Game News Age of Decadence July Update

[Zomg]

All jokes aside, if it did come out on 360 I’d be pretty happy since my laptop died and my note-book won’t be running it any day soon. Even if you copy-pasted the argument from someone else, it is still valid – It could do well on a console.
I agree that there haven’t been any good isometric RPGs on console, but as long as that's the excuse there never will be. It’s also worth noting that both X360 and PS3 have USB ports that can support keyboard and mouse.

Someone would have made some kind of Xbox GoG for easy PC ports if there isn't some technical, legal, marketing etc. justification for making it unlikely or impossible to just straight up put PC game ports with mouse and keyboard on it. WoW being the biggest one I can think of.

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

this thing reeks of fishy fish

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

thing is, they should have made a lot less possibilities for choices of classes and abilities and focused on making the c&c drivel function with that. now they're sitting there with 40 classes and try to figure out how to make a varied experience for each class all the way through. biting off more than they could ever chew. when the game is finally released in 2 years people will know how far off the target these guys were at this point in time.

 

[shihonage]

zelda64whatagreatgame is the most sophisticated forum bot I've seen thus far.

 

[thursdayschild]

thing is, they should have made a lot less possibilities for choices of classes and abilities and focused on making the c&c drivel function with that. now they're sitting there with 40 classes and try to figure out how to make a varied experience for each class all the way through. biting off more than they could ever chew.

It's easier to do it this way. Not to say it will have better results.

when the game is finally released in 2 years

2 years? Nope. Maybe this demo we hear about will be done in that time.

I don't agree will all your reasoning but this update along with many others show the team is really clueless about software development. Can someone really think that once you have a demo done you are 99% done? More like halfway done, especially when you don't even have the GUI design solid, eight years into development.

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

one might argue that since vince is doing all the game design, the rest of the guys might as well update what they're working on but that sidesteppes an important problem: the game designing is going to slow. vince is slowing the project down, hamming it up on the message boards.

 

[thursdayschild]

one might argue that since vincy is doing all the game design, the rest of the guys might as well update what they're working on but that sidesteppes an important problem: the game designing is going to slow. vince is slowing the project down, hamming it up on the message boards.

Well, but what is he designing? He is writing, or so I guess. That being the case the software part should not get held up at all, but it doesn't seem close to done. Halfway done is more realistic. This game could still be "almost done" in another 10 years.

And the comment about playing. Seriously, I can't understand that. I know the game is more about content than gameplay, at least to Vince, but it's still hard to credit. They may as well have titled this update "by the way this game is never coming out, in case you didn't figure that out several years ago."

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

writing? the guy could have written four novels by this time. no i think it's got more to do with a lack of ideas when it comes to concrete things like quests. that's the hard part, that's the part that needs some brain.

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

look, vince is a good guy but he's a bussinessman, a pr guy. just like brad wardell he's managed to drum up a long lasting boil of excitement in a lot of people, the problem is that he's also doing all the game design by himself, and that's a problem. they'd need a jon shaffer to step in at this point.

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

"don't expect anything this weekend, i'm just *explitive censored* playing". But vince you haven't given them ANYTHING.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Butthurt detected

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

this is residual butthurt from war of magic. that felt like getting a 25 inch blade inserted into my rectum.

 

[curry]

Just give up, Vaginal Douche, nobody cares about Grimoire 2: Age of Decadence anymore.

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

I guess it's better than the status updates from scars of war: "KEYS!!! today i made sprites for over a hundred different KEYS!!!".

 

[Roguey]

How's your Dragon Age mod coming along, Swedish-Drog? Still playtesting all the battles by yourself?

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

i got bored of that. i'm programing my own game now with flixel.

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

you know how many fans i had that i were stringing along? 0. so i don't think it's THAT much of a problem.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Such uninspiring trolling.

 

[JarlFrank]

Great job Vince, you now attracted all the trolls

I'm still looking forward to AoD Thursday 2011/12

 

[zelda64whatagreatgame]

vince = internet tough guy.

just get the game ready bro.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Now, I liked the trolling by VD, but aside from the horrible examples of ports from the pc to the consoles and vice-versa, I still remember I was able to play M&M II on my Mega Drive\Genesis and I saw a Wizardry 6 port on the SNES if I recall correctly.

I agree that a crpg fares way better with mouse & keyboard, but I don't think it would be too horrifying, especially if the game is as nice as AoD is shaping out to be.

Its not horrifying its just basic. I mapped the AoD controls to a 360 controller yesterday and it was as I expected. It plays a lot like an unoptomized Viva Pinata. I first went with the mouse mapping the mouse-movement to the analog sticks, the wheel to the triggers and the buttons to two buttons. I missed some of the keyboard input in the first playthrought. I mapped that to the control pad and it was fine. To come close to the speed of the mouse it would need a cursor that rolls through the GUI alone.

It still wouldnt be as comfortable as a mouse unless you factor the couch/desk chair. The funny thing is that its remarkably easy and accesible to play with a controller. Its the type of controls your mama could manipulate. Those that harp on acceisiblity have outhtought themselves to the nth.

What he said. In 90s it was somehow possible to play X-Com and Command & Conquer on PSX. I think that real PC games should invade consoles again.

Just look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv72_VphPZE

 

[Orgasm]

Increasing performance was and remains an important goal, especially when there are many characters on the screen. We've found a new way to optimize character models. While we're still working on it, preliminary tests show a frame per second increase from 100 to 220 fps with 10 characters on-screen, and from 55 to 140 fps (!) with 20 characters. Also we've made some improvements of the models and textures while we were at it. I'm sorry for the lack of screenshots, but we haven't finished our work there just yet. Also, we've discovered a new way to place objects on the levels that reduce memory consumption, makes loading faster and gives a general 10% increase to FPS. AoD is going to run a lot faster which will make a significant difference for people with older PCs and consoles.

More in depth technical details.

 

[Elhoim]

More in depth technical details.

We reduced the number of drawcalls. The model was split into too many pieces before (it was done like 5 years ago), which in skinned meshes it affects performance too much. So we reduced the number of separate meshes and textures.

 

[Orgasm]

So, now it uses something like below? Instead of loading separate textures? And why where the meshes separated before?

How many drawcalls where you making per frame in your scenario before and after the optimization?

I superficially read a bit around and skimmed across something saying that the drawcalls bottleneck at the cpu. True in Torque?

What about this

Also, we've discovered a new way to place objects on the levels that reduce memory consumption

 

[thursdayschild]

Such uninspiring trolling.

Don't worry I forgive you for trolling us the last decade.