Here's a different complaint.

[Elhazzared]

So I fortunately seem not to have performance issues like many other so cool on that point (for me at least), however for a Paradox and for a game in AoW series, this game has released in a very poor state.

Strategy games, as the genre implies are about you making strategies to beat your opponents but AoW4 does everything to prevent the player from being able to make strategies which is half the fun of playing a strategy game.

What I mean by this is the OVERWELMING lack of information regarding all the important parts of the game. In AoW 3 we had a very good enciclopedia that gave us the information on everything, game mechanics, all units, all spells, all locations. Everything was there. It only missed proper organisation/sorting but other than that, it was still very good. Planetfall didn't had a great enciclopedia but all a player had to do was open the research screen and 90% of the necessary information was there.

So what is so bad about AoW4 then? Well, the enciclopedia only gives you game mechanics. Want to know all the base units that your city can produce? Well tough luck, the enciclopedia doesn't shows you units and there is no wiki (something that the developers should always do rather than leave it for the fans to do). You want to know what special builds your race creation gives you? Again, no information. Want to know all the spells in each tome? Doesn't exists. Want to know how many tomes you can have, how or when you get them? Again, no information whatsoever. Same for how many alignement points you can get or all the forms of getting them.

How is a player meant to formulate a strategy to win the game when the most important information is not disclosed?

Don't get me wrong, in a few months the players who went through hundreds upon hundreds of hours of game play will throw up a wiki with all of that but until then what we have is just guess work and hope what we picked at random (which may look like good choices at the moment but with no knowledge it's very likely not).

This is an incredibly poor release for a Paradox game. I have never seen a Paradox game being released that held back so much information from the player that he literally has no clue as to what he is doing which is very contrary to what strategy games are all about. Strategy is about having the knowledge and puting it to good use.

EDIT: So I was actually blind as a bat and didn't see the tabs on the enciclopedia (something I even missed in planetfall) and most of what i said is indeed invalid. The only thing I'd maintain would be that there is a lack of information regarding how many spell books you can get and how you get them as well as affinity.

[sandman25dcsss]

Encyclopedia shows units etc., click buttons on the top.

[Elhazzared]

Originally posted by sandman25dcsss:

Encyclopedia shows units etc., click buttons on the top.

Aw damn, you are right, I missed that for some reason. Well then, time to look at the pedia again and see how much I need to modify my complaint. I get a feeling it might not talk too well about how many tomes and when you get it as well as afinities but the rest might actually be there.

Thanks for the heads up.

[Resand]

Want to know all the base units that your city can produce - Are in the enciclopedia
You want to know what special builds your race creation gives you - Race? If you mean tomes/affinities, then it's there
Want to know all the spells in each tome - Are there
Want to know how many tomes you can have, how or when you get them - How you get them yes, haven't found any mention of max number

Need to learn to read I think...

[Mac Sneaky Blade Torpedo]

It's kinda weird that you can't search the entire encyclopedia, but have to select the the appropriate tab first.

[sandman25dcsss]

Originally posted by Elhazzared:

Aw damn, you are right, I missed that for some reason. Well then, time to look at the pedia again and see how much I need to modify my complaint. I get a feeling it might not talk too well about how many tomes and when you get it as well as afinities but the rest might actually be there.

Thanks for the heads up.

No problem, I ran into the same issue, but then recalled Planetfall had similar structure of encyclopedia and I started looking for the buttons ;) They are not easy to notice indeed.

[Kagami]

Can confirm, had similar issue, then remembered to brain and found the buttons. >.>

[sikbok]

Glad you folks found the info!

[The Former]

You can also right-click the units in the production menu to get quick information on them. For tomes, if you click the purple button in the top left near the Encyclopedia icon, there's a whole separate encyclopedia just for tomes.

[bshock]

The nested encyclopedia is incredible.