Age of Wonders: Planetfall by Triumph Studios

In the same vein, that all-glass architecture reminds me of the original vision of the “Panopticon” for the penitentiary. 19th-century American criminologists thought a prison with lots of visibility would enhance rehabilitation, sort of like allowing light to cleanse the soul. And, more practically, allowing prison guards to see what was going on.

I started playing this game last week. Still on the 2nd campaign but so far so good.

It reminds of Gladius Relics of War, but with a bit more building involved.

My big question is how is the AI at higher levels? I realized the AI is a set at very Easy for the tutorial early campaign. The tactical AI isn’t great but it doesn’t suck at the Civ VI levels. Does it get better at higher levels or does the AI just get production bonus or hit bonuses at tactical level?

Also if I just want start a new planet with no scenarios how do I do that?

Tactical AI is really solid in this IMO, if it feels bad it’s probably an easy setting thing.

To start a non-campaign game, pick… Whatever the other option besides campaign is. I can’t remember the name, Custom Game or Scenario or something. :)

On Very Easy the strategic AI is pretty handicapped and passive. If the tactical AI is feeling crappy, it’s probably because you’re fighting it with overwhelming force. Not much the AI can do with that.

The AI is pretty solid, but bear in mind the game has alot of permutations.

Also bear in mind, I have made mistakes that people blast the AI for making, due to lack of concentration on occasion, or just being in “oh this is cool” mode.

I mean, something as simple as founding a city has alot to consider, like what good is that city now, how useful in ten turns, in fifty turns, how defensible etc.

And there’s no one answer to these variables.

I’ve sometimes deliberately built a city near the AI to bait it into attacking said city, either because I have a large force nearby, or because attacking that city means leaving the other side of their empire bereft of armies.

Sometimes it’s because I just didn’t realise the AI was there!

And on at leady one occasion I’ve been the one baited.

And that’s just cities.

Now try and match that up with unit types, mods, synergies, NPC units etc, and to me it’s a wonder the AI is as good as it is.

What day does the big patch come out?

I think it’s the 18th.

It is, according to the press release thing linked above.

We’ve got a new, proper, Dev Diary and this time it is all about the Economy changes coming tomorrow.

Hey Jordi, did you guys ever allow the option to replay an automated battle manually when multiple players are involved? When the feature rolled out, the replay button was disabled if more than one player had units in the battle. This largely disabled the feature in my coop games, which was a huge letdown!

This is the kind of iterative design process that I just love. You take a great game at launch, and you evaluate it now that there is a base game and tons of feedback coming in, and make it even better. You guys are doing great work, keep it up!

As of this time we have not yet looked at changing the behavior in regards to Retry in Multiplayer.

Alrighty! Appreciate the info. Looking forward to the update!

Overview of the big patch today posted just a few minutes ago on the official forums:

And at the end of that post, the notes:

Skimming this now, I see at least one feature I missed from before:

Fleeing Enemies
In order to reduce the number of battles the player needs to fight, weak enemy stacks will now occasionally ask for mercy, allowing players to claim their location without a combat encounter. Additionally, stronger stacks will sometimes allow players to bribe them to leave.

This is a great addition, I think, more for bribing large stacks vs. letting smaller enemies (free XP bags at that point) just flee. :)

Also this…

Better Army Compositions
The strategic AI is now better at building higher level armies of more varied units, and is less likely to create monotonous armies of low level units. When reaching a certain phase of a game, they are now more inclined to create higher tier units as well. Additionally, the unit modding process for AI was improved to ensure the AI players upgrade units that already have mods with better mods once they become available.

…is something I’m a huge fan of.

EDIT: More cool stuff from the patch notes:

When starting a game, user created leaders will now be picked for the AI to use

Turrets and other defensive structures are now disabled when a colony is occupied (so if you capture an enemy city, the turrets will not be active when the original owner comes to get it back)

When replacing a unit mod, the complete Cosmite cost of the old mod is subtracted from the Cosmite cost of the new mod (previously only half was subtracted).

  • Orbital Relay Sectors no longer give +10 income to each specialized sector

Does this mean the ORS no longer provide any economic benefit?

I’m still making my way through the first article with the overview, but that’s a good questions - maybe @TriumphJordi can provide some clarity when he has a moment?

The base Orbital Relay Sectors will only provide +1 worker slot for each resource. The Orbital Logistic Base will still/now provide +10 to exploited sectors.

Perfect, thanks!

Question for @TriumphJordi,

What was the reason for this, out of curiosity?

image

People found normal too hard, so the old normal is now “hard.”? :p

Is that a thing? I played on Normal and if I hadn’t seen this in the patch notes, I might have been inclined to think the game was suddenly much, much easier than pre-patch, and that would have been disappointing. If that’s all the reason they made this change, that’s short-sighted because people don’t always read patch notes and might feel that way.

I had hoped it was because the changes to the AI and economy necessitated the change.

I also can’t tell if you are serious or not with the :p t the end of your sentence, FYI, so I’m taking your answer at it’s face for now.