3569

Haha, that’s still surprisingly specific. We’re still working with our own Creator Engine, I think that’s vague enough.

Rod’s project is very interesting, very ambitious and I do think the response to it will be smashing once that gets announced.

3570

I guess my main question is whether the next game will be turn based or not, regardless of whether that’s turn based strategy, tactics, RPG, or other. I have zero interest in any games that are not fully turn based.

For example, I wish I could love the Paradox grand strategy games but I cannot. Every time I try one, I keep thinking “if only this were turn based…” I’ve tried a number over the years and I just can’t enjoy them due to the non turn based nature, even though they are otherwise deeply in my wheelhouse.

3571

Is this the Age of Wonders 3/Planetfall engine? I really like that engine - the games look and feel perfect.

3572

Yeah that engine looks good and runs nicely on my old hardware. I think the UI skills of Triumph help. The Planetfall UI can get a bit busy at times but that’s due to the complexity of the game (similar to Old World). No UI is perfect for all users but Triumph does a pretty solid job of giving me the info I want and need, and the engine presents it well.

3573

Age of Hatsune Miku?

And yes, whenever Triumph goes back to the turn-based, I hope the component system is nothing like Planetfall’s.

I like Old World-style complexity more than I liked Planetfall’s complexity, even though both games were well-crafted.

3574

Is the game you’re working on once again going to see me part with my dollars on day one of release?

…Short of some theme that doesn’t appeal to me (eg: Leek Growing Simulator 2024), I believe the answer will be a resounding “YES”

Also, leeks completely replaced onions for me in cooking. More expensive, yes, but a much more smoother taste.

3575

Is there information that the next Triumph game is not going to be turn based? (I wouldn’t interpret Jordi’s reply to me to imply that. He just declined to answer the question as too specific, likely in accord with corporate policy on public communications; that doesn’t imply a “yes” or a “no”.)

3576

There isn’t, when they go back means whenever they do it, be it their next game or something later.

3577

Creator Engine is our own custom engine that has been used for every title Triumph has produced (unless Overlord used something else which I don’t think it did).

We certainly hope so, maybe we even manage to do so before release through a nice pre-order. Ah one can only dream :P

3578

What would you like them to be upto?

I submitted a fully costed proposal for a Dead or Alive type fighter game with Tigrans and other fantasy races, in bikinis fighting for bikinis.

Your loot is bikinis and you can use real currency to buy ingane currency, which is bikinis.

This way you capture the whales, everyone who liked fantasy games, fighting games etc.

Sure fire winner.

My email is clearly not working properly though as I am yet to receive a reply.

3579

Yeah it was Creator for Overlord and man I remember the arguments when Overlord was announced.

I was happy to be proved wrong about it. :)

3580

I mean, I like cooking with leeks. Tasty.

3581

Nice! I absolutely loved AoW and especially AoW2, visually Shadow Magic is still one of my favorite “old school” games, though I haven’t touched it since Age of Wonders 3 dropped in my lap.

3582

Let’s keep the conversation going. Explorminate posted a rather interesting/in-depth AoW4 Wishlist earlier today. Thoughts? Ideas? Your own wishes?

3583

A complaint I’ve had in Age of Wonders games is that it is too easy for enemy armies to walk around your territory so that it’s not really possible to have any sort of front or border.

Take Planetfall for example. You spend precious resources on building up a garrison to help defend your border sectors, you pay upkeep for it each turn, so what does the opposing player do (AI or otherwise)? It just walks past and goes straight to your core cities. Maybe your garrison + army defending could stop them, but that one army can’t sally out and stop the 3-stack the AI is marching through. And with AI have vision and that sort of thing, they always know where the undefended cities are and beeline for it.

IIRC, Planetfall did add things like roads to make movement faster in your territory which was a help on defense, but I always wanted more reasons opposing players can’t just wander through your fortified border. An overly complicated logistics system might night be a good fit for the series but some concept of having to operate within range of your own cities would help, at least for very large 3-stack type of attacks. Maybe lone armies could operate a little further, or certain lighter unit types could have raider/commando traits allowing them to operate behind enemy lines. Which might also extend their use past the point where T3-4 units are rolling out.

3584

There are some things I’d like to see in an Age of Wonders 4 that were introduced in Planetfall, like sectors (probably have to call them something else, maybe territory or some such) and the split research tree stuff. Playing a lot of Master of Magic has made me really appreciate some of those systems as well, like having the number of models mean something other than being a cosmetic way to see how weakened a squad of units are.

I liked the deeper and more reliable push into Diplomacy Planetfall has, with diplomacy being fueled by a resource to sort of ensure it works like you want it to always felt really good to me, more so than hoping an AI would play the game well and make sense, you can just make sure your allies are your allies because you paid them in %diplomacy resource to be so.

Oh, and the newest Planetfall mode with the meta game going is something I really like but was released as I was winding down on my time with Planetfall so I’d love something like that (Kingdom Mode!) from the jump.

I’m sure there is a lot more, probably should summon @BloodyBattleBrain!

3585

Well heck that article is pretty much a very solid summation of my views and hopes for an AOW 4. Good job by the writer.

To make specific points, I would say the following:

Keep the sector system from AOW:P - it worked well, but there needs to be a much better tutorial to explain both how it works and the concepts. A lot of players stumbled on grasping this system but the system is not that complex, just different.

Keep and expand the Empire Mode from AOW:P - it was one of the best innnovations in AOW:P but it was added late and in a very much “rough conceptual” state. A fully fleshed out Empire mode would be great.

Add the Seals Victory from AOW3 back in. That was my favorite victory condition and also IMO the only one the AI played well. It’s vital for single player IMO. I had heard there were issues with in MP but that’s fine - if it cannot be tuned well for MP, just don’t allow it in MP. But it’s vital for SP IMO.

Streamline the mod system for most units. I’ve suggested either limiting mods to 2 per unit instead of 3 or by matching mod slots to tiers - 1 slot for tier 1, 2 slots for tier 2, etc. Also, I would limit the powerful synergistic mods to dedicated spellcaster/special operative type units. I mean the nasty debuffs and the various buffs and stuff that can dramatically change battle balance. I think they should be in the game but in a more focused fashion, preferably on mostly glass cannon type units (so if all else fails you can always bash em down).

That’s basically it. I’m fine with AOW Fantasy, AOW Sci-Fi or AOW Steampunk/Pulp. Fantasy is the easiest as it builds on much that has gone before and is probably the most dependable from a marketing standpoint. But if I had my druthers I’d love a Steampunk/Pulp game.

And I guess one more thing: I do think focusing on tutorials rather than campaigns is something to think very heavily about. Maybe a short campaign that is a strong tutorial but honestly a lot of AoW players hate the campaigns. I know I do. But these games NEED a good tutorial. If it has to be in campaign form, fine, but it should be both short yet also chock full of info. AND, the help system needs a lot more “basic conceptual” type stuff in an easy to look up format. These games feature a ‘learning cliff’ and good, deep tutorial and reference info is important. AOW:P had pretty good tutorials and quite good reference, but even so it was not always easy to learn key basics. For example, I still hear of newer players struggling with the sector economy, even though it’s pretty straightforward, but not well explained.

Lastly, for the English speaking market, a bit tighter quality control on translation, please. As an example, one thing that leads into the confusion on sector economics is that the translation is not 100% consistent on “sector”, “exploitation” and “specialization” all of which are different. It may be that in the original Dutch this confusion is less evident, but in English these words needs to be used more consistently. Also, let’s try for better words - “exploitation” and “specialization” are just not great in English in intuitively conveying what the game is going for. Overall, the translation was pretty good in AOW:P but it fell short in a few fairly technical areas IMO. It’s a small issue that affects understanding in deep ways. (For example, Tom’s great frustration with the victory condition issue in Empire mode could have bene avoided with better explanation/translation of the primary and secondary victory condition concepts.)

3586

I would so love to give you in depth analysis… but I think I’ve become a dinosaur compared to what most people are saying. I really liked the strategic layer of all the Age of Wonders, more than Planetfall. I don’t like the focus trees everyone is obsessed with, because I think it breaks the immersion of the games. For instance in CK3 or HOI IV, the gameplay focus moves from a role-play feel to a "rush to fill the bucket to unlock this thing cause I’m going to have to do that 15x more times to get the thing I really want.

The strategic layer of AoW felt so much more organic, along with the map, skills, and character development. Most Planetfall stuff could translate really well to AoW4 and I’m sure I’d enjoy it. But I like the old playstyle better. The new way pushes you to min-max hard and it becomes a numbers game instead of a role-play game.

That’s why I feel I’m a poor example to go off and am probably in the minority.

3587

This was what I was getting at a bit when I was talking about limiting some of the mods to spellcaster type units. I do think one flaw in Planetfall is that cosmite becomes dominating in the late game - some abilities are in my view somewhat overpowered and they all take a lot of cosmite. I think this needs to be a bit better balanced but I believe that should be possible.

What do you mean here? Focus trees? Can you explain this a bit? I followed the rest of your critique but did not understand this point.

3588

I added this context (even though it doesn’t directly relate to AoW right now) because I think it’s an issue with games of late from Paradox, and I don’t know if they’ll be influencing the design. I hate the Lifestyle trees in CK3 and how it forces you to play in a way that breaks your roleplay style. The way it’s implemented, too much of the game is focused on getting “points” to accrue towards that tree. You’re forced into a min-max mindset right away and it’s impossible to get away from. You just keep looking to fill that next bar.

In HOI IV, the focus trees are pure gaminess that is a major distraction to the game itself. The way it’s designed, what goes where and the choices you have to make in the either/or department feels incredibly random. “The U.S. did both X and Y in WWII. So why is the game now forcing me to decide one or the other?”

I’m not sure if that explains anything, and it may not end up relating to AoW4. But it’s the two facets of games I love, that I disagree with from a design perspective as it feels like artificial restrictions were put into the game for gaminess sake.