I want better city management and planning. I really want it to matter when I put a quarry or forester by being able to further specialize or upgrade it like I could in Planetfall.
I know you don't play multiplayer, but it would have benefitted the video to add: This is a Paradox game, and its DLC rules apply. If you are going to play with friends, everyone has access to the DLC content of the host.
JUMBO! I got the full pass at launch but I haven't played in a bit, thanks for the reminder to give it another go. It's tough to find the time strategy is having a bit of a moment right now.
Overall, great game, tons of fun. The expansions are ok, none is mandatory, though. I was a little disappointed in the primal one, I thought you would interact more with your god after the first few quests. The tome mechanic is very good and really helps make each game different. However, the units are a little bit meh. You don't have a identity for each factions the way different races or leaders have in other 4x games. Looking forward to the next expansion. My wishlist: more events, more elaborate quests (like the grail quest in planetfall), races and leaders that play more differently than just some stats (the dragon leader is a good start).
I hate the fact that races are just a stat here and there. It makes them less immersive in my view, which is why I can't really see ever playing the game.
@@sarmatianns That's not an issue if you yourself are not making sweeping changes to the Races. From what I can tell, the AI doesn't mess with the Race Traits even if you turn on the Generate Rulers option when starting a game. So you can play freely with each race having distinct traits, without having to worry about Strong Tough Halflings, unless you yourself decide to make them.
I like the game and every dlc was good, too. However I'm one of those who are saying that every playtrough feels the same. There are many options how you can stack your numbers bit in the end it always boils down to either get your economy to skyrock or to get an invincible army asap. This gets boring after a while. I've played 400 hours so it was absolutely worth it's money but I've hoped for more. They should make terrain massively more important to a point where terraforming the world is real win Option. (A major race transformation which makes you rule one environment but loose an all others) or they should really double down on affinities. So that your top 2 affinities force you into a specific playstyle.
That was the major win for me in AoW 2 (Shadow Magic) - Terraforming. While having a ruler sitting in your main city was a bit "different", casting those global spells had the most satisfying impact. You get thrown into the most strange worlds/maps and you want to shape them actively, not just modify your units. All your tools just interact with the units, not with the map (how often did I want to research the tier III materium tome just for the flaten mountain spell...)
Eldrich Realms actually is pushing for a new terraforming method to being more effective. It will add "Gloom" which is a tentacle horror that naturally spreads if an eldritch gate is in world or an AI takes the tome for the terraforming and major race transformation. It bleeds characters overtime rapidly and only those who become a new form of demon kin can get rewarded from it. Is it dramatic enough to easily overwhelm opponents? No but this is a more in line with say mistlands where the effect can really help add an extra defensive layer to your kingdom. Plus the new layer being added, with constellation events being added for free, the update to ranking up minions, with astral and dark getting full on reworks, the game is going to change in a good way once again. I think the only real issue I've experienced is the heavy focus on raw combat every single update that makes it a struggle to seek out a different victory from just pure military take over.
This is actually what you got from both the latest DLC. The previous one had a society that specialized on one type of environment and could spread it. The latest one had the Gloom mechanic that also does this.
@@aviencloud4239 For me, very much so. I love the way the factions/rulers you create can show up as enemies in future games. You can set their AI Personality too, for roleplay reasons or presumably for difficulty (though I haven't played around too much with doing it for the latter, so that's just in theory).
I bought the game like 2 weeks ago and I have a lot of fun with it. Especially because of the Faction Creation and because you have tons to unlock. The most annoying about strategy games even though its my favorite genre is that you mostly dont have anything to unlock and I need something to work on wo stay interested. So I am very happy about Age of Wonders 4. At the moment for me one of the best strategy games out there.
"season 2" of the DLC being announced is very promising because Triumph never had that with Planetfall and previous games. Such is the way of Paradox games that 4,8,12 DLC later the game is completely different and improved.
I absolutely love this game. I have over 1.000 hours played and I really appreciate the details that have been improved over the year. I hope people would give it the love it deserves
I picked up the habit of keeping at least one of the initial traits that come with a race/form so they would keep some degree of identity whenever I create a new faction.
On the subject of how important DLC is to the game... I feel like at launch AoW4 was a ~100 hour game. After all the free updates it's graduated to a ~200 hour game. Asuming you enjoy the game but don't get forever-hooked on it. The DLCs would turn it into a ~400-500-800 hour game (or more). If you're interested in playing the game that long they're absolutely worth, but until you get there the you won't be lacking for things to play with. Though even earlier than that you might enjoy adding in the new options. So far one of the things they've done really well is to not have the Expansion exclusive systems (like the new win-condition, the new culture-exclusive mechanics or the upcoming new map layer) bloat the base game experience, while still layering nicely on top.
Something I do dislike is that you have to blob up several armies and awkwardly move them to engage. Not going to lie, I would rather actually be allowed bigger armies, and just allow one stack to fight one stack, not several at once. I just don't like it.
I think it's missing what AoW2 had. Like your domain slowly turning into your prefered terrain. Maybe add unique building art for different cultures (If im going full undead why am I still needing farms with windmills?) add more unique recourses based on your Tomes or cultures(Like souls for Necromancy). Just to make it feel different from one another. In other aspects they need to nerf summons in combat, a spider summon that flanks my lvl 16 hero, should't deal 25% of it's hp in damage. Don't lock units behind cultures. Maybe I want a barbarian race that has warlocks or cavalary, let me choose a unique unit at the custom screen. Signature skills for Heroes should be different based on culture and tomes. like 90% of the time choices are the 6 same skills. If i'm making a Shadow and Evil based race don't let me research tomes that are complete opposites. Add different Imperium options based on Race/Culture/Tome combos. (If i take wind tome how about instead of giving me march stance just give me flat +5move points on all units) (If i take Primal culture how about instead of summoning Balor at the of a Imperium line I summon a more thematic unit.) (If i combo a tome - unlock a unique line at the Imperium screen)
It quickly became sameish and easy for me. I enjoyed the story bits. The way that the faction races are mostly cosmetic is a miss for me, and where it fails to keep me coming back like CIV do.
I think each race having a specific race trait for free that can’t be changed but doesn’t funnel them into a specific playstyle would be a decent change. Both positives and negatives with that but eh
I haven't played any of the DLCs or all that much recently but, for me, the customization IS the identity of this game. It was what made me pre-order this almost without a second thought. I also love the way it's worked into the lore. I play to reinstall this later and really put some time into it but I really hope it keeps going for a long while.
Heyoooo I know this will probably never see the your glorious eyes but I would love to see some post release covrage for Spellforce: Conquest of Eo! By far my favorite release in the last decade
A friend recently got me to buy AOW 4 after playing 3 a lot with him. If you have any friends you can play it with, makes it 10000x better. He and I work wild work schedules but and do simultaneous turns and the game saves after each action. So we can game for 3 or 4 hours and peace out. I can wake up early and do my turn, come home and he's done his and ended the turn so I can start mine and when I end my turn, roll into the next turn and do mine up and on and on. This game is wildly fun and I nee to play more but its hard for me to come up with builds.
If you are just starting out as a brand new player, should you deactivate any of the dlcs to make it easier to learn? Or do they just add to the base game and not change the mechanics? Great vids btw Jumbo, looking forward to getting started!
I think all mechanics that changes the game comes with the free updates that are released with the DLCs, so all you're missing out on by not having the DLC activated is the specific cultures and races that comes with them. So if you already have the DLC, I don't really see any reason to have them deactivated if you're starting out as a new player.
The DLCs don't really expand on how you play the base game as much as expand the options. It's not like Stellaris where a DLC can add on a whole endgame style system that isn't there without it, AoW4 bakes that mostly into its free updates. So I'd keep the DLCs on.
It’s now on 20% discount on steam for the Premium Edition. That’s €71,99 in my region. Or €61 via key seller sites. Is that a good price for the game in your opinion? Recently haven’t played much strategy games, most similar recent game for me is BG3 which is quite different. I used to like Warcraft 3 and Age of Mythology, but now more into RPGs. Curious about your opinion.
I view this game as a prototype for what I hope will eventually become Planetfall 2. That being said, this is an amazing fantasy simulator where you have freedom to make your factions how you want. All I would like is 2 things, 1) Being able to set what kind of cultures appear as random empires and free cities. 2) Bring back Adventure Mode from AoW3.
I think they should add in more campaign stuff. I am not a modder so don't know the difficulty of it as have only seen one modder actually make them and the 2 scenarios they made are pretty fun (lich queen scenario and demon one). Wish the developers could add in more of those and campaigns in general or least make it easy for us to do some customization to make a more basic scenario. like the modder has campaign like events that pop up and the scenarios we have in the game like where an AI has some buff there really isn't any quests like that. In general I liked the other Age of Wonders campaigns and felt like this games was good but felt bit shorter or disconnected a bit. Like there is a overarching story but decisions don't seem to have much influence in the other campaign quests. Like the game overall but think that maybe having a system where add in more interesting quests that are attached to scenarios may take away from how people say things feel the same. Like with this DLC could have a scenario where you have city state allies and have quests and instances that cause you to lose some or spawn new empire and be related to the new hero type since have mind control/influence and how decide to solve them and what path (class/affinity) can give different options. Like this DLC has idea of corruption and they went with order and chaos to be the sort of flavor to be counter to it so could have scenarios based on those affinities but also have stuff for like primal and nature to have stuff to fight the gloom stuff in this sceneario/quest chain.
There was a revolution with every big patch coming with DLC. In fact the game was in alpha-version on release. Beta after 1st DLC, someting which could be named relaese after the 2nd. Significant changes with 3rd DLC again and 4th DLC can be another revolution. 3 Cultures reworked 1 of them splitted in 3 cubcultures. I expect the long list of "minor" changes. Performance was improved but it still far from good. AI is better but it's not so hard to beat 3 teamed AIs on Emperor. Well there's option to make AI's units sronger but I don't like the idea of same unit having different parameters.
No hate to the graphics I think it's beautiful, however, I'd rather more "serious"/grittier art style, that's just me. Because already most of these high fantasy games go with the more vibrant/cartoony style already. If they just tone it down a bit like Spellforce 3 would be nice, but that can't be done in a released game, maybe in the future.
it is fun. the last dlc was interresting but i had hoped for more customisation regarding the insects, like the head or tails of the units, but they are stuck looking like earwigs. the new lord type is cool but to me it does not beat the awsome factor of turning my elder dragon into a dracolich. my biggest gripe with the game is the war time diplo, or the compleate lack of it (diplomacy in general is also rather bare bones but imo peace deals are the worst part of it). your only choice is a white peace, a province claiming pact or vassalisation. nothing else, if you want any resources you will have to wait for the ai to offer you something (if they ever do), nor do you have the option to offer anything of yours. i do not know this but i have no reason to assume that you could do any of that in multiplayer war diplomacy. There is really no reason to even bother with it. this is not helped by the reason the devs actually gave to me when i asked them about it on steam. paraphrasing: "we have changed diplomacy to this and also complearely gutted the war diplomacy due to some players pulling of ridicolus diplomacy exploits in AoW3. things are this way to make sure there is only offers that the ai would accept". i got no response when i asked them about why i can not simply demand gold or mana and let the ai give me a number they would accept. they have had a year on this and have done nothing with it. another but more minor problem i have with it is the necromancy rework, and it is mostly just a bit of an immersion break. at first you could only raise undead from your pepole (by recruiting them in your city like golems) and now it is only the enemy units that you can raise. now i get why they only allow one of the two and it is mostly up to yourself which source of undead you find it the least ridicolus that your necromancer overlord is ignoreing. the bodies of the enemy or the local graveyard of his very own town.
I love AoW4 so incredibly fun. The only thing they messed up was items. The forge is great but the new random drops are dog water. Most armor is just random resistance, the weapons are such a mixed bag, and the utility items are just bad and hard to get anything fun.
One of my top 5 games I always come back to. Personally I think people who think this game is to “vanilla” or has no identity is just people with no imagination.
Triumph Studios did Paradox a favor by being the only highlight in a year of catastrophic releases and delays. I have been playing AoW games since the very beginning and I adore this game. I can't find myself in the few complaints some have, I only wish the games were longer. Yes, longer. Tier I units feel obsolete before you blink your eyes. But that's just me, I can play slower games in the settings if I want so it's not really even a complaint.
There are some elements they should have brought with them from AOW3. 1: No cap on levelling your troops. In AoW3 you could keep on levelling your troops, but after a certain point the only thing you gain is 2HP extra per level. But it does gives a reason to keep your troops around, and to keep levelling them. In AOW4 it feels like a waste to have maxed out troopers with me. 2: There was something magical starting a new game wanting to play something brutal, after playing a weaker race but with strong magic. It made the game diverse in a way AOW4 do not. The latter feels homogeneous and repetitive, as i usually just pick the same traits I know works. Race, looks and so on has absolutely nothing to say at all. These are the two biggest issues I have when it comes to AOW4. Less is more!❤
I do feel having a single set racial trait and allowing you to choose others would be beneficial. and while the individual races might lack a slight identity, the game as a whole has a very strong identity. of course, ive been around since AOW 1 so ive seen most of the story.
Good overview, Jumbo. I agree with everything you said. I personally especially liked the "Dreagon Dawn" DLC for adding actual dragons! I agree that the races feel the same and that they're just a visual thing. I've been thinking about how to give the races more character (or at least encourage people to play different races while keeping their existing flavour). What if each out-of-the-box race was created with one trait point more than what the player would have at their disposal if they manually changed the race's traits? Would this encourage players to choose and play their races for their traits, while still allowing them to change their traits if they really wanted to (at a cost)?
I enjoyed Planetfall more, but there are nice systems in AoW 4. I want them to return to that race/class combo -- make the factions deeper instead of wider options.
This game is so gud, it's the only strat game where watching battles is as much fun as playing them. My biggest fault with the game is the 'lack of identity' which the devs could easily fix with an optional *'Lore Mode'* which establishes flavorful lore rules and limitation for each culture and race and adds more story and lore to them and their interactions with other cultures and races. This requires very little programming and zero new design elements or assets. All the "work" would come down to their creativity to lovingly craft solid identities and flavorful interaction dialogue. I realize mods can do this, but the community would appreciate it so much more if there was an "official" lore mode in the base game.
Does the coop still jave ton of problems when pne person is doing a battle ? Would freeze on us and we never could progress. We just basically marked it as a terrible game and fogured we cant play.
Hey Jumbo, I'm a nearly-exclusive Age of Wonders RUclipsr. I have some insights regarding two of the weaknesses you brought up - specifically the problems of multiplayer stability and "same-ness" between different factions. While these are both still valid concerns IMO, there has been a lot of improvement on these fronts since the game's launch. Concerning MP stability, the game used to lock up after nearly every manually controlled battle. It still does occasionally get stuck, but it happens much less often now. My friends and I currently have to reload maybe once every 25 or 30 world map turns now, whereas MP used to be essentially playable. A big improvement, but yes, it could still be better. (Insert obvious disclaimer here about how everyone's PC hardware is different, your results may vary, etc.) I think allowing players to host/save MP games locally would solve most of these problems, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. As for making each faction feel more "unique," the main improvement in this area has come from a change that makes magic tomes cost more and more research based not primarily on their tier, but rather on how many tomes you've already researched. This ever-increasing research cost makes it nearly impossible to collect all (or even half) of the total tomes available during a single game. You have to be much more mindful about where you spend your research. In the late game on big maps this can still be a slight problem, but it's nowhere near as much of a tome-spamming mess as it used to be. I would admittedly still prefer a system where your total number of tomes gets capped at a certain point (perhaps allowing for a percentage of extra research to be converted to imperium), but that is likely too big of a change to realistically expect this late after release. Thanks for the update - I started watching your channel when you were covering the AOW 4 launch. Nice to see you've still got an eye on it :)
Looks fun. But I’m not about to buy a game who’s a product of a business model which requires me to keep buying the game over and over just to keep it updated.
MULTIPLAYER IS STILL MASSIVELY BUGGED. If you don't have the fibre you cannot host a game. Beside some desyncs, servers often derps. Blocking your game or rewind it to turn 1....
Wait.. did you consciously reuse the same title (and like 90% of the thumbnail) as my video that I did right after the 1 year anniversary of age of wonder 4? Or was this a case of two great minds think alike?
@@vintagedot8350 My video is called "One Year Later | State of the Game | Age of Wonders 4" so it uses pretty much the same words.. not identical, (and it is inspired by the spongebob meme) so could be a coincidence
@@WinSlayaGaming definitely a coincidence. There's only so many ways you can make a "One Year Later" video and the distinct lack of any SpongeBob elements further differentiates the two videos. Also this video is Age of "Wonders 4 - One Year Later" which is a rather generic title that doesn't even match the format of your title. (Different format and a lack of the " | " symbols)
I know some youtubers use thirdparty websites to write their titles (based on recent keywords that have more views associate with them recently), so jumbo may not have even known that he was basically using the same title and thumbnail. The content of what we talked about is definitely different, but since our thumbnails and title are so similar, all the search result will now go to him, the bigger channel.. This was one of my better performing video recently, so that is a big bummer for me :/ even if it is a coincidence
Hi 👋 I’ll reply here to as well as your private message on Discord. This is a very common theme for videos - I certainly didn’t pioneer it. And I absolutely did not see your video first or copy you. Sorry, I’m not actually that familiar with your channel. Please see videos like this that I’ve been making for years now: ruclips.net/video/oPUMd-Dxvvk/видео.htmlsi=UWW3LD-I_U7KgP0u
@@vintagedot8350 just gives me the feeling it's content they developed before launch and cut it to spoon feed us with. I stay away like the plague until I can get base game+all DLC for less than the base game launch price.
@@prettyawesomeperson2188 that's valid tbh, personally I really enjoyed the game and when a game is good I want the company to make money. I know it's silly but hey, I had 500 hours in the game BEFORE the DLC so my cost benefit is different from yours. That being said, piracy is almost always ethical and it's not like there aren't a million other games to support
The problem is that Eldritch Realms is the last DLC for this game. They promise more updates, but we don't know how extensive they might be and for how long. So, your video essentially describes the state in which this game remains forever. I doubt they plan any significant updates. As it was with Planetfall, which also had updates for around the year after release, I imagine they're moving to development of the next game, whatever it is. Unless, obviously, PDX sells them or closes the studio, which is always possible.
You dont know if it is the last. The fact is AoW 4 had 4x better sales than Planetfall so you might be wrong....We shall see. Additionally Paradox has a track-record of supporting games with DLCs for a long time.
@@lioneddy They said this is the last DLC and they don't plan more during first dev stream of Eldritch Realms a couple weeks ago. Also, not true, PDX is supporting _only_ grand strategy games with DLCs for a long time; they abandoned and closed several projects in the past two years, they've also ended a cooperation with studios they worked for some time. AoW4 is not an important game for them, and neither was Planetfall.
@@ShayGamerD3 They literally confirmed more Premium Content coming in their Anniversary Post last month so Eldritch Realms is not the last piece of Paid Content they'll release. What shape the premium content post ER might take isn't known yet.
@@Akazury Sure, "premium content," but no DLCs. I imagine maybe some additional character visualizations, but nothing major. We haven't even gotten multi-planet empire building mode like in Planetfall.
@@ShayGamerD3 Okay, at this point you'll need to clarify what you consider DLC cause Premium i.e. Paid Content is DLC. As for Empire Mode, they've explained multiple times why that system doesn't work in a game like AoW4 and why we have the Pantheon.
Good Game but 1 step Forward and 2 steps back compared to planetfall (at least for me). I like fantasy more but I'm also okay with sci-fi. The Sector mechanic is even more boring than those in Planetfall. the Mod system was waaayyy better than those enhancements and transformations. In Planetfall the same units with different mods could be pretty different. Also most racial.....culture units are pretty boring. And i just miss classic classes. And the battle maps in Planetfall are also much more "organic" while in AoW4 the objects seemed to be put there just to have something there as cover. AoW4 needs some ruins in battle maps or something. But there are also some things AoW4 is doing better than Planetfall like racial/culture units. In Planetfall you need to research them, but also the secret technology units so you end up by focusing on racial units or technology units, which was bad in my opinion. And also with the next update lower tier units gets more viable in late game. And i almost forgot the galactic empire mode is soo much better than the Pantheon. Just to be clear, I still think AoW4 is a good game.
Honestly wanted to like plant fall but it just felt to slow. The research limits, army taking your building time, and colonies costing city growth made it a very slow game. It also made a very punishing game when you start losing anything basically forcing you not to use auto combat. That being said it did have a better faction identity then Aow 4 and I don’t think it was bad just slower game. I do think Aow 4 is far more approachable game.
@@kenpachiramasama1139 Understandable. And yes, that AoW4 have separate production is nice. But that with growth is something i liked more in Planetfall. If you invest in Growth, you still get a nice Growth while in AoW4 it feels like Growth is something much less impactful and happens alongside of the "normal" gameplay.
@@sagittariusa9012 I think growth "feels normal" due to the fact the one thing the AI is surprisingly intelligent on is expansion and using it to take advantage of.
Please stop listing the customization as a strength. It's really not. You have about as many options as a lower-end MMO character creator. I understand that Triumph has only one employee on art (or, at least, so I've heard) but that's not an excuse. The game is billed on customization, and we get four pre-made faces to pick from. Woohoo. Some of the assets are straight-up recycles from Age of Wonders 3, particularly noticeable in the poses. Mods to unlock costumes across classes such as C4U help quite a bit, but there's still only so much and you can do and that mod ends up making randomly generated heroes look like absolute trash bin warriors. *That having been said:* The people whining about the customization making the game bland are, without fail, really weird "bust out the callipers, we need to measure the skull shape" sort of people. On the official discord, there are no shortage of people who (at least on release) would argue to the ends of the earth that you aren't allowed to have strong short people, or that people with green skin shouldn't be allowed to be good with magic. These same people would (almost) always have anime avatars, too, so take from that what you will.
Customisation doesn’t mean “just the way a character looks” it’s about everything my dude Being able to make poisonous, cold adapted dog-folk that become undead with metal skin is pretty goddamned customisable
![Kodak Black - Sharp Vibes [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/oEV0OoLJeIs/mqdefault.jpg)
I want better city management and planning. I really want it to matter when I put a quarry or forester by being able to further specialize or upgrade it like I could in Planetfall.
That would be a fun addition
I know you don't play multiplayer, but it would have benefitted the video to add: This is a Paradox game, and its DLC rules apply. If you are going to play with friends, everyone has access to the DLC content of the host.
Good to know ty!! I agree this info was very important. Goof selling point to get my friends to buy.
That’s really cool I never knew it worked like that
JUMBO! I got the full pass at launch but I haven't played in a bit, thanks for the reminder to give it another go. It's tough to find the time strategy is having a bit of a moment right now.
There’s SO much out there, but AOW4 is definitely one of my favourites from last year. Worth a go!
Overall, great game, tons of fun. The expansions are ok, none is mandatory, though. I was a little disappointed in the primal one, I thought you would interact more with your god after the first few quests. The tome mechanic is very good and really helps make each game different. However, the units are a little bit meh. You don't have a identity for each factions the way different races or leaders have in other 4x games. Looking forward to the next expansion. My wishlist: more events, more elaborate quests (like the grail quest in planetfall), races and leaders that play more differently than just some stats (the dragon leader is a good start).
I hate the fact that races are just a stat here and there. It makes them less immersive in my view, which is why I can't really see ever playing the game.
@@sarmatianns Well players have more freedom, every race has default traits but yeah i know what you mean.
@@sarmatianns That's not an issue if you yourself are not making sweeping changes to the Races. From what I can tell, the AI doesn't mess with the Race Traits even if you turn on the Generate Rulers option when starting a game. So you can play freely with each race having distinct traits, without having to worry about Strong Tough Halflings, unless you yourself decide to make them.
@@consistentlystupid4726 you can also just spawn in races you made yourself if you want to setup really distinct races ahead of time.
I like the game and every dlc was good, too. However I'm one of those who are saying that every playtrough feels the same. There are many options how you can stack your numbers bit in the end it always boils down to either get your economy to skyrock or to get an invincible army asap. This gets boring after a while. I've played 400 hours so it was absolutely worth it's money but I've hoped for more.
They should make terrain massively more important to a point where terraforming the world is real win Option. (A major race transformation which makes you rule one environment but loose an all others) or they should really double down on affinities. So that your top 2 affinities force you into a specific playstyle.
That was the major win for me in AoW 2 (Shadow Magic) - Terraforming. While having a ruler sitting in your main city was a bit "different", casting those global spells had the most satisfying impact. You get thrown into the most strange worlds/maps and you want to shape them actively, not just modify your units. All your tools just interact with the units, not with the map (how often did I want to research the tier III materium tome just for the flaten mountain spell...)
Isn't this true of most 4x and Strategy Games?
Eldrich Realms actually is pushing for a new terraforming method to being more effective. It will add "Gloom" which is a tentacle horror that naturally spreads if an eldritch gate is in world or an AI takes the tome for the terraforming and major race transformation. It bleeds characters overtime rapidly and only those who become a new form of demon kin can get rewarded from it. Is it dramatic enough to easily overwhelm opponents? No but this is a more in line with say mistlands where the effect can really help add an extra defensive layer to your kingdom. Plus the new layer being added, with constellation events being added for free, the update to ranking up minions, with astral and dark getting full on reworks, the game is going to change in a good way once again. I think the only real issue I've experienced is the heavy focus on raw combat every single update that makes it a struggle to seek out a different victory from just pure military take over.
> that every playtrough feels the same
Can be said about ANY TBS. You explore, you expand you fight.
This is actually what you got from both the latest DLC. The previous one had a society that specialized on one type of environment and could spread it. The latest one had the Gloom mechanic that also does this.
Yhea, finally this is the Jumbo we love!! ❤
Can't wait to see you playng a new serie Sir!
Age of Jumbo has come upon us all!!!
The game really scratches my itch for a tactical game, tbh. Plus I love how much you can really make a nation your own through trait and tome choices.
Is it still fun with single player mode?
@@aviencloud4239 For me, very much so. I love the way the factions/rulers you create can show up as enemies in future games. You can set their AI Personality too, for roleplay reasons or presumably for difficulty (though I haven't played around too much with doing it for the latter, so that's just in theory).
I bought the game like 2 weeks ago and I have a lot of fun with it. Especially because of the Faction Creation and because you have tons to unlock. The most annoying about strategy games even though its my favorite genre is that you mostly dont have anything to unlock and I need something to work on wo stay interested. So I am very happy about Age of Wonders 4. At the moment for me one of the best strategy games out there.
"season 2" of the DLC being announced is very promising because Triumph never had that with Planetfall and previous games.
Such is the way of Paradox games that 4,8,12 DLC later the game is completely different and improved.
I absolutely love this game. I have over 1.000 hours played and I really appreciate the details that have been improved over the year. I hope people would give it the love it deserves
I picked up the habit of keeping at least one of the initial traits that come with a race/form so they would keep some degree of identity whenever I create a new faction.
i just hope that in the future theres a major Materium transformation, its the only one without.
On the subject of how important DLC is to the game...
I feel like at launch AoW4 was a ~100 hour game. After all the free updates it's graduated to a ~200 hour game. Asuming you enjoy the game but don't get forever-hooked on it.
The DLCs would turn it into a ~400-500-800 hour game (or more). If you're interested in playing the game that long they're absolutely worth, but until you get there the you won't be lacking for things to play with. Though even earlier than that you might enjoy adding in the new options.
So far one of the things they've done really well is to not have the Expansion exclusive systems (like the new win-condition, the new culture-exclusive mechanics or the upcoming new map layer) bloat the base game experience, while still layering nicely on top.
Something I do dislike is that you have to blob up several armies and awkwardly move them to engage. Not going to lie, I would rather actually be allowed bigger armies, and just allow one stack to fight one stack, not several at once. I just don't like it.
I think it's missing what AoW2 had. Like your domain slowly turning into your prefered terrain. Maybe add unique building art for different cultures (If im going full undead why am I still needing farms with windmills?) add more unique recourses based on your Tomes or cultures(Like souls for Necromancy). Just to make it feel different from one another.
In other aspects they need to nerf summons in combat, a spider summon that flanks my lvl 16 hero, should't deal 25% of it's hp in damage.
Don't lock units behind cultures. Maybe I want a barbarian race that has warlocks or cavalary, let me choose a unique unit at the custom screen.
Signature skills for Heroes should be different based on culture and tomes. like 90% of the time choices are the 6 same skills.
If i'm making a Shadow and Evil based race don't let me research tomes that are complete opposites.
Add different Imperium options based on Race/Culture/Tome combos. (If i take wind tome how about instead of giving me march stance just give me flat +5move points on all units) (If i take Primal culture how about instead of summoning Balor at the of a Imperium line I summon a more thematic unit.) (If i combo a tome - unlock a unique line at the Imperium screen)
It quickly became sameish and easy for me. I enjoyed the story bits. The way that the faction races are mostly cosmetic is a miss for me, and where it fails to keep me coming back like CIV do.
Nice game, I played it a lot around release, and some day I am pretty sure I will come back to it.
I think each race having a specific race trait for free that can’t be changed but doesn’t funnel them into a specific playstyle would be a decent change. Both positives and negatives with that but eh
I would play this game but in the next decade. With games like TWWH3, BG3 and Pathfinder I have hardcore fantasy games for the rest of this decade.
I'm guessing BG3 is half of that 😂
I've n
Still not completed it myself
This game is superb and the devs are doing a great job.
I haven't played any of the DLCs or all that much recently but, for me, the customization IS the identity of this game. It was what made me pre-order this almost without a second thought. I also love the way it's worked into the lore. I play to reinstall this later and really put some time into it but I really hope it keeps going for a long while.
Heyoooo I know this will probably never see the your glorious eyes but I would love to see some post release covrage for Spellforce: Conquest of Eo! By far my favorite release in the last decade
A friend recently got me to buy AOW 4 after playing 3 a lot with him. If you have any friends you can play it with, makes it 10000x better. He and I work wild work schedules but and do simultaneous turns and the game saves after each action. So we can game for 3 or 4 hours and peace out. I can wake up early and do my turn, come home and he's done his and ended the turn so I can start mine and when I end my turn, roll into the next turn and do mine up and on and on. This game is wildly fun and I nee to play more but its hard for me to come up with builds.
Wish we had more story realms, they do a good job of breaking up the feeling of sameness for each campaign
If you are just starting out as a brand new player, should you deactivate any of the dlcs to make it easier to learn? Or do they just add to the base game and not change the mechanics?
Great vids btw Jumbo, looking forward to getting started!
I think all mechanics that changes the game comes with the free updates that are released with the DLCs, so all you're missing out on by not having the DLC activated is the specific cultures and races that comes with them. So if you already have the DLC, I don't really see any reason to have them deactivated if you're starting out as a new player.
The DLCs don't really expand on how you play the base game as much as expand the options. It's not like Stellaris where a DLC can add on a whole endgame style system that isn't there without it, AoW4 bakes that mostly into its free updates. So I'd keep the DLCs on.
One of my favourite games, love it and dlc all great
It’s now on 20% discount on steam for the Premium Edition. That’s €71,99 in my region. Or €61 via key seller sites. Is that a good price for the game in your opinion? Recently haven’t played much strategy games, most similar recent game for me is BG3 which is quite different. I used to like Warcraft 3 and Age of Mythology, but now more into RPGs. Curious about your opinion.
I really like Planetfall and my only real gripe with that game was we only got 1 years worth of DLCs. I'm happy they aren't doing that go this game.
I view this game as a prototype for what I hope will eventually become Planetfall 2.
That being said, this is an amazing fantasy simulator where you have freedom to make your factions how you want. All I would like is 2 things, 1) Being able to set what kind of cultures appear as random empires and free cities. 2) Bring back Adventure Mode from AoW3.
Age of wonders 4 was a hype game for me. Played a few days and forgot about it
I think they should add in more campaign stuff. I am not a modder so don't know the difficulty of it as have only seen one modder actually make them and the 2 scenarios they made are pretty fun (lich queen scenario and demon one). Wish the developers could add in more of those and campaigns in general or least make it easy for us to do some customization to make a more basic scenario. like the modder has campaign like events that pop up and the scenarios we have in the game like where an AI has some buff there really isn't any quests like that. In general I liked the other Age of Wonders campaigns and felt like this games was good but felt bit shorter or disconnected a bit. Like there is a overarching story but decisions don't seem to have much influence in the other campaign quests. Like the game overall but think that maybe having a system where add in more interesting quests that are attached to scenarios may take away from how people say things feel the same. Like with this DLC could have a scenario where you have city state allies and have quests and instances that cause you to lose some or spawn new empire and be related to the new hero type since have mind control/influence and how decide to solve them and what path (class/affinity) can give different options. Like this DLC has idea of corruption and they went with order and chaos to be the sort of flavor to be counter to it so could have scenarios based on those affinities but also have stuff for like primal and nature to have stuff to fight the gloom stuff in this sceneario/quest chain.
There was a revolution with every big patch coming with DLC. In fact the game was in alpha-version on release. Beta after 1st DLC, someting which could be named relaese after the 2nd. Significant changes with 3rd DLC again and 4th DLC can be another revolution. 3 Cultures reworked 1 of them splitted in 3 cubcultures. I expect the long list of "minor" changes. Performance was improved but it still far from good.
AI is better but it's not so hard to beat 3 teamed AIs on Emperor. Well there's option to make AI's units sronger but I don't like the idea of same unit having different parameters.
No hate to the graphics I think it's beautiful, however, I'd rather more "serious"/grittier art style, that's just me. Because already most of these high fantasy games go with the more vibrant/cartoony style already.
If they just tone it down a bit like Spellforce 3 would be nice, but that can't be done in a released game, maybe in the future.
Just got in the game, does not feel like a 4x game wc3 feels more expansive ngl.
it is fun. the last dlc was interresting but i had hoped for more customisation regarding the insects, like the head or tails of the units, but they are stuck looking like earwigs. the new lord type is cool but to me it does not beat the awsome factor of turning my elder dragon into a dracolich. my biggest gripe with the game is the war time diplo, or the compleate lack of it (diplomacy in general is also rather bare bones but imo peace deals are the worst part of it). your only choice is a white peace, a province claiming pact or vassalisation. nothing else, if you want any resources you will have to wait for the ai to offer you something (if they ever do), nor do you have the option to offer anything of yours. i do not know this but i have no reason to assume that you could do any of that in multiplayer war diplomacy. There is really no reason to even bother with it.
this is not helped by the reason the devs actually gave to me when i asked them about it on steam. paraphrasing: "we have changed diplomacy to this and also complearely gutted the war diplomacy due to some players pulling of ridicolus diplomacy exploits in AoW3. things are this way to make sure there is only offers that the ai would accept". i got no response when i asked them about why i can not simply demand gold or mana and let the ai give me a number they would accept. they have had a year on this and have done nothing with it.
another but more minor problem i have with it is the necromancy rework, and it is mostly just a bit of an immersion break. at first you could only raise undead from your pepole (by recruiting them in your city like golems) and now it is only the enemy units that you can raise. now i get why they only allow one of the two and it is mostly up to yourself which source of undead you find it the least ridicolus that your necromancer overlord is ignoreing. the bodies of the enemy or the local graveyard of his very own town.
The only improvement that i would like to have is in multiplayer. I don't want to spectate the battles of my friends, and viceversa.
I can't stop playing it. 😄
Love you jumbo
I love AoW4 so incredibly fun. The only thing they messed up was items. The forge is great but the new random drops are dog water. Most armor is just random resistance, the weapons are such a mixed bag, and the utility items are just bad and hard to get anything fun.
It makes my GPU perma work at 100%, after all that's why I play Conquest of Eo now. What I don't like Aow4 vs. Aow3 - the dark ui style.
what's the name of the song at 3:25?
One of my top 5 games I always come back to. Personally I think people who think this game is to “vanilla” or has no identity is just people with no imagination.
Triumph Studios did Paradox a favor by being the only highlight in a year of catastrophic releases and delays. I have been playing AoW games since the very beginning and I adore this game. I can't find myself in the few complaints some have, I only wish the games were longer. Yes, longer. Tier I units feel obsolete before you blink your eyes. But that's just me, I can play slower games in the settings if I want so it's not really even a complaint.
That moment when Weak Spots doesn't really bother me :D
There are some elements they should have brought with them from AOW3.
1: No cap on levelling your troops. In AoW3 you could keep on levelling your troops, but after a certain point the only thing you gain is 2HP extra per level.
But it does gives a reason to keep your troops around, and to keep levelling them. In AOW4 it feels like a waste to have maxed out troopers with me.
2: There was something magical starting a new game wanting to play something brutal, after playing a weaker race but with strong magic.
It made the game diverse in a way AOW4 do not. The latter feels homogeneous and repetitive, as i usually just pick the same traits I know works. Race, looks and so on has absolutely nothing to say at all.
These are the two biggest issues I have when it comes to AOW4.
Less is more!❤
Eldrich realm looks like inspired by Shadow World.
dlcs are worth buy it ?? theyre expensive dou
this game is overwhelming fun.
I do feel having a single set racial trait and allowing you to choose others would be beneficial. and while the individual races might lack a slight identity, the game as a whole has a very strong identity. of course, ive been around since AOW 1 so ive seen most of the story.
Good overview, Jumbo. I agree with everything you said. I personally especially liked the "Dreagon Dawn" DLC for adding actual dragons!
I agree that the races feel the same and that they're just a visual thing. I've been thinking about how to give the races more character (or at least encourage people to play different races while keeping their existing flavour).
What if each out-of-the-box race was created with one trait point more than what the player would have at their disposal if they manually changed the race's traits? Would this encourage players to choose and play their races for their traits, while still allowing them to change their traits if they really wanted to (at a cost)?
I enjoyed Planetfall more, but there are nice systems in AoW 4.
I want them to return to that race/class combo -- make the factions deeper instead of wider options.
same
planetfall in many ways is a better game did u play multiplayer at all? i was big into the pf multiplayer scene
I had fun on release but havent been back. Maybe one day.
Yea multiplayer began crashing and desync after each update which as been a bunmer for me and my friend trying to play
This game is so gud, it's the only strat game where watching battles is as much fun as playing them. My biggest fault with the game is the 'lack of identity' which the devs could easily fix with an optional *'Lore Mode'* which establishes flavorful lore rules and limitation for each culture and race and adds more story and lore to them and their interactions with other cultures and races. This requires very little programming and zero new design elements or assets. All the "work" would come down to their creativity to lovingly craft solid identities and flavorful interaction dialogue. I realize mods can do this, but the community would appreciate it so much more if there was an "official" lore mode in the base game.
Does the coop still jave ton of problems when pne person is doing a battle ? Would freeze on us and we never could progress. We just basically marked it as a terrible game and fogured we cant play.
Hey Jumbo, I'm a nearly-exclusive Age of Wonders RUclipsr. I have some insights regarding two of the weaknesses you brought up - specifically the problems of multiplayer stability and "same-ness" between different factions. While these are both still valid concerns IMO, there has been a lot of improvement on these fronts since the game's launch.
Concerning MP stability, the game used to lock up after nearly every manually controlled battle. It still does occasionally get stuck, but it happens much less often now. My friends and I currently have to reload maybe once every 25 or 30 world map turns now, whereas MP used to be essentially playable. A big improvement, but yes, it could still be better. (Insert obvious disclaimer here about how everyone's PC hardware is different, your results may vary, etc.)
I think allowing players to host/save MP games locally would solve most of these problems, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
As for making each faction feel more "unique," the main improvement in this area has come from a change that makes magic tomes cost more and more research based not primarily on their tier, but rather on how many tomes you've already researched. This ever-increasing research cost makes it nearly impossible to collect all (or even half) of the total tomes available during a single game. You have to be much more mindful about where you spend your research. In the late game on big maps this can still be a slight problem, but it's nowhere near as much of a tome-spamming mess as it used to be.
I would admittedly still prefer a system where your total number of tomes gets capped at a certain point (perhaps allowing for a percentage of extra research to be converted to imperium), but that is likely too big of a change to realistically expect this late after release.
Thanks for the update - I started watching your channel when you were covering the AOW 4 launch. Nice to see you've still got an eye on it :)
Cheers for sharing your thoughtful experiences! Much appreciated.
Did they fix AI and multiplayer? I think that's all anyone really wants to know.
AI is definitely why I stopped playing it fairly quickly back then.
Was that Stellaris music in the video?
Customization
Get to play a dragon? Sold!
oh god it's been a year?
Looks fun. But I’m not about to buy a game who’s a product of a business model which requires me to keep buying the game over and over just to keep it updated.
I was hoping for age of wonders 3: 2.0 but I got age of wonders 4: planet fall.
wait, there will be a 2nd year and a new dlc pass?:O
Yup. They announced it last month during the anniversary update.
@@exirion2154 thats awesome! best news of this week! :)
I got beaten on relaxed difficulty 😂
I liked the idea of the game but just couldn’t get in to it. Nothing wrong with it, just not for me.
MULTIPLAYER IS STILL MASSIVELY BUGGED.
If you don't have the fibre you cannot host a game.
Beside some desyncs, servers often derps. Blocking your game or rewind it to turn 1....
i very like aos 4 but i think planetfall was better that this
Very different styles of game
Is your voice getting deeper? You're a freaking sigma
Multiplayer is still unstable mess. Shame on Paradox.
Full gamę is too pricy
Better than 3, sadly still not as good as 2.
Wait.. did you consciously reuse the same title (and like 90% of the thumbnail) as my video that I did right after the 1 year anniversary of age of wonder 4? Or was this a case of two great minds think alike?
None of your videos look the same or have this title 😊
@@vintagedot8350 My video is called "One Year Later | State of the Game | Age of Wonders 4" so it uses pretty much the same words.. not identical, (and it is inspired by the spongebob meme) so could be a coincidence
@@WinSlayaGaming definitely a coincidence. There's only so many ways you can make a "One Year Later" video and the distinct lack of any SpongeBob elements further differentiates the two videos.
Also this video is Age of "Wonders 4 - One Year Later" which is a rather generic title that doesn't even match the format of your title. (Different format and a lack of the " | " symbols)
I know some youtubers use thirdparty websites to write their titles (based on recent keywords that have more views associate with them recently), so jumbo may not have even known that he was basically using the same title and thumbnail. The content of what we talked about is definitely different, but since our thumbnails and title are so similar, all the search result will now go to him, the bigger channel.. This was one of my better performing video recently, so that is a big bummer for me :/ even if it is a coincidence
Hi 👋 I’ll reply here to as well as your private message on Discord.
This is a very common theme for videos - I certainly didn’t pioneer it. And I absolutely did not see your video first or copy you. Sorry, I’m not actually that familiar with your channel.
Please see videos like this that I’ve been making for years now: ruclips.net/video/oPUMd-Dxvvk/видео.htmlsi=UWW3LD-I_U7KgP0u
I do suffer from "DLC fatigue" though... It feels like the game is more subscription based rather than a one-time purchase...
Glad I never brought it. Games that spams DLC are shit teir games.
Every AoW since 3 has done this tbf, they release a bunch of dlc for a year and then they stop
@@vintagedot8350 just gives me the feeling it's content they developed before launch and cut it to spoon feed us with. I stay away like the plague until I can get base game+all DLC for less than the base game launch price.
@@prettyawesomeperson2188 that's valid tbh, personally I really enjoyed the game and when a game is good I want the company to make money.
I know it's silly but hey, I had 500 hours in the game BEFORE the DLC so my cost benefit is different from yours.
That being said, piracy is almost always ethical and it's not like there aren't a million other games to support
I really like DLC when they are real expansion packs. And that's true for AOW 4. That's much better then buying new game every year like CoD or AC.
Ocean and underground are still bland and boring
2000 a day is not a whole lot
Most annoying AI behavior ever.
The problem is that Eldritch Realms is the last DLC for this game. They promise more updates, but we don't know how extensive they might be and for how long. So, your video essentially describes the state in which this game remains forever. I doubt they plan any significant updates. As it was with Planetfall, which also had updates for around the year after release, I imagine they're moving to development of the next game, whatever it is. Unless, obviously, PDX sells them or closes the studio, which is always possible.
You dont know if it is the last. The fact is AoW 4 had 4x better sales than Planetfall so you might be wrong....We shall see. Additionally Paradox has a track-record of supporting games with DLCs for a long time.
@@lioneddy They said this is the last DLC and they don't plan more during first dev stream of Eldritch Realms a couple weeks ago. Also, not true, PDX is supporting _only_ grand strategy games with DLCs for a long time; they abandoned and closed several projects in the past two years, they've also ended a cooperation with studios they worked for some time. AoW4 is not an important game for them, and neither was Planetfall.
@@ShayGamerD3 They literally confirmed more Premium Content coming in their Anniversary Post last month so Eldritch Realms is not the last piece of Paid Content they'll release. What shape the premium content post ER might take isn't known yet.
@@Akazury Sure, "premium content," but no DLCs. I imagine maybe some additional character visualizations, but nothing major. We haven't even gotten multi-planet empire building mode like in Planetfall.
@@ShayGamerD3 Okay, at this point you'll need to clarify what you consider DLC cause Premium i.e. Paid Content is DLC. As for Empire Mode, they've explained multiple times why that system doesn't work in a game like AoW4 and why we have the Pantheon.
People complaining about everything being 'the same' are just whiners that don't understand the game in any important way and should be disregarded.
Good Game but 1 step Forward and 2 steps back compared to planetfall (at least for me). I like fantasy more but I'm also okay with sci-fi. The Sector mechanic is even more boring than those in Planetfall. the Mod system was waaayyy better than those enhancements and transformations. In Planetfall the same units with different mods could be pretty different. Also most racial.....culture units are pretty boring. And i just miss classic classes. And the battle maps in Planetfall are also much more "organic" while in AoW4 the objects seemed to be put there just to have something there as cover. AoW4 needs some ruins in battle maps or something.
But there are also some things AoW4 is doing better than Planetfall like racial/culture units. In Planetfall you need to research them, but also the secret technology units so you end up by focusing on racial units or technology units, which was bad in my opinion. And also with the next update lower tier units gets more viable in late game.
And i almost forgot the galactic empire mode is soo much better than the Pantheon. Just to be clear, I still think AoW4 is a good game.
Honestly wanted to like plant fall but it just felt to slow. The research limits, army taking your building time, and colonies costing city growth made it a very slow game. It also made a very punishing game when you start losing anything basically forcing you not to use auto combat. That being said it did have a better faction identity then Aow 4 and I don’t think it was bad just slower game. I do think Aow 4 is far more approachable game.
@@kenpachiramasama1139 Understandable. And yes, that AoW4 have separate production is nice. But that with growth is something i liked more in Planetfall. If you invest in Growth, you still get a nice Growth while in AoW4 it feels like Growth is something much less impactful and happens alongside of the "normal" gameplay.
@@sagittariusa9012 I think growth "feels normal" due to the fact the one thing the AI is surprisingly intelligent on is expansion and using it to take advantage of.
Please stop listing the customization as a strength. It's really not. You have about as many options as a lower-end MMO character creator. I understand that Triumph has only one employee on art (or, at least, so I've heard) but that's not an excuse. The game is billed on customization, and we get four pre-made faces to pick from. Woohoo. Some of the assets are straight-up recycles from Age of Wonders 3, particularly noticeable in the poses. Mods to unlock costumes across classes such as C4U help quite a bit, but there's still only so much and you can do and that mod ends up making randomly generated heroes look like absolute trash bin warriors.
*That having been said:* The people whining about the customization making the game bland are, without fail, really weird "bust out the callipers, we need to measure the skull shape" sort of people. On the official discord, there are no shortage of people who (at least on release) would argue to the ends of the earth that you aren't allowed to have strong short people, or that people with green skin shouldn't be allowed to be good with magic. These same people would (almost) always have anime avatars, too, so take from that what you will.
Cmon dude. Tell me another 4x game in the last 5 years where you have this much customization options? I challenge you.
Customisation doesn’t mean “just the way a character looks” it’s about everything my dude
Being able to make poisonous, cold adapted dog-folk that become undead with metal skin is pretty goddamned customisable
@@lioneddy Skipping over an incredibly low bar isn't a challenge.
@@revolrz22neither is voicing your hot take on the internet.
@@trevorcooper3268 Clever, but I'm not selling my hot take.