Age of Wonders: Aquafall | My prediction for the expansion tomorrow

[Entangle Strike]

Greetings Commanders!

So excited for the announcement!

Well, of course I don't think it's gonna be named "Aquafall", its kinda cringy. And I know now there is a link for the aquatic training facility that is broken, but I think that's on purpose as the bug as been reported many times and not fixed nor answered. Would love to hear your opinions on my video guys. Wish you all a great Planetfall!

 

[Jean-Luc]

The expansion trailer has leaked.

 

[TibblesTheCat]

And I know now there is a link for the aquatic training facility that is broken, but I think that's on purpose as the bug as been reported many times and not fixed nor answered.

Nah just missed it for the last patch, should be fixed in the next one. Doesn't make sense otherwise.

 

[Zaskow]

Well, some love for water warfare and water economic features is definitely needed, coz playing on water map isn't very popular like in AoW3. I'd like to see possibility to make water colonies too.

 

[Entangle Strike]

The expansion trailer has leaked.

Hahahaha I miss those cringy 90s sci-fi shows.

 

[Entangle Strike]

Nah just missed it for the last patch, should be fixed in the next one. Doesn't make sense otherwise.

I think something so simple as to link the building properly for the landmark wouldn't be dismissed so easy.

 

[Entangle Strike]

Well, some love for water warfare and water economic features is definitely needed, coz playing on water map isn't very popular like in AoW3. I'd like to see possibility to make water colonies too.

I know, right? I mean it's a hyper futuristic sci-fi game, it really lacks naval technologies and units. Even lacks more air units. Altho I can understand that, they wanted to focus on ground first, cuz it makes sense with all the " we planetfalled on a planet after the Star Union fall, we shall re-discover the techs and ruins " trope. I imagine a huge galacticempire like have underwater cities waiting now to be discovered.

 

[Zaskow]

I mean it's a hyper futuristic sci-fi game, it really lacks naval technologies and units.

Game lacks some more economic options for water sectors, its upgrades are simplified compared to surface sectors. It's profitable, but still. Also pure water ships have serious incorrigible flaw - strict limit on water makes unit almost useless on most maps. I can't even capture coastal colonies with my ships. I think if something like planetfall happened IRL faction won't build pure water ships, but create something amphibious like this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hovercraft

Even lacks more air units.

Balance reasons. I don't want to see more t3/t4 flyers, because such unit types are broken and corrupt balance. Look at AoW3, if you haven't flying/floating stacks, you'll be loser.

 

[Entangle Strike]

Game lacks some more economic options for water sectors, its upgrades are simplified compared to surface sectors. It's profitable, but still. Also pure water ships have serious incorrigible flaw - strict limit on water makes unit almost useless on most maps. I can't even capture coastal colonies with my ships. I think if something like planetfall happened IRL faction won't build pure water ships, but create something amphibious like this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hovercraft


Balance reasons. I don't want to see more t3/t4 flyers, because such unit types are broken and corrupt balance. Look at AoW3, if you haven't flying/floating stacks, you'll be loser.

I think it's possible to create t 1 2 3 and 4 naval units for the factions. If both land and water had such a rooster it would be a whole new epic game. I think the current ships in planetfall are not really polished enough, they re just bassic units that have water movement and no real unique traits or skills.

It's possible to balance Planetfall with the addition of new air units. How? Well, add more strategic things like the aerial denial system. Have such sites in sectors that can punish people who spam flying units and want to invade your territory. I also mentioned in my Aquafall video something like that for ocean sites. Example: a torpedy defense station that launches attacks in a 3 circle sector radius vs enemy naval units in your aquatic sectors. To punish invaders and spammers.

 

[AC1632]

The devs have talked extensively about how the lack of water colonies is intentional, there's supposed to be parts of the map that aren't useful. It's the same reason why there are so many impassable mountains by default on Land maps.
The sheer amount of extra stuff that would have to be added to make an aquatic-focused map not just viable, but balanced (currently Syndicate would have a massive advantage due to floating vehicles) is beyond the scope of a DLC, it would likely be a different game by the time it was done.
The devs have talked about how they originally wanted to launch with a space layer though, so my guess is the first expansion is going to add a space layer.

 

[Entangle Strike]

Aaaaaand its a cryosleep expansion.

 

[Zaskow]

Aaaaaand its a cryosleep expansion.

Well, not exactly. It's just new NPC faction, few landmarks and new mechanics with it like quests in Stellaris.

 

[Entangle Strike]

Well, not exactly. It's just new NPC faction, few landmarks and new mechanics with it like quests in Stellaris.

I meant its not aquatic but rather a cryosleep awakening theme. TBH I do like the exploration aspect, it was left out of the game kind off. Previous AOW games had you explore ruins, in Planetfall you could only explore silver and gold landmarks.

 

[Promethian]

Its interesting the way they are doing it though. The ancient sleeping people are going to join you as your secret tech and their old enemies are going to be a combination of marauders and a new NPC faction.

 

[nimbuus]

The cryosleep theme has been long known from Warhammer 40k and was seen in eg. Mass Effect, but I don't think it could ever get old.
Still very interested about the new mechanics.

 

[Entangle Strike]

The devs said they made Planetfall by selecting famous sci-fi tropes. And whatever they picked they made it look awesome. Keep crushing it Triumph Studios!

 

[Sifer2]

They may not have done a Naval expansion this time but they should still do one. Cause I hate to tell them but the effort they put into making Naval units was wasted. No one uses them currently. I didn't even use them during that one small Island map in the campaign. Since as AC1632 put it there is nothing useful on the Ocean. You have no reason to fight over the Ocean intentional or not. And it's not economically feasible to waste loads of upkeep on a purely defensive stack or two of Naval units trying to hope to intercept an enemy transport. I'm not even saying they have to make moving Naval colonies like in Civ Beyond Earths expansion. That was neat but I would settle for just stationary colonies. Just so long as Naval unit's can invade them. And there are interesting new landmarks, and resource deposits to make it worth the trouble.

 

[Memory]

They may not have done a Naval expansion this time but they should still do one. Cause I hate to tell them but the effort they put into making Naval units was wasted. No one uses them currently. I didn't even use them during that one small Island map in the campaign. Since as AC1632 put it there is nothing useful on the Ocean. You have no reason to fight over the Ocean intentional or not. And it's not economically feasible to waste loads of upkeep on a purely defensive stack or two of Naval units trying to hope to intercept an enemy transport. I'm not even saying they have to make moving Naval colonies like in Civ Beyond Earths expansion. That was neat but I would settle for just stationary colonies. Just so long as Naval unit's can invade them. And there are interesting new landmarks, and resource deposits to make it worth the trouble.

They have made some changes you might like, amongst those are reducing naval upkeep, giving the first navel unit tech for free and moving the t3 navel unit to T2. Source is the PDXcon stream. There maybe more changes but we will have to wait for the massive November balance patch notes.

It would be nice if one of the new landmarks or anomalies spawns in the water so you need a navy to use/make use of it.

As a side note, If you play islands on a feral world having a decent navel is essential, or any island map without teleport pads.

That said, i'm not a fan of navel battles as they lack the depth of land battles, as such i'd prefer they just focus their efforts there.

 

[Entangle Strike]

Oh boy I was happy to heard the new naval changes, sounds like it might be a ground for more naval changes in the future, what do you guys think?

 

[HousePet]

Oh boy I was happy to heard the new naval changes, sounds like it might be a ground for more naval changes in the future, what do you guys think?

I think you should be banished to the Abyss for that pun.