So looking back, was AoW 1 the best ?

[Lord Haart]

Everyone loved AoW 1. It dripped atmosphere and is still played today.

Also we had Aow 2 and Aow SM.

Everyone was really looking forward to AoW III, but does it seem it has lost it's way ?

Would love to know your thoughts. My biggest gripe atm is that the battlefields look a little too 'cluttered' now, with weird camera angles and units not instantly distinguishable from terrain and other units if close.

Also the cities should have labels on the overhead view

[Lord Haart]

Nintendo Nerd Lord eredeti hozzászólása:

AoW first and only

others are just rubbish

Poignant

[Kalitz]

iHunterKiller eredeti hozzászólása:

Firts off, no AOW3 defeats AoW1 in all regards.

Also not that this commonly dislike camera feature (me too) can be disabled in the options under the gameplay tab. If you have played the previous games you know that this series has enough customisation in the options to perfetly fit your own aesthetic and playstyle :)

AoW3 options are lacking the option to select soundtracks played and option to turn off some of the buildings to be constructed.

AoW3 is a good game but it lacks in number of races and a new alignment system is bad. Gameplay wise AoW1 is surpassed by 3 and SM. Original AoW is still the bestest, just because. Loved the artwork too.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Age of wonders shadow magic still is the best.
For the simple fact:
Size.
You had alot of race's, alot of spells, alot of options and good and evil accauly ment something.
Ow sure age of wonders one worshippers will disagree.
But i still prefeer age of wonders 2 shadow magic.
I hope age of wonders 3 will become better then it.
But so far it is age of wonders one in three dimentions.

[Fabulous Nathan]

AOW 2 SM was my fav, AOW 3 needs alot of work.

alignment is just for looks, the WIZARDS used to be inherently good or evil and the races who worshipped them would reflect that, this system is rubbish considering you can flip flop between good and evil many times in one game for zero result.

domain is used purely for grabbing resources now, it has nothing to do with magic or magic range as it was before, adding imo yet another layer of tactical process, the fact you can still cast your main arsenal of spells regardless of wheather a hero or node is present just defeats domains purpose.

dropping the singular unit types for groups takes a little getting used to but could become better with variety, which reminds me, races have no meaning now, it's purely class driven as to how you build armies, once you level up your class tier units, you never need build the race units again ie, there is zero difference between an orc phalanx or a dwarf one.

i am somewhat pleased with AOW 3 but has a long way to go so it can lift itself out of mediocre tribute territory

[Mel]

Popara eredeti hozzászólása:

Shadow Magic. This one dont even have undead,frostlings and tigrans!!! My 3 personal favorite.

Unit variety also sucks big time compared to SM.

I too miss all of the races that were left out.

[Mark]

I'm lucky. I never played AoW 1 or 2, so I think 3 is awesome! :)

[Ricksticks]

Age of Wonders 1 is still the best. Best music, best UI, best art, best multiplayer experience, simple yet deep, best, best, best... I really miss the automatic battle screen from AoW1... I loved watching these battles and the random elements in them for instance... it's just my Halfling Pony Rider VS an Orc Warlord. 3 misses later and my Pony Rider is one bad ass, gold medal wielding sob. AoW3 doesn't do this at all... and auto battles in multiplayer don't let you watch the battle. BAD CALL. I also think AoW3 is a lot slower than AoW1 where right from my first city I was producing troops and roaming the map with my hordes. Because of all the town upgrades and city building in AoW3 it became slower and more defensive. Bad call imo. Also you have to kill the hero and their starting town in AoW3. I preferred Kill the leader only because it speeds the game up.

[Beatles Eternally]

Each game has its merits.

AoW1 brought us a great - even timeless high fantasy Tolkienesque world in a time when Doom was ruling the gaming world and the only other fantasy TBS were Fantasy General from SSI and MicroProse's Master of Magic. AoW1 while having great campaigns locked us into campaigns or rolling our own maps. Not bad of course and at least editor functioned well on all AoW games EXCEPT AoW3 for me at least.

AoW2: The Wizard's Throne upped the ante with more units and races but still had no random map generator. I played it briefly and then ...

AoW: Shadow Magic!! This one put it all together! A random map generator that created beautiful playable maps, two more very interesting races, and insane community support; just check Heaven Games. But the battles felt like a dust up between a few people rather than armies.

AoW 3 changed the paradigm and yes I do miss the evil/neutral/good race delineation. It's a bit strange playing as a High Elf and having Orcs as your allies and that AoW3 focuses almost exclusively on destroying all other races. But, on the positive side, I love the tactical battles, the Peter Jackson LoTR "look", and the different classes of heroes. Also, there are actually MORE units AND more spells in AoW3. You can check Triumph's own comparisons.

Let's be fair: AoW3 was released a week or so ago and the developers have been VERY responsive and very present on these fora. Compare that to Egosoft who released an abomination and are still making tiny fixes but no significant changes to major aspects of the game. A new patch is imminent with AoW3 and I think that Triumph will make AoW3 the crown jewel in the AoW series. I just wish they would fix the finicky editor.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

jcaracc2003 eredeti hozzászólása:

Let's be fair: AoW3 was released a week or so ago and the developers have been VERY responsive and very present on these fora. Compare that to Egosoft who released an abomination and are still making tiny fixes but no significant changes to major aspects of the game. A new patch is imminent with AoW3 and I think that Triumph will make AoW3 the crown jewel in the AoW series. I just wish they would fix the finicky editor.

This is the reason i stick around.
Age of wonders 3 has the potential to be great.
Right now it is just avarage.

[Guardias]

I think that AoW3 is a return to the magic of the original; I wasn't fond of AoW2 or Shadow Magic and as such i find AoW3 to be an excellent sequel.

[Rodfather]

Aow2 was the best for me, humans were humans, orcs were orcs, spheres of magic were spheres of magic...no weird shadow things comapred to shadow magic and better graphics than the original

[Kalitz]

Rodfather eredeti hozzászólása:

Aow2 was the best for me, humans were humans, orcs were orcs, spheres of magic were spheres of magic...no weird shadow things comapred to shadow magic and better graphics than the original

Unfortunately it had wizards in it's lore. Having Orcs as a pets for some naked ginger was a tavesty.
This is why AoW is best. Races were masters of their fate, not being a puppets to some godlike beings.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Kalitz eredeti hozzászólása:

Rodfather eredeti hozzászólása:

Aow2 was the best for me, humans were humans, orcs were orcs, spheres of magic were spheres of magic...no weird shadow things comapred to shadow magic and better graphics than the original

Being a puppets to some godlike beings.

I accauly like that part.

[Kalitz]

How generic.