Weird to see the argument from Tom Bird that you get bored after playing Planetfall’s unique factions N times when 99% of players haven’t even played every faction once (each faction has about 10% of players that got a win with it according to achievements). Boredom from that source is the least of your worries, you get tired of tediously clearing the map way before that.

Stellaris’s faction system actually gets old a lot faster, sure it’s fun to create your horse people the first few times, but the factions you meet barely have any personality. Which completely sucks in a world where Star Control 2 and Master of Orion exist. What redeems the game is the crapton of narrative content, some of which adapts to your in-game choices. Precursor stories are fascinating the first time around, and so is the initial meeting with the various enclaves and stagnant ascendencies. Ascension paths tend to trigger interesting story chains too. – Observe how AoW4 has strictly no content of that sort and therefore emulates the worst parts of Stellaris, not the best parts. – Although that only lasts until mid-game, at which point the game becomes a one-trick pony that only knows how to throw military challenges at you.

Triumph, you had something special going on with Age of Wonders 2 and Shadow Magic, and to a lesser extent 3: an RPG/4X hybrid which managed to give a nice sense of adventure and exploration along with a mage power fantasy. Failing to recognize that because you have Stellaris-envy – and let’s admit it, sales figure are no stranger to that – only resulted in bastardizing your series.

(WordPress login doesn’t work BTW, even in a Chrome guest window.)