Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

AoD: This game feels very on the rails. Am i playing it right?

Joined
Aug 10, 2019
Messages
1,307
I'm doing a merchant playthrough, which boils down to talking to people, scheming, and playing power games. My issue is that so far (i'm at the third city) it has never been 'my' schemes, but rather somebody else's who i slave for. I don't like it at all, so my question is, is this what the game basically is or am i missing out on choices which allow me to come out on top of the schemes personally. I mean i just handed stewardship of a city to some fat fuck. I would never do something like that if the game allowed the opportunity to do so. Did i just miss the path? Specifically, i am talking about playing when aligned with the Commercium, not some other faction.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,051
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Yeah this is what this game basically is. You get a lot of choices but they're all pretty railroaded in a CYOA style. Rather than plotting things yourself, collecting tools and evidence, making your move when you think it's right, interacting with characters when you think it's right, etc, you get funneled into CYOA sequences in which you get a limited amount of choices that's given to you by those who run the show. This structure is why the game feels railroaded despite being very non-linear.
 

ScrotumBroth

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
1,288
Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here Strap Yourselves In
You've missed quite a bit if the only path you've found available is to blindly follow Commercium directives. Usually there are opportunities left and right to betray everything and everyone.

If you're looking to dominate the world Skyrim style, then no, you can't do that. You're just a dirty mortal for the most part, unless you find a way to become more.
 
Joined
Aug 10, 2019
Messages
1,307
You've missed quite a bit if the only path you've found available is to blindly follow Commercium directives. Usually there are opportunities left and right to betray everything and everyone.

If you're looking to dominate the world Skyrim style, then no, you can't do that. You're just a dirty mortal for the most part, unless you find a way to become more.
Example? Where was the option to take out the Commercium leader in second city for example? Where are these opportunities? They don't seem to come out of the conversations in the main questline for example. Sure, I *could* totally switch sides by pledging alliance to lord's house for example, but i never found the option to assassinate people as i see fit for instance, only when the game wanted to allow for it.

Or in Ganezzar for example, how do I get credit for my actions in helping the guild? It's yet another instance of another person getting all the power and credit for my actions.
 
Last edited:
Self-Ejected

Carls Barkley

Safav Hamon
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Aug 21, 2019
Messages
173
I prefer Fallout's systemic C&C. AoD's C&C is definitely more impactful to the player experience but it also seems designed to allow for many disparate playstyles that railroad you into certain decision lines and deviating from that results usually in instant death. This is technically more realistic (a feeble diplomat shouldn't be able to fight his way out of a situation ever) but extremely inflexible and locks in many of the game's quest outcomes and dialogue decisions based on character generation.
 

Maxie

Guest
The optimal way to play AoD is to note down skill requirements for the various content gates and to assign skillpoints only then and there, essentially starving your chargen if you want to experience more than the default path your build would take you through
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Joined
Aug 10, 2019
Messages
1,307
I prefer Fallout's systemic C&C. AoD's C&C is definitely more impactful to the player experience but it also seems designed to allow for many disparate playstyles that railroad you into certain decision lines and deviating from that results usually in instant death. This is technically more realistic (a feeble diplomat shouldn't be able to fight his way out of a situation ever) but extremely inflexible and locks in many of the game's quest outcomes and dialogue decisions based on character generation.
All this sounds well and good, but right now, i'm just slaving for other people. It's my work that gets people to act in certain ways. I am the only one responsible for the shifts of the power among the houses and characters, yet i am never credited or rewarded for them. All my actions end up empowering other people.
 

Maxie

Guest
I prefer Fallout's systemic C&C. AoD's C&C is definitely more impactful to the player experience but it also seems designed to allow for many disparate playstyles that railroad you into certain decision lines and deviating from that results usually in instant death. This is technically more realistic (a feeble diplomat shouldn't be able to fight his way out of a situation ever) but extremely inflexible and locks in many of the game's quest outcomes and dialogue decisions based on character generation.
All this sounds well and good, but right now, i'm just slaving for other people. It's my work that gets people to act in certain ways. I am the only one responsible for the shifts of the power among the houses and characters, yet i am never credited or rewarded for them. All my actions end up empowering other people.
AoD is primarily targeted at players who enjoy their daddy developer spitting in their face and growling 'you're such a nobody, I will fuck your ass bitch' over and over again, as if gay rape was supposed to be a good basis for video games
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
I prefer Fallout's systemic C&C. AoD's C&C is definitely more impactful to the player experience but it also seems designed to allow for many disparate playstyles that railroad you into certain decision lines and deviating from that results usually in instant death. This is technically more realistic (a feeble diplomat shouldn't be able to fight his way out of a situation ever) but extremely inflexible and locks in many of the game's quest outcomes and dialogue decisions based on character generation.
All this sounds well and good, but right now, i'm just slaving for other people. It's my work that gets people to act in certain ways. I am the only one responsible for the shifts of the power among the houses and characters, yet i am never credited or rewarded for them. All my actions end up empowering other people.
Does it work differently in real life where you're from?
 

FeelTheRads

Arcane
Joined
Apr 18, 2008
Messages
13,716
Ah, yes, the "it's totally realistic and you're just a pawn, what do you want skyrim????" to excuse shit railroading design. Because of course, Skyrim is the only RPG so we can only compare it to that.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,885
I prefer Fallout's systemic C&C. AoD's C&C is definitely more impactful to the player experience but it also seems designed to allow for many disparate playstyles that railroad you into certain decision lines and deviating from that results usually in instant death. This is technically more realistic (a feeble diplomat shouldn't be able to fight his way out of a situation ever) but extremely inflexible and locks in many of the game's quest outcomes and dialogue decisions based on character generation.
All this sounds well and good, but right now, i'm just slaving for other people. It's my work that gets people to act in certain ways. I am the only one responsible for the shifts of the power among the houses and characters, yet i am never credited or rewarded for them. All my actions end up empowering other people.
Does it work differently in real life where you're from?
Maybe people like to play video games to get away from this shit.
Probably a reason why I never truly bothered to play AoD, I already understood from the demo what is going to be waiting for me in the game and every post here on 'Dex confirmed that.
No reason to have experiences in my leisure time that are somewhat similar to what you get in RL.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,404
Location
Djibouti
The Commercium storyline is pretty terrible tbh, you'd be better off trying a praetor maybe or a loremaster.
 

Deleted Member 22431

Guest
lol, if anything thats ultimate do-what-your-boss-says-and-surprise-him-to-come-back-alive
also you dont understand anything that happened around you, for that you need other playthroughs

If you take these criticisms at face value you are naive. People want to feel in charge. Hence, the criticisms against being railroaded and whatnot. They don't want their choices to matter in a narrative meaningful way.

In the typical mercenary playthrough, you feel in charge.

You can destroy everyone that gets in your way, being related to your main quests or not.

You are properly compensated with additional training and promotion.

You don't need to worry about muh failed skill checks because you are a murderous machine.
 

biggestboss

Liturgist
Joined
Feb 16, 2017
Messages
528
I prefer Fallout's systemic C&C. AoD's C&C is definitely more impactful to the player experience but it also seems designed to allow for many disparate playstyles that railroad you into certain decision lines and deviating from that results usually in instant death. This is technically more realistic (a feeble diplomat shouldn't be able to fight his way out of a situation ever) but extremely inflexible and locks in many of the game's quest outcomes and dialogue decisions based on character generation.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...-with-a-statement.112015/page-69#post-6310708
 

Drowed

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
1,676
Location
Core City
Either you like the nihilistic and specifically determined style of VD design, or you don't. That's all there is to it.

I really liked AOD even though (and not because) the game had that snowball design. The game in fact has a ton of options and is quite open-ended, that is, if the options you imagine/want are directly in line with the strict way of thinking of VD. You have, for example, the option of using stealth to solve several quests, but only in the specific places and in the specific moments where the game says it "makes sense". You want to sneak up on a certain enemy? No can do. Do you want to stealthily open a door to attack the NPCs inside it? No deal for you here. The game actually allows you to use skills at various times, but they are times specifically created for that.

But hey, it's a very efficient design for a small team. Instead of creating an organic system where you can tenically use stealth at any time and place (so, the designer has to essentially think about the possibility that every NPC in the world could or could not see the character approaching, and take that into account), creating a more targeted design they have a much greater control over the world and what happens (and can happen) within the game. You won't have stupid (but fun) exploits like putting buckets on NPCs' heads to steal what they have on the counter. Because the more open and comprehensive a system tries to be, the harder it is to predict the ways players will interact with it - and how they can and will "break" the game by doing that.

VD has a life experience where apparently everyone is pessimistic, where everyone around you is unreliable and a son of a bitch, where those at the foot of the social pyramid will always continue or there, and where working relationships are always strictly and solely the only relationship that people have when interacting with each other. It sounds strange to us that we have life experiences that are absurdly different from that, but on the other hand, it's a very original point of view that you don't usually see in other games.
 

Alpharius

Scholar
Joined
Mar 1, 2018
Messages
585
Vault Dweller: here you go guys, 7 factions, each with its own branching main quest line, and you can switch sides too if you want.

Codex:
XLjfwDe.jpg
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom