I haven’t been following the design, but this sounds like a nice change. One of the few criticisms I had about AOW3 was about low tier units becoming obsolete fairly quickly, and late game having too many units to manage.
Do units still individually level up and gain abilities if you manage to keep them alive? That was one of my favorite features in the previous game.
Yes units do level up and gain new abilities.
However, it is much less pronounced.
I think now units gain just one ability, and they get it at gold medal.
At other medals they get things like a bump to base accuracy.
An elite (gold medal) unit will win against a recruit level of the same unit, assuming all else is equal.
Upgrading your units is now under player control through the modification (mods) system.
Higher tier units require more cosmite (rare resource, think mana or power from other games) for the same mod and tier 3 and 4 units require cosmite just to build them.
Some of the mods seen give your firearm Infantry (not all Infantry have firearms) an extra hex of range (so from 7 to 8 hexes if you are using vanguard troopers, and from 5 to 6 if you are using Dvar Trenchers, for example. I believe at least one sniper is classed as firearm, so if I’m not wrong this mod would make them the ultimate sniper) or give them regrowth or unlock side effects for their base attacks, e.g. Gaining the chance to inflict bleeding or stun effects.
Your units only have 3 mod slots so choose carefully.
edit:
Assembly reveal video:
Scavengers are the base Infantry, and use a shotgun as well as life stealing claws.
So that mod I referenced earlier, would make them slightly better at ranged combat. Worth it over another mod? You decide.
OK, I’m running out of time on the Planetfall deal at GMG. It’s not so much whether I should get it, but whether I should get the version with the season pass. After the coupon it’s about an extra $30, not chump change for me. Worth it if they are all Age of Wonders 3 expansion quality, but Paradox sometimes drops the ball on season pass / DLC quality.
Any enablers or sense talkers?
It won’t be Paradox making the DLC but rather Triumph, the same folks that we know makes great expansions. I went all in to support them, my two cents.
Thanks for the Steam message btw, we were traveling and I hate trying to post on my phone!
I never pre-order ever since I got burned on Empire: Total War, but I pre-ordered this. The expansions of AOW3 were both worthwhile (especially Eternal Lords), released at 5 months and 1 year after game release. This one will have 3, so more than AOW3, but not the infinite DLC junk spam of some Paradox games. That makes me think it’s worthwhile.
From my budgetary perspective, it became a question of pre-odering to get the deal now, or waiting for a decent sale some time after release and burning through my backlog (never a bad thing). But my love of the series meant I wasn’t going to be happy waiting for X months after release for a similar deal, so I decided to take the dive.
GMG just sent me an email to remind you the sale is ending soon!
So you don’t get the 25% off on top of the 15% off? It’s just 25% off of list price?
(Not complaining, just trying to make sure I’m not missing something. But it does affect my decision.)
I’m totally biased.
I think it is an improvement over AoW3 in all the mechanics, but a step backwards (far too strong a condemnation) theme wise because I am a fantasy nut and am only lukewarm about sci-fi in games (like reading about it though)
I pre-ordered the season pass version, despite concerns over Pdx policies.
From the top of my head:
Net result:
slower paced game, lower tier units are still in use in the later game
Start a game of AoW3, then refer to those bulletpoints.
If any of those bullet points sounds good to you, then buy the game, NOW.
Correct - the 25% E3 discount replaces the standard 15% VIP pricing
OK - done. I went all in to get the season pass.
That’s the trade off for me. I knew I’d at least want the base game right away. May as well get the DLC at a discounted price when they come out.
Then they did their job!
Hey, I regret things that I do and things that I don’t do so I’ve got everything covered! :-)
The mechanics do sound cool. Like you I prefer the fantasy theme. Scifi is filled with so much gobbledygook. But, a good game can overcome that.
August should be a fun month!
No, they don’t stack, never have.
Yep, August is a light new release month, so you chose wisely!
I don’t want to keep anyone from preordering this, it looks very good, but do we know the 3 expansions promised with the season pass will be substantial and the only 3 DLCs this game will get?
Maybe someone has a developer quote on this one, but theoretically they could just put out these expansions in a couple of months after release and have 10 other expansions afterwards.
The wording “expansion” suggests they will be substantial, in contrary to “DLC” which can be any kind of content no matter how small and insignificant, but I’m sure you can stretch the meaning of expansion if you want to.
I don’t know, but if anyone has a bit of concern it’s best to not pre-order. I mean what, it might save you five bucks or something over the course of the year? I just buy DLCs/Expansions a la carte as they come out.
I mean, if you don’t trust the company to not be exploitative dicks, probably don’t buy a pre-order of any kind from them?
That’s a tough one, because on one hand it would be nice to support Triumph, but on the other hand, Paradox is known to be insane sometimes.
A) But that’s with their own developed games, not games they are publishing.
B) Honestly I love the huge stream of DLC Paradox puts out, tons and tons of new content baked in alongside free updates. Why would anyone want less options/content for a game they like?
The quantity of expansions is higher but it’s because they don’t let up from full production pace, a lot of other studios keep a smaller team working on post-release support while they spin up a new property.
If you’re excited for Planetfall, I don’t know what the concern would be. Frankly, I wish AOW3 received additional expansions before they moved off. I miss my Lizardmen.