Can anyone who downloaded Shadow Magic confirm that they are able to run UPatch updates and mods smoothly?

I don't have the CD any more, I want to buy Shadow Magic for online play but knowing that nobody plays vanilla anymore, I don't want to buy it if the patches and mods don't work with a non-cd copy.

Um, hum. We may have a bug.

Nice to see AoW back, though!

I might have to change my view of GOG.com after all. I'm trying to use their downloader instead of my browser and I keep getting an error message while attempting to download Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick. Not cool.

Apparently GOG.com is closing???

If you go to their site, you get

Dear GOG users,

We have recently had to give serious thought to whether we could really keep GOG.com the way it is. We've debated on it for quite some time and, unfortunately, we've decided that GOG.com simply cannot remain in its current form.

We're very grateful for all support we've received from all of you in the past two years. Working on GOG.com was a great adventure for all of us and an unforgettable journey to the past, through the long and wonderful history of PC gaming.

This doesn't mean the idea behind GOG.com is gone forever. We're closing down the service and putting this era behind us as new challenges await.

On a technical note, this week we'll put in place a solution to allow everyone to re-download their games. Stay tuned to this page and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

All the best,
GOG.com Team

Shadow Magic has no problem with mods or the UPatch.

Great - well that bug Beren mentioned was in the AoW1 forum, not the Shadow Magic forum...need confirmation that it works for Shadow Magic!!

To make matters worse however, Gog.com seems to be closing? And Impulse still doesn't have AoW2 or AoW:SM available yet...

Has anyone who downloaded from GoG been able to make the mods run smoothly?

GoG's closing, that's rather depressing.

Yeah, good job GOG. They closed their site with no warning, and right after putting the AoW series on there. I've seen a lot of terrible business practices online but that's right up there with the worst of them.

Word around hard-light.net is that the GOG closing thing is either a publicity stunt or some kind of restructuring. Some people there apparently have some connections. They have a special interest in the issue, because GOG.com has been the only place where you can legally get Freespace2, which is required for the Freespace Open project to run.

Best wait and see for a few days now.

oh man, this is terrible news, i loved gog.

That explains why their downloader didn't work for me yesterday.

Gog was in a beta phase. It's quite likely (though not 100% sure) that they are making it official or will integrate it into Steam.

Last time I checked, GOG.com was owned by CD Projekt (the guys behind The Witcher) and not Steam. Why would they integrate it with Steam?

Okay, so they'll open again in about a day or so. Stupidest publicity stunt ever and one that is likely to piss off a lot of their customers and drive away potential customers who decide they don't want to do business with an outfit that pulls pranks like that.

They're coming back up today, although it looks like they hit a snag. Dumb move on their part with the pr stunt.

They would have done better to wait till April Fools Day to pretend to go down.

All three games are now available on impulse. It is easier to apply 1.4 (and 1.5 when available) to impulse, steam or gog version ?

Yes the entire Age of Wonders Series is now available on Impulse! Steam follows soon. You can read the press release at triumphstudios.com

All mods will work, unless they alter the exe, and I do not know of any that do. (UPatch 1.4 works, and so does the AoWI mod. That should cover all the cases most likely to not work)

I'm kinda noob in this digital download thing, but I got a good impression with GOG as it doesn't require third party applications to download and manage the downloaded/purchased games.

I hope TS will work out something with the Upatch team or modders about the source code. Neverwinter nights series have a very good user-based add-on dev team. That could be the way to go for Aow:SM

Just so people know, there are updates for AoW I and Wizard's Throne on Impulse. For AoW I it fixes the problem with the config program wanting the CD.

Fantastic! I'd love to see the original Age of Wonders and get some new ideas for my AoW Civ mod.

I wonder if the reluctance for Triumph Studios to update AOW is economics or lost of interest on their part. If economics would it be profitable to skip conventional publisher and go direct to digital via steam/impulse/... as the Indy developers have done ?
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I'd really like to see the game with updated graphics, improved ai and 1.4/1.5 tweaks. Of course it would be a much larger project to redo the engine and make it more malleable (open to mods) but it would seem like a small(er) project just doing a few basics described above.

[This message has been edited by you3 (edited 10-05-2010 @ 01:13 PM).]

you3 - check out here http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/09/24/age-of-wonders-re-release-also-interview/

I read it a while ago - from my reading if they did a 4th the single player experience would not be the emphasis but having said that it didn't sound like they had much interest in doing a 4th. So - I took that interview very negatively but perhaps I misread it.

[This message has been edited by you3 (edited 10-06-2010 @ 01:48 PM).]

If multiplayer is good and (relatively) balanced then the single player will be good as long as the AI does not suck, so I do not see why a MP focus would be bad.

"PC gaming since 1873"

Quoted from you3:

I read it a while ago - from my reading if they did a 4th the single player experience would not be the emphasis but having said that it didn't sound like they had much interest in doing a 4th. So - I took that interview very negatively but perhaps I misread it.

The way I read it is that they were still very much interested (even in love) with the AoW series. I would not doubt a new game to join the series in the (near?) future.

IF AgeofWonders_3 was ever designed I feel only the following need to be provided for the game to be a huge success:

1) Larger maps... the computers today can handle it. Perhaps even 64Bit support for super large maps.

2) Improved Random Map Generator. In game options and/or map editor options such as percentages for each terrain, types of AI opponent bonuses, independent monsters in the water, more types of quests, etc., etc., .

3) Slightly improved graphics... I say slightly because one of the biggest mistakes I see developers make is focusing too much effort/time on graphics. Even a recent quote from one of the Stardock developers saying customers "expect high resolution 3D graphics for everything" made me realize why Elemental gameplay depth turned out so poor.

4) Improved AI planning/actions/diplomacy... this alone many of us would love to see improved. Perhaps someone can convince Triumph Studios to develop a modding tool so the AI can be improved??

5) Fixing game bugs/exploits... there's still a handful of game bugs/exploits which should be fixed. I personally hate the one where the game hangs on the Independents turn because the Indepedents turn doesn't follow the turn timelimit like all other players.

6) More advancement levels for units... we all would enjoy watching a unit level from bronze, to silver, to gold, and then to diamond.

7) More diversity for units/heroes. All heroes should not be moving speed 40, maximum statistic(Def/Att/Res) should not be 20, more slow moving units, different upkeeps besides gold/mana, types of immortality, etc., etc., .

8) More spells... the current game spells are great, but I feel more types can be added. Many ideas/examples can be found in MoM, Heroes_3, Neverwinter Nights, and other fantasy games.

9) Intelligence and Wisdom should be added for unit statistics to allow more diversity. A warlock might be very intelligent resisting damage from mind attacks yet lack the wisdom to resist seductive temptation from a vampire.

10) Wizard evolution... currently players have virtually no choice except to have their wizard sit as a couch potato inside a wizards tower. Ideally the wizard should have levels of experience the same as a hero and thus tempted to sometimes adventure and raise him levels.

[This message has been edited by NTJedi (edited 10-06-2010 @ 09:59 PM).]

"3) Slightly improved graphics... I say slightly because one of the biggest mistakes I see developers make is focusing too much effort/time on graphics. Even a recent quote from one of the Stardock developers saying customers "expect high resolution 3D graphics for everything" made me realize why Elemental gameplay depth turned out so poor."

The main reason I can see for AoW not going to full 3D would be the hex grid. Can you imagine city walls in 3D one a hex grid? The current method of making it look square would not work in that case. The only real advantage I see to good 3D over good 2D is it can allow for designing unit / wizards / heroes. I would say at most the units could go to 3D if (and only if) they allow you to design your own in the game.

[This message has been edited by Gwenio (edited 10-06-2010 @ 11:20 PM).]