In this update6
Full notes
Full Age of Wonders 4 update
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What changed
- Compatibility
- Events
- Maps
- Gameplay
- UI and audio
- Store
Age of Wonders 4 changes
Greetings Godir!
I’m Elle, 2D Artist here at Triumph, and I have the honor of presenting the final pre-release dev diary before the Secrets of the Archmages expansion drops on June 16th (just 5 days away now!) The Archmages’ secrets are not to be told just yet, but I am offering up many of our artists’ secrets as a compromise ;)
Steam post imageImage description: Arcanum event image
This expansion was interesting from an art perspective, because instead of having one overarching visual or theme, we had four! Three vastly different story realms and The Shrouded Isles to tie it all together — essentially we were packaging four mini-expansions into one. That same structure is how I’ll be presenting our work to you today, starting off with our Evermore content:
Evermore
Steam post imageImage description: Evermore realm intro image
Longtime fans may recognize Evermore, as it took center stage in Age of Wonders 2:
Steam post imageImage description: Age of Wonders 2 World Map screenshot
We thought it was about time to bring this iconic realm back. Sadly, it turns out you can’t entrust the care of important monuments to wizards and we now rediscover Evermore in an entirely ruined state. The true mystery of its decay is yours to uncover, but an early encounter will be The Broken Wizard’s Throne Landmark at the map’s center— a devastated version of the original AOW2 structure.
Steam post imageImage description: The Broken Wizard’s Throne Landmark
Taking from existing content (like the AOW2 structure) may seem like it’d make the creation process easier, but making something new and fresh that is still recognizable is surprisingly difficult. Originally we broke the tower up from the top down, removing the spire entirely and leaving the tower more intact towards the bottom:
Image description: Concepts and first blockout for the Wizard’s Throne
However, seeing it in-game, the blockout was unrecognizable from its AOW2 counterpart. The spire was too essential of a design element to lose, so we revised the design. Breaking up the tower up in reverse—ruined at the bottom but leaving the spire intact—greatly improved recognizability.
Steam post imageImage description: Intact model -> broken up -> final in-game!
This structure now properly sets the stage, but to truly tell the story of a shattered Evermore, we also needed to bring back its most iconic resident; a now-redeemed Merlin! Formerly an Eldritch Sovereign, his new Wizard King self needed to bear the scars of his corruption. Concepts for his new character model explored several directions:
Steam post imageImage description: Merlin early concepts (left) to final (right)
The final concept hit the notes we were looking for; a return to his human self while still scarred by Eldritch corruption. See the final sculpt:
Image description: Final Merlin Sculpt
Not unimportantly, we really wanted Merlin to have a floating book weapon. This led to not only Merlin getting one, but also you—the player—being able to select a book weapon in ruler customization!
Image description: GIF of grimoire weapons in-game
In addition to Merlin (and another new character I won’t spoil), Evermore needed to be populated with additional rulers, ones also associated with magic, mystery and wisdom. This was the perfect opportunity to introduce a form we’ve been wanting for a while: Owlkin!
Image description: Owlkin Rulers
Having them as their own fully fledged form allowed us to give them a ton of customization options: including crests, eyebrows, hairs and beards!
Image description: Owlkin Customization Option concepts
These guys also introduce our first-ever animated eye textures!
Image description: GIF of Owlkin animated eyes
In order to enhance the fantasy of the story realms, tomes were developed in parallel to them—each story realm having 2 tomes associated with its particular fantasy. For Evermore, these are the Tome of Abjuration and the Tome of the Cosmos.
Image description: T1 Tome of Abjuration & T5 Tome of the Cosmos
Luis already revealed much about the tomes in the second dev diary, so today I’ll just share my favourite art bits from each tome!
From the Tome of Abjuration, we can get the Abjurer Pylon tower unit.
Image description: Abjurer Pylon unit concept
You’ve already seen the model for this, but what you might not have seen yet is that we made a particularly fun summoning animation for it ~
Image description: GIF of Summon Abjurer Pylon spell
For Tome of the Cosmos, we explored a few different directions to take the Avatar of the Cosmos unit in:
Image description: Avatar of the Cosmos concepts
This unit was so unique it required an entirely new rig and animation set, which was totally worth it because we ended up with some really cool ability animations (don’t worry about the damage numbers, I confess to using cheats):
Image description: GIF of Cosmos Beam ability
Obbadoth
Image description: Obbadoth realm intro image
Leaving the magical mystery of Evermore behind, we now plunge into the infernal hell of Obbadoth. Here, a great war of chaos rages, all centered around a single question: will the beast be released?
Image description: The Archnemesis Landmark
This beast in question is The Archnemesis, a fiendish demon chained to the bottom of the Azh’Ruun Pit, deep within the underground. The workflow for creating this landmark was comparable to the Broken Wizard’s Throne, but in this case we de-risked the design by prototyping with existing assets, specifically using the Balor model for early testing.
Image description: Process of making The Archnemesis Landmark (Design -> Prototype -> Concept -> Sculpt)
Getting the environment around this landmark to work both underground and on the surface was a huge undertaking. On the surface, the giant lava pit underwent many tests:
Image description: Lava Pit tests
Tests like these allow us to discover what works and doesn’t, both technically and visually. The main issue in many of the tests was that the pit didn’t look deep enough, but with some 3D magic (aka. pushing the depth of the surface layer to the absolute pixel maximum) we got an epic final visual:
Image description: Final in-game Lava Pit
Back to the underground, the beast needed unique animations & FX for each of the chains being broken, and then also a scene “finale” for when it breaks loose:
Image description: GIF of the release animation + FX
So who are the forces of chaos rooting for or trying to prevent its release? Most predictably Karissa will be making her return, now as her true primal self, having finally lost her last shred of ‘humanity’ (let’s be honest, there was little left).
Image description: Karissa basegame model (left) and new concept (right)
Image description: Final Karissa Sculpt
Getting her fire hair right was a big technical challenge, but our FX artist saved the day:
Image description: GIF of Karissa’s Hair
Needing a formidable opponent, Karissa will be beefing it out with a new character—the fallen Archon Angel Ysariel. All I can say is, this realm is hot, hot, hot!
Image description: Final Ysariel Sculpt
If you want to maximize chaos in your playthrough of Obbadoth, consider picking up the Tome of Gluttony or the Tome of Burning Passion:
Image description: T1 Tome of Gluttony & T2 Tome of Burning Passion
The Tome of Gluttony includes a hungry new Imp unit, the Gluttonous Imp:
Image description: Gluttonous Imp Unit (concept -> in-game)
And the Tome of Passion finally gives us some much-needed hot pink VFX, so you can defeat your enemies with the pain of love:
Image description: GIF of Orb of Desire unit
Duatha
Image description: Duatha realm intro image
Our last new story realm takes us deep into the fey realm Duatha, where instead of rainbows and sunshine we are met with ominously misty hills, as the fey and animal races have been forced underground by a domineering Mistwalker presence. In order to get this feeling right, we needed some new environment assets. Again we prototyped with existing assets, and took note of new assets we would need:
Image description: Duatha World Map prototype (left) and notes (right)
Needing new fairy stones and statues, we did concepts:
Image description: Stone & Statue concepts
Which then were made into a plethora of new world map decorations that really give Duatha its own unique feeling:
Image description: Duatha custom deco in-game
The mistwalker presence is further enforced through a new Landmark—
Image description: Process of making the Mistflow Gardens Landmark
As well as a new infestation, one with four seasonal variants (all will be explained when you play the story):
Image description: Concepts and Models for the Mistwalker Camp Infestation
Of course, a fairy world is nothing without its inhabitants, and if the fey are to reclaim their home they need a powerful figure to lead the rebellion. It’s time to introduce our new, fey-touched Ham Binger!
Image description: Ham Binger concept
Image description: Final Ham Binger Sculpt
This model got some really cool new tech that allowed us to animate the bird “hat”! Check out the pantheon if you want it for yourself :)
Image description: GIF of Bird customization
Next to Ham, the whispers about a new world full of animal races has enticed another iconic character to show up: Arachna! Returning to her roots as a true trad goth queen, taking lots of inspiration from her original AOW2 look.
Image description: Arachna Concept
Image description: Final Arachna Sculpt
She also comes with a creepy new “cape” customization option, which again is also available in the pantheon!
Image description: GIF of Arachna’s Spider Leg Cape customization
Whether you prefer the creepy crawlies or cute fairies; the Tomes for Duatha offer both! Pick your poison— Tome of the Sprite or Tome of the Weaver? Or both?
Image description: T1 Tome of the Sprite & T3 Tome of the Weaver
Tome of the Sprite has some of the cutest VFX yet:
Image description: GIF of Catnap spell
Tome of the Weaver wins the award for the most horrifying transformation…
Image description: GIF of Spider’s Embrace Major Transformation
…and an additional award for the crudest concept art (it’s mine so I’m giving you permission to laugh):
Image description: Spider’s Nest SPI (concept -> blockout -> final model -> in-game)
The Shrouded Isles
Image description: In-game screenshot of Yaka’s Shrouded Isle
In order to sprinkle some of the story content from these realms into your custom campaigns, we’ve introduced the new Shrouded Isles world map layer. This layer contains ‘pocket dimensions’ that can only be accessed from their own unique portals on the surface or underground layers.
Concepts for these portals focused on rounded shapes and broken stones:
Image description: Shrouded Isles portal - concepts
The new model was then brought to life with shiny new FX for each of the states, telling you whether the portal is free to enter or guarded by an army:
Image description: Shrouded Isles portal - models
Those guarded gates obviously needed guardians too, and we loved the idea of riddle-posing owl creatures. These have a sun and a moon variant:
Image description: Guardian Unit concepts
Once you’ve outsmarted these mythical creatures, you’ll get access to a new Ancient Wonder, the Arcanum:
Image description: Arcanum Ancient Wonder - concepts
Image description: Arcanum Ancient Wonder - blockout to final model
This structure hides powerful magic, and if you manage to best it, you may unlock some very special spells.
Image description: Secret Spell Icons
Misc
A new UI skin, inspired by vintage bookcases!
Image description: Secrets of the Archmages interface skin
And as always, an ungodly amount of icons, not even including all of the new empire tree icons we had to make for the free update…
Image description: Secrets of the Archmages Icons
Free Update content
Speaking of free stuff, we have 6 new wallpapers for you! Find them here!
Image description: Preview of the attached wallpapers
And as an additional treat: some of our favourite art bloopers from this expansion:
Image description: Questionable art bloopers
Need even more art? We’ve got you. Like always, we’ve put together an ArtStation art blast, which will drop along with this expansion's release on June 16th! As for more non-art content, we still have one last dev diary for you! Tune in next Thursday for the final dev diary on the Empire Tree Rework.
Thanks for sticking with me, and I hope you have a ~*✧ magical ✧*~time with all the new goodies in Secrets of the Archmages!
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