AGE OF WONDERS III

[Darkpriest]

Hmm... reading some info on AoW 3 it seem the want to overhaul the mechanics with races and wizards... I prefer to have "cliche" races in terms of alignment, than to see some odd ball class mixtures influencing races, where the class would be the alignment indicator...

 

Ok back to AoW 2 :D

 

Btw, is there any influence of special phase in each sphere to the ending or final mission, or are these just optional missions giving some lore backgrounds only?

[Gfted1]

You guys make this series sound interesting. The whole trilogy is on Steam for $20, worth it? I dont want to have to deal with any mods to make it work on widescreen or anything like that, do they look terrible in vanilla?

[Serrano]

I've only played the first Age of Wonders but it was really good, it's like a fantasy version of civilaztion with a seperate turn-based statergy system when your units fight.

[melkathi]

Hmm... reading some info on AoW 3 it seem the want to overhaul the mechanics with races and wizards... I prefer to have "cliche" races in terms of alignment, than to see some odd ball class mixtures influencing races, where the class would be the alignment indicator...

 

Ok back to AoW 2 :D

 

Btw, is there any influence of special phase in each sphere to the ending or final mission, or are these just optional missions giving some lore backgrounds only?

 

I can't really answer that without spoilers. Let's just say that playing all missions will have an effect on the last mission gameplay wise but not story wise.

 

You guys make this series sound interesting. The whole trilogy is on Steam for $20, worth it? I dont want to have to deal with any mods to make it work on widescreen or anything like that, do they look terrible in vanilla?

 

As games they are deffinitly worth it. I re-bought them on GoG

though. I don't trust Steam as much when it comes to ensuring that old

games are playable.

I haven't replayed AoW2 yet. AoW1 in the

GoG version works fine with wide screen though everything is a bit

smaller than I am used to.

http://imageshack.us/f/821/aow1007.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/f/210/aow1015.jpg/

I have a  journal for my playthrough on another forum (need to update that soon with the newest entries):

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,3043.0.html

[Gfted1]

Thanks all, I think Ill pick it up for that price.

[melkathi]

Thanks all, I think Ill pick it up for that price.

 

Well, if you do, I hope you'll enjoy them.

As you can tell, it's one of those game series that managed to attract a following... even though they never were as big as some titles.

Anything you need, you know where to find us

[NOK222]

 

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.

Oh man Meandor, miss the dark elf bad ass. A cooling evil head against other more evil heads. 

[melkathi]

Oh man Meandor, miss the dark elf bad ass. A cooling evil head against other more evil heads. 

 

*Possible spoilers for those in the thread who haven't palyed the games*

The people at Triumph did some fairly good work when it comes to evil characters. Meandor is a good example, but if you remember one of the Bonus missions in AoW2 had Karissa being chased by the conspirators because, even though evil, she refused to join them, seeing their plan as madness. And if Karissa recognizes you as power hungry and mad... well then that says a lot

So since you are a fan, if you don't mind the spoilerish question, what is your opinion on the fate of the Archons in AoW3?

And of course the evil campaign in the original AoW. That is probably the evil story I have enjoyed the most in any game.

[HoonDing]

Meandor was a great anti-villain.

 

I like all six different paths, though, don't really have a favourite.

[NOK222]

 

Oh man Meandor, miss the dark elf bad ass. A cooling evil head against other more evil heads. 

 

*Possible spoilers for those in the thread who haven't palyed the games*

The people at Triumph did some fairly good work when it comes to evil characters. Meandor is a good example, but if you remember one of the Bonus missions in AoW2 had Karissa being chased by the conspirators because, even though evil, she refused to join them, seeing their plan as madness. And if Karissa recognizes you as power hungry and mad... well then that says a lot

So since you are a fan, if you don't mind the spoilerish question, what is your opinion on the fate of the Archons in AoW3?

And of course the evil campaign in the original AoW. That is probably the evil story I have enjoyed the most in any game.

I never got to the end of AOW3, I got stuck trying to assault the imperial capital as Meandor.  You can spoil it anyways, I don't mind. 

 

I love Karrisa too btw. 

Edited February 14, 2013 by NKKKK

[melkathi]

I never got to the end of AOW3, I got stuck trying to assault

the imperial capital as Meandor.  You can spoil it anyways, I don't

mind. 

 

I love Karrisa too btw.

 

Nothing to do with Shadow Magic. Remember how between AoW and AoW2 they killed off the Lizardmen and Azrac? AoW3 they are killing off the Archons and turning them into undead. Probably to justify players being able to play an undead theocracy.

[NOK222]

So there are no more Archons? Oh well, I did like the Sun Titans. 

[melkathi]

So there are no more Archons? Oh well, I did like the Sun Titans. 

 

I think some of their units will be integrated into the theocrat class units.

[NOK222]

 

So there are no more Archons? Oh well, I did like the Sun Titans. 

 

I think some of their units will be integrated into the theocrat class units.

Sounds about right, they look too much like humans anyway, and wasting resources to create another faction? 

 

I really do want Overlord 3 though...

[Darkpriest]

Damn... I am on the final mission in AoW 2: Wizard's Throne, and I am getting my ass handed to me... going 1v7 isn't exactly fun, when starting with no town and no army...

 

I thought I was good, when I managed to get quickly two neutral towns (day 10 or so), but they just roll me over... too many global hostile spell stacking and I am unable to defend territory from 2 v aggressive players... I cannot even get a scorched earth tactics working, because I cannot even move beyond my own town lol... The fact that the AI plays with a map hack doesn't help The only time I had to restart a mission was Death Sphere mission 1, and only because I underestimated the enemy on how many settlements he might posses... old strategy of skirmishing and holding map early on with cheap units did not work out... but Scorched earth worked miracle on episode 1 and 2 of death sphere.. the last mission - Cosmos epilogue is just silly.. I can't even scout the map to find out important locations... I was wondering if a very mobile nomadic type of game would work, but I fear that in the outcome I would fall too far behind in magic and scale of the army so I would still lose. 

 

Any tips?

[melkathi]

Any tips?

 

I played that hard and fast. You may have noticed, the last mission spawns the highest level hero of each of the sphere mission chains (the reason why the third mission is important after all: it allows for more XP for the heroes). Your hero will very likely be so powerful that you can simply charge one wizard's capital and kill him, then recruit the hero of that sphere and move on like that. You may very well be able to kill off three oponents before the computer's armies are so big as to put a stop to that by threatening Merlin.

The map is symmetrical. You can just decide ona  direction, clockwise or anti clockwise, and circle around it hitting capital cities which wil be similarly positioned to your own.

It has been many years, so my memory isn't 100% on this, but it may actually be possible to recruit one or two of the other heroes before the AI has time to do so.

[Darkpriest]

Is anyone still following this game? It is almost ready. Now available to pre-purchase on Steam.

 

Any thoughts from the people following the game?

[melkathi]

I pre-ordered.

That is: I got an american friend to pre-order and gift me the game, what with regional pricing

 

The classes look very interesting - if you haven't I suggest going to the official site and looking at the class pages (4 out of 6 have been put up so far). It is still a shame that the game starts with only 6 races. But it will still be a good game I hope.

[Darkpriest]

I was browsing the website from time to time to check on some updates. I was rather wondering if anyone was closely following the development of that game and is a veteran of previous Age of Wonders titles. But since you've pre-ordered I can only assume you are happy with what will be provided (possible bugs factor excluded)

 

From what I understood, it's 6 classes and 6 races, so there is 36 possible combinations, right? Or is it that class is locked onto the race?

Edited February 26, 2014 by Darkpriest

[melkathi]

You are right. There are no race restrictions. 6x6 combinations it is.

Abilities are then based on Class, Race and Spheres of Magic.

A city's basic military units are based on the city's race, but through your class, higher tier special units are unlocked - though again using the race template.

There is a big change in alignment. All racial units are inherently neutral, so there no longer is a moral penalty for having orcs and elves in one army. There still are some units though that are "dedicated to good" or "dedicated to evil". Neutral cities will have an alignment, influencing your starting relationship with them when you first encounter them. Your character starts as neutral and the alignment will shift based on your actions (razing cities bad, letting weak armies run away good etc).