Age of Wonders: Planetfall – Dev Diary #2: World Building

[Leyrann]

btw, will any of the other races from previous woe games make a return ( beside human of course ) orc, dwarves, undead etc.??
Or will it more or less be humans, robots and aliens ??

Dvar are more or less certainly dwarves.

 

[Elder Fogcrow]

Sundren was, imho the less complex character when compared to Julia. Sure Julia started out as a Pragon, but at least she was one, and by Shadow Magic she had matured into a proper Queen.
Sundren...she's the standard rebellious princess, and pretty whiny/entitled.
Knock-off Julia was more in relation to their role as important leaders in the war against humans.


If I'm not completely mistaken, The Shadow Demons have been retconned to be the demons/old enemies the Archons have been fighting for the fate of countless worlds all over the multiverse. The very reason they are raising humans and work with the Elves. So I doubt they are gone for good.

I don´t think Julia needed to mature to become a proper queen, at least not much, she´s been raised to be one to begin with. Julia is definitly more mature, radiant, and to most ppl also more likeable, but with "complex" I have to disagree. Before the changes she underwent after Shadow magic, she was too perfect to be complex, for perfection is clear and simple.
And the trick they used to make her "interesting" regardless is by keeping her rare. We have less lines where we see her talking/writing/thinking personally in all 4 games together when we have of Sundren in one game alone.

Imo your comparison of Edward to Merlin is almost just as off. Both Merlin and Julia lack the nessesary internal imperfections to make them the main characters of forked campaigns(as opposed to linear) and make all endings plausible/believable possabilities. I like thouse forked campaigns better, because it results in there being more campaign, and because of the lore the non-canon endings reveal or hint at.

Regarding the shadow demons being reconned into the main dark force of the multiverse...where was that? I´ve played Shadow Magic countless times and never noticed that. It was mentioned that the Archons faced them elsewhere before, but nothing of the magnitude of being the multiverse´s only relevant dark force. If I understood correctly, the Archons main enemy are still the undead, and thouse are special in that they´re the expression of the Death Sphere, one of the six spheres of magic mandatory in the creation of a world, so there can be no final victory over them. As we can see in both the "Inioch" ending of AoW1 and the "Melenis" ending of AoW3, thats what happens whenever someone uncontrollably powerful gets reanimated with Death magic, and what creates thouse dead worlds the archons need elves for. Also, we have not been told yet what humans ascend/evolve into, and wether Athla is the first world to have them or not.

 

[Orphalesion]

Regarding the shadow demons being reconned into the main dark force of the multiverse...where was that? I´ve played Shadow Magic countless times and never noticed that. It was mentioned that the Archons faced them elsewhere before, but nothing of the magnitude of being the multiverse´s only relevant dark force. If I understood correctly, the Archons main enemy are still the undead, and thouse are special in that they´re the expression of the Death Sphere, one of the six spheres of magic mandatory in the creation of a world, so there can be no final victory over them. As we can see in both the "Inioch" ending of AoW1 and the "Melenis" ending of AoW3, thats what happens whenever someone uncontrollably powerful gets reanimated with Death magic, and what creates thouse dead worlds the archons need elves for. Also, we have not been told yet what humans ascend/evolve into, and wether Athla is the first world to have them or not.

There's posts on the Age of Wonders II Heaven and the Age of Wonders III forums, also def diaries leading up to Age of Wonders II. It was really poorly explained in the games itself. Iirc the Melenis ending still had her opening a Shadow Gate didn't it? Or was that in Golden Realms.
The state of Athla at the time of AoW 3 had a lot to do with the Wizards and the Multi-Versial Archons simply agreeing to leave each other be, and by AoW 3 it's cut off from the Multi-Verse.
Just asking to know where you stand: you got the information that the Archons and the Elves are working together on a multi-versial scale right? The Elves seed worlds with life, then the Archons introduce humans. The Elves leave. Something messianic happens and the Humans gain the opportunity to ascend to be Archons themselves.

 

[Elder Fogcrow]

There's posts on the Age of Wonders II Heaven and the Age of Wonders III forums, also def diaries leading up to Age of Wonders II. It was really poorly explained in the games itself. Iirc the Melenis ending still had her opening a Shadow Gate didn't it? Or was that in Golden Realms.
The state of Athla at the time of AoW 3 had a lot to do with the Wizards and the Multi-Versial Archons simply agreeing to leave each other be, and by AoW 3 it's cut off from the Multi-Verse.
Just asking to know where you stand: you got the information that the Archons and the Elves are working together on a multi-versial scale right? The Elves seed worlds with life, then the Archons introduce humans. The Elves leave. Something messianic happens and the Humans gain the opportunity to ascend to be Archons themselves.

Regarding the Melenis ending of AoW3, no she doesn´t open the Shadow gate, Werlac does regardless of which side the player chooses. What Melenis is in that area for, and does if she wins, is close it. Afterwards the undead kill absolutely everything, then release the magic keeping themselves animated, creating a world with neither life nor unlife. During Golden realms she wasn´t even back yet.

Regarding where I stand, you guessed right: although I played every AoW as soon as it was released, I didn´t read any related forum before I found out AoW3 was in the making. I´ve read the awsome lore summary on the AoW3 forums, and am still a little disappointed the devs didn´t copy/paste that text into the ingame tome of wonders, despite multiple forum members asking them to do so iirc.
So yes, I did miss out on any information revealed outside the actual games during the AoW2 and AoW:SM developement process. Since I didn´t exactly like the things you wrote that weren´t mentioned in the summary on the AoW3 forums, I was hoping it was just your own hopes and conclusions. Now that you´ve mentioned older dev diearies it looks like I either have to believe you or go digging in the ancient depths of the internet xD.