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Age of Decadence Stinks

Goldschmidt

Learned
Joined
Oct 27, 2019
Messages
461
Location
Swen Vincke's bedroom (Ghent)
Age of Decadence ... doesn't ring a bell. Had to look up a review.



This game should have been a visual novel without combat. Just look at that gangbanged dude in turn-based. It is atrocious. It is like ruining a birthday cake by pouring ketchup on top of it. Doesn't fit the menu, don't pick it as an ingredient. And a flawed dish like AoD got nothing on a top rpg like BG2. No way my superior brain can be convinced otherwise.
 
Self-Ejected

Thac0

Time Mage
Patron
Joined
Apr 30, 2020
Messages
3,292
Location
Arborea
I'm very into cock and ball torture
You have to understand that this game is RPGcodex baby to understand why it is liked so much here. Vault Dweller is/was an integral member of the community, reading old threads from the founding era he comes up extremely often, was well liked and I am pretty sure he was a mod for a time. He even wrote the scathing Oblivion review for which the codex was famous for for a time.

That even after all that the game has only a mixed to high reputation here should tell you one of two things:

1. This place is very objective and does not let silly feelings distract from its judgement. Age of Decadence is good but flawed.

2. Age of Decadence is overhyped garbage, and needs the massive popularity boost to even reach a mid high reputation.

Pick your poison.

Also yeah Vault Dweller tends to get pissy if you insult his baby. It is moderate for slavic dev standards however. Some of them get really angry, there is a codex dev who has insulted the user who left his ONLY steam review because it was negative. Talk about PR...

Also obligatory Dungeon Rats is the much more fun game than AoD.
 

jackofshadows

Magister
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
4,488
It did, but it wasn't very indicative of how much you actually needed to make a functional combat build. It's more like a collection of amusing roasts than a real indicator of whether you're doing good with your skill ranks there.
Only at low levels, up to 4 or so IIRC. Anyhow, I don't think descriptions of attribute levels are useful - I mean, how handicapped potential player have to be not to understand that you probably will need higher than average CHA to play negotiator type or look more closely to combat attributes for combat type? And most importantly: to figure out min/max values of them and what exact impact they have on derivatives (although I must say that CGS's screen is definitely an improvement in that direction). There were also pre-sets witch at least provided with ideas of archetypes.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
rotating 3D camera is just annoying, fix the camera's position and design around it

the fact that this is still an issue with bird's eye view cRPGs when every other genre already has had the camera figured out for two decades is amazing

AoD was made in a time when 2D ISO was considered outdated and 3D iso was considered an acceptable concession to the whole "2D is obsolete" trend of the time. 3D ISO used to be Kodex Konsensus. It was a thing of its time, kinda like how there was a time in the early 2000s where people thought mixed TB/RT mode was the future, and now the current consensus, because of practice, is that this is a terrible idea and you're better off commiting to one type of combat.

Nowadays I think almost everyone agrees fixed camera is better.
amusingly, early AoD was "fixed-camera"(appears to be actual 2D sprites) iso
https://rpgcodex.net/gallery.php?album=10
 

FriendlyMerchant

Guest
1- There is nothing to do in the game except clicking in the dialogue screen. How can a game be an RPG where you can't activate the combat, sneaking, pickpocketing, etc. whenever you want? All you do is click something on the dialog screen, then realize that the character you have created has insufficient skills and you have to start the dialog from the beginning by an endless save/load grind. You guys calling a text-based game decorated with graphics an RPG.
You can always just roll with failure in dialogue and continue playing or you can accept the character's death and try a new one. There's no reason to worry about an endless save/load grind unless you're interested in planning out some kind of optimal run.

2- At the end of the story we see that all the old wives' tales told in the inns are true. This is how all the characters who are sane, don't believe in such nonsense and are materialistic are destroyed. Because they were all wrong. This kills replayability too.
You realize there are different endings right?

4- Vince is someone who throws "Pepe screech" at the slightest criticism. According to him, everyone who doesn't like his game is a casual Elder Scrolls fan. But if you throw undeserved praises to his game, then you are the most pro RPG player. Such a toxic mindset.
And that's a good thing. That's how you know it's working. Dr. Pavel, I'm CIA.
 

Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
We all know the score. AoD was a great idea but implemented in such a way that it made a boring game.

Kudos for trying something different. Hopefully we'll see a refined game based on it's ideas at some point.
 

Cunt Dickula!?

Guest
It's more of an experiment than a game.
I admire what they aimed for but as a game it just isnt that fun.
 

Can't handle the bacon

Guest
1- There is nothing to do in the game except clicking in the dialogue screen. How can a game be an RPG where you can't activate the combat, sneaking, pickpocketing, etc. whenever you want? All you do is click something on the dialog screen, then realize that the character you have created has insufficient skills and you have to start the dialog from the beginning by an endless save/load grind. You guys calling a text-based game decorated with graphics an RPG.
This is what happens when a game is designed around a savescumming mindset.
 

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
Patron
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
11,756
1- There is nothing to do in the game except clicking in the dialogue screen. How can a game be an RPG where you can't activate the combat, sneaking, pickpocketing, etc. whenever you want?
IIRC, pressing space-bar allows you to enter combat mode; you aren't forced to rely on dialogue options. :M
 

Zanzoken

Arcane
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
3,558
Without the ability (budget, tools, time constraints) to change things, it's pointless to talk how they could be better. As for the criticism, it can be split into 3 categories:

- constructive criticism that highlights the flaws in the core design. Such flaws were always acknowledged and analyzed extensively, internally and externally. We do want to improve our design and make better games, so such criticism is vital and appreciated.
- criticism that falls outside of the core design; since we aren't planning to change the core design, such criticism doesn't have much value to us
- complaints about the difficulty; we help those who welcome our help and ignore the rest

>we

This site's cringe is beyond oblivion level.

You seem lost, faggot. Here's a quest marker.

http://www.resetera.com
 

sigma1932

Augur
Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
119
What's there to roleplay in AoD? It's a CYOA game not RPG.

You still have to build up the character's skills to be able to have access to certain "adventures", which is what makes it an RPG. The "CYOA" part is just the vessel that conveys what happens depending on what you choose.

-------------------------------

How can a game be an RPG where you can't activate the combat, sneaking, pickpocketing, etc. whenever you want?
This is the Codex... when you make a blanket statement about being able to do whatever you want whenever you want, it's assumed you mean that you also expect to always succeed at doing those things as well.... if every character can do everything any time they want, it ceases to be a game where characters play a given role.... i.e. it's not an RPG.

If you meant just being able to click "pickpocket" from a list, and click on a target, but it still being feasibly impossible for you to succeed due to lack of a developed "pickpocket" skill, that's something different.... but then your argument becomes purely about a text-based vs. graphical representation of the same mechanical calculation.

lossantos said:
All you do is click something on the dialog screen, then realize that the character you have created has insufficient skills and you have to start the dialog from the beginning by an endless save/load grind. You guys calling a text-based game decorated with graphics an RPG.
As opposed to what? Clicking on the visual representation of a chest and watching an animation that results in you failing to unlock it over and over and over again before you figure out on your own that you're always going to fail because your character's lockpicking skill isn't high enough?

Or maybe the polar opposite of that and having the game designed so that you can neglect all of your dialogue/social/charisma-based skills, and just keep reloading until you hit that default 1% window for success, while LARPing that your character is a "mathterer of perthuasion, hurrr durrr..."

These are the sorts of tedium and inconsistent innanity that AoD's design means to do away with (and on a broad conceptual level is in the same wheelhouse as New Vegas's skill system).

Planescape Torment, Fallout 1-2, Baldur's Gate , Arcanum, VTMB, Gothic, Underrail, Might & Magic, Dragon's Dogma, Ultima etc.

These are the games where the rpg elements I mentioned can be activated whenever you want. It's not just bethesda.

To the best of my knowledge, all the games you mentioned required your character ACTUALLY build their skills up to be competent at doing the things those skills are associated with.... merely activating the skill without having, to some extent, built up the ability means nothing other than you might get to, as I said above, watch a failure animation play over and over again. (and FTR, not every character in some of those games can do everything any time they want... a Paladin in Baldur's Gate, for example, can't ever attempt to sneak, pick locks, cast magic missile, or summon a pet bear).

A hallmark of Bethesda's "RPGs" is it being possible to use things like UI-manipulation (i.e. use basic FPS tactics to exploit shoddy AI) and Meta-gaming tactics (i.e. Save-skumming for extreme RNG love) to circumvent the need to actually build up the statistical representation of a given character's skills.
 

Ehrenmann

Guest
I played AoD without being engrossed in Codex and have enjoyed it immensely regardless. People complaining about dialogues are braindead illiterates. I was pleasantly surprised at how different the endings could be.
 

Agesilaus

Antiquity Studio
Patron
Developer
Joined
Aug 24, 2013
Messages
4,456
Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
You have to understand that this game is RPGcodex baby to understand why it is liked so much here. Vault Dweller is/was an integral member of the community, reading old threads from the founding era he comes up extremely often, was well liked and I am pretty sure he was a mod for a time. He even wrote the scathing Oblivion review for which the codex was famous for for a time.

That even after all that the game has only a mixed to high reputation here should tell you one of two things:

1. This place is very objective and does not let silly feelings distract from its judgement. Age of Decadence is good but flawed.

2. Age of Decadence is overhyped garbage, and needs the massive popularity boost to even reach a mid high reputation.

Pick your poison.

Also yeah Vault Dweller tends to get pissy if you insult his baby. It is moderate for slavic dev standards however. Some of them get really angry, there is a codex dev who has insulted the user who left his ONLY steam review because it was negative. Talk about PR...

Also obligatory Dungeon Rats is the much more fun game than AoD.

There's a full thread about it with devs answers.

Just look how Dungeon Rats improves the combat (party based, encounter design) and Colony Ship keeps on improving on it while improving all the RPG aspects as well.

Don't compare an indie first game with super productions with millions at their disposal.
Although, if we were to compare, the value for production money is 1000 times better for AoD, at the very least.

So, AoD is a good game for what it is, Dungeon Rats a great tactical-RPG and Colony Ship is going to be their masterpiece, although, i'm sure they'll keep on improving.

Iron Towers and Heroic Fantasy Games are our best hope for great RPG in the near future.
There's a couple of quite promising indies as well.
 

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