Unit mods or bust

[Kevin Ross Brown]

So, played some back to back Planetfall and AoW 3.

I am 100% on board with bringing a refined version of Empire mode to AoW. It really does just feel better to do random maps that have a layer of meta-progression. It needs some kind of Nemesis system or some sort of other way of dropping-in high-power Pantheons against you when you deploy your fully kitted-out guys, though, because the only clear issue with Empire mode was than even when you went to grab a planet with all nasty modifiers and also a pre-established alliance and also all of the NPCs are at war with you... you just annihilate everyone anyway with your supercharged start.

But this post ain't about that. Well, I guess it is now because I wrote it in first, but WHATEVER, let's talk unit mods:

AoW 4 100% absolutely needs some equivalent to unit mods. Yes, tiered unit progression is fine and it works okay... but I just don't feel as dialed-in and connected to my units without them being modded, custom creations. There's just so much theorycrafting and experimentation you can do in Planetfall that just ain't available in AoW 3. It's so wild to me that you don't even need to pick a different Race/Secret Tech combination to have a wildly different experience depending on which mods you lean into.

If in AoW 4 I don't have my starter swordsman unit all the way through the game, upgraded in the end with bananas T4 mod combination that make them dragon slaying machines, something has gone wrong with this world.

 

[GloatingSwine]

I am 100% on board with bringing a refined version of Empire mode to AoW. It really does just feel better to do random maps that have a layer of meta-progression. It needs some kind of Nemesis system or some sort of other way of dropping-in high-power Pantheons against you when you deploy your fully kitted-out guys, though, because the only clear issue with Empire mode was than even when you went to grab a planet with all nasty modifiers and also a pre-established alliance and also all of the NPCs are at war with you... you just annihilate everyone anyway with your supercharged start.

It sounds to me like characters you add to your pantheon aren't heroes you can recruit in future maps, they're faction leaders that can show up in future maps (like creating a custom faction in Stellaris).

The progression sounds like it's flatter (probably not wholly flat, because it will include mechanical elements that might produce new combos).

I expect that the main equivalent to unit mods will be the various magical things you can do to them, like we know you can magically transform units.

 

[Promethian]

The way I understand it we cast the enchantment and all appropriate units get the benefit. This looks to me like a lower micro version of what Planetfall did with mods.

 

[RMan89]

True, but I believe that it might still be better than relying only on enchantments in combat AoW3 style. It also applies additional gold and mana upkeep costs, so it's not necessary a good idea to use them all if you can't afford it so there still is some management to it. Another way would be AoW2 style enchantments which you had to apply unit by unit, which was somewhat tedious, although still fun in its own way since you had to invest CP and mana in specific units similar to Planetfall modding. The only problem I had with this is that it puts a lot more strain on CP which is a limited resource, and the fact that it is shared between the overworld map and combat made managing it difficult.

 

[Climhazzard]

From what we've seen so far, there probably won't be mods. It seems like the enchantments effect a group or tier of units, so what I'm hoping for is that we can use more than one type of enchant on a tier or units, maybe 3? Then depending on the tomes we find, we could combine enchantments in different ways to customize our units in a way similar to planetfall, just not individually.

 

[Flockingbird]

From what we've seen so far, there probably won't be mods. It seems like the enchantments effect a group or tier of units, so what I'm hoping for is that we can use more than one type of enchant on a tier or units, maybe 3? Then depending on the tomes we find, we could combine enchantments in different ways to customize our units in a way similar to planetfall, just not individually.

Here’s an earlier discussion, with dev replies:

I can't create a swordman with frost enchanted weapon and one with fire, instead i must choose between all frost or all fire

Why 'must' you choose? You just create a swordman with fire and frost damage

The visual gets overwritten to use the latest, if the enchantments target the same part of the Unit Model. The effects themselves stack, but the whole Faction Evolution is designed with that consideration in mind

 

[Ethorin]

Those replies could be taken to mean that some enchantments are just incompatible for combination,

Those replies are explicitly, if you cast Frost Weapons and then Flame Weapons, your units will have both DAMAGE effects, but only the Flame Weapons visuals. If you do Frost AFTER Flame, they'll STILL have both damage effects, but the visuals will be Frost.

 

[Climhazzard]

Those replies are explicitly, if you cast Frost Weapons and then Flame Weapons, your units will have both DAMAGE effects, but only the Flame Weapons visuals. If you do Frost AFTER Flame, they'll STILL have both damage effects, but the visuals will be Frost.

Yeah I deleted my message just after you quoted it, lol. After actually reading the replies in context, I realized they are actually a confirmation of enchantment stacking. Which is pretty great imo.

 

[GloatingSwine]

From what we've seen so far, there probably won't be mods. It seems like the enchantments effect a group or tier of units, so what I'm hoping for is that we can use more than one type of enchant on a tier or units, maybe 3? Then depending on the tomes we find, we could combine enchantments in different ways to customize our units in a way similar to planetfall, just not individually.

Given that they have upkeep costs, I suspect those are instead of mod slots. So you can throw all your power at making one type of unit an absolute unit at the expense of basically giving it elite tier upkeep and costs.

 

[Technogremlin]

i think i preferred mods that dont change unit appearance just for aesthetic reasons. i want my army to mostly be made up of basic dudes, not angels or stone people. that might just be me though. and i'm happy to chose something less powerful if i think it looks better

 

[Azktor]

I would not mind something on top of Enchantments, that could act as the mods in planetfall. The new Spellforce Conquest of Eo game has a runic system that you can imbue 2~3 runes to the units that gives some diferent kind of buffs, that needed to be crafted using resources found/bought/harvested in the map. I thought that was really brilliant. But I would be 100% happy that we get something more simple just like we have in Planetfall, so we can customize even more the units.

So enchantments are the 'world-wide' that have upkeep kind of spells.
And Runes/Mods more localized to the unit, that have a cost to be bought but no upkeep. The cost could be a proportion of Gold and mana, depending on the type of rune. Or even give us a 3rd resource, like 'cosmite' but in a fantasy world.