I got a couple of crashes after the first update, but the bigger problem was frighteningly hard system locks if I didn’t quit out correctly (I think this might have been related to closing Steam when I didn’t realize the launcher was still running, and therefore Steam seemed to think Age of Wonders was still running). On a couple of occasions, I had to actually resort to the power button to restart my computer, which I don’t think I’ve ever had to do on this system (it’s about a year old).
Also, I never did get a resume button on the launcher! I’ve been playing Planetfall lately, and I don’t get a resume button on that launcher, either. Apparently, Triumph/Paradox really wants me to manually skip their intro cinematics and then see their main splash screens.
I’m hoping for some relatively major changes. The ridiculously literal skill/affinity tree, for instance, is a great idea and a terrible execution. The tome system could use some more structure, and I can imagine the entire system being reworked the way Planetfall’s economic development was reworked.
Also, I will be shocked – and disappointed – if Triumph doesn’t overhaul the meta-progression stuff, which doesn’t accomplish much of anything in its current state. Really, given how easy it was for me to slip back into Planetfall, that’s probably what it will take before I try to slip back into Age of Wonders 4: some sort of larger context for which maps to play, how to play them, and why I’d play them. In other words, a better meta-progression system.
Hey Tom. Could you check to see where your Documents Folder is pointing by right-clicking on the ‘Documents’ folder, selecting Properties, and then looking at the Location tab?
I didn’t have the Resume button at first because my location had a reference to OneDrive in it. Once I fixed that issue I got the Resume button. I mentioned this upthread, but I don’t know how many people noticed.
Oh, I noticed you’d hit on something with your posts, but just didn’t feel like messing with whatever bullshit Microsoft’s useless OneDrive had done this time. But, yes, the location of my Documents folder is c:\users\itsametomchickio\OneDrive\Documents. Does this confirm anything helpful? Not sure if I should be messing with Windows directory structures or not.
When I did a Google search for the missing resume button a while ago, I had that same issue I have with Google searches for Paradox games: I got hits for multiple different titles and I didn’t feel like digging through them. For instance, I was reading up on some Planetfall issue I was trying to resolve the other day and I got partway through what seemed like a very helpful post when I realized it was a thread for Crusader Kings 3. Doh.
Yep. I had to exclude the Document folder from OneDrive so it would return it to the default document path (for you c:\users\itsametomchickio\Documents). In my case I didn’t care about excluding it because while I had tried OneDrive at one point, I wasn’t really using it.
When this computer arrived, I thought I had done everything in my power to remove OneDrive because I hated that dumb little icon peeking out at me from the taskbar. Little did I know it would come back to haunt me every time I resumed a game of Planetfall, Age of Wonders 4, Victoria 3, Crusader Kings 2, Cities Skyline, and Stellaris!
Yeah, I installed that mod also and have been playing on a very, very large map with nine factions. It has an enormous number of free cities. I knew it would be pretty unmanageable so I’m playing with mega cities turned on so each faction gets only one city but that one city can be bigger. I’m wondering if I should have turned off free cites entirely to reduce all the spam.
I’m playing high culture ranged elves as pure evil (for the extra bow range) with the intent to raze every other faction city to the ground. With these settings, you can’t rebuild another’s cities so, once a faction’s mega city is razed, they’re out and that city is dead. So far I’ve taken out two cities and everyone is quickly growing to hate me. My own vassal, right next to my mega city just turned on me and vowed to destroy my evil self. It’s actually been quite fun.
The biggest problem with a map this size is the travel time. It’s really pretty unmanageable to get armies across the map. I wish roads actually did something because, as they are, they’re pretty useless.
Agreed. To me, it is a game that loads some decisions at the front with race and world customisation, then devolves into a cacophony of choice with little meaningful decision making. Rather than making decisions to be more specialised, more interesting, it becomes one of progress being less interesting over time. It is the complete opposite of how a game should progress in my view.
I stopped playing when I finished the Voss Brothers map setup/scenario and haven’t felt any sense of want to go back and play a new map.
Thanks, I’ve been struggling to articulate in my own mind what my issue with that is but you put it succinctly.
The Tomes and empire tree are right up my alley in theory but in practice it’s not working for me. I take the time to create a custom faction, make a bunch of decisions, and then I feel shortly after the game starts it all gets thrown out the window for whatever mishmash of Tomes I happen to take up. Same with any faction I’m facing, I don’t feel like anyone really has an identity like Montezuma or Nuclear Ghandi in Civilization, the Hivers in SotS, etc. I really love the idea of leaving some customization options for during the game and letting your faction evolve (it’s my favorite aspect of Humankind) but it’s just not working for me here.
I think it’s actually worse here than in Stellaris, because at least that game has a few markers that will let me get an idea of how they’ll interact based off of their ethics and a couple things like Devouring Swarm, Fanatic Purifiers, etc. AOW4 is missing any such distinction right now, at least in my experience. If it’s there it’s been too subtle for me to notice or care to strategize around it.
AoW has always had a few unit types that evolve into adult versions once they get enough XP and have “grown up”. Unfortunately, though they are still there in AoW4, there still aren’t that many at all. I wish they’d leaned heavily into that to make every unit in the game have an evolution and even had them get a few new abilities when they each evolved.
I would also love to see your faction evolve during play and get more abilities and traits during the game. I know you can get a few randomly via events but I wish it was more structured and pervasive.
I also think it would be so fun if, when your faction’s units all evolved, the new abilities they got depended on your faction traits and evolution. Too complicated to code? Maybe. It would take some effort but how awesome would it be?
Yeah, I think that the whole XP and leveling up of units is way under-done in this game. For the most part, you are just getting a few HP, and the handful of exceptions is like a distraction to make you think that leveling up is a big deal.
I would not want to get into deciding unit by unit, every level, but something ought to be done to make this more interesting and impactful. If I were a modder, this is the first place I would look to develop.
In PF the evolution of unit power was in your hands, via mods, so there was not much need for fancy medal related abilities.
Now in AoW4 they removed mods and put in enchantments, which I imagine they wanted and thought would be as good as mods, and so they left medals pretty much the same.
