Anyone excited about Age of Wonders III?

[Sir Alock]

If any of you liked Master of Magic, then you'll love this game. Hell...If you a HoMM fan, then is right-up your alley. HoMM VI was an a failure (too me) It's still not completely balance yet, but Triumph Studios already did a solid patch after two weeks from it's release.

It's very deep & detailed. It's truly a wonderful TB strategy game. I love tactical the combat! Short money @ $39.99 from Steam or GOG

PS: They fixed the high resolution in the latest (1.09) patch.

[mr.hackcrag]

PS: They fixed the high resolution in the latest (1.09) patch.

Praise Urgrash! So it wasn't my old geezer eyes failing me after all.

[Panda Tar]

I liked the game so far.

I have never played the older ones, so it took a while to get used to this game. Some features I'm still quite not fond of yet. Haven't played it with news patches yet. Perhaps I'll stop dying in the first Campaign map now.

Given that I did not get used to Heroes VI, I still miss some of the feeling of playing it and couldn't find that by playing AoW 3. So, I must only find my own reasoning to play this one while waiting for HoMM VII (and hoping it will be decent).

[Panda Tar]

Somehow, I just can't like the game that much. I like it, but it's not like I want to play it for a long while, as it happened when playing Heroes, Age of Empires II, MM 7. It just doesn't click. I don't know...perhaps it's the battles, which I can use auto-combat and doesn't feel like they'll be long when I choose manual-fight...what could that be...

[ywhtptgtfo]

Somehow, I just can't like the game that much. I like it, but it's not like I want to play it for a long while, as it happened when playing Heroes, Age of Empires II, MM 7. It just doesn't click. I don't know...perhaps it's the battles, which I can use auto-combat and doesn't feel like they'll be long when I choose manual-fight...what could that be...

To describe my impression of AoW1:
1. Getting or fighting high tier units is a big deal
2. Races are diverse and some units have unique abilities that can be very nasty if used right (i.e. immunity to physical attack, flying shooters, posession, etc)
3. There are unique map locations that are a very big deal when captured (i.e Shrine of [Insert Elements]).
4. There are things in the game that look so awesome that it feels like comfortable just to look at them (i.e. Syron, Airship, Astra).

AoW2 not only built on top of that but added much much more.

AoW3, on the other hand, took away much of what was awesome and added very very little. It's possibly because the original devs had moved on and they brought it a bunch of amataurs.

I strongly recommend trying AoW1 and AoW2 if you think AoW3 is a good game because either one of the two will blow it out of the water.

[Panda Tar]

Thank you for the suggestion. I don't care much about graphics, then it should be ok playing these old games, because AoW 3 simply is...not...enough.

I might give a try on the King's Bounty as well. The newest.

[Pol]

The new King's Bounty series is mighty successor. You will like it. Only..

I started with Armored Princess and finished. Then continuned with Legend and stayed somewhere in the middle.

Battles are great, scenarios nice, music wonderful .. and engine and many other behaviours still the same.

[Panda Tar]

I have never played KB, any of them. So it'll be like an all new experience.

[Sir Alock]

To each their own as they say. I LOVE AOW III! It kicks-ass! There are so many variables like Masters of Magic! It's not a "quick" game like HoMM series. You really have to "think" before you produce units, buildings etc. It might not be for everyone, but for me, it's the best TB game out there today! I'm 48 & my 1st computer was a DX2/486 using Mircosoft's 3.1 OS. My 1st game was HoMM1 on CD (DOS Based no less)

I'm going to edit this: My 1st game was Dune "Building of a Dynasty" on 4-3.5 diskettes.

[Sir Alock]

One more thing I would like to mention, this game is massive in so many ways & Triumph Studios just release a HUGE beta patch version (1.102) These guys won't stop until this game will be near perfect! They really take pride in AOWIII. Here's a copy & paste of the latest patch:





- The Team @ Triumph Studios.

Known Issues
• If you load an old save game, active quests may no longer work properly (specifically, quests where you need to kill a certain group of units). This only counts for quests that were active at the moment the save game was made.

Change Note Updates!

The following entries have been added to the change notes since they were originally posted on the 20th of May.

• Goblin Infantry now has base 45 hp (was 40)
• Bridges can only be built if there is a hex on both sides of the river where a road can be built (i.e. Not mountains or lava)
• It is now possible to set unlocalized text in the certain script functions. (see appropriate section for a list of which script commands are affected)
• Dwarf Archer now has 35 HP as intended.
• Dwarf Forge Priest now has melee strength 8 (instead of 6) from 10.
• Fixed issue where items would remain in courier state when a hero was killed
• Units summoned into the world map have dedicated to good/evil automatically removed.
• Summon Fantastic Creature now can also summon Obsidian Wyvern and Gryphon, Watcher still has a 1 in 3 chance to be summoned.
• Call Wild Animal now can also summon Hunter Spider Baby, Dire Penguin, Shock Serpent Baby and Reed Serpent Baby.
• Call Eldritch Animal casting cost reduced to 70 from 80, removed the Zephyr Bird and Dire penguin and added the Gryphon and Gold Wyvern to the list of possible summons.
• Call Gargantuan Animal now has a casting cost of 160 (was 120) and an upkeep of 24 (was 18). We added the Cockatrice and Hunter Spider Queen summons and removed the Carrion Bird. There’s a 1 in 3 chance of summoning one of the Tier 4 serpents.
• Hell Hound is now dedicated to evil (unless summoned)

Change Notes
• Buffs are in BOLD
• Nerfs are in ITALICS

New Features
• Added new game speed dropdown to advanced game options to allow players to change research and city growth speed
• Added a new advanced game setup option to force tactical combat to play out at high speed
• Added support for the tactical AI to cast disjunction
• Added advanced rule to limit the heroes that spawn for a player to the races of their leader and absorbed cities.
• Added “Wait for GPU” toggle in the Game’s Launcher and Game Options Menu. This option might fix overheating issues.
• Windowed mode now restores to previous position if you restart. Also added a toggle to enable or disable this behavior. Disabling this will reset the window to start at 0.0 position with default size. Toggle can be found in the graphics tab of the launcher.

Water Combat Fixes
It was felt that water combat was messy and unfocussed, with all embarked units feeling the same due to having fire ballista and fire cannon abilities. To fix this, water combat has been completely revamped so that embarked units act more like units on dry land.

• Move points of all water only units and transports have been reduced
• Move costs of moving over water on the world map reduced to 3 (was 4)
• Transports no longer change unit HP
• Transports no longer give unit abilities such as fire cannon and fire ballista
• Embarked now gives -3def -1res (was -4 physical damage)

XP system changes
The XP system has been reworked to reduce the effectiveness of farming XP in tactical combat and to help melee units and single-shot ranged units to level up as fast as multi-shot ranged units.

• Units can now only level up once per battle
• Abilities that can only fire once per turn now give twice the engage XP of abilities that can fire repeatedly
• Ranged abilities that do no damage (such as Throw Curse) now properly give XP
• Units now get engage XP for being struck by melee attacks where the amount of XP gained depends on the tier of the unit striking them
• Engage and Touch XP for heroes and leaders is now 3 (was 5) and this no longer increases for each 5 levels the hero or leader has

Changes To Racial Class Units
Since many people liked the fact that High Elf hunters and mounted archers had a unique ability (no ranged damage fall off), it was decided that each race should have its own gimmick that can be applied to some of their class units. For balance reasons, these improved units will be slightly more expensive than their unimproved counterparts.

• High Elf Hunter now costs 85 gold (was 75), has 32 hp (was 35)
• High Elf Mounted Archer now costs 110g (was 100g)
• Human Hunter now costs 85 gold (was 75), and has Throw Net
• Human Engineer now costs 80g (was 70g) and has Throw Net
• Human Scoundrel now costs 55 gold, 10 mana (was 45 gold, 0 mana), and has Throw Net
• Draconian Shaman now costs 40 mana (was 30), and has Fire Bolts
• Draconian Evangelist now costs 40 mana (was 30 mana), and has Fire Bolts
• Draconian Apprentice now costs 100 gold 35 mana (was 90 gold, 25 mana), and has Fire Bomb
• Dwarf Engineer now costs 75 gold (was 70) and has Projectile Resistance
• Dwarf Assassin now costs 95 gold, 20 mana (was 100 gold, 20 mana) and has Projectile Resistance (other assassins were reduced in cost to 90 gold, 20 mana)
• Dwarf Berserker now costs 80 gold (was 75), and has projectile resistance
• Goblin Scoundrel now costs 9 mana (was 0 mana), and has an extra 4 blight damage on ranged attack
• Goblin Bard now costs 18 mana (was 9 mana), and has an extra 4 blight damage on ranged attack
• Goblin Monster Hunter now costs 27 mana (was 18 mana), and has an extra 4 blight damage on ranged attack
• Goblin Martyr now costs 18 mana (was 9 mana), and has an extra 4 blight damage on ranged attack
• Orc Crusader now costs 80g (was 70g), and has tireless
• Orc Warbreed now costs 170g 50mana (was 160g 40mana), and has tireless
• Orc Assassin now has Tireless
• Draconian, Goblin, High Elf, Human Assassin now costs 90 gold, 20 mana (was 100 gold, 20 mana)

Unit Stats Balance
A lot of tweaks have been made to unit balance, with a big focus on improving the survivability of low tier racial melee units.
• Added Pike Square ability to all pikemen units, giving +3 defense against cavalry and fliers
• Goblin Infantry now has base 45 hp (was 40)
• Goblin Irregular now has base cost 45 (was 50)
• Race Support units (Priests, Blight Doctors etc) now have base cost of 70 gold, 20 mana (was 60 gold, 20 mana)
• High Elf Irregular now has base 30 hp (was 36), Cost 45 (was 50)
• High Elf Archer now has base 32 hp (was 36)
• Dwarf Archer now has base 35 hp (was 32), base cost 65 gold
• Draconian Archer now has base 34 hp (was 32)
• Draconian Infantry now has base 46 hp (was 40)
• Dwarf Infantry now has base 46 hp (was 40)
• High Elf Infantry now has base 43 hp (was 36)
• Human Infantry now has base 45 hp (was 40)
• Orc Infantry now has base 45 hp (was 40)
• Draconian Pikeman now has base 46 hp (was 40)
• Dwarf Pikeman now has base 46 hp (was 40)
• Goblin Pikeman now has base 45 hp (was 40)
• High Elf Pikeman now has base 43 hp (was 36)
• Human Pikeman now has base 45 hp (was 40)
• Orc Pikeman now has base 45 hp (was 40)
• Draconian Cavalry now has base 55 hp (was 50), Inflict Scorching Heat on Bronze medal
• Dwarf Cavalry now has base 57 hp (was 50)
• Goblin Cavalry now has base 55 hp (was 50)
• High Elf Cavalry now has base 55 hp (was 50)
• Human Cavalry now has base 55 hp (was 50)
• Orc Cavalry now has base 55 hp (was 50), cost 100 gold (was 110)
• Arch Druid Shaman now deals 8 physical damage (was 6)
• Node Serpent now deals 6 physical damage (was 5)
• Dire Penguin now has 40 hp (was 38), Freezing Touch Ability on Gold Medal
• Warg now has 40 hp (was 36)
• Boar now has 40 hp (was 36)
• Archon Warrior now has 45 hp (was 40)
• Reed Serpent now has 60% Blight Protection
• Battering Ram now has 65 hp (was 75)
• Goblin Marauder no longer has an invisible second copy of the shield ability
• Galleons can no longer use Fire Cannon when engaged.

Summon Stuff
The following changes were made to address complaints that summon spells were unreliable and summoned units that were useless
• Units summoned into the world map have dedicated to good/evil automatically removed.
• Summon Fantastic Creature now can also summon Obsidian Wyvern and Gryphon, Watcher still has a 1 in 3 chance to be summoned.
• Call Wild Animal now can also summon Hunter Spider Baby, Dire Penguin, Shock Serpent Baby and Reed Serpent Baby.
• Call Eldritch Animal casting cost reduced to 70 from 80, removed the Zephyr Bird and Dire penguin and added the Gryphon and Gold Wyvern to the list of possible summons.
• Call Gargantuan Animal now has a casting cost of 160 (was 120) and an upkeep of 24 (was 18). We added the Cockatrice and Hunter Spider Queen summons and removed the Carrion Bird. There’s a 1 in 3 chance of summoning one of the Tier 4 serpents.
• Hell Hound is now called Hello Hound. Is pink, and dedicated to good.
• Hell Hound is now dedicated to evil (unless summoned)

Unit Ability Balance
• Stunning Touch Ability now has Resist Strength 13 (was 11), Stun duration 1 combat round (was 2)
• Static Shield Ability now has Stun duration of 1 combat round (was 2)
• Inflict Stun now has Strength 8 (was 9)
• Inflict Freezing Paralysis now has Strength 8 (was 9)
• Inflict Frostbite now displays correct value
• Throw Net cooldown changed to 2 turns (was 1 turn)
• Firebomb ability no longer has a range fall-off penalty
• Weakening Touch range is now short (was melee), Cooldown of 1 (was 0), and can no longer be resisted
• Weakened Status effect is now is -1 Defense, -1 Resistance, 60% blight weakness (was -1 defense, -2 resistance, 40% blight weakness)
• Changed cost of moving through mountains to 14 (was 12)
• Changed mountaineering to cost 6 to move through mountains (was 8)
• Inflict XXX abilities no longer stack, so a unit with 2 copies of Inflict Stun will not have 2 stun checks per hit
• Rapid Reload now works on Musketeers (but NOT heroes with rifles)

Class and Specialization Skill Balance
• Warlord Stead Fast Ward now costs 20 mana (was 10), duration 2 rounds (was 3)
• Theocrat Sanctified Sites Spell happiness bonus is now +30 (was +20)
• Theocrat Denounce City Spell now costs 60 mana (was 80)
• Theocrat Hallowed Domain Spell now costs 80 mana (was 80), mana upkeep 25 (was 20), -3 resist (was incorrectly displayed)
• Air Summon Zephyr Bird now costs 60 mana (was 80)
• Rogue Corpse Looting Gold rewards increased (Tier 1: 3g, Tier 2: 6g, Tier 3: 12g, Tier 4: 24g, Heroes: 50g)
• Sorcerer Summon Fantastic Creature now costs 80 mana (was 120), mana upkeep 12 (was 18). Removed Obsidian Wyvern and Gryphon (units dedicated to a specific alignment) from the summon list, added Watcher (other units are Fire and Frost Wyvern)
• Archdruid Beast Mastery now gives correct Resist bonus
• Earthquake spell now filters on Flying or Floating Heroes as well.

Hero Upgrade Balance
• Warlord Hero Upgrade Blood Honor now costs 2 points (was 4)
• Vision Upgrade Hero Upgrade now costs 1 points (was 2)
• Night vision Hero Upgrade now costs 1 points (was 2)

Other Balance Fixes
• Attacks Of Opportunity now all count as flanking
• Critical hits now always do max damage +30%, fumbles now always do minimum damage minus 30%
• Faithful Cassock item is now Strong (was Epic).
• Boneyard: delayed the spawning of Bone Dragons and Archons a little.
• Watcher no longer has Dedicated to Evil
• Builder units can now build bridges over 1 hex of water (requires basic seafaring research). Bridges cannot be built next to cities or bridges. Bridges can only be built if there is a hex on both sides of the river where a road can be built (i.e. Not mountains or lava)

General Fixes and changes
• Various fixes an optimizations to improve performance, especially in larger maps
• Changed the item values and item sets so there is a larger variety in item drops.
• In game options such as Render Hex Grid are now saved in the player’s profile, so they will be remembered between game sessions
• Fixed some fps drops.
• Fixed new customized heroes (Goblin, Human, Orcs) from appearing on the wrong mount without SFX
• Fixed Arch Druid & Rogue leaders from spawning with the wrong melee weapon
• Fixed new Orc heroes from appearing on the normal horses instead of black horses
• Archdruid The Wild Hunt now filters correctly on Machines and Sea Creatures (e.g. boats and Krakens cannot swim-float on land anymore).
• Rogue Iron Grip Spell now has the correct cast description
• Fixed Fire Mortar Ability trajectory which didn’t display the range falloff correctly.
• Some missing background assets for TC have been fixed
• Shadow meshes for all environment assets on the strategic map have been drastically optimized
• Fixed a crash in the launcher application for some players with multiple network adapters.
• Fixed black loading screen freeze that would occur when entering tactical combat while a player had disconnected earlier that session.
• Fixed a freeze in tactical combat that sometimes occurred when an observer (player who is not active in combat) disconnects from the game
• Fixed an AI dead state on Refugee Camps
• Fixed an issue where selecting a summoned unit during an enemy’s turn in tactical combat and pressing guard would break the AI
• Fixed an issue where damage previews didn’t properly take resistances and damage falloff into account. Caused previews of 1-2 damage when only 1 damage was possible.
• Regenerate Walls will no longer bring back broken walls/doors underneath units
• Abilities now list “Starts on cooldown” in their descriptions if appropriate
• Fixed glitch where the AI wouldn’t dispel Stead Fast Ward if it outnumbered its opponent
• Fixed an issue with Forts flipping player ownership when a save game is loaded
• Resurrecting units summoned into battle no longer crashes the game at the end of battle
• Bridges are no longer destroyed by the wild growth spell
• Fixed an issue with Resurgence not being properly applied to heroes in old save games
• Fixed city upgrades not working in old save games
• Fixed spells and upgrades that give city defenders a buff not working for dwellings
• Fixed a glitch where the tactical AI wouldn’t use fire broadside when it should
• Added code to reduce the strategic AI spamming Raise Militia on lower difficulties
• Capturing a leader’s throne now causes the leader’s equipment to spawn on the city, if the leader is dead
• Fixed a rare bug where a unit’s move points weren’t refilling at the start of a turn
• Fixed an issue where units with wall climbing couldn’t attack/use sabotage on walls
• Fixed an issue where units ending battle while climbing walls would keep the wall climbing penalty
• It is no longer possible to rebuild a razed city in someone else’s domain
• The strategic AI will no longer build cities right on the edge of another player’s domain
• Hero Level Cap is now properly reflected in the unit’s panel
• Fixed an issue where resurgence stopped teleport rerouting from working in the campaign
• Fixed an issue where building a city on a fort would cause various errors and inconsistencies
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to use a keyboard shortcut to tell a stack to follow a path when it had no path set.
• Siege Defense AI will now leave the walls if the only attacker is a non-combatant
• Removed Chop Trees skill, since it did the exact same thing as another terraformer skill
• Fixed Siege Defense AI moving units to stand in holes in walls
• Fixed an issue where absorbing two cities at once prevented the player from getting their first throne city automatically
• Allowed the system to choose different deployment zones when entering Ancient Ruin structures
• Fixed Treasure Raiding skill not affecting rewards from treasure sites
• Fixed an issue where tunneling units could fall off the edge of the world
• Fixed an issue where a stack moving could break a summon spell
• Hero stat upgrades are now always listed first in the hero upgrade screen
• Options that control rendering the hex grid, domain outlines and various minimap things are now saved in a player’s profile, so the player doesn’t need to keep resetting them
• Fixed an issue where units would have the same ability listed multiple times in tactical combat
• Fixed global bonuses not being properly applied to dwellings
• Fixed an issue where taking over a city would give you gold and mana as it canceled its production queue
• Resurrect Hero can no longer be used to break the max number of heroes cap
• Inflict Enfeebling Fever Ability now displays correct string value
• Fixed relations with independent cities and dwellings. Relations now change according to the correct alignment value.
• Increased defender strength of Giant and Dragon dwellings
• Dragon Peak Lairs now require Incubation Chamber to be built and the Giant Peak Menhirs now require Fangir’s Stone Ward. This is done to delay tier 4 unit production from dwellings.
• Fixed two issues with the Steam overlay: 1. Closing the steam overlay doesn’t disable input anymore. 2. The camera stops moving when the Steam overlay is opened.
• Fixed localization issue with “Independents are moving” title bar in hotseat games.
• Fixed an issue with the tome of wonders not being able to close when it was still open when Tactical combat ended.
• It is no longer possible to edit deleted leaders in the leader editor.
• It is no longer possible to open multiple unsaved progress windows when spamming F3 in-game
• Various fixes for the inventory, item bag and courier screen
• In-game menu doesn’t let input pass through to game anymore
• Fixed several German localization table issues in the Tome of Wonders
• Fixed an issue where the game would be in a dead state when a hotseat game was launched with an AI player in the first slot
• Fixed a crash on game end
• Fixed a bug where move points were lost at the start of the new turn
• Fixed issue where Master of the Unknown Achievement would not unlock when completing a random scenario from a save game
• Fixed issue where couriered items that would arrive when a leader was in the void would remain in couriered state forever
• Fixed a rare campaign progression issue.
• Removed statistics from independent player which reduces the size of save files (especially in the end game).
• Fortresses now keep their name when you build a city on top of them.
• City operations now complete on new turn instead of on new round.
• Fixed assert in the lobby when you are asked to register.
• Fixed launcher issue where the use guest account checkbox could not be disabled.
• Fixed hotseat freeze issue after the game has ended.
• Loading up save games from different languages will now load up the correct language for most things.
• Implemented additional fallback when save files fail to load.
• Hotseat: next player screen now shows the correct hero when the first player died.
• Fixed a crash in the statistics screen for finishing the game in turn 1. You can no longer press end turn when the game is done.
• Casting a Summon Unit Spell on a hex with an invisible unit now displaces summoned unit to an adjacent hex.
• Fixed an exploit where free building pickups would not give a building that was in the city’s production queue.
• LevelEd: Disabled the advanced button on the new map window. Removed the description tab from the hero editor.
• Magma Forge now has the correct description.

Quest & Diplomacy Specific Fixes
• It is now required that you kill the whole army of a Kill Army Quest, rather than 1 specific unit
• Fixed a bug with global quests and time limits. The duration of the quest would not be synced across players causing out of sync.
• Quests with a turn limit now show 0 turns left when you fail the quest.
• Quests with a turn limit now show the correct failure message (“you ran out of time”).
• Quests with a turn limit that get added through the script timer now show the correct number of turns left. Used to be 1 less than intended.
• Fixed a bug where quest rewards would go to the allies of the player that completed the quest.
• Fixed a bug where the first blood modifier would also get applied to the allies of the attacker.

Campaign & Scenario Specific Fixes
• Changed Shattered Empire settings to disallow teams and allied victory (the map has forced war between everyone).
• Minor Balance tweaks in one of the final Commonwealth maps.
• Removed a Monster Den from Elven Court final map, gave Xorn shipbuilding.
• Elven Court campaign first map: Made sure you cannot take Gamblag’s Throne without meeting Reskar first.
• Commonwealth 5th map: Prevented player from allying with all other players. Stopped duplicate messages from firing.
• Commonwealth 3rd map: Solved an issue an offer for peace being accepted after a declaration of war.
• Added some pickups to the final Torchbearer maps.
• Fixed an issue in the campaign map Underground Eruption where defeating Werlac last, but losing a Hero in the same battle, resulted in incorrect campaign progression.
• Changed the colors of Valery to avoid confusion between units on the map Ending the Old ways.

Scripting Additions
• Changed DisabledDiplomacyAI script to also work for the turn it is called in
• Implemented PlayerIsLeaderInVoid Script
• Implemented PlayerGetThroneCity Script
• Implemented CitySetRace Script
• Implemented PlayerGetRace Script
• It is now possible to set unlocalized text in the certain script functions:
——–o PlayerSetVictorious
——–o PlayerSetDefeated
——–o PlayerApplyHappinessModifier
——–o PlayerApplyRelationModifier
——–o PlayerApplyAlignmentModifier

Interface Issues
• Fixed an issue where quest titles would overlap quest description.
• Enabled tool-tip support for combo boxes.
• Enabled close by ESC for the hero join panel and the mercy request window.
• Enabled disabling of the “center on quest giver” button.
• Fixed an error that was fired when the player had found treasure only consisting of resource rewards.
• Fixed an error that was fired when the player switched between tabs after opening the skill book for the first time.
• Skills with long names no longer get a scrollbar but are cut-off instead.
• Fixed an issue where the new skill glows would remain visible when switching tabs quickly after opening the skill book for the first time.
• Replaced the old food icon with the population icon
• Added “turns left until construction done” in the city overview
• Added a pause overlay for items that are paused in the city overview
• Moved the unit icons in the unit overview 3px to the left to ensure that the last unit is still completely visible
• Updated the background image of the RMG panel
• Fixed a memory leak on the enchantment interfaces on both strategic map and tactical map.
• The “we surrender” panel is now modal.
• Enabled tool-tips on the class and race icons in the leader selection menu
• Fixed an issue where selecting a city from the overview would fire an error.
• Fixed an issue where the pause overlay would not update correctly.
• Added tooltips to all the new toggles in the advanced rules window
• Fixed an issue where city option icons would be rendered too big in the overview panel
• All Gameplay concept pages in the ToW now have corresponding icons or screenshots
• Fixed flee points in Giants Keep and Giants Keep district TC maps
• Clicking “Close” in the production complete event no longer opens the production window for the city
• Fixed sorting of options in advanced options screen
• City production queue and city upgrades are now greyed out when the queue is full.
• Switched the order of relation and alignment modifiers in the Diplomacy screen. New ones are now on top.
• Fixed a UI updating issue with Move Points “not restoring”.
• Game statistics are now being shown up until the last turn. There are also some extra checks to make sure there is always the correct amount of data.
• The City Panel of the City Screen now keeps track of the last opened panel, meaning that if you reopen the City Screen it will still be on the same tab as you closed it with.
• Further improved the overview panel city tab. New sorting tab, fixed display for city operations and default production.
• Fixed relation modifiers that did not have a title in the diplomacy panel
• Fixed event log clipping. Removed all code references to an obsolete flash window.
• Option Menu – Options for all tabs are now applied when you press OK, instead of only the options of the active tab.
• Overview panel now stays open when you dismiss or keep a hint.
• Center button on quest panels is now disabled when there is nothing to center on.
• Fixed assert when zooming out to atlas and back in when you have the hero join panel open.
• Fixed camera center button for quests. Didn’t properly center the camera when the zoom level was not default. Small optimizations where refresh calls would happen when they were not needed.
• Fixed missing screenname in the city auto complete happiness event. This fixes the {str_item} bug.
• Fixed missing tooltip on diplomacy event panel
• Fixed Heroes & Leader text issue in Tome of Wonders
• Fixed incorrect display of percentage based properties in item tooltips
• The Tome of Wonders can now be closed by pressing ESC in the frontend menus and tactical combat
• Fixed the sorting of custom leaders in the Leader Editor.
• It is no longer possible to open the load screen when a battle notification is open
• In-game pause menu and tome of wonders don’t let input pass through to the game anymore
• Added a shortcut key to select the active event. Default key is F
• The option windows can now be closed by pressing ESC
• The save and load screen are now closable by pressing ESC
• Selecting a hero from the overview now opens the unit panel for that hero
• More Game settings can now be applied real time, do not require a restart any more.
——–o Anti Aliasing
——–o Soft Particles
——–o Bloom

Russian Translations, as suggested by the community.
With special thanks to Kubera and our other Russian fans for their help with improving these!

• Changed “Polite” from “Вежливые” to “Учтивые” due to recent real world events.
• Changed “Wall Climbing” from “Стенохват” to “Преодоление стен”.
• Changed all forms of “Migrate City” from “Заселить другой расой” to “Перезаселить другой расой”.
• Changed all forms of “Creation” (Specialization, Node etc.) from “Творения” to “Созидания”.
• Changed all forms of “Node” (Mana Nodes) from “Выхода” to “Источника”.
• Changed all forms of Dreadnought from “Бесстрашный” to “Технократ”.
• Changed all forms of “Alignment” from “Настрой” to “Мировоззрение”.
• Some very specific changes that are too many to list.

Networking/Multiplayer Changes
These are the same changes as posted in the topic. This new patch effectively replaces the v1.101 patch.

Age of Wonders uses a P2P networking model and this requires that other users can connect to your computer. How easy it is for other players to connect to your computer is reflected by the connectivity status. In this patch your will be notified of your connectivity status. The following connectivity statuses are possible:

Good:
Your connection is open and other players should be able to connect to you.

Moderate:
With moderate connectivity other players might not be able to connect to you reliably. This is caused by your router. The amount of internet traffic that goes through you router will affect the likelihood that people can connect to you.
Also note that with this connectivity you might experience some lag when playing with more than 2 players, if we need to relay network communication – a new feature that allows you to play despite suboptimal connectivity – to keep all players in the game.

Poor:
With poor connectivity other players cannot join a session hosted by you. This might be caused by a firewall, router or your Internet Service Provider.
You can however join other people’s games, but please note that the connection might experience some lag when playing with more than two players if we need to relay network communication to keep all players in the game.

If you run into any issues with the changes made in this beta patch, please let us know. Based on the feedback, we’ll determine when we’ll roll this patch out to all players.

[Panda Tar]

[Sir Alock]

Guys...I've been playing AOWIII since it's release. It's a polished game, no question. I own all the AOW series (thanks to GOG Games) AOWIII is much bigger & detailed then the previous versions IMHO. It might not be for every HoMM player, but it's really wonderful once you understand the game as a "whole"

[BoardGuest808888]

To describe my impression of AoW1:
1. Getting or fighting high tier units is a big deal
2. Races are diverse and some units have unique abilities that can be very nasty if used right (i.e. immunity to physical attack, flying shooters, posession, etc)
3. There are unique map locations that are a very big deal when captured (i.e Shrine of [Insert Elements]).
4. There are things in the game that look so awesome that it feels like comfortable just to look at them (i.e. Syron, Airship, Astra).

AoW2 not only built on top of that but added much much more.

AoW 1 was ridiculously imba. I could do the whole campaign with a single hero. But overall it's fun.

AoW 2 was still imba, though not to such extent as 1. Not so much fun though since the maps and campaign (especially Shadow War) were poorly built. I made my own map to explore the possibilities and the game did have some hidden potential.

[Panda Tar]

Expansion announced. Squee!

[mr.hackcrag]

I just couldn't get into this game. It was surprising to me because shadow magic mod was like my all time fav strategy game. I think now that I'm getting older, I have less patience for games like these.