"Soft" Space Opera - Age of Wonders: Starfall Experience Briefing

October 24th, 2014 was not a day to be remembered, as it was the day that Civilization 5: A Beautiful New World, a sci-fi 4X strategy game based entirely on the framework of Civilization 5, was announced as a surprise spin-off - Civilization: Space, which tells the story of the aftermath of Civilization 5's technological victory. The strategy game tells the story of the aftermath of Civilization 5's technological victory, and it begins with the arrival of civilizations (that may appear in the future) in Centaurus, telling the epic of humanity's conquest of the New World from a whole new perspective. Unfortunately, word of mouth suggests that it's nowhere near as exciting as "A Beautiful New World".

So far, there seem to be countless ways to rationalize the mixed reviews of Civilization Space: it's too similar to Civilization V and lacks enough freshness; it doesn't have enough sci-fi toys like starships, cannons, and Death Stars to make the whole thing seem small; it does away with the classic civilization-specific architecture and special units that made the game so unique; it doesn't have any of the classic civilization-specific features; and it doesn't have any of the classic civilization-specific features that made the game so unique. Special buildings, special units, so that the homogeneity of civilizations is serious, lack of motivation to repeat the game ...... Although I personally like this work, and I am willing to talk more about this controversial Civilization: Space, but our protagonist today is still just released soon, and Civilization: Space is quite similar, but also very suitable for the comparison of Age of Wonders: Space. But we're also talking about the recently released Age of Wonders: Planetfall, which is quite similar to Civilization: Space, and a good comparison to make.

Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a 4X strategy game created by Triumph Studios, a veteran strategy game developer group, and tells a much more romantic sci-fi story than Civilization: Space: the protagonist falls into a long sleep due to an accident, and wakes up to find that the world he knew has long since fallen apart, and that the purebloods that were once the great unity of the human race are just a few lucky ones. More than a handful of them have either chosen mechanical ascension, perfect integration with nature, or have joined forces with all the scum and aliens to carve up the remnants of the human empire, all the while hostile to each other because of their beliefs. But luckily for you, you don't have to worry about restoring your empire. After experiencing the stories of each race and faith, and learning about their origins and philosophies, you can put the battle aside, build your empire, recruit your heroes, explore the world, and focus on enjoying the freedom of Civilization-style strategy gameplay by completing each goal, enjoying the joy of victory, and having a slightly swollen bladder.

I believe IGN's 8.5 rating is a sign of victory for Triumph Studios, and the mostly positive word of mouth proves that it's a fun game that's popular with the public, but it's a bit puzzling to see how those who started this article dissected Civilization: Space, which also lacked starships and cannons and was similar to its predecessor. Why did Age of Wonders: Stardust get 14 points more positive reviews than Civilization: Space, which was a direct result of the latter taking a step down in word-of-mouth? We'll get to that later, but before we do, let's take a look at what makes the well-received Age of Wonders: Meteor so unique.

As mentioned in the introduction, Age of Wonders: Starfall bears more than a passing resemblance to Age of Wonders 3 from years ago - and that's putting it mildly - and it's no exaggeration to say that, were it not for the fact that the graphics in Age of Wonders: Starfall were much more polished, I'd have thought Age of Wonders: Starfall was nothing more than an elaborate mod. was nothing more than an elaborate mod. However, if you think about it, it doesn't seem to be much of a surprise. The two games have different themes, but as a good representative of 4X strategy games, the basic operations of settling, developing, building, training troops, researching technology (magic), exploring the world and conquering opponents and so on are naturally very similar, which is only that the gold coins of the ancient times have been turned into the energy of the future; the magic crystals have been turned into the so-called cosmic alloys; and the magic itself has been turned into the so-called support technology. With magic itself becoming the so-called support technology, magic value is also naturally renamed as "support points". This is true not only for Age of Wonders: Stardust and Age of Wonders 3, but also for Civilization, Ultramarines, Warlock, and Heroes of Might and Magic, and the difference is often so small as to be negligible.

Not only that, but Age of Wonders 3's own systems have matured to the point where they feel right at home in Age of Wonders: Stardust, with a few modifications, or even as is, such as the similar but different Formation Battle mode, where a force of up to six units fights on a relatively separate battle map, which brings me closer to Xcom and Total Recall. It's a unique experience that's closer to the Xcom and Total War series: most of the units have as many skills as the heroes, and each unit has a wealth of tactical options on the battlefield; and even in a post-starship civilization, using cover and staying in formation is still the most logical way to make sure that your long-ranged units have unhindered access to their output, and that your melee units don't get caught in a firefight.

When the battle starts, we will find that the traditional units can cover half the battlefield, and the action mode of attacking based on the distance traveled is also more suitable for the long-distance units of Age of Wonders: Starburst: For the units in Age of Wonders: Starburst that have different shooting effects of the various ranged units, the wide range of mobile range will undoubtedly offer them more choices. Precise calculation and mutual support will make your battle easy and beautiful, allowing individual units to move in a wide range to play the effect of guerrilla encirclement is also a wonderful move of the sword to go off the beaten track, and early to choose a good cover to hide in and the enemy shooting is also a good tactic to mitigate their own losses, although so, when attacking the other side of the enemy in the bunker will be greatly affected by the hit rate, but once you have found a good cover every turn have Once you find a good cover, you have three chances to shoot every turn, the probability is even lower, at least there will be a hit on the enemy; Moreover, the bullets shot by the fighters do not always turn into bullet holes in the cover, sometimes they will be in the "graze" each other at the same time, solidly hit other units in the back row of the body, and in extreme cases, you may even accidentally hit something, detonated a whole area, the lucky players may be able to copy the The best players may be able to replicate the "mistake" of blowing up a German armory at Verdun, which is what makes this game a "miracle".

Unfortunately, the Faith (or Profession, as it was called in the third generation) system, which was a big hit in Age of Wonders 3, is a bit of a misnomer in Age of Wonders: Stardust, but admittedly, the ability to freely combine Faiths with races greatly enhances the game's replayability, gives players a completely different tech tree, allows them to unlock a completely different set of powerful units, and even gives them the ability to change their unit's attack attributes - the possibility of changing their own attack attributes. Even giving players the possibility to change the attack attributes of their units - considering that each race can only master two of the different attribute attacks such as Explosion, Kinetic, Laser, Arc, Spirit, and Biochemistry, and that the attribute compatibility of Age of Wonders 3 has been brought into Age of Wonders: Stardestroyer with a slight simplification, the effect on racial balance cannot be overstated. It goes without saying that any race can be powerful with the right beliefs. For example, an Amazon player who can only master laser and toxin technology can believe in the (mechanical) Fusion Theocracy and use the Arc Attack Module it grants to turn around their inherent disadvantage of being weak against mechanical units in one fell swoop - although it's a bit strange how the Amazon believes in the God of Mechanics. God is a bit strange any way you think about it.

If you're having trouble accepting that the Amazons, who are close to nature, believe in a mechanical god, then I'm sure you'll share my frustration with the overly magical beliefs of the Stargazers (the Sacred Light) and the Xenubra (the summoning of Void Demons), but without a detailed background, the scene can be confusing and confusing. But without a detailed background, the scene can be confusing and even a little bit funny; not only that, but those familiar with Age of Wonders 3 can see what it looks like in the medieval fantasy world at a glance, and I'm afraid this over-familiarity is going to be hard to resist immersing players in the experience.

Admittedly, this kind of "copying" of the previous game helps the production team save money while also maintaining the most distinctive features of the series, helping veteran players get started faster, which is kind of a win-win situation in a sense, and it's not hard to see how Age of Wonders: Stardewardship could have been improved in a number of effective ways. The interesting thing is that these improvements don't just make the game more distinctive, some of them are more of a degradation, or a move towards a wider range of gaming habits.

Of all the improvements, none pleased me more than the fact that the production team finally abandoned the oddball real-time strategy mode (which, simply put, means that the player and the enemy will move their troops in the same turn, and whoever is quicker to the eye takes the first-mover advantage) to return to the classic turn-based system, and the production team's drastic improvements to Age of Wonders: Starfall's strategic maps have been more than evident to most veteran players. is undoubtedly more noticeable. The new strategic map is naturally divided into "regions" that are much larger than the classic hexagonal plots, and instead of automatically expanding in a circle along the hexagon as your city gains enough population, you'll be able to hand-pick the right regions to include in your city, which vary in terms of production capacity, food, research points, etc., and require you to choose them based on the region. These areas will vary in the amount of capacity, food, research points, and so on, and it is up to you to determine the functionality of these areas based on the characteristics of the area, its resources, or the various buildings of the old empire, and in doing so, determine the role that the entire city will play in your empire.

The most obvious change from this innovation is that cities are now more naturally connected and compact, which will definitely satisfy those who have special requirements for their territory; however, this design also means that the areas where cities can be built are greatly reduced, and the traditional strategy of building a city on every piece of land in a 4X game is likely to be too dense for a 4X game to work on. For those areas that can't be included in your sphere of influence at the moment, you have the option of spending a fortune on a declaration of sovereignty, after which, if your opponent still tries to annex it, you'll get a declaration of war with no penalty in terms of popular support.

This is only a small part of the refined diplomacy system, and more and more options make diplomacy more playable, not to mention trading, alliances, and buying and selling territories. As long as the operation is reasonable, it is not difficult to talk with both good and evil camps at the same time. What surprised me even more is that the diplomatic AI seems to have been upgraded a little bit in this game. Although the AI's attitude towards your diplomacy is clearly indicated in the form of scores in the diplomacy interface, once the situation changes and may jeopardize its survival, even if the value shows that you are not on the best of terms with the AI, the AI will take the initiative to come to you to show goodwill, and even try to form alliances- only such alliances are often fragile. -It's just that such alliances are often fragile and, well, logical.

In the early stages of the game, you could improve your diplomatic reputation by completing various tasks for neutral strongholds, and the same neutral strongholds that played a big role in Age of Wonders 3 now play an even bigger role in Age of Wonders: Stardewardship, allowing you to spend Influence Points, rather than money, on units, tech, and equipment that are unique to a stronghold. The more friendly you are, the more powerful the items you can purchase; once you've reached the peak of your friendship with them, you can spend a significant amount of Influence Points at once to acquire a neutral stronghold's territory - but only a territory, and these neutral strongholds won't take orders from you, you'll still need to spend points to acquire You'll still need to spend points to gain access to their troops. If your empire is good at peaceful development, these neutral strongholds will give you the task of eliminating the increasingly powerful out-of-nowhere troops, which will be a great way to upgrade your heroes and test your tactics, and even if you're in the middle of a battle and the front lines are tight, you don't have to worry about a firestorm in your backyard, as these out-of-the-blue troops won't be able to attack on their own accord.

Making ordinary units carry a variety of components may seem like a minor tweak by comparison, but it greatly enriches the player's combat strategy: for a small amount of resources, the player can change the attack attributes of his troops to make their attacks more targeted. In this way, most strategy games, the late ultimate unit all the way to push the scene completely into the history, as long as the attack module is properly selected, even the most junior riflemen can be able to Titan beasts can cause considerable damage, if you want to be invincible, the player can only be careful study of the unit skill attributes, flexible use, and the charm of the battle, the tactical ideas of the different races, different believers in the huge differences between them will gradually be studied by the player. The game's main feature is the ability to play a variety of different games, and the ability to play a variety of different games at the same time.

So far, we've probably learned about the appeal of Age of Wonders: Starfall, but the difference in word-of-mouth between this game and Civilization: Space is clearly not convincing enough. I) play a little longer will appear to appear abnormal fatigue, and even headaches, let's say some kind of strange anti-addiction system; on the other hand, "Civilization: Space" is also in the continuation of the "Civilization 5" on the basis of many advantages to add a lot of exciting ideas, such as "Rising Tide" DLC in the pure sea city, bold and not lack of scientific support, a sense of the future is full. It seems that the answer to this question is not entirely in the game itself, so we might as well start by looking at the development of the sci-fi work itself and searching with a broader vision, so that the answer is quite obvious.

Let's turn the clock back to the 1940s, when the Western science fiction community was experiencing a glorious golden age, with three exceptional masters shining in the United States at the same time, digging into the depth and breadth of science fiction literature to the point of no return.

There is no denying that both 2001 A Space Odyssey and Star Wars are classics in the history of science fiction movies, only that the Clarke-type social science fiction and space opera represented by the two are at the two ends of the hardness scale of science fiction works; and with the subsequent appearance of a pair of works in love with each other in the "hardness scale". But with the emergence of a pair of love affairs on the "hardness scale," the two ends of the scale took on new significance-one end meant winning the word of mouth of the experts, the other the box office of the masses, as in the case of Star Trek, which was a smash hit in the marketplace for the Marvel Universe, or Civilization: The Mentalist, which we're discussing today. Or Civilization: Space versus Age of Wonders: Starfall, which we're discussing today - although these two titles are a few notches below the aforementioned masterpieces, since the difference in gameplay quality between Age of Wonders: Starfall, which is softer than your average space opera, and Civilization: Space, which has a large encyclopedia of text and a fair amount of hardness, is But since the difference in gameplay quality between Age of Wonders: Meteor and Civilization: Space is not much, Age of Wonders: Meteor's better reputation might just be due to the choice of subject matter; after all, favoring soft sci-fi has been the market's consistent choice for years.

And it's clear that games with a greater emphasis on entertainment are better suited to soft space operas, where the novelty easily overwhelms the questioning of how mass brokers work, as the Encyclopedia of Civilization explains in more detail, and the tongues of fire from robotic palms and planets far enough away in time and space in Age of Wonders: Stardust are no longer important. Age of Wonders: Stardust's tongues of fire spewing from robots' hands and different races living on planets far enough away in time and space are the most obvious sci-fi elements, and as long as they're rich, distinctive, and interesting, they're enough for a game, even if the trajectories of the races and the social patterns of these races don't have the logical backing to do so. Compared to Civilization: Space, Age of Wonders: Stardewardship is a much more satisfying experience for the average gamer, and it's like a bucket of sweet, addictive popcorn that's a little too sweet for your taste buds at first.

But because it's "soft" enough to be interesting, I don't think I'd recommend it to sci-fi fans, but anyone interested in Western magic, or who simply loves 4X strategy games, should try Age of Wonders: Meteor. This "popcorn" sci-fi game will definitely give you at least a dozen hours of new and interesting experiences, but it's a matter of opinion whether it's worth half the price of a 3A title.