how do you keep the game fresh for multiple replays?

[2tecs]

Ive gone through one playthrough on the free weekend, wondering if it's worth it long-term to buy it. I was curious how you guys keep multiple replays feeling fresh.
Obviously this game offers tons of customisation, so thats a big option. But i find with these 4x type games, even Civ, i get bored after a play through because the next ones all feel the same. Even playing with different civ/race, the gameplay for each round just ends up the same. Does the extra customisation offered in this game make up for that?

[Elgareth]

I currently have 393 hours clocked in this game, so to me it's absolutely worth long-term.

Personally there are multiple angles for me that keep it interesting.
1) Finishing the Story Missions: There are... idk, 7? or something Story Maps with special starting conditions and goals. Playing each of them once takes a while already.

2) Trying different builds: You generally have two broad ways for builds, mana/summoning and gold/draft. Then you have the vast amounts of different tome choices, and from them different buffs, spells, and units. These choices also decide which affinity bonuses you'll be able to get. And of course, your culture decides the baseline of your units, also you can't forget your race bonuses, that can make surprisingly big differences. For example you can play a glass-cannon race with more accuracy and critrate and focus on mage units to burst enemies down. Or you go the defensive and regeneration route to outlast and outheal the enemy.
Add to that the four different ruler types, where especially champ/wk is really different to a dragon ruler and eldritch sovereign ruler, there are endless combinations to try out that do have actual gameplay differences.

The difference between an astral/nature/order mystic elf game and a materium/chaos strife oathsworn ogrekin game are massive. MUCH bigger difference in gameplay compared to different civilizations in Civ.

2.1) Min-maxing builds: Thinking about and trying out "meta builds", extremely powerful combinations that can just dominate the game. Then using those to go solo against allied brutal AIs for example.

2.2) Roleplaying builds: After having built a fair share of powerbuilds, I currently enjoy it most to restrict my own builds because of a certain race vision. For example going with a Frost-Dragon leading Icegoblins, but NOT doing anything necromancy. Or I went one game where I ONLY picked nature tomes.

3) Achievement hunting: If it's your thing, the Achievements require you to take some extra steps during story missions, and play with certain tomes etc., which already leads to ~10 more games, with each game taking multiple hours, that's quite some game-time alone :-D

4) Map Variations: Often overlooked, an AoW4 game changes massively depending on how you build the map itself, not just your faction. There are different presence-options that add one or many special enemies, that start out stronger and add new goals to the game. Beating each of those once takes some time and is interesting. Then you can add wild modifiers to maps, like enemies that revive once in battle, battles where all units have a risk of going berserk each round, making defensive playstyles much weaker. Mostly undead enemies, mostly magic origin enemies, etc. etc., which make certain builds stronger or weaker.

5) Continuous DLCs adding more Cultures/Rulers/Events: So far each DLC had interesting stuff added, that "enabled" at least 3 more games for me. That's why I even after I stopped playing it for a while, every few months I get addicted to it again for a while :-D

TLDR: IMHO AoW4 offers MUCH bigger game differences inbetween each game than other 4X games, which keep it interesting over a longer time.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Age of dollhouse 4 has 1 thing that keeps me playing.
Build your own faction.

The joy of creating and expermimenting with different faction combinations.

[TirAsleen]

AoW4 is refreshing itself.

I strongly advise to use the unknown realms options, this alone keeps the maps fresh.

And of course the customized faction builder. You could try to re-create fantasy civs from other media in this game, it works quite well now with all the DLCs added. Primal Culture made a lot more possible, for example, since its about terrain, and terrain can add a lot of immersion.

[Kyutaru]

Tough to say. This game doesn't quite give you the dopamine something like Civ does because you're intentionally weak throughout it. You can't seem to fill out your territory because growth is limited and cities capped, you can't seem to become overpowered because the army defense system seems to have diminishing returns and offense is paramount, you can't build an elite army that never dies because endgame is devastating to all forces, heck you can't even quite make surgical min-max heroes that annihilate all in their way unless it's an abusive wizardking.

Other 4X games, and even Heroes of Might and Magic or its clone, give you that sense of securing borders, creating an invincible lineup that feels like a Magic: The Gathering deck, or creating all-encompassing supercities that are maxed out in their capacity. It gets so bad that you have to resort to culture, science, or nuclear holocaust victories just to stand a chance. Heck, my Endless Space playthrough I was up against forces so numerous and stealthy that I had to start nuking planets just to chip away at them.

It's definitely a different type of style and the boredom seems to be more from your brain frying from stress in trying to constantly keep ahead of the enemy. Some battles it even seems like you'd have the advantage when really the enemy is just going to throw a few spells and nuke your hero turn 1 putting you at a massive disadvantage. Your warriors can even do the same to him, one-shotting them on a charge attack. Very Chess-like in how swingy the combat can be and that makes one feel like they have less control than some RPG-like 4X games play out (you can go through a Heroes game without losing a single troop by exploiting positioning and abilities).

Good luck.

[Frequent Weaver]

I have more than 400 hours in the game, and there are still countless builds, maps, and setups I want to try. If you've enjoyed the free weekend, then you will almost certainly get your money's worth.

[Ananym]

I don't, I play half of one game then put it down for a month or two until I miss the combat.

Despite all the "options", you're not wrong, gameplay in 4 is extremely homogenous - you have unit classes, they only really vary by stats, you're just gonna throw them against each other the same way every game.

otoh I could play planetfall forever because each faction/tech felt so different and combats felt much more like a tactical puzzle than a stat-smash.

[TirAsleen]

Originally posted by Pseudonym:

gameplay in 4 is extremely homogenous - you have unit classes, they only really vary by stats, you're just gonna throw them against each other the same way every game.

https://minionsart.github.io/aow4db/HTML/UmbralDemonsUnits.html?type=umbral_mistress&

https://minionsart.github.io/aow4db/HTML/AccursedFiends.html?type=accursed_trickster&

These units are a little bit more tactical especially the Mistress.
And the new Accursed Trickster(strange name, but whatever, could be more asian) is an unit that just duplicates, so maybe a more timed burst of damage might be a better idea.

But yeah, overall Planetfall combat is the best.

[AnemoneMeer]

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Tough to say. This game doesn't quite give you the dopamine something like Civ does because you're intentionally weak throughout it. You can't seem to fill out your territory because growth is limited and cities capped, you can't seem to become overpowered because the army defense system seems to have diminishing returns and offense is paramount, you can't build an elite army that never dies because endgame is devastating to all forces, heck you can't even quite make surgical min-max heroes that annihilate all in their way unless it's an abusive wizardking.

You can actually build armies so tanky they survive everything. My default build actually leans into that, with Pyre Templars being borderline immortals under the right setup. Wightborn Pyre Templars are absurd bulwarks of damage absorption if set up right. Even outside of them, there are Defender builds that can tank T5's easily.

Minmax heroes is typically either Dragon Lord post patch (Oh god have I seen things), or Champion with a gun or a greatsword or greataxe, both of which can become crit oneshot menaces.

As for securing territory, I generally don't have a problem with it, including up to having regenerating infestations turned on on brutal and doing fine, but a lot of *that* is from hours and hours and hours of practice hashing out how to do it and using the various tools at my disposal.

A lot of variety comes from how differently different affinities and their tools play when you lean into them, but that variety tends to be less available early game. It's still more available than say, Civ, where the game plays roughly the same every time, but it still takes a bit of time to start varying between builds.

[Salinga]

So far 600 hours. Games like this are like good board games for me. They sit on the shelf and I take them out every now and then to play a game. I'm also not going to stop playing chess.

[easytarget]

My guess is OP isn't going to find a satisfactory answer to this question.

To ask it is to know the answer already.

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by TirAsleen:

But yeah, overall Planetfall combat is the best.

Oh really? That's one I skipped since it deviated from the fantasy. Is it really the best of the bunch?

[Blanch Warren]

I don't, I'm autistic. I've studied the same two subjects since high school, for over fifteen years. I write wikipedia articles on Ancient China. Ancient China. Ancient China. Ancient China.

Fresh? My ♥♥♥♥ is older than time.

[Kyutaru]

Hey if you like a thing, you don't need it to change. Like darkness. The universe was just fine before light existed. Why mess up a good thing that was doing fine for gazillions of years? But it's merely a passing phase, soon to blink out of existence as suddenly as it arrived. Soon all heat, energy, light, and movement will fade. And reality will return to its origin -- the natural state of things -- absolute stability. The eternal dark.

Originally posted by Blanch Warren:

I don't, I'm autistic. I've studied the same two subjects since high school, for over fifteen years. I write wikipedia articles on Ancient China. Ancient China. Ancient China. Ancient China.

Fresh? My ♥♥♥♥ is older than time.

[Elgareth]

Originally posted by Kyutaru:

Originally posted by TirAsleen:

But yeah, overall Planetfall combat is the best.

Oh really? That's one I skipped since it deviated from the fantasy. Is it really the best of the bunch?

It has its own pros and cons, but overall it's a good game. I'd rate it higher than AoW3, but I think it'd be hard to go back to it from AoW4, as I'd feel heavily restricted after coming from so many freedom of choices in AoW4.

[Midas]

Originally posted by 2tecs:

Ive gone through one playthrough on the free weekend, wondering if it's worth it long-term to buy it. I was curious how you guys keep multiple replays feeling fresh.
Obviously this game offers tons of customisation, so thats a big option. But i find with these 4x type games, even Civ, i get bored after a play through because the next ones all feel the same. Even playing with different civ/race, the gameplay for each round just ends up the same. Does the extra customisation offered in this game make up for that?

Do you care about Tactical battles? They're one of the series' biggest strengths, and also where the majority of the faction variety exists. If you're just auto-battling everything, then the game will feel very similar no matter what you pick.