Here's a summary of the past month of
AoW3 dev journals:
There was
a journal about creating music for the game. Michiel van den Bos is composing the music. He did the music for the original AoW, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, and probably more but those were the ones he mentioned in the journal. Some music samples are available in the journal.
Creation of a Giant talks about the process of creating 3D models for the game. The same day they also released a
dev journal revealing new game lore on giants. Giants helped create the world... and the first war in world was between giants and dragons... Ogres, trolls, and yetis are also discussed because according to the new lore they are descended from giants. My favorite part of this journal was this revelation:
Giants and Giantkin live in the Giants Keep; a new structure type, which is somewhat similar to normal cities, but is inhabited by monstrous creatures. The Giants Keep is home to true Giants and the Giantkin: Ogres, Trolls, and occasionally the Yeti. You can gain control of the settlement by doing quests and improving relations with it. Of course you can also conquer the settlement, but you will need quite a force to do this.
Acquiring the Giants Keep is a real achievement. Now you can start producing Giants that will give you not only very cool units, but also a great advantage, especially in city sieges. Several Boulder hurling and wall crushing Giants bring down the best city defenses.
The most recent dev journal revealed more on this concept of
Monster Dwellings and Independent Settlements. I highly recommend reading this dev journal!
This game is going to be amazing if they pull off all this stuff well. In the journal they reveal four types of monster dwellings: Sylvan Court, Giants Keep, Necropolis, and Dragon's Peak. Dwellings are similar to cities in that they can produce units, provide resources, and be upgraded but they do not have population management. You interact with both dwellings and independent cities using a new parley system. Through this parley system you can receive quests and add the dwelling/city to your realm once you have good enough relations. You could also take them over by force if you want.
There was also a
dev journal revealing more of the story of AoW3. It tells how the elves and dark elves reunited to form the high elves. It also talks about the Commonwealth which began as a government that treated all races equally but over time humans took control of most of the highest positions. The major conflict in AoW3's campaign seems to be between the High Elves and the Commonwealth.
They have also added an
FAQ section to the site.