Age of Wonders 3

Here's a summary of AoW3 news from the past month... ;)

The release date of AoW3 has been delayed until Q1 2014. Originally they said Fall 2013. Along with this announcement they said...
...we will take a bit more time creating all the features and content. Age of Wonders III is the largest game in the series and with the additional polish we hope we can give you an even better experience!
Click to expand...

A dev journal discussed the game's quest system. You can get quests from independent towns and dwellings. It was also revealed that there is extensive modding support to customize quests and rewards.



A dev journal titled Unit Types and the Character Sheet showed an example character sheet and the info that is available in it. It also discusses the different unit types such as infantry, irregular, pikeman, ranged, cavalry, caster/support, and misc.



There was a dev journal on "Adventure Sets". This journal would mainly be of interest to modders. Adventure sets control the behavior of structures on the map like what units guard them, do they spawn more units, and what is the behavior of the units that spawn there. Sounds like there will be plenty of options for modders to work with.

The past two weeks the devs have been busy preparing a demo for Gamescom. Due to that there weren't new dev journals but they showed some other stuff like an early flyer for the original Age of Wonders. They promised to release a new 10+ minute gameplay video on Youtube to accompany their Gamescom demo.
 
AoW3 dev journals have been sparse lately. They say they are hard at work on the game right now.

A dev journal on dragons told some of their lore and spoke about five types that will be in the game.



The only other "real" dev journal (they did some other things like release screenshots and take a poll) was titled "The Anatomy of a Hero". It tells why they chose 3D and that there will be tons of customization options for your hero's appearance. The devs are making each race distinct, and are not just reskinning humans.



The armor/clothing for each of the hero classes will also be distinct.



For now they have decided elves can't have facial hair but female dwarves can!

 
It does look good in my view too.

Sadly, though, most 3d strategy games seem to be extremely close to one another in regards to their graphics. Take some new skins and you could (maybe) turn that city screen tactical mode into any other current strategy game.
 
With a new year upon us I thought I would catch up on all AoW3 news since my last post.

More screenshots of the game have been posted here.

There was a dev journal about creating sound effects for the game.

The cover art (shown below) for the game was revealed. An explanation of the how they chose this cover and who the characters pictured in it are is available here.



A writing competition was held that asked the entrants to explain what happened to the Halflings (a race that was in the past games but will not be in the initial release of AoW3). The contest is already over and the 5 winners got access to the closed beta.

Some details of the Sorcerer class were revealed including their most powerful summon: the Eldritch Horror.

 
The NDA on me has been relaxed. I can now reveal that I have been beta testing AoW3 for about a month and a half. If you want to ask me something feel free. I still cannot go into specifics or give 'extensive' preview/reviews. You can also find out a lot on the Age of Wonders forums which should be easy to find from the link in my signature.

Age of Wonders 3 is shaping up to be an awesome game. The developers at Triumph Studios have done an amazing job staying true to the original games while also adding entirely new concepts to the game such as classes for leaders and heroes.

The following video revealing gameplay of the Archdruid class and random maps was recently released.

Link to video.
 
Preorders on Steam and GOG have opened! The devs also described that tactical combat mechanics in great detail in this journal. I feel like tactical combat has improved over past AoW games. I like the way the flanking and guarding mechanics work.
 
This upcoming game appears intriguing. :)

I will need to consider it. I have not played either Age of Wonders 1 or 2 but I has played New World Computing's Heroes of Might and Magic series.

Also: having the musical being behind Dues Ex may prove... extra intriguing! :D
 
Red Key said:
The NDA on me has been relaxed. I can now reveal that I have been beta testing AoW3 for about a month and a half. If you want to ask me something feel free. I still cannot go into specifics or give 'extensive' preview/reviews.
Click to expand...

Have you tried PBEM? How well does that work? What are the combat mode options?
 
Looks really cool, I haven't played the first two though I'm a big homm fan so I'm sure I'd like it. Will it be on steam as well?

Only thing is I really can't stomach paying $40 for any game these days, not with the amount of sales that go on for the pc. I'll probably get this one 6-12 months after release.
 
DaviddesJ said:
Have you tried PBEM? How well does that work? What are the combat mode options?
Click to expand...

By combat mode options do you mean manual or automatic? These options still exist as in past AoW games. Manual will take you into the battle on a tactical map and there are options to speed up animations. You can also toggle on/off AI control over your units if you want the AI to play for you.

Automatic resolves the battle immediately without opening a tactical map, but you can replay the battle and it will be shown on a tactical map. This is a new feature that did not exist in past AoW games. The automatic combats in past games were calculated in a much simpler way, but in AoW3 it actually simulates the automatic battle behind the scenes so you can replay it and see exactly what happened.

PBEM is unfortunately not coming until after release. Some relevant quotes...

Hi, we just support Online Multiplayer and Hot Seat.
We never promished LAN play. PBEM is likely to be added post release due to difficulties with protocol and saved game file sizes
Click to expand...

To be clear, the game does work via LAN, but both machines need an active internet connection to be able to find each other. The process is like:
1) Machine A and Machine B connect to the matchmaking service via the Internet
2) A hosts a game on the matchmaking service
3) B joins that game
4) A and B connect directly to each other, if they’re on the same LAN they don’t need the internet anymore.
5) A and B can now play together.
Click to expand...
 
civvver said:
Looks really cool, I haven't played the first two though I'm a big homm fan so I'm sure I'd like it. Will it be on steam as well?

Only thing is I really can't stomach paying $40 for any game these days, not with the amount of sales that go on for the pc. I'll probably get this one 6-12 months after release.
Click to expand...

Yes it become available on Steam and GOG at the same time. It has been a long time since I paid more than $10 on a game so I can understand waiting for the price to drop. I love the past AoW games and still play them from time to time so for me it was definitely worth it to preorder. My experience with the beta version of the game has been good and the developers are clearly devoted and responsive to community input.
 
Red Key said:
PBEM is unfortunately not coming until after release.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that. Several of us played AOWSM PBEM back in the day, it was great for its time. One of my friends still does play it frequently, unfortunately he's dying of cancer. :sad:

If the automatic combat resolution is more realistic, that could be a big plus for PBEM. The biggest problem with PBEM in AOWSM was that the automatic resolution was way different from what fighting the battle would give.
 
I'm very intrigued by this game and have wishlisted it... it seems like a slightly more complex version of Civ 5 that is more like Total War... but with full-turn based so battles can be played in hotseat (I would assume).
 
@TheKingOfBigOz - Yes the game has hotseat multiplayer. The combat part of the game is millions of times more complex than Civ5 because that is what this game focuses on. It also of course has fantasy and RPG elements. Most the time destroying all your opponents is the only way to win except in special scenarios, so there are not things like a scientific or cultural victory. This means economy, government, city management are simpler than Civ games, but if combat and war are the most enjoyable parts of your Civ games then AoW should be a lot of fun for you. :)
 
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