• Updated lighting and textures, including a (disableable) day/night cycle and dynamic lighting from god powers and unit/building lights
  
• Better specular and bump mapping
  
• AA & AO
  
• Steam Workshop for all your modding and scenario needs. Monopoly and Myth Blood only a click away.
  
• Steam integrated multiplayer services
  
• Achievements ( says one of which is beating the Siege of Troy in 10 minutes)
  
• Trading Cards
  
• Leagues
  
• Cloud Saves
  
• Twitch Integration
  
• Modernized observer mode
  
• The ability to disable Titans in any game type if you're some kind of funhating balance nerd

Orv fucked around with this message at 06:18 on May 8, 2014

• Greek
  
• Egyptian
  
• Norse
  
• Atlantean

• Food - Used to create most human military units, more strength and melee oriented myth units and for most unit tier upgrades. Gained from hunting, farming and fishing.
  
  
• Wood - Used to create buildings (except if Egyptian) certain human units and siege/mechanical units, as well as ships. Gained from chopping down trees.
  
  
• Gold - Used to create every human military unit (in addition to food OR wood, never both), buildings if Egyptian and research most military and economic upgrades. Gained from gold mines and trade routes.
  
  
• Favor - Used to research mythological upgrades, create mythological units and to research the Titan Gate building. Method of procurement depends on your greater civilization.
  
  
• Population - Used to put a damper on your fun by only allowing you to have a certain amount of units. Human military costs 1/2/3, typically 2, myth units cost anywhere from 2-6 depending on their relative power and ships typically cost 2-3. Gained by creating town centers and houses, amount per varying on greater civilization.

• Greek - Being the most generic civilzation, Greek villagers are exactly equal at gathering all resources, while being great at none of them. Created with 100 food.
  
  
  
• Egtypians - Gather wood and gold slightly faster than they farm or hunt. Created with 100 food.
  
  
  
• Norse - The Norse villagers are your first look at just how disparate the factions in AoM become. They have two villager units, the Villager and the Dwarf. Villagers gather gold slower than Dwarves, but Dwarves gather food and wood slower than Villagers. 100 Food per Villager or 70 Gold per Dwarf.
  
  
  
• Atlanteans - Atty vills shake up the mold even further by doing four interesting things; They cost 125 Food AND 25 Wood, take up 3 Pop, gather twice as fast as other civs and carry their dropoff point with them.
  

• Human military exceeds at killing heroes.
  
• Myth units excel at killing human military.
  
• Heroes excel at killing myth units.
  
• Ships have their own rules but generally do alright against human military.

• Archers beat infantry
  
• Infantry beat cavalry
  
• Cavalry beat archers

• Arrow ships beat hammer ships
  
• Hammer ships beat siege ships
  
• Siege ships beat arrow ships (and the crap out of buildings)

• Ages - Like in other Age Of games, or similar to tech tiers in Blizzard games, you rank up the ages by researching a specific technology from your Town Center. These Ages are
  
• Arcaic
  
• Classical
  
• Heroic
  
• Mythic

• Town Centers - Instead of being able to place TCs willy nilly like previous Age Of games, you now must place them on a specific point on the map, predetermined by number of players in the game. The formula is 3 TCs per player. You start with one under your control, one fairly close by your initial TC, and then one further out you will have to fight to defend. Town Centers are your lifeblood in AoM and without one you will soon be out of the game if your villagers are beginning to dwindle due to conflict.

• God Powers - God Powers are special abilities that you receive from worshipping specific major and minor gods. Ranging from economic boons, to meteor showers capable of destroying entire bases, to the Norse dragon Nidhogg under your command, these limited use powers can swiftly change the tide of battle or an entire game. Greek, Norse and Egyptain god powers can only be used once, while Atlantean god powers can be used a number of times depending on the age you gain them in. You can use your Archaic power 4 times, your Classical power 3 times and so on.

• Titans - Added in the games only expansion pack The Titans, these behemoths are available once you reach Mythic Age and pay an obscene amount of favor and other resources. You then get a final god power, to place a Titan Gate, which must be built by your building creation units. The Titan Gate has a large health pool, and placing it reveals its location to all enemy players, though it is immediately placed under Fog of War. Once you finish building the Gate the Titan will emerge, all several thousand HP and several hundred damage per attack of him. It is a massively powerful unit capable of flattening entire armies and towns alone, but beware, it is vulnerable to heroes like all myth units.

• Greeks gain Favor by having villagers pray at their Temple. This consumes the usefulness of a villager, and if tasked away from the Temple they stop generating Favor. This caps out at approx. 22 villagers.
  
  
• Greeks have the best human military in a head-to-head conflict. They pay for this with considerably more expensive human units.
  
  
• Their Hero units are all trained from the Town Center, and you get certain Greecian heroes depending on your Major God. They are considerably more powerful per unit than the mass heroes of the other civilizations but cost more and are worse against humans to pay for it.
  
  
• They make up for their blandness with each of their Major Gods being extremely beneficial to their playstle. Poseidon makes all cavalry much better, Zeus makes infantry better and so on.

• God Power: Bolt - This god power will kill one unit, and only one unit, regardless of its status or power. The single exception is Titans, to whom it will do considerable damage.
  
  
• Myth Unit: Pegasus - The very beast of legend, a flying scout available from the Temple for 50 Food and 2 Favor. No attack but can only be attacked by ranged units and is relatively quick.

• God Power: Lure - Attracts all huntable animals in a certain radius towards the stone, keeping them there to be slaughtered and harvested. Note that it will attract predators who may kill your villagers if not dealt with.
  
  
• Myth Unit: Pegasus - The very beast of legend, a flying scout available from the Temple for 50 Food and 2 Favor. No attack but can only be attacked by ranged units and is relatively quick.
  
  
• Myth Unit: Hippocampus - A sea scout myth unit, available from the docks for free, respawning whenever killed so long as a dock is built. No attack.

• God Power: Sentinel - Summons four stone archers around a single Town Center. These archers will fire at any nearby enemies, doing a fair amount of damage as well as having building armor.
  
  
• Myth Unit: Pegasus - The very beast of legend, a flying scout available from the Temple for 50 Food and 2 Favor. No attack but can only be attacked by ranged units and is relatively quick.

• Norse gain Favor through battle. Causing damage to enemy units/structures and taking damage with your units generates Favor. The Norse are slow to gain Favor initially but once their army is in full swing, due to their other racial benefits they become a powerhouse in the myth unit business.
  
  
• Norse villagers are capable only of building farms. All other construction is done by human military and heroes, meaning that a Norse player can wipe out your base and have their own ready to rock before you've even begun replacing the troops you just lost. I'm not say they're the Zerg of AoM, but they totally are.
  
  
• Norse human units are generally frailer than those of other races, but tend to have the most paradigm breaking abilities. Ranged infantry good against other infantry, infantry good against archers, cavalry good against myth units. Their units tend to come fairly cheap, and some of their best units are fairly low on pop cost.
  
  {*]The Norse hero unit is the Hersir, produced from the Barracks en masse. Not as effective on the whole as Greek heroes, but able to be massed much more effectively, as well as build. Solid all-around heroes.
  
  
• Best traditional rushers in the game.

• God Power: Great Hunt - Target a group of huntable animals to clone each individual animal. Can be done to Set's summons and combined with Poseidon's Lure power for interesting bullshit.
  
  
• Myth Unit: Hugin and Munin - Odin's pet crows act as respawning flying scouts with no attack. Somewhat slow but cost only a short cooldown to respawn at a Temple.

• God Power: Gold Mine - Create an immobile gold mine at the cursor location. Can be depleted, amount of gold at creation is determined by your current Age advancement.

• God Power: Spy - Lets you see the LoS of a single enemy unit through the fog of war for as long as it survives. It probably won't be long.

• Egyptians gain Favor through Monuments. These are structures that must be built, costing an ever increasing amount of gold to construct the next one in sequence, up to seven. They are able to be destroyed, meaning most Egyptian players end up with a very odd looking statuary garden at their home base. Highest passive method of Favor generation in the game, faster than Norse if Norse aren't at war constantly.
  
  
• Egyptians build almost all of their buildings for no cost whatever except increased build times. Unit producing structures and defensive buildings cost a small amount of gold but no wood. Their economy can almost entirely ignore wood if you aren't going to use a few specific units.
  
  
• Egyptians do almost everything slower than other civs. They gather slower, build slower, train units slower and research slower. You overcome this by tasking your Pharaoh, a unique Egyptian unit to bless buildings, increasing the speed of anything done there; research, production and gathering. Note that for gathering increases the villagers that are currently delivering to the building you are blessing get the bonus.
  
  
• The Egyptian heros are the Pharaoh and Priests. The Pharaoh is a unique unit that will eventually respawn if killed (there must always be a Lich King) and can bless buildings. Priests are ranged units produced from the Temple en masse. While not effective on attack as other heroes, Priests are a necessary evil for Egyptian players as they are their only means of defense against myth units when low on favor AND their method of scouting.
  
  
• Egyptians scout by sending out their Priests, which summon Obelisks, giving you LoS of a medium sized area as long as the Obelisk remains up. They can be destroyed but they are relatively inexpensive and immensely useful for letting you know when an attack is coming.
  
  
• Egyptians have the weakest of the human military in direct confrontation, though one of their Fortress units, the Elephant, is a powerhouse to be reckoned with. Their costs reflect this and it is relatively cheap to replace a non-Fortress Egyptian army, if not quick.
  

• God Power: Rain - When activated all villagers on the map farm faster. All villagers. However yours farm considerably faster than everyone else.

• God Power: Prosperity - All your villagers gather gold faster for the duration.

• God Power: Vision - Removes the fog of war (and reveals that portion of the map if you haven't explored it at all) temporarily in a large area. When the power ends the fog will return but you will retain exploration of the cast area.

• Atlanteans generate Favor through holding Town Centers. Each one held increases your Favor generation rate. It's that simple.
  
  
• Atlanteans can convert any of their human military into hero versions of that unit with the press of a button, for a fairly steep cost. This includes villagers, as Atlanteans otherwise have no separately produced hero units.
  
  
• Atlanteans receive extra uses of their god powers depending on the Age of the power. 4 for Archaic, 3 for Classic, 2 for Heroic and 1 for Mythic. Horseshit on ice.
  
  
• Atlantean troops are loving expensive due to their ability to promote into hero units. They also basically outperform everybody else out of the game. Isn't that wacky.
  
  
• Atlantean villagers have their own gather dropoffs in the form of their donkeys, cost 125 Food and 25 Wood and Cost 3 pop.
  
  
• Atlanteans build only 10 houses compared to the 25 of other civs, but each house costs more and holds more pop.

• God Power: Deconstruction - Gradually removes a building from existence. No I am not being hyperbolic. The owner of the building gets all resources used to build it back. Useable on anything short of a Titan Gate.

• God Power: Shockwave - Knocks back and stuns any units in an area short of a Titan. Units will not wake from stun on taking damage.

• God Power: Gaia's Forest - Creates a mostly-circular stand of trees which can be used as a wall, a source of lumber, or something for Norse players to burn down don't put your forests all in one place you goddamn idiot.

Orv fucked around with this message at 12:07 on May 8, 2014

Orv fucked around with this message at 02:37 on May 8, 2014

Orv fucked around with this message at 06:06 on May 8, 2014