u/Omichli

I squinted hard to find the head shapes for the Races in the Custom Factions. Like Humans, Elfkin, Syrons, Orcoids, Dwarfkins, etc to make the ENTIRE faction bald. It seems that only the Rulers get to be the one to have haircuts, so it must be a luxury option in such a dark age!

I remember seeing a Realm Trait for permanent night-time for the Realm, but it seems to be missing from the Custom Realm list. Am I misremembering it or did it actually get removed or did it move to somewhere else?

I have no idea about PC, so this is mostly for Consoles. There's two things I've been wanting for this game: Naming Save Slots and Copying Custom Factions.

Naming Save Slots I keep spam-saving a lot and it just keeps creating new saves rather than the same saves, which makes it very confusing. Sometimes I would load the wrong ones and can't find the ones I wanted. I want to be able to name the Save Slots on my Xbox Series S. I like to come up with wild names for the Save Slots as campaign names for my custom world and faction.

Copying Factions There's no button that lets you copy a Faction at all, especially on Consoles. I'm sure PC probably has it or has a mod for it. When I like a Faction, I want to save it and make another Faction similar to it, but different in other ways. Re-creating a Faction similar to it is a lot more work or Re-editing an already existing faction loses some of what made it original and I forget which traits and stuff that it had before.

Those two much-needed features would truly help out a lot. Thank you for your hard work.

I don't know if I should make a new game or continue my current game, but there are some scenes that are replayed and I have no idea if that could mess some things up. For example, right now I'm playing on purely Primal Fury culture with all the Primal Fury stuff enabled and playing as the Avians and it keeps showing the Storm Crow scenes as if I never met him before and asking me to do the quests again to secure the dens and make another temple.

But I'm actually glad for the Empire Tree refunds, it's always nice to see new stuff.

EDIT: Yeah, it seems messed up. I already built a Storm Crow Temple lonnnng ago and there's no option to build another one and the quest is still stuck without it.

Okay, this might sound strange, but this game doesn't make me feel lonely. I live in the wilderness in the middle of nowhere and I have played a few other games that has some social aspect. But for me they never satisfied me as much as Age of Wonder 4. I'm sure it's different for everyone. But let me explain why.

The Custom Factions are what makes me invested and truly attached emotionally. When I play in the world, it makes me imagine the cultures and lives going on in the cities, making it feel alive in my mind. I imagine not just a few, but hundreds of people going about their lives being involved alongside the heroes and immortals interacting with them. I imagine so many dialogues and conversations between the people and this makes me feel so immersed in it. Like I'm right there with them. The roleplaying creates hundreds of personal stories, making the game highly replayable for years to come. There's always something going on in the game.

Not only that, but the Diplomacy and the interaction with other Factions with politics and dialogues make it feel alive socially as well. Even bickering and arguing with one another makes it entertaining as well! Rather than just simple, dumbed down 2-dialogue choices like in other RPGs, the Diplomacy in this goes deeper and also makes us work to try and convince or bribe others, making them seem like they have their own agendas with their own thoughts, likes and dislikes, and things like that. The AI can even decide to try and take over our provinces for example, which prompts me to imagine the heroes and my people to complain, revolt, or wonder why they would do that and things like that.

And the meat of it all, the battles and war. I imagine my Heroes commandeering soldiers and barking orders by shouting or cawing loudly. I can see some of the soldiers being nervous or brave, speaking with one another wondering if the Heroes are doing the right thing, or encouraging one another by doing war cries. I see enemies taunting and cussing at us. The Wildspeakers will speak to the animals and they understand the command and attack. I imagine death cries with final shouts and words as some units fall dead, followed by victory dances and cheers with swords raised and wolves howling at the end of the battle.

I don't think anything much else needs to be added to make this game immersive except for new cultures and tomes. The base game is enough to fire up the mind and satisfy the soul with warm fire, good food, and magic with our own people in the game.

I know it's been requested many, many times already, but I personally still want Empire Mode in this game. I think the Pantheon system is...OK and the rewards are nice, of course. But the Empire Mode is what truly creates insane replayability in Planetfall. I love the idea of choosing from three different planets with modifiers with difficulties and carrying the progress forward. But instead of planets, it can be Realms. The Realm customization can be separated from this. I like the idea of conquering Realms and adding it to my own domains rather than just creating a realm from scratch, conquer it, then make a new game and forget that I had conquered the previous Realms.

For those new to AoW who don't know what it is: Galactic Empire Mode in Age of Wonders: Planetfall offered significant replayability by allowing players to carry over advantages and modifications into new games, enhancing the overall experience. This mode combines progression with strategic gameplay, making it enjoyable for players seeking long-term engagement.

I don't think the Pantheon needs to be abandoned. Just add the Empire Mode. Or call it Realm Mode or Kingdom Mode or something and still keep the rewards intact with the new mode, but add special, unique rewards not found under Pantheon, maybe?

While I have fond of memories of playing Planetfall, I don't think I will ever go back to it. But with the Empire Mode in AoW4, it would make it THE forever game for me with high replayability. That's just my two gold pieces.

Every time I try a new strategy game or look up new, exciting ones, I can't help but go back to AoW4 after seeing that nothing can beat it. The new Total Wars: Warhammer 40k? It's nice and shiny, but it wouldn't let me customize my own races like AoW4. The new Star Wars Zero Company? It does look fun and exciting and I'm sure it'll sell real well, especially since it's like Xcom 2 but better with emotional stakes. But it's just that, it's still Xcom-ish with 20-40 hours campaign and I believe 8 races, while AoW4 is sandbox game with 10-30 hours on EACH map with extremely high customizable factions with your very own races, that's how much replayability there is.

Since the devs said they will most likely work on AoW4 for 10 years, then that's how much I will play! All my money will go into it to support them. The devs have done a great job on keeping me on one game that can be played indefinitely for years and I look forward to their future DLCs for it!

I haven't really got a chance to play much due to life and now that I have more time, I'm getting back in AoW4! I'm wondering if the Archon Prophecy DLC is any good? It seems a bit more pricey than the other DLCs, which leads me to believe this DLC probably has more contents packed in it. I'm absolutely loving the idea of angels with wings on their heads! Very beautiful and unique. I wonder if it would also let me play fallen angels as well? I think this would go perfectly with the Empires & Ashes DLC that I have with birds. This game is really exciting!