Yep. Now, Paradox did make a mistake with EU4 where they changed the base game for certain DLCs that introduced new features and basically made the base game worse for people who didn’t own the DLC. They did learn their lesson with this, thankfully, and I don’t see any indication that these AoW4 DLCs would do a similar thing.
I was about to reply to this, but you found the other stuff too. :)
Wait a minute. What is this in the Premium Edition?
“Day 1 Instant Unlock” sounds like the kind of thing you’d see as an incentive to buy a premium Battle Pass sub in Call of Duty or Apex. Is the Archmage Attire something you normally need to grind for? Is there a damn Battle Pass?
Looks like a cosmetic for the portrait of your leader or something. Pretty sure that sort of thing is fairly common fodder for premium/legendary type packages. Maybe you unlock cosmetics with achievements or something?
I know a cosmetic doodad is common for pre-ordering, but this specifically says “day 1 instant unlock” which is verbiage I’ve only ever seen with Battle Passes. It implies there’s a day X regular unlock process.
Like I said, maybe you unlock outfits via achievements or the like.
I think the language is used here to indicate that this is something that you get immediately for purchasing the premium/legendary/richkid edition, to distinguish it from everything else where you have to wait for the DLC to be released.
Ah! That might make more sense! I sure wish they’d used some other phrase then.
That seems likely.
If Triumph’s other games are an indication:
You assemble your Avatar/Faction leader prior to the game. There’s a bunch of “common” items (headgear, eyepatches etc.), some stuff is locked behind class selection (tattery robes for necromancers, shiny armour for warlords etc.), some stuff is race specific (dwarves have an impressive beard collection to choose from, elves get a selection of pointy ear-shapes instead, the local friendly cat people have fur patterns to choose etc.), and some stuff…
…is locked behind buying the corresponding expansion or pre-ordering the game. And/or subscribing to the newsletter.
It’s usually just a handful of items, but it’s kinda infuriating.
This time around it’s particularly annoying, since it’s unclear if they’re doing a GOG release (where I bough, eh, ALL the other Age of Wonders titles…), and the promotional items seems to be only redeemable with a Steam account.
At least they don’t lock the stuff behind grinds and/or battle passes, then again, it’s a bloody 4X game. That’s the one genre that REALLY can do without FOMO shenanigans.
I imagine you can also unlock more customize/cosmetic options from the Pantheon system as rewards for completing Realms/games, as well.
If it’s anything like Empire Mode from Planetfall (which it’s seemingly based on), that’s unlikely.
Empire mode was basically a randomized campaign. You once again picked your faction leader, and by completing maps accumulated stuff like non-standard starter units (up to and including units that were otherwise unobtainable), better starting conditions (production and tech advantages) and, most important, persistent heroes, meaning you could start a map with a high-leveled hero with perks and abilities up the wazoo leading your troops. The unlocks gained that way were locked to the current Empire run, though.
I’ll wager that Pantheon mode, like Empire, is limited to single player. I have no idea if a robust multiplayer scene for AoW exists, which would be the only place where you could flaunt any rare customizations. Your faction leader normally only appears in a unit-sized version in battles they participate in (which makes discerning minute details hard), and in full detail in the diplomacy screen.
So, yeah. There’s cosmetics, but they’re not really that much of an element as they might appear at first glance.
I just said I can imagine it. Are you saying there is a 0% chance that some of the Pantheon unlocks are cool bits to customize your future Avatar/Faction Leaders? I will admit it wouldn’t be my first choice for Pantheon unlocks, but I only said I could imagine it.
From the wiki, which sums it up better than I can:
Galactic Empire is a meta-mode for AoW: Planetfall which allows players to conquer multiple planets as part of a single game save, earning XP and other bonuses for each new planet conquered. It was released in November 2020 as part of the free Triceratops update.
According to the dev notes, features include:
Create your own Galactic Empire, Recruit Commanders and conquer planets to add to your growing domain.
Empire Planets have unique traits and secondary objectives to shake up game play
Use the new Imperial Renown currency to call in the units, mods and operations of other races and secret techs
Leaders level up as they conquer more planets, and can join you as heroes on the planets you conquer
Earn relics by conquering special planets, unlocking access to NPC units like Quartzite Worms and Wild Thundermaws
And that’s it. It is really more of an alternate play mode. Partheon seems to go deeper on the map generation, with more “special” maps and map generation options, but it’s still one game mode among many.
You usually get Campaign (fixed faction across multiple premade maps) , Scenario (single premade map with premade factions), Skirmish (single map with various randomization options), Multiplayer (usually is skirmish mode with other people), and, as a late edition to the last game, Empire/Partheon, which is a single player custom faction against the AI on randomly generated maps, with spicy unlocks and no really defined end from what I recall.
Your “Leader” isn’t exactly a persistent thing; AoW allows for a lot customization, and you usually create a new one for each map/scenario. You can save them if you like, but part of the charm is trying the different race/tech combos. Empire mode changed that a bit, but you’re still locked into the race/class choices despite all the shiny bits you can unlock.
If the previews in the Paradox Forum are an indication, AoW4 goes hog wild in that regard, with species-wide mutations (like, turning your halflings cannibalistic and demonic) and several magical trees on top of the common form/culture combo.
I feel like it might be worth to share the Pantheon Dev Diary again as I see asumptions/predictions being made that we’ve already discussed or answered. Give it a read and if there’s any further questions just lemme know.
Thanks, I knew I had read that somewhere.
Interesting. I wonder if they will tie any benefits to the customizations, or if it boils down to deciding between “get a cool hat or get access to a troop of cannibalistic undead dire penguins*…decisions, decisions…”
*= Just kidding. Dire penguins are eldritch cosmic horrors by default, they don’t need puny modifiers.
Haha you’ve seen the tree, each item is basically in the same place. It just depends on whether you’ve chosen unlocks in that branch before. The majority of what you get is a cool banner icon, helmet and Cape. The cap stones are either Society Traits or Starting Loadouts.
FOMO Shenanigans are my biggest turnoff in gaming.
In the last two weeks, I’ve played 50 hours of Planetfall. Strictly the original campaign which has been tough at times. So yeah, I ended up breaking my rule of not pre-ordering by pre-ordering AoW4 because I’m having too much fun in Planetfall. I’ll write in that thread about my thoughts on the campaign in general, but in short, it sucks and is a terrible introduction to the game.
With Age of Wonders 4, what is going to annoy me is the naming convention. Age of Wonders 2 is 'Age of Wonders II. Age of Wonders 3 was titled ‘Age of Wonders III’ whilst Age of Wonders 4 is skipping the roman numerals. ’ Don’t suppose we can get some consistency in naming before the game is released? :) Though maybe I’ll be too busy playing the game and failing my university studies to care?