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[Mech#4]

Looks interesting, I bought Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic off of Good Old Games because it intrigued me though... I have very little idea how to play and what I've done of the tutorials in game do very little to explain deeper tactics and mechanics. Is there any strategy guides around I could read?

[ed boy]

I've been thinking: maybe we could try to set up a Shadow Magic LAN game or PBEM (play by e-mail), if there is enough intrest.

I would be up for that, though I would likely do pretty badly.

Looks interesting, I bought Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic off of Good Old Games because it intrigued me though... I have very little idea how to play and what I've done of the tutorials in game do very little to explain deeper tactics and mechanics. Is there any strategy guides around I could read?

Basic mechanics: all attacks come in two categories, physical or magical. Each point in defense reduces the chance of a physical attack by 5%, and resistance does the same for magical attacks. A high attack value means that the attack is more likely to hit, and when it does, it deals a random amount of damage, between 1 and the damage stat. Most attacks have their own damage and attack, only melee uses a creatures own attack and damage. Ranged attacks have modifiers for distance and obstacles. When an attack is selected, you can see its details in the lower left.

[Draco18s]

Watching this with intrest, after all AoW2 and SM used to be some of my favorite games.

I loved AoW2, after I read about it in a gaming magazine I subscribed to at the time.  SM I played some of, but never finished the campaign.

AoW3?  Shit, man, I haven't eagerly anticipated the release of a game in years!  About time!

[gimlet]

For strategy guides, especially to older games, it's worth checking on gamefaqs.org - http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/914785-age-of-wonders-shadow-magic/faqs

And yea, I remember really liking AOW1 (although it wasn't MOM, it's hardly fair 'cause nothing else has ever been MOM) and not liking AOW2 so much - to the point that I lost interest midway through the campaign in AOW2.

[Akura]

I will be seriously pissed if this does not have a random map generator. That is all.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Holy shit yes. I thought this was a topic about AoW 1&2, never thought there'd be a third.

[Niveras]

I will be seriously pissed if this does not have a random map generator. That is all.

From the Community Q&A Part II:

The totally rewritten random map generator allows you to generate scenarios according to your wishes at the click of a button.

I agree, strategy games not including random map generators is a pretty big flaw these days. Some games have an excuse (for example Anno, where the resource distribution is a lot more complex than just a couple varieties), but a truly random map generator offers much better replayability.

Of course, some developers have their own interpretation of random: Elemental was said to have a random map generator, but in fact the landmasses were always fixed and the generator was only for resources and other points of interests. Not sure if this was fixed in Fallen Enchantress as I haven't played it enough to know for sure. I don't recall much of AoW2/SM but I know the original AoW1 only had a map editor (which, though people did great things with, is still not a random generator), so it could be a risk here.

[Teneb]

2/Shadow Magic had both a map editor and a random map generator.

[Draco18s]

2/Shadow Magic had both a map editor and a random map generator.

2 did not have a random map generator (editor, yes).  SM did, but I don't recall it being very good.

[Mini]

SM's generator was awful at small maps, one time I made a smallest size 4 player map, it put every special feature on the top edge of the map.

[Draco18s]

SM's generator was awful at small maps, one time I made a smallest size 4 player map, it put every special feature on the top edge of the map.

It also loved putting desert next to snow.  For no apparent reason.

[Biowraith]

I wasn't sure whether to necro this thread or start a new one, but I figured to justify a new one I'd probably need to post a bunch of stuff I'm too lazy to put together :p


This now has a release date!

31st March 2014

Pre-orders are also now available (Steam, GoG).  Pre-order bonus is an extra scenario or somesuch.  Deluxe edition is £5 more (dunno about other currencies) and comes with another extra scenario and the soundtrack.

I have to say, reading up on this over the last year and especially the gameplay videos (as relatively few as they are) have got me really hyped for this game.  Even the dramatic reduction in races available (at least as your main race) hasn't dampened my enthusiasm much - I'm hoping the addition of leader classes and the effect they have on your empire at least partially mitigates that.  Goblin Theocrats and all that.

For reference, the videos I've found most informative were: Dreadnaught, Archdruid, and some guy's beta let's play (5 parts, possibly breaches NDA, mostly German voiceover).  Also Rogue, purely because bearded dwarven succubi

[Mephansteras]

Hmm, interesting. I'll probably hold off until I get some good reviews from people here on it. I have so many games in my queue I'm not sure how soon I'd actually get around to playing this even if I did get it first thing.

[Levi]

Heh, this game has apparently caused quite a controversy at GOG, as GOG has let it use regional pricing.  GOG made a big deal a while ago about how it isn't going to charge different prices to different regions and made fun of other digital distributors for doing so.

Doesn't really affect me, but I think they would have been better off sticking to their principles.

[Teneb]

Yeah, the price on GOG is absurd.

I did some conversion for my regional currency (BRL) and turns out that the standard version in GOG is about R$20 more expensive than the deluxe version on steam.

What the fuck GOG/Triumph