Game News A new Age of Wonders in the making?

[Trash]

Tags: Age of Wonders; Triumph Studios

Seems Triumph Studios of Overlord and, oh yes, Age of Wonders fame got a little newyears gift for us.

And with a little puzzling that turns into this. A new Age of Wonders methinks. Nice. Plus hey, seems the whole Age of Wonders series is now digitally released on all the big platforms.

Thanks to SCO for pointing this one out.

 

[Murk]

Oh shit yeah. This series has consistently gotten better. Hope they deliver more quality.

 

[catfood]

Trash, I hope you do realize that if this is true then you're going to have to be the Codex emissary to score an interview with them.

 

[Zeriel]

Man, they better fucking not be messing with me. Miss these guys regularly releasing stuff--even the Overlord series was alright for what it was.

 

[General Maxson]

Good news, if true.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Oh shit yeah. This series has consistently gotten better. Hope they deliver more quality.

I kind of disagree.

AOW1 was great. AOW2 was a step down and then AOW:SM was excellent again.

So there is a strong possibility that AOW3 might be worse than AOW:SM, but have better graphics.

Let's hope that AOW3 sells enough for an expansion.

 

[Scruffy]

loved shadow magic, hope this delivers.

 

[Murk]

I feel that each game installment had its own downfalls but that overall the experience was improved with each iteration. I will agree that SM is clearly much better than Wizard's Throne. And I suppose I have only played Wizard's Throne once while I've played the original at least a dozen times and Shadow Magic nearly as much.

Still, this could be great.

 

[dibens]

I liked original the most. While rather simplistic in the long run, it was more suited for our drinking casual plays, without the constant need to micromanage spell research and casting every turn. Plus the hero skill customization was more RPG-like with many cool abilities.

I really hope they open up more options for might oriented players such as myself.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Agree with comrades Dibens and TBS the first time was more RPG-ish and offered quicker play.

 

[Black]

Mite b cool, with HoMM basically deader than AoD it'd be nice if something filled its place.

 

[dibens]

Mite b cool, with HoMM basically deader than AoD it'd be nice if something filled its place.

HoMM 3 has one of the most long lasting and sprawling fan bases for a computer game out there. New campaigns, mods and patches are coming out constantly. Check this shit out.

 

[Black]

I know it does, but the quality of many mods to everything is questionable. Like WoG, its units are just blearaghhh.

 

[dibens]

I know it does, but the quality of many mods to everything is questionable. Like WoG, its units are just blearaghhh.

Still better than Conflux.



In all seriousness though, most people use WoG for the balances it brings (making Eagle Eye and Mysticism actually useful) and steer clear of the amateurish extra content. The Cove town is a real deal, however- no placeholders. Everything's original, fits well into lore/art style of the game. Only drawback is that proper English version hasn't come out yet.

 

[Jasede]

Exciting! Let's hope it's decent.

 

[Zeriel]

I liked original the most. While rather simplistic in the long run, it was more suited for our drinking casual plays, without the constant need to micromanage spell research and casting every turn. Plus the hero skill customization was more RPG-like with many cool abilities.



I really hope they open up more options for might oriented players such as myself.

The storyline in the original (well, really only the Cult of Storms side) was also flat-out amazing, hands-down the best writing I've seen in a strategy game over the years, though maybe I've missed out on some gem somewhere. It's a great example of one of those things we'll never see from an AAA studio again, because reading actual text can never be allowed.

 

[Larendav]

Shadow Magic was a fucking masterpiece. If this is true, then it's an for the ages.

 

[Zeriel]

Wonder if the will keep a eye on Eador's features and take what seems good?

I liked original the most. While rather simplistic in the long run, it was more suited for our drinking casual plays, without the constant need to micromanage spell research and casting every turn. Plus the hero skill customization was more RPG-like with many cool abilities.



I really hope they open up more options for might oriented players such as myself.

Drinking casual plays? With who? Buddies? Codexers? DO tell.

I agree that the hero customization was MUCH better in the first one, because it allowed you to give lots of cool abilities.

I wonder if they took it out because it led to easier hero munchkinism, especifically with early-game high defense stats. Something like 5 or 6 defense was easy to get and made your hero capable of fighting hordes of non-magical level 1-2 units by himself in only a few levels.

AoW heroes were very cheesy through. By level 30, your heroes can sollo entire stacks worth of level 3 units. I still remember Silvermore forest, where my leader solloed something like four Reapers at the same time.

I hope they make heroes more focused within certain roles. Having almost every hero turn into a The Juggernault + Merlin by the end was ridiculous, in all games of the series. At least in AOW2 and SM you could thrown enough mooks at the enemy hero until he could't hit back, then strike him. This stopped the ridiculous AOW1 super-hero who bashed three entire stacks in a turn just by standing there.

There's also the Level 1-2 vs Level 3-4 problem. All games of the series carry the serious problem that low level units turn useless when you get higher-level units. End-game battles in SM looked like a Godzilla movie fight-scene mixed with a DnD high-level dungeon raid; Everywere all you saw were big-ass level 3-4 and heroes duking it out: Lords, Titans, Knights, Doom Wolves, Warlords, Dragons, Karaghs, Dread Reapers, etc. That was simply and utterly ridiculous, even if it was logical because early game units would be stomped on and obliterated instantly in such a fight. I think Eador Genesis has a pretty fair solution to it: Make a larger stack size and limit the numbers of certain units so the player can't simply make a ultrastack of heroes and level 4 units and roflstomp the AI's puny horde of level-1 units.

There's some early AoW alpha/beta screenshots somewhere on the 'net from a time when it was going to lean more towards RPGs, complete with quests from taverns and whatnot. That was what I loved about AoW's finished product, too: the fact it was more about consistency of characters (carrying over into next scenario, growing all the way), storyline, and the RPG elements. Your hero being a fighting unit who went out into the world and fought the battles personally, risking it all, as opposed to 2's aloof wizards in their tower. (To be fair, the latter was more true to Master of Magic.) More gamey fantasy strategy games where you start every map over from scratch with no growth kind of bore me, though I love playing them in MP, it's just a different sort of entertainment.

I'd love to see something that took the AoW formulae and brought it even more into RPG land, while remaining turn based. Something like Birthright. Anyone remember that?

You had to manage your country's financies, armies, etc, while also embarking on adventures as ye olde D&D heroes.

I'd be fine with discarding the retarded first person adventures, but I've never seen something really similar to what Birthright was trying to do. It was fascinating, if nothing else.

 

[Trash]

Birthright looked fantastic but played like shit when I tried it. Still, fuckloads of potential.

 

[Metro]

So is Shadow Magic the one to get if I've never played the series? Won't be anytime soon since I'm already bouncing back and forth between Warlock and Civ 5 and not really looking to get into another strategy game, atm. So I'll probably just give it a time cushion and see if they announce anything vis-a-vis AoW3.

 

[belated]

A new AoW would be great, replayed all of them this autumn. With various good old scenarios maps as well. (Always liked the Escape From Darkness scenario, for one. And Coming of the Dread Lord of course, though it always bugs out on me eventually.) Was never that big on scenarios in the later games, though they had so much more potential with all the scripting possibilities.

Never did get into Birthright. Tried if after I bought it of course (not like now with buying games on steam/gog I'll probably never get around to...) but didn't get very far. Didn't give it another go until probably ten years later, with pretty much the same result.

 

[General Maxson]

So is Shadow Magic the one to get if I've never played the series? Won't be anytime soon since I'm already bouncing back and forth between Warlock and Civ 5 and not really looking to get into another strategy game, atm. So I'll probably just give it a time cushion and see if they announce anything vis-a-vis AoW3.

You should definitely try AoW 1 too. And Shadow Magic. You'll see, AoW 1 is great, and charming, reminds me of a mix between MoM (heroes have skills etc.) and a deeper HoMM.

 

[belated]

So is Shadow Magic the one to get if I've never played the series? Won't be anytime soon since I'm already bouncing back and forth between Warlock and Civ 5 and not really looking to get into another strategy game, atm. So I'll probably just give it a time cushion and see if they announce anything vis-a-vis AoW3.

Pretty much what General Maxson said. And AoW1 alone can last you ages with all the user scenarios.
So if you just want one, then get AoW1, if two then go with AoWSM as well. Not much point in AoW2 really as everything except the campaign is in AoWSM. (Kinda like Civ4 Warlords and BTS, although I'd much rather have the campaign in AoW2 than the Warlords scenarios.)

 

[SCO]

So is Shadow Magic the one to get if I've never played the series? Won't be anytime soon since I'm already bouncing back and forth between Warlock and Civ 5 and not really looking to get into another strategy game, atm. So I'll probably just give it a time cushion and see if they announce anything vis-a-vis AoW3.

AoW campaign has some different design decisions: heroes/items transfer between maps; and your 'faction leader' is a hero most like every other, only you lose if it dies.
in SM, only the wizard (new style leader) transfers. Thing is... the wizard is not a hero. He has no levels and won't grow in anything except spellcasting, and even there, they made the system so, that you need to be a absolute dumbfuck to move him around the map since he only is effective on the wizard tower.

So what SM/2 transfers is only researched and discovered spells.

This was probably done as a overreaction, for balance, heroes in AoW1 can get seriously broken (for various other reasons i feel, one of which the brazilian slaughter explained well. This in spite of you being hero limited on the campaign.

I'd have liked that both systems were available for modders on the map editor of SM, oh well.

Oh, AoW:SM is a beautiful game, but AoW1 doesn't look so bad if you remember to increase the resolution to 1024x768.
Otherwise it looks horrid.
One trick they learned on 2/SM on opposition to 1 is that in those games, the hex's are bigger that you might expect for the regular army size. This is to allow different sized units to look 'gigantic'. In AoW1 meeting a red dragon is a anticlimatic experience.

 

[General Maxson]

I know it does, but the quality of many mods to everything is questionable. Like WoG, its units are just blearaghhh.

Still better than Conflux.



In all seriousness though, most people use WoG for the balances it brings (making Eagle Eye and Mysticism actually useful) and steer clear of the amateurish extra content. The Cove town is a real deal, however- no placeholders. Everything's original, fits well into lore/art style of the game. Only drawback is that proper English version hasn't come out yet.

If only they break through and complete it in English properly, with other 2 towns too. But who know how long will that take, if they even manage it at all. Thx for the news, btw. if it weren't for you I wouldn't even know about it and I love HoMM. So far what I have seen looks awesome, better than Cornflux like you said, and more interesting.