Age of Wonders 4

[anvi]

I think AOW3 is ok.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

On post-decline scale AoW3 is way more than just "ok". It's actually damn close to being a classic in my book, although I'm talking about the final version just to be clear.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Kinda disappointing how limited the armor selection is for rulers.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

Kinda disappointing how limited the armor selection is for rulers.

Mortal Champion rulers got the short end of the stick. They have only access to their culture armors, which is very limited. I think Industrious have the fewest. There was a mod that unlocked all options for any culture, but I think that mod is broken since the last large update. Its a bit better for Wizard kings, I think they always have the same options, around 10-12? Triumph really needs to do another pass over the content of the base game.
I can recommend the mod "Age of Colors", which increases the limited color selection. This one still works.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

 

[Heroic Liberator]

So a question regarding the pantheon system. If I use an already ascended ruler on another map, do the items, skills and minor enchantments that I unlock on this second map get added to the pantheon version of that ruler once I win or does it keep only the things that it had from the first map through which he ascended?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Think they exist as separate copies, not sure.

 

[chuft]

A huge fan of the series, I finally decided to give this a try, after trying Sunless Skies and giving up on it after discovering it was a twitch game, unlike Sunless Sea. Quite a disappointment.

I preordered AOW4 with the season pass and let it marinate for a few years while all the DLC's and patches came out. Well now I see there is a new, second season pass. Before spending any more money (I like to support Triumph, although Paradox is another matter) I decided I had better try it first.

I am having a hard time with the art decisions. They have made a number of changes that they seem proud of, that I find to be bad decisions.

For example the wiggling trees. I recall reading, in a history about the fighting in Burma in WW2, that when it rained, the whole jungle started moving. It wasn't the plants. It was leeches. Tens of thousands of leeches, wiggling around on every leaf and tree trunk in the rain. Soldiers looked at the landscape they were camped/marching in with horror, seeing a gigantic army of hungry, wriggling leeches on every piece of vegetation.

That image came to mind when I encountered the AOW4 landscapes with their wiggling trees. They are not blowing in the wind. They are each moving independently, in different directions, constantly. Like leeches.

The effect is distracting at best and nauseating at worst. Forests are not supposed to constantly be moving as if subjected to hurricane force winds coming from every direction at once.


This gif was posted by Triumph on their blog where they were bragging about their graphic decisions.


"Motion would come to play a big part of making it all come to life, whether it be leaves falling from trees, or bats flying above an Underground entrance," they wrote. Or leeches wriggling where a forest should be.

Again and again I find the art off-putting and often ugly compared to AOW3, never mind Planetfall.


I am also mystified (pardon the pun) by their excessive use of mist. They use it for fog of war, not just in areas you haven't explored yet, but also areas you have, just not as thick. This means at any given time you can clearly see an irritatingly small portion of the map, and most of it is misty.

The effect is even worse on the battlefield. The whole battlefield should be visible, but when you pull back, you see...nothing but mist.


This for example is a reasonably cool looking underground battlefield - while zoomed in. There is some mist in the background but it far enough away that it does not ruin the view.

However when you zoom out to try to actually control your army and assess the position, you get....mist and more mist, to the point you can't see clearly what the terrain is. You certainly can't enjoy what should be a nice view.

I mean, who thought this was a good decision? This isn't fog of war. It's just some annoying effect they thought was cool - that you can't turn off.


I can only hope someone mods the art blunders away.



There is also a lot of glowing going on, from pieces of armor on units, to almost anything really. It made it hard to see the outlines of units (which is often not easy already). Fortunately you can turn that off (a graphic setting called Bloom). but I have found no setting for turning off mist.

 

[chuft]

Some more pics of strategic areas I have explored, one underground, one surface. The previous games did not suffer from this kind of ugliness. The maps were beautiful. I can only assume this is Paradox influence. If not, Triumph has gone down the tubes.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Are you having any fun with the game tho, chuft?

 

[chuft]

No. Going back to AOW3 and Planetfall. Both were much more readable in terms of what was going on, in addition to having actual races that were not just Stellaris-type appearance changes, and were much better looking games at every zoom level.

 

[chuft]

For some AOW3 context: zoom out strategic map, zoom out underground strategic map, max zoom out battle map

 

[mediocrepoet]

Yeah, AoW4 sucks ass from a fundamental design level. They'd need to change their faction system around to have any hope of course correcting.

 

[chuft]

Triumph just locked both Steam threads where the fog/mist problem was being discussed. Well fuck them, that's the end of my support for Triumph.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I mean, that's a bit weird thing to get so buttblasted about. But you did arrive at a proper conclusion in the end, so all's good.

 

[chuft]

I didn't start either of the threads. This is not some problem only I noticed. Clearly they don't want discussion of it spreading.

 

[chuft]

Some more pics for comparison. I am still in disbelief how ugly AOW4 is compared to 3, when they both used the in-house Creator Engine.



First is AOW3 trees in an area outside of my vision range.

Second is AOW4 trees outside of my vision range, with the horrible mist effect. Even in visual range, the trees look cartoonish. The mist here is actually a mercy.

Last is the horribly ugly AOW4 strategic map.

For reference here is the AOW3 strategic map. I posted an image before but I was playing a leader with black as their faction color so it made the map look monochromatic. Here is a new game.

 

[Fedora Master]

I mean you're not wrong but that's hardly the game's main problem.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I'd love to see a detailed, honest post mortem re what happened with a lot of stuff in the series after 3, RMG being on of the top of the list or near it.

Quality of assets and shitty post-processing effects be damned, this, and the fact that there's less and less interesting stuff on the map to actually do, is easily one of the biggest reasons PF and 4 feel so lifeless and flat. And 3 was not a stellar looking game by any means, but the RMG there will really give you an enjoyable experience 9 seeds out of 10. I'd sometimes maybe restart if cornered by particularly shitty biomes and that's it. And 3 actually has mechanics to go around that or even use it to your advantage.

 

[chuft]

I mean you're not wrong but that's hardly the game's main problem.

What do you consider its main problem? If it has been covered already in this thread I will go back and read it.

 

[Lacrymas]

What do you consider its main problem? If it has been covered already in this thread I will go back and read it.

Samey factions and units, lack of singleplayer content, severe balance issues, DLC that only adds bloat, the worst strategic map gameplay of the entire series. And many more.

 

[Nekron]

hello rpg codex wonders fans
i have question for you all
i read and watch reviews of this game, all say game is look amazing
but i try this and my eyes hurt after play half hour..

to me, game look VERY ugly (this is max graphic), assets are low res, fog is very annoy, AND there is all sort of random small shit on the screen to 'pick up' (basket of fruit/small stack gold pieces etc.)

very hard to play this game, i squint all time, and in battles game looks EVEN WORSE, and i cannot tell what the fuck is going on, because there is all shit everywhere like random low-res piece of grass/tree sticking up every where

in AoW1/2 (my favorite games), it is very easy to see everything, things are very clear
also, menus are quick and responsive in earlier games. in this, AoW4, every fUCK menu have a 'open' animation that is slow and takes seconds, but in AoW1/2, u just click menu and instant it pops up and looks very nice

so my question to you, rpg codex,: am i the crazy? ??? EVERY review seem to praise this game, but all i see is hurt eyes and annoy. every1 say this game look great, but to me everything look low res and i cannot make out wtf is going on because everything blends in a low res pile of crap

am i playing with some wrong graphic setting? or is this just how the game 'is'???

????????????????????????????????????????



for to compare, this is jhust a random pictures of shadows magic:::

see in these picture? shadows magic everything is very clear, and easy to see what is happen. ! also, i did not take pic of combat, but believe me everything is also much more clearer there! (AND, THE INTERCEPT LINE FOR RANGED ATTACK IS ACTUALLY CAN BE SEEN IN THIS GAME!!! IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE IN aow4!!111???????????) also. look how clean the ui is in shadwos magic! EVERYHTING controls is on the bottom, and top is all beautiful world and units. in AoW4 UI have random shit EVERYWHERE on screen!!!

the problem i have.. is that i can not even play AoW4 to see if game is any fun, beacause it make my eyes so much the painful, and cannot see what is happening most of the time)

please tell me am i have some wrong grraphic setting in Aow4? or as my GPU broked? or are everyone who reviewing in the youtube and steam all FUCK RETARDEDD>?????????



me now:

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Yes, map being fugly and (way more important) boring is one of the big issues with the game.

And no, it's not fun.

 

[Reality]

I'll stomach visual noise if there's a chance (Fantasy General 2 vs 1) that the game underneath is cool but I hate the game underneath AoW 4 compared to previous so it just loses twice for me.

 

[chuft]

Nekron you must have missed my "AOW4 is ugly" discussion I started a few weeks ago. Just scroll up or click this to start reading it.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/age-of-wonders-4.145921/post-9241670

I too was shocked at what a letdown it was especially the fog. I posted about it in several Steam threads and Triumph locked them all. They are dead to me. I have gone back to AOW3 and it is much better.