Our plans for the first AoWIII update/patch

Hi everybody,

The dust is settling after launch; so it's time for an update! The team is very happy and humbled with the overall reception so far: reviews, sales, but most importantly we’re happy with overall fan reaction. But of course we can always do better. We’ve spent 39 months developing Age of Wonders III, and we're planning on supporting the game for a long period of time. We’ll release patches, free new features and dlc/expansion packs and we’re looking forward to implementing lots of feedback from the community. For the first update/patch, which will go live in the coming days we are looking at the following items:

Likely fixes:

* WQHD / QHD (up to 2560 x 1440 / 2560 *1600) native resolution display support (the Black & White boxes and blurry text should disappear)
* Frame Drops, particularly when having an army selected removed.
* AI Difficulty lowered for “Squire” – people dying a lot in the first Elven Court mission is not good.
* AI Global Spell Disjunction Spamming is limited
* AI Leaving their walls less quickly in combat
* Disabling of controller / joystick input to avoid camera drift
* Saving profile – e.g. graphics settings – fixed for the ‘Guest’ account.

New Features:
* Previous/Next Button for Cities (added to the city header)
* Quick Save Option.

A patch will come to GoG in the next couple of days. This is just a start! We have many other updates and fixes in the works, including an option to disable observing multiplayer tactical combat between other players.

We are also looking for additional fixes for people having troubles with the online account system, folks getting the game to run through their routers, and compatibility with certain integrated Graphics Laptops / Tablets. Please check the Support Forums and Knowledge base for updates and don’t hesitate to contact us when you have trouble getting the game running smoothly on your equipment.

Thanks for your support!
-The Team @ Triumph

Doubtless the wrong place to ask, but worth a shot anyway:

Will combat animations be slowed down? They seem way, way, way too quick at 1x.

the standard animation of enemy units are alread at a faster speed in normal settings, have you already slowed them down?

I shall have a look.

Edit: There isn't an option to slow them down.

Yes, and at 1x they're too fast - that's what I'm saying. They play as if they're at 2x or 3x, and it doesn't look quite right.

I don't really know what to say, sorry.
You can try slow, but yeah, that's pretty slow.
To me personally the 1x feels right and is very distinct from 2x and 3x, but that's just my opinion of course.

The only reason I can think of where they are like 2x or 3x is when you right click (maybe by accident?) while they're moving: they speed up then.

Also, when you have selected faster speed for them once, the system remembers and they will move as fast the next time it's their turn, without you setting it to fast (will reset in the next battle though).

Awesome! Really happy to get a QuickSave function.
Thanks for the info! Back to enjoying the game for now!!

I'm running them at x0.5 which is bit too slow but looks better than x1 or at least I would be if I didn't have to keep resetting my options each time I start. As well as the graphics settings it would be nice if hexes and show domain stuck.

Glad to see the first mission is being made easier even if no one else if losing repeatedly on it.

5 features I'd like to see:

1. don't like up my stacks in one big flat line when attacking. The AI just goes one flank and it takes several turns for my troops to reach my other flank.
2. A nice classic AoW mouse function would be nice. i.e. right click = cancel, left click is confirm (movement). The building machine does not care about left or right click, but casting spells is left click. It gets all a bit confusing to the older generation players who have been playing AoW from the start.
3. Since you can play multiplayer online. I would be very interested in an option to allow spectators to watch the game. Of course you could do this via Twitch when people stream, but that's not always a viable option.
4. Add a minimap in the battle screen! (unless there is one already) This will make everything easier to follow and more logical.
5. The difference between your units and the enemy's units are not always very clear in combat. Sure there are flags they hold, but unless you focus on the flags, you don't notice the difference that much. It was a lot easier with AoW 1 where units had their own colour next to their health bar. + the minimap.

Woops, should I wait for the patch before starting? I was playing Brutal Legend but now I'm stuck with lovely save/loadgame corruption.

Edit: The download was corrupted on the first try, but deleted and tried again and it worked. Is there a manual anywhere?

hehe no, go ahead and play it, the game is a blast. :)

I'm glad to see the devs show up on these forums as well. Thanks for posting that here Narvek.

You're very welcome :)

@Senteria:
I've collected your points in a doc and we'll have a look at what we can do.
For the near future we're focussing on the most important fixes first (as outlined in the OP), but we'll support this game for a long time, so we'll take a good look at what's possible. I miss a mini-map in TC as well, for example.

Woohoo. Thanks a lot. I know those things I ask for are not quick fixes and you need to make quick fixes for people encountering bugs and issues that affect the core game. It's top priority. I would be very grateful with any of those points Thanks for listening and writing them down. Keep up the good work and when I come back home on sunday I'll play the shit out of AoW 3 again. Right now I am working on my thesis for college while looking after my parent's animals. :) Oh and doing laundry, cooking, and blablabla. At least I have something to look forward to.