TBS Age of Wonders: Planetfall - AoW gone to space

[Galdred]

Why play something like that instead of SMAC?

Actually, my main problem with all the "Civ based" 4X is that there is too much micromanagement.
Once I got burnt out of SMAC (and Civ), I found it very hard to come back to it, when games like AE are much faster to play(a game takes 5h or so, despite its weak UI).
For the same reason, I have been unable to play more than a single game of each Civ iteration after the first one (after I spent hundreds of hours on Civ 1).

 

[chuft]

I like long games.

 

[AdamReith]

Micro-management is such a double edged sword.

Like, I jumped into Endless Space 2 one evening and I was having a lot of fun and loving how stream lined everything was.

But the longer I played the more things started to lose their shape and it all kind of congealed into one of those clicker games in a way that MOO2 and SMAC never did. Those games tend to feel crunchy from their micro-hungriness and that is kind of where the value of the game is in the first place.

 

[Citizen]

Like, I jumped into Endless Space 2 one evening and I was having a lot of fun and loving how stream lined everything was.

ES2 isn't too micromanagement-heavy unless you are playing fucking CRAVERS. Then it becomes micro hell, where you try to balance your populations to delay systems depletion

 

[Heroic Liberator]

50% off on Steam atm.



Worth the price?

 

[Lacrymas]

It's inferior to AoW3 in every conceivable way, except maybe graphics, but both are shit due to being modern middle-budget 3D.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

I prefer the SF setting though. Damn it, Paradox; why make the Dvar and then put them in a shit game?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

It's AoW3 with a (shitty and bland) sf coat of paint, more varied races (but only when it comes to units), no more tier 4 spam and worse everything else.

Short and accurate description of this game is: 4X that's shite as a strategy game, but with tactical combat that puts other 4X to shame.

I still like combat in AoW3 more btw, despite unit improvements.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Any chances of the two planned expansions greatly improving things in your view, Zboj Lamignat?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I thought so initially, but now I don't really have much hope. AoW3 was bland at release and the two major expansions made it into a pretty great game, but it had foundations that just needed flavor and variety that the expansions added.

With this one I can't really see them suddenly dropping the horrible and boring sector system, for example, or making it into something interesting. The last major update actually made it even more basic. Their idea for giving races unique strategic flavor were fascinating bonuses like a bit more starting resources or 1 additional low tier unit. Yeah, I just don't see it.

Also, I think this game is pretty much dead so it's rather likely that they aren't actually pouring effort and resources into it anymore and will just release dlc because they have to.

 

[fantadomat]

Any chances of the two planned expansions greatly improving things in your view, Zboj Lamignat?

Doubt it,better go re/play AoW 1&2. The game is not worth sailing the high sea,let alone paying for it. It is mediocre 4x game with generic maps. I couldn't finish a single map,while i had replayed the older ones at least 3 times each.

 

[BING XI LAO]

Any chances of the two planned expansions greatly improving things in your view, Zboj Lamignat?

Doubt it,better go re/play AoW 1&2. The game is not worth sailing the high sea,let alone paying for it. It is mediocre 4x game with generic maps. I couldn't finish a single map,while i had replayed the older ones at least 3 times each.

And don't forget to PM me or post on the GoG forum if you want to play PBEM! I have also been making some fairly good aow1 maps recently.

 

[fantadomat]

Any chances of the two planned expansions greatly improving things in your view, Zboj Lamignat?

Doubt it,better go re/play AoW 1&2. The game is not worth sailing the high sea,let alone paying for it. It is mediocre 4x game with generic maps. I couldn't finish a single map,while i had replayed the older ones at least 3 times each.

And don't forget to PM me or post on the GoG forum if you want to play PBEM! I have also been making some fairly good aow1 maps recently.

Kudos you you mate,but i am not multiplayer dude. Now if it was a fast passed unreal shootout or quake 2....fuck i haven't played that in decade .

 

[chuft]

Also, I think this game is pretty much dead so it's rather likely that they aren't actually pouring effort and resources into it anymore and will just release dlc because they have to.

Why do you think it’s dead? Haven’t there been a lot of updates?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Dead as in nobody plays it or gives a fuck.

And they're releasing a patch every couple of months with barely any improvements and the first dlc is a big meh so I don't think there's been a lot of updates.

 

[cvv]

Meh it took like 3 years for AoW3 to get into a playable shape. Triumph are known for always doing the right thing once they exhaust all the other options.

Reserving my judgement.

 

[Suicidal]

I bought it recently and been playing hot seat with my friend and it's quite fun. My favorite thing about this game is the unit upgrading system that allows you do some really weird shit with your armies and makes every game even on the same faction and tech feel different.

I think the combat and army management parts of the game are the best they have ever been in the series, but they made map exploration/economy more boring - there aren't enough different points of interest on the map to contest over and the only interesting thing you can do is to hunt for deposits of that blue resource you need for unit upgrades that you always run out of. I also preferred the AoW 3 approach to city building (hunting for places with lots of landmarks and placing your city right in the middle for those sweet bonuses) to this new approach of slowly spreading across the map district by district like COVID-19. I hope they will make the strategic map more varied and interesting with the coming DLCs.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

To-hit chance, staggering mechanic and severe dumbing down of morale system prevent me from enjoying the combat as much as AoW3. Then there's the ubiquity of aoe attacks which spoils the encounters and makes ai do really dumb shit all the time (also wrecks the autoresolve for some factions/units, which is a rather big problem when it comes to pacing). Flying unit making a comeback is a nice change, but doesn't really offset much do to huge focus on ranged weapons. The combat is still pretty damn good, mind you, and you're absolutely right that the variety of units, secret techs and mods is really cool and the biggest draw of the game by far.

I hope they will make the strategic map more varied and interesting with the coming DLCs.

They tried to do that with patches and the first dlc, so they see it as a pain point, which is good in theory. In practice, they had very little success so far imo and to make the strategic layer actually enjoyable they would need to heavily revamp, if not outright drop/replace, entire systems like city building or sectors and I don't think that's very likely.

 

[chuft]

Curious if the solo/ co-op players have a better or worse opinion than the online/PBEM competitive players.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

As soon as you find any you can let us know.

 

[chuft]

I only play solo/co-op AoW games myself so I am not concerned by the “balance” shrieking so common to the forums for these games. In fact I mod them to my taste.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

As soon as you find any you can let us know.

I don't mind the game, but I am strategically impaired so my opinion is for naught.

 

[Suicidal]

To-hit chance, staggering mechanic and severe dumbing down of morale system prevent me from enjoying the combat as much as AoW3. Then there's the ubiquity of aoe attacks which spoils the encounters and makes ai do really dumb shit all the time (also wrecks the autoresolve for some factions/units, which is a rather big problem when it comes to pacing). Flying unit making a comeback is a nice change, but doesn't really offset much do to huge focus on ranged weapons. The combat is still pretty damn good, mind you, and you're absolutely right that the variety of units, secret techs and mods is really cool and the biggest draw of the game by far.

I hope they will make the strategic map more varied and interesting with the coming DLCs.

They tried to do that with patches and the first dlc, so they see it as a pain point, which is good in theory. In practice, they had very little success so far imo and to make the strategic layer actually enjoyable they would need to heavily revamp, if not outright drop/replace, entire systems like city building or sectors and I don't think that's very likely.

My main issue with the map aren't the sectors but the fact that most of the time there's not much to do on it - most sectors have 1, very rarely 2, things you can take over and it usually gives some minor bonus like +5-10 of a resource to your city. Some sectors don't even have that. I noticed that I spend more turns simply walking around the map doing nothing compared to AoW 3, for example. The variety of different map objects seems to be quite small as well at the moment.

I think there are ways they can make the sector system more interesting - maybe add events to each sector that you can resolve "to unlock its true potential" kinda like what Eador does, or allow you to build useful special buildings on each sector depending on its geography that boost resource production or give other bonuses, in addition to making sector building queue separate from the main building queue so you wouldn't just be upgrading your sectors 24/7 instead of building units and other fun shit, or add the ability to turn sectors into different specialized bases, like a unit production base or an artillery platform that you can use to fire at stuff on the map . At the very least they could add more objects to each sector and make them give larger bonuses when linked to your town - even this would give me a bigger boner when uncovering a new unexploited sector.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

That's mostly what I mean by "heavily revamp". The sectors are extremely basic and boring. The landmarks are extremely basic and boring, the only thing that gets you slightly excited are the secret tech-related ones, but good luck finding the one for you. In AoW3 it was all way more varied and interesting and then you had different classes having their unique upgrades and bonuses, some giving landmarks more research, some gold, some pop. You had constructor units, imagine that, a game that tries to be a proper 4X and has one strategic resource and no worker/constructor or any tile development to speak of, it's just pathetic. You could properly assimilate neutral dwellings with their own building chains. You had necro corrupting farms and springs of life.

Instead of exploring interesting places for interesting rewards, you just spent entirely too much time doing same "quests" over and over and standing in place waiting for the next anomaly "event" to fire. The pacing, if you can talk about pacing in tb 4X, is completely off.

Another related thing, which many negative reviews forget about, is just how much the hero development declined when it comes to skills and, even more so, items.

 

[Infinitron]

In the stardust and disunity of the collapsed Star Union, an insidious new race of conquerors has come to lay claim to the galaxy. Deploy and destroy as the merciless Shakarn, a vicious race of conniving lizardmen. https://www.aow-planetfall.com/invasions