Happiness in Darkness -An Argatha Ktonian Dead AAR

[Nerfix]

I got really disapointed in the early versions of AOW 2, it just felt...really bad. AOW 2 was the game I abandoned in favour of Dominions. I read a strategy guide to Dominions I in a finnish game mag and I was sold: everything sounded a bit similiar to AOW, except tne times more detailed and numerous.

Well, the two aren't quite the same thing, but I was just...awe-struck when I started playing Dominions.

It felt so magical.

[Blofeld]

Cities had maximum development levels in AOW1, so it was rather difficult to build sufficient numbers of highest tier units. While playing with good-neutral races, I ended up migrating low level cities to elves or halfling to churn out their decent low-level archers or pony scouts there while training human cavalrymen and knights in level 3 cities.
In the AOW1 demo mission it was essential to capture the orc lvl 4 capital before they got to training red dragons there, otherwise you were toasted.
Races were pretty well thought-out, with i.e. halflings having lvl-1 pony scouts, but lacking regular full fledged cavalry, etc. As far as raw combat might was concerned, orcs were much better than halflings, which was logical IMHO
In AOW2 any city could grow to the upper limits, so the above was no longer true. Additionaly, unit balance was plain wrong. Beside draconians, archons come to mind. All their units had vertigo inducing holy strike and their chariots were uber.
Site exploration and unit descriptions were gone, too

The series sported some dominionesque ideas, e.g. dominion-like "sphere of influence" projected from towers. The above coupled with land-withering global spell was very Ermor-like

[Nerfix]

Yeah, haha, I also back then thought that "Wow, this Dominion thing sounds a lot like the Wizard Domain but much cooler!".

[DominionsFan]

There is a draconic race in Wesnoth for example. The draconic units ain't stronger then let's say the human units. Its making no sense to me. Lizardmen as a race can be balanced, but not a draconian race. Well depends, maybe someone wouldn't care to see weak dragons or draconic units. Personally I wouldn't like it.

[Nerfix]

Perhaps something like Abysia. Weak but stronger than human units, strong units, special units and a flying commander.

[NTJedi]

Blofeld said:
Site exploration and unit descriptions were gone, too

Lots of people miss the site exploration. In the original AOW it was mysterious, scary and fun not knowing what to expect from exploring a site. Unfortunately Triumph decided to remove this great feature without even checking with the fans.
At least with AOW:SM we were able to convince Triumph to change that stupid "auto_surrender" feature into being only a game option. At least 95% of the AOW:SM community does not use the auto_surrender.
As of right now Triumph is working on a game for the XBox called Overlords. The game appears to be like DungeonKeeper from the screenshots we've seen, but that's just a guess. It will be available for the PC as well, yet not sure how features will be lost since it has to be compatible with the XBox too.

[DominionsFan]

NTJedi said:
As of right now Triumph is working on a game for the XBox called Overlords. The game appears to be like DungeonKeeper from the screenshots we've seen, but that's just a guess. It will be available for the PC as well, yet not sure how features will be lost since it has to be compatible with the XBox too.

http://www.triumphstudios.com/press.php

I think that the game will be neat.

[Ballbarian]

I used to be a diehard AOW player. Haven't played a single game of it since I downloaded the Dominions PPP demo about 2 years ago. I actually first learned of Dominions from a thread in the AOW forums.

[Boron]

Ballbarian said:
I used to be a diehard AOW player. Haven't played a single game of it since I downloaded the Dominions PPP demo about 2 years ago. I actually first learned of Dominions from a thread in the AOW forums.

I was a diehard AOW fan too till i discovered finally Dom2 by accident. I discovered it via an OT thread in the paradox forum.

Till then i have not played much Aow neither, only a few mp-duels .

[Agrajag]

Well, if you are really set on a balanced draconian race, you could use the Elderlings of "The Liveship Traders"