Preview RPG Codex Re-Preview: The Age of Decadence

[Blaine]

Does the AoD beta on Steam reflect the current state of the game? Seems about the same as when I played it a year or so ago. The update news items are pretty frequent, indicating the beta is regularly updated.

I'm really not in love with the typos. They aren't obnoxiously frequent, but they're still pretty common.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Does the AoD beta on Steam reflect the current state of the game? Seems about the same as when I played it a year or so ago. The update news items are pretty frequent, indicating the beta is regularly updated.

The beta is for the third city and two related locations, plus the occasional system changes, manly revolving around armor. The rest of the game is the same (few tweaks aside).

I'm really not in love with the typos. They aren't obnoxiously frequent, but they're still pretty common.

My apologies. If you kindly point them out (PM me or email), I'll be very grateful.

 

[Bubbles]

Just dump the text into the content forum and let Infinitron handle it.

 

[Vault Dweller]

410,170 words (so far).

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

but is it more words than Mass Effect 3? That's the question.

 

[Blaine]

The issue with copy editing the entire game text in advance is that I then won't actually enjoy the resulting game, since it'll all be spoiled, but I'll certainly PM/email what I find.

 

[Vault Dweller]

That's all I can ask for.

 

[epeli]

More importantly, we need someone intelligent and eloquent (and English fluent) to review AoD because so far only Underrail fanboys are writing about AoD and they make it look way worse than it really is.

Huh, I came here to post exactly that. Glad it was already covered. Sincerely, yet another Underrail fanboy.

 

[Blaine]

My biggest overall issue with AoD is the graphics engine. It's awkward, clunky, the camera and camera controls are pretty bad, and the animations aren't great. It's also pretty ugly, although that doesn't matter very much. Even the floating text is an issue, since it's thin 8-point Arial font with a wisp of drop shadow, and most people use 1920 x 1080 monitors these days. It's just one of those games like NWN2 that hurts to interact with for a good long while because of the graphics engine and related elements.

Funnily enough, the portraits, inventory icons, and actual art direction are pretty fantastic. In fact, the portraits are some of the best seen in any cRPG.

I assume AoD is another victim of 3D ultimately being much less expensive to implement these days than 2D. It's painfully clear to me that 2D isometric would have fit AoD like a glove. Hell, even Jeff Vogel-style rudimentary 2D from the olden days would be an improvement.

 

[Blaine]

Still, I'd rate Vault Dweller's AoD a nein out of ten.

 

[Ninjerk]

Still, I'd rate Vault Dweller's AoD a nein out of ten.

Are you sure you don't want to give it a heil score?

 

[Modron]

I assume AoD is another victim of 3D ultimately being much less expensive to implement these days than 2D. It's painfully clear to me that 2D isometric would have fit AoD like a glove. Hell, even Jeff Vogel-style rudimentary 2D from the olden days would be an improvement.

I don't know about rudimentary graphics being an improvement but you're free to tell me how much better AoD looked in its' infancy if that is your thing http://www.rpgcodex.net/gallery.php?image=595.

 

[Goral]

My biggest overall issue with AoD is the graphics engine. It's awkward, clunky, the camera and camera controls are pretty bad, and the animations aren't great. It's also pretty ugly

I used to think that way - then I played Underrail.

Spoiler

In all seriousness though, AoD engine is way better than Underrail which is based on Microsoft's XNA technology. It was extremely annoying for me to have to install .NET Framework 4 AND Windows Media Player just to play it (before I've upgraded my computer and switched to Win 7). WMP is no longer necessary IIRC but it's still annoying. Compared to Age of Decadence (which even a noob like me can run on linux Mint/Ubuntu and doesn't need additional shit that weighs more than the game itself just to run it) it looks amateurish at best. Not to mention that AoD is far more inventive, has more unique setting, way better dialogues (in that regard only Fallout 1 or Planescape: Torment can compete) and more interesting characters and story. Plus the fights are much more enjoyable.
The only Underrail advantage is the price but I can see why now. Styg is lying in the minimal requirements section, "Win XP SP3" is not enough (I had had that, I also had .Net Framework but older version and until Underrrail every decent program worked just fine). So in order to make this game work, unless you have more than 1.2 GB of free space you need to use gparted (or some other good "partition magic" clone), change the size of your windows partition, install shitty WMP and then and maybe then it will work. I've also had way more issues with that game than with very early version of AoD.

Also, thanks to 3D graphics you can see every inch of every place in AoD, in Underrail you often have to click blindly because walls are obstructing the view. What's more, Underrail also has too monotonous locations. Corridors, corridors and some more corridors (with few exceptions) and annoying dungeon-like multi levels (the starting location is more annoying than Temple of trials in F2). That is the main reason it's not as replayable as AoD.

I've written more about it here: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/divinity-or-eternity.98054/page-3#post-3826311

Spoiler

P.S.
Yes, I know you've read it already.

 

[Blaine]

In all seriousness though, AoD engine is way better than Underrail

Opinion discarded. Being annoyed by an extremely common dependency because you live in potato and play on potato is laughable.

has more unique setting

Ah yes, a regressed post-apocalyptic society based heavily on ancient Rome! So unique, like the book about a regressed high-fantasy post-apocalyptic society, the tabletop game about a regressed far-future high-fantasy post-apocalyptic society, the game Jeff Vogel developed in the 1990s about a regressed post-apocalyptic society based heavily on ancient Rome, the Legion in New Vegas, which was originally conceived by Avellone during the early development of Van Buren, the movie about a post-apocalyptic society trapped in a high-tech survival train, the movie about a post-apocalyptic society trapped in a steam city, the game about a post-apocalyptic society based on a modern world that never moved past the 1950s....

Oh, but a post-apocalyptic society set in an extensive system of underground railways? Not even CLOSE, bub. Dat ain't yoo-neek, nigga.

way better dialogues (in that regard only Fallout 1 or Planescape: Torment can compete) and more interesting characters and story.

This is your only fair point, although the fact that you only named Fallout 1 and PS:T as competitors in this area ruined it quite a bit.

Plus the fights are much more enjoyable.

You're absolutely deluded. Standing right next to someone in a cramped area trading blows (mostly whiffs, usually) until one of you dies describes the bulk of AoD combat, and I'm far from the only one to have noticed it.

The only Underrail advantage is the price but I can see why now.

I can see now that you've never played the game and are mainly just butthurt that your Polish scrap heap with potato-based architecture wouldn't run the game.

 

[MRY]

I really prefer the 3D look to the old isometric version, but it's a pretty unfair comparison given all the time spent polishing the 3D relative to how long was spent on the isometric one.

Modron Beat me to the punch!

 

[Stompa]

Oh, but a post-apocalyptic society set in an extensive system of underground railways? Not even CLOSE, bub. Dat ain't yoo-neek, nigga.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[likaq]

My biggest overall issue with AoD is the graphics engine. It's awkward, clunky, the camera and camera controls are pretty bad, and the animations aren't great. It's also pretty ugly...
I assume AoD is another victim of 3D...Hell, even Jeff Vogel-style rudimentary 2D from the olden days would be an improvement.

 

[hiver]

Oh, but a post-apocalyptic society set in an extensive system of underground railways? Not even CLOSE, bub. Dat ain't yoo-neek, nigga.

Very original. Especially in the context of the paragraph before.

You're absolutely deluded. Standing right next to someone in a cramped area trading blows (mostly whiffs, usually) until one of you dies describes the bulk of AoD combat, and I'm far from the only one to have noticed it.

 

[Blaine]

Very original. Especially in the context of the paragraph before.

NEITHER of the settings are particularly unique in and of themselves, when you get right down to it. That's my point. Only the quirkiest or most innovative settings really qualify, and they're rarely found in cRPGs. Both are far better than generic medieval high fantasy, and that's good enough for me. I'm not the one who brought up yoo-neek-ness.

 

[Lurker King]

I think that every sane player with a modicum of good taste will agree that both Underrail and Age of Decadence are the best games we see in a long time. I agree with Goral that AoD is better than Underrail even if I am enjoying Underrail a lot – I have a bit more than 60 hours on Steam right now. We can make all sorts of comparisons between both games. For me the only points in which Underrail is superior is in its free gameplay and lack of excessive metagaming while AoD is better in everything else. But I don’t think that the best way to approach both games is to dwell on these comparisons, that always degenerate in pissing contests, fanboyism and empty rhetoric. And to be honest, while I also think that is important to increase the awareness about the games, to talk about them as if they are the second coming of Christ is a mistake – even if they are the second coming of Christ – because is bond to create disappointment and negative criticisms out of thin air. The best we can do is to increase awareness and provide useful feedback to developers, including constructive criticism.

 

[Melcar]

I don't think a "unique setting" was ever a selling point for AoD anyway. The type of setting was chosen because of the targeted audience.

 

[Lurker King]

I was playing Underrail the other day and found a scrapper named Blaine.

It seems that the pretty doritos have many forms!

I'm just kidding, Blaine. Be nice.

 

[epeli]

My biggest overall issue with AoD is the graphics engine. It's awkward, clunky, the camera and camera controls are pretty bad, and the animations aren't great. It's also pretty ugly, although that doesn't matter very much.

Funnily enough, the portraits, inventory icons, and actual art direction are pretty fantastic. In fact, the portraits are some of the best seen in any cRPG.

That description fits WL2 better than AoD. Great 2D art, shitty 3D assets and a 3D engine that's more of a hindrance than a net positive. 3D assets in AoD are nowhere near that jarring, they are actually good.

I assume AoD is another victim of 3D ultimately being much less expensive to implement these days than 2D. It's painfully clear to me that 2D isometric would have fit AoD like a glove. Hell, even Jeff Vogel-style rudimentary 2D from the olden days would be an improvement.

I first heard of AoD back when it swapped to 3D engine. If I recall correctly, the reason for the engine swap was...

Spoiler

"2D looked too oldschool"

I don't know about rudimentary graphics being an improvement but you're free to tell me how much better AoD looked in its' infancy if that is your thing http://www.rpgcodex.net/gallery.php?image=595.

I really prefer the 3D look to the old isometric version, but it's a pretty unfair comparison given all the time spent polishing the 3D relative to how long was spent on the isometric one.

I imagine AoD could look better and have better gameplay (no clunky camera) if it had kept its original 2D engine.

Honestly, I don't understand how any cRPG connoisseur could believe that perspective projection (aka "3D"), often with bad camera controls, is better than locked axonometric projection (aka "2D") for so-called "isometric" RPGs. Not to mention actual 2D graphics for backgrounds tend to look much better. Just compare PoE and WL2. Both use the same shitty unity engine, both are big-budget kickstarter indies with veteran developers behind them. Yet one looks marvelous, the other not so.

I think that every sane player with a modicum of good taste will agree that both Underrail and Age of Decadence are the best games we see in a long time.

This. Anyone who enjoys one but not the other should re-examine his values - or stop trolling.

 

[Vault Dweller]

We switched the engine because we ran into problems with the 'homemade' 2D engine. Maybe we could have fixed them, maybe not. It also made a lot of things easier, like animations (as we didn't have to tons of sprites with different weapons/armor/shield-no shield). The old screens do look absolutely awful but it was the very first version put together by me and Nick (the programmer), long before we found Oscar who's responsible for the way the game looks now and many other things, so yeah, you can't compare them.

In general, we could have done better even with Torque, but doing better required more artists (better models, better textures, better design). Mazin (our concept artist) helped a lot but he joined us late in the game. He redesigned the tower, Al-Akia, and Hellgate, which created a good contrast with the rest of the world.

At least we'll start the next game fully 'staffed'. Hopefully, it would make a difference.

 

[Esquilax]

We switched the engine because we ran into problems with the 'homemade' 2D engine. Maybe we could have fixed them, maybe not. It also made a lot of things easier, like animations (as we didn't have to tons of sprites with different weapons/armor/shield-no shield). The old screens do look absolutely awful but it was the very first version put together by me and Nick (the programmer), long before we found Oscar who's responsible for the way the game looks now and many other things, so yeah, you can't compare them.

In general, we could have done better even with Torque, but doing better required more artists (better models, better textures, better design). Mazin (our concept artist) helped a lot but he joined us late in the game. He redesigned the tower, Al-Akia, and Hellgate, which created a good contrast with the rest of the world.

Even though the game looks pretty blocky (especially character models), I think you guys really made the most out of it and the art direction overall is fantastic. Strangely enough, it reminds me of Thief in that way; blocky, ugly character models and buildings, but an unforgettable style and personality that more than makes up for the flaws. The portraits are every bit as good as Arcanum's, Maadoran looks really nice (especially the Commercium District), and the game has quite a few scenic areas like the Monastery that look memorable.