Angry at deteriorating quality

[Ed-ward]

I don't like your game anymore. It's bugged. And it has lost its spark.
The vanilla was really great. It was complex, yet graspable and dynamic.
With the Aztecs you have introduced battle freezes. I didn't like the ripoff but whatever, it's popular and people like it. Maybe next expansion will suit me better.
I didn't like the lizards either, but okay. Now I decided to finish playing their campaign before starting the expansion and guess what? Another set of freezes. This time not only in combat but also on strategic map during enemy turn. I guess it's the same crap as in the tactical combat. A unit stuck in never-movement until you figure out which one is broken, select it and it unstucks.
I really tried to love this game, I have been a fan of AoW since AoW1. You have always delivered great games, but what you show here is the classic modern low quality crap. Seems, like you are trying to outrun your bugs with new features.
I must say I feel like you have lost your direction. Let's take AoW3. Golden Realms added to the game in a way that didn't break it. Eternal Lords was a blast, but still it fit in the world and it didn't break the immersion. I was excited about them, they expanded the game. Also quality wise. What you are doing here seems like an afterthought. Okay, we got this game and Paradox told us we need to milk it for at least two years. So, what can we screw on the top of it so that the customers will still buy it?
I find the void invasions cheap and uninteresting. I get it, Paradox told you Stellaris has this endgame enemies that mix up the lategame. So you implemented it. Paradox told you to make many DLCs so that you'll keep the money coming in. I don't mind paying you a few bucks every few months if it keeps you going. I mind playing a game that is bugged and the quite frankly boring at this point. It would be perhaps interesting if AIs really worked together to defeat the common foe, but they have hard time surviving on their own, let alone coordinating something.
The game has become a tedium of too many systems and artificially prolonged game for me. I remember having great memories of playing AoWs because playing them made stories. Here I somehow feel like I am just in another work shift, going through a complex set of tasks. The joy is somehow gone.
Maybe you are trying to make it into civ or EU too much? Going away too far from your roots? I don't know.

 

[Sandman25DCSSS]

I think your post would be better if you realized that both aow3 and planetfall have 3 DLCs each.

 

[Draxynnic]

If it's the same issue I've seen occasionally, the freezes can be dealt with by saving the game at the point that it freezes, and reloading. Which is probably why they're having trouble tracking it down - whatever's causing it isn't reproducible, while makes it REALLY hard to track down what specifically is causing it.

 

[Lazures]

Even for a semi third-world country like I live in the prices are reasonable with the season pass.

• A real tech tree
• Unit mods
• Sector exploitation
• Production and knowledge carry-over
• Cover in combat
• Better balancing

These are new features or improvements that I can count on top of my head. Sure, the lack of underworld layers may be off-putting. The setting change is kinda made me wary at first too and that is a preference I can understand. But I would not go as far as deterioration.

I understand some of these are preferences but some are undeniably improvements.

 

[Leon Feargus]

I think your post would be better if you realized that both aow3 and planetfall have 3 DLCs each.

Did I miss an aow3 expansion?
I have Golden Realms and Eternal Lords.

 

[akinata]

Did I miss an aow3 expansion?
I have Golden Realms and Eternal Lords.

there aslo is the deluxe edition DLC which added one unique scenario (dragon throne) and the whole aow3 music album with bonus tracks..

 

[Ridixo]

With the Aztecs you have introduced battle freezes.

Which Aztecs?

I mind playing a game that is bugged and the quite frankly boring at this point.

Compared to Stellaris, Planetfall has a lot less bug and is more fun

I really want to believe there is a real complain here, but what you write only looks like a rant about a tantrum you got because of an small bug. At least for me the game has been working without problems. Don't know where the problem would be. Maybe if the units are in automatic exploration but the map is already explored they may get struck but that is the only case where i have seen any like this

Also you should consider that planetfall is planetfall, not Age of Wonders 4

 

[Ethorin]

I was excited about them, they expanded the game. Also quality wise. What you are doing here seems like an afterthought.

I could not disagree harder. Eternal Lords brought a class that totally disrupted what blaance AoWIII had achieved up to that point and a race who were weirdly vanilla(oooh, my racial variant units occasionally bring frost damage in a second channel, woooo), Golden Lords brought Halflings and Tigrans and while both of those at least had SOME interesting racial variants(Halflings for Dreadnoughts and Tigrans for Warlord and Theocrat, they also brought more braodly applicable racial passives), they were mostly just "more races to largely ignore while my class does all the work". Meanwhile, Heritor the Secret Tech brought an interesting and flexible new toolkit, including an additional damage channel(even if it had few available mods), which some factions VERY much appreciated. Shakarn brought an intriguingly different tactical play pattern and an interestingly narrow group of damage channels(the Shakarn effectively have 1.5 damage channels because Thermal is always accompanied by Kinetic), that the Shakarn work at all is a testament to just how much more balanced Planetfall is than 3(remember Goblins?) Then Oathbound brought a proper melee and mech faction into the game with another narrow set of damage channels(neither Entropy nor Arc have any conversion mods) and the ability to have weapon mods for Heritor.

Frankly, I consider the Planetfall DLC's better content than the AoW3 DLC's.

 

[Melikat]

I think both AoW3 and PF DLCs are must-haves and greatly enhance the games' depth and enjoyment.

As I didn't play Vanilla AoW3 it's hard for me to compare it directly with PF's DLCs (because my impression of AoW3 encompasses them all). That said, I feel that AoW3's DLCs may have added more depth (for me) solely because the level of customization for AoW3's Leaders is deeper (ie. 3 specializations vs 1 secret tech and PF's shared faction tech greatly diminishes faction uniqueness imo). I think Frostlings altered some of the unit dynamics with their T3 Support, tanky cavalry and CC archers/irregulars. Tigrans were also quite fun, perhaps the most unique race in the game between Shapeshifting, Pounce and the irregular T3 Sphinx. For me both races eclipsed Halflings from Golden Realms by a mile! (Or maybe I just really disliked Lucky...)

I definitely think Eternal Lords had unbalanced elements (for me primarily because of how good Shadowborn and Grey Guard are, though Necro is a close 3rd). However I don't think that is much different than PF's expansions with Shakarn one-upping (or ten-upping?) Syndicate's Covert ops theme and Oathbound having (imo) some of the most OP mods and what I consider the most OP spell in the game for its price - Momentary Insight: Can't miss, +50% damage AND +1 stagger level for just 1 TP?! Though I do think its stronger with other Factions than Oathbound. Their Heroes also have more abilities even before you consider their Colony Lord skills (8 for Oathbound (10 with Colony Lord) vs 6 for Shakarn and 7 for the rest). At some point I expect and hope Colony Lords to be expanded to every race, but if not I'd add that to my list of reasons I think they're too strong as well.

I liked Revelations as a whole. I think Anomalies are fantastic and added a lot of gameplay. They might be my single favourite non-faction/tech addition. On the other hand Heritor has been a bit of a disappointment to me and when I choose it, it's almost exclusively for Siphoners (or maybe their +20 Happiness Doctrine if I want to try something with Happiness event spam). This is not limited to Heritor however as I think the later Secret Tech units as a whole are rather underwhelming with but a few exceptions (Hello Malictor!).

I liked Invasions a lot. The Shakarn are a lot of fun and have some unique gameplay components. Cosmic events are very welcomed. The Invasions themselves are hit and miss for me. Sometimes they are fun, other times they can derail a game as they move the victory condition away from a contentious battle with other players toward clearing some powerful spawners. I think I'd have liked them to be some form of amplified "Roaming armies" cosmic event from AoW3, where they are powerful, threatening and rewarding but do not explicitly end the game (and can happen repeatedly throughout a game). On the flip side I think a cooperative game mode focused on repelling overpowered invaders could also be fun. For me the invasions fall somewhere in between and don't quite satisfy either preference. Still, I play most games with them on so that's saying something.

Star Kings is still new so it's hard to judge. I have mixed feelings on Oathbound that require more play time to resolve (primarily stated above). I've spent most of my time in Galactic Empire and I like it a lot (about 60 hours in the first week after launch). I really hope there will be the ability to enable World Traits in multiplayer games as they add a lot of depth (or dare I say Complexity?!) to random maps, and I am dreadfully afraid that I will lose interest in the Empire mode once I've unlocked and leveled everything up. Residential districts and buildings have definitely been my favourite part of this expansion so far.

 

[Ethorin]

ie. 3 specializations vs 1 secret tech and PF's shared faction tech greatly diminishes faction uniqueness imo)

ehhhhh.... the shared faction tech in PF is basically the same as the shared tech in AoW3, there's just more of it because colony building is more complex and in-depth than city building. Specializations were all spells and passives(ok, a few summons... don't think I ever used most of those), much less interesting than Secret Tech. Really, the military trees are where basically everything that you researched in AoW3 are... and those are all pretty unique.

think Frostlings altered some of the unit dynamics with their T3 Support, tanky cavalry and CC archers/irregulars.

Frostlings shook up a lot of the racial unit stuff yeah... not that any of that actually mattered when the class units were so much better.

Tigrans were also quite fun, perhaps the most unique race in the game between Shapeshifting, Pounce and the irregular T3 Sphinx.

Pouncing Manticores and Berserkers were fun yeah.

For me both races eclipsed Halflings from Golden Realms by a mile! (Or maybe I just really disliked Lucky...)

Best part of Halflings were the Party Robots.

However I don't think that is much different than PF's expansions with Shakarn one-upping (or ten-upping?) Syndicate's Covert ops theme

Syndi isn't dedicated to Covert Ops the way Shakarn are though. Or, perhaps better to say, Syndi is a lot more about military deception than Covert Ops, and Syndi is definitely more Diplo Centric than Covert Ops centric( just look at the Syndi Colony District vs the Shakarn one).

Oathbound having (imo) some of the most OP mods and what I consider the most OP spell in the game for its price

On the other hand, their meaningful damage is either melee or Five Range, their biggest ranged hits longer than that are either an Augur hitting for 7 repeating, or a Diviner's 14 damage single action, or Secret Tech units. And melee, prior to Oathbound, was considered pretty bad as a whole in this game.

At some point I expect and hope Colony Lords to be expanded to every race

Ehhhhhh.... does it fit any other faction flavor-wise though? I could see it working for Syndi, maybe Vanguard, the rest though? ehhhh, lot of stretching there.

This is not limited to Heritor however as I think the later Secret Tech units as a whole are rather underwhelming with but a few exceptions (Hello Malictor!).

Ehhhh... I think this is very much a You problem. Personally I tend to get pretty excited when I can get to the later secret tech stuff.

Don't really have any opinions on the rest.

 

[Sandman25DCSSS]

I am more excited about ascended teacher (stack resurgence) and plague lord (aoe regeneration and resurrection) than about malictor.