Greetings, commanders!
The time has finally come: the Invasions Expansion is here! The new player race, the Shakarn, and the new Voidbringer Invasions mechanic, among many other additions, await you! Alongside the expansion we also released a free update that is available for everyone; the Diplodocus Update! The name might already reveal some of the focus. Check below for all the details on expansion features and free updates.
To add to that: Age of Wonders: Planetfall has landed on Mac! Our team has been hard at work over the past few months getting this version up and running. Mac Commanders will be able to join up with PC Commanders to fight for planetary domination. Check the store page for more information and system requirements.
Invasions Expansion
Shakarn Player Race
The Shakarn are a warlike race of lizard aliens from beyond the edges of Star Union space. Using holographic technology they have been spying on the Star Union for centuries, infiltrating their agents into every level of society, and stealing the Union’s technology. Now that the Star Union is gone, it is time for the Shakarn to strike and claim the fallen empire as their own!
Additional Campaign Missions
Join the Shakarn as they begin their invasion of the Egalitarian League of Planets with two new campaign maps.
Voidbringer Invasions
Face the ultimate challenge as your world is invaded by a race of trans-dimensional beings known as the Voidbringers. These beings arrive via beacons which crash down over the planet, deploying armies of enthralled soldiers who destroy everything in their path. You must either destroy the beacons to end the threat, or submit and become enthralled yourself to conquer the world in the name of the void.
Therians NPC Faction
This group of demihumans is the result of Terratech experiments into human genetic manipulation. Now they live on the edges of society, as pirates and guns for hire. Get on their good side to expand your armies with this ferocious lot.
World Events
27 global events that randomly affect the world, from meteor showers that spread cosmite across the world to distant supernovae that scorch the land into a lifeless desert. Stay alert to change your strategy on the fly as these events can affect the course of the game drastically.
Conquered Worlds
A new world type where one player starts with a large empire, and the other players are united in a team to take them down. Which side will be the conqueror and which will be the conquered? That’s for you to find out.
New Locations
4 new exploration sites have been added for you to explore and add to your empire: the War Docks, the Therian Alteration Labs, the Cosmic Manipulation Center and the Resonance Halls.
Free Diplodocus Update
AI Player Personalities
AI Personalities adds two personality traits to all AI controlled players: the Preference trait and the Strategy trait. The Preference trait determines which things the AI player will like and dislike, this trait may also change their diplomatic behavior. The Strategy trait influences how the AI player runs their empire by changing which things they will research, which units they build and on which sector specializations they will focus.
Diplomacy Updates
Reworked AI planning system
We have performed an overhaul of the AI planning system in order to expose more of how it works by making all internal modifiers visible in the opinion of an AI player. Additionally we have changed how they determine who to befriend making it more directly related to their opinion of the player.
Neglect
The AI now has a neglect timer which will trigger when they share an increased diplomatic state with the player and have not had any interactions from the player for some time. This system will give incentive to continuing to interact with AI players after you have achieved a certain diplomatic state. This neglect can be overcome by changing your diplomatic state, trading and sending a compliment or insult.
Diplomatic Feedback
We added a Diplomatic Feedback system that will inform what certain diplomatic messages from the AI mean or what effects they have. This is done for a number of different messages to help improve feedback from the system making it more transparent. While giving away some of the AI’s plan, this should provide more agency over diplomacy.
Balance
Weapons Tech
The old arrangement of weapon techs meant a lot of investment was needed to reach high level weapon mods, this meant many players never got to use them, since they prioritized other parts of the tech tree which were more widely applicable. We decided to try and tackle this by making the techs cheaper and cross linking the weapon techs, so that researching one tech would also unlock techs for it's partner.
We also looked over some of the less useful weapon tech trees and tried to extend to make them more useful. This involved making some weapon tech defensive in nature for variety, and allowing many biochemical mods to work on melee attacks, which makes them much more useful for Kir'ko players.
Economy
In the Tyrannosaurs Update we did a large pass on the game economy and we're continuing those balancing efforts here/now/with this update. In comparison with the Sectors on Land, the Aquatic sectors have been performing subpar. With this update we're closing the gap by increasing the income gains from various Aquatic Resource Nodes, Pickups and Landmarks. In the Tyrannosaurus Update we also added Exploration Sites which provide income boosts and Colony buffs, these sites we're still being spawned through the original Visit Site logic. We've changed that spawning behavior to ensure that Exploration Sites appear less in clusters and are more varied.
Aquatic Combat Maps
The Aquatic Experience hasn’t just been looked at from a Strategic standpoint, we’ve also taken the time to expand on the Aquatic Tactical Combat maps. With this update a variety of Aquatic Pickups, the Cosmite Node and Sunken District will all have their own Combat Maps. This should cause some waves in those normally silent waters.
Small Multiplayer Updates
One request we’ve seen a lot was a more flexible Combat Card system. After this update you’ll have more control about when Combat Cards can be used by setting ‘Combat vs. AI’ or ‘Combat vs. Humans’ to use Cards independently of each other or not at all.
Additionally you’ll find a new tab on the Diplomacy Negotiation screen that allows you to trade equipment with other players. Equipment available for trading includes Weapons, Vehicles, Hero Mods and purchased Mods. We’ve also made it possible to form new Treaties during active Vassalage and set up timed trades while in Vassalage or Fixed Teams.
For the full list of change notes, please visit: Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Update: V1.300 “Diplodocus”
Now go out there and conquer some planets! Thanks for the continued support, commanders!
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