Game News The Age of Decadence Released

[Lurker King]

I started to rush it now sadly. I think I miss a shit ton. Im just so eager to try out all classes and see how they evolve and to gather upp all achievements. I got some left but boy I have no idea how to find out about them. I like the lore although

Spoiler

How they fucked emself over pretty much and covered it up as some crazy demonic preaching horde of invaders.

That is pretty normal. Good games tend to cause this excitement. Try to breath the game the next time. The lore is pretty cool.

 

[Mortmal]

Spoiler

If you have that nice praetor armor, you can. They are easy, way weaker than the prospector, and can't do shit. I know this because I tried just to see and killed them with a talker build. The easiness is intentional.

I went full on civil skills on the praetor for this rat diplomacy playthrough , no combat skills at all, none . I tried with praetor armor its 100% death, and rightfully so ,not complaining about that but i dont see any way to have access to the extra locations as a pure talker then . The library require a mandatory fight, events leading to work for galius require an harder fight. I dont see alternative way except another very short playthrough to the end.
Only way is another reroll with the exact right combination of lore and combat skills.

 

[Ezrite]

That is pretty normal. Good games tend to cause this excitement. Try to breath the game the next time. The lore is pretty cool.

Yeah, I tend to lose focus after a while and just bum rush to see more content. I should probably slow down and explore instead. I even rushed a lot of parts on my trader high charisma and int since I had played until end of Maadoran in a old beta patch. But then slowed down exploring the areas. Which I of course, manages not to find on my other chars for rushing or stating wrong.

 

[Klarion]

I can't seem to be able to find anywhere if this game allows recruitment of NPC's into your party.
If yes, how many NPC's are you allowed to recruit at once?

 

[StrongBelwas]

I can't seem to be able to find anywhere if this game allows recruitment of NPC's into your party.
If yes, how many NPC's are you allowed to recruit at once?

You will get buddy NPCs in certain encounters, but no you can't recruit anyone.

 

[Zeriel]

Does anyone else feel like the (daratan) praetor ending is universally the worst? No matter what you do the game wants you to feel like a chump, which is pretty weird considering everything you do prior to the ending slides is massive badassery.

 

[Lurker King]

I went full on civil skills on the praetor for this rat diplomacy playthrough , no combat skills at all, none . I tried with praetor armor its 100% death, and rightfully so ,not complaining about that but i dont see any way to have access to the extra locations as a pure talker then . The library require a mandatory fight, events leading to work for galius require an harder fight. I dont see alternative way except another very short playthrough to the end.
Only way is another reroll with the exact right combination of lore and combat skills.

I suspect that this option was too easy for AoD. So they were just temporary clones.

 

[Bubbles]

We should establish some sort of "no untagged spoilers in news comment threads a week after release" policy.

 

[Zeriel]

I didn't spoil anything, I just said the unspecified ending sucks balls. Or is that a spoiler?

(MEET ME AT MY SHOP)

 

[Mortmal]

I didn't spoil anything, I just said the unspecified ending sucks balls. Or is that a spoiler?

(MEET ME AT MY SHOP)

Theres nothing spoiled, he just want to annoy people or become moderator . Prima junta got his own codex rules after throwing a tantrum, bubbles maybe want to bask in such glory too.

Anyway finished the praetor playthrough to the very end and in my case its inevitable death . Now playing as a braindead drooling warrior with 10 str 10 int, full axe and cleaving skulls, it works surprisingly well, much too well.

 

[Mozg]

We should establish some sort of "no untagged spoilers in news comment threads a week after release" policy.

this sass

 

[Vault Dweller]

Does anyone else feel like the (daratan) praetor ending is universally the worst? No matter what you do the game wants you to feel like a chump, which is pretty weird considering everything you do prior to the ending slides is massive badassery.

Which particular ending? I know you said Daratan praetor but there are three of them, so which one?

 

[Western]

Brave Lo Wang arrives at the mysteriooz monastery to recover the elixir of popamole health regen!

But what is this, the people living inside have dismantled the bridge? No matter, Lo Wang the ninja with 5 grappling hooks and 10 dexterity can certainly use acrobajix to vault over the few remaining planks and ropes to get to the other side!

What do you mean he can't? Oh, I have to join up with the raiders waiting outside and storm the monastery after they magically conjure up a gangplank out of their asses as my only hope of getting inside? Okay! Let's do that!

However, unbeknownst to the brave Lo Wang, the monastery inhabitants are not, as their name tags would suggest, just simple 'villagers' and 'young villagers'. They are an undercover Finnish sniper division that can tear any man apart with their shitty bronze regular arrows! Without Lo Wang, the raiders would surely be doomed... which only makes him wonder how do they manage to automagically win if he leaves the area and returns.

But no fear! Brave Lo Wang cuts through the first line of melee defenders and goes up the elevator or ladder or whatever... to end up with 3 enemy dudes right in his face because that's what an archer would aspire to do!

Still, no problem! After finally disposing of Simo Hayha and his cronies, and leaving behind his only remaining raider companion who has 9 hp left, he moves deeper into the monastery!

But what is this? Raider head honcho and his two arrer boyz who 'stayed behind to cover the rear' have somehow managed to magically teleport themselves behind the broken bridge, the melee defenders, the elevator, the snipers and the ensuing fight right into the monastery... and they even had the time to LOOT IT ALREADY?

For this treason, the raiders must surely die! Lo Wang has a brave tactical plan, so he moves away to a side room to hide from the two enemy archers, knife and bola in hand.

BUT WHAT IS THIS? THE TWO ENEMY ARCHERS CAN SHOOT HIM THROUGH THE WALLS NO MATTER WHERE HE HIDES?!

THESE WALLS MUST BE AMERICAN MADE!

#justaodthings

The wall bugs here and in the slums in Maadoran need to be fixed.

Would be good to add a critical strike check as well as the option to push the raid leader off the cliff.

It would also be good to have an option to infiltrate the monastery and fight the battle from the other side. Monastery defenders need to be nerfed a bit, the pillaging the monastery with the raiders should be the easier battle Elhoim.

It would also be good to have a talk option, when siding with the raiders, e.g,

"Just walk away. Give me the elixir, the gold, the weapons, and the whole monastary, and we'll spare your lives. Just walk away and we'll give you a safe passageway in the wastelands. Just walk away and there will be an end to the horror."

 

[Tommy Wiseau]

Which particular ending? I know you said Daratan praetor but there are three of them, so which one?

Spoiler

The one where you get owned by the Imperial Guards after taking down two other massive Houses?

 

[Zeriel]

Which particular ending? I know you said Daratan praetor but there are three of them, so which one?

Spoiler

All of them pretty much. The only one of them I feel can be interpreted positively is the shadow partner one. Maybe it's because I actually played a combat praetor, but it's hilariously out of sync with gameplay in that case. I dig that Age of Decadence makes combat difficult so that victories are so meaningful, but that's what makes the endings feel so weird. If you move heaven and earth to personally kill a god, you get an objectively worse ending than serving him. Which is... okay, fine, you're a praetor, you're a guy who serves, not the bigwig, but the refusing to serve endings still don't make much sense. I'd be okay with it if after "failing" Antidas the flavor text had you fuck off and find your own way in the world, but it's unbelievable that a guy who can personally chop off a god's head, is wearing power armor crackling with energy and permanently amped up on combat drugs would say, "You know what? You're right Antidas, my bad, I'll go chase fishermen for you. :^)"

I want to say that I got a vibe of the one slightly positive ending being the intended one and the other ones being lazy copouts that might be fixed later (for example, it seems like you get the same slide or virtually the same slide if you personally kill Agathoth instead of blowing the entire pyramid up) if you have time, but if all those endings are perfectly sane and reasonable to you I don't know what to say. I get that the game isn't about power fantasies, but if you let someone achieve the stats to personally skullfuck Agathoth, I just think those endings fall apart completely. They are probably fine for a talky praetor.

On second thought, maybe the problem is that you DO let people fight Agathoth. If he was just this omnipotent baddie that you have to surrender to or use the reactor as a nuke to get rid of, the endings would make a lot more sense. The problem for me is not the endings themselves per se but the fact that they don't remain consistent with the gameplay.

I have one other more general criticism of the praetor arc, but I'll leave it there for now.

I am now playing through again on other paths, guess I'll see how they hold up.

Edit: Reading other posts, I realized "ending" has a nebulous meaning with AoD. I mean the temple end slides.

 

[anus_pounder]

Ending spoilers.

Spoiler

Best endings imo have to be Aurelian, Crassus and Assassin (haven't done thiaf, merchant or daratan so far). Becoming a god yourself is a power trip, but as a 'normal' guy/gal who takes out a (weakened) god, ending up as consul/the real power after meru goes full preacher/high inquisitor seem the most satisfying. Which reminds me I never finished an AG game siding with House Aurelian. I always went full bro with the guildmaster in Ganezzar.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

If I can't stand turn based combat in a single character RPG should I invest every single point I have into non combat skills?

 

[AetherVagrant]

yes.
essentially choose whether you want a combat or noncombat playthrough, then choose a class based on what faction or quests you imagine you might like to try.

later is for trying to tweak it or blend the sides. pick 3 civil skills, make em high, and if going non-combat: then dont even worry about dodge or block, because if you need them you are already dead. The noncombat run is good for getting the feel of the world, and while it has TONS of options and cnc, it's shorter and will open up less locations than some of the others.

streetwise is invaluable for all classes, and critical strike is surprisingly most usefull OUTSIDE of combat, for a thiefy or assasininny build.
didnt use impersonate much or see too much opportunity to, but then i havent done much of the thief/assasin stuff. I thought it would be more useful for my loremaster/merchant/ladies man guy but those points would have been far better in streetwise for those guys.

then maybe a pure combat run to see the other side of things, (or not as you state youll hate the combat regardless)

 

[Cadmus]

Did you tried all the possible consequences, read all the dialogues, talked with every NPC? I can garantee you that you will spend way more than 45 minutes if you do this.

What? I don't do that, that's stupid. I play the game. I don't try all consequences, I see those I get and those I want to get but need to invest SP, nothing more.
And I don't read the dialogues I already read with my other character, but I think I talked to everybody I could.

 

[JoKa]

Steam is being exceptionally fast on the uptake - just got notified that AoD is out of EA!

 

[FeelTheRads]

What? I don't do that, that's stupid. I play the game. I don't try all consequences, I see those I get and those I want to get but need to invest SP, nothing more.
And I don't read the dialogues I already read with my other character, but I think I talked to everybody I could.

AOD is a roguelike and you can only truly understand it after you play it seven times.

Spoiler

 

[likaq]

Can someone link to youtube video made by girl with funny laugh, i remember that she almost had an orgasm when convincing preacher in teron that protag is a chosen one?

 

[Darth Roxor]

well then finished

actually took me 22 hours because playing with a mongol bowman kiter assassino needed many combat reloads

im actually surprised i even managed to finish it in the first place with this trainwreck of a character

off-speccing into lore way too late meant getting no inferiae, no zamedi, not going through the sewer portal, no nothing

lorecrafting trolls meant no getting into hangar or activating the library underground, and that combined with the above also meant getting stuck with two of the arguably shittiest endings (walk away and first acolyte)

game was tons of fun in teron, a bit less but still fun in maadoran, and then it completely fell apart for me in ganezzar and beyond to the point of being infuriating

ganezzar seemed simply idiotic and underdeveloped to me, it should have been axed and redistributed across maadoran

there were also plenty of things plotwise past maadoran that looked completely random to me and i'd say had very little to no connection with the choices i was actually doing throughout the whole game

 

[likaq]

Can someone link to youtube video made by girl with funny laugh, i remember that she almost had an orgasm when convincing preacher in teron that protag is a chosen one?

I have found it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OICLuqTpWYs

13:30 ->

 

[Dreaad]

Speaking of trainwreck's I am going to go for a drifter with 10 str and 10 cha. Will advise how it goes.