Age of Wonders 3

[Sepiche]

Out on Steam now as well and currently on sale for $9.59.

Early word of mouth I've heard on this has been outstanding, but I'll post impressions tonight if I can manage to cheer up my wife and get some computer time.

[Zaxxon]

Woo, 20% off.

[baelthazar]

The base game is also 50% off at the moment, so people who want to jump all in have a good chance now.

[ColdSteel]

I bought the DLC but can't install it. When I run the installer it says the base game is not detected. I have my GOG games, including AoW3 installed on my D: drive. I even tried putting the installer in the main AoW3 directory and it still doesn't detect the base game.

tgb, did you have any issues installing it?

[Pyperkub]

Bump - can anyone answer this?

Question regarding difficulty levels and the Strategic AI - does upping the Difficulty make the AI better (Especially on the Strategic maps and in regards to aggressiveness), or does it just give them statistical boosts?

I pretty much stopped playing on the 2nd/3rd Elven campaign scenario as it didn't seem like the AI was doing anything on the Strategic map.

[Sepiche]

Question regarding difficulty levels and the Strategic AI - does upping the Difficulty make the AI better (Especially on the Strategic maps and in regards to aggressiveness), or does it just give them statistical boosts?

I pretty much stopped playing on the 2nd/3rd Elven campaign scenario as it didn't seem like the AI was doing anything on the Strategic map.

I don't have anything definitive, but from what I've read anything below hard and the AI plays with kid gloves and won't make all the best moves, but hard lets them play as well as they can, and levels above that add more and more economic boosts to aid the AI.

I only just recently started playing this again after playing quite a bit right after it came out, and on hard now the AI is night and day better than what it was. I won't say it always makes the very best moves on the strategic map, but it's definitely capable and aggressive now. Das24680 has a fairly recent let's play on Lord difficulty I've been watching lately, and after a strong start he thought he had the game wrapped up, but the last few turns he's really been shellacked by the AI.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuQuR-3R ... BJmUFNdsKd

That's from about 2 months ago and it doesn't even include the most recent large patch.

[Jag]

I bought the DLC but can't install it. When I run the installer it says the base game is not detected. I have my GOG games, including AoW3 installed on my D: drive. I even tried putting the installer in the main AoW3 directory and it still doesn't detect the base game.

tgb, did you have any issues installing it?

Same problem. I even saw your post on the GoG forums

[tgb]

I bought the DLC but can't install it. When I run the installer it says the base game is not detected. I have my GOG games, including AoW3 installed on my D: drive. I even tried putting the installer in the main AoW3 directory and it still doesn't detect the base game.

tgb, did you have any issues installing it?

Yes, I did. There seems to be something going on with the installer. When I got that message the first couple of times I uninstalled and reinstalled from my original download. This time the installer stopped working about 75% of the way through - except the base game was installed and ran fine. I tried the DLC and got the error message again.

So I went all in - deleted both the original install file and the DLC install file I downloaded earlier and downloaded them both. Again the installer locked up with the bar about 75% full and I got some sort of exception error - but the game in installed and runs fine. This time I was able to successfully install Golden Showers.

So other than "keep trying" I have no advice.

[Pyperkub]

Question regarding difficulty levels and the Strategic AI - does upping the Difficulty make the AI better (Especially on the Strategic maps and in regards to aggressiveness), or does it just give them statistical boosts?

I pretty much stopped playing on the 2nd/3rd Elven campaign scenario as it didn't seem like the AI was doing anything on the Strategic map.

I don't have anything definitive, but from what I've read anything below hard and the AI plays with kid gloves and won't make all the best moves, but hard lets them play as well as they can, and levels above that add more and more economic boosts to aid the AI.

I only just recently started playing this again after playing quite a bit right after it came out, and on hard now the AI is night and day better than what it was. I won't say it always makes the very best moves on the strategic map, but it's definitely capable and aggressive now. Das24680 has a fairly recent let's play on Lord difficulty I've been watching lately, and after a strong start he thought he had the game wrapped up, but the last few turns he's really been shellacked by the AI.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuQuR-3R ... BJmUFNdsKd

Thanks! Grabbed the expansion - the game was amazing but then just kind of petered out from the AI doing nothing on the Strategic map. Hopefully I can boost the difficulty to Hard midstream.

That's from about 2 months ago and it doesn't even include the most recent large patch.

[Malacheye]

I had the same problem and i looked at the community forum on steam

Someone with the same problem of it auto installing.

You need to right click on downloadable content from the steam library list. Apparently this "jolts" the game into loading the expansion.

You will know it worked if in the upper left corner of the game menu it has a third bubble that says "Golden Realms Expansion"

You may need to restart it more than once...

It worked for me.

[ColdSteel]

I finally got my GOG version installed and working properly. Here is what you need to do:

1) Download the new 2.2 version of the base game, the 2.2 versions of any previous DLC you have (Elven Resurgence, Dragon Throne) and the 2.2 golden realms DLC
2) Uninstall the base game
3) Install the 2.2 base game
4) Install the new 2.2 versions of the older DLC
5) Install the Golden Realms DLC
6) If you are seeing two copies of the Elven Resurgence scenario and the Dragon throne scenario is missing, you need to delete just those two maps (Heartlands and Dragon throne) from the \age of wonders III\contents\title\maps folder. Then it should show up properly. The installer mistakenly puts those two maps into two different folders.

[Stuie]

I finally got my GOG version installed and working properly. Here is what you need to do:

1) Download the new 2.2 version of the base game, the 2.2 versions of any previous DLC you have (Elven Resurgence, Dragon Throne) and the 2.2 golden realms DLC
2) Uninstall the base game
3) Install the 2.2 base game
4) Install the new 2.2 versions of the older DLC
5) Install the Golden Realms DLC
6) If you are seeing two copies of the Elven Resurgence scenario and the Dragon throne scenario is missing, you need to delete just those two maps (Heartlands and Dragon throne) from the \age of wonders III\contents\title\maps folder. Then it should show up properly. The installer mistakenly puts those two maps into two different folders.

I think I'm convinced to never buy from gog.com again. In fact, I'm thinking about dropping another 20 bucks on the game just for the convenience of having it on Steam.

[Victoria Raverna]

I finally got my GOG version installed and working properly. Here is what you need to do:

1) Download the new 2.2 version of the base game, the 2.2 versions of any previous DLC you have (Elven Resurgence, Dragon Throne) and the 2.2 golden realms DLC
2) Uninstall the base game
3) Install the 2.2 base game
4) Install the new 2.2 versions of the older DLC
5) Install the Golden Realms DLC
6) If you are seeing two copies of the Elven Resurgence scenario and the Dragon throne scenario is missing, you need to delete just those two maps (Heartlands and Dragon throne) from the \age of wonders III\contents\title\maps folder. Then it should show up properly. The installer mistakenly puts those two maps into two different folders.

I think I'm convinced to never buy from gog.com again. In fact, I'm thinking about dropping another 20 bucks on the game just for the convenience of having it on Steam.

gog.com is good for very old games that are unlikely to have new patches.

[Sepiche]

I don't have anything definitive, but from what I've read anything below hard and the AI plays with kid gloves and won't make all the best moves, but hard lets them play as well as they can, and levels above that add more and more economic boosts to aid the AI.

Now that I'm home and actually looked in the game, I realize I completely misremembered what the difficulties were called.

Here's a more accurate breakdown as I understand it:

AI Bonuses:
1) Squire – None, also has been disabled to make it more stupid.
2) Knight – None
3) Lord – Gets +33% gold and production. Starts with a slightly larger army.
4) King – Gets +66% gold and production, +25% mana and knowledge. Starts with a larger army.
4) Emperor – Gets +100% gold and production, +50% mana and knowledge. Starts with a larger army.

The AI does NOT:

– Get any bonuses in tactical combat
– Get anything for free after the game starts (except the Disjunction skill, which AIs get for free about halfway through the game)
– Get any extra abilities to cast spells

[Greybriar]

I think I'm convinced to never buy from gog.com again. In fact, I'm thinking about dropping another 20 bucks on the game just for the convenience of having it on Steam.

Patching is not GOG.com's forte. I have purchased many games from GOG.com and have been waiting until they have been fully updated before I install them. But I continue to purchase games from GOG.com (and wait before installing them!) because--to the best of my knowledge--GOG.com's games are the closest to DRM-Free of any games legally available via digital download and I want to do my part to help them succeed.

Steam, on the other hand, appears to excel in patching the games that are played using its service. That is what I like best about Steam. Unfortunately none of Steam's games are DRM-Free. If they were, they would activate and play without Steam even being installed.

But just be thankful that we gamers have a choice.

[Sepiche]

I've heard that gog is working on a new Steam-like client with much better support for DLC and patching, but no idea when it will start rolling out.

[tgb]

I've heard that gog is working on a new Steam-like client with much better support for DLC and patching, but no idea when it will start rolling out.

It's being tested alongside that Witcher boardgame thingy that's coming out. I haven't been on in a few weeks, but last time I was connectivity was still an issue.

[ColdSteel]

I got to play some last night and I'm loving the changes I've seen so far.

[Sepiche]

I got to play some last night and I'm loving the changes I've seen so far.

Yeah, same. One little thing I noticed is that dungeons now give random extra bonuses if they are explored and in your territory... bonuses to unit strength, armor, etc. Just all kinds of little improvements.

Not too sure how I feel about the halflings yet. They are weak against physical damage which makes them pretty squishy, but they have a luck ability that lets them have a pretty good chance to dodge spells, and attacks. Their jesters are badass though... good damage plus a chance to cause 2 debuffs on the target and debuff adjacent units.

[Butterknife]

I was "lucky" to have my car break down and have to skip work today. After dealing with that I thought I would reward myself with a new game, so I bought the AoW3 expansion.

It is excellent! I played a Halfling Warlord, and managed to get a "Seal" victory (sort of a king-of-the-mountain type thing where you conquer a tough node (a "Seal") and then hold on to it while you get points every turn until you have enough to win). I played on a small map with 4 opponents, the game didn't take very long at all. I think my next game will be a bigger map and more enemies.

There were multiple things I liked. I loved having two of the AIs surrender to me! That was much better than having to beat down every last city. Really improved the game speed. I loved the cute little halfing units -- they are funny! Also, in combat it is pretty nice when a really big attack misses your unit because it was "lucky". The new items are cool. The new units are cool. The new game mechanics are cool. I'd say the expansion is worth the money, but if you don't want to play as or against the halflings you can wait on buying it. Definitely get the patch, though -- the quality of life improvements to the game are worth it alone!

Between this and Endless Legend I'm in 4X nirvana. I'm going to rotate a game of each for the next little while, until I am tired of strategy games.

[dbemont]

I went back to check out the AI. The good news is that I am finding the AI opponents put up something of a fight. But the bad news is that in my current game, my chief rivals each declared war on me (unforced, i was nowhere near any kind of victory) but turned out to have subpar military forces defending their cities. I waltzed in with existing armies and took their cities in short order.

I was only playing on the Knight difficulty level (second one up) but it had been my understanding that that utilizes the full AI, just doesn't provide the AI with bonuses.

It's not like I've tested the game extensively, but it's looking to me as if this is yet another game that depends on independents and wandering armies to provide the chief excitement.

[ColdSteel]

I was only playing on the Knight difficulty level (second one up) but it had been my understanding that that utilizes the full AI, just doesn't provide the AI with bonuses.

You need the next one up from Knight. I read a dev post a few days ago that said the Knight setting is actually intended as the easy setting for new players and the next one up is intended for more of a challenge.

[ColdSteel]

A new patch is out. Notes:

Patch v1.430

We just made patch v1.430 official. That patch should resolve several - and especially critical - issues reported after the release of the Golden Realms Expansion and Patch v1.4.
Thanks everyone for reporting and thanks for providing us with the save games and information we need to crush them bugz.

Patch notes for this release are:
•Surrendering AI Leaders no longer duplicate items.
•Fixed an issue where a Ziggurat wouldn't give a reward for clearing in the case it had Naga inhabitants.
•Fixed a crash in Hot Seat mode.
•Fixed an issue in the first map of the Halfling campaign where the game wouldn't properly recognize you had won (use CTRL+ALT+C and type HEIN if this has affected you or start the campaign from scratch, as this fix unfortunately cannot repair saved games).
•Fixed Lesser Blight and Lesser Light elementals not appearing as often as they should.
•Fixed a rare crash in the city relation system that occurred after pressing the end turn button.
•Fixed a rare crash in Strategic AI code where it would try to scout to a player who did not have any cities and whose leader was in the void. Note that this would only occur in campaign maps.
•Fixed a crash associated with Halfling Martyrs while Exalted Martyrs is researched.

[Dramatist]

I bought this on the summer sale but hadn't played much. I bought the expansion and have played some over the last few days and I'm really enjoying myself. The combat is very fun with all the different units and special powers. I had a computer AI invade my capital city with two armies against my one and the battle was epic. Doom Gaze and even my rabbit burrows ended up saving me by the skin of my teeth, very cool moment.

[Pyperkub]

Yeah, the game is much better. I'm having fun again with the challenge on normal for the campaign levels.

[MadMarlin]

I was only playing on the Knight difficulty level (second one up) but it had been my understanding that that utilizes the full AI, just doesn't provide the AI with bonuses.

You need the next one up from Knight. I read a dev post a few days ago that said the Knight setting is actually intended as the easy setting for new players and the next one up is intended for more of a challenge.

Do you happen to have a link to this dev post? I am curious what the current AI levels do. All of my searches on AOW3 AI levels return results from when the game was new (and the AI wasn't as strong). Just curious what the current AI bonuses are for each level.

Just bought the game last week (after reading posts here that the AI was greatly improved) and am really enjoying it.

Cheers,
MM

[ColdSteel]

Do you happen to have a link to this dev post?

The dev post is from the AoW3 thread on the Something Awful forums. There's a Triumph dev that posts there. He's known as Gerbyln on SA and Tombles on the AoW3 forums. He's the dev that does all of their Youtube vids and is the one that wrote the tactical combat AI (but not the strategic AI). He had a post on SA about 2 weeks ago taking about the AI and that's where he said to use Lord or Emperor for a challenging game. Unfortunately the SA forums have once again gone behind a pay wall (a stupid practice) so I can't quote it. I do remember he said that AIs above knight get bonuses. I think I remember that the Emperor bonuses were +100% production and gold, +50% mana and knowledge. I'm not sure about the rest of them. Lord may be +50% production and gold and +25% mana and knowledge. Knight has no bonuses.

I'm currently playing a large random map using Lord difficulty for the 5 AIs and they are expanding rapidly. One of them already accomplished the 5 city empire quest within 20 turns.

[Stuie]

I was only playing on the Knight difficulty level (second one up) but it had been my understanding that that utilizes the full AI, just doesn't provide the AI with bonuses.

You need the next one up from Knight. I read a dev post a few days ago that said the Knight setting is actually intended as the easy setting for new players and the next one up is intended for more of a challenge.

Do you happen to have a link to this dev post? I am curious what the current AI levels do. All of my searches on AOW3 AI levels return results from when the game was new (and the AI wasn't as strong). Just curious what the current AI bonuses are for each level.

Just bought the game last week (after reading posts here that the AI was greatly improved) and am really enjoying it.

Cheers,
MM

Found the dev post on the AOW3 forums.

[ColdSteel]

Found the dev post on the AOW3 forums.

That's the same dev and it's a similar post but not the one I'd seen on the SA forum. This one was from back in April but I don't think the bonuses have changed any. The SA one I saw a few weeks ago was talking about the recent AI changes with the new expansion and how you should play Lord or above for a challenge. Similar information though was in both posts about the AI bonuses so that's a very good find. For the lazy, here's the information he posted:

1) Squire – None, also has been disabled to make it more stupid.
2) Knight – None
3) Lord – Gets +33% gold and production. Starts with a slightly larger army.
4) King – Gets +66% gold and production, +25% mana and knowledge. Starts with a larger army.
5) Emperor – Gets +100% gold and production, +50% mana and knowledge. Starts with a larger army.

I'm playing a large random game on Lord right now playing as a Rogue and it's certainly testing me. I currently have wars on two fronts with a Theocrat and another Rogue. I'm systematically wiping out the Theocrat but the Rogue is a monster. I'm going to have to have trouble dealing with him, I can see. I'm trying to quickly end my war with the Theocrat so I can turn my full attention and forces to the Rogue. I really love this game now after the patching and expansion. It's just a whole lot of fun.

[ColdSteel]

Just a heads up that this is on sale at GOG this weekend for 50% off ($19.99). That's a good sale if you've been thinking about buying it. It's a great game.

[ColdSteel]

And the pay gate is finally open at Something Awful so I was finally able to find the dev posts referenced above about the AI there by Gerblyn (a.k.a. Tombles).

Knight is basically easy mode (it actually was the easiest mode, we added squire later because people wanted an AI that literally did nothing and let them play very slowly). Lord should be the goto mode if you want the AI to pose any sort of challenge, though really I'd recommend king or higher if you actually want an AI that comes after you with significant armies and things. Of course, since I wrote a lot of the systems I'm pretty good at the game, so it's very hard for me to judge how much challenge any level offers.

Yeah, in hindsight those descriptions should probably be changed... Knight is basically the normal AI with no cheating at all. Since the AI doesn't really have a cohesive plan like a human does, and since it tends to lose more units to autocombat while creeping, a human player is at a pretty significant advantage to it.

Lord gives the AI just enough extra resources to make up for it's shortcomings. King gives it a definite advantage over a human and emperor gives it so much that it's a nightmare to play against, unless you catch it early before it can really pick up steam.

So try King or Emperor for a serious challenge I guess. Also here's some very interesting info about the Triumph team and his role on it he posted there:

The company rents a few rooms in an old, converted hospital in the middle of Delft, which is the oldest city in the Netherlands, and also one of the most touristy. We get all the art tourists coming to see Vermeer stuff, history tourists coming to learn about William of Orange, and monarchists coming to visit the church where the royal family is buried. It's a very pretty city with lots of trees, canals, and shops selling cheese and blue china. Our office looks out over an enormous building site, because they're putting in a new rail tunnel.

We're split into 3 main groups, Code, Design and Art, each based in their own room. I'm currently sitting with the designers. Since I wrote a lot of the code that holds the core gameplay systems together, I'm the most familiar with what it's capable of. I spend half my time working on design things, mostly units, abilities and spells. I designed the new elementals for example, and was responsible for putting together all the wild magic stuff (though not designing it all).

I also do a lot of balance stuff. Quite often a balance change happens with a conversation with 2 or 3 people like:

- "Killer Instinct seems kind of worthless"
- "What does it do?"
- "+3 damage bonus versus core races until end of combat"
<10 minutes of arguing and bickering>
- "Ok, it needs buffing, any ideas?"
<10 minutes of arguing and bickering>
- "So, it adds more critical damage, like, the unit sees an opening an instinctively goes in for the kill"
- "Cool."

The other half of my time is spent working on gameplay code things, I implemented a lot of the logic behind how the seals work and how the empire quests work, for example.

We mainly work using a bug tracking database that keeps track of all the different tasks we're supposed to be doing, like bugs that need to be investigated, and new features that need to be added. The tasks are ordered by importance and we're fairly free to choose in which order we want to do things, unless some factor means something needs to be completed soon. We all had to drop everything at one point to write all the dialog for the campaign, for example, since it needed to be sent away for translation.

Generally it's a really nice place to work. We're organized enough to get everything done (mostly), but not so organized that it feels like we're all cogs in some weird, unknowable machine.

The art teams is probably the busiest team. Making all the models, textures, animations, and 2D graphics in the game is an enormous undertaking. The new expansion and patch added another 150 or so icons to the game alone. Generally, there is only downtime in the week or so before release, when most people simply sit around and test the game looking for crashes and issues. At other times they'll be working on stuff for expansions, or fixing visual glitches for patches (mostly the former)

[MadMarlin]

Stui and ColdSteel, thanks for the replies. This confirms what I have been suspecting all along:
I'm not very good at games!

Cheers!
MM

[Dramatist]

Stui and ColdSteel, thanks for the replies. This confirms what I have been suspecting all along:
I'm not very good at games!

Cheers!
MM

Don't feel badly, knight is very tough for me as well. I keep thinking I'm doing well and then lose badly to multiple stacks of computer AI.

[ColdSteel]

"Cities of the Dead", a new dev journal that's up on the main site discussing some of the mechanics of the new Necromancer class.

Undead Cities: Necromancers can convert whole city populations into Ghouls. The population of these cities does not increase naturally over time, and doesn’t get population growth from farms or normal city upgrades like store houses. Undead Cities are also not subject to standard rules about city happiness, instead they get a permanent boost to their income, representing the fact that the undead require no rest or food to continue their labors.

We are replacing city upgrades for which the undead clearly have no use. For example, instead of a Hospital an undead city has an Embalmer’s Guild which restore hit points for garrisons. Undead cities can be made to grow again by constructing Breeding Pens; where the undead breed mortals to expand the ranks of the living dead. (sort of like revenge for the classic zombie pens seen in horror flicks).

[ColdSteel]

The GOG big winter sale started today and one of the special offers is Age of Wonders 3 Deluxe Edition at 66% off ($15.29) for the next 20 hours. That's a no-brainer price if you've been waiting for a sale to get it.

EDIT: Also, they're giving away the original AOW game free today.

[RMC]

Love this game. And there is a new race coming with the next patch as well. So get in now for a great price!

[ColdSteel]

And there is a new race coming with the next patch as well.

And it's been confirmed that the new race is Frostlings!!

[Pyperkub]

Love this game. And there is a new race coming with the next patch as well. So get in now for a great price!

It's the next expansion unfortunately, not patch:

Today we reveal the first information on the Frostlings, who return as a revamped, fully loaded playable race in the upcoming Expansion

[Pyperkub]

Yeah, the game is much better. I'm having fun again with the challenge on normal for the campaign levels.

Ruh, Roh!

Ok, I need to get better at this game, as now I'm under serious pressure from the AI... ack!

[RMC]

And there is a new race coming with the next patch as well.

And it's been confirmed that the new race is Frostlings!!

Oops , I meant expansion. Sorry...