
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:



- 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
- 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.




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.


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.

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.