Personally, do you like AOW III or Shadow Magic more and why?

[Toxicwire†]

^

[Jeined]

SM. AoW III basically forgot about global magic, it is done as a formality. It is now a game of soldiers only, which is not enough for me. Yes, there are a lot of improvements, but the result is the same.
Also, I like godlike heroes, and I hate how frail they become in AoW III (at least in the beginning, but "the beginning" is 2/3 of a game, and it's still easy to lose them in the endgame).
There are other things. For example, I like neither ideas (lore) nor gameplay of most classes in AoW III, and even the most liked classes are kind of boring.

[easytarget]

Nayred w/ nostalgia FTW.

Tell me OP, since you've played both briefly, what's your take based on your small sampling of both?

[Mulzaro]

I think the class system is quite interesting though it probably has a too major role compared to the specializations.

I wasn't a big fan of the global enchantments of the older games. It was a huge pain to keep track on all the buffs your units had after the midgame, even though they had a separate interface for this.

The strategic map is in my opinion, probably the best improvement from the older games. A strong random map generator combined with the fact that buildings affect your cities inside their domain is very interesting.

The combat system itself is also one of the strongest points of the game. AoW III has a lot more useful units. Mainly because of the fact that they completely changed how defense and resistance works. Because of this the first tiers don't become completely useless after the midgame. The combat system is probably too complex at times because the auto combat does a terrible job at it, especially if your army has any cavalry.

The heroes could have been done better though. I don't like how they have the same classes as your leaders. Free leveling is also bad because it allows cookie cutting. You almost always take the skills in the same order, which is pretty boring. I like that the heroes are not immortal though, you really need to be careful with them.

All in all AoW III is an improvement to the older games. The class system compensates for the smaller amount of races quite well and the game mechanics are generally better designed.

[Iguana-on-a-stick]

I liked Shadow Magic, but it never grabbed me. Before AoW3, it was the original AoW1 that I kept coming back to. Its bigger emphasis on armies and warrior-type leaders appealed to me more than the wizard towers and wizard style leaders of AoW2 and Shadow Magic. Its style and atmosphere also appealed more, and the AoW1 campaigns are still my favourite campaigns in the series. (With the possible exception of Eternal Lords.) I particularly loved the ability to play an evil character who ended up siding with the pure good Highmen.

AoW3 is by far my favourite title in the series, though. The main reasons:

- More complex tactical combat with good combat AI.
- Endless variation of class/race/specialisation combos
- Almost every unit and ability in the game is useful
- A style of game that, for me, combines the best aspects of AoW1 and 2/Shadow Magic.

I expect that people who loved the more high-powered magic style of Shadow Magic will prefer that game for that reason, but for me AoW3 was exactly what I wanted. (At least if you include the expansions, before the expansions the game was a bit too sparse for my liking.)

[Ronnie]

Both are good, It seems to easy to get Heroes in Aow3 and Hero Stacking makes the game feel easy.

As for Dodge hit/miss I prefer Shadow Magic as I like that combat system more it is more realistic. Seems like Block Ability works better in Shadow Magic vs Aow3

As for Visuals of Course Aow3 is up to date but they could easily redesign the graphic feel of Shadow Magic using Lords of Xulima Style graphics when you travel around the world map.

Both Games would of been better if you could do more with your towns and the lands around them similar to Civ 5 style which makes that game special as it is always fun to have certain land types near your starting town and that is lacking in a major way in the AoW series.

Hopefully a future project will address that along with Diplomacy and a better A.I.

I'd like to see more team fights meaning the A.I makes better use of an alliance stacking troops near your town or will sticky follow yours to go hunting so you can take advantage of the ally joint attack. That is missing from this game as the A.I really does nothing as an ally in regards to that of course u might get lucky to be near a stack but they need to work on that.I'd also like to see enemies do the same thing where they are stacked together both allies having 12 troops 6 for each group roaming around getting experience etc. It would make those enemies very tough to fight against and they would be getting experience much faster.

You could contact your ally through diplomacy and request 3-5 troops to be stacking with your troops and u can move them around or they may ask u so they can move around with your troops that would solve that issue if it is to hard for the A.I to follow u around and or defend your town sitting there.

There needs to be more diplomacy options for troop management so you and your allies and enemies can benefit from one another. Also trading would be nice aside from the protection benefit the ability to trade to boost research or mana and gold production would be nice. I'd like to see more resources like wood, stone, iron and possibly more metal types so it is harder to build things more of a challenge. Having access to more resources one could build some towers to protect their domain, the better the resources the better the protection. Unlimited Levels would be good for their future project along with allowing each game to build upon itself so each Leader can utilize perks before a new game starts up.

I like the Random map generator but what is missing is once u finish it it is the same old stuff, I'd like to feel as if I won a game or lose I can get some kind of reward or a disadvantage to bring over to my next game where u can get more perks the more games u win or if u lose a disadvantage at the start. Having a huge reward system for winning and losing games would be nice to start a new game along with having a Win/loss record for each Leader where the more wins a leader has the more deadly in terms of his units will be along with advantages for his kingdom or a old hero from a old lost game brought over a champion for his people. Zombasite does a good job with this idea but I'd like to see it implimented in a 4x game. I'd like to see a new tier of Leaders not just heroes but some Champions whom are twice as strong as Heroes and can get more if they level up. Maybe A Hero can be upgraded to a Champion if he lives through a game and brought to the next game. So many ideas to play with that could make this game so much better.

[Toxicwire†]

Originally posted by easytarget:

Nayred w/ nostalgia FTW.

Tell me OP, since you've played both briefly, what's your take based on your small sampling of both?

I can't really do anything as in depth as the previous 3 people before me but I'm really unsure, both feel really similiar but for me I personally like games with the most content and that would be Shadow Magic with the races, of course they're more generic feeling rather than in Age of Wonders III but with Age of Wonders III you have to buy individual packs to get the full experience (it's been a long time since I played either) but I'd say for people who care for graphics the most I'd go with Age of Wonders III and for people who graphics don't matter that much and like to play old gems I'd pick Shadow Magic.

[Sam Hotte]

IMVHO AoW3 has more content (in regard to variety) even without DLCs than part2/SM, because you have combination of class+specialization+race compared to only spec+race in the predecessor.
With DLCs, in the complete package, it's even more towards AoW3 in this respect.

[Jeined]

Originally posted by easytarget:

Nayred w/ nostalgia FTW.

It's not exactly nostalgia. If things were as I liked, I'd be happy with AoW III and consider it an improved version of SM. Besides, SM had some irritating features like "miss" mechanics in combat. New approach in AoW III is much better. But for now I just play Warlock 2, as it is more like my kind of game (even considering its flaws).