Inspired by MMO-Champion's blue tracker, I decided to start a thread with a similar functionality, for quick developer post reference.

I´ll try to post chronologically (except the very first update where I copied from last to first page in both, official and Heaven´s forums, grouped by developer).

Please, don't comment on this thread unless you find I missed some dev post or have a suggestion (which I'll gladly consider!). If something catches your attention and you want to discuss it, start a new thread.

Devs are active on other forums? Let me know!

For FAQs, visit:

Official: http://www.ageofwonders.com/faq/

Fan: http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/faq-thread//

UPDATE: Unfortunatelly, due to personal time and interest shifts, I won't be able to maintain this thead anymore. After more than a year, though, and only a couple of weeks from release, I'm quite satisfied with what I set out to do and the results. Anyone interested in continue it, is more than welcome to do it. Cheers!


-------Updated 03-12-2014---------


Arnout Sas

Being of otherworldly nature, and experts themselves I’m afraid Succubi are immune to such dwarven charms, or any mind control for that matter

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/lets-talk-about-rogue/#post-45486}


Daniel van Leeuwen

It will be fixed in the next build =).

Do note that sometimes we force a certain climate over the one that you see in the worldmap for artistic reasons. For example the shrine of Yaka(the fire god) will always be on a volcanic themed map even though it’s standing between grassy plains on the worldmap.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/combat-background/#post-45561}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

And to answer Gyor: no, not gender based ^^.
And @liclic: no, they don’t.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/lets-talk-about-rogue/#post-45673}


Erwin

All I will say is the Theocrats ultimate global spell is not health generation. It’s something way more powerful and worthy of an ultimate spell!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/final-global-spell-any-information/#post-45536}

Don’t forget that next to the campaign you will also have scenario’s and randomly generated maps (which you can influence to your liking!) to satisfy your single player needs. Next to that you will also be able to build your own scenario’s/campaigns and share them around for unlimited content.

Winte.. It’s coming!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/time-to-release-some-more-info/page/3/#post-45579}

@Low_K: I don’t have this information I’m afraid. Info should follow on that.

@Poodlec: It’s why we are working hard on analyzing the maps and improving them as you already noticed

@poodlec:
Musketeers aren’t armored. They trade vulnerability and frequency of shooting for high burst damage with their muskets.

@Rohirrimelf:
There are city upgrades that cause units to heal more in cities.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/got-questions-for-beta-testers/page/10/#post-45591}

@Poodlec @Rohirrimelf

You guys have bested me! You are right, they do are armored. My apologies! Please accept my bounty of goblinheads!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/got-questions-for-beta-testers/page/10/#post-45624}

Poodlec wrote:

Thanks ! It’s good to hear that it’s only polishing, but it still improves playability bi great deal i say, so keep up a good work.

As said by the betatesters the game is fully playable already including the campaign (it’s been finished by multiple people including myself). We are mainly polishing the maps and the AI at this point but you already figured that out

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/time-to-release-some-more-info/page/3/#post-45628}

In the worst case you can always manually share your save files via dropbox (free program that allows sharing of files and updates automaticly)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/play-by-email/#post-45653}


-------Updated 03-11-2014---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Also, you can have hospitals in your cities that increase the heal rate of garrisoned units, and if you have healers in your party they will heal a unit from that party every strategic turn (if anyone’s wounded).

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/healing/#post-44872}

Hey all, let’s keep this thread from derailing lest someone cross the line, ok?

We will release the next class information very soon! (of course, massive meteor strikes are technically possible, etc..)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/theocrat-and-warlord-introduced-soon/page/2/#post-45163}

It’s a bug, and consider it doubly raised now, should be an easy fix

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/combat-background/#post-45168}

1) They have shoot light crossbow, charm, bard skills and true sight. Bard skills give the entire stack a morale boost, and true sight allows you to see invisible/concealed enemies.
Of course they can also attack in melee.

2) They’re flying and have the throw curse ability to lower resistance to make targets more susceptible to their seduction.

3) Indeed, the higher resistance mitigates the blight weakness.
The typical resistance of a High Elf tier 1 is 9.

Hope this helps

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/lets-talk-about-rogue/#post-45176}

Glad you like it

There’s also a generic xp bonus per day for heroes and leaders, but it’s 1 xp per turn (early game anyway). Since you already need 50 xp to get to level 2 from 1, don’t count on that ^^

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-does-experience-work/#post-45181}


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

Units get XP for most actions they take, including attacking, healing, buffing, and (in the case of heroes) casting spells. They do get more XP for killing units though, so that still matters.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-does-experience-work/#post-45022}


Erwin

@Karmah

We do read the forums my friend! We are just busy polishing the game for you guys. The game pretty much is playable already as it is, as the beta testers already have mentioned, but we want to spice things up to make it better, stronger, faster, etc.

Work is not done after release as we’ll continue to build on the game (changes/DLC/etc.) and hotfix any issues you guys might be running into.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/time-to-release-some-more-info/#post-44751}

I haven’t heard anything about a stress test (yet) so far but if it comes around there will be a post about it on the forums for sure.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/stress-test/#post-44756}

It depends on your playstyle. Hurry can be a big lifesaver if you see an enemy closing in and you need more units to protect your city or if you have such a big economy you don’t mind the morale of this little city but do want to use it for big production. In general you don’t prefer using it on your main city too much unless you are going for a rush strategy of the sorts.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/one-little-though-important-question/#post-44880}

Expanding too much too quickly means you will have a harder time protecting them. Every unit also has upkeep costs so producing more units to defend could easily nullify or even negatively affect your income. It’s all about balance and positioning.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/resources/#post-44887}

If you spam and explore too quickly you always get into a stalemate situation where you can’t build more units or advance forwards because all you would be doing is defending your cities by patrolling and keeping them up. One enemy flyer/scout or indie spider can take an undefended city and one defender is mostly not enough to keep them out. Expanding is good but only at the right time and on the right places.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/resources/#post-44916}


-------Updated 03-10-2014---------


Lennart Sas

Hi, sounds like cool idea. But it is quite complex for a random event and would have a major impact on the flow of the game.

Perhaps At random intervals fallen Heroes come back from the dead and start haunting treasure sites (setting them to unexplored)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/suggestion-mega-event-of-the-fallen-heroes-i-want-to-hear-criticism/#post-44433}


Erwin

I’m going to be careful here as I got no knowledge of the art department and am not the biggest on lore (so don’t lynch me please!) but I can safely say that there are no current plans for changing the appearance of the Draconians for release.

Do bear in mind that a lot has happened since SM and AOW III including Draconian society. There is also a lot more you can do with the new look than the old in the ways of leader creation and story (campaign)!

I want to ask you all to give it a try first and see how you like them. You might like them more once you see what is all possible with them!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/question-about-draconions/page/2/#post-44250}

Yeti’s and frost giants indeed are two different beings! If you thought yeti’s were frightful.. Just you wait till the frost giant comes along *shivers*

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/hints-that-frostlings-will-return/#post-44437}


-------Updated 03-06-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

I’ve forwarded your request to someone who can handle it Curtis!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/aow3-preview-articles/page/3/#post-42445}


Erwin

1.
Like said before you can’t really stack enchantments on the strategic map. The buffs in battle can really be a battle changer if cast on the right timing. This gives a lot more strategy to a game than buffing permanently. Besides that there are a few level up skills that give your whole stack a bonus for example when running alongside said hero.

2.
You can have different channels on your attacks. Mind you it’s not as easy to get a lot of different as you might think.

3.
An avatar has no penalties from having different races on board. However alignment does influence your units’ morale.

Hope this helps!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/enchanment-stacking-multitype-damage-racial-purity-and-some-other-questions/#post-42403}

Not having played that much with the map editor I don’t have the knowledge required to be able to say whether you can change the race of the random hero. However you can build a scenario without the random heroes joining you and add your own custom ones of the same race to join you for a campaign scenario for example.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/heroes-mega-threads/#post-42644}

All retail versions will be steamwrapped. However the big difference with retail is that you will be able to install the game from the cd. Only the last few percentages will be done online as they have to do with steam. Which means you won’t have to download the whole game if your internet is slow.

Hope this helps!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/pre-orders-start-on-steam-gog-new-video-release-march-31st/page/4/#post-42646}


-------Updated 03-05-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

Palantir wrote:

So this is the third preview video series in German, whereas apart from Tombles’ masterful efforts we have none in English yet. I hope that’s going to be addressed soon.
We’ve sent it to some English speaking you tubers. Hopefully they will stat publishing stuff soon.

Low_K wrote:

Surely you can make a sub-string like AI-not-attacks-squishy-unit-when-other-unit-is-in-base-contact?

The AI doesn’t work like that. What it literally does is:

score = damage done + bonus if I kill – damage taken – penalty if I die

There are a ton of multipliers and weights in there (for example, damage done might be multiplied by 3 if the target is an enemy leader). But that’s the basic idea.

In the situation in the video, the pikemen would die if it attacked the cavalry, so it decides it would be better to attack the priests. Normally, the balance of multipliers would stop that happening, when I tried to reproduce this just now the pikemen attacked the cavalry and died. I’ll have a mess around and see if I can’t tweak it to fix it.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/new-preview-ai-troubles/page/2/#post-41836}

Updating this thread, since I’ve just re-added simple elevation back into tactical combat. If a unit is stood on a city wall, it now gets a +2 bonus to its max range. This adds more depth and also addresses concerns that walls aren’t useful enough. It also helps fix an exploit where you could effectively nullify walls by attacking walled cities with long range units.

This is really the only place where there is any elevation in the maps, so it’s still not as in-depth a system as Shadow Magic had, but still an improvement I hope.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/a-few-questions-from-a-long-time-fan/#post-41848}

Cannons basically make wall obsolete, unless the defender has a cannon too. A cannon can effectively outrange city defenders, and even without outranging them, getting into a ranged firefight with a cannon is suicide for most units. If an attacker turns up to a city with cannons, it’s often a good idea for the defenders to abandon the walls and come out and fight them at close range.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/wall-climbing-and-sieges/#post-41856}

The AI assigns some units as being “Dangerous” and it prioritizes trying to kill them, which leads to a focus fire effect. It’s kind of fuzzy though, so the AI might decide to attack a new target for various reasons. Generally, the AI will usually perform the most effective actions first. So, abilities that kill things tend to go before those that don’t.

There are very few hard rules in the AI though, since they tend to cause more problems than they fix. For example, at one point, I did actually have a rule that said “If moving gets you hit by an attack of opportunity, then don’t move.” but it made the AI predictable, and the AI would miss obvious opportunities to kill units since it didn’t want to suffer an attack of opportunity to get to them.

This means it’s a balancing act of various multipliers and weights, all tugging the AI in different direction with different priorities and ideas. Mostly it works very well, but sometimes it embarrasses me in public, as you could see in the video above.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/new-preview-ai-troubles/page/2/#post-41873}

True story, I was fighting a test battle against some Phantasm Warriors. My leader was weakened, but I had a bunch of tough units in front of him to keep him safe, so I wasn’t worried. I press end turn and watch a phantasm warrior walk around my units, getting hit by 4 or 5 attacks of opportunity, and backstab my leader, killing him. I’d forgotten that phantasm warriors have 60% physical damage resistance, shields and high defense, so they only took about 12 damage from all the attacks put together

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/new-preview-ai-troubles/page/2/#post-41896}

The AI knew it was going to take 2/3 damage from each hit, which is why it moved. If it thought it would die, it wouldn’t. The main problems the AI has come from misinterpreting the data, which is the kind of issue you see in that video. The AI took the data and said “It’s better for me to take 20 damage and go over there and do 12 damage, than to do 30 damage and die in the process.” Sometimes that sentence is correct, and sometimes not =D

Standing back is very tricky for AI, since what do you do if the player stands back as well? It becomes a game of chicken, and an AI doesn’t really stand a chance against a human with those kinds of mind games. There would be exploits where a human could stand at max range and plink away with ranged units to force an attack and things like that.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/new-preview-ai-troubles/page/3/#post-41929}

StupendousMan wrote:

The AI probably didn’t know it in a proper sense, it’s just that the score value for attacking the leader was higher than everything else, the reduced damage due to its physical resistance trait also “known to the unit” in so far as the negative factor “damage taken” was accordingly smaller than it would have been for a unit without resistance.

Exactly. It also “knew” that the projected damage from the AoOs was fewer than it’s hotpoint total, which would have triggered one of the few hard rules in the system (don’t kill yourself to AoOs).

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/new-preview-ai-troubles/page/3/#post-41973}


Erwin

Fear the might that is Dire Penguin…

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/you-guys-are-bringing-back-the-dire-penguins/#post-41697}


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi,

Stress test is under discussion.

For a stress test we’ll pick an approach that will give us the most test, with the least overhead.

On our servers. These are used just to set up a map. When this is accomplished handling the gameplay communication will – usually – fall back to a p2p system.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/server-stress-load-test/#post-41794}


Lennart Sas

All classes have a city upgrade which allows the production of class units and which visualy appears on the world map. If a city gets conquered by another class, the upgrade gets destroyed.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/different-city-graphics-for-each-raceclass-combo/#post-42155}


-------Updated 03-04-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

New previews should be coming very soon, we made a build for them last week. We’re working on a version to send to reviewers next, no ETA on that yet though!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/new-preview-ai-troubles/page/2/#post-41280}

If you have the level editor then it’s easy. When you place a city it has a setting “Match Race To Leader”, if you set that to false it will stay whatever race you set it to in the editor. So, you could make an goblin city and give it to player 1, and make player 1 an elven leader.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/i-have-a-question-to-ask/#post-41322}


Erwin

Do note the AI is one of the hardest parts in a TBS game because of all the choices you can make on the strategic map. But don’t worry we are working as hard we can to make the AI as awesome as possible for you guys!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/new-preview-ai-troubles/#post-41243}

You don’t need to be online to play Age of Wonders III with both the GoG or the Steam version. You can just start it in offline mode. Of course you can’t start an online game as you aren’t logged in without internet

So rest assured guys!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/huge-outrage-on-gog-about-the-price/page/4/#post-41386}

I’d say to not be too focused on races but instead lock onto a class. You can have multiple races under your control by taking other cities around the map. There is a lot possible in the age of wonders!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/compensating-for-racial-weaknesses/#post-41473}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

First strike can be used aggressively, namely versus another unit with first strike: you still go first if you have it too

Otherwise, yes, first strike mostly comes into play when defending.

The Polearm does increase the damage versus mounted units and flyers though, so that’s also aggressive: Versus cavelry for example I’d attack the horse with the pikeman, and not wait until another unit attacks my pikeman, even though I then get the first strike.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-unit-types-and-the-character-sheet/page/3/#post-41491}


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

You can capture any city of any race and build units of the city’s race.
Hope that answers your question.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/i-have-a-question-to-ask/#post-41287}


-------Updated 03-03-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

Turns out the artists agree too! Someone is going to fix the action point icons to look better.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/suggestion-action-points-art/#post-40602}

Hehaw wrote:

I really don’t like the sound of that; one great part of AoW, IMO, is that each type of elemental damage had a very useful effect. Now, it sounds like it is just physical damage with a different color except on select units.

Yes, the beta testers all hated it as well. That’s why we’ve taken pains to add as many of these minor status effects as we can. It’s not the same as AoW you’re right, but hopefully in most cases it should have the same practical effect.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/goblins/#post-40633}

What’s a popular iPad app that’s used for this? I have an iPad at home so I could see what happens with it. I can’t promise we can change all the interfaces to make them touch screen friendly though, it might be too much work.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/touchscreen-support/#post-40746}

Cool, I’ll give it a try!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/touchscreen-support/#post-40792}

Yep. To clarify, this was a feature from before the Beta. The “people” I was referring to were other people in the company. Personally, I still think deployment was a good idea, but it’s gone and I don’t think we’re gonna be putting it back in. Sorry guys!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/shrinking-battle-maps-since-aow-i-dumbing-game-down/#post-40891}

Go ahead BBB, I don’t see how they coild be considered sensitive.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/goblins/page/2/#post-40898}

jakjak wrote:

I cant believe the Horned God broke that flame tank with such a high resistance you would think he would have a basic understanding of primal forces

Horned God is tier 4, while the flame tank is only tier 3. Also the flame tank is weak to lightning, and the horned god has a powerful long ranged lightning.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/new-preview-ai-troubles/#post-40992}


Erwin

StupendousMan wrote:

I am not sure if the aspect of ‘purchasing power’ has already been taken into account in this discussion here. I saw one post about it on the forums at GOG and found it quite interesting.

Summarized in short it said that it MIGHT be a mistake (although one is prone to do) to compare prices on a currency exchange rate basis only and that it MIGHT make more sense to take also into account the relative ‘purchasing power’ of the price set point.

I am aware that this doesn’t explain having poorer Eastern European countries pay the same price in € as some European nations with a higher standard of living (in fact it makes the price point even more unfair), but it might explain the 1:1 price conversion from $ to € maybe?

And I am not even saying that prices should be set according to purchasing power considerations, I am just saying that this might be the rationale or justification for it. Or maybe just plain greed…

You bring up a very interesting part of the discussion. Although the US is a very big and powerful country the average income of it’s people is lower than that of the average west European. This results in a lower purchasing power thus resulting in a 1 euro – 1 dollar conversion.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/huge-outrage-on-gog-about-the-price/page/4/#post-40823}

They are the best babysitters in the world!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/warlord-what-do-they-do-in-times-of-peace/#post-40837}


Arnout Sas

Landship has Fire Mortar and Fire Broadside (quite a powerful short-range ability)
And don’t forget the Shrine of Smithing with Smithing Prayer Bolts. The damage of this ability increases with the # devout units, so it can become very powerful.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/high-level-ranged-units/#post-40588}

CrazyElf wrote:

How many technologies roughly are there to research?

Over 250!

Skills (empire upgrades, global/strategic spells, tactical spells)
9 Avatar skills
6 classes with 38 skills
55 specialization skills

As a leader you have access to class + avatar and 3 specializations (with 4 skills) so during a game about ~55 skills to research.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tech-tree/#post-40601}

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/high-level-ranged-units/#post-40637}



-------Updated 03-02-2014---------


Arnout Sas

Es gibt irgendwo ein große Forum-post über diesem Thema auf die Englische Diskussion Forum mit alle Vorteil und Nachteilen

Weil nicht realistisch, unsere Entscheidung ist dass man Trupps nicht noch mehr ein Nachteil an geschwächte Trupps mit gibt. Man kommt schnell in ein negative Spirale so dass geschwächte Trupps schnell nicht mehr brauchbar sind. Tactical Combat verändert, aber nicht günstig. Wir habe gerne das Players das Konflict riskieren! Deswegen haben wir dieser Entscheidung gemacht.

(Entschuldigung für mein schlechtes Deutsch!)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/hp-frage/#post-40186}


-------Updated 03-01-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

rohirrimelf wrote:

I have seen very little about the goblins. Maybe the least of all races. I do like to know what their strengths are to compensate for lower amounts of hitpoints. More men in a unit/more special skills like the darter?

Goblins:

Advantages:
– Units are cheaper to produce
– Cities grow faster
– Only race that doesn’t dislike blighted terrain (so they can build cities wheer other races can’t)
– Innate resistance to blight damage
– Make extensive use of blight damage, which gives them good damage levels in most situations
– Swarm darters are insanely good in the early game

Disadvantages:
– Fragile, -5hp and none of the defensive/offsensive bonuses of the other races
– Weak in battle against blight resistant units, such as undead or machines

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/goblins/#post-39666}

To be honest, I don’t really know it. It’s not really my area, I only know so much about the Goblins because I play with them so much. Also, I’ve paid more attention to goblins because the -5HP was a bigger nerf than we expected, so I’ve been more involved trying to compensate for it in other areas.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/goblins/#post-39682}

To echo Fenraellis, this isn’t a mechanic that ANYONE wants in the game. The problem is essentially technical, if players A and B are having a battle, then C *cannot* do anything to change the world, since all sorts of problems could arise.

I’m going to quote something from another post which explains the issue in more depth, if you’re truly interested:

As for why we can’t fix it, there are a number of problems, for example:

1) 2 or more of the players in the world aren’t actually in the world, they’re in another world having a battle. So, they can’t respond to anything that other players do, you could walk a huge army up to their cities, for example, or sneak through their lands.
2) We’d need a system so that any hexes containing stacks in battle would be immune to magic and things, since it makes no sense that you could drop a rain of meteors on an army in the world map and not have it affect the tactical map. You’d end up with weird inconsistencies and exploits where players cast area of effect spells that end up with holes because half their effect zone was in a battle.
3) There’s a ton of edge cases to deal with, like, what if A and B are fighting, then C attacks A in one place, and D attacks A in another place. Since A can only fight one person at once, who does A fight first after B? How do we inform C and D that A is ready for them? Can C and D do things while they wait?
4) Each active battle demands system resources, so you end up needing to budget how many battles can you have at once before the system runs out of memory, and what do you when you hit that limit, etc.

You can come up with solutions to all of these problems in isolation, people reading this probably have suggestions on how to fix all of them, but those solutions will have their own problems, and will distort the game’s flow and design. By the time we’ve fixed everything, we’d probably have a very different game than when we’d started, and we’d have had to make a lot of sacrifices and compromises just for that feature, as well as investing a huge amount of time that could have gone into other things.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/simultaneous-mode-problems/#post-39717}

Oh sorry, I missed it. I’m afraid that we haven’t really had much luck trying to address it.

About the only idea anyone came up with that made sense was to implement a rule where players couldn’t take hostile actions (attacking an army, or capturing a city) in the first 30s of their turns. I believe many of the AoWSM community had this as a house rule most of the time anyways. The problem with this is that it only partially fixes the problem, it’s not a full solution. The idea is currently on hold, though it’s not entirely off the table if enough people think it’s a good idea.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/simultaneous-mode-problems/#post-39723}

I just tried it. In autocombat, 1 knight will lose against 2 human halberdiers. This seems to comes down to two factors:

1) Halberdiers get +4 damage against the knight due to the polearm ability
2) The knight’s “Charge” ability (+6 damage on the first strike, if the unit moved more than 4 hexes before attacking) doesn’t work on halberdiers since they have the First Strike ability.

In the same map, I also had 1 knight vs 3 draconian archers. The knight killed all 3 and survived with like 3hp.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/four-new-screenshots/#post-39725}

Blight is a damage type, so it has the same status as physical damage. Swarm darters hit with 3 physical and 4 blight, so a unit with 10 defense and 10 resistance would take 7 damage. If the target had 8 resistance, it would take 9 damage (3 physical and 6 blight). If the unit had 8 resistance AND 8 defense, it would take 11 damage (5 physical and 6 blight).

By itself, blight doesn’t have any debuffs associated with it, however swarm darters and goblin untouchables both have “Inflict Noxious Vulnerability”, which gives a chance to inflict a weak debuff that reduces a targets resistance by 2, each time the unit attacks. We’ve tried to make it so a lot of units can do these minor debuffs, but you need a special ability for it now, it’s not like in AoWSM, where doing electrical damage would stun automatically.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/goblins/#post-39779}

Don’t worry, it was always gonna be optional. It would be annoying as hell in single player.

Anyways, I can’t promise anything, but I’ll look into it on Monday to see if we can put it in.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/simultaneous-mode-problems/#post-39782}


-------Updated 02-28-2014---------


Erwin

Sauron is a definite warlord specializing my opinion. Holding iron grip with weapons and forces of unending goblins and orcs. I’d say both Gandalf and Saruman are typical sorcerers with their global spells and summons.

Do mind that though somebody is a dreadnought/Rogue/Warlord they can still use magic!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/build-me-a-leader-worthy-of-mordor/#post-38916}

The units that move towards a rally point move automatically at the end of your turn so you still have the possibility to cancel the rally point when the unit is recruited. You of course can still move them manually if you want them to move earlier in the turn.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/reinforcements-have-arrived-or-have-they/#post-39040}

2. You can simply decide not to save/load back to redo moves. Challenge yourself! =D

3. There certainly are achievements! Going to have to collect them all!

4. The only maps that do this are the campaign maps. It would be pretty unfair if you could transfer hero levels/items into a game with people who haven’t.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/2-questions/#post-39054}


Lennart Sas

@Tomipapa @Sordak – There is a limit to the sort of influence we have. Prices are the result of a web of various market forces and local expectations, complicated by our many co-publishing partners. Also, some prices listed just appear to be flat out wrong. I see no reason why prices in Romania or Africa are higher than in Norway or Switzerland. I’m pretty sure this not the intention of any party involved and I’ve reached out to see if this can still be corrected!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/huge-outrage-on-gog-about-the-price/page/3/#post-39034}


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

1. Central-Eastern where? This post has a list of where box copies will be available http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/any-other-premiumdeluxecollectors-editions-worldwide/

2. No, there is no concept of ground elevation in tactical combat.

3. The core game is won by eliminating enemy leaders and capital cities. Campaigns and hand-made scenario maps can have special victory conditions scripted in.

4. The archon’s are extinct in the game’s lore, and only exist as the undead. There are Archon Dwellings on maps which act like special cities that allow you to produce undead Archon units if you can conquer them (or win them via a quest or diplomacy)

5. There is no manpower style resource like paradox games have. Cities have population which grows over time, once it hits a certain threshold the city will expand its domain size and base income levels. You can reduce it with certain spells and increase it with certain buildings, that’s about it.

6. No We had this for a few months but a lot of people hated it, since it felt like having an extra turn at the start of each fight where you couldn’t do anything. Instead we’ve tried to arrange unit starting positions to be far enough apart for it not to be an issue.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/a-few-questions-from-a-long-time-fan/#post-38893}

I have removed Epaminondas comments from this thread. They were off topic and seemed to be heading rapidly towards a huge derail. If he wishes to voice his complaints about the beta selection process, he can find another thread to do it in.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/giving-away-3-copies-of-the-game/page/3/#post-39094}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Just a quick small correction (I’m pretty much a fan of the lore myself, so even though it’s a detail I want to address it anyway).

4) The Archons have left through the Shadowgate to fight on against undead and evil at the end of Age of Wonders Shadow Magic. So they re not extinct, they just left Athla, the world of Age of Wonders. Then the portal closed and they couldn’t return.
The bodies of the Archons fallen here during the numerous wars that were fought somehow arose as undead themselves, the ultimate insult to the undead-slaying Archons.

Also, welcome on the forums

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/a-few-questions-from-a-long-time-fan/#post-38921}

terrahero wrote:

Are the Archons the same as the Highman? And what was their fascination with Humans?

Yes they are the same.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/a-few-questions-from-a-long-time-fan/#post-38956}

Very cool offer Arjan, nice!

PS: I’ll edit the title to reflect the correct amount of copies for you.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/giving-away-3-copies-of-the-game/page/4/#post-39232}


Arnout Sas

The game is multi-threaded! Perhaps Arno or Lascha can tell the exact details

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-many-cores-the-game-uses/#post-38890}

The game has all kind of cheats (mainly for testing purposes). Don’t know if we’ll remove them or not!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/will-there-be-cheats/#post-38925}

LordBlade wrote:

I really hope that you leave the cheats and such in. They were fun for when you wanted to mess about with stuff, or try out things.

Naturally, no cheating in multiplayer.
Well, except maybe unless you put an option in to have cheats on/off before the game (so players can choose).

Indeed and for map makers its also really convenient! In MP cheats are disabled already.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/will-there-be-cheats/#post-39018}

Really cool this indeed

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/giving-away-3-copies-of-the-game/page/2/#post-39021}

Yes Age of Wonders III supports this feature already!

edit; screenshot displaying part of the launcher

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/full-screen-borderless-windowed-mode/#post-39147}


Lascha

The game is indeed multi-threaded. Whether the game will actually use all the 4 cores is up to your OS, but generally the answer is yes. The AI runs on a different thread than the game. The AI is flexible enough to utilize multiple threads as well, but we don’t want the AI to go on full power when the new round starts because the player also needs a chance to think, respond, etc. Quite hard to do when the AI is flooding actions in the queue. So it’s more than just a performance problem

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-many-cores-the-game-uses/#post-38927}


-------Updated 02-27-2014---------


Erwin

Personally I enjoy the small skirmishes because I just enjoy micromanagement a lot and love to win a battle without losing units. Huge battles need a lot more macro tactics and in most cases you will always lose units. It really depends on what kind of soup you really like in the end! Both battles have their cool parts

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/do-you-prefer-quick-skirmishes-or-epic-battles/page/3/#post-38494}

Melkathi: You are my hero! I vote for Rob the Theocrat the Dreadnaught!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/your-first-raceclass/page/2/#post-38527}

The goal is to make you as player figure out which combinations are stronger for you than others depending on what kind of playstyle you are using. It’s up to you to figure out what works best for you

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/seriously-beta-testers-about-balance-between-raceclass-combos/#post-38547}


Lennart Sas

@TheSpeaker the Steam build has Trading Cards with attached wallpapers, which is a bit similar. Both platforms have their content perks.

GoG has their “drm” free thing. Steam offers great services with include auto updates + we support Steam achievements, etc.

Players should be able to play together as long as their build revision numbers are the same.

We’re also looking to bring the game to other platforms.

Its up to you really.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/steam-vs-gog-where-best-to-buy-and-why/#post-38448}

As for Retail AoWIII ; we can confirm the following territories with the following partners. We’re sorry if you were expecting a physical copy in your country and it is not listed. (PC Retail is though to get into a lot of territories, and we had time to do only so many deals)

Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein (Eurovideo)
Russia and CIS (Buka)
Poland and Hungary (Techland)
France, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland (Namco) – Hot off the press!

Looks got confirmed physical Special/Limited editions by Buka, Techland and Eurovideo.
All these special editions will be different, as they are compiled by our co-publishing partners. We have to leave it to or partners to confirm the contents. I have spied a very awesome figurine in one of them!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/any-other-premiumdeluxecollectors-editions-worldwide/#post-38707}

the regular physical editions don’t vary much. Some have an extra flapbox wrap others a regular dvd case.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/any-other-premiumdeluxecollectors-editions-worldwide/#post-38713}

Localizations are expensive. We don’t have a publishing partners in Italy and Spain, we do in Poland. Hopefully for future editions we can do more translations, if the game is successful!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/whaat-no-italian-and-spanish/#post-38715}

I’m a bit of an audiophool myself; will try getting them on there as lossless FLAC too.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/when-will-the-soundtrack-be-available-to-download/#post-38723}


-------Updated 02-26-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

Blackguards has a really nice tactical combat system, if you like RPG stuff. It’s pretty hardcore rules, and can be very difficult, but I enjoyed it. At least, I enjoyed it when I wasn’t swearing at it after my warriors got poisoned for the 50th time.

There’s a new DLC for King’s Bounty called Ice and Fire as well. I haven’t played it, but I really enjoyed Armored Princess, so it could be worth checking out.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/games-to-play-until-release/#post-37647}

DavidTheSlayer wrote:

Yeah tax rates do come into play, but also the cuts for GOG and Steam must also be added in some way. At least it’s not console price like ESO or TitanFall if you’re looking at PC copies.

Also note (not to derail this thread) the download size on GOG is 6.5GB, maybe I’m reading into it too much or its just compression, but the required HD space is 10GB, so maybe there’s some future DLC?

It’s just that the installer uses compression, and the game doesn’t (to reduce loading times).

For what it’s worth, here’s the official statement from GoG on this issue:

http://www.gog.com/news/letter_from_the_md_about_regional_pricing

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/huge-outrage-on-gog-about-the-price/#post-37793}


Erwin

It’s always awesome to step into the time machine and play some old AOW/HoMM titles to bridge the time!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/games-to-play-until-release/#post-37702}

Yup, you guys got it! For us a beta is a beta.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/no-beta-access-with-deluxe-edition/#post-37946}


Lennart Sas

Hi, yep, the old build wasnt really ready for video.
we are ver close to wrapping a new preview build that can be used for videoing!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/videostop-on-youtube-and-question-to-the-battle-at-sea/#post-38121}

Hi we will have an overview tomorrow. special editions vary per territory and are made by our co publishing partners.

^{Some editions might be region locked}

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/any-other-premiumdeluxecollectors-editions-worldwide/#post-38124}


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi Everyone,

Thanks a bunch for the support, much appreciated : D>

Prepurchase .. *woooohoooo* … <happy dance> … <back flip>

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/for-everyone-who-pre-ordered-post-here/page/3/#post-37960}

Confirming Edi’s comment about multiplayer.
People can play together no matter where they choose to buy the game.

The game is the same, the only difference is the trimmings.
Pick whichever one you prefer.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/steam-vs-gog-where-best-to-buy-and-why/#post-37970}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

There are special mounts (lorewise) for High Elves, namely the Unicorn Sire (with phasing ).
Wolves would look a bit too much like wargs I think?
In any case, we didn’t do wolves for elves, sorry (but if you find a Hell Hound or such your elf you can ride it of course).

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-ii-hero-mounts/page/5/#post-37929}


-------Updated 02-25-2014---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

One thing I am personally looking forward to is seeing people making maps with 2 surface layers, as that’s also possible. So you could have a region (or two) that are very distant on the world still connected via teleporters. Or one could be an alternate dimension (it will look the same as a normal surface of course)

EDIT: and yeah, I remember I had fun playing Arcanum

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/map-makers-what-scenarios-will-you-design/#post-36989}


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi Everyone,

Prepurchase has started … woohoo : )>

Thanks for supporting us Rohirrimelf

Not sure it that works for you – I’m on a dev version – but if you right click ‘Age of Wonders III’ in your Steam library you can see the DLC’s for your purchase.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/preorder-and-premium-version/page/2/#post-37189}


Lennart Sas

*very very* soon now :-)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/preorder-and-premium-version/page/2/#post-37112}

Now, after more than 3 years of development, and more that 10 years of waiting from the fans, Triumph Studios is ready to confirm the release date for
[See the full post at: Pre-Orders start on Steam & GoG + New Video + Release March 31st!]

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/pre-orders-start-on-steam-gog-new-video-release-march-31st/#post-37261}


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

There’s an official statement from GoG about regional pricing here:

http://www.gog.com/news/letter_from_the_md_about_regional_pricing

Thanks for your support guys!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/gog-takes-pre-orders-now/#post-37343}

Yeah, it’s just for the leader. Killing a hero will make them drop all their gear.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/regarding-leader-deaths/#post-36972}

When a leader dies:

1) Any spells being cast in the world mp are cancelled
2) Each sustained spell that the leader is maintaining has a 25% chance of being cancelled. This includes summoned units.
3) Sustained spells that are not cancelled have their upkeep doubled until the leader returns from the dead.
4) Research is put on hold
5) All units and cities get a big happiness penalty

We actually changed it so the leader doesn’t drop all their gear when they fall since they don’t technically die, they “escape at the last moment via arcane means”.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/regarding-leader-deaths/#post-36959}


-------Updated 02-23-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

Sort of. If players A and B are in a fight, and player C is in a next door hex, then C will join in IF he’s allied to A or B, but not if he’s allied to both of them.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-are-the-navy-and-bridge-battles/#post-35977}

Each unit gets its own little boat. Most units are weaker when they’re riding in a boat, unless they have the “Mariner” ability, which negates that penalty.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-are-the-navy-and-bridge-battles/#post-35970}

Turnil wrote:

I mean how do they work and can a land army wich is next to the to sea based army’s help in the battle or can the sea army do an landing on the coast. And if serval army’s fight on the sea are there more ships (or something)?

You can’t have both units in the water AND out of the water in the same battle. It causes way too many issues. You could have ships with ranged weapons attacking land units without ranged weapons, so the land units wouldn’t be able to fight back, and things like that.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-are-the-navy-and-bridge-battles/#post-35968}

n theory you could mod in stack incompatibility. Bards have an ability that grants a morale bonus to all other units in the stack. You could use the same system to set up evil units with an ability that grants a morale penalty to other units in the stack, and then set the filter to “Good Units Only”. In this way, good units would get upset by evil ones. You could also do the same to make Elves give a negative penalty to Dwarves or whatever else.

Only problem is that I don’t know what modding tools you’ll get and when you’ll get them. You’d need to fiddle around with some of the core settings of the game to do what I’m describing.

I’m also wondering if we should do good upsets evil, evil upsets good thing ourselves, now I think about it. It does seem weird you can have both dedicate to good AND dedicated to evil units in the same army without penalty.

11balanced wrote:

Random alignment for summons seems very strange. Say you are good, summon a water elemental, and it suddenly appears evil and deserts?

The summons don’t have a random alignment, the summon spells summon a random creature and one of those creatures might have an alignment. The summon won’t desert you though, it just has low morale. The only way a summon can desert you is if you run out of mana to sustain it.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/alignment-issues/#post-35967}



-------Updated 02-22-2014---------


Erwin

I can’t reveal too much about the game but I can assure you that you will feel right at home in the world of Age of Wonders III as HoMM fan. Some things will be different while other things will feel very familiar.

Have a look at the class gameplay trailers to get a good idea of what the game is about.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/heroes-mm-age-o-wonders-the-transition/#post-35638}


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

This week we’re going to have an in-depth look into the Age of Wonders III tactical combat mechanics. Tactical combat is one of the most important par
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: Tactical Combat Bonanza]

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-tactical-combat-bonanza/#post-35543}

You can rotate units, but the way the rules are currently set up, there’s almost no reason to. If you don’t do anything with a unit, then it enters guard mode automatically, so the direction it’s facing doesn’t matter. If you do tell it to attack, or something, it will end up facing it’s target, and you won’t be able to change that. The only exception is when a hero casts a spell, which doesn’t cause it to auto-rotate.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-tactical-combat-bonanza/#post-35844}

Unlike AoW2, races are not good or evil at all. Most units have the same alignment as the player who owns them. So, if you’re an Elf, and you raze every city you see, you will be an evil elf in charge of an evil elven empire. If you are a goblin who is more likely to bribe an independent city than invade it, you will end up as a good goblin.

Some units have a special property called “Dedicated To Good”, this means if the player who controls them is evil, they get a massive morale penalty. This will cause them to fumble attacks, and they might desert your army. Similarly “Dedicated to Evil” units get upset if you’re good. The units are upset with your alignment, though, not the alignment of other people in the army.

The most common way of getting dedicated to good/evil units is from dwellings. The undead are exclusively evil, while gold dragons (the strongest kind) and many creatures from the fairy dwellings are good. They can turn up in other ways though, some summoning spells have a random chance of summoning evil or good creatures for example. The units you build in cities are never good nor evil though.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/alignment-issues/#post-35840}

Yes, the three hexes in front of a unit are where it can engage, the 3 behind it are where it can be flanked from.

The whole thing works using a hidden system called “Awareness”. Units can engage and use attacks of opportunity on adjacent enemies that they are aware of. They can be flanked if attacked from any hex they are not aware of.

One thing guarding does is make a unit aware of hexes in all directions, not just the ones in front of it. Being stunned causes a unit to not be aware of anything, so it can never engage, and is always flanked.

Guarding only requires one action point, so a unit can move full distance and still guard.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-tactical-combat-bonanza/#post-35837}

Bone and Obsidian are “Dedicated To Evil”, Golden is “Dedicated To Good”. That means, if you have a Bone Dragon, and you’re alignment is “Good”, the dragon gets a huge morale penalty. It’ll fumble a lot in combat, and might desert you. If you’re evil or neutral, it makes no difference.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/so-what-do-people-want-to-know-about-dragons/#post-35675}

The hexes with the arrows inside are retreat hexes, if an attacking player moves a unit onto the hex, it will be removed from battle. Defenders cannot retreat. The retreating unit will be available for play in the world map, but will have all of its movepoints at zero, so it won’t be able to travel any further that turn.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-tactical-combat-bonanza/#post-35673}

Yes, the first shot from a fairy (which does 3 damage on 3 channels) will do 15 damage (3×5) against a unit with 10 resistance, if its flanking. The next two don’t get the bonus though.

It is not common at all to attack on 3 damage channels at once, fairies do it, so do apprentices, maybe a couple of others.

Due to how the damage system works, multi-channel damage attacks are at a disadvantage usually, since they do less damage against tough creatures. If I attack a unit with a resistance of 12, it’s better to do 20 fire damage, instead of 10 fire and 10 lightning. This helps balance it out.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-tactical-combat-bonanza/#post-35660}

StupendousMan wrote:

One question:<br>
As far as I understand, a flanking attack gets a +2 damage for all damage channels.<br>
What is the rationale behind that?

The main rationale is that some attacks don’t do physical damage, and we wanted all flanking attacks to get bonus damage.

With what you’re saying, it’s kind of a weird one. If something spits poison at you, you can dodge a bit, or try and cover your face to reduce the damage. The same could be said for any attack really. With some things, like lightning, it makes less sense, and with others, like a fireball, it makes more sense.

In the end, for consistency, it’s simpler just to add the extra damage to all channels.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-tactical-combat-bonanza/#post-35579}

What was that? I couldn’t hear you over the sound of how awesome Goblins are :3

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-tactical-combat-bonanza/#post-35560}

ForeVision wrote:

Are there still units with the phase ability? Creatures like that would be must-have asset in all-ranged enforced cities and against archer-heavy armies overall.

Missed this question earlier! Yes, some units have Phase, such as Elven Cavalry. The Sorcerer class even has a skill that grants all support units phase, so you can have armies of teleporting magicians.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units-reborn/page/3/#post-35340}

Epaminondas wrote:

Besides, it looks like the initial problem with ranged units being over-powered was caused precisely by a rule change that attempted to do away with realism: The elimination of miss chance. How ironic!

I’m not going to continue this argument, because there doesn’t seem to be any point. I’ve explained my position, and you’ve explained yours. It doesn’t appear likely either of us will change our minds.

I really think you should give the game Blackguards a try, it’s more an RPG than a war game, but the tactical combat system has a bunch of stuff you’ve asked for:

1) All attacks can miss, also units have a chance to parry/block attacks even if they do hit
2) Spell casting can fail, depending on the skill of the caster and resistance of the target
3) Units can be wounded when they take damage, wounded units have penalties to all actions
4) Line of sight rules are strict, the system will often not allow a ranged shot because of something being in the way.
5) Archers out range melee movement, by A LOT. This is balanced by the fact that, in general, archers aren’t very good.
6) Battles often turn into drawn out, attrition slug fests

It also has a TON of environment effects, like traps you can trick the AI into walking through, puddles that make units slip over, piles off boxes you can push on top of people, etc.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units-reborn/page/2/#post-35335}


Lennart Sas

Steam & GOG preorders coming very soon!!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/where-is-the-take-take-my-money-button/#post-35818}


-------Updated 02-21-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

BLOODYBATTLEBRAIN wrote:

How do I post screenshots so that they appear in the post?

I upload them to http://www.imgur.com . Then I copy/paste the BB tags into the posts to insert the images.

Epaminondas wrote:

Nonetheless, in the abstract, I can’t imagine things are so different in this game where a reasonable balance is unachievable without going the way you guys went.

I never said there wasn’t, I was just explaining the kind of results we were getting from reducing damage. Like I said, the main reason we did it was because it makes it more fun. It means most archers cannot shoot from a distance without being at risk, it means you have to think about where your ranged units stand and how you can keep them safe. In short, it sacrifices realism for gameplay.

Epaminondas wrote:

All I am asking is SOME DEGREE of realism WHEN IT IS CONSISTENT WITH THE FANTASY CONTEXT AND WHEN IT DOES NOT DETRACT FROM GAMEPLAY.

That’s fine, only it did detract from the gameplay. For a very long time Long Bows had a range of 9, which is HUGE when most units can only move 4 hexes. Cavalry can only move 6 hexes, which was the range of a normal bow/xbow. The range meant it was easy to kite, and meant that usually 1 archer could shoot one melee unit 6 times as it approached, 3 times at long range, 3 times point blank. It’s very hard to balance one unit against another when one unit can hit the other 6 times before it can even do anything. If we up the range of archers, we have that issue again, which is why we’re not doing it.

As for the English Long Bow thing, I just skim read bits of the wiki article on them, I guess I got the details wrong. Sometimes I just feel like people are waving “realism” in my face like a magic wand that proves them right, and I guess I responded badly to it.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units-reborn/page/2/#post-35155}

I understand the problem you and Tombles mention; I’ve played enough war games of this nature–both in PC and table-top versions. But the issue is how you should address the problem. The devs, it looks like, went for a slight nerf for ranged damage plus equalization of the attacking “range” for both ranged and melee units. And I simply do not see why the problem couldn’t have been dealt by simply reducing ranged damage further, and your lengthy reply doesn’t really address this issue.

To put it simply, this way is more fun. With the old ranges, pretty much every battle was:

– Move ranged units to a distance of 6, just out of strike range, and fire at melee units
– Melee units charge, end up at point blank range, but can’t attack
– Ranged units unload at point blank range, killing melee units

With the change, this no longer works. If you want to keep your archers safe, you actually need to protect them with a screen of tanking units, or make clever use of cover.

We tried reducing ranged damage, but with that, you ended up with a situation where ranged units became useless UNLESS you abused them as described, at which point they were merely average.

There’s also what Georgi says, we want melee units to be worthwhile in the game. If we were to model realistic Long Bows, we’d have weapons that are both armor piercing AND have a range of over 250 meters. Why would anyone use anything else?

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units-reborn/#post-35091}

Low_K wrote:

As shown in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97-aT-fo3iQ in the fortress siege, you can see the ranged Orc units move away from the attackers because the latter are out of range. Is this typical AI behaviour? Is it exploitable by luring the archers away from the walls, and when they are away, attack the undefended walls. If they double back, just move out of range and let your other army on the other side attack the walls, then rinse repeat.

I checked the code, in *theory* the AI will only move an archer away from a wall if it has an actual target to shoot elsewhere, and it can actually shoot at it. There are some other things that can cause it, but I don’t *think* they’re exploitable in the way you describe. I’d need more information about actual deployment and stuff like that to test it properly though.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units-reborn/#post-35010}

When in the video do you mean? It’s nearly half an hour long xD

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units-reborn/#post-34992}

Gah!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units/page/2/#post-34918}

OK, enough guys. I think both parties have posted enough wikipedia articles for anyone who is interested to read them and draw their own conclusions.

Please could we bring the conversation back to things which are at least tangentially related to the game. Thanks!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units/page/2/#post-34892}

The build that he’s previewing with didn’t have some of the more recent changes, so for him there are virtually no differences between races’ class units. There are more differences, now, but to be fair they’re not that huge. For example:

Goblin Apprentice (Sorcerer class unit) has -5hp, costs 10% less, and has 20% blight protection compared to a Human Apprentice.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/disappointed-with-the-starting-races/page/3/#post-34885}

I don’t mind if you want to discuss minimum range mechanics, I meant it was ridiculous for you to start yelling at each other over the internet about it, is all.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units/#post-34763}

This is a ridiculous argument about a fantasy gun in a fantasy game.

GeorgiSR, you are being needlessly antagonistic. Please try and make your points without insulting other posters, or making accusations.

StupdendousMan, please don’t take things so personally. I understand that he started it, but you are escalating it. I don’t want to close this thread due to this.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units/#post-34759}

JeanLucPicard wrote:

Sadly that system scrapped. Not sure what the problems were but the devs said they had to come up with something else.

It was impossible to balance, each time a city grew it would get a pile of new hexes, so it’s income would grow at an ever increasing scale. There was also an issue that play testers only wanted to build cities in places with particular types of terrain, it ended up being more of a limiting factor than an empowering one. Finally, we couldn’t find a good way of integrating racial preferences into the system, which was a feature we really wanted to keep from AoWSM.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/managing-the-economy-of-the-different-raceclass-combos/#post-34724}

In theory the UI should scale up so it’s always readable, I don’t know if anyone has tested at the resolutions you mention though. To be honest, I don’t know if anyone in the office has screens capable of those resolutions, I’ll check when I get into the office.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/playing-at-high-resolutions/#post-34568}


Lennart Sas

Depends on the size of the monitor. After a certain resolution the interface (HUD) stops scaling up (as it reaches the source assets max size) and then will just reveal more map / more list box entries, etc. I think 27″ 2560×1440 will be super for AoWIII. Most of the team uses 24″ running at 1920*1200

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/playing-at-high-resolutions/#post-34894}


-------Updated 02-20-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

Post it damn you =3

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/page/2/#post-34451}

Each main race only has 1 tier 3 unit, they’re pretty good, but the T4 big guns are all either class units (like the Eldritch Horror) or come from Dwellings (like Dragons). It’s viable to stick with racial units into the early late game though, it’s generally easier to unlock a race’s T3 units than a class’s, and it lets you put all your research into big spells instead.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/races-how-decisive-are-they/page/2/#post-34432}

Spoke to one of the artists, and the issue is already fixed. Something to do with weapons being shrunk and attach points not being updated.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/page/2/#post-34362}

Do the units still have floating swords/weapons as is shown in the Beta versions? I reckon they changed it, but in case they missed it; Please fix it!

What do you mean Low_K? Could you maybe post a screen shot to show the issue?

1-How many turns does it take to change throne city?

3 turns at the moment.

2-Does throne city resurrect leader forever or is it limited?

If the leader dies, it will always respawn 3 turns later in the throne city. To defeat a player you must both kill them and capture their throne city

3-Do we still have Nordic Glow units? Those were my favourite units in previous games

Sorry! We have wisps though.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/page/2/#post-34350}

11balanced wrote:

1. How significant is the maximal range difference? For bow it’s 5 hexes, right?

At the moment, the only tings with a range greater than 5 are war machines. 5 was chosen because 4 hexes is the movement of most infantry in combat, a range of 5 means that if an archer is in firing range of an infantry, then that infantry can engage him in melee next turn (assuming nothing is in the way). This was changed since initially ranged units were so ludicrously powerful that most of beta testers didn’t even bother using non-ranged units until they unlocked tier 3.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units/#post-34244}

We don’t have units that take up more than one hex, even dragons only take up one.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/page/2/#post-34237}

When a unit moves away from an enemy unit will the enemy unit hit the unit that is moving away?

Yes. This will use up one of the enemies action points, like a retaliation does.

can you place your units with their backs to eachother or terrain to mitigate flanking or possibly prevent it?

Yes.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/page/2/#post-34208}

Very few things completely block line of sight, it usually only happens when you’re in an inside map, and there’s a wall that reaches all the way to the roof. Most of the time, line of sight blocks just reduce damage, by 50% for “arcing shots”, or 75% for “straight shots”.

With some obstacles, there’s no line of sight block if you’re stood right next to it. So a wall blocks LOS, but you can run up it and fire over it without penalty.

Units also block line of sight, with the exception that a unit can shoot through friendly units, if they’re right next to them.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units/#post-34189}

In the tactical AI, no there are no differences. The AI is vicious, and very efficient in terms of choosing the most damaging attack at any given moment. It has no sense of forethought or planning, however, and will often leave units exposed in its unending thirst for pain and suffering.

Jolly Joker wrote:

For simplicity’s sake this might translate in the simple decision of whether to “act normally” (and turn and retaliate) or to ignore the unit completely (suffering every attack from the unit without reaction).

This would be quite a mixed blessing for the defender I think. Imagine a unit randomly decides not to retaliate, if it dies for the attack, then that sucks because it might have been able to get off some retaliations before it died. If it lives, however, then the move points it saved by not retaliating will still be available for the player to use during their next turn.

To clarify: A unit’s movepoints are replenished at the end of its turn, so if it spends them all with retaliation or opportunity attacks, then it will not have any left until the end of its next turn. Essentially you can tire a unit out by attacking it, so it’s controller can’t use it.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/#post-34181}

Yeah, the initiative always being with the attacker is a limitation of a turn based game I’m afraid. It’s not possible for me to get input from the defender during the attacker’s turn after all.

The unpredictability you talk about is there, we have static shield and similar abilities offer some protection against excessive flanking. There’s also a “Tireless” ability, which means a unit doesn’t spend movepoints on retaliation.

I understand your point, I’m just not sure I could make it fix it in with the system. Say I was to make a special ability “Smart Retaliation” or something, what would it actually do?

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/#post-34162}

It’s mostly positive I think, and since I’ve just spent the last 2 days putting in a rally point system and fixing up multi-turn movement so you don’t need to actually move every army by hand every turn, that criticism can now be ignored

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/aow3-preview-articles/#post-34160}

If a unit attacks, then it will always end up facing what it just attacked. If it doesn’t, then it will go into guard mode automatically, and cannot be flanked.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/#post-34152}

StupendousMan wrote:

Further question regarding flanking:<br>
Since only the flanking, first attack will be unretaliated, it might be advantageous in some situations to only deliver that first, flanking attack and not run into a potentially devastating secound “round” of exchange of weapon blows within one attack turn.<br>
Will we be able to actively, deliberately forgo all other attacks except for the first, flanking attack when making a flanking attack?

The number of times a unit attacks is defines by how many move points it has. If you make a unit step away from an enemy, and then move it back towards the enemy it will have fewer movepoints and will attack less times.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/#post-34150}

The decision for automatic retaliation and things was deliberate. The idea is that your units are not entirely under your control, they will respond to what an enemy does. You can force an enemy unit to waste its 3 retaliations on a tough unit, for example, so that a glass cannon unit can come in later and attack safely.

And generally the question: if a unit is OUT OF retaliations, should it STILL turn upon being flanked (THAT is something I think I can say NO to: No action points left, no turning).

If I attack a unit 3 times with one unit, and it doesn’t turn around after the 1st attack, then all 3 attacks will be flanking.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/#post-34149}

Jolly Joker wrote:

Lest I don’t write something based on wrong info – can someone explain EXACTLY what happens in case of a flanking attack (what bonus for how many attack attempts, how does the flanked unit react, with and without eligible retaliation attempts)?<br>
Thanks.

1. The attacker gets a +2 bonus to all active damage channels. So, most units will just do +2 physical damage, but a beetle rider will get +2 physical, +2 blight.

2. The target does not retaliate to the flanking attack, it turns to face the attacker instead. So, if the attacker attacks twice, then only the first attack counts as flanking. Turning around does not cost the target move points, only retaliating does.

3. The target remains facing the unit that flanked it, meaning it may now be flanked from the opposite direction. This allows a clever attacker to repeatedly flank a unit and take minimal retaliation attacks. It also means that even a super unit is vulnerable to being swarmed if they’re alone, though certain abilities mitigate this, like Static Shield (which has a chance to stun melee attackers).

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/#post-34142}

Only defending prevents flanking, first strike will only work if you aren’t flanked.

The general idea is this:

Guard beats Flank
Ranged beats Guard (because to guard, a unit cannot attack, so ranged enemies can just shoot him)
Flank beats Ranged (a ranged unit that fires, cannot guard, so is vulnerable to flanking)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/#post-34122}

1) Bows are repeating abilities, so that means a unit with 3 action points will fire 3 times. If an archer moves, he might only have 1 action point left, so he can only fire once. Crossbows are fire once only, so it doesn’t matter how far the unit moves. A heavy crossbow shot deals twice the damage of a normal bow shot.

2) No. Walls just block line of sight, so if you shoot at a unit manning a city’s wall, it will take less damage, but it will do full damage in return.

3) We were discussing that change for some things, cannons and trebuchets being the biggest offenders. I believe the change is currently on hold. Cannons are already slowed down by having a cooldown.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ranged-units/#post-34121}

No, you uploaded it, I just didn’t see where to insert it in the story. Check your thread in the beta forum for the IMGUR link to it.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/#post-34110}

I have the pictures, I linked them into the post while having my morning coffee. I think I got them in the right place…

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-a-small-story/#post-34104}


-------Updated 02-19-2014---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Actually not just poison darts: they shoot poisonous mosquito bugs that they keep in hives on their back. (hence why their projectiles can bend over walls )

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/races-how-decisive-are-they/#post-33779}


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

It’s a flat distribution, in theory at least.

If you really want to get technical, it uses a Mersenne Twister algorithm:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersenne_twister

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ign-preview-new-information/page/3/#post-34027}

I’m waiting for a compile to finish

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/races-how-decisive-are-they/#post-33908}

JeanLucPicard wrote:

Damn it, was really hoping for buggy and expensive.

Send me 500 euros, and I’ll see what I can do =D

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dlc-vs-add-on/page/2/#post-33888}

Leon Feargus wrote:

I have been playtesting for about 2 weeks now and I still have not figured out exactly how this works. Could you explain a bit, Picardo?

Units with high morale have a chance to crit (a glowing yellow face appears above the unit’s head), which means there attack does +30% damage. Units with low morale have a chance to fumble, which is -30% damage.

Given that you don’t know about it, it’s possible that the proc chance is too low at the moment.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/disappointed-with-the-starting-races/page/3/#post-33841}

Goblin “Archers” still use darts. Darts with no range penalty. Or line of sight penalty. There’s nowhere to hide =3

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/races-how-decisive-are-they/#post-33657}

They all are subject to a resistance check, that’s what makes them random. Sorry, I’m not being very clear here!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ign-preview-new-information/page/2/#post-33648}

No, they do. Shoot Longbow is an 8 damage attack, but elf archers do 9 damage with it out of the box. The no ranged penalty is a longbow thing, not an elf thing.

They’re still not as good as Goblin Archers though (Goblin Supremacy. Fear The Green Tide. Death To Pink Skinned Scum).

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/races-how-decisive-are-they/#post-33639}

What Edi said. Also, status effects are still random. So, a unit might randomly get wounded or poisoned by an attack, for example.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ign-preview-new-information/page/2/#post-33629}

They get +1 ranged damage, I believe.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/races-how-decisive-are-they/#post-33627}

I believe that almost all units get a new ability when they hit max level, actually. Usually it’s some kind of status effect, like all the units attacks have a chance to inflict a DoT or something. Some units get new abilities as they level up, Human Priests gain “Dispel Magic” when they hit level 3 for example.

This might change as time goes by, of course, this is just the settings that we have now.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/veterancy-and-unit-levelling/#post-33625}

Arcymag wrote:

So it’s Steam-only game, unless it’s bought on GoG?

Yes.

Also, I know that usually GoG doesn’t use DRM, but obviously we can’t guarantee that will remain so. That’s a GoG decision, not a Triumph one!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/drm-free/#post-33515}

I don’t *think* there’s anything stopping one player joining, allying with everyone, then sitting back and watching. That player would end up watching all the different tactical battles and would be able to observe how all the different player moved there armies around and things.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/built-in-spectator-mode-twitch-streams/#post-33512}


Arnout Sas

edit: ..Doh ninjad..

maledwarfwarrior wrote:

Another question, can flyers and/or boats stay at sea indefinitely? Or do you need to stop back at port for supplies and repairs like eu4? Adding this requirement could encourage a string of naval cities to supply the ships, but might be difficult for the AI (/understatement).

Yes they can.

nvc_for_the_soul wrote:

Related to this thread:
1. Can boats sail through/under bridges?
2. What happens when a stack on a bridge is attacked by land, and there is a ship next to the bridge. Does this ship also enter the combat? If yes, how?

1) Yes rhey do, it cost 12 movement points to do so. Boats cannot stand it though
2) The ship doesn’t enter combat, and the land combat is done on the bridge.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/naval-combat-3/#post-34001}


-------Updated 02-18-2014---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

@JJ: About replaying Randomly Generated maps: there’s a planned case for this. If all goes as planned this feature should make it into the game in a few weeks.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/clarifying-whats-ok-and-whats-a-leak/#post-33095}

In addition, there are upgrades like the Chamber of the Rite in the Necropolis, which regenerates undead garrisoned there as well as raising as undead the slain troops that attack it.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-much-of-an-advantage-do-city-defenders-get/#post-32969}

Yes there are magical moats, like the thorn walls of the Arch Druid for example. These are indeed spells, like they previously were.
You can have no walls, wooden walls or stone walls.

There is all the old stuff basically You can garrison a trebuchet or cannon in your city and shoot at attackers from behind the walls.

EDIT: wow new posts appeared: What is this about it not being AoW anymore? That’s really not true ^^, it’s very similar to AoW1 and AoW:SM, we specifically looked to both games.
So don’t worry

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-much-of-an-advantage-do-city-defenders-get/#post-32875}


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

BLOODYBATTLEBRAIN wrote:

@ Tombles again, it’s just occurred to me that none of the units other than what is on the class reveal page, and in the videos, has been released-are there any particular restrictions on these you want us to observe?

Not really, most of the class units have been announced for each class, and I don’t think it’s a big deal if a race’s standard units are used.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ign-preview-new-information/page/2/#post-33259}

It’s probably a good idea not to use Theocrat or Warlord stuff BBB, since they haven’t been announced yet.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ign-preview-new-information/page/2/#post-33206}

LordBlade wrote:

Could you guys maybe just get a couple of beta testers to record various battle scenarios to give people a proper idea of how combat works?

It would definitely help ease a lot of fears people have about the new system.

That’s beyond my authority, I’m afraid. BBB and Arjan can both include screenshots though to at least illustrate what they’re talking about. At least, I hope they include screenshots, otherwise it’s gonna be pretty hard for newcomers to follow what they’re talking about…

Gaslov wrote:

Please don’t let the vocal minority change YOUR game. You have all the information, they do not. And frankly, there is a small subset of people who really dislike any kind of change, even improvements. And those people are going to be the most likely to speak up. Be confident and don’t try to please everybody. It’s never happened.

Oh, if I’ve learned one thing from reading these forums and the beta, it’s that I can’t please everyone. You don’t need to worry about that!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ign-preview-new-information/#post-33134}

If you wish to make one, post it to me as well Arjan. I can put them in a stickied thread so people can see them and question you guys about them.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ign-preview-new-information/#post-33094}

Whatever you like, as long as it explains the core mechanics (flanking, action points, opportunity attacks etc). Really I should do it as part of a Dev Journal on combat, since I designed it and most of the things that people are annoyed by are my fault, but I’m way to busy.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ign-preview-new-information/#post-33072}

PEGI =3

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/injured-units-less-damange-abilities/page/2/#post-33064}

Epaminondas wrote:

And I say more realism is always good.

– Hey, why did my army disappear?

– They were moving through a swamp, now half of them have died of cholera. Then the remaining swordsman eloped with the succubus, and they’re hiding in a hut somewhere doing unspeakable things to each other.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/injured-units-less-damange-abilities/page/2/#post-33060}

Why don’t you write one, then e-mail it to me. That way I can check it for NDA breaches and misunderstandings you might have about the system, then you can post it afterwards?

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ign-preview-new-information/#post-33053}

None of the beta testers have access to modding tools, so he can’t really answer that. It hasn’t been decided exactly what modding tools will be released either, so I’m afraid I can’t answer it either

Assuming you could mod the units, it would be trivial to reduce unit damage and/or boost unit hit points. It would be a hell of a lot of work to rebalance every unit in the game though, I believe we have over 200 units that you’d need to change.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ign-preview-new-information/#post-33017}


Lennart Sas

These Videos got OK-ed via to a miscommunication with one of our distribution partners, who sent them out to a couple of German Youtube channels. They were not meant to be sent out. But because it was my error in not being clearer, we don’t want to pull down them.

They are in German so please keep them out of the these forums.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/clarifying-whats-ok-and-whats-a-leak/#post-33051}

Hi, we’re still sorting the last retail deals as well as getting information on what special editions will be available. Whether or not there is a retail / physical limited edition version depends on the demand in that particular territory as indicated by the distribution partner for that territory. Limited Edition contents can vary per territory. For example for some it might include a figurine or physical soundtrack CDs, for others the special edition might be the same as the digital deluxe edition.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/preorder-and-premium-version/#post-32960}


Arnout Sas

Epaminondas wrote:

And Arnout’s latest comment proudly announcing how the combat is faster because of the elimination of “tedious” combat results from miss chances makes me wonder if the devs really understand the appeal of these types of games at all.

Or maybe they are just abandoning hardcore, veteran tactical gamers to appeal to a wider audience who prefer simple and faster.

The fact is that the damage system was tedious and weird in the previous games.
Units did random damage 1-12 (with many low outcomes) (and not 1-12+X like in Dungeons & Dragons) and there was miss chance. Resulting in units often missing attack rolls, and when doing damage just doing 1 or 2 damage (even the big units such as trolls, gluttons, etc). Most people found this a waste of time or frustrating.

We decided to go for a Vampire/World of Darkness approach, where you at least do 1 damage, and with better average damage calculations.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-much-of-an-advantage-do-city-defenders-get/#post-32999}


-------Updated 02-17-2014---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Welcome everyone!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/all-the-new-people/#post-32311}


-------Updated 02-15-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

Not yet! But I have a case booked to add one

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/disable-auto-zoom/#post-31814}


-------Updated 02-14-2014---------


Lennart Sas

Well the druid *is* all about nature, animism, spirits, etc. Note: Ancient European cultures such as Celts and other neolithic / bronze age pagans probably looked a lot closer to African tribes than you might think; even down to face masks, giant earplugs, drums, etc.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/please-change-shamans-mask/#post-31424}


Jimmy van der Have

Today we have an all new 18 minute Let’s Play style video for you. Our resident narrator Tombles, shows off the newly revealed Archdruid Leader Class
[See the full post at: Let's Play Video revealing Archdruid and Random Maps]

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/lets-play-video-revealing-archdruid-and-random-maps/#post-31378}


Arnout Sas

@ GreyCap its an evil act, but the alignment ‘penalty’ differs if you have peace or are neutral. Of course in the end all your actions will make up if your evil or not. So you can make up for it

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/lets-play-video-revealing-archdruid-and-random-maps/#post-31438}

Thanks

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/good-job/#post-31437}


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

Races don’t have alignments in AoW3, the fact that the Orc town I ran into was evil was just a coincidence. So yes, you could easily control a race of angelically good goblins locked into a war against an evil elven empire

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/lets-play-video-revealing-archdruid-and-random-maps/#post-31574}


-------Updated 02-12-2014---------


Lennart Sas

Note Age of Wonders III has simultaneous turns for world map gameplay; making online sessions a lot shorter than classic round robin turns.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/is-this-really-a-multiplayer-game/#post-30939}

See, Theocratic Empires with Goblin Angels and High Elf Dreadnoughts with landships aren’t weird ;-)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/rock-paper-shotgun-preview/#post-30815}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

This is just about the busiest time of the entire development cycle for us, as you might imagine.
So yes, we’re here, reading, listening. But we’re also very busy making the game.
There is definitely stuff in the works to go out to you all, but I won’t risk putting a date on it, sorry.
Expect it soon™ though, I’m sure you’re familiar with that line, but it’s the best I can do at this moment.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/any-news-this-week/#post-30805}


-------Updated 02-11-2014---------


Lennart Sas

no worries, we’ll release the editor.
There’s some technicalities related what to put on the ‘box’, as the tools are not localized and not tech supported as the main game is (as with many games)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/aow-3-is-listed-in-steam/#post-30643}

Thanks for reporting – Cool stuff!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/angryjoes-top-list/#post-30421}


Arnout Sas

Great, thanks for sharing!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/angryjoes-top-list/#post-30422}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Cool! I’ll watch it at home

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/angryjoes-top-list/#post-30502}


-------Updated 02-10-2014---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

There will be pretty fun differences between the races (Orcs do more damage, High Elves shoot better and have higher resistance but blight weakness, Goblins are generally cheaper but have less hitpoints etc).
We think it currently strikes a good balance between still making sure that all race-class combinations are fun and possible to play, while at the same time there will be good combinations for you to discover.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-much-will-race-matter-in-this-game/page/4/#post-30203}


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

arjan_van_daalen wrote:

He might eventually even drink cold beer!

I drink cold beer all the time, while I stand on the terrace of my windmill, looking out over the fields full of tulips :3

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/so-who-narrates-the-trailer-movies/#post-30191}


Arnout Sas

Yeah I think the winged Goblin angels are cute

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/are-classes-race-locked-2/#post-30013}


-------Updated 02-09-2014---------


Arnout Sas

@realgod Looking quickly at the specs of the Asus I’m afraid it won’t be very acceptable on the Asus T100. On the HD 4400 you I believe you should play the game acceptable with low settings, and low resolution.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/system-requirements-revealed/#post-29837}


Lennart Sas

We have another one in the works, hopefully released later the coming week.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/more-gameplay-videos/#post-29797}


-------Updated 02-08-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

Thanks again! I actually hate listening to the videos myself, I get really embarrassed. But it’s nice to hear you guys enjoy them!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/so-who-narrates-the-trailer-movies/#post-29702}


Lennart Sas

Sort of. Leaders have a Title / family name so you could call yourself Gyor of Clan Bloodclaw or Gyor of House Stark

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/naming-your-empire/#post-29452}



-------Updated 02-07-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

I narrated them, and thank you! In fact, I’ve narrated everything except for the in game stuff, Merlin in the reveal trailer is actually me speaking in a silly voice with lots of reverb

I’m the only native English speaker in the company (I’m British) so the duty kind of fell to me. This hasn’t stopped a bunch of people accusing me of being a Dutch person speaking with a fake english accent though…

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/so-who-narrates-the-trailer-movies/#post-29295}

It’s because I used the Dutch word “hupsakee” in one of the videos. I’d forgotten that the word isn’t actually English >_>

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/so-who-narrates-the-trailer-movies/#post-29330}


-------Updated 02-06-2014---------


Arnout Sas

Hi Low, its actually a medium map and your calculations are almost good

Map Sizes (width x height)
S 57×33
M 89×49
L 113×65
XL 145×81

Cheers Arnout

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/map-size-revealed-s-m-l-or-xl-map/#post-29124}


-------Updated 02-05-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

To be clear, the game does work via LAN, but both machines need an active internet connection to be able to find each other. The process is like:

1) Machine A and Machine B connect to the matchmaking service via the Internet
2) A hosts a game on the matchmaking service
3) B joins that game
4) A and B connect directly to each other, if they’re on the same LAN they don’t need the internet anymore.
5) A and B can now play together.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/multiplayer-mode/#post-28736}

Don’t worry, the artists were using cheats when they made the screen shots. Normally you can’t have more than 90 casting points, not 100,000!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/magic-points/#post-28735}


Arno van Wingerden

The specs of the match making are not final yet..

But currently you can host a game and optionally password protect it. Other players can browse/join your game. There are also different filter settings…

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/multiplayer-mode/#post-28769}


-------Updated 02-04-2014---------


Lennart Sas

Hi, we just support Online Multiplayer and Hot Seat.
We never promished LAN play. PBEM is likely to be added post release due to difficulties with protocol and saved game file sizes

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/multiplayer-mode/#post-28567}

Hi GeorgiSR, sorry but that’s not possible. We found that most people who play online sessions do so in Simultaneous Turns. Of course Hotseat only work in classic turns.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/multiplayer-mode/#post-28626}

Russian Localization should be ready in time for the international release… which is still planned end of March.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/aowiii-to-be-co-published-by-buka-in-russia-and-cis/#post-28641}

@Zrot Always hit has been a great improvement to TC flow I think. No longer fustrating misses, and low level units are able to do at least some damage.

There are lots of new abilities to compensate in combat.

@Arlow There have been some updates to the backgrounds yes. Don’t think it displayed as intended before.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/expectations/#post-28640}

Elizabeth did a great job voicing Julia in AoW:SM

But now the female lead is Sundren, Julia’s Daughter. She’s voiced by Samantha Beart; I’m confident you’ll like her too.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/aowii-intro-voice-wow/#post-28596}

Yep – we plan on a having a match making server live a the game’s release.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/multiplayer-how-to-find-players/#post-28572}


Lascha

Red Key wrote:

Can modders define their own generation passes and groups? I desperately hope so because this would be so awesome for modders!

The level editor will be available which allows lots of stuff, but it doesn’t allow creating your own generation passes. The generation passes are made in a special developers-tool, which is also used for a lot of other stuff that we cannot expose. So we cannot make this specific tool available as far as I’m aware.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-conquering-infinite-worlds-in-the-rmg/page/2/#post-28651}


-------Updated 02-03-2014---------


Lascha

@achilleas You make very valid points. It’s a really cool idea imo. I’ve discussed it with other devs, including the big boss. But since it is an unplanned feature it is too late to add at this moment of the development stage ; we will look at it after release. I hope this is a reasonable answer.

Hunter wrote:

Can you save and share favourite random maps? (with a seed for example?). I assume there is also a map editor for us to make more hand-crafted maps?

At the moment there’s no feature to save random maps. There’s a seed but it’s a little more complicated than that. We have this feature on our todo-list, but at the moment we are prioritizing bugs over new features. We’ll try to get it in before release (initial plan), but again, we’re really busy, so if it doesn’t make it then it’ll be there in a patch a little after release And yes, there’s a map editor. Yay!

Edi wrote:

Lascha, how about explaining what Game Flow means? The entry is excellent and mostly new info also to us beta testers, but that one (which is one of the easier and obvious bits for anyone who has tried the RMG) is not mentioned at all in the post. It’s bound to generate questions.

Game flow is a term that describes a collection of settings that have a direct impact on the generation of ‘game objects’. These settings allows control over stuff like amount of independent cities, resource sites, pickups, roads, (relative) distance between player spawn points, start with pioneer or a large city, etc, etc. You can modify them all in the advanced options OR you can select a pre-configured one in the quick-start menu (Normal, Adventure, Empire Building, Battle).

squeezing wrote:

This looks fantastic, but a question.

There seems to be an awful lot of mountains in all the generated maps. Come to think of it I seem to remember a whole lot of mountains in the screenshots too.

Why is this? Is this a concious choice and if so, why? To reduce exploitable space or reduce resource intensity or just to create chokes?

I love the Idea of mountaneous (is that a word?) regions. But I would like to be able to play in lush open forest and grasslands types of regions too. Perhaps with mountain ranges passing through them but not as path-limiters.

I chose to do this so that distribution of other objects make more sense; if it’s all plains then there’s too much freedom from e.g. point A to B; making it much easier to reach point B from point A which in turn influences lots of the gameplay. But there’s always the mountain slider which should reduce the amount of mountains significantly

PS. There’s still an internal task for generating big areas of a specific type, e.g. big forests with e.g. a fairy dwelling, big deserts with an oasis (which in its area contains rarely any mountains), etc. etc. I think this is what you mean, but it’s not certain yet if this will make it in the game before release.

vicwaberub wrote:

The maps are very cool and big. How much time did it need, to move from one side to the other?

Last year I started moving from the left edge of the map towards the right side of the map. I think I’m almost halfway now.. But no really, on an XL map I’d say about 40-50 turns from left to right.

vicwaberub wrote:

Can a normal unit see over the mountains?

Yes, there is no line of sight checking going on.

vicwaberub wrote:

Can we build donuts and east-west-maps?

Mmmm.. donuts

nvc_for_the_soul wrote:
vicwaberub wrote:

I hope we can disable pioneers in AoW3 as option for random maps and multiplayer games.

I hope so too.

Yes, we can!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-conquering-infinite-worlds-in-the-rmg/#post-28189}

Calmar wrote:

One question: Are there deliberately few cities placed, or are cities generally more rare in the AoW III than in th eprevious games?

Which particular image do you mean? The only one with a few that I can see is underground and that’s actually a tweaking issue; will be fixed!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-conquering-infinite-worlds-in-the-rmg/page/2/#post-28273}


Brian Cox

I have received insider information from a reliable source that the RMG is extra epic thanks to an amazing Quest system. Can you confirm this Lascha?

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-conquering-infinite-worlds-in-the-rmg/page/2/#post-28265}


-------Updated 02-02-2014---------


Lascha

Among all the beta madness, we found some time to prepare a new development journal. One of the things we’re tweaking in this beta phase is the Random
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: Conquering Infinite Worlds in the RMG]

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-conquering-infinite-worlds-in-the-rmg/#post-27826}


Lennart Sas

Random Maps support sizes up to XL, (I think that’s larger then the ones pictured) with 2 map layers and up to 8 player sides.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-conquering-infinite-worlds-in-the-rmg/#post-27899}

Hi, if we have some more time left, we can take a look at adding some more models and textures. Some races have young fresh faces as options.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/appearance-of-male-leaders/#post-27792}


-------Updated 01-30-2014---------


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

Spoke to Sikbok, your message has been received!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/direct-note-with-a-dev-sikbok/#post-26577}


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Confirmed.

I assume you send me a mail about this?

Going through the jungle that is my inbox now, expect I should get round to yours somewhere today. Darn, wish I had Forestry IRL.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/direct-note-with-a-dev-sikbok/#post-26578}

No worries mate.
We’ve got you covered : )>

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/direct-note-with-a-dev-sikbok/#post-26584}


Lennart Sas

^^^ People hoping for an invite should check their email attached to their account for this site.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/direct-note-with-a-dev-sikbok/#post-26702}


-------Updated 01-26-2014---------


Arnout Sas

Most classes have defensive spells or skills that buff defenders or garrisons in cities.

Enchanted Walls (lightning dam.) is now a Sorcerer Spell, but there are several variants found in AoWIII like Dreadnought’s Dragon Oil (fire dam.) spell

One of my favorite themed skills is the ‘Spartan’ Warlords Garrison Honor where your units that are stationed in your cities without walls gain a defense & attack bonus (with walls only +2 def).

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/siege-defensive-options/#post-25445}

Yes that’s correct, we’ve put that in the class.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/siege-defensive-options/#post-25478}


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

Hi amblingalong!

1) Not really, the battle will end if no-one deals damage for 5 turns, so there’s an optional “Run Away Crying!” objective if you really need one! Also, attackers can retreat from battle by moving to the edges of the map, but defenders cannot.

2) Each unit can only retaliate 3 times per turn, and each retaliation used reduces the number of attacks and move distance the unit in its following turn. Also, flanked units lose one retaliation as they turn to face their attackers (so if Bob hits Joe 3 times from behind, the first attack is flanking, then Joe turns around and retaliates twice). This means groups of weak units can swarm most high level units if they’re unsupported.

Hope this helps!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-questions/#post-25396}

I don’t think one response from me in 2 months really deserves that, but thanks!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/tactical-combat-questions/#post-25424}


-------Updated 01-25-2014---------


Lennart Sas

We had lots of fun designing the less ‘obvious’ classes, that couldn’t rely purely on the magical spells of the previous games. Rogue, Theocrat and Warlord all are quite special in that regard.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/introducing-the-rogue-leader-class/#post-25201}

We’ve chosen these languages as AoW did well in these countries. Trying to break into China with a game that isn’t F2P is hard.

There’s AoW player’s from all over the world, but found most speak English anyway.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/aowiii-to-be-co-published-by-buka-in-russia-and-cis/#post-25180}


-------Updated 01-24-2014---------


Lennart Sas

Yup, Steam wrapped retail.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/aowiii-to-be-co-published-by-buka-in-russia-and-cis/#post-25045}

Yep! So far confirmed: English, Russian, German, Polish, French.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/aowiii-to-be-co-published-by-buka-in-russia-and-cis/#post-25021}


-------Updated 01-23-2014---------


Jimmy van der Have

“Rogue Lords are masters of stealth, manipulation and theft. Any foolish citizen who makes trouble, disappears without a whisper in the middle of the
[See the full post at: Introducing the Rogue Leader Class]

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/introducing-the-rogue-leader-class/#post-24720}


Lennart Sas

@Vota dc The scoundrel is more of dirty fighter, skirmisher type. But yeah its cheaper :-)
@bocuma bearded ladies ok… mustaches – now that would be just weird ;-)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/introducing-the-rogue-leader-class/#post-24729}

ah too bad, thanks for reporting. Will let our PR guys know! :-)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/pcgames-aow3-homm/#post-24744}


Arnout Sas

@Motasa it is part of diplomacy system. Courtesan Ambassadors gives bonuses when dealing with independent cities. Cities are more favorable towards you and this makes it cheaper to buy these independent cities in the end. You also gain a relation modifier towards other players, making it easier to accept offer deals and such!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/introducing-the-rogue-leader-class/#post-24749}


-------Updated 01-21-2014---------


Lennart Sas

We’re working on a new class + video. Should be ready this week if all goes to plan!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/any-news/#post-24167}


-------Updated 01-16-2014---------


Lennart Sas

Leaders and Heroes have a custom skin tone pallet for each race ranging from dark to light.

For example; Orcs range from dark earthy skin tones to pale desaturated greens.

High Elves tent to have a more transparent / purplish / pink tint, but ranging from dark greyish skin to nearly pure white.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/the-race-of-high-elves-2/#post-23044}


-------Updated 01-15-2014---------


Lennart Sas

Sorry but printed manauls are a thing of the past. With today’s continuous development, including post-release, the manual or guide would be outdated the moment it’s sent to press.

Our ingame manual and help systems are hyperlinked, have filters and are connected to actual game variables.

We do plan to have some special edition content at launch.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/suggestions-for-the-game-manual/#post-22851}

We’ve given it some thought a while ago, but its a ton of work… It’d be like full a rewrite of that ancient code.

With mobile devices getting faster and faster there’d be larger change of this newer generation of AoW game making to tablets. Xcom iPad did really well from what we heard.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/android-port-of-aow-or-awsm/#post-22849}

There is a randomize character option in the customization interface, not in the frontend where it could affect all leaders.

A lot of the 100% randomized charaters tend to look like people with daring style choices or freaks even. Clashing colors, Grizzled warlords wearing Venetian masks, that sort of thing.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/truly-randomized-leaders/#post-22848}

we’re working on preparing the reveal of a new class. Should be very soon. This time there should be video too.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/vote-for-aow3/#post-22847}

@igoraki Not saying MoM or HoMM didn’t have Any influence. It took us to 1999 to finally release the firts AOW.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/a-new-players-perspective/#post-22846}

It all helps! Its very important we build exposure through any means :-)

And check out this most anticipated list:

http://www.metacritic.com/feature/most-anticipated-videogames-2014

(top slot ;-) )

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/vote-for-aow3/#post-22756}


-------Updated 01-14-2014---------


Lennart Sas

Hi Bertram! It’s always encouraging to hear we’re also attracting new players.. we need to :-)

As college kids, we started on Age of Wonders (called World of Wonders) way back in the early 90ties; even before Master of Magic or HoMM got released. Warlords and the original Civ were indeed the root influences. We wanted to make a fantasy strategy-RPG hybrid, AoW became our interpretation of this mix.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/a-new-players-perspective/#post-22617}


-------Updated 01-12-2014---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Whoops, looks like the Triumph people made it a bit late to this topic.

I liked it.
Production quality of this is way higher then the LotR movies. The time spend on some of the 3d stuff must have been huge.
Even the 3D stuff was done way better. Now it was actually doing something for the movie, instead of it just being a feature.
Also like this part better than the first.

Note that I’ll be a bit vague is my descriptions in an effort not to spoiler.

Didn’t much like:
- The Elf Dwarf love story.
- Dwarfs still looking like punkers.
- Gold statue stuff, although the last flying away scene was decent all the stuff leading up to it was lame.
- Lenght, should have been 30-45m shorter.

Did like:
- Legolas being there – even when he shouldn’t – because its a nice bridge to LotR and hasn’t been shoehorned in there.
- Fight scenes. Still too kung-fu movie, but better.
- Necromancer linking back to LotR. Else the n00b would never get it.

All in all, well worth going.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/what-did-the-triumph-people-think-of-desolation/#post-21896}


-------Updated 01-11-2014---------


Lennart Sas

I miss Myth: the fallen lords style splatter and decal in games too. Times have changed…

I think we have a good amount of violence with impact splatter, corpses being grittied up, and knock back death.

And yes, DLC is subject to the same rating as the main game.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/blood/#post-21554}

Hi the subclass (we call the specializations) route makes a lot of sense for a lit of class ideas.

We’ve found that adding full-fledged classes often blurs the lines between the existing classes. You don’t see a lot of class-based RPGs with 8+ classes.

Our classes contain a total of ~50 leader skills and ability experience upgrades. For some themes we found it hard to fouces

Classes like the Necromancers are a great exception, and would work well as a full class.

Specializations hold about 10 skills each are great additions to your main class. They could also be accessible to multiple classes. Like a Ranger Specialization could be a subclass available to Warlord, Rogue and Archdruid.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/subclasses/#post-21552}

Yep, its still in!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/migration-mechanic-is-it-still-in-game/#post-21547}


-------Updated 01-10-2014---------


Lennart Sas

To be fair, its been a while since you last posted about this Sigil.
And the game is now in beta so its fine to ask if you if there were changes one last time.

Most fixes since the last video have happened in animation code, as often animations were cut short due to other actions interrupting them. + we added some smoothing her and there.

Don’t expect long detailed animations as in Heroes 6. We have set out priorities elsewhere and for our large battles a responsive combat flow was deemed more important.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/status-on-animations/#post-21234}


-------Updated 01-09-2014---------


Lennart Sas

Hi folks, sorry to hear some disappointment on the limited number of people in the beta. Please allow me to summarize the reasons why we’ve chosen for the closed beta format:

-Triumph is a small studio, meaning that we can only process so much feedback at the same time. In a little over 2 weeks we’ve already gotten close to 4000 posts on the beta forums.
-This a ‘real’ beta / QA phase. Unlike most other ‘public’ betas, which in many cases are just connection and compatibility tests or marketing tools featuring a small section of the game. This beta actually is an extension of our internal QA efforts with highly dedicated external testers. This is hard work!
-At this point, the game is still has more than to 2 months of polish / development to go. We don’t want to spoil the experience for people expecting a fully finished game at this point.
-We will be extending invites later to focus on balance, compatibility and networking issues.

Please note the initial release of AoWIII is just the starting point. After the game ships, we’ll continue to develop it with input from the fans (for both free updates, patches and DLC) We’ll keep a live ‘report feedback’ button in the game, and we’ll up open up beta style forums for feedback so you all can contribute.

Thanks for your patience, the wait won’t be much longer!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/about-the-closed-beta/#post-20842}

We’ve are considering a future merchant specialization or class, but we need a good set of skills, including spell like abilities and combat effects that don’t all load on the gold resource.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/future-dlc-leader-classes/#post-21014}

As with the mac version – we’ve got plans, but it won’t be same ship with Pc unfortunately

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/about-the-closed-beta/#post-21013}

We have plans, but i’m afraid it won’t be at the initial release.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/available-on-mac/#post-21012}

Hi, it just raises awareness in Russia. Riot Pixels is the biggest PC site there. Registered votes are more secure and of course this process allows Riot Pixels to expand their user base. Looks like they are also expanding internationally.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/riot-pixels-top-2014/#post-20848}


Tom Bird (a.k.a. Tombles)

We’re gonna expand the beta soon guys, don’t worry! We do indeed need more beta testers to help us pick up on issues with hardware and network configurations, but we want to make sure that the most glaring game play things are fixed first.

I’ll ask tomorrow about a more official statement. I just thought I’d post since my girlfriend said you were all on the verge of internet murder in here =3

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/why-is-the-beta-invite-only/#post-20748}

Edi wrote:

Unfortunately, I can’t really say any more than I already have, which is why the prospect of an official statement from Triumph would be very welcome.

http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/about-the-closed-beta/

As if by magic

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/why-is-the-beta-invite-only/#post-20845}


-------Updated 01-08-2014---------


Lennart Sas

Yeah, feel free to post to the German and English Forums too :-)

http://en.riotpixels.com/top/2013/game/age-of-wonders-3/

http://de.riotpixels.com/top/2013/game/age-of-wonders-3/

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/riot-pixels-top-2014/#post-20519}


-------Updated 01-07-2014---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

If the remaining defenders are combat summons only then that’s correct. I think that cunning trick is fine, it’s already a very powerful spell regardless (and the trick only works when attacking: defenders cannot flee).

Suppose it didn’t work like that:
- Declare war on your ally for a turn,
- go into combat,
- cast the Call Beast Horde spell (1 random animal per TC turn),
- working together draw the battle out as long as you can so you have ~20 units summoned,
- end combat and stampede the enemy with 20 new and free units.

Would be ugly

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/why-only-6-units/#post-20041}


-------Updated 01-06-2014---------


Lennart Sas

Yup, there’s a big cast of pre-made leader characters.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/will-there-be-finished-avatar-in-singleplayer/#post-19736}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Hi Quark02! By all means ask: we cannot answer all, but we can answer some

-> Combat summons live for the duration of combat only.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/why-only-6-units/#post-19722}


-------Updated 01-05-2014---------


Lennart Sas

More will be revealed on the other classes soon!! We also have new videos in the works

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/more-gameplay/#post-19096}

DLC will likely consist out of a mix of smaller and larger / possibly standalone content.
Of course the amount depends on the games’s succes.

DLC will likely also contain additional races, but can’t tell more than that at this point :-)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/i-created-a-lore-video-for-aow1-what-do-you-think/#post-18826}


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi, posting here to confirm what Tanchiro and JeanLucPicard have already said.

We’ll be on Steam, but not exclusively.
We’ll also be on GoG for people who prefer that service.

In some countries you can even find us on a good old disk : )>

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/steam-exclusive/#post-19316}


-------Updated 01-04-2014---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

It can exceed the 42 units rule, which isn’t a rule or maximum, but a practical limit: with the adjacent hexagon rule that’s the maximum amount you can start a battle with.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/why-only-6-units/#post-18857}


Lennart Sas

Hi GamerZakh, looks great and I didn’t notice any inconsistencies. Cool stuff!

With AoW3 we’ll be building up on a lot of themes and conflicts from AoW1. Also it has been a goal to bring back the atmosphere from AoW1.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/necromancerundead/#post-18825}

Welcome!

The Necromancer is top on our list for a future DLC class. There’s so much potential with it in this game.

We already have a ton of units in the game; a comparable amount to the previous games. Note the amount of main races might be lower, AoW3 also features the new monster dwellings and class specific units.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/necromancerundead/#post-18825}


-------Updated 01-03-2014---------


Lennart Sas

Happy New Year! Here is a small New Year’s update outlining what you can expect from us in the coming months towards the release of Age of Wonders III
[See the full post at: New Year’s Update!]

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/new-years-update/#post-18521}


-------Updated 01-02-2014---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

We have over 200 units currently.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/total-units-to-choose-from/#post-18251}

Dwellings have upgrades just like cities (you can build a Chamber of the Rite in a Necropolis for example). Depending on those upgrades you can build different units there, or have additional protective spells active during combat etc.

There’s just one type of each dwelling currently (so there’s no separate Frost Dragon Peak looking differently from a Fire Dragon Peak for example).

Hope that answers your question

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/monster-dwelling-upgrades/#post-18252}


-------Updated 12-30-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Yes, the Allied Victory Checkbox is back.
Also AoW3 has the new option for players to setup fixed teams during match setup; for 2vs2 games for example.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/alliances-and-diplomacy/#post-17436}


-------Updated 12-29-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Hi Edi, thanks for the write up! Betas are all differentent as all teams are different and all games are different.

No worries BBB, but please leave it at that :-)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/no-beta-video-yet/#post-17121}

I think we’re very much aware what makes AoW a good game, and that Tactical Combat is a central part of that.

You’ll see we’ve added a lot of depth to the battles, like a huge amount of new abilities and spells, large and varied battlefields, new systems such as flanking, etc.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/why-only-6-units/#post-17151}


-------Updated 12-27-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Hi, we evaluated this some time ago with the team; but its a significant amount of work to do well. Could even be turned into a seperate game spin-off. An AoW-Tactics for example.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/duel-mode/#post-16493}


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi Kane,
Posting to confirm Red Key is correct.
Beta participants are all sworn to secrecy.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/no-beta-video-yet/#post-16677}


-------Updated 12-25-2013---------


Arnout Sas

Frohe Weihnachten

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/merry-xmas/#post-16018}


-------Updated 12-24-2013---------


Lascha

Merry Christmas!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/merry-xmas/#post-15849}


Arno van Wingerden

Merry Christmas to all of you!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/merry-xmas/#post-15855}


Lennart Sas

Merry Xmas everybody!
The Triumph office is actually closed till Monday, we’re taking a break before the upcoming beta madness.

(Edit – but good opportunity to play the game/checking forums )

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/merry-xmas/#post-15856}


-------Updated 12-22-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

I wish I could say yes, but in general we don’t do tours for individual fans. Not a matter of not wanting, but it would disrupt our development cycle too much.
Also we wouldn’t want to reveal all the magical creatures that are actually making our games.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/triumph-studios-and-the-visiting-thereof/#post-14770}


Lennart Sas

Posting these things isn’t really work, just good fun. But game dev can get hectic towards release along with overtime.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/jimmy-about-localization/#post-14681}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Merry Christmas all, was great to read the many awesome stories

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/merry-xmas-and-the-results-of-our-halfling-competition/#post-14895}


-------Updated 12-21-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Hi Jolly, Thanks for reaching out, sorry for not getting back to you. (Our general email boxes listed are indeed a spam infested mess). AoWIII is being localized to a couple of languages including German, but our German distributor Eurovideo has already setup a localization partner for Germany.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/jimmy-about-localization/#post-14637}

The original language is American-English with Dutch undertones in certain areas. :-)
Then there’s German, Russian, Polish and likely French at launch.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/jimmy-about-localization/#post-14659}

Yep – we have our own matchmaking system. It allows Steam players and people getting the game from other vendors to play together.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/offical-mp-server-with-lobby-support/#post-14638}

not at launch, possibly at some later point. Its significant amount of work, esp making it cheat proof. Not that you guys would cheat of course :-)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/offical-mp-server-with-lobby-support/#post-14658}

We experimented with multi-figure world map amries, but we found it to become quite messy, especially with armies rendered on structures or with large monsters.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/visual-presentation-of-army-stacks-on-the-map/#post-14641}


-------Updated 12-20-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

As 2013 draws to a close, we would like to thank you for all your continued support! On behalf of all at Triumph, we wish you a great a Holiday Season
[See the full post at: Merry Xmas! and the Results of our Halfling competition]

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/merry-xmas-and-the-results-of-our-halfling-competition/#post-14576}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

It’s my professional opinion that XL maps make you go ‘wow… that’s big!’.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/size-of-random-maps/#post-14525}


-------Updated 12-19-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

SmurfInHell wrote:

If you pause the video right at where the link starts then you notice 5 slots. One containing each of the three she chose then two open. What are these for? Are they available as in-game research like in Aow2:SM where you can research say Summoner rather than a spell?

That’s old. It changed. You will just see 3 spheres now. Back then there were fewer skills per sphere. You have about the same number of skills as in that previous iteration. Showing stuff early means things like this happen all over the place, but I think you guys do appreciate that early look, right?

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/specializations-question/#post-14475}


Arnout Sas

Master of Fire specialization gives new and more powerful fire spells

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/specializations-question/#post-14481}


-------Updated 12-18-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Yeah it’s three (everything is WIP, so it can still change, but I have no indication that it will change at the moment).
Once you pick, that are your choices for that game. There’s no way to increase the number or change them ingame.

Some specializations, like Fire, have 2 tiers, an adept and a mastery sphere. You can only take the mastery if you have the corresponding adept pick.

You can always fully research everything in your sphere picks.

Hope that answers some of the questions

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/specializations-question/#post-14427}


Arnout Sas

@SmurfInHell class units have coloring according to their Leader, but specializations don’t have influence on your class units or anything like that

@Draxynnic Yes each specialization grants the same spells regardless of class. You can pick 3 slots forcing players to pick a nice combo/tactic

And the elemental summons are found in the air, earth, fire, water specializations.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/sorcerer-questions/#post-14436}


-------Updated 12-17-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

The way it works is that you attack 1 hex. All hexes around that one hex (so 6 hexes) can have your troops on them. All those troops on the surrounding hexes will join the battle, so at most it’s 6 stacks VS 1 stack. It can be any combination of course (2 VS 3 VS 2 is also possible).

This mechanism is called the adjacent hexagon rule.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/army-reinforcements/#post-14387}


-------Updated 12-15-2013---------


Arnout Sas

@DarkCobra1990 Yes the Sorcerer lighting/shock damage themed.

Yes you buff your cities with spells or debuff (curse) enemy cities. All classes have a few of these types of spells. The Theocrat has Denounce City as city ‘debuff’ for example

@Zhukodim Static Shield is indeed a powerful spell with 2 turns stun. Perhaps its needs to be 1 round after proper balancing. Depends on a lot of factors

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/introducing-the-sorcerer-class/page/2/#post-14344}


-------Updated 12-13-2013---------


Arnout Sas

@Flamespike Good question. The beta will be confidential; no public posts, videos, or screenshots. And no distribution obviously!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/aow-3-beta/#post-14287}


-------Updated 12-12-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

“After the ascension of the ancient Wizard Kings at the end of the Second Age, a new breed of magicians, called Sorcerers, claimed power. Seeking to u
[See the full post at: Introducing the Sorcerer class]

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/introducing-the-sorcerer-class/#post-14207}


Lennart Sas

Cool stories so far! Of course more people will be in the beta. Only the winners will be guaranteed access plus get perks like earlier access.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/where-did-the-halflings-go-win-beta-access/page/2/#post-14157}


-------Updated 12-11-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Where did the Halflings go? The Age of Wonders development team is off to see the new Hobbit movie and celebrates by giving away 5 exclusive seats to the upcoming Ae of Wonders III beta!

[See the full post at: Where did the Halflings go? Win Beta Access!]

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/where-did-the-halflings-go-win-beta-access/#post-14084}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Nice post
If we do indeed make the Necromancer as DLC after launch (this is the plan I believe) I’m positive players playing that class will be able to determine their own alignment.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/necromancy-andor-undead-race/page/3/#post-14069}


Lennart Sas

Regarding new materials: we have lots of things in the works that you’ll hear about very soon. :-)

As for water battles: Note characters landing / not landing; is only a visual thing. The rule is that land units are able to engage flying units. (if they’re able to corner them) this is to avoid a whole bunch of exploits and AI issues explained elsewhere.

So whether fliers hoover over water (which most will), paddle like ducks, the rules will be the same on water and land.

We haven’t release shots of TC water yet as we’re still polishing.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/requests/#post-14064}

A Mac port is high on our list, but it doesn’t look like same ship date is achievable.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/mac/#post-14063}

We have something in place”
Heavily armored units have the “Armored” ability. Then certain units have an “Armor Piercing” ability that give a fixed physical damage bonus to these units.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/ability-suggestion-armor-piersing/#post-14062}


-------Updated 12-10-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Morty wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Grakor456 wrote:</div>
(…) I do hope that there will be prominent orc and goblin protagonists in the campaign, as it’d be a shame to have them delegated only as antagonists. Especially in light of AoW3′s more flexible alignment system.
Yeah, agreed. It would be a shame if they were reduced to being the dumb evil guys again.

Yes they are present, and they are as varied over alignment as everyone else
Lennart already told a bit about Nomlik somewhere in these forums, a Goblin Theocrat who is out to free his fellow goblins from oppression.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/age-of-wonders-iii-cover-art-revealed/page/3/#post-14025}


-------Updated 12-07-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

We’ve had some delay because of timing issues, but most of the work on the class pages has been done now in the backend.

We’ll continue soon.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/unofficial-reveals/#post-13942}


-------Updated 12-04-2013---------


Arnout Sas

Razing & Pillaging towns or razing structures is a basic game feature and available to everyone. Some skills like the Destruction specialization skill Hasty Plunder improve these mechanics!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/torches-for-everyone/#post-13826}


-------Updated 12-03-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Knight9910 wrote:

I’m guessing the folks at Triumph probably had this exact same conversation and came to the exact same conclusion: Rogue isn’t perfect, but there’s nothing better.

Haha, pretty much this indeed
And like chrysophylax páuperem said.

And JeanLucPicard is right about the summoner debate. Sorcerer has all kinds of spells, but does rely on summons quite strongly.
The Archdruid indeed has nature summons.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/class-questions/#post-13801}


-------Updated 12-02-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

No delusions

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/day-and-night/#post-13759}

Tomipapa wrote:

The main campaign characters are fixed, you can’t change them. He/she will stays with you in every map and write the journal entries between the campaigns. However, you will meet with many other characters during the campaign, and on many maps one of these characters will lead your armies(and your main character is only a “Hero”). So this way you can try out every class in the campaign, with their skills,spells and units.

Yes this is how it is, thanks for explaining on our behalf Tomipapa (and not just this time either ).

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/age-of-wonders-iii-cover-art-revealed/page/2/#post-13756}


-------Updated 12-01-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Darned; I keep saying Animist. We changed the name to Archdruid just before the announce. The old name still popups in resources and design docs.

@BLOODYBATTLEBRAIN Without digital distribution a project like AoW probably wouldn’t be viable with limited PC game shelf space. The resurgence in hardcore PC gaming for a large part can be attributed to digital distribution.

The cut for digital distribution is very much worth it. Their offer a community of customers, bandwith, auto patching, payment and return handling, etc, etc.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/age-of-wonders-iii-cover-art-revealed/#post-13721}


-------Updated 11-30-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Thanks for the feedback, glad most like it!

The Goblin is Tannah Boslarf, a female Animist. She’s an enemy in the campaign.

Julia and Merlin are in the campaign, but they are no longer protagonists.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/age-of-wonders-iii-cover-art-revealed/#post-13664}

Please note Triumph earns less than half off a physical copy compared to a digital distributed copy of the same price. :-)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/age-of-wonders-iii-cover-art-revealed/#post-13683}


-------Updated 11-29-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

After having worked on it for several months, we are thrilled to finally show you the cover art of Age of Wonders III. Some keen-eyed forum users alr
[See the full post at: Age of Wonders III cover art revealed!]

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/age-of-wonders-iii-cover-art-revealed/#post-13625}


-------Updated 11-28-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

We’re sorry. We’re just *really* busy here now.
Jimmy is ill, which doesn’t help either.
Know please for a fact we’re not forgetting you all and the forum and the site!

Now that I am experiencing it from this side I understand a lot better how sometimes there just is no time, and not because you guys aren’t important, but precisely because you guys are important, but in a different way than showing screenshots and dev journals. Of course me writing that doesn’t help you right now, but it’s all I can offer at this time.

It’s definitely on the todo-list!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/german-press-tour-finished-new-footage-and-screenshots/page/6/#post-13572}


-------Updated 11-27-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

No sorry, the campaign will not have coop support.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/multi-player-questions/#post-13520}

Sorry guys, I wasn’t sure when I wrote the reply but I just checked and in fact you can already make items in the editor right now, and of course leaders, and heroes, and bios for them etc. etc.
Don’t worry, you’ll be able to craft incredibly intricate stories with the editor. Entire campaigns. Since we’re doing that now and you’ll get the same editor we use.

PS: and we’re definitely not afraid of modders, we really know how great modding is for the community (Community patches for AoW:SM etc., we’ve always liked people modding our games)

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/scroll-tome-artifacts/#post-13518}

@Grubbyhaze: there is no multiplayer campaign, only multiplayer scenarios.
There can be up to 8 players playing together via IP.

@SmurfinHell: yes you can play a map with the humans in fixed teams against the AI in classic turn mode on the same pc, I think that’s the same as what you ask?

@Baiten: Yes they can be saved to continue another day!

EDIT: Rectified my post: we don’t support LAN, you have to connect to others via IP, sorry!

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/multi-player-questions/#post-13513}


-------Updated 11-26-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

meeber wrote:

But you will have requlare magic items in the game like in the previous games right? And will we like in the previous games be able to create new ones both in the Editor and withi the game as well?

Yes.
Editor: maybe
Game: yes (item forge)

Arlow wrote:

will we be able to save heroes who’ve leveled and learned a good many? to replay with a veteran or to play hotseat with our developed characters?

No. Not against other players. I’d imagine that would be pretty unbalanced.
You can do that during the campaigns though.

TheSpeaker wrote:

Is there a chance of this, maybe?
Should I start a separate thread for this suggestion?

No need, I just added it to the list here (it’s going to be a lot of work I think and we have plenty to do, so don’t expect it to make it!).

chrysophylax páuperem wrote:

Hm, what is a “spell like” ability? Is it like this? The hero or leader, after vanquishing an Eldritch Horror in a poisonous cloud of madness, green blood and horrible shrieks, finds a crumbling tome written by a vanished fisherpeople an age ago. After carefully picking up the tome (and some cool lovecraftian flavor text), the player discovers that the tome grants a one time (per battle) ability to make extra dimensional units take a lot of damage and/or run amok?

Hehe sounds cool, but I was referring to unit abilities which are spell-like, like dispel (that’s the most boring example, I promise! )

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/scroll-tome-artifacts/#post-13433}


Jimmy van der Have

Sounds like you could take that in interesting directions, but there’s probably other features that are the same effort for implementing and would have more impact.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/selecting-the-gender-for-your-class-units/#post-13441}


-------Updated 11-25-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

We won’t have any consumables or items with limited uses. I agree it would be cool, maybe we can put it on a wishlist for the future
There are some tomes, but they don’t unlock spells but they do give spell-like abilities (we have heroes unlock spells through xp).

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/scroll-tome-artifacts/#post-13399}



-------Updated 11-24-2013---------


Arnout Sas

You are totally correct Tomipapa.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/german-press-tour-finished-new-footage-and-screenshots/page/5/#post-13364}

Hi Terevolt. they are still in the game! However, it works a little different as we now have classes. Classes contain your main research tree and decide which main spells, empire upgrades, types of units, etc you have.

Each class effect your unit as they have unique (race) units like the Warlord’s Berserker and Mounted Archer, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice or the Dreadnought’s Golem.

The traditional elemental ‘spheres’ are still present in the game as specializations. A leader can pick a few and specialize and become a Fire Adept & Master for example. A specialization unlocks flavored spells, summons and empire upgrades you normally don’t get with a class. Depending on the specialization it can also give you extra bonuses to type of mana nodes.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/elements-spheres/#post-13352}


-------Updated 11-21-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

FYI. I’ve just posted a new journal about the sound effects in AoW3.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal/#post-13267}

After having done a fantastic job at our Overlord titles, we’re happy to announce our friends at UK-based The Audio Guys are teaming up with us again
[See the full post at: Creating the sounds of battle and wonder with The Audio Guys]

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/creating-the-sounds-of-battle-and-wonder-with-the-audio-guys/#post-13265}


-------Updated 11-20-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Tomorrow I expect to have a new one for you.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal/#post-13227}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Knigh9910 wrote:

You know what else I’d like? If my hero has the Archery ability, I want to see him pull out a bow and use it, not magically fire arrows out of his sword like they did in AoW2! That was always so goofy.

That’s in

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/will-items-change-how-a-hero-looks/#post-13224}


-------Updated 11-19-2013---------


Arnout Sas

@StupendousMan The elves have gryphon cavalry as their special unit

@chrysophylax páuperem Yes, the Eldritch Horror has Dominate and blight (poison) strike! Its one of the most powerful units in the game

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/german-press-tour-finished-new-footage-and-screenshots/page/4/#post-13195}

chough wrote:

I hope the random factor is still in this game… that is where the magic happens.
It’s still in! The random unlocking of skills, random rewards out of reward sets, combat, secret spells, randomness in the damage system, random defenders, random quests, random map generator, etc

Of course everything not totally random. Rewards are themed as per structure or quest, but within a ‘theme’ random items, units or spells, etc, can be given to the player. For example a tomb will spawn ancient powerful magic items, but a Brigand Hideout more basic, weaker items. A Sanctum spawns ‘priestly’ items.

^{http://ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/i-cant-wait-for-this-to-come-out/#post-13192}


-------Updated 11-16-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi AEG,

Have a look at the movies and screens and tell us what you think of AoW3.

As AwesomeLion mentioned, we are getting this game ready to hand it over to you guys & girls. So, there likely won’t be any big redesigns.

However, we are polishing the game up now and are looking for the forums for where to focus our attention. We tend to book tickets for bugs and features we find on the forums by linking directly to the forum post.

So, any feedback on what we’ve shown so far would be great.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/i-cant-wait-for-this-to-come-out/#post-13069}


-------Updated 11-15-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Yeah! Spread the word!!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/anyone-want-to-help-build-aow-iii-hype-on-anook-with-me/#post-13057}


-------Updated 11-14-2013---------


Arno van Wingerden

At the moment we’re putting a lot of effort in improving the strategic AI much more than we did for previous games. But please don’t underestimate how much time it takes to write a good AI for a game like AoW with all the different units/skills/spell in there. Often the AI code required to support a feature takes much more time than the feature itself..

All I can say for now is that the AI will definitely be more aggressive and challenging than it was in AoW:SM.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/are-there-ai-improvements/#post-13040}

Jimmy van der Have

It’s very very unlikely.

Despite that, we will be looking at tablet opportunities and Age of Wonders. Can’t say if it will be Age of Wonders III or a new game, but it’s definitely on our radar once we finish AoW3 for PC.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/age-of-wonders-i-and-ii-for-ipad/#post-13031}


-------Updated 11-13-2013---------


Lennart Sas

@Athese, yup – Setting up fixed teams is already possible. It basically sets fixed diplomatic state. Mirror pact in the German press tour video is actually a fixed team scenario. Its also possible in random maps.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/suggestions-not-worth-their-own-thread-thread/page/3/#post-12985}

Overlord’s rights are owned by Codemasters, so can’t do that at our discretion.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/triumph-studios-bundle/#post-12978}

Case 20312
[RMG] Add Combo box to advanced settings that allows the inclusion of leaders from the custom library.
AoW: RMG | Milestone: Milestone 6 – Beta

Assigned to Lascha | Active
Priority
2 – Urgent dependency
RSS RSS Feed
Subscribe to receive email when this case changes.
Opened by Lennart Sas 11/13/2013 (Today) 5:53 PM

Leader Source:
Default Library (= default option)
Default and Custom
Custom only

(Great forum suggestion from Knight9910)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/can-created-leaders-show-up-in-random-scenarios/#post-12976}


-------Updated 11-12-2013---------


Arnout Sas

Regarding the acquisition of Spells.

Leaders gain spells through Research only. Heroes can acquire spells through experience. Spells are never shared. The main advantage is that a Leader can have unique heroes that all retain their own unique class spells!

This difference between level-up of leaders and heroes is basically Leaders having a slight advantage as they don’t have to spend their experience points on spells and can focus on personal upgrades, stat upgrades or stack upgrade skills exclusively.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/german-press-tour-finished-new-footage-and-screenshots/page/2/#post-12871}


Lennart Sas

Hi, I said we *possibly* would make it possible to mod 3d content. However it takes quite some effort in our end. Especially creating a proper pipeline tools and mod manager (handling various content packs, mutliplayer) as well as taking a lot of effort on the modder’s side. Creating proper 3d models that are skinned to our custom animation rigs is no easy feat for the modder and requires expensive software. Don’t expect his type of modding to be supported at release.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/moddable-features/#post-12915}

Note prices will vary per territory.

For a lot of games and other products the dollar amount same amount in Euro (so $40/€40) This is due to higher EU VAT + localization and distribution costs are higher in the fragmented EU market.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/german-press-tour-finished-new-footage-and-screenshots/page/2/#post-12910}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

About the map with the mirror cities: it is not part of the campaign.
Wouldn’t want to spoiler the campaign now would we?

And the dashes for health and movepoints, yeah, it’s on a list here somewhere ^^

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/german-press-tour-finished-new-footage-and-screenshots/page/2/#post-12875}


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

@JeanLucPicard:

Just one point about the UI that should’ve been made earlier. Currently you use dashes “-” to show remaining/maximum movement and hitpoints. However dashes are usually used to show “ranges” like a range of 2 to 4 (2-4) damage for example whiles slashes “/” are used for situations where you have X out of Y (X/Y).

Fixed : )>

Also, thanks for the positive feedback on the demo people.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/german-press-tour-finished-new-footage-and-screenshots/page/2/#post-12884}


-------Updated 11-11-2013---------


Arnout Sas

@JeanLucPicard Yeah the greatest Goblin Sorcerer ever lived*

@Knigh9910 Magical Origin is basically a requisite applied to units who look/are magical; like the Wisp, Phantasm Warrior, or Node Serpent. We could argue that undead fit that type, but for gameplay purposes they are another type as they are effected by other spells, abilities and effects. (TBD We could changes this accordingly to balance)

Creatures that summoned are not necessarily of magical origin, like a summoned Boar, but can be effected by spells that effect creatures of magical origin: like the Sorcerer’s Spell Arcane Binding (which binds summoned units or magical origin units to your will) or the Avatar’s Banish Spell (which banishes summoned or magical origin units effectively killing them)

(* I just made that up)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/german-press-tour-finished-new-footage-and-screenshots/#post-12816}

Regarding the Recharging Mana Currents spell, it heals units from all sides as long as they are from magical origin. Perhaps he was referring to the fact that all mana node defenders are of magical origin, and thus usually only the defenders benefit! So indeed, it’s a good tactic to nullify the advantage by bringing your own units of magical origin!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/german-press-tour-finished-new-footage-and-screenshots/#post-12801}

Yep, that’s also possible. You can always* select any leader for a custom map and these include leaders typical to the campaign.

* unless the leader has been made fixed in the LevelEd for a specific player side

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/editor-question-and-leader-backgrounds/#post-12789}

@TheSpeaker

1) Yes you can still place anything anywhere on each player side
2) Yes in the Hero editor of the LevelEd you can add custom Heroes and Leaders which you totally tweak, including adding custom descriptions.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/editor-question-and-leader-backgrounds/#post-12766}


Jimmy van der Have

Our press journey in Germany has ended and we completed our quest to visit the biggest, baddest websites and magazines in Munich and Berlin. During ou
[See the full post at: German press tour finished, new footage and screenshots]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/german-press-tour-finished-new-footage-and-screenshots/#post-12778}

Guys, you could make this debate last an eternity, but I think the points have been made and it’s no use dedicating 2 more forum pages to it.
Let’s keep it fun please.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/nagas/#post-12798}


-------Updated 11-10-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Naga’s are on the shortlist for a possible future DLC dwelling. :-)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/nagas/#post-12675}


-------Updated 11-09-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Some sharp analysis. We’re getting closer to beta, but not everything is done of course.

Here’s some misc feedback on comments above:

- Using Hostile overland spells like Lightning storm will be seen as a hostile action. This build had a flag set wrong for this particular spell
- Draconian heroes start on raptors, yets.
- Draconian had to be changed a little to fit with in the customization system, however I think especially the heroes turned out great and are my favorite.
- The game includes a bunch of pre-made head shapes and textures per race. Possibly it can be extended with modding but advanced 3d modelling skills are needed.
- Specializations; yep there are now two picks per sphere. Adept and Mastery, each giving access to a number of spells.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/new-vids-on-youtube-this-am/#post-12611}


-------Updated 11-07-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Hi,

- Spectator mode for TC is in (we’re looking in to turning it off for non-allies / making it optional)
- yep allied battles are still part
- yep its possible to save customized leaders. There’s an “official” and custom leader library.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/some-questions-regarding-multiplayer/#post-12391}


Arnout Sas

Indeed the Rogue is much more into darker magic then the Sorcerer. Instead the Sorcerer focuses on real magic, high magic (or so to say in fantasy roleplaying terms!) and summoning powerful creatures of magical origin and other planes of existence. And yes its class unit is the Apprentice

Actually the Sorcerer is *the* summon class in Age of Wonders III. The Sorcerer can summon the most creatures, and also one of the most powerful units in the game (a great horror from another world)!

(We’re gonna reveal the other classes hopefully soon. So lots of cool skills, spells & units will be revealed)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/nymph-will-she-live-up-to-the-name/#post-12389}


-------Updated 11-06-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Hi guys, I think the bit of concept art posted above doesn’t do this race-class blends justice, it also illustrates an extreme blend.

The player colors in the picture are a noble blue white. If you want to play an evil goblin theocrat you might to adjust your color scheme to dark earthy colors which get represented on segments of unit’s armor and clothing.

As most racial units are so small, color has a massive impact on whether a particular empire feels ‘correct and gels. We’ve added more player color elements to units, such as wings, which also give a nice touch.

e.g. If you play a fire- specialized goblin theocrat, you can choose red and yellow and get goblins exalted with Phoenix colored wings. Also certain goblin units inherit their race’ gnarled pose. We’ll post a screen when this process is complete.

Budget is a consideration for any dev, but so is unit readability. With 200+ units, extra visual variations will make it hard to recognize units if there’s lots of variation between one type. The systems do support full racial custom models, so when we’re running out of essential tasks (the 3d artists still have some more locations and water combat to ), we’ll have a look at making racial tweaks for certain edge cases. But don’t expect cannons with wooden barrels shooting fairy dust :-)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-much-will-race-matter-in-this-game/#post-12369}

Nymphs live in the Sylvan Courts with the fairies.

At one point the team also designed advanced elder nymphs called Mylphs and Gylphs, which had increasingly more powerful spell-like abilities (probably because of declining looks) but not sure about the status for these. :-)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/nymph-will-she-live-up-to-the-name/#post-12339}

Each race has 7 units (not counting settlers, etc). Although they fit within certain categories and do not include monsters not belonging to the population (you get these through spells, class upgrades and dwellings), we feel there’s good variety between them and there might actually be more pure racial units than the previous games:

1) Irregular – vary from Draconian hatchlings to human civic guards and dwarf miners. Usually skirmisher types. Others have a particular trick.
2) Infantry – melee focussed units. Some carry shields which give block others carry greatswords which have the overwhelm ability.
3) Ranged – vary between archers, crossbowmen, draconian flame blolters, goblins shooting homing mosquito darts
4) Polearm – from phalanx type units to swiss guard type halbardiers.
5) Cavalry – mounts very per race. Raptors, boars, unicorns.
6) Support – priest types, generally having some special buff and/or attack per race. Goblin Plague Doctors. Dwarf Rune Priests, etc.
7) Special – the pinnacle for each race. Goblin beetle riders. Orc Blackguards, Dwarf first born.

Races have a terrain likes and dislikes affecting morale and city econmics.

Each class generally has re-searchable skills that upgrade a selection of racial units. Example: Theocrat adding templar like abilities to certain military units and buffs support units. This ensure class and race intertwine.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-much-will-race-matter-in-this-game/#post-12338}


Arnout Sas

Indeed the Rogue is much more into darker magic then the Sorcerer. Instead the Sorcerer focuses on real magic, high magic (or so to say in fantasy roleplaying terms!) and summoning powerful creatures of magical origin and other planes of existence. And yes its class unit is the Apprentice

Actually the Sorcerer is *the* summon class in Age of Wonders III. The Sorcerer can summon the most creatures, and also one of the most powerful units in the game (a great horror from another world)!

(We’re gonna reveal the other classes hopefully soon. So lots of cool skills, spells & units will be revealed)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/nymph-will-she-live-up-to-the-name/#post-12389}

@TheSpeaker The Succubus is a Rogue class unit!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/nymph-will-she-live-up-to-the-name/#post-12362}

Concerning variety; Mounts differs per leader/hero race (for example Dwarves ride Boars, Goblin on Wolves) and there are unique mounts, like Gryphon and Wyverns (and more) out there that can be acquired by spells or rewards!

@Slayer the mount is part of the Leader/Hero, so yes concealment also works with your mount

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/opinions-on-only-mounted-heroes/#post-12359}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Absolute minimum of damage ^^ and touch attacks like charm can definitely fail.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/automatic-had-a-flaw/#post-12346}

Hi Knigh9910,

I’ll try and clarify a few things.

- Alignment is determined by your actions as a player. Which means that you can play a Good Goblin Theocrat, or an Evil Goblin Theocrat. Or a Good High Elf Rogue or an Evil High Elf Rogue.

- Archon Revenants (the undead guys) are not one of the core races. These are High Elf, Dwarf, Human, Draconian, Goblin and Orc. So playing an Archon Revenant Theocrat won’t happen.

- Any racial traits, like for example forestwalking for High Elves, are on the High Elf units whether they are units of the ArchDruid, Sorcerer, Warlord or any other class. In this way even the class units will differ because of your race choice.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/how-much-will-race-matter-in-this-game/#post-12345}


-------Updated 11-05-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

You won’t be forced to use auto-combat in a multiplayer game.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/multiplayer-tactical-allied-or-at-peace-manual-combat/#post-12301}

Yes indeed, there is always a chance, but I wouldn’t keep your hopes up. Definitely not for AoW3 release, sorry.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/a-question-about-the-shadow-realm/#post-12300}

Nymph isn’t a class unit no, and indeed there will be different units with mind control abilities like seduce.

Hope that helps

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/nymph-will-she-live-up-to-the-name/#post-12298}



-------Updated 10-31-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

@NayyarRashid the game is currently planned for PC and Mac. Perhaps later on tablet. PS4/Xbox One not planned yet.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/press-release-age-of-wonders-iii-magical-locations-revealed/#post-12222}


-------Updated 10-30-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Discover the mythical and expansive world of Age of Wonders III, with over 60 unique sites and structures to explore and conquer. DELFT, the Netherla
[See the full post at: Press Release: Age of Wonders III magical locations revealed]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/press-release-age-of-wonders-iii-magical-locations-revealed/#post-12172}


Lennart Sas

Thanks! Its good to see the polish paying off, the artists are playing around with the environment set system to create cool ambiences. Designers are working on custom made location effects that add a twist to fighting on the more powerful locations, like a mana node randomly healing a magical creature per turn.

Hope to have online pre-order before the end of the years.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/press-release-age-of-wonders-iii-magical-locations-revealed/#post-12193}


-------Updated 10-28-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Our intention is to expand and support the game for a long time. New races and classes would be a part of that.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/faq-thread/page/2/#post-12119}


-------Updated 10-23-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

If I told you the exact interval you would know the release date, which we are not entirely sure about ourselves yet. But yeah, Q1 is still unchanged

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/expanding-the-website-leader-class-pages/page/2/#post-12061}


-------Updated 10-22-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

@DDonut, Early Access is meant for games that have iterative releases. This is not something we will be doing for AoW3, for two main reasons:
a) Doing Early Access means we will need to regularly release new builds of the game, which adds workload and reduces the time we can work on the game itself.
b) In Early Access the product is still very unpolished, which might lead people to believe this is what the game will be. We want gamers to have a good first impression of the game.

If we are doing a pre-order it will be closer to release, probably one or two months in advance. We are looking at bonus items, but what those will be we can’t say yet.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/pre-order-2/#post-12026}

@AwesomeLion As you can see, we’ve just added a new subnavigation for the classes. If we add new ones or update existing ones, you’ll see it there immediately.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/expanding-the-website-leader-class-pages/#post-12035}

The order in which the classes are displayed now in the navigation bar, are not necessarily the order we’ll release the pages in.

But yes, it’s the plan to release more info about individual classes now that we’re moving closer to release. About one class per month I estimate.

At the same time we’ll also add new units and skills to existing pages, as soon as we’re confident enough they will appear in the final game. But even then, things can change when needed.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/expanding-the-website-leader-class-pages/page/2/#post-12047}


-------Updated 10-18-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

@VoDJARA, this is just a small selection of all the unique skills and units. We’re also not ready to announce everything just yet, mostly because of balancing and gameplay considerations.
So no worries, your appetite will be satisfied.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/expanding-the-website-leader-class-pages/#post-11976}


-------Updated 10-17-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

During the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco and at Gamescom in Cologne this year, we showed some of the different classes that you can play
[See the full post at: Expanding the website: leader class pages]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/expanding-the-website-leader-class-pages/#post-11949}

@Tomipapa It’s planned, but unfortunately didn’t get it in in time.
There will be a new sub-navigation where you can monitor updates to the class pages.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/expanding-the-website-leader-class-pages/#post-11956}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

There will definitely be ways that you can play together and compensate for player experience. One easy way would be to give someone an AI ally for example.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/handicaps/#post-11941}


-------Updated 10-16-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Up to your former antics BlaneckW?
Please keep your urges in check

We’re very sorry about releasing fewer journals lately. As far as I know the plan is definitely to do them each week, I’ll check with the team.

Thing is we are indeed very hard at work with other stuff.
Hope to give you an update on this soon ^^

^{www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/future-dev-journals-and-release-plan/#post-11887}

Hehe these are fun.
Keep em coming

^{www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/steam-achievements/#post-11886}

Brian Cox wrote:

Don’t worry, there are no “twerking” units in the game.

You haven’t seen those goblin assassins yet have you?
j/k, a little

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dont-go-overboard-with-sexy/#post-11885}



Jimmy van der Have

TheSpeaker hit the nail quite on the head.
Since Gamescom we’ve been making some good progress and the game is really coming together. We’re trying to keep this progress going so we can release on time.

Dev journals are written by our developers, which means they can spend less time on finishing the game. That should be limited of course.

Fortunately I can tell you that new materials are in the pipeline.
I can’t say much about timing, only that we will be giving out new info, screens and show new classes soon.

^{www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/future-dev-journals-and-release-plan/#post-11888}



-------Updated 10-11-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Guys, AoW3 isn’t planned for Linux (yet). We first focus on releasing for Windows. The rest is for later concern and will be based on what makes sense for us.

Now please stop the flaming. I don’t want to keep referring back to the forum policies or start banning people.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/age-of-wonders-3-coming-on-gnulinux/#post-11792}


-------Updated 10-10-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

sigil wrote:
Unfortunately this is the main problem of the game they don’t intend to fix.
(…)
The developers here have this weird mentality that everything should be symbolic and functional, not immersive.

I have a feeling this mentality will cause the game to fail.

Don’t misrepresent us please.
We want everything to come together in the best way, and immersion is of course a big part of this. You’d be surprised at the debates about the ingame reality of all kinds of mechanics, like hurrying a building for example. Does it represent forcing your workers to work harder with whips or does it simply represent hiring additional labor with the money?
This all to take it into account in the design.
Animations were already improved since that old video, and it will continue to be improved, along with everything else, up to release.

Again, don’t judge based on all the work in progress. It’s intended to get feedback from you all, to showcase the direction we are going in, etc.
It should not be taken as ‘final’ and a lot of things *will* change between the dev journals and the final product.
Take care

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/combat-animations/#post-11758}


-------Updated 10-04-2013---------


Arnout Sas

Hi everyone, welcome to another development journal for Age of Wonders III! My name is Arnout Sas and this time I will tell you something about the wo
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: Exploring the Wonders of the Third Age ]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-exploring-the-wonders-of-the-third-age/#post-11524}


-------Updated 09-30-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

This week we’ll be back with our regular updates.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal/#post-11293}


-------Updated 09-28-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Hi it’s still the plan to ship with 6 classes.

Necromancer is at the top for an expansion — if the game sells enough :-)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/new-preview-at-tweakers-net/#post-11200}


-------Updated 09-27-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Hi all

Currently we’re working really hard on finishing the game and setting everything up for a great launch. This means that a dev journal could sometimes slip a few days when it’s really busy here at the studio.

We’re still planning to release weekly content and even up the pace in the upcoming months.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal/#post-11177}


-------Updated 09-26-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Yep, global enchantments are back in AoW3. Even non-magical classes have effects like a “Total War” like effect for the Warlord. The highest level ones they’re less generic/symmetrical like the Mastery ones from AoW2

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/globals/#post-11142}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

As said in the other topic: the map size feel depends on a lot of factors (movement ranges etc), and our largest map size feels pretty huge imho.
I think you’ll be happy

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/large-map-sizes-please/#post-11126}

Yup still exists

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/multiple-players-on-one-battlefield/#post-11127}


-------Updated 09-25-2013---------


Lennart Sas

In areas were retail is still relevant, yes.

Actually having a meeting with our German language territory retail partners the good folks form Eurovideo / Daedalic today!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/new-to-forums-will-there-be-a-boxed-edition/#post-11098}


-------Updated 09-20-2013---------


Nils Ruisch

Nosferon – The hero’s heads have been made with a much higher poly budget then the regular units. (the body type picture resembles standard units, not the heroes) We should be able to capture quiet some detail in the final portraits

Lance Walters-Unrau – When creating characters it is so, so very tempting to make everyone look like Clint Eastwood. Wrinkles and weathered skin adds detail, which creates interesting characters. This is why so many characters tend to look weathered and old. We are aware of this and try to offer a choice between very different skins, for both males and females.

chrysophylax páuperem – This subject is the cause of a heated internal debate here at Triumph Studios Thanks for the quote though. Some folks here might be able to use that as ammunition during a next debate!

Flenoom – As a Terry Pratchett fan myself, I’ve been lobbying to have bearded dwarven ladies for almost a year now. I prevailed in the end. /

vfxrob – In most cases all armor sets are shared through all races. Unfortunately I can’t say anything regarding custom made models

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-the-anatomy-of-a-hero/#post-10854}


Lennart Sas

I can assure you doing these heroes in 3D was way more work than the original 2D implementation. The pipeline is so much more complex: concept art, systems design, rigging, modeling, sculpting, texturing, animations, testing everything fits together, etc. Same applies to the 3D environment.

But they are right that providing the same sort of user experience (like customization like features, animation and smooth zooming) in hi-res would be impossible to do in 2D.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-the-anatomy-of-a-hero/#post-10855}


-------Updated 09-19-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

In this first journal about Leader and Hero classes we start out by discussing the creation of the leader and hero assets in Age of Wonders III. My na
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: The Anatomy of a Hero]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-the-anatomy-of-a-hero/#post-10816}


-------Updated 09-17-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

override function GetDamage()

if PlayerScreenName == Jomungur then
damage = actualdamage - 5;
end

end


{orc voice} Job Done {/orc voice}

^{http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=36&tn=5711&st=8#post9}


-------Updated 09-16-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

We’ll support up to 8 players on a map, just like in AoW:SM.
Those players can be either human or AI controlled.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/max-number-of-players/#post-10648}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Thanks a lot, we’re striving to make both old and new fans really like it, hope you will too ^^

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/thank-you-to-triumph-studios/#post-10643}


-------Updated 09-13-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Darn.

If Jomungur is still around I should stop dev'ing and start practicing.
Else I won't stand a chance anymore within a week after release.

^{http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=36&tn=5711&st=6#post7}

Its not really a Book, its a proper old fashioned Tome : )>
And its very wonderful indeed.

^{http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=36&tn=5706&st=1#post2}


Jimmy van der Have

We’re asking your opinion about the new font: http://www.ageofwonders.com/bringing-sexy-back-to-the-aow-iii-interface/

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal/#post-10496}


-------Updated 09-12-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

* TBD but at least a level editor that offers more control than the SM one.

* That’s the plan, yes.

* Now that would be spoiling I am interested why you assume more like AoW1 however.

* Up to a point I guess. Of course you’ll be missing races and other content and the game is different. But yes, up to a point this is possible. Maps can be made similar to earlier ones.

* I think that’s unlikely.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/user-made-campaigns/#post-10461}


-------Updated 09-11-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi Red Key

Thnx for the link, that looks really interesting.
I’m saving the link so I can read it over a nice warm steaming cup of coffee.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/suggestions-not-worth-their-own-thread-thread/page/2/#post-10426}

Indeed, listening we are ; )>

^{http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=36&tn=5711&st=4#post5}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Me too

(well.. tea!)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/suggestions-not-worth-their-own-thread-thread/page/2/#post-10428}


-------Updated 09-07-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Regarding Musketeers vs Dragons: The Musketeers fire once every two rounds in the build this screen was taken from. Also consider that 40 max damage is a for a pointblank shot.
Regarding Balance in General: Please don’t over-analyze these stat screens at this point, balance is VERY rough. Hopefully you do get the some general intention behind the units designs. The Obsidian Dragon is more of a stealth fighter. The Golden Dragon is an heavy hitter inspiring your forces.
Duplicate abilities: We still need to clean up / sort ability lists. The Golden Dragon is affected by its own inspiration ability, listing it twice.

Regarding Fonts: thanks for the feedback. We’re still playing around with them. This is actually a font we picked for Parchment and Books, for which it looks great. (its one of the Fell types, based on fonts used in early book printing) We wanted to get your feedback how it looks on the blue panels as well. Note the unit panels above are scaled down, making the fonts a little blurry. Also: we’ll be adding some more fantasy touches and subtle textures to the panels here and there too.

Regarding Racial Perks, like dwelling relation bonusses or racial bonusses on certain terrain: This is always a tricky one. We like them because they add flavor, but we have to be careful that they don’t create one dimensional gameplay and imbalances. There’ll be few and carefully chosen ones. Also consider that in hand made scenarios you can add flavor through quests and scripts.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-about-dragons/page/2/#post-10249}

We plan on having Steam Achievements. Saving other per-leader profile stats is a stretch feature that might be added post release. In any case there won’t be gameplay affecting stats due to balance.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/leader-acheivements/#post-10252}


-------Updated 09-04-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Welcome to a new dev journal this time focusing on the race of Dragons and their offspring the Wyverns. We have a bit of Lore from Ray, some concept a
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: About Dragons]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/dev-journal-about-dragons/#post-10079}


-------Updated 09-03-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Once we have details to announce wrt the multiplayer, you’ll be the first to know. For now we have nothing new to share.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/age-of-wonders-3-to-include-pitboss-dedicated-server/#post-10033}

Same answer as for our Italian friend

http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/there-it-will-be-italian-language-translation-too/

Or: we don’t know yet

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/will-be-the-game-translated-to-spanish/#post-10035}

We do not know yet. It really depends on the size of the Age of Wonders community in Italy and the amount of resources we have.
You have to keep in mind it’s not just a matter of translating in-game text, but it also has to be tested, updated when we release DLC. Not to mention we need to provide support.

That being said, we are a small studio and every language we add costs us a lot of money and resources. So we will be selective and ensure the quality of the game comes first before localisation.

Short answer: we don’t know yet

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/there-it-will-be-italian-language-translation-too/#post-10030}


-------Updated 08-29-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Gamescom 2013 has ended and we received a lot of positive feedback from press and several Age of Wonders III fans (who we happened to run into). Prepa
[See the full post at: New screenshots, subscribe to Youtube]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/new-screenshots-subscribe-to-youtube/#post-9870}


-------Updated 08-28-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Cannons, musketeers, engineers, flametanks, landship – all Dreadnought.

We’ll have up to tier 3 ‘racial’ units. T.b.a.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/about-the-dwarf-dreadnought-video/#post-9809}

Note most Class units are built at cities. You just need to research a particular skill to unlock.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/about-the-dwarf-dreadnought-video/page/2/#post-9812}

yup, you won’t be stuck with a single lvl4 coming from your class in a typical scenario. Variety in high lvl units comes from dwellings.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/about-the-dwarf-dreadnought-video/page/2/#post-9819}


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

No, I’m not. My English isn’t that good. Can’t get rid of the dutch accent.

Luckily we have team member who’s a native English speaker. He did the voice over for the Gameplay Trailer. Really like how the comments are casual, fun and informative : )>

Rigging the game is especially handy for the demos we gave at Gamescom. Only one chance to get it right.

Even with rigging it, the fight in the Orc city was pretty close in some of the demos : D>

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/heroesre-so-much-more-powerfull-now/#post-9792}


-------Updated 08-27-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

JeanLuc is right, kinda. We rigged some things for the demo.
Don’t want to look like a n00b while I’m showing the press our game ; )>

Isabella has a lot of items, which explains some of the stats.
Conveniently she also appears to be resistant to much of the damage dealt by the Destabilized Mana Core : )>

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/heroesre-so-much-more-powerfull-now/#post-9746}

Hi terrahero,

Yes, there are other ways to get units you can’t produce.
E.g. you can get units as a reward and by dominating enemy units.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/conquer-other-classes-units/#post-9745}


-------Updated 08-26-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi everyone,

To clear this up.

Every race has base racial units. You can build these in cities with that race, assuming you meet the requisites. These requisites can all be met within the city. E.g. by building city upgrades.

Then there’s the class units. To get these you need to meet class requisites – i.e. researching the skill that unlocks the unit – in addition to any additional requisites you’ll have to meet in the city.

Sorry for the abstract answer, but this is as precise as I can get.
Also, this answer has alpha in scare quotes stamped all over it.

TL;DR : )>
If you capture an enemies city, you can build your own class units not their class units.

_{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/conquer-other-classes-units/#post-9718}


Michiel Van Den Bos

Truth be told, I had no idea how to react to this much praise. So I’ll just say: thank you and I hope the soundtrack won’t disappoint!

Many thanks,
A blushing Michiel van den Bos(s) (a name change I would gladly push through).

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/forums/topic/bracing-myself-for-a-new-epic-aow-soundtrack/#post-9720}


-------Updated 08-22-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Thanks for the great feedback!

Couple of quick notes re: some of your comments.

- This is a demonstration scenario, in a scenario with regular flow, high level units wouldn’t be available.
- Thanks for the note on the spelling, we’ll need to do a big pass on that.
- Note that trigger delay of spells like Destabilized Mana Core allow enemies to dispel it before it goes off -> if they have enough casting points left. Units will always stay the most important.
- Units currently start 1 hex further from the city gate than in AoWSM

Please help spread the word on the new video!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/gamescom-2013-dreadnought-trailer-released/page/2/#post-9524}


-------Updated 08-21-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Gamescom 2013 has started today for our team here in Cologne and we are showing Age of Wonders III to an armada of games magazines and -websites. The
[See the full post at: Gamescom 2013 Dreadnought trailer released]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/gamescom-2013-dreadnought-trailer-released/#post-9466}


-------Updated 08-16-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

mrXD89 wrote:

I also have a question. Are that leaders only example leaders only for videos or do they play any of main roles in campaign?

Gustav appears especially for the Gamescom demo, but of course I can’t rule out if he’ll be in the final game or not.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/introducing-the-dreadnought-class-at-gamescom/#post-9418}


-------Updated 08-15-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Today we introduce Gustav. Gustav is a fearsome dreadnought dwarf, obsessed by technology and brute firepower. He is also the leading character of Tri
[See the full post at: Introducing the Dreadnought class at Gamescom]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/introducing-the-dreadnought-class-at-gamescom/#post-9407}


-------Updated 08-12-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Short answer: yes

We are making this game for the fans, but we certainly are also going to make sure new players can enjoy it, both in single- and multiplayer.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/beginner-friendly/#post-9289}

As we showed in the GDC trailer, AoW3 has several different themes implemented through the 6 classes. The classes represent themes like Nature (Animist), Technology (Dreadnought), Magic (Sorcerer), etc.

Visually they are distinct, have their own units, spells and unique traits. We want to encourage you to try different tactics.

Upcoming Gamescom we will show some new classes and after that we will also show more about how each of the classes are unique.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/thematic-contrast/#post-9288}

Yeah, my bad. It IS Archdruid.
I was using an old name. Some of the classes have gone through multiple names. Animist was the name that DIDN’T make it, so no worries.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/thematic-contrast/#post-9308}

I guess we’re getting a bit off-topic

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/thematic-contrast/#post-9312}


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Animist, AKA the Arch-Druid.
The one summoning the elemental in the trailer.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/thematic-contrast/#post-9298}


-------Updated 08-09-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

@Pavel:

I’ll pass the kudos along.
Some are still around, working on AoW3 : )>

Yeah, it is pretty nice that everything scales so well.
Getting AoW1 on steam was easier than expected.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/gamescom-and-an-artifact-from-time-long-past/#post-9263}


-------Updated 08-08-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Yes, it has been Age of Wonders III set to release Q1 2014.

We'll make it extra shiny to compensate.

^{http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=36&tn=5703&st=0#post1}


Jimmy van der Have

The yearly Gamescom expo in Cologne (Germany) is in just 13 more days and here at Triumph Studios we are very hard at work creating a brand new Age of
[See the full post at: Gamescom and an artifact from time long past]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/gamescom-and-an-artifact-from-time-long-past/#post-9214}



Lennart Sas

Fun topic and a trip down memory lane. I think the Baldurs Gate box looks that way because pen and paper D&D rule books of that time had the same design.

We’re currently playing around with some ideas for AoW3, but its hard because we don’t have a single main character or a single character type. We want to emphasis the variety of leaders you can be. Any ideas? :-)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/box-art/#post-9230}


-------Updated 08-02-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Fingers wrote:
Narvek, any chance there will be a way to spawn units which specifically target heroes or leaders by their unit id’s? So that, say for example, if your lvl 20 paladin unearths a powerful but cursed sword, several stacks of undead would emerge from crypts scattered all around the map and they would hunt him down wherever he is.
Definitely! Be careful about your actions in the campaign ^^

I’m being intentionally vague about explorable dungeons, sorry! We’re just not ready to commit to an answer yet.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-adventure-sets/#post-9130}

@Piko: medals and empire skills can upgrade/boost them yes

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-unit-types-and-the-character-sheet/page/3/#post-9129}


Brian Cox

Hello everyone,

I would like to warn you about programs that supposedly generate Beta keys for Age of Wonders III.

These programs are malware and will cause bad things to happen to your computer (viruses, trojan horses, keyloggers, etc…). Do not trust third party sources which tell you to install an .exe which will supposedly generate a key for you (actually don’t ever trust .exe programs from unknown sources).

I can confirm you it won’t work because there is no Beta available for AoW III at this moment.

It might look like it will work if they post a video but a little bit clever video editing can make anything look real, so DO NOT trust any video which claims to have a way of generating Beta keys for you.

If Beta keys will come available at some point Triumph Studios will make an announcement of this.

Keep your computers safe!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/warning-beware-of-malware-fake-beta-keys/#post-9122}


-------Updated 08-01-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Time for another development journal! This one will focus on Adventure Sets. Adventure Sets are used to regulate the type of ‘adventure’ the different
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: Adventure Sets]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-adventure-sets/#post-9060}

@Tomipapa: Wow that was fast! Congratulations, you won this time!

You guys are really good at finding outdated stuff or bugs, beta testing is early this year ^^
It should read something like “-8 ranged attack strength” (which balance-wise is probably too heavy a penalty as well).

Thanks, we’ll change it!

Letting players spawn brigand hideouts hm? Interesting…

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-adventure-sets/#post-9080}

No they cannot as such, this is reserved for Heroes and Leaders who have an inventory.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t upgrade them

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-unit-types-and-the-character-sheet/#post-8985}


-------Updated 07-30-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Definitely noticing it of course.
Hmm how to put it..

Let’s just say that the likelihood of any ideas written here actually manifestinging will increase significantly if free and available-for-use fonts (that are up to standard: readable, clear, not tiring etc.) are found/provided by the community
While it will still remain a definite possibility that we won’t use them (sorry!, not up to me, so can’t guarantee anything at all).

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/fonts/#post-8908}


-------Updated 07-26-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Jonathan Doe wrote:
Why don’t you have a stamina-like system? It is wholly unrealistic that units (save exceptions, e.g., magical or mechanical or undead units) can fight forever. More important, a stamina system will add another tactical layer, as well as greatly reduce the problem of a hero soloing everything or a few tier 4 units wiping out multiple stacks.
Well they can’t fight forever.
They have action points and once depleted they can be hit freely and cannot retaliate.
This is one of the things that will greatly help multiple lower tier units versus a single high tier unit.
Together with the flanking bonus for surrounding them (really… it’s brutal!).

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-unit-types-and-the-character-sheet/page/4/#post-8775}


-------Updated 07-25-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

First of all thanks for all the feedback! We’re reading it and heeding it!
.
Buffs and enchantments etc. will come in the followup journal when we’ll take a look at the presentation specifically in Tactical Combat and maybe also see how class skills also add abilities to units.
.
Tooltips play a big role. For example to explain the current number of the defense stat we’ll use a tooltip so we can list each source and contribution to the resulting number. We’ll probably not list 12 (+2) but list 14 straight away.
.
Formations don’t have a tactical meaning, apart from the direction you’re facing.
.
Thanks again for all the suggestions

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-unit-types-and-the-character-sheet/page/2/#post-8691}

Yeah the gold upkeep is just one example of why we call it WIP In the finished game summoned units will definitely cost mana (they actually already do, it’s just that that icon there is wrong).

And no, not my favorite unit… but I do really like it and look forward to summoning it to crush my enemies and drive them before me

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-unit-types-and-the-character-sheet/page/3/#post-8729}


Raymond Bingham

Awesome job, Godwin! Love the new character sheets! Just a slight correction, I actually traveled into the world of Athla, rifled through dusty archives, visited locations, found Mason Goldsong the Bard, etc, and found the lore, and then just copied it down… I could never write so many clever adventures all by myself. :P

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-unit-types-and-the-character-sheet/page/2/#post-8703}

1Q14!? Crap! That means I gotta get writing! Sheesh… always the last to know… :P

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/age-of-wonders-iii-set-to-release-q1-2014/page/3/#post-8644}


-------Updated 07-24-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

You’re correct for both

EDIT:
To avoid confusion: Wiki pages are correct: Yes it’s Saridas. Yes it’s a human city.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/whats-a-wikipedia-without-age-of-wonders-iii/#post-8608}

Don’t worry, slight confusion here.
I meant that the wikipages are correct and there is no change necessary: it’s indeed a human city and it’s indeed Saridas.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/whats-a-wikipedia-without-age-of-wonders-iii/page/2/#post-8614}

I understand your point but different opinions might sometimes be extremely valuable, even if rare. And the majority should not be the only thing that matters since minorities and their opinions should be protected and respected.
But that’s probably way too serious and philosophical and even off-topic ^^

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/disappointed-with-animation-quality/page/5/#post-8606}

Hi 11balanced,

What you want is close to how it works. We need to tweak and balance the specifics and such, but overall you’re right. Expect a dev journal to explain this in full once we’re ready to ^^

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/terrain-effects/#post-8607}


Jimmy van der Have

Hereby your confirmation
Mac OSX has been announced at multiple occasions, but we didn’t know yet if PC and Mac release will also be simultaneous.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/whats-a-wikipedia-without-age-of-wonders-iii/page/2/#post-8629}


Raymond Bingham

All I can say is, “Release the Kracken!”

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-heroic-quests-and-epic-loot/page/4/#post-8642}


-------Updated 07-22-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Fyrdraca, you are free to use any Age of Wonders III images, as long as they are unaltered (so don’t start adding stuff with Windows Paint and not for commercial goals (meaning, don’t sell them).

So yes, feel free to use them on your Wikipedia entry.

If you want, send me an email at jimmy@triumphstudios.com with your contact details. When I can I’ll include you in some cool stuff.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/whats-a-wikipedia-without-age-of-wonders-iii/#post-8514}


Lennart Sas

Great work Fyrdraca! Thnx!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/whats-a-wikipedia-without-age-of-wonders-iii/#post-8525}


-------Updated 07-19-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

1. Done
2. Done
3. Done

*whistles a tune*

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/embarking-units/#post-8350}


Brian Cox

@Gyor: The standard quest types are all violent for the moment city quests, structure quests, explore treasure location quests and slay unit quest. However I also provided a custom quest type where you can give any sort of quest. These custom quests need to be setup using scripting. For example you need to bring item X to location Y, this can be checked by placing an area trigger at a certain location and once your stack runs into this trigger area you can check to see if this unit has the required item. So yes, there are also non-violent quests.

@Rob: I think it is definetly worth it to give quest creation a try in the leveleditor. I’m not responsible for creating the actual quests and rewards in the game, that’s the responsibility of the gamedesigners. But I really enjoyed creating my own quests to test the quest system.
I especially enjoy betrayal quests, for example you receive a quest chain where you need to complete a bunch of quests and the final step is to slay a dragon in a heavily guarded area. Just before you attack the dragon he offers you an even greater reward and then you have to choose if you will betray your original questgiver or slay the dragon (this is just an example). It adds a bit of a RPG element to the game, influencing the game by the choices you made.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-heroic-quests-and-epic-loot/page/2/#post-8314}


-------Updated 07-18-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Age of Wonders has several nice pages on Wikipedia, describing the series in general and the games so far. But check what you get if you click on Age of Wonders III on the main AoW wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Wonders

“Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name.”

It just makes me a sad panda. But as creators of the game we might not be the best people to start writing on Wikipedia about our own game. Perhaps here are some people who are interested in correcting this epic gap in its content?

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/whats-a-wikipedia-without-age-of-wonders-iii/#post-8208}

Last week we discussed the dwellings and settlements in Age of Wonders III. But what is a dwelling without a decent quest? In this chapter of our dev
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: Heroic Quests and Epic Loot ]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-heroic-quests-and-epic-loot/#post-8232}

NuMetal wrote:
@Jimmy van der Have:
And if you decide to give some people the opportunity to “see the game”, how would you decide who is worthy of seeing it? =)

*smiles innocently while hypnotizing you to convince you he should be the Chosen One*
:P
If we would, we will probably put up a little competition before that time.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/age-of-wonders-iii-set-to-release-q1-2014/page/2/#post-8207}


Brian Cox

@Arjan: Luckily I have foreseen this issue when implementing the quest system

I have provided quests with a completion type, this completion type can be set to “Personal” meaning ‘you must do it’, or “Any” meaning ‘as long as it gets done’.
example for completion type “you”: if you receive a quest which tells you must prove yourself by slaying a specific dragon. If someone else beats you to it this quest will fail for you.
example for completion type “any”: if you receive a quest which tells you to get rid of a dragon by any means necessary, the quest will complete if someone else kills this dragon.

This is the case for custom designed quests at least.

For generated quests I cannot tell yet which setting will be used, could be that both will be used depending on the dwelling and diplomatic status with them. Most likely they will be “Personal” meaning you should do it.

The code support is there, but it is up to the game designers to determine if the quests have the “Personal” or “Any” completion type.

Short answer to your question: No, you cannot sit back and hope to get rewards by others completing quests for you if the quest specified that you had to do it personally.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-heroic-quests-and-epic-loot/#post-8240}

@Grey: This is very possible, you will need to make a choice between your ally or a great reward.

The target player is a specific quest setting for dwellings and independent cities, so in case your ally gets targeted this is not an accident but done on purpose.

Perhaps your diplomatic standing is so low that they want you to betray your ally in order to prove your loyalty. (Note: this is just a possible example)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-heroic-quests-and-epic-loot/#post-8243}

@Red Key: This reward value has not been value scaled yet, the quest reward is normally scaled to the difficulty of the quest. In this case we just wanted to show you some epic loot.

I cannot tell anything about the spirits I’m afraid. Maybe Narvek or Lennart can give more information about this topic later or perhaps in a future DevBlog.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-heroic-quests-and-epic-loot/#post-8249}

@Draxynnic: The topic of having allies help complete quests for you has been discussed in the office before. This is quite a good remark, I will bring it up later.
The enemy setting wouldn’t work for the current system however I made a custom quest type which allows “scripting”, what you could do is place an area trigger in the LevelEditor and check if a certain stack has moved into it. If they have you can trigger the quest as completed.

@NEHZ: The functionality of the “all setting” is implemented but this is not a setting. What we do is give the same quest to each player and put it on “personal” completion setting. This way the first person to complete the quest will fail the quest of the other players, this works in the same way as you described the all setting.

@iHunterKiller: The picture you quoted is a picture of a custom defined Quest in the LevelEditor. Here you can fill in the Quest title and description for it’s 3 states (active, completed, failed), define who the quest giver and quest target are, choose the quest type (capture city, slay unit, …) and completion type (personal, any), the quest rewardset defines the set of rewards your reward will be chosen from, the “resource” in this case means which rewardset is chosen. The correct rewardset resource here would be “Dwarven Reward Set”. I filled in Wizard’s Tower Full because this rewardset currently has a wide variety of rewards. I hope this clarified it a bit!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-heroic-quests-and-epic-loot/#post-8262}

@Piko: I also provided a MaxDistance setting for the generated quests to make sure you don’t get a quest at the other side of the map. The menu a screenshot was posted from was for custom quests, not generated quests. Generated quests have some extra parameters to ensure the quest aren’t annoying and should work for every map including user created maps.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-heroic-quests-and-epic-loot/page/2/#post-8268}




-------Updated 07-17-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

NuMetal, we will be present at Gamescom, but wont be having a public booth. At the moment we will be limiting ourselves to demos for the press. So if you’re planning to buy tickets just to see us, please hold your horses.

There is a small chance we’ll be giving some people an opportunity to see the game at Gamescom though. But that’s by invite only. And it’s not 100% sure yet.

Also we won’t be announcing new classes, but will be showing gameplay of classes that we haven’t demonstrated yet.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/age-of-wonders-iii-set-to-release-q1-2014/page/2/#post-8192}


-------Updated 07-16-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

When announcing the game earlier in the year we’ve listed a projected release date of ‘fall’ 2013. We immediately got questions on this, whether this
[See the full post at: Age of Wonders III set to release Q1 2014]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/age-of-wonders-iii-set-to-release-q1-2014/#post-8152}


-------Updated 07-12-2013---------


Lennart Sas

NuMetal: you are correct – These are undead Archons.

the headless are priests

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-monster-dwellings-and-independent-settlements/page/2/#post-8073}


-------Updated 07-11-2013---------


Arnout Sas

Welcome back to a new dev journal, in which I’ll discuss Independent towns and monster dwellings. In next week’s journal, programmer Brian will be exp
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: Monster Dwellings and Independent Settlements]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-monster-dwellings-and-independent-settlements/#post-8041}


Raymond Bingham

So pretty… so pretty…

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-monster-dwellings-and-independent-settlements/#post-8048}


-------Updated 07-03-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Great posts people!
Special mention goes to NuMetal, very nice

Bookmarked

@just above: We haven’t said anything about spirits being in this game.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/expand-the-spirit-god-system-for-aowiii-please/page/2/#post-7738}


Jimmy van der Have

As the whips are cracking here at Triumph Studios (no, not in the face!) we are making some big steps in the development of Age of Wonders III. Unfort
[See the full post at: No dev journal this week + FAQ section added]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/no-dev-journal-this-week-faq-section-added/#post-7768}


-------Updated 07-02-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

I am sorry, it was not meant as torment ^^
I was genuinely surprised, please continue speculating

The dev journals are the main way we want to reveal new details into the game, so I am afraid you’ll just have to wait for those for anything really meaningful.

It’s nice to see the reasoning here is sometimes pretty identical to our own debates “yes it would be cool in this situation, but would be annoying in this situation”.
Let’s take shared competitive quests for example, would you like to see such things, and if so, how would you want it to work?

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/expand-the-spirit-god-system-for-aowiii-please/page/2/#post-7676}

Hey I never said *I* would be allowed to go outside! But a lot of you forumites will probably take holidays. Forums seem quieter, no?

(that being said I have been digging my tunnel and estimate I can escape next week, it should take them at least 5 days to recapture me… I hope! Shhhh)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/the-importance-of-domain-on-age-of-wonders-3/#post-7682}


-------Updated 07-01-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

O_O *checks the office for bugs*

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/expand-the-spirit-god-system-for-aowiii-please/#post-7652}

Brother JO wrote:
Or… Devs forgot to remove effects of gold mine when it’s occupied by monsters.Since it was pre-alpha gameplay that might be true
You win a virtual carrot (why a carrot? no idea!)

Yup that was a bug, long since fixed. It shouldn’t have given income when enemies (indies are enemies too) are on top of it.

@Gandolaro: Very sharp observations here from our fans, we wouldn’t expect anything less!

There will be a dev journal about this all at some point, so I will leave it to the dev writing that to explain and answer these questions.
On that note the dev journals will probably be a little less frequent during the summer holiday months (we’re on the northern hemisphere).

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/the-importance-of-domain-on-age-of-wonders-3/#post-7651}


-------Updated 06-28-2013---------


Raymond Bingham

iHunterKiller: Some really great questions… which I don’t think I’m allowed to answer… some are unsettled, others we’ve argued about, and others we know, but don’t want to spoil everything…

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-what-happened-after-shadow-magic-story-part-ii/page/2/#post-7507}


-------Updated 06-27-2013---------


Raymond Bingham

Draxynnic: You got the backstory almost perfect… You get an “A+”
(Sequencewise, The Commonwealth was formed by the Wizards of Athla, actually, at about the time the first Wizards/Archons and Syrons went through the Shadowgates to see if they could take back the Shadow-demon’s devoured worlds.)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-what-happened-after-shadow-magic-story-part-ii/page/2/#post-7479}


-------Updated 06-26-2013---------


Raymond Bingham

In the previous part of our story dev journal Halfling hero Ham Binger interviews Age of Wonders III writer Ray Bingham about some of the things that have happened since Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. In this journal we continue and talk more about what happened with Merlin and Queen Julia.
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: What happened after Shadow Magic (story part II)]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-what-happened-after-shadow-magic-story-part-ii/#post-7418}


Lennart Sas

Hi! just to clear a couple of things up:
-High Elves = one new magical race. They resemble the original elven race from before the arrival of humans that split the elves in two.
-It doesn’t mean ALL Wood Elves and Dark Elves were part of the mending. They might return.
-Not all High Elf units might be depicted in the units image.
-Note a lot of fantastical monsters that aren’t really part of a humanoid race can be gotten through classes / specializations / dwellings.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-what-happened-after-shadow-magic-story-part-ii/#post-7433}


Michiel Van Den Bos

To tell you the truth, I have no idea why In the Company of Elves wasn’t included in the complete game. Could have just been an oversight. I’ll have a listen and see if I can revisit it or use parts of it.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-composing-the-sounds-of-wonders/page/4/#post-7394}


-------Updated 06-25-2013---------


Arnout Sas

@Rob
Yes this was a problem and we have taken this into account. We’ll balance the Tier level stats a little closer too each other as in the previous games.
Yes, unit experience will upgrade the units. Obviously all units get experience upgrades, but the low-level tier units gain medals quicker as they require less experience to upgrade.
In addition is the upkeep for tier3 and tier 4 units higher then in the previous games. Last but not least tier 1 units (base race infantry, archers, irregulars) and some tier 2-3 units can also be upgraded with class skills. Giving them complete new powers (within the concept of the unit). Example: Strike Enchancements. More on these class skills in upcoming dev journals

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-the-powers-and-lore-of-giants/page/4/#post-7337}



-------Updated 06-23-2013---------


Hendrik Coppens

Thanks for the kind words, really appreciate it .
@iHunter: we use maya indeed. I was used to working with 3DsMax, but you can switch to Maya pretty easily. For the characters, we use Zbrush, Maya, Xnormal and photoshop; that’s about it .

I worked on some other units as well and I did some work for the hero’s; but unfortunately, I can’t show any of that yet.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-creation-of-a-giant/page/2/#post-7241}


-------Updated 06-21-2013---------


Arnout Sas

@chrysophylax páuperem Yes you can name cities and dwellings

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-the-powers-and-lore-of-giants/page/2/#post-7164}


-------Updated 06-19-2013---------


Arnout Sas

“Some of the more depressed monsters I deal with often are Ogres. They’re moody, pouty monsters, too large to be humanoid, but they lack the skills of
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: The powers and lore of Giants]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-the-powers-and-lore-of-giants/#post-7052}


Hendrik Coppens

Hey everyone, my name is Hendrik Coppens and I’m one of the character artists here at Triumph Studios. I’ve been working on the Giants recently and I’
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: Creation of a Giant]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-creation-of-a-giant/#post-7057}

Hey Everyone, thanks for the comments! It s really cool to hear what you guys think of the Giants .

@iHunterKiller: Don t worry, I didn’t do any double work . The High Poly model is made in Zbrush; it’s this awesome program that basically allows you to sculpt something in 3D; like you would sculpt clay. The downside is that it uses an extreme amount of polygons. And while a game engine can’t handle this, doesn’t mean it s useless: I use it as a base around which I make the low poly model and all the detail from this high poly model is transferred through the use of normal maps: these normal maps tell the engine how the light has to react on the low poly model and this gives the illusion that the low poly model is as detailled as the high poly model. I suppose it’s a bit abstract without having an example, so if you’re interested; you can always find more info on it here:

http://wiki.polycount.com/NormalMap/

I am planning on updating my website soon and hopefully I’ll be able to post some more in depth information.

@ Red Key: Glad you like the giants. And don’t worry about the hero’s. They’re constantly being updated and improved .

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-creation-of-a-giant/#post-7112}


-------Updated 06-17-2013---------


Michiel Van Den Bos

So, as far as the requests for remakes are concerned and keeping in mind there’s another thread with similar suggestions, every song from the original needs to be remade. Gotcha
@bOrsuk: It’s all good and I appreciate the fact that you’re going about voicing your opinion in an intelligent manner rather than resorting to standard keyboard vomit (lol!1 dis sux!). Tastes will vary, you’re entitled to your point of view and you’re stuck with me wether you like it or not At least it seems you have a nice playlist for when you turn the ingame music slider down.

@merkraad: I actually have a version of Love & Death already but I’m not satisfied with it. It’s going to take a little while longer.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-composing-the-sounds-of-wonders/page/3/#post-7000}

@BlaneckW : Haha, yeah, I think I’ve seen pretty much every song come up. There’s no way I’m going to be able to get that done, though. Some tracks don’t really work as remakes. Still, worth a shot, but every single one is a bit too ambitious

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-composing-the-sounds-of-wonders/page/3/#post-7003}

Thanks for your kind words (and blush-inducing praise) though I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that I had nothing to do with the soundtracks to Shadow Magic and Age of Wonders 2. Only the original has my music
I’ve already made some comments as to the ‘epicness’ in other posts. I’ll add one thing, which is that even the combat tunes (some of which are 5 minutes or longer) have very mellow segments in them. The general maptunes are more mellow by default but also contain segments that are even more easy on the senses. In addition, there will be totally calm tunes.

I tire easily of ‘epic’ stuff as well which is why, even in the more bombastic tunes, I stray from the path and insert a much needed break. This is something that 20 second clips from a pretty large pool of music can’t convey and you’ll only be able to experience once you hear the full soundtrack.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-composing-the-sounds-of-wonders/page/3/#post-7005}


-------Updated 06-13-2013---------


Michiel Van Den Bos

Hey guys & gals!

The response has luckily been overwhelmingly positive both here and on Facebook/Twitter. It’s always scary sending something you’ve been working on for the past 13 months into the world, but your responses and general kindness have kept me from finding a dark corner and curling up into a fetal position

A few things I’d like to address:

It was incredibly hard to find small parts of the music that would give an indication as to how the full song would sound and at some point I just gave up. Those who are familiar with my work know, that I tend to incorporate several different ideas or segments into one song (because I get bored easily) and it was simply impossible to find 20/30 seconds of each song that would adequately paint a picture of the full product. They are sketches, nothing more, and a lot of them are from songs that are near or over 5 minutes in length.

In regards to the ‘epicness’ or ‘bombastic’ nature of the clips, most of these are from combat tunes which are by definition more frantic than the map music. There are plenty of laid back songs in the finished product and I wouldn’t be true to my own preferences if there weren’t. Fear not!

As it stands, I have about 90 minutes worth of music ready to go and a lot more to come. Also, I’m always considering the input of you lovely forum users when it comes to remakes/re-imaginings of the original songs. Some are more appropriate to revisit than others, but I’m constantly thinking of new ways to approach them.

In addition to finding me here, you can also ‘Like’ my page on Facebook here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michiel-van-den-Bos/143307354562

or on Twitter @michielvdbos.

Thanks once again for your kind words and responses and I’ll be sure to check in regularly.

Sincerely,
Michiel van den Bos

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-composing-the-sounds-of-wonders/page/2/#post-6926}


-------Updated 06-12-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

In this development journal Age of Wonders III composer Michiel van den Bos explains some of some of the changes that happened since composing for the
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: Composing the sounds of Wonders]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-composing-the-sounds-of-wonders/#post-6878}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Yup this problem is why on fleeing all your units which were in the battle have their movement points set to 0.
Defenders cannot flee: where would they go on the strategic map? They might not even have a valid location to flee to, like when a city hex is surrounded by 6 enemy stacks.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/possible-abuse-of-retreatuntil-end-of-combat-spells/#post-6872}


-------Updated 06-11-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

I think that’s a bit too beneficial
The default mounts shouldn’t add anything (heroes and leaders already have more movement than the average unit on foot, so the extra movement is due to the mount, conceptually).
We still have the Unicorn Sire as special mount though ^^

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-ii-hero-mounts/page/7/#post-6855}

The maximum map size is a direct consequence of technical limitations. That said… our current max size to me personally feels really big

We will indeed accomodate different tastes Gandolaro

Hope this helps.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/scenario-map-size/#post-6854}


Lennart Sas

^^^ yep we vary the number of figures per unit type/race. Low level Goblins units have more figures. Also irregular units stand in a less organized formation.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/spacesector-posts-interview-about-ai-and-game-balancing/#post-6852}


-------Updated 06-10-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Hey guys, leveling up mounts is indeed a bit too much as NEHZ said.

@Joni: Mounts do not really have moods that are noticeable (it is assumed the bond between rider and mount is at least decent usually).
What they do have is that they may become Feral, especially if your enemy is an Arch Druid with control over all animals.. and we think that’s a nice touch and it also existed in the previous Age of Wonders.

About unicorns: in Shadow Magic we had a tier 3 unit (Iron Maiden) which rode unicorns (they even had the mount’s phasing ability as loose unicorns had). So if normal units ride them, it seems logical to have special and unique units like Leaders and Heroes start on them (if they’re elves).

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-ii-hero-mounts/page/7/#post-6826}



-------Updated 06-07-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Hi welcome to the forums! Glad you found us, please spread the news!

Indeed the new tech allows new gameplay and better gameplay visualization. There are already countless threads with new suggestions which we are all closely watching. Always interested in hearing more!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/best-message-since-one-billion-days/#post-6774}

Yep – at the core monster dwellings are indie cities, with some functionality like growth removed. You can go questing for dragons, and win their favor or try to conquer them (which is going to be impossible in the early game for such a high level dwelling)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/monster-cities-dwellings-whats-your-input/#post-6775}


Jimmy van der Have

Our intergalactic friends at SpaceSector posted an interview with Triumph Studios’ founders Lennart Sas and Arno van Wingerden about the AI, balancing
[See the full post at: SpaceSector posts interview about AI and game balancing]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/spacesector-posts-interview-about-ai-and-game-balancing/#post-6757}


-------Updated 06-05-2013---------


Daniel van Leeuwen

Hello everyone and welcome to the next installment of our Age of Wonders III Dev Journals. My name is Daniel and I’m an Artist here at Triumph Studios
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: Visualising the Battlefields]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-visualising-the-battlefields/#post-6686}


-------Updated 06-03-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

There are only 2 giants in that picture

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/giants-in-your-army/#post-6599}


-------Updated 06-02-2013---------


Raymond Bingham

Tomipapa wrote: Can you(or Ham)reveal something about units descriptions in your next interview?

A. I discuss that, I believe, in Part III of my interview with Ham Binger.

Tomipapa also wrote that Ham owed him 3 loaf of bread, 1 keg of beer, 2 wheels of cheese, 2 jug of milk and a whole pig…

A. Let me guess, you mistakenly offered to buy him a single meal, right? That little guy must have a extradimensional pocket in his stomach, cuz I’ve never seen anyone eat so much. Anyhow, I’ll mention it to him, but somehow I doubt you will ever get your goods back.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-the-story-so-far-part-i/page/3/#post-6582}


-------Updated 05-31-2013---------


Raymond Bingham

Andocair: Actually the way it works is that your main character stays with ALL the maps throughout the course of all campaigns, and that’s who writes the journal entries between the campaigns, but you take turns leading with allies you make along the way through the campaign story, in the maps where your original character is not the actual leader, (s)he plays as a hero that you must keep alive. SO in a way you’re never too far away from that one character throughout the whole campaign, and it ties it all together with one story as a result.

Should be fun!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-the-story-so-far-part-i/page/2/#post-6507}

borsuk: Retcons? Not really. I wanted to do something of a retcon on a particular Stormlord, but the idea got vetoed… by the Continuity Nazi (aka. Godwin)… grrrr… anyhow it would’ve been cool, though probably something of a distraction from the main storyline… I have a lot of those sorts of moments that get vetoed…

–Ray

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-the-story-so-far-part-i/page/2/#post-6508}

Q. Can you make your own character in the Campaign?

A. No. We debated this option, and decided against it. The story kinda hinges on you playing a specific character… (Which characters I discuss in part II and Part III of my interview with Ham Binger… )

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-the-story-so-far-part-i/page/2/#post-6523}


-------Updated 05-30-2013---------


Raymond Bingham

Extracting some questions from above…

Q. Will there be a timeline published?
A. Currently we’re planning to give our most gifted and favorite fans access to a (scrubbed for public consumption… heh.) timeline–aw, heck, we’ll probably publish it here on the site for everyone.

Q. Do you have any novels published?
A. Nope. I have, perhaps, four series of novels I’ve started and alas, they’re all work in progress. Which is my way of saying they’re not good enough yet. Unfortunately when I’m in full developer mode, I have literally no extra time for other projects so I don’t foresee having one out anytime soon.

Q. Will there be an Age of Wonders Novel?
A. At one point Lennart pitched the idea to me. With the advent of E-publishing and such, you’d think this would be possible, right? I’ve got some ideas for one, but right now the focus is the game. One of the cool things we’ve done with this latest storyline is that we’re scaling the story in a way that should make it quite extensible for expansion possibilities. Either way we’ll be doing more stories… whether they come in little snippets to enhance the gaming experience or not is still undetermined.

Thanks for all the comments and thoughts. Best regards,

–Ray

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-the-story-so-far-part-i/#post-6450}


-------Updated 05-29-2013---------


Raymond Bingham

[Ray:] Greetings fair friends and fellow travelers in the World of Athla, home of the Blessed Continent! It is I, Ray Bingham, the humble writer for a
[See the full post at: Dev Journal: The story so far... (part I)]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-the-story-so-far-part-i/#post-6414}


-------Updated 05-25-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

* Cursed Egg is a good idea, let’s make it so
* About mount transfer: since they handle like items for the system you can do everything with it you’d expect for items: transferring between your heroes and trading with players etc.
* Every hero is on a mount but this doesn’t mean it’s necessary for us to give pike weakness, as you call it, to all of them. It actually works the other way around: the pikemen will get a bonus vs mounted units. While we could make exceptions it might be more straightforward not to. We’ll see about that at a later time.

@TheSpeaker: Definitely true we want to enjoy the game ourselves indeed!

Thanks again for the positive reactions, really heartening to read

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-ii-hero-mounts/page/5/#post-6273}


-------Updated 05-24-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Hey all, great to see that many of you like the idea as well

Now to address some points (in random order):
* More mounts: Yes I definitely would like more mounts and especially a swimming and a subterranean mount (like the Big Beetle ^^), but it’s a lot of work, so we’ll have to see if we can get it in time.
* The old wyverns: The wyverns are now conceptually linked to other ‘stuff’ so this makes more sense for now. But who knows, maybe a brown wyvern enclave will ever be found? I honestly doubt that though, better to make some new creatures as we have quite a lot of wyverns already.
* The option to go without mount: Sorry, not at all likely. We’d need a complete new set of animations for that and that’s a lot of work.
* Red Raptor VS Hell Hound scale: yup, it’s one of the things that will be tweaked, I noticed it too.
* ‘Walking’ on the Leader: Yup will be resolved.
* Bone Wyvern Egg: Yes, it is strange. Well, deleting an egg should be straightforward . On the other hand, maybe they found a way to reproduce? Why are they boney? Necromancy or is it that their flesh rots off during their adolescence?
Likewise it wouldn’t make sense to hatch unicorns from eggs, since they are mammals!
* Special Mounts associated with races: Well we tried to have at least 1 special mount for every race that makes sense somehow (from expanding on their default mounts (Unicorn -> Unicorn Sire for example)), but we didn’t want to enforce it, or create synergies. But we’ll try to give every race a conceptually sensible option for those who want to adhere to it.

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions, we’re definitely paying attention to them

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-ii-hero-mounts/page/3/#post-6234}


-------Updated 05-23-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Hello everyone! Welcome to the second development journal for Age of Wonders III. Before telling you about the brand new mount system in Age of Wonder
[See the full post at: Dev Journal II: Hero Mounts]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-ii-hero-mounts/#post-6170}


-------Updated 05-22-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Our German fans will be happy to know that Age of Wonders III is featured in this months PC Games Magazine. On page 50 and 51 you’ll read everything a
[See the full post at: Positive first impressions by PC Games]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/positive-first-impressions-by-pc-games/#post-6134}


-------Updated 05-21-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

@Tomipapa: You can migrate cities to a race you own a city of, or you can just absorb them into your empire and produce units of that race. It is definitely possible to have Human, Orc and Goblin cities in your empire and build and use units (class units too) of those races.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/quick-question/#post-6108}


-------Updated 05-16-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

Yes, you are correct. We have been experiencing this problem as well now.
It seems our host is having issues. We have notified them, but are also looking for alternative hosts.

The avatar and downtime issues are unrelated though.

We have recently updated our software, which caused the avatar function to malfunction. We are working to bring this back.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/internal-server-error/#post-5988}

As you might have noticed we have been doing some maintenance on the website. We currently moved to a different host. This means the problems will hopefully belong to the past.

Another major difference is that we no longer serve from /aow3live.
This means you’ll unfortunately have to update your bookmarks. We are working on a way to fix this problem and make everything auto-correct nicely.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/internal-server-error/#post-6013}


-------Updated 05-15-2013---------


Lennart Sas

This is the first entry of the development journal for Age of Wonders 3. From here on, members from the team at Triumph Studios will blog about variou
[See the full post at: Dev Journal I: back to the roots]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-i-back-to-the-roots/#post-5905}

Hi, thanks for the feedback! To address some comments:

Lore: you’ll see plenty of little tid bits like the blurb on the giants strewn about the game! Lots of blanks form the earlier games will be filled in.
Gore: The battles are quite violent with characters being beaten about and blood on impact. If time/ratings allow we’ll see about the pools. But it shouldn’t be comic amounts of blood.
Wizards Towers: they’ll reappear on the map, but perhaps not like you expect.
Leaders Respawns: There will options to respawn your leader regardless. The AoW1 iron man like approach was a bit too brutal for most tastes.
Heroes: Don’t worry, units are still able to roam the map without heroes or leaders.

BTW: Avatar uploads are broken due to a WordPress plugin incompatibility. Hope to have a solution soon.

Also looking in why the site is going down with these server errors. We might have to change provider…

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dev-journal-i-back-to-the-roots/#post-5965}


Jimmy van der Have

I’m sorry to hear you’ve been having problems accessing the website and thanks for making effort to tell us of this. We’ll keep an eye on this, although we haven’t experienced any downtime here ourselves.

From which country are you visiting the website?

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/internal-server-error/#post-5907}

During the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco we had one of the friendly editors from PC Gamer UK over to join us for a game of Age of Wonder
[See the full post at: Preview in PC Gamer UK]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/preview-in-pc-gamer-uk/#post-5972}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Q. Leader
A. That nameless dude with the hood (SM), because I always took him in MP (for existing ones Meandor I think… really hard to choose)
Q. Hero
A. Luna and Bowan Stargazer, their story and shared surname hints at a cool story, Wazzz, Grar, Tsi Iri. Too many really.
Q. Unit
A. Beholder or Butcher or Dark Angel… so difficult to choose. Variation based on mood is best
Q. What is your ideal hero/leader unit combination (i.e. cat master leader, frost witch hero, etc)
A. Bladedancer Leader?

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/whos-your-favourite-character-edition/#post-5927}

Thanks for these, we’ll keep an eye on them and will see what we can do ^^

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/ideas-to-limit-repetative-tasks/#post-5964}

It’s definitely possible and the bigger the map the likelier it is
We already have at least 1 city of each race on a big percentage of our current maps (but how they’ll change until launch remains to be seen).

Great to hear you’re still enjoying AoW SM

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/quick-question/#post-5916}



-------Updated 05-12-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Like has been said in this thread artificial limits like a certain amount of slots per tier per stack is not the direction we want to go.

Let’s list all advantages of low tiers directly:

Low tier advantages over high tier:

- Low units have lower upkeep (by a significant margin)
- Low units cost less to produce (by a significant margin)
- Low units cost less turns to produce
- Low units get medals quicker

From this it should be about as easy to get and maintain 4 tier 1′s as it is to get 1 tier 4.

Game mechanics that benefit multiple units over single one:

- Action Points: 3 attacks at most per combat round, meaning that once exhausted, hitting that unit is safe.
- Flanking: surrounding and hitting from multiple sides is very effective. (Really, VERY effective)

So the only thing is that when you have many cities and an enormous wealth that you can crank out so many tier 4s that you can do the same surrounding with them. But, in all fairness, by that time you should be able to wrap up and win.

Also (mighty meek has been mentioned), there will be spells that benefit low tier units more, and also spells that are not really fantastic against low tier units (think high casting cost immobilization or so: you’re not going to waste it on a tier 1) but that shine versus tier 4′s to make them a lot more vulnerable/prone to surrounding them.

And then there’s the fact some tier 1′s will grow into tier 2-3 on getting gold medal. This obviously helps them in the later game if they have survived, although admittedly this is not a really big factor and is great just for flavor I still wanted to mention it

As is mentioned above, I think producing tier 1 archers to defend walled cities is very sensible, even in the late game.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/suggestion-limits-for-tier-specific-units-in-army/page/5/#post-5823}


-------Updated 05-08-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Great to read this, won’t spoil ;D

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/high-elven-court-and-the-commonwealth/#post-5622}

NEHZ is right about the 7 players in combat.

- It’s not going to take 4 turns for normal foot melee to reach each other (if they both march forward), that’s too long.

- You can flee a battle, for example by moving on the ‘escape arrow hexes’.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/question-about-the-multiple-units-per-hexagon/page/2/#post-5621}


-------Updated 05-07-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Basically iHunterKiller said a lot of good things already:
- The combat shown in the trailer was *not* finished.
- Combat is not just 2-sided, up to 7 different players can be in a battle area, each with their own stack.
- We have already improved distances etc since the GDC trailer.
- There will be things like physical protection units that can shield other units from archers.

Hope that helps!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/question-about-the-multiple-units-per-hexagon/#post-5532}

We’re aware of the issue, and we’re reading. We’re also very busy making the game Will try to get back on this one later with more specifics though, but don’t hold me to it.

^{www.ageofwonders.com/topic/suggestion-limits-for-tier-specific-units-in-army/page/4/#post-5531}


-------Updated 05-02-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Yes the sounds were placeholder. We’ll get new ones. That’s not to say we won’t be bringing similar and recognizable (for players who played the previous games) sounds back.
I’m not the person who’s in charge of this, so I can’t really tell you more. But that’s the general idea afaik.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/rehash-of-old-aow2-sound-effects/#post-5117}

Glad you like it

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/unit-experiance-evolvemorphgrow-aowsm-mods/#post-5116}


-------Updated 05-01-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Shadow Realm won’t come back in AoW3.

Multiple levels TBD, thanks for the idea, it’s something I’d like as well, but we have to see if it would lead to problems. I mean, our maps have a maximum size for a reason, if you can add 10 or even 40 layers to any map, I can see how that may break the editor.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/q-level-editor-add-new-planes/#post-5034}

Actually just two weeks or so ago we made it possible to have units transform into other units, for example on reaching a gold medal.

We have already added this as skills for a number of classes.

For example the Rogue now has an ability called ‘Trained Killers’ (name not final): when researched, specific Tier 1 units become Assassins (Tier 2 or 3 units) as soon as they get a gold medal.

The plan is to also include this for some units outside classes as well, for example Baby Spiders transform into an adult Spider on gold medal, etc.

I’m very happy with this myself, I must admit ^^

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/unit-experiance-evolvemorphgrow-aowsm-mods/#post-5040}


-------Updated 04-29-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Current status:

Yup you can surround watch towers and attack it from all sides. Watch towers now do not have walls anymore though.

There are still structures with walls in some form that can be attacked from all sides. Campsites for example (maybe forts).

Bridges are bridges: your units will file onto it from the side they’re closest to on the Wmap.

Hope that helps

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/q-watch-tower-fortified-structure-battle-map/#post-4871}


-------Updated 04-27-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Random Events is another thing for the “if we have time” list or DLC.

If we do add them we’ll ensure to add a toggle. I think that these types of random events are coolest if they are -not- totally balanced and effect the entire map. This causes brief periods of excitement or dread during gameplay. An Eclipse causing a number of dead magic turns could be a great moment for low-magic players to make a push whilst world wide torrential rains could give all mechanized units a penalty.

I like bOrsuk’s astrology -like skill suggestion. We could add that class-less skill available to all players when Random Events are enabled.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/random-global-events/page/2/#post-4721}


-------Updated 04-25-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

As we’re about to introduce more news and lore information on the official Age of Wonders III website, we just launched our news section. It’s still being expanded, but you can already find our third community Q&A on it.

http://www.ageofwonders.com/community-qa-part-iii/

Enjoy!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/community-qa-part-iii/#post-4652}


Lennart Sas

The th0ught of enabling the construction of more infrastructure and buildings outside cities keeps coming back for each new AoW we make. We always take a very careful approach in regards to this as it would drastically change the flow and focus of the game if taken too far.

For AoW3 we have chosen to keep the focus on a larger amount of pre-placed wonderous structures, with player constructing cities and forts in order to claim them once located and conquered. We also keep a large amount of terrain modification spells with road building and some classes like dreadnaught having the ability for some additional constructs.

This way we have a good amount of building options within cities, keeping focus on rich fantasy style maps and but avoid map sprawl and micromanagement.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/structure-creation-outside-cities/#post-4626}

we’ve got some lizard-like mounts for the Draconians ;-)

– we’ll be sure to bring back some of the older races in future expansions.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/will-the-lizardfolk-return/page/4/#post-4636}

I liked AoW1 style underground dungeons too. Can’t promise yet, but if we’ve got some man-power available we’ll bring explorable dungeons back. We didn’t add them for AoW2/SM as some people thought the combats in these dungeons could be a bit long winded (finding that large enemy hiding in the darkness) and its quite some work especially in terms of art and getting the walls right for ranged attack and vision.

Regardless of this, AoW3 has a lot of flavor to TC maps with locations like ancient ruins having neat terraced battlefields and a large selection of spell-like effects originating from structures including things like hazard hexes.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dungeons/#post-4622}


-------Updated 04-24-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Ehm, I think things along those lines will be likely, if not by design (to early to tell at this point) then by emergence in that two different things cancel each other out in some way, so the combination doesn’t work that well together (Example not taken from the game at all but just made up: think playing elves with forestry and having a specialization spell that removes forests).

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/specialists-and-class/page/2/#post-4510}


-------Updated 04-23-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

We’ll have dedicated ships. I don’t know where you got that idea, b0rsuk, but it’s not correct.

I’ll leave you to your speculations ^^

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/dedicated-naval-units/#post-4474}

Limited to one specialization: Probably not.

“All upside”: ? What do you mean? Oh, like we have negative specializations to counter an extra positive choice? Like the traits in Shadow Magic? Yes, there won’t be negative ones, if you mean that.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/specialists-and-class/page/2/#post-4475}



-------Updated 04-22-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

They are definitely not always active, hope that helps

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/what-is-this-dynamic-terrain-of-which-you-speak/#post-4434}

Picture it like this:

You are a Rogue by class. This means you have lied, cheated, and used extortion to gain a powerful empire. In your image, you have units that have trained themselves to be nasty fighters with dirty tricks. Your empire is shaped by your class.

You yourself can have chosen to study some specialization that let’s you cast certain spells, or maybe one that allows for faster expansion in some way.

These specializations are an addition to what you are able to research, and they can influence your empire a little, but not shape it the way your class does.



Hope that helps!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/specialists-and-class/page/2/#post-4435}

Thanks people, we will try to surpass your (and our!) expectations! As for how well it’ll do, well, that’s ultimately up to the general public I guess

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/how-successful-do-you-think-age-of-wonders-3-will-be/#post-4432}

Yes it’s always possible of course. That’s why I said we’ll show you our game, and then it’s up to you whether you like it or not. And in the meantime we listen to you here, and read, and are hardcore fans of our own game as well

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/city-combat-eased-into-ruin/#post-4436}

Well I can only speak for myself but our largest maps are really quite large, imo. I don’t think you need to fear for it.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/are-map-smaller-in-aow3-than-before/#post-4433}


-------Updated 04-19-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Like Lennart said: “AoW3 will ship with six player races, six player classes and at least six specialization “spheres”, which include magic.”

These specializations are not really tied to classes, although some might suit certain classes better than others.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/specialists-and-class/#post-4357}

Yup indeed

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/specialists-and-class/#post-4364}

BlaneckW could you please put some more effort in typing your posts, because like this I have no idea what you mean, and it doesn’t contribute to the thread, thanks.

@NEHZ: wind no, but I think you’ll be pleased with our rivers

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/what-is-this-dynamic-terrain-of-which-you-speak/#post-4358}

The more I played the new XCOM the more I felt the urge to fire up UFO:Extraterrestrials Gold Edition

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/city-combat-eased-into-ruin/#post-4360}


-------Updated 04-18-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Nope they’re not eased into ruin. In fact cities are going to be difficult to take.

I see these fears quite a bit, and would like to convince you we can be trusted not to ruin our own game, without publishers telling us what to do. But I think we’ll just show you that when it comes out

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/city-combat-eased-into-ruin/#post-4332}


-------Updated 04-17-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

This week we have another few questions asked by our fans on the Age of Wonders III Facebook and Twitter pages.

–

QUESTION (from Tyler Dallmann @Facebook) Do you think that AoW 3 will surpass the cult popularity of the original? What popular aspects of the previous games will we see return to the stage?

TRIUMPH: Age of Wonders 3 is a sequel staying true to the genre’s roots with many improvements to gameplay, presentation and interface. Although we hope to reach new people, we haven’t dumbed the game down – on the contrary!

QUESTION (from Rudolf Walker @Facebook): Will you be able to pre-order? And when? Is there gonna be a physical copy or downloads only?

TRIUMPH: The game should be available for pre-order, details will follow closer to release. The game has a digital release in multiple international digital stores, as well as physical copies in certain territories where there’s still a healthy demand for PC games on disc.

QUESTION (from GeorgBrombeere @Twitter): Will there be plenty of time to explore, research & build an empire or will you have to hurry before enemies get too strong?

TRIUMPH: This really depends on the scenario type. Some might be more focused on battle where you quickly need to get to action. Other maps focus on adventure or empire building giving you more time. The totally rewritten random map generator allows you to generate scenarios according to your wishes at the click of a button.

–

Got any questions yourself? Dont forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and keep sending us your questions!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/community-qa-part-ii/#post-4290}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Hi guys, having races change appearance with alignment sounds awfully nice (especially for the elves), but it would cost too much time to make, sorry.

The current elves are definitely a mix of the two. I think we did a good job of having equal parts of both in their units.

As to the lore, well, you’ll have a chance to discover all kinds of things during the campaign…

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/will-the-lizardfolk-return/page/3/#post-4283}


-------Updated 04-16-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

The skills definitely not like in Shadow Magic. To give you an idea: Your class units are unlocked through researching empire skills from your specific class.

Anyway, that’s off-topic.

On topic I can say we will have a new mechanic where we will allow players to harness the strength of the city’s population. It comes at a price however: normal civilians don’t fight for gold or honor, but can be rallied to fight for their freedom..

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/are-cities-ever-defenseless/page/2/#post-4246}


-------Updated 04-15-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Well the original post was pretty close to the truth in the last paragraph: researchable skills and spells will allow you to have additional defenses for your cities.

Warlord indeed has a special ‘trick’ pertaining to this. Maybe even two, depending on how you count

It is however important to keep the strategic element of where you allocate your forces, so we won’t make cities pretty strong by default, and it will in fact be possible to just occupy a city with minimal forces.

(There’s also the fact that some city’s population may very well wish to be saved from the current occupier by the forces that attack it. So it would not necessarily be true that a city’s population always resists.)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/are-cities-ever-defenseless/page/2/#post-4193}

Thanks for the kind post frank!

The story of Meandor might be a good reason for you to play Shadow Magic again!

As to Meandor’s death? Hmmm. I really doubt it, he seems to have a knack for surviving. Which is not to say he will play a role.

Writer = Raymond Bingham, from the earlier games!

Melenis now, that’s interesting.. what use could she possibly be (she IS dead, something that I personally also regret)?

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/bring-meandor-back-please/#post-4197}

Indeed there are a lot of intelligent independents.

Also, who is to say that the panicking villagers, fleeing for the wild boars, don’t knock over their oil lamps themselves?

In other words, Zozma is right, it would be a lot of functionality just for realism in this regard. (Especially if you consider that some wild boars might then be controlled by a Sorcerer who has summoned them so could then deliberately burn down a town in that case with those units anyway)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/do-independents-raze-cities/#post-4196}

Trion? Wrong company hehe

Triumph will gladly answer your question though, if that’s alright too?

- Yes! You can definitely make custom maps and we strive to make mod support improved over our previous games.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/modding-2/#post-4192}


-------Updated 04-12-2013---------


Jimmy van der Have

During GDC we asked our Facebook and Twitter followers to send us any questions they have about Age of Wonders III. From the large amount we received, we will select a few to answer each week.

Triumph Studios development team answered the following questions…

–

QUESTION (from René Leichenfresser @Facebook) How does the race/class system work? Will some races have special units, like elves will always have archers, goblins will always have bombs? Or is every race/class special on their own, like elf/rogue will have units more like the dark elves in aow sm and elf/archdruid will have more like the elves? Or is the race just artistic?

TRIUMPH: Every race has a set of core units: think skirmishers, infantry, cavalry, pikemen, ranged and priests / support units, all units having abilities and/or statistics coming from the race. Then there are racial units coming from the classes (like an assassin and bard from the rogue class) – these class units merge base traits from the race with additional functions from the class unit. Additionally there are summoned creatures and constructs.

QUESTION (from Andreas Hamilton Rosing Heidemann @Facebook): Will you be able to toggle blood so it splashes on the ground? (like AoW 1).

TRIUMPH: The all new 3D battles feature plenty of violence with units being knocked around and battered corpses littering the battlefield, but it’s unlikely we’ll have the huge blood pools as it feels a bit over the top in a more realistic looking battlefield.

QUESTION (from Ryan Duncan @Facebook): Will the nymphs and lady of pain be as err.. revealing as they once were?

TRIUMPH: There will be nudity where it’s appropriate: no chainmail bikinis for warrior females, but nymphs, succubi or berserkers are more revealing as it fits their function or background.

–

Got any questions yourself? Dont forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and keep sending us your questions!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/community-qa-part-i/#post-4093}


-------Updated 04-09-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

@Temper: you have every right, as does anyone. Open sharing of ideas etc is what this forum is about after all.

I understand it can be difficult when not knowing the bigger framework. This being the case, it’s always good to be aware of what you don’t know, as you said. And know we read it

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/unit-progression/page/2/#post-4003}

I’m really excited about all of these possibilities because from the FAQ, and the interview it sounds like the programers and developers are actually very excited themselves. It makes me believe that they’ll be open to all of your ideas (in some form of later DLC) and will be putting some extra umph into the creative side of new races and units.

Yes we are definitely very excited ourselves! This is the game we really want to make! It’s going to be nothing short of awesome if we can help it!

Extra umph? We have those… three in fact (Tri-umph) (sorry couldn’t resist )

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/ideas-for-new-units/page/2/#post-4002}



-------Updated 04-07-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Father Slaughter of the Random Map Church,

You will be pleased with the efforts and endeavors of the faithfull at the humble Studios of Triumph.
Build more temples with haste, for thou number of followers shall grow when they gaze upon the HRMG.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/return-of-the-random-map-cult-the-holy-random-map-thread/#post-3971}


-------Updated 04-05-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

@vota dc

I've answered questions about 'regiments & attack rolls' here earlier, so please check that post/discussion.
There's also some more answers about this and related questions in The Harlequin's Blue Tracker.


@you3

What you appear to have missed is that I was discussing flanking - and other 'positioning and maneuvering' encouraging - mechanics in isolation.
I.e. a player using tactics would win, assuming all other conditions are equal.

Everything changes as soon as players come into battle with different units, with different stats and are capable of casting different spells.
As soon as that happens, just plain tactics won't save the day.
This is where things get interesting and where you'll have to use tactics that take all those factors into account to gain an advantage using tactics.

In addition, if one side has a stronger army and better spells chances of the other side winning by virtue of tactics quickly get smaller.
I.e.

^{http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=36&tn=5677&st=45#post46}


Raymond Bingham

After the All-Devourer was defeated many races joined the fight to restore the ancient worlds, joining Archons, Syron to discover realms to purge of Shadow Demons found through the Shadow Realm. Not much is known about this endless war, only that many populations shifted as they joined the fight, or avoided it.

As for the world, at a certain point in the history of the Commonwealth, the Tigrans didn’t leave a forwarding address when they migrated en masse from Kesh. This is mentioned in passing in the game because they left the Beholders in the desert to haunt the ruins of their abandoned cities.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/where-are-the-tigrans/#post-3938}

Much of what happened to the Archons is still a gaping festering wound that appears without cause and those who should know would never tell you how it came about…

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/undead-or-archons/page/2/#post-3937}



Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

@THE Black Knight: Guess you missed my reply that we’re still looking into this. In fact we did a change internally recently and it now is already much different.

Also, it does kind of make sense that the attacker is quite vulnerable since the defender usually has the most time to prepare and therefore dictates the immediate location of the battle (ambush situations exempted).

For example ‘#$%^, riders in the distance! We’ll walk a few meters over there so we have some rocks between them and us’.

On the other hand the attacker determines the bigger location (the atacker takes the initiative to attack, for example in a forest). So the strategic element of where to attack is also important. If you attack a city then it’s even more logical the defenders are in a defensible position.

But again, we’re still tweaking

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/siege/page/4/#post-3908}

Yes, once some units have gold medals more XP doesn’t help them, but it does build character. Time to send those veterans to the defense line and grab new recruits for the assault. Troop rotation, you know?
But seriously, I understand your points.

And I liked the AMLA mechanic in Wesnoth a lot, but this is a different game in the end. Part of Wesnoth’s campaigns (at least for me) was the entire ‘keep your loyals alive and level those first and rebuy them in each new map’. Well, that will be quite different in our game.

I’ll keep it in the back of my mind though, we’ll see.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/unit-progression/#post-3907}


-------Updated 04-04-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

My answer holds for strategic map

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/suggestion-success-of-aow-12-depended-also-on-movement/#post-3854}


Raymond Bingham

Wizard?

After the cataclysm that the fiend Merlin created to sabotage his apprentice Malik’s ceremony to sever the world from the Shadow Realm (that blasted Sunbirth City off the map) there are no more Wizards. No one really knows why they all evaporated in a blur of laughing shadow. …Shadow… shadow… shad o…

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/my-hopes-ideas-for-aow-3/page/2/#post-3844}

fwiw, I’ve tried to convince Lennart to scrap all the art and replace it with a really great hybrid of My Little Pony and Hello Kitty art… but he continues to insist we take a more “High fantasy approach”… Sometimes he can be such a tyrant.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/artwork/page/3/#post-3839}

The Undead Archons are an abomination that never should’ve happened.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/necromancy-andor-undead-race/page/5/#post-3838}


-------Updated 04-03-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Yup NEHZ, it’s more along those lines. The Leaders and Heroes are impressive characters, and you’re going to be able to shape them in different ways. Why can’t a rogue have a bit of fire magic on the side, studied after stealing some old tome from a forgotten ruin?

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/mana-with-non-magic-classes-and-race-based-special-units/#post-3799}

Surrounding a city from all sides in tactical combat isn’t in, no. But there is still plenty of opportunity to breach the walls left and right and flank the defenders of the middle gate, for example.

Hope that helps!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/siege/page/3/#post-3800}

Hmm I always liked Battle for Wesnoth, but will try to give the other one you linked a try sometime.

As to the original poster’s point: I also feel more movement is nice, because the more places you can go, the more options you have, and the more options you have, the more potential to make a great move that someone hasn’t foreseen and that helps you win. We’ll have to balance it of course and tweak it all. We don’t want to create a race that no one plays because their movement sucks.

Also there is difference between the individual units.

Flyers (and cavalry) will move far, for example.

^{www.ageofwonders.com/topic/suggestion-success-of-aow-12-depended-also-on-movement/#post-3798}

Nice ideas people! We read them However, like cyz says, his ideas in particular would be a LOT of work..

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/suggestion-one-thing-that-was-better-in-aow-1-than-in-aow-2sm/#post-3801}

We have a few medals more than we used to (4 total to be exact, at the current moment (I’m being pretty careful here… nothing is 100% final until we ship the game, imo )).

The lower the tier the easier it is to level them up. There are others ways of getting xp apart from dealing the killing blow.

Hope that helps!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/unit-progression/#post-3797}

Thanks ^^

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/from-what-i-see-in-gdc-combat-ai-is-not-improved/#post-3802}


-------Updated 04-02-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

We hear you. As Brother JO said, we’re still looking at this.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/battle-map-size/#post-3743}


-------Updated 04-01-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi you3 & balance11,



I'll take the advantages of our current 'flying' game mechanic - as noted by balance11 here - is clear.


The argument here is that if we implement something which requires a binary counter - have the counter and you're okay / don't and you lose - we'd better make sure everyone has a fair chance at getting it.
Flying used to require a binary counter, concealment still does.

In a game like AoW, ensuring everyone has a fair chance of getting the binary counter - in time to counter the first attack requiring it - is trickier then in other games; e.g. StarCraft.
Given the amount of choice players have - class, race, specializations, which skills do I get, which units do I get, do I rush/expand/tech up - squeezing in binary counters is hard.
The 'double gravity' present in AoW:SM is an obvious fix for a problem, not an elegant game mechanic.
I'd even argue that for a high fantasy game, shoehorning binary counters into each race/class/ etc is not desirable, if only to maintain the style of the game.

In conclusion, there's only a limited number of game mechanics we can have in AoW that require binary counters. So we've chosen to keep some - e.g. concealment - and redesign others - e.g. flying.


Then - in counter to 'the devs had said that flying units had been removed' - I'd like to argue flying is still a strong ability. Time for a bullitpoint list:
* Nothing much has changes on the strategic map.
** Flying is faster then walking.
** Flying allows for surprisingly cheap travel across terrain such as water and mountains.
* In combat, flying has swapped invulnerability for mobility gameplay.
** Flying incurs no attacks of oppertunity.
*** I.e. fliers are one of the few units that can disengage without penalty.
** Flying allows a unit to counter positional play.
*** I.e. fly over walls, obstacles, defensive lines of units.
** Fliers are efficient with movement points, they always travel as the crow flies : )>

So while ranged units are no longer a required binary counter to fliers, I'd be carefull entering a battle against flyers without them.
With ranged units positioning has become of greater importance, since flyers can fly past melee units to snipe ranged units.
For players without ranged units, other units can also help dealing with flyers. E.g. high mobility units - such as cavalry - can be used effectively against fliers.
Still, the dragon dragon in the demo - with a breath weapons, a nice melee attack and enough defense and hitpoints to have some staying power - will require a good bit more then some archers or cavalry to deal with : )>

In conclusion, imho the change we've made with fliers:
* Has removed exploits - e.g. flyers on gate and obstacle hexes.
* Has removed the need for a boring counter to the old-skool fliers - e.g. 'double gravity' a.k.a 'press X to not die'.
* Makes fliers more interesting to deal with in battle.
* Makes using fliers effectively in battle more interesting.
* Allows fliers to be more versatile - e.g. I can now give a flier a ranged attack without in causing serious inbalance.


Sorry for the wall of text - the reason I don't often go into design decision is because they always spawn walls of text, you should see our design documents : )>
tl;dr:
* Worst flyer problems fixed.
* Flyers are still worth having.
* Using and dealing with flyers now offers more gameplay depth.

p.s. balance11, "killed two birds with one stone" is just a brilliant remark is so many ways.
p.p.s did I just summarize my summery? yo dog ... must be all the easter eggs getting to me ; )>

^{http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=36&tn=5680&st=1#post2}


-------Updated 03-31-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

AI is definitely not final yet, and the battle was tweaked to make it look fun and play quick. Please just have the patience to check it when the game has launched



Also, happy Easter all, for those who celebrate it

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/from-what-i-see-in-gdc-combat-ai-is-not-improved/#post-3671}


-------Updated 03-30-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Let’s connect the dots: Archons are going to be a day 0 DLC.

Nope, sorry

We cannot make all the content we would love to be in there… basically it’s a safe bet our dreams are as grand as those of you who really dream big, and we really really want to make this the best game we can. But we also have to actually finish the game at some point

That said, Archon undead are already in the game as you’ve seen

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/aow-3-interview-with-triumphs-lenart-sas/#post-3561}


-------Updated 03-29-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi everyone,



Good to hear people are enjoying the gameplay video.
Thnx for all the feedback.


Just two quick comments:

1) On flying:
- Units with flying can fly over obstacles and units.
- Flying units are not subject to attacks of opportunity when they move through hexes threatened by the enemy.

This still gives them a substantial advantage in battle, while avoiding the "hovering over obstacles" and "omg, flying unit with ranged attacks" exploits.
As a consequence, getting "double gravity" is no longer a "must do this or I'm doomed" thing.

2) On Icons:
- Yes, we'll have a nice number of icons.
- Most of the time we'll show both icons and names, to ensure we cater to people that prefer pictures and those that prefer text.
- If we have to little screen real estate - which is infrequent - we'll have popups on the icons.

^{http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=36&tn=5677&st=21#post22}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

We’ll make sure this is possible in some way!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/co-op-against-ia/#post-3574}


-------Updated 03-28-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Happy that you seem to like the vid! Cool!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/news-from-gdc/page/2/#post-3436}

Thanks for the nice feedback SiaFu!

As a reply to your biggest concern: We recently played around with different options on how to handle the first round of combat, and still need to tweak starting distance etc.

2:44 yeah, it’s a discontinuity due to editing, we had to tape it a few times, woops! Let’s hope we’re better at games than creating movies

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/news-from-gdc/page/2/#post-3503}

You can change the perspective in the battlefields, look from different directions etc.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/this-game-is-missing-a-huge-opportunity/page/2/#post-3509}



-------Updated 03-27-2013---------


Lennart Sas

In AoW3 it’s possible to create your own leader (and heroes using the level editor) using an RPG style character customizer. This character model is used as small and animated large portraits and appears as the map figure in game.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/can-we-make-our-own-leader-portraits-like-aowsm/#post-3471}


-------Updated 03-26-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Will respectfully decline answering the OP question for now.

However, I would like to point out that we've got a game demo we're showing on GDC, so keep an eye out for AoW3 news.
Notch for one seems to be pleased with what we're been doing.

Rumors have it we'll have game-play footage online ; )>

^{http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=36&tn=5676&st=2#post3}


-------Updated 03-25-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

We’re here and we’re reading

An issue with the ‘fire wall’ type of spells is, among other things, how the AI will handle it.

We’re examining our options

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/my-hopes-ideas-for-aow-3/#post-3363}


-------Updated 03-24-2013---------


Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi everyone,


We've been discussing FC - and especially AI FC spellcasting - in the office.

Adding options to the combat prompt - e.g. don't cast spells - is easy, but doesn't solve the problem when playing humans.
The defender doesn't get the prompt, so there's no moment of choice for him/her.
This is especially apparent in PBEM play, since having a prompt for the other user - as a solution to the issue - would slow down play severely.

Same logic hold for anything we could add to give some choice and options in the combat prompt screen btw.

As a secundairy consideration, if there's no human there the AI gets to flip the toggles.
Won't go into detail here, but lets just say AI will have a hard time judging what to do.
So the perfect solution would be something that would help out the AI in battle, which could automatically fix the issue above.


So, there's a bunch of things we could do here. I'll jot down some of the things that were discussed below, so you can tell us what you think.
If there's any other suggestions for how you'd like this tackled, please post them here too.
I've numbered my solutions for easy commenting, please do the same : )>

1) We add the toggle to gameplay settings. I.e. never cast spells in FC, which could be set true or false.
We could do fancy stuff here like a slider for combat castingpoint expenditure per turn, but all of these are basically the same thing with more or less bling.

Some attempts at AI friendly solutions.

2) We don't have the AI cast spells ever, when you are preparing a strategic map spell.
That rule would also guide the AI player's choice.
Nice, simple, clean and easy to understand. No need to micro a button in the options panel.

3a) We have a per turn casting pool for strategic and one for tactical combat.
Completely avoids the 'where to spend my casting points' issue.
This does introduce an exploit/AI issue. Multiple attacks in a turn could be used to have a player/AI spend casting points, before sending in the army with valuable troops - e.g. heroes.
Having the AI opt to not spend casting points so it can do so in future battles is a hard nut to crack.
Just think of all the games you've finished with a bag full of health potions and resurrection scrolls that have sat there unused ; P>

Arguably, this exploit was already present in AoW:SM. But still, the goal is to improve upon AoW:SM here.
This then leads us to a modified version of 3a.

3b) We have a per turn casting pool for strategic and a per battle casting pool for tactical combat.
Avoids the exploit/AI issue above. Actually, this makes things real easy for the AI. It will empty its clip asap each battle.
However, this introduces another exploit. Now you can send in a single unit, kite with it while you burn all you castingpoints. Rince and repeat with cheap units, untill the enemy is dead.
The only thing preventing that would be the mana you have available, but it's easy to stockpile mana before a big engagement.
Worst thing, it will a good strategy that's very tedious and boring. Especially when you are on the receiving side.


Sorry for the wall of text, and the lack of tl:dr.
No real way of giving a brief version of this, that doesn't leave out something vital.
Here's a cookie for getting through it all ... *gives cookie*
There will be another cookie for whoever comes up with the perfect solutions for this ; )>

^{http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=36&tn=5667&st=12#post13}


-------Updated 03-21-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Different class options in TC: Quite similar to how you envision it, yes

About specializations and what you call ‘old gods’ I can’t really say anything yet, sorry (it’s very much WIP at this point). But I can definitely say that the Sorcerer won’t be the only class that can choose specializations.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/spellbook-for-all-leader-types/#post-3299}



-------Updated 03-20-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Yes Tomipapa is right, that sort of thing is what we’re going for.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/class-race-and-units/#post-3263}


-------Updated 03-18-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

We’d love to get both options (Leader / No Leader on map) in the game. It depends on how difficult it will be further down the road, but it’s what we’re currently aiming for

And about the Leader’s role: expect him to be a versatile unit you can either upgrade to lead your armies in the thick of battle, or to stay back and focus more on aiding your entire empire (through spells and skills).Or a combination of both. Also depends on class somewhat. Basically what we’re going for is that you can (role-)play him however you want, and there will be benefits and disadvantages to every choice.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/winlose-conditions/#post-3226}


-------Updated 03-16-2013---------



Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi everyone,

@1) What Tomipapa said.

We’ve considered a MoM type system – a MoM, those were the days – but feel this would be punishing the player – i.e. you’re stuff get less effective – for doing what we want the player to do – go out there and kick the enemies bum.

So, we’re sticking with a DnD type system, where your fighter would not loose stats, until it dropped below 1hp. It might not be realistic, but it will be more fun.

@2) About what Flenoom said.

Flanking units get a free swing. So, wolfpacking a lone unit is super effective. We’re still tweaking the TC minutia, but this looks like a keeper : )>

@3) Upkeep is paid in gold – or mana for summoned units – just like before. Food is for cities. This keeps the ‘kill stuff’ and ‘bigger city stuff’ separated nicely. Naturally there are still lots trade-offs when resources are limited.

And Rothrod An’Sher, nothing much wrong with your english. Its way better then my italian : )>

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/some-tactics-suggestions-and-question/#post-3181}

Hi Jada,

Setting up Multiplayer (mp) matches will be more convenient in AoW3.

We’ll be giving you most – if not all – the mp features from the previous games, with the ease of use of some of the more competative games out there at the moment.

Hopefully we’ll manage to sprinkle in some things unique for AoW3. I’ve got a priviate feature request list for this ready to go : )>

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/fixed-teams/#post-3180}

Hi guys & girls,

Jayaris is spot on. We’re prepping for GDC, so it’s all hands on deck to get a kick ass presentation done. It’ll be a gameplay demo and we’re aiming to impress.

I still check into the forums – both here and elsewhere – every day or other day. There are also frequent discussions about forum posts in the office and during breaks, between Narvek, Arnout Sas (a.k.a. Arnout), senior Sas and myself. So, even when we’re silent, assume we’re there … watching … ; )>

Eventhough there are a bunch of interesting threads, I feel there are fewer oppertunities for me to add anything to those. Some threads ask questions on things we are not ready to reveal yet, or on subjects we are still working on. I’d prefer to give information I’m sure about, over going into “what if” discussions.

Also, some of the requests, suggestions and question on the forums are based on fault assumptions, speculation, etc. Answering those without giving additional information – see above – is tricky.

But, do keep posting. The discussions about your thread in the office have already nudged decisions on way or the other. Also, keep an eye out for more information about AoW3 @GDC.

tl;dr:
- Hi we’re still here
- All your posts are be read by us
- Expect shiny new info @GDC

[Edit: corrected typos that snuck in due to lack of coffee]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/devs-are-so-silent/#post-3179}


-------Updated 03-07-2013---------


Lennart Sas

Players choose a main color, a secondary color and a glyph that is applied on banners, shields and unit clothing. This is not just for fun but also for Unit ID.

As for leaders / heroes. Their appearance can be further customized. We’ll show more on this soon!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/customization-sheildssigilsunit-rename-other-ideas/#post-2837}


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

I think the developers should be like ‘ok, we need 10-20 volunteers to help speed the process, all the voluntereers will get 5-10% of the money made after selling the game…

Uhh, not going to happen Paying 20 people 10% of the money made would result in losing 200% or double the amount we’d make. :P

I’m afraid it’s a pretty safe bet that we won’t make this a big MMO-like with 100 players per instance (map).

As always the community (you) plays a big role in things like tournaments and such. Sometimes it’s as easy as creating a thread on the forums and organizing it yourself. We’re obviously hoping AoW3 will be a great succes, so we’ll just see what will happen down the road.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/what-id-like-to-see-in-aow3-_/#post-2834}



-------Updated 03-06-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

@cyz: It would certainly help us if some of you would do it! There’s already something very helpful on the heavengame forums: http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=36,5648,0,60



@BlaneckW: While sometimes humorous could you please tone it down a bit? After all, you don’t want us to loose the Dire Penguins on you, would you?

Seriously though, this forum should welcome all kinds of people, not just those who can perfectly tell when you’re joking and when you’re not. (rubber? steel? coal?)

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/summarize-known-informationsuggestions/#post-2788}



-------Updated 03-05-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Griffith you’re right, stacks will be world map only, where they can have a maximum of 6 units.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/about-unit-stacks/#post-2757}


-------Updated 03-04-2013---------



Djurre van Dijk (a.k.a. sikbok)

Hi everyone,


Maximum map size is - as you3 mentions - something that depends on a lot of variables.
Also, with a game like AoW3, we're doing some things - dynamic terrain - that other games don't.
Some of those do have quite an impact on memory usage and performance.

And with the game not done yet - i.e. not all optimalisation done - the sizes we could get away with are not known.

Then, there's this thing that not everyone has a killer machine with all the latest hardware.
So, even if I could run a 9000+/9000+ hexagon map on my machine, I wouldn't want people with laptops ending up with blistered knees.


PawelS post above - "if every hex is made more meaningful" - is also spot on. Like most of PawelS posts are actually : )>
We aim to use the space on the map more efficiently.
I.e. to increase the fun/variety/interest-stuff per hex.

^{http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=36&tn=5665&st=7#post8}

iceboy, you will be able to pick the races you play against : )>

^{http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=st&fn=36&tn=5669&st=0#post1}

I’ve just written a design based on BlaneckW’s suggestions and booked it for implement next week.
Implementing the genetic algorithms for the breeding will be a chalenge, but I think our coders are up for it.

; )>

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/unit-descriptions/#post-2660}

Hi McLeast,

I can confirm this one was read by a dev : )>

Actually, between us all @triumph, I think we read almost all of them.
Even if we don’t respond to all of them.

[Edit: Typo]

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/developers-listen-to-the-gamers/#post-2644}


Michiel Van Den Bos

Hi Zortarg,

I can assure you that everything you wrote is being taken into consideration And thanks for the kind words about the AoW1 soundtrack. I’ll do my best to bring some of those golden oldies back.

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/age-of-wonders-music/#post-2628}



-------Updated 03-01-2013---------


Godewijn Perizonius (a.k.a. Narvek)

Water. And dry bread. They keep us chain-.. Au! Gotta go!

^{http://www.ageofwonders.com/topic/hex-view-tactical-overview/#post-2540}

[This message has been edited by The Harlequin (edited 03-14-2014 @ 02:42 PM).]