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Author Topic: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur!  (Read 7587 times)

Biowraith

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Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur!
« on: July 28, 2019, 11:42:39 am »

With release just over a week away (6th August) I figured it's maybe time we had a thread for Age of Wonders: Planetfall.

I'm guessing most folks on the forum will already have at least a passing familiarity with Age of Wonders, but if not:

Age of Wonders is a series of turn based 4x strategy war games with a strong focus on (also turn based) tactical combat.  There's 4 games in the series (if you count Shadow Magic as a game in its own right), with the first being released 20 years ago.  Same basic genre as games like Fallen Enchantress, Endless Legend, Heroes of Might & Magic, etc, and especially the first game almost certainly drawing heavy influence from the venerable Master of Magic.  I don't think it's too controversial to say it's one of the better examples of the genre, especially for its combat.  For those with little knowledge of the genre, the somewhat lazy comparison that most people will understand is it's sorta like Civilization with XCom combat.

Age of Wonders: Planetfall is the latest installment of the series, and the first one since the developers Triumph Studios were acquired by Paradox Interactive.  Where the previous games were all set in the same medieval fantasy world, this time they've decided to go sci-fi.  That said, at its core it's still the same basic gameplay, using the same engine and most of the mechanics from AoW3.  At launch it'll be available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with controller support.  They've said they'll "do their best to get a Mac version out" but have no news about Linux.  There's plans for 3 expansions, the first one being later this year (and being Paradox and the age we live in, there's a season pass option).

Super cheesy trailer with 80s style music
E3 trailer
List of dev diaries covering most new features


(there's also a ton of pre-release streams and videos floating around out there, and I included links to some 'spotlight' videos in the Races spoiler below)

I'm not sure if people like these kinds of threads to have a lot of info on them - I've noticed most of the more recent new game threads have pretty brief intro posts, but I'm not good with brevity and I'm also quite hyped and have watched an unhealthy number of pre-release videos for this game, so I'll try to share what I've learned and list the main features and changes from the previous games below.  I'll just use Spoilers so it's not too wall-of-text cos I've probably typed out way more than I should have...

Spoiler: Plot (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Game modes (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Races (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Operations (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Mods & Equipment (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Secret Technologies (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Research (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: NPC Factions (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Diplomacy (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Combat (click to show/hide)

I think that's just about everything.  Personally I'm really looking forward to the game; Age of Wonders is probably my favourite strategy series and I can't wait to set up my Celestian Assembly so I can bring peace, enlightenment, and horrific dismemberment and bionic reconstruction to all.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: December 23, 2020, 06:40:48 pm by Biowraith »
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Folly

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2019, 06:10:16 pm »

An all-female faction that ride laser-dinosaurs? Okay, I'm hooked.
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JimboM12

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2019, 08:53:26 pm »

ptw, this game has been on my watch list for a hot minute, right below bannerlord (which at this point is becoming mythical)

edit: a little more indepth, i love the idea of regular human soldiers fighting eldritch horrors, super high tech aliens, magicians/magic beasts, etc. i suppose thats why i love 40k as well, but when i saw this game i knew it would scratch the itch. obv, im going to be a Vanguard player.

to get us started, whats the faction everyone is looking forward to?
« Last Edit: July 28, 2019, 09:17:25 pm by JimboM12 »
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Kanil

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2019, 11:43:27 pm »

to get us started, whats the faction everyone is looking forward to?

None of them... which is partially why I'm so unenthusiastic about the setting switch. I'll probably end up playing it at some point, and probably end up liking it when I do... but I'm not really excited about the game yet.
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Yah, it sounds like minecraft with content, you have obviously missed the point, people dont like content, they like different coloured blocks.
Seems to work fine with my copy. As soon as I loaded the human caravan came by and the world burst into fire.

Aoi

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2019, 03:36:17 am »

I have to admit, based on the faction descriptions, I was wondering if it was meant to be satirical.

Spoiler: "Commentary." (click to show/hide)
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Niveras

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2019, 07:01:50 am »

I would have greatly preferred seeing old fantasy races expanded into a space/science fiction setting, rather than an entirely new setting. We really only have Warhammer40k for that (and Spelljammer I guess), would be nice to see some other takes. Why go through the trouble of producing new civilizations (especially with as cheesy - hopefully tongue-in-cheek - as these are) when you could have something like the shadow demons and their realm to create not only a truly alien race but one with its own realm that lies over not just a planet, but entirety of space. Expand the concept of magic into something more technical and have all factions exploit it to different degrees (a tech-primary faction would only use magic to break physical laws in limited scopes, where a magic-primary faction would use tech concepts to further amplify their magic). Some of the races don't even make sense.

It also would have been nice to expand the gameplay outside of just the one planet that all factions just happen to be present on.

Whatever. Although I liked AoW/SD/2 and finished them all, I never could wrap my head around the combat system in AoW3. Even low tier stuff was wiping the floor with whatever I threw at them, I'd need a numerical advantage to win any encounter and I'd still have losses every time. I guess I just suck at AoW now.
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Frumple

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2019, 07:45:55 am »

So these space amazon laser dinosaur things. Do they have water units? Are... are there sharks? Sharks with friggin' lasers?
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Biowraith

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2019, 01:29:45 pm »

Every faction has one water unit, but I don't think any of the pre-release streamers I watched ever researched them, so I don't know if the Amazon version is sharks with friggin lasers.  Which means there's hope?

I know the neutrals get something called Octowhales.
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Aoi

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2019, 02:44:02 pm »

I would have greatly preferred seeing old fantasy races expanded into a space/science fiction setting, rather than an entirely new setting. We really only have Warhammer40k for that (and Spelljammer I guess), would be nice to see some other takes. Why go through the trouble of producing new civilizations (especially with as cheesy - hopefully tongue-in-cheek - as these are) when you could have something like the shadow demons and their realm to create not only a truly alien race but one with its own realm that lies over not just a planet, but entirety of space.  Expand the concept of magic into something more technical and have all factions exploit it to different degrees (a tech-primary faction would only use magic to break physical laws in limited scopes, where a magic-primary faction would use tech concepts to further amplify their magic). Some of the races don't even make sense.

It also would have been nice to expand the gameplay outside of just the one planet that all factions just happen to be present on.

I think Arcanum did a pretty good job with the concept of magic and technology coexisting, though they went in an opposite direction: The two forces were in direct conflict with each other and the presence of one would disrupt the functioning of the other. As I recall (and I may have flipped the situation), mages had to sit in the back car of the train. Not due to some inherently racist reason or something, but because the steam engine at the head would spontaneously break down on occasion of they were too close.

Are there any major titles that considers the unexpected insertion of hightech into a primarily magic-driven world (which would be the case if the space marines landed in the previous AoW worlds)? Shadowrun comes to mind, but that's the opposite situation.

I know the neutrals get something called Octowhales.

...

Spoiler: "Sharktopus!" (click to show/hide)
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EuchreJack

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #9 on: July 29, 2019, 04:56:25 pm »

I would have greatly preferred seeing old fantasy races expanded into a space/science fiction setting, rather than an entirely new setting. We really only have Warhammer40k for that (and Spelljammer I guess), would be nice to see some other takes. Why go through the trouble of producing new civilizations (especially with as cheesy - hopefully tongue-in-cheek - as these are) when you could have something like the shadow demons and their realm to create not only a truly alien race but one with its own realm that lies over not just a planet, but entirety of space.  Expand the concept of magic into something more technical and have all factions exploit it to different degrees (a tech-primary faction would only use magic to break physical laws in limited scopes, where a magic-primary faction would use tech concepts to further amplify their magic). Some of the races don't even make sense.

It also would have been nice to expand the gameplay outside of just the one planet that all factions just happen to be present on.

I think Arcanum did a pretty good job with the concept of magic and technology coexisting, though they went in an opposite direction: The two forces were in direct conflict with each other and the presence of one would disrupt the functioning of the other. As I recall (and I may have flipped the situation), mages had to sit in the back car of the train. Not due to some inherently racist reason or something, but because the steam engine at the head would spontaneously break down on occasion of they were too close.

Are there any major titles that considers the unexpected insertion of hightech into a primarily magic-driven world (which would be the case if the space marines landed in the previous AoW worlds)? Shadowrun comes to mind, but that's the opposite situation.

I know the neutrals get something called Octowhales.

...

Spoiler: "Sharktopus!" (click to show/hide)

Actually, in Arcanum the midrange mages got to ride in the Mage Caboose.  The powerful mages had to walk: They weren't allowed in the train at all.  And the techies that ran the train were totally prejudiced against mages.

There was an old game for the original Playstation called Unholy Wars, where the Tecknos (cyborgs and robots) crash landed on a primitive planet of Magic users called Arcanans.  The game is where these forces fight each other for rule of the planet.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Biowraith

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #10 on: August 01, 2019, 02:08:22 pm »

Reddit AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/ckrzbx/age_of_wonders_planetfall_ama/?sort=new

(I think it may be in progress at the time of this post)
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EuchreJack

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2019, 10:24:08 am »

Why is the game called Age of Wonders?  It looks nothing like any of the previous games.  I mean, if the same engine is used, and some of the same people from the Age of Wonders series are involved, ok I get it.  Otherwise, why bother?

Teneb

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #12 on: August 02, 2019, 10:46:02 am »

Why is the game called Age of Wonders?  It looks nothing like any of the previous games.  I mean, if the same engine is used, and some of the same people from the Age of Wonders series are involved, ok I get it.  Otherwise, why bother?
It's the same people, same engine as 3 I think. Same style of gameplay and core mechanics, even. Only major change is the setting.
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Biowraith

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #13 on: August 02, 2019, 12:15:25 pm »

In some ways it's closer to AoW3 than AoW3 was to AoW2/SM.

edit: thought further, reconsidered the accuracy of original post.
« Last Edit: August 02, 2019, 12:22:48 pm by Biowraith »
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ChairmanPoo

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Re: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dismount that Dinosaur! (August 6th)
« Reply #14 on: August 04, 2019, 06:03:28 pm »

No
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