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by Mischief Maker 03/05/2015, 6:58am PST |
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Probably not going to go into detail for a while -Xulima and all- but this popped up on the gog flash sale for deep (dick) discount, so I snatched it up.
Age of Wonders is a fantasy 4X series with heavy emphasis on tactical combat, like Heroes of Might and Magic, but without stacked armies in tactical combat.
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic was a game that probably would have had a permanent place on my hard drive but for a small design choice that ruined the game for me: to-hit rolls. In Heroes of Might and Magic, every army attack hits, the random number generator determines how hard. In AoW 1-2.5 the RNG determines whether you hit at all, and this had two effects: one, it made tier 1 (even 2) units completely worthless to build because their chance-to-hit was so low they'd never output any damage anyway; two, it completely undermined the strategic maneuvering aspect because all your brilliant formations could still come to naught because the RNG said "fuck you." The utter RAGE of watching your hero doing the sword swing animation three times in a row to no effect made me drop the game for neo-King's Bounty even though I dislike stacked armies.
Thankfully AoW 3 switched to the HOMM "always hit" system. Armor and range and obstruction penalties reduce the damage dealt. Statistically your units deal damage at the same rate as the old system, but you won't feel like you're being bent over the table by the RNG. Also, battle XP doesn't only go to the unit that lands the killing blow. Just doing stuff like healing now gives XP, which along with the guarantee to now deal some damage makes strategies other than a mad dash for the Tier 4 units viable.
The game ships with 6 races: Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins, Humans, and Draconians, though arguably you could say it ships with 12. Your main hero picks one of six classes and each class brings with itself a selection of skills, units, and spells in addition to what the race brings. There's a $12 DLC that adds hobbits, and the next DLC adds frostlings, cat furries, and the necromancer class. I imagine this game will pile up 4 or 5 expansions before it's back to Shadow Magic levels of content.
Wizard towers are gone, your main guy is now a traveling hero directly participating in combat who gets resurrected at the capitol if he dies.
Sadly, while this engine is higher tech than Shadow Magic, they chose to go with a Peter Jackson-y golden brown tint to the graphics instead of Shadow Magic's riot of color, so it's not as pretty.
My first impression is it's an almost total improvement over its predecessors with the exception of the art direction. Whether the thing will earn $60 for DLCs remains to be seen. |
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Age of Wonders 3 First impressions by Mischief Maker 03/05/2015, 6:58am PST 
NEVERMIND, it overheats my GPU like nobody's business and won't be patched! by Mischief Maker 03/05/2015, 7:25pm PST
Post your specs + have you updated your drivers? NT by Every unhelpful tech support post 03/05/2015, 8:41pm PST
Software can't break hardware! NT by Even More Unhelpful Idiot 03/06/2015, 1:01pm PST
Download & run five different spyware scanners and post the logs here NT by Stage 2 unhelpful idiot 03/06/2015, 2:29pm PST
Definitely got that one! NT by MM 03/07/2015, 8:01am PST
Ah, fucksticks! by Mischief Maker 03/06/2015, 5:10pm PST
HAHA you need better hardware! NT by Did they say that? 03/06/2015, 7:23pm PST
Not yet, just "bad airflow" deflections. NT by MM 03/07/2015, 7:41am PST
67% off sale the deluxe edition right now by fabio 03/08/2015, 3:12pm PDT
Important beginner's tip: by Mischief Maker 03/08/2015, 4:13pm PDT
This completely bounced off me. by Oom Shnibble 03/09/2015, 7:49am PDT
Well the campaigns suck, this is really meant to be a random map game. by Mischief Maker 03/09/2015, 2:06pm PDT
Yeah I'm giving it a chance but it isn't grabbing me by fabio 03/16/2015, 12:13pm PDT
Superior tactical combat? by Mischief Maker 03/16/2015, 8:47pm PDT
Re: Superior tactical combat? by fabio 03/17/2015, 4:40am PDT
oops by fabio 03/17/2015, 4:52am PDT
Re: oops by Mischief Maker 03/17/2015, 6:59am PDT
Bah! You get info by LEFT-CLICKING on a unit! NT by Mischief McGoo 03/17/2015, 7:03am PDT
Yeah I knew that by fabio 03/17/2015, 4:06pm PDT
Well I think your own unit's defense and resistance alters that number. by Mischief McGoo 03/17/2015, 4:36pm PDT
...at least it's not as opaque as Sword of the Stars! NT by Mischief McGoo 03/17/2015, 4:40pm PDT
Also, some classes produce higher-tier irregulars (Warlords and Rogues) NT by Mischief McGoo 03/17/2015, 7:09am PDT
Does the AI ever attack? by fabio 03/19/2015, 6:37pm PDT
Re: Superior tactical combat? by Mischief Maker 03/17/2015, 6:40am PDT
A hex or two of your starting city's DOMAIN RADIUS, that is. NT by Mischief Maker 03/17/2015, 7:00am PDT
THIS GAME JUST BROKE MY GPU!!! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK! NT by Mischief Maker 03/30/2015, 3:59pm PDT
Final Verdict: As negative as humanly possible. NT by Mischief Maker 03/30/2015, 7:45pm PDT
Freedom: First Resistance/10 NT by Entropy Stew 03/31/2015, 1:53pm PDT
Yeah I gave up on it by fabio 03/31/2015, 4:59pm PDT
Nah, changing opinion to "fuck this" by fabio 04/18/2015, 2:13am PDT
I tried it on my new GPU and temp spiked also, keep this game away from your PC! NT by MM 03/31/2015, 5:01pm PDT
Because I can't let anything go by Mischief Maker 04/10/2015, 7:17am PDT
Re: Because I can't let anything go by Oom Shnibble 04/18/2015, 8:11am PDT
...and the long awaited 1.5 patch still overheats. NT by Mischief Maker 04/14/2015, 9:37pm PDT
I guess I was wrong... by Mischief Maker 04/22/2015, 6:43am PDT
Let's talk expansions. I haven't played it yet but they're 50% off right now. by Fullofkittens 06/20/2015, 10:11am PDT
Re: Let's talk expansions. by Mischief Maker 06/20/2015, 10:43am PDT
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