I think with less than two weeks to go before the expansion, and there being some footage of the game out there as toobers/streamers get their hands on this, it’s probably time to give it its own thread. Hopefully it’s as deserving as the Golden Realms expansion was!
Today’s blog covers the Unifier Victory Condition!
Here is a breakdown of the features the new expansion will be adding:
http://ageofwonders.com/eternallords/
Also, I didn’t realize the advertised Gamestop video from yesterday’s news post was in fact the Developer video Triumph put together. Enjoy!
That is one angry kitty.
Getting excited about this one. I had played the AoW3 base game for a bit but lost interest. Based on the other AoW3 thread, I picked up the available DLCs and haven’t been able to stop playing it.
This is a prime example, for me, of how companies should evolve their games after they’re on the market. Find out what works, what doesn’t, what you need more of and bundle them in with additional interesting gameplay/races/win conditions.
I’m so happy that after four games (AoW 1, 2, SM, 3, 3-expansions) the relation-per-race and the manipulations of said standings are coming back. I loved being tricky and be able of gaining cities without fighting and gaining their troops at the same time.
Undead are one of my favorite staples in a tbs fantasy game, so there’s that too.
And in general, there are much more meat in the bones in comparison with the first release of AoW2, which was a bit lackluster in some areas.
Info on the new “good” Unifier victory condition: http://ageofwonders.com/dev-journal-the-unifier-victory-condition/
Woo, a new Tombles video! “Let’s show off eating corpses.”
New video showing off the Tigrans Unified Victory! I have to wait to watch it as I’m at work, but hopefully it’s enjoyable!
http://ageofwonders.com/new-video-tigran-unity-victory-live/
“So she’s a kitty cat who transforms into a kitty cat. I think you might be noticing a theme here.”
Race Happiness looks interesting. I like the idea that there might be reasons not to attack your enemy’s softest target city.
If it’s the same as in the 1.5 beta patch, you don’t take the race happiness hit just for attacking and capturing the city. You do take it if you do anything but absorb it, and a bunch of the nastier spells give you a race happiness penalty with the city’s race if you use them in a siege.
I think it will be fun to have a reason to keep your cities all one race as you’ll advance faster into your racial tech-tree deal. However, doing anything short of retaining the existing population when you capture a city has severe race and alignment penalties (well, penalties if you are trying to play good or neutral). I wonder if Good players will tend to field a greater variety of units while Evil players will tend to have only a single race (maybe two on a large map) but be farther along in the race tech tree?
It’s going to be fun going back to the game now. I haven’t played it since the 1.0 release and it sounds like so many of my “meh” moments in the game have been addressed.
Does anyone play this multiplayer? I’m just wondering if they ever fixed their UI responsiveness issue. It seemed like the UI and something else were on the same thread, and it created a very sluggish and unresponsive UI at times. This wasn’t really noticeable to me in SP, but in MP it was atrocious.
If you play simultaneous turns, yeah, but that’s because the game is calculating all the neutral/AI movements while you are also playing. If you don’t want any moments where, for instance, you issue a move order and your guy stands there for a few seconds before moving, play with classic turns. I personally would rather play simultaneous turns though - you get used to the way it works and it’s a lot more engaging.
Bah, thanks BtF. I was hoping they would address that. I’m okay with army movement having to be queued and waiting for AI completion, but stuff like managing my building queues in cities should not be so unresponsive. Sometimes I click on a unit to build and nothing will happen, sometimes I’ll wait, click again, and then two or three will queue up, etc. The annoyance is worth not having to go back to Classic turns but it was definitely on the top of my list of things I was hoping would be improved.
That gripe aside, I’m really excited for this!
Yeah, that’s a Simultaneous Turns thing. Happens in singleplayer too.
You should be excited! Man, if you haven’t played since 1.0 you’re in for a treat. You picking up the Golden Realms expansion too?
I’m trying to find more information, but a post on the forums indicates Goblins at the tier IV race upgrade can choose to produce Trolls. THAT is amazing. I really like Goblins already, so this may push them into my favorite race. I’ve asked the guys on the forums where that information is coming from, if there is a master list of what races get what at various levels, I’d love to spend today at work pouring through that information.
I was having a debate (of sorts) with Shiva X last night, he still feels the races aren’t set apart enough, while I very much disagree. Sure, the new ones may seem flashier than the existing races (inarguably - they will be flasher, they are newer for one thing!) but to me each race has specific advantages and draw backs. Goblins, for instance, grow cities faster, are cheaper, and produce one of the best tier 1 ranged units in the game! They deal poison damage, so hit high elves (who have a weakness to poison) especially hard. They have lower health though than other units and are a bit fragile, but they also have cave crawling and night vision so they work good underground, and no other race actively enjoys being in Wetlands. The units themselves are fun, too - a Rogue Assassin plays very differently than a Dwarf Assassin, for instance, and can deal additional poison damage (in fact, Goblin Assassin’s are the highest damage dealing Assassin combination, at least until the expansion drops (not sure after that)).
Race information can be found here - http://age-of-wonders-3.wikia.com/wiki/Races
Some neat stuff there I never knew about. For instance, Halflings have a ranged physical damage bonus, like elves! Also, elves get a bonus to lightning damage, but only when that becomes an available damage channel (such as in the case of high elf apprentices, or storm sisters, or a high elf manticore (which also gains “inflict stun” making them one of the most desired combinations for Warlord players).
The race upgrades further distinguish all the races, hopefully I can post some more information on that yet today, if I find out myself.
I’ve not played since 1.0 either, so I’m giddy. I have GR, just waiting to pick this up now.
I tend to agree with BTF. I felt like the races weren’t differentiated enough at 1.0, but getting better at the game and more appreciative of the nuance – and Triumph patching in a bunch more nuance! – has turned me around.
High Elves play way different than Gobbos that play way different than Dwarves that ALL BOW BEFORE THE ORCISH HORDES.
(Seriously though I love Orcs so much.)
I also haven’t played basically since launch and honestly the game never really grabbed me. I found it mostly dull and kind of “samey” if that makes sense? This expansion though looks really nice and has got me very interested to give this another shot? Do I need to buy the GR one as well or is this a stand alone?
GR is a good expansion if you like the game, but it’s not required for EL as far as I know.
