Planetfall takes dragon slaying heroes from fantasy and translates them into the sci-fi realm. Knights riding horses have been replaced by aces piloting mechs or heroines riding genetically crafted dinosaurs. In-line with the game’s mythological science fiction setting, many heroes possess also supernatural, psionic abilities.
Both your faction’s Commander and loyal lieutenants are considered Heroes. They are talented types of individuals with unique Hero Upgrade Trees allowing to specialize in a particular role using experience-based upgrades costing skill points. Their special hero-ness also allows them to equip legendary items that you encounter while exploring the ruins of the Star Union.
On the surface the role of heroes sounds the same as fantasy Age of Wonders, but in the following two journals notice there are some significant changes since AoW3. In this topic we’ll be discussing the upgrade structure, in the second we’ll discuss items.
A motley crew of non-mounted heroes
Hero Starting Skills
Every hero belongs to one of the six base races and has an associated secret technology proficiency providing them additional upgrade abilities. The Commander (the leader of your faction) can choose additional Perks that allow to specialize their personal hero abilities from the get-go, giving them an edge on the battlefield. Commanders can pick the pilot skill immediately equipping them with an entry-level support or assault vehicle, a piece of equipment that is often unique to the race.
Elija comes pre-equipped with a nasty grenade attack and SMG
Hero Building
For Planetfall we developed an open ended hero upgrade system where you are able to mix and match hero abilities. For the sake of trying something different form AoW3 we experimented with a hero upgrade system in which heroes choose upgrades within pre-set rigid paths with pre-requisites (i.e. the melee path, the ranged path and the vehicle path) but quickly found that this was too limited and that heroes looked too much alike even with mutually exclusive skill choices.
More importantly we like hero upgrade skills coming from a variety of sources. A Hero gets skills from its race, secret tech and a global pool of upgrades shared by all heroes.
Heroes often gravitate towards a particular role, especially early in the game. Abilities need to be carefully matched with equipment, which makes the upgrade process fun. Roles include
Here are some hero abilities. For which role would you pick them?
Also, to avoid doom-balling hero army buffs only work when the hero is leading an army (the highest level hero in a group)
Heroes and Operations
You might say, hey what about hero spell -uh, Op casting? For AoW that was a big thing. In Planetfall there is some interplay with certain heroes boosting ops, but they don’t spend action points on ops directly. Instead they use their arsenal of varied hero abilities, while ops are called in through a centralized system with bespoke tactical operation points.
Heroes that join the player are of your main race by default. This is a feature AoW3 requested but there is also mechanical reason as heroes from other races might create incompatibility with your mods especially in the early game when there is a big reliance on standard-issue items. Heroes do have varying secret techs, so they provide unique abilities to your faction.
When you assimilate other races into your empire, we will make heroes appear those races too. Assimilating a new race into your empire gives you access to the core unit and mod technologies of that race in military research.
In Planetfall higher level heroes come pre-equipped with items and abilities. Like you might have an advanced hero turning up in a fancy mech.
More on Hero Mods, Vehicles and Mounts, and the all new Arsenal mechanic items in the next journal.
Amazons do not just ride dinos
Both your faction’s Commander and loyal lieutenants are considered Heroes. They are talented types of individuals with unique Hero Upgrade Trees allowing to specialize in a particular role using experience-based upgrades costing skill points. Their special hero-ness also allows them to equip legendary items that you encounter while exploring the ruins of the Star Union.
On the surface the role of heroes sounds the same as fantasy Age of Wonders, but in the following two journals notice there are some significant changes since AoW3. In this topic we’ll be discussing the upgrade structure, in the second we’ll discuss items.
A motley crew of non-mounted heroes
Hero Starting Skills
Every hero belongs to one of the six base races and has an associated secret technology proficiency providing them additional upgrade abilities. The Commander (the leader of your faction) can choose additional Perks that allow to specialize their personal hero abilities from the get-go, giving them an edge on the battlefield. Commanders can pick the pilot skill immediately equipping them with an entry-level support or assault vehicle, a piece of equipment that is often unique to the race.
Elija comes pre-equipped with a nasty grenade attack and SMG
Hero Building
For Planetfall we developed an open ended hero upgrade system where you are able to mix and match hero abilities. For the sake of trying something different form AoW3 we experimented with a hero upgrade system in which heroes choose upgrades within pre-set rigid paths with pre-requisites (i.e. the melee path, the ranged path and the vehicle path) but quickly found that this was too limited and that heroes looked too much alike even with mutually exclusive skill choices.
More importantly we like hero upgrade skills coming from a variety of sources. A Hero gets skills from its race, secret tech and a global pool of upgrades shared by all heroes.
Heroes often gravitate towards a particular role, especially early in the game. Abilities need to be carefully matched with equipment, which makes the upgrade process fun. Roles include
- Ranged (including snipers, nimble flanking skirmishers)
- Melee (charge into the heat of battle wearing strong protection to unleash hell)
- Support (Healers, buffers and debuffers)
- Pilots (mix with other functions pending vehicle type)
Leveling Up a Level 9 Xenoplague Dvar Hero
Here are some hero abilities. For which role would you pick them?
- Phase Shift [VoidTech] Teleport to a hex within 5 ranges, leaving enough AP to do a single attack
- Void Bullets [Void Tech] Ranged attacks ignore 50% of cover and line of sight penalties.
- Juggernaut [Dvar] Allows Hero to walk through obstacles and destroy them.
- Counter Attack [Global] Melee Overwatch can no longer be cancelled by Stagger, and will never miss.
- Plasma Surge [Promethean] The Hero surges forward into another location, dealing 10 Thermal damage to all adjacent units when it lands.
- War Cry [Amazon] Friendly units within 2 hexes gain 20% increased damage for 3 turns.
- Modular Extension [Global] Allows hero to wear one additional mod.
- Strategic Operations Support [Syndicate] +6 Strategic Ops Strength on the sector where the hero is present.
- Reassemble [Assembly] Target dead friendly cyborg gets revived with 50% health. Alternatively, target living friendly cyborg gets healed for 35 HP.
- Ground Commander [Global] All heavy ground units gain 10% extra damage when the hero is leading the army.
- Deploy Cerebral Control Collars [Syndicate] Attempt to mind control unit, becoming an Indentured after battle. On Fail the target is Disabled.
Also, to avoid doom-balling hero army buffs only work when the hero is leading an army (the highest level hero in a group)
Heroes and Operations
You might say, hey what about hero spell -uh, Op casting? For AoW that was a big thing. In Planetfall there is some interplay with certain heroes boosting ops, but they don’t spend action points on ops directly. Instead they use their arsenal of varied hero abilities, while ops are called in through a centralized system with bespoke tactical operation points.
A level 1 Celestian Kirko hero.
Hero RecruitmentHeroes that join the player are of your main race by default. This is a feature AoW3 requested but there is also mechanical reason as heroes from other races might create incompatibility with your mods especially in the early game when there is a big reliance on standard-issue items. Heroes do have varying secret techs, so they provide unique abilities to your faction.
When you assimilate other races into your empire, we will make heroes appear those races too. Assimilating a new race into your empire gives you access to the core unit and mod technologies of that race in military research.
In Planetfall higher level heroes come pre-equipped with items and abilities. Like you might have an advanced hero turning up in a fancy mech.
More on Hero Mods, Vehicles and Mounts, and the all new Arsenal mechanic items in the next journal.
Amazons do not just ride dinos