Age of Wonders

Age of Wonders
Age of Wonders	1999
Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne	2002
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic	2003
Age of Wonders III	2014
Age of Wonders: Planetfall	2019
Age of Wonders 4	2023

Age of Wonders is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and isometric 4X, strategy and TBS game in the Age of Wonders series.

General information

Official Discord for game series

Official Paradox Plaza forums

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Age of Wonders Heaven fansite

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Publisher website

GOG.com		Soundtrack and HD wallpaper included.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam

A demo is available.

Essential improvements

Official patches

The latest official patch is v1.36. It can be found in the Age of Wonders Heaven fansite (only needed for retail versions).

Unofficial patch

Players running Windows 8 or newer, or using Wine to run the game on Linux, need to download this unofficial patch to fix the Exception during MapViewer.ShowScene error which may appear on those systems.

Skip intro videos

Enable from launcher^{[citation needed]}
Open the Age of Wonders Launcher. Open the Settings. Check the box labeled "Skip Intro". Press OK.

Enable from registry^{[citation needed]}
Go to `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Triumph Studios`. Open "Age of Wonders" and then click on "General". Right-click on "Skip Intro" and choose "Modify". Change the value to 1 and click OK.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Triumph Studios\Age of Wonders
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/61500/pfx/^{[Note 1]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Save\^{[Note 2]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/61500/pfx/^{[Note 1]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

The in-game menu can be accessed by clicking the dragon icon in the lower-left corner

General settings (external application)

Graphics feature	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Unscalable UI. Small icons at higher resolutions.
Multi-monitor		Fully supported in windowed mode.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed	Resolution is changed by dragging window borders or maximizing.
Borderless fullscreen windowed	Use Borderless Gaming software
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)	See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS	Frame rate is capped at 30 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music and sound effects
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
German				Retail only.
Polish				Retail only.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
Local play		Hot seat
LAN play		Direct TCP protocol.
Online play		The official multiplayer service has been shut down.
Asynchronous multiplayer		Play-by-Email (PBEM); refer to this guide or use the Email Wrapper automates the sending and receiving process to eliminate mistakes made by manual e-mail sending.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed

Crash at startup on Windows 10

Disable DirectSound

Run the setup executable (AoWSetup.exe found in <path-to-game>)
Go to the settings tab.
Untick Use Direct Sound.

In case of issues, run the executable as administrator and compatibility mode set to Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Retail version does not work on Windows 7

Run the game in windowed or borderless fullscreen windowed mode.^[1]

Game stuttering on start, runtime error on exit

Use dgVoodoo 2^{[citation needed]}

Game crashing / mapview error / error during draw

Play the game in fullscreen mode^{[citation needed]}

Ensure Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is set to the default (Windows programs and services only).^[2]

Garbled text

Reinstall the game or lower the resolution.^[3]

Enabling cheats

Use beatrix command line argument^{[citation needed]}
Make a shortcut to `AoW.exe` instead of `Launcher.exe`. Replace the `AoWCompat` command line argument with `beatrix` Start playing and press `Ctrl`+`⇧ Shift`+`C`. A ringing sound will be heard to confirm it. Start cheating by typing the words into the game (cheats list)

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw	6

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Maps

The game also supports external singleplayer and multiplayer maps. Map editor is included in the game.

Archive: AoW Heaven Downloads Central

Mods

Most mods are found in the AoW Heaven fansite.

DevEdit, the tool for customizing the game, is available also at the AoW Heaven fansite, and also make sure to read the beginner's guide if you want to start modding.

Warlock's Rule-Set is the most popular rule-set and is a basis to many other rule-sets. For 64-bit systems, download this mod fix.

The Community Content Pack includes a lot of popular mods and maps, including Warlock and various full campaigns.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98, NT
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 166 MHz	Intel Pentium II 266 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	300 MB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX 6 compatible
Other	4x CD-ROM drive

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/61500/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (61500) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

↑ http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=13,5427,,60
↑ gog.com - last accessed on 26 May 2023
↑ gog.com - last accessed on 26 May 2023

[Proton_path_note-1] 1.0 ^1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/61500/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (61500) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[gamedir-2] When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[3] ttp://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=13,5427,,60

[4] .com - last accessed on 26 May 2023

[5] .com - last accessed on 26 May 2023

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[1]

[2]

[3]

Developers

	Triumph Studios
	Epic Games
Publishers
Retail (North America)	Gathering of Developers
Retail (Europe)	Take-Two Interactive
Digital, original	Triumph Studios
Digital, current	Paradox Interactive
Release dates
Windows	November 11, 1999
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Turn-based
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Isometric
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	4X, Strategy, TBS
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Age of Wonders