The Pantheon system we wanted

[Triumph Jordi]

I just don’t get it. Since Planetfall, this game has DEMANDED to move backwards. They had so many good things started, and *poof*, gone. This game should, and could, be far better - with virtually no investment.

We've explained before both on these Forums and on Steam why the Empire Mode from Planetfall does not work in a game like Age of Wonders 4. I would recommend looking up and reading those answers if you want to understand.

 

[Triumph Jordi]

Yeah, I consider the difficulty thing to be a weak excuse. I consider fun more important than balance.

But even if balance is still considered to be that important, there's still a perfectly viable way of working around it. Namely, having rival rulers who are also ascended get access to the same bonuses you do.

Keep in mind that we already did this in Planetfall and do this in AoW4 as well. It doesn't really matter how many additional Powers/Cities/Armies we give an AI, the player is always more effective/efficient and will outpace the AI. With the Empire Mode this gap only becomes bigger the more levels and relics the Player gets.

Come on man, Empire mod was so phenomenally good that people view Pantheon as unacceptable downgrade. Imo it's a real tragedy that Empire Mod wasn't improved upon for whatever reason it may be.

It's important to understand that the Empire Mode has most certainly been improved upon for Age of Wonders 4, just maybe not in ways that most people would have expected. Empire Mode was incredibly restricted with no access to the regular RMG Settings, no ability to use it in Multiplayer and it would quite literally break the engine. One of the most important things for us when it came to translating Empire Mode to Age of Wonders 4 was improving that. We've woven it throughout the entire game, getting XP in Story Realms, RMG and MP, being able to use the traits in Multiplayer, having representation of it throughout the entire experience.

If we did, you might agree that those posts were anemic, and that the Pantheon system isn’t all it could be. So what I think we all want to know is if Paradox honestly believes that this game is the best version of itself. Was the Pantheon system supposed to be more? Is this version of the game where the title is going?

Not sure why you mention Paradox since they have almost nothing to do with the design or development of the game. Is the Pantheon currently in the place we'd like it to be? No, but we're a game that's actively being developed and things will change, be updated and expanded as we go along. Like with every aspect of the game there have been tons of different designs and concepts and ideas on how to approach this. In the end what you can do is limited by time, resources, tech and all the usual jazz.

The Pantheon is less dynamic than Empire Mode, game mechanics are way more tedious, and difficulty is non-existent if you don’t just tie your own arms with “advantage.”

Just like with the Empire Mode, no single Trait is going to increase the difficulty massively it's the combination of Traits (and settings) that push the difficulty. Presence Traits add rulers with extra Skills & Cities, Terrain Effects can provide challenges navigating the world while other modifiers can further help change up the experience. The experience in regards to picking them is naturally very different which makes it feel like a less Dynamic system but for that I just refer back to the previous paragraph.

 

[Triumph Jordi]

Somehow I feel that people read this and think we are perfectly happy with it, when I've quite literally stated the opposite.

Is the Pantheon currently in the place we'd like it to be? No, but we're a game that's actively being developed and things will change, be updated and expanded as we go along. Like with every aspect of the game there have been tons of different designs and concepts and ideas on how to approach this. In the end what you can do is limited by time, resources, tech and all the usual jazz.