Image description: Ways of War teaser image, showing the Blossom node TC map in the foreground and an Oathsworn city in the background.
Oathsworn Culture
The Oathsworn culture was inspired by east asian mythology, fantasies, and theater. Since Age of Wonders 4 is a fantasy 4X, historical accuracy is not the priority. It was important for us to be respectful of the real-life cultures and history that inspired us, while focusing on creating a fantasy that fit into the existing AOW4 universe.
We started the Oathsworn culture exploration with sketches close to their real life inspirations:
Image description: Early thumbnail concepts for the Oathsworn Culture.At this stage we place most importance on creating a diverse lineup that is easily distinguishable in tactical combat. In order to do so, we break the characters down to their most basic shapes (literally - peep the Minecraft looking breakdowns underneath the drawings). More explorations:
Image description: Early thumbnail concepts for the Oathsworn Culture.If you’re wondering what the little numbers under the concepts mean in that image (I get it, I’m nosy too); those are counting how many unique tops, bottoms, and shoes the 3D character artists will need to make.
The Oathsworn culture introduces 8 new units, for which the workload would be immense if they all had entirely unique models. We’d rather spend our time on some really cool & standout pieces than 8 variations of shoes! With clever reuse, we can cut the work time down to about 5 days total per unit model: roughly 3 days to get the model in game and another 2 days to polish, tweak textures, adjust the skinning, and fitting the outfit to all the different forms and transformations (viva la modularity). :’D
We also did some exploration of the Oathsworn that went in the direction of intricate fabrics & segmented armor pieces:
Image description: More detailed concept explorations of 5 units.But ultimately we decided that this direction was edging too close to the High culture aesthetics, which shares a lot of the visual language space we were exploring. Both are order cultures, but they have very different views on what constitutes ‘order’. We wanted the Oathsworn culture to look more conditioned for war, as ‘Ways of War’ might suggest ;)
So another concept pass was done (this one done by our art director Rich) and that’s where the culture really clicked for us. It felt different enough from what we already had in game, but perfectly fit in with the existing AOW4 universe. We brought this straight to our 3D character artist Geertje, who worked out the details with photo references and paintovers. See how the units changed between that last 2D concept pass and the final 3D:
Image description: Side by side comparisons of the concept art and 3D of Oathsworn culture units.All of these units also needed new weapons, which were made by our 3D Artist Lara. Two of these are Free Patch pantheon unlock variations, let’s see if you can guess which are which!
Image description: Finished weapon models for Oathsworn Culture & Pantheon unlocks.As we were exploring the new weapons, our animator Michiel started fighting ghosts in the office.
Image description: GIF of Michiel swinging a long wooden sword in the office.
I asked him if he was okay, and he responded:
"The new weapon types and fighting styles (punching!) require unique animations. Animating martial arts and historical fighting styles can get very complex. So it is important to film good reference material. Luckily we have a wooden sword lying around at the Triumph Studio office. It was the perfect prop to act out the Avenger’s Helmsplitter ability!”
Image description: GIF of the Avenger units’ Helmsplitter animation, a heavy downward swing of the sword.And before I could bring my concerns about this sword-swinging to HR, he clarified: “Yes, sometimes I’m scared of hitting things (or coworkers!) when swinging the wooden sword around. But in those cases I’ll swing a pen instead of the wooden sword. Safety first!”
See the pen blade, uhm I mean Honor Blade, in action:
Image description: GIF side by side of Michiel’s reference footage and the Honor Blade’s Defensive Strike, a cross-legged jump with a stretched out sword strike.
Oathsworn City
No culture is complete without city assets! When researching east asian architecture we really fell in love with the roofs, so that was the primary element we wanted to highlight and exaggerate. The early concepts by Rich:
Image description: Early concept for the Oathsworn city + a subculture variation.The city tiers were especially influenced by the beauty that is Thai temple roof tiers, where the more important a building is, the more roof tiers it’ll have. Fully an aesthetic choice rather than it being functional, and as artists we can’t get enough of useless aesthetic choices :D
You’ll see that exact concept in the city tiers, where an additional roof tier is added for each city tier. Here are the comparisons between the subcultures’ Tier I city and Tier IV city, modeled by our 3D environment artist Tom:
Image description: In-game screenshots of Level 1 and Level 4 Oathsworn city models.There’s also a ton of work to be done for the Oathsworn city sieges, as we need unique wall and house visuals with destructible variants. Lara did all the work modeling these as well as creating unique textures, check out the cool sculpted dragon detail!
Image description: One of the new materials made for the siege map, its use in-game shown on the left.
Image description: Different house and tower model variations.It’s super satisfying to see all these assets come together and get to enjoy them while my units get absolutely smashed into the ground because of my poor strategic planning and inability to make friends (not quite sure I’m still talking about the game).
Image description: GIF of in-game siege battle footage.Lastly for the Oathsworn culture, I’d like to mention the crests that you see in the subculture icons:
Image description: Oath of Harmony, Righteousness, and Strife subculture icons.
The Oathsworn are so dedicated to their oaths that they also want everyone they meet to know what they are sworn to. Inspired by Japanese Kamon, we liked the idea of each subculture having a (family) crest they can wave in battle. These crests are available as banner icons, but also show up in an immense amount of places in-game. Initially they were just intended for use in the culture outfits, but when you play you’ll find traces of them everywhere!
Check out how Sara, our 3D environment artist, integrated them in the ‘School of {Subculture}’ special province improvements:
Image description: Concepts of the ‘School of {Subculture} SPI’s at the top, and screenshots of the in-game models at the bottom.They also show up in spells and abilities, I imagine Ana might’ve gotten sick of looking at them…
Image description: The ‘pledge’ unit enchantments shown on a Goretusk Piglet, which grant the cultural devotion mechanic to non-cultural units.
-<Image description: The ‘seal’ link effects, inflicted by the Sealbearer unit.
And many more places, but I’ll leave the rest to you to discover in-game! As a hint, you might find them in the units and city assets too ;)
The Tomes
Luis has already given you the rundown on the 4 new tomes (technically 7) that come with Ways of War, but I wanted to cast an additional spotlight on the three ‘technically also tome books’; the culture tomes!
Image description: The finished tome art for all three subculture tomes, from left to right: Harmony, Righteousness, and Strife.Every culture and subculture comes with a tome, and although not present in tome selection, you can still find these in the encyclopedia or your tome library! The art for them was made by our 2D and concept art intern Alex. Here’s the start to finish process:
-<Image description: Concepts for all three subculture tomes, starting with concepts on the left and with the finished tome on the right.
Alex played around with how we could incorporate those subculture crests that I talked about earlier without losing the feeling & themes of the tome. The Harmony tome was inspired by zen gardens, the Righteousness tome is a playful depiction of the Avenger units’ gear kit, and the Strife tome is all about the subculture’s affinity with fire and brute force.
The Forms
You’ve seen glimpses of them already, but now formally introducing: The Simian and the Ogrekin, made by our 3D character art team Robin & Geertje as well as our intern Isa:
Image description: In-game visuals of the Simian and Ogrekin forms in the Physical Form selection menu. The Simian have slender bodies with prominent ears, mouths, and skin patterns. The Ogrekin have muscular bodies with prominent teeth and multiple horns.To us, it seemed obvious which forms we needed for this expansion. You’ll recognize the inspiration we took from Journey to the West, and folklore such as the yōkai. These forms hope to fulfill two very unique fantasies as they inherently take such different approaches to war, diplomacy, and ruling their realms.
The Simian are quick, organized, and unbeatable in spirit. Their appearance is characterized by prominent ears and mouths, as well as a variety of skin patterns & decorations. The Simian come with the new free patch 1-point form trait Cheerful, which increases Morale gain. This trait came from wanting a form that was “cheerful” in personality and use, but would still allow players to make ruthless and bloodthirsty Simians in appearance.
Image description: Headshots of 10 different Simian Rulers, sampling some of the available customization options.The Ogrekin, on the other hand, would not be praised for their swiftness. They are big, brutish, and dominate with a fiery spirit. The latter is entirely literal, as they come with the new free patch 2-point form trait Inner Fire, which increases their fire resistance and makes melee attackers sustain fire damage. Their appearance is characterized by a multitude of horns and teeth; sharp & stabby was the memo.
Image description: Headshots of 10 different Ogrekin Rulers, sampling some of the available customization options.Inner Fire is not the only new free patch damage type specific form trait, we liked the concept of this so much that we added three of them ;)
Image description: Inner Fire, Inner Frost, and Inner Lightning form traits. All cost 2 trait points and give +3 Elemental Resistance and make the attackers sustain 3 Elemental Damage.By the way, both the Simian and the Ogrekin come with tails, but as part of the free patch any forms with tails now have a tail slider that changes the length of the tail or removes it entirely. :)
Wildlife
The process of creating a unit is never linear. In theory the pipeline should be design -> concept art -> 3D -> animation -> VFX -> done. But in each step we get informed and inspired by each others’ decisions, and the Accursed Ogre (from Tome of Calamity) was a great example of this.
Image description: 5 progress pictures of the Accursed Ogre. 2D head concepts, full 2D concept, and then three versions of 3D & VFX with increasing polish.The first iteration of the sculpt may have been closest to the concept, but we felt like it was missing something. There’s no need to go back to making new 2D concepts, we can simply paint over the 3D or try out changes directly in 3D. We found that adding tattoos to the upper body and hue shifting the red to a cooler tone really helped enhance the contrast around the unit’s face and pull attention to the new Ghostfire FX, made by Ana:
Image description: Accursed Ogre in the encyclopedia, showcasing the Ghostfire FX.Whereas the troubleshooting happened mostly in 3D for the Accursed Ogre, our exploration for the Radiant Guardian (from Tome of Prosperity) was done mostly in 2D. We started off with a different idea entirely, thoroughly exploring feline and canine concepts inspired by Chinese guardian lion statues.
Image description: 2D concepts of the Radiant Guardian inspired by Chinese guardian lions, all four-legged with big teeth and golden decorative elements.Although we loved this idea, there was something that we (and especially our concept artist Ollie) loved more. This other creature kept popping up in our research and rent free in our minds. “Turtles…, turtles..., turtles…”, the voices chanted. Louder and louder, until Ollie’s brain exploded and out came my personal favorite unit:
Image description: 2D concept front and back of the Radiant Guardian as a turtle, with a horned mask as shell.Once we saw this concept there was no going back! Having plenty of canine and feline wildlife units already but not a single turtle (the shame!), it was an easy call to make. We also got the opportunity to add some fun animations such as a unique defense mode:
Image description: GIF of the Radiant Guardian’s defense mode animation, where it jumps into its shell.And butterfly FX added by Ana, because that is exactly what it was missing:
Image description: Radiant Guardian in the encyclopedia, showcasing small butterflies flying around the unit.Miscellaneous
I have spent entirely too much time talking but there’s still art left to show so I’ll just quickfire some last DLC content highlights for your enjoyment!
A new blossom node + tactical combat map made by Tom with an accompanying event image (which also has some cool falling leaf FX by Ana):
Image description: GIF of Blossom Node TC map in-game.
Image description: Blossom Node ‘surrender’ event image + how it looks in context in-game.A new wooden UI Skin made by Alex:
Image description: Ways of War UI Skin elements, carved wood adorned with rope & coins.And finally finishing off the DLC showcase with the inspiring designer words, “we need another icon”:
Image description: Varying icons made for Ways of War.Free Patch
You might notice some visual updates in the free patch as well, of which a lot have come from suggestions that you, the players, have made. If you ever have any art-related feedback or suggestions, please continue sharing them in the forums! We are watching you (ominous tone) and value your feedback! Here are some of the free patch visual update highlights:
Robin, our lead 3D artist, updated the lighting in the front-end. We agreed with you that it was sometimes really hard to see your ruler and units with how dark this screen was.
Image description: Before (left) and after (right) of the front-end faction selection screen.New faction customization interface, because we were just as sick of the sliders as you! Sliders work well when options are on a sliding scale (such as ‘Head Size’ or ‘Tail Length’, seen in the image below), but not so much for helmet or outfit options. In those cases, we’ve now replaced the sliders with icon previews.
Image description: In-game screenshot of the customization item icons being used in the place of sliders.In early AOW4 development, we’d considered making 2D icons for all the customization options. But the workload of this would be huge, and it’d limit the amount of options we could add in the future as we’d always have to reserve extra time for making 2D icons. Our principal 3D tech artist Allert was instead able to set up 3D item previews so they’re grabbed automatically, and won’t give us additional work when adding content in the future. This system should also work for mods.
Next, the weapon enchantment visuals were updated by Ana. The old enchantments were visually overwhelming, especially when combined with other enchantments and transformations. The new enchantments should allow you to better maintain the visuals you intended for your ruler, while also just looking better overall!
Image description: Before (top) and after (bottom) of the ‘Lightning Blades’ enchantment visual.
Image description: Before (top) and after (bottom) of the ‘Flameburst Weapons’ enchantment visual.
We also did some much needed accessibility updates for the color blind. There were some particularly egregious places where we used red and green to distinguish between important elements, which obviously makes the difference impossible to see for those with red-green colorblindness. You’ll find visual updates in the enemy combat banners, tactical hazard icons, and the battle prediction colors.
Image description: Added visual distinction in the form of spikes to the TC unit banners, which previously could only be distinguished by color.
Image description: Added visual distinction to the TC hazards, which now use up/down arrows for positive/negative warnings respectively.
Image description: Tweaked colors on the battle prediction bar for better visual contrast.And as a last highlight, the much requested option to disable the angelic transformation glow!
Image description: ‘Angelic Transformation’ major transformation with visuals enabled (left) and disabled (right).Just like that, I’m all out of images! I hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at what the art team has been up to, and most of all I hope you enjoy playing with the new content. :)
The wait is almost over, as the Ways of War content pack and Tiger Update free patch release on the 5th of November!
Get Expansion Pass 2:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3181480/Age_of_Wonders_4_Expansion_Pass_2/
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