Alright boyz, here we go!!! Age of Wonders III first impressions & tips thread!

[Edward64]

Mar 31 release date.

Itching to get into another game but won't have time to play it in the next couple weeks. Please post your reviews.


Reviews

http://www.pcgamer.com/tag/age-of-wonders-iii/

Age of Wonders III - GameSpot

March 2014 - IncGamers.com | IncGamers.com

The amount of things to explore and discover during campaign and multiplayer games is staggering and will really add to the replayability for a long time to come. This is something veterans and new players will love compared to something like Might and Magic Heroes 6, particularly with the Level Editor and modding potential coming soon after release. Standalone maps or the Random Map generator provide a wealth of options and can be tailored to suit certain styles of play.
:
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Age of Wonders 3 has taken almost forty hours of my life away so far. Players new to the series will like the depth of both content and gameplay, and should also like the balanced gameplay mechanics. Veteran players will love discovering new class specific units, researching the wide variety of new spells and the expanded story, but I do fear that some veteran players might take a while to get used to the Age of Wonders 3 changes.

Overall though, players of any experience level will find enjoyable, rich strategy gameplay from Age of Wonders 3. Plus, if you’re anything like me, it’ll provide long-lasting memories of crushing your friends in battle.

http://www.rpgwatch.com/#26457

[frnk55]

Oh sure, on a Monday. Look forward to next weekend!

[Thomkal]

I'm expecting Dynasty Reports from you all

[Eaglesfan27]

I am off tomorrow so will have impressions up soon.

[NobodyHere]

I usually don't buy games until they're less than $30 but this one is awfully tempting

[Galaril]

Curious what type of specs are needed to really run it especially graphics card.

[NobodyHere]

Well the recommended requirements are

"Graphics: nVidia Geforce 460 1GB or AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB"

[Eaglesfan27]

I thought it was out today but can't seem to download it on Steam. Anyone playing it yet or does it actually release at midnight tonight?

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I thought it was out today but can't seem to download it on Steam. Anyone playing it yet or does it actually release at midnight tonight?

I read in the video games thread Mizzourah said 11am CST. so perhaps 75 minutes more

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I read in the video games thread Mizzourah said 11am CST. so perhaps 75 minutes more

Thanks!

[Critch]

"Game will unlock in approximately 1 hour"

[flere-imsaho]

Is this like Heroes of Might & Magic?

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Is this like Heroes of Might & Magic?

Yes, they are historically very similar games.

In the Heroes' series, 2 and 3 are the best of the bunch. By the time Heroes 4 came around, AOW 2 and then AOW Shadow Magic were probably the better games. Given the past 10 years of Heroes' mediocrity, there's high hopes that AOW 3 captures the magic of the past AOW games.

[flere-imsaho]

Ah, gotcha. It sounded so similar, I was wondering if it was the same company.

I really, really liked the early versions of Heroes, so much so that I was wondering if they might be on Steam (maybe I'll still check). This is even though I was generally pretty terrible at them. I never seemed to be able to keep up with the grow in power of the other factions, or even sometimes the creeps.

Anyway, looks interesting!

[MizzouRah]

I'm an hour in and really really love it thus far. I'm just doing the first campaign since I'm an AOW n00b.

The combat is just freaking so much fun - I might spend more time thinking my strategy then I do moving around the map.

i7, 8GB ram, geforce 650ti, everything on high, looks and runs great!

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Ah, gotcha. It sounded so similar, I was wondering if it was the same company.

I really, really liked the early versions of Heroes, so much so that I was wondering if they might be on Steam (maybe I'll still check). This is even though I was generally pretty terrible at them. I never seemed to be able to keep up with the grow in power of the other factions, or even sometimes the creeps.

Anyway, looks interesting!

The earlier versions of Heroes can be found on GOG.

[Alan T]

So any thoughts from those who got it? Can I assume that it is so great no one wants to take time to post about it?

[Eaglesfan27]

I've been playing non-step except for family time. I don't want to post detailed impressions until I get into the game more but I'll post a few preliminary thoughts:

- This is a beautiful game. I have a new gaming laptop and with everything on ultra, it looks amazing and runs very smoothly.

- While I had some initial concerns that "waiting" for the enemy to get into range (which allows multiple attacks) was too powerful, that concern isn't as great as I've spent more time with the game. The battles feel well balanced.

- I love the research trees.

- I wish there were more campaigns included because this is a game I can't stop playing.

- I love the new classes in the game. Each one brings a distinct feel to my play style.

- Exploration is so much fun. The world has lots of surprises.

Diving right back into the game after HIMYM is over.

[MizzouRah]

Agreed.. beautiful game. I've playing it for quite a bit tonight. The UI seems so perfect to me, the first campaign is a tutorial so to speak and it's just been an easy game to dive right into.

Are you playing the classic turn by turn or simultaneous EF? I like the classic turn by turn myself, but wondered how the simultaneous was.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Agreed.. beautiful game. I've playing it for quite a bit tonight. The UI seems so perfect to me, the first campaign is a tutorial so to speak and it's just been an easy game to dive right into.

Are you playing the classic turn by turn or simultaneous EF? I like the classic turn by turn myself, but wondered how the simultaneous was.

I'm playing simultaneous since it was default setting. I'm enjoying it but it isn't drastically different than the turn based setting I recall from the previous version of the game.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I'm playing simultaneous since it was default setting. I'm enjoying it but it isn't drastically different than the turn based setting I recall from the previous version of the game.

Thanks.. I was wondering what the difference was or if it was even noticeable, in the battles do they all go at the same time?

Speaking of battles.. such an exciting part of the game, I could never auto battle.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Thanks.. I was wondering what the difference was or if it was even noticeable, in the battles do they all go at the same time?

Speaking of battles.. such an exciting part of the game, I could never auto battle.

Battles are still turn based. It is only the campaign map that is simultaneous.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Battles are still turn based. It is only the campaign map that is simultaneous.

Ahh.. ok thanks!

[MizzouRah]

I can't believe more people are not playing/posting about this 4x game.

I am so engrossed right now.. it's totally pulled me into it's fantasy world. Just had an epic battle against the AI.. set my units up front to occupy the enemy and then flanked them with my fire units.. they never knew they were walking into a trap!

[sabotai]

Only a few hours in but I got my butt whipped in my first play through. I have some learning to do, but I do like the game so far.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

I can't believe more people are not playing/posting about this 4x game.

I am so engrossed right now.. it's totally pulled me into it's fantasy world. Just had an epic battle against the AI.. set my units up front to occupy the enemy and then flanked them with my fire units.. they never knew they were walking into a trap!

Some of us travel during the week and can't play until the weekend...

[Honolulu_Blue]

I fired this up for about 40 minutes yesterday.

It played really slow on my laptop at the "high" settings, so I turned it down and it ran better.

I really enjoyed the bit I played. Definitely had that AOW feel to it.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Some of us travel during the week and can't play until the weekend...

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I fired this up for about 40 minutes yesterday.

It played really slow on my laptop at the "high" settings, so I turned it down and it ran better.

I really enjoyed the bit I played. Definitely had that AOW feel to it.

What is the graphics card on your laptop?

[path12]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I fired this up for about 40 minutes yesterday.

It played really slow on my laptop at the "high" settings, so I turned it down and it ran better.

I really enjoyed the bit I played. Definitely had that AOW feel to it.

Read something on Quarter to Three that for some folks the game defaults to your onboard video chip instead of your card -- might want to check the video options.

Plan on picking this up this weekend but don't know how much time I'll actually have to play it.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Galaril

What is the graphics card on your laptop?

It's a NVIDIA 680M 4096MB GDDR5 DX11

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by path12

Read something on Quarter to Three that for some folks the game defaults to your onboard video chip instead of your card -- might want to check the video options.

Plan on picking this up this weekend but don't know how much time I'll actually have to play it.

Thanks for the tip. I will have to check that.

I was really surprised how slow and clunky it was playing.

I have had the laptop for about a year and a half and it's the first game I've played that showed any kind of performance issues and I plenty many more seemingly graphics intensive games.

[MizzouRah]

Good review...

Age of Wonders 3 review: power fantasy | Polygon

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by path12

Read something on Quarter to Three that for some folks the game defaults to your onboard video chip instead of your card -- might want to check the video options.

Plan on picking this up this weekend but don't know how much time I'll actually have to play it.

This did the trick, btw.

I have an NVIDA graphics card and did the following:

1. Open NVIDIA Control Panel.
2. Select “Manage 3D settings”.
3. In the “Preferred graphics processor” drop-down menu, select your NVIDIA processor.

I fired AOW3 back up and it ran smooth and fine.

[Critch]

Same problem for me with an NVIDIA card, I had the graphics processor set to "auto-select" and it would select the onboard video chip for AOW3.

Now it's using the NVIDIA card it's much smoother, even on ultra.

I was wondering why my laptop could run GTA4 no problem with high settings, but was clunky with AOW3

[Marmel]

This sounds interesting. How is it different (or better) than HOMM? One of those old HOMM games, maybe 2 or 3....was one of the best games ever. the newer ones, no so much.

[NobodyHere]

I haven't played the newest AoW yet but I always thought that the Age of Wonders series > HoMM. You could always try the original Age of Wonders, you get can get it for $6 or less.

[Lonnie]

I've been out of town all week. Just got back and started installing it. Looks right up my alley.

I have steered away from most of the let's plays, so this should be fun just jumping in and going.

[Groundhog]

Thanks a lot assholes, another $40 to Steam.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Thanks a lot assholes, another $40 to Steam.

I approve this message....

The game is damn good though!

[Blackadar]

Just looking for an update - is this really worth purchasing at full price? I'm hearing "ok, but not great from quite a few other sources". Why do you like it (or not)?

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Thanks a lot assholes, another $40 to Steam.

QFT

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Just looking for an update - is this really worth purchasing at full price? I'm hearing "ok, but not great from quite a few other sources". Why do you like it (or not)?

You are a hardcore 4x gamer so I'm not sure.. for me, it's been great as I've never played the series before. Like most reviews, I'm more drawn to the 3d tactical battles than I am with the Civ style world movement. For me it's a tactical battle game with some 4x world style play thrown in to tie it all together.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Just looking for an update - is this really worth purchasing at full price? I'm hearing "ok, but not great from quite a few other sources". Why do you like it (or not)?

I can see some people quibbling with the campaign AI, but I have found the tactical battle AI hard to abuse and as a result this is a highly enjoyable game for me.

[MizzouRah]

They have a beta patch out for those with graphic issues as well as some other fixes/tweaks. Supposed to go live next week, but you can opt in for the patch now on Steam. I haven't tested it yet..

Hi everybody, The team has been hard at work with the feedback we’ve got since release. Before we roll out the first patch officially next week, we have decided to release a beta preview patch. This optional update is placed in a separate branch on Steam and will be available officially next week on both Steam and GoG. This allows users to check whether system incompatibly issues have been fixed for them, as well as getting gameflow feedback from the grognards on an experimental balance pass. If this patch doesn’t work for you, or if you want to start multi-player with friends not having the V1.08 beta patch, you can easily revert to the current official build. First we’ll list the fixes, then we’ll describe on how to switch to this V1.08 Test Branch in the Steam Client.
If this patch resolves the issues you have, then please let us know in this topic. If you find any new critical issues in the patch, please let us know about that too.
Some of the balance changes – especially those slowing down research and obtaining large stacks of end game unit – are experimental. We’d love to know what you think of these changes, so we can make adjustments. If all this switching and test code is not for you, you can stick to the current build (i.e. change noting) and wait for the official patch to auto-update later.
How to Switch to the V1.08 beta Patch in the Steam Client
We’ll deliver the Beta of this patch to you in a branch on Steam, before making it available to everyone. If you are experiencing one of the issues noted below, this is how you can move over to that branch.
1. Right Click ‘Age of Wonders 3′ in your Steam Library and select ‘Properties’ from the menu that appears.
2. Select the ‘BETAS’ tab in the ‘Properties’ window.
3. Set the top most combobox to ‘patch_v1.08_beta – Patch test build’.
4. Close the ‘Properties’ window.
To move back to the official version of the game, repeat these steps but switch to ‘NONE – Opt out of all beta programs’ on step 3. Please note that if you wish to play a multiplayer match, everyone needs to have the same version.
Note for GoG Users
We are sorry for any GoG users wanting to participate in this test, but the DRM free installer means there is no branching / reverting / auto updating system available for us to deliver this beta patch to you. You’ll get the polished, official patch next week!
Change Log:
Fixes:
• WQHD / QHD (up to 2560 x 1440 / 2560 *1600) native resolution display support (the Black & White boxes and blurry text should disappear). Fix has been verified to work up to and including a resolution of 2560×1660.
• Fixed an issue for people using Intel HD Graphics – specifically for HD4000 and Surface 2 Pro – in combination with certain driver version, that caused a crash when opening interface screens – e.g. starting the game, opening options menu, skill book, etc.
Performance
• Fixed frame drop when armies were selected.
• Fixed decreasing frame rate occurring during extended play, particularly in longer battles.
• Fixed a memory leak when Windows was locked.
• Optimized a feature effecting maps with water, which should now show increased framerate.
AI Improvements
• Fixed some cases where the tactical AI would come out from behind the walls of cities and fortresses too soon.
• Stopped the AI spamming disjunction, so players can now use global magic more easily.
• Fixed an issue where the tactical AI would cast a resurrection spell on an invalid target.
• Made ‘squire’ AI easier to beat.
• AI settings for players were changed to compensate for this change, to keep the same level of challenge on normal difficulty.
• Using the ‘restart’ option in a campaign map now returns the player to the briefing, allowing map difficulty to be changed.
Scenario & Campaign
• Campaign: Heroes being mind controlled no longer causes you to instantly lose a campaign map if you rescue them by the end of combat.
• Campaign: Heroes which are protected by the ‘resurgence’ effect – e.g. the theocrat’s ‘rebirth’ spell – can now die in tactical combat without causing you to lose the campaign map, as long as you win the battle that they die in.
• Blightmouth Crater: Closed a gap in impassable mountains.
• Blightmouth Crater: Removed two superfluous hearts of the blight.
• Blightmouth Crater: Fixed the behavior of independent armies.
• Elven Resurgence: Player 6 now starts with more gold mines, making the starting positions more balanced.
• 4th Elven Court map: Independents no longer interfere with one of the starting quests.
• 4th Commonwealth map: Fixed a message that missed an icon under specific circumstances.
• 5th Commonwealth map: A ‘defeat leader’ quest no longer reveals that leader’s position.
• 5th Commonwealth map: Fixed a story message that had overlapping lines of text.
• 6th Elven Court & Commonwealth maps: Prevented story characters from dying when you are victorious.
• 6th Elven Court and Commonwealth maps: Added a few building upgrades to starting cities to give the player a better starting situation and more options.
Other Fixes.
• Fixed settings – e.g. graphics settings – not being saved when using the ‘guest’ profile.
• Fixed the stack confirm movement button being disabled in some situations when a stack was auto-moving.
• Fixed a rare crash caused by a player razing a city with a heart of blight, tropics, etc in its domain
• Fixed an issue where a backstab bonus wasn’t being correctly applied. This led to situations where a unit could backstab a target without flanking it.
• Fixed a crash triggered by clicking on a “You lost your throne city!” event.
• Fixed a crash triggered by selecting a ‘Egg has hatched’ after loading the save game.
• Fixed the ‘Remove army from event list’ shortcut key function so armies are properly removed from the list.
• Fixed an issue where the ‘Protect your leader and throne city’ quest failed to complete on victory.
• The game now ignores controller input, to prevent camera drift when a controller is plugged in.
• ‘Spring of life’ now rewards units when explored.
• When creating a new custom leader, the field for setting a name is now left empty by default.
Balance:
• ‘Shrine of smiting’ is no longer ‘Devout’, nerfing ‘Shrine of smiting’ doom stacks which relied on stacking ‘Devout’ bonuses for the ‘Smiting prayer bolts’.
• ‘Shadow stalker’ now does cold damage. This fixes an issue where rogues had limited options vs. blight immune troops.
• Increased the research costs of skills to slow down progression through the skill tree.
• Increased cost of racial tier 3 unit building to 300 gold and 100 mana.
• Decreased the base production of cities.
• Fixed issue with ‘Libraries’ and ‘Observatories’ generating too much knowledge.
Features:
• Added buttons on either side of the city name that cycle through cities owned by the player.
• We added a quick save option, bound under CTRL+S by default.
• Added extra text to the preview popup when attacking a city wall. Players can now see the hit points the wall have remaining as they plan their attack.
We hope we’ll this patch resolves some of the issues you might have encountered. We plan to roll this patch out to all our players early next week and we’re already working on the next patch, so please bear with us if your issue did not make it into patch.
Thank you for all of you feedback. With your input we’ll make the game even better!
-The Team @ Triumph Studios.

[Groundhog]

I've been playing this an awful lot. First couple of big games ended very swiftly when those Dwarven war engine thinggies (that look like Sandcrawlers) proved 10x tougher than anything I had.

One thing I still don't understand is how to unlock more of the race-specific units. For example right now I'm playing Orcs and if I look in the encyclopedia view of Orc units I see a whole range that I can find not build. Are these unlocked through research, or do units eventually progress to these unit types through earning experience/levels?

[path12]

It's been all I've played in the past week and am enjoying it. There are definitely buildings that unlock unit types but just got an orc city recently and haven't had a chance to build it up yet.

Quests are great -- I had a dragon dwelling give me one to wipe out some Archon undeads three times -- first two times I got a Frost Dragon and third time they let me annex them and gave a Fire Dragon. So I have them going around clearing out lairs, watchtowers and the like.

My main problem is getting enough gold. There really aren't any buildings that help with gold and everything is so expensive -- once that dragon dwelling annexed with me it took 650 gold and two buildings to get where I could produce Fire Dragons myself (which also cost 360 gold).

[Groundhog]

Yeah, it seems that each race has their "unlock race-specific unit types" building, but each time I build it I don't see any other unit types?

Gold is an issue, but it's forced me to play a little differently. I only max out a couple of cities for starters, and specialise others so I have my military unit producing towns, and then towns where I only produce mana/research buildings. Secondly, I am smarter about where I position towns, making sure there's as many bonus tiles as I can find grouped together.

In combat I'm *finally* learning to play properly and not just use all out combat magic - keeping your guys alive with defensive spells is often better, as experienced units are invaluable.

[path12]

Mopping up my current map with three six-army stacks of doom -- my best three heroes and three elite dwarf firstborn, a stack of two fire, two frost and two gold dragons and the surprisingly awesome flank army of fairies. Put those suckers on the flank of whatever you are going at and the fairy fire is wonderful for finishing off those weakened units from your dragon breaths.

I still have to remember sometimes that even if you have an enemy unit down to two points they still hit with full effect. Have lost a few nice frontliners due to forgetting that.

Also, man, these maps are huge -- playing on medium and still have about a quarter I haven't gotten to yet after like 10 hours.

[Edward64]

Going to have some free time this weekend and thinking about getting the game.

What do you guys think now ... still fun, high replayability, kept your interest etc.?