Age of Wonders 4 News

Hello everyone, I'm Thomas Schuiten, the designer at Triumph Studios. Today in this dev diary I will give you some insight into the many Realms you can explore, and the Magehaven from which you do so.

The fourth Age of Wonders brings the return of the Wizard kings, but more than that, with the barriers between worlds torn open, many Realms are now within reach.

This new freedom calls for a different approach to Scenarios and maps than Age of Wonders has known in the past, and it's an excellent fit to build upon the lessons of Planetfall’s Empire Mode.



In this age you will form a Pantheon of god-like characters through your conquests. A Ruler may ascend to the Pantheon by conquering a Realm, from where they may join future conquests, or oppose them…



There will be more info on the Pantheon further down, but first we must choose a Realm to conquer.

[h2]Realms[/h2]


There are 3 kinds of Realm to choose from:

• Story Realms, with custom lore and story content that tells the story of the Fourth Age of Wonders and the return of the Godir,
  
• Challenge Realms, where an interesting set of traits is gathered together to give a unique Realm to be explored and conquered.
  
• Custom Realms, these are your own creations, making a custom Realm lets you pick Traits as you see fit to make something unexpected.
  

Each Realm is made up of various Realm Traits, these are divided into 5 types based on which aspect of the Realm they affect; Geography, Clime, Inhabitant, Presence and Miscellaneous (further referred to as Misc).
Each realm can feature 1 of each of these (except for Misc traits, of which a realm can have 4)

Geography Traits determine the shape of the world and can have a huge impact. This is where you find “Continents” and “Islands” map types, but also a few unique twists such as “Lava Divide” where the realm is roughly split in two by an ocean of impassable lava (only connected through the underground)



Clime Traits are next, and they modify the environment of the realm, making certain climes more or less likely to appear.If you want a desert realm or a frozen wasteland this is where you can find it. (Or if you want some real chaos you can choose Forming Realm and watch the world form around you as you build your empire)



Inhabitant Traits affect the prevalence of particular creature types on that Realm as well as certain structures, perhaps left behind by the Realm’s previous inhabitants. This is where you can make the Realm dominated by undead creatures, or have enormous beasts stalking the wilderness.



Presence Traits add Empires to the realm that have special starting conditions and provide a unique challenge, for example the Pretender kings adds 3 kings with substantial kingdoms in the midst of a succession war.



Lastly there’s Misc Traits, these modify the rules of the game, or otherwise modify the realm in a manner that can be mixed and matched with any other trait. Want to make a realm where Free Cities are less common, leaving ruins instead to mark valuable locations? The Ruined Realm trait will do that.

When you’ve obtained some experience in the game, misc traits are where you find interesting twists to change up your play through, like with for example the Megacities trait.



[h2]Your Pantheon[/h2]
The Pantheon is where you collect your Ascended rulers, each ruler you complete a Realm with may ascend to your Pantheon, from where they may aid or hinder future conquests. It is also where you spend the Points you’ve earned with your Pantheon XP to unlock new customization options for your leaders!



During your conquests you gain Pantheon XP for completing certain actions, clearing infestations, conquering cities, defeating players and gaining vassals are just some examples. Completing a Realm through victory, defeat or by abandoning it adds this XP to your Pantheon and gives you Points with which to unlock new items in the Pantheon tree.



These include hats and cloaks as seen above, but also Leader origins and society traits that will add new options to your empire creation.

As you gain Pantheon XP you will also unlock new Realms to explore, each bringing a unique Presence trait to the table that you may then use in your own custom realms as well.





I hope you enjoyed this introduction to the Realm and Pantheon system, there is much to be explored and experimented with. I look forward to seeing the Realms that you create and reading the stories of your conquests!

Share your thoughts on Forum!
Chitchat on Discord!
Have fun with us on Twitter!
Follow us on Facebook!
Subscribe to our Instagram and YouTube (content coming soon)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1669000/Age_of_Wonders_4/

Hi everyone and welcome to a new Dev Diary about Story and Lore!

I’m Michelle, a narrative designer at Triumph, and today I’d like to talk about the narrative in Age of Wonders 4. Our internal narrative team consists of me and Jakob. The contents of this game were created together with several external writers, including Raymond Bingham, who has played a role in the games since the beginning of the Age of Wonders.

[h3]First of all, a (light) spoiler warning!
We will talk about the story of Age of Wonders 4. If you want to go in blind, I suggest you stop reading here![/h3]

[h2]Narrative in Age of Wonders 4[/h2]

The story and world-building have always been a pillar of the Age of Wonders games. Every game was filled with strong characters, expansive back-stories and loads of lore to enjoy. The same counts for Age of Wonders 4, in which we use new systems to allow the player to immerse themselves in their own story as rulers and creators of their empires and people.

With each successive iteration of Age of Wonders, we have added more gameplay depth and more immersive ways for players to roleplay the ruler of a fantasy realm. This has its effect on our approach to narrative: Instead of having a fully scripted campaign story that the player follows - with perhaps a couple of branches - the in-game narrative needs ways to adapt to who the player is and their actions. Through this we avoid narrative vs gameplay disconnects, difficulty spikes or blocking parts of the customization/empire development possibilities.

So our goal is to create a universe rich in lore, which reacts to the player’s choices instead of a more linear traditional scripted adventure.

This requirement led us to develop a new Narrative Event System which confronts your ruler with quests, leadership dilemmas, and boons coming from your empire, the larger world, or the cosmic affinities. The system is able to render scenes with animated 3D characters and provide multiple-choice options. We’ll foreshadow this system in this journal, in one of the following journals Jakob will go in-depth!

This Journal will focus on the following

• The premise and expansion to the Age of Wonders Universe
  
• How lore is integrated into the game
  
• The Story Realms in Age of Wonders 4
  
• But first, a trip down memory lane.
  

[h2]Previously in Age of Wonders…[/h2]

As you may remember, during Age of Wonders 3, the high elf Sundren and human Edward banded together to found the Torchbearers: an initiative to bring the people of Athla together against the Shadowborn. The Shadowborn was a conniving cult who aimed to sow dissent and destroy the Seals that protected Athla from the greater magics beyond. The Torchbearer heroes stopped a war between the kingdom of the High Elves and the Empire of the Commonwealth, but they could not stop the Shadowborn from destroying the Seals.

The Shadowborn broke the Seals on Athla, allowing ancient powers to return.

The magic that Athla had been protected from for many years, flooded back in. Elemental forces were distorted, climates changed, and the great empires of Athla fell.

Through the cataclysms, the Valley of Wonders remained.

Age of Wonders 4’s story starts here, on Athla, where we follow a mortal champion who finds themselves ascending to Godirhood. But they will quickly meet the Wizard Kings of old, who return to reclaim the lands they were banished from… And thus the Rise of the Godir, the main storyline, commences.

Wizard Kings of old return to reclaim Athla.

When Wizards like Yaka, Karissa, and Nimue left Athla to find fame and riches in the Shadow Realm, they did not expect Merlin to Seal away their only chance of returning. Stuck in a void between realms the Wizards were subjected to terrible visions and maddening voices, confronting them with their biggest fears and ambitions. The Torment of Shadows, as they called it, left them scarred and warped. Some souls who succumb to this torment are lost, forced to wander the void forever. Many dangers lay beyond Athla… yet some claimed new domains, creating their own followers and bending faraway realms to their will.

Pictured here is a Lost Mage unit, a wizard that succumbed to the torments in the Astral Sea. The breaking of seals between worlds set these monstrosities free and they can be found around places of high magical potency.

[h2]The Astral Sea[/h2]
There have always been hints to worlds beyond Athla within the Age of Wonders lore. In Shadow Magic, one of these other worlds became very real, with the invasion of the Shadow Demons from the Shadow Realm. All of these worlds are connected through the Astral Sea, a vast ethereal ocean where magic ebbs and flows, influencing all worlds drifting within.

In Age of Wonders 4 the premise and structure of the game allow us to make the many unknown worlds not the distant origin of invading forces, but places to explore. You can visit the homeworld of fiends and demons, explore the origin of the elves, and of course, claim a realm for yourself. The Astral Sea is vast and filled with many wonders, creatures and dangers. An entire universe awaits you!

The Astral Sea is filled with many wonders, creatures, and dangers.

[h2]The Godir Pantheon[/h2]
Through their connection to the Astral Sea, ascended Mortal Champions and powerful Wizards alike find themselves blessed (or cursed) with unforetold powers. They are Godir, god-like beings, who can travel the worlds and can even use the forces of Creation to create their own followers.

All these Godir, regardless of their alliances or morality, are part of the grand Pantheon of the Astral Sea. The Godir of the Pantheon are quarrelsome, and alliances between them are formed and broken easily. The most outspoken alliances within the Pantheon are the lawful Covenant, which opposes the conniving Shad’rai.

Every new Ruler who leaves their mark on a realm can become a member of your Pantheon!

[h2]Welcome to Magehaven…[/h2]
All Godir find themselves in Magehaven at one point or another. Magehaven is a world in the Astral Sea where the Pantheon of Godir holds its most important forum of dispute and council. It is protected by an unbreakable spell, which prevents any harm from being done to a living creature or soul. Therefore even the fiercest enemies can meet there to negotiate their conflicts. Among the many wonders of Magehaven are the World Gates, which act as magic portals through the Astral Sea and allow ambitious Godir to explore new realms.

Welcome to Magehaven!

[h2]Story Realms[/h2]
The Astral Sea features many worlds to explore and conquer. Each world plays its bigger or smaller role in the various intertwining conflicts and stories of the Fourth Age.

The realms that play a bigger role are called Story Realms. The main game features five Story Realms at launch in a storyline called Rise of the Godir, which will let players immerse deeper into the lore and get a better understanding of the Age of Wonders Universe.

All Story Realms feature voice-acted briefing and debriefing scenes with bespoke art, and we use Narrative Events - described in more detail below - as the engine through which the story is told. And you will find that characters from the earlier games make their (in)glorious return.

All Story Realms feature voice-acted briefing and debriefing scenes.

Your adventure starts on Athla, where you will experience the return of an old threat. Only your ascendance to powers larger than life may save your people from what awaits beyond the World Gates. And even that is only the beginning, for a grand plot unfolds in Magehaven, defining the fate of all Godir within the Astral Sea.

Welcome to the Valley, o King!


[h2]Lore[/h2]
The new nifty Tooltip system allows us to put in lore in any location, without breaking the gameplay flow. To differentiate lore tooltips from gameplay tooltips, they are rendered in a parchment style. Simply hover over an underlined word to learn more about the Astral Sea and the creatures within! As with regular tooltips they support nested “tooltip in tooltip” functionality.

Lore and backstories about characters, Tomes, Ancient Wonders, and other secrets of the Astral Sea can be explored in-game.

Lore can be found in-game in Events and descriptions.

[h2]Narrative Events[/h2]
A lot of our narrative efforts when making Age of Wonders 4 went into the creation of a new dynamic event system and its content. The new Narrative Events provide a framework for telling stories that emerge from the world and the actions of the player. On a structural level, they connect gameplay systems that normally may not have direct interactions, leading to interesting decisions and unique opportunities. On a narrative level, they make the worlds that the player Godir visits come alive, provide meaningful roleplaying options, and make the experience more tangible when they zoom in on the backstory, problems, and motivations of heroes, cities, or monsters dwelling inside a dungeon.

We will look at the involved mechanics and surrounding systems of the event system more in-depth in a future dev diary, but as a glimpse at what the Narrative Events can entail we will take a brief look at the event below:

What is the price of zeal within a faith-based empire?

The above Narrative Event may be encountered by players who have erected an empire deeply entwined with the order affinity. By invoking a strong sense of faith within their population they are attracting fanatics, eager to impose harsher rules to further consolidate their vision of a perfect theocracy. – Will the player capitalize on their zeal? Or will they forego their extreme measures and protect the common people?

With the combination of rich Lore, Dynamic Narrative Events that react to your choices, and carefully scripted Story Realms, we aim to bring a more immersive experience to you than ever before!

Stay tuned for a new dev diary next week as we are going to talk about Magehaven, Pantheon and Realm Setup! Also, consider adding the game to the Wishlist!

Share your thoughts on Forum!
Chitchat on Discord!
Have fun with us on Twitter!
Follow us on Facebook!
Subscribe to our Instagram and YouTube (content coming soon)

Hello Everyone!

My name is Tom Bird, and I’m a senior developer at Triumph Studios. Today I’d like to talk about affinities, one of the systems that sits at the heart of Age of Wonders 4. Each affinity represents an archetypal, cosmic force that defines the type of magic you can use, the elemental forces you control and the type of society your faction has.

There are 6 affinities in the game, but today we’re mostly going to be talking about Order affinity. Order is the power that brings structure to the Cosmos and to the lives of mortals. It is associated with light, faith, justice and the government of empires. In gameplay terms, Order has a focus on diplomacy, healing and city stability.

[h2]Culture[/h2]
You first start defining your faction’s affinity by choosing your culture and society traits.Your faction’s culture represents who they are before you take control of them, and mostly affects your starting units. There are 6 cultures in the game and the one most strongly associated with Order is High Culture.



Here we see some High Culture elves, standing in the Magehaven, preparing to tread onto a new world!

Order is associated with Spirit Damage, a type of holy energy that is particularly effective against the undead. High Culture’s defining feature is that their units can become “Awakened”, allowing them to channel Spirit Damage through their physical attacks!

[h2]Society Traits[/h2]
After choosing your culture, it’s time to choose Society Traits. These traits represent the general philosophy your people follow, as well as how they live and govern themselves. Each of these traits is associated with an affinity, and I’ve listed a couple of the order traits below.



The Chosen Uniters trait is the epitome of Order as a force for diplomacy. It grants you 10 points of good alignment, which improves your diplomatic relations with the other (non-evil) factions that you meet, and grants you a bonus to income from Vassals, which are cities that join your empire via diplomacy instead of conquest.



Of course, Order isn’t always about being nice to people! The Imperialists trait represents Order as a force of political and economic domination. It grants a bonus to Imperium income, which is vital for building an empire with many cities, as well as buying skills from the Empire Tree.


[h2]Tomes[/h2]
The final, and most important, aspect of your faction’s affinity are the Tomes of Magic which you choose to research. Each Tome contains a number of spells, units and upgrades all centered around a particular theme, and each Tome is associated with one affinity.

There are 9 Tomes of Order in Age of Wonders 4, leading your empire down a path of righteous and lawful domination.



The Tome of Faith is an early game tome that is focused on healing and support units. It’s perfect for a religious faction that wishes to shield its armies with holy power!



The Chaplain is a powerful healing unit who can Bless units to boost their combat prowess.



If you’re more interested in using your Culture’s own support units, then the Staves of Mending enchantment will grant them extra healing powers, as well as making them cheaper to support.



The Convent is a unique structure you can build in your city that provides benefits that grow more powerful the more content and happy you keep your citizens.



Focussed on the more repressive aspects of Order, the Tome of Subjugation is a mid game tome focused on the domination and control of other races.


The Tyrant Knight is a powerful shock unit, who specializes in delivering a devastating charge that shatters enemy morale.


Once an enemy has been routed, the Final Ultimatum spell gives you a chance to convince a fleeing unit that their lives would be better if they switched sides.


The Baron’s Palace gives a huge amount of income for a city structure, however it can only be built in the cities that you have conquered from your foes.

[h2]The Empire Tree
[/h2]Until know, every choice we’ve made has granted affinity points to out faction, if we’d made a starting faction on High Elf Imperialists, we’d end up with:

• High Culture: +2 Order
  
• Imperialists: +1 Order
  
• Chosen Uniters: +1 Order
  
• Tome of Faith: +2 Order
  

That gives us a start with 6 Order. So what does that mean to us? Well, one system that is greatly affected by your faction’s affinity is the Empire Tree:


The Empire Tree contains the economic and social bonuses of the game (as opposed to Tomes which are more focused on military bonuses), and is divided into 7 branches: One branch for each of the six affinities, and one general shared branch.

Since our faction has 6 Order affinity, we will start rapidly unlocking skills from the Order branch of the tree (as well as the general branch) but we won’t be able to get anything from any other branches unless we get some other affinities!

The Order branch of the tree is focused heavily on diplomacy and vassals, giving you such skills as:



A Whispering Stone is a magical stone you give to a free city to help sway it to your side, since most empires only have one, this allows us to try and vassalize twice as many cities at once!


The Rally of Lieges is a mechanic that allows you to recruit units directly from your vassals and ancient wonders. This skill means any unit you recruit via the rally starts as an experienced veteran with extra health and other bonuses.

Also, as you can see this skill will take us 10 turns to unlock. If we had fewer points in Order affinity, this would take longer!


As well as permanent upgrades, the tree also contains Rites, which are one off rewards you can trigger to help you out of a tough spot or to optimize a particular plan. This rite grants you a friendship boost with every free city on the map, helping you vassalize them faster.

Of course we don’t expect the player to stick to just one affinity, by mixing and matching affinities you can find synergies to help supercharge your empire! For example, Shadow affinity has many skills themed around deception and the darker sides of diplomacy.

This means that, once we’ve done enough research into our starting tome, we could pick a Shadow Tome, such as the Tome of Souls to add a religious death cult feel to our faction. This would give us 2 points of shadow affinity that would allow us to get skill such as this:



This skill would allow us to use our extra whispering stones to speed up our magical research and keep an eye on distant lands!

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]
This concludes our brief introduction to the affinity system! There’s a lot more to talk about here, your affinity also affects your diplomatic relations with others and your access to the Magical Victory Condition, but that will all have to wait until a future dev diary!

Next Diary will feature more details about Lore and Story Realms — stay tuned!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1669000/Age_of_Wonders_4/

Eine neue Ära, welche die klassischen Elemente des Spiels rund um den Aufbau eines Reiches, Rollenspiel und Kriegsführung auf die nächste Stufe hebt.

» Komplette News auf pressakey.com lesen» Age of Wonders 4 auf pressakey.com

Welcome to Age of Wonders 4’s first Development Diary!
Here we’ll talk about the game’s inception, big new features, and what you can expect in the coming months leading up to release on May 2nd! You can wishlist the game on Steam today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1669000/Age_of_Wonders_4



[h2]Inception[/h2]
First, a bit of history:

The premise and focus of Age of Wonders 4 has been two decades in the making. At the conclusion of 2003’s Age of Wonders Shadow Magic, the warring Wizard Kings were banished from Athla along with the Shadow Demons. We knew that if the stars of game business aligned we’d bring them back, bigger and scarier than before.

After Triumph’s Overlord period came 2014’s Age of Wonders 3. This long-awaited sequel was developed and published independently and was set in a lower-magic era. It saw the rise of the Human Commonwealth’s renaissance empire in the void left by the aforementioned archmages. The scheming Shadowborn plotted to bring back the Wizard Kings and the magical times of old, and in the canon ending, they succeeded!

After joining Paradox, we released Age of Wonders: Planetfall (though development actually started prior to the acquisition). This sci-fi sister game allowed us to experiment with new angles, allowed us to bring the game to a new audience on consoles, and taught us a lot about IP building, ranged combat, meta empire systems and unit mods.

Now, after three and a half years of development, we are ready to announce the newest sequel to the fantasy saga. The biggest Age of Wonders game to date: Age of Wonders 4.

[h2]The Return of the Wizard Kings[/h2]

Age of Wonders 4 starts with the banished Wizard Kings breaking free from their otherworldly prisons. Corrupted by centuries of torment in eldritch domains, they have returned to the world of Athla and now seek other realms that lie within their grasp. Not merely satisfied to reclaim their thrones, they seek to establish themselves as gods over mortals.

The mortal leaders scramble to rally their populations against the invaders. Choosing to be a mortal champion or one of the returning Wizard Kings, you must master the forbidden arts and prepare for a confrontation the likes of which the universe has never seen; taking the conflict to Athla and other worlds within the Astral Sea.



[h2]Vision[/h2]

The central theme that emanates through Age of Wonders 4 is Creation; which ties closely to the returning wizard kings with their god-like powers. If AoW3 was autumnal, then AoW4 represents a fresh spring, heralding an age of new beginnings where the magical forces of creation flow freely. This spring theme is actually part of the art style guide, leading to fresher, green and blue tinted color palettes.

The series has always featured a strong in-world player avatar whose empire embodies their traits. With Age of Wonders 4 we take this further with unprecedented faction creation and evolution systems, as well as new ways for players to create realms to conquer. Next to enhanced avatar character creation, you can build your own starting race. Your choice of physical form, culture, traits and magical tome defines your unique race at the start of the game. You can go for an existing trope or create your own unique vision. Mystic Toads, Cannibal Halflings, or Isolated Deep Dwarves are all examples of what is possible. The modular nature of this fantasy race construction set will also make it easier for modders to add content compared to previous games.

But this is only the beginning; our goal is to instill a great sense of progress and agency during the many hours an AoW game takes. No longer stuck in a predefined research/building path determined at the start of the game, you can now evolve your faction in the direction that suits you during play. You rule an empire of your own design, crafting a personal journey.

[h2]Gameplay Depth[/h2]

With each iteration of the Age of Wonders series we have added more gameplay depth: systems that allow players to develop their own strategies and stories through the game; adding agency and replayability. Age of Wonders 4 continues on this path of evolution. Here are some of the new features:
[h2]The Tomes of Magic and Other Progression Systems[/h2]

Players will need to harness the newly unleashed magic to best their rivals. This is done by researching arcane knowledge contained within ancient tomes. We have broken up the game’s “tech tree” into 54 Tomes of Magic, spread over 6 Affinities to the cosmic powers (Order, Chaos, Astral, Materium, Nature and Shadow). Each Tome is centered around a strong theme (Pyromancy, Necromancy, Faith, Teleportation, etc) and includes a number of spells and upgrades for your empire you can then research. You can start with goblin barbarians, and follow the path of Shadow with tomes of necromancy and cryomancy that create a frozen empire of death, or use Nature’s tomes to create an empire that lives in harmony with the creatures of the forests. As well as tomes, you can use the Empire Tree to unlock skills that improve your empire. Each affinity has its own branch that follows a particular playstyle. Chaos focuses on leading armies in wars of conquest, while Order looks to conquer the world through vassalage and diplomacy.



As you play the game, picking new tomes and skills from the empire tree, your empire will change to reflect your choices. Your unique path and developing Cosmic Affinities affect the spells you use, the cities you build, and the units you field. You control how your people evolve both physically and socially. This all instills a strong sense of progress and roleplaying, while respecting the medieval high fantasy setting.



[h2]New Narrative Engine[/h2]

New to the game is a narrative engine that laces encounters, diplomacy and many other aspects of the game with narrative flair. How you respond to these events tests your judgment as a leader. The events react to who you are, while immersing you deeper in the living world. Of course, many of the events shine new lights on the universe’s rich lore, while the game’s story missions drive a new epic plot forward.

[h2]Intricate Diplomacy and Relations[/h2]

Diplomacy, both with rival rulers and free cities you encounter on the map, has received a great deal of attention with new types of pacts, grievances and AI personalities to deal with. AIs have better awareness of who you are and their own place in the world.

[h2]Cities and Economy [/h2]

Cities can develop in multiple new ways: we’ve introduced a new province system where population growth directly results in new territory that can be added to your city’s domain, allowing you to shape your domains and expand towards high value locations. Other features include separate production queues for structures and units to ensure that new units can be drafted faster without stalling city development. There are special province improvements for you to build around your cities and a new empire management resource called Imperium. The game’s economy alone will likely be the subject of multiple dev diaries!

[h2]Combat and new Siege System[/h2]

Combat has always been at the heart of the game and is better than ever. There’s a new morale system which can cause units to rout; adding a new dimension to combat. We have added clearly defined unit roles, which make it easier to identify the many units in the game. And, of course, there are a ton of new units and clever abilities that look and animate better than ever.
There are more links between the world map and combat, like narrative event options that impact battles and most importantly a new siege system that takes the preparations to the world map and gives defenders a window to break the siege. More on these things later!



[h2]What’s Next[/h2]
This is just a short overview of things we’re doing with AoW4. Of course many loved features make a return: multiplayer, underground, heroes and their arsenals; all have seen evolutions big and small. This is a fully loaded sequel!

From the time of this announcement to our release on May 2nd, there will be an intense barrage of development journals and other community activities, where we’ll take a deeper look at the many facets of this game: gameplay features, art, etc. We hope you like what we have to show and we’re looking forward to your feedback.

Check back next week where principal designer Tom Bird is going to take a closer look at the building and evolving factions using the Cosmic Affinities and Tomes of Magic !
If you like what you’ve seen - please Wishlist the game!

Thank you!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1669000/Age_of_Wonders_4