I don’t know about you guys, but the “pull out, simplified” map that was introduced in Civ V and perfected (imo) in AoW3 is one of my favorite things in strategy games. This particular map looks excellent, once again.
I preferred the way the parchment map of AoW3 looked, but I also rarely used/played from that view so this being much more functional is something I’m fully behind. Also, @Lennart_Sas himself wrote,
“The Age of Wonders 3 parchment map was charming, but these Planetfall maps are a lot more useful and clearer in practice.”
…which I can’t help but agree with. Also, aesthetically, these maps look great to me, too.
Man, I really like the flavor of these guys. Super cool.
They still have some work to do on their animations and effects though, I hope, some of that looked a little rough and has since the game was announced, to me.
Like the previous factions, I’m a big fan of these guys as well. I like the roster we’ve seen, and their back story, and the fact they have psionics is really cool to me. Tough to say for sure without seeing them in proper action, which I agree, might be today. Fingers crossed!
On an aesthetic level I’m not thrilled with the iconography. It’s just so ugly. But I plan to catch up on the dev diary stuff tonight, as I haven’t had a chance to read this latest one.
I just started reading the blog. I’ve gotten as far as the Subjugator screenshot. Check out the lore, it’s great. My only complaint is the whole idea of that Subjugator ever getting up for anything, that screams floating ivory throne like nobody’s business.
I could do without the heavy emphasis on slavery for this faction, but bad guys gotta be bad.
@Scotch_Lufkin and others who have been following closely, what are some of your favorite improvements this seems to make over AoW3? I prefer fantasy over scifi, but if this offers up some good mechanical differences I can see this as being a good game to pick up.
@BloodyBattleBrain and I had a talk about this about 15 posts back, start here…
…and come back if you want any clarification or if that wasn’t what you were looking for? I could also take a few notes about the things I like over AoW3 when we see the next gameplay stream, since that should also be the newest look at the latest build.
Yep that’s the type of thing I’m looking for. I think I read some of it on my phone a little while back and forgot. I’m usually more distracted when reading on the phone and more likely to have the info not stick in my brain. And I wouldn’t be surprised if I have some type of brain worm living in my head reducing brain function over time.
It does sound like it has enough improvements to make it feel different enough from AoW3. Not sure if I’ll get it day 1 (I wouldn’t be surprised!) or wait for a bit of a price reduction. AoW3 has the best tactical battles in any game of it’s kind that I can recall.
It does, and honestly this seems to play so familiarly to that excellent title, I think I overcame my “oh, it’s Sci-Fi?” sentiment very easy. Functionally, it’s just Dwarves with Energy Tanks instead of Steam Tanks, so to speak. The factions are still fantasy, just future fantasy, and like I mentioned up thread, we already have the best version of this as fantasy, let’s see if we can have the best sci-fi 4X out there now as well. :)
But I really do like a lot of the changes this game is bringing, off the top of my head I’m really happy with how Sectors work. That’s probably my favorite change, honestly. But I also like they split up over land “spells” and combat “spells”, and what they are doing with diplomacy with using a point system to ensure your actions work diplomatically is probably the best way to ensure things behave like they are supposed to with AI factions. I think that has enough potential I may try to play Planetfall as a proper 4X and not a Wargame with three of the “X’s”. Lots of great little changes.
The only thing I continue to be not sold on is some of the effects and animations aren’t as fluid as I’ve come to demand in my games. You play something like Civ VI and while that game isn’t … uh, great, it does look really polished and has just incredible animations. It’s hard to not compare games in the same genre, especially with the same view point. I mean, Gladius has an amazing aesthetic and animates gorgeously, for that matter. But every new video looks better than the last, and we have 4 months before release, so it’s fair to say a lot of the art/animation/effects are still in flux.
I think you’ll have to! The single biggest change imho is sectors probably.
However, one other change that hasn’t gotten much attention is that independent cities don’t exist.
In AoW3 you might start with a very large Dwarf city near you, or find one early, which might change your game strategy immediately.
In PF independent “cities” are basically camps of people.
It makes a certain sense because every planet is supposedly post apocalyptic so having a thriving metropolis would be odd.
Another huge change is how the NPC factions have been given a great deal more power and agency. In AoW3 you could ignore a Giants’ dwelling to no ill effect. Here, if you ignore the Autonoms, or worse, help their enemies, they will come for you, and they are powerful.
