really missing some basic map features/choices that were in AoW3

[Bomjus]

1. the "no underground" option that was in AoW3. if this has been added in aow4, and i missed it, please let me know.

2. preset teams don't start near each other like they do in AoW3. this is a 2v2 start in AoW3 and AoW4. i've had some matches where i've spawned closer to my enemies than i have my allies. https://imgur.com/a/VhDeT4I and what's actually really hilarious is that i created a single random realm with just the "land" and "small underground" traits to get these screenshots, and it actually did place an enemy closer to me than my ally https://imgur.com/a/Td3ugHI

3. because there are no settlers, there's no way to start a "nomad" match like you could in AoW3. if this was an option in AoW4 at least i could move closer to my team mate to setup my initial city near their's.

the game has been out for a while now and i still feel like i can't *actually* play a co op game with my friends because we all start so far apart it's like i'm playing singleplayer for the first 20-50 turns (depending). especially since summons have been nerfed so they can ONLY be summoned around owned cities and heroes. so i can't summon reinforcements for my friends even at their throne city (a nerf so big that it's worse than AoW3 now lol)

[Bomjus]

also, if anyone knows of any mods that "fix" the issues above, feel free to link them. i will gladly check them out.

[The Former]

No Underground might be tricky in AOW4 because of the Underground Adaptation trait, which would be pretty useless in games with no underground. Checked mods and it seems no one's tried to do this.

As far as the nomad start... It's a pain, but perhaps you could found a city near your team, transfer your throne as quickly as possible, then raze the first city? (Or release it as a vassal if you don't want the alignment hit.)

[Bomjus]

Publicado originalmente por Ärlig, Paradoxriddaren:

No Underground might be tricky in AOW4 because of the Underground Adaptation trait, which would be pretty useless in games with no underground. Checked mods and it seems no one's tried to do this.

As far as the nomad start... It's a pain, but perhaps you could found a city near your team, transfer your throne as quickly as possible, then raze the first city? (Or release it as a vassal if you don't want the alignment hit.)

one could argue races like goblins and dwarves in age of wonders 3 have more underground bonuses than age of wonders 4 factions can currently have. and it still had a no underground option.

[Blanch Warren]

I don't know what a nomad match is. Nomads we're in AOW 2 SM. Stop using nomenclatures.

[Beytran70]

Unfortunately most of those things are not likely to change. AoW4's map generation system is pretty rigid in how it works, and the devs have spoken many times since before launch at how they really can't make it work the way it would need to in order to allow AoW3 style generation. I mean, look at how long it's taken them (this patch) to fix the mountain and water generation frequency. Those have been complained about since launch.

It's one of my core problems with the way this game is designed and I think is the root issue for a lot of other problems I have.

[Waschbär42]

Publicado originalmente por Beytran70:

... I mean, look at how long it's taken them (this patch) to fix the mountain and water generation frequency. Those have been complained about since launch.
It's one of my core problems with the way this game is designed and I think is the root issue for a lot of other problems I have.

I feel similar and think like this is what we will get more often in the future, when more automated and semi-autonom systems are used ("AI"), and nobody feels accountable for its outputs or can change them in detail, cause nobody is paid to understand the process.
Anyway, maps in AoW4 still arent what I'm looking for and still cant be configured as extensively or manually created as in previous titles :/

[Isidorn]

No underground seems unlikely especially since they made the change to make one set of the magic materials exclusive to the underground (even though it's possible to get them above ground in some cases)

But still, doesn't some of the story realms have no underground? So that it's not possible to do is a "modified truth" at best.

[PlutonArioch]

I am a bit surprised that there are no mods for a "No Underground" trait. It is pretty easy to either make the vanilla "No Underground" trait available, or create that trait yourself, as there is literally a toggle for "Underground Enabled" when modding traits - however it does remove all magic materials if you choose a trait that removes the underground completely. I assume that the map generation pass that places them does not get to run without an underground, and I have not found a solution myself yet, but I have not spent much time looking for one either. I'd have thought someone else might have found one, or at least posted a mod that allows to play without underground and materials.

There is another toggle that should make every player spawn above ground, regardless of underground adaptation, but that one does not seem to work at all. However when playing with a by default invisible trait that is supposed to spawn everyone above ground, I found that players do spawn underground but no materials, instead they can all be found above ground again...

I do not believe that it is not possible to fix these setting to work as expected. I find it much more likely that the devs have a certain vision for how they want it to work, and they don't want to spend any time to make it also work in slightly different ways to allow us to customize more.

I hope that with the next DLC (which is supposed to bring "new realms") we get a general overhaul of the map generator, as it seems likely that they have to work on it anyways for the DLC.

[Astax]

Underground and Swamp adaptation maybe should get merged into one?

[egos]

the "no underground" option is a must have

[darkholyPL]

If we can only have one thing and one thing only, then all I want is to decouple map size form player count.
I want to be able to play max sized map with only 2 players if I want to.

[Isidorn]

Publicado originalmente por darkholyPL:

If we can only have one thing and one thing only, then all I want is to decouple map size form player count.
I want to be able to play max sized map with only 2 players if I want to.

Yes please! And the other way around, max number of players on a minimal sized map can be quite hillarious. Still remember playing hot-seat with a friend in HoMM3 years ago with that setting. My friend went first and discovered one of the AI. Me having my turn next, figured out how to get there and could wipe it out before it even had its turn!

[egos]

Publicado originalmente por darkholyPL:

If we can only have one thing and one thing only, then all I want is to decouple map size form player count.
I want to be able to play max sized map with only 2 players if I want to.

In PvP only because AI cant manage huge distance between players