boring within minutes. Playing a mission with some basic units to learn the ropes, then advancing to using some new units, then facing greater challenges keeps things fresh throughout the whole 20-40-whatever hours of the campaign. And then when your memory banks are purged of it, you can replay it in a year or two and find it just as fun.

A scenario where everything is unlocked right away and nothing to look forward to is fun for an hour tops and remains exactly the same even if you rearrange the map a bit.

And the pointless story adds some flavor and makes things more fun. Even if it's just serviceable.

Yeah, you can do that by playing different factions and trying a small map to get the hang of things before going into a bigger map with more people, probably on a higher difficulty.

Anyway, I'm not sure why you're complaining. Storyfags are serviced everywhere and many games have the training wheels you're looking for.

I'm complaining because I had a series that gave me what I liked, but now it doesn't give me what I like anymore.

And I'm also gloating a bit because by the looks of it the people who were supposed to like it, don't like it that much either. The sweet taste of atodaso.

But that's all a campaign is, shorn of all the excess.

But that fluff is what makes it not boring.

I play these games in Multiplayer, the RMG is where it's at. I played through the campaign once and then be done with it.

This is the first 4x in a long time that Im seriously considering diving into multiplayer for.
Still having too much fun in sandbox right now though, but yeah when I get a handle on all the tomes and such I think I will dive into MP.

 

[Dr1f7]

guess you might as well enjoy the mp now since it'll be dead in a few weeks

 

[Skorpion]

guess you might as well enjoy the mp now since it'll be dead in a few weeks

no I have this rare thing called friends, they are all doing mp of this right now but Im having too much fun doing sandbox to join
this game will be in our circle for a long time as we all got together to play homm3 mp originally and feel the combat in this game is a spiritual successor while the kingdom management side is more akin to civ type games but way way faster
so dead or not as you predict, as with most pvp type games it will live on in certain circles regardless of wider player-base

 

[Dr1f7]

guess you might as well enjoy the mp now since it'll be dead in a few weeks

no I have this rare thing called friends, they are all doing mp of this right now but Im having too much fun doing sandbox to join
this game will be in our circle for a long time as we all got together to play homm3 mp originally and feel the combat in this game is a spiritual successor while the kingdom management side is more akin to civ type games but way way faster
so dead or not as you predict, as with most pvp type games it will live on in certain circles regardless of wider player-base

having gamer friends lol

 

[Harthwain]

Even if you don't have friends, I imagine it is possible to find like minded individuals on Discord to play multiplayer. Applicable not just to this game.

 

[Lord of Riva]

We should organize a Codex game

 

[Lagi]

We should organize a Codex game

record it and give YT link. Before the game is solved.
that would be quite cool, to see how people adapt to the game they have no knowledge, instead of studing wikis.