They are probably making the correct assumption that some not insignificant percentage of their potential player based would not be able to understand that IV meant 4.
It is turned-based strategy, so I assume a somewhat more cerebral audience then if it was a shooter. But Roman Numerals do seem like the sort of subject I could easily see getting cut from school curriculum and going the way of cursive writing with some schools teaching it and others skipping it. I, II, and III is clearly understandable by everyone. IV, V, VI gets harder and what’s going to happen when they get to IX, probably even fewer people will remember that one.
Ah yeah, that’s a good point. Once I’m playing the game of course, I doubt I’ll care, especially because by that point, I’d imagine AoW3 won’t need to be installed.
What I am wondering if the dramatic difference in factions will be there in AoW 4, like it was in AoW3.
So far it seems that there are smaller statistical changes between factions, but nothing grand. Admittedly I do not know how those book picks really affect the game though.
What I was thinking was something like the Juggernauts in AoW 3 vs A druid for example. They were extremely different. However just looking at the videos posted, I do not see anything that different between factions.
This was a concern for many in this thread. But things like this are hard to grasp from watching abridged doctored letsplays.
Perhaps the idea is that while you’re learning the game you are guided by this big narrative engine they’ve added to the game, and eventually you understand the implications of various bonuses you and can comprehend the system. The issue with Planetfall for me (and many other players) was that you don’t feel like you’re making informed choices when every fight throughs at you several units with mod loadouts you never saw before.
Yes, it is hard to say from the videos. Time will tell. I sure hope there are some major variants in races and how they play that we just do not know about yet.
What I got from the eXplorminate preview is that the distinctions in the early game are pretty minor, but how you build out over the course of the game leads to much more unique factions. Seemed like his biggest hope before release is that they do something to make the starting traits a bit more consequential and unique.
I believe this article is the same content as the video posted above, just in readable form for those of us that prefer that.
I don’t know why I’m watching AoW4. I bounced off AoW3 and played about 40 hours of AoW:Planetfall, the latter of which is extremely low for a strategy game for me. I should read a lot more about it to see if it brings anything different that would want to make me play and then forget about it if it doesn’t.
I just keep hoping, I think. The series has such positive word of mouth.
I adore AoW3, but Planetfall just didn’t click for me. Not every game or series is for every person and nobody here will judge you for it . . . much ;)
I thought I was the only one. I still put a lot of time into it, the battles and customization options were great, but the I didn’t like the map at all. It was too gamey, too civ 6y, and lost the organic beauty and nature of the AoW3 maps. It was just mechanical boardgame board instead of beautiful flowing creature like previous games. Probably a weird way to put it.
Not sure if @TriumphJordi will know, but will there be a GOG release? There was for AoW3 and Planetfall, but I noticed AoW4 is available to preorder on Steam and Epic, but not GOG.
Nope, I totally get what you’re saying there. Age of Wonders fantasy maps felt alive. Roads signified a path to civilisation of some description - neutral (or opposing) cities to a lonely inn to recruit from or some other map feature. The blasted, rocky island home to dragons (I think, or was it giants?). The world made sense, largely I think because it was possible to draw parallels with conventional fantasy. The world didn’t always make sense, but there was a general excitement in the exploration phase to uncovering the map.
In Planetfall, I had no real context to the planets ‘existing.’ I understand there’s the broken empire, a great cataclysm, but the worlds themselves didn’t feel quite so rich or relatable. Of course, Planetfall did bring the sectors idea which I consider a significant advantage over AoW3.
Age of Wonders 3 is still my go-to example for an excellent random map generator – are there any other games that compare in the past (almost) 10 years since it was released?
