AoD preview

[Vault Dweller]

...in Spanish.

Link

So, if you hablo Español, like totally, then click on that link to lean how awesome AoD is.

Explorando las legendas y la tierra, el jugador tendrá la oportunidad de aprender qué fue lo que ocurrió realmente en el pasado, antes de que la guerra convirtiera en cenizas a la civilización, pero también podrá permanecer ignorante, creyéndose lo que le cuentan. Podrás realizar alianzas, servir fanáticamente a los intereses de tus patrones, o manipularlos para alcanzar tus propios objetivos. Tendrás que encontrar a donde te lleva ese viejo mapa y qué hay esperándote al final. Ahí es donde el futuro de tu mundo y el tuyo propio será determinado.

What he said.

I'd like to thank my new Spanish friends for supporting the indies and giving a damn.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

"Age of Decadence es toda una sorpresa que nos hace olvidar toda esa basura mediática llamada "next-gen"."

I knew it. Los Radiantos, groundbreakingas, genra-definos.

 

[The Idiot]

Is there anything new? Any translations coming up?

 

[Vault Dweller]

No idea. I saw some online activity and went there to investigate. My Spanish is limited to "dos cerveza, por favor".

 

[The Idiot]

Whoa, I thought there was some input from you. Oh well..

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

This is an attempt at translating the text. I don't speak enchilada although it's not terribly complicated to get the basics down. I've taken some liberties with the translation but I think this is fairly accurate. Feel free to correct me.

PAGE 1

• In a time where roleplaying games have gone headfirst into a graphical race, leaving aside other more important aspects, finding out about projects like Age of Decadence is a surprise that makes us forget about all this mediatic "next-gen" trash.
  
  The inclusion of roleplaying games into the competition to see who can push for the better graphics has given place to pretty yet innocuous games at best, such as the case of Oblivion, which had all the press qualifying it as a masterpiece while being unable to look past its graphics. It appears that the average gamer is unable to understand that there's usually not much else beyond all that graphical circus, and that we're presented with stupid games which do nothing more than copy old formulas that we as veterans are tired of getting.
  
  Age of Decadence escapes from all of this and tries to offer a real roleplaying game, with a modest graphical engine and a team comprised by less than ten people at the time of this writing. The weight of the project falls upon the Vince D. Weller, a roleplaying game afficionado, especially Fallout, and that one day decided to create his own work. An independant game, with few means of production but with an excess of creativity and good intentions, far removed from the nefarious commercial pressures of publishers. According to its creator, it takes inspiration from Fallout and Prelude of Darkness, a good combination.
  
  It is a turnbased, isometric, 3D roleplaying game for singleplayer only. Set in the time of the Fall of the Roman Empire, or at least inspired by it, since it is a fantasy game. This does not mean that there will be magic or magical items, just that the story that describes the setting references to fantastical deeds, magic, mythology and all that stuff. Kinda like a post-apocalyptic world in the Roman Empire.
  
  The game was meant to be fully 2D, but a change in the graphical engine led them to use the Torque Engine to turn it into 3D. The result, judging by the images, is far from Oblivion and so are its system requirements. Nonwitstanding, they are sufficient graphics if one takes into account its very interesting characteristics. According to some comments onthe web, there are very detailed places and over two hundred different animations, other than shadows and light effects, as you can see in the later images.
  
  Don't wait for death shaders (!) nor prizes for its style. If you're the kind of guy that puts system specs on their forum sigs you'll probably find games with better technical quality, though emptied out of content.
  
  The story takes place centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire. The world still finds itself on a situation of precarious balance, filled with myths and deceitful legends. A name found on an ancient map brings back memories of a distant past, converting a myth into a confusing reality, and thrusting the player into the inner workings of the political games built during years of discontet and ignorance about the past.
  
  Exploring the legends and the land, the player will have the chance to learn what really happened during the past, before the war turned civilization into ashes, though he will also be able to remain ignorant, taking for granted what they are told. You can forge alliances, fanatically serve the interests of your employers, or manipulate them to achieve your own goals. You will need to find where the old map takes you to and to see what waits you at the end. There is where the future of your world as well as your own will be determined.
  
  The game's narrative will contain multiple paths and possibilities to reach its ending, making sure it moves away from the linearity present in other games. Asides following the story, you can dedicate to exploring the world, with its cities, characters and unknown places, and also find out about its past, establish relationships with factions represented in that world, will all their political themes and conspiracies. The factions we will meet are:

/PAGE 1

PAGE 2

• Noble House Daratan, Noble House Aurelian, Noble House Crassus, Imperial Guards, The Forty Thieves, Commercium and the Boatmen of Styx.
  
  The relationships with factions are not of the "do a mission and get experience points and a shiny object" variety, they will be relationships with mutual benefits; you help them and they help you. There is a reputation system regarding each faction which will influence your dealings with them.
  
  The player will not be someone who is chosen to save the world, he will simply be in it and the events will play along giving players the ability to participate in them, or not, in such a way that the story will change without making it revolve around him. Vincent comments on his page that the player's role could be compared to that of the person who convinced Brutus to assassinate Cesar, changing the history of mankind.
  
  One of the more interesting aspects is the way in which situations can be solved. Aside the classical (and effective) blow trading, you can also use your abilities, there is a multitude of dialogue lines which are always subject to multiple skills that influence the outcome of conversations. Something we have seen in NWN2 but with much more potential.
  
  You will have the ability to choose over several classes: assassin, mercenary, knight, loremaster, thief, merchant and grifter, while the list of skills is as follows:
  
  Dagger, Sword, Axe, Hammer, Spear, Bow, Crossbow, Throwing, Dodge, Block, Critical Strike, Sneaking, Disguise, Stealing, Traps, Lockpick, Persuasion, Etiquette, Streetwise, Lore, Crafting, Trading, and Alchemy. Besides, there will be 6 attributes: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Perception, Intelligence and Charisma.
  
  The game will use a synergy system so that some abilities will influence others. For instance, a Sword skill of 100 and an Axe skill of 20 are related. The difference between them is 80, and 40% of that is 32, so by using an Axe, the skill will be 20+32=52. The characters is not as good with an axe as he is with a sword, but he knows hot to fight and wield a weapons making him not completely useless with an axe.
  
  The gameworld will have 22 locations and the travelling system is similar to Fallout or Arcanum, with an option for instant travel. It's estimated that the game's length from beginning to end without getting lost adventuring will be around 30 to 40 hours, which is not bad. There will be no multiplayer nor editing tools, and it's ETA is "when it's done", meaning, give or take two weeks.
  
  The side missions won't be the SEUR kind nor will they amount to cleaning a house out of rats. You also won't find an entire city waiting for us to come there to solve all of its problems no matter how small they are. The secondary adventures will helps us know the world better, to get us in the right or wrong way with other characters or factions, solving conflicts, etc.
  
  Let's hope Iron Tower Studios are lucky with this game and that this is the beginning of a productive series of good roleplaying games. We've had our fair share of all those mainstream projects and lack of content.

/PAGE 2

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thanks, Role-Player.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

I'm moving to Spain.

 

[suibhne]

The side missions won't be the SEUR kind....

Well dammit. This is disappointing, VD - especially after all of your promises about SEUR-type gameplay.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

You're welcome, Vault.

 

[slamelov]

Hi

I'm the creator of that preview (Obrigado, Role-Platyer). I tried to put in spanish the information I'v gatherd from the web, interviews, etc. There is not information in spanish about AoD.

We are very interested in your game, VD, and I hope we can play it when you finish your work.

Sorry If I made mistakes in the Preview, let me know if something is wrong.

Regards

PD: SEUR is a spanish courier

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thanks for the preview and the interest, slamelov. We really appreciate that.

 

[John Yossarian]

Depor boy here should get shaggin with roleplayer so I can finally find out "que sale de un corunez y un portu".

 

[Ladonna]

I see all the guerilla activists at work are starting to get some interest.

Its embarassing reading some of the tripe coming from Online gaming websites in Aus, then you see this. How is Spain this time of year?

 

[Jasede]

AoD might be the REVOLUSHION we have been waiting for! Countless of people will realise what RPGs really should be about! Troika will reform! Wizardry 9 will be made! Daggerfall will be released with bug-fixes, Windows XP compatibility and an overhauled engine!! We will enter a golden age of enlightenment!!!

Praise VD!

And don't fucking read this, Vince. Work on your game, your job, or your wife. Come on, work!

 

[slamelov]

How is Spain this time of year?

It's raining, raining a lot in La Coruña. Winter is near...

 

[Immortality]

Hah! Hola, Santiago ;D Tu tambien por aqui?

Muy bueno el articulo, yo estoy contigo en esto de hacer conocido este juego. B)

Besos!




PS: Nothing to worry about, just complimenting about the article.

PS2: Vince, where is the, uhm... that I sent you ? Any time it'll be online soon?

 

[slamelov]

Hi Inmortality, now I have more time for reading forums, and this is one of them.


What about AoD?, Are you going to translate it?

PS: Inmortality is an "old friend"

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

(Obrigado, Role-Platyer).

No tienes que agradecer, slamelov, era lo minimo que pueda hacer. And apologies for my stumbling spanish.

 

[Wulfgar]

"Vincent"?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Yes. Vincent.

 

[Nick]

Hush, boy! An' keep callin' me 'Vince' an' I'll have ye strapped o'er a log! The name's 'Vincenzo'!

:D

 

[Immortality]

What about AoD?, Are you going to translate it?

There's still no official statement about that heheheheheee! :D

 

[Deacdo]

It is shaping up very nicely. I'm impressed.

This game needs a FAQ, though. I've already forgotten some basic things about the game like how long it is going to be and whatnot. It will be interesting to see when it is all done how it turned out, how much it cost to make, how many people were involved etc. (sort of a post-mortem) so we can compare and laugh at the multi-million dollar games that play like shit.