We saw how excited you were over the changes that are coming tomorrow, both for the Empires & Ashes expansion as well as the free Golem update shipping with it. Hence, we have decided to move up the dev diary so that you can read all about them! This one will be a meaty two-parter discussing both the Form Trait system and the Item Forge. Without further ado, let our devs take it away!
Form Traits
Hello all!
My name is Tom Bird and I’m the Lead Designer at Triumph. Today I’m gonna talk about the Form Trait system rework that’s coming with the Golem patch!
Throughout the development of Age of Wonders 4 we’ve iterated several times on how Form Traits work, about the only thing that’s stayed the same is the idea that Form Traits represent some kind of inherent physical or mental property of a race (as opposed to a Society Trait, which represents more cultural aspects). The earliest versions gave each form a default trait:
These two designs are from 2 years before the game was released
Players could then change this trait to another one if they wished, so they would have some flexibility. There were concerns here that a single trait would be too limiting in making a form feel unique however, and there were arguments that not having any limitations as to which traits were available to each form would undermine what a form was, in gameplay terms. If a ratman could have any trait, it was argued, would it then feel like a ratman to play?
A later iteration gave each form a selection of traits it could choose from - a selection we curated to try and fit what we felt the form was about. So Elves could be good with bows and magic, but wouldn’t be able to take traits that made them tougher or stronger. This same iteration split the traits between Mind and Body, which would give players far more flexibility in their races:
This was the design up to about 6 months before release
In general this felt much better to play, the freedom to combine 2 traits of your choice really let you feel as if you were making your own race, but the limitations rankled. Sure, it made sense that Halflings couldn’t be defensive experts, but what if I as a player didn’t care? What if I wanted to make a race of Seafaring Moles who’d been exiled from the caves of their ancestors? Or Bloodthirsty Halfling Barbarians?
Living the dream!
Another issue was balance, we wanted each form to have access to roughly the same number of traits, so we ended up having to make some fairly arbitrary choices to balance things out. Halflings couldn’t have the Tenacious trait because it would be unfair for them to have more trait access than other forms, regardless of how tenacious they might be in fantasy stories!
In the end, we decided to cut the limitations entirely, they limited what players could do in arbitrary and subjective ways, and in the end, they simply got in the way of the player having fun. This is the system that was put into the release version of the game, which you have been playing with up until now.
Since release we’ve realized that the Body/Mind model of traits has some serious issues, the greatest of which is that all traits have the same value despite them not all having the same potency. The Spider Mount trait is clearly more powerful than the Hearty trait, which is more powerful than Desert Adaptation, yet they all cost a single slot.
The Body and Mind division is also fairly arbitrary, limiting player choice based on an abstract categorization which makes thematic sense but doesn’t really serve any practical purpose. If I want to have an Elusive race, then that same race cannot have Fast Initiative, since they’re both mind traits. There’s no balance or mechanical reason to block this combination, it’s just a consequence of the Body/Mind split.
As a solution we’ve moved the trait system over to a point buy system, where the player gets 5 points which they can spend on traits which cost anything from 3 points for the most powerful traits, to 1 point for the weakest. This has many advantages:
- We no longer need to try and balance traits against each other, since we can just make more powerful traits cost more
- Players have far more flexibility in what they can combine
That’s not to say there are no limitations in the system, certain combinations are still blocked for both balance and practical considerations:
- You can only choose one mount trait, since the system doesn’t support a race with multiple mount choices
- You can only choose one adaptation trait, since that controls a race’s starting location
- You can only choose one tactics trait, since it’s too strong/easy to just stack the adjacency bonuses to make a super powerful race.
Of course, while doing this rework we’ve also done a balance pass over the traits, removing some which felt useless, and adding a few new ones to spice things up a bit. For some highlights, we now have:
Hideous Stench is one of my favorite traits from Age of Wonders 3, where it was only available to the Untouchables unit. This trait is extremely strong for builds that rely on magic damage and status effects, such as those built on the Dark culture. It combines well with Poisonous (60% chance to poison melee attackers) since melee attackers are guaranteed to be adjacent and will therefore be more vulnerable to poison!
Athletics replaces Fast Initiative (which sped up units for the first turn of combat) and grants all your non-cavalry units a speed boost both in combat and on the world map. I’ve been assured by our internal testers that this isn’t hopelessly overpowered, but we’ll have to see!
Light Footed is one of the default traits for the new Avian form, and it gives your units an extra dimension of freedom while in combat. A light footed unit can move through any allied unit (including those which do not have light footed themselves) allowing you to retreat ranged units through shield walls, and easily rearrange your units in bottlenecks to control the battlefield.
Finally, by popular demand, we’ve added simple terraforming spells to Swamp, Arctic and Desert Adaptation, which boosts their usefulness considerably!
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can you bring back the limitations on what form can pick what trait?
No, this doesn’t match what we want from the game and we think the majority of players want. The code for doing this is still present however, and can be modded in quite easily. Look for the “Incompatible Forms” field in the “AoW Trait” resource if you wish to do this yourself.
- What will happen to my old races when I get the new update?
We felt that players would not appreciate us giving traits to their races which they haven’t picked themselves, so you should find them mostly unchanged. This will probably mean that you have unspent points, which you can only fix by editing the faction yourself by hand.
- Why not give every race terrain preferences, instead of having Adaptation preferences?
In Age of Wonders 3 each race had its own favored terrain, and people have requested we bring this back for Age of Wonders 4. The key issue we have here is that the terrain in 3 was designed and painted by the map generator with this design in mind while in 4 it was not. The details would fill a dev diary by themselves, suffice to say it would be a lot of work that could break a lot of things and cause us a lot of issues that we would have trouble fixing. We might revisit this in the future, but it’s off the table right now.
The Item Forge
Hello, I am Sam Minh, designer at Triumph Studios and today I will be talking about another free feature of the Golem Patch, the Item Forge. It is making a return from Age of Wonders 3, new and upgraded for Age of Wonders 4!
The Item Forge is a way to create your own custom hero items - you can forge armor, weapons, rings and other items that your Heroes can use in combat. Craft that missing helmet that you never found, that higher tier bow that your ranged hero needed, or just make the strongest item you can afford that fits your hero’s playstyle.
Since this is part of the free Golem Patch, everyone will get access to the Item Forge. When you start a new game, or load your save, you will see a new button with an anvil at the top of your screen. It will be grayed out because you will first have to build the Item Forge in your Wizard Tower.
Forging an Item
There are a lot of options in the item forge, and the first decision that you will need to make is what kind of item you want to make, a helmet, sword or wand? Different item types can hold different types of bonuses - armor protects you, weapons deal damage and inflict status effects, wands provide active abilities, etc.
For this example we will pick a sword.
The next step is to add infusions, which are the special effects that you apply to the item. In the case of this sword, we can change the damage channel, add an active ability, and add multiple passive abilities. At the start of the game you only get access to some basic infusions, so in this case we’ll add the Inflict Bleeding and +10% Crit chance infusions. These infusions also increased the item to Tier 3, increasing its damage output.
Each infusion has an Infusion Point cost, and you can use up to 5 Infusion Points on an item, however the crafting cost and time increases accordingly. Each individual Infusion after the first also adds an additional cost, so making specialized items is more cost efficient than items with 5 infusions that cost 1 point.
As you might have noticed, each item also has a name. You can randomize the name with something fitting of the item type and the infusions that are put on it, but you can also decide to name it yourself. When other people inspect these items, they will see who crafted the item and appreciate your taste in naming them.
Magic Materials
To unlock more specialized and powerful infusions, you will have to acquire Magic Materials. Each Magic Material is associated with specific elements or combat effects, and acquiring more of the same Magic Material will unlock more powerful versions of those infusions. If you want a magic item to your exact specifications, you will need to hunt for the right Magic Materials. This can often be worth it as they do not only provide generally good effects, but also more specialized effects such as Fiend Slayer, Lightning Protection, or evasion from ranged attacks.
Binding Essence
As mentioned before, more powerful items cost more resources and time to craft. But what resource does it cost? Introducing: Binding Essence - this is a new resource that is only used for the Item Forge and is the only resource required to craft items in the item forge. To obtain more Binding Essence you will need to disenchant other hero items that you have, the higher the Tier of the Item, the more you will get! This way you can recycle the items that you no longer have a use for into useful items to fully equip your heroes.
Becoming a Forge Master
There is also a new Society Trait that will be added to the free Golem Patch that allows you to double down on crafting items in the Item Forge. It starts you off with a bunch of Binding Essence, unlocks the Item Forge from the start and rewards Binding Essence from a variety of world map activities. You can combine this trait together with the Industrious Culture, or the Fabled Hunters or Item Hoarders Society Traits to specialize in Item crafting to create powerful items in the early game… or maybe to become a trader in powerful items.
You can trade your items with other players. Since what you can craft depends on the Magic Materials you have, other players might be able to craft the item you need, or you might now be more inclined to trade Magic Materials to unlock the Infusions yourself. AI Rulers will also periodically have a stock of custom magic items for you to buy, allowing you to benefit more from alliances and giving you the opportunity to acquire unique items that you might not be able to obtain yourself.
New Pantheon Rewards
Lastly, let’s have a look at the Pantheon Rewards screen, as you might be happy to hear that there are more things to unlock with your leftover Pantheon Points. These are 53 item forge visualization options, which are purely cosmetic. The weapons also come with an accompanying 3D model when the item is equipped.
And that is it for the item forge. What will you use it for? Will you craft the items that you were missing, become the realm’s most legendary smith, or will you meticulously craft a set of items to specialize your hero for a specific combo? Whatever it is, I hope you look forward to Empires & Ashes and the free Golem Patch as much as we do, and we will see you all for the release this Tuesday!
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