AOF GAMES ROADMAP (SUGGESTIONS WELCOME!)

[Les]

Hi all,


(TL;DR version at the bottom)


I have pleasure to announce that we are finally releasing Age of Fear 3: The Legend, here on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/431700/

This is direct continuation from the previous thread in AOF2 forum:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/341150/discussions/0/618458030689095305/



SUMMARY

I will try to summarise what has been taken from all suggestions and other feedback:

• World Map - instead of one-direction flow like in our previous games, we have introduced the map where you can select the next mission. There are several exclusive branches, but the majority of missions stays open till the end of game. That will also help us to add any DLC in future.
  
  
• No losing battles - simple, you are always winning :-D
  
  
• Longer campaigns - both campaigns (dryad and dwarves) are about the third longer in comparison to current games, clocking around 8-10 hours each
  
  
• Items Shops - this feature has been already released in current games, but we have now around hundred items allowing you to re-configure your hero (not just stats, the majority of items give them special skills and spells!)
  
  
• Battle music - to add some catching tunes while playing battles
  
  
• Deploy phase and unit's rotation - this has been introduced so player could position its units first. We also were able to make levels smaller and battles faster.
  
  
• Potions - this feature has also been deployed already, mainly to allow demons to heal themselves, but it changes the rhythm of battles. Consumables can be also stolen, which creates an interesting use of thieves and rouges.
  
  
• Less story text, more conversations (also in-battle) - we have found that story can be told better with interactive conversations between heroes. We have also added many cutting one-liners and jokes!
  
  
• Slower experience gain and more evolveable options - we have balanced it so the most of your units will be fully evolved only in the final missions. That applies especially to spellcasters, which are generally more interesting to play.
  
  
• Barracks - you can carry units that don't participate in battles. Resting units will get only a fraction of experience though.
  
  
• Multiple endings - both campaigns have few possible endings, depending on players decisions. We have also added conditions to our campaign flow engine, therefore you can expect more of endings eventually.
  
  
• Destructible Environment - not only that, it can be also used to damage, poison or otherwise impact enemy.
  
  
• Neutral Unit - some levels feature initially neutral units, but they will attack everyone nearby when awaken (AI knows that too!)
  
  
• Steam Workshop - to be honest it's quite an experiment. AOF series support modding to really great extent, but it's a bit complex thing to develop your own mods. So far not much luck with that, but I hope it will pick up eventually.
  
  
• Unfortunately, we were not able to develop online multiplayer server. However, with ca.10 concurrent players it will be very empty and as of now it's not a good investment of our time.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Where do we go from there? There are few tasks ahead of us:

• AOF3 Story voiceovers - after game release we expect several months of intensive tuning and improvements and probably also new content expansions (based on community feedback). Therefore, we hold back with voiceovers for now as it's difficult to add something later. After it all settles down, we will add voiceovers :-)
  
  
• AOF3 DLC - there are some unused assets left from AOF3 campaigns. We will add them in form of DLC in a few weeks.
  
  
• AOF4's both campaigns are being currently developed
  
  
• AOF1 illustrations - there have been a slight delay in re-doing story illustrations as our graphics guru is polishing assets for AOF3 release. He will come back to that soon.
  
  
• Re-code rendering-engine and improve UI along the way - there is a separate thread for that here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/431700/discussions/0/2132869574260127070/
  
  
• Open World - more details there:
  http://steamcommunity.com/app/431700/discussions/0/3182216552765319729/

TL;DR
We want to build Battle Brothers with fireballs.

Take care,
Les

[sadric_lxxxvii]

Wishlisted, can't wait.

[Drunetovich]

What I personally would like to see is less powerful CC abilities, they made previous battles trivial, all enemy units were stunned\dominated all the time and that was a dominant strategy for every encounter. Oh, and second dominant strategy was mass summons, this should be less efficient as well.

[Les]

Thanks! I hope 3rd part will be hopefully more balanced.

For a start, not so many units have stunning abilities anymore. Domination skills have also been limited a lot.

As for mass summons - recently we have added a chance of breaking free to every summon (10% per level). I hope it should nerf it.

[jin.choung]

is there any terrain in the game yet that impacts tactics and cover? so things like "rough going" and forests and hills and such that impact movement distance, cover, and bonuses? i really have been looking pretty far and wide for a computer version of a tabletop minis game and you guys are really really close to what i've been looking for (so like a digital version of mordheim , necromunda, frostgrave, song of blades and heroes, infinity, mercs) but in those games, terrain really adds a nice tactical depth.

also, my personal preference is smaller number of units. so more "warband" rather than "army" -
something like frostgrave's 10 units per side works really well imo... but that might not fit with what you guys are going for.

and the more mechanics of the tabletop games you can incorporate imo, the better... so things like "pile on" bonuses, activation mechanics where maybe you can't actually move every unit every round, routing and death if unable to route, etc... for me, the key to this genre is interesting rules that have a very particular take on modeling battle.

and you guys seem to have a running description of what's happening in the text display in the upper left and i know a lot of games do that but another fun thing about these kinds of tactics games is to see the result of the "roll"... so in tabletop games, everyone basically yells out what just happened but it would add to the experience of the game if the results of the roll were displayed in text (colored, cool font, etc) on the battlefield. so things like "Drax casts fireball!", "stunned!", "critical hit!"... these effects are a critical part of the tactics and it's a shame that it's buried in text in the upper left.

i'd personally love to see the rolls as well but i understand if you guys are not inclined to go that way.

whether it's with the AoF series of games or you guys come out with another series, i really do hope you guys do something that's even more closer to what the tabletop miniatures games do, little less rpg, little more skirmish campaign (again, i think in recent times frostgrave is a great example and does a fantastic job), simple stat lines for characters with few attributes with limited upgrading for units and just buy better units. i'd rather really understand a few traits and character types instead of have a vague grasp of a thousand.

anyway, this is just what i'm looking for. it may not align with what you guys are trying to do so ignore and dismiss as necessary.

best of luck!

[Les]

Hey, many thanks for a detailed post!

We will definitely try to incorporate more table-top mechanics :-)
I am just not convinced towards stripping RPG elements.

Answer in points below:

• Table-top mechanics - there are few good ideas of yours! I will add something it that direction, but without adding too much complexity.
  
  
• Smaller number of units - we try to design is around principle of having about 5 complex units (like mages with many options) and around 15-20 simple units (just point & click). That seems to be sweet spot between turn's length and number of units. However, if you play with smaller number of units, you will get experience advantage.
  
  
• Terrain bonuses - that's something I am trying to do for a long time. However, it's bloody complex to implement in grid-free engine we have. Also, AI would have to be much more smarter to be able to get advantage of terrain bonuses. Maybe one day...
  
  
• Turn log - that's something we want to improve when re-coding GUI. Adding rolling dices animation might be a good idea!
  
  
• RPG elements - well, this is direction where we actually want to go. RPGs generally hook player better. First AOF games were like you describe, units could be just upgraded, but it was a bit too dry. You can try to play Multiplayer, where you can play vs. AI with un-upgraded units (start game, select AI as players). Let me know how it works for you.

Let me know what you think,
Les

BTW, have you tried Battle Lore: Command?

[jin.choung]

wow, thanks for such a detailed response! totally unnecessary but thanks for being willing to have the conversation! yeah, you guys have to do the vision that you have in your heads. as i say, disregard anything that doesn't fit with that. and your take on the rpg element drawing people in seems totally right.

actually but the way that you've implemented it with fewer hero units and more base units - that's a really great compromise. that's what i loved about frostgrave - the only real configurability lies with the wizard and his apprentice. all the other guys are just bought with gold and are more or less generic (though you can do limited leveling up and giving them better weapons). so enough depth of choice to be interesting but not so deep that you'll never understand everything.

i have tried battlelore and i really disliked the digital version. they made it too video gamey and took away the charm of the board game. it's part of the COMMAND AND COLORS line of strategy games and that's a really great series but i think it really does depend on having visible cards and dice. they kinda made those elements hidden and that really took away from gameplay for me.

(same problem with mordheim which is pretty faithful in its adaptation of the minis game but they had to adopt a third person tomb raider like camera and refused to give us an overhead view where you can actually play [you get a map that you can see but can't make decisions on]. and again, all the boardgame elements like dice rolls are hidden and effects like getting stunned are shown [badly] with animation rather than having prominent onscreen text just tell me what happened)

also, the animated units really bugged me. the animations were bog standard and imo, it would have been much better to have really well textured, hires models that were literally game pieces that moved around or rotated - this is my same criticism of PARADOX strategy games like crusader kings 2. those animations are TERRIBLE... i'd much prefer if they showed pewter figurines that were beautiful and completely static.

in this regard, your games work much better for me because it's top down and the animations are not all over the place. makes it feel much more like a miniatures game.

thanks for the tip about setting up my own skirmishes. that probably will fill the bill for what i'm looking for.

thanks again for being so open to feedback and feature requests. i'm very much looking forward to age of fear 3!

jin

[speedyappraisals]

AOF3 Looks like an excellent game and I most likely will be buying it soon. I just wanted to mention that if anyone is considering another excellent tactical game to have a hard look at the Eador series. They are the best so far in my opinion.

[Les]

Escrito originalmente por speedyappraisals:

AOF3 Looks like an excellent game and I most likely will be buying it soon. I just wanted to mention that if anyone is considering another excellent tactical game to have a hard look at the Eador series. They are the best so far in my opinion.

Agree on that 110%!!
Eador series were having a big influence on Age of Fear series.

[Shadownamesto]

I think your AOF games are really well done. The engine is a bit awkward to mess with, and understanding which engine to use is difficult for a casual, but it's solid. It's also refreshing seeing a level of advancement through games, from AOF 1 being an upgrade haul, to AOF 2 being a bit more specialised with larger quantities of upgrades. One thing I think would be a valuable addition to all of your games is a kind of description on which race does what. For example, the undead don't focus too much on quality units, so upgrading them with enhanced weapons and armor might not be a valuable use of your money or experience, while the soldiers are focused on quality rather than quantity. Undead can throw their units away, soldiers can heal theirs. You could also throw that into other factions. Demons are harder hitting with fire spells while orcs are a smidge more tactical with poisonous spells, hardy units.

[Les]

Escrito originalmente por Shadownamesto:

One thing I think would be a valuable addition to all of your games is a kind of description on which race does what.

Some kind of bestiary or encyclopedia, right?

That would make sense, especially that we want to move toward Open World, with an option to change race along the way. Then some kind of bestiary will definitely be required...

Let me think of that. You are definitely right that with 6 races and two more are coming in AOF4, we need some quick summary what to expect from race.

[Spaczer]

Upgrade to all the main heroes would be a pretty cool update, seems to be only for the spellcasters of the campaigns..but a melee hero upgrade would be awesome..like a dwarf paladin or a dryder berserker or something

[Les]

There is an upgrade for drider! Actually, you can select between two paths.
Finish all optional missions and you will find it :-D

As for Gilrock - there is a secret upgrade too!

[Spaczer]

Escrito originalmente por Les:

There is an upgrade for drider! Actually, you can select between two paths.
Finish all optional missions and you will find it :-D

As for Gilrock - there is a secret upgrade too!

welp, time to go replay! (love the replay value in this game!)

[Les]

As for Gilrock as it might be difficult to find:

Steal Radiating Stone in tunnels vs Undead battle, equip it to Gilrock and open Skills menu. It also unlocks 2nd ending

[MizzouRah]

No losing battles - simple, you are always winning :-D

I'm assuming this is a setting or something? Surely the game doesn't always have you winning? What fun would that be? :)