AGE OF WONDERS III

[TrashMan]

Trailer is out.

Would link it, but can't open YouTube on worplace.

 

Looks great.

Loved the AoW series. Best TBS mechanics I saw.

[cyberarmy]

Man, i love this game! I hope they dont try so called "innovations" and ruin solid gameplay. I also hope its divert as previous games.

[Cultist]

I hope they will not repeat AOW2 mistakes. Some creatures and spells were so overpowered it broke entire game.

Cityspam were horrible as well.

Anyway, I'm happy that good franchizes of old are coming back.

Now if only someone would make a new incarnation of Master of Magic. Last attempts were very disappointing.

[Chilloutman]

I notice this news too. I am happy about it. Liked it more than Homam probably

[NOK222]

Noooo, make overlord 3

[Cultist]

Overlord 3 was announced. may be released under another name but "will keep the spirit of the game"

[NOK222]

Overlord 3 was announced. may be released under another name but "will keep the spirit of the game"

 

Why would they need "keep the spirit"? it's their franchise whose last game had a bit of a cliffhanger. 

[TrashMan]

I just want them to keep the mechnics of AoW.

 

I loved the idea tht spells had the effect on the overland map. Loved freezing a river to cross it and similar stuff.

I loved multiple armies fighting.

I loved flanking.

I loved summoning (I'd max my mana output and summon a bunch of Angels and Phoenixes and than laugh at my opponent)

 

The good news is that cities are larger, so sieges will be even more interesting.

[Hassat Hunter]

Haven't heard about them for so long I wondered if they were dead...

 

But good to hear a AoW III is coming... though I'm more the Overlord III type too.

Or a new game... new games are good

[Bos_hybrid]

Never played these games, after reading what they were and the forum for the third title, it's a shame I missed them.

 

However this new game is sounding great.
 

 

Hi! Class doesn’t fix alignment.  Of course it doesn’t!!

Alignment starts fairly neutral, with certain starting races likely to have a (smaller) disposition to dark or light.

Your actions are the key determining factor of alignment.  If you go out razing with your High Elves, you’ll become evil. If you play like mother Theresa as a Goblin, you become good, only you might be less
likely to do so.

Some classes (esp the Rogue and a possible future Necromancer class that’s still on the drawing board) have certain skills that could be a catalyst on sending your alignment going south a lot quicker than other classes.  think of transforming an entire population to undead.  Or a nice tempting gold boost on pillage and plunder.

If you want to play an evil Goblin Theo, pick some nice dark player colors,  like blood Red on sinister Black  (which will be applied on your units, replacing the White/Yellow on the robes of the concept art), choose “Graveyard Gloom” as your leader portrait ambience, raze some heathen cities and you’ll be all the rage at your annual evil fantasy despots gathering.

 

Just hope the Necromancer class doesn't get cut.

 

Civ/Elemental/Warlock fans should really keep an eye on this.

 

http://www.ageofwonders.com/aow3live/about-the-game/

[melkathi]

I posted about this a few days ago in the random video game news thread but then people turned that into a Wasteland 2 discussion so nobody noticed

 

I'm a bit disappointed that the game will have fewer races at release. It means frostlings may not make the cut and that would be a shame.

It is good to see them re-thinking sea battles.

 

The new classes and culture based units sound very interesting.

[TSBasilisk]

Apparently this game is getting made due to Minecraft.

 

To clarify, one of the quotes that can appear on the Minecraft title screen referenced the series, and one of the developers ended up calling Notch about it. One thing led to another, and Notch's Minecraft money ended up backing AoW3.

[melkathi]

Interesting. They had said that they had some interesting funding.

[Darkpriest]

To be honest, I am not sure how I've missed this series...

 

I've bought Age of Wonders 2 from GoG.com and I am now playing it... Very interesting campaign, nice scenario maps and reminds me of MoM (Master of Magic). The only complaint I have is not enough info on combat mechanics (offense vs defense, how projectiles to-hit ratio is influenced and the base values)

[melkathi]

To be honest, I am not sure how I've missed this series...

 

I've bought Age of Wonders 2 from GoG.com and I am now playing it... Very interesting campaign, nice scenario maps and reminds me of MoM (Master of Magic). The only complaint I have is not enough info on combat mechanics (offense vs defense, how projectiles to-hit ratio is influenced and the base values)

 

 I am slowly replaying AoW 1. But I am planning to have finished that, AoW2 and Shadow Magic before 3 comes out.

 

As far as mechanics go... eh. The higher the stats of your units the better. The lower the stats of enemy units also the better. Is the manual not in the install directory?

Guess I'll type the stuff out for you as I got the box from when the game first it the shelves

 

Base chance to hit is 50%

For every 1 point of difference between Attack and Defence or Resistance add or substract 5%.

So a unit with an Attack 8 hiting a unit with Defence 6 has a 60% chance to hit (50% + 5%x2).

Min chance to hit is always 5% and max 95%.

The Damage stat shows the max damge dealt by the attack, minimum always being 1. So a unit with Damage 6 will deal between 1 and 6 points of damage on a successfull attack.

 

Ranged attack chance is adjusted for range and height difference.

Short Range: 4 hexes

Medium Range: 8 hexes

Long Range: 12 hexes

Extra Long Range: 16 hexes

The equation is:

Penalty to Attack = (((Range + 1 - Distance) x 10) / Range) - 10  (where Range the range value of the specific ability) So for an archer unit with the basic Archery skill which has Range: Long shooting at a target 9 hexes away this would work out as (((16 + 1 - 9) x 10) / 16) - 10 = - 5. Archery has a base Attack of 8, so the resulting Attack value would be 8 - 5 = 3. So the resulting to hit chance if the target was a goblin grunt with Defence 4 would be 50% - 5% = 45%

Height difference is calculated by this forumla:

Height modifier = ((Attacker's Height - Defender's Height) x 5) / 127

The resulting number can range from -10 to +10 but should rarely have a larger value than +-5

 

Special effects caused by attacks such as holy strike have an Attack 8 and compare to Resistance. So an Archon Legionary (Attack 7 Damage 5) attacking an Undead Swordsman (Defence 5 Resistance 5) would first try to hit the undead witha  60% chance and upon successfully striking it deal between 1 to 5 damage and role for the added effect of the Holy Strike with a 65% chance of it happening.

 

 

Anything else you need shout 

[Humanoid]

I own original release boxed copies of both AoW and Shadow Magic but haven't ever played either. No particular reason, just never got around to it. (I also have all the games on GoG for the hell of it) Hopefully this breaks that trend.

 

 

If I were to play one of the games right now though, is there any reason besides storyline to not jump to the final instalment immediately?

[melkathi]

I own original release boxed copies of both AoW and Shadow Magic but haven't ever played either. No particular reason, just never got around to it. (I also have all the games on GoG for the hell of it) Hopefully this breaks that trend.

 

 

If I were to play one of the games right now though, is there any reason besides storyline to not jump to the final instalment immediately?

 

AoW 1 was quite different from AoW 2. Shadowmagic is basically a stand alone expansion for AoW 2 and adds some stuff.

So game mechanic wise, there is no reason to play 2 if you own Shadow Magic and are not interested in the story and how the game evolved.

 

In AoW 1 you play a hero on a campaign for either one of two factions. In AoW2 and SM you play a wizard who commands those heroes. In all games you still have heroes leading your armies around. In the later games your main wizard character is most likely to stay within your capital's wizard's tower to support them with magic from afar.

 

Writing wise AoW 1 is the one to play, with choices throughout the campaign affecting which races you ally with and which one of four endings you end up with.

I'll copy paste from an old post of mine from another forum:

 

 

Without going into story detail, the AoW1 campaign was structured as follows:

 

 

                                                                                                                               Good Ending

                                                                                                                             /

                                                                                     Good   - End of Chapter 2

                                                                                    /                                       \

                                               Good - End of Chapter 1                                           "Pure Good" Ending

                                              /                                    \                                        /

Start of game: choose faction                                        Neutral - End of Chapter 2

                                              \                                    /                                       \

                                               Evil    - End of Chapter 1                                           "Pure Evil" Ending

                                                                                   \                                       /

                                                                                     Evil      - End of Chapter 2

                                                                                                                           \

                                                                                                                              Evil Ending

 

That is ingame/faction/racial alignement and does not necessarily reflect the actual "goodness" or "neutrality" of your character or of the story.

 

The good ending pretty much works out as canon, though part of the evil and pure good endings carry over in a way to set up the story of AoW2.

 

 

AoW2 follows a direct story as you play through the various spheres of magic:

All Apprentice (Tutorial) -> Fire Apprentice -> Fire Master -> (Fire Bonus) -> Water Apprentice -> Water Master -> (Water Bonus) -> Life Apprentice -> Life Master -> (Life Bonus) -> Air Apprentice -> Air Master -> (Air Bonus) -> Earth  Apprentice -> Earth Master -> (Earth Bonus) -> Death Apprentice -> Death Master -> (Death Bonus) -> All Master

There is no choice in the path to follow.

 

AoW: Shadow Magic then again only has one path, but now you play more characters, one campaign for each, which combined lead to the final mission.

 

Edited February 14, 2013 by melkathi

[NOK222]

We all know who that old man in the trailer is. 

[ShadySands]

"My kingdom is war. My treasury is full of wrath. My scepter is a viper. My friends are my assassins. But I was not wrong. The world has gone mad. I will be it's last stalwart servant. I did what had to be done, as I do now."

 

That's all I remember from Age of Wonders, at least I think it was from Age of Wonders. I need to go replay that now.

[melkathi]

We all know who that old man in the trailer is. 

 

I think so.

Or at least I think we all have a very good bet.

[Darkpriest]

The range calculations seem pretty complicated, but does that mean that there is no difference in range offense between a T1 archer and say a priest with magical projectiles?

 

Do javelin projectiles like ballista follow the same rule, although they are single action units? (I'd place here poison spit units and crossbowmen as well, plus catapults and cannon units)

 

If there are height bonuses, then it could certainly be better presented on maps, where there are height advantages.

 

I really enjoy the game, but I won't be opposed to some adjustments in the interface and streamlining in combat mechanics (i.e. more intuitive and better feedback)

[melkathi]

The range calculations seem pretty complicated, but does that mean that there is no difference in range offense between a T1 archer and say a priest with magical projectiles?

 

Do javelin projectiles like ballista follow the same rule, although they are single action units? (I'd place here poison spit units and crossbowmen as well, plus catapults and cannon units)

 

If there are height bonuses, then it could certainly be better presented on maps, where there are height advantages.

 

I really enjoy the game, but I won't be opposed to some adjustments in the interface and streamlining in combat mechanics (i.e. more intuitive and better feedback)

 

All attacks that aren't melee or touch follow that rule apparently.

 

The difference is in the stats. A tier 1 archer has the Arcehry skill which has these stats:

Range: Long

Shots: 3

Attack: 8

Damage: 4

Damage Type: Physical

 

A priest has Magic Bolts which have:

Range: Long

Shots: 3

Attack: 10

Damage: 4

Damage Type: Magic

 

And a  catapult has the Hurl Boulder skill:

Range: Extra Long

Shots: 1

Attack: 10

Damage: 15

Damage Type: Physical/Wall

 

So a Priest, having a magic damage attack, calculates his attack against the target's Resistance instead of Defence (which the archer's attack would use) and, if the target's Resistance and Defence are equal, is 10% more likely to hit.

 

A catapult has Extra Long range so in the Attack Penalty calculation has (((Range=18 + 1 - Distance) x 10) / Range) - 10 instead of the Priest's and Archer's (((Range=16 + 1 - Distance) x 10) / Range) - 10 .  So for example at a range of 1 hexes the catapult would be at -5 and the archer and priest at -9 ? So to hit a zombie with defence and resistance 4, the catapult would still have 60% chance, the priest would have priest's attack (10 for magic bolt -9 for range) - zombie's resistance of 4 = -3 attack difference = 50% - 15% chance to hit => 35%, the archer would be at a negative attack value and I guess have a 25% chance of hitting for the 5 points of attack difference... unless negative attack values mean the min chance of 5%. That I do not know.

 

So yeah, the Priest and Archer have the same range penalty, but as the base attack value isn't the same, they won't have the same chance of hitting. And as enemies wont have the same defence and resistance stats, that affects things once more. A Vampire for example has Defence 6 and Resistance 10. So while the Priest's attack value is higher, the Archer has to beat a lower score and ends up with a 10% higher chance of hitting.

 

The 1 shot attacks usually have a much higher to hit chance and greater damage potential. The Shoot Javelin ability of the balista for example is Extra Long Range and Attack 18, making it far more likely to hit it's target than the Archer with his three shots.The archer does have a higher potential max damge of 3x4. But at the range he needs to be to have a reasonable chance to hit anything, the javelin, with in comparison a 50% higher chance to hit, is pretty certain to deal it's 1-7 damage.

 

Then again, I never felt that the games were perfect balance wise

They are looking at fixinf some gameplay things, though its a bit early to know what it is they are doing.

[HoonDing]

"My kingdom is war. My treasury is full of wrath. My scepter is a viper. My friends are my assassins. But I was not wrong. The world has gone mad. I will be it's last stalwart servant. I did what had to be done, as I do now."

 

That's all I remember from Age of Wonders, at least I think it was from Age of Wonders. I need to go replay that now.

That's from the Cult of Storms 'normal' ending.

 

The first game was broken, but very good nonetheless. I ran around the map with my heroes, conquering town after town and destroying entire armies.

[NOK222]

 

We all know who that old man in the trailer is. 

 

I think so.

Or at least I think we all have a very good bet.

Think we'll see Julia?

[melkathi]

Think we'll see Julia?

 

We should be able to see Meandor. Two thousand years shouldn't mean much to him at least. Julia has been the poster girl of the series. It will feel a bit wierd without her. But I am not sure the old characters will have a place in the third age.

Orcs will also be strange if completly free of Karissa's influence.

I'll kinda miss all those wizards. Except for Serena perhaps. Never could stand her.