Man, I have to return to this game. I’m having an hiatus in my current run, in between Hrot/Boltgun/System Shock/Gunfire Reborn…
I think I’ve just about maxxed out my experience on this game for now. I’ve tried a bunch of combos, seen almost all of the units, map and enemies, and generally given the game a thorough play.
I do have to brag. One thing that made me realize I’ve just about figured this game out was when I took a look at my A Stack today. Playing on Custom balanced, with no cheats. but using the reroll mod to avoid “crappy level ups.” I’m in early week 20, qualified to win a week or two back, but I’m planning on smiting the remaining Circle Mages first.
And I looked at my A Stack, and… it was a 1900 point stack.
Check this sucker out:
My favorite Hero, Yngrid, fully maxxed, two extremely beefy near-max WarTrolls, and maxxed out Keeper, Orc Shaman, Tiara’s Priestess and an Alchemist. Yngrid provides group healing and is also a fairly stout central tank (she has the defense mode with 50% damage reduction, and really good gear). The WarTrolls are damn near unkillable in this stack with all the HoT. The Keeper is immune to stun, has Charge and Rally and generally a support melee/morale dude. The Orc Shaman can summon Greater Demons and I have two Crystalline Libraries with two Focus thingies each so my Shamen have mucho focus and can summon 5 (!!) Greater Demons per battle, with some Cleanse from Yngrid or the Priestesses. The Priestesses provide HoT, Cleanse, anti-resurrection, a white damage buff for the melee, and have the white damage bonus so they do 33 dmg per shot. The Alchemists have Healing Potion and Throw Sacred Water. And the Shaper Golem specializes in kicking ass and taking names.
That stack has cracked several mage towers and IMO can handle anything the game can generate as an enemy stack. It’s got multiple damage types, lots of defense and healing, summons, and just generally redonkulous combat stats.
FEAR MY A STACK!
I think I have achieved that rare thing: feeling “done” with a game due to great satisfaction with no frustration.
Wow, that is truly impressive. I can only wish for some OP in my stacks. I took a break from the game as Diablo IV hit, but I dread going back because I know time is ticking away and I’ve not advanced nearly as fast as I needed to in order to manage what the game is throwing at me. That early learning curve kept me down for too long and I don’t think I can recover. My biggest stack right now is only in the 700 point range.
I remember my HoMM days, crushing the world map with massive stacks. I’d love to have that feeling again. Congrats!
The neat thing is you can pretty much always dig out of a hole in this game. Worst thing is if circle mages have you surrounded and are at war with you. But you just need to pack up your tower and stacks and head across the map to less hostile lands flowing with all kinds of unharvested resources.
Sheesh, about time! Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to read Sharpe posts about Age of Wonders 4? :)
I totally understand how this makes the game more fun, but IMHO it would definitely tilt things a bit in the player’s favor. (I don’t know the specifics of the mod, but I’m guessing it lets you essentially choose the level-up perk?) The randomness of the level-ups does make the power climb a bit swingy, for sure, which I can easily see being unpopular. But I like that it gives another strategic avenue to pursue–getting the tower room (and spell? am I misremembering?) that gives another level-up choice is a neat strategic win.
OTOH, I will clearly defer to your expertise with the game, I’ve only played it through thrice (once with each archetype).
My problem with the random level ups is that the rare rolls at levels 5, 10 and 15 can make or break a unit. Like getting “fire without reloading” for a crossbowman, “cleanse” for a support unit, “heal undead” for a necromancer, etc. I’d have less problems with the random rolls if I had a chance of getting the good unit-specific traits at every level up, or if those traits were guaranteed to be offered at a certain level.
I would say using the reroll mod is about equal to half a difficulty level using the game’s difficulty ratings. I’ve been playing on “custom balanced” with a difficulty rating halfway between balanced and Hard, so I’d say after adjusting for the reroll mod I’m playing on balanced difficulty, similar to the default balanced all things considered.
I feel like the reroll mod should be treated that way: as a difficulty adjustment / toggle, similar to other difficulty sliders in the game, rather than as a “full on cheat”. In fact, I’d love for the devs to offer that option in the game: a slider for more or less choice on level ups, with commensurate difficulty rating adjustments.
That’s how I see the random level up issue: it’s a gameplay/difficulty adjustment that the player should be able to toggle. At the current level of highly random/limited player choice, levelling up can be almost rogue like in this game. Using the reroll mod is more like a conventional RPG. I feel like the player should have that choice.
Just saw this post from a developer in the Steam forums. Maybe we’re getting a DLC?
Well, I did buy a copy on Epic last week!
If they actually are planning a DLC then, to me, this is another great indicator of just how terrible the publisher is at marketing.
As you can see I’ve been gently haranguing them to see if they’d say something and it looks like it worked!
If something is brewing that’d make me very happy because this is my GOTY and more content for it would put a smile on my face.
Mine too. I’ve had more fun playing this than any 4X game in many years.
I wish Slitherine would’ve published it instead, would probably get more DLC and support.
Its up there for me too. Diablo 4 seems quite good so far. And there’s still Starfield in September.
I’m trying to avoid any hopes around that one. On the one hand, I hate what they’ve done with Fallout. On the other, the Elder Scrolls approach might be great in space.
If any DLC getting approved was entirely based on sales then I think that’s the real issue, in that they weren’t able to be working on the pre-production for that while polishing up the 1.0 release of Eo. Had they internally approved at least one DLC I feel like they’d be in a much better spot of keeping up buzz for the game.
And yeah, still my GOTY and I’ll jump on any announced DLC immediately.
So, this is definitely something, right? You wouldn’t just hint at Conquest of Eo not being dead even if it was, yeah? I’m pretty sure primetide is Jan Wagner, Creative Director at Owned by Gravity FWIW.
Just cryptic messages on their Discord and normally not something I’d post, but if I could choose one game to conjure up more content for I think it would be this one.
It’s alive! I sure hope so, anyway.
The game didn’t grab me but I really enjoyed reading the thread and I can appreciate a lot of what they were doing. I’m hoping the game is a success so they can keep working on it or a sequel.
Evolution and experimentation in the 4X space is very much needed.